Three princes and their beast 

A long time ago there were three princes who had a bad sister. 

One day they went hunting together, and when they were going through a dense jungle, they came across a huge gray wolf and three wolf cubs. They were about to shoot when the wolf spoke up: "Don't shoot me, I will give each of you one of my children. They will be your faithful friends." 

The princes accepted the wolf's proposal, and when they resumed their journey, each followed by a little wolf. 

It wasn't long before they came across a lioness and three cubs. He also begged them not to shoot him, and offered to give each of them a lion cub. Then the same thing happened several times, a fox, a hare, a boar, and a bear, and each prince was followed by a long train of cubs. 

At dusk they came to a clearing in the jungle, where three birch trees stood at a fork in the road. The elder prince took an arrow and shot it into the trunk of one of the birch trees. He turned to his brothers and said: 

"Let each choose a tree to mark before we part. When any one of us returns here, he must walk around the other two trees. If he sees blood flowing from the mark , the mark represents The brother of the family is dead, but if the milk , it means that the brother is still alive." 

Each prince did as the older brother said, and they marked the three birch trees with arrows, and asked their sister which brother they intended to be with. 

"Let's talk to big brother." She said. So the brothers parted, and each set off in a different way, followed by their beasts. The younger sister is with the older prince. 

After walking for a while, the elder prince and his sister came to a forest. In the farthest open space, they suddenly found a castle not far away, in which a group of robbers lived. The prince stepped forward and knocked on the door. As soon as the door was opened, the beasts rushed in, and each beast seized a robber, killed them, and dragged the body One of the robbers was not dead, but badly wounded, but he lay there quietly and pretended to be dead. 

The prince and his sister went into the castle and lived in it. 

The next day the prince went hunting. Before leaving, he told his sister that he could go to any room, but he couldn't go into the cellar where the robber's dead body was hidden. But as soon as he left, the sister forgot what the prince had said, and after having visited all the rooms, opened the door of the cellar. No sooner had she entered the house than the robber, who was pretending to be dead, came out and said to her: 

"Don't be afraid. My fair princess I am your friend... You will be happier with me than with your brother. But first you must look in the cupboard in the living room. You will find three bottles One of them is a healing salve that you have to put on my chin to heal me. If I drink the second potion, I'll be better, and the third potion will make me stronger than before. When your brother comes back from the jungle with his beasts, say to him, 'Brother, you are very strong. If I tie your thumbs behind your back with a thick silk rope, you can twist ?' You see, if he can't do it, call me." 

The younger sister was deceived by the robber's rhetoric. After the elder brother came back, the younger sister tied the two thumbs of the elder brother behind the back as the robber said, but the elder brother broke free with a twist, and then he said to her: "Sister, that rope is harmful to me It's useless." 

The next day, when the Prince and the Beasts were back in the jungle, the robber told her to find a thicker rope with which to tie her brother's thumb. Although it was not as easy as the last time, he quickly untied it again, and he said to his sister: 

"This one rope doesn't do much." 

On the third day, after returning from the jungle, the prince agreed to test his abilities one last time. So the younger sister took a very thick silk rope as the robber had said. This time, although the prince pulled hard with all his strength, the rope could not be broken. So he said, "Sister, the rope is too strong this time, and I can't handle it. Come and help me untie it." 

But instead of helping him untie called the robber instead. The robber rushed in and brandished his knife, ready to attack the prince. 

But the Prince said: "Wait patiently one more minute. Before I die I want to blow my hunting-horn three times, once in this room, once on the stairs, and once in the yard. 

The robber agreed, and the prince blew the horn. When he blew for the first time, the fox sleeping in the yard cage woke up, knowing that his master needed help, so he swept the wolf's eyes with his tail, and the wolf woke up. Then they aroused the Lion, who rushed out of the cage with all his strength, and fell on the wreckage of the cage on the ground, and the beasts were free . They came across the yard to help their master, and the fox bit the rope that bound the prince, and the lion sprang on the robber, killed him, and tore him to pieces, and each beast had a piece of bone. 

The prince turned to his sister and said: 

"I won't kill you, but I will leave you here to repent." He tied her to the wall with chains, put a huge bowl in front of her and said, "I don't want to see you until the bowl is filled with your tears." your turn." 

After speaking, he called the beast and continued his journey. Not long after he left, he came to a tavern. Everyone in the tavern looked sad, and he asked why. 

"Ah," they said, "our King's daughter will die today. She will be sacrificed to the dreadful Nine-headed Dragon." 

The prince said: "Why does she have to die? I am very powerful and I can save her." 

He went to the beach, because the nine-headed dragon was going to meet the princess there. While he and the beasts were waiting, a company of people accompanied the poor princess. When they reached the seashore, all the people left sadly, leaving the princess alone. Only the prince remained there, and after a while he saw something surging in the water, and the prince knew that it was the nine-headed monster. 

The prince discussed with the beasts. When the nine-headed monster approached the shore, the fox splashed sea water into its eyes with its tail to block its sight. At the same time, the bear and the lion clawed at its eyes so that the monster could not see them. anything. The prince rushed up to kill it with sword in hand, and the beasts tore it to pieces. 

They succeeded. The princess thanked the prince for saving herself, and she said to him: 

"Come in my carriage, and we will go back to my father's palace together." She gave him a ring and half a handkerchief. On the way back to the palace, the coachman and the servants discussed: 

"Why did we bring this stranger back to the palace? We killed him, and then told the king that we had freed the princess, and that one of us could marry her." 

So they plotted to kill the prince and throw his body on the side of the road. The faithful beasts sobbed around the dead body , not knowing what to do. The wolf suddenly thought of a way. It got into the jungle, found a cow, and killed it immediately. He called the fox, and let him mount the dead ox, and if a bird came and wanted to eat it, he caught it and gave it to the lion. After a while a crow flew over and started pecking at the cow. The Fox grabbed it and sent it to the Lion. The Lion said to the Crow: 

"We won't kill you, but you must promise to do what we ask. You fly to the town, where there are three wells, and bring back some water from your mouth to raise this dead ." 

The crow flew away, filled its mouth with water from the Healing Well, Power Well, and Speed ​​Well, then flew back to the dead Prince, dripped the water from his mouth onto his lips, and the Prince was healed and could move freely again . 

Then he set out for the town with his loyal beasts. 

When they arrived at the king's palace, they saw that a grand banquet was being prepared in the palace, because the princess was about to marry the coachman. 

So the prince went into the palace and said to the coachman: "What token do you have to prove that you killed the monster and won the favor of the princess? I have the token of the princess - a ring and half of her handkerchief .” 

The king saw these certificates and believed that the prince was telling the truth. So the coachman was chained and thrown into a cell , the prince and princess were married, and half the kingdom was given. 

One day after their marriage, the prince and his beast were walking through the jungle at night. As night fell, he lost his way and searched for his way back to the palace in the bushes. As he walked he saw the light of the fire, and went straight to it, and found an old woman sweeping together the litter and burning it in a glade. 

The prince was so tired and it was so dark that he decided not to go. So he asked the old woman if he could stay by her fire tonight. 

"Of course," she said, "but I'm afraid of your beasts. Let me beat them with a bamboo pole, and then I won't be afraid." 

"Very well," said the prince, "I don't mind." She stretched out her bamboo pole and struck the beasts, and immediately they were turned into stone, and the prince was also turned into stone. 

Soon the prince's younger brother returned to the fork in the road where the three birch trees grew, where the brothers parted. Remembering the original agreement, he walked around the other two trees. When he saw blood gushing , he knew that his elder brother must be dead. So he set off with the beast, and came to the place where his brother had married the princess. When he entered the town he found all the people mourning that their prince had disappeared. 

But when they saw the prince's little brother and the beast following him, they all thought it was their own prince, and they were very happy, and told him that they were looking for him everywhere. They took him to the king, who also thought he was his son-in-law. But the princess knew that he was not her husband, and she asked him to take the beast to the jungle to find her brother. 

The little prince set out to find his brother, but he too got lost. He came to a clearing in the woods and saw a fire and an old woman who was burning the dead leaves. He asked if he could spend the night by her fire, as it was too late and too dark to return to town. 

The old woman said, "Of course. But I'm afraid of your beasts. May I poke them with a bamboo pole? Then I won't be afraid." 

He said yes because he didn't know she was a witch. So she stretched out her bamboo pole, and in an instant the beasts and their masters were turned into stone again. 

The second brother soon returned from his wanderings, to the three-fork where the birch trees grew. He walked around the tree and saw blood dripping from the cut bark of the other two trees . "Alas! my brothers are all dead," he wept. He also went to the town where his brother had married the princess, and his faithful beasts followed him. 

When they entered the town, all the people thought their own Prince had come back, and they surrounded him as they surrounded his brother, asking where he had been, and why he had not come back. They took him back to the king's palace, but the princess knew he was not her husband. So when they were alone she begged him to find his brother and bring him back. 

He called the beast, and set off at once. 

He put his ear to the ground to see if he could hear his brother's beast. He seemed to hear a faint sound in the distance, but he wasn't sure where. So he blew his hunting horn and listened again. He heard the sound again, this time it sounded like it was coming from a fire burning . He walked toward the fire, where an old woman was collecting and burning the litter. He asked if he could spend the night by her fire. The old woman said yes, but she was afraid of his beasts, and he had to allow her to beat them with a bamboo pole. 

But he said: 

"That won't work. I am the master, and no one can beat them but me. Give me the bamboo pole." He touched the fox, and the fox turned into a stone. Then he realized that the old woman was a witch, and turning to her, he said: 

"Turn back my brothers and their beasts, or my lions will tear you to pieces." 

The witch was terrified, and found a young oak tree, burned it to ashes, and scattered the ashes on the stones. In an instant the two princes stood before them, surrounded by their beasts. 

So the three princes returned to the town together. The king could not recognize who was his son-in-law, but the princess knew who was her husband. 

The town was filled with joyous laughter.