Fyodor Nabilkin lived in a village. He was rather weak in strength, but endowed with intelligence.
He wanted to become a hero. “Why am I not a hero?” thinks Fyodor Nabilkin. “Why can only the strong become heroes?”
He made himself a linen tent, a saddle, took a scythe instead of a sword, sat on his good little horse and set off on the road.
I drove and drove and reached a big city. He sees a pole standing by the road, and various advertisements are hanging on it. He quickly took a pencil out of his pocket and wrote his note that in such and such a year, in such and such a month, on such and such a date, the mighty hero Fyodor Nabilkin passed through this city - do not catch up with him from behind, do not meet him in front, but stop from afar, take off your hat and bow!
I nailed the notice to the post and drove on.
Meanwhile, soon the real hero Dubovik is driving along the same road. He read the advertisement and marveled: what kind of new hero has appeared? No matter how you look at him: you are not ordered to catch up from behind, you are not allowed to meet him in front... You’ll have to bow from afar!
Dubovik gave the detour three miles, drove ahead, took off his hat and shouted:
- Good afternoon, mighty hero Fyodor Nabilkin! I want to become your younger comrade. How do you tell me to drive, behind you or in front?
“Behind,” says Fyodor Nabilkin.
The hero returned and followed him.
We arrived at a wide green meadow. Fyodor Nabilkin let his nag graze, while he pitched his tent and fell asleep.
And Dubovik pitched his tent in the distance.
The next morning Dubovik got up and began sharpening his sword on a large block. And Fyodor Nabilkin saw this and started sharpening his scythe on a stone. The sword is sharpened quietly: shih-shih, and the scythe - ding-ding on the stone!
Dubovik thinks with envy: "What a sword this hero has! It rings - not like mine."
They stood in the meadow for two days, and on the third, Dubovik said to Fyodor Nabilkin:
— A three-headed snake, Smoke, lives here not far away. He challenges one of the heroes to fight. Will you go yourself, or will you send me?
“Hey,” Fyodor Nabilkin spat, “I’ll get my hands dirty with such small fry!” Go!
Well, the hero got ready and went. And Fyodor Nabilkin went to bed.
Dubovik drives up to Smoke.
- Who are you? - Smoke asks. “Isn’t it Fyodor Nabilkin himself?” I heard, I heard about you. They say there is even a notice hanging up that a new mighty hero has appeared in this kingdom.
Dubovik sees; Smoke is very afraid of the new hero Fyodor Nabilkin. So he says to him:
- Yes, I am Fyodor Nabilkin.
- Well, Fyodor Nabilkin, shall we fight or make peace?
- No, evil spirits, Fyodor Nabilkin himself came here not to make peace, but to fight!
The hero Dubovik pulled out his sharp sword and cut off all three of Smoke’s heads. He trampled two heads into the swamp, and put the third on a sword and carried it for show to his senior comrade Fyodor Nabilkin. He arrived and asked him:
“Where do you tell the snake’s head to go?”
- Throw it into the bushes! - Fyodor Nabilkin waved his hand.
And at that time the hero Gorovik was passing by that city. He saw the ad and was surprised: aha, that would be someone to meet! He followed the tracks and came to a wide green meadow. He bowed to Fyodor Nabilkin from afar and said:
“Won’t you accept me, mighty hero Fyodor Nabilkin, as your comrade?”
- OK. Pitch your tent. Gorovik also pitched his tent. The next morning Gorovik says to Nabilkin:
“Filthy Smoke with six heads showed up in our region. So, are you going to go fight him yourself, or are you going to send me?
“At,” Fyodor Nabilkin spat, “I’m going to get my hands dirty about such a trifle!” Go!
Gorovik went, cut off all six of Smoke’s heads, and brought one for show.
“Where do you tell the snake’s head to go?” - he asks Fyodor Nabilkin.
- Throw this rubbish into the bushes!
And the fame of the hero Fyodor Nabilkin spread all around.
Rumors about him also reached the nine-headed Smoke.
He challenges Fedor Nabilkin to a fight. Fyodor Nabilkin wanted to send one of his younger comrades this time, but they flatly refused.
“We’ve already,” they say, “traveled, now it’s your turn, and Smoke was caught by your strength: there’s no way we can cope with him.”
Well, nothing can be done - we have to go. And is it good for such a mighty hero to lose his honor?
Nabilkin got ready, sat on his nag and rode off.
And Smoke waited and waited for Fyodor Nabilkin, but when he couldn’t wait, he went out to meet him. They met halfway. When Fyodor Nabilkin saw the nine-headed monster in front of him, he got scared and quickly turned back! And Smoke is behind him.
Fyodor Nabilkin strayed from the road and ended up on an untravelled road. And that road led into a swamp, into a quagmire. He flew, flew along a remote road and fell straight into a quagmire. But Smoke didn’t see it and fell into it too - only his heads were sticking out.
Fyodor Nabilkin was light, jumped out immediately, and Smoke sat down in the swamp like a stump.
Fyodor Nabilkin looked around - and Smoke was so stuck, he wouldn’t even move. He saw Smokov’s sword, picked it up somehow and started cutting off the monster’s heads. He cut off all nine heads, trampled the heavy sword into the swamp, and moved back on foot: he could not get the filly out of the quagmire.
He comes to the meadow and shouts to the heroes:
- Hey, well done! Go immediately into the swamp-quag and bring my heroic horse. I fought there with the filthy Smoke, chopped off all nine of his heads.
The heroes went to the bog-swamp, and they saw that, indeed, all nine snake heads were lying in the swamp!
- What a strong man! - they say. - It’s just a miracle: he trampled the filthy Smoke into the quagmire and cut off all nine of his heads! And with what? And there’s nothing to look at: not a sword, but some kind of scythe and that’s all!
Gorovik took the nag under his arm and brought it to the owner.
Even greater fame went to the mighty hero Fyodor Nabilkin. King Snore himself heard about him. He wanted to have such a glorious hero with him that he defeated the nine-headed Smoke. Sent him an invitation.
Fyodor Nabilkin appeared at the palace. The king ordered expensive clothes to be made for him, gave him the best room in the palace, and assigned servants and a cook to him.
Fyodor Nabilkin lives happily ever after.
A year passed, the second, and on the third, the evil and formidable neighboring king Khapun came out against King Khrapun.
He gathered such an army that it was impossible to look around and count it. He stood with his army near the capital of King Khrapun and sent him to announce: I challenge you to battle!
Tsar Khrapun was frightened and asked Fyodor Nabilkin:
- What should I do? King Khapun will defeat me...
- He won’t win! - says Fyodor Nabilkin. - Don’t worry, father, but go to bed, I will fight myself.
The Tsar yawned sweetly and fell asleep, and Fyodor Nabilkin ordered all the tailors, shoemakers, carpenters and joiners to come to the capital, each with his own tool.
And all the craftsmen from all over the kingdom came to the capital - carpenters with axes, tailors with needles, carpenters with saws, shoemakers with awls...
Fyodor Nabilkin came out and said:
- In three days, make me seven regiments of wooden troops!
“Okay,” say the masters. “Let’s do it!” And they got to work.
When the army was ready, Fyodor Nabilkin ordered:
- Place a wooden army outside the city! And so they did. And Fyodor Nabilkin hid the real army in the bushes.
King Khapun wakes up in the morning, and lo and behold, there are seven regiments of King Khrapun’s army standing against him. So, it's time to start the war.
All day long the soldiers of King Khapun shot at the soldiers of King Khrapun. All the gunpowder was burned, all the cartridges were shot, but no one was killed.
King Khapun marvels: was it not an enchanted army that King Khrapun fielded?
Meanwhile, Fyodor Nabilkin gave the order to put a real army to work.
His soldiers ran out from behind the bushes and started shooting at the army of King Khapun. They shot and shot - the entire army was killed, and Khapun himself was captured and brought to King Khrapun.
Fyodor Nabilkin woke him up and said:
- What do you order, father, to do with the prisoner?
The king rubbed his eyes and saw that Khapun was standing in front of him, tied up.
The king was delighted and became brave.
“Load the cannon,” he says, “and shoot it in the direction from which it came.”
And so they did. The king went outside the city and looked - the entire enemy army had been killed, and his soldiers were alive and well.
- How did you do it? - Tsar asks Fyodor Nabilkin. - After all, Khapun had three times more strength...
“I,” says Fyodor Nabilkin, “I fight not with force, but with my mind.”
Then Tsar Khrapun appointed Fyodor Nabilkin as the most important commander over his army, and he himself went to bed.
He now slept peacefully: after all, none of the neighboring kings even thought of going to war against him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru