Once upon a time, or maybe not, there lived an old man and an old woman. In their old age, a boy was born to them. Soon the old man died. The old woman was left alone - it became difficult for her to live. She took her son into the forest to a lame deer and asked him to feed him milk.
Time has passed. The boy has grown up and runs with a deer through the forest. One day a young prince was hunting in that forest. He saw a lame deer with a boy and was so amazed that he gave up hunting. He ordered the servants to catch the boy and bring him to him, but no one could catch up with him. He didn't let people get close to him.
The prince returned to the palace and asked his father to forge him a chain worth seventy pounds and give him one hundred and forty servants.
The king fulfilled his son's wish.
The prince went into the forest to lasso the boy. The servants tracked down the boy with the deer, swung the chain and threw it on him. And the boy rushed and broke the chain like a thread. They lashed the ends of the chain of servants, knocking them down.
The boy ran away and disappeared from sight.
The prince returned home and asked his father to forge him a chain twice as strong and longer. The boy's servants tracked him down a second time, threw a chain on him, and he broke it too. The prince was upset, but did not give up on his goal, he wanted to catch the forest boy. For the third time, he asked his father to forge a chain - three times stronger and longer than the first!
They lassoed the boy with this chain, but he was unable to break it.
The prince put him on his horse and brought him to the palace.
The boy was nicknamed Irmis. Irmisa did not know how to speak and was shy. But time passed, and he learned to speak and eat what people eat.
Irmisa and the prince became friends and began to go hunting together. Only Irmisa never killed animals - he pitied them. And Irmis was strong - no one equal to him in strength could be found in the entire kingdom!
One day, Irmisa and the prince wandered into a dense forest and lost their way. They wandered for a long time through remote gorges until they reached some kind of path. The path led them to the seashore.
Empty on the shore. The house stands alone and the apple tree grows in front of it. The prince bent down, picked up the fallen thing from the ground and began to eat.
-What the worm are you eating? — Irmisa was surprised.
He hit the trunk with his fist, and apples fell from the branches, and the ground was covered with a golden-red color.
Irmisa and the prince are sitting under a tree, eating apples. So the day turned to evening, and came out of the sea of \u200b\u200bdevas.
- Why are you sitting here? What kind of creatures are these? - he shouted at the aliens.
“Come and you’ll find out,” Irmisa answers.
Before the dev had time to take a step, Irmis pounced on him, knocked him down and crushed him with his knee. And the second deva came out of the sea and flew at Irmis. And he knocked the second deva down - right on top of the first - and crushed him with his knee. The third deva jumped out of the sea, saw that the man had defeated his brothers, and shouted:
- Oh, you little booger! Do you want to kill my brothers? I'll grind you to powder.
The devas wave their fists and approach Irmis.
He grabbed him by the arm and threw him onto the first two brothers.
- Should I kill you or not? - asks Irmisa.
“Don’t kill,” the devas prayed, “we will be your brothers!”
Irmis released the devas, and they led the strangers to feast in the house. The owners went to marani (Marani - a room for storing wine) to buy seven-year-old wine.
“Don’t drink wine,” Irmisa says to the prince. “The wine will knock us off our feet, and then the devas will eat us!”
The devas brought a large wineskin of wine. They served a horn of wine to Irmise, and he turned to the window and asked:
-Where does that path lead?
While the devas were looking out the window, Irmisa splashed the wine under the table.
The devas served a horn of wine to the prince. The prince turned to another window and asked the devas about another path. While the devas were looking out the other window, the prince also spilled wine under the table.
We finished eating. They thanked Irmis and the prince for their hosts and went to bed. As soon as the devas fell asleep, Irmisa and the prince got up and went to look for the road further.
You never know, we walked a lot, we reached a big house under the mountain. Irmis shot an arrow at the door. He thinks the owner will come out. Nobody left the house. Then the young men went into the vineyard near the house, picked grapes and lay down in the shade. They eat grapes and enjoy the coolness.
By evening, seven devas appeared. They brought seven deer carcasses and threw them in the yard. We went to get the boiler, but we couldn’t get into the house - the door was nailed to the jamb with an arrow and it wouldn’t open!
All seven of us grabbed the arrow, but there was no way to pull it out! Irmisa looks at them and roars with laughter.
The devas look around, they will not understand who is mocking them, who dared to climb into their possessions without permission. They saw people in the vineyard and shouted:
- Hey, how dare you climb into our garden and use our grapes?
“You feel sorry for the grapes, but we’ll stay with you for dinner!” On the way, I want to drink and eat,” Irmisa answers fearlessly.
“If he weren’t strong, he wouldn’t speak to us so bravely! And apparently he shot an arrow into the door,” the devas decided and became quiet.
“Okay, go and pull out the arrow and take the cauldron out of the house and put it on a tripod,” they say to Irmisa.
The devas cooked deer meat and dined with the guests by the fireplace. And when they finished eating, the guests thanked the hosts and asked how they could get to their house, how long it would take to get there.
“The long road takes forty days to walk, the short one takes ten, but it leads past the house of the hundred-headed deva.” He won’t let you through, you’ll perish,” the devas answer.
- It will be seen who dies! - says Irmisa. The friends said goodbye to the devas and took a shortcut.
They walked not far, not little, and reached the house of the hundred-headed deva. Dev is sleeping on the terrace, and the captive girl is driving away flies from him.
- Leave while you're still alive. The deva will wake up and eat you, she whispers to the young men.
- Don't be afraid for us. “Go out into the yard and tell me how you got here,” Irmisa tells her.
- I can’t, the deva will be bitten by flies, it will be bad for me.
Irmis persuaded her, and the girl went down into the yard. As soon as she moved away, the flies bit the deva. He woke up and roared:
-Who took my prisoner away? Where did she go?
Then he noticed the newcomers and rushed, enraged, into the courtyard, grabbed a hundred-pound weight under the terrace and threw it at Irmis. The young man dodged. The weight hit an oak tree and the tree fell down.
The hundred-headed deva flew at Irmis. They fought for a long time, then one prevailed, then the other. The dev grabbed Irmis and pushed him into the ground up to his knees. Irmis jumped out, lifted the deva and drove him waist-deep into the ground. Then he grabbed the sword, raised it over the deva and asked:
- Tell me, abomination, life or death?
“Life,” the hundred-headed deva prays. “Give me life - I’ll give you all my goods!”
- Keep the good stuff for yourself! You will give the prince all your strength.
He pulled Irmis deva out of the ground, and the insidious deva attacked him again. Irmisa lifted the deva and slammed him into the ground up to his shoulders. Then the hundred-headed deva swore by the sky above his head and the earth below him that he would give all his strength to the prince.
He pulled Irmis Dev out of the ground, left the prince with him, and went off to shoot some game. He returned in the evening and looked: the prince was lying on a heap of ash, barely alive. It was the hundred-headed deva who deprived him of his powers. Irmisa got angry, attacked the hundred-headed deva and bent him to the ground.
“Why didn’t you keep your word, you abomination?!” I will plunge you up to your neck into the ground, you will obey me!
The dev shook with fear and immediately returned the prince’s strength and even gave him his own.
Irmisa and the prince took the captive girl with them and went on their way.
Before they had time to move away from the house of the hundred-headed deva, Devkazhiani (Devkazhiani - Flint Deva) flew at them like a hurricane, picked up the girl and soared into the sky again.
The friends returned to the hundred-headed deva and asked how to find the way to Devkazhiani. The dev showed the way and said:
- You will reach his home, but you will not enter. You won't catch Devkazhiani, you won't be able to defeat him. The Devas cannot cope with him, he will pelt you with black clouds!
“Our arrows will pierce the clouds, our swords will pierce Devkazhiani!” answers Irmisa.
“Neither a sword nor an arrow will take Devkazhiani, his soul is not with him.” In the nine-headed deva is the soul of Devkazhiani, behind the nine mountains on the Black Mountain, and the Immortal deer guards it.
Friends went to look for Devkazhiani. They walked and walked and finally reached the round mountain where the invincible deva lived.
Everything inside the mountain is humming, and flames are escaping from the top—Devkazhiani is breathing. Irmis and the prince walked around the mountain - there was no entrance anywhere, there was no way to get into it!
They then went to look for the nine-headed deva. The young men crossed nine mountains, and beyond the ninth mountain was an endless field, and beyond the field was Black Mountain. In the field, three hundred mowers cut the grass and stack it in three stacks. Irmis came up to them and said hello.
“Why do you need so much grass?” he asks.
- Feed the immortal deer. He descends from the Black Mountain once a day and eats three haystacks in three minutes. If we mow too little, he will trample us all,” the mowers answer.
- Stop mowing! Take armfuls of grass and leave here back for nine mountains! - Irmisa tells the mowers.
The mowers refuse to leave, they are afraid of the Immortal deer. Irmis and the prince were taken away from their sickles and thrown over the Black Mountain. They drove the mowers out of the field and forced them to take away the cut grass. Then they hid themselves in the tall grass and waited for the deer.
The Immortal Deer descended from the Black Mountain and chased the mowers. As soon as the deer disappeared from sight, the young men jumped up and rushed to the Black Mountain. They ran up to the top and stood there, unable to take another step - the nine-headed deva was blinding them with a bright light! The deva hangs on a tree and glows with a blinding light.
Irmisa somehow got close to the deva, cut the rope with his sword, and the monster crashed to the ground. As soon as it fell down, it stopped glowing. He cut Irmis Dev in half - he cut the soul of Devkazhiani.
Irmisa and the prince returned to the round mountain and looked - the flame no longer broke out from the top, the roar did not escape from the depths.
Irmisa went down through the hole into the mountain and carried out the captive girl.
The three of them set off further.
We walked from day to evening. Night came, and the travelers went to sleep under the plane tree. Irmisa lies there, unable to close her eyes, lest the girl be kidnapped again.
At midnight, evil Kajis (Kadjis are evil humanoid creatures) sat on the plane tree. They saw people and cursed them:
“Let the prince stumble and fall to his death near his house,” said one.
“Let the girl break her leg before she starts putting on golden shoes,” said another.
“Let him fly at night to the palace of Gwelweshapi (Gwelweshapi is a winged serpent-dragon) and swallow them all,” added the third. “And whoever heard us, let him speak, let him turn into a shadow stone.”
I heard everything from Irmis. In the morning he said nothing to either the prince or the girl. I was afraid to turn into a shadow stone.
No matter how long they walked, you never know, the friends made it home. As soon as they stepped into the royal courtyard, the prince stumbled, and Irmisa caught him and did not let him fall.
The king rejoiced when he saw his son safe and sound. The king liked the beautiful girl, and he immediately decided to marry the prince to her. He ordered the servants to bring golden shoes for her.
The girl took the golden shoes and wanted to put them on, but Irmisa snatched them from her and trampled them into the ground. The girl was offended by Irmis and even stopped talking to him.
Night has fallen. Everyone went to bed. Irmisa does not sleep, guards the palace.
Suddenly there was a buzz, a whistle all around, the air began to tremble - it was flying towards the Gwelveshapi Palace! Irmis swung his sword and in one fell swoop cut the monster in two - as if two mountains had collapsed to the ground.
In the morning the prince began to inquire how Irmis found out about the gvelveshapi. Irmisa didn't tell him anything.
The prince was offended and also stopped talking to his friend.
Irmis could not stand this and told what he had heard from the evil kajis. He said the last word and turned into a shadow stone.
The girl saw this and cried bitterly. Her tear fell on the shadow stone, and Irmis came to life to the great joy of the girl and the prince.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru