At the bottom of the sea, trouble happened - the sea dragon's daughter fell ill. The dragon was the strongest in the sea: a terrible long tail with rings, fire from its mouth. Everyone was afraid of him: sharks, fish, and jellyfish. And then the dragon’s daughter fell ill. He gathered the best doctors in his palace. They treated the dragon’s daughter in every way, gave her all sorts of medicines, but nothing helped her. My daughter was losing weight and turning blue. Then the dragon called his subjects and asked:
- What should I do? - Sa! - the fish only answered and bowed their heads to the side. And when in Japan they say “sa”, it means: “there is nothing to say.”
Then they sent for cuttlefish. The cuttlefish swam and swam around the patient and said:
“We need to get the liver of a living monkey.” The dragon got angry: “To get the liver of a living monkey, you must first get a living monkey!” Where can you find it here, at the bottom of the sea?
- Don't be angry! - said the cuttlefish. She was very old and knew everything. — Far to the south there is Monkey Island in the sea. Send someone there and they will bring you a live monkey.
You can’t send just anyone for such a big matter. They began to think about who to send. Dragon says:
- Let's send a shark. She has teeth. The cuttlefish waved all its eight legs: “No!” No! Is it possible to send a shark? What if she swallows the monkey along with its liver!
- Well, then we’ll send the sawfish. She's nimble. - No! - said the cuttlefish again. “What if a sawfish saws the monkey in half along the way?”
- Who should we send then? - That's it! - said the cuttlefish. She was old and knew everything. - Send the jellyfish. Everyone knows that monkeys live on land. This means that in order to get it, you need to get out of the water. And only a jellyfish can do this. Medusa boasts that she has four legs and does not care to walk on the ground. Let him get the monkey.
- Do you hear, jellyfish? - asked the dragon. “I hear you,” said the jellyfish. “But I’ve never had to get monkeys before.” Monkey - what does it look like?
— The monkey has a red face, a red backside and a short tail. She loves to climb trees and eat chestnuts.
“Ah,” said the jellyfish. She was about to set off, but thought about it and asked again: “How do they get monkeys?”
“Of course, you can’t capture a monkey by force.” You are small and she is big. We need to deceive her.
“Ah,” the jellyfish said for the second time and started off, but stopped again and asked: “How can I carry her on me if I’m small and she’s big?” It will be hard for me.
- What can you do! “You’ll have to be patient.” “Ah,” the jellyfish said for the third time, floated up from the bottom of the sea and swam along the waves far, far to the south.
The jellyfish was thinking all the way. She was thinking about how she could deceive the monkey, and the road seemed short to her. And she swam for three whole days.
Finally, far, far ahead, a black dot appeared on the blue water. “Here comes Monkey Island!” - thought the jellyfish. She swam faster, reached the shore, shook herself off and climbed out onto land. And immediately she saw a tree, and on the tree there was a red butt and a short tail.
“Here it is, a living monkey!” - Hello, monkey! - the jellyfish spoke. - What good weather! - Hello, I don’t know your name. The weather is fine, that's true, but who are you and where did you come from?
- I am a jellyfish. I live at the bottom of the sea. I wanted to bask in the sun, and I floated up for a walk.
I accidentally swam here and crawled ashore. You see, I have four legs. It makes no difference to me whether to swim on water or walk on land. What a nice little island you have here!
“The best island in the world,” said the monkey. - Look how tall our trees are, how many nuts and chestnuts there are around. You've probably never been to such a beautiful place before.
- Well, how can I say it! - answered the jellyfish. “I praised your island because I’m polite.” But you yourself must understand that I have seen better places in the world. After all, I live at the bottom of the sea!
- Really? — the monkey was surprised and moved to a lower branch: from here she could hear better. - Is it possible to live there?
- What, don’t you know? Haven’t you heard about the Sea Dragon Palace? I live near the palace itself.
“I heard it, but I didn’t see it,” admitted the monkey. - Is it only in pictures...
- Well, our bottom is much more beautiful than in the pictures! - interrupted the jellyfish. “You can’t even imagine how good it is there!”
- What's good there? - asked the monkey. Medusa wanted to say that there was thick salty water and a lot of mud and slugs. After all, for her it was the most delicious thing. But she remembered in time that she had been told to deceive the monkey, and said:
- There are very tall trees there, twice as tall as yours. - Are there chestnuts on them? - asked the monkey and moved to the lowest branch.
- Chestnuts? Yes, as much as you want! They grow on all our trees. Not just on chestnut trees, but even on pine trees!
- ABOUT! - the monkey was surprised. She completely climbed down from the tree and went right to the water. - How I would like to visit you. Medusa was happy, but pretended that she didn't care.
“If you really want to visit us, I can probably show you the way,” she said.
- But I don’t know how to walk on water. - You don’t know how? It's a pity. Well, since you really want it, so be it, I’ll take you on my back.
- No, how can it be! It will be hard for you.” “Don’t worry, I’ll be patient.” “Well, if you’re so kind, thank you!” Let's go. The jellyfish plopped into the water, and the curious monkey carefully stepped onto her broad back, squatted down and
She grabbed the sides of the jellyfish with her hands. “Just be quiet,” she said. “I’m afraid to fall into the water: your back and sides are so slippery!”
“Nothing, hold on tight!” The jellyfish swam quickly and quickly. The deed was done: a live monkey sat on her back. Now the jellyfish had nothing else to think about. She even became bored. In addition, she was talkative and did not like to remain silent when there was someone to talk to.
“Tell me, please,” the jellyfish suddenly asked, “do you have a liver?” The monkey was surprised:
- Why do you need to know this? - Oh, this is very important! - Why is this important? - Yes. I can't say. The monkey was even scared. She immediately realized that they were planning something against her.
“No, please tell me,” she asked the jellyfish. “Otherwise it suddenly turns out that my liver is not at all what you need.”
At this point the jellyfish got scared. She forgot what she was taught and told the monkey the whole truth:
“Your liver is needed for the daughter of the sea dragon.” She got sick and they couldn't cure her. So they sent me for you. When I bring you, they will take your liver, the dragon’s daughter will eat it and be healthy.
The monkey trembled with fear. She almost jumped off the back of the jellyfish, but there was a sea all around. What was she supposed to do? Ask the jellyfish to take her back? But the jellyfish won’t listen to her.
The monkey thought for a moment and said in the calmest voice: “Of course, I will be happy to give you my liver.” I have a lot of them. Am I really going to spare one or two livers, and for whom else? For the daughter of the sea dragon! I'm not such a monkey as to feel sorry. But why didn’t you tell me this right away? After all, as if on purpose, I left all my livers at home.
- How did you leave it? - Yes, I left it like that! In the morning I washed them and hung them on a tree to dry. The livers need to be washed once a week, otherwise they become dirty.
“What a disaster!” thought the jellyfish. “It’s good that I asked her in time.” - Hey, you! - she said to the monkey. - Why am I taking you for nothing? What good are you to me without a liver?
“That’s right,” answered the monkey. - Let's go back to the island for some liver. - Are you telling the truth? Are they really hanging on the tree there? - You'll see! I have one very good, fatty liver there.” “So take it, the fattest one.” Okay? - Absolutely. Just quickly take me to the shore! The jellyfish turned and swam back to the island. As soon as she found herself near the shore, the monkey jumped from her back to the ground, reached the tree in two leaps and grabbed the lower branch with her hands and feet. “What took you so long?” - the jellyfish called her. - Hurry! We've already lost a lot of time.
And the monkey climbed to the very top of the tree and stuck out his tongue at the jellyfish. - Ignorant! - the jellyfish got angry. - Get down quickly! - I won’t even think about it! Thanks for the walk. I won't ride you again. - What about the liver? How can I survive without her? - the jellyfish cried. “I don’t care how you will survive without her.” But I don’t want to be left without her. Do you think my livers are really hanging on a tree? No, I only have one liver, and it's inside me, where it's supposed to be.
- So you deceived me? - The jellyfish got angry. - This is shameless! I'll complain about you to the sea dragon.
“I’m not afraid of your sea dragon.” And if you really want to get my liver, climb my tree yourself. You have four legs.
But the jellyfish didn’t know how to climb trees. “Listen,” she said then, “what about the sea dragon’s palace?” You were going to look at him. What about chestnuts on pine trees?
“I don’t need your chestnuts on the pine trees.” “I only like chestnuts from chestnut trees,” answered the monkey.
So the stupid jellyfish had to return with nothing. She again swam along the waves far, far north, home. And again the road seemed short to her: she was thinking all the time. Now she was thinking about why the monkey no longer wanted to look at the underwater kingdom.
And at home the dragon and all his subjects had been waiting for her for three days. “Where is the monkey?” - the fish screamed as soon as they saw the jellyfish. “On the tree,” the jellyfish answered sadly. - First I deceived her, and then she deceived me. I told her that chestnuts grow on our pine trees. The monkey liked it. She sat on my back and I drove her. But then on the way the monkey remembered that he had left his liver at home, and we had to return to the island. But in fact, the monkey deceived me: she had the liver with her. She just didn’t want to go to our underwater kingdom. She thinks that the chestnuts on the pine trees are not sweet.
The sea dragon listened and listened to the jellyfish, then hit the bottom with its tail and shouted: “Beat it with all your might!” So hit it to knock all the bones out of it! Such a fool can live without bones.
They beat the jellyfish, beat it, beat it, beat it - and really knocked all the bones out of it. Since then, the jellyfish has been left without bones. And she sways on the waves, like a soft, unsteady lump.
What does a fool need bones?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru