Once upon a time, a powerful king lived in a beautiful castle on the seashore. The beautiful wife gave birth to two wonderful children for the king: a daughter, whom they named Margaret, and a son, who was given the name Childe Wind. When Childe Wind grew up, he asked his parents for permission to travel around the world. The Queen was very sad when her son left his home, as if she knew that she would never see him again: she soon died. The king grieved for a long time. Neither hunting nor trips around the kingdom with which his courtiers entertained him could dispel his sadness. But one day a messenger from a distant castle brought the young Princess Margaret a letter from her father. The king wrote that he met a beautiful lady while hunting, fell in love with her and wants to soon bring a new queen to the royal castle. The princess became sad when she realized that another woman would take her mother’s place. But like an obedient daughter, she obeyed her father’s decision and on the appointed day went to the gate to give her stepmother the keys to the castle. The wedding procession has already appeared. Margaret came out to meet her father, bowed low, and handed her stepmother the keys. She blushed with embarrassment and was so beautiful that one of the courtiers said: “How beautiful this princess is!” Really, she is the most beautiful woman in the world! The king’s new wife interrupted the knight: “You should have said: “After the new queen.” And she whispered to herself: “Soon this beauty will disappear...”
And that same night, the queen asked her maid, an evil witch, to destroy the princess’s beauty. The maid promised to do this: she decided to turn Margaret into a dragon. Her spell was that Princess Margaret would become a dragon and remain so until her brother, Childe Wind, kissed her three times. But,” she warned her mistress, “if the prince nevertheless removes the spell from Margaret, then the evil force will turn on the queen herself, and she, too, will face a terrible transformation. The Queen - so strong was her hatred for the princess - agreed to these conditions. And the next morning a terrible roar was heard from Princess Margaret's chambers. The princess's maids looked into the room with fear and saw an ugly monster there. They ran away with cries of horror, and the dragon climbed out of the castle through long and narrow corridors and disappeared into the forest. When the king was informed of what had happened, his heart could not stand it and he died. And soon another misfortune occurred in the kingdom: the peasants said that on the Spidleston rock by the sea there was a terrible dragon that was devouring everything that came in its way. People went to ask the powerful wizard for advice. He, having studied the stars, looked into the magic crystal, and looked into ancient books, said this: “The terrible dragon is Princess Margaret!” The dragon is tormented by hunger, so it devours everything. Find the seven best cows in your herds and feed the dragon with the milk of these cows. Then he will stop disturbing the surrounding villages. And one more thing: call Prince Child Wind from across the sea. I am powerless against the spell that was cast on the princess, but I know that it was created on the orders of the new queen and that only the prince can remove it. And so they did. They began to carry milk to the dragon, and he stopped terrorizing the area, and a messenger was sent to Childe Wind.
When the young prince received terrible news, he vowed to lift the spell on his unfortunate sister and take revenge on his stepmother. The twelve knights who accompanied the prince in his wanderings also vowed to help him. Together they built a fast ship. And the keel of this wonderful ship was made of rowan, against which no witchcraft can withstand! And soon the prince and his knights boarded the ship and sailed to their homeland. Childe Wind had not yet approached his native shores, and the old witch had already reported to her mistress that the prince was sailing home. The queen ordered her to stop the prince, and the old woman summoned the demons with spells and told them this: “Let Childe Wind not reach the ground!” Raise a storm, break his ship, but do not let him touch his native land with his foot! And all the demons flew in a cloud to the sea, towards the prince’s ship. But Childe Wind's ship was not afraid of any witchcraft, because its keel was made of rowan. No matter what the demons did, they didn’t attack the ship with terrible screams and moans - the ship continued to sail towards the shore. And so the demons returned to the witch, having achieved nothing. Then the evil old woman used her most terrible spell and with its help forced the dragon to climb off the cliff and crawl into the harbor. And when Childe Wind’s ship approached the shore, the dragon rushed into the sea. It wrapped itself around the ship, rocking it and throwing it away from the shore. Three times Childe Wind ordered his men to row harder and not lose heart, but each time the terrible dragon drove the ship away from the shore. Then the prince took his ship around. The sorceress happily rubbed her hands: she thought that Childe Wind had chickened out and fled. But the young prince rounded the cape and landed in the neighboring bay. From there, he and his knights with drawn swords and drawn bows rushed towards the terrible dragon. But when the prince set foot on his native land, all the sorceress’s spells crumbled. Now the queen's maid no longer had power over the dragon. The evil old woman either disappeared or ran away. And the queen returned to her chambers alone and began to await her fate. Meanwhile, Childe Wind approached the terrible dragon and raised his sword over it. But then a girl’s voice came from the dragon’s disgusting mouth: “Unspell me, dear brother!” Kiss me, dear brother!
The hand with the sword trembled and Childe Wind backed away. But then he overcame himself and approached the dragon. He kissed the dragon once. But nothing has changed, the dragon remained a dragon. The prince kissed the terrible face a second time. But again nothing happened. And for the third time Childe Wind kissed the dragon and... Oh, miracle! Instead of a terrible monster, his sister Margaret stood in front of the prince, still young and beautiful. Childe Wind carefully wrapped Margaret in his cloak and went with her to the castle. They had not yet climbed onto the porch of the castle when a strange event happened: the queen, sitting in front of the mirror in her room, suddenly wrinkled, shrank and turned into an ugly toad. The toad croaked and jumped away from the castle, and Childe Wind and Margaret entered the gates of their native castle. Since then, Childe Wind wisely ruled the kingdom of his father, and the old men on winter evenings told their grandchildren a terrible story about the dragon from the Spidlestone rock.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru