Seven in a Blow

A happy tailor was working in his house. He had a pretty little bird as his pet and the tailor and the bird were both singing together and he was happy.

That was when the tailor heard the shouts of an old street vendor from the streets below. The tailor stopped his work and looked down and saw that the old lady was selling tasty delicious jam on the streets.

“Loaf of Bread, with some cheese and jam!” She shouted as she was looking around the streets. “Would anyone be interested in a fresh loaf of bread with some tasty jam?”

Even from his tiny house, the tailor saw that the jam of the lady was really delicious. The house flies were circling the jam even as the lady was carrying the goods.

“Lady!” The tailor called out. “I wish to buy a loaf of bread, some cheese and some jam.”

The vendor was very happy.

Soon the sale was made and the tailor carried his food back to his home.

The tailor laid out the things on his table and before he could have his meals, he decided to work a little more.

He had completed sewing the cloth when the tailor turned to his bed and he found flies around the delicious jam.

Furious, the tailor picked out a piece of cloth from nearby and swatted the flies which were around the jam.

The aim of the tailor was perfect and all the seven flies around the jam fell dead.

The tailor swept away the house flies and then had his meals.

It was after his meals that the idea struck the tailor. He had killed seven flies in a blow. Seven in a Blow.

That had a nice ring to it, so the tailor decided to make a belt and the belt read “Seven in a Blow.”

The tailor was feeling very proud of himself as he wore the belt. The newly made belt gleamed in the light as the tailor studied himself in the mirror. It was that second that he had decided that tailoring was too simple a job for him. He was meant for greater things. He just felt it. So the tailor took some of the left over cheese and his little bird and he was off on his adventures.

******

The tailor was happily singing to himself and that was when he climbed a small mountain and was he was whistling to himself. That was when the tailor stopped. Sitting on the top of the mountain was a huge giant. The giant was large and it was looking down at the villages down the mountain with shrewd eyes.

For a second, the tailor was frightened. Just for a second. But then the tailor caught himself as he went near a huge rock which was near the giant and the tailor climbed on top of it. That was when the tailor came close to the giant’s face.

“What are you doing here?” The tailor shouted, trying to get the giant’s attention.

For the first time, the giant was startled on hearing the voice spoken to him. The huge giant turned slowly and he saw a small puny human sitting on the huge rock right next to him.

“Are you talking to me?” The giant growled in a loud voice as it looked at the human.

The tailor studied the giant and nodded. “Yes! I am on the way to find a new adventure. I thought you looked very bored. So I just wanted to know whether you want to accompany me on my adventures.”

The giant was shocked. He had definitely not expected any human to say that to him, let alone such a small human.

“You want me to accompany you on your adventures?” The giant demanded in a loud voice.

“Oh can you not read what is written in my belt?” The tailor asked looking surprised and even as he spoke, the tailor pulled back his coat and showed his belt, for the giant to read.

The giant frowned and slowly it read the tiny letters in the tailors belt.

Seven in a blow.

Naturally, the giant misunderstood.

“You killed seven people in one blow?” The giant was very surprised as it looked at the little tailor. A few seconds later looking at the confident gait of the tailor, the giant had the first doubt. Then the natural toughness of the giant asserted itself. “I do not believe you!”

“You can test me.” The tailor told the giant with a shrug, looking like he just did not have a care in the world.

The giant stared at the tailor and in slight anger and more from exasperation than anything, the giant took a huge rock from nearby and squeezed it hard and the giant was so strong that water came out of the squeezed rock.

For a second, the tailor stared aghast at the giant. Then the tailor caught himself.

“I can also do that.” The tailor said shrugging. He bent down and pretended to take a stone from the ground when in reality the tailor actually took the cheese from his coat. The huge giant could not see the little thing in the tailor’s hands and the giant thought that it was a small stone.

The tailor squeezed the cheese hard.

The giant was shocked because much faster and seemingly with very less effort than what he had done, the little human had duplicated his feat and liquids poured out of the ‘stone’ in the tailor’s hands.

“Anything else?” The tailor asked the giant with a bright smile as he wiped his hands and studied the giant.

This time the giant was getting angrier. But there was also a slight sense of fear in the giant. However, there was also a part of the giant which was not completely convinced that the tailor was as powerful as he claimed to be.

Thinking all this, the giant picked up a huge boulder and eyed the little tailor. In a swift throw, the giant threw the boulder far, far away.

The tailor watched amazed as the boulder shot through the sky like an arc and fell with a thud nearly two kingdoms away!

“Can you do that?” The giant asked the tailor with a smug smile.

“Your stone landed on the ground.” The tailor told the giant with a wry smile. “Mine won’t.”

It was the giant’s turn to looked stunned as the tailor again bent down the ground to pull another stone and this time the tailor pulled out his little pet bird.

“Off you go, my friend.” The tailor muttered to the little bird and threw the bird far away.

The bird was thrilled on being thrown and when it felt the air on its wings, it was very happy and it flew far away beyond what the tailor and the giant could see.

It was on seeing that the ‘stone’ had really not landed, that the giant began to have serious doubts about the tailor.

“All this does not mean that you are strong!” The giant said in a gruff tone. “I will believe you, only when I see you lift some heavy weight.”

“Fine!” The tailor shrugged. He pointed at a heavy tree near the giant. “You fell it and we will both carry it.”

Before the giant could say anything, the tailor hurriedly finished. “You carry the trunk and I will carry the branches and leaves which are more heavy.”

In a single blow, the giant pushed the huge tree and the tree fell. The giant carried the trunk and walked in the front. The tailor was in the back. The giant was carrying the trunk and he thought that the tailor was carrying the branches of tree. In reality, the tailor sat happily in the branches of the tree, whistling to himself and whenever the giant looked back, the tailor got down the branches and pretended to carry it.

By the end of the journey, the huffing and puffing giant was completely stunned because the tailor did not look like he was even remotely tired.

“I cannot carry it anymore.” The giant called out loudly. “I am going to drop the tree.”

The tailor jumped down the branches and even as the giant had spoken, the tailor jumped over to the side of the giant and fell on the ground as the trunk fell down with a thud.

The giant looked at the tailor angrily. “Why couldn’t you hold up the tree all by yourself, if you are so strong?”

“Sh!” The tailor said angrily holding up his hands signaling for silence and the tailor was pretending to look around on the other side of the tree. “Don’t make too much noise. Couldn’t you even figure out that there are hunters on the other side? I can escape them and even kill all of them if needed. What about you?”

**********

“He looks very small, but he is very strong and powerful.” The giant was telling the other giants who were in a large cave. The cave was the home of many giants and the giant was talking to his friends. “He can do things which I have never even thought that any human can do.”

“If this human is so powerful than why have you brought him here?” One of the other giants demanded.

“Because I still have a feeling that the human is not strong and he is just pretending.” The first giant said with a sly look. “He cannot do anything when he is sleeping and at that time, I am going to finish him off!”

The other giants in the cave nodded at the giant.

*******

“You are my friend. So you will sleep here for the night.” The giant told the tailor as he pointed at a huge bed in the middle of the caves.

The tailor stared at the bed and nodded as the giant went away from there.

The tailor had eaten with the giants and he was feeling full. He had wanted to sleep and he was definitely tired. But looking at the huge bed, the tailor was shocked and he just could not sleep. He slept at a side of the bed and he found that he just could not sleep in a new place.

The tailor considered himself lucky that he could not sleep.

Right in the dead of the night, an iron walking-stick came through the window of the bedroom that the tailor was in and the heavy iron rod fell with a thud on the bed. The rod fell on the bed with so much force that the bed broke into two right in the middle.

The tailor suppressed a yell and fell to the side of the room.

The tailor’s heart was still thudding painfully as he heard the laugh of the giant.

“No human, no matter how strong can survive that! That marks the end of that pathetic human!” The tailor heard the giant growl to his friends.

**********

The giant was out on a hunt with his friends and he was feeling pretty happy with himself.

Which was when the giant was shocked out of his wits.

“You left me all alone in the cave. You did not tell me that you go for hunting so early in the morning or I would have joined you.”

The giant was staring shocked as the little human was standing right next to him with a bright smile on his face.

Then the giant and his friends panicked and they all ran away from the forests. Far away from the dangerous human who could not be killed even by an iron rod.

********

Happily whistling to himself, the tailor walked on from the forest and now he came to a royal courtyard. But not having slept the previous day, the tailor was tired and he fell asleep there.

The royal courtyard belonged to the neighbouring king and his soldiers had come there and they found the sleeping tailor. What the soldiers saw was the belt of the tailor.

Naturally, they all misunderstood too and they all went to the king of the land.

“There is a man, your majesty. He is fast asleep in our royal courtyard. Even when he is asleep, he looks like he does not have a care in the world. I am sure that the man can kill seven people in a blow. Such a man would be perfect in our army.”

The king listened to his soldiers and then he smiled as he nodded.

**********

The tailor was now in the employment of the king and he was given a house for himself. He had untold riches and the tailor was a very happy man.

However, the other soldiers in the kingdom were very unhappy with this. They could not believe that such a powerful man existed and they were afraid because they genuinely believed that if the tailor ever got angry with them, he would kill all of them easily.

Slowly, mustering up all their courage, the other soldiers went to the king. “Your majesty, we have been loyal to you.” The soldiers told their king. “But how can we work in an army with a man who can kill all of us in a blow? If he just got angry, we are no match for him. We cannot work with such a man. Please get rid of him.”

The king was worried when he heard his soldiers. The king did not want to lose so many of his soldiers just for one man. But the king was also slightly scared. He did not want to openly annoy the new soldier who could kill even the king. So the king thought long and hard and finally arrived at a solution.

***********

“There are giants in another forest, your majesty?” The tailor asked the king carefully.

He had been summoned early in the morning by the king and the king seemed very grave. The news of the king made the tailor feel grave too.

The king had wanted the tailor to get rid of two giants who were in the neighbouring forests because the two giants had looted, killed and plundered many merchants and people from their own kingdom.

“Can you do it?” The king asked the tailor.

The tailor studied the king for a huge second. “Yes your majesty, I can.”

The king was slightly taken aback with the confidence of the tailor, so he grudgingly nodded at him. “Take a hundred of my horsemen with you to defeat the giants.”

The tailor laughed at the king. “They can definitely accompany me, your majesty. But a man who has killed seven in a blow has nothing to fear from just two.”

With that the tailor was off to the neighbouring forest.

The king’s hundred horsemen accompanied the tailor.

As soon as they had reached the forest, the tailor turned to them. “All of you wait here. I will go inside and handle the giants.”

*********

It was afternoon when the tailor found the two giants deep in the forest. The two giants were fast asleep and snoring loudly.

Quickly, the tailor gathered all the stones that he could find and climbed on top of a tree a little away from the two giants. Sitting there comfortably, the tailor threw a huge stone on the first giants’ face.

The giant woke up with a start and he looked around and found no one other than the other giant.

“Why did you hit me?” The first giant demanded elbowing the other giant angrily.

The second giant woke up with a start. “I did no such thing!” He said looking thoroughly annoyed that his sleep had been disturbed.

“Of course, you did.” The first giant retorted. “There is no one else here.”

The two giants looked like they were going to fight. However, they were too sleepy and they fell asleep even as they were glaring at each other.

This time, the tailor hit the second giant, who woke up with a start.

Very soon, this culminated in a huge fight between the two giants and soon they were so angry that they uprooted trees nearby and threw it at each other.

Both the giants were equally strong and powerful and both were angry too. Soon, because of the antics of the tailor, it went so bad that the two giants just killed each other.

*******

The king was shocked when he heard the words of his other soldiers.

They had gone inside the forest and they had found the uprooted trees and the two dead giants and they had naturally misunderstood that the tailor had done that – which was what they reported to the king.

The king was in a fix as he studied the triumphant tailor before him.

“I… I…” The king stammered in the beginning and then the king suddenly had another idea. “There is a unicorn in the nearby forest.” The king said rapidly. “Capture the unicorn and bring it here and you shall have half my kingdom and my daughter too.”

The tailor was stunned as he heard the words of the king.

The king was sure that the tailor was going to fail.

*********

This time too, the tailor asked the other soldiers to wait outside the forest and went inside. Looking around the forest for some time led the tailor straight to the angry unicorn.

The tailor looked terrified for a few seconds as he studied the powerful unicorn. Then suddenly the tailor had an idea as he ran towards a huge tree with a massive trunk and even as he ran, the tailor threw stones at the unicorn, trying to annoy it.

The tailor’s plan worked. The unicorn was very angry and it charged at the tailor.

The tailor waited till the last minute and then he moved away. The unicorn could not change directions that fast and it rammed into the tree. The unicorn hit the tree with so much force that its horn was stuck in the tree. No matter how much it tried, the unicorn could not pull itself out of there.

Then the tailor used a rope which was with him and he captured the unicorn and brought it before the king.

*********

The king was getting steadily worried and he realized that he had made a rash promise.

So this time, the king sent the tailor to catch a wild boar terrorizing the neighbouring village and this time the king’s army did not accompany the tailor.

Using the same means as with the unicorn, the tailor caught the wild boar and captured it in a chapel and the tailor latched the chapel from outside with the wild boar charging inside.

*******

The marriage of the tailor with the princess of the land was a grand affair. Better still, the tailor had become the ruler of half the king’s kingdom.

But then the problems of the tailor were not yet over.

In the very first night together, the princess heard the words of the tailor which he spoke in his sleep and the tailor spoke about the days that he was sewing and tailoring clothes. The princess was very furious as she realized that the man who had married her was a tailor. In her anger she told her father to get rid of the man.

The king decided that it was best to get rid of the tailor when he was sleeping. He told his daughter to leave the door of their room open the next night and that he would send two of his soldiers to catch the tailor, bind him and set him in a ship to be sailed in the wide ocean.

The princess agreed with the plan.

However, the only problem for the king and the princess, was that a soldier of the king had overheard the king’s plan and this particular solider, liked the tailor. So the very evening, the soldier told the tailor all about the king’s plan.

The tailor pretended like he knew nothing and like always he went to sleep in his room. The princess unlocked the door from inside and there she saw her father’s soldiers outside the room.

That was when she and the two soldiers froze as they heard the sleepy words of the tailor. “I have killed two giants, caught a unicorn and a wild boar. Will it really be so difficult to deal with two men at the door? Even if I am asleep?”

The soldiers heard the tailor and they were so terrified that they ran away from there, fearing for their life.

The king tried nothing after that.

So the tailor remained a king by his own right for the rest of his life.

- From the Grimm Brothers Stories