The Bronze Ring Part-2

 For a few months the gardener's son and the princess lived happily as husband and wife in the kingdom.

In the same kingdom lived a man who practiced black magic and sorcery. This man realised that the source of the gardener's son's power and fame was the bronze ring that the gardener's son had.

One day the princess saw a man selling lovely red fishes in the market.

"How much are these fishes?" The princess asked the man who was selling the fish.

"I will take only a bronze ring for these fishes." The man replied with a sly smile.

The princess was perplexed. "Where shall I find a bronze ring?"

"Underneath the cushion of the princess," the man replied immediately.

The princess was surprised. 

But she went to her palace and she was surprised to find a bronze ring under her pillow. 

She removed the ring and gave it to the man in return for the red fishes.

Needless to say the man who was well versed in black magic and sorcery now had the bronze ring for himself. 

Now he commanded the genie of the bronze ring. "Let the golden ship turn into a ship with weak wood. Let all the crew of the ship become old. Let the cargo of the gold become into black cats."

On seeing this the gardener's son realized that somebody had stolen his bronze ring.

Realizing that whoever had the bronze ring had probably taken his wife too, the gardener's son set sail from the place in his old ship.

The gardener's son had become very poor and he and his crew with the cargo roamed from one island to another. The gardener's son and his crew found nothing else other than herbs and roots to eat. 

Finally they reached an island which was infested by mice.

The hungry cats in the cargo were let loose on the island. The cats ate many mice there. 

The remaining mice were worried and they held a council before their queen on how to stop the cats.

"We should approach their captain so that he will take away the cats with him," the queen finally decided after listening to her ministers.

The gardener's son heard the queen mouse and he told her his own story. 

So it was decided that the mice would get the bronze ring back to the gardener's son and the gardener's son would take away his cats with him.

But the Queen mouse was at a loss. She did not know how to get the bronze ring. So she called all the mice all over the world to help her.

Finally three mice came to help the Queen. One of the mice was blind the other was lame and the third mouse had its ears cropped.

The three mice knew where to find the bronze ring with their uncanny abilities.

They made a boat and set sail to the gardener's son's kingdom.

The blind mouse stayed on the ship looking after it. 

The other two mice slowly walked towards the sorcerer. They found that the sorcerer had the bronze ring hidden inside his mouth. So even though he was asleep they could not take the ring out without the sorcerer knowing about it.

The mouse with its ears cropped thought about it and dipped its' tail in oil and then in pepper. The mouse went near the sleeping sorcerer and made the sorcerer sneeze. 

The ring fell out of the sorcerer's mouth. 

The lame mouse took the ring and hid it.

After noticing that the sorcerer had not woken up the two mice made their way back to the boat.

The three mice happily set sail back to their own island.

Unfortunately on looking at the bronze ring the three mice fought with each other. Each believed that the bronze ring could not have been obtained without their help.

"I looked after the ship so that it did not sail away in the water."

"I made the sorcerer sneeze."

"I took the ring and hid it from the sorcerer."

In the fight between the three mice the ring fell into the water.

The three mice were aghast. They did not know what to do. 

All the three mice decided to hide in another island, instead of facing their queen and telling her what had actually happened. 

Adding on top of their woes there was a sudden storm and their boat was overturned. So even as the three mice hid on the island their boat was gone.

On the new island the three mice were stunned.

One of the fishes from the sea had been swept into the island because of the storm and the fish laid dead on the land. 

What the three mice could not believe was that this fish had unknowingly swallowed the bronze ring.

The three mice happily took the ring and made another boat and went back to the queen and gave her the bronze ring.

Once the gardener's son got back his ring the cats were taken off the island and things went back to normal there. 

The sorcerer was punished for his deeds. 

The gardener's son and the princess got back their kingdom and lived happily ever after.

Adapted from the Fairy Book by Andrew Lang