Once long ago in a kingdom there was a king who had seven sons.
Once when the seven sons were going around the kingdom they saw a beautiful young girl herding a huge yak.
The seven sons liked the girl very much. As was their custom all of them talked with each other and offered the girl the chance to marry them all and be their wife.
The girl also agreed.
What none of the seven sons knew was that the girl and the yak were both demons in disguise. The girl was a female demon and she was married to the yak who was a male demon.
Disaster struck the kingdom after this marriage.
Six of the seven sons fell dead one after the other in the following years.
The seventh son was also bedridden and looked close to death.
The chieftain and ministers of the kingdom all got together and were talking about how to avert this disaster.
None of them could figure out why this was happening. So they all decided to call a fortune teller so that he may be able to know what was coming and offer them advice on how to avert it.
The chieftains and the ministers finally found a fortune teller.
However the fortune teller was a fraud. When the chieftains and the ministers approached the fortune teller, the fortune teller was terrified.
But with advice from his wife he decided that he would lie his way out convincingly in this present situation.
He packed his things along with all the auspicious things and decided to go and see the king's last son for himself.
There in the prince's room, the fortune teller expertly placed all the auspicious things around the princes' bed.
The wife of the seven sons was also in the room when the fortune teller had come and when he had set up his things around the prince.
In truth the female demon and the male demon together had first destroyed the souls of the six sons and then killed them. Now the demons had half destroyed the soul of the seventh son as well.
But as soon as the female demon saw the fortune teller she was unsure of what to make of him. She thought that the fortune teller had real powers and could see through her.
So the female demon left the prince's room as soon as the fortune teller came there.
Because the female demon was not near him the prince breathed a little easily. He felt better and he immediately fell into a deep sleep.
Seeing this for one terrified minute the fortune teller thought that the last prince had also fallen dead.
He realized that he had to escape from this place before people blamed him for this. He tried to open the door of the prince's room but he could not do that.
So he jumped out of the window. From there he fell on the yak which was tied there.
The fortune teller angrily pushed the yak away and ran away from the yak.
He had reached the door of the place when he heard sounds. It was the prince's wife and she was worriedly walking towards the yak.
Surprised, the fortune teller remained hidden and saw the events in the place.
The yak spoke to the prince's wife. "I think this fortune teller knows who we are. He attacked me."
The female demon sounded even more scared. "I think so too. He placed all the right auspicious things around the prince. I think he can cure the prince with his magical charms."
"What if he is able to find out that the normal weapons of the humans cannot hurt us?" The female demon was even more worried. "What if he uses fire and reveals who we are and kills us with it?"
The fortune teller had heard enough and he walked away from the place.
That very evening the fortune teller summoned the ministers and the chieftains. "Call all the people of the kingdom. We shall create a huge fire because I have found a way to cure the prince."
The very next day when all the people came the fortune teller very intelligently made sure that the people hurled stones at the prince's wife.
The people were all shocked to see that the prince's wife was not injured by the stones.
Then using the fire, the fortune teller came very close to the female demon and the yak which was behind her.
The people there were shocked to see two demons arise from the body of the yak and the prince's wife.
Using the fire and being guided by the fortune teller, the people and the fortune teller were able to kill the two demons.
A few days later the prince was completely cured and now looked hale and healthy.
Being very thankful to the fortune teller the prince handed over half his kingdom to the fortune teller for him to rule.
Adapted from folk stories from Tibet
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