The Prince, the Magic Bag and the Magic Bed - Part 1

 

A Prince was on a hunting expedition along with his other soldiers. The Prince drove deep into the forest and soon he was separated from his other soldiers. 

The Prince sat under a huge tree resting himself from the hot sun.

The Princes' mother, the Queen, had packed some cakes for the Prince to eat.

The Prince opened the package and he found one ant in the first cake. He found two ants in the second cake. He found three ants in the third cake and so on.

The prince decided to let the ants eat the cake because he was not too hungry.

Soon the Prince fell asleep under the shade of the tree. 

One of the ants among the ants eating the cake was the ant king. The ant king had knowledge of many things around the world. Realizing that the Prince had done him and his subjects a favour, the ant king decided to help the Prince too.

"If you find the kingdom of Prince Lalun and marry her then you will never be bored in your life." The ant king whispered in the princes' ears when the Prince was fast asleep.

When the Prince woke up he distinctly remembered the words of the ant king.

He caught on his horse and rode some more deep inside the forest determined to find the kingdom in which princess Lalun left.

Deep in the forest the Prince found a River. The tiger looked miserable though it was standing near the pool of water and it did not drink from the water either. 

The prince cautiously got down off his horse and walked towards the tiger. "Are you not hungry or thirsty?"

The tiger looked at the Prince unhappily and shook his head. "I have a thorn in my foot."

The Prince bravely went near the tiger and studied the tiger's foot. 

After that the Prince was able to remove the thorn from the tiger's foot and bandage the foot of the tiger too.

The tiger was very happy and roared loudly.

The tiger's wife, the tigress, came there hearing the roar of the tiger.

She was about to pounce on the Prince and eat him when the tiger interfered. "He saved my life, we should not hurt him." 

The tiger showed his bandaged paw to his wife. 

So the tigress agreed to let the Prince go.

It was at that time that the Prince asked the tiger the whereabouts of Princess Lalun.

The tiger pointed straight ahead. "Princess Lalun's kingdom is about three mountain ranges and seven forests away from here."

The princess turned to the tiger, a little worried. "Is there any faster way I can get there? 

The tiger slowly nodded. "You will find a great sage of this forest. He has a magic bed with him which can travel to any place. If you convince the sage to give you his bed you can easily travel to Princess Lalun's kingdom."

Adapted from Indian folk stories