The Soldier and the Blue Light

Long ago there was a king who had a faithful and brave soldier. 

However when the soldier was slightly injured the king realized that the soldier could no longer fight as well as he could. The king immediately terminated the soldier's services and had him thrown out of his castle.

Sadly the soldier walked away from there and he entered a forest. As he kept walking in the forest, just before night, he saw a hut with a light burning inside it. 

He saw the house outside and looking at the inscriptions outside he realized that the house belonged to a witch. 

Having no choice he knocked on the house and asked the witch for employment in return for which the witch could give him food and lodging for the night.

The witch reluctantly agreed to this. She gave him food and lodging for the night. The next morning she asked him to dig her garden around the hut. 

The soldier agreed and he worked all day but he could not finish the work by evening. So the witch allowed him to stay for another night but that he would have to do another work for her as well. 

The soldier agreed to it as well. 

The next day the soldier was given the additional job of chopping wood. 

The  second day the soldier completed all the jobs that had been given to him.

For the third time the which gave a very unique job for the soldier. "There is an old dry well behind my hut. My blue light has fallen into the well. I want you to go inside the well and get me the blue light."

The soldier agreed to do this as well. He the witch lowered him in a basket inside the well. 

There the soldier found the blue light. 

The witch then pulled up the shoulder towards the rim of the well.

The soldier then signaled the witch to bring him up in the basket. 

However the witch wanted the soldier to hand over the blue light to her first.

When the soldier refused to do so the witch in a fit of rage dropped the basket. 

The soldier fell to the base of the well and he was injured. He tried getting away but he failed in all his attempts. 

At last, he realized that he was going to meet his end in the well. 

Unhappy and dejected, he felt his pocket and found that he still had his tobacco pipe inside it. 

The soldier realized that he had nothing else to lose and he smoked the pipe.

When the smoke touched the blue light came up the soldier was stunned by a dwarf standing before him. 

The dwarf bowed to the soldier. "You have summoned me with your smoke. What are your commands, master?"

The soldier recovered as he heard what the dwarf had said.

"Lead me out of this well."

The dwarf found a hidden door at the base of the well and let the soldier out of it. 

The soldier was stunned to see plenty of riches there underground. Apparently the witch had hidden all her riches there.

He gathered all the riches from the place and walked out of the underground well following the dwarf.

"What is your next wish, master?" The dwarf asked after the two of them had come out of the well.

"Take the witch to prison and make sure she stays there for the crimes that she has committed against me and others like me."

The dwarf bowed and he went away from the place. When he came back he nodded at the soldier. "The witch is already in the gallows and you have nothing more to fear from her." 

"Is there anything else I should do, master?" The dwarf asked the soldier again. 

The soldier slowly shook his head. "You may go now but when I want will you come again?" 

The dwarf nodded. "When you smoke the pipe before the blue light, I will appear before you and do what you want." Satisfied, the soldier waved the dwarf away.

Now taking all the riches with him the soldier went back to the king's kingdom. He found the best inn and asked for the best room and stayed there comfortably.

Now that the soldier had the means, he realized that he had to avenge himself on how he had been ill-treated by the king. 

He smoked his pipe and summoned the dwarf again. This time he wanted the dwarf to bring the princess to his room in the inn so that the princess could work there at night. 

The dwarf carried the princess away from the castle when she was half asleep. 

There in the inn she did all the work for the soldier and she was half asleep and could not think of opposing the orders of the soldier.

Just before the break of dawn the dwarf carried the princess back to her room in the castle. 

In the morning when the princess woke up she was very tired and sore. 

She went to the king. "I had a very strange dream last night of working very hard in a room in an inn. However, now that the dream is over, I feel very tired. I think I actually did all the work there."

The king thought it out for a few seconds and this time he asked the princess to keep some peas in her pocket. 

He asked the princess to put a hole in her pocket where she kept the peas as soon as she felt the dream start again at night. 

That way if the peas were really scattered on the streets of the kingdom it would become obvious that the princess had not had a dream and that she had actually left the castle. 

The king was almost certain that the princess had not had a dream and he was almost certain that following the peas would lead to the person who had done this to the princess.

The princess did exactly what was told of her.

However the dwarf was also very clever. He managed to scatter the trail of peas leading back to the soldier's house and make sure that the peas were found all over the streets of the kingdom.

So the next morning the king and the tired princess knew for sure that the princess had left the castle but they didn't know where the princess had been taken to.

The children in the kingdom collected the peas which were found in all the streets thinking that it had rained peas the previous night.

The following night the princess was smart and in her half a sleep state when she was working at the soldier's room she placed one of her footwear under the bed of the soldier.

No one knew anything as the dwarf carried the princess back to the castle at the break of dawn. 

This time the princess told the king what she had done and the king had all the kingdom searched for the other shoe of the princess. 

That way they found the soldier. 

The soldier was immediately put in prison.

This time the soldier did not have his pipe with him. He asked one of the people manning the prison to get him his pipe from his room and he promised to pay a gold coin for it. 

The person who was asked the favour saw nothing wrong or strange in doing what he was asked for and he got the gold coin too.

The king saw the soldier and decided to execute him though the soldier had done nothing worth the death penalty.

As a last wish the soldier however asked to smoke his pipe. 

The king saw nothing wrong in it and granted the wish.

However as soon as this happened the dwarf emerged from the blue light and soon with the powers of the dwarf the soldier had the king in his mercy.

It was only after the king let the soldier go and gave half of his kingdom to the soldier, that the soldier gave up his anger against the king's ill treatment and ruled his half of the kingdom well from then on.

Adapted from the stories of the Grimm Brothers