One of the swallows seemed to be from the country, and the other swallow was from the town. The two birds narrated about the events in their particular places. That was when one of the swallows narrated the story of its own kingdom.
The king of my kingdom took a wife from a tailor's family. The king married the youngest daughter of the tailor and she was kind, gentle, and beautiful.
The other courtiers of the king did not want the king to marry such a girl. However the king would not hear of anything else and so the marriage was performed.
A few months after their marriage, war broke out between the kingdom and its neighbouring country.
The king left behind his queen and went to fight the Battle. After the king won the battle he came back home and he could not find his wife.
He was told that while he was away his wife gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy. However, the girl and the boy were still born, and so the queen was beside herself with sadness and she had locked herself in the tower and did not want to see any one.
The swallow which was listening to the story turned to the narrator bird. "Were the twin children of the king dead?"
The Narrator-Swallow shook its head. "No, the chamberlain of the king put the babies in a cradle made of crystal and let the cradle float in the river. The cradle was found by a fisherman, and the twins were brought up as children of the fisherman."
"Where are those children now?" The other bird asked worriedly.
The narrator swallow shook its head. "After the children grow up, they will have to go back to their kingdom and tell their father who they are and help their mother get out of the tower. But it may not be such an easy task!" The narrator swallow finished in a grave voice.
The other swallow was confused, "Why not?"
The Narrator-Swallow continued. "In fact, the only way the children can prove who they are is to bring the Bird of Truth and make it speak to the king because the Bird of Truth can speak the language of humans, and it is the only one which can convince the king of what had happened to his children and his wife."
"Where is the Bird of Truth?" The swallow asked the question and even the children were paying rapt attention. They easily realized that this was their own story that the birds were narrating and they could understand this because they could follow the speech of birds.
The Narrator-Bird shook its head. "I do not know where the Bird of Truth is. However I asked a cuckoo about it, and the cuckoo told me that not far from here there is a castle in which a witch lives. The castle is called the Castle-of-come-and-never-go. The witch has kept the Bird of Truth captive and guarded by other birds so that the words of the Bird of Truth will not be heard by all. The only way the witch would tell a person about where the Bird of Truth is, if any person gets her the waters from the fountains of many colours. Further, the place where the Bird of Truth is kept is guarded by a giant who sleeps only three-fourth of an hour in the entire day."
"How do we find this bird even if we get to the castle?" The bird asked its final question.
The Narrator-Bird unhappily shook its head. "There is an owl which lives a hermit's life in a desert. The only human word that the owl knows is 'cross'. This owl is the only creature which knows how to find this Bird."
After this, the birds flew away from there.
The two children who listened to the entire conversation knew what they had to do.
Adapted from Spanish folk Tales.
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