“How I wish these were real fruits, like I ate at Flanders.” Desire looked sad as he studied the oranges.
The more the tired Desire thought about it, the more he realized that he could be right and there was a chance that the oranges were real.
Desire opened an orange and he was shocked to find a little canary come out of the orange.
“Please give me something to drink.” The bird cried at the prince.
The prince stared. He did not realize what the bird had asked. He was shocked and finally realized the reason that the old man had asked him to come near a water source before opening the orange.
But the prince had been hasty and he had nothing to offer to the canary. In desperation, Desire opened the second orange in the hope that it could have some water for the canary.
Another canary emerged from the second orange and the second canary also asked for water.
Desire realized his mistake and saw that the two canaries flew away from there when Desire could not provide any water.
In exhaustion, Desire fell unconscious.
When Desire woke up, he felt better. The prince felt better and he looked at the fresh dew around him which had come at night.
Desire felt refreshed and he took the last remaining orange and mounted his horse and rode on towards some water source.
However, this time too Desire did not find any water source. He was sure that the witch had bewitched him to be very thirsty without any water source on the way.
But this time the Desire had collected some water from the dew around him and rode on towards a water source.
Adapted from Andrew Lang’s Red Fairy Book
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