As Desire rode on he was filled with sudden doubts. Just as his thirst could be because of the witch’s curse, what if the third orange did not have any beautiful princess in it at all. Probably another canary would come out of it and ask for water and disappear.
After all, all that Desire had seen was two canaries coming out of the two oranges.
The more Desire thought about it the more worried he grew.
This time when he had some water collected from the dew of the night before, Desire finally found the courage to cut the third orange also.
This time too a small canary came out of the orange and asked Desire for some water.
When Desire gave the bird some water, he was shocked.
The bird turned into a beautiful princess with bright golden-coloured skin.
Once Desire saw her he could not remove his eyes from her. “Who are you?" He managed to stutter studying the beautiful princess.
“I am Princess Zizi,” the beautiful woman told Desire. “When I was sixteen, I was cursed to become a canary and for the past ten years I have lived inside this orange as a canary.”
Desire fell in love with the princess immediately and wanted to marry her.
After telling the princess what he was going to do, he placed Princess Zizi on the horse and rode with her to his father's castle.
Adapted from Andrew Lang's Red Fairy book
No comments:
Post a Comment