Atondido Stories
"Good, my son. Take it home to your mother."
So Vitazko returned the spit and led Tatosh back to his stall.
Then he threw the suckling over his beech-tree, thanked old St.
Nedyelka, bade her good-day, and with a happy heart went
home.
At the castle the mother was making merry with the dragon.
Suddenly in the distance they saw Vitazko coming.
"Here he comes!" the mother cried. "Oh dear, what shall I
do?"
"Don't be afraid," Sharkan advised. "We'll send him off on an-
other quest and this time he'll surely not come back. Pretend
you're sick again and tell him you're so weak that even the suck-
ling of the Earth Sow doesn't tempt your appetite. Tell him noth-
ing will help you but the Water of Life and the Water of Death
and if he really loves you he must get you some of both. Then
he'll go off hunting the Water of Life and the Water of Death and
that will be the end of him."
Sharkan hid himself in the tenth chamber and Vitazko, when
he entered the castle, found his mother alone.
"It's no use, my son," she moaned. "I can't eat the suckling.
Nothing will help me now but the Water of Life and the Water of
Death. Of course you don't love me well enough to get me some
of both."
"I do! I do!" poor Vitazko cried. "There's nothing I won't get
for you to make you well!"
He snatched up his beech-tree again and hurried back to St.
Nedyelka.
"What is it now?" the old woman asked.
"Can you tell me, dear St. Nedyelka, where I can find the Wa-
ter of Life and the Water of Death? My poor mother is still sick
and she says that nothing else will cure her."
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