Atondido Stories
She laid herself on the bed feigning still to be sick and when
Vitazko appeared she greeted him most affectionately.
"My dear son, back again? And safe and sound? Thank God!"
Then when he gave her the Golden Apples she jumped up from
the bed, pretending that the mere sight of them had cured her.
"Ah, my dear son!" she cried, petting him and caressing him as
she used to when he was a child. "What a hero you are!"
She prepared food and feasted him royally and Vitazko ate
and was very happy that his mother was herself again.
When he could eat no more she took a strong woolen cord
and, as if in play, she said to him:
"Lie down, my son, and let me bind you with this cord as
once I bound your father. Let me see if you are as strong as he
was and able to break the cord."
Vitazko smiled and lay down and allowed his mother to bind
him with the woolen cord. Then he stretched his muscles and
burst the cord asunder.
"Ah, you are strong!" his mother said. "But come, let me try
again with a thin silken cord."
Suspecting nothing, Vitazko allowed his mother to bind him
hand and foot with a thin silken cord. Then when he stretched
his muscles, the cord cut into his flesh. So he lay there, helpless
as an infant.
"Sharkan! Sharkan!" the mother called.
The dragon rushed in with a sword, cut off Vitazko's head,
and hacked his body into small pieces. He picked out Vitazko's
heart and hung it by a string from a beam in the ceiling.
Then the woman gathered together the pieces of her son's
body, tied them in a bundle, and fastened the bundle on Tatosh
who was still waiting below in the courtyard.
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