Atondido Stories
“I know why you have come. It is to carry off this princess.
Very well, take her. If you can guard her for three nights so that
she won’t escape you, she is yours. But if she escapes you, then
you and your men will suffer the fate of all those who have come
before you and be turned into stone.”
Then when he had motioned the princess to a seat, he turned
and left the hall.
The prince could not take his eyes from the princess, she was
so beautiful. He tried to talk to her, asking her many questions,
but she made him no answer. She might have been marble the
way she never smiled and never looked at any of them.
He seated himself beside her, determined to stay all night on
guard in order to prevent her escape. For greater security
Longshanks stretched himself out on the floor like a strap and
wound himself around the room the whole length of the wall.
Girth sat in the doorway and puffed himself out until he filled
that space so completely that not even a mouse could slip
through. Keen took his place by a pillar in the middle of the hall.
But, alas, in a few moments they all grew heavy with drowsiness
and in the end slept soundly all night long.
In the morning in the early dawn the prince awoke and with
a pain in his heart that was like a blow from a dagger, he saw
that the princess was gone. Instantly he aroused his men and
asked them what was to be done.
“It’s all right, master, don’t worry,” said Keen as he took a
long look through the window. “I see her now. A hundred miles
from here is a forest, in the midst of the forest an ancient oak, on
the top of the oak an acorn. The princess is that acorn. Let
Longshanks take me on his shoulders and we’ll go get her.”
Longshanks picked Keen up, stretched himself out, and set
forth. He took ten miles at a stride and in the time it would take
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