The Wonderful Medicine

Once upon a time, in ancient days, there lived a king and a queen, and they had three sons. The king loved the eldest and the middle sons dearly: they were brave warriors and skilled hunters. But the youngest son was not favored by the king: day and night, the young man spent his time with ancient books, wanting nothing else in life. The queen, on the contrary, favored the youngest over his older brothers and always stood up for him before his father.

And so they lived, until one day disaster struck: the king's eyes fell ill. He summoned healers from his own lands and from foreign countries, but no remedy worked—the king went blind.

One day, a wanderer came to the palace, learned of the king's illness, and said that only healing soil from a land four months' journey away could cure him, though he did not know in which direction it lay. Immediately, the two older brothers decided to set out for the cure and came to their father for his blessing. The king blessed his sons and, so that the royal children would lack nothing on their journey, gave each a fine steed and gold for the road.

When the youngest learned where his brothers had gone, he rushed to his mother:

"Mother, ask for Father's blessing for me too!"

"But where would you go, my child?" the mother was surprised. "Such a journey is beyond your strength. Look how strong your brothers are."

"No, Mother! What I know from my books, my brothers do not. They will not be able to find that distant kingdom or obtain the miraculous soil!"

What could she do? The queen went to the king and told him everything. At first, the king was angry:

"I don't need the help of this bookworm! He has no place where the older sons have gone!"

The queen wept and pleaded even more for the youngest. Finally, the king agreed:

"Very well, let him go! I'll give him a wretched nag and a handful of copper coins."

The queen told her son of his father's decision. The young man was overjoyed, and that very day he set off. He rode for four days without rest—and caught up with his brothers. When they saw him, they were astonished:

"What are you doing here, bookworm?"

"The same as you!"

"But are you even good for anything? Poor Father, if he expects help from you!" exclaimed the eldest.

"Well, I'll try, maybe something will come of it!"

Then the middle brother turned to the eldest and said:

"We shouldn't drive this bookworm away. Surely, he has learned from his books where the unknown kingdom lies and how to reach it. Then we can decide what to do with him."

"You're right," agreed the eldest.

And so the brothers continued their journey, now as three.

Two months passed, and at last they reached a place where the road split into three paths. The brothers stopped, pondering which path to choose. Then the bookworm stepped forward and said:

"My dear brothers, I have read that each of these three paths leads to the kingdom we seek, but they are dangerous, and no one travels them. The path to the right awaits a traveler with a hurricane whirlwind that will carry him to the clouds. If the rider stays in the saddle for twenty days, he will be saved; if not, he will be lost forever. The path to the left holds fire and smoke; the traveler will have to make his way through flames for twenty days. The middle path is guarded by evil spirits—fighting devils and a huge dragon that devours all living things in an instant. I have not read of any other paths to the distant kingdom; it seems they are unknown to scholars. Now choose which path each of you will take, and I will take the remaining one."

The brothers thought. The eldest chose the right path, the youngest the left, and the bookworm took the middle one. Once more, he spoke to his older brothers:

"My dear brothers, now each of us will go his own way, and dangers and adventures await us ahead. Let us leave a ring here, under the large stone at the fork of the three roads, and on our return, we will retrieve the rings. Then we will see who has returned first."

And this time, the brothers listened to the bookworm. They placed their rings under the stone and went their separate ways.

The eldest brother rode for ten days—and saw no one around. At last, he reached the place where the hurricane whirlwind blew. As soon as it began to lift him from the ground, he was terrified and turned back. He reached the fork of the three roads, retrieved his ring from under the stone, rode to a nearby town, and waited for his brothers at an inn.
The middle brother also traveled for a long time along a deserted road. After ten days, he saw fire and smoke ahead, and the heat began to envelop him—flames were raging all around! The young man got scared and turned his horse back. He reached the fork in the three roads, took his ring from under the stone, and noticed that his brother's ring was no longer there! This meant that the older brother had also returned. The middle brother rode to a small town nearby and found the older brother at an inn—they began waiting for the scholar together.

As for the youngest prince, as we mentioned earlier, he was given the middle road. It wasn’t a road but a swampy mire, mud and quagmire. No beast wandered there, no bird flew by. He struggled through it for ten days, so eager was he to reach the unknown kingdom and obtain the miraculous cure for the blind king. When the swamp ended, the scholar dismounted, let his horse graze on the grass, and lay down to rest and ponder how to proceed—how to outwit the devils and the enormous dragon that devoured all living things in an instant and allowed no one to approach the magical land.

Those dragons lived with their mother, the dragoness, in a huge palace—just a day's journey from the swampy mire where the scholar had wandered. Their grandfather, the dragon, lived much farther away. And he was so enormous and fierce that even his own grandchildren feared him.

Finally, the scholar came up with a trick. He remembered that ancient books mentioned that the youngest dragon brother had gone missing, and he decided to pass himself off as the lost youngest son.

The scholar mounted his horse and set off. The next day, he reached the dragons' palace, waited for the sun to rise high (he knew from books that the dragons left home early in the morning and returned late in the evening), rode up to the fence, and peeked into the courtyard. He saw the dragoness sitting all alone. The scholar dismounted, hid his horse in a secluded spot, and entered the palace.

The dragoness grew furious when she saw a human—she was about to eat him! But the cunning man immediately rushed to her:

"Oh, dear mother, I’ve finally returned! Surely you recognize your youngest son?"
"My youngest son?" the dragoness was surprised. "But why do you look so much like a human?"
"Like a human? Oh, don’t remind me! It was humans who kidnapped me, and I’ve been suffering in their captivity all these years!"
"But why are you so tiny, you haven’t grown at all? You should see your brothers!"
"Oh, mother, under such harsh conditions, I didn’t just fail to grow—I’ve even shrunk!"

The dragoness pitied her little son. She hugged him, kissed him, and fed him well.

When evening came, the mother hid her youngest son so the dragons wouldn’t accidentally eat him. Not much time passed—thirty-nine dragons gathered, seated themselves in the great hall, laughing and resting. Then the dragoness entered the hall and said:

"Greetings from your lost brother. He’s been found!"

The dragons jumped from their seats, made a commotion, and begged the dragoness to show them their brother quickly.

"Calm down, and I’ll bring him," replied the dragoness. "But don’t you dare harm him! Otherwise, you’ll regret it!"
"We won’t touch him! We won’t hurt him! Don’t worry!" they clamored.

The mother brought the brother. When the dragons saw the scholar, they made a fuss again:

"Ha! This isn’t our brother at all! He wasn’t this tiny! He looks just like a human!"
"No," the dragoness replied, "I thought so too at first. But now I see that it’s really him, my youngest. He must have had a hard time, that’s why he didn’t grow."

The dragons believed their mother’s words, surrounded the scholar—kissing, hugging, and questioning him... The scholar lived happily in the dragons' palace for three days. On the fourth day, he began to ask them:

"What’s that mountain over there in the distance?"
"That’s just a mountain, lying near the sea, and in the middle of it is a road. Our grandfather, the dragon, guards that road—his head reaches the sky. No one can pass or fly by the dragon. Even we, the dragons, fear him! Grandfather guards the road to the kingdom with the healing land—it cures all ailments in an instant!"

"Well then," said the scholar, "if that’s our grandfather, I’ll go and get to know him. Maybe you’ll stop fearing him!"

"No, that won’t do!" the dragons clamored. "We won’t let you go! He’ll eat you!"
"Don’t try to stop me, I’ll go anyway, and I’ll clear the road so you can walk it without fear!"
The literate young man took an iron club, jumped onto his scraggly horse, and set off on his journey. He rode all day, and by evening, he saw a monster in the distance. The brave lad waited for darkness, quietly crept up to the dragon, and struck it with his club. Then he spurred his horse harder and galloped away. The dragon turned its head this way and that, ready to seize and tear apart its attacker, but the young man was already gone. The monster gave chase but soon collapsed dead. The earth shook, water from the sea splashed up to the sky, and a great thunder echoed across the land.

Finally, the literate young man reached a kingdom with miraculous, healing soil. Cheerful and content, he rode into the city, only to find that everyone was fast asleep. It was clear that sleep had overtaken the inhabitants suddenly—each was in the middle of their tasks when they fell asleep. Workshops were wide open, but the craftsmen slept, some with needles, others with hammers in their hands. Shopkeepers still held their scales in their sleep, and one peasant was frozen mid-motion, loading something onto a cart...

The young man felt uneasy, but then he remembered reading about such things in scholarly books. There are lands where people sleep for half a year. So he calmed down. He couldn’t tell how long the kingdom had been asleep or when it would wake. Just in case, he decided to hurry.

He approached the royal palace, walked through the wide-open doors, past the guards sleeping at attention, and entered the royal chambers. A sleeping king sat on the throne in all his royal regalia, wearing a crown. In the middle of the hall, near a huge cypress tree surrounded by a crystal fence, a whole squad of guards slept. "They must be guarding the miraculous soil that heals blind eyes," the young man thought. He dismounted, tied his horse to the fence, stepped inside, and dug up some of the miraculous soil with his knife. He placed the soil in a pouch and hid it on his chest.

Now the young man was ready to head back. "Let me walk through the palace and see how these people live," he thought. He wandered through the halls—each more beautifully decorated than the last—and saw many wonders. Finally, he entered a small room and froze. There, he saw a girl of indescribable beauty, her radiance illuminating everything around her! The moment he saw her, he fell in love. "If only I could take her as my wife!" But the girl was asleep. The young man approached her, took an embroidered handkerchief from her hand, removed a ring from her finger, and replaced it with his own. As he left, he leaned down and kissed her cheeks with all his heart. From that kiss, two roses fell. The young man picked them up, hoping that when the girl woke, she would see the ring and let him know.

With that, the young man left the palace and the sleeping kingdom. He rode tirelessly until he reached the home of the drakens. What joy! The youngest brother had returned, alive and unharmed! The drakena didn’t know where to seat her son or what to feed him... Three days passed. The young man thought and plotted how to slip away unnoticed. He was overcome with longing for his home!

He said to the drakena:

"I’m feeling a bit down, mother. I’ll go for a walk outside the fence to clear my head in the fresh breeze."

The drakena let the sly one out the gate, and he jumped onto his horse and urged it forward.

He hadn’t gone far when he reached a swamp and mire. The horse began to sink, struggling in the mud, unable to get free. It seemed the swamp would soon swallow both the brave rider and his horse! Then, by accident, the young man dropped one of the roses. Suddenly, where there had been swamp and mire, the ground became dry! The prince made it onto solid ground and spurred his horse onward.

By then, evening had fallen. The drakens returned home and learned from their mother that their brother had gone for a walk and hadn’t returned. They realized he wasn’t their brother at all but a real human. All thirty-nine of them rushed in pursuit, hoping to catch the sly one before he reached the swampy area—drakens couldn’t cross the swamp. The young man rode on, seeing the pursuers closing in, almost upon him. "I’ll throw another rose! It saved me once; maybe it will save me again." He took out the rose and threw it behind him. The swamp and water spread out behind him, and the drakens scattered in all directions while the young man rode far ahead.

Finally, the youngest prince reached a fork in the road with three paths. He lifted a stone and found only one ring beneath it. He realized his older brothers had returned empty-handed. He took his ring and went to a nearby town to spend the night. In the morning, he asked the innkeeper:

"Tell me, good man, have two young men stayed here?"

"Indeed, I’ve seen them! They haven’t gone anywhere; they’re still here at the inn. At first, they were noble and proud, like true princes, but over time, they’ve fallen on hard times. They ran out of money, sold their horses, traded their clothes for food, and today they went to work for a loaf of bread—one to a baker, the other to a cook! I don’t know what will come of it; they don’t know how to do anything!"

The young man felt sorry for his brothers, found them, and said:

"Find two good horses—we’re going home!"

"We know where to buy excellent steeds, but they’re very expensive."

"The more expensive, the better," replied the younger brother and gave them money.

The brothers went to the merchants and bought back their own horses, which they had sold in their desperation.

Meanwhile, the younger brother took two identical pouches, filled them with ordinary soil, and hid the pouch with the miraculous healing soil deep inside his shirt. When the brothers returned, he gave them the pouches of ordinary soil, saying nothing about how he had obtained it or what had happened on his journey.

The three of them set off on their return journey. The older brothers proudly rode their fine horses, while the younger brother trotted behind on his sorry nag. They rode and rode until they were near their homeland. Then the older brothers decided to get rid of the literate one.

The deceivers knew there was a dried-up well not far ahead. They agreed that the eldest would ride ahead, supposedly to light a fire for dinner, but in reality, he would cover the well with a carpet. The literate one would sit on the carpet and fall into the well. No sooner said than done. The young man dismounted, stepped onto the carpet, and fell into the hole.

The brothers jumped on their horses and were home by morning. They raced to the royal chambers, placed the magical soil on their father’s eyes, and... nothing happened!

The brothers realized what had happened—the soil wasn’t real—but they didn’t dare say a word. They told the queen that they hadn’t seen the literate one since they parted ways at the fork in the road.
And here’s what happened to the scholar during that time. The poor fellow spent two days at the bottom of a well. He shouted and shouted, but no one heard his cries. The young man grew hoarse, tore his hands, and his face was covered in scratches. He couldn’t climb out on his own—the pit was too deep! What could the poor soul do? On the third day, by his good fortune, a shepherd drove his flock to that area. The shepherd heard someone calling from the well, leaned over, and saw the man. The shepherd then took off his belt and threw it down. The young man rewarded the shepherd handsomely and set off for home.

He arrived in the city at night, sneaked into the palace, and went straight to the queen’s chambers. His mother saw her youngest son, kissed him, and asked:

"Where have you been, my son? Why were you gone for so long?"
"I was, mother, in a distant kingdom, and I’ve brought a miraculous remedy for father!"

With these words, the young man took a pouch from around his neck, pulled out the healing soil, and handed it to his mother. However, he chose not to tell her how he had obtained it, just in case.

For a long time, the queen tried to persuade her husband to try the new remedy, but the king refused to hear anything about the scholar or his soil. But then he thought, "I’ll try it one more time—what if I can see the light again!"

The king placed a bit of the soil on his eyes, and in that very moment, his sight was restored! The father was filled with immense gratitude toward his youngest son, who had brought him healing from a terrible affliction.

But the elder brothers were not idle. They immediately ran to the king and slandered the scholar, claiming that he had stolen the good soil they had worked so hard to obtain and had instead filled the pouch with worthless roadside dust to mock them and gain their father’s gratitude. The king was quick to anger. Enraged by such treachery, he banished his youngest son from his sight! The poor fellow had to move to a secluded room in the back courtyard and wander through the alleys to avoid crossing paths with his father.

Meanwhile, the appointed time arrived, and the inhabitants of the distant kingdom, where the miraculous healing soil was found, awoke from their slumber and resumed their daily lives as if nothing had happened. In the royal palace, they also awoke and immediately noticed that some of the healing soil was missing. Someone foreign had been there! But who? The king and queen were at a loss. Only the princess, by the ring on her hand, realized that a prince from distant lands had visited their palace. She understood and grew sad: how could she find the young man? The girl decided to set out in search of her betrothed. She disguised herself in men’s clothing, went to her father, and said:

"Bless me, father, for a long journey! I will go in search of my destined one, who took my ring and left his in return!"

The king blessed his daughter and sent two trusted elders with her to care for her, as well as a guard for protection.

With that, the princess set off on her journey and traveled through many kingdoms, all to no avail, until she finally arrived in the scholar’s homeland. The travelers stopped at an inn and began asking questions. They learned that the local king had suffered from an eye ailment and had nearly lost hope of seeing the light again until his elder sons brought miraculous healing soil from a distant kingdom.

The travelers immediately went to the palace and asked to speak with the king. The king received them warmly, and the girl said:

"We have heard, Your Majesty, that your eyes once could not see the light of day. My father suffers from the same ailment. I beg you, tell us where this miraculous remedy that healed you can be found and how to obtain it."

"The miraculous remedy you seek, young man," replied the king, "is healing soil. It was brought to me by my sons. But where it lies and how to obtain it, I do not know. Now I will summon my sons, and they will tell you everything without hiding anything."

The elder brothers came at the call, and the girl began questioning them, but what use was it? One insisted, "I rode through fire and smoke for twenty days until I found the magical soil!" The other argued, "No, it was I who stood firm in a hurricane, flew among the clouds for twenty days, until I obtained the magical soil!"

The king could make no sense of their tales and grew angry. They then remembered the scholar and sent for him. As soon as the young man entered, he recognized the foreigner as the princess from the distant kingdom. He began to tell how he had reached the miraculous soil, how his brothers had thrown him into the well, how he had been rescued, and finally, he took out an embroidered handkerchief, showed it to the stranger, and asked:

"Do you recognize whose handkerchief this is? Or perhaps this ring is familiar to you?"

Then the foreigner addressed the king with these words:

"Here, Your Majesty, is your son, who obtained the remedy for you. And I am the daughter of the ruler of that miraculous land. I longed to know who the brave soul was that visited us and placed this ring on my hand!"

The king was deeply moved by these words, called for the queen, and they immediately blessed the young couple. Then they prepared a grand wedding and feasted for a whole month.

And I feasted quite well too—I had an excellent pea kebab!

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The Wonderful Medicine

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