Traveling the world and getting to know different cultures leaves a lasting impression, which I wish for everybody to experience. Hope you will enjoy this legend.
A long time ago, there was a young poor cobbler dressed modestly with shabby shoes and a shabby bag. He wandered through the world from one place to another fixing people’s shoes. One day, the young cobbler named Dratva was passing through a peaceful forest, when he saw anxious ants over a destroyed ant-hill. The ants were working hard putting the small pieces of soil together. Dratva with his adroit hands fixed it quickly. Then the ant queen got on top of the ant-hill and said “Thank you, good hearted fellow. We will come with help, when you need it.” Dratva smiled and thought to himself “You won’t fix a heel in a shoe, so how can you help me.” And he continued his journey.
He was about to leave the forest behind him, when he saw a destroyed hive. The honey was dripping down the bark. The bees were distraught over loosing the honey. Dratva with his handy hands put together the hive in no time. The bee queen came out and said “Thank you good hearted fellow. We will come with help, when you need it.” Dratva smiled and thought to himself “You won’t fix a sole in a shoe, so how can you help me.” And he continued his journey.
So he left the forest behind him and got to an open meadow with many small lakes. The surrounding was beautiful and very serene. Dratva sat by the first lake he approached. So he could have a view of all the other lakes and enjoy the scenery. He took out the last piece of bread and suddenly he heard “Please give me some bread.” Out of nowhere hungry ducks showed up. Dratva shared the bread with them. Then the oldest drake swam to the shore and said “Thank you good hearted fellow. We will come with help, when you need it.” Dratva smiled and thought to himself “You won’t fix a strap in a shoe, so how can you help me.” And he continued his journey.
Dratva got to a town above which stood a big castle with a very tall tower and very impressive drawbridge. He stopped at the town’s market to get some bread. While getting some fresh bread, he asked the baker “Who lives at this castle?” “A witch. She locked a princess in the tower and will let her out only when a young fellow performs three riddles” answered baker. “Has anybody tried it” asked Dratva. “Oh yes, many did and all failed. Good luck young fellow” said baker.
Intrigued Dratva went straight to the castle and knocked on the door. The witch came out and as mean as she looked, when she opened her mouth she was even meaner. “What do you want?” she said. “I came to solve the riddles and free the princess” said Dratva. “Yeah, you and many more before you. What makes you think you can do it?” But she wasn’t really asking him, she turned around and said “Follow me.”
She took Dratva to one of the chambers and said “Here is a bucket of sand and poppy seed. You have till dawn to separate them.” She locked the door and left. Dratva very quickly understood how evil the witch was. The task was impossible to be done. He was about to fell asleep when he heard some noise. He strained his eyes and saw ants coming through a crack in the door. The ants got very busy and in no time the sand was separated from poppy seed. “Thank you” said Dratva and ants were gone.
In the morning, when the witch saw two separate piles, she almost pulled her hair out, she was so furious. “Now you need to go to the lakes and find a key to the tower, which is at the bottom of one of the lakes” said witch almost yelling, still in disbelief. Dratva sat at the same lake he met the ducks at thinking how he’s going to find the key. But then the ducks came to him. “You seem to be pondering about something” said the oldest drake. Dratva explained the task. With the help of fish, the key was found speedily and handed to the drake, who passed it to Dratva. “Thank you” said Dratva and was gone.
At the castle, he handed the key to the witch who was observing him suspiciously. Neverless, she took Dratva to the tower, where in a small dark chamber, there were nine girls all dressed the same with white veils covering their faces. “Only one of them is a princess” said witch. “Which one?” she asked. Dratva wondered, which one he should pick with a guess, because there was no way he could distinguish one from another. Then he heard a buzzing coming from the window. The bees flew to the last girl in the row and over her head created a golden aura. “This is the princess” said Dratva pointing to the last girl in the row. Happy princess removed her veil and said “You set me free from the witch.” At the same time, the witch turned into a large black bird and flew out through the window. She was never seen or heard from ever again. Dratva married princess and they lived long and happily.
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