Future's Bird

There was once a wizard named Future who took the form of a beggar, and went to houses and begged, and caught men, women, and even princesses. No one knew where he carried them, for they were never seen any more.

One day he appeared before the door of a black man who had three beautiful angels: Cathy, Dayo, and Methy. Like the wizard, the man at the door was also a beggar, and he knew how to collect charitable gifts quite well. The wizard asked for a little food from the man, and when Cathy, the eldest angel, came to the door with bread, Future took one look at her blue eyes, and instead of reaching for the food he had begged for, he reached for her. The man at the door thus said that she was to jump in his basket, and go with him, though he had but touched the angel.

Thereupon he hurried away with long strides, and carried her to his house, which stood in the midst of a dark forest. Everything in the wizard’s house was magnificent; he gave her whatsoever she could possibly desire, and said: “Cathy, my darling, thou wilt certainly be happy with me, for thou hast everything thy heart can wish for.” This lasted a few days, and then he said: “I must journey forth, and leave thee alone for some time; here are the keys of my house; thou mayst go everywhere and look at everything except into one room, which this little key here opens, and there I forbid thee to go on pain of death.” He likewise gave her a heavy egg, and said: “Preserve this egg carefully for me, and carry it continually about with thee, for a great misfortune would arise form the loss of it.” She took the keys and the large egg, and promised to obey him in everything.

When he was gone, she went all round the house from the bottom to the top, and examined everything. The rooms shone with gold, and she had never seen such great splendor. Then she came to the forbidden door, but curiosity let her have no rest. She examined the key, and put it in the keyhole and turned it a little, and the door sprang open.

And what did she see when she went in? A great big dragon stood in the middle of the room, and therein lay human beings, dead and hewn to pieces by the dragon’s teeth, with a bloody sword laying on the ground, gleaming before her. She was so terribly alarmed that the large egg which she held in her hand fell onto the ground, into the room, and cracked open as it rolled to the sword. She got it out, grabbed the sword, and washed the blood off, and as she did so, a small dragon’s foot appeared out of the cracked egg.

And when the angel saw that the baby dragon was lifeless, and seemed dead, she began to tug its limbs, shake its head, and open its thick eyelids to reveal green eyes. And when she saw the dragon’s eyes she caressed him, and sang:

“O Future’s Bird, How com’st thou here?

“I see that I come from a house quite near.”

“And what may a dragon be doing?”

“From the highest mountain, she’s peeping, I ween,”

“And now with an angel, I sing.”

And she waited, and listed intently, until finally she heard her sister Dayo’s voice singing in response.

“O, Future’s Bird, To thy death art thou sped,

And unto God’s word, hell was said.

But in a white angel’s bloom,

Brave boy, I take thy tomb.”

And Dayo, who was just thirteen years old, had her eyes turned to green, and the dragon began to blink and come to life, with the eye’s of the young angel Dayo.

Then Cathy could hear the large dragon scream from the forbidden room: “Helloa! Helloa! If I do not get him, no one will!”

And she carried the young dragon out, deep into the forest, and when she came to herself once more, she met eyes with the young dragon, who then whispered to her that young Dayo was now delivered. She rejoiced and said, “Now thou wilt have a choice and know thee, that thy father hath killed many, but young Dayo hath looked at thee from heaven, and took courage that she did not see a dragon with blue eyes flying away with maidens, killing people on the hill, or killing other dragons, as Dayo has seen thy father had.”

And the dragon saw with Dayo’s eyes a slain dragon, hacked and hew to pieces, and not too far from it the bloody sword that Cathy held in her hands.

And Cathy said, in response to the vision, “Thou sword art in my hands, but thou shalt know that it was not I who killed the dragon. I cannot do that,” she said, “for the man who killed this dragon” she continued, “and thus delivered Dayo and saved the whole kingdom from Hell as well, will therefore have Methy as his wife, as is promised.”

And Cathy opened her eyes and said, “Now, Helloa, though canst forget the angel whom gave you sight, and forget me also;” and continued, “or go below to the room, where lie many headless princess’s and a dragon whose bite will ruin you.” And the dragon had a vision of the door to the room, and saw the fierce dragon snoring quite loudly. Helloa, the baby dragon, looked at Cathy, and said, “No, I will not forget you.”

And so they left Future’s magnificent house, and came to Cathy’s father, who instructed the angel to take the dragon to the Red Sea, where there were enough reeds that the dragon could eat plenty and grow strong, and eventually subdue lions and other beasts. And it came to pass that after one year Helloa had became a larger dragon.

And now a fiery dragon came flying through the air of the Red Sea, and came down to them, and the wizard Future stepped off it’s back and asked why they had concealed themselves in the lands of the Red Sea. Cathy replied that she saw his dragon killed men and women and princesses.

And so he said, that he would have to take young Helloa with him, for he would die of hunger if he were to stay here, but Helloa interrupted and said in a fiery voice, “I have enough land here to feed me for seven years,” to which Future responded, “You have no choice and are commanded to come.”

Then Helloa caught hold of the ground with his claws, and lifted the ground into the air over the wizard, and let down the earth from far above; but the Future’s dragon was from nowhere else than Hell, and set fire to the falling earth before it could touch Future, who quickly climbed onto the dragon and fled the Red Sea.

Not long after this, there was a great uproar in the country, for Hell had entered the King’s land through the mouth of a dragon.

“I will soon know where Hell is,” said an astronomer to his assistant, and he looked though his telescope and said, “I see already, it is not far from here on the rocks from the Red Sea, and a dragon is living with an angel beside him, watching her, keeping her safe from it.” The astronomer looked at his inquisitive assistant for a moment, then returned to his telescope, “There are two. Two dragons. If I had not seen the angel, the Devil’s arts would have been so useless as to see the black diamonds all along the ground.” He looked at the assistant and said, “You can help me now. Hell, I dare not find. Inform the King that to save the Kingdom, a dragon must be slain. And tell the him that the angel’s Dragon must be killed all the same.”

And so the King promised that he who conquers the one dragon shall have his daughter to wife, and he who kills the second dragon shall govern the kingdom after his own death, but that he must hurry, because, “the King’s daughter is to die tomorrow.”

And Future’s dragon flew to a high hill, where he laid a whole countryside to waste. And all the knights who were killed knew that he would have no mercy for the King’s daughter, who was to die to-morrow, and it cost each of them their lives, and made the dragon so large that it did not seem possible.

A old knight of the Red Sea heard of the evil dragon, and the King’s offer. He told his young son, who was also a knight, “This dragon is in league with the Devil, do not kill it, and do not suffer for an angel to enter thy protection, for the Devil has power, and it may ruin thee likewise.” The father feared the Devil, and as painful as it was to him, he gave the young knight the location of the angel and her dragon that they might be satisfied with one another.

Upon finding Cathy and her dragon, the young knight pulled his sword and shouted, “To whom does this dragon belong?” - “ I belongs to me,” replied Cathy. “I am an angel from heaven, and the Dragon’s eye’ belongs to Dayo, the youngest angel in my family.” “Come,” said the knight, “This youngest angel is not so bad, if at the same time she is kept honest, and had a young knight. I like children. I will not kill you, but instead I will be her husband, and keep her safe from the whole kingdom hunting your dragon.” - “Dayo shall make your offer shot, for she has already been released from this Earth. And because she did separate from this land, you will find that when she goes back, she will go in the direction of Helloa, and it will remain that way as long as she is alive. You may thus take Methy as your wife upon killing the Future’s Dragon, and take Dayo once she has fully returned.”

The knight said nothing more, but the next morning went to ascend the dragon’s hill. He was overtaken by thought of his bride, Methy, and upon his arrival to the hill the thought of her made him become the strongest man on earth, and he was able to communicate with Dayo in heaven, and felt Helloa’s vision awaken.

The knight drew his sword, and could wield it quite easier than before. When the hour arrived that the knight was at the top of the hill, where Future’s Dragon laid, the knight saw Cathy and Helloa flying toward the dragon’s hill from afar.

It was not long before Future’s dragon, who was now larger than any dragon before, came thither with loud roaring. And Future said, “What business hast thou here on the hill?” The knight answered, “I want to fight with thee.” Future replied, “Many knights have left their lives here, I shall soon have made an end of the King’s daughter, too,” and suddenly the dragon roared fire from Hell out of his jaws.

The fire was to have lighted the grass, and the knight was to have been suffocated in the heat and smoke, but Helloa came flying in and trampled out the fire and blew away the smoke. Then Future rushed upon the knight, but he swung his sword until it sang though the air, and it struck the wizards head clean off.

Then the dragon grew right furious, and rose up in the air, and spat out flames of fire over the knight, and was about to plunge down on him, but Cathy drew her sword, and cut off the dragon’s tale as it flew toward the knight. The monster became faint and sank down, nevertheless it was able to rush upon the knight, but he with his last strength smote its head off, and as he could fight no longer, called to Cathy, who slashed it to pieces.

When the struggle was ended, the knight found Cathy and Helloa lying on the floor, as she had lost her senses with anguish and terror during the contest, he carried her out, and when Helloa came to his senses, and opened his eyes, he saw the dragon all cut to pieces, and the same bloody sword laid on the ground, from his vision. And he again whispered, “Dayo has been delivered.” And he closed his blue eye’s from heaven. Cathy then opened her eyes and rejoiced, and said, “Now thou wilt take Dayo and Methy as yours, for you have killed the dragon.” Thereupon she went and cut the massive tongue out of the dragon’s mouth, and wrapped, and preserved it carefully.

That done, as he was so weary with the fire and with the battle, he said to Cathy, “We are both faint, we will sleep awhile.” And Cathy said, “yes,” and then the two laid down on the ground, next to one another. And then the knight said, to Dayo in heaven, “Thou shalt keep the dragon’s vision, that no one slay’s us in our sleep.” And Dayo’s voice replied from heaven, “yes,” and Cathy and the knight fell asleep, with Helloa keeping watch, protecting them from lions and bears.

Now, the next day, when the wedding was to take place, the King’s astronomer said mid-day to the inn-keeper, “Do you believe, sir host, that the young knight chose to take a beggar’s angel instead of the King’s own daughter?” - “Nay,” said the host, “I would have bet a hundred pieces of gold this would not have come true.” Then the King entered the inn and said, “Go on, my dear host, and make good on all that has come.” And set against him a purse with the same number of gold pieces in it. Then he called to Cathy, who was talking with the Knight’s father, and said, “Alas! Wilt thou dragon get away?” And then thought it was her dog. Then she stepped aside with the King, and peeped down, and took him on her lap, and carried him into her chamber, and said, “Dear King, my Knight, who killed the dragon, is here, and has sent with me the dragon’s tongue - that which the King eats.” She was full of joy and had a baker summoned, and the tongue was eaten by the King.

And during the feast, the King said to Methy, at the royal table, “What did give you the strength, to come to thy husband, who had been coming to the wizard Future, and going to the dragon’s hill?” She replied, “I may not tell you, but to the King you would do as well.” And then a servant entered and said, “Behold, the King’s royal clothing, and Methy was put in the same clothing as the King’s daughter. Then, she was put in a carriage of six horses and brought to the knight. When the knight saw her coming, he said, “Behold, sir host, now she is clothed as I desired her be, and I shall receive her.” And they all lived happily on.