But he found

But he found out that they could never hit him, and he got used to it. All that year he flew here and there until the giant told him to go home again. The giant said strange things to him, which restored him to his human form. "Hey, do you like being a crow?" "Asked the giant.

"I like it," said the young man. "I've never flown this high before." The giant gave the young man two Portuguese wages, so the young man was happy to serve the giant for another year.

The first day of the third year was the same. He fed all the animals. When he had finished his task, the giant said some spells to him again, and he changed into a fish and jumped into the river. He swam up and down, and found it more comfortable to swim down the stream, and so he came to the sea, and swam farther and farther. At last he came to a glass palace under the sea. He could see all the rooms and halls, and everything in them was magnificent; All the furniture was made of white ivory, inlaid with gold and pearls. There was a rainbow of soft cushions and beautiful carpets like moss, and trees and flowers of all sorts, green and yellow and white and red. There was also a fountain, from which water poured from beautiful snail shells into mussel shells, and at the same time made beautiful music that echoed throughout the palace.

The most beautiful of all, however, was a young girl, who came out of it alone, going from room to room, but she did not seem to be happy with all the beautiful things around her. She walked alone and melancholy, never even thinking of looking in the bright glass walls around her, in spite of her stunning beauty. The young man swam around the palace, peeping at the girl from every Angle. He was fascinated by her.

"If only I were a man now, instead of a poor dumb fish," he said to himself. "If only I could remember the spell the giant used to change my shape, then perhaps I could restore my human form." As he swam, he thought, and at last he remembered the giant's spells. He tried to tell himself again, and at once regained his human form and stood at the bottom of the sea.

He hurried into the glass palace, went up to the maiden, and spoke to her.

At first he frightened her, but he spoke softly to her and explained how he had come here. She soon recovered from her panic, and was glad that his company made her no longer lonely. Time passed quickly for both of them, and the young man (he was a real young man now, not a young man any more) had forgotten how long he had been here.

One day the maiden said to him, "The time has come for you to become a fish again. The giant will soon call you back, and you must go. You must change back into the shape of a fish before you go back, or you will not get out of the sea alive."

Before that, while he was still down there, she had told him that she was the daughter of the giant whom he waited on, and that he had shut her up in seclusion. She had figured out a way to get them to see each other again, and to keep them together forever. But there were too many things to watch out for, and he had to listen carefully to everything she told him.

She told him that all the Kings in the neighbourhood owed her father a debt, and that the king of one kingdom, whose name she gave him, was the first to pay. If he could not pay back the money by the agreed time, the giant would kill him.

'I'm sure he can't pay me back,' she said. 'And you must first stop being my father's servant. The three years are up, and you're free to go. Take the six glues you have earned, and go to the kingdom of which I speak, and serve the king. When his debt was coming due -- and you could tell by his behavior that he must have been very upset -- you told him that you knew exactly what was bothering him, that he owed the giant money and couldn't pay it, but you said you could lend him the money. The amount is six glues -- the ones you earn. But you want him to promise that you will accompany him when he pays, and that you will pretend to be a clown and walk in front of him. When you get to the giant's place, you have to do all kinds of stupid things, like break his whole glass, or do some other damage. My father would be very angry, and because the king must be responsible for the clown he brought, my father would punish the king even if he had paid his debt. The punishment was answer three questions to my father, or die.

"My father's first question would be: 'Where is my daughter? 'Stand up and say,' She's at the bottom of the sea. 'Then he'll ask you if you recognize her, and you'll say,' Yes. 'At this point, he will call out a group of women, have them walk in front of you and ask you to choose which one is his daughter. There was no way you'd recognize me, so when I walked by you