The story of the wild swan

Wild swan

Once upon a time, there was a king who had eleven sons and one daughter. The daughter's name was Alyssa. Alyssa's eleven brothers were all princes, and they all went to school. Alyssa was too young to go to school, but she had a very expensive and beautiful picture book. She lived happily with her eleven brothers.

But their happy life was ruined by a vicious queen. This queen replaced their dead mother. Because the king felt too lonely to be alone, he married her to be his new queen and let her take care of the children.

The new queen hated Alyssa and her eleven brothers. On the day of her wedding to the king, she thought Alyssa was too naughty, so she sent Alyssa to live in a peasant's house in the country. A few days later, she told the king how bad and annoying the eleven princes were, so that the king never paid attention to his sons again.

One day, the vicious new queen used magic to turn eleven princes into eleven wild swans, flying from the palace to the distant forest.

Alyssa didn't know how much she missed her brothers who had turned into wild swans. But she could only return to the palace when she was fifteen, which was also the bad idea of the new queen.

Alyssa was fifteen years old, and she was led back to the palace. When the queen saw Alyssa, she was very angry. Because Alyssa was so beautiful, the queen wanted to turn Alyssa into a wild swan immediately. Before she could do so, the king sent someone to say that he wanted to see Alyssa.

The queen asked Alyssa to take a bath first. The vicious queen wiped Alyssa's whole body with walnut juice, and Alyssa's white and tender skin turned brown and black. The queen also took a box of ointment and applied it to Alyssa's face. The extremely beautiful Alyssa was made like a goblin from a wolf's den by the queen. The king saw Alyssa, shook his head and said, "This is not my daughter." In this way, poor Alyssa was kicked out of the palace by the queen and began to wander around.

At last she came to a large black forest. There was a big, bright lake in the forest. Alyssa dipped some water in the lake with her hands, rubbed her swollen crying eyes lightly, and the snow-white skin around her eyes revealed again. So she took off her clothes, jumped into the lake, and washed her whole body clean. In this way, she is the most beautiful princess in the world again.

She missed her brothers very much. Once she met an old woman with a fruit basket. She asked the old woman if she had seen eleven princes, and the old woman said, "I didn't see any princes. But I did see eleven wild swans with golden crowns that swam across the nearby river yesterday." The old woman also led Alyssa to the river.

Alyssa said goodbye to the old woman, and walked along the river until she reached the edge of the sea. Alyssa said in her heart, "Sea water, no matter how hard it is, it will be changed by you. I should be like you, never knowing how to look for it wearily, I will definitely find my brothers."

When the sun was about to set, Elisa saw eleven wild swans with golden crowns flying in the sky, and they landed not far from Elisa. When the sun went down completely, the eleven wild swans became eleven handsome princes. Elisa recognized at a glance that these were the brothers she missed day and night. The brothers also recognized the lovely little sister at once, and felt happy and sad. The eldest brother told Elisa that as long as the sun was still in the sky, they had to fly all the time, and when the sun was completely down, they could return to their original appearance. Alyssa said to herself: I must rescue my brothers.

Alyssa and her eleven brothers talked all night. The sun was about to rise, and the brothers made up their minds to take Alyssa's sister to a far country. So Alyssa and her brothers took advantage of the sun, and before it came out, they used wicker and thin reeds to weave a large and strong net, and Alyssa lay in the net. When the sun rose and her brothers turned into wild swans again, they picked up the net with their mouths, flew into the sky, and kept flying forward.

Alyssa was also thinking of a way to save her brothers in her dreams. She seemed to feel like she was flying high in the clouds and came to a palace. A fairy came to greet her, and she told the fairy her wish. The fairy told her that eleven long-sleeved armors must be woven out of thorny nettles, and the eleven princes will be restored to their original state. The fairy also warned Alyssa that she could not speak until she had woven the nettle armor. Once she spoke, every word she said pierced her brother's heart like a sharp sword. The fairy took out the nettle and let Alyssa touch it. Alyssa immediately felt as if she had been burned by flames, and she screamed in pain, waking up from the dream. It turned out that she was already sleeping on a piece of grass, and there was a nettle next to her hand, exactly as she had seen in the dream.

Alyssa remembered the words of the fairy in her dream, and immediately began to search for nettles. Every time she found a nettle, her tender hands were pierced by the nettle. After a while, her hands and arms were covered with blood blisters, and she held it back. At night, her brothers all came back and asked her what was going on, but Alyssa didn't say a word. They thought it might be some kind of magic from the vicious queen again. Alyssa hid in a cave. Poor Alyssa worked day and night, and she would never rest until she knitted the nettle armor. A large hound found her, and then a tall king saw her. He had never seen a more beautiful girl than Elisa, so the king took Elisa to his palace.

Soon the king announced his marriage to Alyssa, and Alyssa became the queen of the country. Whenever the king was busy with his national affairs, Alyssa hurried to continue weaving her nettle armor. By the time she weaved the seventh armor, the nettles she had found had run out, so she had to look outside again. She no longer considered any danger, all she had to do was weave the armor quickly and rescue her brothers. So, late one night, she quietly walked out of the palace gate and went to the cemetery to pick nettles.

That day, when Alyssa went to the cemetery to pick nettles, the archbishop quietly followed Alyssa. He found that Alyssa seemed to know no pain, but was only picking nettles nervously in panic. The archbishop thought; now I do know that the queen is a real witch.

The archbishop immediately reported what he had seen to the king. The king, who loved Alyssa deeply, did not believe it was true. But the archbishop insisted that the king go with him to observe Alyssa's actions at night. That night, the king did find that Alyssa went to the cemetery alone to pick nettles. He finally believed the archbishop's words, and the king handed Alyssa over to the archbishop for trial. The archbishop decided to burn Alyssa in public.

Alyssa was put in a cell. A bundle of nettles she had picked was thrown at her as a pillow, and Alyssa was very sad. But when she saw the bundle of nettles, she was happy again. Because she can weave the last armor, her brothers will all be rescued.

As the sun was about to set, Alyssa's youngest brother finally found her missing sister. Alyssa must hurry up and knit the last armor. Her brothers also know that they will be rescued tomorrow.

It was already dawn. People rushed into the cell and put her in a carriage. Her face was pale and pale, and her hands were still weaving the armor, and the archbishop said to the people, "Come, everyone, tear what she has in her hands to shreds!" At this time, eleven wild swans suddenly fell from the sky, fell on the carriage, and flapped their broad wings with force, and the people were frightened to the side. So Alyssa threw the eleven coats of armor at the swans. Strangely, the eleven swans immediately became eleven princes. But the youngest prince still had a pair of wings, because Alyssa was not fully woven, and a sleeve was missing.

At this time, Alyssa suddenly spoke, and told the people the story of her and the eleven princes, and everyone was moved to tears.

The king gave Alyssa a bright rose and asked Alyssa and her brother to go back to the palace with him. Since then, Alyssa and her eleven brothers have lived happily in this country.