Grandpa’s tales
By Miodrag Dedijer
Copyright 2013 Miodrag Dedijer
Table of Content
The story of a frog
The story of the old apricot tree
Aneleh
Why did the bear want to eat the little bee Maja
The family Lacimici and the kitten Cici
The moon story
Ikam and Ansev
My Lilly
The egg
Nera and the hornet
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The story of a frog
It was a very hot day, the temperature was over thirty degrees, but I just decided to climb to the top of the mountain Ivančica. I put the rucksack with all the requisites for a longer stay in the mountain on my back and started. As I was climbing higher and higher the air became fresher but I felt no tiredness. I was watching the surroundings. On both sides of the mountain path there spread out a thick forest of oak and hazel-nut trees. I heard the loud song of birds and the silent rustle of leaves under my feet. Somewhere, not far away, I heard the silent murmur of water. I recognized it, as I knew that there was running a stream with wonderful clear and clean water in which crabs and silverfish could be seen. However, after a few hours of walking I felt tired and thirsty and so I turned to the stream, drank the cold water and sat in the shadow of a huge oak tree. I ate the lunch from my rucksack with appetite, leaned against the tree, listened a bird lullaby and soon fell asleep. And then I dreamt a curious dream. I saw a beautiful, dark-haired girl who came to me weeping and asked me to help her. Sobbing, she told me that long ago, as she was a small girl, she went into that same forest looking for mushrooms, but a terrible bushranger Crvencipelić (Red Shoe) kidnapped her, took her into his cave and locked her behind five iron doors with padlocks. I was sorry for that wonderful girl and promised to save her.
As I woke up it was already getting dark, but in spite of that I decided to keep on walking. Walking along a small path I saw a snake watching a small frog with her stiff, ugly snake gaze. The poor frog, scared to death, waited for the moment the snake would grab her. I felt pity for that small frog and therefore grabbed my stick, caught the snake with it and threw it far away into a bush. I took the frog into my hand and walked on.
I was astonished, even frightened, when the frog spoke in a human voice: “ Thank you, good man, you saved me from death.” I was confused, and said in a low voice that this was not worth mentioning. The frog asked me to take it to it’s family.
We went along the path the frog had shown me and after a while we saw a wonderful, tiny copy of previous noble castles. When they saw me bringing the little frog, they all gathered, greeted us with loud croaking, dancing and clapping.
And then, the biggest frog came out of the group and said to me in a human voice: ”Dear man, I am the king of all frogs in this pond. And you have saved my dearest child, my daughter Little Frog. Say what you want and all your wishes will come true” But Little Frog told her father to give me food and drink first and let me rest. After a good meal, consisting of grass-hoppers fried in oil of pond turtles and wine made from juice of pond reeds, I took a nap on a mossy bed. During that time, Little Frog told Father Frog about the dream I had dreamt and my intention to save the kidnapped girl.
As I woke up, the king told me he that he was informed about my intention and decided to give me his best frog bodyguard Fierce to guide me, but under the condition to carry him on my shoulder. I thanked the king for his kindness, kissed dear Little Frog and went on.
We were walking all day and in the evening we stopped in a forest to rest and sleep. The night was very cold. Suddenly I became aware of the reason why my bodyguard’s name was Fierce. After we had gathered enough dry branches to light a fire, my Fierce opened his mouth, let a real fire stream come out of it, and lit on the branches. It was nice and warm near the fire, we rested and the next morning we went on. We walked over hills and along valleys. I had almost worn out my mountain shoes but then we arrived to the bottom of a rocky mountain. Almost on the top we saw the cave and it took us nearly the whole day to climb and reach it. Near the entrance of the cave we saw huge red shoes that the dreadful Red Shoes left there for huge birds to clean them. That was a sign that told us he was at home sleeping. Silently we entered the cave, but suddenly Red Shoes jumped in front of us and shouted in a loud, terrible voice: “Who are you and what are you looking for in my cave?” “We came to take your prisoner with us and it would be better for you to hand her over immediately,” I said. Then the terrible bushranger Red Shoes lifted a huge stick to hit me, but my bodyguard, the guard of my body, the frog Fierce, opened his big mouth and out came a fire stream which in one single moment transformed Red Shoes in a heap of ashes.
We went on inside the cave and came to the five iron doors with padlocks. The frog Fierce adjusted his fire stream into a thin, very thin stream like a light ray, and cut the padlocks into pieces. After that, all the heavy doors were opened and in a room I saw that beautiful girl sleeping. I caressed her beautiful head and she woke up. She kissed my hands and face and thanked us for saving her. We went towards the entrance of the cave and there the girl called a huge bird which Red Shoes had used as an air car. We sat on that huge bird and after a long flight we arrived at the mountain Ivančica. The frog king and his daughter Little Frog were waiting for us.
As a prize for helping me, the king gave his daughter Little Frog to the frog Fierce to be his wife and he organized a big frog wedding. Naturally, the beautiful girl and I were guests of honour, we drank reed wine, sang and danced until morning.
The following day we brought the beautiful dark-haired and dark eyed girl into the town of Varazdin to her mummy and daddy, which were enormously happy. I was awarded a big hazel-nut cake. My heart felt thanks to them!