Atondido Stories
Just think: Smolicheck listened to them until he believed
what they said! Then he opened the door a little crack and in-
stantly all those naughty little wood maidens pushed into the
room, seized Smolicheck, and dragged him off.
They told him they would kill him if he cried for help, but
nevertheless Smolicheck called out with all his might:
"Oh, dear Golden Antlers, wherever you are In valley or mountain
or pasture afar, Come quick! Don't delay! The wicked wood maidens
are dragging away Your little Smolicheck! Come quick! Don't delay!"
But this time Golden Antlers was far away and didn't hear
him. So no one came to help Smolicheck and the wood maidens
carried him off to their cave.
There, instead of playing with him, they tormented him and
teased him and made faces at him. But they did give him all he
wanted to eat. In fact they stuffed him with food, especially
sweets. Then every day they would pinch him and say to each
other:
"Sister, do you think he's fat enough yet to roast?"
Imagine poor Smolicheck's feelings when he found they were
fattening him on sweets because they expected to roast him and
eat him!
Finally one day after they had been stuffing him for a long
time they cut his little finger with a knife to see how fat it was.
"Yum, yum!" the wicked little wood maidens cried. "He's fat
enough! Today we can roast him!"
So they took off his clothes and laid him in a kneading
trough and prepared him for the oven.
Smolicheck was so frightened that he just screamed and
screamed, but the louder he screamed the more the little wood
maidens laughed and clapped their hands.
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