The Stone Princess – Part 5

Now Gordo followed a narrow, winding road along the side of a mountain that was lined with prickly pine trees and, as he rode slowly upwards, the thought to himself how beautiful the scenery was.

But then, just as Gordo was navigating a particularly treacherous bend in the road, he felt a powerful magnetic force drag upon his armour and the iron shoes of his horse and the pull upon him was so great that he was yanked right off of his horses back and might have been pulled completely off of the mountain had he not managed to snatch hold of a branch and then a trunk of a pine tree.

Then, peering down, out of the corners of his eyes, he saw that there was a particularly vicious looking group of spiky rocks below him that glinted like metal in the sun and which, he surmised, must be powerfully magnetic and upon those rocks were gathered vultures and ravens and other scavenging birds who were picking upon the bones and cadavers of armoured knights who had not been as lucky as he.

Struggling to hold onto the prickly pine tree with one hand, Gordo then stripped away all the armour that he was wearing, surrendering it to the pull of the rocks and then, when all his armour was gone, he dragged himself back up onto the mountain road where his horse was also struggling against the deadly magnetic force.

Fortunately, his horse, used to carrying heavy loads and pulling wagons, was far stronger than he and managed to stay upon its feet, even though its iron horse shoes and the nails within them were torn away.

Even more fortunately, his magical shield and sword seemed to be made of a strange sort of metal that was not attracted by the magnets pull.

Then, stripped of all iron and steel, Gordo, wearing only his long johns, climbed back onto his horse and rode away further up the hill.

“What good is a knight without his armour?”, he thought aloud.

But then, as he followed the road, it took him to a mountain forest and then, to his relief, he saw a little village and the forge of a village blacksmith where an old yet large and muscular man with a grim face and a bushy beard was busy hammering.

“Good day to you, good sir”, he said, trying his best to address the blacksmith in the way that a nobleman would address a commoner, “I am Sir Gordo; a knight upon a noble quest; a quest to slay
an evil queen; rid a land of her tyranny and end the curse she has placed upon a beautiful, young, innocent princess but, as I was travelling up the mountain, I seem to have lost all of my armour and all my horses shoes and so I wondered if, even though I lack the gold to pay you for your work, you might make me a suit of armour and some horse shoes upon your forge”.

The black smith didn’t look up from his hammering but he pointed to a river that was running nearby and said to Gordo, “Catch me some fire fish from the river. I shall need at least five or six. Catch them and bring them to me and I’ll make you a suit of armour and horse shoes fit for a heroes quest”.

Gordo was not much of a fisherman and had never seen or heard of a Firefish but he was game to try his hand at anything and desperate for armour and so he went to the river side with his horse and then, looking down into the running water; to his astonishment he saw, swimming about in their hundreds, what he assumed must be firefish; fish with scales of bright multi-coloured flame that were burning underwater almost like a living and unquenchable fire.

“But how do I catch them? I don’t have a fishing net”, he wondered, speaking to his horse.

Suddenly, though, another miraculous wonder occurred. The spider like coat of arms upon his shield started to move, weaving with its six hairy legs and, out of the mouth of the image upon the shield came a fishing net like a spiders web.

Gordo thanked the magic shield for its helpfulness and then, trying his best to cast the net into the river, he attempted to catch the fish with it.

However, to the squires dismay, he then saw the fiery fish burn through his net, destroying it completely.

“What now?”, he wondered, rubbing his chin in thought, “Perhaps a net of wire rather than one of rope”.

Again the spider upon the shield began to move and, this time, the shield wove a fishing net made of the strongest steel wire.

And, again, thanking his shield, Gordo tried his best to cast the net into the river and catch the fish but, though the fish did not burn through the net this time, before long the steel wires of the net melted and the fish escaped.

“How in the world does one catch a fish made of fire”, despaired Gordo, shaking his head.

But then the blacksmith, tired of waiting for his firefish, turned up and, seeing the two wrecked nets; the one of rope and the one of wire lying, tangled, at the bottom of the river, laughed and said, “You don’t catch fire with a net, my friend. Only dry wood catches fire”.

And then, picking up a stick of dead wood from nearby, he dipped it into the river and, immediately, the fire fish began to gather round it and latch onto it until it looked just as if the stick was on fire
and then, lifting up the stick like a torch, the smithy carried it over to his shop and used it to light his forge.

“From magical fire”, he said as his forge burst into a rainbow of multi-coloured flames as bright as parrot feathers, “Comes magical armour”.

Then Gordo sat upon his horse and waited while the blacksmith hammered and shaped a suit of armour and four horseshoes for his horse and, when the sun had set upon the edge of the mountain, Gordo heard the hissing of hot metal being dipped into water for cooling and then the blacksmith held up his handiwork with pride for Gordo to inspect.

“This armour will protect you from any peril”, he said, “A bolt of lightning; a giants knuckles; a cannonball or even a witches curse and the horse shoes will let you ride upon the clouds. Just wait and you will see”

And so Gordo put on the magical suit of armour that was, all over, engraved with golden flames and, when the magic horse shoes were nailed onto the horses hooves, the squire saw that the smithy had told him the truth about their power; for, as soon as Gordo tugged upon the horses reigns, the horse leapt up into the sky, landing upon a large white cloud as if it were the snow covered earth.

Then, looking down at the blacksmith on the mountain and waving him goodbye, Gordo rode off, quick as the western wind, leaping from cloud to cloud upon his horse.

Once or twice, giant vultures or rooks who were obedient slaves of the evil queen, swooped down upon them and attacked them viciously with sharp talons and tearing beaks but, each time, the horse would kick the birds in their beaks with its powerful hind legs and knock them out of the sky
or Gordo would clip their wings with his magical sword while the little lovebird hid within the horses saddlebag and thought it all very odd; seeing a horse and a man flying through the air.

Before long, however, the lovebird started to become alarmed; squawking and twittering and saying, like a parrot, “Stone Princess! Stone Princess!” while pointing the tip of its wing towards the land far below.

Then, looking down, Gordo’s heart leapt because he realized that they had finally reached the land of his beloved stone princess.