The Jigsaw Man

Once a little homeless orphan boy, called Romas, was wandering in the woods when he heard a voice saying,
"Help me, please".
And looking in the direction of the voice he saw the broken head of a statue that was talking.
"Your talking", said the boy, "But you're just a head".
"Thats because I'm the head of a magic statue", said the head, "That a witch brought to life to serve her but when I tried to run away from her she hit me with a magic thunderbolt that shattered me in pieces and left the pieces of my scattered all over the forest".
"Well what do you want of me", asked the boy.
"Go and find and gather up all the pieces", said the shattered man, "And put me back together, then I can come back to life and when I do, I'll be your servant".
And so the boy, agreeing, searched the forest for the pieces of the magic statue and whenever he found a piece he brought it back to the spot where the statues head was and he gathered up two legs; two arms and hands and a lower and upper torso and when he had gathered up the statues entire body, he pieced it together just like a jigsaw.
And as he was putting the broken man back together, the man was saying,
"Oh, hurry, hurry. Put my legs back on so I can walk again. Put my hands back on so I can feel".
And when he had reassembled the man, by some incredible magic, the living statue got back up onto its feet.
But then, as he was admiring the rebuilding job he had done, Romas noticed that there was a piece missing; a hole within the statues chest.
"What is that hole?", asked the boy, pointing to it.
"Oh that", said the statue, "That is where the witch put my heart stone but that doesn't matter. I don't need a heart".
"You don't?", asked the little boy, surprised.
But then he noticed a change come over the living statues face; a cruel and wicked expression that made the boy afraid.
"No", said the statue, "A heart is just a chain that keeps us a slave; without it we're free; free of conscience; free to do whatever we want and not care".
"But if you don't have a conscience", said the boy, "Then you'd do evil things".
"Why not", said the stone man, "Perhaps I would enjoy doing evil things. Perhaps I may even do something evil right now".
And, saying this, the statue looked at the boy and grinned an evil grin; flames of red glowing in its gemstone eyes.
"Like what?", asked the boy, worriedly, backing away from the man.
"Oh like breaking you into tiny pieces", said the statue, "I wonder if anyone will ever put you back together".
Then the statue started to move towards the boy to grab him.
Fortunately, the boy, just in time turned and started to run.
But then, as he was running away, the boy looked back over his shoulder and saw the stone man chasing after him and laughing.
"You think you can run away from me", the stone man said, "But stone isn't like flesh; it doesn't get tired; it doesn't feel pain. I can run faster than even little boys".
And saying this, the stone man ran incredibly fast; as fast as a flint arrowhead when it flies through the air so that, in just a few steps, the stone man had caught up with him.
But then, suddenly, up ahead on the ground, the boy noticed something; like a large ruby that was pulsing with a bright, fiery glow.
That must be the stone mans heart, thought the boy, stopping and bending down to pick up the glowing jewel.
As he was doing this however, he felt the stone mans arms reach around his waist and grab hold of him.
"Aha", said the living statue, "I've got you now. No more running. Soon you'll be cold and dead as stone".
But then, just as the stone man was about to crush him in muscular arms of granite, the boy reached round and put the glowing magic heartstone into the hole in the stone mans chest.
And the moment he did this, the living statue let him go.
"What was I doing?", asked the statue, starting to weep from sapphire blue eyes.
"You were trying to kill me", said the boy, angrilly.
The stone man got down upon his knees.
"Oh I'm sorry", he said, "Please forgive me. Without my heart, I have no conscience; no self control".
But then the stone man said that to make up for his wickedness, he would be the boys servant and so Romas, taking pity upon him said,
"Well. I have no house. Perhaps you could build me one".
And so, moving as fast as the wind, in a blur of motion, the stone man ran about, fetching rocks and cutting down trees and using them to build the boy a house and, before long, right infront of the boy was a large and sturdy stone shelter which, though it was no palace, was good enough for a poor, homeless boy to live in.
Then the boy made a bed in the shelter and the stone man built him a fire by collecting a pile of dry wood and striking his flint hands together to make a spark and they lived like that for many happy days.
But then, one day, while the stone man was carrying the boy upon his shoulders through the forest, they passed by the home of a monster; a giant creature with the head of a cat; the horns of a goat; the wings of a bat and the tail of a serpent and the monster was guarding a beautiful princess, keeping her prisoner.
"You must rescue her", said the boy to the stone man, climbing down from his shoulders, "The monster cannot harm you because you are made of stone".
And so the stone man ran towards the monster and, as he did, from its right nostril it breathed out a jet of fire against him but, because he was not made of flesh but stone, the fire couldn't burn him so then, from its left nostril, it breathed out an ice cold wind but because the man was made of stone the wind couldn't freeze him.
Finally it tried to take a bite out of him with its teeth as long as spears but, because he was made of stone, it only broke its teeth.
So then it opened its mouth wide and, reaching out a long tentacle like tongue, grabbed hold of him with it and, dragging him into its mouth tried to swallow him whole but, as he was wrestling with the tongue, the man seized hold of a large boulder that was lying nearby and as he was being pulled into its mouth he used the boulder to block up the creatures windpipe so that it couldn't breathe.
Then, closing its eyes, the monster became unconcious and the stone man, from the monsters mouth, reemerged.
And the moment he did, the princess who had been the monsters prisoner, came running out of the cave and, throwing her arms around him kissed him.
"Oh thank you", she said, "Thank you for saving me".
And when she did this, something even more miraculous occurred, for then the living stone that made up the mans body began to transform, turning into flesh and blood and even the mans ruby heart became a beating heart of flesh.
After that, because he had saved her life, the princess married the man and they raised the little, homeless orphan boy as their son and lived together, happily ever after.