The Wind-Up Fairy

Once upon a time, two young friends name Rafello and Vinnio were in the forest when they saw a man dressed in star covered robes and a pointed, star covered hat with a long beard pass by and, presuming him to be a wizard, they hid behind a tree.

But then they saw him do something peculiar, he got down upon his hands and knees and crawled forwards and, when he did, the man vanished only to reappear a few minutes later, still on his hands and knees but carrying a large bag of gold.

Then the old man went away with the bag over one shoulder and Rafello said to his friend,

“Perhaps if we do the same thing we will have bags of gold”.

And so they both got down and crawled around on their hands and knees but nothing happened.

“Ach, it is pointless crawling around”, said Vinnio, “The old man was a wizard and we are not wizards. How can we hope to do what he did?”.

But, just then, however, his friend Rafello disappeared.

“Rafello”, cried Vinnio, standing up and looking around amazed but also worried, “Where did you go?”.

But then Rafello, or atleast the bottom half of Rafello, reappeared.

Seeing only half of his friend, Vinnio despaired, thinking he had been cut in two but then he heard his friend speak.

“Don’t worry”, he said, “It is an invisible entrance to an invisible cave; I am half inside which is why you only see half of me. You have to get down upon your hands and knees to crawl inside”.

So Vinnio got down upon his hands and knees again and, crawling, followed Rafello into the invisible entrance of the invisible cave.

When they were both inside, however, a voice like thunder called out of the darkness of the cave,

“Is your name Ripenzo?”.

“No”, answered Vinnio, without thinking, “It is Vinnio”.

The moment he said this, however, a hand reached out of the darkness that was covered in red scales and had long green claws and, touching Vinnio with one of the claws, it changed him into stone.

Seeing his friend transformed into a stone statue Rafello was horrified but then the voice asked the same question of him,

“Is your name Ripenzo?”.

And, fearing that if he answered “No”, he too might be turned to stone, Rafello answered “Yes, yes. My name is Ripenzo”.

Suddenly, torches all around the cave lit up as the owner of the scaly hand, a small red scaled dragon, breathed fire upon them, then the dragon bowed.

“Welcome, great Wizard Ripenzo, my master. I am sorry but I did not recognize you”, it said.

“I have changed my form”, replied Rafello, thinking quickly, “I find this one to be handsomer”.

“Oh, indeed it is”, agreed the dragon.

But then the dragon asked,

“Why have you returned so soon? Was the bag of gold that you took with you not enough?”

“No”, said Rafello, “I need another bag of gold, just as big”.

The dragon pointed to a little object that was nearby; a golden, mechanical fairy with a wand in its hand and a key sticking out from between the wings on its back.

“Then wind up the clockwork fairy and make a wish”, said the dragon.

So Rafello picked up the fairy and wound the key in its back three times and, when he did the fairy doll began to dance about like a little nimble ballerina, skipping and twirling and as it danced it sang this song;

 

“Wind me up and make a wish

then, my magic wand, I’ll swish.

Anything you want it to

my wishing wand will grant to you”.

 

Rafello was stunned but then, seeing an opportunity, he asked the fairy,

“Give me a sword that can slay any dragon”.

And when he said this suddenly, within his hand appeared a long, glistening golden sword and, without hesitating, he thrust the sword into the dragon and it immediately turned to dust.

Then he wound the clockwork fairy up again and, when it had sung its song, he asked it to change his friend Vinnio back from a stone statue into a man.

Then, explaining all that had happened to a bewildered Vinnio, Rafello put the clockwork fairy into a sack and they took it away with them.

And with the power of the clockwork fairy, Rafello erected a giant silver castle and had himself and Vinnio made into princes.

But Rafello, pondering the clockwork fairy, was always afraid that the Wizard Ripenzo would come to try and take it back and so he asked the fairy,

“How may I defeat Ripenzo?”.

The fairy told Rafello to get a box and to glue the lid down tight, then wrap it in a thousand sheets of paper and tie it with a knot that was very hard to untie.

“But how will that defeat Ripenzo?”, asked Rafello.

“You will see when the time comes”, said the Fairy.

So Rafello did as the fairy said and then, one day the wizard appeared outside the castle, he was whirling and dancing at an incredible speed so that he looked just like a tornado and he called to Rafello and Vinnio,

“Return my clockwork fairy or I will come into your castle and take it by force. Nothing you can do will stop me for I’m as swift as the wind”.

It was Vinnio who heard the Wizard first; it was very early in the morning and Rafello was still sleeping but Vinnio, thinking that he could deal with the Wizard on his own didn’t wake his friend, instead he commanded all the silver archers of the castle to shoot arrows at the wizard but, whirling round like a tornado, the wizard was so swift that he caught all of the arrows and then threw them back again, killing all of the archers.

So then Vinnio sent out his regiment of silver infantrymen with swords, shields, axes, clubs and spears to face the wizard but the wizard was so swift that, again whirling like a tornado, he went around the regiment killing all the soldiers one by one before before a single man could raise a weapon or even blink.

And when the last of the silver soldiers was dead, the wizard roared with laughter and shouted,

“Is that the best that you can do? Don’t you realise that not even a million men could stop me because I am swifter than lightning”.

Realizing that the wizard was too powerful for him to defeat, Vinnio went to wake up Rafello and Rafello fetched the box that the fairy had told him to prepare, then he threw it over the walls of the silver castle so that it landed at the feet of the whirling wizard.

Looking down at the box, the wizard was curious about what could be inside and so he started to untie knot with fingers moving at incredible speed but it had been tied in such a terrible, tangled fashion that he could not undo it, so he simply cut it open with his sword, then he started ripping away the thousand sheets of paper it was wrapped in and he tore through a thousand as quickly as tearing through one but then when he came take the lid off of the box he realised that it was glued down tightly and no matter how hard he tugged upon it it just would not seem to come off.

“Oh what good will your box do?”, said Vinnio, starting to worry, “Unless there is a dragon or a whirlwind inside”.

“Have faith”, replied Rafello, “The fairy told me to do this and so it must work”.

But then, suddenly, Vinnio and Rafello saw the wizard stop whirling and stand almost still as he struggled, irritatedly, to get the lid off of the box.

And, realising that this was the opportunity they had been waiting for, Rafello and his friend picked up bows that had been dropped by the dead silver archers and shot at the wizard.

They shot him 4 times, once in the neck, once in the leg, once in the head and once in the heart but the moment that an arrow struck the wizards heart it split it in two and the wizard dropped dead still clutching the box.

Now, with the wizard dead, Rafello and Vinnio were free to enjoy their wishes; they each married a beautiful princess and, in their silver castle, lived happily ever after.