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Here is a story I have come across in my search for Slavic fairy words -- this is not what I was looking for, but it's what I need more (my version is longer and better than what I found):
Malchik s Palchik
There was an old woman and an old man who lived in a village near a beautiful forest and a tall, bleak mountain. They had several strong, strapping sons and a beautiful, strong daughter, all as bright as the sky at noon and clever and brave.
One day a huge serpent came out of the mountain, so big that it blocked out the sun. It was of the kind that collects gold and jewels and other shiny things like beautiful young women. It came into the village and it stole away the beautiful daughter and took her back to its lair in the mountain. For one day the family reeled in shock, and then the eldest son declared that he would go and get her back.
It was a long, long trek up the mountain. The cliffs were steep and smooth and had hardly any handholds, but the young man was able to scale them at last because he was cheerful and could not be disheartened by mere difficulties.
Because the serpent was so large, it had a very large lair, easy to be seen from quite far away. The eldest son walked right in and found the serpent coiled around its hoard. "What are you here for, you measly little boy?" it sneered. The eldest son was nothing like a measly little boy, but to the serpent anything that walks on two legs looked measly, or so it would claim.
"I am here to take my sister home," said the eldest son.
The serpent did not mind hearing that, because it gave him a chance to wager unfairly, which was another favorite activity of his besides collecting things that were shiny and bright like the beautiful sister. And so he said: "I'll make you a wager. If you eat dinner with me, I will give you your sister and a golden tiara for her head as well. If not, you will die."
Well, the eldest son was not so stupid as to think it was as easy as that, but it was the only offer he had gotten, and he agreed, hoping that the catch would be something he could work out the answer to on the fly.
But the catch was that the dinner was all of iron. The bread was iron, the beans were iron, the pickles were iron, the sausage was iron, and the cabbage was iron. The eldest son stared at the iron food and tried to think of a way to eat it, but he could not, and the serpent put him to death.
Three days passed and the eldest son did not return. Thge second eldest son said he would go and rescue his brother and sister, if it was possible. Being the second son he had always watched his elder brother and he was pretty sure he could do better than him. So he took the long, long trek up the steep mountain. The paths were narrow and even disappeared in places but the second son was agile and could not be foiled merely by thousand-foot dropoffs at irregular intervals.
When he came to the serpentr's lair he snuck in and observed the serpent for a while before he introduced himself. When the serpent asked him what he wanted, he said that that was for the serpent to guess. The serpent guessed correctly: "You have come for a part of my trove. The shiniest, most recent of my acquisitions. The girl over there."
"That may be and it may not be," said the second son.
"You can have her, nevertheless, if you cut my firewood for me. But you must cut it without a hatchet and you must burn it without a fire."
The second son fared no better than the first.
In the space of three weeks, all of the old couple's several strapping sons had met their ends in the same way. The youngest went very much against his parents' will: they cried and cried and said they had no more children but him, and he must not deprive them if this, but he went anyway.
So, now, bereft and childless, the mother was into the beautiful forest weeping and sobbing and praying for her children. She prayed to God: she prayed to the earth: she prayed to the sky: and she prayed to the day and the night and the little green plants under the trees. At last, exhausted, she collapsed on the forst path. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a little green pea gave rolling down the path and hopped into her limp outstretched hand.
"This must be a gift from God," she said. "Or somebody," she added, remembering how many entities she had beseeched in her despair. "It would be heresy in any case to refuse it." Seeing that it was a pea, she thought it must be for her to eat, and eat it she did.
Immediately she sensed that she was pregnant again, which was a surprise to her, as she had been off her courses for a while already. By the next day she had a big belly, and in three weeks she delivered a tiny little boy, no bigger than a grown man's thumb. They named him a great big name: Pokatigoroshek, which means rolling peas, but they just called him Malchik s Palchik, which means a young man the size of my finger.
It took him no more than a year to grow to his adult size, which was up to a small man's kneebone. And at that time he looked around the cottage and said, "Mama, why do we have so many beds? And who do all these clothes belong to?"
The old woman told her little man all about the serpent, and her beautiful daughters and her strapping sons, though she did not know about the unfair wagers and the way that her sons had died, only that they had never come home.
"Well, I am a man now," said Pokatigoroshek. "I will go and see if I cannot do better than my brothers."
"No, no, no!" cried the old woman. "You are supposed to stay here and be my consolation for losing all my other children! You are not going to go up the bleak mountain and be killed by the serpent! Did you not hear what I told you, about how the serpent is so big that he blocks out the sun? Did you not hear how all my several strapping sons went up the mountain and never came back again?"
"I heard everything, Mama," said Pokatigoroshek. "I will not go up the mountain and be killed by the serpent."
"Oh good," said the old woman. "You'll stay here and be my consolation. I'll make you a new shirt, it will be silk with fine silk embroidery. You are so small that it will be entirely affordable to dress you like a gentleman."
Pokatigoroshek smiled, but when she gave him his new shirt, he said, "Now I am going to return your other children to you."
"What! You said you would not go up the mountain!" said the old woman.
"No, I said I would not go up the mountain and be killed," said Pokatigoroshek. "Do not worry, little mother, I will return in less than three weeks."
Nothing she could say would make him stay. So he went up the mountain. Being so small, and also so cheerful and agile and brave and strong, everything his fine brothers were -- except dead -- he actually made it to the top of the mountain in very little time. He strode right in to the serpent's lair and told the serpent up front what he had come for.
The serpent grinned, because it had not had the chance to make an unfair wager in over a year. Besides, it coveted Pokatigoroshek's brilliantly shiny embroidered silk shirt. So it made the same bargain with Pokatigoroshek as it had made with the eldest son.
But Pokatigoroshek had a magical little belly along with his other fine attributes, and so he gobbled up the iron food with relish and asked for seconds, especially of the iron pickles.
The serpent hestitated. It hated losing unfair wagers. It said, "I suspect you of cheating but I cannot prove it. So you'll have to prove that you did not cheat, by doing another task for me. Chop my firewood and burn it for me. Only you may not use a hatchet to chop it or fire toburn it."
"I thought you were going to ask me something hard," said Pokatigoroshek, and he pointed his right ring finger at the immense log and it fell into firewood and kindling. Then he pointed his left pinky at it and all the firewood and kindling fell into ashes and dust.
The serpent was furious. "Now I know you were cheating because nobody ever wins that wager. You know what I do with cheaters? I kill them." And it pounced on Pokatigoroshek faster than he could reply, but Pokatigoroshek was stronger than you would expect from a man no taller than a man's kneebone, and no older than a year and one month. They grappled like Graeco-Roman wrestlers, and Pokatigoroshek's hands turned bright blue with the effort, but the serpent's hands snapped right off, and finally, after four days of struggle, the serpent fell over dead.
The beautiful sister, freed from the clutches of the serpent, came to life again and explained to Pokatigoroshek how he must get the water of life to revive his several strapping brothers, which he did -- and that is a long adventure in its own right that I may tell on another occasion -- and he revived his brothers, and brought them all down the mountain.
All of this took three weeks to the day and minute and hour, before they crossed the threshold of the old woman's house and found her lying in bed, near to death in her sorrow at having lost even the last of her children, even the one who would never be taller than a man's kneebone who was supposed to be her consolation for losing all the others. You know very well that she leaped right up when she saw all of them in her own house again, and her cheeks grew as rosy as they were on her wedding day, and she immediately made a great feast for all of them, and you can be sure that not a single item of food on that supper table was made of iron.
Malchik s Palchik
There was an old woman and an old man who lived in a village near a beautiful forest and a tall, bleak mountain. They had several strong, strapping sons and a beautiful, strong daughter, all as bright as the sky at noon and clever and brave.
One day a huge serpent came out of the mountain, so big that it blocked out the sun. It was of the kind that collects gold and jewels and other shiny things like beautiful young women. It came into the village and it stole away the beautiful daughter and took her back to its lair in the mountain. For one day the family reeled in shock, and then the eldest son declared that he would go and get her back.
It was a long, long trek up the mountain. The cliffs were steep and smooth and had hardly any handholds, but the young man was able to scale them at last because he was cheerful and could not be disheartened by mere difficulties.
Because the serpent was so large, it had a very large lair, easy to be seen from quite far away. The eldest son walked right in and found the serpent coiled around its hoard. "What are you here for, you measly little boy?" it sneered. The eldest son was nothing like a measly little boy, but to the serpent anything that walks on two legs looked measly, or so it would claim.
"I am here to take my sister home," said the eldest son.
The serpent did not mind hearing that, because it gave him a chance to wager unfairly, which was another favorite activity of his besides collecting things that were shiny and bright like the beautiful sister. And so he said: "I'll make you a wager. If you eat dinner with me, I will give you your sister and a golden tiara for her head as well. If not, you will die."
Well, the eldest son was not so stupid as to think it was as easy as that, but it was the only offer he had gotten, and he agreed, hoping that the catch would be something he could work out the answer to on the fly.
But the catch was that the dinner was all of iron. The bread was iron, the beans were iron, the pickles were iron, the sausage was iron, and the cabbage was iron. The eldest son stared at the iron food and tried to think of a way to eat it, but he could not, and the serpent put him to death.
Three days passed and the eldest son did not return. Thge second eldest son said he would go and rescue his brother and sister, if it was possible. Being the second son he had always watched his elder brother and he was pretty sure he could do better than him. So he took the long, long trek up the steep mountain. The paths were narrow and even disappeared in places but the second son was agile and could not be foiled merely by thousand-foot dropoffs at irregular intervals.
When he came to the serpentr's lair he snuck in and observed the serpent for a while before he introduced himself. When the serpent asked him what he wanted, he said that that was for the serpent to guess. The serpent guessed correctly: "You have come for a part of my trove. The shiniest, most recent of my acquisitions. The girl over there."
"That may be and it may not be," said the second son.
"You can have her, nevertheless, if you cut my firewood for me. But you must cut it without a hatchet and you must burn it without a fire."
The second son fared no better than the first.
In the space of three weeks, all of the old couple's several strapping sons had met their ends in the same way. The youngest went very much against his parents' will: they cried and cried and said they had no more children but him, and he must not deprive them if this, but he went anyway.
So, now, bereft and childless, the mother was into the beautiful forest weeping and sobbing and praying for her children. She prayed to God: she prayed to the earth: she prayed to the sky: and she prayed to the day and the night and the little green plants under the trees. At last, exhausted, she collapsed on the forst path. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a little green pea gave rolling down the path and hopped into her limp outstretched hand.
"This must be a gift from God," she said. "Or somebody," she added, remembering how many entities she had beseeched in her despair. "It would be heresy in any case to refuse it." Seeing that it was a pea, she thought it must be for her to eat, and eat it she did.
Immediately she sensed that she was pregnant again, which was a surprise to her, as she had been off her courses for a while already. By the next day she had a big belly, and in three weeks she delivered a tiny little boy, no bigger than a grown man's thumb. They named him a great big name: Pokatigoroshek, which means rolling peas, but they just called him Malchik s Palchik, which means a young man the size of my finger.
It took him no more than a year to grow to his adult size, which was up to a small man's kneebone. And at that time he looked around the cottage and said, "Mama, why do we have so many beds? And who do all these clothes belong to?"
The old woman told her little man all about the serpent, and her beautiful daughters and her strapping sons, though she did not know about the unfair wagers and the way that her sons had died, only that they had never come home.
"Well, I am a man now," said Pokatigoroshek. "I will go and see if I cannot do better than my brothers."
"No, no, no!" cried the old woman. "You are supposed to stay here and be my consolation for losing all my other children! You are not going to go up the bleak mountain and be killed by the serpent! Did you not hear what I told you, about how the serpent is so big that he blocks out the sun? Did you not hear how all my several strapping sons went up the mountain and never came back again?"
"I heard everything, Mama," said Pokatigoroshek. "I will not go up the mountain and be killed by the serpent."
"Oh good," said the old woman. "You'll stay here and be my consolation. I'll make you a new shirt, it will be silk with fine silk embroidery. You are so small that it will be entirely affordable to dress you like a gentleman."
Pokatigoroshek smiled, but when she gave him his new shirt, he said, "Now I am going to return your other children to you."
"What! You said you would not go up the mountain!" said the old woman.
"No, I said I would not go up the mountain and be killed," said Pokatigoroshek. "Do not worry, little mother, I will return in less than three weeks."
Nothing she could say would make him stay. So he went up the mountain. Being so small, and also so cheerful and agile and brave and strong, everything his fine brothers were -- except dead -- he actually made it to the top of the mountain in very little time. He strode right in to the serpent's lair and told the serpent up front what he had come for.
The serpent grinned, because it had not had the chance to make an unfair wager in over a year. Besides, it coveted Pokatigoroshek's brilliantly shiny embroidered silk shirt. So it made the same bargain with Pokatigoroshek as it had made with the eldest son.
But Pokatigoroshek had a magical little belly along with his other fine attributes, and so he gobbled up the iron food with relish and asked for seconds, especially of the iron pickles.
The serpent hestitated. It hated losing unfair wagers. It said, "I suspect you of cheating but I cannot prove it. So you'll have to prove that you did not cheat, by doing another task for me. Chop my firewood and burn it for me. Only you may not use a hatchet to chop it or fire toburn it."
"I thought you were going to ask me something hard," said Pokatigoroshek, and he pointed his right ring finger at the immense log and it fell into firewood and kindling. Then he pointed his left pinky at it and all the firewood and kindling fell into ashes and dust.
The serpent was furious. "Now I know you were cheating because nobody ever wins that wager. You know what I do with cheaters? I kill them." And it pounced on Pokatigoroshek faster than he could reply, but Pokatigoroshek was stronger than you would expect from a man no taller than a man's kneebone, and no older than a year and one month. They grappled like Graeco-Roman wrestlers, and Pokatigoroshek's hands turned bright blue with the effort, but the serpent's hands snapped right off, and finally, after four days of struggle, the serpent fell over dead.
The beautiful sister, freed from the clutches of the serpent, came to life again and explained to Pokatigoroshek how he must get the water of life to revive his several strapping brothers, which he did -- and that is a long adventure in its own right that I may tell on another occasion -- and he revived his brothers, and brought them all down the mountain.
All of this took three weeks to the day and minute and hour, before they crossed the threshold of the old woman's house and found her lying in bed, near to death in her sorrow at having lost even the last of her children, even the one who would never be taller than a man's kneebone who was supposed to be her consolation for losing all the others. You know very well that she leaped right up when she saw all of them in her own house again, and her cheeks grew as rosy as they were on her wedding day, and she immediately made a great feast for all of them, and you can be sure that not a single item of food on that supper table was made of iron.
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