Brocade in hand, the youngest son began his journey home.

When the young son work up just before daylight, the fairies had all gone, leaving his mother’s cloth under the shining pearl. Not waiting for daybreak the boy quickly clasped it to his chest and, mounting his horse, galloped off in the waning moonlight. Bending low upon the stallion’s flowing mane and clamping his mouth tightly shut, he passed again through the icy sea and up and down the flaming mountain. Soon he had reached the mountain pass where the old woman stood waiting for him in front of her stone house. Smiling warmly, she greeted him.

“Young man, I see you have come back.”Yes, old woman.” After he dismounted, the woman took his teeth from the horse and put them back in his mouth. Instantly the horse turned back to stone. Then she went inside the house and returned with a pair of deerskin shoes.

“Take these,” she said, “they will get you home.”

When the boy put them on he found he could move as though he had wings. In a moment he was back in his own house.

—

Next time: The Magnificent Brocade