Storiĭa de zmaiu - A Story about the Dragon

There was once a man and he had two small boys. One day a dragon came to eat them [the boys]. The man wouldn't let him. He said [to the dragon] that the boys would belong to whomever is stronger. And the dragon went home to his mother saying that the man is stronger than him. The mother said to him, „The one who can make milk run from a rock is stronger."

In the meantime, the man went to buy fresh cheese. The dragon squeezed the rock, but nothing came out. And the man had the milk running through his fingers from the cheese. The dragon went again to his mother and said, „The man is stronger than me." His mother told him, „Go jump in the field. The one who can make milk run from the soil is stronger."

The dragon went to the man and said that he would jump in the field. The man went to buy a pot of milk and then he jumped into it. He made the milk come out, but the dragon didn't do anything. The dragon went to his mother one more time and said to her that the man was stronger than him. His mother said to him, „Go get water. The one who brings more water is stronger."

The man took a pick and a shovel in order to dig out and take the whole wellspring. The dragon didn't let him do that, but the man still took enough water for both of them. The dragon went again to his mother to tell her that the man is stronger than him.

The mother told him that tomorrow they should both go to bring wood. „The one who brings more is stronger." The man brought an axe, a sickle and an iron stick in order to mark off all the threes in the woods and take them all home. The dragon didn't let him do that, because other men would kill him, how could he take all of the woods home? He went home to his mother and told her again that the man is stronger than him. The mother said to him, „Tomorrow, get a whip and go to the field to crack it. The one who cracks it harder is the stronger one."

The dragon started to crack the whip and everthing shook around him. The man told him, „Dragon, close your eyes, because when I crack the whip, your eyes will pop out of your head." Then the man struck the dragon on his cheek as hard as he could with the whip, so he lost his breath. They both went home. The dragon told his mother that the man was stronger than him. His mother told him, „Take an anvil and throw it in the air. The one who throws it higher is the stronger one."

The dragon threw the anvil so high in the air that it didn't come back down for two hours. The man thought about how he would throw it and said, „Dragon, close your eyes, because when I throw the anvil up in the air, your eyes will pop out! Close your eyes!"

When the dragon closed his eyes, the man hid his anvil with leaves and pretended that he was waiting for the anvil to fall back down. Before two hours passed, he said that his brother up there was learning to be a blacksmith, so he must have caught the anvil. If he didn't like it, his brother would throw it back down. And he left. The next morning, he came to see if he threw the anvil back down. And he found it there as it was thrown down. He went home with the dragon, who said, „Since you're stronger, I'll make you dinner."

The man went home with him, had dinner there and fell asleep. The dragon got up after the man had fallen asleep in order to kill him. But the man had already left and hidden. Later, he went home for his boys, took them with him and left. The dragon went after him again. But he got scared that the man would hang him, so he ran away. And that's it.