The Two Brothers

Once upon a time, in a small village nestled between ancient forests and rolling meadows, there lived two brothers who were identical twins. They were the sons of a poor but honest woodcutter and his wife, who struggled daily to put food on their humble table.

One crisp autumn day, as the woodcutter was felling trees deep in the forest, a magnificent stranger dressed in the finest hunting clothes approached him. The stranger’s bearing was noble, his horse more splendid than any the woodcutter had ever seen.

“Good day, woodcutter,” said the stranger. “I have observed your diligence and the poverty in which you live. I have no children of my own and wish to adopt one of your twin sons. I shall provide him with wealth, education, and opportunity beyond anything you could offer. In return, I will also ensure that you and your wife never want for anything again.”

The woodcutter, though pained at the thought of parting with one of his beloved sons, knew that his poverty offered the boys little future. After consulting with his wife, they reluctantly agreed to the stranger’s proposal, consoling themselves with the knowledge that at least one of their children would escape the hardship of their lives.

The stranger, who revealed himself to be a wealthy huntsman, took one of the twins to his grand estate. True to his word, he provided generously for the woodcutter’s family, ensuring they lived in comfort from that day forward.

Years passed, and the brothers grew to manhood in their separate lives, each unaware of the other’s fate. The brother who remained with the woodcutter learned his father’s trade, becoming skilled with axe and saw. The brother raised by the huntsman became an accomplished marksman and tracker, learning all the secrets of the forest.

One spring day, as the huntsman’s son was tracking deer through a remote part of the forest, he encountered a wounded fox lying in a clearing.

“Please don’t harm me, kind hunter,” said the fox, to the young man’s astonishment. “If you spare my life and heal my wound, I will become your faithful companion and guide you to great fortune.”

The young hunter, startled by the speaking animal but moved by compassion, bandaged the fox’s injured paw with strips torn from his own shirt. True to its word, once healed, the fox remained by the hunter’s side.

“The time has come for you to seek your destiny,” the fox advised one evening as they sat before a campfire. “Tomorrow, we shall begin a journey.”

The next morning, the hunter bid farewell to his adoptive father and set out with the fox as his guide. After traveling for several days, they came upon a wolf, a bear, a lion, and an eagle, all fighting over a slain deer.

“Allow me to divide the prey fairly among you,” offered the hunter.

The animals agreed, and with wisdom and fairness, he apportioned the deer so that each creature received the parts best suited to its nature. Impressed by his judgment, each animal granted him a gift—the wolf, the ability to transform into its likeness; the bear, its strength; the lion, its courage; and the eagle, its keen sight.

“Now you possess the virtues of these noble creatures,” said the fox. “But our journey is just beginning.”

Meanwhile, the woodcutter’s son had also left home to seek his fortune. By strange coincidence, he too encountered a wounded fox, showed it kindness, and gained it as a companion. Through a similar sequence of events, he also received the gifts of transformation, strength, courage, and vision from the same four animals.

Thus, unknown to each other, the twin brothers embarked on parallel adventures, each guided by a fox companion, each imbued with magical abilities.

The huntsman’s son eventually arrived at a kingdom shrouded in mourning. He learned that a fearsome dragon had been terrorizing the land, demanding a maiden sacrifice each month. The princess herself was to be the next victim, and the king had promised her hand in marriage to whoever could slay the beast.

“This is your first great challenge,” said the fox. “But beware—danger comes not only from the dragon’s teeth and flames but also from the envy of men.”

On the appointed day, the hunter positioned himself between the chained princess and the mountain cave from which the dragon would emerge. When the monstrous creature appeared, belching fire and smoke, the hunter called upon the strength of the bear, the courage of the lion, and the vision of the eagle. After a terrible battle that lasted from sunrise until noon, he finally slew the dragon, cutting out its seven tongues as proof of his victory.

Exhausted from the fight, the hunter collapsed beside a spring to rest. A treacherous marshal, who had observed the battle from a safe distance, approached the sleeping hero, slew him with his sword, and forced the terrified princess to name him as her savior. The marshal collected the dragon’s head as false evidence of his heroism and threatened to kill the princess if she ever revealed the truth.

The fox, witnessing its master’s murder, retrieved a magical root it knew grew by the spring. Placing the root on the hunter’s wounds, it restored him to life.

“Beware,” warned the fox. “The marshal has claimed your victory and forced the princess to support his lies. He will soon marry her and become heir to the kingdom.”

“Then I must expose his treachery,” declared the hunter.

“Patience,” counseled the fox. “We must proceed with caution, for he now holds power and the king’s ear.”

The hunter heeded this advice and waited until the day before the wedding. Then, disguised as a traveling minstrel, he gained entry to the royal banquet. There, he requested an audience with the king and asked to see the dragon’s head that the marshal had presented as proof of his victory.

“I notice something strange about this trophy,” the hunter observed. “A dragon of this size should have seven tongues, yet there are none in this head.”

The marshal grew pale but blustered, “Dragons have no tongues, everyone knows this!”

“Then how do you explain these?” countered the hunter, producing the seven tongues he had cut from the beast.

The princess, seeing her opportunity, declared, “This man speaks the truth! He is the one who saved me while the marshal watched from safety. When my rescuer fell asleep, the marshal murdered him—or so I thought—and threatened my life if I did not support his lies.”

The king, outraged at this deception, ordered the marshal’s immediate execution and offered the princess’s hand to the true hero. The hunter and princess were married amid great celebration, and the fox remained faithfully by his master’s side.

Now let us return to the woodcutter’s son, whose path had led him to a different kingdom. There, he discovered a city where all the stones, animals, and even people had been turned to marble by a wicked sorcerer. Only the royal palace remained partially unaffected, with the king, queen, and princess trapped in a state of half-life—moving like living statues, unable to speak or fully awaken.

“This is the work of a sorcerer who was refused the princess’s hand,” explained the fox. “He has cast this spell and hidden himself in the dark forest beyond the city walls. Only by defeating him can you break the enchantment.”

The woodcutter’s son ventured into the forest where he found the sorcerer performing dark rituals in a clearing. Drawing upon the gifts bestowed by the animals, he engaged the evil man in combat. The sorcerer, realizing he faced a formidable opponent, transformed himself into various fearsome creatures—a serpent, a fire-breathing dragon, and finally a giant eagle.

The hero countered each transformation with his own, ultimately defeating the sorcerer when, as an eagle himself, he drove the villain to earth and forced him to reverse the spell. As the sorcerer uttered the final words of the counter-enchantment, he crumbled to dust, his power broken forever.

Returning to the city, the woodcutter’s son found the inhabitants restored to life, celebrating their liberation. The grateful king offered him the princess’s hand and half the kingdom. Though the princess was indeed beautiful and kind, the hero felt an inexplicable restlessness.

“Something calls me elsewhere,” he confided to his fox companion. “Though I am honored by the king’s offer, I must continue my journey.”

“You feel the pull of your twin,” explained the fox. “Though separated since childhood, the bond between you remains unbroken. Your brother needs you now.”

Following the fox’s guidance, the woodcutter’s son journeyed to the kingdom where his brother had married the princess. He arrived to find the land once again in distress. A powerful neighboring king, having heard of the princess’s beauty, had declared war when his offer of marriage was refused. The kingdom was under siege, with the huntsman’s son leading the defense of the royal castle.

As the woodcutter’s son approached the battlefield, a strange sensation overcame him—a recognition of something familiar in the distant figure commanding the defenders. Without fully understanding why, he transformed into a lion and charged into the fray, fighting his way to his brother’s side.

The huntsman’s son, startled by the appearance of a lion that fought not against him but alongside him, was even more astonished when the beast transformed into his exact likeness.

“Who are you?” he demanded, sword raised defensively.

“I am your brother,” replied the woodcutter’s son. “Separated from you when we were children, I have been guided here by my fox companion.”

The huntsman’s son lowered his weapon, memories of his early childhood suddenly flooding back. “My brother,” he whispered, embracing him. “I have always felt something missing in my life, though I could never name it.”

United at last, the twin brothers combined their identical gifts and skills to drive back the invading army. The neighboring king, faced with such formidable opponents, sued for peace.

During the victory celebration, the brothers exchanged their life stories, marveling at the parallel paths they had traveled. The woodcutter’s son was introduced to his brother’s princess bride, and to everyone’s astonishment, the princess from the kingdom he had saved from the sorcerer arrived, having followed rumors of her rescuer’s whereabouts.

“It seems,” said the fox who had guided the huntsman’s son, appearing beside the fox who had guided the woodcutter’s son, “that your destinies were always intertwined.”

To the brothers’ amazement, the two foxes transformed into a man and woman of ethereal beauty—forest spirits who revealed they were the guardians of twins separated by fate.

“We have watched over you since your separation,” they explained. “Now that you are reunited and your trials complete, our task is finished.”

Before departing to return to their forest realm, the spirits bestowed one final gift—a golden apple that, when shared, would ensure the brothers would always be able to find each other, no matter how far apart they might travel.

The woodcutter’s son married the princess he had rescued from the sorcerer’s spell, and the two couples ruled their respective kingdoms with wisdom and compassion. They established a road between their lands, lined with golden apple trees, so that the path between them would always be clear and beautiful.

Each year on the anniversary of their reunion, the brothers would meet halfway along this road, sharing stories of their realms and families. Their children grew up knowing their cousins well, and the bond between the two branches of the family remained unbreakable through generations.

As for the original woodcutter and his wife, they lived to see their sons reunited and thriving, taking great joy in knowing that both their children had found happiness, purpose, and each other. And though the magical foxes were never seen again in their true forms, travelers along the golden apple road often reported seeing a pair of foxes watching from the forest edge—guardians still, perhaps, of the brothers whose extraordinary journey had begun in the humblest of circumstances and culminated in the strongest of bonds.