Whether this is a true tale or not nobody knows, but there was once a good and honest soldier who served a wicked tsar for many years and when his term of service was over he got nothing in reward. He was sent home with only a loaf of bread and three silver pieces, and as he set out on his way he said to himself:
"You wait, you wicked tsar, I'll deal with you as you deserve yet!" And instead of going home he made straight for the tsar's palace which was far away, beyond the wide fields, the hills and the forests. He walked and he walked and deep in a forest thicket he met a man who was very, very tall, taller than the fir trees whose crowns reached the sky. So tall was he that the hat he wore pierced the clouds which hid its tip from sight.
"Where are you going, my lad?" the giant asked.
And the soldier told him everything, saying among other things that he had been in the tsar's service for ten whole years and had learnt to shoot and to march.
"To march?" said the giant, surprised. "That means that you and I are brothers, for I am Fast-Foot the Giant, and if there is anywhere I want to go, all I have to do is take one step, and I am there!"
"Do come with me, Fast-Foot!" the soldier said. "The two of us should be able to teach the wicked tsar a lesson!"
They walked on together and they saw a man lifting a whole mountain together with the forest that grew on it and thrusting it into his sack!
"What are you doing?" they asked him.
"The mountain was in my way," the giant replied. "I am going to take it away from here and dump it into the sea."
"Who are you?"
"Fell-Forest the Giant."
"Do be a brother to us, Fell-Forest, and come with us!" the soldier said. "The three of us will teach the wicked tsar a lesson he won't forget!"
The three of them went on together, they walked and they walked, and lo! —there before them was a wide field with seven windmills in it, their arms turning so fast that they could hardly be seen. They came up closer and saw a man sitting in a tree in front of the windmills. He had stopped up one of his nostrils with his finger and was blowing with the other.
The soldier saw that Wind-Maker too could be of great help to him.
"Come with us, Wind-Maker!" he said. "The four of us will teach the wicked tsar a lesson he won't forget!"
"That we will!" said Wind-Maker.
The four of them went on together, Fast-Foot at the head with the soldier perched on the brim of his hat, Fell-Forest behind him, and Wind-Maker making up the rear, and were soon at the gate of the wicked tsar's palace.
The palace was guarded by devils, but the soldier went boldly up to the chief of the guards and said:
"Let me in, for I want to see the tsar!"
The devil made a face.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I am a soldier and I served the tsar for many years," the soldier replied. "But all I got in return for my services was a loaf of bread and three silver pieces. Now, I ask you, was that fair?"
And the old devil, who was sick and tired ol staying put in one and the same place and guarding the palace, said:
"Here's what we'll do. We'll run a race, you and I, and if you win I'll let you into the palace!"
"Agreed!" said the soldier. "Only it doesn't befit a man of my rank to take part in a race, so, if you don't mind, my servant will run instead of me."
"I don't mind at all, it's all the same to me!" the devil said.
Fast-Foot stepped forward, and the devil took his place beside him, jumping up and down in his eagerness to begin the race. But before he had so much as warmed up for it Fast-Foot took one step and then another and reached the finish.
After that there was nothing more to be said, and the devil let the soldier into the palace.
Now, the wicked tsar was helpless without his guard and feared to so much as ask the soldier what had brought him to the palace, so the soldier was the first to speak.
"I served you for ten whole -years, tsar," said he, "and all I got in return for my services was a loaf of bread and three silver pieces!"
"What is it you would like to have, soldier?"
"Your daughter's hand in marriage!"
Now, this pleased the princess very little indeed and the tsar even less.
"That is something you cannot have!" he said. "But I'll let you have plenty of gold and silver and gems instead."
The soldier thought this over.
"It's a bargain if you'll let me have as much gold and silver as my servant can carry away with him," said he.
The tsar was overjoyed.
"Agreed! Call your servant, soldier!" he said.
The soldier called Fell-Forest, and the tsar bade twelve cartloads of silver to be brought from his treasury. But Fell-Forest poured it all into his sack, and, lifting the sack, said:
"There's so little here, no one will notice that I have anything at all in my hand!"
The tsar then ordered twelve cartloads of gold to be brought him. But Fell-Forest poured all of it into his sack, and, using both hands this time, lifted the sack easily.
At the tsar's orders, cartloads of diamonds and other gems arrived next, and Fell-Forest, who was all impatience by now, thrust them into his sack, carts and all, and, throwing the sack over his shoulder, left the palace together with his friends.
The evil tsar was very angry, for he had lost all his silver and gold, and all his diamonds too. He mustered a large host with a captain in command and sent it after the soldier and his friends. The host soon overtook them.
"You there with the sack, come here!" the captain shouted. "You and the others are my prisoners."
Wind-Maker burst out laughing. He stopped up one of his nostrils with his finger and blew with the other, and the whole host was blown straight to the clouds. Only the captain was left and he took to his heels and ran to tell the wicked tsar of all that had happened.
The tsar heard him out and was very frightened.
"What am I without my riches and the princess without her jewels?" he asked himself. "Better have her marry the soldier and get back the diamonds, the gold and the silver."
And so it came about that the soldier married the princess and began ruling the realm instead of the wicked tsar. He drove out the devils and lived in great luxury to the end of his days.