The Child of Evil

Chapter five

Naruto point of veiw ~ I sighed laying in my sleeping bag. I was trying to sleep but Sai kept having nightmares. Shikamaru couldn't sleep because of his shadows that were reacting to the darkness. And Sasuke just couldn't fall asleep. Another thing Shino and Choji ended coming into my tent because Menma and Kiba were being annoying.

Honestly why is my life like this. This is so fucking annoying. I sighed "Naruto can you tell us a bedtime story"Choji asked "what in the world would compel you to ask me to red you a bedtime story Choji"I asked. Seriously what is wrong with this kid. Why would he ask me of all people to tell him a bedtime story.

"Don't know"He said and I sighed knowing fully well that he wasn't going to fall asleep without the story and that it would be good for the others to listen to the story so they can try and get some sleep as well. So I gave in and asked.

"what kind of story do you want to here"I asked "doesn't really matter but nothing scary and something with a happy ending as well"he said making me sigh. I then proceeded to tell them one of the bed time stories mom used to tell me when I was younger.

Once upon a time, a certain king was hunting in a great forest, and he chased a wild beast so eagerly that none of his attendants could follow him. When evening drew near he stopped and looked around him, and then he saw that he had lost his way. He sought a way out, but could find none.

Then he perceived an aged woman with a head which nodded perpetually, who came towards him, but she was a witch. Good woman, said he to her, can you not show me the way through the forest.

Oh, yes, lord king, she answered, that I certainly can, but on one condition, and if you do not fulfil that, you will never get out of the forest, and will die of hunger in it.

What kind of condition is it, asked the king.
I have a daughter, said the old woman, who is as beautiful as anyone in the world, and well deserves to be your consort, and if you will make her your queen, I will show you the way out of the forest. In the anguish of his heart the king consented, and the old woman led him to her little hut, where her daughter was sitting by the fire.

She received the king as if she had been expecting him, and he saw that she was very beautiful, but still she did not please him, and he could not look at her without secret horror. After he had taken the maiden up on his horse, the old woman showed him the way, and the king reached his royal palace again, where the wedding was celebrated.

The king had already been married once, and had by his first wife, seven children, six boys and a girl, whom he loved better than anything else in the world.

As he now feared that the stepmother might not treat them well, and even do them some injury, he took them to a lonely castle which stood in the midst of a forest.

It lay so concealed, and the way was so difficult to find that he himself would not have found it, if a wise woman had not given him a ball of yarn with wonderful properties. When he threw it down before him, it unrolled itself and showed him his path.

The king, however, went so frequently away to his dear children that the queen observed his absence, she was curious and wanted to know what he did when he was quite alone in the forest.

She gave a great deal of money to his servants, and they betrayed the secret to her, and told her likewise of the ball which alone could point out the way. And now she knew no rest until she had learnt where the king kept the ball of yarn, and then she made little shirts of white silk, and as she had learnt the art of witchcraft from her mother, she sewed a charm inside them.

And once when the king had ridden forth to hunt, she took the little shirts and went into the forest, and the ball showed her the way.

The children, who saw from a distance that someone was approaching, thought that their dear father was coming to them, and full of joy, ran to meet him.