The Three Citrons of Love

The Three Citrons of Love

Once, in Portugal, there lived a king with a son who loved long walks and hunting above all things.

One day the prince rode out beyond the city. The sun stood high, dry grass scented the fields, and the road wound between the hills. By an old stone wall he saw an elderly woman sitting in the shade. She looked very tired.

“Is everything all right?” the prince asked.

“I have not eaten for a long while,” the woman said. “And the village is still far away.”

The prince had no money with him, but his servants carried a basket with his lunch.

“Then take my food,” he said. “It is easier for me to wait until evening than for you to walk hungry.”

The woman ate, drank, and thanked him.

“I have no gold with which to repay you,” she said. “But I have something more interesting.”

She drew out three large, fragrant citrons. They looked like lemons, but were larger, rounder, and so bright that they seemed to hold sunlight inside them.

“Take these. But remember two things. Open a citron only beside a spring or fountain. And cut it lengthwise, not across.”

“Why?” the prince asked.

The old woman smiled. “If I explained everything, it would no longer be a fairy tale.”

The prince put the citrons away and continued his journey.

At first he honestly meant to follow her advice. But after a few hours, curiosity won.

“What could possibly be inside an ordinary fruit?” he thought.

There was no water nearby, but he cut open the first citron anyway.

The peel cracked softly, the air flashed with golden light, and a girl in a light dress appeared before him.

“Water, please!” she cried. “Quickly!”

The prince ran to look for water, but dry fields stretched all around.

The light around the girl began to fade. In a moment she became a golden ray and returned to the empty citron peel.

The prince stood still.

“So the old woman had warned me for a reason.”

He was deeply sorry. Yet two fruits remained.

He promised himself not to hurry again.

Still, a few miles later, curiosity whispered once more: “Perhaps the second citron is different.”

The prince stopped.

“I shall only look,” he told himself.

And he opened the second citron.

Light appeared again, and a second girl stepped from it.

“Give me water!”

The prince looked about. There was no stream and no well.

“Wait! I will find some!”

But it was too late. The girl also became a gleam of light and slipped back into the citron.

Now the prince did not make excuses.

“Twice I heard good advice and twice I chose my own way. I will not waste a third chance.”

He put the last citron in his bag and walked until he heard water murmuring.

Beyond the trees was an old stone fountain. Water fell in a thin stream into a round basin.

The prince sat beside it, scooped up water in a little shell he found nearby, and only then carefully cut the third citron lengthwise.

A golden ray rose above the trees.

From it stepped a third girl.

“Water, please.”

This time the prince was ready. He gave her the shell at once.

The girl drank, took a deep breath, and smiled.

“Now all is well.”

She was very tired after her magical awakening, and the prince did not want to make her walk to the palace.

“Wait here in the shade,” he said. “I will return with a carriage.”

An old tree with wide branches grew beside the fountain. The girl climbed a little way up so that she could wait quietly and would not fear passing travellers.

The prince rode away.

Soon a woman came to the fountain carrying a copper jug. She saw a beautiful face reflected in the water and at first believed it was her own.

She smoothed her hair, smiled at the reflection, and suddenly heard soft laughter from above.

“Who is there?”

She looked up and saw the girl in the tree.

“How beautiful you are!” the stranger said sweetly. “Come down. I will help you comb your hair while you wait.”

“Thank you, but I would rather stay here,” said the girl. “The prince will return soon.”

When she heard of the prince, the woman became even friendlier.

“I will only untangle your hair. Can you ride to a palace with twigs caught in your braids?”

In truth, she was a sorceress. She wanted to know why the prince had left a strange girl by the fountain.

She coaxed for so long that the girl finally climbed down.

The sorceress began to comb her hair and secretly slipped a long enchanted pin into it.

At once the girl became a white dove and flew above the trees.

“Now we shall see what happens next,” whispered the sorceress.

She climbed into the tree to wait.

When the prince returned, he was greatly surprised.

“Where is the girl I left here?”

“It is I,” the sorceress said quickly. “An old spell is upon me. Sometimes my appearance changes so much that no one can recognize me.”

The prince was not sure that he believed her. But he did not wish to leave someone alone at the fountain either.

“Very well. Come to the palace. We will understand this there.”

At the palace, the sorceress was given a guest room. The prince was courteous, but the more he spoke with her, the more he felt that she was not the girl who had stepped from the third citron.

The next morning he went into the garden.

An old gardener was working there. Suddenly a white dove landed on a branch nearby.

“Gardener, gardener,” she cooed, “how does the prince fare?”

The gardener was so startled that he nearly dropped his watering can.

The dove flapped her wings and flew away.

The gardener told the prince at once.

“If she returns, answer her calmly and do not frighten her,” said the prince.

The next day the dove returned.

“Gardener, how does the prince fare?”

“He fares well,” replied the gardener, as he had been told.

The dove tilted her head.

“And I fly alone and cannot return to the place where I was meant to go.”

Then she vanished again.

When the prince heard these words, his heart tightened.

“We must try to keep her close, but without hurting her.”

The gardener laid a soft ribbon on the branch. The dove came, saw it, and seemed to laugh.

“No, a ribbon will not hold me.”

The next day, a silver cord lay there.

“Silver is not for me either,” cooed the dove.

Then they tried a golden cord.

The dove passed that by as well.

At last the prince asked for a light, shining loop strung with small pieces of glass that sparkled in the sun like drops of water.

The following morning the dove came, saw the sparkle, and flew very close. The gardener gently covered her with a light net.

“Do not be afraid,” the prince said, taking the bird in his hands. “I will not hurt you.”

He stroked her head and suddenly felt something hard.

“A pin?”

The prince drew it out carefully.

The familiar golden light flashed.

The dove vanished, and before him stood the same girl he had left by the fountain.

“It is truly you!”

“It is,” she smiled. “And now I will tell you what happened.”

The prince listened to every word.

The sorceress was called to the hall. When she understood that her deception had been revealed, she stopped pretending.

“I wanted another person’s fate,” she said darkly.

“You cannot take another person’s fate as if it were another person’s dress,” said the prince. “You will leave this place and never trouble this girl again.”

The sorceress was sent away from the palace and never returned.

The prince then spoke with the girl from the third citron for a long time. He wanted to know not only how she had appeared, but what she loved, what she feared, and what she dreamed of.

So they slowly became friends and, later, understood that they wished to remain together.

At their wedding, bowls of water stood beside every table, with golden citrons lying near them.

“Why so much water?” the guests laughed.

The prince laughed too.

“So that I never forget: good advice is useful only when you truly listen to it.”

And the girl added, “And so that everyone remembers: true love does not begin with a magic fruit or a beautiful face. It begins when people see one another as they are and still choose to stand side by side.”

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨