(571) But she pressed me, saying, “You must butcher this bull,” and I bound him and took the knife…
I took the knife to the bull’s throat, and as he was gnawing against the rope that bound him and mercilessly kicking the dirt beneath his hoofs, I looked at him. I looked at his body, writhing and convulsing in an attempt to hold on to its life. I looked at his soft fur and fought a strange desire to reach out and touch it. Lastly, I looked into his eyes, bulging out with fear. I kept my glance firmly on him and gasped at what I saw – I saw her. I saw the woman whom I spent so many nights mourning. The woman who had borne me a son, when my own wife could not. As the bull caught my staring at him, he stopped convulsing and returned my glance. There we stood looking at one another until the knife fell from my hand.
I told my wife that I was tired and that I would take care of the bull tomorrow. I had never felt such a strong connection with an animal before, I could not bare to kill the thing before I understood why I was so drawn to it. I laid on the damp dirt with it, and pet its fur gingerly. I could feel sadness in its eyes, however, the fear from earlier in the day had subsided. I asked him “Dear animal, What are you? Who are you? and why do I feel so drawn to you?”
Shortly after, my wife came to the barn to ask me when I was coming to bed. The previously calm bull began bellowing and convulsing, same as he did when I held a knife to his throat. My wife gasped in surprise at the sight of the writhing bull, and ran back into the house. I did not feel compelled to run after her and spend the rest of the night dealing with her annoyance at not killing the animal earlier. So I stayed with the bull.
The following morning I strolled into my Kingdom, desperate for my bed and some food to eat. A disparate maid came running to me “Your Highness, your wife, She’s gone.” “Gone, what do you mean gone?” I responded. I ran up the stairs, and into the room that we shared, and sure enough, her drawer’s were emptied and boudoir cleaned.
I no longer felt hungry. I did not know what to do with myself. I wrapped the rope around the bull’s neck and walked him to the market. At the market, a south-sayer circled us and said “Your Highness, there is something peculiar about your bull.” He asked to examine the bull, and I obliged, curious as to what he was thinking about the animal with whom I felt such a connection. He touched and smelled the bull, and looked at me with astonishment in his eyes and said “Your Highness, this bull here.. he is your son, the one that you thought ran away from you.”
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I started pleading with the south-sayer to convert the bull back to his human form this instant. The south-sayer said a spell and threw dirt at the bull as a crowd gathered. The bull started spinning, and from the cycles emerged my dear son. We embraced and cried, and I held him as he told me all about what my wife did to him. Together, we vowed to find her and kill her…
Ah! The moment of suspense at the end sets up a different kind of story–one of revenge–for the next night.
The following night, Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “For God’s sake, sister, if you are not too sleepy, tell us what happened to the king and his freed son.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:
After my son became a man again, we set off to take revenge on my distrustful wife. But, alas! She left without a trace! Still, my son had a hunch: “We should check her father’s home,” he told me. I agreed, but only after interrogating all of her maidservants. We brought the soothsayer along to help enhance our questioning methods and together with our guards rushed back into the palace. I ordered my men to round up every single one of my wife’s servants, and bring them in chains to the royal courtyard. Once they were all collected, my son cried out in a commanding voice, “Listen here, treacherous women! If any of you have any information regarding the whereabouts of my step mother, speak now or face the dire consequences.” To back up his threat, I gave the soothsayer the signal to work his magic. Suddenly, he yelled out an incantation and chucked a fistful of dust at the lady nearest to him. Then, without warning, she began to spin violently, and from the cycles emerged a little piglet. She squealed and ran away, never to be seen again. At this, the maidservants’ morale was crushed, and they gave up their mistress’ position. The old and most prominent amongst them proclaimed, “She fled toward the hills, to her brother’s house. Unbind us and go on your way, and we will go on caring for your household, as we always have.” Her words were wise, and I ordered my men to do as she asked. My son and I mounted our steeds and set out on the road to the hills with the soothsayer in tow, and began scheming on how to capture my wife.
‘But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister Dinarzad said, “Sister, what an awesome story!” Shahrazad replied, “The rest is even more awesome.” The king said to himself, “I will not have her put to death until I hear how the king captures his wife; then I will put her to death, as is my custom with the others.”