Presently he saw a wild duck and would have shot it, but the duck called to him, “Do not shoot me, dear Prince. Take me with you, and I will be a faithful servant. The time may come when you will need me.”
“Very well,” answered the Prince. “You also may come with us as a companion.”
So the Prince journeyed along with the bear at his heels and the duck flying overhead.
After a while they came to the edge of a river, and there lay a great fish, gasping out its life in the sunlight.
“Now at last I shall have a good meal,” said the Prince.
But the fish cried to him in a human voice, “Throw me back into the river, Prince, that I may live. The time may come when I can do you a good turn also.”
So the Prince had mercy on the fish and threw it back into the water.
After that he and his companions traveled on a long way. They journeyed over seven mountains and crossed seven seas, and so they came at last to the kingdom of Koshchei the Deathless.
There the Prince saw a little hut. It stood on hen’s legs and turned this way and that, whichever way the wind blew. There was no getting at the door. Then the Prince cried, “Little hut, stand the way my mother built you with your back away from me and your door before me.”
At once the hut whirled round and stood with the open door in front of him.