So he took the twelfth key, unlocked the twelfth door, and peeped inside the twelfth cellar. It was empty except for one huge cask with an open bunghole.
"I don't see anything in here to be afraid of," he said.
Just then he heard a groan from inside the cask and a voice called out in a begging, whining tone:
"A cup of water, brother! A cup of water! I am dying of thirst!"
Now the Prince thought to himself that it was a terrible thing for any living creature to be dying of thirst. So he hurried out, got a cup of water, and poured it into the open bunghole. Instantly one of the three iron hoops that bound the cask burst asunder and the voice inside the cask said:
"Thank you, brother! Thank you! Now give me another cup! I am dying of thirst!"
So the Prince poured in a second cup and the second iron hoop snapped apart and when the voice still begged for more water he poured in a third cup. The third hoop broke, the staves of the cask fell in, and a horrid dragon sprang out. Before the Prince could move, he had flown through the door of the twelfth cellar into the eleventh cellar, then into the tenth cellar, the ninth cellar, the eight cellar, the seventh cellar, the sixth, the fifth, the fourth, the third, the second, the first, and so out into the garden. The Prince reached the garden just in time to see the monster overpower the Princess.
"Alas, my dear one, what have you done?" cried the poor Princess as the dragon carried her off. "The enchantment would soon have been broken and I could have married you if only you had not gone into the twelfth cellar!"
Heartbroken at what had happened, the Prince mounted his horse and started off in pursuit of the dragon.
"I must do what I can to rescue my loved one," he said, "even if it costs me my life."