Then he set off running, and he ran and ran as hard as he could. Soon after the old she dragon discovered that it was not the golden hare, but her own daughter, so she set about chasing after them and destroying them both, for the daughter had made haste in the meantime to join Ivan. But as the she dragon couldn't run herself, she sent her husband, and he began chasing them and they knew he was coming, for they felt the earth trembling beneath his tread. Then the she dragon's daughter said to Ivan:
"I hear him running after us. I'll turn myself into standing wheat and thee into an old man guarding me, and if he ask thee, 'Hast thou seen a lad and a lass pass by this way?' say to him: 'Yes, they passed by this way while I was sowing this wheat!'"
A little while afterwards the she dragon's husband came flying up.
"Have a lad and a lass passed by this way?" said he.
"Yes," replied the old man, "they have."
"Was it long ago?" asked the she dragon's husband.
"It was while this wheat was being sown," replied the old man.
"Oh!" thought the serpent, "this wheat is ready for the sickle; they couldn't have been this way yesterday."
So he turned back. Then the she dragon's daughter turned herself back into a maiden and the old man into a youth, and off they set again. But the dragon returned home, and the she dragon asked him: