se.

The moment Petru was seated on the horse he felt his arm three times as
strong as before, and even his heart felt braver.

'Sit firmly in the saddle, my lord, for we have a long way to go and no
time to waste,' said the brown horse, and Petru soon saw that they were
riding as no man and horse had ever ridden before.

On the bridge stood a dragon, but not the same one as he had tried to
fight with, for this dragon had twelve heads, each more hideous and
shooting forth more terrible flames than the other. But, horrible though
he was, he had met his match. Petru showed no fear, but rolled up his
sleeves, that his arms might be free.

'Get out of the way!' he said when he had done, but the dragon's heads
only breathed forth more flames and smoke. Petru wasted no more words,
but drew his sword and prepared to throw himself on the bridge.

'Stop a moment; be careful, my lord,' put in the horse, 'and be sure you
do what I tell you. Dig your spurs in my body up to the rowel, draw
your sword, and keep yourself ready, for we shall have to leap over both
bridge and dragon. When you see that we are right above the dragon cut
off his biggest head, wipe the blood off the sword, and put it back
clean in the sheath before we touch earth again.'

So Petru dug in his spurs, drew his sword, cut of the head, wiped the
blood, and put the sword back in the sheath before the horse's hoofs
touched the ground again.

And in this fashion they passed the bridge.

'But we have got to go further still,' said Petru, after he had taken a
farewell glance at his native land.

'Yes, forwards,' answered the horse; 'but you must tell me, my lord, at
what speed you wish to go. Like the wind? Like thought? Like desire? or
like a curse?'

Petru looked about him, up at the heavens and down again to the earth.
A desert lay spread out before him, whose aspect made his hair stand on
end.

'We will ride at different speeds,' said he, 'not so fast as to grow
tired nor so slow as to waste time.'

And so they rode, one day like the wind, the next like thought, the
third and fourth like desire and like a curse, till they reached the
borders of the desert.

'Now walk, so that I may look about, and see what I have never seen
before,' said Petru, rubbing his eyes like one who wakes from sleep, or
like him who beholds something so strange that it seems as if... Before
Petru lay a wood made of copper, with copper trees and copper leaves,
with bushes