The three brothers and the golden apple
A downloadable game
New alpha in progress. Download will be available on 27.02
An ancient folklore tale. There was a woman with three sons. Although they were poor, they had one treasure: in their little yard grew a most wondrous apple tree. Every year, it bore but a single fruit – an apple of the purest gold. However, the family had never had the joy of picking the tree’s gift, as every year a dragon would swoop down and steal the apple just as it bloomed. The sons watched this repeat year after year, their anger growing at the dragon’s insolence. Finally, the eldest son decided to try and stop the monster. On the eve the apple was to bloom he went to his mother and said, “Mother, give me a knife and a bag of walnuts. I am going to guard the apple.” His mother begged him to be careful, but gave him the knife and walnuts. He took them and went to sit underneath the tree, eyes trained on the horizon. Night fell. The hours passed with not a sight of the dragon. The eldest son’s eyes began closing despite his efforts to keep awake by eating the walnuts and soon, he was fast asleep. When he awoke the next morning, the apple was gone. He went back to his mother, shame-faced. The next year, the second son decided to try his hand at stopping the dragon. He, too, asked for a knife and a bag of walnuts. This time, however, he climbed the tree and waited for the dragon there, knife at the ready. Unfortunately, it was no natural sleep that had fallen his brother and he, too, woke to an empty tree. On the third year, the third son went up to his mother and said, “Mother, give me the knife to guard the apple.” As he was her youngest, the mother was hesitant to let him near the tree, but finally relented to his determination. The older brothers, ashamed at their failures the years past, mocked him as he went to sit in the tree: “You better come back inside! If we could not catch the monster, you might well die, puny that you are!” The youngest did not answer. Like his second brother, he climbed the tree and trained his eyes on the branch that was to bear the golden apple.
