Yamato and the Golden Apple

Yamato had infiltrated the bandits castle, disguised himself as a girl, and killed the bandit. Now finally he could rescue his princess that the bandit had kidnapped. He searched every room in the castle until he found his beloved princess, at last he would have her back in his arms. But this didn’t go quite as well as Yamato had hoped. As he opened the door and peered into the last room in the castle, he saw not his beautiful princess, but an ogre. Yamato reacted much like Lord Farquadd did when he found out Fiona was an ogre, and was absolutely shocked and disgusted. The bandit and his minions knew they would eventually be overcome by the great hero Yamato and so to make his life a little more difficult they turned the princess into an ogre.

Yamato had no idea what to do, he has made a vow to the princess that he would marry her, and warriors can’t break their vows. So unfortunately Yamato had to go through with the wedding and marry the ogre princess. Yamato reached out to every sorceress, doctor, and preacher that he could to try to find a cure for the princess, but nothing seemed to work. So Yamato was stuck in this marriage with the princess. On top of the spell turning the princess into an ogre, it also made her extremely naggy and clingy. Yamato couldn’t stand this, and would find any excuse that he could to get away from the princess. This included yard work, quests, and random adventures.

On this particular adventure Yamato found himself sailing to a nearby island for the day to get away from his irritating wife. Yamato arrived at island and docked his boat, then went to skip rocks along the beach as he had done many times before to relax him. But today Yamato didn’t feel like skipping rocks, instead he sat down and prayed to whatever god or goddess that could hear him, that his wife would be rid of this awful curse and be turned back to normal.

Just as he finished his prayer, the great goddess Sharkisha appeared. Sharkisha told Yamato that if he could retrieve one of the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides then she would cure his wife. Yamato knew that this task would be very dangerous because the tree that the golden apples laid upon was guarded by the evil dragon, Ladon. Knowing the great risks that came with this dangerous task, Yamato accepted.

Yamato knew that his task was going to be a challenge, but that it wasn’t impossible. Many years ago that the famous Greek hero Hercules had stolen a golden apple from the tree and lived to tell the tale. Now he was no where near as strong and mighty as Hercules, so he would need to figure out another way to get past the beast. It took Yamato almost a full day of searching through Wikipedia, but by the end of it he had found what he was looking for. He then set his sails for the island of the Garden of the Hesperides.

 

Ladon the Dragon

Yamato arrived at the island and entered the dreaded garden. The garden was massive so it took Yamato awhile to find the apple tree, but at last he saw it and wrapped around the tree was Ladon. As him approached the enormous tree Ladon arose and stood ready to attack the hero. This is where Yamato’s plan comes into action. Yamato continued to approach the tree and as he did he whipped out a flute from his bag and began to play. This caught the great beast off guard and he started to lower his guard and sway with the music. And within minutes Ladon was out cold, much like Fluffy in the Harry Potter. Yamato then skipped over to the tree grabbed an apple and continued to play until he was safely aboard his ship.

Yamato arrived back at the island and Sharkisha appeared to him and he gave her the golden apple that he had promised her. And with a snap of her finger she turned the princess back into how she was before. Yamato and her continued living together in harmony for the remainder of their years.

Authors notes: I took the original story of Yamato and the golden apple and added my own twist on it to where it related to the labor that Hercules had to perform. The story also talked about how Yamato longed to be away from his wife all the time so I thought that was a good tie in into the golden apple story.

Source: Japanese Mythology