Carmen Bessie Smith

A haunted forest in Uzbekistan was home to a creepy beast that many warriors tried to defeat. They tried many ways to kill the beast, but some people were never seen again. One day, the khan made a bet that if someone killed the beast they would win a prize. The shoemaker’s son, Hassan, decided to give it a try.Hassan went to the Khan’s palace, and started his way to the forest armed with a sword, helmet, and shield. Tired from his travels and close encounters with unforgettable things, he decided to sleep. He then heard a quiet voice from the dark shadows and encountered what he thought was the beast he came to kill. It was a girl’s voice but from a big hairy spider. The boy was shocked to see the long hairy arms and legs, but he decided to let her sleep by his fire because she explained she was under a spell.In the morning, Hassan and the spider woke up to a monstrous roar shrieked by the real beast, he was ten times bigger than any lion and could talk! The girls and Hassan begged for their lives and explained that she had been cursed by a spell. The lion took them to his cave because he had magic ink to turn the spider back into a girl. While she was puuting the ink all over her, Hassan had an idea. He poured the