Adventures of a Boy is the title of an Azeri folktale first collected in Russian language in the early 20th century.
It is related, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 314, "Goldener", in that a boy and his friend horse escape from an attempt on their lives by the boy's parents, either on the boy or on the animal, and later he takes up a job as a king's gardener.
Summary
First version
In an Azeri tale titled "Приключения мальчика" ("Adventures of a Boy"), first collected in Nukha and published in 1904, a woman has a son and a foal who are very close friends. However, their close proximity drives the boy apart from his studies and even work. Intent on ending their friendship, the woman calls for a doctor and confides in him that she will pretend to be ill, and the doctor must prescribe as a cure foal meat.
It happens thus: the woman's husband is told by the doctor that only the foal's meat can cure her, and goes to talk to their son about killing his pet horse. The boy goes to talk to the foal and explain it the situation. The foal then begins to talk and advises the boy to go to his lesson, then come back home and ask his father for a last ride; the boy then must hold tight to the horse's body and whip it hard.
The boy follows the horse's plan, and both ride away from his parents' house and into the forest. He hears a loud roar: it is a tiger who has devoured a deer, but its antlers were stuck in the tiger jaw. The boy cuts off the deer's antlers to help the tiger, and the feline, in gratitude, lets him have one of its cubs. The same thing happens to a lion further ahead: the boy cuts off the deer's antlers from the lion's maw and, in gratitude, the lion gives him one of its cubs.
Later, the boy and the feline cubs arrive at a city. The cubs tell the boy to let the horse with them for safekeeping, while he goes to the city to finds a job, and, should he need the cubs' help, he has but to clap his hands. The boy follows their advice and finds a job as the local king's gardener. One day, he summons the cubs, who bring with them the foal, and instructs them to dig out the garden for him, while he rides his horse for a while. These events are witnessed by the king's youngest daughter, who falls in love with the gardener.
Some time later, the princesses send three melons of different states of ripeness to their father, as analogy for their marriageability. His viziers correctly interpret the princesses' intention, and the king orders for all youth in the city to assemble in a crowd, for the princesses will throw apples to their suitors of choice. During the occasion, the elder princess throws hers to the son of the head vizier, the middle one to a nobleman's son, while the youngest withhold hers. The king then asks if there is any person who is not present at the gathering, and is told of the lowly gardener boy. The gardener is brought forth, and the youngest princess throws him her apple, to the king's consternation. The monarch insists his daughter repeats the action: she avoids any other suitor, save for the gardener, to whom she throws her apple.
The king celebrates his elder daughters' marriages, while the gardener takes the princess to a shack near the garden. Later, the king falls ill, and the royal doctors say that only deer meat may cure him. His two sons-in-law go on the hunt, and the gardener asks his wife if her father can get him a horse. The princess goes to talk to her father, but he, still furious at her choice of husband, rebuff her. Despite the setback, the gardener summons his cubs and his horse friend, and they ride away to hunt.
The boy orders the cubs to drive all the animals to a single spot in a gorge for a better hunt. Suddenly, he sights his brothers-in-law coming. The men ask for some carcasses, and boy agrees to give them some. as he slaughters them the deer, he declares that the taste should go to the head and legs of the animal. The brothers-in-law bring back the deer meat and their wives prepare a meal for their ailing father. The king eats their dishes, which are tasteless, and does not get better. The youngest princess, however, brings him a meal made of the deer's head and legs, and the king's health improves.
Some time later, the king gets word that a neighbouring king is poised to attack his city, and marches with his army to defend his kingdom. However, the enemy army overpowers his, until a mysterious knight appears in the battlefield accompanied by two animals, a tiger and a lion. The knight destroys the enemy army. The king goes to meet his strange saviour and notices a wound on his arm, so he takes off a handkerchief and bandages his hand, then returns to the city.