“I was so sure it went this way,” the hunter thought to himself, puzzled, as he peered through the tangle of leaves. The creature had disappeared completely. There were not even hoof marks on the soft ground.
Disappointed, Datu Omar put down his spear. It would have made such a good catch! He did not care much for deer meat, but the one that had gotten away had antlers fit to make any hunter proud. He jabbed his spear into the ground several times. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.
Then he heard a rustle in the leaves not far away. Could that be his deer? Carefully, silently, he moved towards the sound. It was beyond the bushes. He squeezed through. He found himself in a little clearing in the forest. Yellow streaks of sunlight filtered through the leaves and flowers bloomed from the soft earth. Datu Omar felt like he was trespassing in someone’s garden.
Then he heard voices and immediately crept down to hide behind a prickly bush. The voices were followed by splashes. Later, when the voices and water-splashing had died down, Datu Omar raised his head to look.
A shiver shot up his spine when he saw them, because he knew they were maidens from another world. Their skin was transluscent; their hair, almost golden in the sunlight. They played in the water like little fish, sleek and swift. And how they laughed! Their laughter transformed the dark water into a playground of light. It made even the trees smile.
Datu Omar was spellbound. He was so taken by the beauty and lightness of the fairies that he began to wonder what it would be like to marry one. He was sure he could make any woman, even a fairy, happy. He would be the envy of the other men in the village.
He watched so silently that the fairies never suspected he was there. He watched as one by one they got out of the water, reached for their clothes, put on their wings, and flew off. Soon only three were left in the pool.
“It will be dark soon. We should go, too,” said one, in a silvery voice. “Come on.” And she climbed onto a rock to reach for her gown. The second followed, but the last fairy said, “Let me stay a while longer, please. You know how I love the water, and we aren’t allowed to come often enough. I’ll follow soon, I promise.”
She was the youngest and also the prettiest, and her sisters could not refuse her anything. So all they said was, “Well, don’t stay too long. Your skin will wrinkle and you’ll be too water-logged to fly.” And they laughed their little laughs as they rose into the sky. “Goodbye!”
Datu Omar could hear the fairy humming to herself as she swam. He acted swiftly and silently. He took her gown and wings, which were hanging from a branch near him. He folded them up into a small bundle and hid them in his hunting bag. Then he hid himself again a little farther away.
Soon enough the fairy rose out of the water. She reached for her clothes, but of course they were gone. Frantically she scanned the other trees for her clothes. They weren’t there either! The poor fairy didn’t know what to do. She sat down on the grass and cried.
Datu Omar emerged from his hiding place in the bushes. “Why are you crying, little one?” he asked. His voice was so full of concern that she looked up at him trustingly.
“I have lost my wings and my clothes,” she answered, “and now I cannot go home.”
“Come home with me, then. I can give you many beautiful gowns. Wings I cannot give you. But when you have tasted happiness on earth, you will have no need of wings.” Seeing her hesitate, he went on. “We have a pool near the village, with a waterfall. Do you know what a waterfall is?” Datu Omar spoke in such a friendly manner that the fairy decided to go with him. After all, what else could she do?
As soon as they arrived at his home, Datu Omar secretly placed her gown and wings inside a bamboo tube. He carefully hid the tube among the wooden rafters of the house, where she was not likely to see it.
In time the fairy grew to love the hunter. They were happy.
Sometimes the fairy longed for her old life in the sky, but Datu Omar was kind to her and gave her all she wanted.
Soon they had a child, a little girl who looked just like her mother. Datu Omar was very happy. Now he was sure his little family would stay together.
One day, while Datu Omar was out hunting and his fairy wife was in the kitchen cooking, the baby awoke from her afternoon nap and began to cry. She did not stop crying, even when her mother picked her up and sang a lullaby. She kept pointing at something in the ceiling. Puzzled, the fairy put her baby down and looked up to where she was pointing. It was a bamboo tube tucked carefully among the rafters above them. What could be inside?
The fairy took a chair and positioned it under the tube. Carefully she climbed on the chair and reached up behind the wooden beam to take the bamboo tube. She stepped down from the chair and opened it. The baby kept crying.
The fairy gasped. Inside the bamboo tube were her gown and wings! Her gown was creased, but still whole. She shook out her wings. They still glittered with star-shine! Then she knew exactly what she had to do.
She put them on. Then she went to her baby. She sang her child one last song and kissed her. As she was lowering her baby into the crib, the fairy wife heard her husband entering the house.
He was so surprised to see her in her fairy-clothes that he could not speak. She looked at him, and her eyes were liquid pools of sadness. “If only you had not kept it a secret,” she said with tears running down her cheeks. “If only you had trusted me enough to tell me. I would have told you what to do with these. We would have thrown them into the river, and then I could have stayed with you on earth and watched our daughter grow. Instead, you have kept them from me, and now I must go. Take care of her. Tell her I love her. Goodbye.”
Slowly she fluttered her wings and rose in the air — so light, so sad — out the window and into the sky.
