The Ugly Fairy

There was once a fairy who was learning how to be a fairy godmother. Most magic and wonderful,
she was the kindest and cleverest of all fairies. However, she was also a very ugly fairy. And no
matter how much she showed her wonderful qualities, it seemed that everyone was determined to
believe that the most important thing about a fairy was her beauty. In the fairy school they ignored
her, and every time she flew off on a mission to help a child or anyone else in trouble, before she
could say a word they were already screeching and yelling at her: "Ugly! Get out of here, weirdo!"
Despite her being little, her magic was very powerful, and more than once she had considered
using it to make herself beautiful. But then she remembered what her mother had always told
her: "My dear, you are what you are, warts and all; and never doubt that you are this way for a
very special reason..."
But then, one day, the witches of the neighbouring land invaded and destroyed the country,
putting all the fairies and wizards in prison. Our fairy, just before being attacked, put a spell on her
own clothes and, helped by her ugly face, she managed to pass for a witch. That way she was
able to follow the witches back to their den.
Once there she used her magic to prepare a big party for everyone, decorating the cave with bats,
toads and spiders. The music was provided by a pack of howling wolves. While the party was
in full swing, the fairy hurried off and set free all the fairies and wizards who had been imprisoned.
When all of them were free, they worked together on one big spell which succeeded in trapping
the witches inside the mountain for the next hundred years. And for the next hundred years,
and more, everyone remembered the great bravery and intelligence of the ugly fairy.
And from that day on no one in that land ever saw ugliness as a disgrace.Whenever someone
ugly was born, people were filled with joy, knowing that for that new person great things lay
ahead.
Princess of Fire
There was once and incredibly rich, beautiful, and wise Princess. Tired of false suitors who were
only interested in her money, she announced that she would only marry whoever managed to
present her with the most valuable, tender, and sincere gift of all.
The palace filled up with flowers and gifts of every kind, letters describing undying love, and
love-struck poems. Among all these wonderful gifts, she found a pebble, a simple dirty pebble.
Intrigued, she demanded to see whoever it was who had offered this gift. Despite her curiosity,she
pretended to be highly offended by the gift when the young man was brought before her. He
explained it to her like this,
"Dear Princess, this pebble represents the most valuable thing one can give - it is my heart. It is
also sincere, because it is not yet yours, and it is as hard as a stone. Only when it fills with love
will it soften and be more tender than any other."
The young man quietly left, leaving the Princess surprised and captivated. She fell so in love that
she took the little pebble with her wherever she went, and for months she regaled the young
man with gifts and attention. But his heart remained as hard as the stone in her hands. Losing
hope, she ended up throwing the pebble into a fire. In the heat of the fire, the sand crumbled from
around it, and from out of that rough stone a beautiful golden figure emerged. With this, the
Princess understood that she herself would have to be like the fire, and go about separating what
is useless from what is truly important.
During the following months she set about changing the kingdom, and devoted her life, her
wisdom, and her riches to separating what is truly valuable from what is unimportant. She
gave up the luxury, the jewels, the excess; and it meant that everyone in the kingdom now
had food to eat and books to read. So many people came away from their interaction with
the Princess enchanted by her character and her charisma. Her mere presence transmitted
such human warmth that they started to call her 'The Princess of Fire'.
And as with the pebble, the fire of her presence melted the hardness of the young man's heart. And
just as he had promised, he became so tender and considerate that he made the Princess happy till
the end of her days.

An Octopus in trouble
Once upon a time there was a shy and quiet octopus. He nearly always went about on his
own because, although he wanted to have lots of friends, he was too self-conscious.
One day, the octopus was trying to catch a very slippery oyster. Before he knew it, he had
tied himself into one massive knot, and he couldn't move. He tried with all his strength to
wriggle free, but it was no good. In the end, despite the great embarrassment he felt at being
seen in such a tangle, he had to ask for help from the passing fish. Many fish swam past,
ignoring him, but one very kind little fish offered to help to untie all those tentacles from all
those suckers.
The octopus felt heartily relieved when he was finally set free, but he was so shy that he didn't dare
talk to the fish and make friends with him. He simply thanked the fish, and quickly swam off.
Later, the octopus spent the whole night thinking that he had wasted a great opportunity to
make friends with that very kind little fish.
A couple of days later the octopus was resting between some rocks, when he noticed that everyone
around was hurriedly swimming past. He looked into the distance and saw an enormous fish
coming over to feed in that area. The octopus quickly hid; then,peeping an eye out from his
hiding place, he saw that the huge fish was chasing the kind little fish who had untied him. That
little fish really needed urgent help, but the big fish was so dangerous-looking that no one dared
to go near. The octopus, remembering how the little fish had helped him, felt that he had to do
whatever he could to come to his aid.
Without hesitating, the octopus shot out from the rocks, like a ray. He put himself right in the
path of the giant fish, and before the fish could do anything about it, the octopus had shot out the
biggest jet of ink of his life. He grabbed the little fish, and swam off back to hide in the rocks.
Everything happened so fast that the big fish had no time to react. However, he soon recovered
from the surprise. Off he went to the rocks, looking for the octopus and the little fish. Now he
really wanted to gobble them down!
Soon, though, he began feeling a terrible itch; first in his gills, and then in his fins, and then all
over his body. It turned out that this giant fish had a very artistic nature, he adored colours;
and the octopus's dark ink had given him a terrible allergy!!
So the big fish swam away, irritated all over.
As soon as he was gone, all the fish who had been hiding came and congratulated the octopus
for being so brave. Then the little fish told them all how he had helped the octopus a few days
earlier, but he had never known anyone be so grateful that they would end up doing
something so dangerous. Hearing this, the other fish discovered how nice the shy octopus
was, and everyone around was keen to be the friend of such a brave and honourable octopus.

The Clever Frog :

The Deep inside a forest, there was a pond. Many fishes, crabs and frogs lived in the pond.
Theirs was a happy and peaceful life.

Among them lived two beautiful fishes named Sahasrabuddhi and Shatabuddhi. They were
bigger than the other fishes in the pond. They were very proud of their good looks and
intelligence.

In the same pond lived a frog with his wife. His name was Ekkabuddhi. The fishes and frogs
were good friends. They all led an undisturbed life.

But one day two fishermen, returning from the river in the forest after fishing. came across
the pond. It was late in the evening and as usual all the fishes and frogs were at play.
Sahasrabuddhi, Shatabuddhi, Ekkabuddhi and many others joined the game. They leaped
high into the air and chased each other.

Seeing the beautiful scene the fishermen were amazed and stopped in their tracks.

“How beautiful they look?" said one fisherman.

“Yes. And so many of them too," replied the other.

“The pond does not look very deep," said the first fisherman. “Let us catch some of them."

“It is already very late and we have a heavy load to carry a long way. Let’s come back
tomorrow," suggested the other fisherman.

Ekkabuddhi turned to the others in the pond and said, “Did you not hear what the fishermen
said? We must leave this pond for a safer place."

“Just because two fishermen said they would come back to catch us tomorrow, you want us
to leave our home and flee. For all we know, they might not come back," said
Sahasrabuddhi.

“Even if they come back to catch us I know a thousand tricks to get away."

“And even if your thousand ways fail, I know another hundred ways to escape," said
Shatabuddhi. “ We will not let two fishermen scare us away from our me." All the others in
the pond agreed with them.

“Well! I know only one trick," said Ekkabuddhi. “To leave the place before danger strikes."
Ekkabuddhi and his wife left the pond in search of a safer place. All the fishes, crabs and
frogs laughed at them as they left.

The next day the fishermen returned to the pond and cast their net. “Ouch! This net is too
thick for me to bite through," cried Sahasrabuddhi.

“For me too," cried Shatabuddhi. “Only if I could get out, I could do something.

“We should have listened to Ekkabuddhi," cried a fish. “Now we are all doomed."

The fishermen caught them all and put all the fishes, frogs and crabs into a big basket and
took them away.

Ekkabuddhi, hiding behind a boulder with his wife turned to her and said, “If I had not acted
in time, we would also be in that basket with the others."