The two children were jumping on the boy’s bed. Their laughter had filled the whole house all evening, but now it was about time for them to finally go to bed.
“Calm down, little ones! It’s time for some sleep now!”
The young woman entering the room gave them an apologizing smile, for she knew how much they would have enjoyed staying up a little more with her.
The young boy gave her a sad look in return.
“You know we don’t want to! Why can’t we stay up a little longer?”
Immediately his younger sister agreed with him: “Oh yeah! He is so right! It’s not so late yet, is it?”
The young woman gave the children another smile while she moved each of them into their right bed.
“It is very late already, honey! If you’d stay up longer, your parents would catch us and get angry, for I didn’t send you to bed in time! And that’s something we don’t really want to happen, do we?”
“But… but…” The young boy’s eyes were searching his sister’s, for he couldn’t find another reason to let them be allowed to stay up any longer.
“No complaining anymore, little one! It’s bedtime!”
As she had fixed the children in their beds, she was about to leave the room, but the girl suddenly had an idea: “I want a goodnight story!”
The woman stopped in the doorframe, turning around.
“Yeah, I want one too! Tell us a story! Oh please!”
Within less than a second, the two children had found their rhythm and started begging for a goodnight story.
“Oh well, you’ll get your story!” the woman said laughing. “But you have to promise me that you will go to bed after I’ve finished, will you?”
“For sure!” was the children’s immediate answer.
So she sat down on the bed of the girl, with the boy on her left and the girl on her right side, their bright eyes staring at her with silent expectation.
She took a deep breath and started her story.
“Once upon a time, there was a village standing on the edge of a big green wood. And if you were only looking for it long enough, you’d find a lake in the middle of this wood.
It was a very big lake, and the ones who found it used to call it the Lake of the Lilium, for there were hundreds of lilies all around it.
Oh, and what lilies they were! They were white as snow, though when winter came, the snow looked grey next to them. And they always were in bloom!
And now once there was a boy who got lost in the woods. He felt alone and scared as the night broke, and he still couldn’t find his way home. But then he spotted a light between the trees, and as he had thought them to be the lights of the houses of the village, he started running. After breaking through the bushes, he found himself at the lake. When looking around him, he realized that the light had come from the seemingly glowing white lilies. And though it was not his home, the boy felt very comforted by the light and lay down next to the biggest and brightest bush. He closed his eyes and fell asleep immediately, and when he woke up the next day, he was able to find his way home again.
From this day on, he always came to the lake whenever he had nothing to do or felt lonely or simply wanted to have a look at the beautiful flowers. He even sometimes had had a bath in the pure water of the lake.”
“But that’s not it, is it?” interrupted the young girl.
“What?” The woman looked at her in surprise, as she hadn’t seen this coming.
“That is not the end of the story, is it?” the girl asked anxiously.
The woman laughed a little and brushed her cheek with her fingers while she answered: “No, it is not. No worries, the story is a little longer.”
Calmed, the young girl laid her head in the lap of the woman again, and the boy sighed, as if he’d wanted to complain about his sister’s fears.
“So, anyways, one evening, while the sun was already low in the sky, he broke through the bushes in a run, crying. Heavy tears were covering his face, dropping to the earth. He let himself fall beneath his favourite bush of lilies, where he always used to sit and think about the world, and there he lay for a very long time. He didn’t stop crying, not one moment.
And as the sun disappeared, he suddenly heard a voice speaking to him.
‘What’s wrong?’
It was the calm voice of a young girl asking him. Just a second after realizing there had been someone talking to him, he could feel a touch on his cheek.
He slowly raised his head, and through the tears he saw a young girl dressed in white, with pale skin and silver shining hair standing in front of him. She was holding a tissue in front of his face, waiting for him to take it and dry his tears with it.
Slowly, he tried to sit up and make his face look a little better. He didn’t want to show all his weakness to the kid, as he didn’t want to worry her. But when looking at her face once again, he realized that she couldn’t be just some girl that had been walking this way.
It would have been much too late for any girl, and also her dress was far too white. No one ever dressed his children this way unless there was a wedding of some close relative. And, on top of all, he had not yet ever seen a girl with such shiny hair, and then it was silver!”
“What was she then?”
Again, the girl hadn’t been able to hold her tongue.
The woman gave her a warm smile and answered: “I won’t tell you, honey. You have to find out yourself while I’m telling you the story.”
“And now let her continue! Maybe she would have already told us, if you wouldn’t have interrupted her!”
The boy was a little annoyed by his sister, but the woman ran her fingers through his hair and said: “Hush now, you too! If you will keep quiet just a little longer, you’ll find out everything you want to know!
So, where did I stop? Oh, yeah, he had just realized this wasn’t just any girl sitting opposite him. So he decided on telling her about what made him cry.
He said: ‘My beloved father has died an hour ago, exactly three years after my mother has faded away! Now he is dead, we don’t know how to keep the owner of our grounds from throwing us out of our home, so they can use it for themselves or a harder working family. And as I am the eldest of the four of us, it would be my duty to keep the others save and raise them. But how can I do this? I have no idea how I could ever possibly protect them…
And, on top of all, the landlord has taken away all our treasures, even the medallion I used to wear around my neck every hour of the day, every day of the year, as it was the last present I got from the lady I loved so much so many years ago, but who then suddenly disappeared without leaving behind a single message!’
The girl gave him an intense look, and he could see the pity shining beneath their deep blue surface.
‘A poor man you are. Indeed, that’s what you are…’
Maybe he only imagined it, but to him it looked as if she’d shed a tear for his destiny, and the tear was shining like only the purest crystal in the shiniest light ever could.
‘So then, my old friend, I will try to help you.’
The young man was looking at her in surprise.
‘You… You can help me? But… how?’
She smiled a little while rising to her feet.
‘I may look like some young girl, but I’m far more powerful than you could ever expect me to be, for I had already been here at this place long before the birth of your grandparents, and will hopefully still be here after your great-grandchildren have long died.’
His mouth fell open as he realized the girl in front of him must have been some kind of nymph or spirit of the wood.
‘So, I do not yet know whether I can really help you and all your family, but I will try my best.
I know about the pendant you wore around your neck every day and night, as I have seen it a lot throughout all the years you came here to think about life and death, joy and sorrow. Anyways, already when seeing it the first time, I knew that there was some strong magic about it. It would bind you to someone very special.
You have to try and get it back from the landlord and then give it to me, so I can try to help you in your misery.’
Though his spirits had constantly risen throughout the first part of her telling, they sank even lower after the last sentence.
‘How am I to ever get this medallion back again?’
The girl gave him another intense look and then closed her eyes.
‘That I don’t know. How should I? But I will give you some help for making your task easier.’
As if she had spoken a command, there suddenly was a beautiful bird flying out of his favourite lily-bush. It was of a shining white, its tail ending with tiny silver feathers. Its eyes were of a bright blue, like a star high above him in the night sky.
‘This is one of my best friends, and I will let him go with you. I hope he will be some help for you. Though he might look like a bird, he is much more than an animal on the fence, waiting for the hunter to shoot it.’”
“And that is all she gives him?”
Surprised, the woman turned to the boy, who had just been complaining about the wood spirit’s help.
“Yeah, it is the only help he gets. But you have to listen to her words carefully: it’s not only some bird singing it’s song all day without thinking, dancing in front of the hunters flint until he finally shoots it.”
“Now, don’t you have some more imagination? I want to listen to the story!” the girl told her brother. And when they both fell silent again, the woman continued.
“So, well, the young men kept the bird in a stallion a hundred meters away from the house they were living in, for he didn’t want the others to find out about it.
He was worrying a lot about how he could possibly use it for getting back the medallion of his beloved. Though he was not quite sure whether he really wanted to give it to the wood spirit. He knew that he was responsible for the family now, and he would give everything he could to save them. It was the only thing he could think of that time. Though still he was sad about it, for it was the only thing left from his love.
So he became a loner these days, and his siblings worried a lot about him, but he didn’t want to bother them, for they had sorrows enough: it was not much more than a month left for them to leave their old home and try finding something new to live at.
He felt really lost, but that you can imagine, can’t you? He had lost the one he loved and both his parents too. He could always have counted on their advice, but he had to find a solution on his own now.
And so he did.
One day, when he was walking over the market, and he saw two people exchanging their cattle, he suddenly knew what he could do.
He went home, praying to god his plan would work. He took the beautiful bird and hid it beneath a cloak, so no one would try to steal it from him.
Then he went over to the landlord’s house and asked for a meeting, as it was an urgent matter that had to be discussed.
So when the landlord was finally ready to meet him, he asked him to come to his working room. The sun was already low in the sky; it was shining through the western window, painting the walls in the soft red of sunset.
‘What is it you want from me?’ the landlord asked the young man. But before answering, he pulled the cloth away from the bird.
And the white and silver feathers started to shine red in the late light, reflecting it. Its blue eyes seemed to shine brighter than ever before!
‘I will give this bird to you, if only you promise to treat it well and give me back my medallion!’
The landlord was so captured by the bird’s beauty that it was hard for him to think. So all he could do was to say a whispered ‘Yes!’ into the room. He obviously was longing for owning this bird. And though the young man believed that the bird didn’t like being owned by the landlord soon, it didn’t show him any sign of complaint.
So before giving it to the landlord’s longing hands, he brushed its wings with his fingers and whispered and ‘Thank you!’ to the brave bird.
Fascinated how the landlord was, the man was sure the bird would at least get a good treatment.
And he got back his medallion.
Though night had already broken when he left the big house, he immediately ran to the woods to see the wood spirit at the fountain.
‘Here! I got the medallion!’
Though he first was running like crazy to reach the girl, he now stopped immediately. The expression on her face was sad, and he didn’t know why.
‘What’s wrong? Have I messed it up?’ he asked anxiously.
‘No, it is alright, for you brought me the medallion, and did just the right thing. For with giving me this last present of your beloved, and giving the bird to the landlord, I will be able to strengthen his character, so he will let your family stay at your farm.’
‘But why then are you so sad?’ he wondered.
The girl sighed and looked away for a moment before answering: ‘You remember that your mother had been ill a few years ago, which in the end made her fade away. It was a little while after her death that also your beloved disappeared. But you don’t know why, do you?’
Surprised that she now started talking about this, he shook his head for an answer.
‘Well, your beloved had seen that your father had gotten worse, too. She feared, and that not without reason, that he would be suffering from the same disease your mother had had before. And in her sorrow she found my lake, and as she was crying so hard, I appeared and asked her why she was crying so much. She told me her story, and then asked me to help her save your father, and so I did.
But for this, she had to fulfil something. I gave her the medallion and told her she would have to place it around the neck of one of the family, so it would protect them and made their father get healthy again.’
The young man touched the necklace with his fingers. Could it be she was talking about his medallion?
The spirit nodded for an answer, and then continued the tale of his life: ‘And so she did, and your father got well again. But I cannot just save a life and leave it like that.
It’s not me who made this law… But she had to give me a life in return, for saving him from death this time. And so she told me she’d give herself to me, so everyone else would be save.
I asked her where she wanted to rest until the lifetime of her soul in this world would have run out. And as you’ve told her about the bush of lilies you liked the most, she could easily find it. She asked me to make her be a lily growing on this one, so she would always be near you when you’re feeling sad.’
His eyes were widening while she spoke her last words. He turned his head, and it seemed to him as if there would be one single flower shining more than any other suddenly. Slowly, he walked over to the bush and touched the flower.
‘Is that…?’ he asked, tears sparkling in his eyes.
‘This one is her. She had always been with you’, the girl answered his question.
‘And what do you want to tell me with this?’ he asked her after getting a grip on himself again.
‘You have taken my bird from me, and with it taken its eternal sleep and opened the first day of his countdown to death. And you have saved the lives of your brother and sisters with what you did. But as you brought back my medallion to me, I will need no more than one life from you in return.
So I now have to ask you… Where do you want to be growing?’
He immediately understood that he now had to choose where he wanted to spend the rest of his life as a lily.
He swallowed hard.
‘I’d like to be next to my beloved; right next to her.’
The wood spirit gave him a gentle smile.
‘I know you think now that you will never see your beloved one again. But don’t worry too much about it. Sometimes a wonder happens, and my lilies receive a new life, in a new body; with an old destiny. So don’t despair, but be patient.’
And after having taken back her medallion, the young man disappeared into fog, and the fog became a beautiful white lily, growing around the lily which used to be his love.”
“But I want a happy end!!”
The girl was looking very angry at the woman.
“Me too! This can’t just be the end of the story!” supported the boy his sister.
The woman laughed a little and answered them: “If you wouldn’t have interrupted me again, you might already know what happened after!”
“It’s not over yet?” the girl asked suspiciously.
“No it’s not!” the woman answered.
“So then, finish!” the boy urged, and, with a smile, she continued.
“So then, let’s finish the story.
One day, the youngest sister of the young man was grieving in the woods too, and she found the little Lake with all the lilies. She was grieving for her brother, because although they could have kept their house, she missed him a lot.
And when she got to the lake, she saw two beautiful swans their.
Dazzled by their beauty, she sat down on the grass and stared at them, still crying. And suddenly the two swans, which seemed to belong to one another, came over and touched her cheeks with their feathers, wiping away her tears.
And suddenly she knew that, wherever her brother might have been, he was happy how he was.” And so she had finished talking.
“He was one of the swans?” the two children asked unisono.
The woman smiled and pushed the girl into her own bed.
“It’s time to go to bed now!” was all the children could get out of her.
After she had left the room, leaving the still complaining children in there beds to finally fall asleep, she put one of her ears to the door, listening intensely whether the children would fall quiet.
“I bet he was one of the swans!” she could hear the girl.
“And his love must have been the other one!” the boy continued.
“It must have been that way. I’m sure of that!” the girl answered.
“Mhm.” That was the boy again.
“Good night!”
“Good night!”
Relieved, the woman took her ear from the door and left for the living room.