ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 270
In this 270th issue of the Baba Indaba’s Children’s Stories series, Baba Indaba narrates the story of “THE FAIRY GARDENS.”
ONCE upon a time, long, long ago and far, far away, there lived a man called Kostas. Uncle Kostas, as everyone called him, had once been a prisoner of the fairies. He would sit stiffly down upon a stone and lean upon the tall, shepherd’s staff which he always carried, to recount his story.
His story goes that one day he was resting at noon beside a spring under the shadow of a pine in one of the Dragonorahes, Dragon Hills, after eating his bread and cheese. He closed his eyes for a little while and when he opened them, there were fairies dancing all around him in the air. He knew that he was handsome, handsome enough to tempt them to carry him away, but since he had his gun with him he thought himself safe.
Some of the fairies were singing, others were playing their flutes, and all would pause now and then to ask Kostas to play his flute and dance with them. Pointing to his gun, he shook his head and even though they were angry they dared not harm him. Suddenly the music and the dancing ceased. The fairies whispered together a moment and then disappeared like a cob web that is brushed away.
Kostas was about to go back to his sheep, grazing lower down on the hillside, but he was unable to move, even to stretch out his hand. Then the fairies were back again and this time their queen was with them, riding on a great white horse. Around her were a thousand fairies on white horses and others kept coming and coming until the Dragonorahe was covered with them.
Kostas tried to stand up, he tried to reach his gun, but he could do nothing except gaze at the beautiful queen, with her shining, silken hair and her shimmering white garments, as she sat upon her proud horse. There was a great murmuring around him. After a while he understood that all the fairies were talking about him.
‘Does he please you?’ one asked the queen.
‘Will you have him?’ asked another.
The queen looked down at him thoughtfully for a long time. Then she smiled, lifted her wand and cried, ‘I shall have him! He is beautiful! Let us bring him with us!’
And so Kostas’ journey to the land of the fairies began.
But how long did old Uncle Kostas live with the fairies and how did he escape from the clutches of the fairy queen?
Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children’s stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as ‘Father of Stories’.
Each issue also has a ‘WHERE IN THE WORLD – LOOK IT UP’ section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT – use Google maps.
10% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.
INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE STORIES
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