Once upon a time, a king and a queen had an only son. When the little prince grew up, the king and queen held a grand christening ceremony for him and cut his hair short according to national custom. They invited the most distinguished people in the country to attend the banquet. Thousands of candlelights reflected on the windows. Gold, silver and jewels made the snow-white tent sparkle. In the evening, the girls danced the "Koro" dance in the garden, and their beautiful dance postures were dizzying. The beautiful girls danced, their gentle eyes could not leave the prince, and they almost wanted to devour him with their eyes. At midnight, the guests all said goodbye and went home. The prince, not tired, strolled into a small forest.
The woods seemed mysterious and unpredictable – the thick trunks of the old linden trees cast dark shadows; the moonlight passed through the gaps between the branches and leaves, and painted strange patterns on the ground; the linden flowers exuded bursts of fragrance, like the sacred incense of a church. The prince was in a trance, walking on the soft grass, and unknowingly walked into another forest meadow. He saw a small, magical fairy standing on the grass under the moonlight. The fairy was wearing a snow-white dress with sparkling flowers embroidered with gold thread. Her long hair is spread over her shoulders , and she wears a dazzling gold crown studded with main stones. This fairy is really small, only equivalent to a small puppet! The prince stood still and stared at her without blinking. Suddenly, the little fairy spoke, and her clear voice was louder than the silver bell:
"Kind prince! I also received the invitation, but I didn't have the courage to come to the banquet because I was too young. The moonlight at this moment is sunshine to me. I want to congratulate you in this moonlight!"
The sudden appearance of this strange girl did not frighten the prince. He loved this small and exquisite fairy. The prince walked up to the little fairy and took her hand. But unexpectedly, the heroine of refining ghosts and cultivating immortals broke away and disappeared. All that was left in the prince's hand was one of the fairy's small gloves, which was so small that the prince finally managed to put it on his little finger. Depressed, he returned to the palace and never mentioned his adventure under the old Bodhi tree in front of anyone.
The next night, the prince walked into the woods again, wandering under the bright moonlight, looking for the petite fairy.
But there was no trace of her anywhere. The prince was full of sorrow, took out the small glove from his arms and kissed it. At this moment, the little fairy appeared in front of him. The prince was so surprised that he was speechless! The heart in his chest was beating wildly!
They took a long walk under the moonlight, talking happily to each other. Strangely enough, when they were talking about love, the petite fairy visibly grew up in the eyes of the prince. By the time it was time to break up, the fairy had grown twice as big as the night before. As a result, she couldn't put on the little glove. She gave the little gloves to the prince and said:
"You accept the little gloves as a token of love and keep them well."
As soon as she finished speaking, she immediately disappeared again.
"I will keep your little glove in my arms!" cried the prince.
From then on, the prince and the fairy met every night under the old lime tree in the forest. During the day, when the sun is shining, the prince is in a state of despair. He misses and cares about his beloved fairy every day. When dusk falls and the moon reaches the zenith, he always wonders: Will my fairy come tonight? The prince's love for the petite fairy became more and more passionate, and the fairy grew up day by night. By the ninth night, the moon was as round as a silver plate, and the fairy was as tall as the prince.
"From now on, as long as the moon is in the sky, I will come to you every night." The fairy said happily and gently.
"No, darling! I can't live without you! You should be my wife, and I'm going to make you my queen!"
"My sweetheart!" the little fairy replied, "I will be your wife, but you must promise me that you will only love me for the rest of your life!"
"I promise, promise!" The prince shouted without thinking, "I promise to love you forever and never look at anyone else."
"Okay, but don't forget – when you break your promise, I will no longer be your wife."
Three days later, they held their wedding. The guests were all amazed by the beauty of the little fairy.
The prince and his young wife lived happily. Seven years later, the old king died suddenly, and many people attended the funeral. Some of the most beautiful and distinguished women in the country wept bitterly beside the coffin.
Among them was a beautiful woman with black eyes and brown hair. She neither prayed to God nor mourned for the dead king, but stared at the young prince intently. The prince noticed that there was a beauty with brown hair, her eyes always fixed on him, and he felt very happy in his heart.
When the funeral procession came to the mausoleum, the prince, who was walking arm in arm with his wife, looked at the dark-eyed beauty three times. Suddenly, his wife tripped on her dress and almost fell.
"Oh, look, my dress is too long." She exclaimed.
Indeed, the prince was also surprised to find that his wife had become shorter.
After burying the old and sick king, people returned to the palace. The brown-haired beauty followed the prince, always very close; the prince secretly looked back again and again. Just like that, without the prince noticing, his wife turned into a little fairy again. As soon as they reached the foot of the Bodhi tree, the little fairy disappeared… The prince married a beauty with brown hair and black eyes. However, he and his new wife could not even live happily for three days. First, the beauty asked for a bed studded with diamonds. This is just the beginning. As soon as one request was satisfied, she immediately made another, and they were all cunning and weird requests that no one could think of. If the prince could not give her what she wanted, she would burst into tears, cry and make noises, and curse her husband. This beauty was so greedy that the prince couldn't bear the entanglement and finally kicked her out of the palace.
Only then did the prince regret that he had made a big mistake. He sighed deeply, missing the petite fairy deeply. Every time the moon reaches the zenith, the prince still walks into the grove and calls out to his beloved and kind-hearted fairy under the Bodhi tree.
The prince looked for his little fairy, calling and waiting until his hair turned white. However, the petite fairy never came back to him…
① Koro dance: a folk dance of Yugoslavia.