by Holly Stacey –
The storyteller looked solemnly about him at all the faces. Young and old alike looked back at him in awe, expecting the next tale. Clouds had formed around them as if they too, wished to hear this next story. Aside from the sound of the crashing waves on the shore below, not a sound could be heard. Even the sea birds had stopped their calls.
“Now it is time to tell you the tale of Nessa,” he said in almost a reverent whisper. “Of course, in the Cornish tongue, Nessa means ‘second born’–and that is what she was. She felt the name suited her well as she always received the second set of whatever her sister received. Second clothes, second food, second bed, second gifts.”
The crowd murmured lowly amongst themselves. They knew exactly what the storyteller meant when he said ‘gifts’. In a previous tale, the storyteller had told them the story of Starlight and Pondweed, two young women who received gifts from a fairy. One was a generous and good gift, while the other was much more like a curse, albeit well deserved at the time.
“Nessa was lonely in her despair,” the storyteller continued, “but incredibly spiteful.”
***
Nessa sat alone in her cold house and shivered. Always damp, her feet and clothes hung with limp and stinking pondweed. She had food, but it was rank and nearly inedible. She could survive on it, but it was so foul, a normal person would have preferred to starve. Nessa, however, was too stubborn to give up.
A fairy had cursed her when she refused to help an old woman – the fairy in disguise. And the curse was a harsh one. By the light of the moon, all her clothing would transform into stinking pondweed, her buckets would always fill with stagnant, smelling water, impossible to be washed out, and her purse would always fill with rotten food. She used the water buckets to drench unwelcomed visitors and do-gooders when they came by to feel sorry for her. She didn’t need their pity.
One particularly sunny morning when Nessa was in a particularly dark mood, someone knocked at the door. Nessa jumped up with more energy than she’d shown for many moons, eager to greet the visitor with the usual welcome of a bucketful of stinking water in the face. She especially liked it when it was a pretty young woman, as she could imagine it was her sister getting drenched. Nessa’s near-smile faltered when she thought of her sister. Her sister, who lived at the castle. Her sister, who married a prince. Her sister, Nessa’s stomach started to turn, who glowed with starlight in the eve under the moon.
The knock at the door came again. “All right!” she shouted, rummaging for her bucket. Thinking about her sister Elowyn had made her mood foul again.
As she swung the door open with her left arm, her right arm expertly tossed the bucket of water into the face of the visitor. Usually, this was the part she loved the most, watching the water fly into a well-groomed woman and seeing the expression of horror and disgust. Then they usually ran away, screaming.
But this time was different. It was too late to stop the water. It was too late to take back her foolishness. It was the fairy who had cursed her.
The fairy’s expression did not falter for a moment. The water never even touched her, but rippled across the air around her like a breeze moves around a rock. When Nessa dropped the bucket, the fairy spoke. “I see you have not learned your lesson,” she said. “I expected as much. And yet, I came here to give you mercy had you shown the slightest bit of compassion.”
Nessa fell to her knees. “Please, please. I didn’t know it would be you. I would have never thrown the water if I’d known it was you.”
“That, my dear, is precisely the point. You would never do anything bad if it would lead you into trouble. And yet, you’ve led yourself into trouble by being unkind and selfish. Nothing I have done has sunken into your mind!”
If life was bad now, Nessa was sure it was about to get much, much worse. She was right.
“I had given you three gifts,” said the fairy. “Now I revoke those gifts.” With the wave of her hand, Nessa’s clothing dried out and her smelly buckets emptied as did her food purse. “Now you shall be a deer – hunted by men and stalked by predators. The wild is where you belong, but your mind shall remain yours. That,” said the fairy, “is my curse. You have a much shorter life, use it well. Take my advice and keep clear of the hunting grounds.”
The fairy vanished, and as she did, Nessa felt herself changing. Her back bent forwards, and her legs shrunk and narrowed. Her head elongated, and her hair pulled into her scalp. Wide eyed and frightened, Nessa bolted though the open door.
She could hear the shouts from around the village. “Look! A deer in the village! Quick, get my bow! No, she’s going too fast. Saddle the horses, we’ll catch her yet!” But Nessa bolted away from the woods and into the swampy crags where most horses would not follow.
She ran and ran, letting nothing stop her. Night fell and still she ran. Her legs grew weaker, and her throat was parched. All anger and bitterness she used to feel were replaced by a new sensation–fear. It was nearly black, the moon obscured by heavy clouds, when she finally collapsed from exhaustion.
Too tired to move, her head slumped into a pile of cut grass. She was only vaguely aware of her surroundings. A hand reached gently down to her and touched her neck.
“Leave her to rest,” a woman’s voice said.
“Injured?” queried a man’s voice.
“I don’t see any injuries.”
Nessa didn’t hear any more as she slipped into unconsciousness.
****
When Nessa opened her eyes again, it was still dark, but she was in a different place. Her sense of smell had become keen since she transformed. She was somewhere with much hay and horses. Stables. Of course, that was it. But she was confused. Had she turned into a horse now? No, she could tell she was still a deer. Perhaps the man would come back once she was healthy and hunt her for sport before killing and eating her. Venison was considered the best food in the kingdom.
Light poured into the stables as a woman opened the door. “Ah, you’re looking much better,” she said.
Nessa felt a twinge of guilt as she recognized the woman as someone she’d drenched with slimy water in her previous life as a human.
“More water?” the woman asked, bending down to pick up a bucket of fresh water. “I’ll just leave it within your reach. I don’t want to scare you.” Then the woman backed away slowly and shut the stable door again.
Nessa’s heart quickened. Did the woman know she was really a human trapped as a deer? But as she was drinking the water, she could hear the woman talking to the chickens outside in the same kind voice.
The next few days passed in a similar fashion. The woman brought fresh water to drink and some plates of tender vegetable tops to eat. The horses beside her ignored her, which was just fine. She could understand them talking to each other after a while.
“Why does she get special treatment?” one of them asked.
“Why doesn’t she have to pull the master around?” asked another. “And doesn’t she smell odd?”
It made Nessa think of the times she complained about her sister. Part of her was happy for the old memories of being human, and part of her felt ashamed that she’d been so selfish. All of the times she’d been bitter over her sister’s virtues came flooding back. For the first time, Nessa felt regret for her bitterness and aggression. If only she’d appreciated her family when she’d had them. A tear formed under Nessa’s right eye. As it fell to the ground, she heard a distant singing.
When second born does see the light
after travelling far into the night
and true love’s arrow pierces in the morn
the third tear shall bring her back to form.
Nessa’s ears perked up when she heard the singing, but before she could make sense of the words, they fled from her mind.
“Ah, I think you’re ready to come out,” said a cheerful voice in a flood of light. The woman had come in and left the stable doors wide open. She walked carefully as if Nessa might bolt, but she needn’t have bothered. Nessa lowered her head, and as the woman came closer, Nessa nudged her gently on the shoulder.
A man’s laughter echoed behind the woman. “It seems you’ve made a friend after all! Kara, you have such a way with animals. I’d have made her our supper and that’s no joke.”
Nessa was about to run away; she had no desire to end up as someone’s supper, but as she prepared to spring, the man came into view. Her heart stopped. If there was ever a young man that would have made her give up everything she held dear, he would be the one. She stared at him, caught in his gaze.
“Ha ha! There you go Corin, you’re just as good with animals as I,” said Kara as she left the barn.
Nessa’s heart seemed like it was going to break free of her ribs. If only this young man could see her in her human form, she’d have a chance of…she stopped her thought before it could finish. Nessa in her human form was cruel and selfish. Perhaps she’d not want him to see her after all. Surely he would hate the woman who drenched his sister in filthy water.
Suddenly, she wanted to run away. It was good, she thought, that he could not see her as a human. But she couldn’t be with a human as a deer. No, the only way about it was to live in the woods like the beast she was.
As she ran away from Corin and his sister’s farm, a second tear fell from her eye.
It was a long and hard winter for Nessa. She had no other deer herd to live with and keep her warm. But instinct for survival kept her alive. Often, near the break of dawn, she’d sneak over to Corin’s farm and watch him from a grove of trees. Sometimes he’d go out hunting and bring his sister Kara a string of rabbits to roast. And sometimes he’d fell a deer. Seeing him bring back a deer always made her shudder, but she herself used to eat venison when she was human.
When spring came and the ground began to thaw, Nessa started to find more food. The sun began to warm her fur. It was an unusually warm morn when she’d not heard the approach of a hunter’s feet. She’d been drowsily dreaming of Corin and how wonderful it would be to live with him on his small farm, helping him with the harvest and cooking with Kara.
She heard the twang of a bow too late. The arrow pierced her in her chest; she could feel the steel burrow into her. She let out a scream of shock, but it didn’t sound like a human scream at all. As she fell to the ground, she looked up at who had sealed her doom. With horror, she recognized Corin’s handsome face. The agony she felt now was ten times worse than the pain of the arrow. Her true love, Corin, who would never even know her name, had shot her. Finally, the third tear fell to the forest floor. The sun shadowed behind a cloud and Nessa heard singing.
When second born does see the light
after travelling far into the night
and true love’s arrow pierces in the morn
the third tear shall bring her back to form.
Nessa wasn’t dead. Nor could she feel the arrow. She smiled. At least the last thing she would see in this life would be the person she loved most dearly.
Suddenly, Corin’s arms were around her, and she could feel herself changed. “I’m so sorry…you were a deer… I swear. Please, please don’t die.”
But Nessa’s wound had healed. The arrow itself now lay beside them.
****
“And did they get married?” the little boy asked, clambering over his mother’s lap to get closer to the storyteller.
“They did indeed,” said the storyteller. “But Nessa had some apologizing to do to Kara who’d recognized her as the mean woman with the slimy water.”
From the back, another person rose to stretch. “You tell an interesting story, old man,” the woman said. “If only it were true.”
“I swear by my beard! Every word!”
The old woman in the back chuckled. “If you say so, but I remember it rather differently.”
“Well then, Nessa, next time you tell the story!” And with that, the annoyed storyteller disappeared in a whiff of smoke.
the end.
Question Time:
1. What was Nessa’s first curse?
2. How did the fairy change Nessa’s curse?
3. Why did Nessa run away from the farm?
4. How was the curse broken?
