The Girl And The Phoenix

There was once a girl, sweet and innocent. She had met a handsome young man some years earlier and was now his loving wife. But he was impulsive and even considered reckless by some. One day, he saw a large male swan trapped by some discarded netting, no doubt left by some lazy fisherman. The man went into the river to try and help the panicking animal, but his wife tried to stop him, saying that swans are powerful birds and that he could get hurt. But he ignored her, saying that the most he’d get are a few small scratches and maybe a bruise or two. So he went into the shallow river and after much struggle, released the horrid hissing creature from the netting. The swan then spread its massive white wings and burst into flames, turning into a beautiful fiery phoenix. 

As a gift for saving him, he left the couple one of his beautiful tale feathers, which was and always will be warm to the touch.

“Oh darling this is wonderful” said the husband “when we are old and decrepit, we shall give this to our children, then they will give it to their children, then our children of our children will give it to theirs. It will be a beautiful family heirloom my love. Maybe this is a sign. Maybe this is a sign that we are a truly blessed couple”

“Or maybe” said his wife “It is a sign of the riches to come”

“Darling, what do you mean?”

“Well” said his wife “what if we were to sell it?”

“Sell it?” Exclaimed her husband “But it’s priceless!”

“Exactly!” she said “If we sell it, we will leave our children’s children’s children with far more than a useless feather.”

“But they will make their money working in the family business”

“But darling” she said “If we sell the feather, we and our family will never have to work again”

So he reluctantly agreed to sell the feather.

First a farmer offered half of his entire life savings on buying the feather. They accepted the offer, but then the Mayer of the small town offered almost twice that money as the farmer. So she went to the farmer, gave him his life savings plus a bit more and came home with the lovely warm feather. After selling the phoenix’s to the Mayer, a traveling rich man heard news of the treasure and offered  over three times as much. The wife tried to get the Mayer to sell the precious gift back to her, but he refused to give up the rarity. So she barged past the Mayer into his own home and stole the feather in front of him. Then, a great Earl heard news of the feather and offered well over ten times the price the rich man offered. After trying desperately to both buy and steal the feather back, she then tried to blackmail the Earl with lies she threatened to tell his Earless.

After trying to get the priceless gift back, the feather then set itself aflame and burnt to a crisp in front of her eyes. In anger, she blamed her husband, saying he somehow did it just out of spite.

 So he left her and soon after the phoenix returned, feeling awful for ruining the man’s life. The phoenix also said that he’d do anything at all if it would even slightly make up for the mess the phoenix felt he caused.

“Great phoenix” said the man “You have far from ruined my life as you have stopped me from living it with that wolf in sheep’s clothing of a women”

“Although” He also quickly said “If you could possibly leave me another one of your spectacular tail feathers, I will use it to help me not to make such a close mistake again by giving it to every women I fall in love with.

The thought of a fortune will guarantee to bring ones true nature out and it is not always a pleasant one.