In the shrouded mists of antiquity, where the veil between the mundane and the magical was thin, there lived a humble woodcutter. His life was a rhythmic cycle of struggle, measured by the weight of timber on his back and the few copper coins he earned at the city market. One fateful evening, returning empty-handed, his wife—driven by hunger and desperation—suggested a plan: to seek the aid of their two neighbors to gather a triple harvest of wood, hoping to stock their larder for the coming winter.
The next dawn, the woodcutter and the two neighbors set out. However, fate had a stranger design. A sudden, supernatural gale swept through the forest, snatching their bundles of wood and spiriting them away. The woodcutter wailed in despair, but the neighbors promised to return the next day. When they did, they discovered a deep fissure beneath an ancient, towering tree. Inside lay the missing wood, but beneath the branches, the woodcutter unearthed three heavy iron chests overflowing with gold and gemstones.
In his purity of heart, the woodcutter declared, "One chest for each of us! Let us be brothers in wealth." But greed is a poison that rots the soul. As they reached the riverbank, the neighbors turned on him. Despite his pleas for mercy—mentioning his unborn child—the treacherous pair bound him, slew him, and cast his body into the depths. They returned to the village with the wood and a fabricated tale of the woodcutter’s disappearance, leaving the widow with nothing but a final message: "If a boy is born, name him Badr; if a girl, name him Zahra."
The Boy with the Golden Mask
Years flowed like the river that held the woodcutter's bones. The neighbors became the wealthiest merchants in the land, draped in silks and leaning on silver canes. Meanwhile, the widow raised her son, Badr, in extreme poverty. Badr was a child of such ethereal, blinding beauty that his mother feared for his safety, forcing him to wear a mask whenever he left their small courtyard.
One day, while gathering wood in the forest, the mother fell into a deep sleep. Badr, wandering toward a mysterious call, vanished. Distraught, the mother encountered the King’s hunting party. Upon hearing her tragic history and the treachery of the two merchants, the King—suspicious of the merchants' sudden wealth—ordered a search. Badr was found sitting beneath a tree, weeping.
When brought before the King, Badr refused to remove his mask until his mother gave him leave. The King summoned the merchants and, under threat of death, forced a confession. The truth of the murder was laid bare. The King restored the woodcutter's gold to Badr and his mother. But when Badr finally removed his mask, the King fell unconscious from the sheer radiance of the boy’s beauty.
"You are no mere mortal," the King whispered upon waking. "You are the son of a Peri, or a miracle of light." Lacking heirs, the King adopted Badr as his prince.
The Quest for the Celestial Maiden
As Badr grew, he dreamt of a magnificent Peri (a fairy) who descended from a distant mountain to feed him celestial nectar. Haunted by this vision, he set out on a quest, crossing deserts and sapphire lakes until he reached a mystical river. There, an ancient sage in a yellow robe guided him to a hidden palace of emerald and ruby.
"She is of the Jinn, not of men," the sage warned. Following the old man's instructions, Badr entered the palace and retrieved a magical gourd. Ignoring the sage’s warning to be patient, Badr broke the gourd prematurely. Out stepped a maiden of such celestial grace that the sun and moon seemed like dim reflections of her skin.
However, the Peri warned him: "By breaking the gourd early, you have invited trial. I have but three transformations left before I must return to my realm."
The Treachery of the Hag
As they neared the King's city, Badr left the Peri in a humble hut while he went to fetch a royal procession. In his absence, a wicked, shapeshifting sorceress—disguised as a beggar—tricked the Peri into showing her magic. The Peri transformed into a golden-beaked dove, but as she returned to human form, the hag pushed her into a deep well.
The hag then draped herself in the Peri’s golden veil. When Badr returned, he found not his radiant bride, but a grotesque, bulging-eyed crone. The hag claimed she was under a "transformation curse" and would only regain her beauty after seven years and the birth of a son. Heartbroken and confused, Badr took her to the palace.
From the well where the Peri drowned, a magnificent silver-maned mare emerged. Badr felt an inexplicable bond with the horse, spending his nights in the stables whispering to her. The jealous hag, sensing the Peri's spirit in the horse, feigned a pregnancy craving and demanded the mare be slaughtered.
Badr, though weeping, eventually relented. As the horse was slain, three drops of blood fell to the earth, instantly sprouting into three towering, enchanted trees. When the hag ordered the trees cut down to make a cradle, the wood transformed into a trap, crushing the hag's demonic offspring and nearly killing her.
The Reunion of Light
A poor beggar collected the shavings of the enchanted trees. Overnight, his shack transformed into a palace of forty marble steps. Within resided the Peri, restored to her true form. She instructed the beggar to hold a feast and invite the King and Prince Badr.
At the feast, the Peri finally revealed herself to Badr. "You allowed them to slaughter me as a mare and fell me as a tree," she said with bittersweet reproach. "But the light cannot be extinguished by wood or blade."
Badr, realizing the depth of the deception, returned to his palace in a righteous fury. He confronted the sorceress, who tried to weave one last lie about transforming into a dove. Badr ordered the guards to seize her, and the kingdom was finally rid of her darkness.
The wedding of Badr and the Peri lasted forty days and forty nights. Badr, the son of the poor woodcutter, ascended the throne, ruling with a wisdom born of suffering and a light born of the stars. The valley he had once promised to the poor flourished, and it was said that in his kingdom, no one ever went hungry again.
Keywords:
Badr, Woodcutter's Son, Celestial Peri, Magic Gourd, Silver-maned Mare, Ancient Folktale, Shape-shifting Sorceress, Enchanted Trees, Prince and Fairy, Justice and Greed, Oriental Myths, Royal Adoption.
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