By Pavitra Nannapaneni, 6E

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful, clever, and greedy musician in the depths of the forest. No one could recognize and appreciate her talent. Her name was Jo. 

One day, the queen sent her hunter to bring her a rabbit from the depths of the forest. Rabbits were considered sacred. It was a dangerous mission, so very few people tried to retrieve a rabbit from there.

 On his journey, the hunter started getting tired and decided that he should stop for a break. Just as he was thinking about this, he noticed a small but beautiful hut. He decided to go and ask the young maiden sitting on the porch if he could rest at her house for a while. After he did so, he was granted permission to stay there as long as he did not disturb her afternoon singing practice. Later, he realized that the journey would be too hard to continue. He thought that the queen may not be too angry with him if he brought her something else instead. As he was pondering on what to take to the queen, he heard a melodious noise coming from the maiden’s studio and remembering the queen’s fondness for music, he entered the maiden’s room.

He said loud and clear, “Oh, young maiden, will you come back with me to the queen and sing for her? You will be paid a lot of money.”

The maiden, being greedy, replied, “Only if you pay me 100 pence a day.” The hunter replied that she asked for a lot but it was worth it, and so they both travelled back to the queen’s palace.

The queen was more than satisfied with the maiden’s voice and gave her all the instruments in the palace. Every night at dinner, she sang for the queen.

One day, at the peak of dawn, before everyone woke up, the maiden went to the instrument room and stole all the instruments. Then, she proceeded to run home. She happily went back to bed, at her house, satisfied with her work.

The queen and the rest of the palace woke up to realize the maiden was missing. The queen was devastated when she realized that the instruments were missing too. The queen herself marched with the hunter to the maiden’s house.

She entered without permission and killed the maiden. After some time, she started feeling guilty about what she had done and decided the maiden should live and continue to sing. She then shaped some clay into the shape of a hummingbird and mixed the maiden’s ashes into it. Since then, the maiden and her descendants sing as birds. This is why hummingbirds sing.