Matariki by Kimberly

Matariki

Once upon a time there was seven brothers, they were the most brave and handsome men in the village. All the brothers cared about was their appearance, except one brother, his name was Matai. The brothers wanted to get married but they could not find anyone as beautiful as them.

One day they went hunting and found seven fairy sisters. They were beautiful with fair faces and golden hair, the brothers fell in love at first sight. Matai told them they were fairies but they ignored him. Matai was unsure if this was ok.

The brothers wanted to take the girls home and marry them. The girls only ate fish. They made the brothers get food for them and the brothers forgot about getting food for themselves. They were starving from hunger, just what the fairies wanted. They became skin and bone and were not handsome anymore. The brothers fell deeper and deeper in love and did not realise what was going to hit them next.

Over the days that followed Matai thought and thought, finally he realized “the only way I can convince my brothers to not marry them is to give them proof.” Matai quietly sneaked through the forest and saw the beautiful fairy girls. He listened and listened, then he heard them all talk about the marriage. The fairies said, “we shall starve the brothers and no one can stop us…”

After Matai heard that he ran back home to tell his brothers. When he reached them he told them,  “brothers those girls are the fairies. They are evil. They want to starve you to death.” The brothers did not believe him.  Matai said, “look at yourselves, you are skinny and are not handsome anymore. Look at yourselves. Now do you believe me?” The brothers looked at each other. They realized that they were skinny and that Matai was telling the truth .They yelled, “what are we going to do?”

Then they thought of someone who could help them. It was their uncle. They ran to their uncle. By that time they were puffed and were out of breath. When they caught their breath and drank some water they told their uncle about the fairy girls. He gave them a magic net and said, “use this to capture those birds.” And that was what they did, they used the net to catch the fairies.

They placed the net carefully and waited for the fairy girls. When they came past the girls got stuck in the net. The brother’s uncle turned into a big beautiful albatross, with its beak it snatched the net and flew the girls up in the sky where they became stars. That is the story of MATARIKI.