" What's this?"
The green fairy fluttered down and looked at the strange thing with some suspicion.
" Don't touch it. It's evil!", the auburn fairy said.
" It looks pretty though."
" It's ugly."

The auburn fairy jumped off her branch and slowly drifted down on the wind, until she too landed on the forest floor with a soft thud . She walked to her friend and gave the strange thing a disgusted look.
" Ugly. evil, evil!"
She took the green fairy by the arm and tried to drag her away from it, but the green fairy instead stared at the thing and smiled.
" It's not ugly. Look at how it shines in the sunlight. Look how... round it is."
She shrugged off the auburn fairy's hand and began to brush the earth and dust from the strange thing, which turned out to be round indeed. It was the same colour as the sun in the morning, as hard as stone, but so smooth, almost like ice, yet it wasn't cold.
" Let's go back. I'll make you some dew and honey."
" What do you think it is?"
" It's evil. Let it alone. I'll teach you how to talk to the fish."
" It's not evil. It's beautiful. Look. If you look at it from this angle it's almost as if there's a face on it."
" Yes that looks like a face. It's been made by an evil witch and that is her. You'd better leave it alone, or you'll fall under her spell."
" She doesn't look so scary."
" Let's go. I challenge you. I can fly higher than you."
" You cannot."
" I challenge you."
" You know very well you can't beat me. You just want to get me away..."

The green fairy hesitated and then an expression appeared on her face the auburn fairy had never seen before. She frowned and her lips became thin.
" You want me away so you can take this for yourself! That is it, isn't it? That's why you call it evil and ugly. Because you don't want me to want it."
The auburn fairy opened her mouth and a tear trembled in her eye, for fairies are easily hurt.
" How... what..."
" Yes, you don't know what to say eh? Because it's true! You want this thing, but I saw it first. It's mine!"
" It... it's the spell that got you."
" Go away! What sort of a friend are you? You can't fly higher than me, you know well enough. Leave me alone."
The auburn fairy grabbed the green fairy's arm again and tried to pull her away from the strange thing, but the green fairy pushed her away so she tumbled into the mud.
" I hate you!", she cried.

But at that very moment, the earth trembled, and instead of fighting on, both fairies fled away.
A noisy giant walked towards the place where they had quarreled, bowed forward and picked up the round thing.
" Ah... A penny. It must be my lucky day", he said and put it in his pocket.