“Take it easy, my dear child –
the stranger tried to calm the very upset red-haired woman, who was already running away into the centre of the forest
– take it easy, all is under control, I know very well the pond where fact and fancy meet...
and at the risk of appearing very self-conceited, I have to tell you there are several things I know quite well.
Let me take control of the situation”

The stranger took a pair of gloves out of his pocket
“She has a sharp beak and, like many females, she must be handled with care....”

Then he jumped to the very edge of the pond and seized the biggest swan,
which had nearly reached the shore.
The bird started squeaking furiously while in the stranger's grasp, and the other three swans stopped at a respectfully safe distance and calmed down...

“Siobhán Ciara, Siobhán Ciara, please stop trying to impress us with your old tricks.
I have known you for at least six centuries and I have to confess I have started to find you a bit boring;
you and your brothers might still scare ,for a little while, gentle souls like the red-haired beauty with whom I was going to enjoy my breakfast,
but I can guarantee to you that nowadays really scary things are something else entirely.”

He winked at the red-haired woman and said:
“May I introduce you to Siobhán Ciara Ní Dhonnabháin and her three brothers, Séamus, Seosamh and Concobhar?”
All the swans started squeaking wildly!

“Actually -the stranger continued- the real story is very similar to the old legend you have just told me;
with but a few different fundamental details, but since we are here at the pond where fact and fancy meet,
it is now an opportune time to reveal the truth of the story.
Séamus, Seosamh and Concobhar were the most pestiferous, spoilt, wild little boys in the world and taking care of them was a real pain in the neck.
Poor Bríghid, as their unfortunate aunt was called, had tried by all means to teach them to behave more properly, but there was nothing she could do.
She was on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown and her wedding was in danger;
they had even transformed her honeymoon to a nightmare hiding twenty seven live frogs under the mattress of the bed,
I will spare you the other details...

But the worst problems came from Siobhán Ciara, who was a teenager at that time.
If I mention a scenario based on a teenaged girl, very capricious, intelligent, and jealous of her father and her relationship with her step-mother, you may get a better understanding of the situation...

Bríghid was desperate and she came to our Academy of Spells to ask for help.
I remember that day very well...she was received by Pantofolaus Mac Porridge in his office
and he ( always been a bit too extreme, good old Pantofolaus) simply suggested to her that she buy four doses of “ Kill Quickly, Kill Safely” potion
and to make a good use of that, but Bríghid was a very sensible and generous woman,
in spite of what you might have heard of her in your legends
and she refused the drastic solution.
So she opted for the “Become The Animal You Usually Tease And Persecute” spell
and when the following days she was once again obliged to see Séamus, Seosamh and Concobhar trying to pluck the feathers of the live swans of the lake
and then to pitch them, she simply opened the flask of the spell and let it do its work...

Unluckily she didn’t know that Siobhán Ciara had made a visit to the Academy of Spells too,
even though it would have been forbidden to sell anything to teen-agers,
but she was so charming and looked older than her age and
...oh well this is another story.

So poor Bríghid must stay there all frozen like Lot’s wife and equally innocent,
while the four scoundrels have not such a bad life after all,
they are peacefully free to gobble down all the bread and biscuits that passers-by throw to them, they don’t need to work and they swim up and down all the time.”

He shook his head and spoke to Siobhán Ciara the swan:
“It’s all right, I’ll put you down, but only if you promise to behave well for once in your life and not disturb us anymore.
If you are a good girl, then I’ll share a little of our breakfast with the four of you”

They had not noticed that, in the meanwhile, someone was approaching them from the other side of the forest....