PRINSESA OLAYRA

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In reply to our reader’s request to write about Princess Olayra, here is the story from the files in our Antique fairyland  folder:
    Long ago, in Barangay  Carit-an in the Municipality of Patnongon, Antique lived a man named Akoy and his wife Mengay.  Near their house was a big bubog tree.  It was believed that the tree was enchanted for beneath it was a palace where fairies lived. 
    In the enchanted palace lived the fairy king and queen who ruled the realm.  Fairies have kingdoms of their own.  They can mingle with humans and may choose not to be visible to us.  They possess powers that humans do not have.  However, they are said to envy ordinary mortals because fairies do not have souls.  When they die, they could not aspire for a second life.  The reason why they want to marry ordinary people is that they want their children to have souls.
    The fairy king and queen who lived beneath the bubog tree wanted their children to someday marry an ordinary mortal.  And so when the queen got pregnant, they wanted the best in every aspects of their child.  In the choice of a name, the royal couple gathered their friends in fairyland for some suggestions and decided on the name “Olayra.”
    At about the same time that the fairy king and queen was expecting a child, so were Akoy and Mengay.  The mortal child was named Natalie; the royal baby was named Olayra.
    One day, Mengay took baby Natalie in her arms to have a stroll on the beach.  Suddenly, a big wave struck them which made her let go of her child.  Natalie was nowhere to be found.  And Mengay grieved.
     At the fairyland kingdom, the couple now wanted to bring their child to the mortal world.  They wrapped the baby in a diaper with the name “Olayra” and had her placed under the big bubog tree.  When Akoy and Mengay woke up that morning, they heard a baby crying.  They hurried down to find the baby girl.
     Akoy and Mengay took care of the baby as if she were their own child.  Every now and then, the king and queen would visit Olayra without being seen by the human couple.  They gave the child everything she needed without the knowledge of Akoy and Mengay.  Sometimes they would take the child to their kingdom. 
    When Olayra was of school age, she was sent to Patnongon, Antique to attend classes in the elementary grades.  She went to school with Celina.  The latter was also a child of fairies.  It was she who suggested the name “Olayra” to the royal couple when the queen was still pregnant.  When they were in college, Celina and Olayra were sent to the Central Philippine University in Iloilo to take up college courses.  The king and queen even gifted their daughter with a ship made of gold on which to ride whenever she is on a cruise to other kingdoms. Up to this time, Akoy and Mengay had no idea that their adopted daughter was a fairy.  Olayra grew up to be a beautiful lady.  Her foster parents loved her so much.  She had many suitors, but all were rejected. 
    Olayra’s love interest was a foreigner named Fitzgerald, a young man of Italian parentage who was fond of going places for adventure.  He had a luxurious yacht to take him on a cruise with his friends.  One day a storm broke his yacht to pieces.  All of his friends were thrown into the raging ocean and got drowned.  Fitzgerald was the only survivor.  He was found near the bubog tree.  A couple found him and nursed him back to health.  One day, while Fitzgerald was sitting near the beach, he met Olayra.  More meetings followed that soon he fell in love with the young lady.
    Olayra came to be noticed by the community.  People wondered and began to ask who she really was.  They remembered Natalie.  Unknown to Akoy and Mengay, Natalie was found by a couple in a beach where the big wave took her.  The couple found the name “Natalie” embroidered in the diaper which wrapped around her.  They asked:  If Natalie was Mengay’s daughter, then who is Olayra? Hushed talks and gossips about her origin hounded her.   
    The fairy princess also fell in love with Fitzgerald and they set a date for their wedding.  The ceremony took place in Patnongon.  Soon after, Fitzgerald found out that his wife was not the daughter of Akoy and Mengay.  He confronted her about who she really was and where she really came from.  Olayra merely ignored him and because of this he grew so impatient that he slapped her.  When her real parents knew about the incident, they got so angry.  One day, Fitzgerald could no longer be found.  A search was made but to no avail.  Only the king, the queen, and Olayra knew what really happened.
    Olayra finally revealed to her foster parents who and what she really was.   She told them that her real parents wanted her to live with them in their kingdom.  As for Natalie, Akoy and Mengay finally got to know where the big wave took her.  They brought her home from the people who adopted her.
    Olayra and Natalie must have lived happily ever after.
(Our research tells us that the Story of Olayra was written by Russel O. Tordesillas.  It was serialized in a local radio station.  Tordesillas is a respected writer and is known as the grand old man of Kinaray-a literature.)