Fiorina And Pionina The Shy Fairies. Children's audio story narrated in British English.

When you go to the land of the fairies and ask who is the most beautiful fairy in history, they'll all answer without hesitation that it is Pionina. Everyone, that is, except Pionina herself, who will shake her head and silently think about her sister Fiorina.

No one has yet seen her, but Fiorina was clearly the most beautiful of the two fairy sisters. Both were born from the same big, perfect, dewdrop, and for years they spent their lives together inside the same flower. The problem was that they were so shy that they never wanted to go out into the world. As they didn't know any other fairies, they wondered whether they themselves were beautiful or ugly, intelligent or stupid, fortunate or unlucky.

They thought about this so much and so often that they ended up convinced that they were ugly, stupid and unlucky. So much so, that they resolved never to leave their comfortable flower. There they stayed, living their lives regretting their misfortune. How could they show themselves to the world, when they were such a pair of disasters? What would others say about them? And what if others rejected them and ridiculed them?

That was, until one day when Pionina summoned up enough courage to leave the flower.

-"It's not my fault I'm so horrible,"

she told herself,

-"I will try to be kind and cheerful, and maybe that way they will forgive me my flaws,"

she thought, now determined to venture out. Pionina tried everything to get her sister to go with her, but Fiorina didn't feel capable of overcoming her shyness. Even though she was really dying to leave the flower, she decided to stay...

When Pionina leapt out, and began her acrobatic flight across the land, a special gleaming light enveloped the whole countryside. Seeing this light, hundreds of fairies emerged from their flowers to take it all in. They all watched in admiration as they beheld the most beautiful fairy anyone had ever seen.

Before long, there was a huge commotion all around Pionina, and in only a few short minutes she had become the most famous of all fairies, thanks to her beauty, her intelligence, and her good fortune. Pionina then hurried off to tell her sister how mistaken they had been for all those years. The problem was, she didn't know the way back to her flower. In that land there were hundreds of thousands of flowers, just like her own. Pionina couldn't tell which one was the one she had lived in. She searched and searched, but could never manage to find Fiorina.

And there Fiorina remained, hidden in her flower, filled with fear, believing herself to be the most horrible of fairies; never knowing that if she ever decided to come out, she would realise that she was the most beautiful and fortunate of all the fairies.