The Three Skilled Young Men

That morning, sunlight spread gold across a grassy shore by the sea. A girl of the Lê family had come out to pick greens, humming softly along with the wind. Suddenly a huge shadow swept across the sunlight, and a whole patch of the shore went dark. She looked up, but it was already too late. A giant eagle, its wings spread as wide as two roofs, swooped down from the sky. It seized her in its claws, beat its wings and shot up into the air.

Her basket of greens tumbled over in the grass. The girl grew smaller and smaller against the sky, until she was only a faint dark speck fading away toward the open sea.

The old tale says that this girl was both lovely and good-natured, and three young men in the area all held her dear. Each of those three was famous for one craft. Each had practiced that craft again and again, until people called him a master, so skilled it seemed a wonder.

The first young man was an archer. His gift was not strength but finesse. Set a falling leaf before him, and he would hit it right on its stem. Hang a fine thread high overhead, and he would cut it through the very middle. After long years of practice, his arrow went exactly where he wanted it to go, not a hair's breadth off.

The second young man was a diver. He slipped into the water as smoothly as an otter. He could stay down in rivers and in the sea for days on end, still breathing evenly, his eyes still clear. Once a ring was dropped into the deepest water, and people thought it was gone for good. Yet he felt around for a little while and brought it up, still dripping.

The third young man was a healer. He had a gentle touch and a patient heart. However gravely ill a person was, lying limp as if they would not pull through, his care and his medicines slowly brought back their color, until they could sit up again. People said he could bring the dead back to life, calling a person back from the very edge of death.

In everyday life, those three crafts had nothing to do with one another. The archer shot, the diver dived, and the healer treated the sick. But on the day the eagle carried the girl away, all three finally understood why heaven had placed them so close together.

When they heard the terrible news, the three young men ran to the shore together. Following the bird's flight, they saw the girl as only a tiny speck lost among the clouds, drifting farther out over the sea. Too far. Too high. Alone, none of them could do a thing. However good the archer was, he could not catch her in midair. However good the diver was, he could not dive up into the sky. And however good the healer was, he did not yet have anyone in his hands to save.

The archer clenched his teeth and drew his bow. But he hesitated. The bird was so far away and so high up that the slightest slip could hit the girl. He took a long, deep breath and aimed for a long time. He aimed at the eagle's tightly clutching foot, at the very spot where the bird would let go and the girl would come to no harm. Then he gently released the string.

The arrow whistled through the air, smaller and smaller. All three held their breath as they watched. High in the sky, the eagle suddenly flinched, and its gripping foot sprang open. And the girl fell.

She fell straight toward the sea and vanished into the deep blue water. Before anyone could even cry out, the diver had plunged in after her. He dove deeper and deeper, down to the darkest and coldest place, where the girl was slowly sinking. After a long while, the surface of the sea parted. The diver came up, holding the girl with one arm, and brought her to shore.

But once she was on the beach, every face went pale. The girl lay still and cold, as quiet as someone in a deep sleep who would not answer however often they called. She had fallen from high in the sky and lain so long in the cold water. Her breath was as faint as a lamp flame in the wind.

Now it was the healer's turn. He knelt beside her, warmed her and rubbed her limbs, using everything his years of medicine had taught him. He waited patiently and worked patiently, never taking his hands away. After a very long time, her chest began to rise and fall again. Then she coughed, spat out a mouthful of salt water, and slowly opened her eyes. She had come back to life. The whole beach burst into joy.

At this point, everyone who hears the story feels the same relief as the three young men. The girl was saved, grew well again and went home to her parents. But just at the happiest moment, the story takes a turn nobody expected.

All three young men loved the girl, and each one wanted to marry her. And now each one felt that his own part had been the greatest. The archer said, "If I had not shot and made the bird let go, she would have been carried off and never seen again." The diver said, "If I had not dived down to fetch her, she would have sunk to the bottom of the sea." The healer said, "You two brought her back when she was already cold. Without my hands, she would never have come back to life to sit here now." Three men, three arguments, and none would give way. A friendship of many years suddenly cracked, because they could not agree how to share the credit.

When the arguing got them nowhere, they went together to someone known in the area for fairness and asked him to settle the matter.

The arbiter heard the whole story, thought for a while, and then spoke gently. "Three young men, each with his own craft, and each craft a true gift. But think it over. If there were only the archer's skill, then once the bird let go, who would fetch her from the sea? If there were only the diver's skill, he would bring up a girl who had stopped breathing, and who would bring her back to life? If there were only the healer's skill, she would still be far up in the sky, so who would there be to save? On their own, those three gifts could not save anyone. Only when all three were joined, like three links in one chain, could they bring her back. Together they pulled her from high in the sky and from deep in the sea, back to the world of the living. Take away just one link, and the whole chain breaks. Alone, no one could have pulled her home."

The three young men listened, bowed their heads and said nothing.

The arbiter went on, more softly. "The archer saved her from afar and the healer saved her on the shore, and both are her benefactors. But the diver held her in his own arms in the middle of the cold sea and carried her back to shore. Such closeness may make him the most fitting one to be her husband. But in this matter, we must first ask her own heart."

When the girl was asked, she gave a small nod. She said that those very hands had held her in the middle of the cold sea and brought her home, and her heart had been willing ever since that moment.

Strangely, when they heard this, the archer and the healer were no longer angry. A moment before, they had been quarreling. Now the two looked at each other and burst out laughing together. They had saved a life together, and they lost nothing by giving way to each other a little. Gladly, the two asked to become sworn brothers of the newly married couple.

From then on, the three skilled young men became three brothers of one household. The archer still shot as finely as ever, the diver still dived as well as before, and the healer still had his gentle touch for saving people. The three crafts were still there. Only one thing had changed. Now, whenever they faced something hard, they no longer asked one another who was better. They asked only one thing: what their three crafts could do once they were joined together.