The Seven Ravens and Their Sister

A father, sending his seven sons rushing to fetch water for the urgent baptism of his newborn daughter, grew furious when they dawdled by a well, distracted and slow to return, and in a burst of thoughtless anger shouted that he wished they would all turn into ravens. The words left his mouth and, to his immediate horror, seven black ravens burst up from the well and flew away into the sky, his curse having taken hold before he could take it back.

The daughter grew up knowing nothing of her brothers until, overhearing whispers as a young woman, she learned the truth of what her birth had cost her father's rash temper, and set out alone and determined to find and free them, however long it took. Her journey led her to the sun, the moon, and finally the morning star, who gave her a small bone key and directions to a glass mountain where her brothers were said to be trapped.

Arriving at the mountain, she discovered she had lost the key somewhere along her long journey — and without a moment's further hesitation, cut off one of her own fingers to use as a replacement key instead, unlocking the mountain's gate with it. Inside, she found her seven brothers restored to human form the instant she arrived, the curse broken entirely by her willingness to sacrifice something of her own rather than turn back for want of a lost key. Reunited at last, none of them ever blamed her for a curse she had never caused, understanding instead that she had given far more than was ever asked of her to undo a mistake that was never hers to begin with.