Alanna and the Bean-Si

When young Alanna's mother becomes gravely ill, the village knows that the Bean-Si, the fairy women, would be going to the river to wash the mother's clothes which she did for anyone fated to die. But Alanna raced to the river, blocked the Bean-Si's way and answered the Bean-Si's three riddles thus winning a wish, her mother's life and the respect of the fairy woman.