Authors: Maya Shepherd
A faint chirping came from the birdcage on her windowsill. Medea looked on in disbelief. The Lark looked in her direction. Had she awakened the little bird with her tears? Normal songbirds will sleep, when the moon was high in the sky.
"Dear lark, as far as I am concerned you will find no rest? She asked and padded on bare feet to the window.
"Beautiful Medea, when your heart is suffering, I can feel the pain as if it were my own," the lark answered her in human language. Medea was frightened and backed away from the cage. Only children and fools believed in talking animals.
"Fear not, I will help you!" Chirped her the brown bird.
"Oh little bird how are you going to help me?" Medea sighed loudly and stepped back to the cage. Perhaps she was already gone mad.
"Pull a spring out of my feathers and paint this on your dress, so it should be more beautiful than ever."
Medea hesitated. She opened the door of the cage and when the bird is not flying off, she says: "I would not hurt you."
"I'd rather give you one of my feathers rather than see you cry longer," said the lark. Medea took her courage stroked the brown plumage and moved with a jerk of a spring and out. She was tiny as usual. No gloss. No gold.
But Medea nevertheless followed the advice of the bird and ran his pen over the spots that had left on her dress of wine. As if by magic they disappeared already at the slightest touch. But not only that. In the collar of plain dress created beautiful embroidery of silver yarn. A shout came from her mouth and she jumped back to enjoying the lark at the window.
"Dearest lark, how can I thank you?"
"To see you smile, is thanks I need," chirped the bird. "Sing and talk to me every night, so I will never depart from the side."
"Nothing better than that," said the girl happily.
The next morning as Heera walked into the breakfast room, there was already bright smooth running among the candidates. They crowded all together in a corner in front of a large billboard. Curious, she stepped closer and realized that on the blackboard were written the names of the elect. They were arranged in a sequence of numbers,
Erina crept out from the group and made a pitying mouth as their eyes met. More girls came back, so Heera now could see the whole board.
1.Xenia
2.Daphne
3.Medea
4.Phoibe
5.Acelya
6.Celestia
7.Erina
8.Jone
9.Lenja
10.Selene
11.Agnes
12.Heera
The list clearly showed the order in which the candidates were in the favour of the prince. Only three of them would reach the next round and have to be reinforced against the princesses from the four cardinal points.
Heera filled her placement with satisfaction. The Prince would punish her, because she dared to say the opinion. If he only, he was interested in her! She noted that she was the only one who was still standing in front of blackboard and all were watching. Her feeling of triumph vanished and she felt shabby with a time in her peasant dress among all decked out girls. But she had the dress, which the prince had given her, which can no longer afford. It was dirty and torn. She turned to the table and realized that Medea not only wore a clean, new dress, but had also sent to another place. Between Xenia and Phoibe - away from Heera. She did not even notice her, but chatted excitedly with the other two chosen. Heera was pleased with the high placement of her sister, but her rejection hurts. Buckled she took at the end of the table next to Erina place. This indicated her grief but completely wrong.
"Do not worry. We do not even have the first test behind us. The Prince can change his mind, " the girl was trying to encourage her.
Heera already wanted to disagree with her that the Prince was not interested, but she took back the comment and nodded instead. Why Medea ignored her? Did she have anything to do with her own sister, only because she was at the end of the rear of a stupid Ranking? Would all the people get to face this list? Your mother would be ashamed of her, even though Medea was among the top three. The last place was unacceptable. Although Heera did not care aboutThe Prince and the whole court, she felt that Medea or her mother were ashamed for her. Maybe she'd better not even open her mouth in the future.
Lean entered into the room in which the elect took their morning meal. Immediately silence fell on the lively discussions and a heavy silence fell over the table. He hated it, that each time he achieved this effect in the case of girls. If they were silent as fish he could get to know them badly. He would have known what they had laughed. His gaze slid to Heera, who sat at the other end of the table, as far away as possible from her sister. She fell on her own by their poor clothing. Medea had apparently cleaned her dress and Agnes was the magnificent ball gown, which he would have liked All the girls had combed their hair and lips wore make-up, only Heera wore the hazel hair in a pigtail, without great care. He almost expected a stubborn look in turn, almost longed for it. But she remained silent and looked past him, as if he was not there. Did she dislike her placement or something? He could not imagine that anything that he could say or do, the fearless Heera could take. Her interest in him seemed so low that he doubted that it was present at all. He did not know why she had applied for him, but to him she was making sure not to have applied.
He cleared his throat. It was not necessary to make attention. All the girls stared at him already. "Good morning the Ladies."
"Good morning, Prince Lean" she played the flute in the choir. His father would have enjoyed himself immensely over.
"I want to thank each of you for the wonderful last night. I've never danced so much and never before I found myself in such lovely company. "His words sounded hollow to his own ears and learned by heart, as his mother had dictated to him. But the girls beamed and smiled at him with confidence and hope.
"Furthermore, I hope that I have not hurt any of you through their preliminary placement. Everything is still open, and I don’t want to offend anyone. Our time together was too short to get to know each of you."He did not know one of them. None was dearer to him than the other. The placement came from more of his mother than his own pen.
"Already today, your position may change, as your first test is before you."
A murmur went through the girls and worry excelled in their faces from.
"Do not worry, it's nothing difficult", Lean assured them and suppressed a mischievous grin. Heavy was the eye of the beholder.
"My mother longs for fresh strawberries. Each of you will therefore go into the forest and pluck her a basket full of them"
He thought it was hardly possible, but the girls were even more quiet than they already were. They didn't seem to breathe any more. could have bet, who was the first to break the silence: Heera.
"Is this a bad joke?" She asked coldly and without the necessary respect.
Lean shrugged and acted as if he had no idea what she wanted out. "Queen Niobe is not known to make jokes."
"In winter, strawberries do not grow. The ground is frozen, and the snow has covered everything, "she said was what every chosen one must have thought when they heard the exam.
"The test can only be fulfilled by the girl who returns with the strawberries into the lock," said Lean strictly and gave each girl a packet, in which some cake was there for the way they travel. He had already made bets with Yanis and Silas on how many of the candidates would pass the test. Yanis sat on nine. Silas chose the arithmetic mean and said six. But Lean was sure that there would be no more than three. He knew the solution and therefore also knew what the candidates had to do in order not to return empty-handed. Perhaps his mother would think at the end of the day differently about Heera. She may have a big mouth and was perhaps not the fairest of the elect, but at least Lean could be safe with her fighting spirit. If someone would pass the test, then it is she. She would never bear the disgrace, return with empty hands.
Heera had set out as one of the first. As stupid as it seems, she also took the exam, she was still grateful for the opportunity to escape from the castle at least for a few hours. No one would be able to solve the test. In winter there were no strawberries. What made the Prince to give them a job that that cannot be met? Did He want to embarrass them all? Or has he hoped that some of them would not dare to come back into the castle, without the strawberries, and therefore prefer to leave voluntarily? Maybe it was a trick and strawberries were no fruit, but something completely different.
But Heera had not come to pass, as he told, in the forest, but was hidden at the edge in the branches of a tall pine tree. She looked like a chosen one after the others went out, most with sullen or even fearful faces. Medea came last, but she was not alone. - She was wearing the birdcage with the lark with him.
"Do you want to give your birds the Freedom? cried Heera down from above. Medea shrugged shocked altogether, as if she had been caught doing something forbidden.
"What are you doing up there?" She hissed at her sister angrily. Heera glided of the fir and landed next to Medea in the snow. "I've been waiting for you."
"Why?"
"You know all about the forest is not out, so I will make sure that you do are not lost."
Medea wrinkled her nose and walked past her. "I do not need your help!"
Heera ran after her. Medea had always been a little cocky, but with each passing day in the castle, it was worse. "You'll find no strawberries! No one will. "
"If Prince Lean provides us a test, it must also be possible to solve them", insisted Medea. She ran straight across the snowy ground, as if she follows an invisible thread.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?" wondered Heera.
"I follow the call of my heart," said Medea, after the lark began to chirp. Heera looked around hesitantly. Yet their tracks in the snow were clearly visible, but soon the wind would blow away and new snow will lay like a blanket over the ground. If Heera followed Medea, she would soon have lost all sense. But she could not possibly leave her sister alone. It was her duty to protect her sister. That was the only reason she had applied for the prince.
When so much time had passed that the girl could not tell if she had left before minutes or hours, they discovered a small hut, from whose interior also shone the glow of a warm fire in the cold forest. Smoke rose from the chimney.
"Let's take a rest," suggested Medea, but Heera held her back. "What if the house belongs to a witch?"
"Do not be ridiculous! Now who's the coward? You or Me? "Medea taunted her carelessly.
"I know the woods better than anyone else and have never met the cottage. This may only be a charm ", Heera warned her again, but Medea was not deterred and withdrew from her sister.
They looked through the window into the interior. There were three dwarfs in front of a roaring fire, who worked with carvings. Medea threw a questioning look on her lark and as they excitedly twittered, she knocked on the door.
"Come in," she called from inside the choir. Heera and Medea entered the room.
"It's so cold that we freeze to death almost. Can we warm ourselves in your home? "Medea asked politely.
"Sit down as long as you want," replied one of the dwarves in a friendly manner. The two sisters sat down before the fire thankfully and unpacked the cake they had noticed as food provisions. When the dwarfs smelled the scent of pastries, they were also hungry. "We have left you in our office, now also shares your food with us," they demanded.
Without hesitation both girls broke apart their cake and gave half to the dwarves. They ate together before the fire, as one of the dwarves asked: "What are you doing in the winter alone in the forest? The snow is plenty and the night has already arrived."
"We are picking strawberries for the queen," Heera told without any reluctance by a shaking to make her distaste clear.
"If I return without that, I will lose any chance of becoming the Princess", Medea sighed. "Dear dwarfs, can you know advice?"
The dwarves pointed to three brooms in the corner of the room. "Return to the snow on the back door way and we want to help you."
Only when the lark sang in agreement, Medea rose and stepped out the door with Heera. The cold wind blew in their faces and made them shiver. Nevertheless, she went to work as usual. When the first layer snow was swept, came loud ripe strawberries to light that peeped from dark red white ice. Medea uttered a cry of joy and began hurriedly to collect the strawberries. She froze when she saw what Heera did instead. She put one berry after the other in her own mouth.
"What in heaven's name are you doing?" Medea exclaimed anxiously.
"The strawberries are delicious," Heera replied unmoved and held out one to her sister. "Do you want?"
"We should bring the queen strawberries and not fill our own belly!"
"If the queen wants strawberries, then they will go and pick themselves” Heera replied carelessly.
"Why are you so?" asked Medea in despair and close to tears.
"What? Honest? "
"You're behaving worse than any swineherd!" Cried Medea. "I'm ashamed to be your sister!"
Her words hit Heera with full force. "Did you therefore ignore me in the morning?"
"Yes and I will continue to do so! I do not want to be associated with your bad behaviour. Perhaps you do not care about the prince, but for me he is not like that! "
Although Heera was hurt, s she could not bear to see her sister cry. "Calm down, I'll not tell anyone that we have found the strawberries together. You will collect the praise and if we're lucky, the Prince will send me home at last. "
"It would be best for everyone," Medea agreed with her sniffed and nodded
Prince Lean sat on the throne, behind his mother and his father standing. For an hour they waited for the return of the candidates. Agnes was the first person who entered the hall. Snowflakes hung in her glossy hair, but her skin was so spotless and pure, as if she had spent the day in a warm place and not in the freezing cold. In her hand she held a basket, which was covered with a cloth.