PART TENShe came to her senses in the morning and the two snow white feline bed coverings melted away as mysteriously as they had originally materialised, much to relief of the horse, who had slept uneasily all night, with one eye ever on the lookout for a move from the  leopards.

She shivered, now that she was once more entirely bare and unprotected from the bitter cold and the wind which howled and whistled over the mountain.  "I hope I will be over these awful mountains and into the southern plains before too long.  This is killing me!" she muttered, as she took food and drink from the saddle bags and saw to the sustenance of herself and her equine companion.  Her hands blue and stiff with cold and the fine golden hairs on her body standing  out vertically in the intensity of the Arctic chill, she urged the mount forward at a trot and ran behind it, heedless of the damage she was doing to her feet on the razor sharp stones - anything to get the blood flowing and to save her extremities from frostbite!

By infinitely slow dgrees, the unprecedentedly hellish agonies,  which were gripping her,  abated and departed from her, being replaced by nothing more than intense and terrible pain, which she could easily bear, being well used to it by this time.  The upward course of the ever more stony path seemed unending and her breast was bursting with the combination of the pain of exertion and the rarity of the mountain air.

 Just as she doubted that she could go any further, she saw before and far away beneath her the plains of that Southern land where she was to spend the next few months.  It looked like Paradise to the poor tortured Princess, a plain covered with lakes and trees, through which she must pass in order to reach the southern tip of the country below, where she would spend the winter months.

The descent was in many ways more of a trial than that long climb which she had barely been able to complete.  One compensation for the perilous nature of the downward journey was the gradual slackening of the terrible cold.  By the time she had reached the plain , her knees, hands, arms and body bleeding from several falls on the way down, and her left eye bruised and cut from contact with one wickedly sharp stone which had broken a particularly nasty fall, the air was warm again and  she sank to the ground on her bruised and bleeding knees praying her thanks to whomsoever had made it possible for her to come through such a fearful ordeal.

"You should thank yourself and your own great courage" said a voice which came from nowhere and everywhere at one and the same time. "You had no help save from the leopards.  You have saved yourself by your exertions and bravery.  Well done, oh fair Princess!"

Instead of pride at these words, for some strange reason she felt more utterly humbled than at any time since she was a little child - humble and grateful to the unseen voice for its words of praise, which she could not in any way  feel to be merited.  She knew that more dangers lay ahead and that she could not rest upon her laurels, but must press immediately on.

Before this adventure was over, she was to pass through many more dangerous situations and endure much more pain.  It was a thought that filled her with dread.  Only her continuing love  for the indifferent and uncaring Prince,  and undiminished determination and desire to transform his indifference into love, sufficed to keep her true to her mission.

She got to her feet and went over to the horse, putting her bruised arms around the creature's neck and kissing its nose. "Thanks, old fellow, I could never have made it without you!"  The animal snorted its response.  The Princess  knew that what the horse was saying was "My privilege and very great pleasure, oh wondrously fair Princess.  I will follow you to the end of my life and to the uttermost extremities of the Earth. I yearn for the day when I may bear your lovely form upon my back!"

"You and me both" muttered the footsore Princess, as she examined the damage done by the mountain journey.  The soles of her battered and torn feet did not constitute a pretty sight and she saw that she was in for several days of the most severe discomfort before they healed.

 It was no use improvising some temporary covering, by binding long grass around her feet, as   she had tried  once.  She would never forget that as long as she lived.  Three days into her long exile she had been so  toemented by the pain in her bleeding feet that she had tried wrapping some wiry grasses around them.  The burning, searing pain that she had immediately experienced, causing shrieks and howls of agony that had echoed around the forest for minutes afterwards and sending flocks of startled birds wheeling into the sky,  had warned her never again even to think about departing in even the sllightest degree from the regime of of total nudity that the fairy had decreed.  After that horror, the ordinary earthly pain of treading on thorns and stones was much to be preferred!

After the briefest of respites, she summoned up the will to resume her southward march, trying to ignore the increasing agonies as her weary and newly lacerated feet were force to carry her along the rough tracks leading from the foothills to the lush flatness which was still some distance away.  She walked fast and saw as she glanced back at the path she had trodden, the red marks left behind her by those weeping, bleeding wounds on the base of her feet.

 How she survived the next three days of ceaseless marching, punctuated by short nights of sleep, she was never to be able to explain.  After three days, the pain began to recede and the wounds healed a little.  Once, passing by the calm, smooth water of a small lake, she glanced down at her reflection - the first time she had seen herself for weeks.  Her face was still bruised after her fall.  She saw that another inch and she would almost certainly have lost the eye. Even so, the beauty that had captured all men's hearts,  save that of the one she most desired,  was in no way diminished, but only accentuated by her injuries.

Half way through the fourth day after her crossing of the mountains, she saw ahead of her, a young man.  He was walking slowly and painfully.  He was barefoot.  Not only his feet were bare.  So was the rest of him!  She would soon overtake him unless she slackened her furious pace, and this she was loth to do.
"What will happen now?" she asked herself.
 
 

She came to her senses in the morning and the two snow white feline bed coverings melted away as mysteriously as they had originally materialised, much to relief of the horse, who had slept uneasily all night, with one eye ever on the lookout for a move from the  leopards.

She shivered, now that she was once more entirely bare and unprotected from the bitter cold and the wind which howled and whistled over the mountain.  "I hope I will be over these awful mountains and into the southern plains before too long.  This is killing me!" she muttered, as she took food and drink from the saddle bags and saw to the sustenance of herself and her equine companion.  Her hands blue and stiff with cold and the fine golden hairs on her body standing  out vertically in the intensity of the Arctic chill, she urged the mount forward at a trot and ran behind it, heedless of the damage she was doing to her feet on the razor sharp stones - anything to get the blood flowing and to save her extremities from frostbite!

By infinitely slow dgrees, the unprecedentedly hellish agonies,  which were gripping her,  abated and departed from her, being replaced by nothing more than intense and terrible pain, which she could easily bear, being well used to it by this time.  The upward course of the ever more stony path seemed unending and her breast was bursting with the combination of the pain of exertion and the rarity of the mountain air.

 Just as she doubted that she could go any further, she saw before and far away beneath her the plains of that Southern land where she was to spend the next few months.  It looked like Paradise to the poor tortured Princess, a plain covered with lakes and trees, through which she must pass in order to reach the southern tip of the country below, where she would spend the winter months.

The descent was in many ways more of a trial than that long climb which she had barely been able to complete.  One compensation for the perilous nature of the downward journey was the gradual slackening of the terrible cold.  By the time she had reached the plain , her knees, hands, arms and body bleeding from several falls on the way down, and her left eye bruised and cut from contact with one wickedly sharp stone which had broken a particularly nasty fall, the air was warm again and  she sank to the ground on her bruised and bleeding knees praying her thanks to whomsoever had made it possible for her to come through such a fearful ordeal.

"You should thank yourself and your own great courage" said a voice which came from nowhere and everywhere at one and the same time. "You had no help save from the leopards.  You have saved yourself by your exertions and bravery.  Well done, oh fair Princess!"

Instead of pride at these words, for some strange reason she felt more utterly humbled than at any time since she was a little child - humble and grateful to the unseen voice for its words of praise, which she could not in any way  feel to be merited.  She knew that more dangers lay ahead and that she could not rest upon her laurels, but must press immediately on.

OnlyBefore this adventure was over, she was to pass through many more dangerous situations and endure much more pain.  It was a thought that filled her with dread.   her continuing love  for the indifferent and uncaring Prince,  and undiminished determination and desire to transform his indifference into love, sufficed to keep her true to her mission.

She got to her feet and went over to the horse, putting her bruised arms around the creature's neck and kissing its nose. "Thanks, old fellow, I could never have made it without you!"  The animal snorted its response.  The Princess  knew that what the horse was saying was "My privilege and very great pleasure, oh wondrously fair Princess.  I will follow you to the end of my life and to the uttermost extremities of the Earth. I yearn for the day when I may bear your lovely form upon my back!"

"You and me both" muttered the footsore Princess, as she examined the damage done by the mountain journey.  The soles of her battered and torn feet did not constitute a pretty sight and she saw that she was in for several days of the most severe discomfort before they healed.

 It was no use improvising some temporary covering, by binding long grass around her feet, as   she had tried  once.  She would never forget that as long as she lived.  Three days into her long exile she had been so  tormented by the pain in her bleeding feet that she had tried wrapping some wiry grasses around them.  The burning, searing pain that she had immediately experienced, causing shrieks and howls of agony that had echoed around the forest for minutes afterwards and sending flocks of startled birds wheeling into the sky,  had warned her never again even to think about departing in even the slightest degree from the regime of of total nudity that the fairy had decreed.  After that horror, the ordinary earthly pain of treading on thorns and stones was much to be preferred!

After the briefest of respites, she summoned up the will to resume her southward march, trying to ignore the increasing agonies as her weary and newly lacerated feet were force to carry her along the rough tracks leading from the foothills to the lush flatness which was still some distance away.  She walked fast and saw as she glanced back at the path she had trodden, the red marks left behind her by those weeping, bleeding wounds on the base of her feet.

 How she survived the next three days of ceaseless marching, punctuated by short nights of sleep, she was never to be able to explain.  After three days, the pain began to recede and the wounds healed a little.  Once, passing by the calm, smooth water of a small lake, she glanced down at her reflection - the first time she had seen herself for weeks.  Her face was still bruised after her fall.  She saw that another inch and she would almost certainly have lost the eye. Even so, the beauty that had captured all men's hearts,  save that of the one she most desired,  was in no way diminished, but only accentuated by her injuries.

Half way through the fourth day after her crossing of the mountains, she saw ahead of her, a young man.  He was walking slowly and painfully.  He was barefoot.  Not only his feet were bare.  So was the rest of him!  She would soon overtake him unless she slackened her furious pace, and this she was loth to do.
"What will happen now?" she asked herself.