Now the middle princess, Mavelle had a habit of walking through the woods at all hours of the night and she came upon the bloodied, weak, and wailing Crone.

     “Mother, who did this to you?  Let me help you.”  The princess gently aided the Crone to her hut.  She washed and doctored the Crone’s wounds and patiently waited for the old woman to stop sobbing and tell her the story of her cruel treatment.

     When at last she could speak, the Crone told the young princess a tale that she found horrifying.  “Little one, it was your sister.  So cruelly did she treat me that I refused to answer her questions.  For your kindness, I will reward you.

     “Mother, I need no reward, for what I did, anyone would do for one who suffers.”

     “Anyone other than your sister, it seems.  Now listen carefully.  You must travel to the center of the deep forest.  There you will find a cave of stone.  Inside is a dagger of dark crystal, this is the only thing that can kill a stone ogre.  It can pierce his stone heart.

     The princess traveled to the forest accompanied only by her deerhound, Mcdougal.  There she trod softly on bare feet following the deer trails to the center.  It took some time to find the cave and when she did, she easily prized the dark crystal knife from its lair.

     Holding a kerchief of her sister’s in front of her deerhound’s face, she begged her companion to seek her sister.  Fleet of foot, the hound raced ahead of her for many miles only slowing to see if she still followed.

     Finally, the hound halted, he dropped to the ground and whined.  She could no more move him than a mountain.  She sat next to him, pillowed her head on his back, and napped.  As she slept, she dreamed. 

     Her sister, Lovena, beckoned to her and said, “Look below and not above, behind and not in front.  Beware the heart of ice and listen only to one who is true.  Hurry sister.”

     She woke with a start.  “McDougal, we need to hurry.  Find her!”

     Her deerhound sat in place and whined.  He held up one paw and then the other.

     “Here?  She’s here?  But where?”  Mavelle looked around her.  They were in the courtyard of a long abandoned summer home.  Most of the home was in ruins but to her right and below ground level, she saw a small window.  She would’ve missed the window had her sister’s words not echoed in her mind. 

     “How do I get in there?”….More tomorrow.