Continued from this post…

Alone in her turret, Carrena looked around at the cold, dark room. There was a straw mat on the floor with a worn blanket thrown across it. Beneath the slit of a window, there was a wooden table and chair and nothing else of comfort.

Carrena walked over to the slit of a window and looked out.

All around she saw dark gloomy lands. The trees were bare. The fields were covered in dried out stubble. There were no birds singing. No flowers growing. There was no sign of life. No voices laughing and talking and sharing stories of the day.

Looking at the lands, Carrena felt sadness embrace her.

“Stop it,” she told herself. “Feeling sorry for yourself will not change anything. It will only make you feel worse.”

And so, she began to sing.

“I walk in beauty now. Beauty lies before me. Beauty lies above me, behind and below me.”

The knight, only half way down the turret stairs heard her song.

He stopped and listened. It was the same song he had heard throughout their journey back to the kingdom.

In her voice, he felt it again. That thing he’d never felt before. The feeling of his heart beating. Of his blood flowing warmly throughout his body.

He was confused.

What would he tell the king?

He did not want to lose the sound of her song. He did not want to reveal to the king that he had found the girl with the heart of gold and carried her to the castle. He did not want her to lose her heart.

Slowly he kept descending the staircase towards the king’s throne room.

What could he do to protect Carrena’s heart?

It was a foreign feeling to him this need to care for another. It felt good, different, warm, and he did not want to let the feeling go.

Just as he reached the entranceway to the king’s throne room, a page came racing out. “The king has fallen! The king has fallen!” he cried for everyone to hear.

The knight raced towards the king’s throne and found his liege lying on the floor, gasping for air.

“That song! That song!” the king cried. “Stop it. Stop it.”

The knight, not wanting to reveal the truth of where the song came from, lied.

“I don’t hear anything, your Highness,” he said.

“It’s her song,” the king wailed. “The song she sang everyday to our child. I cannot bear to hear it. I order you to make it stop.”

And as he spoke, tears rolled down the king’s face.

The knight, never having seen his king cry before, did not know what to do and so he asked the only question he could think to ask.

“What song Your highness?”

“That song that I hear right now,” the king cried. Tears rolled in glistening streams down his cheeks. “She was my world and all the beat of my heart and then one day while I was out, she was kidnapped and disappeared.” And his shoulders shook as he told the story and his words came out in violent gasps. “She sang it always to our child and they took our child too. A girl. A beautiful little girl. I searched the world wide and far and could never find them… I could never find them.” And he cried louder and louder.

The knight had heard stories of the king’s loss. The entire palace whispered of those sad days long ago when the king, burdened by grief and unable to find his love, had locked away his heart and never let it be known again.

The knight had always believed the stories were just a tale. A myth to explain away the coldness of the king’s heart. No one ever dared question the king and so, he’d simply ignored the story and continued to do his master’s bidding.

“Tell me you can hear her song,” the king demanded of his knight. “Tell me you can hear it too.”

The knight was scared.

Tell his master that he had lied, that he had brought the girl with the heart of gold to the castle and she was the one causing his pain? He knew his very life, and hers, were at stake and he did not know what to do.

And then, a strange thing happened.

The king took a breath and grabbed the knight’s hands and looked deeply into his eyes. “It is so beautiful,” he cried through his tears. “Listen. Can you not hear it?”

To lie or not to lie? And he knew the answer as he listened to Carrena’s song.

“I hear it,” said the knight. “It is the girl. The girl with the heart of gold.”

“What?” cried the king, releasing the knight’s hands and getting quickly up from where he had fallen. Thoughts of limitless riches and gold beyond his imagination filled his mind. “You have brought the girl with the heart of gold to my castle and not told me? You shall die for you insubordination!”

“I did not have time,” the knight told the king. “I only just returned when you heard her song. I was on my way to tell you when she began to sing. I did not have time.”

The king did not want to listen to his vassal’s excused and demanded he bring the girl to him immediately. “We will deal with you later,” he added for good measure just to scare the knight.

Fearing what would happen, the knight climbed back up to the turret room. When he entered, he was shocked by the transformation of its bleak surroundings. Boughs of flowers draped the walls, a beautiful blanket of moss covered the drab straw mat. The table was covered in a lacy cloth and the floor in a woven rug of multi-hued fibres. At the window slit, birds clung to the rock walls, their songs filling the room. And in the midst of all the beauty, Carrena sat quietly singing.

The knight could not believe his eyes and wanted to rest awhile amidst all the colour and beauty. But he knew he had no choice but to fulfill on his master’s orders. Quickly.

“You must run,” he told Carrena. “The king demands your presence and I cannot let you go near him.”

Carrena stopped her song and walked towards the knight. She took his hands in both of hers and gazed deeply into his eyes. “It’s okay,” she said. “I want to meet this king of yours whom you fear so deeply. I can feel your heart and it is pure. I will ask the king to set you free.”

“No!” screamed the knight. “You must do no such thing. I cannot be free until I die and if you demand anything of the king, he will kill me.”

“Don’t be silly,” Carrena replied. “No one is that powerful. No one can hold the reins on someone else’s life. I will insist he set you free.”

The knight was beyond words. Her song had touched his heart deeply and he knew he could not let the king take her life and remove her heart.

“Listen carefully,” said the knight to Carrena. “I will let you run away if you promise not to confront the king. You must go.”

“But you brought me here to meet your king,” said Carrena. “I must meet him.”

“No! You do not understand. The king wants to steal your heart of gold because he believes it will give him wealth beyond his greatest imaginings. You must run away.”

….. To be continued……

In a land far away, in a time long ago, there lived a king with a heart of stone. It had not always been this way. Once upon a time, his heart had beat freely, flowing with love and kindness. But he had loved and felt the pain of loss. Fear of having his heart-broken all over again had taught him to harden his heart. And so, it had turned to stone.

To keep his heart from breaking apart, he had built a wall of gold around it, telling himself the more he had, the better he would feel.

The people of his kingdom bore the brunt of his desire to acquire wealth and riches. Whatever they produced, whatever they had, went to feed the king’s need for more and more gold, until worn out and tired, they quit caring for the land and taking care of their crops and animals and one another. Over time, the lands grew fallow and the crops failed. Cows quit giving milk and the hearts of everyone in the kingdom also turned to stone.

The king became angry. His people had nothing to give and his coffers grew bare.  His heart grew harder and harder as the fear that he would run out of gold and riches took hold of his mind.

He ordered his minions to scour the land for every drop of gold, every ounce of grain, and every piece of wealth they could find.

And his kingdom grew darker and darker.

One day, one of his knights came to him and told him the story he had heard of a young girl with a heart of gold who lived in a land far away.

“Find me this girl,” he ordered his knight. “Bring her to me and remove her heart and do not fail or I will take out your heart.” For the king believed that with a heart of gold, he would have all the riches in the world and would never know fear again.

The knight gathered up six men and rode for days to the town where he had heard of the girl with the heart of gold. Not knowing his intentions, when he asked the townsfolk about the girl, they happily told him how to find her home.

He hadn’t needed to ask. It was easy to tell which house was hers. All around it flowers bloomed in a riot of colour and pattern. Birds sang in the trees and a brook burbled as it merrily flowed along at the edge of her property.

In the garden, a young woman sang and worked. She had long blond hair and her skin was smooth and white. Her hands were buried deep into the rich soil of her garden and when she turned to greet the knight and his men, her blue eyes sparkled and danced and her smile warmed their hearts.

Blinded for a moment by the beauty of her smile, the knight forgot why he had come. “What is your name?” he asked her hesitantly.

“Carrena,” she replied, standing up and brushing the dirt from her hands. She walk towards him and held out her hands to take his in both of hers. She was so nature al and kind the knight could not refuse. Shlooked deeply into his dark eyes and asked, “And what is your name?”

Surprised at her question, commoners never asked knights their name in the land where he came from, and they definitely didn’t hold their hands, the knight abruptly removed his hands from hers and scolded her loudly. “Do not be impertinent. My name is not of your concern. My king has ordered me to find you and bring you to him. You will come with me now.”

Carrena smiled at the knight gently. “You must love your king greatly to do his bidding with such fierceness.”

“Love my king?” the knight said. “I do not love my king. I fear him and I do his bidding. It is what I must do.”

“I do not know your king,” Carrena said. “It is sad that you fear him and that he has ordered you to take me to him because I cannot go. My home is here and I do not want to leave it.”

“You have no choice,” said the knight. “It is my king’s wish.”

Carrena smiled at the knight, and took his hands again in hers and looked deeply into his eyes. “Please thank your king for the invitation and give him my best wishes. I will not go with you.”

Angered by her refusal, and confused by the sudden warm beating of his heart from the touch of her hands, the knight pulled his hands away and ordered his men to grab the girl.

They were too fast for her and suddenly, she found herself wrapped inside a blanket and tied to the back of the knight’s horse.

They rode fast and furious and as they rode back towards the king’s castle, the lands around them grew darker and darker. They barely stopped to eat and drink yet no matter how tired she became, the young woman sang softly to herself.

Her song frightened the knight even more than the king’s demands. “Stop singing,” he ordered her.

“I will not,” Carrena told him. “Singing calms my fears and reminds me that love is always greater than fear.”

And so she sang and as she sang, the knight felt his heart melt more and more and he grew more and more confused. He could not tell her what the king intended for her. It would be too painful a truth to reveal. And so, he remained silent.

When they arrived at the king’s castle, the knight carried the young woman into the cold, dark palace and up into a chamber high in a turret. He ordered the servants to bring her food and water and told her she must stay there until the king demanded her presence.

To be continued tomorrow….

The Whole story.

Part 1:  The Girl with the Heart of Gold

Part 2: The Girl with the Heart of Gold

Part 3: The Girl with the Heart of gold

Part 4: the Girl with the Heart of Gold

It is cold today. Winter has arrived with blustery force dropping temperatures into the negative realms of double digit cold.

We are going to the Cenotaph at 11 this morning. We will bundle up and cover up exposed skin so we can stand with others to honour those we must not forget. We are going to pay tribute to those who fought for the freedom we all take for granted in this land of richness where thoughts of war are relegated to other places somewhere on the planet. Where guns blasting and bombs exploding do not darken our every step or haunt our sleep.

“It’s cold out,” my critter’s mind whispers. “Why not just honour the fallen from the warmth and safety of your home?”

“Because it is not just for the fallen I go,” my heart replies. “It is to stand in honour of those people around the world today who do not have the choice. It is to say “I see you. I do not forget you.” And while I cannot end the battles raging around them, I have the power to stand up for peace and make my voice heard by those who do have the power to create peace in war torn lands. They must hear our voices calling out for the guns to stop, for the wars to end and for peace to reign for all mankind.

I could never have been a police officer, I told C.C. the other night as we watched a movie. I could not go running towards danger while everyone else was fleeing.

I would have wanted to live another day. Not to fight or protect, but simply to enjoy the pleasures of a sunrise, a walk in the park, a peaceful day at home.

This is the freedom their sacrifice gives me. This is the freedom I get to take for granted.

For the men and women of our armed forces, for those whose hearts were stilled on battlefields around the world, on peace-keeping missions on foreign soils and while standing on guard at a war memorial in our capital city, I will stand in silence at the foot of the unknown soldier in a city park today and honour their sacrifices.

I will stand in silence for the first responders who run into danger to keep us safe, for those who have lost their lives while saving mine and others, for those who patrol our streets and keep watch over our sleeping houses, I will bundle up and stand in silence at the Cenotaph this morning.

It is the least that I can do so that they will know, I see you. I do not forget you. And I thank you.