There was once a girl that lived on her own on the top of a mountain. She herded her sheep, read her books, and kept mostly to herself. The only time she would ever have any interaction with others was when she would make her weekly trip into the market for essentials every Wednesday and when she would go to the yearly animal auction, maybe.

She had a nice set simple routine. She would wake up in the morning, change into outdoor clothes, eat a small breakfast of nuts and raisins, taking a small amount in her hip satchel as well, just in case. Then she would head out to the barn, which was, in reality, a small shack ten yards away from her slightly bigger cabin. She would then get the sheep out of the barn and take them out.

She has been doing this for as long as she can remember and most of these memories are of her on her own. She does have a few memories of her father though. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father died when she was 7. Her father was a great man. He taught her everything she needed to know, how to cook, to read, to herd the sheep, arithmetic and every other thing that one could think of.

This is how she went, day in and day out, week after week. The only thing that changed in her schedule was the weekly trips to the market, of which she could not control the happening when she got there. She never thought that her lonely mountain routine would have a wrench thrown in to it either.

It all happened one day while she was herding the sheep. Mika, one of the sheep, strayed and of course she followed him. While following said sheep she stumbled upon a young men. He was a handsome fellow, except for the scabbing wound on his forehead. He also happened to be unconscious. Fortunately for her, the cottage wasn’t to far and she was very strong. She grabbed the young man and carried him back to her cabin the best that she could.
For days she took care of the young man, not knowing who he was, yet compelled to do what she was doing out of sheer curiosity and astonishment.

She formed a new routine while he was staying with her. She slept on the rug so he could have the bed, because most of the time he was still unconscious. She would wake up, dress in the other room, eat her breakfast, herd the sheep for a shorter time then normal, and then she would return to the cottage. When she got back she would clean and take care of the unconscious young man, all while singing to no one, no even herself.
The next time she went to the market she took the boy with her. He just so happened to have woken up, but only slightly, that morning. She half carried him down into the market and sat him down at the table in the local tavern with a note explaining his condition. With that she left and went about her normal business, though she couldn’t get his face out of her mind. And it seemed that he couldn’t get her voice out of his.

When the innkeeper came out of the kitchen he nearly fainted. The prince and heir to the throne was sitting in HIS tavern. He was flabbergasted. Royalty in HIS tavern, but that really wasn’t what had him so shocked. It was the fact that the prince had been missing for just under two weeks and he definitely looked it. The innkeeper, being the very kind, and yet slightly greedy individual he was, decided that he would leave the tavern duties to his wife and take the prince up to the palace. It was his patriotic duty, and he could really use the reward money.

As the kind, yet slightly greed innkeeper walked with the prince to the palace, the prince started asking question after question, but most of them had to do with sheep and a girl. The innkeeper just thought that the prince had gotten hit on the head too hard and just needed to lie down and recover a bit.

The queen was in tears of joy when she saw that her only child was alive and well and the innkeeper was given his reward money. The queen, of course, did her motherly duty and checked her son and made sure he had no life threatening physical ailment. Then his father, the king, and the king’s top advisor asked the boy questions about the past two weeks and all that had happened. There was one problem; all the boy could remember was a pretty, yet blurry face with brilliant eyes and that voice. That amazing soprano filled his ears and his heart. He had to find her.

The prince was forced to stay in his chambers until he was in ideal physical condition. But he only agreed to do so if, as soon as he was in perfect health his parents would stop at nothing to help him find and wed the girl who saved his life, no matter who she is.

It took a month for the palace doctors to approve if the princes condition, which gave him a lot of time to think about how he was going to find her. He could go door to door in the mountain cabins, they were too far apart and he doesn’t remember much about anything. All he remembers is the smell of sheep, the feeling of being carried, and that voice, the voice that haunted his dreams and his very waking hour as well.

He decided that he would have three tests for any young women who wanted to try, though only his true savior and love could pass. But these tests would be treated as a contest and nothing more, no one was to know their true purpose.

The first test was to be held on a Saturday and was to be a test of strength. The women had to carry six sandbags, one at a time from one pile to another. Both these piles were approximately 15 yards apart. Only two women completed this competition, and they were rewarded with money, but the prince had a gut feeling that neither of these women was the only he was looking for.

The second task was held on the Monday after the first task. For this task, the company of women was taken out to a field filled with sheep and told that the one who herded the most sheep won. The woman who won this contest won due to her sheer size. She used her body to force the sheep were she wanted them to go. This was definitely not the woman from the mountain, for she was kind and gentle and, most of all, knew how to herd sheep.

Finally, the last task was scheduled to be on the Wednesday after the first two. This contest was to be a singing contest. If the prince knew one thing about this woman, it was her singing voice. As in all of the other competitions, the prince was not to be known, so he sat behind a curtain on the left side of the stage and signaled to a man whether or not it was the woman he was looking for.

Meanwhile, the girl was making her way down the mountain to do her weekly shopping. She hummed to herself the whole way. When she reached the village market area she noticed that there was a commotion in the square and decided to investigate. That’s when she saw the stage and the singer on it. She was transfixed. She had always wanted to sing for people, but never had the courage. The only people she had ever heard her sing were her father, the young man, the innkeeper, who was a good friend of her fathers back in the day, and of course herself.

Well, low and behold, the innkeeper sees her standing in the crowd and encourages her to do it, to sing for the people, because he has heard then all and she is far superior. She finally gives in a waits in the line to the stage on it’s right.

As she got closer to the stage itself her palms started to sweat and she started to feel really jittery. She almost got out of the line and walked away, but she was compelled to get on that stage, because she may have felt nervous, but she also felt another, rather curious feeling.

Finally it was her turn. She got up on the stage and stood for about a minute, in complete silence.

The prince, behind his curtain, was getting aggravated. He had been sitting there for hours, without any success, and now one of the woman decided that she was going to let her nerves get the better of her while the woman he’s looking for could be behind her in the line. And this is how the prince’s mind went, that is, until she started to sing.

At that moment they only thing that wasn’t still was the girl. Her voice was phenomenal. Finally the prince, at first in shock, nodded to the man who would fetch the girl and started pacing. What was he going to say to her? Would she remember him? Thoughts like these where running through his mind, that is, until she appeared in front of him.
They both gaped at each other. He gaped because he thought that she was the most beautiful young woman he had ever met. She gaped at him. When she had helped him in the mountains, she had no idea he was the prince. What had she gotten herself into?

“Gentlemen, would you please leave us?” The prince nodded to his men and they left the curtained room. Which left just him and the girl, who was looking at her feet, which were shuffling nervously. “My dear, you do know that you do not need to feel at all nervous around me.”

She just nodded in response.

“Then why do you feel the need to stare at your feet instead of looking at me?”

She just shrugged.

He then used his hand to raise her face so she would look at him and asked, “You didn’t know who I was when you saved me did you?”

She shook her head.

“Are you going to speak at all, or just use body language?”

“Body language has served me fairly sufficiently this far.”

“Well then, you do speak.”

“Yes, your highness, to sing I must speak.”

The prince laughed and she smiled shyly at him in return. “Do you understand what happened today?”

“Not really, it looked to be a singing contest and I love to sing and I figured that there was no better time then the present to come out of my box and sing in public.”

“Well my dear, it was a singing contest, but not just to see who is the best singer, though you have won that position by far.” She blushed. “The purpose was to find the beautiful young woman who was kind enough to save me, apparently without even knowing who I was, and ask her if she would like to become my queen.”

The girl stared at him.

The prince smiled, “Should I take that as a yes?”

Then the girl sighed at looked at her feet. “I’m sorry your highness, but I would make a terrible queen.”

“I would disagree with that young lady.”

“Why your Highness? I am but a mountain girl. I know nothing of court or communication. I would be a terrible queen.”

The prince smiled. “Young lady, you may be inexperienced in court ritual and communication, but that can be learned. One cannot learn compassion and kindness, traits that you have in heaps. Kindness and compassion are more important in a queen than court ritual and communication.”

“I still do not believe that I can be queen. I have my sheep to take care of. And besides, you do not know me, why would you want to marry someone you do not know. To spend the rest of your life with someone a big commitment.”

The prince’s face was now glum, “Does this mean you are unwilling to be my queen?”

The girl looked at him, really looked at him and replied, “No, your highness, it does not mean that I am unwilling to be your queen. It just means that I must learn some things about you first, and you about me.”

The prince’s face brightened slightly. The girl took his hand and led him to chair he had been sitting in while listen to the “singing contest”. The girl sat on the ground in front of his chair and they talked and talked.

After talking for hours, the girl decided that she liked the prince enough, and agreed to become the queen. She moved in to the castle and her sheep were allowed to follow. The engagement was announced a week later and the marriage a month after that.

The girl and her prince lived long and happy as king and queen.