The Girl with the Fire Heart

The boy with the tanzanite heart is dutiful. He asks the other villagers about her, seeking to know more before he approaches. He discovers that many people fear her and many more are in awe of her. He learns of her experiences with the boy with the birch wood heart and the boy with the bronze heart. However, no two stories are the same. So he decides if he truly wants to know the shepherd’s daughter, he needs to approach her.

The boy with the tanzanite heart asks the shepherd while the shepherd’s daughter is out if he can help on the shepherd’s farm. The shepherd is unsure. With his daughter traveling so much and then secluding herself in the barn just as often, some of the work has gone awry. He's worried that if he doesn't get help, he will lose his farm.

The shepherd offers the boy a proposal. If the boy really wants to help around the farm, he needs to collect some items that he has seen in his daughter’s room. He doesn't tell the boy with the tanzanite heart why he needs these items, only that they are crucial to a project he is working on. The boy with the tanzanite heart agrees, promising the shepherd he will be back only when he has all the items.

A month goes by and the boy with the tanzanite heart has not returned. The shepherd’s daughter has resumed her duties, albeit slowly. After two months, the shepherd recruits the girl with the emerald heart and another of his daughter’s friends, a girl with an opal heart, to help his daughter around the farm.

After three months, the shepherd stops waiting for the boy with the tanzanite heart to come around. But in the fourth month, there is a sudden commotion on the road leading to the shepherd’s house. He hears people yelling in the streets and his daughter comes rushing in, shouting about a caravan heading straight for their home.

The shepherd runs to follow his daughter and there, leading the caravan full of all the supplies his daughter could ever need, is the boy with the tanzanite heart.

The shepherd is surprised. He had not heard from the boy let alone had any indication that he would return. Yet four months after the initial proposal, here he is, with a proud smile on his face for all of his accomplishments.

The boy with the tanzanite heart walks straight to the shepherd, leading him around the caravan full of all the materials the shepherd requested. He explains to the shepherd that he had not asked how much of all the items listed he would need so he got more than he would anticipate. The boy with the tanzanite heart tells the shepherd that he was afraid of asking why the shepherd needed these items but he was determined to retrieve them all.

And retrieve them all he did. The shepherd, knowing that he had a promise to uphold, agrees to let the boy with the tanzanite heart work on the farm with his daughter and her two friends. However, the shepherd’s daughter is suspicious. Her experiences with the other two village boys has made her wary of everyone and this boy is no exception.

But as the months go by, and they work alongside each other, the boy makes no advances. He simply works with her, talking to her during their breaks, and resuming his tasks. With the four young villagers working together, the work around the farm that had fallen to the wayside is finished and they merely tend to the day to day.

After a full year, the boy pulls the shepherd’s daughter aside after a full day’s work. He tells her he is in love with her. He tells her he wants to marry her and that he hopes all the time they have spent together means she will give him a chance. The shepherd’s daughter is surprised. She was beginning to believe he was only interested in the work and experience of the farm. She in no way suspected she was what he wanted.

After a moment of consideration, the shepherd’s daughter says yes. She would give the boy with the tanzanite heart a chance. So they begin to court one another. The boy does everything the other boys didn’t. He escorts her to the markets and makes sure everyone sees them together. He is asked often what he is doing with the shepherd’s daughter but his reply is always the same. He says they are friends who enjoy each other's company.

The shepherd’s daughter appreciates his insistence at being discreet. When they tend to the fields together, he is openly affectionate, making sure not to overwhelm the other girls with his lavish attention on the shepherd’s daughter.

Some time passes before the shepherd’s daughter decides she is going to tell the boy about the contraption she has not stopped working on in her spare hours. The day she chooses to tell him, they finish working in the fields and the shepherd’s daughter asks the boy to follow her to the barn. Standing outside the barn doors, the boy speaks above her.

He tells her that he is going away for a while. He has already spoken to the shepherd about his plans and he had been planning on telling her sooner. He tells the shepherd’s daughter that he will return as soon as he can and that he is glad for this moment of privacy because it would be the last before he left.

The shepherd’s daughter is stunned silent. His sudden declaration made it impossible to tell him about her secret project. She asks him when he is leaving. He tells her today. She nods her head, too overcome with emotion to speak.

The boy with the tanzanite heart ends the conversation with a kiss and tells her to wait for him until he returns. Then he is gone.

For a whole month she waits. The shepherd watches his daughter stand at the end of the road that leads to their home for an hour before turning around and coming inside for supper.

One month turns into two turns into three and before long, six months have passed and the boy with the tanzanite heart is not heard from. In secret, the shepherd’s daughter begins the actual construction of the contraption. She works well into the night, molding and shaping, refining the steel with the fire in her heart to shape itself around her necklace.

One day, the girl with the opal heart comes running with a letter. She barrels into the shepherd’s daughter, shouting that the boy with the tanzanite heart has written to her. The family crest is stamped onto the back of the envelope. The shepherd’s daughter tears the letter open, wasting no time reading its contents.

When the shepherd’s daughter gets to the end of the letter, she stands frozen. The girl with the opal heart badgers her with questions, asking her what the letter said. The girl with the emerald heart comes near, having heard the commotion of the two girls, when she sees that her friend let the letter fall to the ground.

She reaches down and picks it up, scanning it quickly. The letter is a declaration of marriage. The boy with the tanzanite heart has been betrothed to another and the wedding is a mere six months away. The letter details how the shepherd and his family had given the boy worldly experience and was grateful to them for their hospitality. The family had extended an invitation to all of them, the two gem hearted girls included.

The girl with the emerald heart tears the letter up. She looks to the shepherd’s daughter who is still frozen. Suddenly, the air begins to grow cold. The shepherd’s daughter shivers and this seems to shake her out of her trance. She looks down to her necklace and sees something she has never experienced before.

The flames that were trapped in the necklace are dimming. Little by little, the fire in the necklace begins to burn out until there are only embers. The shepherd’s daughter lifts her hand to her chest and she feels the coldness inside of her.

Without another word, the shepherd’s daughter runs to the barn and shuts herself in. She works furiously on the contraption she has been building. In no time, she finishes the cage and locks it into place. She runs over to the broken glass pieces that rest in the far corner of the barn and inspects her work.

She twists her necklace from left to right, turning it over in her hand to ensure that her original necklace could not be seen outside of its steel walls. The girl looks in the mirror and sees her transformation. In place of her soft eyes and tender smile is now ashes for eyes and a detached expression. She looks different.

She feels different.

The shepherd’s daughter is hauntingly beautiful. She feels cold, distant, no longer the girl with the fire heart. She decides then that she will never allow another boy to get close to her. She vows to make sure the steel cage she has enclosed around her necklace remains in place forever.