Shifting Sand

Leaning against a rock in the sea of shifting sand a lovely tender maiden is in dire straits as there is no place to shade her from the sun and it has been days now since she has had any water to drink. Tender maiden if only you should find a place of shade to shield you from the sun's rays and for your thirst perhaps a spoon full of water to drink. Lovely maiden if only the sand would not shift and you could reckon your direction with a constant bearing and maybe even so you can gather your strength and find your way home. "My lord look upon your tender one and do not forsake her in this hour as I am a sweet precious fruit who has conducted myself as well as I can and have never given anyone a promissory note that I had no intention to honor. Look on me now my lord for my countenance begins to fail me hardily."

How many days before when early morning she had awaken from sleep in her father's house in the village and she said to herself. "I will refresh and dress and then I shell go to the well and fetch water so that I may prepare food for me and my father. Today is another day of harvest and I will go to the fields and gather grain and shortly when the fields are clean the whole village will celebrate. The women will sing and dance and the men will adorn themselves in their finest to avert the attention of a sparkling maiden. I am now of age to be given in marriage and in subtle ways I am directing my father so that his choice for me will not make me unhappy. Today I go to the fields and gather grain and when the fields are clean I will sing and dance and flirt all the while pointing my father to my choice and letting him believe that it is his choice that is being made for me."

Sunlight where have you suddenly gone as you were just here and now you are not and heat of the sun so cold with an icy chill have you become and why is the cause of this most strange event? Never is it heard of such a thing ever happening before and it has given good cause for one knee to smite the other in alarm. The lovely tender maiden went to the fields to gather grain and as she picked she thought of the design of the dress that a woman handy in the art of mending was making for her. She had specified exactly how she wanted it to fit and look and she now pondered if there was anything that she had overlooked so that she may inform the woman so that she could make amendments to it before it is completed. The lovely tender maiden was thinking cheerful of many different things and suddenly there was no sunlight and then a chill came over her that went to the very bones beneath her skin.

A second seemed like an eternity but that was the duration that the darkness and the chill came and went and in one particular spot in one of the grain fields a basket laid on the ground and there was no one there to tend it. Taken away and planted in the sea of shifting sand the lovely tender maiden could not understand. Now the chill in her bones became heated all at once and all thoughts of her dress and the harvest festivities meant nothing anymore to her. Not knowing the time since here the sun did not ever set she assumed that she had been wandering in this loathsome place for days and her mental and physical anguish was a silent mirror set before her eyes as she attempted to reason but could not envision a suitable reply. "My lord you have brought me here for a reason and I know that it is not to lie here on this stone and waste away and die, therefore I will stand to my feet and you will tell me what you have done for me."

In the sky there appeared a great light that shined brighter than the sun yet did not induce heat but a wonderful sense of completeness and peace and out of that light a prince lit a candle and out of the candle there issued forth sweet water and the lovely tender maiden cupped her hands and did drink and as she drink her cloths melted away and something like tingling darts begin to burst all over her body cleaning and refreshing her like clouds with water and after she was clean and shimmering in radiance a gown appeared and dressed itself upon her and the gown was sown by a million star clusters and ten thousand habitats from reaches wondrous designed the material that it is woven and the lovely tender maiden looked down at the stone that she had laid in dire straits and anguish and touched it with the palm of her right hand and the stone spread itself out into an oasis of bountiful bliss and the sea of shifting sand flowered with everything luscious and green. The prince will descend and he will assume the rights of the lovely tender maiden who is now at the age of marriage and there will be a festival of which likes the creation has never seen before or will any more.