Sitting on the ground at the foot of an enormous oak was a girl. She wore a thin silver circlet on her head, and the face below it was heart-shaped and very lovely. Her long, golden hair and sky blue dress stood out dearly against the oak's brown bark, like a picture made of jewels set in a dark-colored frame. That was probably exactly the effect she had intended, Mendanbar thought with a resigned sigh. Somehow princesses, even the ones with less wit than a turtle, always knew just how to appear to their best advantage.

"Who are you?" the princess asked again. She was examining Mendanbar with an expression of great interest, and she did not look frightened anymore. "And how did you come here, to this most solitary and forsaken place?"

"My name is Mendanbar, and I was out for a walk," Mendanbar replied.

He sighed again and added, "Is there something I might do for you?"

The princess hesitated. "Prince Mendanbar?" she asked delicately.

"No," Mendanbar answered, puzzled.

"Lord Mendanbar, then? Or, belike, Sir Mendanbar?"

"I'm afraid not." He was beginning to catch on, and he hoped fervently that she wouldn't think of asking whether he was a king. It was a good thing he wasn't wearing his crown. Ambitious princesses were even worse than the usual variety, and he didn't want to deal with either one right now.

The princess's dainty eyebrows drew together for a moment while she considered his answer. Finally, her expression cleared. "Then you must be a virtuous woodcutter's son, whose deeds of valor and goodwill shall earn you lands and title in some glorious future," she said positively.

"A woodcutter? In the Enchanted Forest?" Mendanbar said, appalled.

Didn't the girl have any sense? "No, thank you!"

"But how came you here to find me, if you are neither prince nor knight nor deserving youth?" the princess asked in wide-eyed confusion.

"Oh… sometimes these things happen," Mendanbar said vaguely.