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She pulled the flower and its stem from the ground and ate it all. It was delicious, and she felt an encompassing wave of love for herself and the world fill her as she swallowed her recovered heart.

The Chinchilla Princess reached up to the branch on the Old Willow Tree, and took down her pelt.

She smiled as she put it on, thinking how remarkable it was that now she was actually quite enjoying being naked in the crisp, clear moonlight!

Delighted, she ran her hands over it as she felt its whispering softness returned, and she marvelled at its shimmering fullness… all the worn patches were gone!

Now she knew there was one more task for her to complete. One which Great Wolf had not told her about, but which she knew now that she must do. (In the way she would now know many things that she had never been told before.)

She walked back to the sandy shore of the lake and picked up her Magical Scroll. She unrolled it and whispered softly to it in a voice now purged of sadness and loss, and full instead of love and power.

The very air around her began to shimmer and shift and change, and a great, firey spirit appeared, towering before her. (And yes, of course she felt afraid, but she was learning now to embrace and sacrifice her fears.)

"You have purified the silver that was mined and spun by the ancient Salamander Fire Spirits who serve the great Djinn in the Desert of Dreams. You have three wishes, Princess. Name them and release me!" The Great Djinn bellowed, and the whole forest seemed to burn for a moment as he spoke.

"I only want one." The Chinchilla Princess replied with calm certainty.

"And what would that be?" stormed the wild and impatient Djinn.

"Grant me the strength to follow my dreams with the wild and fresh clarity of sight, the generosity and purity of heart, and the softness and gentleness of the skin that I was born within."

"Your wish is my command!" was the echo that reverberated through the forest as the great Djinn vanished.

The Chinchilla Princess tucked her magical scroll under her arm and walked out onto a new path she had never walked before, the path of The Waking Way.

And the rest of this story, dear reader, has only just begun…