of the fir and landed next to Medea in the snow. "I've been waiting for you."
"Why?"
"You know all about the forest is not out, so I will make sure that you do are not lost."
Medea wrinkled her nose and walked past her. "I do not need your help!"
Heera ran after her. Medea had always been a little cocky, but with each passing day in the castle, it was worse. "You'll find no strawberries! No one will. "
"If Prince Lean provides us a test, it must also be possible to solve them", insisted Medea. She ran straight across the snowy ground, as if she follows an invisible thread.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?" wondered Heera.
"I follow the call of my heart," said Medea, after the lark began to chirp. Heera looked around hesitantly. Yet their tracks in the snow were clearly visible, but soon the wind would blow away and new snow will lay like a blanket over the ground. If Heera followed Medea, she would soon have lost all sense. But she could not possibly leave her sister alone. It was her duty to protect her sister. That was the only reason she had applied for the prince.
When so much time had passed that the girl could not tell if she had left before minutes or hours, they discovered a small hut, from whose interior also shone the glow of a warm fire in the cold forest. Smoke rose from the chimney.
"Let's take a rest," suggested Medea, but Heera held her back. "What if the house belongs to a witch?"
"Do not be ridiculous! Now who's the coward? You or Me? "Medea taunted her carelessly.
"I know the woods better than anyone else and have never met the cottage. This may only be a charm ", Heera warned her again, but Medea was not deterred and withdrew from her sister.
They looked through the window into the interior. There were three dwarfs in front of a roaring fire, who worked with carvings. Medea threw a questioning look on her lark and as they excitedly twittered, she knocked on the door.
"Come in," she called from inside the choir. Heera and Medea entered the room.
"It's so cold that we freeze to death almost. Can we warm ourselves in your home? "Medea asked politely.
"Sit down as long as you want," replied one of the dwarves in a friendly manner. The two sisters sat down before the fire thankfully and unpacked the cake they had noticed as food provisions. When the dwarfs smelled the scent of pastries, they were also hungry. "We have left you in our office, now also shares your food with us," they demanded.
Without hesitation both girls broke apart their cake and gave half to the dwarves. They ate together before the fire, as one of the dwarves asked: "What are you doing in the winter alone in the forest? The snow is plenty and the night has already arrived."
"We are picking strawberries for the queen," Heera told without any reluctance by a shaking to make her distaste clear.
"If I return without that, I will lose any chance of becoming the Princess", Medea sighed. "Dear dwarfs, can you know advice?"
The dwarves pointed to three brooms in the corner of the room. "Return to the snow on the back door way and we want to help you."
Only when the lark sang in agreement, Medea rose and stepped out the door with Heera. The cold wind blew in their faces and made them shiver. Nevertheless, she went to work as usual. When the first layer snow was swept, came loud ripe strawberries to light that peeped from dark red white ice. Medea uttered a cry of joy and began hurriedly to collect the strawberries. She froze when she saw what Heera did instead. She put one berry after the other in her own mouth.
"What in heaven's name are you doing?" Medea exclaimed anxiously.
"The strawberries are delicious," Heera replied unmoved and held out one to her sister. "Do you want?"
"We should bring the queen strawberries and not fill our own belly!"
"If the queen wants strawberries, then they will go and pick themselves” Heera replied carelessly.
"Why are you so?" asked Medea in despair and close to tears.
"What? Honest?
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