The princess dreamed of her prince that night and of the bear as well. When she had fallen asleep it was as though her prince had waited outside for her, out in the woods, sending the bear with a gift in his place. The bear had been so gentle and showed no semblance of being wild. He was sweet and docile and the princess yearned to see the bear once again.
She woke in the morning thinking all had been a dream, but searching her room she found the necklace to be gone. In frustration and curiosity she turned to the balcony to see if the bear was there by chance. There was no sign of the bear having even been there with the odd exception of roses which had been left where the bear left his branch.
Mavourneen ran down to the tree line during the day to take the flowers up to her room. She stopped for a moment peering at the ground, where the bear had laid his gift, it was not just a bouquet it was the bush in whole. Despite the cold spring weather the plant was crowded with roses of lavender and she found them as the sweetest gift.
She grinned, clipping several and arranging them in her skirts to carry, and ran to find her father.
“Look! Look!” she exclaimed with a beaming smile, “Last night, my prince, he sent a bear to give me flowers.”
Her father, rather overwhelmed by his daughter’s enthusiasm, looked at her for a moment and cracked a small smile. “Why I’ve never.” he went silent, lifting up one of the purple blooms, admiring its rich colour.
“The whole plant lies outside my room, seeded into the ground as if it had always been there,” she explained. “Father please,” she begged, “I would like a trellis made for them, so the flowers may climb up to me.”
Her request was simple, and the king had seen to it that it had been carried through. It was placed there the same day and during the night while the princess dreamed of the bear once more, the roses grew to reach her balcony.
The next day was carried through with a similar joy and the night met with more dreams. It continued like this for a total of three days after the bear had come and on the fourth night her dreams had ceased liek before.
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