Whoever has made a voyage up the Kirinis river, named after the great King Kirinis II, must remember the Pionese mountains. They are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky, but, sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.<br/><br/>At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded in the early times of the province, just about the beginning of the government of the good King Henry III, (may he rest in peace!) and there were some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, built of sturdy bricks, now beginning to show the passing of the years.<br/><br/>In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived many years since, a simple good-natured fellow of the name of Peter.  It was observed that he was a simple good-natured man; but he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and had been an obedient hen-pecked husband, until his wife, Marte, had passed on fifteen years prior.  The children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fish and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and elves. Whenever he went dodging about the village, he was surrounded by a troop of them, hanging on his shirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood.<br/><br/>One of those self-same children was young Daphne, though not so young now as she was then.  Raised by Peter since she was but a few months old, Daphne grew to be a happy and sheltered young girl.  The people of the village were nothing but kind to her.  She would walk often with Peter through the village only to hear the children call out to her.  At some time in the future there will be told around tables in the taverns a legend.  A legend about Daphne that tells that the Queen, pregnant with her second child, was foretold of a prophecy.  And as such things go, the prophecy was full of dire foretellings and evil machinations.  Wolves and sorcerers, dragons and elves, all foretold to cause the Princess harm.  Worse still, dire omens of incest abounded.  Fearing for her darling unborn daughter, the Queen begged the Oracle to tell her how she could be saved.  The Oracle, as Oracles are wont to do, gave rather incomplete advice.  "In squalor shall the Princess be safe raised till man and beast bring her to woman praised."<br/><br/>But all that was yet to be.  Asked in his last days, Peter would remember well the day that Daphne entered his life.  He could never forget the circumstances.  The wolf, the scream, the young lady who was to carry the babe to Peter.  Peter still regretted that he could not arrive in time to save her; she looked like a proper young lady.  But Peter and the Wolf was a short tale that ended bad for the wolf.  When Peter lifted the babe into his arms, it was as if a spell were cast.  At least that was what he would say in his later years.  But for more than seventeen years, Daphne lived a charmed life.<br/><br/>That was what made this day so difficult for Peter.  During the night he felt the spell break.  Well, actually he just felt a spell.  Today he prepared her favorite breakfast and waited for her to wake and welcome the day as an adult.  He could hear her moving in the other room.