Book excerpt: Princess Loralyn lives in the large stone Palace with her father, King Bevan, her mother, Queen Avia, and her younger brother, Galen, who will some day be the king. Loralyn desires not only to learn the secret of what a lovely princess is and to understand the task of becoming one, but wishes to visit her very own valley, north beyond the Greenest Hill, which also seems impossible. As time passes, she meets the Simple Ones who fear a Dragon in the forest, the wise River Lady who tries to help, and the princes who come one by one to win the hand in marriage of the lovely princess-a fairy tale.