Anikó and the Sour Cherry Princess

When the sour cherries didn't bloom for the second year in a row, the people in the village at the base of the mountain gathered in dismay. One of them would have to go and find the Cherry Blossom Princess, they said, and remind her of their village. She must have forgotten them.

But the wood carvers had wood to carve, and the farmers had fields to tend, and the mothers had poppyseeds to grind and children to raise and husbands to hound after. No one could be spared to look for the path to the great tree. For everyone knew that the Cherry Blossom Princess lived on the moon above branches of the great world tree, but nobody knew the path to take to get there.

The villagers argued back and forth amongst themselves until finally, at the back of the crowd, Aniko stood up. Aniko had no husband and no children. She was not a wood carver or a farmer. She was healthy and strong and clever, and she would go up the world tree to the moon to find the Cherry Blossom Princess. And the wood carvers and the farmers and the mothers all looked at one another, and agreed that Aniko was healthy and strong and clever, and that she would indeed be the one to find the Cherry Blossom Princess.

And so Aniko packed some bread, and some poppyseeds, and a little water in a water skin. She took a sturdy walking stick, and set...