"Only the true of heart shall know the magic of the crystal dove..."
  

 

 


There is  a glassmaker who crafts beauty in a crystal menagerie.He creates lions, giraffes, eagles, fairies and angels. People visit his shop from miles around to admire the crystal animals. The most spectacular,  is the crystal dove. It is quite unlike any of the others in the collection. Prisms, bright and beautiful, mixtogether against the sunlight in a burst of colors. This is the story of  the crystal dove and the one little girl who cherished it the most.

The glassmaker has a daughter named Marina. Marina is a  sweet child with bright eyes and a wide smile. She smiles until her seventh birthday, but becomes very ill. Marina stops smiling. The glassmaker  takes her to many doctors to find a cure. He decides to  craft a crystal dove for Marina. The menagerie of crystal animals are also sparkling, but the crystal dove has magical powers.  Powers  that are keptsecret by the glassmaker and his family. A close neighbor watches as strange things begin to happen .    The shop is doing very well because of  the crystal dove. Many rumors and tales  become reality. The crystal dove is becoming a  secret  that is getting hard to keep.

"What is the secret? Let us know!", the angry crowd demands.

"The crystal dove is Marina's ! Get out!”

He  pushes the villagers  out of his shop and locks the door for the night.

He did not know that  Gregory, was hiding in the closet  waiting  to steal the crystal dove.

"If I had the crystal dove", thought Gregory,"I could  become a rich man."

Gregory  slips out  when he was sure everyone had left  . He  goes  up the stairs to Marina's bedroom and peers through a crack in the door. The crystal dove is set lovingly on a plate of glass by a window seat.


" It is even more beautiful than I could have imagined!", Gregory thought.

He went over to the window seat and took the crystal dove off the glass plate.  The crystal dove became bright white . He dropped the crystal dove and found it by Marina's bed . As he reached for it , it burned his fingers. Gregory put the crystal dove into a cloth sack and left.

He wanders  to the Shimmering Lake  to think. If he could harness all of the crystal dove's magical powers, he would  become very rich.  He believes this plan could work.

Gregory falls asleep.  In his dream, the crystal dove is alive and free.It is flying  over the village skyline until it reaches the glassmaker's shop. Gregory can hear someone crying and he  feels the same sadness inside of himself.  A thick mist gathers and he cannot see who is crying. When the mist lifts, he sees that i Marina  is crying for the crystal dove. As the dream continues, the crystal dove hovers over Marina and begins to radiate a brilliant white light. Marina is cured from her mysterious illness. Gregory is watching the whole scene from a window.  He feeks guilty for stealing the crystal dove. The crystal dove glows like an ember inside the cloth sack and like a whisper in the wind said,"Only
the true of heart shall know the magic of the dove."

" My crystal dove! It's gone!".

"I am sure that I locked all of the doors last night.", said the glassmaker.

" Someone must have stolen the crystal dove . Always strive to be true of heart and you shall always find happiness.", says the glassmaker.

It was morning. Gregory  puts his plan into action. He walks through the Village Square toward the merchant's shop. The merchant looks at Gregory as he enters the shop. Gregory  announces that he wants  to show the merchant the cloth sack with the crystal dove. Gregory offers the merchant one wish for a price.

"Business has been slow.", said the merchant,"I'm not sure I should take the chance."

"Your merchant shop shall thrive, believe me. With the magical powers of the crystal dove, you will get your money back ten times over!", Gregory promised.

"I hear rumors about the magical powers of the crystal dove, but I'm not sure I believe it.", the merchant says.

The merchant  finally agrees . Gregory places the cloth sack on the threshold of the merchant's shop. The sack soon glows with a strange light. It illuminates brightly. Villagers, curious about the light, wander over to the shop. The merchant, meanwhile, sets out his finest wares for his potential customers. Luck shines with the merchant's business because with the help of the crystal dove's magical
powers, he enjoys a booming business day.

Gregory travels from shop to shop tricking the locals into believing they can get rich, he collects their money. He cannot understand why he feels so empty. He cannot shake off the dream  about Marina and the crystal dove. His guilt forces him to make a decision. He cannot break the heart of a sweet little girl and any money that he collects he will give to the glass maker, but it is too late. Neighbor turns against neighbor as greed takes over as the good fortune turned sour.

Gregory does not consider the villager's own greed . He believes  he is the only one who desires money . An angry crowd spots him and wants the crystal dove for themselves. The greedy villagers fight over the crystal dove until the early morning hours.

The  fog is thick and the villagers cannot see who they are fighting. Far away, a  light cab be seen and Gregory and the villagers follow it. As they approach  the light, they hear the sound of someone crying. The villagers feel compassion for the little girl's cries and stop fighting.

The  light was  the crystal dove guides them  to Marina. Just like in the dream. The dream was really a message for him to change his old ways.

Gregory wants to keep hope alive for Marina--the only true heart that helps him see that happiness is the true treasure in life.

Marina, along with the magical crystal dove, believe that hope can move mountains and is the "magic" cure that will turn around a whole village.