Long ago, when the stars were still new in the sky, in the twice tenth land of the thrice ninth kingdom a young girl named Liesje was born into a large family. She was born in the winter, but the week of her birth was unseasonably warm, and all the flowers were in bloom for the briefest of instants. Because all the flowers bloomed for her birth, the young girl was granted the gifts of love, beauty, desire, and secrets. However, her family felt only jealousy for her gifts. They treated her poorly and the young girl left her homeland as soon as she came of age.

She traveled very far from her family. While she was in the lands bordering the realm of the Winter King, she met the first man ever to show her kindness. Because she was young, and because no one had ever shown a kind face to her before, Liesje gave a part of her heart to him, so that they shared her love, beauty, desire, and secrets. They were bound together and from their union the young woman had a son. A small part of her heart was inside him as well, and she knew, as her son grew up, so the love and beauty and desire and secrets in him would grow large and blossom.

Liesje came to live with the father of her son, and his family, but this new family was nearly as jealous as her own had been, and often treated her nearly as poorly. But she had the little kindnesses of her son’s father, and having nothing else, they seemed like the world to her. She cared for her son, for his father, and for the four cats who lived in their home. Of them all, the cats showed the most appreciation for her care, and held the truest admiration for her heart. “Do not betray your heart for a single act of kindness,” they said. “We know that for every kind act, he is cruel a thousand times over.”

Liesje soon came to learn the truth of the cats’ words, but she had given her heart to him, and so it was very difficult for her to leave. Time passed, and at last his cruelties instilled determination in her heart. She would leave, to protect her son if nothing else. Thus she went deep into the woods and asked the king of the cats (a great, gray tomcat), what she must do to release her heart from her husband, and escape. “We will help you escape. Tonight you must pluck the petal of a rose, and place it in his supper.”

It was the dead of winter, but as she returned home, the young woman found a single red rose in bloom along the path to her home, where the roses grew wild in the short months of summer. With the greatest of care, she plucked only a single petal, tendering her apologies to the flower, and leaving it to grow. She carefully stirred the rose into her husband’s stew that night, and no sooner had he finished it than he fell into a deep slumber.

Moments after he was asleep, the calico cat which lived in the house leapt upon his chest and, with tiny claws sharp as razor, cut open his chest to expose his heart. She plucked out love from his heart, and sewed him back up with one of her whiskers. “I give you my thanks,” said Liesje to the cat. “Now go before he awakes, and wait for me anon. When I am well away from here, then it will be safe to find me and make whole my heart again.” The calico cat leapt up to the window and vanished into the night.

The next day the woman went back to the king of all the cats, and he told her, “Tonight you must pluck the petal of a lily, and place it in his supper. Then we shall help you.” She returned home, and on her way she found a patch of day lilies, with a single flower in bloom. She tenderly plucked a yellow petal from the blossom, and served it with her husband’s salad. He was asleep in an instant, and the red tabby cat of the house jumped upon him immediately. From his heart, the tabby took beauty, which hearts often lose after love is gone. “Go before he awakes,” she told the tabby, “And when I am well away from here you may bring me my whole heart again.” The red tabby cat slipped out the door and was gone.

On the day after, the king of cats told her she must feed her husband the petal of a violet, and as she returned home she found a single violet in bloom, breaking through the frozen winter soil. She once again took no more than a single petal, and used it to garnish her husband’s meat. As he slept, their small Siamese cat took from his heart desire, which always follows after love and beauty. She told the Siamese cat to go before her husband woke, and she did. “Bring me my whole heart again when I am safe,” she said after the cat.

On the fourth day, the gray cat told her she must find the petal of an orchid. There were no such plants growing in those lands, so close to the northern kingdom. Still, she looked all along the path, and finally walked far from it, into the forest, where she found a single orchid flower in bloom. Their fourth cat was a longhair with snowshoe paws and silver striped fur. He took the secrets from the heart of Liesje’s husband and, with her admonition, vanished into the night.

She knew that with all her heart gone from his, it would leave a terrible hole, and what little kindness he had would be eaten away, so she dressed her son warmly and set out into the forest that night. Though it was too dark to see normally, fireflies lit their way, and they were not long in finding the great gray king of cats, the tomcat. “Come with me,” he said, “and I will lead you far from here.”

They followed the gray cat through the forest, and when her son became too tired to walk, the king of cats summoned a puma to carry him. As the sun was rising, they left the forest and came to a distant shore where the subjects of the king of cats all sat aboard a tiny boat. “We will carry you to the island nations, where you will be safe, but in the future you must guard your heart more carefully. Only one thing remains to be done. Give me your name, so that unkind thoughts can no longer find you. I will give you a secret name, and only the cats will know it.”

Liesje gave the king of cats her name, and thanked him profusely for all his help. “But what of the pieces of my heart I have given to all the other cats?” she asked. And he told her, “Do not worry, they will all find their way back to you in time.”

The cats sailed their small ship with the young woman and her son across the East Ocean to the island nations. So long as her heart was missing its pieces, she could not die, but her son had grown so much, and his heart had grown so great, that all she was missing and more she found in him. One by one the cats found their way across the ocean to the young woman, bringing love, beauty, and desire. All but the secrets were returned to her heart. And so forever after she looked for secrets, but because she had love, beauty, and desire, she was never overly concerned to find them.

To this day, many a young woman will search for secrets, and favor can be curried with them by being kind to cats, for one never knows what cats might have secrets.