Anzelha grew up and turned into such a beautiful young woman. She was naïve in many ways but she was strong-minded. She was fearless and very curious. She loved discovering new things.

Their village was deep in the countryside. She liked going to the wood around the village. She liked finding new plants or new birds.

Often she would go deep into the wood and not come back for a few days. Her parents never told her off. They were used to her trips. Her father had given her “worst case scenario” lessons since she was a child so she knew how to survive even in the most dangerous situation.

One day she left home for a few days. Her mother gave her a couple of sandwiches and hugged her. She decided to go a direction she hadn’t been before. She walked about three hours and suddenly started to hear a tinkling splashing sound. She followed the sound and discovered the river.  She was surprised; she thought she knew all the rivers, streams and lakes around. This river looked amazing; there were weeping willows, pine trees, frankincense trees, daisies, poppies and many lovely plants everywhere. She could see the splashing sound was coming from a little waterfall. The waterfall fed into a little lake surrounded by nicely shaped rocks.

Anzelha felt a peace and serenity. She decided to have a swim and took everything off jumping into crystal clear water. She was playing, diving, taking water in her mouth and spraying it out through the air, making funny noises on the water surface. When she had enough she came out and spread out herself on the one of the rocks.

When she was half a sleep she felt something standing next to her. She opened her eyes and saw an almost transparent, semi-ethereal, male being looking at her. She had heard all about those beings, people were always telling stories about strange beings in the wood. She has actually seen little fairies on the trees, but it was the first time she had met this kind of being.

He finally started to talk. It was a deep, deep voice   and almost echoing, “I am Ormanshah, I am the responsible spirit of this wood. Welcome here my precious. Wish whatever you want from me.”

She felt great warmth in her heart while the spirit was talking. He looked like a man but she felt he was like her mother in a way. She said “you are very kind Ormanshah, but everything I needed is here, thank you.”  Ormanshah said “okay then, may be next time” and he became invisible. She thought all those fairies or spirits are little bit strange. They come around say things like that and disappear. “Wish whatever you like from me” it is like their best line. Silly.

Anzelha spent couple of more days around the wood and then decided to go back to the Village. She didn’t mind living in the village. She liked the trees, flowers, plants and animals there, but she knew, there were bigger countries in the world. She was a free spirit and one day she was going to go everywhere she could travel.  She really wished that imagined other places, people, and trees while she was walked back to the village.

She was just outside of the village when she first saw another stranger. She looked at him; no he wasn’t an angelic being or anything like that, but she felt immediate warmth all around her body. She was about to cry or laugh, she was happy and sad, she was peaceful but very excited.  When he looked up at her, his eyes suddenly got bigger like he was very surprised to see her. They sparkled few seconds. He said “hi”. She said “hi”, too.   She was going to keep walking but he started talk.

“My name is Korkan. Who are you princess? Are you from the village?”

She wanted to laugh the word “princess”; it was a bit corny. She said, “Yes, I live here. How about you? I never seen you before, where are from? Are you visiting someone?”

“No, we are not visiting anyone. We’ve just moved here with my family. My parents, other two sisters and one brother. We are coming from Sumak.”

Now she was very interested with him. Where was Sumak? Did it look like their village? Do people wear the same things, eat same things, or were there different kind of trees there?

That night she couldn’t sleep. She felt like she had a tummy bug. All she thought about was him. Her father had talked about falling in love with boys in their worst-case scenario lessons but she didn’t think such a thing would happen to her.  Was she falling in love? Her father told her only way to stop the tummy bug feeling is cuddle and kiss the person you fall in love!  She knew it wasn’t 100% guarantee but at least she would have some relief.

They met in the morning. There were butterflies in Anzelha’s and Korkan’s eyes. They didn’t say anything and hugged, almost squeezed each other. He kissed her and it was like magic.

Anzelha and Korkan were lovers now. They were meeting almost everyday and walking around, making love, playing, and dancing together. 

One day she asked him to go to the wood together for few days. He was horrified. First of all they could get lost and she shouldn’t have forgotten about wild animals, either. She reminded him how many times she has been in the wood all by herself. He knew about it but he thought she has been lucky. The other reason he couldn’t leave, has all his responsibilities. He had to help his father to open up the first patisserie in the village and he also had to do a lot of work for home, too. She felt a tiny stab of disappointment and sadness the first time in her life. She wasn’t a irresponsible person but nothing in their family life was “a must do”. Anzelha and her parents always worked hard but it was rather like a game and if she ever wanted to go away she could without causing any trouble.

She loved him but the urge was strong, to go and look around. She was planing to take him to the waterfall she discovered and camp for a couple of days. But he was very clear and straight with his answer. He couldn’t see how important it was for her.

She tried to mention the camping at other times but he kept changing the subject. He said he was sick of moving around and it was great to be with her. All he wanted was spend time with her where they were, in the village.

Their days together were full of fun. But then, as time went on they ended up doing similar things everyday and she was getting a bit bored. He seemed okay with this kind of life style. Her desire to see new things was getting bigger everyday.

Anzelha’s family and whole village knew about Anzelha and Korkan’s relationship. Some conservative people thought she was far too much wilful and was very spoilt. But of course she and her family didn’t care about those rumours. Korkan’s family thought like the conservative villagers. His mother thought Anzelha was too wild for her sweet boy.

One day Korkan came to pick her up. He wanted to take her to the place they met. Something felt different about him. He was looking very fresh and enthusiastic and had a picnic basket with him, too.

When they come to the spot they met, she had a flashback of her last trip: How she swam in the crystal clear water and birds sang along the way. It seemed long time ago now and one moment her heart ached but she ignored it and focused her mind to the present time and her lover.

Korkan asked her to sit down. He kneeled in front of her and looked at her eyes deeply. Then he said “ When I saw you in this place first time, I thought a fairy had came from the wood. I couldn’t believe your beauty and light. When I first touched you just over there, remember, I thought the earth was shaking; my heart was about the stop. I love you more and more everyday. Every day I wake up and you are in my mind. Everything I do is about you. I feel complete with you. I love you, I love you so much, would you marry me Anzelha?”

She froze, she didn’t know what to say or feel. She wasn’t even 20 years old yet and she had never thought about marriage. Her father didn’t teach anything about this kind of situation in his worst-case scenario lessons. Her thoughts were all over the place. She remembered how she felt first time she saw him. She loved this guy. Her eyes became little watery and she said, “Yes, I will marry you Korkan…” They made love and spent a beautiful day together. 

The wedding preparations started sooner than she imagined. Every one excited but everything seemed incredibly boring to her. Korkan didn’t have enough time to meet with her any more as he was working very hard to save some money for their future. Once she complained about he said “ We’ll be married soon honey. Then you’ll see me everyday, but one day you’ll be sick of seeing me so we’ll make some babies then you can see somebody else around, too”, he was saying this in a joking manner but she was terrified. What was he talking about, being at home, making babies? This time not just her heart but also her whole body felt jolted. She was suffocating and couldn’t say anything; she reminded herself how much she loved him. When people are in love they get married, it is such a natural process.

Time soon passed and the big day came. The whole village was invited to the wedding. People couldn’t believe Anzelha was getting married, but they didn’t really care about whose wedding it was, they just liked the idea of a  party with free food and drink.

Anzelha was in plain, yellow, lacework wedding dress and looked amazing. She didn’t want an ordinary white dress, she only asked for yellow and for one that would be comfortable to wear.

Just couple of hours before the ceremony she walked out of wedding area and found some trees. She hugged one of the magnolia trees and said, “ I am not feeling lonely or miserable when I cuddle you tree. You know I love you, it almost feels like when I am with Korkan I am cheating on you and all the other beautiful creatures that I have seen and ones I am going to see.” One large tear fell down from her eye to the tree’s roots. The magnolia tree didn’t speak loudly but she heard what it was saying to her. 

Anzelha went back to the wedding area and found Korkan. Korkan was surprised to see her and said, “ What are you doing? We are not supposed to see each other before the wedding, it is bad luck”. She looked his eyes and said “Korkan my love, I can’t marry you. I am not going to marry you.” Korkan could hear the determination in her voice and suddenly his face became very serious. He said “ Are you insane? We are getting married tonight. You’ll be my wife and I’ll be your husband. You told me so many times that you love me.” She said “ I love you only when my heart is able to love as it was before. But now my heart doesn’t know what it wants anymore, keeps weeps. I used to feel like flying on the clouds everyday but now I am like a heavy stone which can not move anywhere”. He was furious, a nerve ticked on his face and held her arms and shook her. He was shouting hysterically “ My mother was right, you are a slut, I should have never asked you marry me”. She was crying and crying. Every word Korkan said was like a knife thrust into her heart.

When Korkan stopped shouting she just said “goodbye Korkan.”

Anzelha controlled her tears with a superhuman power. She found her parents. She explained what happened and she had to go now. Her mother said “is that what you really want my baby”, Anzelha meant yes with her head. Mother and daughter cuddled each other one last time. Her father gave her goodbye hug, too. As though it would be the last time they would all be together. Anzelha said “I’ll be with you again, I promise”

As she entered the wood she let her tears fall.

It was very dark and but she didn’t mind, she just walked and cried. When she heard the splashing sound she realised that she had came to the little waterfall she discovered on her last trip. She went around the fall and found herself somewhere to sleep.

When she woke up, she felt her heart was still bleeding. She started to cry again. She wasn’t sure about anything anymore. She was missing Korkan, but she knew she would never be happy with him. On the other hand she was feeling unhappy. Everything seemed ridiculous, she didn’t want to get married, and she didn’t want to do anything now. She was so sad and couldn’t believe there was so much pain in the world.

Suddenly Ormanshah appeared in front of her. Anzelha said, “Go away!I don’t want to see anyone! Leave me alone!” He said, “If it is what you really want, of course I will go, miserable caw”. She smiled at his funny echoing voice and said, “What do you know about me? I am a lost soul now. When you first saw me I was like a butterfly, visiting every flower I wanted to.” He said “oooooooaaaaaahh! little old lost butterfly soul, don’t you think it is time for you to go and see the world now?”. His words made her realise that was what she really wanted and that that was going to make her happy again. She said “But how?”. He became more visible and said, “Wish! What ever you want from me”

She thought a few moments and not knowing what to ask, she said “ I wish you would give me a brilliant idea of what to wish for”.

He laughed her words “okay we’ll brain storm then. You want to go everywhere don’t you? As a human being your abilities are limited my darling, but I could turn you into a new plant spirit so you live on in the world for a long time and can travel to many places.” She thought it was the best idea she ever heard.  She asked questions another half an hour, how it would happen and what kind of plant she needed to be to travel to most of the world. She didn’t want to be a tree or any rare plant. She wanted to be something, which can grow easily, and everywhere. At the end they together they decided what she was going to turn into.

She gratefully thanked to Ormanshah one last time as a human being and ormanshah changed Anzelha into a tiny plant. This plant had heart shaped leaves and yellow flowers. People gave her a lot of name in different places. She liked being called “lemon heart” most.

Since then she loved being the lemon heart spirit. The first place she travelled to was her family’s garden. Her father discovered the new plant in the garden and showed it to her mother. They recognised their daughter’s spirit and let her to grow in their garden freely. The other place she grew was Korkan’s garden. Korkan never recognised her but she watched him everyday. She saw him recover very quickly from his pain and one day he fell in love again with someone else. They got married and had many children, who played on lemon heart and she just embraced them with love.

That is the story of the Lemon heart. She can grow everywhere  easily but she still keeps her delicate nature. People don’t remember this story anymore. But she carries all her beauties in the plant she turned into. Now all Anzelha’s natural charm, beauty and spirit beyond her village and she is all around the world, embodied the plant she turned into.