One day as the shepherd realized exactly what he had found and how much value it must have to its owner, he went to town to find her.  He looked far and wide all day, yet he saw no one near worthy enough to own a heart like this treasure.  Then as the sun set and he was readying himself for a long and downcast walk home, he saw her -- the most enchanting, most incredible woman he had ever encountered.  As he began to approach her, he remembered his deep love for this heart he found and did not want to part with it, but he knew what he was to do.

As he turned to walk toward her, he was suddenly struck with a fantastic idea.  He approached the lady and spoke:  "Excuse me Miss, but I was tending my flock some time ago, and I seem to have found your heart.  Everyday I watered it, loved it, cherished it and caressed it.  I came here to return it to you, but I must tell you that I have grown to love it so much."  He humbly opened his chest and pulled out his own heart, made of clay, and said, "Would you please consider taking my heart instead?  It isn't as graceful nor as brilliant, but it will keep you warm on the coldest of nights, it will talk to you and listen to you, and it will love you - truly and only - until its last beat has passed."

She replied:

Dear man, your love is vast -- a glistening sea
Of light that surely knows no earthly peer.
As one who thought her heart was dead, I see
Its life in great surprise.  When you came near
I felt it glow like waves of soothing heat
Within my empty shell and sing as clear
As a starry night.  It pounds in anxious glee,
For never in its life was love so real.
You give a gift more grand than I can stand,
For this heart beats for you, my king.  It’s joy
Is wrapped in your tender care.  You’ve swung the doors
Of that heart wide open with kisses and tears so grand
That I am awestruck.  Hold me, shepherd boy;
For never have I seen passion and truth like yours.

The Shepherd answered in amazement:

Alas, I’ve found my dream in fleshly raiment!
Her beauty, her style; her touch, her smile: They melt
Me down to my blazing core, my mind is rent
From up to down for her to see.  She felt
My every thought and loved them.  Then she went
Where none have gone and kissed my shadows.  I knelt
Before her in timid humility, my head bent
Low while my spirit soared like a winged gazelle.
Who can believe what love I speak?  Its power
Is greater than supernovae, its pull is that
Of the center of the Universe itself -- my universe!
As countless treasures from a million tales, this hour
I know that mine, this diamond heart, is what
I’ve dreamed of all my life; the champions purse.

The lovers exchanged hearts, and both grew deeper and deeper in their love, one for another.  Their every breath was marked with their love for the other, and their every thought possessed with all the passion and fire of a fledgling star.  Their brilliance grew so bright that when they combined, the light could be seen for miles.  Finally, perfection had been achieved -- and for the first time these lovers knew what perfect love really was; and the very planet would sing its songs of love as the sight of unparalleled love and devotion was known and loved by every creature.  Paradise on earth had finally been achieved, but unfortunately the longevity of paradise in a place like this is very short.

One morning the shepherd arose, and like every other morning since he found his prize, he pulled it out of his chest and tended it ever so gently, with all the love he had.  It was hers, after all.  After carefully bathing it, holding it, and kissing it, he skipped to town to see his love.  He felt those electric tingles like he did every other morning and greeted his princess with a hug and a kiss; but today something felt different -- something was very wrong.  He asked his love what was wrong, but she was unable to speak between her sobs.  He pleaded with her to tell him what could be the matter, but again as hard as she tried, she could not speak.  Then, in total shock and a horror beyond compare, the shepherd watched as his princess -- barely able to stand -- opened her chest for the last time and handed him his old clay heart back.  He reached for his own chest to retrieve hers, but she gently touched him over the door, shook her head for him to keep it, kissed him on the cheek, and without a word walked away.

At this, the shepherd was completely crushed.  Not only was he carrying the weight of watching everything he loved walk away from him, but he was completely lost in the confusion.  He ran back to town the next day and was determined to stay there until he saw her again, for the mystery was killing him almost as bad as his loss.  He was absolutely devastated, looking like a beat up beggar lost in the traffic of pedestrians in the marketplace.  After some time, a messenger from the castle came to him.

"You must be the shepherd boy," she said, "For in all my life I have never seen anyone in such agony and despair.  I am a messenger of the princess whom you loved. . . yes; you must be the shepherd boy, for you hold a dusty clay heart in your hand.  She told me of that when she spoke of you, and she spoke of you without ceasing.  I have never seen anyone so happy or so in love before as I have our princess. You must be one special man."

"Yeah,"  he sarcastically answered as he gulped back a rush of tears, "Then why did she leave me?  What happened?!  I know she loved me, but I am at a total loss for an explanation.  I didn’t do anything.  If you know, then please tell me, because I can’t bear the pain any longer."  His knees shook harder and harder until he staggered to the ground, his tears now forming a mud puddle beside his collapsed body.  She told him that he would find all his answers in a letter she was to present him.  She then handed him the letter and vanished.  He opened this last letter, barely being able to see through the streams of tears which disfigured his face, and it read:

My precious, precious man:

I love you with everything I am, and I will love you always.  I wanted to spend my forevers with you more than you can possibly imagine, especially now; but you see, I don’t have a forever to share at all.  My time to leave this place has come.  I have no choice but to go, and I can never return.  I know this must hurt; it is killing me, but there is nothing I can do to prevent this now.  Please keep my heart with you always and think of me.  You are the best man I have ever met, and you have made my dreams come true.  You have loved me without limit, and I will spend eternity in gratitude for that.  Know that I have always loved you as much, and I always will.

Love,
Your Princess

At this, the shepherd picked his clay heart out of the mud and took it home. He locked the door and cried loudly and violently for days and days.  He would take her heart out of his chest to grieve over and wash it over and over in his tears, which seemed like a river of sorrow and pain without end or relief.  He wanted nothing more to do with his life, or that of anyone else; only screaming for death to come and spare him from any further suffering.  He put her heart back within himself one day, and considered his own.  He found it withered and lifeless, like a prune which had been lost in the desert sun.  It was barely ticking, which was fine by the shepherd, for he didn’t see the need for it to live anyway.  Finally, he decided to close the whole issue of the clay heart.  He went out behind his cabin and built a shrine dedicated to his lost love.  Her likeness shone throughout it, the lights were the brightest he could buy, and the hole he dug in the ground was rather narrow, but very deep.  He lit a fire and put in down into the hole, as he wished the smoke to ascend to heaven and into the arms of his love.  Next into the fiery hole, he sent a letter which read:

My Love,

There is none like you, there can be none like you.  I have known from the minute I found your heart that I would never be the same, and I am not.  You know that you have brought me happiness beyond my wildest dreams, but I am sure you also know that I am now stricken with grief beyond comprehension; yet I hope this letter finds you euphoric in paradise, where you belong.  Frankly it amazes me that this world could hold on to your goodness for as long as it did.  I will not lie to you and tell you that I will be fine, or that I will go on, because in truth I don’t want to go on.  There is nothing for me here, but since I am stuck here anyway, I will ultimately make the best of it.  What choice do I have?  Just please wait for me, okay.  My turn will come soon enough, and those forevers we dreamed about together are still reservations that I am not canceling.  I am sending my heart along with this letter.  It belongs nowhere unless it be with you.  May it be suitable for your keeping until I come to you again.  You know, I never thought that something that feels so good could ever hurt so badly, but having the chance to share my love and my very self with you, I wouldn’t change a thing.  I will make it, and in the end I will make it to you as fast as I can.  You must hold my heart as I do yours, for it has no other home but your loving hands.  Until forever begins, my love.

With love beyond comprehension,
Your Shepherd

With that, his heart failed and he threw it into the hole; and as he did a brilliant beam of blue light emitted from the hole and went straight up through the sky.

No one knows for sure what happened that night at the shepherd’s cabin, but to this day no one has seen a corpse with such a lively smile.  All the townsfolk had seen the light, but when they got there they saw nothing.  No shrine, no hole, just a puddle of tears in the house and a "happy" body laying out back with an empty chest.