I searched the world over for the daughter of the flower queen. After a year, my horse died of exhaustion. I didn’t bother to find another horse. I went on looking, on foot.

I came to the hut of an old man. He said to go down the road for a year. I did, and I came to the hut of a very old man. He said to go down the road for a year. I did, and I came to the hut of the oldest man on earth.

In all that time, and in all the places I went, I saw no flowers. A dragon had captured the flower queen’s daughter, and if I did not find her, the earth would be laid to waste forever.

Prince in Search of Flowers in The Flower Queen’s Daughter, Yellow Fairy Book. Picture by Joseph Hirsch.