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. If I did not find her and free 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.