Princess Luianna grew to become as beautiful a princess her parents could wish and was educated and fawened apon. Her life was rich and lively.
But, on one foggy morning day a lone stranger in black snuck into the palace and stole her from ther bed, leaving in her place a black rose.
The symbol of the kingdom, Triand, from across the ocean.
A ransom was set, unlike any before heard of.
The ruler wanted the King and Queen to send men, each day. Those men where to be set three tasks and each had to complete the tasks set for them or be slained.
So the King sent his finest warriors and their footmen to Triand and prayed night and day for his daughters safe return.
The warriors arrived and demanded their tasks.
"Your first task," said the ruler, King Landar. "Is to tame the wild unicorn that has eluded my people for years now. This beast is found in the valley below. If you should succeed it will become a wedding gift for the Princess."
So the first man tried to capture the unicorn and break the beast as you would a common horse, and was thrown to his death in a chasm.
A second man tried to lure the animal into a barn with all kinds of food, but failed and was beheaded.
And so it continued, each man tried and failed, until one morning when the mists still covered the land a minstrel who had been sent to comfort the warriors with tales and songs from their home land, sat benieth a tree and played a doleful tune on his pipe.
He then heard a voice as lovely as the valley before him,
"Why do you play so sadly?" It asked.
I play because the king here holds my princess captive and I can do nothing to help her." And he continued to play.
"What is it that would help her and I will do it if I can." The voice demanded softly. "If you would be kind enough to play for me a song full of life."
"Alas," Said the minstrel. "You can do nothing, the task set by the King is to tame the unicorn that roams here. And all our strong warriors have failed and lost their lives for it. Noone could tame a creature that beautiful, and why should they? No, thankyou my friend, but it is to great a task."
He continued his sad melody. "But I shall give you what you ask for any way." And he played strongly and joyfully.
And when it came to an end the voice said, "Now I shall give you what you ask."
And from behind the tree the unicorn trotted out infront of him.
"Clime abored and I shall bear you to the palace as you have surely tamed my heart."
And so the first task was complete. The king soon decreed the second task and demanded that a pearl was to be obtained from a great sunken city in the bay. But not just any pearl, it had to be the Pearl of Triton, the sea god.
And so the men took on this task in the hope someone would succeed but knowing it to be impossible.
The minstrel sat apon the shore watching sady as brave men went to their graves and cried silently into the water.
"Why do you cry so?" Came a voice from beneith the water. It was a beautiful mermaid. Her hair was as green as seaweed ane her eyes where as white as the froth on a wave. Her skin was so translucent and seemed to be made of water itself.
"I cry because our fair princess is kept here and these men risk all to complete a task that none can, and die because of it. This is truly an impossible task."
The voice then said, "What is this task that is so impossible?"
"One must fetch the king the Pearl of Triton, from the city in the bay, but no man can hold his breath for that long nor fight against whatever lurks there also." He cried.
"I shall do this task for you" Her watery voice proclaimed. "If it will stop your saddness and your tears."
And so the second task was completed and the men were hopeful.
"Ha,ha,ha!" Laughed the king. "You have completed each task, minstrel, but none shall complete this one.
Your third task is this, find your princess!"
The men filled with confidence and determination and search high and low, far and wide, but noone could find her and the men where exicuted day after day."
"This is trickery!" Cried the minstrel to a silent lake. "Men have searched far and wide and nothing. It is as if she has vanished!"
The mistrel thought and though, and recalled a remark made by one of the servents.
"She is right under their noses and they don't even know it." They had snickered.
The mistrel paced and paced but could not think of what they had ment.
Soon night had fell and cool air stirred the minstrel from his thoughts. Another man has surely been killed for failure, he thought sadly.
He brought our his lute and sung a song for the princess until the last star twinkled above him.
"What a sad song." An old woman sighed next to him. She was small and withered and her limbs where twisted so it must have been painful to walk.
"Did you ever find your princess?" She asked whipping tears from her eyes.
"No, Im afraid no amount of help will reveal her to us this time." And her looked at the old woman and helped her up. And stared into her eyes. "Come," he said upruptly, "I shall take you to the king so that you might know who does this to our princess."
He arrived in the middle of a banquette of all the disheartened warriors and the delighted king and declared he had found the princess.
All laughed except the king when he brought out the old woman, but he brought her gently as you would a princess. "Behold princess Luianna!" He declaired.
By now the warriors had tired of the tastless joke and demanded he leave at once, but he ignored them.
"Tell me minstrel, what makes you think this decrepant old lady in the fair princess?" Asked the king.
"Your magesty, I was honoured with the priviladge of playing for her one night and a sad song i played, and when i had finished I beheld the most beautiful eyes in the world, and tonight I was lucky enough to see them again. I fell in love then and vowed to love no other." He said looking as the tearful old woman. "Just as I played to you as a unicorn and how I cried to you in the sea, so have I declared myself to you now, as beautiful as you where when I first saw you."
The men, sick of the minstrels blithering, drew their swords and threatened to run him through if he did not cease.
"Hold your weapons," the king said with a sigh, "the third and final task has been completed."
And with that a bright blue light apeared around the old woman until none could stand look, and in her place stood the beautiful princess Luianna.
"You have completed the tasks and so your prize is, your princess."
And so the Bard married his beloved princess and they lived to rule justly and fairly.