The Duchess And The Dandelion

Long ago, the evil wizard of Darkness who was the half brother and enemy of the Golden wizard of the Sun kidnapped a beautiful young maiden named Helinore and kept her prisoner in a tower and though she was allowed to leave the tower, the wizard cast a spell that prevented her from walking any further than the shadow of the tower stretched and whenever she tried to walk beyond the shadow it would turn into a giant black serpent and rise up hissing, then chase her back into the tower.

However, one day, as she was sitting in the shadow of the tower crying, a dandelion that was growing nearby said,

"Don't worry. Blow upon my seeds and they will go flying and get help for you".

And so the girl picked the dandelion and blew upon it until all its seeds were scattered on the wind and they flew far and wide across the land.

Most got caught upon things like prickly bushes and spiderwebs but one had the good fortune to become caught in the hair of a young Nobleman; a duke named Solandro and because it landed close to his ear he heard it crying,

"Oh please, help, anyone, if you can hear me. A poor young maiden is being held in a dark tower. Please, wont someone rescue her".

"Lead me to the maiden and I will rescue her", said the duke.

And so the dandelion seed floating and dancing ahead of him guided the Duke to the dark tower.

As he was riding towards the tower, however, suddenly the shadow of the duke and his white horse rose up turning into a knight in black armour riding a black horse and carrying a sword of shadow.

Fiercely they fought, charging against each other, their swords clashing; unfortunately the shadow knight was just too strong and his sword of darkness cut like a crack through the dukes steel blade, breaking it in two and the Duke was knocked from his horse.

Then, dismounting, the shadow knight lifted his visor to reveal the grinning face of the evil wizard and, raising his sword, he prepared to plunge it into the Dukes heart.

Just at that moment however, the sun stretched down a long glowing arm which held, in its hand, a golden sword.

"The wizard of darkness is the enemy of light; he cunjors up dark clouds to cover my face;he covers the earth with ice and darkness", he said, "And so you are my champion".

Then, seeing that it was his only hope, the Duke seized the golden sword and thrust it into the dark knight and when he did, the dark knight faded as an ordinary shadow before the dawn.

And as the evil wizard disappeared all that he had created faded like shadows too, including the dark tower and when it did the young maiden ran into the arms of the brave Duke and soon afterwards they were married and lived happily ever after.