Jet Black

Long ago, in a kingdom of Africa there lived a King and Queen who could not have children and, because the Queen longed deeply for a son she asked a royal sculptor to make her a baby carved out of jet.
And the jet baby was so beautiful that, as she cradled it, she often would wish that it was a real child and, one night, when she was wishing this and looking up at the stars, two shooting stars fell across the sky and when they did, two tears fell from the queens eyes, each tear landing in an eye of the Jet baby and, the moment that the tears touched its eyes they started to blink, the baby coming to life.
Joyfully, the mother took the baby to show her husband and he was immediately declared Prince Jet Black.
But then, not long afterwards, a witch who wished to steal the throne turned herself into a black scorpion and, crawling into the Queens bed, stung her and killed her.
Then, after the Queen had been buried, the witch turned herself into a beautiful serving maid of the king and, working a love charm upon him, made him forget his old wife and fall in love with her instead.
Then the witch married the king and became his new Queen.
There was one thing, however, that threatened to spoil the witch's plans; that was the kings son Jet Black.
"I must kill him", she thought to herself, "Or, as male heir to the throne, when the king dies, it will pass to him and not I".
And so one day, she asked Jet Black if he would bring her a black flower that grew from the top of a nearby montain and Jet Black, because he did not know how evil the Queen was and was always very respectful to his parents, climbed up to the top of the mountain to get the flower.
While he was standing on the mountaintop, however, the witch turned herself into a vulture and, flying up to the top of the mountain swooped down upon Jet Black, knocking him off of the mountain.
Down to the bottom of the mountain, he fell, still holding the black flower in his hand.
But, fortunately, because Jet Black was made of living Jet and not flesh and bone, he was not killed by the fall and, picking himself up with not even a scratch upon him, he returned to the palace of the queen with the black flower.
And, smiling, the Queen recieved the flower, praising Jet Black for how loyal and good a son he was.
But secretly, within her evil heart, the Queen was saying to herself,
"I cannot believe he survived a fall from a mountain. I must find some other way of killing him".
And, the next day, the Queen came to Jet Black and asked him if he would swim down to the bottom of a nearby lake and get her a black pearl that was in an underwater cave.
And so Jet Black swam down to the bottom of the lake and found the cave and, within a golden oyster shell, the black pearl.
What the queen had not told Jet Black however, is that the cave was guarded by an eight tentacled sea-serpent and, the moment that Jet Black opened the oyster shell, the sea-serpent opened its single eye and, seeing Jet black, wrapped its eight tentacles around him.
When the sea-serpent tried to bite into Jet Black, however, because he was made of Jet and not flesh and bone, the monsters teeth cracked, shattering to pieces and, shrieking in pain, it let Jet Black go.
And the moment it did this, Jet Black seized the black pearl and swam as fast as he could, out of the seaserpents cave and back up towards the surface of the lake.
Then, with the pearl in his hand, he went back to see the queen to present it to her.
And, just as she had before, she smiled and graciously recieved the gift.
But in her heart that was blacker than darkness and colder than stone, the Queen thought to herself,
"I must find a way of killing him or else my plans to rule the kingdom will be ruined".
And so she asked her shadow on the wall,
"Shadow, shadow, tell me now. How do I kill Jet Black? Oh, how?".
The shadow told the Queen that there was only one creature who could kill Jet Black and that was the Manticore; a creature with a lions head, bat wings and a scorpion tail that roared fire and lightning.
And so the Queen, going to Jet Black sent him on a third errand.
She asked him to go down into a nearby volcano, swim down below its lava and bring her a magic spear with a black diamond for a spear head.
And so Jet Black climbed up the side of the volcano and dived down into it, swimming deep below its burning, red hot lava which, because he was made of Jet rather than flesh and bone didn't burn him.
And, at the very bottom of the volcano, he found the spear that had a black diamond for a spear head.
As he was swimming back up through the lava with it, however, the Queen turned herself into a Manticore and waited near the mouth of the Volcano to ambush him.
And then as he was climbing out of the volcano, the manticore roared out fire and lightning and striking him with a lightning bolt knocked him to the ground.
"At last", said the monster, speaking with the voice of the evil Queen, "I will finally be rid of you".
But then, as the Manticore leapt up in the air to pounce upon him, Jet Black suddenly remembered the spear with the head that was a black diamond and, hurling it towards the Manticore, he struck the monster deep in its evil heart.
Unfortunately, the Manticore had two hearts and, even when one of them was wounded, it could still go on fighting so it leapt up in the air again to pounce upon Jet Black.
This time, however, Jet Black leapt out of the way of the pouncing manticore and, when he did, the Manticore, missing him, plummeted headfirst instead deep into the volcano full of burning lava and, because the Manticore, though extremely ferocious, was made of flesh and bone, its flesh was burned to cinders and its bones melted down like wax candles.
Only the spear with the head of a black diamond floated back up to the surface of the lava.
But then Jet Black, taking the spear, went home to the royal palace. Because the witch was dead his father the King was released from the love spell that the Witch had put upon him and, shortly after that, his father, believing that his son had proven himself worthy, abdicated from the throne, placing the crown of king upon Jet Blacks head.
But though Jet Black was a king he did not have a Queen.
Fortunately, in a neighbouring kingdom there was a king who had promised the hand of his daughter to anyone who could slay a giant Basilisk who was terrorizing his people.
No one had been able to kill the beast, half eagle and half serpent, because with just a gaze it could turn men to stone.
When Jet Black went to its cave and faced it however, because he was already made of living stone, the gaze of the basilisk had the opposite effect, turning him from black stone to flesh and blood and as this was happening, he hurled his magic spear into the heart of the monster, killing it instantly.
Then, when the beast was dead, Jet Black, now a human man atlast, went to the King of the neighbouring Kingdom with the head of the Basilisk tied up in a sack and, shortly after that, Jet Black and the Kings daughter were married and lived happily ever after.