Once upon a time there was a great king and a queen, both young and beautiful, and wanting to have children, he did many times what he had to do for it, he went to the healers and philosophers to look for the stars and guess whether they would have children, but in vain. 

  At last, hearing the king that he was in a village, close, a clever old man, sent for him; but he said to the messengers, "Whoever needs it, let him come to him."

So the emperor and the empress took with them some great soldiers and servants, and went to the old man's house. The uncle, seeing him from afar, went out to meet them, and said to them:

 - Welcome healthy,  but what do you want to know, emperor? The desire you have will bring you sadness.

         - I didn't come to ask you this, said the emperor, but if you will give me some medicine to make us have children.

 - Yes, replied the uncle; but you will only have one child. He will be a handsome and loving boy and you will have no part in him. 

  Taking the medicine, the emperor and the queen returned to the palace happy and in a few days the queen felt pregnant. The whole kingdom and the whole court and all the servants rejoiced at this.

   Before the hour of birth came, the baby began to cry, so that no one could stop him. Then the emperor began to promise him all the goods in the world, but even so it wasn't possible to silence him.
 - Shut up, my son, says the emperor, for this kingdom will give you this or that; shut up, son, for giving this wife to this or that girl to the emperor.

   Finally, if he saw and saw that he wasn't silent, he said to him:
 - Shut up, my dear son, that he will give you...

  The emperor couldn't finish to say that sentece: he didn't  know what else to promise!  His son's cry was  exasperating so, the newly found parents stood next to their child's cot and started crying.

  Their tears, with their son's ones, made a small puddle. Suddenly, while the empress was rubbing her eyes, she saw some beans of green light shining on the water: they were like small  gems. 

 At first she couldn't believe what she saw, but then she focused her attention and she realised that those little precious stones were turning into a lawn, the water was drying and three beautiful roses were blossoming at their feet. The emperor cautiously drew near the first rose, which was red. 

  Just when he was about to pick it, he heard a voice saying: “why do you want to hurt us? My sisters and I heard your cry and came to help you...”So the emperor replied: “ how can you help us? Our destiny is written! We desired our baby so much... the old man told us that it would be a beautiful boy but it would bring us sadness...”The red rose said:

” The old man put a spell on you, because he is jelaous of your happiness. A son can't do any harm, but you must show you are worhy of him. So we will give you some challenges to overcome. I am the red rose, and my challenge will test your love for your son; my sister, the yellow rose, will give you a challenge to show your patience and last, but not least, the white rose will test your ability to listen and to give good advice. Here are the challenges:

  The diamond was magical, the child would feel the love of his parents when he saw this diamond. But the dragon asked them to bring the life of a person to give to this diamond.
 

  The king and queen left the land of fires and started thinking. Who would give up their own life for their child? They immediately returned to their country. The king gathered his most trusted men and told them what had happened. He wanted their life for his own child, but none of them accepted.

  The queen went to her mother. SHe told her everything. The mother said she would do everything for her daughter and grandchild, but she couldn't give her life.

The king and queen could not find someone to die for their child. Sad and helpless they went back to the land of fires.

  The dragon took the red diamond, smiled and said to them:

- My dear queen and king, you have just proved love for your son. Now is the time for your second challenge. Look for the yellow rose and give this red diamond to her.

  They went to look for the yellow rose. They found her sunbathing in a meadow. She was happy to see them and said:

The king was devastated. He thought of leaving without a single try. But the queen gave it a go. 
She kept filling the pot with water from the pond. She was grabbing water with the pot, but the water kept leaking from the bottom of the pot to the ground.  She tried that uncountable numbers of times.

  She ran with the pot to meet the yellow rose and the yellow rose said: 
- This key is a reward for your patience and hard work. You are ready to move on. 

  And now it was time to find the white rose. The king and his queen found the poor, litlle and deserted white rose in the middle of the weedy meadow. The rose said: "All the plants  around me used to be beautiful flowers. Beacuse of their life problems, they changed into unhappy and ugly weeds. If they find someone to listen to  them, they will get rid of their growing problems and come back to their real state".

  So the king started to listen to the weeds and so did the queen on the other side of the meadow. Just because, there were plenty of them, they spent a lot of time just being next to them. The weeds were talking about the unfulfillled love, about being rejected by people. The other one was crying over its strange appearance. And there was also a weed which had strange spots on its body and everybody laughed at him. 

So many problems did the queen and king listened to.

  They felt really sorry to hear that and they tried to find the solution and just say something nice to the unlucky weeds. While they were walking through the meadow it started to change. The were less and less weeds. And finally the white rose was not the only flower here.

The king and the queen realized that "a good word and smile" can change the ugly and grey world into a colourful one. "But what about our son and the last challenge? - asked the king. "Did we manage to do it?" And the white rose explained - "The weeds' problems are the same you will  encounter when your boy  is a teenager. You proved that you would be able to listen to him carefully and support him when the life is hard. So go home to your child". So did the royal pair.

  When they arrived at the palace, they realized that everything changed: the royal gardens were full of blooming flowers, the trees were all green, the servants were kind, respectful...they felt like they were surrounded by love and happiness. 

The king and the queen discovered the most precious treasure, the treasure that would help them to have the perfect family, the perfect son ...to be parents: love, patience, tolerance and care.
Now, they are all together, stronger than they could ever imagine.

The end