Once upon a time in the flourishing country Italland there was a Kingdom where all the people lived happily.

Everybody except his Lord because his beloved wife passed away twenty years before giving birth to their lovely daughter Lily.

Lily was the most beautiful girl ever seen in the entire kingdom. Her big blue eyes were like sparkling diamonds and her lips were as red as scarlet roses.

Lily had so many different qualities: she could ride a horse, play the guitar, be kind with people but not a single word could she say because she was mute from childhood.

King Mark and his beautiful daughter loved each other a lot and though they shared happy moments together, the King was really worried about his kingdom because he was afraid that no one could marry an unfortunate princess.

One day king Mark decided to go hunting dressed like a normal man with his horse called Rufus. While he was riding in the wood twilight was upon him and soon the night was coming. He felt he was really tired.

So he decided to rest.

In that moment, he noticed a small cottage and he turned towards it.

The door of the cottage opened and he saw a beautiful girl with a face and a body identical to Lily. She was Gulia, and she lived in the cottage with her brother Philip. Mark was shocked and couldn't understand. So he decided to spend the night in the cottage and think about everything the next day.

When he woke up it was the late morning. He met a nervous man , Philip, Gulia's brother. Mark asked Philip where Gulia was and Philip answered she was in the forest looking for some herbs. He also told Mark to eat and go away, because he didn't like strangers in his house.

King Mark was eating and looking around the poor cottage... Suddenly he noticed on the wall a small portrait of a woman. The king had already seen that face, but he couldn't remember when and where. Mark asked Philip and he rudely replied that the king shouldn't be curious and couldn't know the woman in the portrait, because she was his mum, and she was dead a long time ago.

The king was furious for Philip's unkind answer, but he tried to keep calm. So, after eating, he took his bag and horse and went away...

He rode for a long time with his beloved horse Rufus, until he arrived in a wood full of raspberries, as red as Lily's lips.

Watching them Mark immediately thought of his beloved daughter, remembering that they were her favourite fruit. So he picked some fruits up for the return, to take to Lily as a gift, and put them in his bag.

Suddenly he heard a familiar voice and... from behind a tree, Philip came out very angry: he was furious because they were the raspberries that his mother jealously cultivated and Mark had touched them.

I

In that moment King Mark remembered the painting he had seen at the cottage, including a small but very important detail: in the neck of Philip’s mother, there in the portrait, there was a necklace with a pendant representing the exact half of a raspberry. The same pendant that Lily herself always put on her neck!

But it was not the only coincidence, because Philip’s sister and Mark’s wife had the same name: Gulia.

These coincidences made him suspect that

These coincidences made him suspect that his wife could be still alive!

In fact, he immediately remembered the pendant that he had seen the day before in the portrait inside the cottage and in order to find out other details of that suspicious story he decided to hide behind the bush where the raspberries were and wait for something to happen.

While he was there he saw a woman approaching the cottage. She went near the raspberry bush, she dug a hole in the ground, she put a parchment inside and she quickly ran away.

King Mark became curious about that piece of paper and then he went near the place and he took the parchment out of the hole.

Well he liked to read what was written there! So he opened it and started reading:

“To whomever this message reaches, I leave it a secret. Anyone who finds that half part of the pendant will make a wish come true”.

Straight away the king thought about his beautiful and unlucky daughter Lily and he said to himself that he had to find the pendant representing the exact half part of a raspberry and gave it to Lily to make her talking again.

So he went into the cottage for the last time and started to look for anything important in every corner of that place but after a while he felt so miserable because nothing was inside that house.

He decided to go out but he tripped in a chair and he went against the portrait. From behind the frame something dropped down: it was the half pendant. He could hardly believe his eyes. He was astounded and overwhelmed by this event. He picked the pendant up but at that moment the door opened and...

At that moment the door opened and Philip entered the room infuriated. Without saying a word, he took the pendant from the king's hands and after that he locked him inside a small, dark and scary room.