THE LEGEND OF AZZURRINA

 

This story takes place in 1375, in the castle of Montebello, the last place where Guendalina, my landlord’s daughter, was seen alive. Ugolinuccio Malatesta, the owner of these lands, had left to go to war and he had told another guard and myself to take care of his precious daughter while the other soldiers protected the fortress. I was not very happy about this. The child was born with eerily fair skin, white hair and light blue eyes that almost seemed transparent. These where all traits which indicated the presence of witchcraft. Many guards talked about the little girl. We were all wary of her. We were sure she was going to cause trouble, even though nobody dared to tell her father. Ugolinuccio had tried to hide her supernatural nature by coloring her hair; however, it immediately lost all of its color, leaving a faded blue hue behind. This is why everybody started calling her Azzurrina, which means light blue. When Ugolinuccio assigned me the task of taking care of her, I was incredibly nervous. However, after spending some time with her, I realized that she was only a sweet little girl that seemed to be the most innocent creature on this earth. My companion, Ruggero, thought quite the opposite. He called her “a demon disguised as an angel”. Everything was going well until one day a terrible tragedy struck the castle. It was a rainy day so we decided not to let the child go play outside in the courtyard. Since she had a lot of energy, we agreed to let her play in the halls. She was playing with a ball made of old rags that I had gotten for her, making it roll down the corridor and then running after it. She was giggling and it looked like she was enjoying herself. However, at one point the ball rolled too far and fell into the cellar. Azzurrina asked us if she could go fetch it and we agreed to let her go. Everything happened so quickly. Azzurrina disappeared from our sight. A second later, we heard a blood-curdling scream that made my heart jump in my chest. Ruggero told me to guard the entrance to the cellar so that nobody could leave or enter. He then ran downstairs faster than a lightning bolt. I could not hear anything anymore. No more screaming. I could only hear Ruggero’s steps as he made his way deeper underground. He came back upstairs and told me that the child had completely vanished. We desperately searched the entire castle but there was no trace of her. With dread in our hearts, we told Ugolinuccio about the terrible tragedy and as I had predicted, he did not believe us. He ordered the other guards to lock us away and execute us. I am now in a cold dark cell waiting for my death. I am terrified; I do not even know why my life has to end. I really wonder what happened to that poor little girl.