Going to the Holy Land, Kristoff made a contract with the fairy queen - she made his skin as strong as the bark of an oak, saying that she would announce the payment when he returned, safe and sound from the crusade. Her charms protected the knight from the blades of the Arabs, but when he returned home, the crusader found his ancestral castle abandoned and overgrown with ivy, his servants and relatives turned into creepy creatures by fairy charms. And worst of all, he didn't have much time left-his flesh, starting with his left arm, began to gradually turn into wood.