Once upon a time, a very long time ago, a brave soldier, Evan, loyally served his King. He was just in battle, kind to those less fortunate than himself, and well regarded by others. After many years, the King presented him with a bag of gold, saying, “You have served me well and faithfully. Now go and see the world.”

Evan knew little of the pleasures of the world and had no idea what he wanted to see or do. His entire life was mapped by the wishes of Kings and generals and he never considered what he wanted for himself. He looked at the road before him and began to walk.

Soon, he came to a deep forest. Tall pine trees grew so close together, sunlight never touched the ground. When he asked whether anyone had a map of the forest, people in the village laughed. “An ogre controls the forest. Those who venture in never come out. The ogre eats them!”

Evan was not discouraged. “Surely, an ogre cannot be worse than the battles I’ve seen,” he thought. The next morning, as the sun rose, he stepped into the forest.

Mosses softer than goose down carpeted the ground. Delicate flowers wound around the trunks of trees. Yellow mushrooms popped up in loamy soil. Birds sang from the tops of the trees as Evan walked deep into the forest.    

As evening came, Evan grew tired and climbed high into a tree to sleep. He no sooner closed his eyes when he was awakened by footsteps so heavy, the tree shook. The ogre!

Evan watched as the ogre dug a deep hole and disguised it by laying branches over the top. “Ha!” the ogre said to himself. “This will capture anyone coming into my forest.”

“No,” Evan said in a deep voice. “The forest is mine!”

“Who’s there?” The ogre growled and looked around.

“The King of the forest.”

“No such thing,” yelled the ogre, so loud the mountains shook.

“Then who am I?” asked Evan.

The ogre was confused. People never came into the forest, so whatever was in the tree wasn’t human. He never heard a bird talk and he knew trees didn’t either. 

“Are you a bear?”

“No.”

“Wolf?”

“No.”

“Tiger?”

“Close.”

“Lion?”

Evan roared as best he could. “Yes!” The ogre ran away.

The next day, Evan continued walking through the forest and found the ogre, sitting on a rock, crying. Evan felt sorry for him. “Why the tears?”

“A lion has taken over the forest. He says he’s King. People in the village hate me. I have no place to go.”

“Did he tell you to leave?”

“No, but no one wants an ogre hanging around.”

“What if I tried to make peace with him for you?”

“You would do that?”

“If you promised a few things.”

 “Like?”

“No setting traps for people. No eating people up.”

The ogre hung his head. “I dug holes, but I never caught nothin’. And I never ate anybody.”

“You scare people, though.”

“I can’t help it. Look at me.”

“A hair trim and a bath will fix that.”

“A bath! Ewwwww!”

Evan tried to make the ogre’s bath fun by turning the river into a huge bubble bath, but the ogre screeched like a wild cat and thrashed about so fiercely, he changed the course of the river. When he was finished, he looked at his reflection in the still water and smiled. “I look almost handsome.”

“You are the most handsome ogre I know,” said Evan.

After having the ogre promise to behave himself, not frighten anyone, and allow people to enjoy the forest undisturbed, Evan pretended to meet with the lion. “Good news,” he told the ogre. “The lion says you can stay.”

The ogre was happy and gave Evan his lucky blue feather in thanks. The people in the village were grateful and gave Evan a fine white horse.  He now had a bag of gold from the King, a lucky feather, a beautiful horse he named Mooncloud and a road in front of him leading to new adventures.