That’s what happened at the Life Tree that day, reader! And it had the whole forest in an uproar as news spread about the new creature everyone was talking about. The three little apes were saved! Old Black Beard was arrested and his gang was no more! The forest in the great valley was finally at peace.

But little did everyone know, this was only just the beginning. There was another villain, even more powerful than Old Black Beard, who lived far over the mountains. He planned on invading and destroying the forest—and eventually taking over the whole world: a villain known as the Dragon King.

This story is about that Dragon King, reader, and the adventure that two young heroes—a boy and a girl—went on to stop him.

It would be the first of many adventures they would go on to save the world. Each more exciting and magical than the last! The book you are now holding is but one of many in a vast library that chronicles them.

But of all the adventures in the collection, reader, this first one about the Dragon King is by far the most important—because this is the one that shows how it all got started. Who were our hero and heroine? Where did they come from? How did they meet and become friends? As you’ll soon see, the adventures came very close to never happening at all.

In fact, if even one little thing you are about to read hadn’t occurred, not only would our two heroes never have met, but the young forest boy here wouldn’t even have left the great valley! In the beginning of our story, he was perfectly happy in the wild. He didn’t even know there was an “outside the valley.”

But something happened that day after the battle at the Life Tree, reader. Something that changed our hero forever and set him upon a new path of exploration over the horizon.

I will begin, first, by telling you this story. Then, in the next volume, I will tell you the tale of our heroine and how she got involved in all these adventures too.

It all started at precisely the moment our hero was coming around a bend after the battle. As you remember, he had just finished saving Lumpy and his friends, seizing back the stolen fruit and capturing grumpy Old Black Beard, former boss of the Black Beard Gang. He was pulling them all through the grass on a sled, accompanied by a great grey wolf. Lumpy was fast asleep with his belly full. Old Black Beard had an apple tied into his mouth to keep him from talking.

They came to a meadow with a stream of crystal-clear water running through it. Suddenly, the glimmer of the sun’s reflection off it caught the boy’s eye, and he couldn’t help but decide it was a good place to rest. They pulled in and let go of the reigns, exhausted. Then they ran over to have a drink.

It was very funny to see. He dropped down on all fours and started licking it up, in exactly the same manner the wolf was. He even dunked his head in and started shaking himself dry like a wolf. If he’d been covered in fur, you might not even think he was a boy at all.

The reason for all of this very odd behavior was, of course, because our hero was raised by a wolf—the same one he was with now. She found him as an abandoned baby nine years ago and brought him up just like a cub. They were very different, but had been best friends ever since.

After they drank their fill and cooled off, they fell backward onto the grass to relax in the light. It was our hero’s favorite thing to do. He cupped his hand over his eyes and looked up at the sun, thinking all sorts of funny thoughts.

I wonder what it’s made of? How did it get there? Where does it go?

Our hero loved wondering. If he had the time, he might have done so all day. His wolf friend, however, felt very differently.

“Hey!” she said to him suddenly, whacking him over the head with her paw. “Stop it!”

It was what she always did when she saw the boy thinking, and this might have been the biggest difference between them.

“Ouch! Hey! What was that for? Stop what?”

“That! Thinking! You know I don’t like it when you do that.”

The wolf’s name was Ava. And ever since he was a toddler, she discouraged thinking as much as she could.

“Always remember, if you think, you hesitate. And if you hesitate, you’re dead. It’s why that one big ape almost beat you. You hesitated. You should have charged in. That’s the last thing he’d expect.”

“Oh . . . sorry,” replied the boy.

Ava had taught him everything she knew about fighting. She brought him up as a warrior. Thinking, she believed, was for dummies. For if you had to think, it meant you didn’t know. She felt the same way about any kind of fun or playing. All a big waste of time. She wasn’t a very nice wolf at all.

“And all that showboating! You know I don’t like that either. You lost focus! There could have still been someone around to attack you. Get in and get out. No funny business. Hey! Are you listening to me?”

The sun had caught the boy’s attention again. He was very forgetful of her rules.

“Hmm . . .” he sighed as he started wondering again. “Hmm . . .”

“Oh, great. Here we go again . . .”

“I wonder where it goes . . . What do you think, Ava?”

He looked over at her, but she wasn’t interested. The only things she ever liked to talk about was war.

“Where does the sun go? What a foolish question!”

“Aw, come on. I don’t think it is. I’m curious!”

“Curiosity killed the cat. I know—because I’m the one who eats cats! Or at least I used to, back in the old days when you were more fun.”

“I bet it’s somewhere warm,” the boy continued, growing even more curious. “Being warm itself, that’s probably where it would want to be. Maybe there is a place where it’s always warm, somewhere where food and flowers grow all year long, where there’s no snow—except maybe on mountains—and no winter. Ah,” he sighed. “No winter. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

The boy rolled over and looked at his friend, hoping to get her opinion. But instead, she just rolled her eyes.

“Hmph. Whatever. Fool . . .”

She then sat up and headed back to the sled. “No, it’s silly—the whole thing! Now, come on. Let’s get going.”

“Wait, do we have to? Just a little longer . . .”

He was so comfortable lying there under the sun. But he knew Ava didn’t care. He could almost feel her eyes on him, glaring.

“Alright,” he said. “I’m coming . . . I’m coming . . .”

Our two heroes hopped back up to the front of the sled and pulled it the rest of the way to Lumpy’s ape village. They crossed over great and vast fields of flowers, around long winding cliffs on the sides of mountains, and took secret passages and short cuts that led through underground ice caves or behind waterfalls—the same waterfalls with rainbows over them that young Sebastian would see in the distance and dream about. Before long, they found themselves in a lush wood with soft grass and black soil. It was no wonder the good apes chose to build their home here. There were many berries and fruit you could pick right off the ground all summer long. As they approached, they were greeted with even more cheering than when they left the Life Tree that morning.

“Look, he’s back!”

“There’s Lumpy! He saved them!”

“I knew he would!”

“And there’s Old Black Beard, all tied up! He got him!”

“And our bananas! Hurray!”

All of the little girl apes then rushed up into the trees to shower them with white flower petals, making it look like it was snowing. The young males all ran to try and get a glimpse of the hero up close.

“Get out of my way!”

“Ouch! Quit pushing me! I was here first!”

When the sled finally stopped, it was immediately surrounded by a crowd full of curiosity, questions and excitement.

“Oh, hey everyone!” said the boy pulling up. He was so used to this sort of welcome now that he hardly noticed anymore. “Umm, how are you all doing?”

“Hey! Is that your stinger?” asked one of the little apes.

“No, it’s just a stick, see? I call it a spear.”

“Can I see it?”

“Sure, but you have to be careful. It’s sharp.”

“Can you really fly?”

“Nope. It just looks like it sometimes. I’ve got this whip, you see? I can swing with it. And I can make trampolines. Sometimes I can glide, too. But my last glider broke. I’ve got to make a new one.”

“Ooh!” they all sighed delightedly.

“Hey! Where’s your tail?”

“Don’t have one.”

“Where did it go?”

“I don’t know—must have fallen off or something.”

“Can you really go invisible?”

“Nope—just good at hiding.”

The boy enjoyed talking to other animals and answering questions, even if he didn’t always have the answer. But Ava hated it.

“Hey everyone! Look! It’s Ava! She’s a hero too!”

“What? No, I’m not. Leave me alone. Hey, get off me!”

Many of the apes surrounded her and started trying to put flowers into her fur, or kissing her on her cheek. She hated every minute of it.

“Ugh—yuck! Gross!”

But it was a part of the job, and she knew it.

“Pugh! Apes . . .” she muttered.

The crowd’s attention then drew to a voice coming from behind it—a deep and somewhat funny sounding voice coming from one of the adults. You could hear them pushing their way towards the sled.

“Out’f my way! Out’f my way! Ooh ooh!”

The boy recognized it. It was Lumpy’s father.

“Ooh ooh! Grr! Where is he!? Where is he!?” he growled. He seemed grouchy. “Where is Lumpy!?”

He pushed and shoved his way through the crowd. Sometimes he took a little apeling and threw him over his shoulder to get through to the sled. Though, that was quite a normal thing for apes to do, even when they weren’t upset. Any apeling he’d toss would end up landing safely on a branch above.

“Where is he? Where is he? Do you know where he is?” he’d ask before tossing someone. “No? Hi-ya! What about you? Or you! Hiya! Hiya! Where is he! Where is that little fur ball!” He pushed through, all the way to where Lumpy was sleeping. “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! When I find him, I’m going to wring his little . . .”

That’s when Lumpy awoke. He yawned and stretched his tiny little arms—then sat up. His father was about to scold him. But he found that he couldn’t. Right before he tried, his heart melted and his eyes began to shed tears of joy. Instead, he reached out to hug him.

“Aww, come ‘ere son,” he sighed. “Come’ere! Give your father a hug! Oh! Boo hoo! We missed you! I’m sorry for yellin’.”

And Lumpy jumped into his arms. So did the other two little apes when their families came.

“You’re safe! Look at you!” said all the mothers and fathers. “You’re alright! Thank you!” they cried turning to our hero. “Thank you so much!”

It put the biggest smile on our hero’s face and the deepest joy in his heart to see them all together where they belonged.

“You’re welcome! Anytime!”

But soon the crowd started to grow so big that the boy, Ava and the sled looked like they were getting swallowed up by them. It was getting out of control. So, Lumpy’s father had to break it up.

“Alright, that’s enough! The show’s over! Break it up! Leave’m alone! He needs to relax! Go on! Scram!”

The apelings listened and started running off together to play. Ava shook out all the flowers they put in her hair and stuck around the sled to keep an eye on Old Black Beard, who was still tied up.

“Come on, my young friend!” said the father putting his arm around the boy. “We’d better get you indoors before anyone else sees ya’. Especially the young ladies round ‘ere. You remember last time! Hmm, I know—you can come to my house! Yes! Come this way! There is something I want to show you!”