"Once long ago and far away, a small village, clinging to the side of a hill on the edge of a dark, dense forest, thought itself the happiest of places. Everything about it was good - at least the inhabitants thought so... One moonlit night the villagers heard terrible sounds coming from the forest. The earth shook, crimson flames flickered between the trees and thick, acrid smoke put out the stars. A fearsome dragon had arrived to set up home in the lake, just as the village oracle, a wise old crone, had foretold (only no one had believed her). Perhaps he had been fighting other dragons, been defeated, and had come to live out the rest of his life in their forest. No one had actually seen the dragon but they heard his roars and felt the earth shake. No one was brave enough to go to the forest any more. No one but a little girl who decided to travel to the other side of the forest carrying along an old battered suitcase. (Description from Patakis Publishers)