No one who stepped into its shadows was ever seen again. Rusty axes lay on the ground, dropped there by wood-cutters who disappeared forever. Baskets lay smashed in the bushes, left by terrified berry pickers who never returned home. The roaring was terrible. It echoed through the forest day and night. But what roared? No one knew. Some said that evil spirits waited in the gloom, ready to pounce upon their victims and lock them deep inside the trunks of trees. Why else did the branches moan in the wind? Others said that monsters with dozens of long hairy arms rose up through the forest floor and pulled their victims deep beneath the earth, leaving only the axes and baskets behind. The Khan told everyone that neither evil spirits nor hairy monsters lurked in the forest, only a mighty beast. A hungry beast. A beast who could eat an entire man for dinner, yet roar its displeasure if it didn’t find a tender maiden for dessert. The Khan wanted someone to slip into the forest and kill this beast.
