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Once upon a time, in another forest quite different from the deep and ancient forest, the Crafty Goblins were on an adventure given to them by the Secret Keeper.
“Go to the Land of Beavers, and you will find another with a Gift,” she spoke. The goblins had paid a great price in gold, provided by the sale of their big wooden house, for this secret. “Who gave you this secret?” the first goblin asked. “A unicorn passed through this land not long ago. She had learned the secret, but did not trust herself to keep it, so she gave it to me,” said the Secret Keeper.
The info was good, and the goblins found themselves in the small forest far to the southeast, but not near to the limits of all the lands. They knew that beavers were good animals because the Princess had told them how a Very Old Beaver once helped her.
To their surprise, they found not a beaver but a young wolf, who was destroying a small wooden house, controlling the wind to rip away each plank.
“Wolves are bad!” the first goblin told the second with the Gift of Voice. “The Princess told us this.” The second goblin agreed. “Let’s find a safe spot and call for help.”
But the wolf turned his attention toward the goblins. “Who are you?” he growled. “How have you found this house?”
“We were told you have a gift like us,” one of the goblins replied. “But we see you use it for evil like the Princess taught us to expect from wolves.”
The wolf backed away. “I don’t know what you’ve seen from other wolves, but I am not a monster. Did you say you two have a gift like me?” the wolf said, his tail happily wagging back and forth.
“Prove you are not a monster, and we will tell you our gift,” the other goblin says. And so the wolf explained when he was a younger pup, he was taken in by coyotes, but the coyotes tried to turn him away from his family. The purple coyote once called this wooden house home, but the wolves had taken it for themselves. Now he needed a place to train his gift, away from the eyes of the nosy beavers, and tearing apart this empty house made him happy and didn’t hurt anyone.
Confident the young wolf was not a threat, the goblins admitted they rushed to judgment about wolves. The Princess had taught them as she knew best, but she did not know everything. They explain to him their Gift of Voice and offer whatever aid they can, thankful to those who once helped them.
And that is how the Crafty Goblins met the Young Wolf, and how they learned not to fear each other.