In a distant land, many years ago, there was a powerful king, who owned a luxurious garden with wonderful fruit trees. There were banana trees, orange trees and apple trees; his favourite tree of all was a special apple tree with rich, golden apples. This tree always got sunlight and rain because it was on a high hill that reached as high as the castle.

Every night, just before he went to bed, the king counted his apples to make sure they were all safe. When he woke up in the morning, one apple was taken. This made the king furious, so he ordered his eldest son to keep watch.

Unfortunately, at midnight, the eldest son fell asleep. Then in the morning one of the apples was missing. The next night, the king told his second eldest son to keep watch, yet again, the same thing happened to him.

The king ’s third youngest son (who was his favourite) had to persuade his father to let him keep watch; in the end the king gave in.

Whilst watching the tree, at midnight, the son heard a rustling noise in the tree. He looked up to see a beautiful golden bird. At that moment, he shot an arrow at the bird. Strangely, it did not harm the magnificent bird, apart from knocking off one of its glistening feathers. He took this marvellous feather to the king. The king was astonished by this and told his eldest son to seek the mysterious bird.

The son walked into a dark and creepy forest and met a cunning fox. The sly fox told him that he would be approaching an old village and that he would come across two very different inns. The fox told him to stay in the old, messy inn instead of the rich, clean one. The eldest son doesn’t see the point in this so he stayed in the rich, clean one.

Since he failed, the king sent his second oldest son, but the same thing happened to him. In the end, they both didn’t return so the king reluctantly sent his youngest son…