Arthur‘s forest friends tried to cheer the boy up any way they could, reminding him of the true objective of his journey, to find his book. When the company reached the forest demon‘s hideout, Arthur stopped crying.
The prospect of recovering his precious book cheered him up, but the arrogance of that horrible man had made his courage waver. He no longer felt fearless like he had before and now he was really afraid to face the demon. Then he thought of the cloak that the deer had given him. „Of course,“ said the boy, „the cloak of invisibility. All I have to do is become invisible, sneak in, find my book and leave. It‘ll be a piece of cake.“
No sooner said than done. He became invisible and entered the shack, where he discovered, to his great relief, that no one was there. It wasn‘t an easy task because the hovel was full to the brim with junk.
It took almost an hour to find the book and, to his amazement, he also found the axe that had been stolen from his grandpa when he was young. He was in seventh heaven, his grandpa would be so happy to see his
beloved axe returned to him. Arthur was about to leave when he heard noises: he crouched behind a wall.
What he saw was horrifying: the monster was two metres tall, its head was a hideous bearded skull with two big yellow fangs and powerful curved horns. Its back was covered with long hairs and prickles and it wore a
long cloak. Mosses, moulds and fungi grew on the demon‘s skin, which emanated a terrible stench of wild beast and rotten leaves. Arthur was terrified, but then he saw something quite unexpected: the demon took
off the big skull, which was only a headdress, then dropped the heavy cloak to which the hairs and prickles remained attached.
In the place of that horrid monster stood a thin and rather battered toothless old man. „What on earth?“ Arthur exclaimed in disbelief. „Help, the demon!“ the terrified old man cried. „Look who‘s talking,“ said Arthur, shedding his invisibility, „and so would you be the infamous forest demon?“
The man looked sad and began to confess: „I‘ve always been a loner. I liked to be alone, to contemplate the beauty of the woods. People said I was crazy, so I decided to come and live here. But people still weren‘t satisfied and so they came looking for me. That was when I decided to exact my revenge: I created this costume to terrorise them. Since then, I‘ve never gone out without my disguise, for fear of being discovered.
I don‘t really have any excuse for being a thief and I‘m ashamed of it. I started with things that I needed to survive, like your grandpa‘s axe and food, then I let myself get carried away. I‘m so sorry, I‘m mortified.„
„You don‘t have to fear human beings,” Arthur said affectionately „until yesterday I was a sad and fearful boy, especially in the forest. Today I experienced an incredible adventure and I now understand that the
forest is a magnificent place and that life is beautiful. Come with me, I‘ll introduce you to my friends. But promise me that you won‘t scare people anymore and that you won‘t steal anything.“
„I promise,“ replied the false demon „In fact,“ Arthur said, „I have an idea. You‘ll need to wear your costume, but this time it‘s for a noble cause, join us“.