Land of the Loons

Once upon a time, in a land not so very far away, there lived a village of people. Funny little people called Loons.

The Loons were a peaceful people, a simple people, with a very simple diet. The Loons could eat but one thing, and loved that one thing: Pure cane sugar. Because of this, sugar was very precious to the Loons.

These happy people weren't without their troubles, however. In fact, there was a blight upon the land in which they dwelt, in the form of a vicious, predatory monster. The Medigrim. This swift and cunning beast would come into the village in the dead of night, snatch a little Loon, and scamper off to have its meal.

The Loons attempted to dissuade the creature, of course. Unfortunately, they weren't equipped for violence, and weren't the brightest of groups, so attempts landed in failure. They tried an offering of the only food they knew, sugar, which got ignored by the carnivore. They tried launching a rock at it with a rudimentary catapult, but succeeded only in launching a Loon instead.

These failed attempts at dissuading the beast repeated until one day, a clever little Loon came up with a clever little idea. They could set a trap with the beast, and bait it so that the Medigrim was tempted to fall for it! The village agreed, and set to digging. They dug that hole all day until it was so deep they were sure the Medigrim could not get out. Of course, that's where the plan faltered, because of course, the bait of choice was the only food to cross their minds. Sugar! So they filled that hole with lots and lots of sugar! So much sugar they were sure the hungry Medigrim would not notice he was trapped because he was busy devouring it all! Satisfied with their work at the end of the day, the village slept.

At least... most of them did. That night, a naughty little Loon woke up in the middle of the night, snuck out of his hut, and went to go to the trap. The trap was still there, set and full of sugar. The Loon's stomach growled. He thought to himself, "oh, a bite, a taste, that couldn't hurt, right?" So he stepped into the hole, which was so full of sugar the top was barely below the surface. He took his bite... and then another, and another, and on and on until he realized that he had eaten it all! He looked up, and found that he was stuck at the bottom of the hole, beyond the reach of his jump or climb.

It was at that moment that he saw something else, something dreadful. The Medigrim stared from above, its eyes mad with hunger. It pounced, and gobbled that Loon up! But in its hunger, it too made the same mistake that the Loon had before it. It was stuck at the bottom of the trap.

The next morning, two things happened. The others noticed the naughty Loon was missing, and the trap was discovered to have worked. They saw the corpse of the deceased, and were very sad. However, the sadness soon changed to praise, as he was lauded a hero of the Loons for sacrificing himself to get rid of this danger once and for all! A statue was raised in his likeness, and the village celebrated this Loon! Soon after, songs were dedicated to his memory. In fact, if you listen carefully, you might recognize it - it goes like this: "Just a Loon full of sugar help the Medigrim go down!"