all.

"Is that so?" wondered the huge spider. "You mean to say that you came
here to apologize to me? And you even counted me among your friends. How
wrong I have been in my assessment of your character. You are not so
cowardly after all. In fact, I feel proud to have fought alongside of
you. I would like to start over and get to know you for what you really
are."

The Lion was taken aback. "You would?" he said. He had no idea what else
to say. He had come to the Lunechien Forest thinking that he was to face
the greatest enemy he had ever known, and that enemy was speaking to him
as if they were old friends who had just met after a long period of
separation.

"Of course I would," said the spider. "I see now that I was wrong to
hate you so badly when I didn't even know what sort of fellow you really
were. And seeing how I felt when we were attacked by those Land Sharks
without having any way to fight them off showed me how grossly unfair I
was for having taken the energy from helpless insects and animals. I was
as bad as them, and I don't ever want to be like that again! It's much
too frightful. I'd rather have a solid group of friends than have all
the power in the world."

"I think I am guilty of the same thing," sighed the Lion, still a little
spooked by the abruptness of the Monster's turnabout in nature. "I
knocked your head off as you slept, but I didn't know what you were
like, either. All I knew was what I was told: that you were eating all
of the lions and the other animals, and that they wanted to make me
their king if I stopped you."

"So you are their king now," said the Forest Monster. "I do not begrudge
you the position any more. You are welcome to it. I suddenly feel like I
don't care for any position of power any more. When I was gaining the
power I now possess, I was allowing myself to be blind to anything but
my ever-growing hatred of you. Now that I see how unfounded that hatred
really was, I feel that it was I who was the true coward. I was sapping
the life energy from countless helpless creatures. I did not give them
any sporting chance, either. Nor did I have any excuse to justify what I
was doing except that I wanted revenge. It is I who should feel ashamed
of himself, not you. Now I have all of this power and strength that was
brought about by my hate, and it is no longer of any value to me. All it
has done was to make me all the more angry and heartless. If this is the
price of strength, I