There was once a rock known as ‘Weird Rock’ due to the fact people could hear voices around it but never saw who was making them. One day a man tied his horse to Weird Rock whilst he had a nap. Upon awakening he saw that his horse was shrinking. He grabbed it by the tail and began to shrink as well.

As the man was shrinking he noticed tiny red creatures scurrying out of holes in the rock. At first he thought that they were ants and that Weird Rock must be an anthill. But as he shrank he saw they had horns. They were tiny Oni! The miniscule daemons hauled the man and his horse into the hollow rock that was their city.

The trembling man said to the chief Oni “Please don’t eat me. If you spare me you can have my horse.”

The Oni thought awhile then said “Very well, the soil in our fields is hard and the horse will be of great use.”

The daemon then gave the man some gold coins in return and told him to come to Weird Rock whenever he needed money. “But you must promise never to tell anyone about us!”He added.

The man agreed and went on his way. He had no need to work anymore he just spent the gold on drink, fine food, women and merrymaking. Whenever funds grew low he visited Weird Rock and was shrunk, given more coins, enlarged again and sent upon his way.

But the man soon became a drunkard and one night the liquor loosened his tongue and he told a drinking friend about his adventure. He took the man to Weird Rock to show him the daemon city were he got his gold. But once there the man did not shrink and could find none of the holes in the rock the daemons came out of. The Oni had abandoned him for talking of them. Without the ready supply of money the man fell into vagrancy and ended his days as a peddler.


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