Introducing the lead character of my next novel.

A laughing boy with dancing eyes
Whose father doth despair
The lad will ever realize
That life's not always fair
And lovely as the boy may think.

All through his youth he sang and danced
He made his village laugh
With carefree heart and foolish songs.
Some thought him only half-
Intelligent. Yet he was wise

In the ways of the creatures of the wood

In the ways of being kind and good

With a heart as big as the forest wide

Until the soldiers came....