Greed searched the forest, his steps slowing.
"I'm so hungry…" he whispered to himself.
"What is this feeling?"
His stomach twisted. Empty. Heavy.
He walked forward without looking—
Thump.
He hit a tree.
An apple fell, rolling to his feet.
Greed picked it up, turning it in his hands. Its skin was smooth and red, shining softly in the light.
"It looks… tasty," he said.
He bit into it.
The taste filled his mouth—
And suddenly, memories rushed in.
His mother's hands.
Her smile.
Her voice.
"My baby boy," she had said gently, holding an apple just like this one.
"What do we call this?"
"…Apple," Greed whispered.
Tears poured down his face.
"Mama… I miss you."
He kept eating.
One apple.
Then another.
When he looked up, he saw many more above him.
He tried to climb the tree.
He slipped.
Fell.
Tried again.
Failed.
Greed stared upward, breathing hard.
Then a thought came.
What if… I use the sticks?
They can support me.
He placed the sticks carefully and climbed.
Higher.
Higher.
"Wow…" Greed whispered.
From the top, the world looked different.
"It's really high," he said.
He could see animals moving below.
He could see the place where he had slept.
Then a new thought came.
How do I get down?
He looked toward the ground.
It was far.
Very far.
His body froze.
His hands trembled.
"Why can't I move?" he whispered.
"Am I… scared?"
The feeling was heavy. Tight.
"I hate this feeling," he said.
He cried.
His voice echoed through the forest.
Movement answered him.
Monkeys appeared.
They climbed the tree easily, chattering and jumping around him. They gathered apples and sat beside him.
They didn't attack.
They didn't run.
They stayed.
Greed wiped his tears and smiled at one of them.
"But… we're trapped together," he said softly.
Then he saw it.
One monkey climbed down.
"Wow…" Greed whispered.
"There is a way."
He watched closely.
Hands.
Feet.
Branches.
"Oh… I see."
He swallowed.
I used the sticks to climb up…
What if I use my hands to hold on… and my legs to step down?
Slowly, carefully, he copied the monkey.
Step by step.
Until—
His feet touched the ground.
Greed froze.
Then laughed.
"I did it!"
The monkeys jumped around him happily.
Greed danced with them, eating apples, laughing as they chattered and moved around him.
For a moment…
The world felt warm.
Then the monkeys froze.
In an instant, they scattered into the trees.
Greed stopped.
"Oh… I guess this is goodbye," he said softly.
He turned around.
The forest went silent.
Behind him stood something huge.
A massive, hairy creature moved on four limbs. Its mouth was stained, its eyes burned like the yellow ball in the sky. It roared, and the sound rolled through the forest, warning everything alive.
Greed's heart pounded.
I'm prey.
Fear returned.
But this time, he remembered the monkeys.
How they moved.
How they didn't freeze.
His hands shook—but his feet did not.
"I'm scared," Greed said.
"But I won't be like that ever again."
He turned—
And ran