As a baby there was relatively little Harrold could do other than listen so he took to listening very carefully to what was said by his nana and by his mother who would both come to him at night and tell him stories, his farther never seemed to have the time for more than a kiss good night on his head.

For the first year of his life Harrold was raised on stories of knight and magical princesses and monsters in the forest and he lapped up every word of it.

'you could learn a lot from what people had storys about' he thought to himself as he heard nana tordoff whispering about how tiny monsters would make you ill if you drank water from puddles and to always make sure that water was clean before drinking it.

That fact that she defined clean water as something you could see through like glass rather than water that had been boiled was rather indicative of just how little his new people knew about germs.

Nana Tordoff was a women past the middle f her life slightly slumped over she had probably been a small women to begin with and her age wasn't helping.

"And if in doubt make sure to pass it down some nice corn ale" she finished her story before looking at him expectantly.

"good goo gah, yayyyy good" Harrold shrieked as he clapped his pudgy baby hands together hoping that she would tell him more. It wasn't hard to imitate a baby's speech it was just important to only use a few words at once.

The old women looked outside the window to see the sun casting long shadows across the city in which he lived, only the other week had she revealed to him that it was known as the city of Elm after the single tree that had grown on this spot when his family raised the town oh so many years ago.

"it looks like we have time for one more story" she said as she looked back to the baby bouncing him gently on her knee.

"this is the story of how your family came to be the lords of the forest of sunsets" she said as she pointed out the window to the dark forest a few miles distant from them.

"when the kingdom of Mewni was young and queen estara was only new into her reign she struggled to make sure that the mewmams had enough to eat during the harsh winters of mewni." Said tordoff in hushed voice.

"in the dark of the winter of 75 with no food left from the harvest the queen was focused entirely on using her magic to feed the people of the villages of mewni, in the dark of the winter the monsters came for the villages furthest from the castle." She continued a wistful look in her eye.

"One by one the villages went silent deep in the snow, the villages of Woodguard, Northern Jorde and Ferton on feeple disappeared into the snow."

"Soon the queen noticed that the villagers had stopped coming to ask for supplies and sent out a band of knights a dozen strong to find out what happened"

"knights from the noble families of flower, redguard and mcknight and of course there was your great great great great grandfather the brave sir Sparrow"

"through the snow they tracked on their great warhorses, through the cold and wind and the gales they made there way to wards ferton only to find every man woman and child missing."

"onwards through Northern Jorde they found the same, empty houses and not a soul in sight."

"finally near the edge of the forest they saw the village of Woodguard empty as all the others, the snow had covered there path behind them and so they went to sleep in the town hall for the night."

"the dark shadows of the mewni night gatherred around them until nothing could be seen" she whispered darkly to him. "in the dark nights on mewni not everyone makes it home." She finished softly to herself.

"in the depth of the night the monster attacked the knights, these were giants" she roared " giant spider centaurs, monsters with the body of a man and the legs of spiders they came in the night and took away one of the 12 whilst the others slept"

"in the morning the knights woke and saw that one of theirs had been taken, seeing his horse had not been taken they tracked him through the snow with signs of struggles every few hundred meters."

"They tracked him into the sunset forest from which no mewman had yet to explore."

The tall tress of the forest cast the brave heroes in shadow even during the height of day but on their steeds they Soon saw the terrible creatures which we have since come to call the Arachnoforms, from the shadows they crawled the 12th knight was trapped in a net of cobwebs and being dragged behind them.

As the brave knights charged the arachaforms the monsters reared up to the full height easily as tall as mounted knights, the brave knights charged and were let down by the terror of their horses for no normal horse can charge a arachnoform.

"one by one the knights were tossed from their horses and taken in webs by the monsters until only your ancestor sir sparrow remained on his horse. With a call to his gods he steeeled his heart to meet his fate with courage.

"soon his turn to charge came and he did not let his noble blood run cold that day and bravely charged the monsters, but he too was tossed from his steed"

"in there darkest hour when all of the 12 were captured, webbed and dragged through the forest to the web groves of the monsters."

"as your ancestor lay stuck in the webs being dragged through the forest he prayed with all his heart for salvation from the monsters that trapped him.

"yet for whatever reason the gods chose to ignore his call and he found salvation within himself, sir sparrow reached down and wiggled free his dagger and cut his way from his bounds and began to sprint off into the forest with promise of return with the queen's army to the knights still trapped."

"as he ran through the woods he could not look back for if he did he would have surely beeen devoured by the monsters that pursued him"

"soon he could run no more and he found himself cornered by the spider people, as he held them off he once more asked the gods for help.

"Brilliant light was cast about the forest as from out the woods charged a unicorn to spear the arachnaform through its side and cast it down to the forest floor."

"With a final cry sir sparrow used the arrival of the unicorn to tackle the startled monster and kill the remaining spider taking its head from its shoulders with only his dagger." she exclaimed

"sir sparrow saw the power of the unicorn and spent the next week tracking the beast through the woods for it had fled as quickly as it had arrived."

"Once sir sparrow cornered the unicorn he challenged it to combat for a night and day until both were exhausted. With one final breath sir sparrow mounted the creature and claimed it as his steed and ever since your family has been the unicorns closest guardian" she said with the sound of someone explain a just so story.

"With his new steed under him sir sparrow fashioned a spear out of the wood of a elm tree and made his way into the deepest darkest part of the forest where the spider people lived."

"With the light of a rising dawn behind him sir sparrow charged the nests of the spiders and rescued the weary and near drained bodies of his companions." Nana paused and leaned in as if telling him a great secret "they had been kept alive by the spiders so they could sip of their blood" she said with a shudder.

"with his companions saved sir sparrow retreated from the forest and returned to the queen" she said as though she was suddenly tired

"only during the summer would the queen march into the forest and drive back the spiders, ever since it has been your families duty to guard this forest from the dark creatures within it"

"and now it is time for you to sleep little lord" Nana said slowly as she laid Harrold down in the large bed he had been moved to only weeks previously.

"sleep well knowing that the arachnaforms are far away" she whispered as she closed the door blowing out a candle as she went. At some point the light of dusk had faded to night.