Molly sat on her father's shoulders. They were in the crowd, waiting for the emperor to come

The only surviving fragments of the manuscript . . . 

 Once upon a time the whole of our land was covered in trees. The forest began at one sea-shore and ran, deep and dark and wild, all the way to the other side. Our ancestors lived there, among the leaflight and shifting shadows . . .Rumplestiltskin, Robin Hood and the Big Bad Wolf all lived there, and it was in the forest that the first stories were born.