Balin and the Magic Bean: A Wizard's Adventures in a Land of Fractured Fairytales (Balin's World)

A knight, battered in a skirmish he lost, stumbles into a village and tells an elderly wizard he has an unwelcome new neighbor. An ogre has moved in nearby. Worrisome news for Balin, the wizard.

Balin regards the village near his home as his responsibility. How will he protect it?

He won’t have to do it alone. Two elves and their cat join him in spying on the ogre. They find he has settled in beside a most unusual beanstalk. Far taller than any tree, it reaches high into the sky.

An old fairytale about a boy, a magic goose and a beanstalk doesn’t give them much help, even though it does feature an ogre.

Their own adventures go in much different directions as Balin soon finds himself in danger of becoming the ogre’s lunch, and Felix the cat strands himself high on the beanstalk. Up there he watches the ogre eat a magic bean. Then events take an even stranger turn.