Ned studied his wooden blocks carefully. He'd managed to arrange them in a lop-sided loop with himself at the centre. Something however, still wasn't right. He looked back over his shoulder at his toy chest. He'd knocked it over when he'd climbed it to get the blocks, and a few other toys had spilled out onto the floor. Sir Hugs stared up at him from the floorboard he'd landed on. Ned reached for him and pulled him inside the loop. Hugging the little soft-toy knight close to his chest, Ned returned to his study of the floor. His gaze passed over his tug-along horse and his favourite picture book thoughtfully. He started to suck on Sir Hugs' gauntlet not entirely sure what he was looking for. Then, finally, he spotted it. A stray block at come to rest by the leg of the little chair of his colouring table. That was what had been missing.

Tucking his knight under his arm, Ned pulled himself to his feet and tottered across the room. Sir Hugs and Sir Ned to the rescue! It wasn't any great distance between the toy chest and the colouring table, but it gave Ned more than enough time to imagine himself galloping across a field on his great white charger. The red and blue plume on his helmet flapped dramatically in the wind and he did his best to hold his imaginary lance steady. By the time they reached the colouring table, the big nasty dragon who had stolen the magic stone had fled in fear. Ned sat Sir Hugs down on the colouring table chair, and then carried the block back towards its friends. Sitting down in the centre of the loop again, Ned nudged the blocks around a little to make space for their missing brother. He sat back to admire his work. Yes. That was much better.

His attention started to wander again and he spun around, searching the rest of the room. There was something big and red on the floor by the grown-up table. Ned was sure he hadn't seen before. Climbing to his feet again, he approached it before kneeling down and running his hands over the smooth front-cover of the book. He traced the golden words on the front cover with his pudgy finger. They were smooth and slippery. The book itself was heavy. He struggled to open it, and when he finally managed it the book fell open with a thud. The first page was full of boring words he couldn't read, so he turned it over. Ned grinned his triumph. Men and women in brightly coloured clothes stared up at him from a glossy picture; they were smiling and their hair moved under the influence of some invisible wind.

Behind him, the door to the room swung open with a creak of hinges.

"Look!" Ned said, turning to greet whoever had come to find him. He jabbed his finger at the man in the centre of the page, "look king!"