Deep, deep down below the surface of the Earth ruled Odd Jack, the King of Monsters. Despite his title, Odd Jack was not a monster, but an old man. A very old man -- thousands and thousands of years old.

Before the four gods shaped the world as it is now, all creatures existed together. There was no distinction between the land, the sea, the sky, or the underworld. There was no sun, no moon -- it was all one big chaotic place, pretty much the same everywhere. When those days came to an end, Odd Jack -- who was not yet King of Monsters -- was already an old man.

Odd Jack was still young when his wife died in childbirth. He cried and cursed and shouted and screamed and wailed for one whole year. Everyone stayed well clear of him, for an angry Odd Jack was a fearsome sight, even though he was a short little guy. After he got to the end of his sorrow, he realized that he didn't have much use for people anymore.

So he started hanging out with the monsters. Big, huge creatures with names like Kratoom and Boomboombah and Grokkon and Gorgonzoid. Odd Jack was so small compared to these behemoths that he could nestle in the palm of their hands.

The monsters loved the feisty little man. He told them stories that filled their minds with awe, their hearts with excitement, and their bellies with laughter. For a long time, until he grew to be an old man, Odd Jack was happy again.

But then the gods decided to divide the world among them. One god created the sky and filled it up with birds and clouds. A second god created the waters -- the seas, the oceans, the lakes, and the rivers -- and put all the fish in them. Another god created the land, and that's where the mammals and reptiles and plants wound up. The fourth god created the underworld, taking all the monsters there.

Everything was now neat and tidy, and the gods were pleased with themselves.

Odd Jack, however, was not pleased with the gods. Suddenly, all of his friends were gone, and just because of a whim of some high-and-mighty, hoity-toity gods? Odd Jack wasn't going to accept that. So he went to see the gods, and he gave them a piece of his mind.

The gods didn't want to seem unreasonable (also, though they would never admit it, they were a bit scared of Odd Jack), so the god of the underworld went and asked the monsters what they thought.

The monsters were unanimous: they all missed their good friend Odd Jack.

So the gods agreed to let Odd Jack live in the underworld. But, they asked him, don't you want to bring a woman?

A flash of anger erupted on Odd Jack's face. Inwardly, the gods cowered.

Finally, Odd Jack said, "I'm too old for that sort of thing." The gods could hear the deep sorrow in his voice and regretted ever asking the question.

In the underworld, the monsters rejoiced when Odd Jack came to live among them. The god of the underworld, too, grew very fond of Odd Jack and his wild stories, so the god decided to make the old man immortal as well as crown him King of Monsters, which pleased both Odd Jack and the monsters.

The gods, however, had no idea that allowing Odd Jack to move to the underworld would start a series of complaints: the chickens and penguins didn't want to live in the sky anymore; the dolphins and seals and whales all yearned to leave to the surface world and swim in the water; the frogs and turtles wanted to inhabit both the water and the land; the bats requested to be allowed to fly ... There was no end to the demands!

In time, everything got messy again. The gods gave up in disgust -- they'd been so proud of how orderly they'd made everything, but no-one seemed to appreciate their efforts. Finally, they left altogether, abandoning the world to its own devices.

One day, thousands of years later, some prairie dogs accidentally burrowed all the way down to the underworld. They told the monsters about this glowing ball in the sky called the sun and about these great places called cities that were filled with people and tall buildings. The monsters grew curious about the realms beyond the underworld, so they went and talked to King Jack.

Odd Jack had only seen the sun very briefly before he left the surface world at the dawn of its creation, and that was so long ago that he barely remembered it at all. These cities, though, were an entirely new thing to him, and he wanted to know more about them.

So Odd Jack, perched on the shoulder of his old friend Kangzilla, said to all the monsters, "It's time we went and visited one of these cities and saw the sun!" The monsters cheered their king! Upward, they climbed, upward to the surface of the Earth.

When the monsters and their king emerged from the underworld, they arrived in a city called Tokyo, where they saw the sun rise and marvelled at the beauty of its light. And, oh, what fun they had knocking over the buildings, swatting the metal birds out of the sky, and stomping on all those tiny, four-wheeled, smoke-spewing machines!

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