And so everything happened exactly as Blue Ogre had planned.

The celebration was endless. Day turned to night and night turned to day as tenko drums beat out the rhythm to their dancing and feasting. They ate shrimp-flavored rice cakes, so gummy they pulled at the roots of their teeth. They ate red rice and grilled tai fish. They danced—swinging their arms high and low, twirling and clapping, on and on… until, on the third night, the entire village found themselves seated around a tremendous bonfire, ready to bring the festivities to a glorious close.

They seated Red Ogre in a place of honor. The group of women sitting on one side of him smiled shyly. The men kneeling on his other side respectfully nodded their approval. Red Ogre could not imagine a happier ogre in the whole world!

He strained his eyes to see outside the light of the fire into the darkness where Blue Ogre might be sitting, sitting on their favorite pine branch. Was that bulky shadow up there Blue Ogre? How he wanted to know if Blue Ogre was sharing this happy moment with him.

For days following the celebration Red Ogre was invited to one family’s house after the next. Every night he fell asleep with a smile on his face. And during the day? He played Oni-go-ko! He wasn’t quite able to squeeze his big body into the cleverer hiding places, but he didn’t mind being found first. Then he would help the Oni find the others. “Oni with Oni!” the children would laugh.

Red Ogre thought of all the things he would tell Blue Ogre—about the food the villagers ate, the stories they told, the games they played. He tried to guess what Blue Ogre would say, what he would think. He imagined hearing Blue Ogre’s friendly, gravelly voice and felt a pinch in his throat.

One day he decided he had to go find his friend. He walked out of the village, up the mountainside, to the place where he and Blue Ogre had once spent their days. He felt so excited he skipped as he walked uphill, but once he neared Blue Ogre’s cave he placed his feet very gingerly on the ground—he would make no sound and surprise him!

But when he looked through the pine trees into their clearing, he saw that the fire was cold. Their belongings were no longer strewn around the stumps and logs. A few saplings had even sprouted up in the place where they used to sit.