Nick didn't have a lot of money. He only owned a bow, a set of arrows, and four traps which he used to hunt animals. He wanted to go and check them. They were small traps, set in trails animals used a lot.

He heard the calls of a lynx and he knew he caught something. Nick was lucky because he was hungry and he needed some food. He ran over and looked in the trap. A beautiful, young lynx was caught in Nick's trap. Nick set his bow and arrow down when he heard someone talk.

“Let me go and I will give you three wishes.” Nick turned around and saw that the lynx had stopped struggling.

“Who's there?” No one answered.

He thought that he was going crazy. Then he looked at the lynx and it talked.

“Please. Let me go and I will grant you three wishes.” Nick was stunned. He didn't know that a lynx could talk. Nick walked over and looked at the lynx. It didn't look magical at all.

“Please,” said the lynx.

“Fine,” Nick said. He went over and and unlatched the trap. The lynx jumped out and eyed Nick suspiciously.

“Can I have my three wishes?” Nick asked.

“Here you go.” Three stones appeared out of nowhere. “Don't use them for greed, because if you do, you will never find happiness again,” said the lynx, and it left.

Nick walked into the kingdom with the three stones, forgetting about his bow, arrows, and traps. The first thing he thought to wish for was food and a house to live in. But then he thought of something even better.

He took out a stone and yelled, “I wish I had all the money in the world!” completely forgetting about the lynx's grim warning.

The stone disappeared. People around Nick looked at him. They didn't know what he was doing. Suddenly about a hundred horse drawn carriages came down the road. They stopped in front of Nick. A short, plump man wearing fancy clothes got out of the first carriage and started talking.

“This money is for you sir. Where do you want us to put it?”

“Um....,” Nick looked at the wagons. He thought about one thing. “Build me a house as lovely as the king's and then you can put the money in there.”

“Yes sir,” the man said, and started giving orders.

Nick supervised the building. It took a few months, but when it was done to his satisfaction, he took out another stone and said, “ I wish I have a wife as beautiful as the rose bush outside the king's palace.”

There was a rustling in the bushes and a very beautiful woman walked up to Nick.

“Are you my wife?” Nick asked.

“Yes. My name is Aria,” she said.

“You are beautiful.”

“Thank you,” she said.

Nick and Aria went to the church and got married. They spent much time together. Nick bought Aria the most expensive jewelery and clothes in the land. Everyone in Nightsville wondered where a woman as beautiful as Aria had come from.

Aria always looked sad, but Nick was too arrogant to see that. He always wanted more. He was running out of money, so he decided to use the last wish.

“I wish that I was king,” Nick said.

Suddenly, Nick was sitting on the king's throne in the palace. Aria was right beside him. Servants were everywhere, awaiting Nick's orders.

“I want to have a party,” he boomed. “Invite everyone in the land.”

All the servants started running about.

Aria didn't know what would happen to Nick. She wanted out. He got power by wishing, and she knows that no good comes to you when you are greedy.

“I am leaving,” she said to Nick.

“What! Why?” he asked.

“I don't like what you are doing. You wished for your power like a coward.”

“Do not talk to your king like that!” he yelled.

“I will talk to you however I want because you are not my king anymore,” Aria said and she stormed off.

Nick didn't need her anyway. He was king, and he could find another wife easily. But he didn't know that Aria was still in the castle. She was waiting for the party to begin.

When the palace was packed full of people, the party started. They celebrated Nick's good health and that he leads the kingdom to glory.

Aria was watching all this in silence. When it was time for Nick to make a speech, she jumped out of the shadows. The guards tried to stop her, but the lynx came out of nowhere and kept the guards at bay. When Aria saw that the guards couldn't get to her, she started her speech.

“Listen to me, people of Nightsville. For I tell the truth about your king. He never worked for this power, he wished for it. The magical lynx gave him three wishes and he used them all for his own personal wants, even though the lynx warned him not to use the wishes for greed,” she yelled.

People didn't believe her at first, but they started wondering how Nick had gotten all this money and power in such a short amount of time.

The villagers started yelling at the guards to bring Nick into the Forest of Evil and leave him there. The guards grabbed Nick and carried him into the woods. They dropped him there and returned to the castle.

Nick stayed in the Forest of Evil for the rest of his life, thus suffering from his greed. When he attempted to flee, guards who were stationed outside the forest hauled him back in. Aria became the new king's wife and lived a long and happy life. The lynx still gives out wishes to those who do something for him, but no one has done greedy things with the wishes for fear they will end up like Nick.