A commission I got from  moorph about someone nobody knows and a bit of personal backstory for me.

Growing up and amungst the copious amount of childrens books I had was a two sizable tomes simply entitled 'The Greatest Fairy Tales of All Time'. Inside the book was just as it said on the cover were several childrens tales from Snow White to The Three Little Pigs and even Aladdin.

The tale in question here though is the story of Puss in Boots, a story of a young man who inherits nothing from his late father but the titular kitten in rather dapper looking wellies. The cat then promises to make the young man, herefore unnamed and only referred to as his 'Master', richer than any other in the land and manages to do so in a plan involving many steps including tricking a giant into his death and fooling a King into thinking the young man is a Duke and suitable suitor for his daughter.

It's the last part of the plan however is where things got interesting for me personally. For this part Puss asked his Master to undress and sit in a shallow pond and wait for the arrival of the King and his stage-coach. The art of this page was simply the young man with his head just above the water's edge looking rather bored, waiting for the carriage to come. Upon it's arrival Puss flagged the coach down and requested the King's help, that the Duke of this land was drowning and needed assistance to get out of the water. What followed on the next page's art was something I was never able to forget as it showed the King's footmen pulling the young man from the river wearing, as RF had described it when I showed it to him "It must be a tunic or something but that is most definitely a diaper".

Realistically I imagine this was added to be consistent with someone wishing to bathe in the water in the dark, fantasy ages, but with something added to give him a micorum of decency. I very much doubt it was intended for any purpose over than covering himself. That said it was very, very strange at a young age to see what was an older person (not a baby that is) wearing something such as that.

To this picture though, it was just to see what RF's rendition of the character would be like, rather bland in description as he may be.

For the curious, here's a scan of the art in question https://imgur.com/1Num8qb