The Story Teller

Gather around for a while and allow me to unfold my story.

A wizened old man sat beneath a huge old tree, this is where he always sat, he was the last of the storytellers.
Nobody knew his name, he was just known as the storyteller, and the tribe which was a mixture of young and old sat eagerly awaiting him to begin speaking.
He looked deeply into the flames of the campfire, as they flickered in a dance-like motion.

“You have come to hear my stories as you have done for many years” he paused, and they all nodded in agreement.
Yet, he continued, “There will come a time in the far-off place when there will be no one to tell these stories, but if there were nobody will care to listen not even children!”
The crowd gasped in disbelief that there could ever be such a time, for it had always been the way of things, everyone from the village would gather around the fire and wait for the storyteller.

The old man stared into the flames of the fire, sighed and spoke again, “The day will come in future days when people will other things that will consume their days in such a way that the telling of stories will be just a vague memory”

“Elders will not even remember the names of any of the stories they may have heard in the past and children will not want to listen or learn such things”
The crowd around the old man were silent in amazement, listening to every word he spoke, but finding it all hard to believe.

“In these dark days he continued, there will be no gatherings as there are here today, no meeting places, nor sharing as this place.
Their minds will become too numbed by other things, they lost the ability to imagine and the desire to speak to each other”
“Such is the power of the forces of evil, which will engulf them in such dismal darkness they will have no way to oppose it strength, my heart is heavy just even thinking of these days.”
“Sadder still is no-one will be aware of the way they have become and neither will they care, for they will be lost without direction or purpose, without joy or hope, without love or compassion, without any belief or one to offer praise too”
The old man stopped speaking and stared back into the fire once again

No one in the crowd spoke, it was if they were holding their breath
The storyteller who had been staring into the flames of the fire for some time now lost in thought, he sighed deeply as if the cares of the world were upon him

Even though the crowd around him had been there since the beginning of the day, they remained silent and still, no one questioned the length of time they had been there
His gaze lifted and he looked at them, I have told you this tale of days to come and you have listened well with much patience.

Although you have not asked, I know you will want to know of this place or how I know of these things
The way of my knowledge as I had been fasting and my spirit drifted up on the wind of time and showed me this strange place as it would be in future times, my spirit sank deeply at the sight of these things to come.

This world I saw was not here my friends, this place unlike anything I have ever seen before, yet I felt great sorrow for those who lived there in those days

My friends may never have known of this place and better if you do not, this world I saw is so far away from this land of ours, a place with no storytellers to be found,

I knew not the name of this place, but somehow I know it once possessed great beauty and a race of people who used to love and care for this place where they lived

Then over time, they became to care more for themselves and gained many possessions and spent much of their time sitting hunched over glaring into strange box-like objects, they had no glimmer of emotion in their eyes

I was glad to leave that place behind but still sad at the thought there was such a place, go now my brothers and never let the flame of desire to listen to stories die lest our world becomes like that place
He arose and turn away walking away from the crowd, who now sighed with relief that where they lived was not the place he had spoken of in the story, the crowd dispersed and made their way back to their homes

Then End