<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Courier;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 16pt;"><strong>S T O R Y T E L L E R</strong></span></span><hr/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/2a/c0/94/2ac09413575b79799962d544b6d9d83d.jpg)</div><strong>Dramatis Personae:</strong>Geist<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong>N/A<br/><br/><strong>Time:</strong><em>2nd Eadae of the Month of Forge, late evening</em><br/><strong>Location:</strong><em></em>Dream Sequence<br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning:</strong>Bridgette |<br/><strong>Notes:</strong><br/><hr/>For a time, the creature wanders. It stops to ask many things. It talks to the rocks and the trees, for in this era of unfettered magic, before the two-legged races learned to record their words on stone, all things possessed Mana and Life. The rocks, they say, exist to listen. The trees, they say, exist to grow. And so on, it goes, countless numbers of objects and beings encountered, and questioned; each and every one of them having their own reason, and it not feeling like a<em>good reason.</em><br/><br/>However, there<em>are</em>answers now, and they eventually lead to new questions. Yet, it's not until the progenitor of Nightmares comes upon a village of two-legged creatures, that it finally starts to get something that helps it to understand itself. Before the creature can even pose a question, it's getting answers--in the forms of shrieks, cries, and stones being pelted at it.<br/><br/>They understand the<em>concept</em>of pain, yet, do not feel the pain itself. Why did the two-leggers react this way? Fear. They are afraid. Why? They think the nightmare will bring pain and suffering upon them. But why? Ah, that one's trickier. Perhaps they will come back another time.<br/><br/>...<br/><br/>It's been several days. Every day, the nightmare comes back. Every day, they shout and throw things. Every day, it silently endures and observes. It's a new day, but today is different. A lone, wild-eyed, red-haired youth observes the nightmare from the edge of the village. At a glance, they know,<em>immediately</em>, that there is no fear.<br/><br/>Wordlessly, boldly, she approaches the "monster" that the other villagers have hated. She holds up a golden colored, vaguely orb-like object. Her mouth moves, forming a word--and a new concept--"Apple." She eats it slowly, and in doing so, the nightmare intuits the purpose of the apple.<br/><br/>She then cuts a second apple up with a piece of sharp obsidian, the blade of which is held in a piece of untreated wood by some sort of sap or resin. The young woman offers the nightmare one of the slices. She still feels no fear, but instead, projects a different feeling.<br/><br/>Curiosity.<br/><br/>But how did this creature respond?