The Story of Stories
by Key

Chapter 1: 10/2/2005 10:19

Once upon a time there was a storyteller. HIs name was Bernard, and he spent his whole life traveling from village to village telling stories. Mostly he told them to children, but sometimes adults would come too, in the fields where he told them to whoever had time to listen.

One day he was telling a story to a group of children, when he noticed that one of the children seemed a little odd. He was a young boy about nine years old, but his eyes seemed older, and from his expression on his face it seemed like he had heard all of Bernard's stories many times before.

You're telling a story now, and you are getting this feeling from him. The other children seem quite normal, and there are no adults here.

What do you do next? (as Bernard)

Voting begins!
Final Results:

Options	Votes
ask the boy if he's heard the story before	1 (17%)
ask him to participate in the story/help tell it	0 (0%)
search your memory to see if you remember him	3 (50%)
wait until the story finishes and talk to him later	2 (33%)

Chapter 2: 10/2/2005 10:28

you think back to all the faces you've seen before... all the many times you've told a story to children and adults. And the boy does look familiar. You remember his eyes, they seem like the eyes of an old man, a man you told a story to many years ago. He was dying at the time. And his last wish was to have story told to him. He had the same sense of having heard it before, and the same eyes.

It's somewhat unsettling, and you lose your place a bit in the story, but you continue on and finish. Now the children ask for another story, and the boy just smiles.

What do you do?

Voting begins!
Final Results:

Options	Votes
ask the boy what he wants to hear	1 (20%)
cry out	1 (20%)
ask him why he likes your story so much	1 (20%)
ask each of the children for a story	2 (40%)

Chapter 3: 10/2/2005 10:36

You ask each of the children to tell their own story. They start telling stories, mostly about their family, some tell fairy tales or stories similar to what you've told them. When it's the boy's turn, he smiles and says, "I want to tell the Story of Stories..." And he starts telling a story that takes you away, it is so fascinating and captivating. You don't remember it, you just remember that it's exciting and that you were on the edge of your seat when he told it. But then you wake up in the field at dark. The children are all gone. Your head is still spinning from the story. The boy is gone too.

There is a full moon out and the deep forest is not far away.

What do you do? you're in the same place you were, an open field where you were telling stories to teh childen. but it's manyhours later.

Voting begins!
Final Results:

Options	Votes
see if you've drunk your flask dry	2 (50%)
look for a place to sleep	1 (25%)
call down the moon for all the missing persons	1 (25%)

Chapter 4: 10/2/2005 10:47

You always keep a bit of brandy with you, just to keep yourself warm of course. So you check it. You shouldn't have been drinking while you were telling stories to the kids, you think. But the flask is full - you weren't drunk.

You decide to look around for a farmhouse or a barn, someplace safe to spend the night. But as you walk around, you can't help but look up at the moon. It seems so large, so powerful, as though it has some magic. You wander through some fields and come upon some old trails, but they don't seem to be leading anywhere, you are just getting more lost.

Then you see him, among the trees. The nine-year-old boy with laughing eyes. He smiles at you again. "Would you like to hear the story again, Mr. Storyteller man?"

What do you do?

Voting begins!
Final Results:

Options	Votes
ask for the story again	0 (0%)
grab the boy and ask what happened to you	1 (25%)
ask him for a place to sleep	1 (25%)
give the boy a hug	2 (50%)
moon the boy	0 (0%)

Chapter 5: 10/2/2005 10:55

You go up to the boy and give him a big hug. "You came back to life, didn't you?" you say to him.

"That's what the story said," he says. "It was a story about an old man who was dying and who wanted to hear a story for his last wish. Do you remember what you told him?"

You think back. You think you told the old man a story of the little people, the faeries. You nod.

"That's right," the boy says. "And in the story of stories, the old man found his way to them. Because they only live in stories, they can do whatever anyone in the real world can imagine. I came back to thank you, Bernard, and to give you a choice. Do you want to come with us too? You would die in the real world, but you'd live forever in stories. "

What do you do?

Voting begins!
Final Results:

Options	Votes
run away	0 (0%)
go with him	1 (20%)
ask to be the Santa Claus of stories	2 (40%)
ask why he wants you dead	1 (20%)
smile and say nothing	1 (20%)

Chapter 6: 10/2/2005 11:08

You say to him, "I've spent all my life telling stories to make people happy. That's all I really care about (except for the occasionally nip of brandy, of course). If I could be here, and somehow tell stories to all the little boys and girls all over the world, I can't imagine anything better."

The boy smiles. "It's already done, Bernard." He takes your hand and leads you back to the field, where you see your body lying there peacefully. "The boys and girls are already telling their parents about the wonderful man who came telling them stories. The story will spread, and more and more people will remember you for your kindness and your gifts of magic storytelling. Just as I did."

And you walk back with the boy into the forest. And even though the forest only existed in a story, you lived happily ever after.

The End