Dragonfree
23rd April 2004, 05:45 PM
The Second World
Prologue
The scientist slowly picked up the stone tablet, trembling. It was a dull grey and looked very ordinary apart from the smooth front side, clearly levelled by a human hand, which had small, black letters on it.
He had spent months cleaning it up. It had been found half-dug somewhere along with other identical ones, covered in dirt. He had carefully cleaned it up, removed the moss and then covered the front side with a special wax in order to clean it off the surface again so that it would remain in the otherwise unreadable engravings. Now it was finally finished. He sighed and looked with satisfaction at his work. He would finally be able to read this ancient message…
He leant back in the chair, calming down, and observed the stone tablet lying on his desk. Then all of a sudden, he sprang up, bent over the tablet and surveyed the writing.
Then he started to read.
This has been written into stone in order not to be lost. This is a story – a true story, so old that nobody knows where it came from. I did not make the story, I just wrote it into this rock. The story is told by its maker, as explained in the beginning.
My name is Malinar. I am one of the people who first discovered this place. I wanted to tell my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, all future generations, about it, but I was aware that I wouldn’t last long enough myself. I’ve therefore closed my eyes every night, brought all that happened that day back into my mind, and explained it to myself in a way that it would be crystal-clear and easy to understand, even for those who weren’t there. Then I would tell it to my children and grandchildren, and they would tell it to theirs. It is the story of our new world, it is important that it is kept without exaggerations. Therefore, I must ask you, whoever you are, listening to this story right now, to remember it well, ask the one who told it to you to tell you again, until you remember it all by heart. Not as in every word, but the point of every single sentence. Please, for me, do not change what happens when you tell it to somebody else, because it is the truth. The truth should never have spice added to it in order to make it more exciting. Keep it in first person too, because that way it is less likely to change as generations pass.
Now, let me start off with how we got here.
We used to be an ordinary tribe, but one day when the healthy ones of us, both men and women, went on a normal hunt… we didn’t return.
We saw a bright white light emitting from a crack that had appeared in the ground… we were afraid of it, but our curiosity drove us to take a closer look at it. As soon as we looked down straight into the light source, it was as if an invisible whirlpool sucked us in. We were helplessly dragged into the light…
The next thing we knew, we were regaining consciousness in a field, dazzling sunlight shining. But we were not at home. It was a different place, but we did not know what it was…
The scientist stopped reading. Looked like he was up for a big, and very interesting story. His hands trembled as he posed himself more comfortably in his chair, and started reading again.
Chapter one soon.
Prologue
The scientist slowly picked up the stone tablet, trembling. It was a dull grey and looked very ordinary apart from the smooth front side, clearly levelled by a human hand, which had small, black letters on it.
He had spent months cleaning it up. It had been found half-dug somewhere along with other identical ones, covered in dirt. He had carefully cleaned it up, removed the moss and then covered the front side with a special wax in order to clean it off the surface again so that it would remain in the otherwise unreadable engravings. Now it was finally finished. He sighed and looked with satisfaction at his work. He would finally be able to read this ancient message…
He leant back in the chair, calming down, and observed the stone tablet lying on his desk. Then all of a sudden, he sprang up, bent over the tablet and surveyed the writing.
Then he started to read.
This has been written into stone in order not to be lost. This is a story – a true story, so old that nobody knows where it came from. I did not make the story, I just wrote it into this rock. The story is told by its maker, as explained in the beginning.
My name is Malinar. I am one of the people who first discovered this place. I wanted to tell my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, all future generations, about it, but I was aware that I wouldn’t last long enough myself. I’ve therefore closed my eyes every night, brought all that happened that day back into my mind, and explained it to myself in a way that it would be crystal-clear and easy to understand, even for those who weren’t there. Then I would tell it to my children and grandchildren, and they would tell it to theirs. It is the story of our new world, it is important that it is kept without exaggerations. Therefore, I must ask you, whoever you are, listening to this story right now, to remember it well, ask the one who told it to you to tell you again, until you remember it all by heart. Not as in every word, but the point of every single sentence. Please, for me, do not change what happens when you tell it to somebody else, because it is the truth. The truth should never have spice added to it in order to make it more exciting. Keep it in first person too, because that way it is less likely to change as generations pass.
Now, let me start off with how we got here.
We used to be an ordinary tribe, but one day when the healthy ones of us, both men and women, went on a normal hunt… we didn’t return.
We saw a bright white light emitting from a crack that had appeared in the ground… we were afraid of it, but our curiosity drove us to take a closer look at it. As soon as we looked down straight into the light source, it was as if an invisible whirlpool sucked us in. We were helplessly dragged into the light…
The next thing we knew, we were regaining consciousness in a field, dazzling sunlight shining. But we were not at home. It was a different place, but we did not know what it was…
The scientist stopped reading. Looked like he was up for a big, and very interesting story. His hands trembled as he posed himself more comfortably in his chair, and started reading again.
Chapter one soon.