Good morning class, please find my submission for how evil came into the world in the following text.
The young seer was having a restless sleep, one of those nights where it was hard to tell whether you were awake or dreaming. One particular dream seemed to be playing on repeat.
It started off in a cave, not just any cave, but a thing of nightmares. It was dark and unending, the noise reverberated and appeared to come back at you from the unseen depths. There was a great council occurring. In attendance were the wise women from all corners of the earth. This was to be a fun event, a chance for these wise women to show off their worst. For deep in their hearts, theirs was a mischievous spirit harnessed, the likes that the world had never seen. The premise was simple, each participant would demonstrate their worst, whether it be a physical act, or an act of dark-magic. Nearing the end of the meeting they had seen it all, transformations, mutations, hexes and grotesque costumes comprised of various animal hides.
Near the end of the conference a stranger arrived, one that none of the others had seen before. There was a weird air about this stranger, a little older, a little taller, a little darker. Though the most eerie thing about her was her silence. You see, the wise women were a raucous bunch, laughing and joking at the top of their lungs. When it came time for the newcomer to speak, the cave grew deathly silent. What came from her presentation was completely unexpected. You see the mysterious character didn’t perform any magic at all, she simply told a story. She spoke of torture, betrayal and all other manner of things that was brand new to her shocked audience. Though repulsed by the story, her audience couldn’t pull themselves away from it. By the time she was finished the council had decided her the unanimous victor, and each individual made an effort to speak to her privately.
In the final encounter, with one of the more revered wise women, the mysterious stranger was questioned about the nature of her stories. Where had she heard them? Could these things actually happen? Why would she say such vile things in such a prophetic manner? In the same cool and collected tone in which she told her story, she vanished from the cave, but not without a final warning. “These things that I have spoken of will come to pass, simply by me sharing them with you, they have been introduced into your world. In the future you would do well to be cautious with the words you say, and the ones you listen to as a story is one of the most powerful things in existence.”
As the seer awoke, she wrote this dream down, and the next morning she shared it with her peers at their annual gathering, in that very same cave in her dream.
Feedback:
In general, the feedback was positive. All of the people who heard my tale were able to discern the moral, in the form of a warning about the power of stories, from my tale. Another key response I got was the darkness, or in many cases ‘eerie’ tone of the tale. I think that came about through my attempt to distance the tale from it’s original context (first nations) to a more universal truth.
This story was fairly easy for me to write, as the power of words and story is a concept I firmly believe in.