A Campfire

The Visitor approaches a campfire in a small clearing. It is night and the light of the fire plays with the dancing shadows around the ring of trees. A figure sits by the fire cooking something on a stick.

"Come and sit by the fire my friend. I shall tell you a tale of a land long ago in a world not so far removed from our own," said the Monkey.

The Visitor sits down by the fire as the Monkey requested of him. He notices that what is roasting appears to be an apple. The Monkey, seeing him observe the apple, gestures toward the Visitor offering him the stick. The Visitor accepts the gift graciously and waits for the fruit to cool before partaking of it. The Monkey then picks up another apple on a stick from beside him and rests it over the flames to cook. The Visitor is unsure whether he failed to notice the apple on a stick was beside the Monkey or if it was not there before. He has a suspicion that the explanation is the later.

"Now where to begin? Hmmm....yes.... we shall begin at the beginning as anything else would be confusing," said the Monkey. Taking a short pause he continued, "In another world there was..."

And so the story begins.