Madge's Musings 14th Day of Advent

 'I didn't sleep well last night. Combination of too much thinking and too much gin. But I did come to a decision. I need to go to Storyteller's Keep.

Now those of you who aren't native Lunecastarians might not know what Storyteller's Keep is. Or even what a storyteller is so I'll try to fill you in. In Astara stories are vey important, more important than they are in other places. I know that most of you will have told stories to your little 'uns and most of you will have had stories told to you when you were little. In Astara we do that too, tell entertaining and teaching stories to our children. The mountain folk tell tales of the mystery of trees and what to do if you get lost in a snow storm; the coast folk tell stories about how to caulk your keel and what to do if swallowed by a giant fish; us lowland folk tell stories about haunted forests and the dangers of falling in the river. So far, so normal, right?

But there's more to our stories than just telling you useful stuff and making you laugh or scared. They contain real hard truths, the sort that you need to make the world go round. They are solid things that keep the past where it belongs and warns the future not to try it on. The storytellers are the ones who listen to the stories, shape them and find their true form, they listen to dreams too and tell you what they really mean. Not the rubbish that those painted trolls in tents tell you neither. The gritty, smelly, unpleasant truth.

So whatever is going on in Grimwise Forest will already be known to the storytellers. It will be written in one of their books and will have been shared in the telling. Someone will have had a dream about it and may even now be pondering its meaning. And that's the person I need to find.

So I'm packing some food and drink and heading off for Storyteller's Keep. It can take a while to find the right storyteller and persuade them to let you in on there secrets so best to be prepared. I'll take a cushion too, their chairs can be a bit uncomfortable after the first hour. I may be well padded in the sitting area but there's no point suffering for someone else's art.'