Beginning

“Once, a long time ago…” began the new teacher, starting a story that the old teacher would have started had he not been fired. The new teacher was much better at telling stories than the old teacher. He was glad that the new teacher knew how to tell a story. The old teacher would tell the story in a mono-tone voice, not taking the care to differentiate the voices of the narrator and the individual characters, nor did he put in sound affects or hand gestures that the pre-schoolers around him enjoyed so much. The new teacher, however, did all of the things the old one did not, and did them as if he were talking to the captivated listeners, having a one sided conversation with them, rather than just speaking in a voice that sounded as if he were asleep.

The new teacher was way older than the old one, which was kind of weird. One could even go so far as to call the new teacher ancient. His long, silvery hair covered his nearly his whole face and left most of his head bare. His eyes were a pale blue, and had a mischievous glint in them. His skin was leathery and tanned from years of the sun. His frail limbs seemed like toothpicks compared to the blue and white robe he wore.

As the pre-schoolers listened to the new teacher and his story, they were taken back in time, when magic creatures and great technology still thrived on the planets. He talked about how magic and technology worked together in unison, enabling the people of the Prime Planet to go out into space and tereformed the other planets so that people, non-magic and magic alike, could live on them. He talked about how most wars were stopped before they could start, and how when wars did break out, heroes came and put end to them.

But then the old mans voice changed, becoming more and more bleak as he described a terrible change in the ‘verse. War once again broke out, but this time there was no hero to stop it. As greed and corruption invaded the souls of rulers and their people, ones with eyes and souls not clouded by hatred and greed became afraid. They decided that powerful magic and technology would be the downfall of the civilization that had been so tediously erected; that it would be an end to the people. So they hid it.

They took all of the great, powerful magic and all of the great, powerful technology and hid it. Ridding the worlds of all magic and technology was impossible, so instead, these noble souls hid all that could be hidden. Nobody could figure out how they had done it. The magic and technology was just gone. Those responsible for what was considered the greatest disappearing act of all time could not be found. They had vanished with out a trace, taking all of the magic and technology with them.

Many years were spent looking for what became to be known as ‘The Tomb of The Universe’, that which held the great wonders of magic and technology, but it was never found. Over the years, stories sprouted up, telling the tale of those who had taken away magic and technology to keep civilization from collapsing. Though not all of the stories portrayed the ones responsible for the Great Disappearance as upholders of good and saviors of the ‘verse, they became, as most stories of past events have a habit of doing, legends. The history of the Disappeared and The Tomb of The Universe became legend, and so survived through out time by the telling of stories and belief of legends. However, the actual record on the Disappeared was not so lucky, and was lost somewhere in time, leaving no proof that any of it had ever happened, or existed.

With his story finished, the new teacher sighed and leaned back. He addressed the class with a mischievous grin, and said “May you always remember this story. Legend has only one way to survive the onslaught of time, and that is through story telling. As long as you remember this story, the Legend will live on. As long as you tell others this story, the legend will live on. But once you forget, once the people you told forget, the legend will die. If the legend dies, there will be nothing left of the history that has been forgotten, and then you will be forced to believe whatever anyone else tells you about what happened. May you remember this story, and the past of the ‘verse.” With that, the old man dismissed the class.