At some point, a pregnant woman knocks on the door and interrupts the conversation between Bardane and me. I leave her, but not before Bardane reminds me to come back tomorrow morning.

I am at her door; feeling way better. It's not perfect but I fell more anchor, more… real. From my arrival in Ápeiros, it was like watching a horror movie, I was fleeing reality. And now I need to go forward, and this will start right now with some storytelling. Bardane is fantastic at recomforting someone, I am lucky to have found this village.

With new strength, I ignore the well and cross the village to find Choco at the house preparing the dinner. We eat a delicious soup and hurry to the storyteller stage. Blessed be cleaning magic because washing the dishes does not exist anymore.

There are I think five stages in the village where the children are divided by age group. They are used as a teaching place and storytelling after dinner.

When we arrive, we quickly take a pillow and find a place with the other kids. Of course, everyone is looking at me and whispering. There is a ton of kids, but a lot of adults are also participating. They are setting torches to lighten the stage. With the setting sun and the red star, a mysterious air is breathed into it. Oro appears right on time and sits down next to me. The healer is one of the lasts to arrives, people are respectfully letting her sit in front, and it's ok because she is quite small as a bird-woman.

Taking the stage, a rock-men claps his hands three times to have our attention.

I am a bit excited; I love fantasy stories. What could be better than hearing a fantasy story in a magical world told by a magical man?

"Good evening everybody. Tonight will be special because as you all know Litchi just joins the village. Litchi, please come to me on the stage"

What? Looking at Oro, Choco, and Clementine they just grin at me. I stand up and walk to the stage. Subtle, Rocko guides me to the pillow on the stage center. Sitting here I realize that there are way too many people looking at me.

"Today we have the chance to have Litchi on stage. She comes from outside, another world even! And as the tradition dictates will need to ask her a story from her place." He is building for the show.

There are way more people than it should be in front of me. A few hundred heads are smiling at me, the majority are children and I think that nearly all the village has gathered for me. This is a little bit stressful.

Rocko claps in his hands three times and the public exclaims at the same time "Welcome Litchi to the blessed village, please tell us a story from your place."

This is stunning. I take a few seconds to answer. "Thank you for the honor, but can I have a bit of preparation?" I say with a tiny bit of anxiety.

"Of course, of course. I will finish yesterday's story and you can start yours just after," he says smiling.

He tricked me. How can you refuse when there is literally all the village asking in front of you!

Rocko starts to tell his story and spread out his magic. In the air, in front of us, a stylized image of a bear family is created. He is captivating. The story could be compared to an Agatha Christie. A mother bear gave birth to several cubs, and slowly but surely, they all die eaten.

The Momma Bear didn't want the kids to exit the den because they are too small and fragile. The stupid cub does not listen and leaves first, he did not understand the outside danger and got eaten. The second one, the curious cub did understand the danger but he wanted to know, unfortunately, he was not strong enough for the outside monsters and got eaten.

The cubs stopped going outside but one of them became angry and wanted to hurt the other cubs. The mother eats him.

Time passed and one of them got strong. He trained slowly so he could survive the outside. The mother was proud but she does tell him to be careful.

One day the strong return after a long absence and was welcomed by the entire family. The only problem is that he was too strong. When he encountered problems in the den, he tried to solve them with strength but it didn't work well. The other cubs started to be afraid of him, some cubs were defiant and crushed, some cubs were submissive and rewarded.  The momma bear did nothing at the massacre. At some point, many cubs decided to go outside to gain strength but sadly every single one got eaten. They were not strong enough to survive.

The only bear that did not submit to the strong cub was of course the momma bear. So, the strong cub leaves again the den to seek even more strength. In the end, he got eaten by a wandering beast.

Time passed and even the momma died and got eaten by a larger beast. What matters is that she dies happy seeing the cubs playing in the den.

Other cubs got eaten because they were too greedy or too prideful, some even die of sadness seeing their family eaten by monsters. In the end, few cubs survived and got big enough to have children. Those cubs were the careful cubs who always dodged danger, the happy and satisfied cubs that never tried to seek more than needed. Carefully they build a new house and started the next generation.

But the tale was not finished. This time the new bears told their cub many stories to explain to them everything to survive.

End

Brutally Rocko finish. "Ok everyone this is the end of the story of tonight."

Odd, I could have bet that the story didn't stop there. The public also reacts strangely whispering to each other. What happened to the Happy and Careful bear? Well obviously, they lived happy, careful, and satisfied lives. Some adults start to claps, and the public applauds together.

Turning to me he whispers. "You're ready? No need to worry about your story, if you find difficulty, I will help you." As I nod, he mimics to me to stand up and clap in my hands.

Ok, it's my turn. There is one story I know by heart. I stand up and claps three times. The public calms down and listens to me. Just in front, is Bardane silently cheering on me, calming me with her smile.

 "Hello everyone, I will today tell you a very well-known story of in my world, the Earth. I hope you will appreciate; The Little Prince written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry."

I start the tale, trying to be confident and to speak clearly. It's one of my favorite stories, let's not butcher it. I rapidly gain confidence as the characters become more and more attaching. Rocko is the best bro and creates beautiful watercolor illustrations for me. I feel that the public is hooked by the adventure of the little prince. I hear the sweet Ding and It became easier and easier to express myself, to feel the audience, feel the emotion. I catch a good rhythm creating pauses to raise the tension and mark my words.

I tell them about this small man leaving his home and traveling the universe looking for a friend, looking for answers. He finds a few friends, the aviator, and the fox, and sees the absurdity of the world.

The prince understands the beauty in the invisible, love, and friendship. Leaving this home planet was not a bad decision.

The end arrives, he says goodbye to his friends and goes back to his home.

The children are confused, and a small one starts to cry, like a wave the more and more kids cracks. The adults are looking at the stars, wondering.   

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