Forgotten Stories
published:
by Harshvardhan J. Pandit
folk-stories story
This is a project I've undertaken to collect forgotten stories - tales about things we don't think about anymore.
The Wielder of Flame
your ancestors had known fire, had fled from fire, had used fire in many ways, but it had always been divine ; until it was your turn to gaze into the fire for the first time with the understanding that you could wield it, control it, use it
Seaside
a vast world made entirely of water, the very edge of existence, incomprehensible to your mind
A Stranger Calling You By Your Name
strangers from a strange land come saying your name and bearing unknown familiarity, and you know you have the power to ask how and why
The First One Whom You Called A Friend
you had a mate, you had children, you had familiars and family, you had a tribe ; you know others and strangers, you knew those to let pass unharmed and those from whom you should turn away ; you knew the tolerated and the hunted ; you knew allies and foes ; but never before had you needed to find so many words to describe a person who was different from all these and yet you came up with one - a friend
Grammar
you had used words all your life, learned from your mother, your family, your tribe, and enriched with the passing merchants and travellers ; until one day as you lay awake at night staring at the open sky and realised there was a structure to the way people spoke and that you could use this as a power to make new meanings ; that wielding words made you a god
The First Religious Heaven
worship was practiced everyday by your and those around you ; and you knew intimiately the many faces of your god and its many names ; and when one day you were in a tense battle stance with strangers from another land and thought death and doom was certain - both groups called upon the same god and cemented brotherhood
The First Religious Hell
when you walked upon another group calling out the name of your god as a question ; and when they answered with a different name - you killed them all
Seasoning
you hunted for meat ; you farmed for grain ; you fed livestock so one day you could cull it ; and you ate plain ... until one day you added a bit of thyme and your tastes had changed forever
Bricks
caves, trees, crevices - all homes of you and your ancestors ; later bits of mud and stone huddled together ; until the day you molded clay on each other in fixed shapes and called it your home