[Blackness.]

Storyteller (V.O.): I am a simple man.  [beat]  It's the truth really,
I have not fought in any wars...

[Cut to a bloody battlefield between two warring nations.  Zoom in on a
man pushing his way through the crowd, shoving his blade deep into the
gut of a man wearing opposite colors than the first man.  The grunts
and screams of the other fighters is heard, dimly, in the background.]

[Cut to blackness]

Storyteller (V.O.): Discovered any amazing information...

[Cut to a vast laboratory filled with tables with bottles on them.  The
camera quickly moves between an arrayment of bottles labeled exotic
substances like 'Elf's Ear,' 'Grub Gut,' and 'Grimsiel Powder.'  As the
camera passes the forest of glass, we see a woman with short hair with
bluish highlights hunched over a test tube.  She holds it up and we
catch a glimpse of her worn, soot covered face.  A holy chanting is
heard as she lifts the vial.]

[Cut to blackness]

Storyteller (V.O.): or even experienced true love.

[Cut to the moon in the night sky.  Pan downward to see a young, tall,
Asian man with short black hair kissing a younger blond hared girl with
an unusual pair of ponytails trailing behind her.]

[Cut to blackness]

Storyteller (O.S.): No, I am a traveler, one who never stuck around
long enough to enjoy such things. [Camera pans left to show an elderly
man with long white hair, wearing a brown robe with a hood in the back,
and carrying a gnarled stick, sitting on a tree stump all alone in the
darkness.  He is looking off screen right, when the camera settles on
him, he turns to face the camera, lays his stick on the ground, and
places his hands on his lap.  As he begins to speak this time, a starry
background fades into existence around him.] I was searching [beat;
lower] a long time ago that is, [normal] for my place in this universe
when I came across a young kingdom, just beginning down the path for
greatness.  I was intrigued by the manner in which it came about and
immediately placed myself upon one of the planets, namely, the Earth.

[The starry background quickly fades back to blackness]

Storyteller: Perhaps I need to explain a bit first before I go into
that. [beat; attempts a few times to articulate before continuing] Now,
I said that I was a simple man, and that is true in many respects. 
However, I was born with one quality unique to my people.  [beat] I
cannot die.

[The starry background returns and the STORYTELLER fades into it.  The
stars turn and a planet comes into focus]

Storyteller (V.O.): It was not long after I realized this that my world
became unable to support the lives of my people.  It's a truly terrible
experience, one I hope you never have to endure, but I did and found
myself, ultimately alone.  So, I fled.

[A silver ship the shape of an arrowhead flies away from the planet and
into deep space.  The camera follows it as it passes then fades to view
from the side as it moves through space at a slow rate.]

Storyteller (V.O.): It was not the wisest thing I've done, but as I've
learned in this great universe, nothing ever happens without reason.

[The camera stops and pans with the ship as it approaches a larger ship
which is much larger in size and colored a dark gray.  The ship is
pulled within.  Fade to the arrowhead ship landing in a large bay
inside the larger ship.]

Storyteller (V.O.): My ship was salvaged, adrift but intact, and I was
brought before the being responsible.  He was a reasonable man and when
I told him my curse, at that time I indeed believed my long life to be
a curse, he was gracious enough to provide me with a new, and vastly
more efficient, method of travel.

[Fade between several scenes inside the larger ship and a very large
man sitting on a throne like chair that only mildly screams GALACTUS. 
End with a picture of the larger ship and the STORYTELLER, his hood
pulled over his head, flying away from it standing on a small chunk of
rock.]

Storyteller (V.O.):  That's when I went searching for some purpose to
my life, and THAT'S when I came across the Sol system.

[Cut to black.  The STORYTELLER fades in, still sitting on the tree
stump.]

Storyteller: There, that should be enough history for me to continue my
story. [beat] So I landed myself upon the Earth and hid my precious
flying device.  I still had little knowledge of what to do but I was
sure that I was in the right system to find out.  It wasn't until I had
been from planet to planet at least twice and heard every bit of gossip
that I could that I discovered what a people so magnificent and so
dynamic needed most.

[Fade into the STORYTELLER, still with his hood over his face, walking
down a marble path towards a majestic looking palace.]

Storyteller:  So came to Earth's moon and introduced myself to Her
Royal Majesty, Queen Serenity the twentieth, as Trevor the Storyteller,
and asked for residence within her Majesty's court.  [beat]  Still, I
had little idea of what I was doing, but she merely raised and eyebrow
and asked me if I could tell stories anywhere, why did I need to do it
in the Royal Palace?  Indeed, I had no reason and told her justly so. 
She was surprised, even though she tried to hide it I saw it, and
granted me temporary residence within the Palace gates.  Thus, from
then until it's demise, I stayed within the Palace and watched what
happened from day to day.  After it was all over, the war with Metallia
that is, I returned to Earth and began to roam again, only this time I
had a purpose.  [beat]  So you see, I never fought in a war, discovered
anything, or even been kissed, but I was there for all of them.

[Cut to the battlefield from before.  The camera pans right from the
battlefield to show a robed figure watching from a distant hill above
the ground that the fight was taking place on.  Fade to the laboratory
from before.  As the woman lowers the vial, she hands it to a robed
figure who carefully plugs it and labels it in a text unseen before. 
He places it on a shelf and shakes the woman's hand.  Cut to the
kissing couple from before.  Pan backwards to show half of the moon in
the sky, a group of friends standing to the left, and a robed figure
watching from the right.]

[Fade to the STORYTELLER, still sitting on the stump.]

Storyteller:  Maybe I'm not as simple as I claim to be. [beat] Would
you care to hear a story my friend.  I can start from the beginning and
you can tell me when your ready for me to stop.  [beat] My first story
begins on the grassy plains of a planet ...

[Cut to black.]

[Caption:                  THE STORYTELLER

             A SERIES OF STORIES FROM THE EYES OF AN OBSERVER

                 (PART OF THE THWL AND 'THE ART' STORIES)

                            COMING SOON]


Adam Christopher Leigh                             Omicron@sprynet.com
"I bet you wish you stood in bed." -Dr. McCoy; Star Trek VI
Tempest Creations - http://dogbert.simplenet.com