The Storyteller arrived in the village wearing a broad-brimmed black hat which made it hard to see her face. She began to tell stories, her stories. She encouraged us to tell our stories. Stories of all kinds: short stories, sad stories, stories that would make you think, or laugh, or look under the bed before sleeping.
Our village was alive with words. Our stories became known far and wide. We were the ‘Village of the Stories’ – stories which we could shout from the rooftops or sing by the stream or whisper in the woods.
People came to hear our stories. They wanted stories of their own. Some learned how to tell them, but others came to steal them. They sent their spies to seek out our stories and sell them as their own.
We were disheartened. The Storyteller slipped away; her stories disappeared with her. We fell silent. Our words were hidden and our stories slept.
But then we decided.
‘No more,’ we shouted. ‘We will seek out the thieves and shame them. We will take our stories back.’
And so we did. And we hope the Storyteller hears this and returns with her stories and her broad-brimmed black hat.
luna's on line 
Beautifully written! 🙂
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Thank you kindly, sir 🙂
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Maybe they’ll see this and be compelled to return.
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That’s what I was hoping 🙂 and I think I may have made an impact… 😉
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I popped over to Tygpress to see what it is. They’re apologizing for posting full blog posts, and the page is down because they want to change it, thanking the people who have complained. So it seems to have worked!
Great story, anyway. Made me think of a beautiful, very artistic point and click game called Trader of Stories. It’s free online, and if you don’t want the effort, the walkthrough on Youtube is worth watching. It’s a beautiful little story as well, just like this one. And it has awesome illustrations, too 😉
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The Tygpress thing caused quite a little storm at the time, and quite a number of us in this little corner of ‘blogland’ complained to WordPress and to Digital Oceans who host Tygpress’ site. It seemed to do the trick. WordPress even replied to me saying they are monitoring the situation for the future, although I’m not sure I believe that. Anyway, as you say, there’s a nice-looking apology up on Typress now.
Thank you for the compliment and I will pop and have a look at Trader of Stories; sounds fun. 🙂
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I just had a look at the Trader of Stories. It is beautifully crafted. I’m tempted to have a go…
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It’s a beautiful little story, too 😉
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Please describe your characters more, humbly yours Michael
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I’m intrigued by your response. This was written as an allegory of the effect which the Tygpress incident had on one of our WP community. It was deliberately vague. However, having created the fictional ‘Storyteller’ she may have more stories to tell, and she may reveal herself a little more.
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