Library:Cave Fables I

The first book of includes the introduction and a tale by Trapper.

Cave Fables I
In the horrible cultural razing that was the Great Cataclysm, much was lost of our ancestor's literature. Only so many books were carried into the caves and caverns where the terrified survivors sought safety, and fewer still withstood those dank environs over the long years. But in that desolation was also the birth of a new, if scant, form of literature. Literature which spoke to the hopes and fears of that desperate time. Among these precarious treasures were countless fables that sprang up, informing and enlightening each new generation, helping them to cope with their dark and dangerous new subterranean world.

Little was written down, for there was little on which to write. because of the scarcity of writing materials, these moral tales, told around fires and at the bedsides of children, were stored only in the mind and transmitted only by the spoken word. Though their form was fleeting, their importance was incalculable.

But in the fullness of time, as our ancestors returned to the surface, many of the lessons taught through those fables no longer seemed so relevant. New fables and stories began to take their place. Though some fables that originated in the caves are still with us -- I am thinking particularly of "The Drowning Donkey" and "The Spider and the Bat" -- their form and substance have been altered so much over time as to be almost unrecognisable compared to the originals. Most of the fables once told in the underground places simply began to vanish.

Recognizing the inevitable decay of this oral tradition, one bard of scholarly bent, Cardimus, endeavoured to collect and record these fables. Though originally transcribed as "The Fables of Cardimus," today they are more commonly and simply known as "The Cave Fables".

-- from Fendel's "History of the cataclysm, Volume 4"

No Way Out
by Trapper

Trivia

 * The original Cave Fables Writing Contest was won by Trapper for.
 * The Cave Fables Writing Contest was featured on Portalarium's Community Spotlight