Long Short Story

Once upon a time, there was a young man.

He wanted to be a bard. He was studying to be a wizard, though. He had been told by a person he thought wise that he was cut out to be a wizard. Wizards were respected and had power. Bards were enjoyed, so long as they told a good tale and sang a good song.

He wanted to be a bard especially because he was finding he wasn't a very good wizard. This put him in a quandary. If he finished his wizard studies, nobody would hire a bad wizard. He would have wasted all his time studying to be something he couldn't be.

If he stopped studying wizardry, everyone would know that he hadn't been meant to be a wizard right away. There would be some embarrassment, but there would be no wasted time.

Even as he studied to be a wizard, he wondered what he should do. Then the idea came to him.

He would try his hand at being a bard, during his wizard studies.

So, he read books about what bards needed to know. He contacted people who hired bards, and told them some of his stories. He sang his tales as well as he could, knowing what he knew.

It turned out he wasn't a very good bard either.

Some of the people he sang his tales to were curt and short with him. "Get away, kid. Don't call us, we'll call you!" they shouted. He knew that wouldn't happen.

Others, though, were very much different. One in particular actually took him aside and told him where he needed to work on his tales and his songs. It was very reassuring to have one of the famous persons who hired bards actually take time to help him.

Years passed. The young man had finally decided that it was time to stop studying to be a wizard. He met a wonderful girl and they wed. After that, they had a baby boy. He had some problems, but he outgrew them and became a very smart young man himself. And he and his wife had babies as well.

The urge to be a bard never left the young man. Now he was a much older man. His wife had always wanted to be a spinner of tales herself. She found a group of women who wanted to do the same, and they met once a month and learned from each other. Sooner or later, each of them would spin a yarn that would get noticed. They began to become well-known for their tales. And the old man was impressed.

He finally was asked to join the group of women, to help do some things that no one else wanted to do. It wasn't the kind of invitation he had imagined, but he was able to spend time with smart women who were good at telling tales. And something happened as he met with them month after month.

He found himself wanting to become a bard. Now, old bards aren't very much in demand. A fact like this had never stopped the old man. Things change, and this might change as well.

He remembered how the famous bard hirer had taken time to help him. He recalled what he had learned from the women as he had gotten to know them. And he realized that he still wanted to tell tales and sing songs to others, to take them to places other than where they were and help them see things they had never seen.

So he resolved to learn how to do this telling of tales and singing of songs as well as he could. He determined to be the best old man bard that he could be. And he found a way to tell tales and talk about telling tales and converse with other bards about tales and their telling. And he began to put his words together, and perhaps tell some tales and talk to the other bards. And so it goes.