The Gypsy children came tumbling out of the forest, their shouts of laughter echoing eerily in the woods around them. When they stepped into the clearing, however, their merriness was covered up, to be silenced yet still bubbling beneath the surface. They walked quietly toward the old man who sat on a log in the center of the clearing, his walking staff laid across his knees. His eyes were closed, as if in sleep.
With soft, pattering footsteps, the children clustered around the old man like a flock of brightly colored chicks around a mother hen. When they were seated, one bright blue eye slipped open and observed the upturned faces eagerly watching him.
"Again?" he asked in a deep voice ill-suited for someone with as many wrinkles as he. "One would think you'd be tired of the same old stories."
Two children, a boy and a girl, exchanged brief glances. "We are," the boy admitted frankly after a few moments.
"We were hoping you could tell us something different," the girl added.
"Something with action!" another child piped up.
"Adventure!"
"Chivalry!"
"Sword fighting and magic!"
"Romance," a young girl offered dreamily, and most of the girls laughed and fluttered their eyelashes, while the boys made disgusted faces.
"Are you sure you don't have any new stories, Grandfather Ordrevel?" another child asked wistfully after the group silenced again.
Grandfather Ordrevel shifted where he sat, his other eye slipping open. He sighed. "I don't know if your mothers would approve...."
"We won't tell!" the boy replied eagerly.
"It could keep you here all day..."
"The less chores we have to do!"
The old man chuckled. "Alright, then. But you can't say I didn't warn you." He shifted again, and his voice took on a magickal quality as he spoke.
"All great things that change the life of a person start somewhere," he began. "There is no telling where that place may be....but sometimes, in certain realms of life, there is an attraction, a....pulse, that draws people onto the road of their fate. Once they feel that attraction, that pulse, they are drawn inexplicitely toward it, and once there, have no choice but to survive the waves of their fate or suffer the consequences.
"In this tale I spin for you, this consciousness, this attraction, is known simply as...
