Aum gajananam, bhootganadhisevitam kapitthya, jamboo phalcharu bhakshanam, umasutam shokvinashkarakam, namami vighneshwar padpankajam. Jay Ganesha!

Once, in a time outside of time, a gryphon, a daemon, and a magician sat together in a cave by the sea. The magician and the daemon were playing chess, while the gryphon sat watching the endless lapping of the waves against the shore. And they sat in silence, and it seemed as though the silence were a thing unto itself, and had existed for all time and would exist always and forever, until the daemon spoke.

"Hey bird!" He said, looking at the gryphon, "How come you never talk?!"

"Because..." Replied the gryphon "We gryphons speak only when spoken to."

"And how come you speak only when spoken to?"

"Because the Creator of the universe told us to."

"The Creator of the.... hah! Now you've got to be pulling my leg. Isn't the universe just an accident, or sick joke? Who would want to take responsibility for all this mess? And where is he when I'm having my way with his creation? Why doesn't he stop me from drawing moustaches all over his "glorious work of art"?"

The magician looked up from his meditations on the chess board, for he had often wondered the same thing.

"That is a very old story, and if there is an older story than it, I have never heard it."

"Well, I don't like stories" Said the daemon. "Hey, are you going to move yet or what?"

"Oh, but you'll love this one!" Chimed in the magician, "It is simply the most marvelous story I've ever heard, and I've heard a great many marvelous stories in my day, let me tell you. Why I...."

"Hmmph." Said the daemon "Tell your damn story, if it will get Him to shut up."

"Well if you're all in agreement....." And his eyes took on an unearthly hue as his mind traveled back through the aeons of the memories of his race.

"Long ago there was only the Creator and his creation. And he shaped the universe out of the raw stuff of chaos, and was pleased with what had been done. But in time, the creator began to grow lonely, and to wish for a companion with whom to could speak. And so the Creator took all of knowledge and wisdom, and made a double of it in the form of a gryphon. And the two were from the beginning great friends. But the problem was that the gryphon had no power to effect the universe, but all the knowledge of how it should be. And so the Creator began to become annoyed with the gryphon's constant advice, and so one day told the gryphon he should speak only when spoken to. And so there was nobody to warn the Creator of the universe that a shadow was growing.

And one day the Creator of the universe's shadow rose up, and put a knife to wicked use.

And so the Shadow was the ruler of the universe. From the body of the creator it made the world and on it created monsters.

And the last of these was humanity. But the Creator of the universe, who was not dead but lay dying, gave all the power of creation to a human woman, and passed on, and she became the First Magician. And the Shadow perished in this moment, and was released from it's unbearable ennui. And for that reason the creation of the universe is unfinished."

"So it is left to the magicians to complete." Said the magician.

"Ah...." Said the daemon, smugly, "Well, that explains a lot."

"But you are neither of you quite right." Said the gryphon. "The Creator, in giving his power to one human, gave his power to all who are "human". But she was the only one who knew this, in the beginning she wielded this power alone, and so there will never be another more powerful than she. And even now, there are few indeed who ever use this power which is their birthright, and few of those that do are aware of it. But so it is. It is they, the magicians, and artists, and poets, and dreamers, who must complete the creation of the universe, for there is no one else left to do it."

"Hey, I want another story!" Said the daemon.
Why don't you tell the one about the time I disguised myself as the fishmonger's wife and stole all the crabs from the market? And I ate them all, too!"

"Hmph." Said the magician. "And you don't even like crabs"

"Pish posh." Said the daemon "I like the taste of anything, so long as it's stolen."

The gryphon continued to watch the ocean.

"Story!" Yelled the daemon.

"Oh how rude." Said the magician "But please do tell us a story. Do you know one that has all of us in it?"

"There is the story of the dreamer who forgot how to dream and the dreamer who forgot how to love."

"Oh do please..." Said the magician, while the daemon simultaneously yelled "STORY!"

And so the the gryphon began...

Once, long ago, there were two dreamers who shared with each other a land of dream and enchantment. But events in the so called "real" world forced them apart. The first dreamer forgot how to dream, and the second dreamer forgot how to love. Apart from each other, they changed in other ways as well. The dreamer who forgot how to dream, who once spoke little, and only about matters of great importance, would now ramble on for hours and yet not tell the person he was talking to a single thing that they did not already know, so that they would be pleased to meet such an intelligent person. And the dreamer who forgot how to love, who once would speak excitedly and at great about things that were strange and marvelous, now became silent and furtive. Only one thing, perhaps, did they still have in common, they both enjoyed walking through cemeteries, although, the dreamer who forgot how to dream enjoyed them for their beauty, whereas the dreamer who forgot how to love enjoyed them because they were places of death.

Without our two dreamers, the land they shared began to fade away. The last to remain was a gryphon, and he waited out the long years, until he turned to stone, and still he waited.

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