When We All Lived in the Forest

Everyone thought the world would end in fire.

No one really expected it to be trees.

We all live in the forest, and no one lives anywhere else, not that there’s anywhere else to live. There’s only the endless forest, and the equally endless road that winds through it. The road’s the one safe haven as it loops through the trees and around back on itself.

There are things in the woods, you see.

Most people live in the loop towns, places where the road crosses over itself and provides enough room to build permanent shelter. The road keeps the things in the trees away.

You’re not most people. You're bearers, the folks who carry a light from town to town in the sunless forest, bringing messages and stories from other towns. Not everyone’s happy to see you- some say the things follow the bearers- but most know the importance of what you do. As for those that don’t, well, there’s been more than one cautionary tale about a town destroyed because a local betrayed a bearer to the things or murdered them over bad news.

Of course, bearers are the ones who tell those stories.