Welcome to Issue 73
puredream Winning Entry
It is a breezy fall day when you arrive to the chambers of Pandora. She sits working on her famous boxes preparing for the Lanturnact festivals, so it appears. Looking up from her work of securing the lid of a Phantom box she smiles kindly at you. “Ah, I have a guest, so it appears,” She smiles kindly as she gazes at your face clearly masked with wonderment. You quickly tighten up. star struck by the Goddess herself, mumbling a few timid words about her craft sitting prepared on the table for the spooky events to come. Shaking her head she sighs sadly, “You know it was never my intent to make such a ghastly box so…. Popular…” She admits settling down. The Braenon appears to be lost in thought as she does, and you can not help, but take a seat next to her.
Turning to you she appears to be in a daze, speaking in a hush whisper, “No it was never my intent…” She pauses before looking straight at you, “I see you are a belragoth, young one. Did you know it was your ancestor who was the first phantom pet? No. Well I remember him well. Always interested in my craft, trying to find the secrets that my boxes beheld.” She sighs remorsefully once more, “I warned him, but he would not stop his pursuit in the knowledge. He worked day and night trying to find how to create one himself. It consumed him with the desire to hold this forbidden knowledge….
“Finally one day such as this he grew very close to finding the ingredient to my concoction, and again I warned him all in vain. The cretin scowled at me claiming he could make a better box then I.” You are surprised as her face is contorted in anger, but wait silently for her to go on, “So I agreed to the fool’s bet and set to work on a box to curse him, a ghost forever. I masked my creation as a gem, the prize for the victor. And when the day came, he showed me his creation, the crude box known to you as the Lanturn box. Wickedly I applauded him, giving him praise. And like the fool he was he took the box without question and opened it. The first of many phantom pets was he.” Pandora laughs harshly, but continues, “Now the pets think it is great fun forgetting that he, their master, is doomed to wander alone and in sorrow.”
Then as quickly as her dark mood has come it vanishes and she smiles sweetly at you like before as she hands you a cookie, “The mind is a terrible thing to waste so be gone, little one. Enjoy the world, but remember the tale.” She shoves you out the door. Forgetting to tell her thank you, you look back, but she has gone. Gone to get her ingredients for the upcoming moon.