Imagine a large, battered old leather folder stuffed full of sheets of paper of various sizes and thicknesses - on the front, ÒStories of the Witches of Old AllbyonÓ in curly letters, underneath there is a face. The hair and beard are made of leaves. Leaves are growing out of its mouth, and nostrils. Inside the folder, the stories - some written in round loopy handwriting on thick paper with wobbly edges. Some had been typed on a mechanical typewriter. Others were printouts from dot matrix printers, and some from more recent computer printers. All these stories were read to me when I was young.
I didnÕt know it then, but the roots of everything that happened to us are in these stories, as the events in ÒThe Last WizardÓ, grew out of what happened in ÒThe Last WitchÓ Ð Maybe all stories begin in other stories. Who I am - who we are - I will leave for now. For now, we start with some of the tales of Old Allbyon.