Begin with the Bear Boy
There once was a Bear-Boy whose job it was to keep a Dancing Bear and make money from her antics. His father had been a Bear-Trainer, a brutish man, for whom no tears were shed the day he died. They say the man’s own bears mauled and ate him.
Now the Bear-Boy traveled with a troupe of Players who sometimes put his Bear into their comedies. A day came when this merry band arrived at a Harvest Festival outside a rocky and ruined castle. Immediately the Bear-Boy commenced to work. He beat his drum and tugged the chain by which he led his creature. The Dancing Bear rose up and shimmied so her necklace of bells rang with playful cheer. Children looked and laughed and hopped in happy imitation. Country people and merchants alike roared to see her funny, mincing step-step-step.
This story is a work in progress.
