So, my granddaughter's finally acting curious, is she? What's the matter, too shy to ask your gramma 'bout her story 'till you're afraid she's not gonna be around much longer? Oh, don't give me that look, I'm just joking! Gramma's always happy to tell you a story.
Now, let's see if I can remember this one... I heard it from my great granddaddy, and he said he heard it from HIS great granddaddy, and I don't know who told it to HIM. It's a tale that must be hundreds of years old, I say. And it's about a man who lived long, long ago, named Aysin. Now, Aysin wasn't a brown bear like you or me, he was something else. He was something without any fur on his body, except a bit of fluff on top of his head and on his chin, and a bit more down under the bellybutton. He didn't have no claws or fangs or wings or anything of the like, hell, he didn't even have a tail or a muzzle! No, he was just a big ol' pile of skin and bones and muscle. I'm trying to remember what it was called, what he was... Mmmmmm... I think it starts with... No, no it won't come to me. But, from what I can remember, great grandpappy said back then, everyone was like Aysin. No fur, no muzzle, no tail, just a buncha skin. They was all the same thing! Can you imagine, this city full of nuthin' but a buncha hairless, tailless monkey-things?
Ah, I'm gettin' ahead of myself. Sorry about that, dear. Anyway, way back when Aysin lived, things were bleak. The world had been going downhill fast, with everyone using things up too fast to replace 'em. All the trees gone, all the metal torn up, the air all smoggy and gross, and almost everything had gone extinct. Except for whatever Aysin was, of course! They didn't recycle so much back then is what I hear, they just kept grabbing more and more stuff from the source until there was none left. Bunch of barbarians if you ask me. So, the world was in ruins. It was a craphole like you couldn't imagine. Everything had just kinda fallen apart, and Aysin and so many others were starving because of it. Starving so bad they didn't come back, I hear... Or maybe they couldn't come back, for some reason? It makes ya wonder where they all went that there were so few left besides Aysin.
But then, one day, everything changed. Just as things looked like they'd gone down the drain forever for Aysin, just when he was on the brink of giving up and accepting starvation, something incredible happened. He heard this sound, way off in the distance like a foghorn from heaven, and when he looked towards it, he saw an enormous tidal wave of neon blue fog, taller than the clouds and so thick you could chisel a statue out of it. It covered the sky, it swallowed the whole horizon, and it swept out to cover everything, every corner of the world. When it hit Aysin, he blacked out, and they say he lay there for days before he finally woke up. And when he did, he wasn't hairless anymore, no, he had a THICK coat of rich, brown fur all over his body. His dainty li'l fingernails turned into big black claws, and he felt a stubby little tail poking at his waistband. His mouth had grown longer, into a big toothy muzzle, and there was a big, wet nose on the end. Aysin had turned into a big, brown bear!
That's right, he turned into a bear! And let me tell you, child, he panicked when he found that out! All day, he couldn't stop freaking out over the fact he was a bear, in fact he kept trying to shave his fur off so he could go hearless again. They say he broke three razors and nearly took his ear off that day. Then, when he was about to try shaving off for the fourth time, he heard motors coming. He looked, and to his amazement, there was a big, shaggy puma in a two-piece suit riding down the road in a jeep, offering Aysin food. Lots of food! More food than Aysin had ever seen in one place before! A man who would have been lucky to get his hands on a mouldy slice of bread, now there was a banquet in front of him! But before he could dig in, the puma said he wanted payment. Said if Aysin wanted to eat the food -- and he could have as much as he liked, no problem -- he'd come work for the puma, help build up a city out of the ruins of the world. Let me tell you, child, Aysin accepted that offer in a heartbeat. The thought of so much delicious food brought the man to tears, and every day he was working he put all his heart and soul into it. Then, before he knew it, the city was complete. Neon City! Aysin came to live in this Neon City, and one day he met a cute lady and they decided to start a family together. And then their kids went off to have children, and so our family continued, and ever since the day that Puma approached Aysin, our family hasn't known hunger.
Whew... That story was a doozy wasn't it? At least you seemed to like it, sweetie. It's always nice for gramma to have someone to talk to these days... Well, anyway, all that reminiscing really took it out of me. Could you be a dear and help gramma to bed? I need a rest after all that...
