"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history"
-Plato
There was on Paradise Mountain a bustling village called Eden that teemed with the very purest form of life. It was a small village of several hundred people and each person knew the next. There was little crime and the inhabitants enjoyed their lives, the epitome of the ideal civilization. This hidden gem was surrounded by the radiant, verdant glow of oak trees and moss beds, where children ran after each other, enjoying the summer day. The people here were happy. They all lived comfortably and were able to enjoy the beauty of nature as much as they pleased. Their daily toil was not easy, but it also filled them with life. there was one class of people who did not have these same jobs, however. These privileged few were known as poets, and overlooked the well-being of the village and mountain. These individuals formed the upper class of the village, and were each members of the same family. These poets are rumored to be descendants of the Great Poets many lifetimes ago, though such tales are merely the legends told by the townsfolk. Out of all the poets that the villagers had seen throughout their lives, none showed as much promise and natural talent as the next in line for the village's master poet, Alastair Alighieri. This boy, only fifteen years of age, had sought and mastered poetry from the moment he could speak, stunning his teachers and the elders. However, he quickly grew tired of learning about the same kinds of poems, and yearned to learn and master the poetry hidden within the recesses of the world. If only he could sneak away and wander to the other villages and mountains, maybe then he would begin to understand the truth behind poetry: how one can manipulate the very nature of reality through their words. This chance never arrived, however, as he was kept under constant supervision out of fear that he would leave and never return to the village. One night, however, Alighieri woke up to the moon's light shining through his bedroom window and onto his face. He quickly noticed that it was still well into the night, and went to his window to stare out over the village.
"If only I could travel to distant regions and peoples, maybe then I would feel truly satisfied with accepting a life bound to this mountain. I wish the others could understand, but they are blinded by their traditionalism... Why is it that the excitement and adventurous longings of the youth are so often persecuted by the elders? Should not one pursue the great challenge that they laid out for themselves while they can, rather than conforming to the dull, monotonous life that everyone else blindly accepts and prides themselves over?"
Entirely lost in his thoughts, Alighieri began to pace around his room, before suddenly crashing to the ground. Startled, he yelped and looked around his room to see what had happened, before noticing that he had tripped over one of his slippers. Embarrassed and praying that he had not woken up any of his family or annoyed the guards, he opened his door to see if anyone was nearby. To his surprise, he saw no one, not even the guard that was usually stationed by his room at night. Curious, he dressed himself and began to search for where everyone was. It took several minutes of creeping around the house, but finally he found a room that had a soft light pouring from the slightly ajar door. Peeking inside, he noticed that the entirety of the clan's poets and many of the guards were gathered inside. Assuming that this was simply a meeting about some political situation concerning rice harvests or some other insignificant matter, he began to sneak away from the door. He walked back to his room, glad that he had found where everyone was, but just before entering through his door, he had a realization.
"There's no one guarding my room and likely no one guarding the courtyard gate either. This is it! This is the opportunity I've been longing for!"
Brimming with excitement and an adventurous spirit, Alighieri grabbed his bag and water skin and set out for the adventure he had always dreamed of.