“Once upon a time…” “The end.” “What?! How dare you!” “The end.” “Y-you can’t just end the story like that?!” said a bewildered Once Upon A Time. “Uh.. Yes, I can.” said The End. “The end.” “N-n-n-n-n-n-n-no.” said Once Upon A Time “You see, your story must include Story Foundations with Characters, Settings, Plots, Conflicts. Then, of course you have your Storytelling Methods
Points of View, Dialogues, Narrative Structures. And finally —personally, I think it is the best— Artistic Expressions! Themes, Tones, and Styles! Here, I’ll give you a story with all of these,” said Once Upon A Time.

***

"Once upon a time, in a bustling medieval marketplace, a young thief named Kira crept between the colorful stalls. The morning sun cast long shadows across the cobblestones as merchants hawked their wares.

'Fresh bread! Get your fresh bread!' called the baker, his voice echoing off stone walls.

Kira's stomach growled. She hadn't eaten in two days. Stealing was wrong, but survival demanded it. The baker's sharp eyes spotted her reaching for a loaf.

'Stop, thief!' he shouted.

Kira bolted through the narrow alleyways. Her heart pounded against her ribs like a caged bird. The medieval streets' winding paths offered refuge, but dead ends spelled doom.

The baker cornered her near the old fountain. 'Please,' Kira whispered, tears streaming down her dirt-stained cheeks. 'I'm so hungry.'

His angry expression softened. Something in her desperate face reminded him of his own daughter.

'Why didn't you just ask?' he said gently.

'I thought you'd say no.'

'And I thought all thieves were heartless.'

He handed her the bread. 'Next time, ask first.'

Kira's grateful smile warmed his heart. Sometimes mercy feeds more than just the body, and assumptions blind us to the humanity in others.

She bit into the warm loaf, savoring both the bread and unexpected kindness." Told Once Upon a Time. “Now, you can say—” “THE END!!!” “What?! NO! Don’t end the story! I just explained that you can’t end it without your Story Foundations, the Storytelling Methods, and the Artistic Expressions!” “I see.” pondered The End. “But, I also see that you just told a story, with all your wha-cha-ma-jigs, is that not true?” prodded The End. “Yes, but—” “Then I have full rights to say-" pauses for dramatic effect "THE END!!!" Once Upon A Time gasped, “No! Don’t stop the story yet! I'm too beginning to end.” And behold from beneath his feet grew a black hole, —literally, not the thingies in space— but a huge 'black hole'! It sucked in the trees, the rocks, the aliens, Once Upon A Time screamed as his friends; Character, Setting, Plot, Conflict, Point of View, Dialogue, Narrative Structure, Tone, Theme, and Style! “NO!” he cried as he fell into the abyss. “You did this!” He shouted at The End, who was currently fading away into peaceful specs of black dust. He dived at him, grabbing him, biting him. But The End disappeared before he could attack. He was left with a handful of black, sandy, dust. Let go. The black hole asked, it pleaded. I will give you peace. Just. Let. Go. But Once Upon A Time didn’t let go, he remembered. He remembered Kira and the Baker, he remembered the times with his friends, especially Plot, he remembered how he used to lay down beside the great big fern trees, he remembered how many stories he had created over the millennia. And most of all he remembered his parents, Alpha and Omega. He thought how his dad would say: "The Beginning creates life," reaching his hand to Once Upon A Time’s mom, and how his mom would say: "The End sends all life to the next plane." He felt wistful, wanted to reach out and be in those memories, but he also remembered his mom’s saying “The End sends all life to the next plane.” Maybe it’s time to let go? He thought sadly. When a tear of pure white energy glowed in the center of the black hole. Hmmm, Once Upon A Time thought in a stupor of pain and acceptance, that wasn’t his tear. The black hole sniffled, “That was beautiful.”  "Well, too late," said Once Upon A Time. He let go, he saw a light, the one that Idea told him about. The one you see before you END, but he noticed something that it wasn’t one light —Plot had told him there was only one—I guess Idea was wrong, he was bound to be eventually, he thought to himself quietly, ready to give into his fate. But the next detail shocked him out of his stupor, these lights were green…

***

Huh, thought Once Upon a Time. “That really is weird. Why are there so many lights, and why are they green?!” “‘Cause they’re aliens, obviously!” Said Plot, “They came out the other hole, the one in the Great Space Mother.” “Really? That sounds made up,” said Once Upon a Time. “No. No, not at all, it’s just in the Plot!” “You always say that, Plot,” argued Once Upon a Time. “N-n-n-n-n-no, you see, there was that one time, a few thousand years ago, when something happened that wasn’t in the Plot, it was in the Style, which there, I was wrong, so, I do not always say that,” said Plot proudly. “Erm…Guys? Maybe we should Point our View, over to the fact that there is an armada of aliens coming here?” asked Point of View, well, pointedly. “Yes, yes,” Plot said, nodding his head, “yes, I suppose so.” “Well? What should we do?” Asked Point of View, “I think we should stick to the Plot,” said Plot. “That’s a horrible idea!” Argued Point of View, “we need to fight!” “Oh, oh my little Point of View, you don’t understand, fighting is in the Plot,” Plot said, pulling out a secret compartment from the ground. “That’s what I’m talking about baby!” Said Point of View, eyes widening with anticipation, “let’s do this!” “Yeah, yeah, but remember IT’S IN THE PLOT, DO NOT STRAY!” Shouted Plot, and he punched Point of View in the face! Then, his hand—or actually tentacle—grew around Point of View’s face, and Point of View screamed! “Leave my friend alone, you, you, you bad-friend!” Once Upon a Time shouted, charging at the newly discovered Alien-Plot, he punched Alien-Plot in the face, but Alien opened his mouth unnaturally wide, and swallowed Once Upon a Time’s arm whole! Once Upon a Time’s legs buckled, he fell to the ground, but his arm was still stuck inside Alien’s mouth, and he felt something sharp. He couldn’t get out of the handeat-grapple, so he tried punching Alien’s knee, but that opened up as well, and Once Upon a Time was stuck. 

***

The scinos in Alien’s arms wiggled, trying to find a good place to inject their venom. Alien laughed, a terrifying screech, now that he stopped using the parrot’s vocal cords—he’d Absorbed  it earlier, before taking Plot away—he sucked Once Upon a Time’s arms and Point of View’s face in deeper, the scinos were almost ready— Alien gasped, something in his stomach. He lowered his eyes to see a figure made of pure night, but not death, but space—as in “I need space” not “space”—blackness, and ending. This figure looked Alien straight in the eyes, his voidic eyes unnerving even Alien, and whispered. ‘The end.” Alien felt something weird, his body was tingling, and, wait! He couldn’t feel his foot anymore, he looked down, horrified, to see him melting away into black dust. A few seconds before he Ended, he heard the figure say something. “‘The End sends all life to the next plane, you bastard.” Alien faded away into black-ish specs of night. Meanwhile, Once Upon a Time got free and helped free Point of View, and together they both stared at The End. Point of View ran up and straight up hugged The End, The End and Once Upon a Time both looked down at Point of View in shock. Once Upon a Time even gasped.

***