Author's notes:
My world revolves around Discworld. If it weren't for Discworld my life would be totally different. For better or worse I don't know. Perhaps in one leg of the Trousers of Time (Who's wearer has been revealed to be a Jellyfish) I did great thing instead of reading Discworld. Perhaps I became a great guy. But who gives a damn about him? Or me… or whatever… Anyway my point is that this tale is dedicated to Discworld and Terry Pratchett, who's recent affliction with Alzheimer's leads me to believe that perhaps we won't see much of this great mind. If you thought Discworld was mad, you haven't seen anything yet.
This is the introduction to my story, it is based on what you can probably tell already by the title: Fear. This story will have many chapters.
Fear.
Anyone who knows anything about Rincewind knows this is what his world revolves around. Bloody fear. Rincewind spent his whole life running. People often said to him he wasn't really living. He replied by saying it was better than not really dieing.
Fear.
Anyone who knew Ridicully knew this is what he despised the most. To him fear is something that happened to OTHER people. Perhaps this is a noble achievement, perhaps Ridicully is a shining light to a new world, a world where fear does not hinder us. Or perhaps he's just bloody stupid. The two achievements are often hard to tell apart.
Fear.
Ponder was well… Pondering about Fear. Fear plays an essential role in the universe. How would the prince be all the more dashing if the dragon was no biggy? Of course if it was a swamp dragon this is true. But fear effects things just as all emotions do. Happiness really DOES make the sun shine just a bit brighter. The sky really DOES dull when someone is sad. When two people of opposite emotions at the same time meet on a clear day, the effects are quite comical.
And so on did Ponder think about fear. Ponder wasn't afraid of anything. He just got annoyed at circumstances. And his main annoyance was Ridicully, who too had decided to research fear (Much to Ponder's annoyance) and had decided to work with Ponder.
"So what are you saying Stibbons, that fear is a force?" Asked Ridicully his voice still holding that small edge of amusement at the notion.
"Yes sir. That's exactly what I am saying." Ponder sighed deeply. He knew Ridicully's tone of voice and he knew he wasn't going to understand.
"Are you sure it's not just cowardice?" Ridicully asked. Upon seeing the Mona Ogg and seeing an artist break down in tears, Ridicully just pulled out an inkograph and took the photo of the painting and passed it to the artist.
"Yes sir it is. But cowardice is part of the force too." Ponder tried to explained.
"How?" Ridicully questioned raising an eyebrow.
"The same reason princesses do something stupid. The same reason a prince kills a dragon for said princess." Ponder bluntly explained.
"So… what are we going to do about it?" Ridicully asked.
"We're going to test it sir." Ponder said simply. He always tested things.
Fear.
It was winter. It was cold. Rincewind feared the cold, but that didn't say much. He feared doilies too. If he was good at anything he was good at being afraid. If a monster said "Be afraid, be very afraid" then Rincewind would already be running for the hills before it had finished. But lucky for Rincewind, THIS fear was easily overcame by the simple fact he was given coal by title. And titles were something like fear he had plenty of. The fire roared in his room as he drifted to sleep. In the night someone creaked in. Now any burglar or Thieves guild member who came into Rincewind's room would leave by seeing the sheer disaster zone of the room he slept in. Animals slept in better condition. But this person was on a mission. And he would prevail in his grand duty no matter what. Now normally the mission would take about a minute but when he had accomplished it the person couldn't help but tidy the place up. It was midnight when he went in. It was 7 in the morning now. Quickly the person escaped, thinking the Wizard (Or Wizzard in the case of Rincewind) would wake at any moment. He needn't have ran as Rincewind would be surprised to find a 7 AM even existed.
Fear.
The Duke of Ankh, Sir Samuel Vimes was sitting in his office. He was reading some files, and this time he was actually reading them instead of merely pretending to while thinking of his dear son or more likely actually DOING some policing. But alas 'twas not to be. He heard a creek and his eyes immediately fell upon the door.
"Come on in Carrot." Vimes said picking up a cup of tea that was by his side and taking a small sip.
"Yes sir." Carrot said upon entering the room giving Vimes a small salute, which Vimes merely replied with a small wave.
"Have you read the reports, sir?" Carrot inquired upon sitting down. Carrot knew the awnser, he knew when Vimes actually cared about something. But it was procedure, and Carrot loved procedure.
"Mmmm hmmm… Any idea what the devil's going on?" Vimes asked glancing at the captain from his tea.
"No idea. The dwarf Gimli Thunderhammer Odson merely tripped down a hole after a night in the town and began screaming. Incidents like it have been happening all over the place, in many different people showing no link. Gnomes running from Humans, which no Gnome would EVER do. Dog running from Cats. Trolls running from thugs, but they usually end up trampling the thugs." Carrot told Vimes.
"I know Carrot. I read the whole bloody report! What I want to know is what the bloody hell is causing this?!" Vimes said rather harshly. He had been having too many late nights.
"I don't know sir. I just don't know." Carrot calmly said, and Vimes knew he was telling the truth. Carrot always told the bloody truth.
Fear
"Sir? What's the matter?" Albert asked his master.
I SENSE A GREAT DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE. Death replied his sockets glossed over, a hard task to do.
"What bloody force sir?" Albert said confused.
HMM? OH NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL. I HOPE... Death replied.
"Don't sound like nothing." Albert replied still unsure.
OH DON'T WORRY. ALTHOUGH WE MAY NEED TO KEEP AN EYE ON ANKH-MORPORK Death told him.
"Sir if you keep an eye on Ankh-Morpork it'll be teared from your socket in a few minutes. Mind you it won't affect you…" Albert retorted.
Fear.
Rincewind awoke. He walked through his neater room, not noticing. He passed a spider on his way to brush his teeth. The mirror cracked and a shard of glass fell near his foot, Rincewind merely stepped over it and got his robe on, there was no need to put his hat on as he slept with it on. He picked up a newspaper, which was odd as for Rincewind all he ever got was bad news and read an article about a serial killer on a rampage. He entered the Great Hall for breakfast and ate a whole plate of potatoes. His mouth full of the spuds his eyes suddenly widened.
"WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO ME?!" Rincewind screamed during eating, spuds landing on all of the Wizard community.
Fear.
In Klatch they heard the shout.
Fear.
In Genua they heard the shout.
Fear.
In Omnia they heard the shout, and thinking it a message from God yet another passage was added to the holy text. To be honest this wasn't too far off from what Om was thinking about his current state of affairs, where his religion was now about pamphlets.
Fear.
The universe doesn't care about butterflies. Sorry to break it to you but it doesn't. What it does care about is something far smaller, thoughts. Emotions. Hormones. Technically a teenager has the power of a god. Just not a very useful god. And in fact the fear that Rincewind resounded by loosing a lot of his fear resounded throughout the Universe and created a planet. The planet grew sentience, it built societies. Years later Discworld got a message from the newly Sentient beings:
Life sucks, everything's terrifying and we're all dead.
This amuses most scientists, as they threw the note away and continued to build Lava Sharks.
Fear.
Ponder was calculating various sums on Hex.
"Amazing… truly amazing…" Ponder muttered.
In truth what Ponder was doing was extremely dull. But a side note he had ignored is extremely exciting. But not "Typedy Typedy Typedy BING" worth of using Hex on so he ignored it.
Fear.
Ridicully had the sudden urge to kill. But as always he suppressed this urge. But not as always his target wasn't the Dean.
Fear.
Vetinari was having a bath. The rubber ducky he was playing with popped. This is of extreme importance, as the universe tend to work that way,
Fear.
OH FUCK. Was all Death said before sipping some wine in his armchair, the perfectly good wine soiled the inside of his robe.
Fear.
And Great Atuin the star turtle's pupils widened. This is also of great importance.
Thank you for reading this. I know this has many spelling and grammatical errors, but please R&R on it and tell me what you think. I tried to set it out as much as the real deal.
Thank you Gogol for your most informative review, I tried to clear up as many mistakes as I could. Special thanks for mentioning the problem with Death's speech as I hadn't noticed.