The Start of a Great Mystery

Most mysterious stories probably start in some secret exchange between two strangers in a loud din of a room so as not to be found, or possibly in a very tactfully located and isolated room in an inn owned by a well-bribed innkeeper to keep anyone from investigating. Or perhaps it might also start in some dark back alleyway with two heavily cloaked strangers who exchange nothing but codes and words and the package in question before they hurry off again.

Or perhaps it might start when a young servant boy accidentally stumbles upon an abandoned package dropped in the middle of the street on the way back from the market, not suspecting that it contained the secrets of –

NO, that doesn’t how it starts.

Or perhaps it is…

Mayhap this young boy might be, say, me.

Me – Oliver James Hunter. Most people just call me Wolf.

But, back to how mysterious stories start – could it be possible that this one particular story, start in the same way that all past mysterious stories have started? Or perhaps, it does start in a dark room in an inn owned by the well-bribed innkeeper mentioned before. Or maybe even that dark alleyway?

Give it some thought.

I will tell you in a moment.

…

All right, the moment’s over. And the answer is, this particular story starts with all four possibilities. But of course, I didn’t know that – I only know my part of the story.

So I’m in the middle of this street with this package at my feet, probably dropped there by some careless person. Or perhaps there was some more mystery to it? Either way, my curiosity got the better of me and I bent down to take the heavy, paper-wrapped blocky package into my hands. Through the wrapping of the paper, I could feel sharp metal pieces pushing against the inside of the wrapping, possibly hinting that whatever was inside was very well-decorated.