Once upon an era of beginning, simply a child in the scheme of things, there was a girl. The girl was an outsider in her clan, and was often immersed in a world of her own. She would bury herself deep in her thoughts and argue with herself, converse with herself, she would live her entire life in her head. This girl was Pandora. One day, this child found a cave. Pandora had discovered a forest, seemingly enveloped in mystery, for it was not well-explored by anyone. Pandora, still a child of only eleven years, uncovered this cave shrouded in darkness and distinct from the outside realm and made it her home...

Pandora came back to this cave, and on this new morn, she found that there was a sapling growing beside her cave's entrance.

Human children are filled with love and the desire to nourish. And nourish she did. Pandora fed her little sapling every day, and she grew along with it. She watched its growth every day, as she came back to her cave, her home, and eventually the mystical little tree at its entrance.

Nobody noticed her constant absence, save one person. For society was not very communal at this stage, in this clan. Pandora's clan left the weak to fend for themselves, and that included near every child past their fourth birthday. It rooted out the weak, or the unintelligent. Pandora was among those thrown out, but not killed by the harsh universe yet. However, Pandora had been thrown out at age two due to her unusual intelligence and her intimidating demeanor. Pandora had been forced to find different caretakers constantly out in the vast world.

And since Pandora had ventured deep into the woods as a young child, it had become her own  home, in that cave.

Now she was twelve. A year had passed, and the leaves were turning and falling and spinning in the wind like fire in the sky. Finally, her tree had begun to bear fruit. It was an apple tree, she realized. She continued to nurture her tree, though no longer a sapling. It flourished and grew the most delectable apples. In appearance, at least. So twelve year old Pandora saw these apples and grew enchanted by their glistening  coats, their seeming succulent flesh, their blood-red luminosity. 

This day, she was lost in thought on a new concern. Pandora was always anxious and thoughtful, but this was new. She was not happy with her obligations and, what were really her limitations. She could not live in her cave, her haven, to her deep regret, for three months after her discovery of the cave, her baby brother had been born. For fear her second child would be odd and fearful too, Pandora's mother threw her second-born out to the wild at age one. She was a ruthless woman, heartless and blind to the concerns of others. So Pandora found her brother and took her in. This became a responsibility for Pandora, and it limited her in many ways. 

But while Pandora disconnected herself from life in many ways, she was not soulless, and could not bring herself to leave her brother. So she went to her cave while her brother napped in their shared home. Today, she was especially pained by her anxieties, her many unnecessary conflicts she produced in her head. And this day, Pandora met the apples with a soulful craving. She wished to dig her fangs into their skin, taste their sweet flesh. They were but apples, so why? Why did Pandora not realize the abnormality of her strange desires? Still, she did not eat them yet. Some sixth sense, maybe seventh, told her not to. However, her insides were conflicted, and they did not warn her well enough any further.

So the next day, she brought her brother, her dear child she had worked for over nine months to care for. At this age, her brother could try an apple. So Pandora took with her a knife of her own making and carefully sliced one apple she had plucked from her precious tree for the first time. She took one slice first, and held it to her lips for a moment... then touched it to her tongue. From that simple fraction of a second and on, she was addicted. Pandora felt different, crazed somehow, illogical in her thinking, with dulled senses and an uncanny pull towards the fruit. She did not sense the strings tugging at her, and so she fed her brother. The baby took one bite, and with a weaker will and smaller body, devoured the rest of the apple pieces. Then his eyes glazed over, and he went limp in Pandora's lap.

Pandora, intoxicated by the fruit, fell to the ground from her seat and slept, deeply until the next morning.