Many fantasize about the life of a Fortune Teller. They envy those that can glimpse into the future. What riches might they craft, what disasters might they might avoid, just by knowing what lies ahead tomorrow?

Alas, as the Fortune Teller himself knows all too well, there is very little to envy. Fate is unavoidable, trying to change it’s course is futile and when this reality sets in, knowing what awaits you only causes pain.

There is no-one that knows this better than CrackerJack. Born as but a small chick, a runt in a nest of corvids, he was pushed from his nest before he learned to fly.

Tumbling down branch by branch before landing in a thump on the ground, he lay there for 12 days and nights, feeding only on the occasional unlucky grub and the condensation formed on nearby leaves.

On the 12th night, he heard a piercing screech. His senses heightened, he knew he was in trouble. In the near distance, the red eyes of a pure white cat piercing from under the scrub. Poised and waiting to pounce was a predator, and CrackerJack was prey.

CrackerJack knew this was the end. There was nothing he could do but close his eyes, try to bring his mind to a calm place and wait for the inevitable.

But then something very strange happened. His eyes closed, beak clenched, waiting for the predator to pounce, a purple light shone in the darkness.

“Follow it”, he heard. In his mind’s eye, CrackerJack peered deeper into the purple light. It began to move and change shape, and then in a brilliant flash, CrackerJack saw in his mind’s eye everything that was about to happen:

The cat would pounce, grabbing CrackerJack by the head, shaking him furiously, breaking his neck, and expeditiously eating him.

Shocked by the vision, CrackerJack kept his eyes closed and beak clenched. Rather than wake to the reality awaiting him, he decided to once again go deeper into the purple light again.

Another flash of light, another vision, but this time one thing in the vision had changed. The cat had grabbed his foot rather than his head. Still, this vision had a horrific end, he was eaten again.

CrackerJack began to realize that while he was suspended in the vision, time had come to a standstill. While he kept his eyes closed and focused on the purple light, he would not have to face reality.

Safe in his suspended mind’s eye, he continued to watch one vision after another, alas all were horrific ends to his current predicament. He kept going, hundreds of visions turned to thousands. In each, the cat attacked him violently and ended his life.

Until finally, one vision where CrackerJack did not die: in this last vision, the cat pounced, CrackerJack rolled over at the last second, causing the cat to misplace his footing, slip, and tumble into the decaying foliage at the base of the tree which was covering the edge of a deep sinkhole. The cat, unable to regain footing, slid into the sinkhole and could not climb out.

In this vision CrackerJack was safe. He immediately opened his eyes and in a moment of shock, reality played out exactly as the vision had seen. The cat, now stuck in the sinkhole, began to howl.

CrackerJack immediately understood his power. He was able to foretell unlimited future possibilities, and while unable to change his fate, he could choose which vision to live, which future reality would be his from the endless paths.

Here is where Fortune Teller CrackerJack’s life began in earnest. Years would follow before his craft was honed to a true power that could be harnessed.

Something else happened that day, CrackerJack found a friend in the predator that once saw him as a meal. But that story is for another day…

Entered by: 0x80dc…75c3 and preserved on chain (see transaction)