Hard of Reading

When I was very young my mother gave me an empty notebook. I filled it up with pictures that were supposed to tell a story. Sometimes I put words into the stories as I learned them. What intriques me is that story telling precedes language. Illiterate people were told stories through pictures. Look at the medieval church art. Look at comic books today. Silent films told stories with very limited use of language. Is it possible for other sentient beings to tell stories without having a language, an alphabet, a dictionary? Do whales tell stories?