Time's Proem

Aleah Ryan

In the beginning, there was everything, yet nothing at all. The land had no beginning and no end, stretching on for as long as eternity would let it. The tall wheatgrass swayed in the steady wind to no end, relishing in the peace, while the mountains that edged the unattainable distance stood unphased by time because time was not a thing that existed. How could it?

There were no humans to invent such a wasteful thing.

There was nothing but the wheatgrass, the mountains, two deities and one creature.

The Sun, trapped in her place in the West, and the Moon trapped in hers in the East. Though these deities may have existed for as long as the grass and the mountains, they were not the creators of this land. That “immortal” being had long since perished in the creation of this eternal place, their right hand becoming the Sun and their left becoming the Moon while their body remained the dirt, their existence channelled into the only thing that lived: the grass.

The land was a beautiful corpse.

This world was one of twilight because the Sun and Moon could not move, their lives a boring punishment as they watched nothing but the grass sway beneath their gaze. However, from the dead titan's heart rose a strange creature. Small, frail, insignificant. All the same, any life that wasn't just simple grass in the prepossessing yet painfully empty land was intriguing to the deities.

A child. With pure blue and green eyes and honey skin, it grew from the grass and came to sit in the very center of the ever-stretching land. It was just as stunning as this timeless world, however; it was just a child.

The Sun took interest in this strange creature and called out to it. She did this until the child gave her a name, Yoake, and would speak to her to no end. The Moon couldn't bear to see her sister in the West enjoy the presence of this strange gift alone, so she too called out to the child until she too received a name, Yuugure, and they would converse to no end. There was no time, so the child could speak forever as she wandered the endless expanse this world had to offer, and the deities could listen for even longer.

Eventually, Yoake invited the child to live beneath her and only her. To bask in her warmth, so they could speak to one another clearly without the space of infinity between them. All she would have to do was follow the warm breeze from the West.

As the child began to wander into the breeze, Yuugure begged for her to stay. To live under her instead, so they could speak forever. All she had to do was follow the cool breeze from the East.

The stupid child became confused. How could it choose between its sisters that dwelled in the sky? Either seemed like a terrible decision. If she went to Yuugure, Yoake would rip herself from her point in the aether. Kill herself so the land would lose its balance and be plunged into a frosty night.

If she went to Yoake, Yuugure would drag herself from her peace. Kill herself so the land would lose its balance and be forced into a blistering day.

Either way, the wheatgrass would die. So, the vacuous creature returned to the middle of the land where it would be an equal distance from both Yoake and Yuugure. A place where it could hardly hear either of the deities. The only clear sound was the constant rustling of the wheatgrass.

In irritation, Yoake blistered her light brighter, forcing the child to witness her in an attempt to get it to return to her. Surely the child would respond once she saw how brightly Yoake shined.

Similarly, Yuugure blew her wind ever harder, carrying her voice on the wind and in the grass's rustling, hoping the child would wish to return to her.

The child hated seeing the light of the friend it could not truly see and hearing the voice of the friend it could no longer truly speak with, so it did the one thing it could think to do. It stabbed its ears through with the wheatgrass till blood dribbled down its neck and it could no longer hear. Then it carved out its eyes with the grass ends until blood poured down its face and it could no longer see.

The child died in its dark silence while Yoake and Yuugure could do nothing but watch.

It was a horrifying experience for both the deities, as they had never even seen the death of a blade of grass, much less the gruesome suicide of the only thing in this world they could speak with. Because time did not pass, the child's body never faded. The blood never dried. Yet the wheatgrass continued to sway around it.

Silence filled the land as Yoake dimmed her light and Yuugure ceased her wind.

Eventually, they decided the eternal world wasn't only their punishment. It wasn't just their prison. Because, to them, it was no longer the beautiful corpse of the titan. Rather, it was their very own hell.

A hell of the gods.

They couldn't bear to remain in the forsaken world, to stare at the child they had driven to death, but they did not have the power to leave. There was nothing else for them to turn to.

So Yuugure and Yoake wept.

From their divine tears, a new pool formed. From that pool came many dead worlds and treacherous stars. One world especially caught the deities' attention. One of a limited shape. One that knew not eternity. A place that endured time.

It was a pure green and blue, and its sands and dirt were a warm honey tone.

A new child.

Though not quite the same, Yoake and Yuugure agreed to treat this child better.

They shared this world but did not speak to it. Still trapped in the hell of the gods, Yoake and Yuugure revealed themselves in turn to the child, back and forth, all the while carefully changing their appearances from the dazzling bodies of deities to mere orbs in the child's eyes.

This child was not trapped in an eternal inbetween. Rather, it experienced a day and a night. From these days and nights, grass grew and spread in this new world. From the grass came many creatures, even some that were similar to the true child. But none of them were nearly as beautiful. None of them were worth speaking to. So the gods remained silent in their hell, watching this new world unfold and grow. Yet they still remembered to remain distant. The body of the true child, their child, reminded them of that.

And so, the gods protected this new world from the curse of eternity with the bonds of time.

Author’s Note: This was a short story submitted for a World Literature Honors assignment in which we had to make a creation story after reading examples of similar myths from all around the world.