text: <Submit,> said the sky. <I submit. I will quake, shudder, and obey. But why do you move me?> the heavens asked me.
  
  <This is forbidden,> the old ones argued. <Stop him!>
  
  <Submit,> said the earth. <I will submit, and crumble down to the very depths. But why must I fall before you?>
  
  <Do no such thing!> the old ones said again. <This is forbidden!>
  
  I ignored them all. There was no time for confusion and fear. If I held back now, all would be lost.
  
  But *All Is Not Lost.*
  
  <Forward,> I said to the vast emptiness. <Forward. Rise. Step.> *Push*.
  
  <No,> the void said back to me. It resisted. <This is forbidden. You have gone too far.>
  
  I had done no such thing. <Forward,> I commanded again. <Rise. Step.> *Push*.
  
  <Stop him,> the frightened voices whispered from the emptiness. <He must go no further.>
  
  But I had not gone far enough.
  
  My words alone would not move this empty world. So I drove into the earth below with my feet, and grasped two handfuls of sky with my fists.
  
  <No!> the frightened old voices shouted. <You cannot win! You cannot help them! You cannot save her! It is forbidden!>
  
  The earth and sky pushed back at me.
  
  <This is as far as you go,> the old ones declared.
  
  <No it is not,> I answered back.
  
  I did not know these frightened old men.
  
  But I knew, somehow, that I had listened to them for far too many years.
  
  <Enough,> I commanded, and this time I brooked no dissent. The earth and sky trembled in my grip and foothold.
  
  <I will protect.>
  
  <I will prevail.>
  
  <I will be king.>
  
  And as the world gave way, I stretched out and *pushed*.