text: Long ago, when the sun still ravaged the earth, a newborn god was cast out from the Star Palace. He fell past clouds and birds, landing with a crash so great it made the sun pause in his ravaging. “Brother, what brings you to my world?” Asked the sun of the newborn god. “I know not.” Replied the god, “but I know this; fire and blood is no way to treat a world.” And with that, the newborn god roared at the sun, with such power as to send him back into the sky. But little was left of the world. The young god wandered his new lands, searching for a friend. One day when walking through a great jungle, he came upon a woman shrouded by a great green cloak. “How did you survive the ravages?” He asked her. “I have my ways, for I am stronger than the sun.” She answered. Suddenly, she pounced upon the young god, tearing a great chunk of flesh from his arm. The young god scampered and scrabbled, and barely escaped the jungle. He looked back, but the woman had vanished. Years later, he came upon a man scratching at the side of a mountain. This time he was more careful. The young god shouted to the man from a distance. “You there, how did you survive the ravages?” But the man did not answer. Again and again, the young god shouted, and again and again the man did not answer. He just kept scratching at the side of the mountain. Finally, overcome by curiosity, the young god approached the man, and found his head to be a mess of blood. Using his immense power, the young god healed his newfound friend over the course of seven days and seven nights, but at the end of it the man was still blind. “Take my eye.” Said the young god, reaching into his own head. With a twist he tore out his left eye, and fed it to the man. The next day, he opened his eyes and gasped. “What have you done???” Exclaimed the man, “I do not deserve such things, for I am a traitor and an exile. I do not deserve to see such things.” And with that, he raised a sharp rock to gouge out his eyes. But the young god put a hand on his to still him. “You have died, let me bring you back to life. You have been blinded, let me help you see. You have been hurt, and I have healed you. Do not take my gift in vain, for I am a god.” At the sound of those words the man collapsed into a fit of sobbing. “Weakness,” came a tutting voice from on top of a rock. “Utter weakness.” The young god looked over to see it was the woman again, this time accompanied by a bird, a cat, a bear, and a pair of wolves. “What brings you here?” He asked her. “I too thought I was alone,” she replied. “Doomed to wander this barren world forever until the sun returns.” The young god turned to the man, “How did your people survive the ravages?” “We dug below the earth. We dug so deep that the fires could not reach us. The sun didn’t have a chance of seeing us.” The woman purred softly, “Clever. I shall have to meet this people of yours.” “They are not my people anymore. I do not serve their king.” With those words the man knelt before the young god. “I serve a new king.” With a hiss, the woman pounced. Her claws ripped down the sides of the man, rending him in half in an instant. With a gurgling scream, he fell. The young god barely had time to react before she was on him as well, rending and tearing, but this time he wasn’t a child, and he fought back. For an instant, they clashed. Blood of both gods fell to the mountainside, and pooled in the forest below. Then the next instant, she had vanished into the wind. The young god fell to his knees before the shreds of his first friend. He wept, and the tears that fell upon the flesh turned it into babes. Soon, the young god was surrounded by children, all weeping alongside him. “She will return.” He told them. “But when she does, we will be ready.” The babes gave him a wise eyed stare, as if they knew.