In the time before time, in the long-long ago, there was darkness. It was still, It was quiet, but It was empty. From the darkness emerged a Being not man and not woman. It was the first Being to exist, and It had no form, It didn’t need one. The Being merely existed in the absence, before growing tired of the darkness as It was. It wanted a body, and so, It was created. When the Being realized that It had nothing to stand upon, It created the Earth.

It looked upon the empty earth and was discontented, because the Nothing was still around. With a single movement of It’s arm, the Nothing was cleared away, revealing the pale sky of the first morning. Still, the world as it was was empty, rather than leaving things as they were, It kneeled in the earth and began to dig a hole, and so It was that water began to rise. It created more earth as the first It had called upon had been covered. The Being was still unsettled and began to walk; in Its footsteps grew grass, and when It looked behind, It discovered what had begun to form. It liked this, and continued, and willed more to grow, and from those footsteps sprung flowers and trees and greenery of all kinds. Soon It had walked the small world several times, and not an inch was without life. The Being then reached down and picked up a handful of stones, and threw them into the air, becoming our stars. It plucked out one eye and then the other, and they became sun and moon, and willed the eyes to grow back; and now the earth had light. But It still was not enough, and so, It mixed the dirt with the mud and shaped the first animal. Inspired, the Being created more; wolves, lions, birds, bugs, all formed under It’s clever fingers, each designed and perfected to Its all seeing eye.

It scattered the animals and let them roam, and again, everything was almost complete, but not yet. It came upon a stag that met It’s eyes with respect and curiosity, and It asked the stag, ‘what next?’ Stag leveled It’s gaze and seemed to think before finally turning back to the tree line; a doe emerged, a young fawn at her side. The stag looked back at the Being and said, “perhaps children would fill the emptiness that you feel.” And with that, the stag returned to his family and they disappeared into the trees.

The Being realized that what the stag had said was true, and sat upon the forest floor to think upon how to go about making them. The Being drifted to sleep and It dreamed; It dreamed about fire and ice, It saw colors and light. It saw a body, and then two, and when It reached for them, It woke up, knowing what It had to do.

The Being walked to the stream and, taking mud from the banks, It began to mold the small bodies that It had seen in Its dreams Days passed, nights shimmered, and other creations gathered around to watch. It took such care that the animals and insects and birds began bringing materials to assist with the creation. The Stag and Doe brought sticks and branches; Birds brought stones of all shapes and colors for the Being’s inspection; the Insects and the Rodents gathered long grasses. The monkeys gingerly plucked small pieces of ice.

With the sticks and branches, the Being shaped the bodies It had seen, and with the clay It made the bodies whole. It selected the stones carefully and polished them to a high shine, before placing them in what would be the face. It took the grasses and made fur only on their heads, and carefully sculpted claws on them with the ice. Finally, the Being knelt over them and breathed Life. Their hearts began to beat, their chests began to rise.

And thus, Man was created; in the form of two children. These children were blank slates, embodiments of the Being; eager to learn, ever curious. They had not looked upon the World in it’s Earliest, had no memories shared with the one who made Them. They stood and looked about them, at the creatures gathered, and then looked into the face of It.

“What do we Call you?” The boy asked, finally.

The Being smiled and said, in a voice as terrible as the Nothing and as great as the Dawn, “I have no name.”

“Well, what have you done? Explain and we will find a name.” The girl replied.

“I have created the soil on which you stand. I have set the sky, hung the stars, moon and sun, risen water and greenery and molded the life that breathes among you. I have named the beings that will be your brethren. All of this was made, and now it is the domain that will belong to you.”

The boy and the girl sat in the light of It’s world and finally, the girl looked up and said, “you are Life.” Life blinked, and It felt, for the first time since becoming sentient, content.