The Second Paradise

The second part of a prologue done in three parts

 

            The visions dissipated as the children’s voices beckoned the elder back to the present. Eyes misted in the past, he spoke, “Did you know there was once a people who flew further and higher than any bird?”

            Their curiosity sparked, the younglings asked: "Really?" -  "How can that be true?" - "Where did they get their wings from?"

            The elder spread his arms, pretending to fly, and blew deeply to imitate the rush of wind. "They were beings of freedom," he continued, inspirited. "They frolicked in the moonlight above the clouds! They alone knew the caresses of the highest currents, and followed the paths of starlight."

            With their imaginations aglow, the younglings got up and followed the elder on his imaginary flight between the trees.

            “From Nihnlevius they came," he heralded. "Yes. The blue constellation to the north, the one you can only see in winter. From such distant origins they embarked on a voyage, navigating cosmic winds to bridge gulfs of time and space."

            “But who were they?” asked a boy with emerald-hued eyes; he had stopped in his tracks, confused.

            “They've had different names in different worlds," replied the elder, "but in Creation we knew them as Skyons.”

             The younglings repeated the name to themselves like it were imbued with magic. One of the girl with violet eyes, a little irked, "How come I've never seen a Skyon?"

            "Yeah," said a dark-skinned boy with amber-dawn eyes. "I wanna see one."

            "If they're from the blue constellation, what stars are we from?" asked a girl with luminous blue eyes, and skin dappled in light and dark grey patterns.

            The questions continued. Until then, such knowledge had been kept secret, save what snatches they overheard when the father-elders gathered around crackling flames to speak in hushed tones. Now the elder had creaked a door open, one which kept a hidden light, and the younglings grew eager to learn the mysteries that existed at the frontiers of their thoughts.

            The elder grinned at their curiosity, but held up a hand to quell further inquiries. With a sly gleam in his eye, he took on the air of a storyteller. "The Skyons were not the first to come to this world," he said. "The immortals already here welcomed them. Who? Haven't you heard of the Elementals? Do you wish to know who they were?"

            He looked over the younglings to make sure he had their undivided attention. "Splendid! Anyways, there must be structure to our lessons, and the beginning is the best place to start, ... for every work of art has a beginning, and so it was with Creation.”

            "Did you ever see an element person?" asked the girl with violet eyes and dark hair.

             "Perhaps. For now all I'll tell you is that they're not seen unless they choose to be. And only under exceedingly rare circumstances do they take shape. Then you might see one, questing about in its strange body, like a beautiful statue wrapped in vine and leaf. Statue’s that talk, mind you, and with eyes that can hypnotize. They have powers because they're keepers of the Sacred Mother's thoughts. Don't get too excited. To see an Elemental nowadays is rarer than it used to be. But is it necessary to see something to prove it exists?" The elder used his staff to motion to their surroundings. "To perceive the work of the first immortals, simply turn your gaze to the mountains, the trees, the sparkling streams. Such works of beauty profess to the Elementals' vision."

            "Um, father-elder." A boy with brown hair and emerald eyes held up a hand, his expression serious. "If Skyons came from the stars, where did Elementals come from?"

            The elder gave his forehead a slight slap. "I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. The beginning reaches actually further back than the Elementals. Maybe this is going too far back, but before time was, and is the Great Spirit. That's what us Tyzrians call it anyway, though other races say All-Father."

            He raised his staff high, then brought it low. "As the All-Father is in the Stars, the Sacred Mother is in the earth. In the beginning the All-Father woke the Sacred-Mother with a kiss, stirring her from dream. Then, through the Sacred Mother's Breath of Life, the Elementals rose from dust and wind. This was long before anything yet lived or grew, before there were even seas. The Sacred Mother instilled the Elementals a burning spirit of imagination which ever desires beauty and bliss, and gave them the ability to draw upon Spirit's energy in matter. Through their yearning alone, the Elementals brought into being the many wonders of Creation, establishing the First Paradise."

            The elder gathered the younglings around him, and sat on a rock under a willow. "Before I speak of the Skyons, I must tell of the First Children. Sorry, this is important. You see, the First Children are our very, so very distant ancestors, and their fates are interwoven with ours."

            "Hmm, I bet they came from the blue constellation," guessed a girl with amber-dawn eyes, and long brown hair, beaded and adorned with feathers. When her first guess was refuted, she tried, "The moon?"

            The elder shook his head. "Your heads are still above the clouds. Focus on this earth yet." He tapped the ground with his staff. Then he opened his palms to either side, before clasping them together. "Through the union of the Sacred Mother and the All-Father, the Sacred Mother gives forth all life. Thus the First Children were created of the earth and the universe. Of matter, and spirit."

            "I don't understand," said the girl with luminous blue eyes, and skin dappled in light and dark grey patterns. "How can they be from both?"

            "Because they were mortal, like us. Nevertheless, their vision was clouded to Spirit." The elder gestured with his hand, to lighten the severity. "It's hard to understand, I know. For now, the best I can explain it is that because the First Children were meant to be a reflection of the something more, to restore the bridge between Realms. This is part of the Great Work, which is a deep mystery. At the end I may tell you more." The elder's gaze meandered, lost amid the grass; he spoke slower, "What you need to understand for now is this: that too many of the First Children lived in separation between the earth and the celestial, and thus between themselves. This created fear, which led to the First Children's doom."

            Taking it in, the younglings fell quiet a spell, until at length, the sapphire-eyed boy with dark hair spoke up, "You mean, the First Children died?"

            "Of course, dummy," said the boy with long blonde hair. "They're not here anymore, are they?"

            A number of the Tyzrian youths giggled. The elder quickly called for them to settle down. He explained, "It's true, they're long gone. Solely passages in volumes of history compiled by the Elementals, and ancient ruins, give testimony of their existence. Because of the First Children's division, the balance was lost, and fear ruled. The Sacred Mother's offspring turned against one another. For ages they murdered each other in all manner of conflict. Over the centuries, their wars escalated with increasingly horrific weapons, until at the last, all ended in global cataclysm." The elder proceeded in an ominous tone, "The book of Winds and Leaves says: In those dire days, not women, nor children, found refuge from the terror. The screams of millions flooded the mountainous fires. The very waters and airs seethed with poisons, and all that was green and beautiful sickened and withered."

            The younglings ere wide-eyed. The elder would have liked to give them a reprieve; but instead forged on, "The First Children's once great and proud civilizations were reduced to ash, and the world became a place of flames as the last lamentations were consumed. Life was extinguished."

            Stunned, the younglings did not speak, save for murmuring to each other.

            "That's not a happy ending," protested the girl with translucent violet eyes. "It's not fair."

            "That's because it is not a story," the elder said. "You must understand, my little ones, lives, eras, worlds, have always come and gone, dust in the currents of time. Bear with me a while longer though. For the winds do not always drift away from us. They can return one day, returning the answers to prayers we cast long ago."

            After a bit more coaxing, the younglings nodded to hear more. "In the wake of the destruction, the Sacred Mother's mourning at having lost Her Children, was unutterable. For untold years the war-made fires smoldered. When they faded, solely the forgotten Elementals remained. Hearts broken, they wandered the aftermath. All they'd shaped and carefully sustained, so dear to them, was gone: plants, the rivers, animals, and the Children. Even the stars were veiled by dark fume. The emptiness was meaningless. Forsaken to a barren world imprisoned in twilight, they drifted in perpetual grief, and languished."

            While the elder took a moment for a draught of the herbal water he had brought in his water-skin, the swarthy boy complained, "What kind of history is this? I thought it was supposed to get better."

            "Patience, my pupil," the elder said, putting the water-skin back down. "We wouldn't be here now if that were not the case. The night is darkest before the sunrise. During this age of nothingness, the Elementals beseeched the heavens for new life. Eons past, as the immortals continued to roam, wraithlike, bereaved. They did not yet know it, but not all had been lost. For the Great Spirit deemed that Creation's song had not yet been written."

            With an expansive motion, the elder gestured to the sky. "It was from far, far beyond this world that the answer would come. In a distant region of the cosmos, among the Nihnlevius Constellation, dwelt another race of immortals - the Skyons." At this the younglings' interest grew keener; a few pairs of ears perking up.

            "Moved unto a purpose, a great host of Skyons left the rest of their kindred, and embarked upon an interstellar voyage. They navigated through galaxies, upon cosmic winds. After time untold, across oceans of stars and nebulous expanses, they at last found our solar system, Aeonia."

                Instilled with deep reverence, for a lapse the elder gazed afar, across the river. He spoke in a profound tone, like that of a king; "When from afar we beheld the orb, lonely, yet precious, suspended in space, anon we knew we had come to our destination." The elder returned to speaking in his normal voice. "So it was written, in the Chronicles of the Voyage."

            With the younglings' focus on him, the elder stood, and pointed to the sky. "Imagine, what a glorious day when the Elementals beheld the first beam of light pierce the shrouded skies! The noxious clouds were cleansed, and the fell clouds swept away by the breath of Sizion, Lord of the Skyons. As the veils were blown away, the stars were revealed anew, untainted. From amidst the heavens, Lord Sizion brought forth the vast luminous host he had led from Ninhlevius. It is written, that these winged immortals were the most beautiful creatures the Elementals had ever seen.

            "Lord Sizion, surrounded by light atop the new clouds he and his kin spun, spoke to the Elementals in a mighty voice: Unios charged us to journey here, for the fulfillment of a destiny woven in the Great Work," the elder spoke again in the profound tone. "Our hope, throughout our voyage, is that we might find a new home, a world to illume with Unios' wisdom. It is our wish to help you. For though we hail from different reaches of the stars, we are brethren. Our dream is to return this world to life, and thus prove that death is not the end."

            The elder sat back down on the rock. Many of the younglings sat closer now than at the beginning of his recounting. "Knowing the words were true, the Elementals at last put their sorrow aside and agreed to share Creation with the Skyons. They purposed to maintain the same vision of bringing into being a new paradise. Thus, between these races of immortals, a bond of faith was forged unlike any other.

            "The first work of this genesis was the greatest of all. Amid the starry sky, there was a flash of light that made the night brighter than day. Then all was still again. The last cloud parted before the heavens, and the Elementals gazed in awe." The elder pointed to the west, imagining a place further than the clouds and the deep blue. "Lo! In the firmament they beheld a new star, burning brightest and purest. The Eternal Star had been born."

            "Oh!" cried the little girl with eyes like crystal rain. "I know that one!"

            "Me too," joined the dark-skinned boy. "My parents told me that if I'm ever lost, to use it to guide me, because it doesn't move."

            "Yes. You all know it. Good." The elder nodded, pleased, before turning back to the narration. "The Skyons told the Elementals that it was not their work, but that of Unios. From His heart the All-Father had brought forth white fire, and with unseen hand, shaped the beacon, setting it above Creation. This was so that all that was to be made might see proof of Spirit, to serve as a hope that would never burn out or forsake Creation. This heavenly jewel was a gift of love to the Sacred Mother. Indeed, it was the most precious blessing ever bestowed Creation."

            For a minute or two the elder gazed into the westering light of the sun. Lost in distant echoes and reflections, he surveyed the highest Azure peak. Wonder flooded him.

            "To show the Skyons their gratitude, the Elementals then wrought their grandest work. Placing their hands on the barren earth, they joined in a profound song. After much time, guided by the will of their ethereal voices, a mountain steadily rose, its foundations rumbling from the depths of the earth." He pointed to the Azure peak afar. "It grew many times greater than the highest peaks, ascending into the clouds and far above. Lord Sizion and his people hallowed it Mount Ar-Saga, the throne of Creation. Upon its pinnacle of ice, the Skyons built their first abode - Amor-Dome, the City of the Clouds.

            “In turn the Skyons entrusted the Elementals their most important gift: the last Seeds of Life. These they had brought on their astral voyage, from the Tree of Unios, in Nihnlevius. The Elementals sowed the glowing capsules among the molten cracks, and cast them into the roaring seas. While this was carried out, the Skyons restored order to the heavens, setting in motion the four seasons, and stirring the gentle breezes and new healing rains to kiss the world's wounds."

            The elder's voice slowed, as if cautiously approaching something fragile, "When the first green shoot budded forth amid the desolation, this single leaf was infinitely more precious than all the treasures mortals had ever hoarded." He brushed his fingers through the tall grass. "The sprouting of these seeds showed the Elementals, that despite everything that had happened, life could not be destroyed. Thenceforth, with hope manifested, the Elementals laid their hands on the earth, setting all inspiration into it, aided by the Skyons' High Song. With immense patience, mountain chains were raised, colossal valleys shaped, and the paths for rivers made."

            "Wow," exclaimed one of the younglings, falling back to lie on the grass. "That sounds like sooo much work."

            "Indeed it was," the elder answered, smiling. "But a time of renewal, and excitement. The Elementals tended to the Trees of Life, which grew as tall as lofty towers. Miracles were multiplied, for each fruit from the Trees was unique. From these seeds, new forms of plant life flourished to fill the emptiness. In harmony with the Skyon's music, the Elementals tirelessly prayed for Creation to be swathed in new dreams, of blue waters, golden light, and green wilderness. The oceans were becalmed, and in their profundities aquatic gardens bloomed.

            "In this epoch the Sacred Mother decreed it was time, and thus the Elementals filled the world with the first of Her new Children. Every manner of creature: birds, furry things, and many creations never seen before. Below, as the Elementals labored, the Skyons founded citadels and abodes atop the highest pinnacles, even atop islands of cloud." The elder moved his hand in a horizontal arc. "From Amor-Dome, Lord Sizion watched what unfolded, and his people thrilled, going hither and thither between clouds, playing strains of music from the cosmic symphonies, to help creation evolve." The elder closed his eyes, and inclined his ear to the river. "That is why unto this day, nature is endowed with echoes of the immortals' music. Thus might we hear, though subtle, that the cascading or flowing water is alive with choruses, and there is wisdom in the sighing of trees, as there is truth in the song of birds.

            "This music awakened the First Born from their long sleep. The little creatures crawled out of long forgotten caves and secret dens beneath mountains. These, such as the Nanows, were the most innocent and happy of all, playing as they explored. The life scented breezes drifted further into the recesses of the earth until the other Children, such as ourselves, breathed them and were beckoned into being. Emerging, the First Born rubbed and winked their eyes at the bright sun. Seeing that the days and seasons were fair, pure, and Creation was good to live, they stepped forth to wander the world.

            "Us Tyzrians, were the race made to love the forests most, and so others have known us as the Children of the Forests. The First Born were many however. The mighty Yetis stirred from hibernation, and called to each other from afar, exploring the high mountains where they conversed with the winds. The Oceanians waded past the waves, and swam into the seas, where they made abodes. Many more First Born were awoken, all free, yet untainted by any shadow of past or future."

            "How come we never see any Oceanians?" asked the girl with violet eyes.

            "Because the sea is faraway from Meraldeas. Duh," said the blonde boy, eliciting a few laughs.

            "They must be real, because I saw a Yeti," claimed the girl with brown hair adorned with beads and feathers. "Actually, more than one. A group of them came to Greendayle last year."

            "I saw them too!" cried the littlest girl. "They look like big fluffy bears, with floppy ears." She giggled.

            The elder waited for them to settle down before proceeding. "Eventually all the First Born awoke, with every creature that crawls, swims, or flies. During this time the Children roamed freely, learning from the Elementals, who went here and there as shepherds of nature. They were our teachers, giving us the gift of speech, instructing the races in the names of things, teaching them crafts. The Skyons were our mentors in celestial knowledge. Of the first and most important things they taught us was that the Eternal Star guarded Creation, and that when the time came for the Children to depart the world, the Eternal Star would serve as the threshold taking us down the halls of rest, back to the source of Unios."

            A gentle breeze whispered through river vale and its trees. The elder smiled at its soothing touch. "Thus the Second Green-Blue Paradise began. It was agreed by the Elementals that it was fairer than the first. Nothing is repeated. Creation was more fantastic, varied, for freer had been the imagination which gave it being." He sighed, content to have come to this point of the history. "And that's the way of things, my younglings. For there to be rebirth, there must be death. Great had been the world's demise, and greater was its rebirth. Like a phoenix, Creation had risen from its ashes."

            For a time the elder contemplated the Azure Mountains. This hour, with the sun rays golden and slanting, was his favorite. "It was a utopia. The Elementals stewarded the earth, and the Skyons the winds, clouds, and skies. They created a wondrous balance of the Powers. Lord Sizion, atop cloud-thrones, with a crown of gems, played harps of light whilst watching over the races. During this era all Children were innocent, living as one. Thus they did not fear death. The Children increased in number and explored Creation. In this manner the utopia endured for millenniums, in a time when not even time really existed, for all that was true was in the present."

            With nostalgia, the elder reflected on the paradise that had been.

            “Um, and where were Humans?” asked the boy with emerald eyes.

            The elder hesitated, then sighed melancholically. "They came much later. And when they did, it was the beginning of the end of our Paradise.”