The first thing you noticed about him was that he was an albino. He had pure white hair, light grey eyebrows and pink eyes that vibrantly glowed as he looked the city before him over. He wore a golden jacket with black straps, three across the chest, two placed upon the shoulders. Silver, tipless gloves with emeralds embedded in the top were placed upon his hands, and he possessed white pants with green and silver sneakers. He held a notepad in his hand and was tapping a pencil to his lip thoughtfully.
Sitting by him was a green-scaled being, a snake with golden eyes. He had sky-blue hair that spiked up at the top like a Mohawk, then went down his back in thick locks. He wore a beautiful white robed outfit with a plain belt, and had a strange shamanic necklace of white orbs, almost like pearls, with a pair of black sandals. He was sitting and kindly looking at a young rabbit.
The rabbit was a sweet little thing with pretty eyes and light fur, with orange-tipped ears and a dress to match. She looked dainty and pleasant, and was sitting with a blue-skinned creature that had a yellow orb hanging off the top of it's head, with yellow-tipped, stubby arms and legs and a plump little body. Using his small, pinkish butterfly wings he hovered into the rabbit's arms and she adjusted his bow tie as they sat on a bench near the snake.
"So…what are you here for again, Mr. White?" Cream the Rabbit asked the human.
"I happen to have recently had a bit of an…idea." White told her. "I needed a place to write this all up at, somewhere I can feel inspiration going through me…this is that place." He said, gesturing around the enormous park that overlooked the Station Square.
"I am wondering something myself…what is this thing you are writing, my friend?" King asked, his slightly sibilant, but quite kindly voice inquired, golden eyes glittering.
"Chao-chao?" Cheese the Chao asked.
"Well." Michael White grinned broadly and leaned back, looking the threesome over. "You see…our tale goes back thousands of years ago…"
…
…
…
…THE GIFTS
-----------------
How was it that life was made in my world?
How does the tale get told? How do I start?
How else?
In the beginning…
…
…
…
…
…there was but darkness and light.
Circling each other constantly in a steady rhythm, all of what we knew to be "creation" was naught much else but a great abyss. Half was black, half was white, and both were separate from each other. Neither one mixed with another. They remained apart, circling constantly, and all of "creation" was naught but the steady rhythm that they made.
Until it happened. Great hands brought them colliding together. That which had been apart became united…a yin-yang effect resulted. "Balance" became known. The Creator was pleased with this. He informed the Hand of Creation and the Hand of Destruction that this "Balance" brought joy to his heart.
Still, the Creator needed more. So with the Hands, he pulled out from that balance more forces to keep the new world he would build in check.
Using two pieces of Light and Dark, they hands got to work on creating two beings at the same time. Both made in the same design as the Creator.
One was a being with skin of perfect peach marble, hair as gold, eyes of brilliant sapphire. His face shone out like a sun, and there was not a single blemish on his muscular body. This…was Order.
At the same time, another being was born with eyes of shining emerald, glistening in the light almost as brightly as his white hair, and skin darker than a black night, a being with a smooth smile upon his face. This…was Chaos.
The Creator spoke to them after seeing how good they were, and thus said that he was about to create a new world…and that Order and Chaos were to look after it, and to make sure things moved smoothly whilst he, through the Hand of Creation and the Hand of Destruction, worked upon other worlds. The mighty hands were clapped together, and like thunder a new world was born…with its to-be-inhabitants deposited before Order and Chaos…ready to be sorted out.
…
…
…
…all of the animals of the world lay in a large, grassy, flower-filled field. As they looked around at each other, they blinked. They were not honestly sure what to make of the other beings around them. They had only the faintest notion of what "emotions" were. They were really naught but blueprints of the beings they were meant to become. There was no sleekness to the legs of the rabbits, there was no cunning in the light within the fox's eyes, and there was no strength in the muscles of the bears.
"Brother." Order spoke, his voice booming like the crashing of thunder, like the sound of a thousand drops of rain falling all at once, like the sound of a trumpet's cry. "These beings cannot survive in this new world without the necessary traits that all true life has."
"You mean?" Chaos asked, his voice soft and smooth, like hands brushing over a flower, like the touch of a zephyr, sweeter than the ringing of a bell.
"Yes. We must give them strengths. Strengths to ensure that this world shall not conquer them!"
"Oh, but we cannot simply give them strengths." Chaos added, shaking his head as he and Chaos floated over the animals gathered below as they gazed up in wonderment. "Then it would be uneven…uninteresting. BORING. They need WEAKNESSES to balance them out! Flaws, brother mine! Make some of them very weak and others very strong!"
"I have an idea. We shall have them all line up." Order decided, beaming proudly. "The animals shall line up, one species at a time. We will use our power to give each species two great strengths, and one great weakness. All will be equal."
"And yet, NOT equal. For no two animals will have the same weakness and strengths as another!" Chaos agreed, clapping his hands together happily. "Oh, this is a WONDROUS idea! Yes, let us begin!"
"Come, little ones." Order requested gently, like a kind father talking to his children. "Line up and let us grant you your gifts."
One by one, all animal species was given two gifts and a "curse". But the animals were confused. The two forces, Order and Chaos, did not tell the animals what these gifts and curses WERE. "How will we know what we have been blessed with?" Each species asked, as confusion filled their pleas.
"They will be made clear to you soon." Chaos insisted, waving a finger in the air, laughter in his eyes like an eccentric uncle. "Already you are beginning to feel true emotions. Your gifts and curses will follow soon."
"The gifts you asked for in your hearts are yours, I assure you." Order intoned.
"For now, go out and live. And have FUN!" Chaos added, grinning.
…
…
…
…the power was theirs, so the beings had said…
Humankind, the last ones to approach Chaos and Order, looked around at each other. Right now, there were naught but two of them, a man, and a woman. They sat around a campfire, in naught…but their birthday suits. The knowledge of what it meant to be "naked" had not occurred to them. What they knew was of love…of hope…of faith…of innocence…of kindness…of peace. And this same feeling filled the hearts of all the other animals in the beautiful garden that was their home.
The aroma filling the air came from the many trees that filled their "home". It seemed to transport the breather of these fumes to heavenly places. There was a multitude of delicious, savory fruit upon the many trees. Indeed, the woman was munching on a spectacularly juicy pear.
But, sadly, Chaos had, and always would, have a tinge left upon the world. Caprice…whim…this was filling the hearts of the animals. And one such animal gave in to a dark whim indeed.
"Ahhh, Eve. Truly, YOU'RE the most beautiful flower in the entire garden."
He hung down from the top of a branch, smirking with deeply dark orange eyes, looking Eve over and giving her a charming smile as he folded his arms. Eve bowed her head and blushed slightly in appreciation. "Oh, you are too kind, Czar." Eve said, reaching down to the ground. She frowned slightly at the sight of a wilting flower and breathed onto it, and with her breath, it rose higher up, sparkling slightly.
"You're MUCH nicer than that tricky bitch Adam used to have. He picked a winner, he did." Czar added, grinning broadly. "You're smart enough to know all of the Creator's unspoken laws and not go against them!"
"Yes, especially not to touch that tree." Eve added, pointing at a far off-tree where a group of small, blue creatures with pretty little wings were flying around. The cherub-like beings giggled as they repeated the phrase "Chow, chow" over and over. These were "Chao", little angels Chaos had a liking for. Nobody was sure what gift THEY had…they were odd little things.
"Ooh. Right. The…uh…" Czar blinked stupidly. "…what is that fruit the tree produces?" He asked. "I know the name, it's on the tip…" He poked his forked tongue out slightly. "Of…" he poked it out of his mouth more. "My…" MORE! "Tongue."
Eve burst into giggles. She had a very kindly voice, and was quite lovely to look at. It was not so much that she was beautiful, though indeed she was "pretty". Rather, her face emitted a warmth to it that made her seem positively heavenly. "Hee-hee-hee-hee! Aw, you fooler! You silly snake. It's The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil!" She said, waving her hand in the air.
"Ohhhhh, yes." Czar nodded and dropped down from the tree, leaning against the tree. "So…you're not to go near it?" He asked of her.
"Going near it's not going to kill us, but EATING it will. It'll kill any animal that eats it, y'know." Eve said, nodding. The way she spoke, it like this fact was the most obvious thing in all the world.
Czar grinned and walked towards the tree as the chao looked down at him. He plucked a fruit off and popped it into his mouth, chewing vigorously before swallowing. "What bull-honkery!" He finally said. "See? I didn't die. It's really a very lovely fruit. What will happen is we'll finally know the difference between good and evil." He informed her, shrugging. "But, hey, if you don't WANT to be like the Creator…"
"…be like…the CREATOR?" Eve asked, incredulously. She stuttered on the spot, trying to recompose herself. "I don't really think…"
"You don't want to know what the difference between good and evil is. I understand. Ignorance is bliss, after all." Czar reasoned, waving his hand in the air as he walked off. Eve looked at his fading figure, then at the fruit, rubbing her chin.
Knowing good and evil…
She felt kind of insulted. He was calling her IGNORANT? Who did that stupid prick think he WAS? She turned her head and looked over in the distance as she saw Adam was lying on back in the grass, blowing the top of a dandelion up and down in the air that he'd popped off the stem. She grabbed one fruit for him, and one for her, and then walked towards him.
"Hey!" She called out. "Catch." She said, giving it to Adam. "I've just been talking to Czar." She informed Adam. This little talk was catching the attention of several other animals, most noticeably the chao, who hovered in the air, eyes wide and fearful, little "hands" held to their mouths in worry. "He says that we're ignorant. That because we haven't eaten of the fruit, we don't know what it means to be good and evil!"
Adam looked down at the fruit. He frowned darkly. "That stuck up…grrrr. How dare he talk like that? What does he think we are? Amoral idiots?"
"Apparently." Eve muttered. "What do you think?"
"Well I'm eating this. It's just ONE fruit." Adam decided, nodding his head.
"Yeah. Totally." Eve agreed.
They bit into the fruit. They gobbled it down. NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM.
…five…four…three…two…one…
"…hey! I'm not dead!" Adam remarked.
"That was a pretty good fruit." Eve agreed.
They went back for seconds.
"Hmm." A hedgehog nearby remarked, eyes widening. "Hey! Lemme have one!"
"Me too!" A fox called out.
"I want one!" A toad whined.
Meanwhile, Czar, the snake, approached his wife, Czarina as she sunned herself on a rock, humming to herself. He had a slightly pained expression on his face, as if something was bothering him.
"Darling?"
"Yes, honey?"
"…do you feel a breeze?" He asked.
…
…
…
…from that day on, things were different. Every animal in the garden ending up trying the fruit from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and they all ended up paying for it. Now they knew the difference between good and evil…
And many bemoaned how unhappy they were. Ignorance HAD been bliss. Order sighed mournfully and bonked his head against a brick wall as Chaos leaned nearby. "I-can't-believe-it." He moaned. "They ATE the fruit. They ate the bloody fruit. They weren't ready! Didn't they know they weren't ready?"
"It speeds up the timetable. Makes things…interesting." Chaos decided, shrugging.
"Of course YOU'D find this amusing!" Order snapped, stopping the bonking of his head. This was too bad, the coconut-like conking sound it was producing was oddly pleasing to Chaos. "But this is serious. All of their actions shall have greater consequences now than they did before."
"True, but now…their gifts and curses will be made clear." Chaos insisted. "This will be a good thing, I'm sure!" He told his brother, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving him a knowing smile.
"I suppose we will simply have to wait and see, won't we?" Order admitted, turning to look down from their home in the skies at the animals below. Then his eyes widened broadly and a smile spread across his face. "Ooh, we will not have to wait long, methinks! For I see that the Hedgehog race is about to be the first animals to discover their gifts!"
Author's Note:
And so it gets underway...an examination of all "anthros" or "furry" species within the Sonic realm, explaining where their strengths and weaknesses come from. It's an ambitious sort of project and I was inspired to create it after reading the "Watership Down" stories, and I think this should be an enjoyable experience.
Review, if you please. :D