It started with a thought. He, Time, was walking along the Heavens when he tripped over a rock on his golden road. He bent down and picked it up, turning the piece of organic stone around in his hand. The piece was dirty. It didn't shine as his timeless roads gleamed in the light emanating from his presence, nor did it seem to have any value except for what it had just done. Trip him. He scoffed at the idea. Who would make something so frivolous?
Time heard a giggle somewhere off in the dark to his right. He turned, shocked. Usually, the implings and small creatures he so loved did not dare come out in his presence. They preferred the comfortable darkness his presence dispelled. Much to his surprise, however, another entity emerged. She was nearly as tall as he, with golden skin and long, dark hair. She too exuded light, but hers was golden whereas Time glowed faintly silver. "Is this yours?" he asked.
The entity accepted the stone and smiled. "Not all things must have a purpose," she answered him. Time was drawn aback; none of his docile creatures had ever had such a sense of wit or had even dared to speak with him, if they did. He stared at her, and then he looked behind her. Where he had left simply darkness, she had made a world. Tall structures with gold-green hearts thrust out of the center shafts on sticks of the same material covered the ground. "The trees are only the beginning," the entity smiled.
"What are you doing?" asked Time in shock. He stared at the entity in horror. Though he had left his world undeveloped as of yet, it had been his world alone until this being had emerged, wreaking all havoc. "What have you done?"
"I am Earth," she answered. "I am the daughter of Sky and Rain, who were born to the Heavens themselves." She smiled at Time, who looked like her father Sky's brother Cloud when about to explode. "There was nothing here before. I wanted something fresh, clean, and new. This is what resulted." Earth touched one of the trees and her breathing slowed. Her whole form seemed to shimmer with golden light and her head tilted back, her mouth open as she twirled in sheer delight. "Come," she smiled to Time. He shook his head. He left the strange Earth in her creations, returning to his home in the Palace of Light.
Many times Earth invited Time to see what she had made, and each time she had more to show him. One day, he decided to go. She had begun to annoy him long before, but the annoyance had grown to such an extent that he could no longer ignore her pleas. The Sky, which was Earth's father, was clear and blue overhead. He was in a good mood, then. Earth spun as she moved through the forest. Her steps were light and quick and free, her bare feet reveling in the soft floor. She smiled at Time. He moved towards her and took her hand in his. "This is beautiful," he whispered as a small creature approached them. Its soft, brown head came to his waist and it walked on four legs. "What is it?"
"I call it a deer," answered Earth. "Those are birds. I send them as messengers to my father, so that he knows I am safe. My mother Rain sends me her tears when she misses me." Time watched her face as she spoke of her parents. She smiled, but her smile was bittersweet. He touched her cheek, wanting to ease her pain. He hated to see troubled hearts. It was one of the reasons he did not create his toys with the same kind of life that he had. He saved them from heartbreak. Earth turned towards him. "You are erroneous," she told him. "Heartbreak is a small price to pay for the joy one can know when one's heart is fully alive." Time shivered as a soft breeze pushed him towards Earth. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as easily as though he had been made to do so.
It was not long after that moment that the pair was joined together by Sky forever, Earth's turns to be measured in Time's embraces. Their union birthed the Seasons; Autumn, Spring, Summer, and Winter. Each had an opposite, so there was balance. The Seasons were given their own piece of time as a gift from their father, and their mother gave them changes to make to her creations. Autumn would take Earth's green leaves and paint them with his fiery tones, while Winter would spread a blanket of snow to atone for his cold winds and icy land. Spring removed her brother's icy hands from their mother's creation and replaced the leaves he had stolen with fresh, new, green buds. When Spring was finished, her sister Summer opened the buds she had placed on the trees, opened flowers, and warmed the earth enough to balance Winter's frigid chill. From the passage of the Seasons came new creatures and new pieces of earth, new oceans from the tears Rain shed. Sky often changed his form when his grandchildren would bicker. In his anger, he became dark and threatened to strike. Sometimes, he would and it was not the Seasons who would suffer but Earth herself. Inevitably, the flashes of light, always so brief, would be followed by gentle rains. Sometimes, it took Rain a long time to temper Sky's anger, and it would rain for days and nights. Inevitably, the Seasons would appeal to their grandfather and he would apologize with a brighter smile than ever. Each time he apologized, a bright band of six shades of light would be placed across his expanse. He enjoyed the delight of the Seasons each time he brought out his silent apology. Life went on, and the Seasons grew bored with the glob of creation with which they had so long played.
Time and Earth looked to each other for a solution. In their scramble for something new, they took pieces of different creatures in existence and put them together to make humans. These creatures were a bit clumsy, but they were intelligent and would amuse the Seasons with their attempts to predict the behavior of the impish siblings. They argued amongst one another and it was often that Earth would heal a broken person. When one was unfixable, Earth covered it in her sorrow that such a thing could occur. Someday, she promised, she would fix them all for her children. She gave half of the humans the ability to reproduce when she saw that they were growing sparse, and soon many humans ran wild over the Earth's creation. As the entities aged, their creations changed as well. Mankind, for that was the name given to the creatures by Time, changed. As there were more and more, they banded together and formed smaller groups. Sometimes they would fight. They tried to live in peace, but Earth soon discovered she had forgotten to give her newest creatures the capacity for full understanding of one another. They invented strange things, and invented strange explanations for all that Time, Earth, and their children had created. Sometimes, it was over these explanations that people fought. It seemed trivial to the Seasons. It didn't matter where it all had come from, though the entities had shown themselves for who they were. All that mattered was that the creation was what it was, and was going where it was headed. What it was exactly, and where it was going, only Earth and Time knew.