Living Pain

by florgurl

Earth wishes for her childern to have souls, but to have her wish granted she must pay. I had to write this as an asignment for World History, and decided to post it on here while I was at it.

In the beginning was Chaos, a dark unfathomable abyss. Chaos was untamable, cold, dark, and frightening. Night and Day were created from this Nothing, born as two babies. Love was created next. Love and Day came together to form Light. Then the World appeared. The World was a great sea, with a single large island floating on it. At the Heart of the World was Earth, mother of the sea, trees, land, and mountains. The Titans came, and from them were born the gods.

The gods took care of the World; they each cared for what they found the most worthy. Earth wanted more than to be cared for, she wanted her children, the trees, sea, and mountains, to have their own spirits. She called upon the gods to grant her this request. They were unsure of whether to give it to her, for they knew she would have to go through great pain to have it done. They decided to give her the decision of going through the pain, and giving spirits to her children, or letting her live as she did, and having her children as they were now, living, but soulless.

They sent Iris, goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods, to give her this news. Iris traveled to the Heart of the World, where Earth sat upon her throne; surrounded by green plants. Earth's body was made of the rock and soil of the mountains, her hair was like the branches and leaves of the trees, and she was clothed in the water from the sea. She welcomed Iris, who told her the news of the gods' decision. Earth was devastated by this news, and asked for some time to make her decision. Iris gave her a month, and stayed with her during that time.

At the end of the month Earth announced her decision: she would go through the pain, and allow her children to truly live. Iris told her that the land of the island would separate, forming several bodies of land. As soon as she had said these words, the landmass began to split, and Earth felt the tearing as if the land were being ripped from her body.

Earth cried from the feeling of separation, and Iris cried with her. As Iris' tears fell, they landed on the green plants surrounding Earth. The tears from the goddess of the rainbow gave the plants colors; reds, blues, purples, and oranges.

Earth's children were granted souls, the souls of the mountains were called the Oreads, the trees were given Dryads, and the water spirits were the Naiads.

From this time on, whenever Earth gave birth to an Oread, Dryad, or Naiad, she felt the pain of the separation again. She knew the pain would allow her children to live, and that was more important to her than anything.