Ode to Nature [or alternatively: Man by Nature and Nature by Man]
Rating: K+
Pairings: None
Ages: N/A
Summary: There are supposedly two types of ghosts. Ghosts that were once living things, and ghosts that were not. Ideas, prayer, thought, how have these things within the minds of mankind shaped even the elements of the earth? The earth, the weather, the oceans, the green. What were their origins before they were given form?
Extra Notes: At the bottom. Answer to Guest Review at the bottom too.
We were the nerve endings of the earth, reaching out to be met by the sun and the wind and the rain.
Time moved slowly around us and we moved slowly with it, rather than quick and fleeting like the beasts.
They fed upon us, trampled across us, and died on us. They needed us as much as they needed the air.
All we needed was the sun. We never needed the walking things.
Humans. At least the beasts moved around us instead of through us, treaded along paths instead of gapping roads.
There were those few that recognized our power, but there were even more that saw us as an obstacle or a burden to be dealt with.
They forgot.
I was the Balboa tree that gave you shelter, the herb that cured your ails, the wood that made your home, the cactus the provided you water.
I am the blood of the earth and the tree of life.
My children grew tired of standing and waiting. They grew tired of the abuse.
There are dangers and demons hiding in the woods, they said. Nature shall take back what is theirs, others warned.
Yes… be afraid of the wilds.
Lest you be lost to the Undergrowth.
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I watched the earth as it bloomed in color and was flushed with movement and change. It was never the same two rotations in a row.
This change and rhythm was like art, fleeting art. People began to ask me for rain, or sun, or any number of patterns.
They… wanted me. They needed me.
Then people began to not think of me as powerful or being as glamorous because I almost always obeyed their requests when they would dance, sing or play out their rituals.
To them, my storms were no longer art. They were a means to an end. I grew angry and frustrated. I would show them what art could be.
I would turn the seas into rolling mountains of water, clouds into cyclones of air, razor sharp with teeth, rain into walls of water, sun into droughts that were powerful enough to split the earth, snowstorms that turned the sky and even the horizon white and grey.
I am the wrath of the 'gods'. I am the vertex of storms.
I am Vortex.
zz
It is a living thing, the dirt and the rocks and the mountains.
If you look, you can see it breathe.
When the sky rocks came and hurtled towards me,
I was said to have reached out and swatted the fiery stars away from my new body.
In truth, I hardened myself and gave all my strength to not falling to pieces.
I stretched my body and felt the surface crack open wide, I moved pieces of it on my back.
It hardens and makes it harder to breathe so I open up the dirt and let my red hot blood, my always cooling skin, rush to meet the sky, taking a great gasp of air.
They called me the earth, god, goddess, virgin.
They fed me young people and animals to my caldrons of fire, but it was their thoughts and prayers that nurtured me and gave me my form.
I am Gaia, the golem and spirit of the soil, the rocks, the minerals, the liquid earth.
I take refuge within the center of the earth.
I must rest in case another fiery stone from the darkness takes flight to shatter my heart.
For now I sleep, yet always tossing and turning.
Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out.
zz
From some place the waters came and filled the deep basins that covered the earth, reflecting blue into the blackened expanse.
I am the great wyrm of the sea, a current of boiling water that twists and wraps itself around the oceans and the earth itself.
The waters are alive and they decide who comes and goes. I live in you and all around you. I am not something you can escape from.
I leave great swaths of white light in my wake, grew scales like the animals you feared, blew fire like the demons that haunted you, slunk like the cursed snake.
I took ships and people and even nations with me into the deep, never to be seen by the surface again.
The colors that bled across the horizon at dawn and dusk are mine eyes, the eddies that end with the gnashing of teeth are my maw, the waves of water that roll and crash over each other are my coils.
I am the heart of the sea. To be slain at the end of time.
I am Leviathan.
Notes: Well this is shorter than I thought it would be, but oh well. If you weren't able to figure it out, this is how Undergrowth, Vortex, Gaia(a ghost OC), and Leviathan(another ghost OC), came to have their ghostly bodies. At first their were simply nature, but in this case nature was shaped over time by the people, animals, and other living things that existed upon it. I kinda find this to be symbolic in a sense. Ghosts that were humans were shaped by their environment, and more ancient ghosts, or ghosts that never lived, were shaped by the living.
Tell me what you think!
And for those of your that read Pondus Omnium (my longer DP story), Gaia and Leviathan will be in there.
NoSignal to Nameless Panda: Hey thanks for the support on doing backstories. I'll see what I can do. I've looked at those on deviantart before, they're hard to top, but I'll see what I can do. It might be a while before I get around to doing more backstories though. I have a list of oneshots for this collection and I often only go out of order to squeeze in requests (when they're available). I might look at my list and try to find good places to slide them in though. Thanks again!
