The Shedding of Peryite

It was only after the echoes of the terrible fight between the IS and IS NOT of the universe ceased when the fledging spirits decided to take on forms from their various blood-spots. But they were rather horrible at taking permanent bodies, and they constantly failed and succeeded and failed and succeeded over and over again.

One spirit in particular took no interest in the forming and the un-forming. He had chosen the name of Aka, and would have rather stayed within his blood-spot. However, several ages past and none of the other spirits ever stayed in one form for to long, and this made Aka bored and angry at the same time (for he was rather short-tempered in those days too).

“This is stupid and you are all stupid,” Aka yelled loud enough that the spirits all the way in the back of the Place-That-Was-Not-Really-There could hear him. “Now, see me try.”

And without thinking at all Aka jumped up from his blood-spot and took on the form of a whopping dragon and suddenly Time kicked into the Place-That-Was-Not-Really-There, spreading outwards from Aka’s own body. The other spirits were so awed by this display that they began to do what Aka did and were finally able to take on permanent forms like he did, and everyone was pretty freaking happy.

But as Time rolled out into the Aurbis (the name the know-it-all Magnus had given the Place-That-Was-Not-Really-There) Aka’s body began to grow very thin, and with surprise he found himself trapped underneath the horrendous weight of Time, with the other spirits trapped underneath him.

“Oh crap,” the Dragon said, causing more Time to flow into the Aurbis. “I overdid it, and now I’m far too stretched out! If I don’t stop Time from spreading I’ll collapse, and we’ll have to start all over again.”

But from underneath his belly Aka heard a voice, and he peered one of his eyes downward to see Y’ffre and his friend Z’en. The Dragon slowly lifted himself upwards ever so slightly, and the two were able to hop along the edges of Time until they jumped unto Aka’s eye and sat.

“Ouch!” the Dragon bellowed. “What do you two want?”

“Shush you arrogant dragon and just listen,” Z’en said, causing Aka to bare his teeth and let out more streams of Time. “We do not want to spend the rest of creation stuck underneath your scaly stomach.”

“So we came up with an idea,” Y’ffre said, rapping Aka hard on the mouth and causing him to close his mouth and halt the Time flooding. “If you shed the pieces of yourself that you don’t like, then you and the sheddings can share Time equally and we could all move about freely again.”

Aka thought of this idea, and while he didn’t like the idea of shedding parts of himself, he liked the idea of moving again. “Fine, I’ll do this. Now get off my eye,” the Dragon groaned and Y’ffre and Z’en jumped away.

And Aka remembered how he didn’t want creatia to end, so he shed the very End of Time from his being first. He also happened to be thinking of his hurting tummy while doing this, and that shedding became known as Alduin.

And then Aka remembered what Z’en had said about him being arrogant, and so that was the second thing he shed. This shedding was constantly wishing for his time to come, and it became known as Auri-El.

And then Aka remembered how he lived in the moment of his own formation, and that was the third thing he shed. This shedding was always energetic and happy, and it became known as Alkosh.

And it was after all this shedding that Aka realized he could move about freely again, and he grew very happy. The other spirits grew happy too, and they crawled out from underneath Aka’s giant tummy to do their own thing. Aka was about to go have fun too when the super-tidy spirit known as Jyggalag walked up to him.

“Aka!” he cried out indignantly. “You have unleashed much chaos into the Places-Not-Really-Here. Fix it!”

“Magnus would much rather have you use the term Aurbis; you know how upset he gets when we don’t use his new words.”

“You need to reestablish the natural order of things you so carelessly messed up.”

Aka yawned. “I thought that was your job?”

“It is too much a job for me to handle alone! Your first shedding-son Alduin eats things left to right, your second shedding-son Auri-El keeps getting in our way, and let’s not get started on your third shedding-son Alkosh. He keeps breaking things!”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“I don’t know. Think of something!”

Aka frowned, and then his eyes brightened. “I know! I’ll just shed another part of myself to keep the other sheddings in line.”

And so Aka shed the orderly nature of Time from his being (which was a slightly small piece), and this shed became known as Peryite, who was likewise smaller than his shed-brothers. But Peryite had a big heart, and Aka gave him the most important job of all; to watch over all of the other spirits and know what they were doing at all times. Then Aka went to sleep, because all that self-shedding would make any spirit tired, and didn’t wake up for many centuries.

So Peryite descended from the side of his father-shedder who was also his brother and settled on his nose, and looked upon the chaos that was the Aurbis and said one word:

“Drat.”