Wandering the Plains

On the First Dawn, the Sun rose over an empty plain of barren stone. No wind raced across this plain, for there was no wind. No water trickled down this plain, for there was no water. No grass grew from its skin, nor did game graze its trails, for there were neither grass nor game.

The Sun shone on a Mountain standing alone in the plain, towering over the desolate emptiness. Where the Sun shone on the Mountain, there was light and heat, and where the Mountain blocked the Sun, there was dark and cold. And on each side, at the border where light met dark and heat met cold, there was life.

As the Sun moved, the light and the dark moved with it and with them moved the life. The life that did not move, froze. The life that did not move, burned. Soon it came to be that each clan, which had believed itself to be alone in the Twilight, came across the old camps of the other, and knew that they were not alone. And one camp rejoiced that they were not alone in the barren plain, yet the other camp wept that they were forever separated from their kin. The camp that rejoiced left messages of hope for the camp that wept, the camp that wept left messages of despair.

The Sun turned, and with it turned the twilights in which the clans dwelt. The clans grew, and continued to leave messages for the other, and in time agreed to send scouts along the twilight, some headed for the Mountain, and some out into the emptiness, where they hoped the twilights would join at the shadow of the peak of the Mountain.

The scouts reached the Mountain, and discovered that its many crevices and caves had allowed for life to flourish there, and there were many plants and animals to eat and rocks to use. Neither group of scouts was able to meet the other, for the Mountain’s face was still exposed to the burning light and the freezing dark and no cave was found that reached to the other side. Some were sent back from the Mountain to their clans, each believing the Mountain uninhabited, yet most stayed and began to settle it. Each of their leaders saw the Mountain’s riches and knew that here, WE CAN BE.

The scouts reached the ever-turning shadow of the apex, and saw the fullness of the Mountain and the twin lines of sustaining twilight rimming the shadow. The clans met at the shadow-peak, and looked back to see the twin daggers of the Mountain and its Shadow, and the endless emptiness of the burning plain, with only the thin lines of liveable twilight lying between. The leaders of these saw the harsh barrenness of the empty rock and knew that there, WE CANNOT BE.