How the Earth came to be blue

At the beginning, in the time before men, the world was a vast wilderness of rock and sand: dull, flat, monotonous and uncaring. There were no trees, no flowers, no meadows, no rivers or valleys, no wind and no rain, no day, no night. Just vast empty plains and rocks sweltering under an endless Sun. The only creatures to walk the Earth were fauns. Playful, horned, hoofed, happy fauns. Watched over from the heavens above by Mother Sky and her two daughters Soul and Song.

Sky, Soul and Song delighted in seeing the fauns at play and watched all their games. The fauns loved to gallop and skip and leap but of all the games the fauns played, their favourite was archery.

Faun Oh-see-ahn was the happiest, most playful of all the fauns and was the favorite of Mother and daughters. He would gallop and gambol about, thrusting his hooves into the sand, leaping from the rocks and cavorting around his playmates. Of course, he was the best archer of them all. He could loose his arrow into the distance and hit a tiny thought at a thousand hoof paces. Having captured that one thought, he would grow it and turn it into dreams.

"Oh-see-ahn, come play with us," the other fauns would say. Sometimes Oh-see-ahn would play and sometime he would not. Sometimes he wanted to be alone, to dream his dreams. He would dream of other creatures who would join them in their games. He would dream of animals with four legs and hooves, like the faun, who would gallop about with them and play throughout the plains. He would dream of six-legged creatures, that would have four legs to stand on and two legs on their backs to flap about so they could climb up high into the sky, to be near to the Sun and to Mother Sky.

Sometimes he dreamt of creatures with no legs at all, that would wriggle about on the ground and make the fauns laugh. Most of all he dreamt of creatures who, having only two legs, could not leap or gallop, and would befriend the fauns to ride upon their backs. What games they would play together.

"Come play with us, Oh-see-ahn. Come play!" Sang the other fauns as they watched Oh-see-ahn sitting on the edge of a rock at a great distance, looking out at the ends of the world, dreaming his dreams. Oh-see-ahn often wondered what lay beyond the far horizon. Some said it was a cliff that led to nothing. If a faun ever leapt over the edge he would fall and fall and fall forever. Sometimes the rascal Helm'th would try to tempt his friends to venture to the ends of the Earth and leap over the cliff to see if the stories were true. He made the other fauns frightened.

"Don't worry," he would say, "I will tie a thread to you and pull you back up. The other fauns were still frightened and Helm'th didn't offer to do the leaping. He never stopped teasing and tricking the others though, and even tried to persuade Oh-see-ahn to jump the cliff.

"You are the bravest and cleverest of all the fauns, my dear friend Oh-see-ahn," Helm'th said one time. "Why don't you give it a try? Why not leap over the edge of the world and see what is on the other side?"

"If I am so clever," asked Oh-see-ahn, "then why would I want to leap off the ends of the Earth? Begone Helm'th and try your tricks on some foolish faun, but beware our Mother's wrath if you do."

With this, Helm'th stormed off, beating his hooves in anger. He did not like to be outsmarted by any other faun, and he resented Oh-see-ahn for his popularity. He dreamt of revenge against Oh-see-ahn and he knew what he wanted to do to hurt the favored faun. Before Helm'th dreamt this dream of revenge, there was no such thing, no such dream as revenge. Helm'th made the revenge dream for the first time and he meant to make his dream come true.

Returning to the rest of the fauns, he told them that he had tried his best to persuade Oh-see-ahn to come and play, but without success. Having dreamt up 'revenge' he had already dreamt up something else that was new. He had told the first lie in all eternity and he was proud of his achievement.

"Look at our friend Oh-see-ahn," Helm'th sneered. "Look at him sitting on that rock dreaming, when he should be playing with us. Why will he not come and play? Why will he not come and dance and play and shoot arrows with us? What can we do to get his attention?"

All of the fauns were looking at Helm'th, not knowing what to say in answer to his questions. Fauns had no worldly worries and were not used to solving conundrums. So Helm'th answered his own question, as he knew he would.

"Why don't we shoot an arrow at Oh-see-ahn, to attract his attention?" asked Helm'th.

"No, no, no," sang the fauns, as if with one voice. "We cannot do such a thing, for we would not desire to hurt our brother."

"We will not hurt our dearest Oh-see-ahn," said Helm'th, in his smoothest voice. "We will ask our brother Faul'ish to shoot the arrow," for he could not strike a target with his bow at any distance, least of all the far distance between here and where Oh-see-ahn is sitting and dreaming."

Faul'ish looked down at the ground, sheepishly, knowing that what Helm'th said was true, he was no archer. He then looked up at the others, seeking a sign of approval, but none met his eye. The rest of the fauns were shifting restlessly. Oh-see-ahn was oblivious to the chattering of the fauns in the distance, lost, as he was, in his dreams.

"Faul'ish," said Helm'th at length, "Fire an arrow in the direction of our dear friend Oh-see-ahn and let's hope that it will hit the ground close enough to attract his attention." Though reluctant to go against Helm'th, who was popular among the fauns, Faul'ish demurred.

"My arrow will not travel true, and I fear it will not fly far enough to reach our Oh-see-ahn."

"Try your best, my dear friend. Fire your arrow high and we will see how far it flies. If it does not reach close enough to Oh-see-ahn, I will gallop off myself and bend my forelegs and beg him to come play with us." It was the second lie ever told, for Helm'th would beg of no faun.

Faul'ish, unable to refuse further, took up an arrow from his quiver and, drawing the bowstring further back then he ever had before, loosed it high up above him. Yet though the arrow flew in a high arc it was neither fast enough nor true enough to reach Oh-see-ahn, as Faul'ish and the other fauns were all relieved to see.

At that moment, however, Helm'th looked up and blew a great breath out over towards the arrow and, with his eye on the distant faun, blew the shaft right in the direction of Oh-see-ahn. He blew the arrow so fast that it fell down upon the unsuspecting faun, cleaving the creature's ribs to lodge in his back, piercing his heart.

Mother Sky could feel the arrow penetrating the faun's body as if it were her own flesh that had been pierced. She let out a great cry of pain and anguish, for she knew what it meant.

"No, no! Who has done this dreadful deed, who has hurt my favorite faun?"

Helm'th, on hearing the voice of Mother, bolted, desperate to hide from her anger. He ran and ran and ran, galloping to the nearest cave, which he dived down, far from Mother's sight. Deeper and deeper he descended, to escape Mother Sky's wrath.

Meanwhile, Oh-see-ahn lay on his rock and groaned in dreadful pain, his life ebbing away. Mother Sky, angered at what the fauns had done, took away the Sun so that darkness reigned above. A great clashing of the distant heavens struck fear into the fawns who scattered over the plains below.

Mother Sky, Soul and Song all wept bitter tears over their most beloved. Such a flood of tears was produced that all three came down to where Oh-see-ahn lay, on a canoe floating upon the great river of tears from above. So powerful was the flow of salty water from the unbridled weeping, that the great plains of the Earth began to take flood.

As Oh-see-ahn lay there, the waters rose, covering the faun. Reaching down from their canoe, Soul and Song gathered up the injured fawn, placing him gently in the canoe with them, before floating back up to the heavens, leaving the other fauns to fend for themselves.

The rain of tears continued and grew stronger, until the whole of the Earth was covered with bitter, salty water, save for the highest mountains and the highest part of the plains. The whole of the remaining dry Earth (or Pan-Gea, as it later became known) was surrounded by the salt water of the bitter tears shed over Oh-see-ahn. So that the great waters of the Earth came to be known by the name of Oh-see-ahn, the great Ocean.

Mother Sky held her beloved Oh-see-ahn and drew the arrow from his back. As she did so, there spilled from the wound a great many dreams, which fell back to Pan-Gea. In time, they grew to be the wonderful creatures seen only by Oh-see-ahn. First to arise from Oh-see-ahn's dreams were the four legged creatures. Then came the creatures with two extra legs that grew the most beautiful, light feathers, allowing them to fly up towards Mother Sky. At a later time came the funny creatures with no legs at all, that wriggled and wriggled until they wriggled themselves into the great Ocean.

There they remained, growing tails to propel themselves through the waters, scaly jackets to keep them warm in the cold depths, and gills that allowed them to breathe the bitter waters. Mother Sky sent Faul'ish down into the depths of the Ocean to rule over its creatures, which he named 'f''ish' after himself.

Finally, came the most special of all of Oh-see-ahn's dreams, the two legged creatures. Sadly, they were never to play with Oh-see-ahn, or any of the other fauns, who remained hidden away from sight for evermore. Though some say they have seen the fauns, peeping out from their hiding places.

In time, Mother Sky gave back the Sun, to shine down on Pan-Gea, but only for some of the time. The rest of the time, when the Sun did not shine, the heavens remained dark. So dark that there was no light to see by. So Mother gave Oh-see-ahn a new heavenly life. He was able to keep his bow and the one arrow that Mother had drawn from his back. In the dark heavens he ruled the time of no-light, or 'n'ight'. There, he used his bow and one arrow to capture passing dreams, one by one. These dreams he turned into tiny lights he called his 'stars', and which he placed in glorious patterns in the heavens, to guide the creatures below during the time of n'ight.

In the time of light, which became known as 'day', the sun shone down on the Ocean and Pan-Gea and all of their creatures. The rivers continued to flow from the heavens but became pure, clear water that Pan-Gea's creatures were able to drink.

The glorious Sun shone its light upon the waters of the Ocean, and the waters of the rivers and streams and pools of Pan-Gea. The Sun also shone upon the waters in the heavens. The light falling upon the Ocean and the rivers and the heavens reflected the beautiful, heavenly colour that came to be known as 'blue'. And that is how the Earth became blue.

Of the deceiving faun Helm'th, little is known. He never showed his face above ground again, but sometimes he can be heard whispering defiance against Mother Sky, trying to tempt her creatures to offend against her ways. But all the creatures of the Earth remember how Mother Sky had taken away the Sun, how she takes it away every night, and could take it away again forever if she chose to.

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