The World in the Sky

CHAPTER 1: TURTLE SHELL

There is no better place in this world for writing than a manor's garden on a warm, sunny day. Afternoon tea just came to a close and the master of the estate returned to his office to finish his paperwork for the day. I may look a little out of place here in England, with my tan skin and long, midnight locks. The property is owned by a British nobleman, and it's 1892. I realize how lucky I am to be here from the States under the care of this household and an aristocrat myself no less. How I got here will be a real surprise to whoever finds this tale of mine. While I have never truly seen merit in documenting these sorts of things in the past, I figured now would be a good time. All stories have an ending whether it is good or bad or void of these concepts altogether. There is no excuse to procrastinate what one desires, even if I am the only one to ever see it.

So how does this story begin? Will it be believable to all those I know and will come to meet? I cannot be certain. Let's begin two generations ago with a turtle, the Moon, and her adventurous daughter. When I was but a child, my grandmother told me stories of how this world came to be. My grandmother fell thousands of miles through the sky after being pushed out of the Sky World by her husband when she was pregnant with her first and only child. Hawenneyu truly believed she was cheating on him with a war god. They did have a happy marriage prior, but my grandmother never reconnected with him after that. Why would she? Hawenneyu is the Sky World's chief lawmaker, but my grandmother hasn't been to the Sky World since. When she landed on the earth, the ground around her was fuzzy with bright green moss. The world was turning as cerulean waves crashed on the cliffside shore. Luckily, the child within her womb was unharmed and so was she.

She heard a voice calling from beneath the water's surface when she came to. It was a rash voice belonging to man and creature alike. My grandmother told me the turtle gave her instructions on how to grow vegetables under her fingernails in mohawk, our mother tongue. She worked for months to grow saplings and squashes on the turtle's back before her daughter was finally born. The turtle rewarded her for all of her helpful efforts and transformed her into the Mother of the Earth. Ligentci, my grandmother, passed down the title the turtle bestowed upon her once my mother, Eithinoha, was born. The earth grew rapidly then as Eithinoha grew up over millennia. Soon, the turtle's shell broke into large pieces of land that covered the globe and floated in the sea. Many peoples came from Eithinoha's creations. The only difference is that they weren't like us. They could suffer cuts that wouldn't heal right away, break bones and burn their skin in the sun. They got sick and spread those ailments to others like them. They could die from silly things that we deities could not. They were called humans. We weren't supposed to associate much with this new species of person. I can't say that these teachings were forever obeyed but they were for a while.

On the turtle's broken shell, Eithinoha found herself wandering the new stretches of land. As the earth was being created and manifested, my mother met the Wind gods. The Bear took charge of the North. His name was Yaogah. The Moose hailed from the East, commonly known as Oyandone. The South was ruled by Neogah, a gentle fawn. The West was the mighty panther, Dajojo. Finally, there came forth the god of all winds, Geha, my father and my mother's beloved. They would dance around campfires as Geha played his wind instruments. Being the god of music, the wind gods would dance all through the day and night in a world that was constantly morphing and growing. Geha and Eithinoha eventually got married and she was pregnant soon after. She quickly came to realize she was carrying twins, my brother and I, who excessively competed in the womb together when we were six months old. When it came time for our births, my brother insisted upon being born first. My mother and father already had a bias toward whichever twin came first. I was furious with him as my mother rocked through her contractions. This is when we got into our first fight.

"How come you get to be first?" I said to him angrily.

"Because I get to go first! Why can't I be first? What is so wrong with that?"

"Because it's not fair!" I whined. "I want to be first! Our parents will love you no matter if you come out first or not!"

My brother decided to go ahead regardless of my pleading. I was too stubborn. I hated that he would get all the love for simply coming out first. I thought it wasn't fair. I wanted us to go at the same time if I couldn't be the first to be born. So I pushed on my mother's side, aching for the timing to be the same. I ripped through my mother's flesh and just as my brother popped out, I came out of her armpit. Unlike my brother, my skin was made of hard, rocky material and that allowed me to stretch the skin and ligaments on Eithinoha's side. My skin was so sharp I didn't just stretch hers, I tore through it like linen. We were born at the same time but the cost of my mother's life. She died immediately and I blamed her death on Tharonhiawakon, my brother. It was then we were regarded as benevolent and malevolent twins. My brother was the good twin and I, the evil and cruel one. Straight from birth, there was a large, contrasting difference between us that would alter the courses of both of our lives.

Ligentci was in mourning for a long time after the death of her daughter. She took us in as her own but that period was difficult for us all. I harbor immense guilt for my recklessness, of course, and miss my mother every day. But this one act I made as a mere infant defined who I was meant to be without even a second guess. Every deity in the Sky World despises me. How could I have known my actions would've caused my mother's passing? It is with a heavy heart that I admit to such wrongdoings. If I could change the past, I would. In the end, my brother ended up with more bias and the act of being born at the same time was just in vain. But in my opinion, I am not the one that should be feared. I am not the cruel and heartless twin everybody thinks I am. There are far worse things Tharonhiawakon has done ever since that day. It has been eons since. We are but mere teenagers according to humans. Of course, we are millions of years old, but that is quite young for a deity. The acts my brother has committed would greatly rival my misdeeds. I am not evil. I do not hate. I do not crush spirits underfoot. I may have the capacity for evil, but so does my brother despite how much he is praised. It is due to their bias that they fail to see what he is capable of. I see the truth. So that is what I shall reveal.