"Eat of the fruit," hissed Chaos through teeth dry from smiling.
She tired of existing alone on the dark side of the Earth. She was bored.
"One bite and you will posses the knowledge to make you like Gods amongst animals, only then can you truly know what it is to rule the Earth."
From the branches above their heads-- his white feathers sitting stark against the dark bark-- watched Peace. He held no expectations, only hope that things would be different this time.
But humans were drawn to chaos-- eon and eon again, it happened.
He knew how the story would unfold, yet still he held his breath as the human brought the fruit to her lips and bit gently into its flesh.
He watched as she ran down the hill, the grass bending beneath her bare feet, the sky receiving her exultation as she called for her partner.
The dove flew down and landed on the ground beside the snake, whose eyes were gleaming, still trailing the woman who was like a girl in many ways-- but that would all change now.
"Interesting form you've taken, Dark One," he said.
"One of your finest creations I believe, Your Lightness," the snake replied mockingly, "although, when the changes begin, this form will be condemned to your children's hatred and fear, and I'll be long gone."
"Gone? I doubt that." He said.
"Do you not wish to watch whether he eats of the fruit?" she asked, turning her thin head and black beady eyes his direction, until he could see his own reflected inside of them.
"I know what happens, there is no need to watch. I will give them this last sun and moon in the garden--in their home.
Besides, I would not want to miss an opportunity to speak with an old friend."
She hissed, her tongue flicking out between her giant teeth and it sounded almost like a laugh.
His heart jumped at the beauty of this creature, who, of course, he could not help but love.
"Are we friends now, then?"
"I consider us to be the oldest and dearest of friends," he replied.
She stared at him unblinkingly for a moment before breaking out in that same laughing hiss, and he laughed with her, his beak opening into high-pitched coos.
After a few moments they were silent. Then, gently, he said, "Thank you for the time that you gave me with them, as things are."
She turned away from him then and he wondered if he saw sadness in her.
"You will get your heaven on Earth with them again someday, and perhaps they will not muss things up so roughly this time around."
"Perhaps," he said, and they both thought about the other times, the countless cycles of birth and creation followed by death and destruction. His beloved children destroyed by their own creating.
"I will send more teachers this time. There will be different languages, perhaps it will be easier to make them understand."
"Understand what, exactly?" She hissed. "The importance of turning away from the darkness, from evil?"
"That only in chaos can peace be found, only beside hate can love be understood, and without the darkness one could not see oneself as the light."
"They are the darkness as well," she said quietly.
"I know," he responded. "They take after their mother that way."
He looked at her but she kept her eyes straight ahead.
"Nevertheless," he continued, "they were created in love and it is to love that they will return. It is love which will drive their spirits, and it is darkness which will give them the opportunities they need to grow."
"And so you need me." She said matter-of-factly, turning.
Her eyes glowed, reflecting his.
"Until the end of time," he replied.
