#thania

"What is that."

I couldn't tell you how I could hear those words, affronted and short. I couldn't tell you a lot of things, because I didn't know what things existed yet. I was… new. A creation spun in the dark by cold (though, make no mistake, kind) hands, spidery fingers dancing amongst my atoms with a skill I could not comprehend (and in the future, would continue not to comprehend). One moment I was merely stardust, fallen from the heavens into some deep ominous cavern, and the next I had a consciousness.

"It is mine," replied a new voice, clear and steely. "I will hear no word against it."

"Thania, it looks as fragile as glass, put it out of its misery, or I will."

Thania, blessed Thania, who pulled me from the sky and into the dank, cool, earth. I will remember this name always, with reverence and with fear, for what sort of creature can simply create as she had?

"And will you down Rheiah's monstrosities? The ones with teeth and claws, who will someday kill and hurt whatever other creatures we decide to make? Will you tear Helian, Nychti, and Lunapa's creations from the sky?"

"This is different," growled the other voice. "This one is like us."

"A legacy," Thania breathed out happily, the little gust of air spiraling and tumbling through the air, sparkling. Or, it felt like a breath from Thania would do such a thing. I could not see (not yet, not for a long time) but my imagination was growing in leaps and bounds.

"It is an insult to call it a legacy of any sort. Do your duty, sister. Kill it."

There is a silence. It is not a comfortable silence (it makes me writhe anxiously, at which the other presence makes a noise of disgust). Then Thania speaks once more.

"In time, it will grow. It does not have a purpose yet, and its form reflects that. Would you really have me ruin a being with such potential?" Her voice is warm and it wraps around me, lulling my mind into a more dormant state. My time has not yet come, so I will sleep.

"You've grown churlish in your old age, Kronal. I urge you to reflect on why that is."

"Fuck off, Thania. And put that thing away, I don't want to see it again until it becomes… something."

"As you wish."

Words began to blur together as I settle into a state of half-being. I feel myself sink into the dirt, my body (was it a body yet?) catching on jagged rocks along the way down, down down. And slowly… I was forgotten.

(Forgotten,

until lifetimes later,

the first troll shuts their eyes

and

dreams

of