The First Day

Long ago, there was nothing but a cloud and 3 beings. They all just were, and they all just knew. They knew all there was about each other, and never had to question, and rarely had to speak. One was Creation, and he made statues and buildings on this cloud to please himself. And he found them good. The other was Order, and he would take what Creation gave him and make it neat. And he found them good. The other was Chaos, and he would take what Creation gave him, and made it messy. And it was good. And so Creation would make endlessly, and Order would order, and Chaos would disorder. And this went on for centuries, the gods never tiring of creation.
One day, Order had an idea, and he found Creation and talked to him. Naturally, Chaos saw them talking, and joined the discussion.
“I want to do something new.” said Order.
“I want to hear this, Order.” said Creation.
“I thought of something, and it was new.” responded Order.
“Well, say it then, Creation.” said Chaos.
“We should make new us, but they would make new creations. But we should take turns making new us.”
Chaos, Order, and Creation thought about it, and they decided to do it.
“But they should be new. Like the fire I work to create.” Said chaos
“Well then, we should have that fire!” said Creation, and he created another being, like them. And they saw the being, and called him Fire. And Fire was confused.
“And I do.” said Fire with a confused face
Fire searched for new words.
“Do make new creations.”
“Yes, you make fires.” said Chaos.
“Fire is.”
“Yes, fires are.”
“Fires is.”
Now this confused the beings. They had trouble trying to understand what Fire was saying, for they had never needed a question before. Fire wanted an answer to the question, ‘What is fire?’ So Order thought up a being that would tell what others meant.
“We should make a being that can tell what others are saying.” said Chaos
So they created Empathy, and he would understand what others were saying. But Empathy was also confused.
“I know he wants to make new. But he cannot do for it is not.”
And Creation realized he needed new words, to satisfy the impreciseness of words. And so he created Name, who would make new words.
“Hello.”
This statement confused the Beings to no end. You had one who did not understand what he did, one at a loss for words, and one speaking foreign tongues. However, in a stroke of luck, Empathy, being all knowing of meaning, knew what he meant by hello.
“Hello, Name! You are new, hello!”
And suddenly, it made sense to the gods. Hello was greeting, standard to say when you found someone new. And so for the next few words, the conversation looked like this:
“Hello, Name!”
“Hello, Creation!”
“Hello, Order!”
And so on for a few paragraphs. Soon Name was making new words, and Empathy translating.
“What. What? What! What…” said Name on one of the words.
“Name means to say… it, or what, is done in a way? He does not know the way it, or what, is done.” Said Empathy to the beings.
“What is fire?” asked Fire, as he could now do.
“You did not know the way? How-” started Chaos.
“Silly. Silly!” interrupted Name.
“Silly… means what is new in a new way that does not good but is not bad?” said Empathy.
“A new way?” asked Order.
“Different. Different way.” interjected Name.
“How silly.” finished Chaos.
Name continued to teach them words, and with each new word it became easier to understand further words. Soon they were able to talk freely, but had very little to say beyond that.
“I think that we need more of us.” said Chaos.
“Beings.” said Name.
“We need more beings.”
“But what about us new beings? De we get to create new, or is it only you Beings?” asked Fire.
“That is a good question. I think you should.” said Creation.
And so they first voted on whether the new ones can vote for creating new beings, and they voted in favor of all beings voting, and it was fair. So all six beings voted, and only one did not want new beings to create. It was Name, and he was distraught.
“Too many, one too many. I will help but refuse to create.”
“Refuse…?” said Fire.
“Does not want to do.” replied Empathy.
“Oh. Then why do you not want to do?”
“I am not with talent, for I only create words, and nothing more.” Finished Name.
“Talent is the skill to do something.”
“Then perhaps we require this Talent.” Said Creation, and made Talent before Empathy could tell him what a figure of speech was.
And so Talent existed, and he knew what they did.
“I am without use.”
“Or purpose. But purpose is use so-“
“Please hold your tongue, Name. What do you mean, Talent?” said Order.
“My talent is wasted, I mean!”
“But didn’t you just say you had a talent?” said Order, who was beginning to do something new.
“Yes, and that talent is to give, list, and make more of talents!” retorted Talent.
“But you just used your talent, Talent. So this must mean your talent is not without use, for you use it now.”
“It would seem that you are good, and I am bad, then.”
“No, you mean right. What is right and wrong is bad and good, but for words.” explained Name.
“And it would seem that what you say is right then, Name.” Finished Empathy.
And the being saw that right and wrong were diverse, and so it would be smart to have someone to talk for these words. So Order created Right with his turn, and Chaos created Wrong with his. And they were identical, or so it would seem. When Right and Wrong saw each other, they circled a few times, then looked back at the beings.
“He is Wrong.” Said Right.
“No, I am Right!” said Wrong.
“Wait, which is Right and which is Wrong?” said Order, who had lost track.
“I propose we find out who is right in this matter of Right and Wrong.” Said Chaos, who found enjoyment in this problem.
Empathy thought finding which was the right Right and the wrong Wrong futile, and so she went to Creation for her turn.
“I want something that makes others feel the right way. Since we now have Right, that is possible, right?” asked Empathy, who was starting to find this whole business silly in itself.
“Name, what would that be called?” asked Creation.
“Beauty?”
“Alright then. Beauty, here we create!”
And so Creation got ready to create, and made-
Nothing. He made no new creation at all. This perplexed him, but he tried again, once more creating no new creation. And again he tried, and again he failed. Soon, he was upset, for he had never failed to create before.
“I am creating Nothing!” said Creation, and suddenly, there was a new being present named Nothing.
“Silence, Creation! You have created something!” said Name.
“Actually, he hasn’t. I am Nothing, and he could not have created me, for I cannot exist.” echoed the voice of Nothing.
“What is existence, Name?” asked Empathy.
“It is when you are; What exists is what is, I guess.” Said Name.
“You guess? How could you possibly be unsure? You know everything!” said Creation.
“I doubt my knowledge. Perhaps I do not know everything.”
“Doubt is something where you do not know what is right and wrong.” Said Empathy to the puzzled faces of Nothing and Creation.
Now Fire had been listening this whole time and wanted to know what Doubt was. So he asked Creation for his turn.
“Why not, I guess.” And so Creation tried again, but could not create.
“This is not right. I am going to take a…”
“Rest.”
“To stop from doing until you wish to do.” commented Empathy.
“I am going to take a rest.”
“Goodbye, Creation!” said Name, and Creation understood.
“Goodbye, Name.”
And so Creation rested.

What is right and what is wrong is what is right and what is wrong.

	There once was a man named Hans, and he was a great adventurer (or so we were told). He would find ancient ruins lost to the world, traverse through dangerous jungles, and fight mysterious beasts using only his knapsack and his cleverness. This is a tale of Hans in his late fifties, when he was too weary to fight monsters but still clever and wise enough to survive the wilderness. Hans was walking along an old road in the cold of winter, with nothing but his knapsack, endless in size, but only containing a single loaf of bread and a pouch of water. He came across a beggar who was on the side of the road, collapsed. He rushed to the man, who was young, but feeble and disgustingly revolting in every way. He lifted the man’s head up and felt for warmth in the man; finding it, he talked to the man.
	“Brother, are you okay?” asked Hans to the beggar.
“I am feeble and old; my lips are cracking of thirst, and my stomach is growling with hunger. I am not much longer for this world, if I cannot reach a city.” Replied the beggar.
This concerned Hans so much, Hans resolved to give the beggar food.
“Here; take my knapsack, for it contains what you need. Food and water, enough to get you to the next city if you ration it well.”
The beggar was very surprised. He had never been given such a generous gift, one that could keep him alive.
“This…” said the beggar, tears welling in his eyes and gushing down his cheeks. “…is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me! But how will you survive?”
	“Do not worry about me; my days are over, and my strength has gone out. Be on your way, and treat others as kind as I have treated you.”
But the beggar refused to let such a good deed go unrewarded.
“Follow the trail down to the hollow oak, and knock three times on the knot in the oak. There you will find eternal happiness, if you can answer a statue correctly. I was foolish enough to try and failed, and that is why I am as I am now. But you have nothing to lose; should you answer incorrectly, it will not matter, making it a victory no matter what you do.”
Hans thanked the man for his tale, and went down the road in search of a hollow log. Soon enough he found it, and searched for a knot in the log.
“I cannot find it!” said Hans in frustration. Calming himself down, he resolved to look around once more. He found it at the base of the trunk, hidden well behind a veil of shadow, for it was small.
“Knock three times.”
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
The ground in front of Hans opened up, and a ladder appeared to greet him. Hans took hold of the ladder, and went down the dark tunnel. He spotted a statue in between two large wooden doors. Soon he was at the statue, and its eyes opened and followed Hans’ movements.
“What is right and what is wrong is what is right and what is wrong.” Said the statue to Hans as he approached.
“Which door am I to pick, if I seek eternal happiness?” asked Hans to the door.
“What is right and what is wrong is-”
“Yes, yes, I get that part. But what is the riddle I must solve to pick a door?”
“What is right and what is wrong is what is right and what is wrong.”
“Are you going to continue repeating that? Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I’m senile, you know.”
“What is right and what is wrong is what is right and what is wrong, and what goes right and what goes wrong are what goes right and what goes wrong.”
“Is this the riddle itself?”
“Yes.” boomed the statue.
“So what is right and what is wrong is what is right and what is wrong.”
“Yes.”
“I know that what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong-”
“Then pick a door, if you know.”
“-the problem is I’m not quite sure what you are trying to tell me here. Is that statement the riddle?”
“What is right and what is wrong is what is right and what is wrong. That’s it. If you want to pick the right or left door, then do that. Otherwise, I would prefer to be left alone.” Said the statue, now irritated.
A thought sparked in Han’s mind, a clever one.
“I pick the right door.”
“But why?”
“Because you told me to pick it, why else?”
The door shined as Hans walked through, having made his clever choice. When he got though to the other side, he was greeted by a Being known as Name; at least, that’s what their name seemed to be.
“Welcome, Hans, to Timeless. You can now view all that was, and how it came to be.”
“Why does that grant eternal happiness?”
Name was rather off-put by this comment, as he had never bothered to ask that himself.
“I guess that’s just half the riddle, isn’t it.”
And Hans and Name peered into Timeless; for it was strange.