The Watcher - Prologue

I have been since the beginning. I have watched the moon in scorn as it turned its luminous gaze and wondered at the sun's strange dance. At that time there was nothing except us. The Moon, cold and pale, hiding within the black. The sun, always so cheerful, shared her light as streams of energy when she danced. And me, watching them, watching all, always watching and learning.

Time did not matter to us, for it had no meaning. We had not known it. But then came another. She was a mystery. She was beautiful and they each wanted to impress her, but not me. I only watched. The moon came out more often and blinded me with his pale eyes. He made water and made it rise and expand across the black. The sun marveled, but then made a dance that sent forth the fire that clashed with the water, and a stone mountain rose. They chased each other, throwing water and fire into the void, but in their revelry, they did not see her between all, and she was caught between, and she disappeared beneath the mess.

Then the stone was made green where she had been, and plants sprouted and grew. They stopped and stared and in shame went away into the void, going around the stone and water, searching for her, for they had not seen what I had seen. Then He smiled, and a wind blew through the black unto the stone, taking me down to it, and a mirror was formed around it, so that I could no longer see the black, but only the light of the sun and moon searching.

And of a sudden, I knew time and I despaired.

Then they came and built great towers of stone, and I was afraid of them, for they seemed strange and like to me. They lived in their towers and explored the planet. For a long time, they did nothing that I could see; they kept to their towers and went abroad little. I was enchanted, but I felt imprisoned on this planet, and I could not go through the mirror that held this world together.

After more time, I grew curious. Curious enough to get closer to those tall towers. They were guarded by a portal of gray that I had not seen before, and I could not believe something had escaped my sight. I saw everything. I saw far and wide. When had these portals come?

I spent then many revolutions of the sun and moon there, thinking about how to enter.

My mind then began changing, memories fading into nothingness. I had never experienced anything like this before. I had been free of everything, but now something was holding me back. Was it this stone? I felt as if I were fading, and I felt a sudden desire to grow knowledge. I was aware then of my lack of wisdom and knowledge. I did not remember if I lacked anything when I lived in the black above.

Time passed, I don't know how much, until at last there came one of them from the portal, which swiveled and wheeled out of the way, and I marveled. I did not understand yet how it worked, but I followed inside, and I danced in wonder in the halls of stone, illuminated by the rays of the sun spilling from window-slits high high above where the ceiling was vaulted in complex formations swirling inwardly.

For the first time, I felt the ground beneath my feet. I felt the soft carpet fur and the cold smooth stone. The crimson interlaced with gold left in me a wonder of its beauty.

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