Scaraquan Story for the Origin of All Life
Some time ago, the Primordial Sea gave birth to the Seeyirah, the daughters/sisters of the Sea: Mubete, Taedi, and Enosha. The Three Sisters often quarreled for there were no other beings but themselves. As they struggled against each other the Sea bent under their actions and it created new primordial entities beyond itself. The Sky, the Land, and the Ocean Floor.
Some time ago, Enosha looked over the expanse of water and said “This is truly beautiful, but alas it is sterile and empty. There should be something here besides the three of us to disturb this emptiness.”
Taedi said “There is beauty in emptiness. This is adequate.”
Mubete said, “This can be better than ‘adequate,’ we should create life.”
“Where will we get the power to do this?” Enosha asked.
Mubete sensed great power in the dark sky. The sky held a mysterious power known as “Fire,” but the sky would not share its Fire with the Land and the Sea. The Sky tried to hide its Fire, but they could not hide it fully as pinpricks of light bled through the dark shroud hiding the Fire. These pinpricks of leaking Fire are what Scarterrans call "the stars”. The three goddesses of the sea knew this was only the tip of the iceberg for what Fire the Sky held.
Mubete broke the surface of the water and called out, “Great Sky, please share with some of your Fire.”
The Sky did not answer, because like the Sea, it was a primordial force and could not be reasoned with. Nevertheless, kep repeating her call, and a stern voice eventually replied.
“I am Heekma , son of the Sky. You shall not have our Fire! I forbid it.”
Mubete and Enosha were saddened. Taedi, was initially indifferent to her sisters’ plan to make life from Sky’s Fire, but she hated to be told “no.” She thought it was odd that Sea had three children and Sky only had one. She suspected Heekma had a brother.
The world was dark, but Taedi created a cloud of ink to become darker, so that even the light of the stars would not touch her. She swam into to the Sky cloaked in darkness. It was uncomfortable to swim somewhere so dry, but eventually she found what she was looking for, Heekma’s younger brother. Taedi dramatically removed her cloak of darkness so she could glow radiantly in the starlight.
"I am Taedi. Who are you handsome one?”
“I am Dalgari.” the silvery brother of Heekma said nervously to the beautiful stranger.
“I was hoping to find one like you. I am lonely in the Sea.”
"You are from Sea! How is it you came here?”
“With sheer determination,” she said proudly.
“How do you like the Sky, beautiful one?”
“It is lovely here, but I am cold.”
“I will bring you some Fire!” Dalgari said eagerly.
So Dalgari stealthily stole some Fire from his brother and presented it to Taedi.
“Thank you for this generous gift!” Taedi said enthusiastically. After gushing, she saddened her expression.
“I am warm now, but now I am also dry. I must return to Sea, but I will be back to visit you soon,” Taedi promised him though she had no intent to return.
Dalgari has yet to give up hope of Taedi’s return. Every twenty-eight days, he presents her a torch of silvery Fire to invite her back, the torch slowly fades away over time before, but Dalgari always reignites it anew creating the phases of the moon.
With the Fire, Taedi brought warmth and light to the sea, and she began to create life forms. She let her sisters join her, but only after she got a head start creating creatures. She invited her sisters to join her to gloat her success over them. She did not tell her sisters that the Fire was stolen.
“Where you have failed, I have convinced the sky to share its Fire with us!”
But very shortly after Mubete and Enosha arrived, the stolen Fire began to wane. Fire cannot last long in the waters of Sea. As the stolen fire died out, so did the creatures the Three Sisters made. They became the First Dead.
“No! What is the point of life only to have lost it so quickly!” lamented Enosha.
“Perhaps we can find a way to work around this…” Mubete suggested
Taedi was initially disappointed but she believed perhaps death could serve her purposes too. While Mubete pondered and Enosha wept, Taedi secretly stole away the First Dead while none was looking to use the dead for her own dark purposes later.
Enosha swam into the lower reaches of Sky. “Please, give us more Fire, so that we can have life again.”
Heekma blazed red with fury. “Now the thief has become a beggar. You have stolen my Fire and have the gall to ask for more!”
Enosha insisted there was no theft, so Heekma and Enosha had a long circular argument.
Mubete suspected what Taedi had done, but he avoided the subject. “Perhaps we can barter for Fire, what is it you want?”
Heekma was taken back by this offer.
“It is dry here, you are hoarding all the Water,” he replied.
“If we share our Water, will you share your Fire?” Mubete offered.
Heekma feigned reluctance to agree, but this compromised pleased him greatly for he greatly coveted the sea's Water.
So the three daughters worked to move water into the sky creating clouds and rain while Heekma rationed Fire to rain down light and heat upon Sea, warming Sea and allowing life to bloom. Heekma provides so much Fire during the day that the stars and Dalgari’s torch can no longer be seen, but every twelve hours night sets in as Heekma ceases providing Sea with Fire, so he could can properly collect the moisture offered up to her, creating not only life as we know it but establishing the cycle of day and night.
With the Sea now permeated by the Sky's Fire, the Seeyirah were able to create the first fishes, crustaceans, mollusks and other creatures of the sea we know today.
The goddess Kontona watched all this unfold from afar. Inspired by the ultimate outcome of Taedi's theft of fire, Kontona made began plotting to steal Water and Fire to bring onto land, but that is a story for another day.
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