Young Writers Society

A/N: First of all, this is mainly meant for comedic relief (Example: Everything Eros says), and some of it is not accurate. If I get any of the main facts about any of the mythological figures/places wrong tell me so I can fix it. Nevertheless, please enjoy.

"The beginning is the most important part of the work."

-Plato

Chapter 1

The Beginning

Our story begins when the universe was young, few to little stars or planets glimmered in space. In one part of the universe, Chaos was hard at work. The twisting strands of space looked almost that of a human, but lacked form. Chaos was made from the shadows of space and the corpses of stars. He was large, bigger than our sun, and at his hands was a bundle of white dwarfs. He shaped the white dwarfs into creatures, creatures that matched his ideal beauty. They were humans, humans made from not flesh, not bones, but stars. Chaos called these humans Gaea, Tartarus, and Eros.

“Thank you Chaos for creating us.” Gaea spoke, “But what is it that you want us to do?”

“The universe is barren and lonely my dear Gaea….” Chaos spoke, his voice echoed in the nothingness, “I want you to explore the stars, find a suitable place for a planet, and create more beings like yourself to populate this barren space.”

“So we pretty much need wonder around the universe, no food, no water, until we find a place for a planet.” Eros stepped up, his voice playful, “Anyone got a map?”

“Shut up Eros, this is the least we can do for Chaos, after all he did make create us.” Gaea snapped at Eros.

“Well if that’s the logic we’re using, I want to be the ruler of this new planet, or at least have my own holiday.” Eros muttered.

“I’m sure you will Eros.” Gaea replied.

“Wait one second before you go!” Chaos exclaimed then took the last strands of white dwarfs and made them into people, “Here are Nyx and Erebus, they’ll join you on your journey.”

***

If Eros thought Tartarus was annoying, Nyx and Erebus were the bane of his existence. They hardly ever talked, and whenever they did they all said something dark or depressing. Tartarus would never talk plainly, Nyx would go on and on about the stars, and Erebus would just stare hazily into the darkness.

Eros decided to break the silence, “What did Space say to the star?”

Everyone looked at him like he’d lost it.

“Nothing! Because space can’t talk!” Eros exclaimed, waiting for a reaction.

Their faces didn’t change.

Last joke I’m telling them. Though he really couldn’t blame them, he was an awful comedian, and that was something everyone can agree on. After that awkward moment Eros made, the five of them trekked on. Every now and then Eros would point out a decent looking spot for the planet but Gaea would insist that they continued.

“Ugh…how about that one?” Eros asked in a weary voice, pointing to another empty spot.

“Nope, still lacks....something” Gaea would reply.

“What does it lack?” Eros asked, desperate to end their journey.

“Dunno.” Gaea replied simply, then walked on.

“Ugh!” Eros facepalmed himself and followed her, “Man I’m hungry…..I know, I’ll make myself some food!”

“Eros, we shouldn’t be wasting our power on such nonsense.” Gaea argued.

“Food isn’t nonsense, besides it’s not like you can stop me.” Eros said cockily, then waved his hands in a circular motion. When he was done a long, squishy stick of a pale yellow substance appeared in front of them, floating in the low gravity.

“Wow, it worked!” Eros exclaimed peering at the substance he had created.

“Ugh Eros, one day you’re going to kill me.” Gaea said frustrated, “What are you even going to called it?”

“Butter.” Eros replied, still staring in awe at the figure he made.

“Butter?” Gaea said in disbelief, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Eros poked the figure and tasted the butter, “Er…...it needs something more.”

“No Eros!” Gaea screamed and tackled him when he tried to create what we now call toast.

Pushing Gaea off and getting to his feet Eros exclaimed, “What was that for!?”

“Like I said, you shouldn’t use your powers for such stupid things.” Gaea pointed out again.

Eros rolled his eyes and muttered to himself, “Food isn’t stupid.”

Eros counted, it most definitely took a century for something exciting to happen. It felt like they walked past the same set stars one hundred and fifty times. What was worse was either Nyx ranting, or no talking plainly. Overall, it was torture to Eros.

“I spy with my eye something black.” Eros attempted to break the silence once again.

“Is it space?” Gaea replied, completely annoyed.

“Yeah, how'd you know?” Eros asked.

“Ugh! For the last time Eros, can’t you just shut up!?” Gaea snapped at him.

“Sorry, but that’s not to my ability.” Eros replied defiantly and glanced past Gaea, where something caught his eye, “Umm…Gaea what’s that?”

Gaea followed Eros’s gaze, and when she spotted what he saw she froze in fear. Ahead of them was a large, strange, portal leading to two different realms. On one side there was nothing but volcanoes, lava, and scorched dirt, on the other side there was snow, ice, and frost, and in the middle there was absolutely nothing.

“Hey Tartarus, is this on the map?” Gaea said nervously.

“It’s called the realms of Nilfheim, Muspelheim, and Ginnungagap.” Tartarus replied, looking at the map.

“That’s actually on that!?” Eros exclaimed and snatched the map out of Tartarus’s hands, which he’d assumed only contained stars, “Huh…well you look at that….I think it’s a tourist destination.”

“Do you think it’s safe?” Erebus asked quietly.

“Of course, it’s got to be ten times better than this barren wasteland!” Eros replied positively and dashed up to the opening of the portal, completely ignoring the warnings of Gaea.

Poking his head into the portal Eros stared into the realms. Inside the portal was not what Eros expected. One side was hot while the other side was cold, but that was just common sense, however in the middle something strange was going on. There was three rather large humans constantly attacking a sleeping giant.

As soon as Eros noticed this he pulled his head instantly out and turned to his comrades, “I have seen things….”

“Wow Eros, it can’t be that bad.” Gaea laughed then walked through the portal, soon followed by everyone else.

Ugh! Frustration boiled up inside Eros and he suddenly felt empathy for Gaea. Spending a couple of moments in hesitation, Eros slowly crawled through the portal. Nothing changed dramatically, besides the three humans had managed to kill the giant. However, to Eros’s surprise, Gaea, Nyx, Erebus, and Tartarus were all talking to the three humans. Racing towards them, Eros pushed down more frustration.

As soon as he arrived Eros questioned them, “Uh…what’s going on?”

“Oh Eros, I’d like you to meet Odin, Vili, and Ve.” Gaea introduced them before continuing, “We were just talking about the new planet we were supposed to make.”

“Well, while you talk my brothers and I are going to figure out where to put this body.” Odin spoke in such an accent Eros didn’t know whether to be frightened at the fact that they’re hiding a body, or annoyed at his insufferable accent.

“We could drop it at the end of Ginnungagap.” Vili suggested.

“Umm….may I ask why you killed that giant?” Eros interrupted their frightening conversation, and probably started and equally chilling new one.

“Giant?” Odin asked, and when Eros pointed to the dead body he continued, “Oh…you mean Ymir? Well, that’s simple, he was making too many jotuns.”

“So you killed him….because he was making jotuns?” Eros found this hard to believe, and just plainly creepy.

“You got it right, anyways Vili I think that’s a perfect idea.” Odin turned to his brother.

By now Eros had gotten it into his head that these men weren’t in their right mind. Nevertheless, he stilled helped them when they asked for help carrying the large body. Eros felt chills up his spine every second he touched the corpse. Apparently the end of Ginnungagap was far away, fore Eros felt like they had passed every detail of this place.

Finally they made it, the edge of Ginnungagap. The edge was exactly as Eros predicted it, a sheer cliff into absolute nothing. Relief washed over him when he was able to drop the part of the body that he was holding. He watched hazily as the three brothers, who were not strong enough to carry Ymir all the way over here, picked up the body and threw far out into the distance.

“What just happened……you said you needed help!” Eros turned to Odin.

But Odin didn’t reply, instead he gazed of into the place where they had thrown Ymir’s body.

Following Odin’s gaze, Eros stared in shock. Something was happening to the body, the blood become a salty blue ocean, the flesh became the ground, the bones became mountains, the teeth became rocks, and the hair became plants. Sadly however, after all of this only half of a planet was made.

“What just happened….?” Eros repeated.

“Half of a planet formed.” Ve replied simply.

“Out of a body?” Eros stared in disbelief, he actually preferred wondering the universe over this.

“Here’s an idea, Gaea why don’t you finish it.” Erebus asked, “This can be the planet Chaos wanted us to make.”

“Hmm….alright.” Gaea nodded and began waving her hands. As she did this more ground, mountains, oceans, and rocks became to form until the planet was finished.

“Wow…” Eros stared in awe at the beautiful landscape, “What are we calling the world?”

“How about Spos?” Erebus asked.

“I vote for that one.” Eros declared.

“No way, how about Nox?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Maybe Amare?”

“Yeah…..no.”

“Tonitrui?”

“Too long.”

“Alright how about Earth?” Gaea suggested.

Everyone glanced at each other, Earth wasn’t ideal but it was much better than anything else they came up with.

“Alright.” Everyone agreed in perfect unison.

“Then Earth it is.” Gaea declared, “We should probably create something to help the people of Earth prosper.”

Everyone nodded and all went to work creating gifts for Earth. Nyx and Erebus created Hemera (day) and Aether (The air gods breath), and Nyx alone created Nemesis (revenge), Hypnos (sleep), Thanatos (death), Geras (old age), Eris (strife), and Charon (ferryman of the underworld). Gaea made Uranus (sky), and the two of them created the Titans, the Giants, and Oceanus.

Tartarus created the most brutal underworld ever seen, which he named after himself, and made three judges, Rhadamanthus, Aeacus and Minos, who’d decide who went to the underworld and who went to the realm of Tartarus. Erebus made a region in the underworld where the dead would go immediately after dying, and Eros made the ability to love.

“Really Eros?” Gaea asked annoyed.

“What?”

“Just that, just the ability to love?” Gaea questioned, “We all made things like the underworld and you just made the ability love.”

“So you want me to make more?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, here.” Eros said, shifting through his satchel looking for the butter he made earlier. Once he found it he presented it to Odin as a gift.

“Umm….thank you?” Odin replied awkwardly, tasting the butter. As soon as he tasted it his eyes lit up, “Wow this is amazing!”

“Aww….don’t mention it.” Eros replied, grinning mockingly at Gaea.

“Well we need to give you something equally worthy.” Odin said and beckoned for his brothers. Once his brothers stepped up, Eros noticed Vili holding a bow and Ve holding arrows. Vili and Ve wasted no time giving both of these objects to Eros.

“This bow and those arrows are very special.” Odin began to explain, “The arrows never run out and every time someone is hit with them they will fall in deep love.”

“Wow…this is awesome!” Eros exclaimed inspecting the weapon.

“Anything for butter.” Odin replied.

“If you two are done wasting time, I’d like to actually go to the planet.” Gaea impatiently spoke.

“Uh…right.” Eros said, putting the bow and arrows up.

As they arrived at the surface of Earth, Eros took a deep breath of fresh air. The Earth looked so clean, naturally wonderful. After a couple of hours inspecting the planet a bit more Eros, Gaea, Erebus, Nyx, and Tartarus all bid farewell to Odin and his brothers and went to different sides of the planet. As they each walked away Eros caught sight of a white dove (which he had made secretly for Gaea) fly by, but quickly crash.