Infinite Millenium

And then...there was Earth.

When the earth was born, long before the humans came, it was a beautiful paradise. The first demigods were created to rule over each aspect of the earth. This story is about three of them.

The Ocean Prince.

The Forest Prince.

And the Sunshine Princess.

When we were first born, we were but children. We had many names. But we called each other by special ones. Sunshine Princess was Lily, Ocean Prince was Zaire, and I was Wilder, the Prince of the Forest.

My forest was right next to the ocean. Zaire would rise out of the water lapping up at my forest's shore, polished and clean in his turquoise tunics and cloaks. While I, the Wild Prince, let vines and leaves make rips and tears in my brown and green attire. Lily used to ride down every day on the Cloud Pegasi to come play with us. She was positively glowing, dazzling, brilliantly beautiful, even as a little girl. Her dresses were weaved from drops of golden light, and her skin was always pale and bright like sunshine. We were all equals, and Lily was the one that kept us all together and gave us life. Her eyes were golden with little flecks of blue because her sunlight would always reflect the off the ocean, and her hair was a rich, dark brown with streaks of gold, because her sunlight would always stream into the canopy of my humble forest.

I was undoubtedly in love with her. Several eternities could pass, and I knew even as a young god that I was deeply, madly in love with the Sunshine of the earth.

I used to love to play pranks on Lily. I'd put her in the canopies of the trees to see if she could find her own way out. Lily used to tolerate me, but after a while of my antics, Lily wouldn't come down to visit anymore. Thick clouds loomed over the ocean and forest, and sometimes it would start to drizzle rain. Zaire came out of the ocean one day to scold me. He told me that I was a low, dirty Prince, and that if I wouldn't apologize to the princess, he'd do it and take all the sunshine for himself.

I was madly, deeply in love with her. So I didn't expect Zaire to actually do it.

A few centuries passed. I woke up one morning at the usual dawn, only to find the sun gleaming down on the ocean's brilliant blue surface. The sea breeze blew through my forest, carrying the echoes of laughter. Lily's laughter. And Zaire's. I looked up. The sun shone weakly through a veil of clouds over my forest. I looked over the ocean. Zaire and Lily were sitting cross-legged on the surface of the ocean, smiling and talking to each other. Lily was absolutely beaming, all for him. Every time they laughed, a fresh sea breeze would blow through my forest.

A millennium passed. And I had yet to apologize to Lily. Sunshine would still stream through my forest's canopy, but the sunlight was always blindingly brighter at the ocean, even on days she wasn't there. Zaire's visits were few. Lily never came to play in the forest anymore.

A seed of evil took root in my heart, a bitter, contorted seed that would bear fruit in time. It grew its roots in the depths of my heart, and it's thorny vines strangled the love out of my soul.

I would watch from the shadows of the dark forest as Lily and Zaire would play on the beach. Centuries passed. Centuries and centuries and centuries. The seed grew and grew, until it had not snuffed out the love in my soul as I expected. But the boundaries of it. The boundaries of my selfish immortal wants and desires snapped in half as my vines curled around my heart. So I watched as the Ocean Prince and the Sunshine Princess played naively, and a sick smile creeped upon my lips.

Surely, if I just rid the earth of the damned ocean, all that would be left is an empty seabed with nothing to shine on. Then Lily would come to my forest, to me instead. I could keep her here in my forest, and I'd never let her leave, and she would fall in love with me instead. Deeply, madly, madly, madly in love with the Forest, so she'd stay like a caged bird in my forest, forever shining down on me because I'm her one true love. Her only, only true love! She'll be mine! All the Sunshine Zaire stole from me, it shall be mine! And Lily will never want to leave me ever again!