There was a day, long ago, when the world was perfect. Mortals and deities alike lived and coexisted. But then, one day, that all changed. One person decided to challenge the system as it was and hurt another person. Their heart broke, and thus the first crack was laid in the earth.
This set off a chain reaction. People became inherently brutal, as did the Gods they once peacefully coexisted with.
The world was in shambles. Most of the cracks were small, as human hearts aren't capable of large cracks, and most of the hearts broken were human. But once in awhile, a God became heartbroken, and that's where the big cracks and valleys came from.
This story, is of the Grand Canyon.
My name is Avium. I rule over the deserts and the dry places of this Earth. I watched as the world made the transition from tranquil coexistence, to constant heartbreak. I watched over my subjects and nurtured them in this time of harshness and cruelty. Unlike some of the other gods, who were merciless. Other gods still were content to only watch, and not intervene no matter how bad it got.
My domain was one of the better ones, as humans don't particularly like living with little water and resources. So, with my kind and gentle hand my people were slowly starting to re-learn the ways of coexistence, after thousands of years breaking hearts. We were happy, and taught others within other domains to do the same, to coexist without hate or heartbreak.
One day I found that I was to have a baby. This baby had a father, but as all the gods were very open about that sort of thing, I wasn't sure who it was and that was okay by me. Once that precious little child was born, he became my world. My life. He was my everything and I loved him more than I had ever loved anything. I raised him in the ways of me and my people and he happily went along and coexisted with the rest of us.
Then one day, he approached me, visibly nervous, and said, "Mother? What would you say if I told you I wasn't a boy?"
I replied, as calm as I could, "I wouldn't love you any less. You are still my child, whether you are my son or my daughter."
My child then smiled wide, and we embraced. From that day forth, I had no son, but a daughter.
My people were as accepting as I was, having been raised and taught in acceptance.
But other people and gods were not so accepting. They harassed and hated my daughter for just being herself.
Then one day, tragedy struck. One of the most hateful gods, Odium, had come to my domain. He wreaked havoc and, in a moment of pure evil, killed my one and only child. And with a smug and satisfied look on his face, he went back to his domain.
I got this feeling in my chest, one I'd never felt, and as I stood over the corpse that was once my lovely daughter, a huge crack broke open in the desert. One bigger and more vast than anything anyone had ever seen.
My people named it The Grand Canyon.
And though I still rule kindly, and preach the same values I always have, that canyon is a constant and painful reminder of the daughter I lost to hate.
