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At first, there was nothing but Land. Barren and desolate, If one were to describe it, the word ‘lifeless’ wouldn’t be out of place. A place so hostile, one would think it impossible for anything to come of it. And so, with nothing passing but time, the Land sat there. Not a sound, not a movement, a seemingly frozen piece of Land.
Until The Absolute First occurred.
The Absolute First, while not a cataclysmic event in reality, was akin to the Big Bang for the Land, as it was the first time something, anything had happened since its inception. The First described the first appearance of life in the form of a Maple tree. While the sapling was small, its presence more than made up for it. There were later Firsts, but this Absolute First held a special meaning. One special enough to have a connection with the Land.
And so, the Land began to Awaken.
With the presence of a consciousness within the Land Awakening, the seasons and weather soon arrived, eager to make up for the lost time. Rains fell, valleys and mountains rose, the terrain of the Land shifted drastically until it was almost impossible to identify it from its previous self. However, it was only almost, as the Maple Tree still existed. It more than existed, it thrived, growing full branches and extending roots to cover a massive area. Beneath the leaves and above the roots, the Maple Tree helped the Land thrive, creating a plot of herbs, a forever rain lake, and the tyrannical caves. And with these changes, came the grips of time.
And so, the First Autumn Leaf descended.
The Land had a desire, one strong enough for it to breath life. That desire was to create a protector, one that would persist no matter the trials. However, this role would not given easily, as a protector cannot falter in the face of adversity. They came from around the Land, a desert storm sweeping the forest, herbs slowly but surely spreading seeds to root, a dirty blue rain storm moving across the land. These beings were but a few of the many who clashed, until only one remained. And through it all, the Maple Tree persisted to nearly its last breath until it could release its protector. And so, the First Autumn Leaf came to be, and the Land had its first protector.
So the river of time flows.
The trials did not stop, nor did the First Autumn Leaf falter. Battle after battle, enemy after enemy, the First Autumn Leaf met all challengers with great fervor. And so the first millennia passed, with old enemies fading away, while new ones sprouted from the conflict. The howling cliffs near the desert, the flower fields in the forest, these new beings came forth to challenge, but in the end, they did not succeed. The second millennia passed all the same, as did the third. The Land was satisfied with its protector, happy to have one that encouraged the rest of the land to improve.
And improve they did.
The Fourth Millenia Turn, or rather the Fall of Autumn, was an event of massive proportions. All this time, the Tyrannical Caves had never faltered, persisting in improving themselves and seeking their enemy’s weakness. And find it they did. A small shard of winter, one that had made its home in the Tyrannical Caves, had managed to strike at the First Autumn Leaf’s heart. And so, with a decisive strike, the protector of the Land was the Tyrannical Caves of the Desert, and they were determined to meet all challengers.
And so they came.
The fifth millennia saw the blossoming of the garden, the blossoms of spring striking against the roots of the forest. One dazzling and overwhelming, the other slowly and persistent. And with that persistence, the protector shifted once again, this time to the forest Garden. The sixth millennia saw the sky darken as Rain swept across everything. Calm and persistent in some areas, fast and brutal in others. With the water growing so high as to cover everything, there was only Rain left, and so the protector shifted once again. The seventh millennia then displayed the persistence of life, as plants sprouted new life after the Rain, until it once again fell to the Garden to protect this land. And through all these millennia, the First Autumn Leaf had still kept his goal, still desiring to regain the role of protector one last time.
Then came the eighth millennia.
The Land despised the eighth millennia. The Maple Tree it had once cherished had turned rotten inside, a shell of its former self. The First Autumn Leaf now changed into something it didn’t recognize, the feeling of nurturing now gone. And so, when Rain once against threatened to drown all else, the Land moved personally, moving the hands of time.
And so, Samsara became the protector of the Land.
Under Samsara, the ninth millennium saw a new form of life in humanity. Now, all life could be reborn, connecting all living things. The haunting spirits of death could have been the deadly blades of grass in a past life. Thieves in humanity could turn a new leaf as righteous warriors. A new wave of Glory was destined in the cycles of Samsara, and the Land was content.
And so fell the Maple Tree.
Gone was the old and rotten trunk, cut down by the joy of humanity. In its place was a new sapling, one that had the potential to match its predecessor. The First Autumn Leaf had been torn asunder and joined the cycles of Samsara. And yet, the Land did not focus on these events. Instead, it watched humanity. The emotions of humanity were a great force that swept through the tenth millennia. Grief, Love, Anger, these were formidable candidate for the role of protector. And yet, the emotion the ended up before Samsara was one it had discounted.
Happiness.
While the cycles of Samsara gave it dominance over life, Happiness existed in all things, and with its ability to always be reborn, it was a force to match life and death. And so, the Land experienced its own Happiness as the emotion swept past Samsara, becoming the protector of the eleventh millennia. And from Happiness, the Land finally saw the reason the emotion felt so familiar. The First Autumn Leaf had been reborn in Happiness, and with its goal now achieved, it looked towards the Land.
And for the last time, the First Autumn Leaf became a protector.