Beyond the Plains

      In the beginning of time, there stood a single mountain in an expansive plain. Within the mountain lived two giant people, a man named Ter and a woman named Ciel, who took care of everything on the mountain and allowed it all to thrive, which made them happy and content.

      But one day, a young crow named Jonathan saw something shiny in the nighttime sky and flew from the mountain to explore what it was. When Ter woke up the next morning, he noticed that Jonathan was missing and became worried. He and Ciel went through all their usual daily tasks, but Ter added too much water to the stream and Ciel blew the wind too hard that it stripped the leaves from the trees. Some of the other animals asked about Jonathan, and Ter didn't know what to tell them. “He'll be back soon,” he told anyone that asked, and left it at that.

      When Jonathan was still not back the next morning, Ter approached Ciel and told her that he had decided to leave the mountain to find Jonathan.

      “I agree we must find him,” she said. “But you are much better at taking care of the mountain. I will go find him.”

      Ciel eventually persuaded Ter to let her go, and after gathering some supplies and finding out from a squirrel that Jonathan had headed in the direction of the bright star to the north, Ciel made her departure.

      It was three days before Ciel returned without Jonathan, and she had been transformed by the journey. She refused to talk about what she had seen and done, and did no mention if she had found Jonathan. Ter did everything he could to get her to talk about it, but nothing worked.

      She began to become disinterested in the mountain and its well-being, spending much of the day in bed or staring out the window. When someone asked what she was doing, she would simply respond, “Thinking.”

      The mountain began to lose its vigor as Ter became consumed with anxiety about Ciel and with curiosity about what lay beyond the vast plain. Eventually he decided he would also make the journey to the star that shone in the north, but when he told Ciel his plan, she became alert and warned him vehemently about undertaking such an expedition.

      “You cannot go. You must stay here to take care of the mountain.”

      “I must know, Ciel. You can tend it while I am away. Perhaps you will rediscover the joy you once had in it.”

      And so despite Ciel's tears and begging, Ter departed for the star to the north.

      When he returned three days later, Ciel was waiting for him and as soon as he came into view, she ran to him and, embracing, they fell to the ground and wept together.

      The creatures of the mountain saw this and a nervous chatter began among them. They began to wonder at this journey and the sights that the people had seen to make them act so strangely. After Ter's return, he and Ciel continued to take care of the mountain, but everyone could tell their hearts were not quite in it, that it no longer brought them the same happiness. They forgot some of the daily tasks, and half-heartedly completed others. They sighed heavily when they saw each other and daydreamed often. Their discontentment eventually began to lessen, but they were never the same and another crow never rested its feet on their mountain.

      For many months, a young creature named Fisk was overtaken by a wave of curiosity and told everyone that he would make the journey to the star in the north. They jeered and teased him and dared him to do it, until he finally decided to sneak away in the night.

      Fisk did not have the giant people's large strides or the crow's wings, and so crossing the plain took him a very long time indeed, but after five days of nothing but brown grass and green weeds, he saw a glint of bright light on the horizon.

      As he got closer, he discovered an enormous wall made entirely of gold and immediately in front of him a large, brilliant gate.

      Through the gate, he could see thousands upon thousands of mountains, wide open expanses of water, trees and plants and all kinds of living things, everywhere his eyes could see.

      It was too much for little Fisk, and he had to close his eyes.

      “What is this place?” he asked, and when he opened his eyes, he looked up at the top of the gate, where a single word was engraved into the glittering gold: Earth.