NAME: Louie.M LOCATION: Madagascar TITLE: The Dancing Lemur

MYTH: At the beginning of it all was a lonely dancing lemur his name was ‘Kinté’. He leaped around the blank, dull and pale lands. But one day he saw himself in a puddle and wondered why he was the only creature on the plains. He had an idea to create a friend like him, but he had nothing to make a friend from, not knowing what to do he went to bed and dreamed about what the world should look like. Beautiful forests, lush green leaves, hill, mountains, volcanoes and…. life. Waking up from his sleep his dream had simply come true, the forests, hills, life, it was all there….

NAME: Eliza MYTH: Once upon a time there was tree being watched over by a god named eert, eert watched over this tree for his whole life.

One day he was bored so took a stick out of his hair and created a being it wasn’t any being though. It was a free spirit, one that could spread its wings and fly. His first try was terrible because it was only made of sticks and it was ugly. The next version had these silk wisy skin made of something expensive and silky. This being was much better, he taught the bird how to follow its master and always build houses on his head where he could be protected by it.

After many days of watching the being fly from land to land he decided to make something that could walk and talk to him and keep him company, for his new human he took sticks, leaves and bark and blew life into these being once again but this time he gave these people everything he knew. Eert gave them everything they needed air, land, sun, moon and intelligence. He made about a billion of these strange creatures and set them loose. After a while they began to disrespect him and this made him angry they were beginning to make homes on his forgotten land.

One of his humans chopped down his sacred tree which filled him with great sadness and began to get hotter and hotter with anger. Even though the bird was still on his side they where getting scarce because of the greedy humans eating them. About a trillion years later he blew up with all the anger that was held inside, everything he loved and created died with him.

NAME: Henry N

MYTH: In the beginning there was nothing except nine ginormous eggs. Inside the eggs were dragons. They all hatched at the same time, and that is when the universe began. The fragments of the eggs exploded everywhere and became the stars, and the nine dragons became the planets we know today. One of the dragons became the sun, and he was the ruler of the universe. One day, he decided he wanted to create life, but there was nowhere to pu it. So, Mars volunteered to have it on his back. He was perfect for life, with lots of water and good soil.

The first life Sun created was a creature like a human, but not quite. The were more primitive and violent, and fought all the time. They did so much killing that they covered the dragon in blood, and ruined his body. Mars got very mad and killed them all. Then the earth dragon said she would like to have life live on her, but they had to be nice and respect her. Sun, who had learned from his mistakes, first created small life, like bugs and plants, and worked his way up to us, humans. He told the humans that he would give them sunlight every day, and Earth would give them water and food, but only if they respected the earth. The humans knew what happened to Mars, so they promised to never fight each other, and be respectful to their dragon. In turn, the nine dragon gods would give them all they needed for life.

NAME: Max C.

MYTH: In the beginning, there was nothing except for a white dot. That white dot started to grow and grow until it finally formed into a goddess named Mona. Mona needed somewhere to live to she created the sky. She knew that she needed a purpose in life, so she created beings to look up to her. She sculpted them with legs so they could walk and mouths so they could talk. However, they couldn’t stop talking. They said good things about each other, but they also said bad things.

Mona did not like this, so she threw them high into the sky and turned them into the spirits of all bad things like violence and hatred. The next beings she created had legs so they could walk but no mouths. But they died after one month because they were not able to eat food. These beings fell downwards and created land. The final creatures she attempted to make were shorter. They had mouths, but they could not talk. They just made sounds. They had tails and snouts. She created them to worship her. She named these beings wolves. And each night after she made them, they looked up at her and howled. Each howl created things.

The first wolf’s howl created a partner for the moon named solis. However, whenever the sun was awake, the moon was asleep, and whenever the moon was awake, the sun was asleep. The second howl created all of the ponds lakes oceans and seas. The third howl made rises and dents in the earth that became valleys and mountains. The next howls created trees with fruit for the wolves to eat. Mona was happy with the earth that she had created and decided she would try to make humans again. Their names were Kit and Kat. After she created them, she told them to never say anything bad about each other. They should be grateful for her and the wolves for creating them and making a place for them to live. The humans agreed. Mona was very tired after this because she had been working all day but she wanted more humans.

So, she told Kit and Kat that they must repopulate the earth and tell their kids to never say anything bad about anyone or anything. Kit and Kat followed these directions because of how much they respected Mona. And hundreds of years later, the world was full of millions of people.

However, food was becoming harder to find because the wolves couldn't keep up with all of the hungry people. So Mona placed seeds in the fruit so when ever they were planted, a new plant was born. The wolves continued to howl up at Mona every night adding things to earth and the people worshiped them and Mona every day listening to the howls.

NAME: Lucy Grant AGE: 7th grade

MYTH: In the beginning, there was nothing but darkness and a flame. Slowly over time, that flame began to take over the darkness and light followed soon after. From that flame, a woman named Agnimitra was born. Agnimitra sat in the fire for what seemed like centuries before she decided to leave the sacred flame.

As the women stood, the darkness was forced high above. That darkness soon became known as the sky or night. She became lonely and decided to make a creature to keep her company. Agnimitra sliced open her hand and let the blood drip into the fire. The fire was hot making the blood boil into thin air. From the crimson stain rose a creature with wings spanning Agnimitra’s hands and horns sharp enough to penetrate. He was the color of blood and had a long tail with a prong at the end. She decided to name her first creation Lucifer. Agnimitra was so delighted she decided to create another.

The second man she created was stark white and also had wings, but no horns or a tail. She named her second creation Gabriel. Lucifer became violent towards Gabriel and attacked

him. He missed and sliced one of Agnimitra’s arms open. Agnimitra was so furious she cut her arm off and buried Lucifer below it. She stepped on the arm and blood oozed out. The arm became a solid on which her other creatures could roam on. Her blood became the red seas and the light from Gabriel sprouted foliage onto the arm. She called the place Earth and set off creating animals and plants to live with her creations. She told Gabriel his light was needed high above and sent him off to the heavens. She told her creations to never go underground for that is where Lucifer the devil lurked. To this day Lucifer is still trapped beneath the Earth and Gabriel looks over Agnimitra’s creations.

NAME: Hudson H. TITLE: The First Myth

MYTH: Long ago, there was a vast primordial void. Eventually, the emptiness created an egg. After eons, the egg started to crack. For millennia the only sound in the universe was the cracking of the egg. Then one day the egg finally shattered. Out came water, water and more water, and eventually, there was only one thing left in the eggshell. In the shell, there was a water lily floating in the vast ocean. The lily grew and grew and grew, until a bud appeared. As the bud unfolded, a being grew out of the bud. The being was an alligator, god of water and anything that lives in it.

As the god looked around his new world, he started to realize that there needed to be more life in this vast ocean. He started to practice making life with his mind. The first batch of creatures were monsters that would plague the world. There were beings that were half-gator, half-man, giant otters that could overturn the biggest boats, and giants made of stone. As Gator god made more creatures, he realized that there must be balance, so he made a giant turtle. He told the turtle to dive down to the depths and bring up clay. The turtle went down and down and down until she reached the bottom. As the turtle was diving, Gator thought the turtle had drowned. Then as he wept, the turtle returned with the clay. She had covered herself with it and had made land. Gator made the turtle into a goddess to look after the land and made an eagle a god to tend the sky. Together, these three gods make up the world we know.

NAME: Maida S. TITLE: Earth’s Beginnings

MYTH: In the beginning, there was darkness. Miles and miles and miles of empty, open fields of darkness. From this darkness there was born a being called Ombra. Ombra lived many years in the dark, never moving. But one day he got bored. “Too much time I have been alone, too many years of only this darkness for life,” he said. And so he brought his hands in front of him and created the first thing that came to his mind. Ombra knew what he had created, but he could not see it, for at first, there was a bright, glaring light. When the light cleared, there in front of him was a beautiful, glowing girl. “You shall be called Luce, for you are light.” And so the two became the first man and woman.

For a while Ombra and Luce lived in the darkness, with Luce for a light, for her skin still glowed. Ombra would tell Luce stories that he made up, and she would listen with wide eyes. Eventually Luce would fall asleep, leaving Ombra to his thoughts, for he never did sleep, no matter how many thoughts of sleep he had. So, he would think up new stories to tell Luce when she would awake next. But perfect peace and harmony never lasts forever, and it is so even with immortal beings such as Ombra and Luce.

The beginning of this new kind of darkness, not yet bad nor good, started when Ombra finally felt bored again. He did not want to tell any more stories, did not want to stay awake and be alone. And so one morning instead of telling Luce a new story, he took her hand and floated a little farther away in the blackness. “Come,” he said to her. “For it is here that you and I will create something new.” Luce shook her head and protested: “I like what we have!” But Ombra

shook his head and protested against her will. “I am bored! While you go to sleep and have nice dreams, I stay awake and think of new stories, and then when you wake, I have to tell you the stories! I want someplace where we can have something other than stories and your dreams and my endless thoughts.” Luce bowed her head in submission and did not say anything else. “We shall create something suitable for life,” Ombra declared. And so they held out their hands and thought hard and put all of their feelings into their work. When they were done, they had created a land that stretched very far in one direction and very far into the other direction. When they were finished, Luce thought that there was not an end. “This is suitable,” Ombra said to Luce nodding. Then he paused. “But we need more.” Luce suppressed a sigh and followed Ombra towards one of the corners of the great plain. “Here should be mountains,” Ombra told her, and so together they made the earth rise up and go above their heads. Ombra nodded. “This is suitable,” he said. And Luce smiled at him. But then he paused. “But we need more.”

Luce suppressed another sigh and followed him to another corner of the great plain. “Here should be good soil for planting things like I told you about in the stories,” Ombra said to Luce. And so together they both dug deep into the earth and made new soil, soil fit to farm. “This is suitable.” Luce did not smile, for she knew what came next: “But we need more.” So Luce followed Ombra off again to yet another corner of the plain. “It seems that this will never end!” she thought to herself when they got there. “Here should be treasures that someone will have to try to find. We will make it like a game,” Ombra said to Luce. Then the two beings spread out over the area, and scattered gold and silver and quartz and other things throughout it. “This is suitable,” Ombra declared when they were done. Luce smiled, and thought to herself: “He has run out of plain to do things with.” But she was wrong. “This way,” Ombra said, this time without pausing. And Luce had no choice but to follow.

When they reached the fourth corner of the plain, Luce was surprised. This time, though, Ombra did not know what he wanted right away, and again Luce thought that they were done. But Ombra tapped his chin, deep in thought, all the same. “Here...shall be...a…” And he did not finish his sentence. Instead, he gave Luce a secret smile and went on his own way. Luce was too mystified to follow, for Ombra had been in s bad mood all day. Luce watched as Ombra took up mud and clay from the ground and started to mold something with it. Ombra said to Luce then: “Close your eyes.” And she did. When Ombra told her to open them again, there in front of her was the first house, big and comfortable, with many rooms. Luce stared at it long and hard, trying to figure out what it was. Ombra was looking at her nervously. “Do...do you like it?” he asked her. “I call it a casa.” Luce considered. “Well it definitely looks comfortable. What is inside?” So Ombra told Luce all about it and what it would become, and Luce entered the casa immediately. She explored all of the rooms, Ombra trailing after her and tidying up. “Here shall be where we start the earth,” Ombra said to Luce that night before she went to sleep. “The earth?” Luce asked. “That’s what I decided to call this place,” Ombra said sheepishly, looking at the ground. Luce sighed. “Perfect.”

NAME: Maya TITLE: Sin of Life

MYTH: There seemed to be nothing but darkness. In the beginning, there was no world, no stars, no moon and no sun. There was only emptiness for a long time, until someone appeared. Her name was Earth-mother. She had been wandering in search of another being like her. Not long after came Father, wandering because of the same reason. They met each other and spoke. “Are we alone in this emptiness?” asked Earth-mother. “I believe so,” Father replied. “Let’s make something new.” And so, Father commanded light to appear, and it did exactly that. The darkness turned into blinding white that never dimmed. Earth-mother nearly went blind because of this. “Not that much light! What did you do?” she cried.

Frantically, Father condensed the light into millions of small orbs and scattered them across the darkness. There was still too much light around, so he crushed it up into a fine powder and sprinkled and smeared it across the dark. These are how the stars were created. Earth-mother began to work on something much different than the light that Father was working

with. “What are you doing?” Father inquired. “I am making a ball from the mud I’ve created,” Earth-mother answered in a quiet tone. “The ball will be much bigger when I’m done with it. Big enough for us to live on.” “I see,” Father said as he began to help her. Soon enough, the ball had grown to a massive size. There was more than enough land to live on. “Let’s add something,” Earth-mother said as she created a blue liquid and spread it across the land. “This water will eventually provide us with amazing things, but we shall wait for now.” Earth-mother and Father built a small hut from the mud. They created mountains and ridges and peninsulas all across the land. They shaped it into what it is today. During this time, they had three children. The first was named Amei, he was the god of plague, famine, and evil intentions.

The second child was named Koraka, and she was the goddess of growth, life, and tranquility. While Koraka had a human body down to her hips, the rest of her body was like a cougar’s. The third child was named Mana. He was the god of courage and strength. These three children were tasked to finish the world that Earth-mother and Father started. Earth-mother and Father left the world they created but promised to watch over them. So, Father became the sun and Earth-mother became the moon.

The three deities on the world started out as kind and experimental. Koraka cut some of her hair and placed it in dirt. In an instant, grass seemed to grow rapidly in all directions, soon covering the world. Amei took some of his skin and planted it in the grass. There grew an elm tree, the first tree to exist on this world. Mana created metals such as gold and copper with his bone and nails. Eventually, many more plants were created to fill up empty space like oak trees and maple trees for the forests in the world. Various evergreen trees were strung around the taiga, and plenty of smaller plants such as Juniper shrubs, yew shrubs were grown. The three deities looked over their work, still feeling unsatisfied. Koraka crafted odd shapes from the mud and began to bring life into them by crying onto them. Amei mocked the creation. “What is that? It looks tiny and ridiculous!” Koraka scoffed, “I don’t really know. I think I’ll call it… muskrat.” That is how the first animal, muskrat, was created. Afterwards, many more animals were created. Deer, fox, eagle, squirrel, duck, bear, opossum, and beaver were notable companions to muskrat. The final addition to the world was man.

The first men and women were from gold, which Koraka found and carved herself. She made two men and two women and gave them life. She sent them on their way to explore the world after giving them one warning. “Do what you want in this world we created but be warned. Do not abuse or mistreat the other life in the world. Act against my words, and you shall receive a great punishment.”

The people heeded the warning and did not abuse the life around them for a long time. The world was peaceful, just as Earth-mother and Father would have wanted it. However, generations passed and something began to change. The animals started to disappear rapidly. The trees began to fall down. The soil was being ruined with pointless trash. The deities were furious. They linked it back to the people and began to plot a punishment. “We should flood the world! Let’s watch the people struggle!” Mana suggested. Koraka argued, “No, no! We should drain all the water instead,” Amei interrupted with a sly look on his face. He was not as powerful as his sister, but he was quite witty. He had the best ideas out of the three of them. “I’ll create a plague to ravage their population. Men can not die, but they can suffer. They’ll know it’s our wrath.” There were no objections to the idea, and soon every man and woman was suffering from illness. They begged to be rid of the agony.

They apologized for going against the warning countless times, but they could not do anything in the end. Koraka was more merciful than her siblings and agreed to make a way to get rid of the illness. “It will be called death. You may leave this world forever, and so the sickness will leave with you. However, everyone who is killed from this plague shall not go to live in the heavens with us. Your soul will be destroyed and your descendants will never know immortality again.” The people agreed, and one woman was buried with ashes from a fire.

One week later, the rotted body was dug up, and so death was released across the world. The plague eventually passed, but the world now had to deal with hunger. They now used the animals around them only when they needed to. This is the way things have been for all of

time. The humans worship the creators to this day in fear of another horrible curse. Mana controls all extreme weather you see today, such as thunderstorms and cyclones. Amei has become a more mischievous god and works to inconvenience people’s lives. Koraka is fairly uninvolved in life today, spending time with Earth-mother and Father. She is still just as powerful, however and should not be underestimated. The humans are free to live as they please, but the gods always keep a watchful eye. The End

NAME: Cash TITLE: Creation of the Night Sky God Ylruk

MYTH: In the beginning, there was nothing but big black land. There was nothing, no animals, no humans, no trees, not even any air, there was just emptiness. One day, the God Ylruk was born. He saw the world as it was and was very disappointed with what it looked like. So, he created some trees and rocks to make the scenery look better. He wanted to create a human because it felt like the world needed something living in it, but he didn’t have a substance for its skin. So, he mixed some things that he had already created, like sand and water and leaves and dirt, until he got mud. He then used one of the pine trees he made as the base for the body and he put the smooth mud as his skin. He then brought the human to life, but the human died almost instantly after being created. He thought it was just that human, so he created another one. That one died as well. He then remembered there was no air in the world yet, so he created oxygen by breathing into the space.

Once he filled the space with his breath, he tried creating the human again. It worked! The human was born. With the man born, God Ylruk knew he had to create a woman. So, he did, and they were perfect. God Ylruk looked back at what he had made and noticed it was still dark out, very dark. But the problem was that God Ylruk didn’t have enough power yet to make the entire land full of light. So, he had to gain his power by creating a light source and then taking in its power. But another problem occurred, he didn’t know what to mix to create light. So, he sent the man and the woman to create fire. “How will we make fire?” asked man. “I’ve been seeing the rocks lately and they look pretty sturdy. Maybe we can hit those together to make fire,” said woman. So, they hit the rocks together until BAM there was fire!

They showed God Ylruk and he rewarded them with names. The man's name was Timothy and the woman's name was Klarissa. The woman was glad to finally have a name and really liked it, but the man was ungrateful for his name. He thought that all the hard work they had done just for a lousy name was an unfair deal. So, god punished him and man could not give birth to any living things.

Now, with the power that God Ylruk had, he made one half of the daylight outside and the other half of the day the way it already was. It was greatly balanced the way it was and if anyone was outside, they could see where they were going. After god had made humans, they of course had their children, but it felt like the children needed something to take care of. So, god created the African wild dog. He created dog almost the same way he created man. He made sure that the wood was much smaller, and instead of using mud, he would use a soft sand to make the dogs skin unlike any other. The children and the first humans were really excited that they got this new creature. “What can it do?” asked the little ones. “Well, it can protect you from danger. It will cheer you up when you are down, but it will take a lot of responsibility to take care of it.” The children were okay with handling the responsibility. The dog would be able to run all around the forest and climb the mountains.

But Ylruk had noticed that the dog was a vicious, wild dog. He bit one of the little ones, so God Ylruk domesticated the dog. Now the little ones were safe from the dog and God Ylruk felt like he had done something to help his world. But he felt like he needed to create other animals to go with the forest he created. So he created bear, elk, reindeer, sheep, and chicken. He also created all sorts of fish and insects. Now, whenever the humans were low on food, they could hunt these animals for their meat. God Ylruk was now pleased with the land he had created, so he went up into the heavens to rest. Sometime later… The humans loved their new place. They reproduced into millions of people all around the land known as Earth.

But one day, there was a war. One group of humans called the Leaf Tribe wanted the other group, the Pyro Tribe’s crops because in their area they did not have a lot of fruits and vegetables. But the Pyro Tribe would not lend any of their crops to them because they needed to feed their own group. So the Leaf Tribe created weapons to attack the Pyro Tribe and get all of the crops they needed to survive the winter. They struck the Pyro Tribe without any warning. There was death everywhere. Ylruk saw what was happening and cursed the Leaf Tribe who had murdered the others. After they were cursed, the food that they had just stolen all went bad. It was spoiled and nasty and was inedible. This made the Leaf Tribe very upset that they just killed an entire group of people for nothing. So with no food, they could not live through the winter.

The Leaf Tribe slowly died off starving… Now the world was at peace again, everything was great. Jobs started appearing. Some of the groups found copper, which meant that the world was able to receive currency. God Ylruk was pleased and paid the new world a visit. Everyone was surprised to see him, as they believed he did not exist. But they were all wrong. Ylruk loved the new world and was thrilled on how much the humans had discovered. He finally knew the world was complete. He then went to work on the other worlds, but didn’t feel like he needed another world full of humans, so he made these simple, not full of people or plants, just plain.

When he was finished, he didn’t return to Earth or any of the other planets. He went back to where he lived and would occasionally look over Earth and see how things were being handled by the humans. If things were bad, he would punish the humans, if things were good, God Ylruk would go back to his temporary slumber.

NAME: Clara TITLE: The Girl and the Storm

MYTH: Billions of years ago, spirits roamed the eternal empty universe. Their loneliness overtook their minds and drained their hearts. So, they decided to use the energy around them and within themselves to create what they thought life would look like. Light arose from the darkness and a woman appeared. She was beautiful, with dark skin and long white hair. She radiated light and strength. “Where am I? Who are you? W-who… am I?” The spirits were startled. They had never heard a sound before. They had never intended for her to be able to make such ridiculous noises and yet, she could. She defied everything they had ever known and for the first time, they felt something other than loneliness. They felt curiosity. They tried their hardest to answer, to make a sound such as she. They tried to speak to her and finally they felt and heard a sound rising from their throats. All they could muster was the word, “Rin.” “Rin…” she repeated. “Rin. Is that me?”

She looked around her surroundings, only finding emptiness. “It’s so lonely here... How long have you been stuck like this?” she asked. The spirits did not know. They had no sense of what time was, for they found it unimportant, but once again that strange feeling of curiosity overtook them. How long had they been like this? With their loneliness now escaping from their souls, they felt something new. Something deep and joyous and consequential. They felt love. Love for this strange being who had brought them such joy and curiosity. Love for Rin.

Time passed and Rin grew to love the spirits just as they did her, but the longer she was trapped in the dark and the lonely abyss, the more corrupted her soul became. She could not walk or run, she could only drift along the darkness for there was no land. She could not laugh or smile or feel joy or pain. There was nothing except for her and the spirits who could not speak or live. “What am I doing here?” she asked herself, “What’s the point of all this?” She had never asked to be created. What was her purpose? To satisfy the needs of spirits who don’t live or breathe or speak? She was disgusted with herself for feeling such things. But the more time wore on, the lonelier she became, the more desperate she was for something to happen, the more selfish she had been.

Then, an idea popped into her mind, a naive, selfish idea. If the spirits could create life from the energy around them, then perhaps she could as well! Her eyes lit up, she felt a tight pressure in her chest. Her heart began beating so hard and fast she could feel it in her veins. She felt excitement and such an intense and passionate excitement for something new that she could not think about the possible consequences. She could only think about being able to feel the ground beneath her feet, the sight of something new, being able to speak and laugh and smile with someone other than herself. She thought as hard as she could, furrowed her brows so much it may have left a crease, concentrated so hard her head began to hurt, until finally a flicker of light emerged.

Rin had not made much, only a small sphere of solid rock, but at last it was something new. She made more and more and more rocks, as big as she could make them. She put all her loneliness and excitement and despair into it until it was more than she could ever begin to need. When she finished, her eyes welled up with tears of joy. Finally, she was no longer alone! She went to the spirits, hoping for them to admire and be prideful of her actions, but all she found was disappointment and anger. The spirits yelled out trying to speak or scold or punish her, but once more, all that came from them were sad wails and screams. Rin was shocked. She had no clue why what she did was so wrong. “Please, what did I do?!” she cried out, but all she heard was more wails and screams. But then she realized, she was never alone. She neglected what she had. She neglected the spirits, her only friends. Selfishness and darkness had taken over her soul. She rushed back to the land she had made and tried to make it go away, but she could not.

Energy could not be created or destroyed; it could only be manipulated. She saw the spirits begin to drift away from her. “WAIT! I-I’m sorry! Just- JUST DON’T LEAVE ME ALONE!” she yelled. She went after them but was to late. They were already gone. Water began to fall from all around her, and gray clouds formed around her figure. The water around her was her tears, the clouds were her despair and the lightning were her anger. “I'm not a girl,” she began. “I'm a storm with skin!” The storm gathered around the land she had created. Her tears formed the waters that engulfed the rock. The lightning struck down like a spear and pulled land up to create the mountains. The storm went on for weeks, her despair never once easing, and her corrupted soul creating a land called Kiron.

At last, the storm withered away. She had cried all the tears she could cry. She looked at this land called Kiron and regret welled up in her heart. She looked around herself, but instead of finding the dark empty abyss she knew so well, she saw a giant ball of light rising up in the sky. The spirits had left and turned into the sun. They had found peace. She rested on Kiron, knowing that the spirits were happy. Just as the spirits, she had found peace. Corruption left her soul and her body melded into the land. Her body was reincarnated as everything that lives on this planet. Her skin turned into the maples, the oaks, the dogwood and all the other trees that tower above and reach the skies. Her soul turned into the Monotropa uniflora, the ghost flower and all the flowers that rise up and bloom, only to wither away and die. Her heart turned into the moon to rule the night, just as the sun rules the day and her body turned into the humans and animals of the world.

The black bears, the mule deer and the homo sapiens are all of Rin’s reincarnations. It was beautiful, with the deep blue waters merging with the mountains that touched the clouds. Trees and flowers of all colors and sizes rising up from the ground and the people and animals who rule the land Kiron. Rin is the light, the joy and the despair of this world. The storm she created still lingers and as it rains her despair is felt, but this despair waters the plants and quenches the thirst of animals and humans. Rin, the bringer of life is our creator.

NAME: Mark TITLE: The Secret of the Trees

MYTH: In the beginning, there was darkness. All but one was the dark and that was Eeshag. Eeshag had the ability to do anything. If he spoke it, it would be. He was a tall and fat figure.

His hair reached to his elbows and his beard reached to his knees. Eeshag was as fat and plump as one could be.

One day soon, before time was invented, Eeshag made the Ball of Flame. “Fire shall be born from darkness. It shall become light,” he said so, and before his very eyes, the Ball of Flame was born.

“Now, time shall pass, so this may age.” Time started at that very moment and the flame started to age.

Eeshag decided that the Ball of Flame was not enough, so he duplicated it. “There shall be a second Ball of Flame, and it shall be several hundred times bigger,” he said. Then the second Ball of Flame was made and he called it the Sun.

Then the Sun came to life. “Who am I?” he asked. The Sun, along with all other life that is yet to be, would have the same power as Eeshag. Should they say it, it will be.

“You are the Sun, the Ball of Flame in this universe. You light up all.”

“But there is yet another ball of flame?” the Sun responded. “Are we both the lights of all?” “No, this ball of flame is not yet done. It shall become rock.” And thus, the Ball of Flame was no longer on fire. It turned to rock before both Eeshag and the Sun. “This shall be your companion. There cannot be light without dark, and dark without light. She shall be the Moon.”

At that second, the Moon jumped to life. “Now, for every twelve hours, you shall switch places. For the first twelve, the Sun shall light up the universe. For the next, the Moon shall darken it.”

“But what is the purpose of this endless cycle if no one but you sees it?” Eeshag sat to ponder at the Moon’s question. He pondered for many years. He pondered until the time and year were unknown. The Moon and Sun cycled the universe between dark and light for the many years he pondered. It’s said Eeshag pondered for centuries, millenniums, even eons. He pondered for so long, he became skin and bones. He lost all his fatness and became skinny. Finally, he came up with an idea. “An egg, born from just about everything.”

“There isn’t much of anything, so that will be easy,” the Sun replied. He was right. All there was at the time was light, dark, and time. The Moon, the Sun, and Eeshag combined their forces to make the egg. It was blue, with green patches all over.

“If enough time passes, this will hatch into a new world. One with life, with water, with trees.” Eeshag left them to guard the egg, and they did just that. “I will come back in one hundred eons, and shape the world as we want it. Do NOT control it on your own.” And he left them, and for the next one hundred eons, they guarded it. Finally, it hatched.

As the egg hatched, the Sun and Moon decided to take control of the new found world. The called it Earth and constructed the land as they wished. They formed the water from the dark side of the Moon, and formed the grass, from the light side of the Sun. The mountain and stone came from the Moon, and the lava and fire came from the Sun. Just then, Eeshag came back. “What have you done?” he yelled.

“We have taken shape of this world,” the Moon replied.

“We have guarded it, so it is only fair that we control it,” the Sun added.

“I have given you the power to guard it and the power to shape it. It is mine, and you shall be punished for disobeying me!” And with the power of his voice, Eeshag took away the Sun and the Moon’s power. He took away their voice and their intelligence. He then finally took away control of their movement and forced them to circle around Earth. Now, there was no longer

day, then night, but they both lit and darkened their half of the universe. If one side was light, then the other was dark, and vice versa. Just then, the First Era began.

Eeshag decided he would keep this world, as it was a good template. The Sun and Moon guarded the egg, so it was only fair they got to keep some of what they wanted.

Eeshag needed a new form of life to speak too. One that would not defy his commands. He created oak and birch, with hard, wood-like skin, and leaves for hair, the first humans. They too had the same power as Eeshag. He welcomed them to their new life.

“You are the ones with power in this world. Shall you have any problems, I will help. Defy me, and you will lose your power.” The humans nodded. They then created the trees and decided to name them after themselves. The two they created, oak and birch, would be planted all over.

“We should have children, to help us when Eeshag is busy,” Oak suggested. Birch agreed and they had their children Spruce and Acacia. They made two more trees, named after themselves, and decided that only certain trees shall be put in certain areas. The spruce would be put into the mountains and the acacia would be put in the savannahs.

As the humans had more and more children, and made more and more trees, Eeshag created more humans. He created Goat, born with horns to ram anyone in his way, and Sheep, with a hard jaw and wool to keep him warm. He created Lion, who has the sheer strength and speed to pounce all before him, and Hyena, with a stronger jaw than Sheep, and the fastest of them all.

After he finished, he brought them to Oak and Birch. When he found them, they had hundreds of children and hundreds of trees. Some children were almost identical and Eeshag and the new humans had trouble spotting the difference. Eeshag was not mad, however, as he gave them permission to create, and they did just that.

“Quite overkill with the trees,” Eeshag commented. Birch was happy to see Eeshag again.

“Oak is busy showing some new children how to make their own trees. Who are the new humans?” Before Eeshag could introduce them, Goat quickly interrupted him and introduced himself and his fellow humans.

“I am Goat, and these are my best buddies, Sheep, Lion, and Hyena.” Eeshag was irritated with their defiance, but it wasn’t such a big deal.

After they had a small talk, Eeshag took Goat, Sheep, Lion, and Hyena to their own lands. He brought Sheep and Goat to the mountains and Lion and Hyena to the savannahs.

“You have the same power as me, so do what you wish,” Eeshag said to them before leaving. “Do not harm others, or cause destruction, and do not defy me,” he added. Then he left, to go create the stars.

“Who cares what HE says,” Sheep started to say. “We have the power to do whatever we want!”

“You’re right,” Hyena started to add. “We should have fun! Let’s destroy the mountains and eat the leaves of the trees. We can bring it all back immediately after, right?” They headed to the mountains and destroyed them one by one. They left the biggest mountain, and used it to carve the caves.

They started to eat the plants on the forest floor and the melons spread across the savannahs. They ate the leaves of the trees, getting fatter and plumper. Just then, Oak approached them. “What are you doing?” he asked. “Why are you destroying the mountains and eating the leaves?”

“We’re just having some fun,” Goat said. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“No. But what is wrong is your definition of ‘fun’. I’m afraid I’m going to have to put an end to this.” But before he could stop them, he was pounced by Lion and killed. The moment he died, his soul went into all the oak trees. Birch sensed his death. Birch started to bring her children, Spruce and Acacia, and they brought their children, Elm and Ash. Soon, all of the tree makers were heading for Goat, Sheep, Lion, and Hyena. “We have to do something!” Sheep tried to suggest.

“If they want to fight us with an army, then we’ll make one ourselves!” Goat replied. Then they started to make Leopard and Cheetah. They made Jackal and Zebra. Then they made Elephant and Rhino. Soon, they had an army too.

Then the two armies collided. The tree makers lost quickly, as they did not have nearly the strength and power as the others. As each tree maker died, their soul went into each of the trees they made. Just then, Eeshag came back from making the stars. “What have you done?!” he yelled. His yell could be heard across the universe. His anger unfouled.

This was worse than the time Moon and Sun shaped Earth. This was the final straw.

“We.. uh... we just.. had fun?” Goat was nervous. He was scared of what Eeshag would do.

“FUN!? YOU CALL DESTROYING THE MOUNTAINS, EATING EVERY SINGLE PLANT INSIGHT, AND KILLING ALL THE TREE PEOPLE FUN?!”

“Y-yes..?” Sheep scarcely replied. They were all scared of what was about to happen.

“I take away your power, all of it! If you want something, you will have to earn it yourself. I do the same for all future life before me. And I cripple you! You want the right to be human, but you don’t deserve it! You shall become a lesser species, with a crippled mind, and limited voice. You will become, animals!"

As he spoke, each one turned into their animal counterparts. They could no longer walk on two legs. They could not speak anything but mindless “Bahhs” and “Roars”. As a measure of security, to make sure this never happens again, Eeshag banished the rest of life from the same power as him.

Except for the trees.

Eeshag gave it one more try and made one last species of human. They were made of clay and had the same intelligence as the trees. He left them to themselves, saying only one thing to them. “You are Earth's last chance. Should you fail, I will destroy this world. You may never hear from me directly again, but the trees seem to believe in you. Do not displease them.” And with that, the First Era ended, and the second one began.

And he left the last species of human on its own, he would continue to talk to the souls of the trees, for they were the only ones that respected him. As time moved on, he saw that maybe this last species wasn’t so bad after all, so he would watch them from the heavens. Maybe one day, he will speak with them again. Yes, maybe one day. The End

NAME: Jonathan TITLE: The War of Light and Cold

MYTH: In the beginning, there was endless grass followed by light and warmth. Suun, the God of the Sun, ruled the land, but it was empty. No living creatures existed except for him. “This land is too dull, no noises to be heard, nothing to enjoy, just an endless landscape of grass,” Suun groaned.

He was right. There was no sign of life anywhere, no animals, people nor plants. Just an empty landscape full of possibilities.

“Arg! I don’t like this quiet setting,” Suun snapped, “I, Sunn, the God of the Sun, shall improve the dull land, and make it produce beautiful sounds that could be heard all day long with cute creatures to enjoy and delicious plants to eat!” Suun did just that, with the materials the land had gifted him, he went to work on the new world.

Later, hidden in the shadows lied Snewe, the Goddess of Winter. Snewe saw Suun’s work and became curious, but too tired to watch, so she created someone to do it for her, Chief Sky. “Greetings ma’am. I’m ready for my first order!”

“Oh, I have been so tired lately, Sire. I need your help.”

“You could say it was from all that sleeping.”

“Shut it! Anyway, I need you to keep a good eye in the skies at Suun. He started creating life and I just hope that he doesn’t accidentally end existence.”

“You said it, Ma’am!” Chief Sky then was sent off to the heavens to watch Suun. Days after Suun finished his project and the land was no longer a sitting waste, birds chirped, wolves howled and life was beautiful! Suun and Chief Sky loved the new life and all its glory, but Snewe hated it. She hated the constant noise disturbing her slumber, the bright light that the new world cast and the new temperatures the animals and plants brought. It was too hot for Snewe and she thought she would melt!

Chief Sky has not left the heavens, for they were too distracted by the beauty that the new land cast. “Argh! I can’t sleep! It’s too hot for me to be comfortable, the constant noises these animals bring and the light got brighter!” Snewe snapped and finally stood to make things right. “This world should not be this hot, this bright, and definitely not this noisy,” Snewe proclaimed, “I shall put an end to this irrelevant torture!”

Snewe went to the darkest edge of the land to find the right materials to revert Suun’s creation. She couldn’t find anything useful, just rocks and snow. Snewe sighed and accepted what she had and started to make soldiers. First, she had to create a chief to lead the army. She created Chief Flakk purely out of snow. “How could I be of assistance? Ma’am?”

“I need your help to build an army to destroy Suun’s wonderland.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Snewe and Chief Flakk then started making soldiers from snow, the process was going well until they were out of snow. They had no choice but to start making soldiers from rock. The process was much slower, but the soldiers were stronger than the ones made of snow.

Years passed, as Suun and Chief Sky enjoy the beauty of the land. “It’s so beautiful, Snewe should see this!”

“I have seen it and I hate it! Soldiers, ATTACK!”

Out of darkness rose an army of soldiers made of rocks and snow. The Soldiers of Rock wielded shields that blocked the light and protected their whole body but their legs, and the Soldiers of Snow had spears that stretched past the protection of the shield and could kill at distances where they couldn’t be touched. The raging army of what seemed like impenetrable soldiers brought frost, fear, and death. The soldiers scared and killed off hundreds of animals, like deer, monkeys, wolves, bears, and killed plants like, squash, wheat, baobab, monkey orange, raisin bushes, from lack of sunlight, crushed, or killed by a weapon.

Suun was in horror watching all his creations die before his eyes. He knew that keeping this rage on for any longer would kill his whole plan of making the world interesting. “Snewe, I created this wonderland to add to the dull world. Why would you reset my creation only to have nothing but an endless landscape?”

“The animals make too much noise, stink and make the world hotter. The plants make the light brighter and only make the animals louder!”

“Fine then, have it your way, but I will avenge all of my creation.”

Suun ran off to look for materials to build his army, but he could only find grass and bark from the nearby forests. He, as Snewe did, accepted the materials he had and went to work. Suun needed help, but Chief Sky was too high to reach or call, so he made Chief Shuue. “What can I be of assista-”

“I need help to build an army so I can get back the land that I created.”

Shuue, a bit annoyed, accepted the offer and using the grass and trees Suun and Shuue went to work. Suun assigned Shuue to create soldiers out of grass who wielded swords that cut through stones and were faster than a falcon. Suun would get to work on wood soldiers who wielded axes the size of pine trees and could bury an enemy deep into the earth in one swing and shields that are small but could reflect attacks back to the enemy.

Days later, Suun and Shuue met with the perfect army, but there was a catch. Each army had their own separate leader, but was under command of Chief Shuue. These leaders were King Graase, and Chief Woudds. Chief Woudds commanded the soldiers of wood in battle and King Graase commanded the soldiers of grass in battle.

Now that their army was complete, they were ready to take back the land. Chief Woudds’ army was required to rush in the middle of the battlefield and King Graase’s army was required to flank around and pinch the enemy forces. The plan was settled and it was now time for action. “Ha! I’ve won! Suun’s creation has finally been shut down! No more noises, no more warmth, no more bright lights!”

“Ma’am we have a problem.”

“What do you mean, problem?”

“Creatures from the North are closing in fast and they look fierce,”

It was the Soldiers of Wood, with their axes towering over them and their shields guarding their heads and bodies. Suun was ready to take back what was once a beautiful land. “Attack formations!”

“Ma’am I’m not so sure that our army alone can take on those giant-”

“ATTACK!”

Snewe screamed at the top of her lungs ordering the army of rock and snow to advance and clash with the wood army. The battle began, the spears from the snow soldiers couldn’t penetrate the small, but handy, shields from the Woodmen. The beginning row of wooden men threw their axes down to the earth burying the rock men deep into the earth. Some of the spears from the snowmen pierced woodmen that inched away their shield. “Hold them off longer!” Chief Woudds commanded.

The battle continued to rage on, loud bangs echoed as soldiers dropped to the earth, numbers were decreasing fast, the cries of soldiers as they charged into the battle.

Finally, Suun, Chief Shuue, and King Graase with the Army of Grass charged into the battle from behind the shields of rock. Grass swords flew at the snowmen faster than a running

cheetah. Snow soldiers and their spears dropped and shook the earth because of how many dropped at once. Screams echoed through the land, bodies dropped rapidly. Snewe and Suun’s eyes finally met and they knew what they had to do. “Snewe your dead for killing off my wonderland!”

“Think again, little boy.”

“You dare underestimate me?!”

Snewe and Suun’s swords almost crashed until over the mountains rose Sheld. “Pipe down, you two,” commanded Sheld, “This conflict needs to stop!” Sheld roared across the land.

The war stopped and all the soldiers were turned back to inanimate objects. Sheld grabbed the shoulders of Suun and Snewe. “Instead of conflict,” Sheld commented. “Why not work together to make life the way you both would like?”

Suun and Snewe’s eyes met, thinking about the things they hated and loved. To their surprise, they had a strange feeling for each other. Their hearts pounded, their stomach felt like fire and felt a bit light headed, their faces turned red as they gazed into each other's thoughts and saw what they could do.

Years past and Suun and Snewe finally were happily married together. Together they created animals like deer, squirrels, skunks, birds, red foxes, opossums, wood mice, snowy owls, raccoons, bears, and plants like elephant grass, aba, baobab, guerri, monkey orange, raisin bush, and wheat. They made them not too noisy and not all the animals worked together.

They wanted to be recognized by some form of life for being the creators, so they made humans out of parts from some of the animals Suun made at the beginning. They knew that making humans out of their original wood, snow, grass, and rock would cause war. Punishment for making these people of war shall be killed and forgotten. The End

NAME: GeorgeAGE: 9

MYTH: In the beginning there was only chaos and rage. Out of the rage came two realms: The Luminosa, the realm of light, and Duku, the realm of darkness. The two realms merged into each other, creating day and night. Out of the day came the sun, Ohuo, while out of the night came the moon, Zeszetta. Ohuo and Zeszetta gave berth to the Earth, which they named Ethera, who fell in love with Cosmico, the sky. Together they gave birth to the first humans, which they named the Dunies.

But the Dunies were cruel and selfish so Ohuo quickly sent them down to the chaotic realm called Peklo, we know that as Hell. Ethera gave birth to all land, sea and sky animals. But the animals were reckless, and bit-by-bit tore Ethera apart. In a fit of rage, Cosmico created the humans out of grass, but for every human, he cut the tip of the grass so a human could die. When he was finished, he scattered the humans among the earth and told them to be kind and helpful, and to tame the animals.

So that is the story of how us humans were created (not really, it’s just made up).

NAME: AvrilTITLE: A Breath of Life

MYTH: Once, there was nothing but water. There thrived a goddess, Lluvia. She ruled over the waters but felt lonely as she looked around and saw nothing. She reached her hand into

the waters, looking and feeling, reaching deep before she found something. She found earth. She picked up more and more. Soon it began taking shape of a human. Soon, the shape became Tierra, the god of Earth. Tierra could not float on water and would begin sinking.

“I will create land, where I can stand safely,” Tierra mentioned as he created patches of land so he could continue being beside Lluvia. Sometimes, Tierra would get lost in his own patches of land. He would feel lonely and wouldn’t know what to do and so Lluvia created rivers, streams, and waterfalls to keep him company. Tierra thought that his land was bland and boring because there wasn't anything on it.

With enough water and land, they created another goddess, Flora. She soon created plants such as oak trees, Spanish Bluebell flowers, sycamore trees, and evergreen shrubs. She also created animals like owls, woodpeckers, white tailed deer, red foxes, wolves and elk and spent most of her time on land, but often visits her creators. Tierra and Lluvia were busy most of the time because they were attempting to create humans out of stone and wood.

Once created, they couldn’t move, speak, or worship. That’s when Conhecimento came to be. Conhecimento was summoned because of the lack of knowledge about the world. She was the goddess of knowledge and healing. “These human beings will be given the knowledge necessary to survive,” Conhecimento commanded, giving them the gift of life. She spoke to the woman, “You will be Mulher.”

Afterward, she turned to the man, “And you will be Homem.”

“Conhecimento, you along with other gods will help these humans survive,” Lluvia commanded to which Conhecimento nodded. The gods guided the humans and helped them out for a bit, waiting to be worshipped. The humans never did so because they didn't pay attention to the gods at all. This angered them. Lluvia and Tierra created four more gods. First, they sent Muerte, the goddess of death. She would be the reason why the human's corn, squash and blueberries wouldn't have grown. She would be the reason why their animals would end up dead the next morning. She appears everywhere they seek, striking fear into their hearts.

Next, came Neve, the god of snow. He caused huge snow storms, making humans feel extremely cold. Then came the wind, howling and whispering. Viento, the god of wind caused more fear to humans, making them paranoid about what lurks outside. Lastly, Trueno came to be. He was the god of thunder. His lighting strikes were tremendously loud, causing the humans to yelp and hide for shelter in fear they'd get caught by one.

Once Lluvia decided they had enough suffering, she sent Fogo, the god of fire. He kept the humans warm and gave them light during the night. She also sent Dom, the sun god, and Lua and moon goddess. They were Lluvia's gifts of light to humans to keep them safe and warm throughout the cold. The humans have never angered the gods once again, and worship and thank them almost every day.

The End

NAME: EllaTITLE: Goat and Bird

MYTH: In the beginning, there was only Mother Tree. One day, Mother Tree grew a large flower bud. The flower grew and grew until it was ready to open. When it opened two creatures emerged, Goat and Bird. Goat was not satisfied with the world how it was, so he told Bird that he wanted the Earth to be larger.

“But how do we do this?” asked Bird.

“I will help you. You must run around me for three days. This will expand the earth around my base,” replied Mother Tree. So, Goat and Bird ran around Mother Tree for three days. On the third day, the world was large enough for creatures to live on.

“Now we must create animals,” said Goat.

“We will also create people to look after the animals and the plants,” replied Bird.

Goat and Bird crafted humans and animals from different kinds of tree parts in the tropical forest. Woman was made from birch leaves and man was made from oak bark.

After Goat and Bird created humans, they retreated to the heavens and had many good children including the daughter twins, Sun and Moon, a son, Lightning and many others. But they also had a devious set of triplets, Disease, Anger, and War.

For a long while, all was well. The gods lived at peace with the humans. The humans did what they were created to do; they tended to the animals and the plants; they took care of the world they had been given.

One day, while visiting his creations, Goat realized something. The humans were too perfect. This realization made Goat jealous. He hated having his creations surpass him. So, he came up with a diabolical plan. He was going to make life as difficult as possible for humans. “My most wicked children, Disease, Anger, and War, I want you to make an awful, terrible creature. Take it to the humans and tell them it is a gift.”

“Yes, Father,” they chorused in sinister tones.

What the crafty three came up with was worse than anything anyone had expected, even Goat himself. They created Death. Death was wild and uncontrollable. He killed all he saw, which created mass panic amongst humans. “I will destroy all that is dear to every mother, father, and child,” howled Death. When Bird caught wind of the horrible creature terrorizing her creations, she flew immediately to Mother Tree.

“Mother Tree, I beg you, please save my creations from Death,” Bird implored.

“I will do as you ask under one condition, do not destroy Death. Humans should not live without consequences for their actions.”

In order to help, Mother Tree grew another flower bud, much like Goat and Bird’s bud. When it opened, Life was inside. Life took the shape of a dove and she flew immediately to where Death was wreaking havoc. “Death, you may only take lives when their time was right,” said Life.

“I will do as you ask, as long as I am the one to decide when their time is up,” answered Death.

Meanwhile, Goat, afraid of what he created, never again tried to make a hardship for humans.

After this horrible ordeal, Bird decided that humans needed a gift. She went to Mother Tree and asked for one more favor. Mother Tree agreed and bloomed Rain and Rainbow. Rainbow graced the sky with beautiful colors after her sister, Rain, was finished watering the crops on the savannah.

And so was the world, imperfect, strange, but wonderful.

THE END

NAME: AnaTITLE: Joseph, God of Death By Ana

MYTH: In the beginning, there was nothing but Ocean. It was too dark to see. But one day, out of the Ocean came Inrus and Exva. The sun and the moon. They fell in love instantly.

“I will create land for you, my love,” said Inrus and with the swish of his hand, he made land. Soon after, they had five children. Ludis, Ara, Toborh, Drola, and Aaldin.

“Ludis, you are strong and tough. You are the god of thunder and lightning,” Inrus explained, “Ara, you are beautiful and kind. You are the goddess of beauty.”

“Toborh, you are mysterious and dark. You are the god of the sea,” Exva continued, “Drola, you are full of surprises, no one knows what goes on in your head. You are the goddess of the wild.”

“And Aaldin, you are full of life and wonder. You are the god of crops and the harvest,” Inrus finished. After, they put the children into pairs: Ludis and Ara, Aaldin and Drola, and Toborh was alone.

“You are to be married one day,” Inrus spoke. This wasn’t a problem for Ludis and Ara because they didn’t mind each other, but Aaldin despised Drola. He thought she was weird, annoying, and immature. Drola didn’t care about Aaldin, for she had fallen in love with Toborh. Toborh and Drola spent a lot of time together. Drola would sneak out to see him.

“I won’t marry her,” Aaldin explained. “I won’t marry him,” said Drola. “She’s immature, weird, and annoying!” “I don’t love him! All he does is sit there all day talking to plants!”

“You are to be married,” Inrus demanded. “But I love Toborh! Plea-”

“You are to be married and that is final!” Exva interrupted.

Inrus threw Aaldin and Drola into a garden with no way out, except for a locked door. As for Toborh, he was banished to the sea, so he couldn’t interfere with the wedding.

“I don’t see why we have to be married,” Drola broke the silence.

“Shut up,” Aaldin grumbled.

“You shut up, you pig!” Drola yelled.

“Ugly hag!” Aaldin yelled back.

“You!” Drola jumped onto Aaldin, knocking him down, “I hate you, Aaldin! This is all of your fault!”

“What did I do?!”

“Toborh wouldn’t be banished if you had kept your mouth shut!”

Drola chased Aaldin around the garden. Aaldin, still screaming, created a big tree as a shield. Drola tried to create squirrels to climb up the tree, but she was still learning how to use her powers. A giant flower bud appeared on the tree.

“What on Earth is that?” Aaldin asked.

“I don’t know. But it’s your fault,” Drola pointed.

“My fault?! You were the one that-”

The flower bud opened, interrupting Aaldin. Two creatures climbed out.

“Who are you?” Drola asked them.

“I am a man,” one of them replied.

“And I am a woman,” the other one said.

Aaldin spoke, “What are your names? Do you even have names?”

“I am Joseph,” said the man.

“I am Rachael,” the woman said.

“We created them! Come on, let’s go tell Inrus!” Drola sprinted. They ran to the door of the garden.

“Inrus! Inrus! Look!” The two yelled. The door opened, and behind it was Inrus and Exva.

“We created a man and a woman!”

Drola squealed. Inrus was shocked,

“What are your names?”

“Joseph,” Joseph answered.

“Rachael,” Rachael said.

“You created them?” Exva asked.

“How come you were standing behind the door?” Drola stopped.

“We came to tell you that we have to go to the sky. It’s too dark without us,” Inrus said.

“Take this amulet, Aaldin. It holds all of your powers. Find a safe place for it, because it’s too dangerous if only one person has it.” Aaldin took the amulet and said, “Thank you.”

“You will become the king of the gods.”

Inrus and Exva jumped into the sky. They left Aaldin and Drola to be the king and queen of the gods. The two went back to the tree to find ten more humans and the tree dead. Drola spoke first,

“Oh, no!”

“How did this happen?” Aaldin cried.

“What matters is that we have enough people to start a village,” Joseph said. “You’re right, I will create houses for them.”

“I will give them animals,” Drola said.

The two gathered the other gods, except Toborh, and together created a home for the humans. It was a village in the Alpine forest that was surrounded by a temperate forest and a deciduous forest. Then, they all retreated to the sky. Drola wanted to stay on Earth and watch the humans grow. “I will leave the amulet here,” Aaldin said at the top of Mt. Brosfolk, “In case you change your mind.”

“Thank you, Aaldin,” Drola took the amulet.

“Goodbye, Drola,” Aaldin said as he jumped into the sky to live with the other gods.

Drola set the amulet on a rock. “I will leave this here. The humans are too scared to come up here.”

Drola began to walk down the mountain and down to the village where she ran into Joseph, “Oh, hello, Joseph.”

“Hello, Drola,” Joseph bowed. “Where is Aaldin?” he asked.

“Aaldin went back to the sky to live with Ludis and Ara,” Drola replied.

“He took his amulet with him?” “No. It is at the top of Mt. Brosfolk.”

“Is it now?”

Joseph came up with a plan. He would go to the top of the mountain and steal the amulet. He wanted to steal the amulet in the first place, but couldn’t find the right time to. He wanted the amulet to get power. He thought it was unfair that the gods had all of the power, leaving the humans with nothing. He started to walk up the mountain bringing food, water, warm clothes, and his knife, to kill anyone who got in his way. After all, he had killed Aaldin’s and Drola’s tree that created humans.

When he got to the top, he spotted Drola sitting in front of the amulet. He ran and hid behind a rock. Coming up behind Drola slowly. He raised his knife and brought it down into Drola’s back.

“Sorry, Drola,” he said. “No hard feelings.” He grabbed the amulet and ran down the mountain.

Aaldin sensed that there was something wrong, and came back down to find Drola on the ground, blood all around her. “Drola!” he yelled, “Ludis! Ara! Come down here!”

All of the gods came down to mourn as Drola was dying. Even Toborh was allowed to come back from the sea. They all stood there, crying. Inrus and Exva came down as well, making the sky go dark.

“Who did this?” Inrus mumbled. He spotted someone running down the mountain, “Stop, human!” Joseph stopped, realizing that he was caught. He hadn’t made it that far, “You have proven humans unworthy of our protection. I’ll take away your houses, your crops, your animals, and you, Joseph, will be punished for this!”

As Drola died, Aaldin turned her into a tree, so she could watch the humans grow from up on top of the mountain. They each left something for her. Ara left beautiful flowers, Ludis left green leaves to grow on her, Toborh carved his name into the tree, and Aaldin put the amulet into the tree hiding it from the humans.

Now, Drola sits on top of Mt. Brosfolk, watching over the humans. The other gods covered the top of the mountain with snow and ice. They made it hard for humans to breathe. No human can climb up the mountain to see Drola’s tree or find the amulet. As for Joseph, he was banished to deal with the unhappy souls in the underworld, becoming the god of death. He decided to make a series of tests that the souls had to pass to get into the underworld. But that wasn’t enough, he wanted revenge on the gods. He called people to the underworld too early. He gave some humans depression and unhappiness, causing them to commit suicide, so the gods’ perfect human race would begin to fall apart.

The gods are still up in the sky, watching over the people of the village playing pranks on them if they do something that is cruel and scaring them away from Mt. Brosfolk, away from their beloved Drola.

NAME: Ariana TITLE: Kyubi and Kyube Create the Earth

MYTH: In the beginning, there was nothing but three eggs. When two of those eggs hatched, two foxes came out. One of the foxes had white fur, this was Kyube. The other had black fur, this one was Kyubi. Kyube and Kyubi were getting tired of the empty void, so they gathered stars and created the earth. Kyubi made the rivers, mountains and seas from the earth, while Kyube made the animals and plants from stars. Kyubi and Kyube knew the earth was too dark, so they made the sun. After a few hours, the sun went down and it was too dark once again, so they made another sun. This caused a constant light and it bothered the animals and the plants started drying out, so they destroyed the second sun and created the moon. That's how the moon came to be. Then the earth was balanced, and the plants and animals were happy.

Suddenly, the third egg hatched, and chaos spread, trees caught fire and animals were badly harmed. Kyubi and Kyube tried to defeat Pyrene, the third egg, but the fire was too powerful for them to get close to. So, they sealed Pyrene away into a paper talisman, which is also known as an Ofudoa. An Ofudoa is supposed to seal away darkness and seal evil being’s power away. He would only be unleashed if someone or something created destruction.

Kyube told Kyubi: “Maybe we should make a new species.”

“You can try,” Kyubi replied.

Kyube got stars and moon shards and made humans. Kyube gave humans the instructions to never cause destruction, terror or sadness and so the humans swore to not do any of those things.

“Never cause terror, sadness or destruction, or Kyubi and I will punish all of you,” Kyube told the humans.

The humans replied, “Yes, Kyubi, we will take heed.”

One day, a group of boys decided to make a fire. “I wonder what would happen if we start a fire?” asked one of the boys. And they did so. Not knowing how to control the fire, the forest burned and destruction, terror and sadness were dispersed. Pyrene was unleashed and Kyube and Kyubi were furious. Since the two gods were so furious, they let Pyrene stay on the earth as ‘God of Death and Destruction’. This was to punish the humans for what they did with unleashing destruction when they promised they wouldn’t.

Since humans didn't follow the gods' instructions, the gods made all the creatures including humans with the capability to die and feel sad and negative emotions for all eternity.

NAME: Tannyn TITLE: The Bird in the Stars

MYTH: The world first began with an egg. The egg contained a bird. Bird was bright and had colorful wings that were as large as a planet. When the egg hatched, the shell crumpled into stars and the stars became bright and shiny from the glossy shell. There, Bird sat all alone. It couldn’t do much but cry and so Bird cried an ocean of tears.

The ocean filled up quickly and Bird had to act fast, so it flew into the stars. Bird cried out for someone or something to come and end its loneliness. As soon as Bird cried out, seven stars came down and rested on its wings. Bird was delighted to see finally someone came. Bird asked, “What are your names?” However, there was not a response. The stars did not have names or identities of their own. Bird smiled, starting to give each of the stars names. “You will be Solis and I will give you the sun.” Solis smiled and took this gift. “You will be Lunares,” Bird said, pointing at a star. “And you will have the moon,” Lunares smiled and took the gift as well.

Soon, the other five were given gifts and their names. The third was Terra and she was given the earth. The fourth was Ignis and he was given fire. The fifth was Caeli and he was given the control of the wind and air. The sixth was Oceanum and she was given the oceans and waters and the final god was not a man or woman, they were just a human. Bird did not know what to give them, so Bird just waited, but they were named Vir.

After they were all settled with their gifts, all but Vir jumped into the ocean and started to create. They made the earth and below the ocean, they made mountains and rivers. They made plants and animals and they made rivers and lakes. They created biomes of all sorts, including tundra, savannah, tropical shrublands and many more. They created until they were satisfied with the world around them, but there was just something missing according to Bird. Vir sat down on Bird’s back and told them about a creature that was something bigger and brighter than an animal, something to take care of the world below. Bird flew across the world below trying to find what that was, but Bird did like that idea and Bird knew that he couldn’t create or find it on their own.

Bird sent Vir down to the earth to explore and find what that was, but as soon as he was safe, Bird called for the other gods. There, they sat as Bird explained what Vir was talking about. They came together and all came up with a gift for Vir. “I will make a body as a base,” Terra said, creating a body crafted from the sands of the Savannah. “I will give them eyes to see,” Lunares stated, giving them eyes as bright as the moon. “Oh! And I will give them a passion,” Ignis smiled, giving them a fiery passion. “And I will give them life,” Solis nodded, giving them life. “Hmm.. I will give them breath to breathe,” Caeli smiled, giving them breath from the wind. “As the last gift, I will give them blood,” Oceanum smiled, giving them blood from the water of the oceans.

They called up Vir and they showed them. They were overjoyed and gave them a gift of his own. Vir thought about what to give them, but he then decided. “I will give them personality,” he exclaimed. He gave them that gift and was sent down to the earth along with the gift. He showed them around, but soon realized a flaw in the plan. They could not see. Vir called out to the gods, saying, “This is perfect, truly, and I thank you, but they can not see. I need some light.”

Bird huffed as they flew around the earth, “Solis, the sun is bright and hot. Please go out and supply the earth light and heat. Solis nodded but was unsatisfied with having to go alone.

“Could I take Lunares? She could sit in the sky and I could stay with you. She could light up the dark sky that you can’t go to and I could light up the sky that you go to.” Bird agreed and sent Lunares, who was unhappy with the plan, but she needed to do so. Lunares sat alone and watched Terra, Ignis, Caeli, and Oceanum go back to the Earth and observed Vir mentoring the creatures. She wanted someone to sit with her too, so she took an older creature. The creature smiled and told a story about her life. Lunares soon got bored and took another.

Soon after she had many older ones, Vir noticed this and was upset, but they multiplied quickly. Vir became okay with that and saw them up in the sky, watching them become constellations in the sky. The sun and the moon rotate around the world happily. All of the gods who were sent to Earth mentored the humans and taught them how to make food and start a life while Bird watched over them. The humans learned to procreate and make more, so the population stayed stable. The gods, goddesses, and humans lived happily together in peace.

NAME: Elias TITLE: Zokhala and the Adversary

MYTH: When there was only darkness, all that stood was a great mass of molten rock. This, however, was the base of human life and civilization. The god, Zokhala, saw the lava, and molded it into his perfection. He put life throughout the land; grazing area for all the mammals, water for fish to swim, and the air for birds to fly.

Even though the Earth was full of life, Zokhala felt lonely, for there were no humans yet to worship him and no children for him to teach. So, Zokhala created a wife for him out of the rain that fell on the earth. Her name was Majka, and they had many children. The first of his children was named Abachi.

They gave each of their children land to rule over, the firstborn having the most, and the youngest with the least. Abachi was given the temperate forests of fertility, which covered most of the land.

His brother, the second-born was named Umeranago. He ruled over the tropical rainforest. Their sister Oabara, the third born, was given the land of great trees and plants. Their fourth-born, Muntagna, was given the holy mountain because he was the last child. Each younger child had less power than their older counterpart. The more powerful each god grew, the larger their land spread.

Even though the land had oxen to graze, hares to burrow, and eagles to soar, there was still darkness among the creatures that roamed the Earth. So the gods together created the holy light of the sun, which lit the sky, giving life to all creatures. But even the sun needed rest and at night the land would grow dark again. The god Zokhala created a wife for the sun, which would light the night sky. They called it the Moon.

Though Zokhala had many children, the world was still bereft of intelligence beyond animals. So, the gods yet again came together to create what they called humans. They made molds out of rock and they came alive! However, they still could not speak and they were not intelligent. So the gods destroyed the people of stone. They tried again to create intelligent life, so they used the most abundant material on the land, wood. They used the great oaks, birch, and walnut trees of the environment to create life. “What is our purpose?” questioned the newly created humans.

“Your purpose is to serve and protect the wildlife and to carry out our wishes,” proclaimed the gods.

“Very well,” complied the humans. “We will do what you wish.”

Creating the humans was a success, and now Zokhala felt that his world was finally fulfilled.

However, not all was perfect in the world. The humans had committed acts of violence against each other in the name of greed and jealousy. These disgraceful emotions were given to them by the goddess Oabara, and for this she was punished. “What have you done with my creations?” challenged Zokhala, with anger in his voice. “I have granted them their inner wishes,” Oabara replied. “This is vile and blasphemous! You will suffer the consequences for what you have done to my once beautiful world!”

Her land was once green and fruitful and now for what she had done, it was brutal and infertile with relentless weather. She was sent down to the depths of miscreation, where the darkest of nightmares lay. The humans were not left unpunished either, they were given “death”. This is the disconnection of soul and body, which leaves the body cold and lifeless, and the soul hungry for a vessel. Death only comes when Oabara pulls people to the underworld when their time has come.

Now that everything has been said and done, the world was left in constant conflict. Some longed for peace, while many found joy from within the battles. The people of Zokhala were challenged by Oabara many times. She took their children with plague, their livestock with illnesses, and their crops with flood. The world would be left like this, until the end of time.

NAME: Brendan CarrAGE: 8

MYTH: In the beginning of time there was a tall triangle made of gold, it towered over the darkness emitting a gold aura of light. Then, the humming bird flew to the triangle, and asked “O, triangle may I come in?” The triangle replied, “I wish Humming Bird, but I can’t.”

The Humming Bird was very disappointed, he flew away. He flew far, far away, and met Rawatick, the spirit of gold. Since Rawatick was the spirit of gold, he could control anything gold. So he went to the triangle. He saw that the triangle was 2-dimensional, it needed to be 3-dimensional, so humming bird could fit. He thought, triangle, be 3D! And so it was, it was 3D. Humming Bird rejoiced and flew in humming a happy hum. The other animals heard this and went in. It became so crowded that, when the man, Hopfrin, and the woman, Saqréq, tried to get in, it was too crowded! They ran to Rawatick and asked “Rawatick, could you make it so we could come in?”

Rawatick replied “Uhhh, I’ll try.”and so he did. He reached towards the triangle and flung it with all his might. “Yay!” yelled the humans, the triangle was now flat ground. They called it err-th, earth. But when Rawatick made the Earth, he used up all the power he had! His body parts flung all over the earth. His head the Sun, his face the Moon, his arms and legs the trees and his torso, which was split into many pieces, the rocks and mountains. When he died, he shined with gold light, and because Hopfrin and Saqréq were close they became immortal gods! They now ruled over the world and its animals, but they wanted animals that looked like them. So Saqréq gave birth to intelligent, mortal humans and sent them to the earth to live. But it was hard to rule alone so Saqréq gave birth to more gods to rule with them.

NAME: Emily George LOCATION: Valley Regional Career Academy, Lexington, NC

MYTH: Have you always wondered why there was Evil and Good in the world, Black and White, Chaos and harmony? And not just good? I mean, would the world be a better place without evil? No, no it would not. Evil and Good, though opposites, life need them to survive. They are what make the world turn. Like the story of Yin and Yang, Light and Dark, Good and Evil cannot survive without each other. They need each other to cancel out. If just evil was present then it would run rampage in the world and destroy what we know.

Let me tell you a story, this story is old, older than the beginning of time. It has been passed down in my family for longer then I can remember and I have been the next one chosen to pass the story on. This story is filled with magic and stuff many people would not even be able to dream of and that is why I wish to share it with the world. In the beginning, when the world was created, there were two spirits that resided in one body. The spirits of light and dark, chaos and harmony, love and hate. Two very different forces and each conflicted on another until one day they split. The spirit of evil, as we called it, became a woman with the name Maura, The Woman Of The Night, and the spirit of good became a man, coming to be known as Aaru. Over time the man and woman fell into a love stronger than time itself but like the sun and the moon, they knew that the could never be together. As time went on they moved on but deep down they still loved each other. Aaru fell in love with a middle-class woman named Salome, Who was a gem in his eye.

Soon Aaru proposed and they got married, and when Maura found out she was furious beyond belief. She summoned two Hell Hounds, Cerberus and Orthrus, who she ordered to kill Salome. Cerberus and Orthrus snuck into Salome and Aaru’s home late and night and tried to kill Salome but Aaru protected her, who died in the process. Maura was heartbroken and the news that he was dead and mourned for 7 days, and over the 7 days chaos ruled the land. On the 7th day, Maura died due to heartbreak. The chaos stopped and life went on once more.

Over the next thousands of years, two children were born to have feelings with each other but to never be together. It is a curse that could never be broken. The Curse is named Love. a force that can break your heat into pieces or make a smile brighter than the sun on your face. To some, it can be a Curse or a gift.

I will let you be the judge.

SCHOOL: Kennedy Pikesville Middle School Baltimore, MD

MYTH: Throughout the dark, vast, and endless amount of water before time, there was no life. An egg emerged from a wrapping of dirt. The egg floated to the surface. Rezzecduia emerged. She felt a strong urge to dive back into the lifeless water where her life began. When she did this, she found a small chunk of sea floor with light humming in the center. She brought it up to the surface. The second that air hit the light, it exploded into what we call the land today. Rezzecduia broke the land to create seas and oceans to honor her birthplace. She became the goddess of the land. She soon saw the animals roaming the land. She lived in harmony and befriended them. Rezzecduia was lonely and tired of living in the dark. She then gave birth to Besuki. He was sent into the sky to become the sun. He split into two to create the moon. Rezzecduia was angry that her son took some of the light from her. To punish him, she created night and day, so the two halves would never see each other with the exception of eclipses. On the first eclipse, the two halves were so happy to see each other that they created little humans to roam the Earth. Rezzecduia ended the peace. The world turned into what it is today, with death and suffering.

NAME: William SCHOOL: Pikesville Middle School Baltimore, MD

MYTH: In the beginning, there was only Illastropic, the all-powerful goddess of fire. She was a psychopath and a murderer, and she decided she needed a son to serve her, so she makes her out of the eternal fire pit she made, by the name of Quadrastra. Out came Octopian.

But when Illastropic finds out he is a god of ice, she is furious. She tries to kill him, but he gets away, and makes the ice land and names it Caroct. He there makes the first race of humans. He is caring and considerate. Even though the humans hat Illastropic, he tells them not to harm her. But one day, a group of humans go against Octopian’s word and try to kill her. Unfortunately for them, they succeed. Octopian is forced to give them a punishment. He says to the humans, “This group of people have betrayed you. As a result, none of you will be able to hide under my shield for cover. You will work for Illastropic, and serve her. I am sorry you have to do this.” The next thing they knew, they were in front of Illastropic. “At last. I have servants!” she exclaims.

And for a thousand years, everyone serves Illastropic. It is long and hard. Millions of people died in fire when they upset Illastropic as a punishment. But after that thousand years, Octopian comes back and says, “Everyone who is willing to come and leave Illastropic and

live with me, I will let you. But only if you don’t care about being rich. It will be rich in friendship.

And for all eternity, everyone lived under either Octopian or Illastropic, money or friendship. They were moved to earth, and when humans die, they will go to either the underworld for Illastropic, or heaven to Octopian.

NAME: LeoAGE: 6th GradeTITLE: The Penguin Creation Myth

MYTH: In the beginning of time, there was nothing but a small Ruby gem. The gem grew bigger and more powerful until it formed into a Ruby egg which hatched and the Majestic Penguin was born. The Majestic Penguin created earth and ruled over all but he felt something was missing. So he created other penguins which he gave elemental powers to. Lightning, Fire, Ice, Earth, and Air. He sent them to earth to add elements, But the Fire elemental Penguin grew greedy and Loved the power. He grew power hungry and used fire to defeat the Lightning and Ice elemental penguins and gained their powers. He grew stronger and stronger while the Air and Earth hid away. The fire elemental now had the power of Lightning and Ice and went after his father in the stars to gain all power in the galaxy. Before he could Earth Elemental came out of his hiding and cast Fire penguin away to the dephs of the underworld.

Fire was very angry and took over the underworld and gained more and more power and the element of darkness. When he escaped, he destroyed Earth Penguin and took his power too. He left the world in ruins causing chaos. Lightning storms, Earth quakes, Hail, Ice, And fire that raged through out the whole earth. Air went up to the stars to warn the majestic. They went down to earth to find it destroyed and in complete chaos. Fire was too powerful to defeat now that he had the powers of fire, along with earth, lightning, Ice, and darkness. He went up to the Majestic Penguin, his father and destroyed him gaining the power of the stars. Air had escaped and created a new race of penguins in a different galaxy. He gave them mighty powers of the sky and raised and army to fight the fire elemental. The war raged on for decades, but it ended in the fire penguin defeated along with all the soliders of the air penguin. Air restored the power of elements in the earth and created the first race of men who fixed earth and as generations came down they eventually live how we do now while the Air elemental penguin, the new Majestic Penguin rules it all in the stars.

NAME: Hanna CLASS: Ms. Miller’s 6th Grade Language Arts Class SCHOOL: Pikesville Middle School Baltimore, MD

MYTH: Once there were no people on earth, it was very quiet and lonely. No people, no light, no dark. Just nothing. One day thousands of thousands of years later, there was a ball of light. It was just there, where there was once nothing there was something. Light! A couple of days later the ball started to grow bigger. This caused the earth great pain and regret.

No one knew what this was but Earth only knew one thing. It was going to explode soon. A couple of days later it exploded. Out of it came the majestic and beautiful Sunahaki, the Sun. Suna was very kind to earth and let earth take care of her. One day Suna and Earth got married. They bore children with light and darkness of all colors.

One of their children (Shun) gave birth to a being named Gianna. Gianna brought happiness to all of her siblings. One day, Gianna started getting larger and larger. The next day she

exploded. Out of her came the moon and stars. The stars became glistening and yellow. The stars, moon and all different planets. This is how our solar system was created.

NAME: MathewCLASS: Ms. Miller’s 6th Grade Language Arts Class SCHOOL: Pikesville Middle School Baltimore, MD

MYTH: In the beginning, there was realm called xiar, there live two gods. Yokus and junfa. Together they gave birth to many 7 gods and 10 goddesses. Yokus and junfa began thinking about making a mortal realm called earth. So they began their construction of this realm. At daylight they work on this realm and night their children would finish the work. They began working on beings for this realm made. After creating the clay beings, they breathed life in to them to make them alive. Yokus, Junfa, and their children told the beings,” The earth will be your paradise if you listen to our instructions.”

The beings were told to praise the gods and goddesses and to not make false gods. The Beings agreed. Later that day a being told the other beings about a false god named kolo. The next day the gods and goddesses came back to see the beings praising kolo. Yokus had said not to make false gods. Yokus said: "You will have to work and suffer and die because you didn’t listen to me.” The beings worked and suffered forever.

NAME: ZacharyCLASS: Ms. Miller’s 6th Grade Language Arts Class SCHOOL: Pikesville Middle School Baltimore, MD

MYTH: As soon as the world was created, there was the goddess named Yed, the god of the earth. Yed soon gave birth to the animals across the world, the first being the Elephant. But, these animals couldn’t talk to her. So, she gave birth to the God, Beht, the god of sky. Beht and her gave birth to seven children, which Beht and Yed happily gave them power. Those names are Diana, the goddess of water, Mok, the god of the etherworld, Jum, the god of Earth, Aer, the of sky, Kop the goddess of Justice, Pol, the goddess of war and victory, and Gue, the god of wisdom. The ruler of these gods was Mok, until Jum and Diana fought him. It was a great war, Mok, Kop, Pol versus Jum, Diana and Aer. Gue knew he shouldn’t be in the war, it would only end in chaos if he did. During the war, Aer and Jum created humans to fight for them. Jum made them from materials he found, Aer made them breath and come to life. Ultimately, the winner of the war was no one. They decided to do a peace treaty, known now as “Gods Peace”. The humans were alerted by Gue, that the goddess that was worshipped the most, Diana was hurt by something that was stuck in the ocean. They sent Seth, a hero among humans, to go retrieve it. He retrieved it and married Diana soon after. He became the god of humans.

Years later, the one instruction the gods gave was broken. Do not think about rebelling against the gods. A human named Maximus was one that thought this. Therefore, humans got punished with illness and death.

NAME: PhiliaCLASS: Ms. Miller’s 6th Grade Language Arts ClassSCHOOL: Pikesville Middle School Baltimore, MD

MYTH: Once upon a time there was a big egg filled with chaos. It was filled with so much chaos that it broke, and a beautiful goddess named Delna came out of it. The first word she spoke was AQUA, which became all the seas and oceans, the second word she spoke was LAND which became all the continents, and the third word she spoke was SKY which became the part on top of the land and aqua. She was very happy with her life, but she was also very lonely! She was all alone and couldn’t share her thoughts or feelings to anyone! But suddenly an idea came to her mind, what if she makes little creatures than can talk and walk and act like her! She went to the water and commanded them to obey her. She said, “I need all aquas to take a small part of themselves and give it to me.” They all obeyed Delna and gave a small part of themselves. She then took the small parts of aqua and made them into little creatures, which she named “humans.” Delna was very proud of her creation but it would take her a lot of time to make trillions of these. So she decided to spread all the little parts into the land and humans popped out! It is believed that the humans made with Delna’s own hands were more successful in life than the ones thrown on the land.

NAME: Max CLASS: Ms. Miller’s 6th Grade Language Arts Class SCHOOL: Pikesville Middle School Baltimore, MD TITLE: Creation of New Jersey

MYTH: In the beginning there was only darkness. There were two leaders of New Jersey name Ed and Sara. They created the creatures of light. They bring spirit and light throughout New Jersey. Ed and Sara gave birth to Lia and Zach. There is a whole above in the sky and Zach falls through it! Luckily he lands on a turtle. While Zach is staying on the turtle he needs earth. A creature from light goes down in the sea to get earth the creature is a diver myth. The animals help spread earth on her feet and the mud comes into a giant place called New Jersey. ‘’WOW LOOK AT IT I WILL CALL IT NEW JERSEY” said Zach. Than Ed and Sara and Lia come down from the sky to go to New Jersey. The light creatures would die because it would not be dark in New Jersey. Then Ed and Sara die. Zach and Lia gave birth again to Isaac and Haley. Zach gives Isaac a sword while Zach is sleeping Isaac kills Zach while he is asleep than Isaac dies. Haley takes over New Jersey and has animals to help her work out the garden state.

NAME: Rayyaan CLASS: Ms. Miller’s 6th Grade Language Arts Class SCHOOL: Pikesville Middle School Baltimore, MD

MYTH: There were the light spirits and the dark spirits. They both had wars. They took each half of the world. One side dark and one side light. The spirits turned into gods. God of light and god of dark. Husband and wife. Light lady and dark man. They created new human elements. They had children who had their own jobs. When the light and dark gods died the light god created all the stars and the dark created galaxies and black holes. The god of earth created land on a new planet called Earth. The ocean god gave the new planet water. The grass god place grass on the earth. The life god created the animals and the plants. She also created the first humans who were gigantic. The weather god creates the weather. Then the evil god created monsters killing some life on earth. The other gods were upset and unhappy, so they had a big war with the evil god, killing him. The humans traveled across the world making new tools and technology. They discovered ores from beneath the earth. Had new leaders and systems. Education. This was called the prime age. The gods gave suffering to humans who were acting poorly. The animals were food for the humans and gave them food. Water was essential for human life. The humans evolved and learned agriculture. Learning how to plant food gave them enough food. They made new tools for farming. Gods were happy. Lindsey.

TITLE: My Maryland Creation Myth CLASS: Ms. Miller’s 6th Grade Language Arts Class SCHOOL: Pikesville Middle School Baltimore, MD

MYTH: Many billions of years ago, Maryland was nothing. The only thing inhabiting Maryland was a crab. This great crab was named Marvin. Marvin was very lonely, and he wanted to create a civilization. He decided to dive deep down into the ocean and see if he could find life. He dove so far down it was like an abyss. He went for miles and miles and finally he found this odd thing. He never figured out what it was, but it was life so he took it along with some Earth and they traveled up. Marvin and his odd organism he named Bamore traveled and traveled up until they reached the surface. Marvin and Bamore bore many children who were crab-humans.

Together, Marvin, Bamore, and all of their children made Maryland. They made forests, rivers, mountains and everything in between. Then, the crab-humans married each other and they had children who were closer to the humans we know today. They created day and night. One sad morning, Bamore and Marvin got tired of each other. They fought for a very long time, until Bamore killed Marvin. Everyone (except for Bamore) was devastated. They decided to name the civilization they were making in his honor. They named it Maryland. The almost human crabs had children. These were almost exactly the humans we know today. They put many animals, houses, and buildings within Maryland. Among the many almost-humans, were the evil twins and the good twins. One twin from each pair married each other and had children to create the human race we know today. Some of their children were good and others were evil. This is why some people in Maryland are truly cruel while others are very kind. Bamore unfortunately died, so the biggest city in Maryland, Baltimore was named in his honor. After many hard years and lots of generations, we had the Maryland we knew and loved today.

NAME: Benjamin AGE: 6th grade TITLE: my Vermont creation myth

MYTH: To begin there was nothing but two elements endlessly swerling and fighting. Winter, and summer. After many years two animals formed from this confusion. An icy moose and an eagle shaped phoenix. (A phoenix is a fiery bird)The two animals took their halves of the chaos and moved to different parts of the land. As they crossed the land in now known Vermont, the element that they were given spread from them across the land where they walked. They decided that the land was too plain and the moose used his antlers to create mountains and the points on his antlers to make caves. The eagle flew over plain land to create fields and lakes.

Once they were done they were very tired and they both fell asleep forever. The eagle’s soul created the sun to keep the cold away. The moose’s soul went up to create the moon to keep the sun away. After many years the sun and moon kept trying to control their land. The cold and warmth from the animals finally joint together and created a great mountain called mount Mansfield. Out of that mountain burst a great volcano of gooey syrup. Out of that syrup came a rocky man, he was called the man of the mountain. After about a couple weeks of just him, he got lonely, he wanted someone to support him and cheer him on. He created the first humans. They were made of the syrup from the mountain along with pine needles and bark from the woods, he called them Beings. For a long time he was nice to them and told them stories of the animals that once created the land. The man of the mountain was very happy, but the humans were not. They were getting board and greedy and they wanted the man's power so they all got together one night and slew him. His face was forever lost in mount

Mansfield. The beings did not want any future generations to know about what has happened with a fear that one might try to be like the man.

NAME: Taylor AGE: 6th grade LOCATION: Vermont

MYTH: The world was still forming but there were still patches of nothingness and the biggest patch was in the New England territory. But suddenly a giant explosion happened and out came andyognis a god of great power and size but was still discovering what he could do. So he decided he didnt like being alone so he tried to make life but then it died because there was nothing accept him so then he filled in the emptiness with the most enchanting land and he called it Vermont. But right when he made the land the camel appeared and formed a mountain. He was so fascinated that he put them all over Vermont. But then he was lonely so he made a son that was powerful but not as powerful as him but by doing that he was not immortal so he needed water and food to live and sickness could also kill him. So then Andyognis created multiple veritys of food including vegetables wheat fruit and the sweetest and most delicious of them all was maple syrup so Andyognis made maple trees sprout up from the ground everywhere. He had named his son odsiodso who had created a source of water and he called it lake champlain and then he was lonely. There was no one to talk to no animals to play with so Andyognis gave him the power to create animals so on his first attempt he made champ the lake monster. So then he tried to get it to talk but it wouldn’t but they still became best friends.

But suddenly it started to snow and the lake had frozen over so he thought that it would never end and he thought he would need to make more beings out of snow and ice and he did and they quickly grabbed some sticks and bark and started sledding. They wanted to go down a huge mountain but they were too dangerous and odsiodso kept making more. He was very sad because he thought he could never see champ again so he went on top of a small mountain at the border of the lake and tried to see if champ would come back but he thought “i cant wait forever” because he would die if he did but Andyognis offered to freeze him into the hill to overlook the lake forever. And he agreed so now he is frozen even to this day but that left Andyognis alone because humans were to small so then he wanted to join his son and lay down and turned himself in to stone and that made the sleeping giant.

NAME: Emma AGE: six grade student LOCATION: Vermont COMMENTS: in my class we have been studying creation myths. And I have composed my own creation myth. I had a lot of fun writing this, and am very interested in it. Here it is. TITLE: Vermont Creation Myth

MYTH: Before the earth and world we know began there were only clouds, a large dull land mass, a lake, and two eggs. One of the eggs rested on the comfy top of the highest cloud, and the other at the bottom of the large lake. One day the eggs began to crack. From the egg in the cloud emerged a great large Hermit Thrush. It slowly spread its wings, preparing to take off. But deep at the bottom of the lake a large loch ness monster with smooth scales that shifted in the light from green to blue emerged from an egg. With a great deal of force the loch ness monster pushed off the bottom of the lake’s floor. Meanwhile up in the cloud the Hermit Thrush soaked in the sunlight for a split second and dove towards the land bellow. As she fell she spun around examining the world around her and its surroundings. She was disappointed with the world. The world she imagined while inside her egg was full of life, colors, and excitement.

The loch ness monster burst out from the cool water, inhaling the air on the surface. As he flew up in the air he saw something coming down from the sky. The Hermit Thrush loved the feeling of the wind flowing through her feathers. She looked down and saw a shiny object emerging from the water and jumping into the air. Maybe I’m not alone in this dull world. They flew past each other just catching a glimpse of the others characteristics. When the loch ness monster felt as if he had reached the highest point of jump he arched backwards ready for his journey down. The Hermit Thrush continued to dive down until she almost slammed into the water. She leveled herself and glided across the water slowly dipping the tip of a wing into the water below. It was nice and cool. She had great plans for this water mass. The loch ness monster dove into the water creating a large splash, soaking the Hermit Thrush in water. The Hermit Thrush was confused. The loch ness monster rose to the surface of the water. They shared a glace and they knew the intentions of the another’s plan for this world and decided to work together.

The Hermit Thrush Flew in a circle. Around and around she went. This created the wind, next she created the first animal of this world. She used some of the dirt of the land mass and created a small frog. it hoped around but quickly crumbled. The loch ness monster used his tail to fling water toward the area of the Hermit Thrush. The Hermit Thrush eyed the loch ness monster then she tried again, this time the frog did not crumble. It hopped, hopped and jumped onto a bump in the earth created by the original frog. The loch ness monster was impressed and soon fell in love with the Hermit Thrush. They became the first husband and wife of the land. The Hermit Thrush swirled around creating mountains, deer, and other land creatures while the loch ness monster was creating underwater creatures, even though his water space was limited he did his best to impress his love and to fulfill his vision of the world. The Hermit Thrush told her husband that when the leaves on the trees change and a brush of brown touches them with care and love a new life will emerge. Unlike the loch ness monster the Hermit Thrush did not live for many millions of years and before the leaves changed she died. Her body became a steep hill, her eyes became the sun and the moon, her blood the rain in the clouds, and her feathers burst out and were left to float around the atmosphere.

The loch ness monster was so sad he cried for weeks on end. When he had finished, rivers had been formed, and the great oceans. From there he started creating more life forms in the waters, he didn’t only stick to the water, he made smaller Hermit Thrushes as a tribute to his wife. After he had finished creating crabs, he looked up from his work and noticed something. The leaves were changing colors, he looked around some more to see if anything would happen. But nothing did. He was confused. he remembered what his wife had said, when the leaves on the trees change and a brush of brown touches them with care and love a new life will emerge. What was that about a brush of brown? The loch ness monster pondered this for 3 weeks. But then on November 17th an idea struck him. Her feathers, a brush of brown! he jumped out of his lake and searched for a feather. It didn’t take him long to find one. He took it and went up to one of the trees and gently brushed the feather on an orange leaf. Nothing happened.

Once again he recalled what his love said, when the the leaves on the trees change and a brush of brown touches them with care and love, a new life will emerge. He knew what to do. He thought about all the times him and the Hermit Thrush spent together and how much he admired and loved her, then he gracefully and caringly brushed the feather on the leaf. In a split second a human formed from the colorful leaf. This one human caused a chain reaction of all the leaves changing into humans. “ Oh thank you for setting us free.” Said the human he had brought to life first. “We shall from now on call you Champ because you are a hero to our people.” The other humans cheered for Champ, they chanted his name over and over until he told them to stop. For the next 78 years Champ taught the people how to hunt for food and to respect nature and to only take what you need, also to find and make shelter and fend for themselves. He also told them the stories of His love the Hermit Thrush. But as we all know a leaf eventually has to fall at some point, and on this dreaded day the first human died. They placed him on the hill the Hermit Thrush made when she died. Another one the next day. She was placed on the hill as well.

All the humans that died were place on the hill and their bodies added on the hill, until it was a great mountain. This mountain came to be known as Mt. Mansfield because of it being made

from the bodies of those that had past. This mountain continued to form until it reached the cloud of the Hermit Thrush. As each human died more were made not only by the trees but by the love between the people. Another two years or so passed and the humans have started to make tools. Champ realized they no longer needed him, so he returned to his lake, only to appear again to gaze upon the smaller Hermit Thrushes that would perch in the trees and sing sweet songs, or if the humans or other creatures needed his help. Otherwise he waited out the days till he would see his loved one again.

NAME: Anja AGE: 6th gradeCOMMENTS: I have made a Vermont creation myth

MYTH: In the beginning there was only darkness. Then, over many years land formed. On one side there was a downpour of rain and on the other side there was a peaceful calm thick forest. The land between the chaos became a cow named Maple. Maple drank the rain from the downpour and then ate the thick forest. Maple felt very lonely without any other beings, so Maple decided to created the second being, Oak her young calf for company. After Oak was born her and her mother went off to create a new land together. They wanted to create a beautiful land that was full of color. They decided to name that part of the season Fall. they wanted Fall to be known for its fluorescent colored leaves.

Over the years Oak grew and grew until she was the size of her mother. They were living very happily until Maple past away from all the hard work that she had done. Her skull became the sky, her hair became the grass, her breath became the wind, and her horns became the mountains. Oak was deeply affected by this, and desperately need company. So she went down to the colorful trees that she and her mom made and created the first human out of the beige bark. The little man was so joyful and full of energy that Oak decided that these little people would make very good company so she made a lot more men and women. She gave them many gifts like cheeses, and the beautiful season Fall that delighted them. Sadly Oak died of old age and became the state of Vermont. Her tough yet gentle personality shaped the climate and even though Oak is gone, Vermont will stay true to its core.

NAME: Jake AGE: sixth-grade LOCATION: Vermont

MYTH: Many billions of years ago, Earth didn’t exist. There just wasn't anything except a swirling void. Congregating around that void? There was Champ, the lake monster. Although there weren’t any lakes yet, so he was just Champ the regular monster. He was sick of just floating around in space. He wanted to be able to stand on solid ground and swim around. So finally he had an epiphany. “I’ll create a new planet! With land! And water!” he said. And with those once thought to be useless flippers, he got to work shaping the earth. He started with a small island called Vermont. Then, he got to work creating all the animals in the sea. He then realized that the land portion of his hub for life was empty and could use some other inhabitants, so he started to work on creating land animals (No humans though.). After all that, Champ was tired and decided to retire to his lake for a quick nap. However, for a massive and lumbering being, a “quick nap” is actually a few million years. When he finally woke up from his nap, he decided to take a stroll. While he was walking around, he came across a huge maple tree. While he was observing it, he accidentally made one of the big tree limbs fall off. Then, sap started coming out of the tree. Small pools of sap fell to the ground. Then, the sun came out, and it hardened.

A day later, the hardened pools of sap began to take shape, and finally turned into the very first humans. Champ was amazed by his discovery even though it was completely accidental.

The humans that came first were the most intelligent ones, who also became leaders. Eventually, he decided that not all humans could be so smart, so he first mixed the rest of the sap in with water, which diluted it. Then he poured that diluted sap onto the ground to harden. Humans populated Vermont, but it eventually got too small. So then Champ spent months making the rest of the planet. After all that, he decided to take a longer nap this time. So, he made his way back to Vermont and settled down at the bottom of Lake Champlain. He’s been sleeping for a millennia, who knows when he’s going to wake up?

NAME: Leonardo AGE: sixth grade COMMENTS: I made a creation myth for my home state of Vermont.

MYTH: In the beginning there was a great swirl of maple leafs of all color. At this time all that Vermont knew was the maple leafs, and the sun and the moon. Over millions of years the sun began to heat up the maple leafs and slowly they dropped to the ground and pooled up to make maple syrup. Out of this maple syrup rose the great god of Mansfield. Mansfield created all the hills, lakes, and trees known to Vermont. Out of one Mansfield's hills he had created awoke the beautiful goddess Nethriss. Immediately they fell in love with each other. And before long they had a son named summer and a daughter named winter. After this Mansfield got very tired and laid down to fall asleep from which he never got up. His body created the mountains and his face created the biggest mountain in Vermont which we now call Mt. Mansfield Nethris was very sad that her love had died. She retreated to the sky. Every time she thought of Mansfield she cried and brought rain to the whole state creating rivers and lakes. Now that there father and mother were gone Summer and Winter were fighting endlessly over if Vermont should always be summer or stay winter. Finally they decided to work together and created mixes between the two. First came Winter, then Spring, then Summer, and then Fall, then finally back to winter.

One day some sap spilled from one of the maple trees and landed on the ground creating the first humans. These people were ungrateful and lazy since they could not dye. Winter and Summer agreed that these people needed to worship their creator and have something to live for. Summer burned them until the melted into lovely maple syrup. Out of this sprouted humans that could hurt, and love, and praise their creators. These people started dying because they did not have any food. Winter and Summer were horrified and went about creating animals, fruits, and vegetables. As the humans learned the became smarter, and smarter, and never forgot to praise their gods.

NAME: CodyAGE: 6 grade LOCATION: Vermont

MYTH: There was once a massive snowflake that, in it held the god of snow, his name was flakes. Flakes was growing each year a whole 2,000 feet each year, this made it very hard for the snowflake to hold him in. eventually Flakes size collapsed the huge snowflake. When the snowflake exploded it created earth. when flakes saw this he was amazed but then he noticed someone else was also on this earth. He did not know who he was so he went to see if he would be a friend of his.

But when he got closer he realized he was a god of fire. They would not live together because snow and fire don't mix. So tried beating Fiery but it was no use he was too strong and he melted Flakes. Flakes´s blood became the maple syrup in the maple trees. And the arms and legs of Flakes became the trees, his head broke of into tons and tons of pieces which created rocks and mountains. When he fell to the ground his collision blew so high it created the sun, the stars, and the planets. But that's not all the collision brought, the snow that flung into the

air plopped back down to the earth and created the humans and all living creatures. When the humans figured out what Fiery did to Flakes, they were enraged. They went looking for Fiery and when they found him they started beating him down to the ground so hard he fell and died. When he fell it created all evil beings, so there would be balance between good and bad. After that they had a massive celebration in honor of Flakes, who fought for their earth.

NAME: Evie AGE: sixth grade COMMENTS: we are studying creation myth's in school and I have written my own creation myth about my hometown Vermont.

MYTH: Long ago there was nothing but endless darkness. Then there was an egg when the egg hatched there was a named Bernadette. Bernadette twin sister was named Adeline. The two of them became the first husband and wife. Bernadette had two children they were named Hazel and Champ. They created the seas and oceans. When they were done creating the seas and the oceans they decided that they didn’t want to have kids because they didn’t want to get overthrown so they continued to create the earth next he created the hills and valleys after that he created the mountains. After that, he looked at the land that was created and it looked empty, so he created the first man and woman out of the rock in the seas. When they were done they looked different so tried another way. He created the second woman out of Hazel's hair. He cut some of her hair off. When he was done with that he wasn’t satisfied, so he created the third men and women out of clay. Champ was super happy he created more and more. He even taught his wife Hazle how to make people. Together they created the men and women. Champ created humans out of really dark clay and Hazel created humans out of really light clay. So that when they have children of their own there will be all kinds of people all different in their own why. Soon Champ died when he died he created the sun and Hazel created the moon. When they died the people still thought that they were living among them but they lived in the waters below always creating new things for them to enjoy.

NAME: Lilian (this has Greek gods and goddesses)

MYTH: Zeus and Hera just announced to the other gods- they were having another child. A celebration was held, nectar was drunk, ambrosia was eaten, and soon enough, Hera gave birth. The child had extremely babyish features, even for a newborn. She aged to her adult body within days and claimed herself the goddess of youth. Her name was Nari. She was a huge icon down in the mortal world- for one, people stayed young for at least twenty more years. Nari was also very nice- she was almost exactly like a child. She was very cute- not in the attractive way, but in the ‘baby otter’ way.

Despite this, mortal men and gods alike proposed to her. One day, Apollo himself wrote a /really/ bad haiku for her. Nevertheless, she accepted his proposal. The two went to Zeus to ask if this was okay- but Zeus didn’t want Nari to marry Apollo. He wanted her to marry a mortal, so that she could continue having immortal children who were also demigods. She asked every day. After three weeks, Zeus finally agreed. The two were happily married, and had three children together, named Edum, who inherited his father’s prophecy powers, Vewtar, who inherited Funeral Music, and Omaris, who was the goddess of fertility. Then, Apollo began having demigod children again. Nari was angry, sure, but she wasn’t a jealous person. She decided to get back at him. She had a few demigod children of her own. Four boys and seven girls. The boys, named Melampus, Eurypylus, Anatol, and Nilos, went on to be heroes- they did not inherit their mother’s anti-aging. But the girls, named Delia, Zeva, Aggeliki, Axelia, Jacinta, Elpida, and Cliantha, did inherit they’re mother’s powers, and lived for a hundred years longer than everyone else- they each had fifteen children, respectively.

NAME: Nathaniel Kokx AGE: 12

MYTH: Once upon a time, there was Kevaha, the God of Creation. She saw earth and all the gods and the horrible thing that were happening. She wanted to create her own planet. A planet where people live free. She stole part of the earth, the Bermuda Triangle, and turned it into a ball. She threw it, as if she was playing baseball, and threw it to our atmosphere. It then orbits the earth like the moon. Kehava went up to the orbiting ball of water, and decided that it needed land. She flew to Jupiter and stole part of it (where the Red Eye is) and put it on her masterpiece. This was land. She then noticed she needed flora and fauna, so she went to Brazil and stole half of the Amazon Rainforest and threw it to the planet. She then needed people, so she stole some people from both Japan and Israel. Kehava had a son with one of the citizens of her planet, and named it Mito. Kehava soon died of illness, and the citizen died too. Mito now controled the planet, and named it after him. The planet, now called Mito, was going to become his own paradise. Mito was a mean ruler, killing people for no reason. The people of Mito hated him, but no one spoke against him out of fear of being killed. There was a group of five gods made from the Sun, named Beyatova, Igwilionedd, Javon, Kata, and Eshte. They killed Mito and established their own regions, named after them, and from then on, people lived in peace (Bedelia is a made-up nation I created for no reason. I like your website.)

NAME: Brooklynne Morris

MYTH: Back when the Earth was new and fresh, there were two friends. There names were God, and Lucifer. God, as we know him ruled everything, created Earth and was a big part of every ones lives. Lucifer, was just his friend and no one really knew him. Lucifer has always been jealous of Gods fame and love. So he asked God "Can I be God?" and God said no. Lucifer then got so mad he turned into a raging red monster, as know him, the Devil. God was disappointed in him and gave him the job to rule over the sinners in a place called we call hell. And since this day The Devil, takes people who have sinned and not asked God for forgiveness to burn for eternity. And God takes the people who worship him and love him with all there heart, to a place called heaven.

NAME: Victoria AGE: 6th grade LOCATION: Vermont COMMENTS: We have been learning about creation myths and I decided to make my own about Vermont.

MYTH: Before earth existed there was nothingness. In a forest where nothingness existed the most there was a seed, that seed was a tree seed. After many years the tree grew big and old. Eventually that tree grew eyes, a mouth, then a nose. The bark on the tree became flannel, and after many years the tree grew out of the ground to become a tree man and he started to create to earth. First he had maple syrup so he created all the bodies of water, then he made the sun and moon buy using snow balls then the big tree man took a huge handful and created the mountains. After many many years later the tree man died but we are all grateful that he started it all but sad he past.

TITLE: The Green Goddess NAME: Olivia Chase

MYTH: At first there was an empty place, nothing roamed its dark space. No one could live there without oxygen to feed their lungs. After 12 years of gathering matter and force “BOOM!”, there was a goddess and her name was “The Green Goddess”. She called herself this because as she was forming and growing slowly, so was the Earth and because the Earth was green, so was she. As The Green Goddess was a comet in the sky she came crashing down and hit the ground so hard The Green Goddess was yet again plunged into darkness of the hole she had made. After two weeks trying to crawl out of the huge rift valley she made. The Green Goddess had peeped out of the top of the surface. All around her was green and blue, etc. It was just so colorful and beautiful.

The Green Goddess then began to have feelings. Her first feeling ever, she was excited and full of wonder. She pulled herself out and took one step, she fell. As she struggled to take a few steps, she fell even harder every time. She finally fell hard enough that she yelled, “Ouch!” She never knew she could speak. She was shocked about how it felt to get hurt compared to how she felt excited and wondrous. After two days The Green Goddess could walk pretty well. She would stumble here and there but she could at least get to place to place. If you can imagine, it would probably feel like being a baby as you’re actually 12 years old. When she came to a river she realized she needed something to wear. She didn’t feel safe having nothing to protect her own skin, and as she thought this she felt a shiver up her spine. So she weaved clothing out of the leaves and flowers, making her feel more protected from the cold and all of those kinds of things. As she was walking steadily around she noticed how beautiful the Earth was, she looked at the trees. She asked, “Hello? Is anyone there?”

No one answered, she was lonely and wanted to have creatures on the Earth to keep her company. So she walked over to a pond and reached down in its cold depths. She found herself touching this weird but soothing substance and pulled it up to find mud. She started to toss it around and play with it. When she had finally built up enough mud to create a “human being” she called it. “You shall be a man.” she confessed. She gave the man a heart filled with warmth from the sun, used the cold refreshing water to fill most of the body, she filled its lungs with oxygen, and clothed it with leaves. She felt this would take forever to create enough human beings and fill this HUGE planet she never really knew. The Green Goddess had watched the human being come to life and fall trying to walk like she did. The Green Goddess fed the human beings meat and fresh fruit, etc. She would laugh and turned to the pond creating another.

This time The Green Goddess made a “women” and she ordered them to go have a family and love each other. “Treat the Earth with respect,” she announced, “here is some food to start you off and help you.’ So after 5 years of balancing the Earth between the sun and moon, creating families, animals, life, etc. The Green Goddess had wanted a family too. She wanted to laugh and love someone too. Everyday she had worked to build another man, a god for herself. Finally, she had created him. He was the sky, and he would balance the stars, oxygen, and weather. The Green Goddess one day had a child, and named her, “The Golden Sunflower” to connect with “The Green Goddess”.

As her daughter grew older so did The Green Goddess. Until one day The Green Goddess grew tired, her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier, AND heavier…. She looked around and found a spot to lie in. The hole she had created when she was 12 years old. When she lied down she had shut her eyes and in a matter of seconds she was gone. She never would open her eyes again. Yet, she was still alive. Plants and all of the things she made started to grow on her. Until, she became what we call today, Mt. Mansfield. Now I know Mt. MANsfield looks like a man’s face upright. BUT, after all of those years her husband grew tired of holding the sky, so he made gravity, and lied down on top of her wife. Her daughter, The Golden Sunflower. She is still alive making sure her parent’s creations are in good order. She is still watching over us.

NAME: Ryder AGE: 6th grade

LOCATION: Vermont COMMENTS: we have been studying Creation myths and I have decided to make my own. I am submitting it so you can publish it on your website. Thank You!

MYTH: At first there was darkness. All of Vermont was bare and empty. Until Adikins the POWERFUL Cow appeared. Adikins brought light and beauty to Vermont which she called “summer”. Then out of nowhere an egg fell from the sky. Out popped a little black bunny. He told Adikins his name was Clover. Clover announced he wanted Vermont to stay empty and barren. Clover brought snow and darkness to Vermont which he called “winter”. Adikins and Clover fought for nights and days. Adikins wanted Vermont to stay summer forever. Clover wanted it to stay Winter forever.

Finally after a week of fighting Adkins and Clover found a solution. Together they made Fall and Spring to go with Summer and Winter. Together they were the four seasons. Adikins and Clover had many kids. One named Mansfield. Mansfield was the wisest of them all and thought Vermont needed something more, people. Mansfield told Adikins and Clover the idea, and of course they thought it was good. Together Clover, Adikins and Mansfield Made people out of maple syrup. They took nearly a year making enough to fill Vermont. But when Mansfield was making the very last person he choked on the maple syrup and died. His body formed what is now called Mt. Mansfield. In memory of Mansfield, Adikins and clover made pine trees lining him. They also made animals like birds, moose, and squirrels. They made plants and lakes and rivers. Finally when vermont was filled with forests of pine trees, wild animals and beautiful rivers and lakes all people of Vermont lived happily ever after.

NAME: Ava AGE: 6th grade LOCATION: Vermont COMMENTS: I made a myth for you to look at. I think the myths you have created so far have been amazing and was looking for that same opportunity. Here is my myth below. Thank you so much.

MYTH: At first there was darkness. Then appearing out of the darkness was a bright colorful empty pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, but was it empty? First, excited sweet maple syrup filed out of the apparently full ice cream pint followed by grumpy sour sharp cheddar cheese. These two were opposites. There was fun energetic maple syrup that grew big, and became a maple tree. Then there was sour sharp cheddar cheese that stayed the size he was when he first came. Sharp cheddar cheese was outraged that maple syrup had turned into a powerful maple tree and he with less power was the same size.

The first season passed fast and soon it was fall. Maple tree started shedding leafs. And once the leafs hit the ground it became a happy two legged creature, maple tree called humans. As more of her leafs fell more enthusiastic humans appeared. Sharp cheddar cheese was enraged. He didn’t want fun happy energetic loud humans with him. Maple trees leaves were falling less and less until there was hardly any left. Little did maple tree know sharp cheddar cheese was taking the leafs before they fall and using his little power to make them like him, grumpy and angry at everything. Maple tree was appalled to see him do such a thing. Every time sharp cheddar cheese made a mean human he would gain more power. Maple tree knew cheddar cheese would be gone soon because every time sharp cheddar cheese gained more power he would also gain mold.

Winter came and sharp cheddar cheese was almost completely covered in mold. The time came when sharm cheddar cheese dyed. But little did maple tree know she would die to because they came together, if one of them got sick the other got sick, if one of them died the other died. As soon as sharp cheddar cheese died, the humans he used his powers to make angry became their true selves again, sweet and energetic. The humans though knew maple tree was going to die for she had told them she was getting weaker and weaker. The humans

panicked for if maple tree died then where would they get their food. Maple tree knew what to do though, she would use her weak powers to drop the maple syrup in the ground to create a river and other maple trees. Even though she would die sooner, she would save her daughters and sons. As she dropped the maple syrup where she needed and then appeared a seed of maple syrup. The humans put the syrup on the snow and created sugar on snow. As the trees started growing there was another type, an apple tree was born, and in the summer the heat would melt it to create apple cider. As for sharp and maple tree, before she died she huddled up with moldy sharp cheddar cheese and they became the mountains, rivers hills and peaks of which we know today as Vermont.

NAME: Grant AGE: 6th grade COMMENTS: I have made a creation myth I hope you enjoy it.

MYTH: Once upon a time there was a maple leaf there was also a really blank planet called earth earth was dusty and gray it had no life. One day that leaf landed on earth and broke into a billion pieces and made trees. The tree’s leaves fell from the trees over time and fell onto the ground and made grass. There was also a person named Mansfield he was the only person on earth.

When he slept he drooled witch made all of the water on the earth he made people and animals out of all the resources he had. When he was done making people he was very happy but by the time he was done making people he was very old when he died he laid down making a mountain the people that Manfield maid ended up calling the mountain Mount Mansfield so that they could remember him.

The people survived by eating the animals so they stayed longer they also mad all the mountains out of water, leaves, grass and mud. They had made a lot of houses, huts and towns in Vermont. Vermont was famous for all the views and the greenness of the state so more people came from other places. Everyone loved Vermont. Another reason people loved Vermont was because of the amount of animals. Since Vermont was so green the animals had a lot of food and water so there where a lot of animals because of that people stayed and made Vermont into what it is today. That is my story of Vermont.

NAME: Samson AGE: 6th grade COMMENTS: I have been l learning about creation myths and I would like for you to submit my creation myth to your website.

MYTH: It started with nothing only darkness and light, chaos and order out of this mixture came the first god Benjamin. Benjamin roamed the universe but he was very lonely so he created Jerry and made him a god. Jerry summoned the ground for them to stand on, and in the middle of this land there was a single mountain. Atop this mountain was their great palace. They lived happily for many years and then they realized they needed more gods to keep the peace in the world, so they created many giants. These giants worked hard, creating the land, sculpting the valleys, and smashing the fields. When they were done they built a temple in their honor, and created cows to worship them as their creators. Benjamin became angry and froze them in place and shattered them. These ice bits flew into the air and every once and a while would come to the ground and become snow. Benjamin then left a dozen cows to roam the world and reproduce. Everyday the gods would eat the cows and take their milk to churn. After it was churned it turned into a creamy substance they named ice cream. They did this everyday as an example to any other gods to show who they will worship.

Then one day many years later out of the giants blood formed a new giant, Vermont. He remembered what the gods had done to his fathers and picked out the sharpest rock he could

find. Then he fashioned this to a giant log and walked all the way to the mountain were Benjamin and Jerry had built their palace. He then started cutting at the base of the mountain and eventually it collapsed, burying him in rock. Atop the mountain Benjamin and Jerry heard the mountain collapsing and tried to run to safety but the rubble was coming down too fast. Benjamin and Jerry were buried in it. They were badly injured but they lived. The rubble from the mountain formed smaller mountains creating the Green Mountains. Their blood seeped into the ground and started growing trees. Inside these trees was a liquid the animals would drink, this they named syrup. The syrup gave life to humans and they began to prosper. They craved syrup and also they craved ice cream and they started making it and named it Ben & Jerry's after their gods. Benjamin & Jerry were happy with this new race but eventually realized they could maybe overthrow them one day, So they made the seasons and incorporated death and suffering into their lives to make sure there was no way they could overthrow them. They named the land Vermont after their grandson. These gods are still around till today ruling the world and maintaining the peace.

NAME: Ella AGE: 6th grade COMMENTS: I have been learning about creation myths in school. We have used your website and I want to submit a creation story I wrote about Vermont.

MYTH: In the beginning there was darkness out of the darkness there was snow and one of the snowflakes turned into a gorgeous goddess. The goddess name was ice she loved the winter one day the snow started to melt the goddess didn't know what to do when it was spring the goddess died because there was no more snow for her to live in. then she died and turned into the clouds. Now it started to rain out of the clouds one of the raindrops a god. The god was born his name was juji he loved to make maple syrup. He was god of maple syrup one day he was eating maple syrup then he saw clay and started make clay animals the first animal was a morgan horse and made more and more until it was summer the out of nowhere a god named mufa the god of summer.

Both of the gods saw each other but they didn't quite like each other out of nowhere mufa killed juji. And juji turns into the sun. then there was sun. the darkness was all gone mufa loved to go camping but there was no land until he saw some sort of clay and made it into a triangle and placed it down and made a mountain called mount mansfield. He took more clay and he made it flat and shaped it into a circle and placed it down and it made a lake called lake Champlain and keep making more and more stuff until he made all the land. Then he went camping when he went to bed he didn't wake up for years and he was dead and his body became trees, rocks, rivers and some animal. There was a goddess who came from the lake her name was shaysha she was the god of all trees it started to snow one day and she loved the snow she decided to make something call skies and snowboards then she started to snowboard down mount mansfield then one day she was snowboarding and went off a cliff and she didn't wake up scene and she turned into the moon and animals and birds when she died.

NAME: Grace AGE: 6th grade LOCATION: Vermont COMMENTS: Our class has been working on creation myths, and different cultures. We wrote creation myths for Vermont, and are submitting them for you to maybe use on the big myth website. Here is my myth for you to look at. Please do not feel obliged to use all of our myths.

MYTH: At first there was darkness. Not a living thing in site. But, a maple leaf blew into the air and lit up the world. This maple leaf created two things. The sun, and the rain. The sun was a beautiful young goddess, and the rain was a handsome young god. These two deity’s gave birth to the first being to live on the earth. His name was Champlano. Champlano grew up in a lovely place full of mountains, lakes, and trees. Especially maple trees. Champlano loved the maple leafs and trees, as they were a part of his childhood. He ran and swam for two hundred years. Then Champlano grew lonely and hungry, so he created a sweet syrup from the sap that comes out of maple trees. He named this concoction maple syrup. He gobbled up so much of this sweet syrup, that he was full, and went down to the earth so he could sleep forever. Champlano woke up and suddenly realized that he was all alone. Champlano also wanted to have pets and friends so he created the animals that thrive in Vermont to this day. Moose, geese, ducks, beavers, chipmunks, and so many more.

Champlano was happy, but Champlano wanted another human to spend the rest of his life with. He called upon rain and said “Send me a fair maiden worth all of the animals in the forest I have created.” Rain responded with “What would you like her name to be?” Champlano responded that he wanted her name to be vermio, after the lovely vermont he grew up in. Rain sent down the maiden and said “How will you return this favor to me?” Champlano and Vermio said that they would populate the world with humans. Rain said “Fine that will do” but before he could say any more winter came and froze the rain drops Champlano and Vermio were going to use as humans. This created an ice like substance that no one was familiar with. Champlano declared that he would call this substance snow, and that the new humans in the world would be created from “snow”. Sure enough, later that day snowflakes fell on the ground, and the first humans were created.

The humans started to populate the earth, but not before Champlano grew old and weary. He lay down in a spot towards vermio, and passed away. His body creating a giant lake which vermio named lake champlain after champlano’s first name. Over the next few days Vermio mourned so much that she passed away too. Instead of her body forming a lake it formed a beautiful mountain range, which is facing vermio, and to this day is called the green mountains. People in vermont still enjoy the pleasures of maple syrup, animals, swimming, and running through the forest to this day. Thank you very much, Grace

NAME: AinsleyAGE: 6th grade COMMENTS: I made a Creation myth about VermontTITLE: Vermont Creation Myth

MYTH: In the beginning there was darkness out of that darkness came a large bottle of maple syrup came out of the dark. One week later the cap to the bottle flew off and out came the goddess Maple. When she came out of the bottle she thought there should be land so she thought earth and out of nowhere a large round ball grew and grew and got larger each day then it got so large that it stopped. When Maple came down to earth she grew hungry and so she made cows and pigs out of grass. Once she ate she got lonely. So later that day she made a god out of the trees and named oak. They had four children. There girls were named birch and willow there boys were named aspen and pine. 50 years later oak got sick and died. Maple cried her teres became all water she grew sad and died. Her breath became the wind, her skull they sky, her heart the center of the earth, her eyes they clouds and her eyelashes the grass and her leg the great maple trees also her fingers became the mountains.

NAME: Nadia AGE: 6th grade LOCATION: Vermont

COMMENTS: We have been studying creation myths. I wrote a creation myth for my state that I would like to submit to your website for it to maybe be published on your website. Below is my written Vermont creation myth.

MYTH: At first Vermont was a land of darkness and nothingness.

Out of this darkness rose the first god Mansfield. Mansfield roamed around in the darkness for many years. Soon Mansfield got very lonely, he decided to create two more gods to help him develop a beautiful pleasant place. The two gods he created were Summer and Winter. They were opposites and didn’t like each other very much. For a while there was peace. Summer created the sun, trees and lakes. Winter created snow, mountains and ice. Winter and Summer also created there very own sidekicks. Winters sidekick was maple and Summers was ice cream. Mansfield was still alive and helped all the gods maintain peace. Mansfield had become a huge giant that could look over all of Vermont. Soon enough Mansfield got very tired and old. He had done so much work maintaining peace because Winter and Summer didn’t like each other at all. One day Mansfield sat down but, it he never stood up again. His huge body became the largest mountain in Vermont.

Today you can still see Mansfield's face on Mt. Mansfield. After Mansfield died there was no longer peace in Vermont, Summer and Winter started having many fights and no longer lived in harmony. Very soon Summer and Winter declared war on each other. Ice cream and Maple helped Summer and Winter fight against each other. The war was a terrible war and it went on for many years. After many years Summer and Winter had finally declared peace they had created Spring and Fall to bring them together. Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall lived in harmony for many years. However, Vermont started to get very lonely. Summer and Fall used molded ice cream to make many beautiful animals like moose and deer. Winter and Spring got jealous of Summer and Falls beautiful animals. Winter and Spring decided to make some humans. They made these humans from the sap from there maple trees. The sap was sticky and molded into humans. Vermont was a beautiful place where animals and humans lived in harmony. The season gods thought there work was done and laid to rest. After the season gods were gone humans started inviting other humans from other places to come to Vermont for a little while. The local humans in Vermont became very greedy because people would give them so much to just to come to Vermont for a day. Mansfield through his eyes on the mountain saw this and got very mad. He declared that all humans were not eternal and that is how death came upon humans. Thanks!

NAME: Jack AGE: 6th grade

MYTH: At first there was nothing but darkness, then a big storm began thrashing through the darkness. Lightning flashed and out of the darkness a mountain was revealed. It was big and it was everything. Again, lightning flashed. This time it created a crack in the mountain. Out of the crack rose a tree. The storm and the lightning moved on. From the mountain a blue sky became visible with a yellow sun that crossed it. The tree grew and grew until it’s leaves were visible from all over the mountain.

Over time, the leaves fell to cover the mountain, and one of those leaves became the first god, Alpine. Alpine realized he was thirsty and needed something to drink. It was cold and he found ice on the mountain. He melted the ice in the warm light of the sun and had water to quench his thirst. Time passed and Alpine decided he was tired of repeating the same tasks, collecting and melting ice. It was cold. Alpine discovered that if he blew his water from the top of the mountain into the cold air, beautiful crystals of ice fell to the ground. It was so exciting that he did this until the whole mountain and tree were covered in fluffy ice crystals. He called these crystals snow. Eventually he became tired of making snow. When the snow was left in the light of the sun, it melted. The water collected in pools. The sun stayed in the sky for

longer times and all the snow melted. More trees grew on the mountain. More creatures appeared to live on the mountain and in the trees.

Alpine had discovered seasons, summer, the hot one, and winter, the cold one. The days were getting longer and warmer again. But as the snow melted, this time the pools of water connected into rivers. Alpine then started to drink from the river and it became smaller and smaller its name then became the little river. He decided that the water needed something to change its flavor. Just then, lightning hit the first tree! There was a great crack and one of the main branches fell to the ground. Alpine found the tree weeping into the melting snow. He thought the drips were like water and he collected them to drink. But they were sweeter than water. As he collected the drops, a small being appeared. Alpine found a fairy like girl and named her Maple, the goddess of sweetness. She grew to become the size of Alpine. Maple then put the right amount of sugar into the water to make maple syrup. Maple and Alpine made more and more maple syrup. Then they gathered up the humans to celebrate with the holy syrup. At the end the humans threw maple syrup in the air and without realizing planted trees, that’s why we call them maple trees. As time passed more beings were created although these beings weren’t as strong or smart as Alpine.

NAME: David AGE: 6th grade LOCATION: Vermont

MYTH: In the beginning there was only a mountain, it was called Mt. Mansfield. On Mt. Mansfield there lived a great horse, a nameless horse who was the ruler of a lonely mountain. So the horse decided to plant a tree, and from this tree the horse nourished the land with it's syrup and the horse grew larger and larger, turning the syrup into water to fill the lakes and the rivers. The horse was still lonely so the great horse created other animals as gods to help rule the land. The great horse created the Majestic Moose to rule over the mountains and the Mighty Bear to rule over the forests. These other gods created more and more animals, but it was still quite lonely. So all the deities came together and created the first humans, but the humans were not intelligent, and they fought endlessly. So the deities banded together again to destroy the non-loyal people and made a new race of humans, these humans are the ones we have to this very day. The deities were pleased with this, but they still had one more thing to do, they created versions of themselves to remind the people of their great creators.

NAME: Ian AGE: 6th grade LOCATION: Vermont

MYTH: Long ago the sky asked the great giant Mahheve to forge 3 great men. She also told the Mahheve to forge 3 sets of ski so the brothers can travel. After the boy’s were fished mother sky called them up to here place in heaven to tell them their duties. The 1st brother joshpe was to form the wild life, the second brother David was to form the lakes and the rivers, the third brother Samuel was to make humans. Everyone was content whith his duties but samuel he did want to make humans, so he made a plot to kill mother sky. One night samuel crept up on his mother and slit her neck off. As mother sky fell to the ground her Brain became the clouds, her skull became the planets, her libm’s became the trees, and her blood became the water. Samuel was pleased with his mother’s death. A few years went by until all of a sudden it started to rain the rain did not stop for 1 month. After the rain stopped, a massive oak tree sprout and as it grew people started coming out of it. The tree took one hundred years to grow after it was don it left Vermont a group of well-made humans.

NAME: Maddy AGE: 6th grade COMMENTS: I use your website a lot and I wonder if you could post my creation myth about Vermont on your website. Here it is... "Champuson' is a name, Google thinks the name is spelled incorrectly.

MYTH: Long ago, there were two worlds, one was dark with no light or life. All that was there was just darkness, while the other was where the gods lived. That world was always festive with light and had had a huge tree that the gods always partied on. Every god was invited to party on top of the great tree, ecep the great dragon, Champuson. Champuson always had to protect a glass ball, in that glass ball was swirl of light, life, time, and nature. The gods forbid anyone to break the glass ball and free the light inside it and send it to the world with darkness.

The gods were afraid that the humans would over power them. Champuson was sad that the other gods were man shaped, and he was dragon shaped. Champuson was made fun of its wings and skales, and how it was the only dragon in the land of gods. The dragon was sad and this was last straw, Champuson said “Why do they get to party while I must this glass ball for them.” Why I must be made fun of!” So that night Champuson broke the glass ball. As soon as the glass ball broke a blinding light showed acrossed god’s world. Life, light, time, and nature started to take shape on the world of darkness. The world of darkness soon became a planet of life.

That was when Earth was formed. All the gods stop partying, and soon the gathered around Champuson. The other gods decided to kill the dragon for the shame of the new world. The gods started to step towards Champuson with their swords and knives. Champuson took in one breath and blow an uncontrollable flame of fire. Half of the gods died from the flame. The gods bodys made the Earth’s mountains and canons their blood the rivers and their eyes the stars. The other half gods stabbed the dragon. Champuson feel towards the Earth and hit the Earth with so much speed that around him was a giant crater. The crater filled up with blood from the dead gods forming Lake Lake Champlain. Around the crater was the Green Mountains. The humans were sorry for the dragon who created them, so the humans gave Champuson some maple syrup and decided that they would help Champuson kill the other gods. Together the humans and Champuson killed all the gods. Champuson decided to watch the humans from the Lake that he created. The dragon decided the reward the humans that fight with him with cows, while the humans that were lazy and helped the gods were punished by being the dragon’s meal. Champuson still lives in Lake Lake Champlain and still watches the people of Vermont to day. Now people forget the great war, but humans still remember Champuson, they remember the dragon by Champ.

NAME: Nik AGE: I am in sixth grade COMMENTS: we have been using your very useful site, the big myth, for learning about creation myths. We had an assignment called VERMONT CREATION MYTH, where we make our own creation myth about Vermont. You have probably gotten the other emails from other students about this, but I sent this email for consideration to be posted on your public website. if you decide not to publish it, I understand. The VERMONT CREATION MYTH is below! Please do not change the words, since they are custom, and are spelled like that for a reason!

MYTH: Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the world was barren and cold. Fire and water, cold and warmth, life and death, and all other opposites were one, on a world of nothingness. And from all of this chaos, a child was born. This child was Therodos, the god of life. The god was very small, but grew a little every day, until the day, he was powerful enough to split these opposites. And with the raise of his hand, he split them. And it was at this time that the

other gods were born, all opposites to each other. But the 3 major ones, were light and darkness, life and death, and fire and water. In three days they were fully grown. And it was at this time therodos decided start creating the world. But the god of fire and death, Hepher and Desro, did not like the way he was creating the world, and they killed Therodos.

The other gods were horrified, and banished them both to a fiery realm under the ground. And the 2nd god of life, Asdem, took up where Therodos left off. He first started by creating a sacred river, from the blood of Therodos, and right after the river started flowing, plants started appearing. Asdem was delighted, and started creating other rivers, just none of these rivers were as strong as the original, and all of these rivers led to a lake of opposites (lake champlain), where the gods came to drink. And it was from here that all the trees came from. The trees came from the mud, and they soon grew over the barren wastelands, making the world green. But one of these trees was unique. This tree had grown right out Therodoses body, and started to grow big, red, large fruit. A new animal was born called the bear, which loved these fruits, which would later be called “the apple”. And since there was now food, grew a small little man out of the bark.

When he was fully grown, he was about 3 feet tall, and ate one of the large red fruits that had fallen off of the tree. The moment the apple went down the little man's throat, he grew 3 inches. The little man liked the fruit so much, he decided to shake the tree to get more apples to fall. But with all of this commotion, along came the god of light, Thethes, and saw the little man, growing larger and larger with every apple. Thethes stopped him when he grew to 5 feet, and told him “you must stop eating, for you will grow to big”. So the man, not so little anymore, asked him “what is my purpose?”. Thethes asked “Where did you come from?”. But the man did not know, and Thethes set off to find the other gods, and show them what had happened. While Thethes was gone, the man ate one more apple, and realized there were seeds in it. He spit out the seeds and when it hit the ground, a new apple tree grew out of the ground there. The man liked this, since he now thought that this was his purpose. So he also set off, apples in his hand, throwing seeds here and there. When the gods found him, they decided to leave him in charge of populating the earth, so they could return to their world. And when they left, new little people started growing out of the trees, and formed great civilizations, but never forgot the man's story of his encounter with the gods. And the original apple tree is still there, a smaller apple tree growing around it, apples amazingly big, with the river, not far from the tree.

NAME: Zof AGE: 6th grade COMMENTS: In my Social Studies class, we have been using your website to learn about different creation myths. I wrote a creation myth for my home state of Vermont. I was am submitting my myth and I was hoping you could publish it to your website. Thx. TITLE: The Creation Of Vermont

MYTH: Before there was Vermont, there was endless darkness. This darkness carried thunder, lightening, hurricanes, rain, knowledge, and a cow. This was all in a big, dark oak seed, it had gotten there from a recent civilization 6.9 billion years ago, (2.36 billion years before earth was formed), called the Oaklisheins. The Oaklisheins lived on a planet called Green Moola. Green Moola always had four seasons. Füll (fall), Vintro (winter), Sprün (spring), and Samrar (summer). In the Füll, there was wind and color on the trees. In Vintro, there was frozen white water called snow. In Sprün, there was were the tears of the sad clouds called rain. In Samrar, Green Moola was exposed to the sun and the sun absorbed the tears from the sad clouds which made them happy.

The sun then sent it’s rays with the moisture from the clouds to Green Moola, this created humidity. The light was seperated from the darkness and they were called day and night. Green Moola had many villages. The lead village of Green Moola was called Verd Mont. The Oaklesheins new that there was a horrible planet by the name Planet Undouglia that was going to come towards their planet and they knew they had to evacuate. The father of Green

Moola, Liam Smith, and the mother of Green Moola, Emma Smith, did not want their civilization to go extinct forever so they gathered a meeting at Verd Mont and told all their Oaklings, “Green Moola will be destroyed in within the next 5 weeks. We have 2 weeks to prepare ourselves to give ourselves up to The Holy God.

For 2 weeks after we prepare ourselves, we shall prepare a great oak seed that shall carry all our beliefs, race, and culture. We shall prepare our youngest cow to thrive in the seed. We shall send our oak trees and maple trees to this seed. And we will hope our seed, once grown, has no end and that the poor and strong shall thrive, while the rich and greedy shall suffer.” And with that the Oaklings got to work. 400,539,799,000 years passed, the cow had grown old enough to take care of itself and it started to run in circles. This caused thunder, lightning, rain, hurricanes, and the knowledge to mix. They were all mixing until finally the seed exploded, creating a MAHOOOOOOOSIVE oak tree. This, the cow called, The Tree Of Life.

The roots of the tree of life created a bushy-looking tree underneath the ground. This, the cow called, The Roots Of Death. Once the tree and roots settled, the thunder and lightning came. They struck and stirred The Tree Of Life. This caused the rain to cry down onto the tree. This caused the tree to age. The aging tree stopped when the knowledge came. The knowledge reminded the tree, roots, thunder, lightning, rain, and the cow what their mission was. The thunder and lightning decided to merge so they can create an object that will move with the seasons and weather. A cloud. The rain thought that it would be nice not to cry all the time so she hid in the cloud too. While The Tree Of Life was aging, it was dropping more and more seeds. The cow got an idea. “Oh, what if we moved these seeds and spread the around the darkness?” Thought the cow. The thunder, rain, lightning, and especially the knowledge thought that was a brilliant idea. The cloud moved with the cow as the cow spread the seed in the darkness, the rain cried on top of the seed. Every once in a tree the lightning would strike one of the trees to burn them and create a ground like substance called, earth. The thunder would stir the ground with its noise and that would spread the earth, creating land. There were many spots were the land was not even and the extra tears from rain would gather up into the steepest spots of the uneven land and eventually this would turn into lakes, river, brooks, streams, and ponds.

There were also places where the earth would gather into a HUGE pile, creating mountains. When rain and thunder struck at the same time, they created a soft, green plant called grass. The grass spread as cow spread the grass seeds, this made the mountains green. The majority of the earth was green by know and there were forests, brooks, rivers, and little ponds everywhere. Cow, thunder, rain, lightning, knowledge, maple and oaks creation looked amazing. And then knowledge popped in, “Our trees and grass with surely die soon without a sun. We had a sun in Green Moola. We need to figure out a way to make a sun.” Rain, cow, thunder, lightning, maple and oak all agreed. The lightning had an idea. What if I struck a dried out tree and we set it above us?” The others thought that was a brilliant idea. So cow found an old dried up tree and knowledge helped bring it up into the air which they called the sky.

This burning tree was called Sol, what we know today as the Sun. Next knowledge found the little burning pieces that the tree had left behind and lifted them up into the sky, creating the first Polarises, stars. Know their creation was looking beautifully but knowledge knew they were missing something. Little being to live, populate, and care for their creation. Rain decided that they call their creation Verd Mont after the town they had their last meeting in. But Thunder said, “What if we adapt Verd Mont to Vermont?” Rain thought that was a brilliant idea, because Verd Mont means green mountains, but if it is said Vermont……….. it would cause our beings to use knowledge to figure out the meaning and they shall create a place where children shall learn. Cow took the little DNA capsule that Liam and Emma Smith had given them before they were trapped into the seed, and mixed it with its own DNA. Then he placed the mixture on top of one of the small brooks and over the years, little beings came to life, creating the first humans. Rain told the others that their humans probably won’t survive without knowledge and so they took pieces of knowledge and sent them to their humans. The humans learned to love their creators and to this day dairy, cows, maple and oak tree, the

seasons, and knowledge are all a big part of Vermont. And the humans that live in Vermont, they're called Vermonters.

NAME: Fletcher LOCATION: Vermont AGE: sixth grade COMMENTS: we have been learning about creation myths. We have used your website a lot and it is very helpful. I hope you can publish the following myth on your website.

MYTH: Many years ago the world was a vast and empty and from this Champ the sea monster was born. He created the world. Once the world was created Champ settled down in what we now call Vermont. There he created The first people Jorthe and Derthae. He soon realized they needed something to eat so he created trees that had edible sap that can be made into maple syrup. After creating this Champ was tired so he created another god to look after the people his name was Champ Jr. (But known as just Champ) When Champ senior died his body became the green mountains (that's why they're green) his blood became lake Champlain. His right eye became the sun and his left became the moon. This way he could always keep an eye on his creation. And his brain became the most powerful god ever Jurtious.

But Jurtious became evil and became the god of hate. Champ Jr could see that nothing good would come of him so he vanished Jurtious to another dimension seemingly never to be seen again. Champ Jr realized that man had already became evil so Champ Jr Created two gods to make man happy again, They’re names are Ben and Jerry. The way they made man happy again was they shapeshift into humans and make mens favorite thing in the world, Ice Cream. They were called Ben & Jerry and they are the only reason we are happy today. But then Jurtious came back more powerful than ever, he made sure people also had bad evil thoughts and fears. Then Jurtious was killed by Champ Jr. He did this by flying Jurtious into the sun. After a while Champ Jr grew tired so he retreaded to lake Champlain to spend the last of his days floating in the calming water. And that's where he still is today, that is why we are always reporting people seeing a monster in lake Champlain but he really is a hero, and a god!

NAME: Lydia AGE: 6th grade LOCATION: Vermont

MYTH: In the beginning of time, there was only darkness, and one mountain range. On one side of the mountain range, there was light, on the other dark. One day a wandering cow decided to explore the dark side. Her giant hooves formed large indents in the middle of the mountain range, forming what we call today, smugglers notch. When the cow crossed the mountain range, she found a lonely man and woman. They were cold, and huddled around a fire. The cow lead them across the mountain, but the force of her past travel across the mountain caused the dark and light to mix, forming the day and night. When the birds of the light side experienced the dark, they blamed the woman’s husband. During his rest, the birds pecked him to death. When the woman found out, she wept salty tears that formed Lake Champlain. As years went by, the cow grew old, and died, and its bones wore away, to form a giant cornfield. Woman was still lonely. She went to the shores of the lake, reached into the water, and pulled out a little man. She loved the creation, and built more. It took her many years, but eventually she had made the entire human population. Woman had grown tired, and soon joined her husband in heaven, leaving the earth's inhabitants plentiful, and happy.

NAME: Enzo COMMENTS: We have been learning about creation Myths and we have been using The Big Myth and I have created a Vermont creation Myth and I would like you to think about publishing it in The Big Myth, this is it.

MYTH: In the beginning there was nothing, then there was the big bang. It created the universe, that's what humans know, but when the big bang happened it also sent gods and goddesses hurtling across the universe. They were mostly equal, they were just beings with magical powers. There was one god who was a little more powerful than most gods, his name was mansyrp, he liked all of the universe but he favored one place overall, it was a great land he called vermont. One day he stuck his hands into the earth and and dug a hole in Vermont, he did this so he could put all his possessions in it, the hole went to the center of the earth.

One day he went in the hole and found a large giant there, they fought each other, mansyrp won but their battle had crumpled the earth. He came out of the hole and saw a giant mountain standing right in front of him, he called it yithrasdall, the name of the giant he killed in the hole. That became the place he lived. Other gods Called it Mt. Mansfield because it was Mansyrps field so instead of calling it Mansyrpsfield they just called it Mansfield. He then created thousands of gods trying to make one perfect, all of them were not good and they went off and controlled something else, weather, the sun, life of trees and plants etc. He finally created the perfect god, then he created 6 billion more and filled the earth, the other gods were jealous, so they punished each perfect god, they took away all of their magical powers and memory of magical beings, they called these humans, they now populate the world. Then the Vermont humans overthrew mansyrp and brutally killed him, then they were punished, Vermont will always have incredibly long winters, they also were forced to make skis, they gave them to the gods but secretly kept some to themselves. Then they found out how to make maple syrup, and the humans had a large war that lasted years.

Eventually they stopped the war because the gods two gods created ice cream, they were named Ben and Jerry, they passed on the recipe to the humans. Then the humans had another large war trying to claim Vermont for themselves, the gods then dug a giant hole as a barrier separating the two armies and filled it with the blood of the dead warriors, they left it so the humans could name it, eventually they would name it lake champlain but that was in the very distant future, they threw the bodies of the fallen onto the mountains so the mountains were cursed to erode. Now humans will always have wars.

Then one day a group of humans found out about the gods they fought the god of war and killed him, all the humans that helped fight him turned into new war gods and they sent large armies to all the gods in the universe and every single one died, but that came with great sacrifice. About every 100-400 million years a great die off would happen. There were many, in the first one all the humans died, so did the war gods, however the humans would return after the cretaceous extinction billions of years later. And that is the Origin of Vermont.

NAME: Jessica Rogers TITLE: My Big Myth: How the World was Made!

MYTH: Once upon a time there was a gardener whose name was David. David grew many different fruits and vegetables. He sold them to earn money to buy the world’s biggest pumpkin seed; he wanted this seed as bad as he would like to enter the pumpkin competition. Unfortunately, his neighbors were very competitive and wanted to win also. There was only one problem with him winning the competition was the pumpkin seeds were running out of stock soon.

(A few days later) The day came he had enough money to buy the world’s biggest pumpkin seed and grabbed his phone to buy the seed. With two clicks it was on its way to his house, suddenly there was a knock on the door! Who was that? David slowly opened the door to

find Sandra and Rob, his neighbors, staring at him. They didn’t look very pleased to see David that day.

“Whatever is the matter?" Said David. They didn’t speak a word to him, they barged past him looking for the rare seed. David shouted, “What are you doing, ruining my house like that I will call the police!” (They ruined everything tearing up his newspapers and smashing all his valuables, his living room was the worst his sofa was upside down and windows smashed!) “That’it I’m calling the police! “Said David angrily!

(10 minutes later)(There was loud bangs on the door) David ran to the door and opened and the police barged in with no hesitation arresting the trespassers. David was so confused to why they would do such a hatred thing to him? “You bought the last seed we would have won if it wasn’t for you! “David was remembering from that day he had bought the last seed but he deserved to win and they deserved to go to jail!" “They will pay for the damage of your house sir, please can you come to the station and give us the story!”(David went to the station and gave the story and walked back home) The next day … Competition Day, the seed came and he was ready to grow the pumpkin it was so cool it grew in 20 seconds! He planted it in his garden and waited, Wow it was massive but it wasn’t a pumpkin! David was very puzzled as it was green and blue and was the biggest thing he ever saw in his life! What was this miraculous thing? It caved over his city, bringing dark shadows all around. (1 year later) David was so intrigued to find out what this was and eventually he did! This enormous round ball was called the Earth!

NAME: Connor C. TITLE: the alien creation

MYTH: One day, at the start of time, an alien spaceship crashed on a meteorite, sending it into others. The heat and pressure blasted with molten rock it grew mountains and plants; then it cooled. An atmosphere grew, forming clouds which rained, to make the seas. After the bacteria in the seas evolved into single celluar organisms, then to multicell organisms, until fish were formed. The evolution of the cells made they way to live on land then came more evolution and finally, humans were made!!!

NAME: Olivia L. TITLE: AKILIANO: The Beginning

MYTH: In the beginning there was nothing, an endless black void. All the particles and matter in the void just floated. This was the reality for roughly 25,000 years until a particle collided with another one and so on and so forth. Roughly 18,000 years later a rough shaped, human-like creature was formed, being the only living creature so far, the new creation named itself Akiliano. Akiliano had no gender, race, etc. and was not like any 21st century human. Akiliano had a head with eyes, a nose, ears, and a mouth, but Akiliano had no legs or arms because they were unnecessary because Akiliano’s body was made for void travel. Akiliano didn’t need air and while it could speak it didn’t need to, Akiliano was bored so it wandered the void looking for a companion to express itself to but it could not find anyone, so it figured it would make someone itself. So Akiliano took a but if itself and formed what would be called a woman she would be the first woman, Akiliano wanted her to be perfect so that is how she was; perfect. Akiliano named her Amdis and Akiliano was pleased with her so her took her and wrapped in a cocoon so she could grow and Akiliano waited, and waited until she lived. Akiliano had gotten smaller creating amdis but Akiliano was happy anyways. When Amdis was “born” she couldn’t breathe and Akiliano panicked and wrapped its body around her and his body became the earth. When Amdis awoke everything was formed around her, trees, animals, light and dark, and she was scared because even though she had only been alive a little while she had always had Akiliano to protect her and now she was alone. Akiliano was not dead but its spirit lived above in a paradise that it would call home and where it could watch its creation thrive, but when Akiliano looked down at Amdis she did not seem happy

and that upset Akiliano so it made her a new companion which would be the first man. His name was jalis and he fell in love with Amdis but Amdis did not fall in love with Jalis, she missed Akiliano and wanted nothing to do with anyone else. Akliano tried again and again but Amdis stood her ground and refused to love anyone else.

Akiliano wanted her to live on earth, but Akiliano also wanted her to be happy so Akiliano killed her which broke its heart but her spirit was sent to paradise and Akiliano and amdis were reunited. After a while everything was peaceful, humanity was thriving and Akiliano and Amdis were happy but AMDIS WANTED CHILDREN SO THEY HAD CHILDREN; TWIN GIRLS NAMED MARIEN AND mERLA, MARIEN WOULD BE THE SUN AND MERLA THE MOON. aKILIANO AND aMDIS HAD ANOTHER CHILD, THIS TIME A BOY HIS NAME WAS Syed, he never fit in with his other family members because he wanted nothing to do with his parents’ paradise or his sisters’ jobs  and he was fascinated what would happen if his parents’ creations stopped living, so he declared that he would leave paradise and roam the world finding his own paradise,. that broke his parents’ hearts and they wanted him to be happy and live his life the way he wanted so they gave him a cave deep in the center of the earth which most now know as hell. Syed was pleased and before he left he asked his parents if he could take human life, they said yes but they wanted to make sure there were guidelines for death. They were: 1. If a human is deathly ill you may take them after their sayings of goodbye 2. You make take a soul when a person becomes old and can no longer carry out their duties3. If a person wants to die you must be reluctant and if they so choose to die you may take their soul

Those were the rules that Syed promised to uphold and he also promised that no one would suffer in his paradise, his parents watched him leave, and they were sad but now everything in the world was in order, the sun would rise and fall and so would the moon, humanity was thriving, Syed was pleased with his new life, and Akiliano and Amdis still live their peaceful lives in paradise.

NAME: Adeline  TITLE: Two Goddesses Creation Story

MYTH: In the beginning, there was an endless void. In this void lived two goddesses. One was of darkness, who took the name of the void. The other of light, who took the name Eve, out of the future that was to come. Void tired of living in the nothingness with Eve, and decided to create something in order to fill the darkness. She created a dark, massive orb made up of dark, lifeless water. Eve thought the water seemed unpleasant, and created many beautiful fish to live in it. Void was angry with eve for interfering with her creations, and, starting from the core of the water, created dry, cold ground. She did this without any regards for the fish, which resulted in many of them being killed. Eve was unfazed, and saw potential in the earth. She pulled out one strand of her long, shining hair and cut it into pieces. She then sprinkled the pieces across the ground, creating the grasses, trees, flowers, and other plant life. Void was now furious, and created tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other disasters in order to destroy Eve’s creations. Eve quickly shielded her creations from the vicious weather by creating sunshine and peaceful showers upon the earth.

Now, Eve decided to create animals to roam the earth and skies. She began with small, beautifully patterned and colored songbirds, to bless the trees and skies. Out for revenge, Void created large and forceful prey birds, who snatched the birds straight out of the skies as they flew. Even was discouraged, but went on, and created peaceful plant eaters such as deer and rabbits. Void then created stealthy predators such as wolves to eat of the flesh of the animals Eve had made. Finally, the two agreed to work together in their creation, and created humans to build upon the planet and make creations instead of them. Eve created their birth, their strength, their intelligence, and their kindness and empathy. Void created their deaths, their illness, and their vanity, anger, and sadness. They each sent one of their eyes out, Eve’s the sun and Void’s the moon, in order to keep watch over the planet as they set out to fill the rest of the void with more creations. And that is how the Earth came to be.

NAME: Alyssa S.  TITLE: The Big Fish Five Theory

MYTH: In the beginning there was an endless sea. Somewhere far off existed a sky, but it contained only darkness. While the sky would eventually become essential, it is, at this point in time, unimportant, so we set our focus back upon the aforementioned sea. Within it lied no earth or air, only two fish. One could easily pay attention not to the sacred creatures, but those who do will find that they were like no other fish to pass through existence. By appearance they appear to be those of koi, but larger. Much, much larger. They were so massive, that their eyes were the size of the sun that had yet to step into existence. Although there were no days, weeks, months, years, or any time at all, one can assume that the swim beholding just the two fish lasted billions of years. Koi-Oi and Nishikigoi, the two astronomical fish, continued to go on like this until one fateful moment, in which the universe was changed forever.

As the two fish prepared to pass each other by, a sudden urge to high-five his buddio crept into Koi-Oi’s head, as he was proud of Nishikigoi’s swimming abilities. As they swam nearer and nearer to each other, Koi-Oi’s desires to high-five his friend only increased. These feelings were unknowingly shared, as Nishikigoi also thought a high-five would be quite nice. As they continued to creep nearer to each other, Koi-Oi knew he could not wait any longer or he would miss out on this opportunity. He shouted over to his buddy, “You are such a good swimmer! I’m proud of you, man! High-five!” The fishes’ fins met for a fleeting moment in the first high-five. This event completely changed the course of history. The collision caused mucus coating Nishikigoi and Koi-Oi’s fins to fly off in all directions. Every planet, star, comet, animal, human, and individual particle came to be because of this cosmic high-five.    Koi-Oi and Nishikigoi had now completed their duty and were able to assume a state of rest. They peacefully faded away into another universe, but not without leaving their mark on this one. Pisces, although believed to be a sign of many other things, is left in remembrance and to honor Koi-OI and Nishikigoi. Now that you have learned this story, you may look into a starry night and see not only stars, but the place where our sacred fish once resided.

NAME: James P. TITLE: The Gathering

MYTH: Once there was nothing but two types of matter, Dark Matter and Light Matter. Dark matter was made of all the evil in the Galaxy and Light Matter was made of all the Good in the world. One day a blob of dark matter started to wiggle and rumble. Four light years later the blob of dark matter wiggled so much the first god was born, THE GOD OF DARK MATTER, NON-BARYONIC Because of this the GOD OF TIME GOTTFRIED was born. This was new Non-Baryonic so of course like anybody would, he rammed into Gottfried. The two god flied back because right then and there the first star was made. 300 light years later Gottfried wanted revenge on Non-Baryonic so he wanted to get the help of other gods which were generated over the years. So Gottfried made a paradise like place and named it Pastoral.

After 2 trillion light years later Gottfried successfully attracted Five gods, Genero The god of genders, Stella The Goddess of Stars, Aerosol the god of Clouds, Batong the god of Elements and Clade the God Of Animals. After they got to know each other they all fused. After that other gods saw this and wanted to fuse too. So after 300 years later Gottfried had all of the Light Matter gods and all the gods fused together and created the ultimate god, MUSIK THE GOD OF FUSION. Now that all the gods had all fused with Gottfried… It was time to fight Non-Baryonic… But it took Musik 700 trillion light years to get to him. But once Musik got to Non-Baryonic the two had the biggest fight ever. Every time Non-Baryonic punched Gottfried face it made a new day, Non-Baryonic punched Gottfried’s face seven times. And every time Non-Baryonic bit Clade’s arm a new animal was made! And every time Non-Baryonic kicked Batong’s arm it made a new element! And every time Non-Baryonic Hit

any part of Musik that was the part of the according god it made a new whatever. Finally, Non-Baryonic rammed into musik one last time using all of Non-Baryonic power and… that is what made the universe and why there are no more gods.

NAME: Aidyn T TITLE: Axis & Premula, the creation of the Rose

MYTH: Axis was born into the Spartan army and only ever thought of himself as a strong, disciplined, loyal warrior, just like his Spartans brothers. He had almost superhuman strength, agility, and stamina though; and that made his generals, commanders, and allies afraid of him. He surpassed everyone in combat and fought in the bloodiest of battles, returning from them with only a few cuts. Axis had short, brown hair and Hazel eyes when he first started going into battles. As soon as you saw him, you could tell he was mischievous at times and loved to have fun. But with every village he helped pillage, and every battle won, he grew colder. His hair grew longer, and his eyes grew darker. He started to look more and more menacing, and angry at the world. His emotions grew more distant. Soon, all he knew was his rage and his want to survive every fight.

One day as Axis and his allies were taking over a town, he saw a woman. She was standing on the side of the street watching her people being killed, and she seemed to be stuck in shock. All of a sudden, it was like a switch was flipped. Axis felt the need to protect her. This new feeling of his hit him full force and it stunned him for a second. He had never felt this before, because the people he was closest to had never needed to be protected, they were ready to die for Sparta. “I can’t let her die” he thought to himself, and before he knew it, he had sprinted over towards her and tackled his Spartan ally who was about to stab her. His allie pushed him off, quickly got up, and yelled “traitor!” as he charged. Axis, who was still getting up, couldn’t dodge out of the way. Next thing he knew, a spear had gone through his gut. He had felt the pain, but strangely, he didn’t feel himself dying. Well, at least what he thought it would feel like. Instead, he felt fine. He still had all of his strength. Now he could feel his rage take over. He reached down, broke the spear, and pulled himself off. He watched as his former allies face contorted into horror, and Axis bared his teeth. He lunged at the Spartan, grabbed him, and slammed him into the ground, proceeding to brutally beat his head into a nearby rock. He then stood up, turned around, and stared at the woman. He had completely forgotten at this point that he had been stabbed, until she stared at the spot with wide eyes. He looked down and realized...the wound had fully healed. He didn’t have time to think about how though, they had to go.

Axis quickly grabbed the woman and helped her onto a nearby horse, then climbed on and they were off. Where they were going, Axis had no clue. He just knew they had to go far away. The day had started like any other, with Premula being the first one up. She was part of a den of well known thieves, called the Jackals. She moved into the morning sunlight coming through the window and stretched. She knew that today was the perfect day for stealing and not getting caught, there was a huge carnival going on which meant she could get 3 things easier than usual: free money, free food, and fun. She loved the feeling of being chased, and getting away by climbing. She loved feeling of being better at something than the rich people and guards, even though they thought of her as scum. She put her bag on her belt, slipped her small dagger into the sheath in her boot, and went into the street. Premula weaved her way between the tightly packed people, taking coin pouches here and there, and finally made her way to the market where a part of the carnival was going on. It was always nice to see all the people dancing, playing music, and having fun, but she couldn’t stop and stare. She was hungry and saw an apple stand nearby. She walked over and put only 3 apples in her bag before someone yelled “Hey, put those apples back!” and she had to run. With her small stature, it was easy to move through the crowd and then climb onto a building. The guards weren’t that lucky though, and were constantly having to stop. As Premula looked over the edge at the guards and grinned, she could see them seething with hatred as they walked away. Premula knew that her friends had to all be waking up by now, so she started walking to the den, happily eating her apple. She was walking down the street near the end of

town when she heard a huge rumbling noise. It was so loud that she thought only elephants could make the noise.

As she looked around, she saw that she was very wrong. She saw hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers jogging towards her town. She stared in amazement with the other townspeople at the soldiers as they got closer. Their amazement soon turned into terror, as the soldiers began killing everyone. Premula was stuck standing at the side of the road, frozen with shock. After a bit of standing there, a soldier came up to Premula and raised his spear. “He’s about to stab me, I need to move!” she thought to herself. She couldn’t though. It was like someone had nailed her to that spot. All of a sudden, the soldier in front of her was tackled by...another soldier? She watched as soldier 1 pushed the other one off him, yelled something, then charged. Her head was so fuzzy, she couldn’t make out any noises. They were all just really loud and molded together. She saw soldier 2 get stabbed in the gut, but he did even look close to dying. Instead, he looked angry. He snapped the spear, got off it, then grabbed the first soldier and slammed him into the ground. Premula finally got the ability to move and looked away as she picked the sound of something cracking, out of the ball of noise she was hearing. She looked back at the remaining soldier after he was done, and saw him turn around. She forced herself to look at the spot where his wound was, and was stunned to see that it was gone.

The soldier briefly looked at it too, then quickly grabbed Premula and helped her onto a nearby horse, climbed on himself, and there they went. Premula didn’t try to stop him, because she saw what this beast could do. So off they rode, a terrified Premula and a soldier that seemed to know what he was doing. As they neared the mountains, Axis relaxed a bit. He knew that no one would look for them here, and he soon found a cave to rest in. Axis finally spoke as he got off the horse and started to lead the way into the cave. “We should be safe here, are you okay?” After getting off the horse and a second of catching her breath, Premula found her voice. “Um..yeah, I’m fine. Who are you? Why did you save me? Where ARE we?” “I...I do not know why I saved you. I just felt the need and acted on it. We are on Mount Ossa, and my Name is Axis. What’s your name?” “My name is Premula. Although I do appreciate you saving me, you “acting on your needs” must get you in a lot of trouble in the army, yes?” “Actually, no. This is the first time I’ve ever done it. I’m a-well, was, a Spartan soldier. We are taught throughout our training to never give into needs or wants. We are taught to stay loyal to Sparta, and fight until we die.” Now, Premula had heard of the Spartan army before. They were a very feared army everywhere, yet barely anyone ever talked about them in her town. “Right here is good, we are out of view from anyone going by the cave.” Axis said, interrupting Premulas thoughts. “I saw goats and other animals close to us when we were on our way here, I will go hunt.” Premula let him go, even though she knew she still had apples. Axis had taken 3 trips back and forth and was gone for only an hour before he came back with a pile of sticks, 3 goat corpses, and some fruits. After he skinned the goats, Premula took the skin and sewn them into blankets. Axis and Premula had things going good, and were falling in love with each other, as the weeks went on. After those weeks, everything went bad. One day as Axis was sharpening his sword and Premula was cleaning her dagger, they heard a huge boom from right outside the cave. “AXIS, MY SON. COME OUT SO I CAN SEE YOU!” Axis immediately jumped up and started walking towards the entrance, angry that someone scared him, found his hiding place, claimed to be the father he never knew, but most of all: Angry that now, someone could hurt him and Premula. As he got to the entrance, he saw a man with a flaming spear, and flaming skull for a head. Axis immediately recognized the man as the god of war, Ares. “What do you want with me, Ares? Why did you call me son?” Ares smiled and then spoke. “I want you to come with me and be in your rightful place. Also, I called you son because I’m your father. If you don’t believe me, just look at your fighting abilities. Also, don’t forget about that stab wound that healed itself.” “No. I’m not coming with you, Ares. I’m staying here.” At hearing this, Ares frowned. “Fine, have it your way. I was gonna be nice, but I guess if you won’t come with me, I’ll just kill the person you love.” And he threw his spear at Premula, who had followed Axis out of the cave and now was standing next to him. Axis moved at speeds he didn’t know he could, and grabbed the spear out of the air inches from Premula, spun around, and threw it back at Ares. The handle was so hot, that even after a couple seconds of holding it, Axis had burns on his hand. He didn't care though, as his rage took control. This god had just tried to kill Premula, and he wasn’t going to let that happen without a fight. The spear hit Ares in the chest and he

laughed as pulled it out. “Try again.” Axis charged him with his sword, and managed to cut off Ares’s hand. It instantly grew back. Ares then moved at unimaginable speeds, and stabbed Axis in the chest. Axis could feel his insides burning up as he looked over to Premula, who then jumped onto Ares and stabbed him in the neck with her dagger. Ares unstuck his spear from Axis and let his body fall to the ground. Then he grabbed Premula by her arm and stabbed her too. Her body hit the ground as Ares threw Premulas knife to the ground next to her. “Weaklings.” he said to the bodies, and then left. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, saw everything from her spot on Mount Olympus. She saw how much Axis and Premula loved each other, and how they died trying to save each other. She decided to make a flower in their memory, and so after only their bones were left, the first two of the new type of flowers grew from the center of Axis and Premulas piles of bones. After they bloomed, Aphrodite went down to the humans and told them of Axis and Premulas story and that they would find their bones with a new type of flower called the Rose. After days of looking, the villagers that she told found the bones. They then had a funeral for Axis and Premula, and put the Roses on the bones before burying them.

NAME: Christopher Foraste TITLE: Vangu's Sacrifice

MYTH: In the beginning, there was a glimmering light. Emerging from it came the shapeless Vagnu, neither male nor female, neither black nor white, and neither human or animal. Pieces of Vagnu dropped off every day. Soon, part of him dropped off and formed what we call earth. After that, tinier chunks started falling off, forming mountains. Then he dried it. But he wasn’t done yet. Then more fell off of him, but he didn’t get a chance to dry it into solid ground because he split into the deities Egelbreth and Opleion. So became the waters.

Egelbreth created all sorts of creatures, beautiful and fascinating in their own ways. However, Opleion implanted discrimination into their minds. The creatures began to war among themselves, until Egelbreth had had enough. She wiped all of the creatures from the face of the Earth, because they destroyed Vangu in order to destroy each other. Egelbreth tried again. She created a fairer race than all of the others before them, humans. Opleion again tried his evil tricks, implanting evil into the hearts of humans. However, Egelbreth was prepared. First, she locked up Opleion in Hasar Yun, The pits of the earth. Then she wiped evil to varying extents among everyone. That is why when souls die, they are judged. The souls showing more of Egelbreth’s purity gets to join her in the cosmos, while the ones showing Opleion’s corruption share his punishment of being locked up in Hasar Yun, to remind Opleion of what he had done to the human race.