But ultimately it has to come down to that I'm doing this for myself. It's good writing exercise, for one. For another, I've been tossing around the idea of compiling them once I have enough that I like and making it into an e-book of short stories, probably either a free one, or one that's $.99, just to try to get my name out there more.
So, here is one of the myth stories from Corruption. Haven't read Corruption yet? Speaking of $.99, it's still my moving sale on the book. Since the price reduction I have sold about as many as I have before I reduced the price. So here's to plugging away!
At the beginning of time,
there were the Three: Xiuh the cobra, Hatcha the carrion bird, and
Ara the wolf. There was nothing on earth but clouds and water. Xiuh
flared his hood to float and hissed at the dark sky. I cannot see
for the darkness, and this water is too still. So he turned his
eye to the sky and it started as just a slit, then grew. As it opened
and closed, the tides washed him where they willed, and he did not
have to swim. As Hatcha flew, he did not like the darkness. Xiuh's
eye was not enough, so he bargained with the snake, and threw his own
eye into the sky. It banished the darkness and spread light and
warmth, rising as Xiuh's eye sank. The Three, you see, got along much
better than we humans do. But Ara was growing tired of swimming, and
though the sun warmed his back and ears, he had no fins and his fur
hung heavy. So he created land, rolling in the sands and drying
himself on the soft grasses. Hatcha saw this and thought it good, and
gave himself trees to shade Ara, and to perch on when his wings grew
weary. Xiuh saw this and also thought it good, and made rocks to
sleep on and hide under. For years the Three made the world to suit
them all, and when they deemed it complete they decided to share
their wonder with others. Xiuh made the small things low to the
ground, the insects and reptiles and rodents and fish in the rivers
and sea. Hatcha made the flying things to join him in the sky, and
made small mammals that would climb to the canopy. Ara made large
things, deer and cow and other beasts to chase and run from his
playful howls. And so the Three populated the world and deemed that
it was also good.
After many years, the
Three grew tired, and one night they decided that they would pass
onto the next world and make it ready for the time when all of their
precious creations may die in body, but so live on in spirit. So
first they made their shadows—cobras, carrion birds, and wolves.
Go, they said, and hunt. Bring us those that need to pass
into the next world to keep us company. But their shadows and
their creatures had no long memory, so Xiuh gave a scale, Hatcha a
feather, and Ara a tooth, and with those they made the Amon—humans.
To the first humans they told how they made the world, and that they
would still watch over them so long as they remembered their makers.
Then, they threw themselves into the sky to pass onto the next world,
and there they made the stars. Each day the eye of Xiuh and the eye
of Hatcha looks over us, and Ara gives us life from the good earth.
We must never forget this.
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