TWO SUNS

In times, when chirruping birds were not yet singing at dawn, and there were not even trees on
whose branches could the cheerful feathered creatures perch, and in whose crowns they could build
their nests collecting the straws of serene, patient dreams; and neither were there any people, who
would listen to the birds` choirs, who would fell the trees and chop them up for their house fires
and send smoke soaring high up and higher still, all the way to the celestial realm, where it would
irritate and choke the Sun and the Moon and even the stars… Well, in those ancient times, only the
children of Ksaw Wala, the Great Spirit, lived in the world. So far, they all were the Older
Children of the Great Spirit, like for example Klum, the Chief Spirit of Nature, or Daati, the
Spirit of Brotherhood, to name at least a couple. And they all happened to live in only one house,
which surely, soon enough became full of disagreements and quarrels.

“So hot!”

“Quite oppressive!”

“We can`t even…”

“… breathe!”

“… even I can`t take the air into my lungs!,” Weha, the Wind, complained.

“Don`t even tell me! I feel as if I melt any minute now,” agreed Ate, the Moon. “Or I might dry
out, burst and crumble into silver dust; nothing will be left of me!”

“Certainly, the Sun is behind this all again!,” growled Tiwe Yase, The One who Named the Earth.

Tay, the Sun, was only smiling. He was always smiling. He was a good fellow by nature and wished
everybody only the best. He spoke kindly to everyone, but it was the blaze that he radiated which
complicated life to all his siblings, and which made his presence troublesome, if not unbearable…
and one had to be really careful around him and take all the precautions not to get burnt and be
ready to move everything away at very short notice, so it wouldn`t catch fire… and the blisters,
ouch, the blisters! And all the pleading, remarks and recommendations Tay merely shrugged away and
went on his daily errands, still smiling.

It was Ekthe, the Awareness of Space, who was repeatedly trying to justify Tay`s behaviour:
“Brothers,” he would say, “we have to respect each another. It is not his fault, that he is the way
he is, that is his very essence- to be hot, scorching and blazing hot. It was not his idea to be
created this way.”

 What made things even worse was that Tay had always been so kind-hearted, so polite and patient.
And it even seemed that the friendlier he became, the larger and hotter he grew, and in this way,
his scorching blaze further intensified. And one day, the patience of the Great Spirit`s Older
Children came to the end, and they all started quarreling among themselves and then with the Sun,
and in the end, the Sun was thrown out of the House.

Tay, the Sun, grew a bit sad at first, but then just shrugged his shoulders, cheered up again and
came straight back into the House.

And so the desperate, parched and almost burnt First Beings gathered together to figure out a plan
how to drive the Sun away from their House and not to get even more blistered or even completely
burnt to ashes while trying.

And so they lured Tay, the Sun, onto the high, celestial arch, which was back then still quite
deserted…

“Let`s go for a walk, come with us.”

…and once they arrived to the sky, all the brothers and sisters fell upon the Sun, dug a big hole
and buried him there alive.

They were glad that they had at last managed to get themselves rid of the horrible scorching glow,
but sad at the same time, feeling sorry for what they had done, their hearts full of guilt and
fear.

“What will Ksaw Wala say to this?”

“Tay was also his child.”

“He was our brother.”

“We shouldn`t have done it!”

“Could our deed be ever justified?”

But Tay just shook his body and got himself out of the sky gravel, and was once again alive, once
again in the world. Only he wasn`t smiling anymore, and at that instant, he stopped growing.

Now, he was indeed furious. He started running and then he thrust himself onto the ground with all
his force, and rolled and rolled upon its surface like a giant, fiery, all-scorching ball. And as
he plummeted onto the Earth, the entire world shook in that violent crash. Instantaneously, there
were great fires smouldering in many places, and the First Beings were very busy trying to put them
all out. A rain of sparks was belting upon the Earth.

And then everybody, full of rage, fell on Tay, in the same way like back then in the Sky, and they
all started fighting. On one side, there were all the Older Ksaw Wala`s children, and on the other,
only Tay, who even though alone, was very strong and powerful, and the fury he was in, made him
even stronger and more powerful.

And so long were they all pushing and pulling at each other`s side, that in the end, they managed
to tear Tay, the Sun, in half. And one of his halves stayed in the sky, while the other fell
heavily onto the ground and dropped through the thin crust, deep into the Earth`s core - and that
is the eternal fire which has been heating our Earth from the inside ever since. Time to time, the
underground flames remind us of their hidden presence, when streaming as hot lava from volcanoes.
That is the red-glowing ground molten by the swallowed Sun, the memory of the historical fight
between the First Beings, the smouldering blood of the Earth.