by Cladrastis

Prometheus awoke from a terrible dream one night – a dream of a war in heaven. In his vision, the gods were defeated, their powers taken from them, and their palaces and gardens destroyed. The gods themselves had fallen from heaven and many among them had perished in the conflagration. In desperation, Prometheus did something that no one had ever dared before; he stole from the mind of the sleeping Deus a flame that had been jealously guarded for aeons. Fleeing heaven with the speed of a sparrow hawk, Prometheus held the sunburst tight against his breast; as he flew through the blackness of space holding the flame next to him, he was transformed by it. From his flesh, fiery feathers sprouted, and his arms transmuted into wings; as the sun was bright, his eyes became dark. With each beat of his wings, the light bearer’s appearance became more outrageous, more avian, and more intensely colored, until erupting in one last explosion of activity, the fire consumed him. He crashed into earth as a fireball and was discovered crumpled on the ground by a man and woman. With his final agonizing breath, Prometheus called to the man, saying, “feed me dear human, that I may bestow upon you the divine wind of the gods.” So the man tossed some grain and meat into the fire, and placed upon it incense woods. As the man did so, a jeweled egg rose from the undying ashes of the fallen angel’s body.

After some time had passed, and the man and woman gazed intently at the egg incubating in the embers, the shell cracked and a hatchling struggled to free itself; in its beak it held an emerald seed. Thanking the man for his kindness, the Firebird gave him the seed and told the man to plant it in a green hill-country. The resurrected bird said to the man and woman, “I have betrayed the gods and cannot return to them. I foresaw their end and your beginning; allow my spirit to dwell with you, and I will bestow upon you many more gifts than I have given you this day.” To this the man assented, and the Firebird turned himself into a flaming “crown of thorns” and alighted on the man’s head. The Firebird said “I will be with you always, and though the gods may beset you with many hardships, you will overcome them.” As he spoke these words, Prometheus dissolved into the man’s brow. From that day forward, man was lord over the Earth.

The man and the woman wandered into the East until they found a verdant hill-country gushing with springs; the land was pleasing to the eye and fragrant, so they planted the emerald seed in the ground in the hope that it would germinate there. Before long, a shoot sprouted in the soil, and it raised high its stately crown into a tree’s canopy. The tree had never before graced the earth, and it gladly spread its branches across the land. Soon the mighty tree flowered and after shedding its last fading blossom, set fruit. As it did so, a garden grew up around it, and the man and woman felt happy and blessed. Fruit from the tree fell to the ground, and wild beasts came and consumed it; in so doing, they became tame, and the man and the woman looked after them. Then the man and woman themselves ate from the tree; afterward, they wed, and for the first time, they saw the world as it truly is – the garden of delight.

The gods, seeing how prosperous the man and his wife had become grew angry and jealous. Holding counsel with his wisest lords, Sovereign Deus determined that man must be wholly destroyed, lest he challenge the gods themselves. Thus the Craftsman of heaven was charged with fashioning an ornate golden box out of precious stones, and he placed upon it the seal of Deus as well as the terrible visage of a hundred-headed dragon.

One day the woman was walking amongst the beasts in the garden when she stumbled upon the elaborate box, which had been placed there by the Messenger. The dragon on the box called to the woman, saying, “open me human child, and I shall make you the fairest creature in all the world,” and this was true, for the gods do not lie, though they relish in deceit. The woman seized the box, and lifting its lid, discovered within its depths a rotten fruit from the great tree; burrowing in the fruit was a tiny worm, though she did not see it. The fruit smelled terrible – like rotten flesh and burning hair - and fearing that she had been deceived by the outward appearance of the strange box, the woman tossed it aside.

She returned to her husband and he declared, “though fair you were when last you left me, fairest of all creatures have you become; you are wholly changed, and it is to my liking.” Gazing at herself in one of the many crystal pools in the garden, the man’s wife saw that her hair was as sunny as flax and her eyes as cool and clear as the daylit sky. She was indeed the fairest creature ever to grace the earth.

The man pressed the woman for an explanation, and she told him of the box and the dragon. Seeking a transformation of his own, the man ventured off to search for the box, but he could not find it. Meanwhile, the worm had inched its way inconspicuously to the tree at the center of the garden, and when it got there, it too began to eat the good fruit. The worm grew quickly, and as it grew it climbed into the tree and hid itself in the branches. Indeed, so clever was the gods’ artifice that the growing worm took on the appearance of a branch and sucked life from the tree like a mistletoe.

That night, the man and the woman fell asleep under the tree, and a vision came to them. The garden was dying, and they saw man and beast alike in golden chains. In the center of the garden where the tree grew, now fat and overgrown, a hundred-headed dragon covered in glittering scales of diamond, silver, and gold had coiled its vast body about the tree’s trunk. Venom dripped from the dragon’s lips and squalor covered the once-beautiful hill-country. The dragon said to the sorrowful people in the vision, “I am Ladon! Deus chose me, and me alone, to rule over the garden and all who walk within it. Crown me as your king; bow down and worship me, lest I destroy you completely.” The women cried and the men gnashed their teeth, and when all seemed hopeless, a living beast walked into the garden. The beast had the ivory head of a serpent, the crimson body of a lion, and the verdigris talons and wings of an eagle. The beast was, at once, awesome, terrifying and beautiful to behold. The living beast roared, hissed, and cried aloud at the dragon, and the sound it made was like pealing thunder and crackling electricity. “Adversary,” whispered the dragon, “you have come to challenge me again. You may be wise, strong, and proud, but you have failed before and you will fail again this day.” With that, the beast leapt at the dragon, and as he did so, a third eye on the serpent’s head opened; it was black like obsidian and radiated prismatic light. In the serpent’s eye Ladon saw his own reflection, and for a moment he faltered.

Then the man and woman awoke from their sleep. Slinking in the branches overhead, was the sly and intelligent worm; he had watched with pleasure as the man and woman tossed and turned in the night. On his back a silver scale glistened in the moonlight.