For you see dear one, just like us, not every Shard was content. There were four in particular that weren't content with a slow cycle through the Verse, shedding Light and singing their Song, nor were they content to join with others to create a beautiful and complex symphony. They loved the songs of these new worlds, and they loved those of the stars, and they loved their own song. And so, in turn, they flitted from world to world, never settling long in one place, never fully integrating their song into that world's, but moving, always moving, relishing the Song of Starlight, and the Songs of Worlds.
And in turn, without intending to, these Four Shards imparted some of their essence to each world they visited, small pieces of themselves left behind, their gift to each world they visited on their nigh endless journey through the Verse.
Do they have names? Of course, my child! Everything has a name. The Four Shards that shared themselves with each world as they stayed to enjoy that world's song became known by what they left behind.
The first to visit our world, Es'Tranh, was the Shard of Water. She left part of herself with our world, creating the first oceans. She moved here and there, exploring this new ball of dust, shedding pieces of her Song as she went, and the Sea grew around her as she strolled languidly, not bothered by the fact that there was naught but dust, as she did not mind the solitude, and liked to keep her own company.
Always generous, she gave freely of her Song, knowing her siblings were never far behind her. As the eldest, she was content in her self assigned duty to pave the way for them. Content with her Song, she departed, sure in the belief that her Song would continue, and enhance this little ball of dust drifting through the stars.
The next of the Four to visit our world was the Shard of Air. She blew her quiet lilt across the Sea, and across the dry dust, picking some of each up as she flew over this little ball of dust and water, causing clouds to form in her wake, making them rise and dance and crash together like the Shards of old as she giggled in delight, a Song unto itself, but that is a tale for another day.
And so the clouds grew and swelled and crashed, as she flitted between them, scattering her essence everywhere, until they became so big, that when they crashed together, something new happened! A bolt of light was thrown from the clouds, streaking down into the water, startling the flighty Shard of Air, causing her to flee our world before she could see what her play had wrought.
The bolt of light coursed down through the Sea, hitting the stardust at the bottom, and it sparked something new: Life.
It was small, at first- a few cells of algae, little more, but they grew in number, and just like the First Shards, they found each other, and formed groups, their individual melodies growing more complex as time stretched on, and they became the first plants, far beneath the surface of the Sea.
Yes child, those same plants that you saw in stone in the Royal Museum. How did plants get from the water into the stone? That's the story of our world's next visitor: the Shard of Earth.
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I started reading this to my daughter as a bedtime story. She of course, fell asleep. My wife wanted to know what book it was from and who wrote it. She didn't believe me at first when I told her that I did.
