Chapter I
A long, long time ago, longer now than it seems, the places we’re accustomed to, the plants, the animals, the buildings, the Earth we stand on – none of that was here yet. If you were to wound back the clock of time some 14 billion years ago, all you would’ve seen instead would’ve been the goddess Namaya, bored out of her mind.
She was a lonesome goddess, this one. In the vastness of – well, nothing – there was no one to keep her company. At first, if there had ever been a first, she wandered wherever her little feet would take her. But even with nothing in the way, how far could a crawling, tired baby get? Her body was of great disappointment, Namaya realised. With a mind stretching the bounds of infinity, who would wish to be stuck in the frail body of a babe? Namaya sat thinking for a while, but there was no one to raise her. Who would find that proper? a goddess young enough to babble with no parents to care for her. But then again, maybe there were other entities waiting to meet and accept her.
Namaya left in search of her new family. Soon enough, she found herself impatiently running towards the great nothing. One could argue that she couldn’t possibly run ‘towards’ it per se, since there was nothing yet. No up or down, front or back. But little Namaya’s legs would disagree. She was certainly headed a definite somewhere.
There was no wind in her face, but she could feel her hair swiftly lift up and drop back down with each leap she took. Every time it hit her, it felt longer, going down to her thighs now. Her field of vision had enlarged, but how would she know that when there was nothing to see?
Namaya stopped, her yet-inexistent world burning around her. She stared into the abyss and the abyss stared back. There had been no one to raise her. Giving in to her uneducated tendencies, she let her head fall back and opened her mouth to scream. Thankfully, the Universe silenced her before she could be called out for her lack of manners. In the vastness of space, no noises are tolerated; everybody knows that.
Resentful, Namaya sat down, taking in the new darkness around her. If there was nothing physical to be seen before – quite a waste of space, true shame – now it was all too dark to see. Bloody amazing this darkness, Namaya thought. She reached out and tore a piece off it without even thinking. Before her very eyes, a nebula was born.