Our World's Beginning

[Kaiser]

In our beginning, there was man. That is to say, in the beginning that would lead to the world we have now, there was man. Man was good. Our ancestors trusted them. Loved them. Protected them. They were loyal to man to a fault, often being the victim of man’s cruel intentions and neglect. But they stayed with man until the inevitable end; which to this day is viewed as a confusing tragedy. Because with man, many of our own kind also disappeared.

It was on no day in particular, of no imminent danger, with no warning, that it happened. That our ancestors woke up to find man just...gone. Their belongings left behind, meals cooking on stoves or in ovens. Cars no longer drove the streets, many crashed into things and left a burning, honking mess as a result. Things humans once interacted with laid discarded as if they’d just been dropped mid-use.

This was the first day.

Now, many dogs who lived on the streets or in the wild didn’t seem to mind the sudden disappearance. Many found joy in sneaking into stores or restaurants, eating their fills, and making themselves at home. Although, the ones who made their homes with man, who loved and cared for man, were sent into distress. There was barking, howling, and pining for their loved companions. Eventually they found that, also with their humans, other canines had disappeared.

The human’s idea of confining our ancestors was not exactly the best thing in the case of this sudden, quiet disaster. Many were confined without ways out; without escape. Many lives were lost due to the inescapable confinement. Whole kennels perished in their once safe havens. In the end those dogs who were either able to be freed from their cages, those that were without a home already, or those that were smart enough to find a way to the outside world became the future. Those lucky few held the key to survival. Of course, of those many, only a handful were our ancestors.

As nature dictates, the canines formed groups. There were many clans all over the world. Loners scattered among the clans' territories, but they aren’t innately important at this time. A migratory bunch formed in a part of the world they knew that was less than livable. They consisted of pets, strays, and wild mutts. Anything and everything banded together in the beginning for the sole purpose of surviving; old breeds, new breeds, unknown breeds -- it didn’t matter. The longing for their human companions died away slowly with each new generation born. Soon humans were not anything more than bedtime stories that their parents and grandparents told them. The tales spoke of what humans were and weren’t and of how the world once was before the great separation. The stories were held near and dear at first, but like with all things, humans became lore. That lore transitioned into fables told in jokes until finally human kind was forgotten by majority of the remaining creatures.

Decades passed and our ancestors' clans moved around in constant search of a place to call their own. Sadly, things were either uninhabitable or other clans came along and pushed them out. In those years rapid evolution began to take place. Speech and cognitive thought began to make themselves present. It was a peculiar, slow transition at first, but soon became as natural as breathing. With thought came knowledge, and with knowledge came power. The ancestors learned medicinal skills and how to create lashings with ropes left from the humans of the past. Crude tools were also accepted into their way of life and became a stable necessity for hunting prey. All these developed with the minds and capabilities of the clans as they traveled and gathered resources. It was already well established that they could speak in their own language that wasn’t only barks and growls when they discovered it; The Mountain Pass.

Such a thing had never been seen before and the way the mountain pass was shrouded in constant fog dissuaded our ancestors from crossing through it at first. Instead they searched the brambled desert around the ring of mountain in hope for an oasis, anywhere to settle and thrive, if only for a little while. It was a lone, brave scout who left the pack one night and crossed the mountain pass. What she found on the other side was breathtaking. Perfect. A crater-like valley with a plateau in the center that held what once had been a great city. The crumbling city was surrounded by lush forests and abandoned camps. It was nestled in the mountain with only one way in and out. It would be perfect.

And thus, upon her report, the pack was moved into the crater. The elusive Eden was thought to be their reprieve from constant, nomadic lives -- lives that had since gotten longer in years. They settled the crater, loving the seemingly sent-from-the-heavens oasis of life. They thrived in city of the plateau at first until its sinkholes and dangerous grounds were no longer suitable. As saddened as they were to leave their city of ruins, this was no problem. They had the whole valley to themselves! Who was to say they couldn't move on and find more in this valley. Some small ruins were found in the north of a smaller town that was almost archaic. The clan stayed there and flourished happily.

All good things come to an end, though.

The peace was not bound to last. With dogs living longer and with more advanced thought processes and emotions, it was beginning to become glaringly obvious that there were growing heavy differences between the clan members. The even that really destroyed the harmony was around fifty years before our current selves. Our parents’ parents suffered the first Day of Last Sun.
This was the first day the sun disappeared and our world was thrown into absolute darkness -- into a world where the sun did not come up for a very, very long time.

Every year since that fateful day this has happened. Every year, on the same day, our clan would flee the settlement in the fear that something wretched would happen should they stay. They were right to be fearful. Something bad did happen. On that day, and for a month after, there would be rain that accompanied the haunting darkness. So much rain fell that the valley would flood and the only ways to drain the water were through the ground soaking it up or by restoring the narrow mountain pass that lead them to this haven in the first place.

Soon havoc broke out among the single, unified clan. There were those who thought that the floods were for purification of those who did not deserve to be alive. These canines tended to be extreme and believe that the moon was a goddess who brought on the torrential rainfall and that they must aid in the cleansing by obliterating the 'unworthy'. They called themselves Lunisks and the religion of Luniskism was created.
There were others who believed the sun to be a god and that the disappearance signified that they had displeased the deity. They were made up of the more peaceful original clan members and devoted their time to finding out how to end the flooding -- or at least alleviate the mass flooding. They called themselves Daenids and created the religion of Daenidism.

In the mayhem there were those, who are now recognized as the clans of Vastus and Caligo, that committed sin. Their obsession with Last Sun and prolonging it, as well as their enamorment with the night and the moon, condemned us all. Lead by a young female, the clan of less than moral canines labeled as the Caligo caused an avalanche -- an avalanche that ended all hope for escape from the valley during the time of Last Sun. So ill-prepared were we, that we lost so many that year. Because of that, because of the betrayal and the tragedy, our once great clan split into four clans. They were sworn only to meet peacefully when the time of Last Sun comes. All clans retreat into the city, the highest point in our condemned paradise, in hopes of another year of survival from the rushing waters below.

That is our fate to this day; watching, waiting, living until Last Sun comes. We count down the hours, days, sunrises and sunsets until we are again plunged into rain-filled darkness with no hope to escape this place.