Yvses (pronounced ee-sus) was bored. He’d spent days looking down at this large black spherical shape that his father, Serus had created, virtually out of nothing. The youngest of Serus’s eight children, Yvses was also branded the least creative. So when his father conjured each of them a spherical shaped object out of thin air and commanded them to do what they saw fit with it, Yvses had been worried. The last creative task he’d been entrusted with was to paint little stars in the vast sky around them. His father had been very specific. They were all to use the same shade of white to paint the stars. Eventually when it was completed, his father had taken one look at it, and singled Yvses out. And for good reason too. All the stars he painted, were much brighter than what his brothers and sisters had done. So they stuck out like a sore thumb. Had it not been for his mother Tolena’s timely intervention, he would have been banished like some of his cousins had been, to live with their uncle Obeyar, God of the Underworld. Whilst his uncle wasn’t scary, the spirits that he commanded were. And Yvses didn’t want to be anywhere near them.
Yvses looked to his left. His four elder brothers, Hidon, Acius, Odros and Etros were huddled around in a circle, and seemed to be discussing something intently. Though they were too far away for him to actually hear what they were saying, it was quite evident from their animated actions that they already had big plans for the spherical objects they had been given. He looked to his right. His three sisters Ira, Adione and Ephine had already started working on their spheres. He observed them for a few more minutes. Adione, who was the most creative one of them all used her index finger to draw a perfect ring around one of the larger spheres. Ephine had painted another whole sphere a beautiful pale yellow. And as he watched, Ira’s hand magically transformed the edges of the yellow sphere into shades of orange with narrow lines of blue in the centre. Yvses gulped. He wanted to do something creative and inspirational with this black sphere of his. He wanted to make his father, Serus, the all-powerful God, proud of him. Alas! He couldn’t think of anything.
“Lord Yvses” said a meek voice. Yvses looked around. He saw nothing. For a moment, he thought that he was starting to hear things. He continued to observe his sphere, trying to drown out the animated sounds of his siblings, who were pushing ahead of him. “I’m down here, my Lord!” said the voice again. This time, he felt it originate from somewhere near his feet. He looked down again. “Who is it? What do you want? Come out and show yourself!” commanded Yvses in the deepest voice he could summon. There was an electric-blue flash, followed by a whooshing sound. Yvses blinked slightly. Before him stood a creature that he had not seen before. The creature was about 2 feet tall, dressed in a purple dress. But what caught Yvses’s attention was not the fact that creature looked very different to them. The creature seemed to be floating. Its feet were not touching the clouds on the ground, nor were they being held upright by support. It seemed to be floating on bright, electric-blue flapping shape which seemed to be attached to its body.
“Who are you?” asked Yvses, his gaze still fixed on the flapping-blue shape that seemed to keep her afloat. “Forgive me, my Lord. I was sent by your mother, Her Highness, Lady Tolena to help you with your task. I am Fryda.” she said, her meek voice almost drowned out by the buzzing sound that the flapping blue shape was making. Yvses nodded and asked “What exactly are you?” “I’m a fairy. We are employed by your mother to oversee everything around the castle” said Fryda, slowly coming to rest on his open palm. Yvses looked closely. The bright blue object was actually comprised of two pieces, which formed a strange shape on her back. “What is that?” he asked of Fryda. “Those are wings. You mother created them for us to help us get around easily. As you can see, we are much tinier than you. So we need these to float up to your level to be able to converse with you.” “Marvellous! ” thought Yvses. “So, where would you like to begin?” asked Fryda, slowly flying up and landing on his left shoulder. “I have been told that you have been staring at the sphere for a long time” she continued pointing towards the black sphere. “I am not sure. I can’t think of anything. That’s why you are here, aren’t you?” he asked, still staring at the sphere. “Yes. But only partly. I am only here to help you develop ideas that you may already have. I cannot create an idea for you” she said, now sitting down on his shoulder with her tiny feet dangling. “Look at the sphere carefully” she continued. “Try and focus on it. Do not focus on what your brothers and sisters are creating. Yours needs to be different. And unique”
Fryda suddenly flew down from Yvses’s shoulder and landed on his open palm. “Lord, I need to tell you this. It is not by chance that your father has created eight spherical objects. He wants each of you to do something creative with it. You have every power at your disposal. All you need is to start somewhere. And your mother has specifically asked me to tell you this. Whoever creates the least interesting sphere, your father will send him or her to your uncle Lord Obeyar, to take command of the dark spirits. And I need not tell you, how Lord Obeyar treats his commanders.” Yvses gulped again. He needed to get started. Time was running out.
“Let there be light!” commanded Yvses, pointing his finger at the sphere. A stream of white light shot out of the tip of his finger and engulfed the sphere, making it appear as if it was on fire. This was his second attempt at trying to light up this sphere. The first attempt had resulted in the sphere turning too hot for him to even touch. “Forgive me for saying this, my lord, but I’m not sure that was a very wise decision.” whispered Fryda in his left ear. “Do remember, everything operates on the principle of balance. If there is darkness, there must be light. Similarly, you cannot have light all the time. There needs to be darkness too.” she said. “ In that case, I have an idea” said Yvses. He extinguished the light that had engulfed the sphere. He took a giant spherical rock from beneath his feet and lit it up with the same command. And then using “the floatation” command that Fryda had taught him, he let it rise to a height and commanded it to remain afloat. Then he took the slightly smaller sphere that his father had conjured, and commanded it to spin – neither too quickly, not too slowly. As it slowly started to spin, he commanded it to revolve around this giant lit up rock that was now floating in mid-air. “Very well done, my Lord!” said Fryda coyly. “You have managed to get an equal distribution of darkness and light, on just the third attempt. Magnificent!”
Yvses smiled. His world had just begun to take shape.
Over the next few days, Yvses changed a lot of things with the now-blue sphere, which went through phases of darkness and light. After two failed attempts, Yvses had finally filled the sphere with water and made it reflect the colour of the sky that his father had created. Next he separated the waters and the land and commanded it to produce vegetation. And then created animals to fill the land, water and sky. And then he paused.
Yvses took a step back and looked proudly at his new creation. He had successfully turned the empty, heavy sphere that his father had given, into a living, breathing environment, capable of sustaining itself. But it felt incomplete. It had taken three attempts to complete each of his steps. And he knew, he owed a lot of it to Fryda. He looked at Fryda, observing the sphere (that he had termed Earth, a word that he derived from a phrase called “Erde” which meant ground). She had her hand on her chin and was tapping her feet on his palm. “I feel that something is missing!” she said. “Yes, I feel the same way too” Yvses replied.
As they observed the animals running around on land, and birds flying in the sky, Yvses said “I know! If Earth needs to be capable of self-sustenance in the truest sense of the word, then it needs creatures capable of making decisions and that are superior in every way to the animals that we put there.“ Fryda nodded her tiny little head, her long brown hair waving rhythmically with each nod. “Yes. I guess that is it. Do you have any ideas as to what these creatures will look like, my Lord? she asked, her bright, blue eyes twinkling.
“Stop !” commanded Yves. Paying no heed to his words, the creatures continued to fight. Fryda, who was now sat on his shoulder, giggled. His first and second attempts at creating the creatures that he believed would control Earth had gone awry. Unable to decide on the form they should take, he had created them as a composite of different animals. He had even given them some of these “wings” that his mother had gifted the fairies. But within no time, they had started attacking everything and each other, uprooting trees and spoiling vegetation, and on one occasion, even trying to eat one of their own kind.
Seeing no other option, he finally destroyed the creatures that he had painstakingly created. He sighed. He picked Fryda up from his shoulder and placed her on his palm. She was smiling. “Once again, forgive me for this my lord, but I don’t think these creatures are right for Earth!” she said, her eyes still twinkling. Yvses looked at her closely. She was extremely pretty and the lone pink rose that she had pinned on her hair, accentuated her beauty. And he knew she was clever. After all, if it hadn’t been for her, he’d probably still be staring at the sphere. If she was a bit taller and maybe without wings, she would make a perfect candidate for the creature he had in his mind. He told her what he had on his mind. “I see no harm in trying, Lord Yvses. After all, if your previous success with Earth is to be taken into account, third time’s the charm.” she said with a smile on her face.
Yvses looked down at Earth from his abode high in the skies. He smiled as he took in the beauty of the garden that he had created. “I wouldn’t mind being down there. Looks like paradise” he smirked, as he noticed a tall, muscular creature with shoulder length hair strut along a brick-paved path that led to a hill, that he had created. Taking another phrase from his language, he had termed the creature, man (from the phrase “Manu”). One of the things that had struck him when he attempted to create “man” was what Fryda had said. “There needs to exist a balance in nature. Everything must have an opposite”. Thinking about her words, he smiled again.
He watched as “the man” walked up the hill and reached a beautiful tree laden with fruits, which was located in the centre of the garden. The man looked up as if to talk to Yvses. A noise from behind the tree distracted him. From around the tree, appeared another creature. Very similar to “the man”, but yet different in so many ways. The creature’s long brown hair bounced lightly as she walked towards the man. It looked up at the skies, as if looking for him. Yvses smiled and said “Fryda, the Woman”.
And as he watched, Fryda held out a bright, shiny red apple that she had plucked from the tree in the centre of the garden.
Note: I’m sure that you’ve figured out by now that this piece of fiction was inspired by “How God created the world” chapter from Genesis 1:1. Whilst I have retained parts of the original theory, I have modified characters as necessary to fit in with my story. So do consider this as just that – fiction. I hope you enjoyed my “twisted” take on the original, and would love to hear what you thought of it. Do drop a comment in the section below the post.
[This post is written for the Project 365 program at We Post Daily aimed at posting at least once a day, based on the prompts provided. The prompt for today was “Write a piece of fiction describing the incident that gave rise to the phrase, “third time’s the charm.” ]
I Wrote Those - by Sid Balachandran 
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