I was a magnificent bird who became dust of the desert. I flew with Genoxi over the sand, the wind lulled me and whispered about the Malhechos’ plans to create life again elsewhere. I had already been alive, but I turned into dust in the desert. The sand was warm, and there was no grace in it. I no longer felt what it was to be alive; I merely floated, desiring nothing but to flow, having lost all expectations. Until I met a tiny particle of water. She, Ram, adopted me into her cloud; that day, I understood the meaning of life. 

I floated for many years in the sky, and Ram’s nutrients turned me into matter. We gathered with more particles of dust, we began to grow, and floating no longer seemed so simple. Our weight as a society of particles returned us like a grain of corn to the desert magma. 

I waited a hundred years for the return of oxygen, a wait that granted me the gift of patience. 

After that time, in an instant, I was consumed by life. First, a beak, and then acid—our grain of dust began to dissolve, and I was alone again. As I had become smoke and weighed less than Genoxi, I decided to rise up to the eyes of the being that had devoured me. In them, I understood Toga’s plans for the Universe, for I knew Camus well with his whistles that created life and spaces. He was, in one of his origins, the one who gave birth to me. 

I was born in the desert, where there was nothing but a tree, a solitary and patient tree waiting for its fate, and I was a fetus inside an egg waiting for my end. The strength of Gou, the fluidity of Ram, and the seed of Millase made the tree grow in the desert. I shared many words with it, since, like me, it was already tired of the sand; but it couldn’t fly, as its roots were too deep. 

Being a particle before I became a grain, I learned many things, first being dust and then from the womb of a bird. Now I was breaking the shell, and this tree told me the story of the origin of the universe. It spoke to me of Gou, Ram, Genoxi, Millase, Toga, Camus, Apintu, and Zanda. It was an entire mythology that it couldn’t believe, having been born alone in the desert, but I had seen them. Having already been excrement, smoke, egg, acid, bird, and wise, I began to sing to it. I sang many solos in its solitude, it only knew the sand. I spoke to it of the sea and the jungle, of water and rain, of the waves of music that created the world, of the bright and opaque colors, of light and darkness, of everything I had seen in the dreams where Camus appeared to me, but it simply didn’t want to listen. 

To the southeast of the only tree standing on the planet of Oxidiana and sand, magma and Ram came together, creating the purest crystals ever seen. All these colors emitted a dazzling glow and an amazing energy, the view was incredible and sublime, impossible to be described in words. Among all this mixture of glowing fireflies, I searched for a Light crystal, this crystal had the ability to invoke Gou even from the bottom of the sea with just a ray of light. In my mind, only my good friend, the desert tree, was present, desperate to grow in the middle of nowhere and feeling miserable for not being able to find who he truly was. His withered heart wept tears of wax, which melted into the sand. Though he enjoyed the wind, he could never reach it.

It took me 100 years to find a Gou crystal. Even though it was lighter than oxygen, it couldn’t stay afloat. Finding this crystal was almost impossible because, even though it was very powerful, it was invisible. I pecked at it and devoured it to keep it within my entrails, precisely in my heart, and I didn’t hesitate for a second to embark on my flight back to the desert. When I arrived, Olrab was completely withered, the sap still flowing through its fine, old trunk. It was in a meditative and restful state. When it woke, it spoke to me in a soft but joyful voice, ‘How have you been, my old friend?’ 

I shared my stories with him, about how I had already met other trees along the way, and I told him that from his seeds life had sprouted, and now they lived in community, germinating the fruit of eternity. The old and wise tree did not respond. After a few days of silence, I invoked Camus, I gave Olrab eternal life and the end of its suffering. 

Exactly at midnight, I regurgitated upon its lower bark, precisely where it joins with Millase, the song of death as a symbol of change. I gave him my heart with the crystal, and after a few minutes, I turned into mist. Olrab did not understand what was happening until it saw the first ray of light. It felt a deep tingling that danced through every vein of its corrugated skin. Gou, with his crystal, was consuming its material soul to turn it into smoke, the same smoke that traveled through all the darkness until it met Ram, and from his hand, all the Malhechos, to give way to the planet as we know it.