Title: Underworlds (Working Title)

Author: ThyLaSlain

Author's Note: A sort of Prequel to my otherstory, For Who Could Ever Learn to Love a Beast? Although you can read both independently of one another.

There has always been much wonder, in the ending of Worlds. Races of people have always held a strange fascination for the terrible. The horrific. And what lies beyond. Not so, with the creating of them. Often the creation of a world is forgotten – obscured by their brilliantly terrible destruction.

Beginnings are kept, in memories of the old, and as they are passed down through the generations, they change. They are altered and much of the original story is taken away. New chapters are fabricated. From one exuberant grandfather to his grandson, demons are often scattered throughout the story, where they had never been. For daughters, the demons are left out entirely.

The story is altered and little by little, the beginning is completely forgotten all together.

The beginning which started with a woman.

Decca, the mortal who had angered the Goddess Imote. Decca, the creation of Ai and by his hand was the most beautiful creature to grace the earth. Darkest hair and darkest eyes.

So Imote laced a cup with poison from which Decca drank. Upon her death, her soul was sent away by those who guarded the Gates of Death – they did not want her, for they feared Ai – and so she wandered. She wandered for nineteen years, everywhere she went, her presence was felt and soon Decca was regarded as a Goddess.

Imote, furious, thrust her soul into a worm. But as time passed, the worm burst and turned into something else altogether. A creature with wings made up of colors never seen before on insects.

When the creature died, Decca's soul was free once again and Imote thrust her soul into a rock. But as time passed, the rock burst and out from it came a spring so fresh and so clean, nothing could dirty it. Even when Imote wrenched out Decca's soul from the spring, the spring remained clear; quenching the thirst of all those who came upon it so that they were never thirsty again.

Finally, Imote took mud and ashes and she sculpted a woman. A woman so ugly and horrid looking, no one would have dared look at her. She bound the mud together and when it hardened, it formed a body into which Imote placed Decca. Then she wed Decca to her youngest son Vorax.

Vorax, the hated, ugly creature that was born of Imote. Once Decca and Vorax were wed, Imote had them sent away. Together they lived in the deepest part of the earth.

Time passed and the only time spent by husband and wife together was at night, when they lay in bed together, not touching. She because she feared him. And him because he didn't have the heart to.

Beneath the ugly mud and clay that sealed Decca's soul like a jar, Vorax knew, her soul glistened and pined for freedom, just as beneath the ugly exterior he wore, his immortal soul pined to be loved.

"I will make you happy, if you let me." He promised her every night.

Every night, she would smile at him and shake her head, her dark hair swinging side to side. "You can keep the happiness you promise me my lord and save it for yourself."

The first night she had said that, Decca was sure he would strike her. Instead, he smiled sadly at her and whispered, "I understand."

Every night, this was repeated and the more he said it, the more Decca knew he meant it. The more she knew it, the more she realized how much her heart broke when he smiled at her sadly and told her he understood.

As the years passed, Decca's exterior changed once more. In the dark, dank halls of her husband's home, Decca blossomed into her original form. When Imote found out, she sent her sons to get rid of her. But when her sons saw their brother's little wife; they grew jealous and were all overcome by her beauty.

Vorax had gone to the other side of the world, by the order of his mother. He was to help Hei, the Goddess of Sunrise, to pull the sun up over the horizon for seventeen days.

When he came back, he found his wife was gone.

He thought she had fled and, heartbroken, he did not look for her. He understood that he did not deserve her.

The nights after she was gone, Vorax dreamt endless dreams that showed her in pain as she tried to refuse faceless attackers. He would wake in a sweat, the dream ending when Decca was trapped into a sphere and sent up into the sky.

As the nights went on, the dreams continued – always the same. But soon Decca's attackers were not so faceless anymore and he woke up in horror one night, after seeing his brothers' faces.

He went to his mother and demanded an explanation. She gave him none. So he went to his brothers, who boasted taking his wife. They taunted him for not having been her first. In his fury, he slaughtered them all save one, his mother's favorite.

Then, as he learned from his dreams, Vorax went up into the sky to search for his wife.

Along the way, he passed many. None could help him.

Then, after many many months traveling, he came to a place in the sky that was dark and empty. In the center, he found Decca. The stars around her had died, having given all the life they had to keep Decca alive. Still, Decca was weak and as he approached her, her eyes slowly opened and tears formed in them.

"I'll take you back." Said Vorax, a tentative hand coming up to wipe the tears away from his wife's eyes.

She shook her head and more tears sprung free from her eyes. He kissed her gently on the cheeks then and she froze, afraid he would do to her what his brothers had done. He reached out for her and clasped her close to him and waited as she relaxed.

It may have taken a moment or forever but soon, Decca was in comfort and she felt safe. Stars began to cluster around them from where her tears fell.

In the silence, she listened to his heartbeat and he tilted her head up, a smile on his face as she looked on at him.

"I will make you happy, if you let me." He promised her.

This time, her eyes lowered and a smile escaped on her lips as she nodded her consent.

As they coupled, Decca's happiness spread beneath them, joining with his making land. The tears of joy she cried formed rivers and seas. The promises he made as they floated over this new land turned into valleys and mountains.

Vorax and Decca lived there alone until their happiness brought forth life – flora and fauna littered the land. Decca was pregnant with the children of her husband's brothers. When she gave birth to them, she refused to cast them aside, as some would have. Decca loved them and Vorax loved them as his own. Then, with their own union and their love, Decca gave birth once more.

When Decca and Vorax thought their time had ended, they slept together in the sky, forming the sun that continued life in the world they had created. Below them, their children: the Elders and Psyphens.