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As Day Arrives

As morning starts to arrive, before the animals and plants are awake, the great eagle awakens. He stands on the edge of his nest, over looking miles of forest in one direction and the great sea in the other. He lifts his right wing, and then his left, testing them against the calm night winds. Then the eagle falls, just like a tree branch falls after a storm. He falls hard and fast, diving straight towards the sea. He gets closer and closer to the sea whose water is so blue you can see the coral at the bottom. Just as he levels out, his tail swoops against the water spraying it everyone. The eagle soars fast to the end of the sea; the end of the earth.

When the eagle hits the end of the sea, he dips down and heads straight to the bottom, a large black pit of nothingness. He calls out to the sun, to get the sun to wake and rise. The sun is there, lying at the bottom of the dark hole, eyes closed and her light just barely shining. The eagle pokes her with his beak, nudging her in hopes she will arise. The sun shifts and awakens. Upon seeing the eagle, she groans and rolls her large yellow eyes. The sun turns around, and heads back to sleep. The eagle senses that the life outside of the pit will soon have to awake, for the moon is starting to get drowsy and the life is starting to get restless.

The mighty eagle shakes the sun. He pushes on each side of her, trying to get her to wake, for they don’t have much time till their job must start. The sun wants nothing to do with the job she has, and would rather sleep all day, same as the felines. She chooses to ignore the eagle, which only angers him. He shakes the sun harder, faster and more ferociously than before. Finally the eagle was very frustrated and angry at the sun for not wanting to do her job.

The eager eagle grabs a hold of the sun in his beak and swings her up, shooting up into the sky. This awakens the sleeping sun, which wasn't so happy at that awakening. Her anger builds; she is boiling like the geysers that erupt. The anger inside her powers her light, making it shine brighter than before. The sun rises, ever so slightly, until she stops, just a little too low.
The grand eagle is happy the sun is in the sky, but he notices that she is too low. He swoops in and grasps onto her fiery arms. He heaves and lifts the sun higher into the sky, higher and higher, circling around the planet. Just as she enters the sky, the angry sun grabs onto the stars and holds on tight. The eagle doesn’t see this and continues to circle the sun around.
The stars start to fade and the light begins to shine. Life on the planet stirs with each passing second of the rising sun. The animals yawn and stretch out their stiff limbs from the long night before. The trees shake, brushing off the morning dew, like a wolf shakes the water from his fur. Everything on the surface sees the sun, Bright Light as they call her. They all cry out, welcoming the warmth and the light from Bright Light.
The day begins for the life on the surface; lions catching food for their cubs, spiders wrapping insects in their webs and flowers blossoming towards the heavens. Doves fly in to the air, flapping their wings and circling each other. Large oak trees elongate their roots, tripping the chipmunks, gophers and raccoons that run on the ground. Small falcons gliding in the open space see the hardworking eagle dragging the resistant sun behind him. All the birds call out to the Great Protector, as they call the eagle, to come and play. The Great Protector works all day and has no free time for himself. The Great Protector declines their offer, for he has a job to do. He tells the animals that the heavens have given him a job, to make sure that the Sleeping Circle comes every night and the Bright Light comes every morning.
All the animals accept this answer and go on with what they are doing. But soon they get sleepy, and the Great Protector has made almost a full rotation with the Bright Light. Great Protector senses that the day is coming to an end. He releases the still angry sun, whose light dampens as she falls peacefully back into her black pit. The eagle prods the moon awake. As the Sleeping Circle lifts into the air, he cradles the stars and lifts them into infinity. The moon and the sun exchange glances and smile for they have a deal; the Bright Light brings all things to a wake, and the Sleeping Circle brings all things to a rest.
Great Protector glides through the air back to his nest on top of a powerful oak tree, and with one last look around his domain, he falls into a graceful sleep.

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