Hello, my name is Terra. I am 4.55 billion years old. I totally understand that this is not how a person as old as I am would start narrating something, but then again, age is just a number. I am innocent enough to splash mud and this pretty much qualifies this start as valid. Anyways, let's get on with it.
I am the third of us eight. Four sisters (commonly referred to as the terrestrials) and four brothers (the Jovians). Our parents separated ages back and since then our mother, Sun, has been through tonnes of hardships. She had always been exceptionally fond of me and I always received the most desirable treatment from my family. She was absolutely shattered by the separation, yet, the warmth that she gave me was ideal for according to my siblings. All of us were given a special dress to wear called the Atmosphere. Who knew that it would one day cause sheer turmoil.
Evidence suggests that it started some 3.7 billion years yet, but the symptoms started surfacing some three thousand years back. I noticed that what I always thought to be goosebumps were now resulting into agony. Not only had I caught fever, but there was severe itching and ache in various parts of me. I was not disconcerted by the problem at all until one day, I started getting burns on my skin. It was the 6th of August some 100 years back when I received a severe burn on my thigh. It was not just a burn. It seemed more like a bullet hole. My mother suggested that it was high time that I see a doctor and this was exactly what I decided to do.
Satan, being our family doctor, was the first person that came to my mind and I went straight to him. The clinic now boasted of lavish furniture and painting - not something that I remembered from my last visit. I was told to take off my clothes and he closely examined my burns and their surroundings. What I heard next really banged my virgin ears hard. I had caught a virus which Satan called 'life'.
Upon inquiring, I was told that this was the most dangerous virus discovered to date and could do all the undesirable things to a person other than killing him. Symptoms varied from victim to victim but were never pleasant. It could shoot you in the brain and not kill you. I had various types of 'life' germs on me. The most dangerous of them all were humans. They were the ones causing the itching, ache and burns. The burns occurred when the germs tried to kill each other. My skin itched when they built castles for security. The aches were a result of transportation of germs from one part of my body to another.
I decided to wind the discussion up by asking for a cure. The answer was not far from surprising by any means. I was asked to repeat a spell that would 'increase' the symptoms. I was also told that this would accelerate the pace of reproduction of humans and there will be a viscous increase in the number of humans. They'll keep killing the rest of the germs until they completely vanish. The next round of the healing process would involve the elimination of humans from my skin. This, however, would not be gradual but sudden. He also told me to ask all my siblings to take off their Atmospheres or they'd catch the virus too. I quickly got up and rushed home.
I cried a river that night because I somehow had a soft corner for the germs. This feeling hurt even more. I recalled the spell and tried to make out what it actually meant. It talked about the carnage of something called religion. It further stated that religion was something that was aimed at the harmony and well-being of humans and brought them closer to their creator, God. I was more than stunned. Was I on the right path?
I would never want to read a spell that killed living beings but the agony didn't let me go with my instinct. The pain forced me to repeat the spell as suggested by Satan. The symptoms increased. The agony was worse than hell but I was determined to get rid of 'life'. My body temperature kept rising until it hit 65 degrees. It was then one day that even the coolest parts of my body started sweating. Soon, whole of my body was covered with sweat and I was as restless as an excited electron.
Once, however, that the sweat started evaporating, I realized that I was feeling better. I had actually gotten rid of the virus and was now healthy. I raised my hands in prayer and asked my Master to judge those humans for what they did to me for thousands of years and called that day 'the day of judgement'.
