Long ago, before the first sun rose, before hare and hind and the halls of man, there was a great tree. It took root on a star, a star that had been falling through the darkness since time began. The tree sprouted and rose, twisting upward into the blackness of the unborn world until it was a glorious canopy. The roots, as they grew, lashed themselves to other stars and pulled them in, the tree pushing steadily upward until it was a great crown that sheltered the universe within its branches. This is the Startree, and it is the root of our world and all the worlds to come.

The captured stars shone for the Startree, becoming Sun and Moon, planet and constellation. Soon, leaves and vines began to unfurl along the branches and, eventually, a small fragrant bud. The bud burst and flowered, the flower wilted, and an apple grew in its place. This apple would become the world as we know it. As it grew, the currents of the universe blew gently upon the leaves of the Startree, fluttering them about to cast dappled shade on the apple, creating night and day.

The first creature to draw breath on the surface of the world was a small, shining beetle. Alone on the surface, it found no relief from the bright light of the captured stars, no food to eat nor water to sate its thirst. The beetle wandered for an age, and then another, suffering in the heat of the day and the cold of the night. The Great Apple swayed on the branch, unaware of the tiny creature wandering its vast, perfect skin. 

This went on for some time, until one day the beetle came upon a curious spot that was ever so slightly softer than the impenetrable flesh it had journeyed on for an eternity. The beetle dug into the softness, and nectar sprang forth, cool and satisfying. The nectar spread, becoming river, lake, stream, and vast ocean. The beetle drank of the nectar and was glad. With the skin broken, the Great Apple began to decay. It sprang to life with crags and valleys, plants and animals. Vast forests bloomed in places of rot, and arid plains and deserts where the skin of the apple peeled and crumbled.

The beetle, for his part, continued to crawl across the Great Apple, digging into the skin and creating decay as it went. Creation blossomed in the beetle’s path, and it was pleased, but the burden soon became too great to bear. The beetle was tired, and wished more than anything to rest. It began to seek an apprentice. 

First, it approached a bird, but the bird was loath to stay on the surface of the Great Apple and only longed to fly.  The beetle moved on. It came upon a herd of deer and tried to speak to the mighty Stag that led the others, but the Stag huffed and stomped its hoof, unwilling to allow a strange creature to get close to his does. The beetle moved on. Lastly, the beetle attempted to treat with a cunning fox, but the fox was too occupied with hunting for mice to pay the beetle any mind. The beetle moved on.

Exhausted and in despair, the beetle marched slowly upward, toward the distant branch of the Startree beyond, until it reached the Great Apple’s delicate stem. There, to the beetle’s amazement, they found a creature that was digging into the soft flesh of its own accord. This creature was us, the People. The beetle was full of joy at having found other creatures that could take on this great work, and so, the beetle imparted all of its knowledge upon the People. 
This is how we know the two great truths of the world. The first truth is that life is to be found in death. All things that die and decay make way for new beings that grow within that decay, as the boundless forests that we live in came from the soft rot of the Great Apple’s flesh. The second truth is that change is the one great driver of creation. If the skin of the Great Apple had remained intact and perfect, the world would have never come into being.

After the beetle had passed on its wisdom, it bid the People farewell and charged them with the stewardship of the world. Then, it began to burrow. It burrowed deep into the apple flesh until it had reached the very core, where it folded its legs and wings and went into a deep sleep. It rests there to this day, and it will remain until the far flung day that the Great Apple finally rots off the branch of the Startree and falls into darkness. Then, it will emerge and fly up into the twisting branches of the glittering sky above, to search for another world to bring into being. We await this day and will welcome it gladly, raising our voices in song as we fall through the stars, making way for the next world.