It was cold, as we would perceive it to be, in the land where time and space are explained by laws yet unknown to us. A beautiful creature clad in white, shimmering in the darkness, was walking along a lonely boulevard which led to nothing but vast emptiness. The only source of light was a great luminous monolith that stood beyond the horizon. The sky was always bright and always dark; a weird call of eternity echoing off non-existent walls.
There was always a gentle breeze disturbing the calm, and when Her white gown fluttered the silence was broken by an ethereal melody. She picked up a fistful of sand with one elegant hand and gently let the sand flow into Her other palm, almost like in a hour glass. The sand grains slowly formed a heap in Her palm. She didn't want this seemingly uninteresting process to end. However, the harder She tried to grip the sand in Her fist, the faster the grains slipped out of Her grasp until none were left. Exasperated, She lifted Her palm up to Her lips; nobody has ever heard Her speak but rumour has it that the sound that Her lips issue will persist forever. And then, lovingly She blew them away.
An ordinary act, but one only had to look at the sand closely.
After all ....
"The wind is free, but the sand goes where it is blown.
Unaware of the world around it, whirling on the breath of the Gods, at the mercy of the storm that engulfs it.
What is one grain of sand in the desert?
One grain amongst the storm?"
(The quoted part is from the POP game in which Elika is one of the 2 protagonists.)
They occur in different shapes and sizes, but every grain of sand is special in its own way and She knew it. As they dropped from Her fist to Her palm, each grain shone in its own way, a myriad of colours ensued as they were lit up by that great source of light. The grains were then thrust out into the open and were left at the mercy of the winds. She had probably done enough for them.
The wind will take them all to different places, but it is believed that one day they will all end up where it started.
(There is a story about the grains of sand on the coasts of Africa. The grains are formed from rocks up in the mountains and the rivers carry them down to the coast. From there, the winds carry them across the deserts all the way over to the other end of the continent and then the ocean currents carry them all the way back to the coast.)
