CHAPTER 1 - Flight of the Sunmouse

Artwork commission from himmis on Fur Affinity (https://www.furaffinity.net/user/himmis), featuring the Sunmouse, adopted from prettypinkpony (https://www.furaffinity.net/user/prettypinkpony)


Eons ago, in the earliest reaches of the Universe, before stars or galaxies could take shape, before anything could exist as we know it; before life itself; there was only energy and light, and heat beyond anything we can imagine, inhospitable; a Universe where nothing could survive.

Yet the Universe wasn't dead, its energy pulsed and flowed within itself, as if a life in and of its own.

Over the eons the Universe expanded and cooled, but remnants of this early Universe remained; it began to take shape; form, until something came forth as if it had always been meant to be.

The Sunmouse opened its eyes as if waking from a dream; it was as if he had always been here, merged with the energy that had made up the early Universe. But now that energy was growing apart - separating into what would someday become the stars that make up the galaxies of this ever expanding Universe.

As the Universe began to cool, the Sunmouse found himself flittering through the Universe, not knowing his purpose, not knowing he even needed one, just taking it all in in wonder as over the eons it continued to change. Galaxies gave way to stars, and stars gave way to planets; all of it taking on the shape in which this Universe would come to know as its own.

Then, in a bright and shining nebula, glowing with reds and yellows and blues, ever shifting and changing, the Sunmouse made his home.
Sweeping his wings through the nebula's dust, the Sunmouse spun the swirling particles that surrounded him, sending them up in a spectacular cloud of multicolored light. Spinning through the cloud with the gust of his wings, he formed and reshaped the free-flowing particles of the nebula into solid shapes, of walls and hallways, staircases and glowing chandeliers.

When he was finished, he came to a landing on the floor of what was now a Great Hall, his wings furling down at his side as the lightness of his body settled; And here, shimmering spectacularly in the multicolored light of the nebula, rested peacefully the Sunmouse's new domain.

Looking at the enormous columns rising up to the ceiling around him, the Sunmouse felt an overwhelming sense of pride at his work - not a sense of power, but of wonder at all the potential of creation; the Universe had not yet grown to know of the glory of kings and rulers, and neither did the Sunmouse, this was the home of one responsible for a great work of art, one who would seek to bring wonder and inspiration to the Universe, not take away from it.

The Sunmouse took a deep breath, calm and peaceful as it should be in the silence of space.

Stepping up to the veranda of the Great Hall, he looked out at the Universe that lied beyond the nebula dust in which his domain rested, with its shimmering stars and swirling galaxies. He knew not yet of his purpose, or of the purpose of this Universe that surrounded him - perhaps the idea of purpose was not even a thing yet in these early reaches of all that there was - but he felt a spark deep inside him; this Universe was his home, and it was worth protecting. Whatever the eons ahead would bring, he sought to belong there through it all, showing it the peace in which this Universe had first found its life.