At a time when time couldn’t be measured,

“All heil King Galaxios!”

Chants of appraisal rose through the air in the land of Paradise, the land bestowed by Mother Nature herself. King Galaxios had managed to win the war against the barbarian forces of Comets and Asteroids and expanded his territory by a hundred light years.

The war was special- not only because it had been the king’s hundredth victory, but also because the rain gods had been kind upon the kingdom of Paradise by bringing in the welcoming rains which was a relief to the subjects.

Celebrations were carried on for several days to honor the king’s miraculous victory. However, two days later, the king called upon his kingdom to be present at the General Hall, for he was going to make a major announcement.

Everyone was eager to know what the king had been planning, and so thousands of people gathered near the pulpit to listen to their king that day.

“Comrades, first of all I thank you for coming here. As you know, we defeated those barbarians in the utmost spectacular fashion. But today, I have something very important to say,” the king looked at his two sons- Ophelius and Helios. A very endearing smile covered his face. “I am old now, very old. I can’t rule anymore due to my physical inhibitions. So, I have decided to give you your next ruler.”

Ophelius smiled conceitfully and got up and walked pompously to the pulpit.

“Your next ruler will be the one who has the power of light, of warmth and of a thousand suns- Prince Helios.” the king said beckoning to his son. Helios smiled generously and walked up to the pulpit and bowed before his father. King Galaxios also called his other son to the dais and announced him to the general to the new king- King Helios.

Ophelius’s blood boiled with envy, hatred and contemption. How in the world could he be snubbed this way? He was the pure blood, the true race of the Galaxian dynasty- the true and able leader to be the king. With the looks and the power to bring about a thousand thunderstorms simultaneously, how could his father make him a general and that too, to a brother who was inferior to him in every regard.

That day, he had smiled at his father, a wistful, malicious smile that conveyed his deeper desire to be the true heir to the throne. His face had contorted with hatred and betrayal when his father tried to reason out with him as to why Helios was better, but he paid no heed. He was determined to be the king. And so, that night, he intoxicated his father’s drink and crept into his room when he had been asleep. In the throes of darkness, he retrieved his sword and drove it right through the king’s heart, ripping it savagely.

“Ophelius!” the king moaned with agony, more from seeing the hand that ripped his heart than from the pain itself.

The advisors from the council later said that when they found the king, they were shocked, not from his death, but the nature of the death. A brutal look of horror and shock seemed to have gripped his soul as he saw his life fade into an eternal abyss of darkness, pushed by the hands of his own son.

Ophelius declared himself the King and ordered democracy to be restored in Paradise. Though, he only said so, because he exercised autocracy; anybody who breathed a word against him was dead the next minute. People began to live in his fear, tyranny and tormention. He had taken away all the powers and even the anti-ageing elixir that had been given by Nature herself to Helios that ensured his immortality so that he could spread his golden bliss everywhere, forever.

Helios was exiled from his land and was forced to seek refuge in a neighboring land where his wife gave birth to eight sons.

Several years had passed and with each passing day, people living in Paradise were finding it a challenge to survive. They thanked Nature each day for getting to see the next day. Helios, in the neighboring land, was growing weak day by day, for he did not have the potions and the elixir. The hard task of burning himself to provide light to the world was tough and so, he desperately needed the elixir so that he could keep living. His sons- Mars and Jupiter had grown tall and strong, Venus and Mercury had grown up to be the most beautiful women the land had ever known, but his favorite had been his son- Earth. The mighty, powerful, sustaining and still very humble, Earth.

When Helios had been banished from the kingdom, Ophelius had also taken away a portion of his body so that the Paradise saw daylight every day, but little by little, Helios’s body had started to give away. He had been growing frail by the day.

In a few years’ time, all the sons and daughters of Helios had their own families and had been sustaining life and Helios used to provide a part of himself to each one of them to ensure that there was light and life in each of their ‘families’.

However, as days passed, it got tougher and tougher for him. He was dying and he knew that well. In Paradise, Ophelius could see the skies were getting dimmer and dimmer and people were begging him to ensure they get the light of Helios so that they could keep growing food and surviving. His own palace had been turning dark and so, in order to power it, he ordered an entire village to be annihilated to preserve the light. However, the problem was too large to be mitigated; how many villages would he kill? He needed a long- term solution, and so, he sent his trusted general Uranus to find out why had the light been dimming and where was Helios distributing his light.

After a thorough search, Uranus said to King Ophelius, “His Highness, Helios is getting sick each day; his condition is worsening. He needs that elixir to survive, sire.”

“No way! If I give him the elixir, he’ll be more powerful than ever and overthrow me. That’s not happening. Uranus, you are my trusted general; give me another solution. There’s got to be a way.”

“Sire, he’s got nothing left. He’s given more than he could have given to sustain his children’s families—”

“Children? Helios has children! How many?”

“Eight, sir. He’s given a part of himself to each one of them.”

“Voila then, that means if we could defeat them, we could have their part of Helios’s light.” Ophelius smiled maliciously.

“But sir—”

“No buts, Uranus. Order the army to climb up the families of his eight children. I want their light.”

Within a few days, Ophelius’s army attacked the families of Helios’s children. They waged a brutal attack, killing everything that came their way- men, women, children, everything. The families were completely destroyed and the light was taken from each one them- except the valiant Earth.

The army tried hard to strangle Earth- killing his children, his trees, his oceans, but they failed to defeat him. Earth fought valiantly and defeated the army of Ophelius, also sending a letter to Ophelius through Uranus.

“What? Couldn’t defeat him?” Ophelius cried incredulously, pulling his stain robe to cover his pompous chest. “You couldn’t defeat that tiny, feeble Earth?”

“Yes sir, he’s very strong fellow. Very hard nut to crack, sire. He’s even sent a letter for you- he says that he wishes to fight you, alone. He’s challenged you for a fight.”

“Ah! Tough chap- after all he is Ophelius’s nephew!” Ophelius mused and then turned to his men. “Earth spins around in east right?”

Uranus nodded.

“Hmm. Turn the direction of the light of Helios. Make it rise from the west and see what happens then. He will fall. He has to succumb. I don’t fight small pests like him. I do it my way.”

With that, Uranus conspired and set the light to rise from the west. Massive havoc took over Earth’s family as gargantuan tides and supersonic winds started to blow. Nearly all of life was destroyed. Earth was brutally wounded; almost on verge of death. He was almost going to end up with a similar fate that had gripped his siblings- a sterile land they had become, that could never sustain life again, never see the blue skies again. They had been practically dead, but Earth remembered his elder brother’s Jupiter’s words, “Never give up, brethren. It’s not over till it’s really over.”

And with that, he got up and fought valiantly. He defeated Uranus and his army and started to climb towards Paradise to avenge the death of his living beings.

When he reached there, he saw the skies had turned grey; they flickered with light very fleetingly. This was certainly not the Paradise his mother had told him of, it was not the blissful happy land he had conceived of.

Barging into Ophelius’s grand palace, he declared war and promised to be avenged in this life or the other.

“I will fight him. I will strangle him with my own hands,” Ophelius said to his army and ordered them to not intervene.

The battle started in the public citadel. Ophelius rode on his horse holding his sword while Earth stood on the ground with a small knife in his hand.

A massive struggle took place between them, but Ophelius was more powerful. He had taken the potions that Helios used to take to become invincible before the battle had begun. Earth was dying, lying flat on his face.

“You’re going to die, my boy. I will drive this sword into your heart the same way I had driven it into your grandfather’s heart twenty-five years ago.” Ophelius roared with laughter. Earth was shocked.

Ophelius had killed the mighty king Galaxios- his grandfather?

The crowd chanted in support of Earth. They were whipped and beaten, but still supported Earth.

“The crowd supports you, eh? No worries, they’re going to die too,” He lifted his sword and silence gripped the citadel. With one brave conviction to avenge his father’s condition, his siblings massacred family, his Grandfather’s murder and his own family, he drove the knife straight into Ophelius’s heart and twisted it further.

Ophelius’s face conveyed a shock, a look of disbelief. Never had he expected the tables to turn this quickly. He lay dead on the ground with Earth’s knife still stuck in his heart.

The crowd erupted with joy. The army of Ophelius and Uranus disappeared quickly after their king’s death and were never found again.

Earth recovered the bottles of the potions and the anti-ageing elixir from Ophelius’s cabinet and administered it to his father. Helios’s body began to strengthen. His grey hair turned black again. The wrinkles on his face smoothened out. He had aged twenty- five back in time. With the same ethereal, golden look back on his face, he proclaimed Earth to be the king of Paradise.

Just then, a divine intervention took place. Nature began to speak.

“Helios- the god of light, the able son of the slain King Galaxios, I bow to thee. Your son did for you what nobody conceived of. However, there are certain conditions that have to be discussed right now, before you take any further decisions,” she said. All of them looked right at the now bright and blue skies and bowed before it. “Helios, your brother committed a sin by slaying your father. It has to be atoned. Hence, I have decided that there shall be no king ruling Paradise anymore. It will be ruled by myself and my children. Earth, for your valiance, I give you three wishes that you may ask for to be fulfilled.”

“Mother Nature,” Earth began. “I completely agree that Paradise belongs to you and I don’t consider myself worthy of ruling it. The people who’ve died in this honorable land, none of us can compensate for the gross loss and sins that took place on your land. But I would ask you to ensure that this land is safe from all brutality and remains blissful in your hands. That’s my first wish.”

“Granted.” Nature said.

“Second, I want the world to comprise of my father and my siblings, where all humankind and wildlife and life can survive. My father would be the center of that world, Mother.”

“Granted. Though, I have to say, that your siblings, they’ve been sterile. There’s no way the loss they’ve been through can be reversed. They can’t sustain life any longer. But, from my side, I bless you to sustain all life. Bring forth and raise the life on part of your siblings.”

“Thank you, Mother. I’ll heartily accept that.” Earth said, folding his hands in respect. Helios patted his son’s back.

“And your third wish?”

“Oh, yes. Please, Mother Nature, ensure that my father spreads his light from by rising each day from east to west. Let him rise and grow each day till eternity and spread the light on all life forms that’ll exist on my land. But the direction is important, Mother. When his light grew from west to east, I faced tormention. Let him never change his mind and never let him forget that he has to rise from east to west. Only east to west.”

Everyone started to laugh. Mother Nature smiled gracefully.

“Father, I am not joking. I am serious. East to West, each day, every day, forever. Okay?”

Helios smiled. “Okay son, as you say. East to West shall it be.”

With that, Mother Nature chanted her mantras and blessed everyone with her grace.

“Granted,” she said and disappeared.

And from that day till this day, we follow the heliocentric model of our world. Where the Sun continues to rise in the east and set in the west, spreading its splendid love, joy and light to every living form on Earth, his son.