In the farthest reaches of history, in a desert so vast that it covered the entire planet, an elderly man stumbled through the sand.

Grasped between his wrinkled fingers, a thick wooden staff that glowed with a dim crimson radiance, dug into the white dunes.

There was no feeling coursing through his body, only a desire to walk and exist, a purpose that had no reason.

Raising his head slowly, he gazed into the distance, a walled fortress built around an oasis sitting in the empty wasteland.

Curiosity tugged at his dormant heart as he walked ahead out of pure instinct, the sound of flowing water a melody for his old ears.

Packs of ferocious lions prowled the exterior, their pelts shimmering like gold in the harsh sunlight that struck the earth.

There were no beasts that roamed this desert that would approach the elder even in his age; their roars were more like purrs in his presence.

And as he approached the gates to this unusual walled garden, he read the engravings scrawled across the doors.

Language had not yet been invented, not for many more millennia; however, the pictograms depicted a birth, one that had not yet happened.

If not for his knowledge of the world, the old man might’ve scratched his head and wandered away, never knowing what lay behind the walls.

But as a throbbing pain engulfed his ageless heart, he pushed forward on the massive stone gates, the smell of fresh greenery overwhelming his senses before he could react.

Beautiful trees of emerald brilliance, flowers of all colors that spiraled into various shapes, sizes, and even intelligence.

Scanning the canopy, he witnessed his oldest creations, crows, flying between the trees as silent messages.

Their black eyes gazed down at their maker, perplexed, a shadow falling across the night sky as rustling came from the bushes.

Focusing his sight onto the treeline, he watched as two figures emerged from the darkness, clad in nothing but their own skin.

In this era, unlike those that would begin anew in the far distant future, there was no sin in the objectivity of the body, a freedom granted to humanity.

However, to this elder, it was an oddity, and as he furrowed his brow in gentle confusion, a happy smile came across his face.

Communicating in a language long lost to the universe, he spoke through thoughts, no words leaving his mouth, yet the message appeared in the heads of the two humans.

“You are not my creations. Why is it that you exist in this fantastical garden of tranquility?”

Not once did he show any signs of displeasure or anger at the strange lifeforms; only curiosity and an unknown feeling took root in his heart.

At first, there was silence as the two humans reacted to the elder's language; however, after a brief pause, the man replied slowly.

“Are you god?”

The man's face was tense, an inkling of fear cracking at his strong exterior, threatening to rack him with shivers at the elder's answer.

It was a question that startled the old man, words that he could never expect coming from the human in front of him.

The woman posed the exact same query a moment later, their odd synchronous speech leaving the elder confused.

Taking a second to respond, the white-haired elder beckoned the two forward, a fallen log offering the perfect place for him to rest his feet.

Warm sunlight radiated from the heavens onto his wrinkled face, the response coming during a light gust of wind.

“Perhaps I am. Perhaps I am not. Perhaps there is no way to know. Or perhaps there is. I have existed in this world for longer than its inception and will exist long after its death.”

He paused, a frown making his way across his face.

“I have no equal. No people. No race. No family. No friends. All I have is an ageless form that withstands the test of time.”

Turning his sad eyes upon the two standing humans, he watched as their faces contorted oddly, the woman speaking first.

She, like the elder himself, exuded curiosity, an interesting prospect to the white-haired man who had never once met someone who could share his feelings.

“We do not understand what you mean. Yet, you come from outside the walls, do you not?”

Her pupils sparkled with such intensity that the old man felt something inside him soften, a rare feeling of emotion slipping into his stare.

“I come from anywhere and nowhere. These walls are merely where I am at the present time.”

Nodding his head to confirm the woman's suspicions, the mix of that and his words shocked both figures.

Looking at each other with a breathless gasp, they immediately placed their hands together, focusing their gaze on the ground.

As they bowed their bodies in such a way that it looked uncomfortable, the two spoke from their hearts to the man, another odd feeling coursing through his chest.

“Please god. Free us from this place.”

Their sincere prayers resonated within the old man's mind, their faith in him granting him a power that lay dormant within his bones.

He had never been called god before, a title he had told the creations he had made, however, one he had never acknowledged.

Neither he nor the animals he forged from stardust had ever encountered a species that lorded him as a highly being.

Simply, they believed him as their father, a guardian spirit who watched over their lives, not a figure of immeasurable strength.

Yet, these odd hairless chimps who resembled the man to an uncanny degree spoke with such reverence that he felt something stir within him.

Although for billions of years, since the inception of time, he hadn’t had the strength to perform a miracle, this one moment would forever change that.

With a sly smile, the man's wrinkles receded slightly, his age reversed by ten years at least, his hands stretching out to touch the heads of the bowed humans.

Long strands of hair drooped from his scap, reaching down to his shoulders, a curly beard sprouting from his chin.

While he viewed himself as no different than before, the humans saw something different; they saw the one they had been waiting for.

And that being that they had spent their lives awaiting the arrival of, had finally graced their presence, his words marking the dawn of a new era.

“Grace me with a story and I shall make your wish come true.”

It was the basic principle of the world that something must always come from another, and in this case, the lives and dreams of humanity allowed the elder to perform impossibilities.

And as the sun fell below the horizon on the walled gardens, the sounds of crows vanished in a flash, the massive stone gates billowing open for one final time.

The two humans had satisfied the man; his feet now planted firmly atop the great walls, watching them depart, suited in animal pelts.

For him, a man whose life had been previously void of emotion, he now had something to watch, an array of storytellers who weaved miracles even he could not imagine.

There, in that very moment, he knew that this species was different than any plant, animal, or cosmic entity he had created, for these new lifeforms were special.

Humans could grant him emotion, and he, grant their wishes.

Such was the system he had created that fateful day in the Gardens of Eden, a place that, after careful decision, he sealed for eternity.

The tiny sphere that contained the structure now resting in his primordial hand as he watched the crows flock in balls of black mist.

This place.

He thought quietly to himself, the humans in the distance growing fainter and fainter by the second.

I would like to live in such a place.

Looking far throughout time for a brief moment, a day in which his burdens would be lifted, one where he could simply tend to a garden as magnificent as the one crafted by something unknown.

And with that thought, for the first time in his life, did he feel lonely, the image of a life without the humans he now so cherished gone, without a trace, leaving a void in his heart.

He had witnessed the fiery birth of the universe, the formation of all the stars in the galaxy, and the supernovas of old.

He wept as black holes consumed his creations, their very nature of destruction opposite to his own.

He celebrated the existence of life on a singular world in the infinite expanses of many, his children in his own eyes, the beginning of a new era in the cosmos.

However, throughout all that time, he had never wondered what it would be like to lose something he cared deeply about.

For what could a being of omniscience and omnipotence lose?

But on that day, he realized with a sad frown that if humanity ceased to live, his own will would crumble under the loss of creatures that were not his equals, but his ancient friends.