20 Now, the plants that The Ancient One had left behind were still there, though they had changed into many varied forms. But the animals he had left had all disappeared. So these possessors of the land found themselves unchallenged for the vast supplies of food available. They climbed to shore and claimed the land.
21 Nature tried many forms. Some succeeded, some perished, but then there arose a bright lizard, that scurried from rock to rock, gathering insects, nuts, and worms. At night they slept in caves, or, on the limbs of trees, safe from predators.
22 When it came time for mating and the laying of eggs, they gathered in large groups, buried their eggs in the warm sand, and guarded them with their lives. No matter how fierce the predator, no matter how great its size, it would be met by thousands of hissing bodies and razor-sharp teeth and claws!
23 Slowly, the little lizards became wiser. They found that they could pick up rocks, throw them at small animals. That a long stick, sharpened on a stone, made a tool for digging, or, a deadly weapon. And their manner of bearing young changed, also. Their females began to have fewer and fewer eggs, and to keep those eggs in their bodies longer and longer, until finally they bore but one egg to a time, and it came forth only a month before the child was born.
24 The annual mating places became crude settlements. They learned to plant seeds and grow crops, to keep cattle. The crude settlements became villages. Some of the villages became cities. Then one day a Hashon stood on a hilltop and looked into the evening sky, and said, to himself, "Why am I here? What is this world for? What makes it go?"
25 And he answered these questions in many ways. Each city had its own gods, its own theories and beliefs. City fought with city, tribe with tribe, yet no man knew The Truth until the coming of The Lords.
Male and female Hashon.
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