THE MUD SHAPER AND THEIR EIGHT SHADOWS

Long ago there was a field of mud where nothing else was. The field of mud extended far as one could see. Were one to look left, it was all there was. Should one look right, it was all there was as well. However, one day, a little mud person emerged from the mud. At first, they loved the mud and spent each day rolling in it full of pleasure. Soon, however, they became lonely, for it was true that in each direction, mud was all to see.

"But mud!", they thought. "Surely mud could be used for something to ease my pains?" So quickly, they went to work. 

They began moving and lifting the mud until eight mounds began to form, and then they kept on working. They worked the mounds of clay until each one began to form a little doll, to which they exclaimed "That's it! I shall make myself some companions!", and then placed them out to dry. 

As the dolls sat to dry in the sun, their shadows began to draw long-- longer and longer until they reached the place where the mud field ends, and that is how the eight shadows slipped out of their places at the foot of the dolls. When the shadows slipped out, they turned around to see the dolls, sitting to dry in the sun in the field of mud and they began to watch.

The next day, the Mudshaper came to see their eight companions. The dolls filled the Mudshaper with joy, and so they again began to work. They worked the mud to form the mounds and worked the mounds to form the dolls, which were set out to dry. There were many many days of this that followed, as the field of mud began to change. 

No longer was it mud to the left and right as far as one could see, but now the mud had been replaced with dolls of dirt, placed in rows to the left and mud to the right. 

And it was after some time that the shadows had watched that they began to make decisions of the dolls.

The First shadow went to dream of the dolls, creating new stories night after night. While lovely and happy at first, they thought happiness to be so simple, and so, each one now was more sad than before. Soon it was only sadness that drove them to dream. Soon after, that sadness turned into pain and that pain into horror and chaos.

The Second shadow started to pick each up, sticking them into their form. As this shadow added each one to itself, it began to lose their original form. Soon, the little forms of the dolls could no longer fit in the body of the shadow, so they had an idea. If they took some mud of their own, they could stick more dolls to the outside, and it wasn't before long that this shadow was itself a mound; a mound of dirt dolls. 

The Third shadow hated the dolls and sought to punish them for their existence. Each punishment was more sinister than the previous until they figured the worst one of all. The dolls could be their own pain, and so the shadow breathed a whisper into their heads.

The Fourth shadow looked at one of the dolls and a thought came to them that the doll looked so very delicious. So, they ate one, and found it to be delicious. So, they ate another one, and found it also to be delicious. In fact, they found all the dolls to be very delicious, and began to eat them.

The Fifth shadow looked at the dolls and thought that they all had looked the same and found that to be quite boring. A little mud, they thought, could be used to make them each a little different. A bump on one's head, a mound on one's foot, a nick in one's knee. But with so many dolls, soon the changes had to be more dramatic so as they were different than all the ones that came before. It wasn't before long this shadow was melding the dolls so much that they were no longer dolls at all, but twisted forms of little reason at all.

The Sixth shadow wondered what was inside and tore them asunder, finding in each one a little stone. So pretty, they thought, and so they took the stones and kept them.

The Seventh shadow made them into puppets and placed them on a little stage. Each time a new act to play, but always at the command of the shadow. This brought them much joy and so they kept inventing new ways for the puppets to play.

No one knows what happened to the forgotten one.

It wasn't before long that the Mudshaper noticed the destruction of their dolls and began to make the dolls faster, afraid that they would again be lonely. Faster and faster they worked until they reached the edge of the field, the place where the mud ended, and turned around. As far as they could see were dirt dolls, but they knew that it was only a matter of time before the shadows' destruction reached those dolls.

"I must make more." They said, "I must make more." So, they again began to think until they realized. "I am made of mud." They said, which was true. So, because they were made of mud and they had resolved to make more dolls, they took their left hand and reached into their chest, pulling out a clump of mud. They worked this clump of mud into a mound and worked that mound into a doll, and when they saw this doll, again, they were happy. And that is how the Mudshaper fashioned the rest of themselves into the dolls. As the final doll was formed from the tip of their pinky, they ceased to exist.