Whatever happened to the Second World, it wasn't because of lack of food or water; every living being simply no longer had the energy to live on, though every instinct in their consciences told them not to give up. Staying awake and watching the world around you slow down to a stop is one thing, but actually keeping it going is a completely different story, one that these animals could not tell.

But... what was it that made it so impossible to regain any energy? Any animal could just eat the other and process it, but one could only eat so much before getting full, and even then, meat would only pass on a little bit of energy, not all of it from the possessor before. There really was just no main source of energy, no lasting sun, no plants, nothing.

The Second World was filled with only animals that ate other animals, carnivores... exhausted beasts.

- - -

A young red canine trudged along, carefully stepping between the bodies below him. He was a full grown lupe, of sorts, whose slender legs kept going, even though the main body seemed to had stopped working. His tail hung low, hardly curving upwards to indicate life, and his head followed with it.

The lupe had been walking for days on end, trying to find something useful to eat, something that still seemed full of life and energy, but he had no luck with that. Instead, he wandered aimlessly around the region, searching in vain for something to help keep him alive.

Up in the heavens, the goddess Acuity watched helplessly as her world began to fall to ruin. If she was able to express sadness, then tears would have been streaming down her delicate face, but unfortunately, there was no such emotion within her.

There must be something I can do... she said, holding out a massive hand towards the Second World, as if to try to holding it, but there really isn't much I can do now... is there?

No, Acuity really couldn't do much after exhaustion took over her newborn planet. She had given up a good portion of her own soul in order to create that world, and fixing it completely would require the rest of it. Acuity couldn't do that-- or rather, wouldn't. While she was very attached to the Second World, she wouldn't give up the remains of her life for it. After all, she was a goddess, and she had the power in her hands to create another world, one that required less maintenance, and life power.

However, even if that was the case, Acuity was not entirely heartless and instinctively, she began to piece together another law for the world:

All living creatures inhabiting this world shalt gain energy from a specific element. Marine animals shalt move with the sea, winged animals shalt move with lightning, and everything else shalt be given strength with the wind.

Life shalt reign over all, and Death shalt cease to exist.

That is the will of the Great One.

- - -

It took many years for Acuity's law to take a hold of the world, but even then, there were still areas that were untouched from the Dark Ages. Animals began to rise from their so-called slumber, and life began to make its way back to being normal again.

Things were still rather slow to process - animals took a few seconds to a few minutes to respond to anything, and sudden bursts of energy from the elements were soon followed by nothingness. It seemed that everything needed getting used to with Acuity's new law.

However, in the time that it took for the declaration to take place, Acuity thought of new ways to improve the structure of life and death, and then bringing bits and pieces of what she thought was fitting to the Second World, if only to make it last a little longer.

Acuity created plants and trees to the World, even though none of the animals were able to make use of them, and she also created a sun and a moon.

What was this strange world? He thought. It wasn't the one which he last laid eyes on, and while he remembered being completely dirty and exhausted, he felt fine then, and his red fur glistened in the light--

There was sunlight, the lupe realized. There was wind, water, fresh air... the world was moving, nothing like the world he'd left behind. It perplexed him, but he was also happy.

Akanasu's first steps were a bit shaky - he had been "asleep" for many long years, though he bore no sign of age. His body was still as it was before, when he was last conscious, but he was, at least, a few thousand years old by then.

However, the lupe paid no attention to this as he began to explore the lively world around him. There weren't as many animals as he remembered; most of them were either still sleeping, woke up and went elsewhere, or absorbed into the earth. Red was one of the lucky ones - his body was young enough to fight decay, and along with Acuity's new law, he was as alive as he was before, and even more so, in fact, due to the fact that he had just regained energy from the wind, the element that gave him life.

Akanasu scaled the strange land, which was somehow then covered in green grass, and he came across hills, trees, and growing forests. He tried eating some of the plants, but to his disappointment, it tasted foul and bitter to him and he spat it out.

Going along, Akanasu began to feel tired, as he'd encountered nothing to hunt and kill, and the wind seemed to had disappeared, not that he knew about the new law yet anyway. He felt uncomfortable with this feeling, the feeling he knew so well from before waking up, so he wanted to stop it.

Closing his eyes, he sniffed the air for a sign of any other life and picked up the faint scent of a small, juicy rat.

Akanasu ran after it; even a tiny piece of meat would regain him a bit of energy and make him feel complete again. He wasn't starving, or even hungry, however. He just felt tired and knew nothing more than hunting and eating.

The lupe followed the scent for a while, losing it sometimes and then picking it up again. Eventually, he came across an enormous mountain-like land structure, though he only searched the base before he realized he had to go further up.

He was doing an awful lot for a small meal, and Akanasu knew that. However, that wasn't the first thing on his mind, and he quickly shoved it to the very back.

Akanasu went up and up, feeling warier of his surroundings as he did, as while everything below was unfamiliar territory as well, he, at least, knew he wasn't going to slip and fall. The lupe growled as he almost reached the top of the hill.

There was a giant hole at the very top of the hill, somewhat giving it the look of a volcano, though it wasn't. The fur on the back of his neck bristled as he sensed danger, and he braced himself for it.

A gust of wind came from behind, and Akanasu was thrown off his guard. He tried to regain stability by taking a step forward, but in doing so, he lost even more balance and fell down the hole.

Akanasu felt exhaustion overwhelm himself as he tried to lift his head; simply opening his eyes was a feat in itself, and because of this, Akanasu was reminded of the time when everything that breathed was a living corpse. It brought terrible memories to his mind, and he wanted to just burst out howling... but no matter how much he wanted to, he simply couldn't find the strength in him to do so.

Giving up on moving any other part of his body, Akanasu moved his eyes around to take in where he was. All around him, he could see red walls of clay, and the ground he laid on seemed to have been made of the same material.

Just a short distance away, he made note of a strange structure that he'd never seen before - one that seemed like a giant tower that branched out and carried long strands of glistening white fur. It seemed to reach out to the opening with its massive height, but at the same time, it felt tiny in the space around them. There also seemed to be a pool of water to the side of it as well.

Akanasu couldn't hear a thing in the dome; it was as if nothing moved at all - the tree, the lake, nothing... and it seemed as if he was alone.

Suddenly, however, when the moon finally reached its zenith, something happened: a gust of wind magically formed inside of the dome, causing what seemed to be the sound of clay objects clanging together, somewhat similar to that of wind chimes.

The lupe felt strength surge through him as the wind touched his fur, and with this newfound life, Akanasu stood up and trotted over to the tree to get a closer look at it.

It was strange, the tree. Its dark, twisted trunk had a rather small radius in the first place, but as it went up and up, its branches grew to be extremely thin and stringy. The leaves of the tree were strange in the way that they weren't clumped together as short little stubs, but they were long and rope-like with tiny leaves sticking out them. In addition, it seemed that hollow clay tubes hung from those stringy branches, and as the wind blew against them, they made a somewhat entrancing song.

Akanasu was too busy staring at the wonder in front of him that he hadn't noticed the small animal climb down on it and plop to the ground, gathering whatever bits of moldable clay she could.

Finally, the lupe turned his attention to the moving creature in front of him, and he growled in surprise. The rat made no effort to look back at him, though, and she continued with her work, quickly having a nice roll of clay to work with.

Akanasu no longer felt the need to eat the rat since he'd just gotten energy from the wind, so he just sat down and watched the rat do her work quietly.

After she gathered enough clay, she began working with her bone stick to try hollowing it out, implying that she'd made the few clay chimes hanging in the tree before that as well. Then, she started using her stick to draw strange designs on the tube and eventually cut a tiny hole at the top of it so that she could tie it to the tree.

Finished, the rat tied her bone stick and the new chime to her back and climbed back up the tree, setting down the stick as she reached the point of branching and then taking a path up one of the tree's branches with the chime. She seemed to have trouble with this, however, because the chime she formed was much bigger in comparison to the stick, and therefore, it was harder to transport.

With a bit of struggle, though, the rat was finally able to attach the chime to the tree, and she turned her beady eyes towards Akanasu afterward, staring at him for a few seconds before disappearing into the mess of the willow tree.