Kronos

Before the first clock was ever imagined, Kronos was already counting.

He counted the stars as they appeared.

He counted the lives that rose from the earth.

He counted the worlds that were born beneath the endless sky.

And with every passing age, he grew more afraid.

For Kronos knew the secret that no ruler could escape:

everything that is born will one day become something else.

So he began to consume what he could not control.

He swallowed his children, one after another, believing that by devouring the future he could keep the present forever.

But time cannot be imprisoned.

It waits.

It grows.

It changes everything.

And somewhere beyond the reach of Kronos, one child remained.

Zeus.

When the moment came, the old Titan opened his mouth once more, expecting another child to disappear into the darkness within him.

Instead, he heard thunder.

The sound shook the ancient earth.

For the first time, Kronos understood that he had never truly ruled time.

He had only been carried by it.

The worlds continued to turn.

The stars continued to die and be born again.

And Kronos, who had tried to swallow the future, became what every living thing eventually becomes:

a memory of what once was.