“In the beginning there was nothing – only darkness.”

No – too clichéd – too obvious.

“Valuon, the giant squid, swam slowly through the infinite void.”

Better – something for humans to get their head round. People always had a problem with the ‘nothing’ – it was overused, and also quite dull. But a giant squid? Folk could imagine that.

“Cracking open the Oyster of Wisdom, he released the pearl of the universe into the void, where it began to blossom.”

No, no no – all wrong. I mean – ‘The Oyster of Wisdom’? Really. He’d have to do better. Maybe just an ordinary oyster. Or perhaps something that sounded better. A cuttlefish perhaps? Do cuttlefish even make pearls? He couldn’t remember now.

He sighed. It was no good – the others had already taken all the good ideas millennia ago. It was getting late, and to be honest, his heart wasn’t really in it. “Best just leave them to get on with making up their own story,” he thought, and got on with making them.