The First Shaping of the Land

Shortly after the world was created, there was land and nothing else, and flat land to boot. There was nothing of interest. Animals roamed without purpose.
By miraculous chance, First Horse and First Bee. Bored, they exchanged a few boasts.
"Behold how I fly," First Bee proclaimed. "What do your legs do?"
First Horse snorted and kicked the ground, crumpling it up into valleys and hills. "So much for not having strong legs. What can you do?" He showed his contempt further by spitting. The salive dribbled into the valleys and started up the rivers.
"Lord! Master! Great one! I admire what you did. I'll make a new home for you to rest half the day after you perform your feats." First Bee flew up and made the first beehive for First Horse. We call it the sun.
That was how the work of creation began. As for everything else, the oceans, the mountains, the lakes, plateaus, forests, clouds, corn, all else there is, First Pig was busy inventing it at the same time but he never got much honor for it. Things usually go similarly today.
Finis

Addender

Or use a speaker, but in that case it should be a really crackly speaker like the one on the Wii controller.

Addendum

As for the body part, that's flexible too, but ideally it should have or be able to produce a face in order to exclaim, "No! That's impossible!" when everything goes just the way we know it will.

A Clarification of Terms

There's some latitude when interpreting "indestructible." For instance, someone granted the divine boon of being unable to be killed in the day or the night can be considered indestructible despite the obvious circumvention of blowing up the sun first.

Day's Ever-Shifting End

A group of men who lacked compelling local ties formed a pact to travel in search of the sun's resting place. Their treck across plains, rivers, hills, and seas yielded countless anecdotes. At last they saw the sun fall to earth ahead of them.
The place where it fell was not a well-appointed bower nor a night-defying fortress as they had supposed. Instead, it was a barren area of boulders and crags, unpeopled and useless. They passed a pale man poking among the recesses who asked them to call if they found the sun, a request to which they agreed.
They did find it, the sun, a radiant ball smaller than they expected though too large to raise without two hands and better yet two men and heavy beside, perfect in its roundness. When they called the pale man that he might see it also, he thanked them, hefted it without any sign of exertion, and hurled it far above the clouds where it became brighter still.
He followed it, but the band of travelers considered the compact fulfilled. The members traveled here and there and each became a great lord because of the power they absorbed because of the sun's brief nearness. Everywhere they encouraged their subjects (and their peers as well) to transfer their veneration from the sun to the moon.
Finis

Shaping Up

You've heard of round worlds and you've heard of flat worlds, but have you ever heard of ribbon-like worlds? Probably, followed by ". . . seemed like a neat idea but I couldn't think of anything that it would do for the story." That kind of thinking is why we haven't colonized the sun yet.

The Transfer of Brilliance

You think stealing is good to do so long as you aren't caught? Listen to this story then. Formerly the sun resented the moon's greater brightness. It therefore went to all the animals, telling them, "Take away the moon's cloak and give it to me! I will reward you for it."
Of all the animals, only Salmon, Herring, Trout, and their relatives were stupid enough to listen. They entered the bower where the moon rests during the day as easily as laughing, for the moon was not on guard against such foolishness. They hurried back to the sun with the stolen cloak.
"Put it on me right away! The honor of doing so is the first of your rewards."
The silly fish did so, and forthwith the cloak gave forth radiance and heat too great for any animal to bear. The fish screamed and ran. They didn't stop even after they jumped into lakes, rivers, and oceans to relieve their pain, and they swam so far that they lost their legs. Now they can't come back on the land. The moon never caught them, but do you envy their fate?
Finis

The Sun Is Obsolete

Remember to have your fantasy world orbit the beating heart of a god, the final resting place of heroes, the mixing bowl where monsters are made, or something fun like that instead of dumb atom nonsense.

Solar Eclipse

We're all supposed to believe in a new religion now, right? Nobody's told me which one yet. Surely some prophet somewhere called that the day would be a tiny bit darker for a little while.

The Essential Sun

Once upon a time, the people created lighting for their cities so well and so artfully that they realized they no longer needed the sun. "Let us fire the sun," they agreed. "We could use that money for more lanterns."
First they yelled at the sun that it had been sacked, but it continued on its course regardless. They wrote a letter explaining the situation, but nobody came to pick it up. At last they decided to send their own messenger.
How they determined who would go fills a dozen more stories you may have heard already, but we follow the messenger. He walked far beyond the world, a long and exhausting journey, and waited for the sun to pass. He waved to the moon, shook hands with the stars, and at last the sun came.
"You're fired," the man told him. The sun glared at him, threw down the reins of its celestial chariot, and stomped away to find a better job.
The messenger kicked the chariot to test it out, but so fine and frail was it that it shattered into thousands of pieces. That is why you sometimes see stars moving in the sky. Those are pieces of the chariot.

One of the children raised a hand. "But what's the sun?"
"I don't know," the storyteller admitted. "It must have taken a big salary though, since we're so rich and prosperous without it." And forever afterward, nobody missed the big, dumb sun.
Finis

The Reddened Firmament

The claim is made that four moons once ruled the sky, alike in their luminescence and their envy. The four armed themselves against one another and fought so that men and animals of ground and sea saw nothing above but mayhem, and birds descended out of fear. Some, they say, have never regained their courage and still walk or swim. The moons died in fraternal strife but one, which rules today as the sun. As for the others, the blood of the first comes as rain, of the second as snow, and as to the third, a lake high in the mountains collected all of it. Fratricides who bathe in it will be relieved from their pollution.
That is the claim. Believing that, a man walked alone and climbed those heights, for he was guilty of that crime. The lake was there from which no river carried the cloudy liquid, and in it the man bathed himself that night.
There his eyesight became as clouded as the water. The world around him dimmed, and he heard a voice say this. "Was it wrong, what you did?"
"No," he whispered.
"Was it wrong?"
"No," he said.
"Was it wrong?"
"No," he shouted, and his throat burned.
"Take this weapon, and with it wreak what is no more a crime than what you wrought before."
He stood and left the lake, and in his hand then was a javelin famous enough that he had heard of it as had every man, despite that it came to be that very day for the first time. It was the sun-slaying spear, and there was justice and piety in the world before he used it.
Finis

The Rules of Science Fiction

1. Spaceships are awesome
2. Guns are lame, but future guns are sick
3. Psychic powers rule
4. Aliens are endlessly compelling
5. Suns are the most beautiful right before they destroy the planets orbiting them

The Cordial Sun

Once upon a time, when things were better than they are now, the people were so grateful for their blessings that they held a great festival. They invited everyone in the world to attend and stocked every food and drink in the world. They put on every kind of entertainment as well. Poetry and pies, races and raisins, music and mutton, and up and down the alphabet.
They did not forget also to invite guests. The dogs came, and the birds of the land, and those of the sea as well. The tallest giraffes and the shortest fairies attended alongside the wisest owls and the most foolish otters. A guest honored above them all appeared when invited, and that was the cordial sun whom the people loved the most.
The birds and bats and butterflies all danced around the radiant sun, and every man and beast asked for a dance. The sun judged all the events as well and made merry all day long and much of the night.
In truth, the sun made too merry for too long, and as a result stumbled, fell into the lake, and drowned. That is why there is now only one sun in the sky, the cruel sun that lashes us with heat and abandons us to the cold.
Finis

The King and the Spirit of the Trees

Of those unthinkable tasks Prince Ulrich completed in the islands beyond the immortal sea everything has been said. I will add the history of that spirit hat which has finally earned by its wearer's deeds the fame deserved by its qualities. Once upon a time, the sun recalled the days of yore and sent a summer unlike any suffered for an age and another age before that. A king lived then who considered any hardship nothing more than a reminder that no kingdom is so perfect that it may not be improved. The insistent summer exposed a fault, which was the paucity of shade his kingdom possessed, and thereby inspired the king to take measures thoughtful kings ought to take.
He instructed his knight Manfred in his policy and sent forth that servant who traveled north, south, east, and west, choosing the most pleasant trees and vines, plucking them out of the earth which raised them just as he made squires into knights after their parents yielded them up to his instruction, and hurling the trees toward his lord's lands where they pierced the ground in ordered rows and columns to form as fine an orchard as had ever been seen.
So fine was the orchard that a spirit of trees was minded to relocate there. Without even filling a bag with food or a pouch with money the spirit set out, for only humans are slow to act. That spirit arrived and informed the king of its intentions, for not only humans have manners. King Rudolph answered with no less politeness.
"You are most welcome, for hospitality embraces the humblest, so what should we say about more eminent petitioners? There is only the matter of the fee. Since spirits carry no money, I will content myself with your hat."
The spirit supported that idea no more than the sky supports the earth and went away. Shortly afterward a gardener came to the castle inquiring about employment opportunities. The king said no position was open at that time, but the gardener could stay there until a job became available. Room and board would be provided for a nominal fee of the gardener's hat. The wandering gardener was never seen again.
Later a queen from a foreign land passed through the kingdom with a fantastical retinue carried by zebras and riding on giraffes which stretched so far that those on the end were waking up when those in front went to bed. That queen desired to distribute gifts to the king and his people during her stay, but he swore that he would take nothing from such a beautiful and noble lady except for one thing, which was her hat as a remembrance of her visit. With that, the queen disappeared and all her followers reverted to squirrels and rabbits.
At last, the spirit returned and handed over the hat with neither grace nor complaints and took up residence in the orchard. It is that very spirit hat which Prince Ulrich wears today.
Finis

The Hat Festival

You think the hats we wear are vain frippery, do you? That we ought to have plain wool to cover our heads and nothing more? Let your elders explain to you where you have erred on this, the day of the hat festival.
Once upon a time, when the world had not quite settled in, the sun found itself discontented with its daily journey across the sky for this reason, that the scenery varied little from trip to trip. To relieve its boredom, the sun had recourse to a plan it thought sure to succeed, which was asking the creatures of the land to alter the appearance of their topmost regions, a request all would embrace, the sun believed, on account of their reverence for the celestial disc that made life possible.
It first approached the lions, whom it favored for their golden majesty. "We will not cut our manes or muddy them or dye them either, for we are proud of them," the lions said, and heeded the sun not at all, nor did other hairy beasts respect it more.
Next it beseeched the aurochs, whom it favored for their weight and respect for customs. "We will not trim our horns or shape them, for we have need of them as they are and do not think much of change in any case," the aurochs said, and all other horned beasts said the same and refused the sun's request.
All other creatures scorned the sun as well until finally it asked humans, whom before the sun despised because they hid their heads from it. "We will act in this way, o lord of the sky, that we will design all manner of head coverings and change them regularly, both individually and across entire societies, hoping the variety might please you." The humans kept their word and found such favor with the sun they became the rulers of all other creatures so that the beasts which scorned the sun had cause to regret what they had done, especially the aurochs.
Finis