Once upon a time, a long time ago, the Moon was shining down on the land between the green sand and the salt sea. A time when the sun shone all day and the moon glowed all night. Every day, every night.
The Moon enjoyed being up high in the dark sky, shining, shimmering, casting subtle light all around.
But after awhile She noticed it was always the same and perhaps a different view would be interesting. If She was below, the sky would not be the same. Of course, there would be no moon in the sky (because she would be on the ground below) and therefore it would be black. Perhaps different shades of black, but still black. A dark sky. Lots of dark sky. Would that be interesting?
She thought some more, then decided there needed to be something more than darkness, some random points to catch the eye, engage the interest. But what?
The only thing that belonged in the night sky was Her and although she sometimes crossed the sky during the day, the sun was so bright it outshone everything else.
Owls shared her sky at night and owls were wise so she decided to ask their advice - how could the night sky change and be more interesting?
The owls thought and talked and eventually came up with an idea.
'You have so much light, so bright' they said. 'Why not share some?'
The Moon thought. If she gave some of her light away, she might not be able to shine all the time through every night, or as brightly. Would it be worth being able to look up at the sky and see more than darkness?
The Moon shrugged her shoulders, picked off a pinch of her Light and flicked it into the sky..
'Gosh, that looks good' and she smiled, pleased. But then the light fell to the ground and winked out. The smile went. She would have to think of a way to keep the light up high in the sky - glue? hooks?
The Moon picked off another pinch of light and gently pulled out five finger points of Light and curled them softly round a little so they might catch on the fabric of the sky. If she could flick them just right.
Up they went, one, two but they fell as they had fallen before. But then one caught and pulled itself up so all five points latched on to the blackness.
She smiled again and settled back.
The Moon kept pinching and flicking until the sky was twinkling with random patterns of light.
It did look pretty.
She sat there watching until the sun came up, out-shining her display so she slipped back into her place in the disappearing darkness.
After that, the Moon would travel across the night sky, smiling and twinkling with the little moonlights. She found there were times when her light dimmed, not as bright as it used to be and then she would stay on the ground, watching the stars which seemed to shine more brightly because she was dark, relaxing below.
The owls could still fly when the Moon was dark so decided the nights were more interesting now.
And the stars were very pretty.
