The Stargazer

Willow awoke.  Above her, a moon moth circled, its silvery wings glinting in the moonlight.  The moon painted pictures on the dusty earth floor of her bedroom.  She dragged herself out of bed, and, drawing back the dirty silk sheet that covered her window, peered, squinting out into the empty air.  A breeze gently rustled through her fiery red hair and the moon moth silently glided out of the window.  Above, the moon shone like a perfect pearl from the depths of the ocean.  It outshone the glinting stars, whose constellations she knew off by heart and lit her view of the village, like a lantern when you need it most.  She sighed happily, and stared at the sky, at the constellation of death, where her mother would be smiling down and watching her family silently sleep. Like cherubs, she used to say to them.  The only one, who isn’t sleeping like a cherub right now, is me, thought willow.  But she was wrong.1

“Willow! Oi! Willow” Came a voice softly from down below.  It was her younger brother, Sparrow.  He had bright red hair and too many freckles to count with a mischievous grin to top it all off.  He loved practical jokes and, thought Willow heavily; this was probably one of them.  2

“Sparrow?”3

“Oh good, your awake”4

“What are you doing down there, Sparrow?”5

“I’ve come to get you.”6

“What?”7

“I’ve-come-to-get-you” He repeated slowly and impatiently.8

“Why?”9

“Father says he wants to tell us something very important!”10

“Sure, Sparrow, whatever you say.”  Replied Willow sarcastically as she started to turn away.11

“Wait! I’m being honest! You don’t seriously think that I’d waste my time coming here in the middle of the night just to play a practical joke on you, do you?!?”12

“Let me see…YES!” 13

“Will I have to come up there myself and drag you down here?” He said, jokingly folding his arms.14

“No, no, I’ll come” she sighed sleepily.  “But it better not be a joke!” 15

“It isn’t!!!” he answered indignantly16

They found their father in the cosy cottage sized living room by a smouldering coal fire in a tasselled armchair.  Seeing his face, Willow knew he was indeed about to tell them something important, and that he was trying to think how to put into words.17

He turned, and his face creased into a smile, his gold tooth and sea green eyes sparkling in the firelight.  He had orange hair and, like Sparrow, many, many freckles.18

“Come.  Willow, Sparrow, sit and warm up next to the fire.”  They obeyed and he leaned forward as he spoke softly:19

“Now, as you both know, it is required that every child of the Lire should learn the legend of each constellation.  What I am about to tell you, you must never forget, and never tell anyone except your children.  Keep it locked inside your heart” Here he gently tapped with one finger where their hearts were.20

“Tell us, father” Sparrow spoke suddenly and impatiently.21

“Patience, Sparrow, patience!” Their father replied softly.22

“Long ago, the stargazer moulded the earth.  First, she made the deserts and the sands; next, she moulded the high mountains and smouldering volcanoes.  Then came the plains, the tropical rainforest's, and the oceans, she made the heavenly bodies, the stars and constellations to guard the earth.  And the moon to guard the constellations.  Particularly the death constellation, where people would sleep happily forever.  Lastly, she made the animals; birds to live in the sky, fish to fill the oceans, and mammals to stalk the lands.”23

“Then who made the humans, father? Who made us?” asked Sparrow questionably.24

Willow elbowed him irritatingly and replied: “We are mammals, you idiot!”25

Pepe carried on: “But the animals began to love each other too much, and when some one died, they would pine and die of depression.  So the stargazer had an idea to try and stop this.  She set up a trapdoor which opened to the constellation of death every millennium.  This is how it worked; every millennium, the moon is exactly the right brightness and in exactly the right position to hit a mirror stone deep in the heart of mirror city.  It sends a beam to 600 mirror stones in the city until it finally comes to rest in a waterfall just outside the city walls.  This is the key which unlocks the trapdoor for just 5 minutes every millennium.”26

“What happens then?” asked Willow with shining eyes staring intently at her father, Pepe.  “Nobody knows.” Answered Pepe quietly.  “Nobody has ever gotten in, let alone come out again.”27

Suddenly, he stood up and, before walking slowly out of the room, said softly “Goodnight Willow, Goodnight Sparrow”28

“Goodnight papa.” They whispered back, both lost in thought.29