Once there was only light and dark. The Sun ruled the skies, heat radiated from him, nurturing his beloved plants and warming the waters for the creatures within. He was worshipped by the animals who chose to wake during the day, and shun the Moon by sleeping when she appeared. Birds developed wings so they could be closer to him, and animals grew bigger as they grew older in an effort to be able to sit back and talk with him.
This upset the Moon, for she was just as beautiful as the Sun, and shone just a brightly as him, but the jealous Sun sent clouds to smother her light, and blackness to choke her skies. But the Moon rose every evening, despite the struggle it took her and the loneliness that she felt when she looked down on the deserted lands. It was this loneliness that caused the Moon to create the Stars. She used her own reflection in the water, the tiniest of lights glinting off the curve of a wave, and every evening they rose with her joyfully into the sky and added their own precious rays to the dark. So the Moon and the Stars were happy together and things were peaceful and still by night.
But by day the Sun raged. Because of the new light at night some of the animals were choosing to worship the Moon and her daughters, hunting the day creatures that slept on unaware. The day creatures begged the Sun to help them, hadn’t they been loyal and obedient companions? Hadn’t they dived and swooped and frolicked for his entertainment? Hadn’t they, the swallows, the cats, the frogs, the platypuses, the horse, hadn’t they stayed loyal to him, their gracious creator? Yes, he agreed.
“Then why do you allow for this to happen?” they cried.
The Sun was too proud a being to admit that he had no authority at night. He mulled the problem over but his ferocious mind could come to no satisfactory conclusion. This angered him causing him to burn brighter and brighter, turning the trees to ash, the water to nothing and his animals to dust.
The Moon saw all of this happening, and she was very sad, for she loved all of the animals, those that walked by day and night, so she convinced some of the clouds that the Sun had wrapped around her to return to him. The clouds agreed because they saw what was happening to creation and were saddened by it, they also felt the pain of their father, the Sun, and wished to return to him.
So a few clouds made the journey between night and day, causing a strange new time of half-light. They streamed across the dawn like grey wolves bounding fearless into a new land, or lambs returning to the protection of their mother.
The Sun hid behind them and they rained to distract the animals. They were so glad to have water returned to them that they soon forgave the Sun as they believed it was all his doing. The Sun was ashamed that this was so, but blamed the Moon for making him feel that way and decided that he must have revenge.
So the Sun talked with his faithful clouds and they told him of how the Moon adored her children, the stars. They spoke of fantastic displays when the Moon’s happy light would burst through the clouds, no matter how hard they tried to keep her back. They told the Sun of the individual beauty of each of the stars, and the eagerness with which they listened to their mother’s wisdom. The more the Sun heard the more certain he became of how to break the Moon once and for all.
The Sun blessed his clouds with a new power, the power of wind. He encouraged the clouds to return to the Moon, for one night only, to show her their new powers.
So the clouds returned to the night, huffing and puffing to make themselves go faster, so fast that they could not see what they were doing. By the time they arrived their breath was so fierce that it began to knock the stars from the sky.
The Moon cried out and tried to stop the clouds but they couldn’t hear her, and their brothers who had remained with her held her in place. By the time they heeded her screams there were so little stars left in the sky that when the Moon’s light extinguished in sadness, nobody could see at all.
The stars that fell to the earth were fashioned into humans by the Sun. He told them that he had created them, and as they had fallen so very far and lost much of their wisdom the humans believed and worshipped him. As humans they had lost all of their light so were dependant on the Sun to provide them with life. The Moon was sad to hear tales from her most loyal creatures of her children’s love for the Sun, but as the clouds still guarded her there was little she could do to rescue them. So she tried to suck them back into the sky, her crescent body swelling until it was a perfect circle like the Sun. However this process took a long time and resulted in only a few of her stars returning to her. But she still does it, inhaling until she is perfectly round every month. She hopes that one day they will all return to their rightful place in the sky.