The Sun and the Moon. ~a fable

The Sun and the Moon
Once, many thousands of millions of years ago, before the world had even truly begun, there was the Sun and the Moon. This fact, of course, is much like that of today. However, in those many million years ago, the Sun and the Moon were in love.
It was a glorious time, filled with joy and equality, there were never any problems. With both astrological gods next to each other, their beauty was always reflected upon the earth. Crops grew in great abundance, animals were spectacularly coloured, people were not divided or competitive and all was well and just. There were no such things as race, religion or discrimination. The glory of the day left nothing else. With the light of the Sun, and the peace of the Moon, a vibrant glow was shone onto the world. The very atmosphere was filled with sparkling fragments of light and colour, as the light of the lovers’ reacted with the gasses in the air itself. And the pallor of the people’s skin altered the colour’s vibrancy, so when the light fell upon the people, it appeared darker and more solid. The plants made the light paler, and the animals altered it to be almost smudged. The air and the life all seemed to be painted with such lovely, vibrant colours. And with such beauty, the Sun and the Moon could do nothing but sing and dance constantly from the sheer joy of it.
The earth lived like this for one thousand years. Then in an unexplainable minute, the grief suffering and pain, earned but lacking in all living things, was stored in one most evil being, the Devil.
Fuelled by his hate for the entire world, he set out to destroy the earth.
At this time in undiscovered history, the earth had an Emperor; also known as a king, ruler, czar, etc. The Emperor was generally a kind man, with a wife and children. It was the Emperor’s duty to communicate with the heavenly lovers above him. He would be the one to praise the Sun and the Moon on their beauty and passion, and to ask them to always bless the earth with their presence.
With a perfectly masterful plan, the Devil began to set himself to work. He went to the home of the Emperor, a magnificent structure with a golden sheen, and sought out the Emperor’s wife. Once she was found, in the garden planting flowers, the Devil morphed into a classy, charming young man, with slick hair and a startling smile. He approached the Emperor’s wife, who was very beautiful, and began talking seductively with her. He offered her flowers, gold, beauty, marriage, love, and children. After such persuasive pleading, the wife was swayed into helplessly loving the Devil in disguise. Within one week of being seduced, the Emperor’s wife left her husband, and fled with his children to be with the Devil. The Devil’s plan was working out splendidly.
The Emperor wept for many days, huddled and hiding from the despair that continued to find him. In a moment of broken-hearted-ness, the broken Emperor looked to the sky for salvation, and was enraged and maddened by what he saw. As always, the Sun and the Moon were dancing and laughing in pure, uncensored joy. Why should they be so happy if I can not? The Emperor was beside himself with an accumulation of grief and anger.
The next hour, the Emperor summoned a Mage, a mystical human emblazoned with magical power. Mages in that era were habitually ready to help any one who required service, regardless of the service itself. With a traitorous act in mind, the Emperor paid much in gold for the Mage’s services.
Within in the same hour, the powerful Mage had done his work.
Before the eyes of every soul in the world, the Mage lifted his power high into the air and gripped the Sun and the Moon. Holding them both fast, the Mage, by the emperor’s orders, pulled the two celestial beings in opposite directions. As they were being torn apart, the Moon wailed in sadness, and the Sun burned increasingly brighter, in an attempt to burn the invisible hands of the Mage’s power, but to no avail. They reached for each other, they scratched at the magical hands, and they tore at their own faces in desperate sorrow and anguish. The shrieking rang throughout the world; no ears were left free of blood. The animals hid, frightened by the sight. The people wailed and gripped their cheeks in imposed pain, willing it to be over. The Sun blazed so bright, men and women, children even, went blind. The Moon screamed so violently, craters appeared on her surface from the effort, and many humans became deaf.
Eventually, the Sun and the Moon were at opposite ends, with the earth’s mass blocking their view of one another. As this was done, all colour left the air, and the skin of the humans retained only one dull colour, the animals learnt to make their own colour, as did the plants. And when the lovers were parted, the world was plunged into darkness, for the first time; night was created. The people screamed and wailed, the animals bellowed, voices full of sorrow. The plants drooped heavily to the ground with resignation. The humans looked up to see the Moon, alone in the dark night, with no sighting of her beloved Sun. it began to rain all around the world, perhaps the drops were tears, or perhaps not. The people cried for the Sun and the Moon. With the rain came a cry of despair from the two lovers, a raw weeping and wail. Such a cry hurt all the ears that heard it. The cold came to join the night, and the humans and animals longed for the warmth. By the next twelve hours, they received the warmth they craved. As the Moon rolled submissively over the sky, the Sun reappeared, and catching a glimpse of its beloved Moon, became enraged by the injustice and sorrow thrust upon them both. The anger burned and burned, seeping through every pore of the Sun’s being, it heated the earth to a staggering degree. For the first time, the people and animals knew what it was to suffer in sweltering heat. And after a time, the people grew used to dull earth, blue sky, white clouds, and all assigned colours. But in their longing for the coloured air to return, the humans grew bitter and heartless, as did the violated Sun, while the Moon grew weary and ever sadder. Toughened by the hardship of labouring under the sun, the people sought to ease their vehemence by the taunting of others. No longer did people help one another and no longer was there such a thing as equality in everyone, no, as long as there were people, there would always be a competition. And so it went, day after day, hate and misery absorbed everyone, and it was all the people could do to bear it.
During this time, the Emperor’s wife was shown the true face of her demon lover, and she fled with her children. When she approached her first husband, who was weak with guilt and surrender, she begged for his forgiveness. When she explained the trickery that was used, the Emperor forgave his wife and allowed her to be his love once again. In his relief of having his partner with him once and for all, he summoned the old Mage, who was to try and reunite the Sun and the Moon. It was now fifty years after the separation, but with the life expectancy for humans in that time, this was merely a quarter of a human’s life. The Mage came swiftly, but by now he was older and some of his power had faded, and though he was not as brilliant as he used to be, there was still no other mage in the world to equal him. He tried for many days to reunite the celestial lovers, but to no avail. Word spread of the Mage’s attempts, and soon the whole world was begging for the restoration of their old lives. The Mage worked for a whole year to bring the Sun and the Moon back together, but within that same year, the effort of such a huge task took its toll, and it eventually killed him. With all hope lost, the earth receded back into silence. And after years of wailing, the cries of the Moon faded into the whisper we all know as the wind.
Before his death, the Mage managed to offer one last gift to the Sun and the Moon. A Mage’s spell, almost like an enchantment that still carries on today, one that will give some joy to the heavenly gods. Every year or so, the Sun and the Moon meet again in a total eclipse, to embrace and kiss and love each other once again. This only lasts a half hour at the most. But when they meet again, there is no laughter, no joy, no colours, or singing or dancing, there is nothing. Rather, the world is submerged in darkness, a shadow cast by the lovers’ sorrowful memories of the fateful day they were parted.
Over time, that sorrow has seized to matter to the humans, or to have any affect on anyone. These days, the eclipse is observed by the thousands, and televised to all who missed it. It is a novelty, a petty miracle that fascinates and wonders. But no one ever feels sorrow for the Sun or the Moon. And nobody ever notices how the wind, such a silent cry, is strongest when the eclipse ends. And when the eclipse does end, the people are sad not for the lovers, but for themselves at losing such a beautiful sight as the one they beheld. They do not realise that the sight is one of despair. This is because of the ignorance of humans, and our denial of there ever being any suffering so momentous.
Because eventually, no matter of the event, everything is forgotten…