Once upon a time, before time’s tale was told, there was Darkness and Silence. Wherever Darkness roamed Silence followed. Suddenly, there was an inexplicable explosion which forced Darkness and Silence into hiding and filled the cosmos with a blinding light. Silence emerged with Darkness remaining at a distance. This was not usually what Darkness was used to. He had never stayed behind before. Silence was in awe of the great fiery orb that had emerged from the explosion. Laying on it’s surface was a man ablaze. The man rose up and reached out to Silence. “Who am I?” he said.

Silence did not respond. “I cannot say, but you are full of fire and light. I’ve never seen such a sight. I will call you Ray!” shouted Darkness from afar.

“Who said that? Where are you? Show yourself!” replied Ray with his eyes darting here and there.

“Oh but I would if I could! I inhabit the places where you are not. I am Darkness. My friend cannot answer you because he cannot talk.” Darkness said in a playful tone.

Silence approached Darkness and pointed to another cooler and alluring orb, “Ohhhhhhhhhhh what have we over there?” Darkness blurted as he moved toward the white glowing orb. As he approached he noticed a breathtakingly beautiful shimmering maiden dancing on it’s surface.

“Helloooooo!” she said boisterously ‘I’m Luna, what’s your name?”

Silence and Darkness approached. Before Darkness could mutter a word he was pushed away by the blinding light as Ray moved quickly toward Luna. Luna’s eyes filled with delight as Ray came closer and their orbs aligned in an eclipse, Luna exploded sparkles of light that filled the cosmos with millions of stars.

It was love at first sight, Ray and Luna knew that they were destined to be together for eternity.  They claimed their place in the Cosmos as Moon Goddess and Sun God. Together they ruled their solar system and watched over the stars born of their love. Darkness and Silence explored the mysteries and truths of the cosmos as their humble servants.  

The stars were lonely and wanted to dance and play like their planet parents. A rumour had circulated among them that there was a place they could do just that. A wonderful planet called Earth. The stars had concocted a way they could use Ray’s sunbeams.

When Luna saw her star babies throw themselves into one of Ray’s sunbeams and burst into flames she cried out in complete dismay “Noooooo!”

The Moon Goddess was devastated and pleaded for them to stop. The stars ignored her and carried on. Upon closer inspection, Luna noticed that a lineup of hundreds of Stars had formed. They were eagerly awaiting their turns. Luna was stunned.  

Some of the stars noticed how upset she was and approached her. “Mother? Why are you crying? This is a time for rejoicing!” said one of the stars. Luna looked up and said, “please my child explain to me why I should be happy watching this? I don’t even know… are my eyes deceiving me? Are you exploding? What’s happening? Where is Ray?”

“Oh no dear mother, this is not the end of us! Is that what you think? This is finally the beginning!”

“What do you mean? All I see over and over and over again are my children flinging themselves at your father’s sunbeams and exploding! I don’t understand?” Luna was out of breath. She stopped and turned toward one of her star babies intentionally jumping into a sunbeam and catching on fire. She kept her eyes on the star instead of flinching as she had done the previous times and noticed that the Star was not harmed. Her jaw dropped and her eyes remained fixed on the star that catapulted like a meteor falling toward Earth. She decided to follow. In a flash she unfurled her majestic wings and dove after the Star.  

She followed with determination and trepidation. Luna followed the trail of sparkles as her star baby sped through Earth’s atmosphere at lightning speed. The Moon Goddess tucked in her wings to keep up and leaned into the dive. She sped through the atmosphere in pursuit of her star child. Everything around her disappeared, she became dizzy and lightheaded. Fragmented memories whirled through her mind.

Luna entered the unfamiliar atmosphere of Earth. She had never felt wind before. She spread her wings to slow herself down and glided with the wind. She felt surprisingly safe. When she landed, she tucked in her wings and took in all that she could of these new surroundings. Though her home revolves around this planet, she had never paid much attention to it as it seemed to be constantly changing and growing into itself. Now it had definitely caught her attention. A myriad of colors and sounds immediately jumped at her from every angle, everywhere she turned something new caught her eye! She was amazed. This was a fantastic planet.  She flew in closer and caught up with her star child who had shockingly morphed into something completely different. Each star had transformed into a little being with wings similar to hers. They had faces and bodies and were fluttering about in a frenzy waiting to greet each new sibling from the sky as it touched down with a great thud and transformation.

They were not star babies anymore. They were… What were they now? What would she call them? “Fairies! I’ll call them fairies.” she thought.  As she approached, a wave of relief came over her. “Mother! Mother! Look at us! Look how we’ve changed!” They gathered around her with enthusiasm and jubilation, shouting, laughing, clapping and dancing. More and more kept coming down from the sky thumping onto the ground, causing everyone to rejoice. The Moon Goddess joined in the festive spirit after seeing her children emerge from their journeys safe and sound.  

Luna’s excitement and relief were suddenly replaced by fear and panic. She remembered Ray telling her about the two legged beings that lived on Earth. He told her stories of how they lived together and worked together to build great kingdoms. She also remembered stories about how they fought with each other and how greedy, brutal and violent they could be towards one another. “STOP!!! Be quiet! We have to be careful! Shhhhhhhhhhhh! There are other beings here”. Luna whispered authoritatively to silence the clamoring of the fairies. She looked around to see if they had attracted any unwanted attention. “What had Ray called them” she said under her breath as she paced about nervously. Her newly winged children had been following her every move and dancing around her. Now they moved out of her way as they could tell she was worried about something. Some of them were talking about the stories Ray had told them about the beings on Earth also. “Humans! They are called humans mother! That’s what father said!” one of them shouted. Luna extended her wings, jumped, and flew upwards to the top of the tallest tree with the fairies trailing close behind.

“Oh please be careful little ones. We must be watchful now for those humans. Look over there!”. She pointed in the direction of a magnificent castle surrounded by an enormous stone wall. There were humans busily going about their day completely unaware of the extraordinary events that just took place in the forest nearby. There were merchants selling their wares, there were mothers tending their children, there were farmers outside the great wall planting their seeds. Luna and her band of fairies were so high up in the tree that they could see a port off in the distance with majestic ships resting in the harbor. A rider on a horse charging through the forest beneath them quickly snapped Luna out of her observational daze.     

“We must hide you! Quickly! I must hide you! Hurry before someone sees you!” she cried as she jumped off the tree branch and landed below where the fairies had gathered. They emulated her every move. “Ok, move back” she said, “I need some room, hurry now, I must have room!”

“What are you doing mother?” said a little fairy as the Moon Goddess began to spin. As she spun faster and faster, moon dust flew through the air creating a rip into another realm. She continued to spin and as more moon dust flew off her, the realm grew. When she finally stopped, she had created another dimension within the earthly world which was hidden from the humans. She had created a fairy realm where her children could live safely! “FAIRIES!” Luna cried out as she stopped spinning. “Hurry in here my children! My beautiful fairies! Hurry into Metavia!”

“What? Where?” exclaimed the fairies

“You are not stars anymore, you are fairies and the cosmos is not your home anymore, you have seen to that. You will live here in Metavia” said Luna with a giant sigh of relief and a reassuring smile. “Listen my children. Gather around me”. The fairies were distracted by the wondrous sites in Metavia. There were mountains, waterfalls, meadows with thousands of white moon flowers, and trees as far as their little eyes could see. They were excited and could hardly contain themselves. They had been stuck in space for centuries. All they wanted to do was dance and play in their new realm.

“What is it mother? Can we go explore this new realm? Please mother let us play!” said one fairy who had trouble staying still.

“Alright my little ones, please promise me one thing and I will let you go off and explore all you want”

“YAY!” they cheered.

“Metavia is your home from now on.” Luna said as she waved her arm across the horizon. “Please promise me that you will never leave Metavia. It’s not safe for you with the humans” she said while pointing at the tear she had created between the two worlds.

“Yes, mother we promise” they answered in unison, although not all.

“Can we go now pleeeeeeease?” they pleaded with their tiny eyes longing for adventure.

“Oh alright. I love you all so much, please be careful and be watchful of each other. Now go!” she answered

The fairies scattered and Luna took a deep breath while watching them happy and left Metavia. She sealed the entrance to the fairy realm with a wave of her hand and concealed the fissure with a magical tree. And with each step that she took farther away from the tree, moon flowers were left in her footprints.

The End… for now.