It was nightfall, and the moon was at its peak, showing its entire mass to the mortals beneath it, which the few who were awake would admire while their equals would sleep in the quiet of night. However, to Luna, the princess of the night, the moon was her sun, she was awake while the others slept peacefully. At the moment, a knight from her personal guard was sitting near her, having a conversation. He was a member of her personal guard for almost a year. While he wasn’t known for his strength, but was known for being very amiable, while still retaining his dignity to help protect and serve even the goddess herself. He asked for him to meet her in her personal balcony in her room. It was less than a week since he was assigned one of the guards of her inner circle, and he was assuming she was to speak to him regarding professional matters and what was expected of him.
“But you don’t have to think about your future, what happens after you pass. That is the greatest fear of most of us mortals, you know, and you don’t have to deal with that feeling.”
Luna took a sip of tea. Staring into the cup afterwards, she noticed the moon reflecting off of the surface of her drink. She was wearing one of her normal dresses, created from the essence of the night sky, shining like stars and looked as smooth as the night sky itself. Her emblem, a crescent moon, was displayed on a metal chest plate around her neck. “I don’t,” she said, “but that is also part of the reason being immortal isn’t what you think.”
“How so, your majesty?”
“Please,” she replied. “Aegeus, please, call me Luna.”
“Okay then, how so, Luna?”
She replied, not turning her gaze from her cup. “You worry about those that live with you, your friends, being able to remember you, remember what you did, remember that you loved them, and so on. And that is perfectly acceptable. But, us, however, don’t have to worry about that feeling. We just have to remember that those that are close to us will eventually perish, and they will expect us to remember them. We have the weight of all of them, hoping to not forget their memory, to make it so their lives won’t, later in life, mean nothing.” Her gaze at the cup did not falter.
“Is something wrong with your drink, your maj… I mean, Luna?”
She chuckled at this. “No, no, it’s perfectly fine thank you. It just reminds me of someone.”
Aegeus raised his eyebrow. “And who would that be?”
She took another sip of her drink. At this, Aegeus quickly adjusted his left shoulder blade of his armor. The goddess’ sigil was there, a crescent moon on a black surface, like that on Luna’s dress. As good as the armor was for protection, it did not care too much for the comfort of the wearer.
Then Luna looked at Aegeus and asked, “Do you know what it means to love someone?” He was surprised at the question.
“Well, I’d assume it means, er, when you and another person share a connection. Where the two of you want to be with one another, I guess.”
“And what if the two couldn’t?”
Aegeus raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand the question.”
Luna put her cup down and proceeded to lay down on her back. “A while back, maybe 1200 years ago or so, before my exile, my sister and I used to hold jousts in our honor. You ever hear of those stories?”
“A bit,” said Aegeus. “But I never heard it much in detail. I know of jousting and all, but not the actual celebration or whatever it was for.”
“Well what happened was we gathered the best of all of the knights around and they jousted for us. The winner would get the prize of sleeping with us.”
Aegeus stayed quiet at this.
“I never really wanted it, but back then almost all the kingdoms had ceremonies like such. I was against it, but my sister said it was necessary for morale. Heh, to this day I still wonder why. I always had a slight feeling my sister actually enjoyed it. Anyway, the ceremonies were always in honor of her, basically. I may be there to witness the jousting every once and a while, but they competed for her.
“But then, after the third crusade ended, after our army used the black of night to conceal themselves to drive our enemies away, they all rejoiced and called for a joust in my name.”
“Really?” Aegeus was surprised. “Not to offend you, but I thought the populace never really, you know, celebrated you.”
“Well, no, they never really did, but at the time my night won them a war, and they, for that small moment, celebrated me. It felt good, in a weird way. It was very superficial, they weren’t really celebrating me, but the victory of the army that I merely aided by creating the night like I always do.”
“So what happened?”
Luna continued, “Well I told my sister I didn’t want the celebration, but she refused letting me refuse. She did, however, allow me to choose what the knights would compete in to get their prize.”
“So what did you challenge them to do?”
“I challenged them to catch the moon.”
Aegeus was confused. “You challenged them to catch the moon?”
“Yes. Because I fealt like they could never succeed.”
“Well no one possibly could. What did your sister say?”
She smiled and said, ‘They would try.’” She chuckled a bit. “And she wasn’t wrong.”
Aegeus was amused. “How so?”
“It started at sundown, so they had time while the moon was at its height to catch it. Many tried. Some tried creating large ladders, some got very long poles, attempting to get as high as possible. They all failed. Well at least, all but one.”
“How did this one succeed?”
“His name was Orion. Not the most popular of knights, but surely a good one. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time, I never put much interest into affairs of the such.”
“So this Orion guy, what did he do?”
“Most of the knights went straight into their work, but he didn’t. I was very curious on why, for coming to win the challenge was optional, and he was the only one seeming not to care.
“I didn’t put much thought into him, but a few minutes later, he came walking up to me, a bucket in his hand. The moon was behind him as he dropped the bucket at my feet, saying, ‘Here you go, My Lady.’
“Inside the bucket was only water. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow, asking, ‘Is this supposed to mean something?’ He nodded, stepped to the side, and said to look again. I did, and I couldn’t believe what I saw.” Luna then looked into her cup once more. “Inside of the bucket, was the reflection of the moon.”
Luna didn’t break her gaze from the cup after saying this. Aegeus did not say much either, giving her the moment she needed by looking at the cup, moon reflecting over the liquid within.
Aegeus then asked, “So what happened afterwards?”
Luna still didn’t break her gaze. “Well, at first I smiled, for not even I thought about that working. He was declared the victor, and was supposed to have me for the night.
“I was in my chambers about an hour later, awaiting his arrival. When he came, he was still clad in his armor. I lay on the bed for a little and asked what he planned on doing, and instead of approaching me, he said ‘It was pretty obvious you don’t actually want anything to happen tonight, so how about you put some better clothes on and I show you something?’”
Aegeus asked, “So what did you do?”
“Well, he asked if I had a telescope in my room. I took him to the balcony, and he showed me some patterns he noticed in the night sky. He found that there were different animals, weapons, even a spoon handle shape in the sky, and he gave them all weird names. I, myself, never noticed them, even though I designed that sky myself.”
Aegus was amazed. “Wait, you mean you didn’t create the constellations, but they were just discovered?”
Luna nodded. “By him, yes.”
“Then did he name the constellation Orion?”
Luna looked towards the night sky, the Orion constellation clearly in the air.
“No, that was me.”
“Oh.” Aegus was speechless. The two looked in the sky at the constellation, amazed at its large size. The constellation itself held the brightest stars in the area, making it easily viewable to anyone on the ground. The moon was slowly moving in to cover up the constellation, as it normally does, and eventually, the moon covered Orion up.
Luna broke the silence. “So I’m sure you are wondering why I brought you here in the first place.”
“Yeah, why so?”
“After that day, Orion became the very first member of my personal guard. At the moment he was the only member, and I didn’t get any more until the day he died. During his period as my personal guard, I confided with him. He was the first real friend I had in a while. As well, he was more to me than a friend. But I never told him what I thought. How I actually thought he was more, how much I actually liked him.” She began to have a tear coming out of her eye. “I didn’t tell him until the day that he died.”
“Oh.”
“He died quietly, unlike a lot of the guards I had later in my life. An assassin came in, trying to kill me, and he stopped the assailant, but got a blade in his chest during the battle. The assassin was dispatched, but Orion couldn’t stand up.
“I didn’t get to speak to him until he was laying in a hospital bed. I was told his wound would be fatal, but he still had time to speak. As he lay on his deathbed, he smiled when I entered. I sat down and told him everything. He said he understood as well, but, as a last message, said, ‘Just make sure, in the future, if you find another that you like as you like me currently, that you tell them. I don’t think you’ll want to live as long as you will regretting the past.’
“Well he was right. And here I am, honoring his request.” At this, Luna looked Aegus in the eyes, and he looked back, stunned. “Are you free for breakfast?”
Notes
Thanks for reading, this is one of my first stories written on this website for quiet some time now, and I will probably be getting back into fanfiction from now on. Please like, comment suggestions, subscribe, and all of that jazz.
