The Moon Dancers

The boy and girl sat on the beach under a sky full of clouds late at night. The sky had been covered for a long time, and the night was always flooded with darkness, because the clouds would not let the moon and stars shine though to gently touch the earth. Still, these two lovers sat, gazing off into the black horizon, listening to the easy, tranquil rolling of the waves.

“You know, I want to see the moon,” the girl began,”would you go get it for me?”

“Me? Go and get the moon? It’s been dark for longer than I can remember! I wouldn’t even know where to begin with clearing out all those clouds.” the boy responded, shocked, but in a smitten way.

“But if you got rid of all those nasty clouds, then we could dance on the glistening horizon! We could even dance past it, yes... I would very much fancy a drink with you, and then a dance, yes, a dance upon the moon, while the world turns behind us!” the girl continued with her dream, and made the boy want to charge up into the sky and shove the clouds away for good!

“Well alright then, I guess it’s settled! I’ll be back before you know it!” the boy exclaimed as he got up and began to make ready for his trip to fulfill his girl’s wish. He went back to his house, and disarmed a suit of armor of its sword. He then went up to the blacksmith upon the mountain that, in daylight, cast its gigantic shadow over the city, and used some tools to remove the blade from the sword, leaving only the hilt dangling from the belt about his waist.

Armed with a broken sword, a bag with a few necessities, and an overwhelming amount of “want-to,” he returned to the beach, where his girl sat, smiling and waiting. He nodded as he passed her, and began his walk on the water to meet the horizon.

As the boy strolled, he came across a staircase of light, that cut right through the clouds, and spiraled right up to the moon itself. He began to ascend these stairs, and was soon upon the moon. He found a pool of pure moonlight, and he laid the hilt of his sword within. It floated for a short while, and soon was submerged completely. The boy waited, and soon, the hilt was visible again. He reached for it, and when he removed it, he held in his hands a blade of moonlight. He gazed into it with awe, and saw his own face, made much lighter. He began to swing his new sword, and he noticed it seemed to hum beautifully, almost as if playing a note with each swing, and could cut right through the stuff of darkness and shadows. With sword of light in hand, he began his descent into a world of darkness.

He took the stairs down, but had noticed that he had much less of a distance to walk than before. He realized that the stairs of light had been cut off, and he was now trapped in the labyrinth of dark clouds.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The clouds truly are incredible things- a stronghold lighter than air, that disappears in the blink of an eye. The boy was deep within the halls of this castle, and before anything else, he took the time to explore. He saw massive caverns, miles higher than he, and with a singular ray of light shining through. He saw courts and courtyards, tunnels and passageways, and monsters of darkness in cages of shadow. He drew his sword and began relieving these monsters of their life, and with each swing, more beams of light shone through, as his sword sung its song.

The boy battled many a fearsome foe within the cloudy castle, but he defeated them all, knowing that if he succeeded, he would return to the beach, and dance with the girl he loved. With what he had mapped out in his mind as the dungeon completely decimated and silent, he re entered the maze of hallways, and made his way to the throne room.

With a slash through the dark, the doors of the throne room were lost into nothingness. The boy entered and confronted the king of darkness and monsters, The battle was fierce, but the boy overcame his greatest foe yet, and as the dead king’s wispy body fell, his crown tumbled to the floor, and landed at the boy’s feet. Without second thought, he split the crown in two. After doing so, he felt the pillars of the castle begin to shake, and so he ran out to the stairwell of light, that had now been completed, and allowed him to continue on the full length of his journey.

As he descended with a smile on his face, he gazed into the water below, and was overjoyed to see his shadow, waving at him between the waves. The boy waved back, and then turned to see the bright full moon, surrounded by stars and the arm of the majestic galaxy. These beauteous sights, almost completely new to the boy had not glued him to the ground in wonder, no, that came later. They increased the speed of his gait, as he was almost running down the stairs to meet his lover. He stopped however, and removed two chalices from his bag, and after filling them with the stuff of the moonlit sky, continued his descent.

The girl had remained on the beach, and witnessed what took the appearance of a storm of heat lightning. It was actually the flashes of light originating from the boy’s sword as he fought the minions of the night. She laid back, closed her eyes, and smiled, listening to the song of the sword that would bring her back the moon. She later saw a beam of white light, spiraling down to kiss the sea, and distinguished it as a set of stairs, upon which she soon saw the descent of the boy she loved from far off.

She watched him walk down victoriously, and begin to return to the beach from the foot of the steps on the horizon. As he got closer, she laid back and closed her eyes, pretending not to notice him. She soon heard the rhythmic trickles upon the tide, and knew the sound to be her boy’s feet. She opened her eyes, sat up, and smiled broader than ever before, when she saw her boy, now her man, approach with the same smile on his face, dressed sharply in a suit, and holding two chalices of light and stars.

He handed her a chalice, and they sat on the beach as before, but this time, they beheld the twinkling stars, the shimmering moon, comets passing by, and the reflection of moonlight upon the calm waves. They held hands as they sipped the universe, and then began to dance. They danced upon the beach, and then upon the water, and soon they had passed the horizon. They chased each other up the spiral staircase of light, and shortly set foot upon the moon, where they danced all night long, with the world peacefully turning behind them.