Solara and Lunara

(Myths where passed down from person to person orally for years. This is what made so many end up with different variations or be hard to completely understand due to bits and pieces being lost or changed from person to person. I wanted this one to have that feeling of being old and being something you would hear from someone who was told it by someone else. I know its a bit odd but I hope its enjoyable.)

Long ago, when there was no sun nor a moon, the days were dull and nights had no light. The crops grew slowly in the dull light of the days, the water never rose nor fell, and temperatures were unpredictable. The people prayed and begged for change. They begged oracles and gods alike and even the king to help them and change anything, while the King was praying and begging gods and witches alike for a miracle for his pregnant queen who was very ill. The king would travel to the most powerful temples to pray and the most powerful witches to beg for help.

After months the King found a witch who promised to help, as long as the King promised her safety inside the palace. The King desperate for help agreed to allow her refuge in the palace as long as his wife and child survived. Grateful the witch made a cure for his wife and her unborn child and handed it to the King. The King grabs the bottle and rushes home holding the bottle close. Hope filled his heart as he fell to his knees at his wife's side and slipped the liquid down her throat.

Soon the King's wife grew healthy and the King was so happy and thankful he forgot his promise to the witch. He ordered a week-long festivities to celebrate his wife's health while the people of his kingdom celebrated seeing it as a sign that their prayers would be answered soon enough. The witch stood outside the walls listening to the festivities and growing angry as she prepared a spell for revenge. 

When the King left the wall to go on a celebratory hunt after the festivities concluded, he was stopped by the witch deep in the forest. The King was frightened as he suddenly remembered his promise to her. As she held her hands up and prepared to cast her revenge spell the King fell to his knees and begged her for forgiveness, but the witch was not wanting to forgive the King for his forgetfulness but she granted him the forgiveness he begged for as long as he still upheld his end of the deal. The King brought her to the palace that night using a spell of hers for light and he made her home in the deep underground tunnels of the palace to never be seen by the people.

When the King's wife finally gave birth the King and all of his people were overjoyed to see the birth of two girls. One born in the day with beautiful golden hair and beautiful gold eyes and skin that shone so bright it brightened the day, but as night fell her light dulled and was brightly reflected by her younger sister who was born at night. The younger daughter was born at night with black hair as dark as the night and pale skin that reflected her sister's light into the night giving the night some light. The older sister they called Solara and the younger they named Lunara.

As the girls grew, Solara's light kept the day so bright, and as she wondered the kingdom the crops and temperature responded to her bright and warm light. Her beauty was only matched by the beauty of her younger sister who followed her throughout the day and wondered by herself at night. Lunara grew quiet and was often too shy to speak and the tide seemed to respond to her movements she wondered at night reflecting her sleeping sister's light from her sister's sleeping tower in the palace and she cooled the kingdom from her sister's warm light from the day. The girls were inseparable throughout their childhood. Everything seemed so perfect, the people got an answer to their prayers in the form of two beautiful young girls and the King had his wife and children. 

However, the girls stayed so full of life and explored anywhere they could gain access to. The King seeing this tried to keep the underground tunnels where the Witch lived sealed from his doughters for their safety. The Witch would always find a way to loosen his seal until one day the girls found the entrance to the underground tunnels and explored soon finding the witch who told them stories that didnt entertain Solara as much as they did Lunara. They started visiting the witch as much as possible for the stories and to explore the caves. Soon the King found out about the girls visiting the witch and in fear for his daughters health and souls he drove the witch away. Angered the witch cast a spell on the girls that would cause their life to be short and their deaths painful. The king ignored the witch as his daughters continued to grow. 

By the time the girls were sixteen Solara's light grew so bright it was hard to look directly at her and her temper grew causing her to be easily angered. When she was angered her warmth grew burning all but her sister around her. Her sister being as shy and kind as she was would stay quiet and out of her sister's way during the day but at night she cooled the kingdom and brought cool water to those who were burned.

The people began to resent the older sister's temper and began to plot her death but due to the girl's closeness, they had no idea how to catch the young princess alone during the day. The young girls knew nothing of the people's plans and kept going about their lives as normal till their mother and father's death soon after they turned eighteen. The girls grew cold and the warmth they brought followed and brought cold into the kingdom. The kingdom mourned the loss of the King and his wife for a couple months during those cold months when the girls kept themselves locked away.

Slowly, they began to emerge warming till they were back to their normal self and Solara's temper grew harsher, with her and her sister's new titles as Queens. Lunara kept to herself reciting the witch's comforting stories to herself at night as she helped those her sister had hurt. The people grew angrier at Solara and began to fear Lunara calling her the Muttering Shadow of the Night.

As the king and his wife's death date rolled around the girls began to become reclusive and cold again. The people decided to use this to their advantage and snuck into the palace. They wanted to kill the Solara and due to their fear of Lunara leave the younger sister alive and push her outside the walls to live with the witches outside the walls. They did not plan for the girls to still be sharing a room as they entered the bedroom of the girls and they didnt expect Lunara to notice them as her sister's light made it hard to see in the room. They didnt know that Lunara had grown so used to his sister's light she could see with no problems.

The people went to kill the grieving Solara who was weeping in her hands for her parents but Lunar put herself in front of the blade. Her action caused Solara's light to dull and Lunara seemed to block her completely from the blade. The people grew afraid seeing Lunara with the stab to the back as her body fell to the floor revealing their original target. Panicked and afraid of Solara's anger they swiftly slit the older sister's throat killing her within a few hours till the night began but Lunaras wound caused her death to be longer and more painful for herself as she cried and reflected the last of her sister's light through her blood causing the night to be bathed in a red glow,

The sister's deaths caught the attention of the gods and the gods took pity on the girls. The girl's last breaths had been used to pray for each other's life to be saved and spared. The gods could do nothing for their human forms but took their souls and placed them in the sky. To this day Solara is still warming the day and yet punishing the humans for her sister's death and Lunara is still lighting the night she fuels the fear and power of the witches and she no longer helps those whom her sister has burned.

They still mourn their parent's death and occasionally they get close enough to embrace and rejoice between the two for their new life and remind the humans what they have done by Lunara blocking her sister's light momentarily and Lunara will occasionally open old wounds and scare those at night when she angered and turn the night red.