A Meeting on a Moonless Night

The place where the moon normally nestled amongst the stars was dark. The village square would have been empty on most nights, but not tonight. Tonight was the first black moon of the year, during which one of the most anticipated events of the year took place. On the first black moon of the year, children became adults.

I didn’t imagine it to be quite so dramatic, as the older generation described it. Even as a child, I remember some of the now-adults when they first embarked on their journey. They came back looking precisely the same, though they claimed to feel different. No one was allowed to tell what was different about themselves, nor what had caused the change. They always said, “You’ll understand when it is your turn.” No matter how many times I asked.

The ceremonial clothes fit snugly on me. I was unused to such clothing — the traditional clothing had all sorts of adornments that made noise whenever I moved — but I made it a point not to fuss. My oldest cousin complained when he wore it, and the critical comments from my family were hard to listen to. 

I fiddled with the dangling ornaments of my clothing, waiting for the village chief to arrive. My best friend stood beside me. We had both turned sixteen the year before, but not before the first black moon. He wore the traditional clothing as well, looking visibly uncomfortable. He scratched at his neck constantly, since he normally didn’t wear clothing with high collars.

“Hey, Hanieh, I didn’t know Soheil was our age,” he whispered to me. He pointed at another person wearing similar traditional clothing. He was much smaller than us, but also looked far more focused than either of us either. 

“You didn’t? He was born the same month as me.” A girl our age with long braids shushed us.

Besides myself, Soheil and my friend Erfan, there were four others. The other three had turned sixteen the year before, the same as the rest of us. The girl with the long braids who had shushed us was among them. Kaveh, Yasamin, Esmat, and Payam. I spent so much time with Efran and a few of our older friends, I had nearly forgotten their faces. A strange thing to happen in a village so small.

Silence spread over the villagers in attendance, which told me the chief had come to the village square. He was an older man, as wise as the midday sands were hot, with eyes cloudy from age and carried a decorated tree branch as a cane. His attendants stood behind him: a medicine woman, and our village’s best navigator. I always believed one of them would be the next chief, though I couldn’t decide which.

“My children, tonight is the first black moon of the year.” His voice was soft, but when he spoke we all listened. “And thus, it is time our children become adults. There are seven of you this year, a good number. Will you come to me so I may see you, children?”

The seven of us stepped to where the chief stood, smiling warmly at us. The oldest of us, Payam, stepped towards the chief first. Payam was tall, athletic, and popular. Many of the older villagers whispered he would be our next road-man, traveling to the other villages carrying and bringing news. The chief reached his hand out and Payam brought his face to it.

“Ahh. Payam, yes? You have a face like your father.”

“Thank you, chief.” He stepped away and the next oldest went to him. Yasamin, the girl with the long braids, stepped forward next. There were high expectations for her, as well. A teacher or a medicine woman, many said.

“Yasamin? Your face is much like your sisters. Your chin is stronger, though.” 

“We are quite similar, yes,” she said with a chuckle. “I hope to be like them one day.”

“You will.” He patted her cheek before letting her go.

We each went to him in age order. Efran next, then Esmat, Kaveh and then myself. His hands grasped my face delicately. I could feel the wrinkles on his fingertips. The calluses on the palms of his hands. He ran his thumb over the bridge of my nose, inspecting each of my features to form an image in his mind. His lips curled up as he recognized the face.

“Hanieh, yes? Your face is the same as your mother’s. Ahh, but with your father’s nose.”

“So they tell me,” I replied. “The same nose as my brother.” 

“Ahh, yes, Zahir. And does he fare well?”

“He does.”

“Good, good to hear.” He released my face and I stepped away. Soheil was last to be examined by the chief. “And so you are Soheil. Your face is still round, yet. But your cheeks remind me of your oldest brother.”

“I have only just become sixteen,” he admitted. “Perhaps too early to participate?” I had wondered if the intense focus on his face had been an attempt to hide his concern. 

“Do not be afraid, Soheil.” The chief let go of his face and Soheil stepped away. He did not let his resolve be swayed visibly, but I worried for him. 

Though we had spent the past year of our lives preparing, none of us felt prepared. We were still children in our hearts, myself included. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to make the same decisions as an adult. I tried to act grown, but I did not feel it inside.

“Ehsan will guide you to the place of the rites. Once he has guided you there, you will be on your own. From there, let your wisdom and your heart guide you.”

The male attendant stepped to the side of the chief, then walked over to the group. Excitement gleamed in his eyes. The local lamp-maker handed each of us special paper lanterns. They had elaborate designs painted on their outside, though with no discernible meaning.

Once each of us had a lamp, Ehsan began towards the entrance of town. Payam and Yasamin did not hesitate to follow and Efran was not far behind them. I hastened my pace to keep up with Efran, but glanced back to see if the other three were following. Esmat held Soheil’s hand in hers, putting a little more courage into his face. Kaveh stood behind them, as if he were our rearguard.

We followed the path towards the river, where the reeds grew tall under the date and acacia trees. In the summer, children would climb the date palms and knock down bundles of fruit onto the ground below. I wondered if I would still be allowed to do that. Contributing was easier as a child.

Everyone had their place. My parents were both excellent hunters. My brother became a road-man. Efran’s sister made beautiful pottery, and he had a taste for artisan work too. Yasamin would likely become a medicine woman and Payam would become another road-man. Soheil, despite his worries, had promise as a merchant; his quick wit normally got him out of any situation, though he had not been so lucky this time. But I did not know my place. I spent too much time worrying about other, my mother said.

“I cannot imagine what sort of ‘secret’ place they could be hiding. They must not know how much we have explored these areas,” he whispered to me. 

“They must not have.” Yasamin turned around to cut a glare at us as we walked.

We reached an outcropping that Efran and I knew well. Or, we had once thought we did. Of all the times we visited, we never saw a grotto in the face of it. The water had receded an inordinate amount, revealing the narrow opening of the cave. We never saw anything remotely resembling an opening. Probably for the best, as we would have likely been foolish enough to attempt to enter it. 

But even so, I couldn’t wrap my head around what they wanted. The danger I expected was vastly different from the one I faced now. Even though we were all proficient swimmers, escaping a flooding cave would be dangerous. Yet I’d never seen an instance where no one returned. I had never even heard of it. 

“This is the cave of the Black Moon,” Ehsan said, gesturing towards the entrance of the cave. “From here, I can take you no further. Your path ahead is your own.” 

“Path ahead? But it’s a small cave! There cannot possibly be much of a ‘path’ to speak of inside,” Kaveh was quick to comment. Payam hovered in front of the entrance, bobbing his head around as if looking for a way to disprove Kaveh’s suspicions.

“You will only understand once you enter.”

“The entrance is narrow. Only one of us will fit at a time,” Yasamin noted.

“As it is meant to be.”

“And what do we do once we are inside?”

“You will discover once you enter.” 

I sighed as the others tried to prod him further. Obviously, I wanted an answer too. But I knew very well I wouldn’t get one from him. If my mother would not tell me, then why should I believe the chief’s own attendant would? He had less reason to divulge the secret. 

After they settled they would get no answers, we decided on the order of who would enter the cave. The first plan posited would be to go in age order, which theoretically made the most sense. But Kaveh and I voiced discomfort with forcing Soheil to go last. Yasamin felt it inappropriate to go in reverse age order, as the older ones were always taught to lead the younger ones.

“Then we alternate,” I suggested. “One older then one younger. That way the older ones can each lead and the younger ones will feel safer.” 

We each paired off with Efran left over to walk in the back. I had been paired with Payam towards the front, since I had been the one to come up with the plan, but the nervousness began to settle in. Though I liked to think myself strong, I was grateful Payam took the first step before me. As he took the first step inside, I took a deep breath and stepped forward. He had to duck to comfortably enter the cave.

“It doesn’t get any wider, but thankfully it doesn’t narrow either,” he called back. “It seems longer than I would expect too.”

“Does it slope down?” I asked, thinking about the shape of the outcropping. Perhaps it was a trick of the darkness, since it didn’t have much room to go back far.

“It doesn’t look like it.” He continued forward and I followed behind him. 

As we went deeper into the grotto, a heaviness grew in my chest. We had walked too long for this to make sense. We should have walked through it entirely, by this time. And yet there seemed to still be more cavern to follow. I could hear murmurs behind me. Confusion and concern. Payam glanced back at me, the same confusion written plain on his face. I gave him a reassuring nod, hoping the gesture would abate some of my own nervousness. 

“Oh, it looks like it gets wider a bit further up there!” Yasamin called behind me. 

Our steps quickened, hurrying forward to where we assumed our journey was meant to take us. The tunnel made for a poor trial, if it was meant to be one. Surely it wasn’t what we’d spent our adolescent life being hyped for. We moved faster, excited by the prospect of reaching our destination. Then our lanterns suddenly went out. 

All of them went dark in the same instant. I expected to hear panicked voices or feel hands seeking one another out, but there was nothing. Only the cool, damp rock of the cave wall and the sound of my rapidly beating heart. Was this some sort of trick? Or some sort of test? Was it wise to continue forward? We were meant to, or had that simply been an assumption? 

My lantern suddenly glowed again, but I saw no one around me. The pounding in my chest accelerated and I started to shake. Where had everyone gone? They couldn’t have passed me either direction, as I would have felt them. But no one was around me. Ahead of me was a new dim light. I didn’t know the source, but I knew I needed to go to it.

Each step echoed off the cave walls, reminding me over and over that I was completely alone now. I worried about the others, especially Soheil. Were they suddenly alone too? Hopefully they all saw the same light and hurried towards it. I imagined how frightened everyone else must have been as they crept along the wall to the light at the end of the cave. 

As soon as I reached the area where the light had been, the cave expanded tremendously. A cavern unlike any other I had seen. I looked around, hoping the others were there as well, but I was still alone. I wondered if they were all in a similar cave. If it was equally inexplicable. 

Above my head was a beautiful starry sky, a rich blanket embedded with sparkling crystals. And, most peculiarly, a bright silvery moon. My first thought was that I must have passed out in the cave. But I still felt quite awake, and did not wake no matter how many times I pinched myself. My eyes drifted down from the sky and to the forest filling the cave. Trees of all kinds — even some I’d never seen before — crowded over lush green groundcover that was spotted with flowers.

“A beautiful place, isn’t it?” My heart jolted up into my throat. The voice sounded all around me and inside of my head. “Don’t worry little one. There is nothing for you to fear.” 

My eyes darted around in search of the voice’s source and found it instantly. Relaxing beneath a tree was a giant glowing creature. It looked similar to a barn owl, but stood the way a bat would and had branch-like antlers sprouting from its head. The entire body glowed a brilliant gold except its eyes, which glowed white. 

“H-hello,” I said, unsure of what to say to such a creature.

“Hello, Hanieh. You seem nervous.”

“I…ah…I am.”

“This was not what you expected it to be.”

“No, it is not.” I tried to look at anything else, but my eyes returned to the creature. I racked my brain for any stories of such a thing, but surely I would have remembered them instantly on seeing it. “Is this a trial of some sort?”

“Were you expecting a trial?”

“I don’t know.”

“What did you want this to be, Hanieh?” I opened my mouth to answer, then shut it again. I didn’t know what I wanted from it. I knew what everyone else expected. “Perhaps we could just talk, then.”

The creature shrank and came closer to me, gesturing with its wing towards a flat rock. I sat down and the creature began to ask me questions. Asked me about myself. Asked me about my thoughts. About the things I knew. The creature allowed me to talk and let me ask questions. Questions about it. Questions about its home. About things I always wanted to know.  It did not have answers for everything, but told me what it could. 

“Tell me, who do I look like to you?” it asked.

“Who? You do not look like a person.”

“No? Ahh, but it makes sense. You had no expectations.” The creature nodded, then gazed up at the strange moon. “You never asked why I am here.”

“I assumed you are meant to be here. That I am the oddity here.”

“You certainly are.” The creature nodded solemnly. “I see so many of you and meet so few. Most do not know they have even met me.”

“How do they not know?”

“Some forget, others simply never realize.”

“Do you think I will forget?”

“Perhaps, but I don’t think you will.” The creature tilted its head, then held out a wing. “Those who come here always leave with a gift. What would you like?”

“Speaking with you has been gift enough.”

“Then perhaps a token? To remember this time we spent.” A feather fell from its wing and into my lap. 

“Are you sure?”

“Certainly. And I think if you bring this home, you will find some of your answers.” 

The creature flapped its wings in front of me, causing me to shut my eyes. When I reopened them, I was back at the entrance of the cave. The others were standing outside, each staring down into their hands. None of them spoke to each other, staring intently at the small objects they cradled gently. All of them looked shaken. I frantically searched myself for the strange creature’s feather, and found it tucked into my collar. I breathed a sigh of relief. I had not imagined everything.

“You have all returned,” I heard a voice nearby. The voice of the chief. He sauntered over as if he could see us perfectly. “Do you understand now?” Each of us nodded. His smile swept over each of us, but he lingered on me. He took a few steps towards me, then beckoned me over. 

“Chief…?”

“What a familiar aura I sense,” he said as I approached. He held out a hand and I placed the feather in it instinctively. “Ahh, yes, an old friend. I was wondering when the time would come again.”

“What do you mean?”

“All will be explained in due time, Hanieh.” He placed the feather back in my hand and wrapped my fingers around it. It pulsed warmly in my hand.