The Path the Moon Makes

Warning: This piece contains hints of LGBTQ and lesbian aspects. Please do not read if this is a trigger for you.

Kingdom Borealis and Kingdom Polaris - the two Kingdoms of Aurora, with two suns and two moons.

The sea of the Kingdom Polaris glowed at night. Not just from the moonlight that made a path over the waves, but the bioluminescent plankton that pulsed in the heads of waves - a bluish white that flashed at every disturbance, gathering on the hem of the dress of a girl, sitting at the breakwater.

It was beautiful, three layered with wide waves at each layer stitched with pearls and elbow length sleeves, sheer white that flared out like the petals of a rose.

Ropes of pearls hung around her shoulders and were sewn in patterns around the wide collar, and her platinum-silver cascaded in soft waves around her cheekbones, her eyes closed, before opening as the last sliver of sun dipped below the horizon, glowing just as brightly blue as the plankton in the waves.

Slowly, she stood up, seawater dripping off her dress and sloughing away from her fingers and dripping back to where it came from as she waded deeper into the water, before, finally, she began to swim until she reached the first of the path of moonlight.

She climbed onto it, stepping to the next tile of shining light as if it were a tangible thing, and not just the reflection of the sky, towards the opposite shore, where the path met the sea of Kingdom Borealis.

She would make it halfway there, just in time to do her job, to weave garments from the moonlight she harvested, so perfectly that even the most precise eye could not detect a single stitch or seam on her work.

o-o-o-o

On the opposite side of the Kingdom Polaris, in the Kingdom Borealis where the cycle of day was reversed, a girl stood on a cliff overlooking a beach as dawn came, the sun rising over the horizon, the other sun on the other side of the sea dipping below the other side.

She was small, but tall and willowy like a dancer, and she floated in the air, sitting on the seed of a dandelion as she drifted over the ocean.

She was bathed in a sheath dress, with off-the-shoulder sleeves that had a thin veil sweeping down to her wrists, the stomacher made of black silk that wrapped around the rest of the dress like a leaf, and her black hair glinted like some divine blade, her skin sparkling as if a bucket of glitter had been poured over it.

A necklace with a single silver bird on it hung from around her neck a small ruby in its beak, so light that it fluttered in the wind like a scrap of paper.

She flew on towards the scape of night before her, black eyes wet so smooth they looked wet like obsidian, reflecting the moon on the other side.

She cast her eyes back at her homeland and felt no sadness. It was just a part of her now, to go to the other Kingdom, and to see her friend. It was all that kept her going.

o-o-o-o

The sun was rising. She could feel it, and see it - the tiny bit of glow emerging from the horizon behind her. Already, her legs felt like lead, her breathing becoming shorter as she met the border between the two lands, and she saw the other sun beginning to set, a dandelion seed floating towards her in the last of its glare as it was halfway gone.

Her job, although occupying, was repetitive and monotonous. And for ten minutes, to see her friend was something she treasure, like drinking a cup of coffee. It kept her awake, kept her going.

o-o-o-o

The sun was setting. She felt it, the cool on her skin that she knew all too well, from all the late nights she spent, seeing her friend. Her every waking hour was spent travelling to meet her for ten precious minutes, before they passed on to each other's land, for their own reasons.

She, herself, to harvest the sunlight, to collect it in a teapot and strain it to heal those who needed her healing.

If she boiled it, then froze it, she could sell it as a potion to extend the lives of those who could afford it.

She needed to find a way to cause it to ease or numb pain, like her own, how she only ever saw the one she loved most for a couple of minutes every 48 hour cycle. No sleep to dream of her. Just the endless waking hours of sunlight.

o-o-o-o

The sun was almost completely over the horizon by then and she knew she was running out of time as she met her friend at the border, her foot landing with a chiming sound on the last tile of moonlight, as the tiles closest to shore began to collapse into the sea. She reached out to guide the dandelion seed to her.

"Sahara."

She opened her arms wide to hear her Sahara's voice whispering...

"Nile."

She felt whole again, as if the missing piece of a puzzle had been fitted back in.

Just her and Sahara, Sahara and Nile for an entire ten minutes.

Even without sleep to rid her of her desire to be with Sahara, even with the constant cycle of moons, and clouds and the same stitching patterns, again and again, she was happy now.

She was home.

o-o-o-o

The sun was almost set, only a tiny piece of light illuminating the way.

She saw her friend waiting, just as she drifted into the border and fell into her arms.

"Sahara." She heard, the voice echoing into her heart. The relief was so great it was dizzying, and her head spun.

"Nile." She murmured back, her heart already whole again, even if only for 10 minutes. Even if only for now, even if she had to strain the sunlight with paper for 24 hours, before going back to her homeland to rest, she was happy. That was all that mattered.

o-o-o-o

All too soon, Sahara let go.

o-o-o-o

All too soon, Nile let go.

o-o-o-o

The two friends drifted apart again, away from each other lost in the glare of Sun, and Moon respectively. The Desert girl. The River girl. Both doomed to dance around each other for all eternity, as long as the sun rose and set, as long as the moon came and went.

They were apart forever, only to see each other for a few minutes each night.

And so it begins again.

In 48 hours, they will begin the journey, and miss each other for that long of a time until the meet again, on the border of Kingdom Polaris and Kingdom Borealis.