The Pearl of the Universe

The Pearl of the Universe

I come from a place in the night’s sky on the waist of Orion the hunter.  Like an accessory, the planet of Montoya dangles from his belt and no one on Earth knows it but me.  I get a deep longing between the months of November and February when the heavens open up and I see my world looking down on me.  Clearly, I see them seeing me and I look up into the sky and I remember.  It’s always when I remember, that I see the rolling hillsides and fresh waters.  Blades of grass in different colors like Skittles blowing in the many winds.  Skies with many moons dance across Montoya and children whose species humans couldn’t dare imagine in their wildest dreams exist!  I remember Montoya.  I remember the King, for I was his Queen, until he needed a great sacrifice!  

The universe had a meeting once in my family’s royal estate.    Hushed whispers of contemplation echoed throughout the dark castle stirring me from my slumber, encouraging me to wander.  From my bed, I rose, sticking to the shadows of Lungenog light; I believe on Earth they are called glowworms?  On Montoya, they are bigger than a human’s head and brighter than a candle’s flame.  They grow the biggest in the presence of royalty and they serve the royal family faithfully.  They leave during the day and return to post each night.  It is not forced.  It is their will.  Their light is pivotal here, bare with me, for their magic is unmatched.  

So, in the shadows of the Lungenog light, I crept toward the hushed voices and I heard the words no mother wants to hear.  “The youngest daughter must die!”  The council of celestials had spoken.  The ruling was set.  The fate of my beloved child was decided and I was in ruins beside myself!  ‘How can the King allow this to be so?’  I pondered, my second heart beating out of my chest.   “FIGHT FOR HER!”  I wanted to scream.  “PROTECT HER!  DENY THIS REQUEST!  GO TO WAR WITH THE UNIVERSE IF YOU MUST, BUT DO SOMETHING!”  My mind begged for some great act of love, or defiance, I don’t know, at least some kind of compassion.  Nothing.  Although the King could hear my every thought, he hung his head low, severed our marital connection, and disregarded my presence.  I'd never felt so angry with him as I did in this moment! The betrayal I felt was unmatched!

My entire being ached with sorrow so intense, my soul split in two when he cut me off from his own thoughts.  ‘How could he do this to ME?  I’m his WIFE!  How could he hurt me so?’ I wondered as I stumbled back into the darkness of the long palace hallway.  

The Lungenogs, feeling the pain and suffering I endured made themselves scarce in my presence and in that darkness, I heard the softest voice I’d come to know calling out to me just above a whisper.  “Mommy?  I need you!  I’m scared.”  

I ran my hand along the brick of the palace toward the wings of my children.  Each child is just as important as the last to me.  My eyes filled to the brim with tears.  I hadn’t cried in a thousand years, yet, in this moment, I felt the sting of the liquid betraying my eyes and cascading down my cheeks.  

Every step I took closer to my children, another Lungenog light went dark.  The feeling was so heavy in my chest.  The rooms spun as if I were inebriated.  Maybe, I was?  I was uncertain what I would do when I got to my children, but my soul said “Do something!”  

It was my understanding that the universe didn’t want ALL of them.  They just wanted “HER.”  

“But why her?”  I wondered aloud, clutching at my second heart as it beat rapidly against my breastplate.  “What could the universe want with Aura?”  I stumbled over my own feet at the great flash of light that suddenly appeared before me.  Had it not been for my tail and wings, I might have fallen!  

The Lungenogs combined together to make the light that showed me the future and the fate of my baby girl.  In that light, I saw Aura take the form of a black sky filled with an abundance of stars.  Her body was solid, but she was an entity all her own and she had the power of creation!  Worlds collided and began simply from the touch of her hand!  She was magnificent and finally, I was seeing things better than I had ever seen them before.  

The universe was in search of more power and Aura, being born into that ability to create worlds, could not be controlled.  Having Aura was a threat to the way of the universe!  Her sheer existence threatened the power of each nation on each planet in every universe!  Aura could be the precursor to the destruction of everything!  

My second heart started to slow down, causing my first heart to try to pick up the slack.  I began sweating profusely from my head to my tail.  My breathing was caught in my throat and the fire that burned in my belly rose in rage!  Finally, I made it to Aura’s bedchambers.  

I could see the six moons of her siblings rising high into the sky from her bedroom’s window.  A moon for each issue born, like gifts bestowed upon a mother for sacrificing her body to bring them forth, but where had Aura’s moon gone?  It did not fill the sky in its rightful place.  It did not shine bright, or full, or even crescent.  It no longer seemed to exist.  

I reached into her cradle with nervous energy, hoping that I may have been wrong.  There she laid looking up into my face with the worlds in her eyes and the blanket of galaxies decorating her skin.  She cooed like she was safe and happy to see that I’d answered her call.  I smiled gently back at her before taking her into my embrace and wrapping my wings tightly around her.  I could hear the council making haste in our direction.  I would not give my daughter so easily!  Filled with despair and losing hope, I looked into my child’s face once more and asked, “What shall I do?”  

“My King,” I heard a voice coming down the hallway say, “the youngest daughter must die and if not her, then the woman who created her must!  You should never have chosen just one queen to give all of your seeds to!  It is known that no one being shall inherit that much power as she and we cannot risk the creation of another!”  I  hear a commotion, a scuffle if you will, before I hear the King respond, “HOW DARE YOU FORBID ME SEVEN?!  HOW DARE YOU THREATEN MY QUEEN?!”  

It is at this moment that I am certain what must be done.  The King would never allow my life to simply be taken from his.  He would burn the galaxies to dust before he let me go.  He could hardly live with himself if he must lose just one child behind this decision.  He would never forgive himself for losing his only wife. No, this had to be done and I had to be the one to do it!  

I placed my head on my daughter’s temple and gave her all the best of me that she may never forget from whence she came.  Then, I laid her back in her cradle as her father, the King of Montoya fought bravely against the guards of the Universal Council just outside her bedroom’s doors. I snuck out the backside of the castle down to the rising light above the lands.  

Once at the edge of the planet, I shed my dressings and called the yellow dwarf into me.  To my surprise, there too was the moon of Aura attached as one.  My body sizzled as the yellow dwarf opened before me, urging me to step inside, grateful for the sacrifice I would provide.  The steam rose high off my scaly skin before it melted completely and caught fire! 

When I was totally engulfed in flames, my body somehow changed.  No  longer was I this grand being with wings and layers and a tail, but a fragile being of human-like anatomy becoming encased by the darkest shade of brown in the most agonizing way!  I screamed out in pain as my body changed and somehow, so too did every life on the planet of Montoya.  At the completion of the change, I heard a sound behind me, a tiny little peep.  I turned weakly to find my oldest daughter standing there with me, sadly watching my transformation, but somehow, fully understanding its necessity.  

She was a child of the seas, and she called the waters to herself where she held them high above my head before releasing them and me into the sun.  Then, the yellow dwarf  acted as a portal and burst open causing the Moon of Aura to separate from the yellow dwarf, and catapult across the sky on opposing sides! The King rushed from the palace, fighting the transformation of his own body as he raced to stop me from entering the closing portal of the yellow dwarf.  He was too late.  The betrayal of his own blood for the good of his people, was too deep and the yellow dwarf had already accepted me as its sacrifice.  There was no turning back.  The last thing I saw before the portal closed on the King, were his huge shoulders slumped in defeat at the realization of the consequences of both our actions.  He took the hand of our daughter into his, his hair curled with sweat down his now human-like backside and he called out to me.  “I will always find you!  In every life you live, I will always find you and you will be my queen once more!  I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you.  Now, they are your most valuable riches.  Never offer them so freely again?” I replied before my body burst into the atmosphere and sucked itself inside itself and disappeared.  

The next thing I knew, I was walking the Milkyway and creating the galaxy to my own liking.  I stopped when I created Earth and all that was in it and I laid down in the green grass and rested as I waited each cycle of life for the King of Montoya to find me.  Every now and again, I remembered how he was willing to throw away our child’s destiny by betraying our blood  and for a split moment, I would hate him just a little.  I also acknowledge how I never would have become the pearl that I am, the mother to all the universe had I not interceded.  There would be no place for me to find my children called Earth had the war taken us all for the sake of one.  So, I try not to be angry with the way of the world and I simply wait for forgiveness to run its course.  

For I know there was a place beyond space and time, where I once dwelled with my husband, the King of Montoya and our issues.  If you look up into the night sky, between the months of November and February, you may catch a glimpse of the wink of the man who forever begs the forgiveness of the woman he betrayed.  And if you look closer, you may see a glimmer of hope across the hunter’s face, that one day, the universe will be kind enough to reunite them as one.