The
Story of the Moon Beads
‘Many
years ago there was a powerful sorceress named Celina, who processed magic that
came from the moon. Celina’s magic was a gift given to her by the moon goddess
Selene. The story was that the moon goddess once visited the earth in the form
of a dove. One day the dove had broken her wing and couldn’t fly, but Celina
found and cared for it until its wing was better and could fly again.
When it recovered the dove revealed
its true form to Celina. The moon goddess was grateful for Celina’s kindness
and gave her the gift of magic from the moon; a silver bracelet which held
sixteen beads called ‘the moon beads’.
The moon beads were sixteen magical
beads that held a moon spirit within. Eight of the moon spirits were human,
while the other eight were beasts. Celina’s magic bracelet gave her the ability
to summon any of the moon spirits from any of the moon beads. The moon spirits
were not dangerous, but whenever trouble approached them or their mistress they
would attack the enemy viciously.
Celina lived a peaceful happy life,
but one day a terrible thing happened to her. The truth was the villagers
accused her of being an evil witch and believed that her moon beads were very
dangerous. Because of their fear, they decided to get rid of her at once. One
night, while Celina was sleeping the villagers set fire to her house. The fire
was set to burn her and the moon beads. When the fire had died down, the house
was completely burned to the ground and Celina’s body was in ashes.
Celina’s ashes were proof that the
villagers succeeded in destroying her. But there was no proof that they
succeeded in destroying the moon beads. The villagers searched for the beads,
but they never found them. They believed that the beads were destroyed along
with Celina.
The mystery of the moon beads was
never solved and it still remains a mystery.’
“I must say” said a girl’s voice
“that story needs a new ending”. The girl’s name was Serena and she lived in a
kingdom called Lunaasia. It was called that because the island was shaped like
a crescent moon. Serena was the youngest princess of Lunaasia and she lived
with her mother Queen Luna and elder sister Diana. Princess Diana was to be the
next queen of Lunaasia.
Princess Serena had been reading a
picture book about the story of Celina and her moon beads. Princess Serena
loved to read books and the story of the moon beads was her favourite. But she
didn’t like the ending very much because the moon beads were never found again;
the ending always disappointed her.
Just then a knock came at the door.
“Come in” said Serena. It was her elder sister Princess Diana. “Reading again
little sister?” she asked. “Yes I am,” replied Serena “I just love to read a
good book”. “I remember our father being like you,” chuckled Diana “he always
liked to read”. “I miss Father” said Serena. Their father King Archer died
three years ago. “I know I miss him too,” replied Diana “come now our mother is
waiting for us”.
Queen Luna was sitting at the table
in the dining room, when her daughters came in. “Morning Mother” said Diana and
Serena together. “Morning Diana and Serena,” said Luna “before we eat
breakfast, I have something to say. After breakfast, we will be going to the
opening of our new library”. “Is it the library that you had built a few months
ago?” asked Serena. “Yes Serena,” said Luna “and it is finally finished and all
the shelves are all set up with books”. “I can’t wait” said Serena excitedly.
Queen Luna giggled. “You certainly love your books don’t you dear?” Serena
nodded.
After breakfast, Queen Luna and her
daughters made their way to the library. It was a big white building, with grey
tiles for a roof. In front of the library was a long red carpet for the
opening. A red ribbon was hung in front of the door for Queen Luna to cut. Queen
Luna walked up to the front of the library, cut the ribbon and declared the new
library opened. Inside the library, there were hundreds of shelves full of
books and lots of tables and chairs for readers to sit at. Serena felt happy;
she wanted to pick out some books at once.
Suddenly something caught Serena’s
eyes. It was a stone statue of an eagle, standing on a pillar, a few metres
away from a window. “Wow that statue is pretty” she said and walked over to it.
The eagle statue was coloured white and looked perfectly built; not a crack in
sight. Serena asked the librarian of the new library about the eagle statue.
“We decided to have it here as a decoration,” he said “what do you think your
highness?” “I think this eagle statue suits this library very well” replied
Serena. Just then she saw something interesting at the base of the eagle statue.
It was some sort of a round bead thing; it was white and looked very dull and
plain, like it had lost its shine. ‘That’s a funny part for a statue’ thought
Serena.
Just then a grey pigeon was tapping
its beak against a window, like it was trying to get into the library. The
librarian saw the pigeon and shooed it away. “That pigeon has been doing that
for a while,” he explained “when we brought in the eagle statue, the pigeon
kept trying to get to it. And no one knows why”. Serena looked thoughtful. ‘I
wonder if it’s interested in that bead in the eagle statue’ she thought.
When no one was looking, Serena
walked up to the eagle statue and tried to get the bead out, without damaging
the statue. The bead was a little stuck, but with a pull, Serena managed to get
the bead out. “I don’t know if it is the bead that the pigeon wants,” she
whispered to herself “but I’ll see anyway. And if it doesn’t, I’ll just put the
bead back”. The base of the eagle statue did now have a blank hole, but Serena
wanted to see if her theory was right, so she ran out of the library and
searched for the pigeon on the library grounds. She held the bead in her hands
and called out for the pigeon. “Pigeon do you want this bead?” she said.
The pigeon heard her and flew over.
It saw the bead in her hand and cooed very loudly. Suddenly both the bead and
the pigeon began to glow white. In a flash of white light, the pigeon magically
transformed from a grey pigeon into a light greyish eagle with a white head and
tail. Serena gasped; she couldn’t believe what she just saw. Just then the bead
flew out of Serena’s hand and flew over to the eagle. Then the eagle glowed
white again and suddenly got sucked into the bead and then the bead floated
back into Serena’s hand. The bead was now a beautiful shiny white bead, with a
picture of an eagle at the front. “It can’t be” gasped Serena in shock. She
then remembered from her picture book of the moon beads. “This is a moon bead.
Then that means the other moon beads might be here on Lunaasia as well”. After
she said that a silver bracelet appeared in her other hand; it was the silver
bracelet from Serena’s book. The bead attached itself to the bracelet like
magic.
Serena went back into the library to
check to see if the eagle statue was okay, and it was. The eagle statue was
still there and nothing looked wrong at all. The strangest thing though, was
that the hole, where the bead had been, had vanished; the base of the statue
was all covered up. “That must have happened when the eagle went back into the
bead” Serena whispered to herself. Just then her elder sister came up to her
and said that it was time to go home. The royal family bid farewell to the
librarian and went back to the castle.
Back at the castle, Serena was
looking at the Moon Eagle bead and her moon beads book. She didn’t tell her
sister or mother about what happened today; she knew that they would never
believe her. “If the moon beads are here on Lunaasia, then I will search for
them,” she said “and then maybe I can write a new ending for the moon beads
picture book”. What Princess Serena didn’t know was that a little white dove
was keeping its eye on her.
