A Knight of the Moon
Today was an exciting day in
Lunaasia. Lunaasia was starting its annual lunar festival today. There was to
be lots of stalls, music to dance to and a parade of soldiers was going to be
marching through Lunaasia. The story is that about one hundred and fifty years
ago, Lunaasia was at war with another kingdom called Valrana. The king of
Valrana at that time, King Herold, was an evil, tyrant king, and he wanted to
take over Lunaasia for himself. So Lunaasia had to fight against Valrana, to
stop King Herold with his plan. In the end King Herold was defeated and killed
in that war, so Lunaasia was safe and Valrana was no longer a threat. Lunaasia
and Valrana had been at peace ever since. Every year Lunaasia would hold a
weekly festival to celebrate the day when they won that war one hundred and
fifty years ago. At the end of the festival hundreds of candles were to be lit
up at night for the souls of the ones who fought in that war.
In the castle, Princess Serena and
Princess Diana were dressing up for the festival. The royal family always made
an appearance at the first and last days of the festival to make speeches, and
to watch the parade of soldiers. “I can’t wait for the festival to start Diana”
said Serena. “Neither can I,” said Diana “I have always found the festival
fun”. “I can’t wait to check out the stalls and the dancing,” said Serena “oh and
to see the parade of marching soldiers”. “You and me both Serena” said Diana.
Just then Queen Luna came into the room. “Come along now my daughters,” she
said “it’s time to open the festival now”. The royal family left the castle and
went to where the festival was being held in the village.
When the royal family reached the
village, the festival was already. All the stalls were set up and ready to sell
things, plenty of flags and bunting were put up, and lots of musicians were
ready to play music. Everyone in the village was waiting for the festival to
start. Queen Luna and her daughters stood on a little stage and Queen Luna
began to speak. “People of Lunaasia,” she said “I welcome you to our 150th
lunar festival. I thank all of you for setting this entire festival up and
running and I hope you will all enjoy yourselves. And now I declare the
festival opened”. Everyone cheered and musicians started to play music at once.
Serena and Diana asked their mother
if they could look around the festival. Queen Luna agreed, but she told her
daughters to stay together, not wonder off and take good care of their money.
Serena and Diana headed off towards the stalls. Some off the stalls had things
to eat like cakes and other treats. The rest of the stalls had goods to buy
like toys, jewellery and other nice things. Serena was looking at a stall,
which had figurines of animals and people all made out of glass. Serena saw a
glass figurine of a lady sitting on a crescent moon. The lady in charge of the
glass stall said that the figurine was to represent the moon goddess. Serena
decided to buy it at once. Diana saw a necklace she liked on the jewellery
store, which was next to the glass figurine stall, and decided to buy it.
Suddenly Serena and Diana had their
purses snatched out from their hands by a thief. “Hey stop thief!” shouted
Diana. She and Serena chased after the thief. As the thief was running away
from Diana and Serena, a soldier ran in front of him and punched him really
hard. “I don’t give kindly to thieves” he said, taking back Serena and Diana’s
purses. At that moment, some guards arrived at the scene and arrested the
thief. Serena and Diana went up to the soldier that stopped the thief. “Thank
you for getting our purses back sir” said Diana. Both Diana and Serena curtsied
to the soldier. The soldier saluted to the princesses. “It was my pleasure your
highnesses,” he said “I’m glad I was able to stop the thief, before he was able
to get away”.
Just then the soldier saw the moon
bead bracelet on Serena’s right wrist and stared at it. Serena noticed that the
soldier was interested in her bracelet. ‘He’s staring at the moon beads,’ she
thought ‘could this soldier actually be a moon spirit?’ Diana and Serena
thanked the soldier again and went back to buying the glass figurine and
necklace that they wanted.
When Serena and Diana met up with
their mother again a few minutes later, they showed her all the things they had
bought at the stalls. Then they told her about the thief and the soldier who
helped them. “My goodness,” said Queen Luna “I shall thank the soldier at once
for helping my daughters”.
The queen and princesses headed over
to a big mansion where the soldiers were staying. They were getting ready for
their military parade. Queen Luna asked the general for the soldier, who helped
her daughters earlier. The general had heard from the guards, about the soldier
who had arrested the thief, and brought him to the queen at once. “I thank you
for helping my daughters from being robbed by that thief” said Queen Luna. “I’m
glad that I was able to help your majesty” replied the soldier. Serena then
asked if she could speak with the soldier alone. “I have something that I would
like to discuss with this soldier alone” she explained. Queen Luna and the
general saw no harm in that and agreed to Serena’s request.
Serena and the soldier went into
another room of the mansion. No one was in the room, so Serena and the soldier
could talk alone. “You are a moon spirit aren’t you?” she asked the soldier.
“Yes I am,” the soldier admitted “but where is my bead?” “I don’t know,” Serena
replied “I haven’t found any more beads yet”. Just then the moon bead bracelet
glowed. Serena looked around and then she saw a statue of a knight in the room.
“I wonder” said Serena. She walked over to the statue and there, on the base,
was a dull looking bead. “I think I have just found your bead now” she said to
the soldier.
At that moment the soldier glowed and
transformed into a white haired knight, with a white cape and sword with a
silver handle. “I should have known that you would be a Moon Knight spirit,”
said Serena “after all a knight is an early soldier”. “I thank you for helping
me turn back to my real form your highness” said the Moon Knight, bowing to
her. Suddenly two moon beads on the bracelet started glowing; it was the Moon
Eagle and Moon Maiden beads. The Moon Eagle and Moon Maiden came out from their
beads and they were happy to see the Moon Knight. The Moon Maiden ran into the
Moon Knight’s arms and the Moon Eagle landed on his shoulders. “Are the Moon
Maiden and Moon Eagle your partners Moon Knight?” asked Serena. The Moon Knight
explained that the Moon Maiden was his partner and the Moon Eagle was his
animal partner. “Have you seen the Moon Hawk yet?” the Moon Maiden asked Serena
“the Moon Hawk is my animal partner”. Serena said that she hadn’t, but promised
Moon Maiden that she will find it as soon as she can. Then the Moon Knight,
Moon Maiden and Moon Eagle went back into their beads.
As soon as the moon spirits went back
into their beads, Princess Diana came into the room. “We have to go now
Serena,” she said “it’s almost time for the military parade to start”. So
Serena and her mother and sister left the mansion. Thanks to the moon beads
magic, no one remembered the soldier that had stopped the thief from stealing
Serena and Diana’s purse. Soon the military parade had started and the crowd
were cheering for the soldiers.
Serena was too busy concentrating on
her moon beads. She still had more to find and since she knew that the moon
spirits were partners with each other, there was no doubt that a lot of the
ones she had already found were missing their partners. ‘I hope to find the
others soon,’ she thought ‘because I wish for all of them to be together again’.
