The
Moon Bird of Prey
Days later, after the lunar festival
was over, Serena was walking around on her own, in the palace gardens. It was a
beautiful day and Serena thought it was the perfect day to spend in the palace
gardens. There wouldn’t be any moon beads in the garden though, because Serena
had checked the statues and it made her wonder where she should look next for
more statues, to find more moon beads; she had already checked through the
palace grounds and checked a lot of the palace rooms for more statues but she
still hadn’t found any more moon beads yet. Serena began to worry about her
search for the moon beads. ‘Oh dear,’ she thought, worriedly, ‘I still need to
collect eight more of the sixteen moon beads, and I have not found any more
statues, which holds them. I don’t know what I’ll do to find the rest, if I
don’t find any more beads’. Serena didn’t feel like giving up, she just felt unsure
what to do at the moment.
Serena began thinking about where she
had found the moon beads. She had found the Moon Eagle at the new library, the
Moon Pegasus and Unicorn at the horse race track, the Moon Fairy in the forest,
the Moon Maiden in the palace, the Moon Archer at the field where they held the
archery tournament, the Moon Dragon at a mine and the Moon Knight in the
village, where the soldiers stayed. “I fear that I’m running out of places
where the moon beads would be,” Serena sighed “I’m going to have to think very
hard about where to search next for the remaining moon beads”.
Just then she noticed three gardeners
putting up a statue stone base on some grass. “What are you doing?” she asked
the gardeners. They explained to Serena that they were putting up a new statue
in the garden. Serena was pleased to hear that; maybe this new statue would have
a moon bead with it. “What kind of statue is it?” she asked. “We do not know
yet,” answered one of the gardeners “we haven’t seen it yet, but it will be up
in the garden this afternoon”. “I see,” said Serena “then I’ll see it myself
this afternoon then”. She went back into the palace to pass the time, till
afternoon.
That afternoon, Serena went back into
the palace gardens to see if the new statue had arrived. To her delight, it was
there; it was a statue of a hawk. The gardeners were not there because they had
gone to take care of something else in the garden. Serena immediately ran over
to it to see if there were any beads on it, and there was. The dull looking bead
was on top of the base of the statue, and Serena took it at once. “Since this
bead was with a statue of a hawk,” she said to herself “I reckon that this bead
belongs to the Moon Hawk, and if it does the Moon Maiden will be happy about
that, after all she did tell me that the Moon Hawk was her animal partner. Now
I just need the bird that belongs to this dull bead, and I think I may know
where the bird is”.
Princess Serena was thinking about all
the birds that lived in the forest, where she found the Moon Fairy. Sure there
were birds in the palace gardens, but Serena decided it would be best to check
the forest first. Serena asked her mother at once for permission to go to the
forest for a while, and Queen Luna agreed. Once Serena got to the forest by
horse and carriage, she started to search for the Moon Hawk right away. The
only trouble was that the forest was really big and there were lots of birds in
the forest. How was she supposed to find the one bird, which was really the
Moon Hawk? After all the Moon Hawk would be in a different form of bird, like
the other moon spirits were in different animal and human forms before. But
then she had an idea; she released the Moon Maiden from her bead. “I need your
help Moon Maiden” she said. She explained to the Moon Maiden that she had found
its bead, but needed help to find the hawk in the forest, since the Moon Hawk
was her animal partner. “I will be happy to help you Serena,” said the Moon
Maiden “just as much as I will be happy to see the Moon Hawk again”.
Serena and the Moon Maiden began to
walk together through the forest to find the Moon Hawk. Serena held the dull
looking bead from the hawk statue in her hand. She figured that if she held up
the moon bead in her hand, the bird that was really the Moon Hawk would come to
her. So far there was no success; none of the birds were interested in the moon
bead and they just flew away once they saw Serena and the Moon Maiden. “I do
hope that we find the Moon Hawk soon” said the Moon Maiden. “Don’t worry Moon
Maiden,” said Serena “I’m sure the Moon Hawk will be here, and it it’s not we
will just search somewhere else until we do find it”. “Thank you Serena” said the Moon Maiden.
Suddenly a brown and white sparrow
flew to the ground in front of them. Serena jumped in surprise and nearly
dropped the bead in her hand. “I do wish animals didn’t do that, creeping up on
people” she said. Then the sparrow flew up to the Moon Maiden, landed on her
right hand and sang to her. “Since this little sparrow seems to like me a lot,
I think this is really the Moon Hawk” said the Moon Maiden. “Only one way to be
certain” said Serena. She held up the dull looking bead towards the sparrow,
and then both the sparrow and bead started to glow. The sparrow turned into a grey
and white hawk. The Moon Maiden and Moon Hawk were happy to see each other
again, and Serena was happy that she had been able to find the Moon Hawk for
the Moon Maiden at last.
Before the Moon Maiden and the Moon
Hawk went back into their beads, Serena asked the Moon Maiden who the human
moon spirits were partners with the Moon Unicorn, Pegasus and Dragon. “I’m
sorry Serena, but I don’t remember,” said the Moon Maiden “I have been
separated from the other moon spirits for such a very long time, I can’t
remember which moon spirit was partnered with whom”. “Oh never mind Moon
Maiden,” said Serena “I’ll just keep on searching for the rest of the moon
beads, so that all sixteen moon spirits will be together again”. Then the Moon
Hawk and Moon Maiden went back into their beads.
Serena was happy to have found
another moon bead, but she still needed to find seven more moon beads. Before
she set off for home, she checked the statues in the forest to see if there
were any beads on them, but there weren’t. It was quite clear that there
wouldn’t be any more moon beads in the forest, so Serena had to search for moon
beads someplace else, question is where though? “Dearie me,” sighed Serena “I
fear that finding the other moon beads will be more difficult than I thought, but
I can’t let the moon beads down, especially since they all want to be together
again.”
