The
Departure of the Moon Beads
The next night was to be a night with
a full moon. Serena was staring at the night sky, from her room, waiting for
the moon to rise up. Ever since she got that message last night she couldn’t
stop thinking about what’s going to happen to the moon beads. And Serena had a
feeling inside her saying that the moon beads would probably have to leave her
and it made her feel a bit upset just thinking about that. She hadn’t known the
moon beads for very long and she only found the Moon Prince and Moon Princess last
night. But the message from last night was clear that someone was searching for
the moon beads, and there was nothing that Serena could do about it. ‘I don’t
know who it is that sent me that message last night’ she thought ‘but my search
for the moon beads is finally over. And only the person who sent me the message
knows what’s to become of the moon spirits now’. Since Celina was gone, the
moon spirits didn’t know what to do with themselves now and neither did Serena.
So Serena hoped that whoever sent her the message did know of what was to
become of the moon beads now.
Soon the full moon began to rise.
Serena got out of her room and ran outside to the castle grounds. She had the
moon beads with her and the spirits came out of the beads; they also wanted to
see what would happen. As soon as the moon had started to shine on the castle
grounds the same white dove from last night appeared. Then, suddenly, the dove
transformed into a beautiful woman with long white hair and wearing a long
white gown, and on her forehead was a silver moon symbol. Serena couldn’t
believe her eyes; the woman was actually the moon goddess Selene. The moon
spirits couldn’t believe it either; they hadn’t seen Selene ever since she gave
them to Celina many years ago. “I am happy to see that all of you have returned
to your original forms at last” Selene said to the moon spirits.
Selene explained that, ever since the
moon spirits got separated from their beads and were changed into regular
humans and animals, she had been watching them ever since. “I’m sorry that I
didn’t do anything to help any of you before, but since you all lost your magic
as well as your beads I couldn’t do anything about it”. “It’s all right,” said
the Moon Princess “because we have all turned back into moon spirits now, and
it is all thanks to our friend Serena”. Selene turned to Serena. “Princess Serena
I thank you for finding the moon beads and spirits” she said. “You are
welcome,” said Serena “I am happy that I was able to find all of the moon
beads, even though they had been missing for a very long time”. “I had been
watching you ever since you started searching for the moon beads,” said Selene
“and you did a wonderful job of finding them, and I know that Celina is very
grateful to you too for finding them”. “I must ask, what happens to the moon
spirits now?” asked Serena. Selene looked sadly and turned to the moon spirits.
“Moon spirits, it is time that you returned to the moon with me” she said. She
explained that because they had been ordinary humans and animals for many years,
they have nearly lost all their connections with the moon. “If you don’t return
to the moon, all of you will lose all of your powers and will be regular humans
and animals again forever. But I’m afraid once you go back to the moon you will
never come back here to earth again”.
Both Serena and the moon spirits were
shocked at this. It seemed that Serena was right about her thoughts of the moon
beads having to leave her. “It’s best you do return to the moon,” Serena said
to the moon spirits “you have waited a very long time to become moon spirits
again, and even Celina would want you to return to the moon”. She felt sad of
course that the moon beads had to leave, but she couldn’t bear the thought of
the moon spirits losing their connection to the moon forever. And she knew that
Celina wouldn’t have liked it either. The Moon Princess walked over to Serena
and took her hands. “We do want to return to the moon,” she said “but having to
say goodbye and leaving you seems just too soon Serena”. “Yes, especially since
we hadn’t really known you for very long” said the Moon Fairy. “I agree, it is
all too soon, especially since it was only a few months ago that I started
searching for you,” said Serena “but I have a lot of memories of all the times
I had with you and I will never forget any of you for as long as I live”. “And
we shall never forget you either Serena” promised the Moon Prince. “Yes you
have been a special friend to us ever since you found us” said the Moon Knight.
“Just like Celina was” said the Moon Sorcerer. The human moon spirits all
hugged Serena one by one and the animal moon spirits hugged and nuzzled her one
by one too. Then after all the goodbyes, the moon spirits went back into their
beads on the moon bead bracelet and Serena handed the bracelet to Selene. “Take
good care of them” Serena said to Selene. “I will” Selene promised “and I thank
you again Serena”. Then Selene flew back to the moon with the moon beads, while
Serena just watched with tears in her eyes as Selene and the moon beads
disappeared.
Serena never saw the moon spirits
again after that, but true to her word she held the memories she had of them in
her heart, as well as missing them. To always remember them, she had a big
painting of the moon goddess and the moon spirits made by a professional
artist, and she had it kept in the palace of Lunaasia. And every night when the
moon was out she would look up at the moon, and get that feeling that the moon
spirits were looking down on her from the moon always. For, in memory, of the
moon beads owner Celina, Serena had a memorial built for her at a church
cemetery in Lunaasia and she hoped that Celina was now resting in peace and at
ease in heaven.
As for the picture book about the
story of Celina and her moon beads, Serena did write of how the story of the moon
beads continued. She remembered that she would continue the story, on the day
when she started searching for the moon beads. What she did to continue the
story was not write about her finding the beads, because she figured that no
one would believe her if she ever told them that she found the beads. What she
wrote about was her own made up character, which was a female descendant of
Celina finding the moon beads. But she did stay with the facts of how she found
the beads. The story of the moon beads became a better story for everyone to
read now, now that it had an ending about the moon beads being found again. And
of course the people in Lunaasia liked it because Princess Serena wrote it, but
of course no one knew the real truth about who really found the moon bead.
Princess Serena never did forget the
times of when she searched and found the moon beads. Even when she grew older
and became a mother and grandmother over the years, she still never forgot
about the moon beads for the rest of her life. The times she had with the moon
spirits were special to her and her memories of them would always be special to
her forever and ever.
The
End
