The holes in the bottom of my shoes don’t irk me no more. My feet had gotten tough even before all this walking. ’Cause when the honeybees got sick—Mama said they was dropping like flies—food got scarce. People got hungry and then sick like them honeybees. And when people didn’t know…
Read it now
“Once upon a time” is how the inhabitants of Earth begin their tales. But we are not Earthlings, and this is not a story of fiction. Gather ‘round as I recount how Moonfolk first encountered these aliens and how cunning and wit kept our world safe.
It was an ordinary day. Children were at school in the lunar craters.
Huey, god of mischief, peeked over the floating platform’s edge. Below, the European countryside showed patches of various greenery.
“All this flying is making me sick,” Tema moaned.
He turned to his friend. Her face had grown pale.
She put her hands over her stomach. “I think you’re going to have to lead
Under the shade of the baobab trees, I watch. I see their wide-eyed looks of awe. I hear the gasps of wonder. Eager tourists face their guide, waiting for him to expound on the phenomena of the rainbow sand before them.
I’ve listened to him teach all day, that the dunes of Chamarel…
Huey pulled at his shirt collar as sweat ran into his golden-brown eyes. He didn’t know how much of this stifling darkness he could take.
Zip.
Huey, god of mischief, inhaled fresh air as Tema opened her suitcase. “Hiya, best friend,” he greeted her. Tema shrieked.
“Huey!” She slapped his arm repeatedly.
The world swayed around me like the ocean waves, but I couldn’t feel the water’s calming caress. Pain pounded in my left temple. My eyes refused to focus. I tried to swim, yet I couldn’t lower my arms from over my head. And my tail… where was my tail?
I wiggled my toes…
Still in coyote form, Huey’s paws landed on the grass of Tema’s garden. He turned back into a man and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. The giant’s cries of “Stop, thief!” had echoed all the way up the Stairway to Heaven, but Huey was safe now.
Safe with his treasure.
“Ow! Huey moaned.
“It’s too quiet.” Uchu leaned forward. The stone palace’s open balcony emphasized the unnatural stillness within the Kwaco. “The animals aren’t speaking, Ayara.” She caressed the feathered head of the red macaw perched on her shoulder. “Where is everyone?”
The bird nuzzled her, burying her beak in Uchu’s long braid.
Though the presence
Am I content to float alone?
In this vast universe, I’ve only known one other of my kind—my mother—and I only knew her for mere minutes before she vanished without a trace. I searched the entire perimeter of this water-based planet for her to no avail. Did she leave because her
Many years ago, Caligo looked upon the Moon’s soft, silvery light with contempt. “You are nothing. You simply reflect the light of the Sun. Do you think you can protect the world from my darkness? The Sons of Night will destroy every last human until there is no one left.”
Transforming into a jaguar, Caligo
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