Cyrus and The Sun Angel

May it be told of this fable of old,

This truth I insist for you to behold.

Cyrus of the Village Tania

***

Rhythmic beats of the sea synced with my heart, as I stood ankle-deep in the surf at dawn. Again, she spoke to me through the ebb and flow of water over my feet and into my mind. Drawn since my earliest memories to the mystic sea, I lusted to set out to discover its mysteries. Her words touched my soul and made it my life mission.

Yarns told by Old Man Jarvis around the village bonfires spoke of sea monsters in the depths and the Great Falling Off where the Earth ended.

"Take heed, those who venture past the shallow blue waters into the black are in peril and may never return. I know of which I speak for my son Junior, enamored by adventure, has not returned home. For ten years I have waited forlorn but must surrender him in my heart to his doom. You do not want to join my pain," He said, "Many days my son stared across the roiling ocean and dreamed of being famous. One day he surrendered to its lure and I have seen him no more. I commend you, to bind, chain, or imprison your loved ones if they fall prey to this siren's song or lose them forever."

***

I am Cyrus of the village Tania, a twenty-one-year-old, fourth-generation boat builder of Cicanite craft. Our creations are sought out by the most daring fishermen who cross over the sea's perilous blue and black divide.

Finished for the day, I slipped away to my private cove a mile up the coast, where I had worked on my secret boat project for two years. The craft I designed and built drew the deepest draft and had the most remarkable structural strength of any boat our family had ever created. This boat would carry me to my fate, whatever that might be.

I feared not sea monsters, nor afraid I would plunge off the end of the Earth at the Great Falling. I was terrified not to heed the yearning, the tidal pulling, to find her, and unbind the woman, the sun angel, who sang in my head. Every night she illuminated my dreams. No one knew the secret plans within my mind, but I believe my mother suspected something amiss.

A heavenly battle had raged on the day of my birth during a solar eclipse; my mother told me how the Sun god Ra had repelled the attacks of Luna, who was jealous of him. Luna, not satisfied with the gifts of light provided by Ra, sought his destruction. Craters visible on the moon were the remnants and scars of the war left by Ra's warrior Sun Angels. My mother, a gifted storyteller, acted with great drama and then would laugh aloud to declare it all a tale of entertainment. Deep in my heart, I believe she was preparing me for my destiny.

Old Man Jarvis was right and wrong. Evil did lurk in the universe, not only in the depths of the sea with sirens and sea monsters but that which illuminated the night. Luna was a force that controlled the ebb and flow of the ocean's tides and the water and blood that flowed through every living creature. I cannot explain how I know this beyond my mind was tuned to the one I had never met. The sun angel, Celia, who I must free. I share this mission with no one, or I would be imprisoned with those groveling with insanity.

Trimmed with the final touches of tar, I rolled my new boat over cut logs into the water of my cove under the waxing moon. I must depart at first light tomorrow or delay another lunar cycle. My angel's voice had instructed me,

"Sail into the black water under the Full moon, and I will find you. Make your boat stout, for Luna will seek to drown you with violent tidal waves if you are discovered," she said, "Come to me my brave man, rescue me, my hero with whom we share the same day of birth of different ages. Once the full moon rises, she is blind, for she basks in her delusional glory as she imitates the sun she usurps.

***

Cicadas roared in waves outside my window, and I slipped from my pallet and dressed. I paused and heard my mother's gentle purrs and my father's snorts in the next room. Pangs of guilt struck my heart like arrows as I strolled through the dark to my cove. The sea's fresh scent healed my wounds as I pushed off from the shore. On the morrow, there would be sorrow when my absence was discovered. I know not if or when I will return, but I am confident Old Man Jarvis will add me to his bonfire tales.

Through the predawn light, my light sail pushed me across the blue waters. Three hours passed before my bow crossed the sea's smooth azure line and into the inky black, from known safety to unknown perils. Six days passed, and my food and water rations ran out while the sun beat me mercilessly until I collapsed to the bottom of the boat and curled in misery.

"Is this how I die? Am I insane? Does Old Man Jarvis speak the truth and I've been lured by a siren?"

My skin burned red to infect my mind with delirious arguments challenging my sanity. Old Man Jarvis's voice cried out, "You fool." In my mind, my parents wept as villagers consoled them in their loss. Hours later, I woke to a calm sea, smooth as black glass, like polished onyx. The full moon rose into the velvet sky, and its reflection danced in the water, a perfect sphere before my bow. Then I heard the voice of my angel.

"Cyrus, you have come. Look not up at the false sun, the moon who seeks to usurp my father, but look into the reflection dancing before your boat and you will find me," she said.

I crawled to the bow and pulled myself to stand. Searching within the reflected moon, I beheld her. My eyes teared, and I gasped in wonder, overcome by the realization of Celia's beauty.

Within the mirrored moon, her perfect form circled like an eagle and stopped close, facing me. The tips of her long golden hair were aflame. Her emerald eyes glittered and danced, set within the translucent pearl skin of her face that shimmered like gentle prisms. My angel's rose lips curled and smiled with a luscious sincerity of truth beyond any dream I could create.

Celia's hand reached toward mine, and she said,

"Come, take my hand, and for a while we will be alone suspended in time. This has been destined since our births."

Our hands joined. Celia pulled me into her angelic light of completeness and true love.

***

For what seemed like days but were only moments on Earth, we laughed, loved, and joined together in ecstasy and harmony. But then I learned of Luna's war against the sun and how Celia had come to be imprisoned. The moons ocean sized craters demonstrated the violence of the strife. Sun angels traveled the galaxy spreading the light and joy of Ra's energy equally. Out of greed, Luna had captured and enslaved every angel of light who passed over her realm to build a core in her depths that would make her no longer dependent on Ra for light.

Celia, the daughter of Ra, came to demand their release or face annihilation upon the next solar eclipse. Instead of capitulating, Luna detained her and dared Ra to destroy the moon, where along with her, every living creature on Earth would perish.

"If I am not freed by the next Total Solar Eclipse then Ra will destroy the moon and Luna. He tires of her arrogant ways," Celia said.

"What must I do to free you, Celia?" I said.

"I cannot ask this of you Cyrus. It would be a curse for eternity much like Dante's First Sphere of Heaven and you'd be trapped on the moon for all eternity."

"My heart and life are yours Celia. It has always been so since my first memories though I knew not who, what, or why? Can you explain this in mortal words?"

"Cyrus, I have known of you since the beginning of my life. Our destiny began the day you were born during the solar eclipse, on my birthday. Granted a wish by my father, I wished for true love. Your mother sunned by the shore with you in her womb as I passed over the blue skies of your village. Ra, approved of the pure adoration of your mother and sent me to her for illumination. That's the prime purpose of Sun Angels. Your mother basked in the warm rays of the blessing and my golden threads. My sun silken ties of the heavens entwined within her and I knew you, and loved you. I held you for hours in her womb to foresee the man you'd become and discovered true love. Ra had granted me my wish. I was your first kiss, your first love, first touch before you caught your first breath in your world. The day we met was like yesterday to me. Time is a human invention of limits but our love is timeless."

We embraced, and her body melded into mine. Our lips met, and her mouth tasted of sweet lemons. The long kiss erased everything around us as our passion deepened, and we became one.

"I love you, Celia, now and for all eternity," I panted, "My life is yours. What must I do to free you for I cannot fathom you imprisoned a moment longer? Nor can I abide the destruction of the Earth and my family. Tell me!"

"You do not know what you pledge Cyrus. To free me, you must take my place, forever imprisoned on the moon and endure the ice cold wrath of Luna and her frigid moods. Ra would grant us time together as the sun and moon are fully linked for a time only during Total Solar Eclipses."

Our eyes were locked in the unblinking truth as I held her close. Celia's perfect breasts radiated against my chest, and the heated perfection of her womb received me.

"Forever one, Celia. Whether together or apart," I said.

"Forever one, Cyrus. Two souls, one heart," Celia said.

***

"Awake, Cyrus," Celia cried, "Luna has discovered you."

I looked from the reflected sphere of the moon, our love chamber, and could see the angry face of Luna in the night sky. Black waters rolled ever higher and bashed against my boat. A raspy voice that chilled my soul screeched from the heavens,

"This shall not be. Cyrus of Tania, tonight you will die and then I will seek out your family. Your heritage shall be wiped from the Earth. You think you can interfere with Luna, the keeper of all that ebbs and flows on Earth?"

A monster wave rose in the distance, and I knew time was short. Luna could not harm me, but her control of Earth's nature could end my life. I stood and looked down at Celia in my nakedness as one reborn to a new world.

"I declare before Ra and the universe, before all that has been and ever will be, that I pledge my love, my heart, my soul, and my every breath, to Celia, the Sun Angel and daughter of Ra. For all of eternity, I pledge my life for hers and stand imprisoned in her stead. Let it be so!" I shouted toward the heavens.

The monster wave slammed with malevolent force into the sphere, blocking the full moon's reflection in the sea. Celia's warm hand slipped from mine to freedom. Her body transformed into a light burst as bright as the sun and streaked away from me, and all went black.

***

Encased in what felt like ice, I opened my eyes and looked upon the Earth from above. Luna's voice of evil somewhere beneath or below me screamed,

"Let me go. You cannot trap me within my own moon. You will pay for this human," Luna yelled, "Your love for Celia cannot last forever but when I rise again you will suffer, your family will die, and I will destroy all that you love on Earth. Do you hear me?"

"I am no longer on earth Luna and you cannot harm me here," I said.

The ability to block a denigrating voice from the conscious is a talent all men have been gifted. It's a matter of mental survival.

Rhythmic beats of the sun warmed my face as I looked upon the Earth. My birth home rotated in the distance, a painted blue and white orb of glorious art. I laughed aloud when I thought Old Man Jarvis was wrong about the Earth being flat and the "Great Falling Off."

I shivered in extreme cold when the sun disappeared and basked with gratitude when it reappeared to warm my face. The galaxy of planets around me and the universe beyond amazed me with its billions of stars. Comets streaked by with their red, green, and white tails. Meteor showers were like the pesky summer gnats of Earth and bounced off my face. Many nights, I watched my village to observe my parents around the village bonfire. My mother would turn her face toward the moon, place her hand to her heart, and smile. She knew my face like no other.

I regret nothing as I remain the guardian of the imprisoned Luna trapped on the dark side of the moon. Celia and I will reunite during the Total Solar Eclipse in eighteen lunar cycles. But a minute to those on Earth, Ra has gifted us suspended time out of gratitude, respect for our love, and my sacrifice.

Know this, when you view a Total Solar Eclipse, it is a time of intimacy and deep love for the sun angel Celia and me. I hope you find love as sweet as ours, for its purity endures all.

When you look up on a clear night sky and see my face, do not pity me, for I am the happiest man in the universe. I am The Man in the Moon.

***