Stories- The Sun, the Moon... 2 of 3

4 The Moon and the First Task

At that moment, the door to the great hall opened, and the Moon entered, with a great pale owl on her shoulders and a swarm of stars attending her train. She strode past the boy, and sat at once on her throne, with a nod to the Sun as she passed him. The Moon Wolf scurried to her like a dog, and kneeled by her pedestal. She turned her head, as if to speak to the Sun, but he stood quickly, saying, "Morning comes." As he passed the boy, he pressed something into his hands, and then was gone. The boy remembered the Wolf's words, however, and did not take what he was given, and let it fall to the ground, a small book made of three sheets of paper-thin gold.

"What is that?" Asked the Moon quickly. "Bring it to me, human."

The boy did as he was told, and picked the book up, and took it to the Moon. Carefully, she tried to turn its pages, but they would not part. Frustrated, she instead read the first page aloud

"'The boy whose face is scarred will prepare a feast for the Moon and her retinue.'" The boy was aware of the owl, the Wolf and the goddess looking at him. "Good." Said the Moon. "It has been a long night and we are most hungry. It will be in the feast hall within the hour." The stars all began to get very excited, and the boy became confused and frightened. "I suggest you get to the kitchens,” said the Moon coldly. "There are seven hundred stars, an owl, a wolf and myself to feed."

The boy quickly left to find the kitchens. He did not know where they could be. First he ascended a huge staircase, of more than six hundred steps, carved from coral, then walked through a huge trophy room, stacked with the bones of dead monsters. In every room he passed he peeked through the doors, but found no kitchen. He saw a balcony made of glass, and a deep pool of milk constantly refilled by an army of blue cows. In one room were thirteen hourglasses, each one saying 'One hour until the feast' on it in a delicate hand, each one with half the sand gone. The boy's legs ached, and he was starting to get hungry himself. Even if I find the kitchens, he thought. I will still have to find the feast hall, not to mention cook for all those hundreds of stars. Eventually he was too tired to walk anymore, and so he sat down at the foot of another great staircase, that led up to the top of an ivory tower.

When he was recovering his breath, the Moon's Wolf appeared.

"Have you not cooked the feast yet?" He asked.

"No," said the boy sadly. "I have not even found the kitchens."

"The kitchens are through the door to your left," said the Wolf.

The boy opened the door to his left, and there were the kitchens.

"You had better cook swiftly," said the Wolf. "The stars are already gathering in the feast hall." And he left.

The boy was worried, but he resolved to do his best. He found a door leading to the pantry, and saw that in it there were only a few loaves of old bread, a beaker labelled 'nightshade' and a great many candles. So he took the loaves of bread, dipped them in the nightshade, and scattered crumbs from them at the kitchen door. After he did this, he noticed that there was one loaf left, and that it was not stale, but golden brown and delicious. He was so hungry. He left it.

Next, he took a stack of bowls from one of the tables in the room, and a rope, and retraced his steps to the room filled with blue cows. He filled the bowls with milk, and led one of the cows back to the kitchen with the rope, before strangling it. He skinned it swiftly, and then bled it into another bowl, then put the carcass onto a great platter.

He counted out seven hundred candles, and lit them from the fire below the great cauldron, and set them on their own small plates. With a knife, he cut his own arm, and let a little of the blood pour into the bowl with the cow's, and then bound the wound carefully with cloth. Lastly, he returned to his breadcrumbs, and found an extended family of plump mice lying dead around the leftovers, and piled them onto a plate also.

Then the Wolf returned.

"Have you not cooked the food yet?" He asked. "The hour is all but over, and my Mistress is getting impatient."

"I have finished your meals. Will you lead me to the feast hall?"

The wolf agreed, and helped the boy carry the plates and bowls, to the huge feast hall of the Moon, where She waited on a chair of silver at the head of a table with nearly a thousand seats.

"You are a little late," she sniffed.

The boy set the bowls of milk down the middle of the tables, and before every star he set a candle, and before the Owl a bowl of dead mice. For the Moon there was a deep bowl of blood, and the wolf was given a skinned cow, and a bowl of blue-tinted milk.

"This is a rare pleasure," said the Moon eventually. "It is not often I am given such fine, warm cow's blood, seasoned with the blood of a fine young man, if I am not mistaken. You have done well, boy." The scar-faced boy smiled, and bowed. "Will you not eat something yourself? No doubt you are very hungry." The boy shook his head, and the Wolf smiled.

5 The Second Task

Eventually the Moon pushed the bowl away from her, leaving the dregs of clotted blood at the bottom. She burped once, but covered her mouth in a lady-like manner, and watched her star-children hungrily devouring the candlelight. The Wolf came to her side, and she scratched his head, then picked up once more the book with golden pages, and found that she could now turn to the second leaf.

She read: "'The boy with the scarred face will attend to the garden of the Sun and Moon.'"

"Yes," she said to herself. "This is most timely, for I am certain the sunflowers need watered, and the moonblooms pruned, while the weeds need weeded and the trees talked to." She looked at the boy. "Are you still here? You had better hurry up if you want to have the gardening done before the Sun returns, and you certainly don't want to be there after dark."

The boy quickly left the feasting hall, followed from a distance by a number of mischievous-looking stars, who were most unhelpful when asked for directions. The boy began to look through the rooms of the palace again, searching for any hint as to the location of the Garden. Soon he realised that certain rooms, like the cow room, and the Moon's feasting hall, were in the wing of the palace made from black stone, and others, like the trophy room, were in the red half. Then some, like the throne room, were half red, half black. Unless I am mistaken, he thought. The red half belongs to the Sun, the black to the Moon. Since the Garden belongs to them both, it must be in the centre. So he passed through a room where molten gold flowed through endless pipes, and a corridor strewn with broken idols, to the place where the two halves met, and there was a staircase made from chequered wood, pale pine and dark walnut. He followed the alternating steps upwards, and came to the garden.

It was filled with many flowers, red, orange, yellow, black, blue, purple, with long grasses and thin trees, with crystal waterfalls, and sundials and moondials and tiny fish that flitted from tree to tree, plopping into birdbaths every now and then to breathe. Over it all was a glass roof, that magnified the Sun's warm light, so that the garden was hotter than the scar-faced boy's village in summer. He stripped off his furs, and splashed water on himself from the streams. He was very thirsty, but he resisted the urge to drink. By the water was a vase, and he guessed he was to use it to water the flowers. He decided he had better pull out the weeds first, so that he did not accidentally water them too.

"But which are the weeds?" He asked himself out loud, because he knew nothing about gardening. The stars, who had followed him, tittered hysterically.

"The weeds," replied a voice. "Are the flowers which the fish do not touch. "

"Thankyou," said the boy. "But who said that?"

"He did." Said another voice.

"Who is he?" Asked the boy.

"He is a tree," said a third tree.

"Oh," said the boy. "I see. The Moon did say that I needed to talk to you."

"That's nice," said a tree. "It's been a while since anyone talked to us. Did she tell you what you should talk to us about?"

"No, she didn't. What do they normally talk to you about?"

"We can't remember."

"Well, perhaps I should tell you to grow big and strong, and to be beautiful and symmetrical."

"Why don't you tell us a story."

The boy thought for a moment, and began to tell them some of the stories that had been told in his village, some from the harvest-time festivals, some by his foster mother, some the shaman had told the whole village. When he had run out of stories to tell he told them how he had come to be in the Palace of the Sun and Moon, and the trees listened intently, and occasionally asked questions, or made comments, or laughed at a clever turn of phrase or one of the voices he put on to represent the different characters. All the while he walked through the garden pulling out the weeds, which he soon recognised, for the little fish scrupulously avoided them. When he had finished, and the weeds lay in a pile in the rockery, his hands were sore, he was sweating from the heat, and his mouth was so dry that he felt he could no longer speak. The trees realised this, and troubled him no further.

Next he filled the vase with water from a stream, and watered all the blooms that were left, trying not to think of the cool liquid pouring down his throat... By the time it was done, the Sun was starting to set, and he realised that he had yet to trim the moonblooms, and that he didn't have any idea what they were. He wandered along a pathway, and was thankful that it was starting to get cooler as the day neared its end. Then he saw a bed of flowers, deep purple. While all the other blossoms were beginning to close, these were starting to open. Perhaps they are moonblooms, he thought. Walking up to them, he saw a small, silver sickle on a smooth rock nearby, and picked it up. Each of the flowers, he noticed, had one head, and three large leaves, but a few had other buds growing out of their stalks. With the sickle, he cut off these buds, and made every one of the flowers identical.

Finally, his work was done, and the blooms pruned. As he left the garden, walking along the path, he realised that the Sun had finally set, and the garden was growing dark. The fish fluttered anxiously to their little nests in the stream, and the trees snored quietly. The flowerheads closed. It was now too dark to see the path, and from the furthest edge of the garden, the boy heard a blood-chilling shriek. He was afraid. The shrieking sound came closer, and the boy cast about for a weapon, fearing he would have to break the Wolf's command. Then he heard from close by a pitiful little moan, and looked round to see a star, cowering in the petals of a flower nearby. Quickly, he put his hands round the flower, and shook the stem so that the tiny spirit fell into his grasp. It struggled a little, and stung and bit his hands, burned them with tiny spits of heat, but the radiance it let out was great, even through his fingers. Crouching low, he could make out the path, and he raced along it as fast as his aching, tired legs could carry him. The shrieking followed, but though it gained on him steadily, he was through the garden gate, and safe, before he saw the creature that caused it.

He let the star go, and it blew him a raspberry before floating off to join its siblings in the night sky.

6 The Sun and the Last Task

The boy with one eye found himself alone in the palace. It was dark now, lit only by a few candles set on the walls. He walked down the steps from the garden, and found his way back to the throne room. The Wolf waited at the door.

"You have done well, boy," said the White Wolf. "But I must leave you now. I think I have repaid my debt, and I am not welcome in the Palace when the Sun is in attendance. He is no friend of mine."

"You have been very kind to me," said the boy. "I wish I could give you a gift."

"You already have," said the Wolf cryptically. "Now go into the throne-room, and remember the instructions I gave you. Your body will feel pain, and hunger and thirst, but if you do as I have told you the chief's daughter will be yours."

Then the Wolf, who had looked like a man, was a wolf once more, and he slipped through the gates, and out of the courtyard, into the world beyond. The boy went into the throne-room, and saw the Sun on his dais, made from red-veined marble. His golden cat was curled by his feet, a beautiful beast with amber eyes that watched the boy furtively, half-closed.

"You have completed the first two tasks," said the Sun. "Will you attempt the third?"

"Yes," said the boy. "I would do anything for my love."

The Sun lifted the book from the Moon's throne, and thumbed through it to the third golden page. He read: "'The boy with one eye will kill the creature that waits in the courtyard.'"

The boy nodded, but the Sun was no longer paying him any attention. Instead he scratched his cat's throat, while she purred noisily. The scarred boy left the room, frightened, and walked to the courtyard.

The fountain was no longer running, and seated upon its edge was a man twice the height of the boy, with silvered skin like the scales of a fish, and long hair and beard like spun gold. Before him were four weapons- two long spears, and two short clubs. When he saw the boy, the man picked a spear, and ran at him. The boy dodged, and fled as swiftly as he could, the man followed, chasing with whoops and yells. The gate at the end of the courtyard was locked, and between the boy and the door into the palace was the man-monster. This is ridiculous, said the boy to himself. I cannot run forever, but how can I kill this terror? I cannot use the weapons. Then he thought of the girl, and he resolved to complete the task. The man swung his spear back and forth, forcing the boy back, until he was against the wall, in the shadow cast by the moon. Then, when the man came close enough, he lunged, and tripped the creature, and wrestled furiously with him as he had wrestled bears and raiders. At close quarters the spear was useless, and the boy was surprised to realise that victory was within his grasp- he had his opponent in a chokehold, and his resistance was growing weaker by the minute. Then they rolled out of the shadows, and immediately the man threw him off, and began to run for another weapon.

The boy tackled him again, tripping his slower foe, but each time he was thrown off, taking painful bruises and cuts from the monster's claws. Then he thought: How is it that before I beat him so easily, but now I cannot hurt him? Then he realised: When we were in the shadows, he was weak, but as soon as the moonlight touched him, he became strong! I have to get him out of the light for good, and then I will kill him. As the man picked up his second weapon, one of the clubs, the boy ran around him, and headed for the door into the palace. The man followed, and though the boy slowed every so often to let him catch up, the club was too short to hit him. Then when they were inside the palace, the boy slammed the door, and the moonlight was cut off. He took his enemy, and killed him easily, as he had killed animals and the enemies of his tribe before. Bruised and cut, he dragged the body of the man into the throne room, and tossed it before the Sun.

The god looked down at the body, and his pet sniffed it daintily.

"You have done what I asked," said the Sun. "And you will have your reward. But do you wish no food, no drink, before you leave?"

"No, thankyou."

"Then return to your village and wed the girl."

"If I return, your lordship, how will the people know that I have won her? I have been gone only two days."

The Sun stood, and walked over to a chest, and from it took a necklace. Six gems, garnets, like tiny drops of blood, were strung together by a silk thread. Each gem was a different size, the first tiny, the last five times its size. He handed it to the scar-faced boy, watching him carefully for the first time.

"Take this to your people as a sign. You have earned it. And my mark will be gone from the girl's thigh. Take it. Go."

The boy took the necklace, and tied it around his neck.



	the sun, the moon, the wolves and the lovers
	the sun, the moon, the wolves and the lovers		2001
	1 2 3
	4 The Moon and the First Task At that moment, the door to the great hall opened, and the Moon entered, with a great pale owl on her shoulders and a swarm of stars attending her train. She strode past the boy, and sat at once on her throne, with a nod to the Sun as she passed him. The Moon Wolf scurried to her like a dog, and kneeled by her pedestal. She turned her head, as if to speak to the Sun, but he stood quickly, saying, "Morning comes." As he passed the boy, he pressed something into his hands, and then was gone. The boy remembered the Wolf's words, however, and did not take what he was given, and let it fall to the ground, a small book made of three sheets of paper-thin gold. "What is that?" Asked the Moon quickly. "Bring it to me, human." The boy did as he was told, and picked the book up, and took it to the Moon. Carefully, she tried to turn its pages, but they would not part. Frustrated, she instead read the first page aloud "'The boy whose face is scarred will prepare a feast for the Moon and her retinue.'" The boy was aware of the owl, the Wolf and the goddess looking at him. "Good." Said the Moon. "It has been a long night and we are most hungry. It will be in the feast hall within the hour." The stars all began to get very excited, and the boy became confused and frightened. "I suggest you get to the kitchens,” said the Moon coldly. "There are seven hundred stars, an owl, a wolf and myself to feed." The boy quickly left to find the kitchens. He did not know where they could be. First he ascended a huge staircase, of more than six hundred steps, carved from coral, then walked through a huge trophy room, stacked with the bones of dead monsters. In every room he passed he peeked through the doors, but found no kitchen. He saw a balcony made of glass, and a deep pool of milk constantly refilled by an army of blue cows. In one room were thirteen hourglasses, each one saying 'One hour until the feast' on it in a delicate hand, each one with half the sand gone. The boy's legs ached, and he was starting to get hungry himself. Even if I find the kitchens, he thought. I will still have to find the feast hall, not to mention cook for all those hundreds of stars. Eventually he was too tired to walk anymore, and so he sat down at the foot of another great staircase, that led up to the top of an ivory tower. When he was recovering his breath, the Moon's Wolf appeared. "Have you not cooked the feast yet?" He asked. "No," said the boy sadly. "I have not even found the kitchens." "The kitchens are through the door to your left," said the Wolf. The boy opened the door to his left, and there were the kitchens. "You had better cook swiftly," said the Wolf. "The stars are already gathering in the feast hall." And he left. The boy was worried, but he resolved to do his best. He found a door leading to the pantry, and saw that in it there were only a few loaves of old bread, a beaker labelled 'nightshade' and a great many candles. So he took the loaves of bread, dipped them in the nightshade, and scattered crumbs from them at the kitchen door. After he did this, he noticed that there was one loaf left, and that it was not stale, but golden brown and delicious. He was so hungry. He left it. Next, he took a stack of bowls from one of the tables in the room, and a rope, and retraced his steps to the room filled with blue cows. He filled the bowls with milk, and led one of the cows back to the kitchen with the rope, before strangling it. He skinned it swiftly, and then bled it into another bowl, then put the carcass onto a great platter. He counted out seven hundred candles, and lit them from the fire below the great cauldron, and set them on their own small plates. With a knife, he cut his own arm, and let a little of the blood pour into the bowl with the cow's, and then bound the wound carefully with cloth. Lastly, he returned to his breadcrumbs, and found an extended family of plump mice lying dead around the leftovers, and piled them onto a plate also. Then the Wolf returned. "Have you not cooked the food yet?" He asked. "The hour is all but over, and my Mistress is getting impatient." "I have finished your meals. Will you lead me to the feast hall?" The wolf agreed, and helped the boy carry the plates and bowls, to the huge feast hall of the Moon, where She waited on a chair of silver at the head of a table with nearly a thousand seats. "You are a little late," she sniffed. The boy set the bowls of milk down the middle of the tables, and before every star he set a candle, and before the Owl a bowl of dead mice. For the Moon there was a deep bowl of blood, and the wolf was given a skinned cow, and a bowl of blue-tinted milk. "This is a rare pleasure," said the Moon eventually. "It is not often I am given such fine, warm cow's blood, seasoned with the blood of a fine young man, if I am not mistaken. You have done well, boy." The scar-faced boy smiled, and bowed. "Will you not eat something yourself? No doubt you are very hungry." The boy shook his head, and the Wolf smiled. 5 The Second Task Eventually the Moon pushed the bowl away from her, leaving the dregs of clotted blood at the bottom. She burped once, but covered her mouth in a lady-like manner, and watched her star-children hungrily devouring the candlelight. The Wolf came to her side, and she scratched his head, then picked up once more the book with golden pages, and found that she could now turn to the second leaf. She read: "'The boy with the scarred face will attend to the garden of the Sun and Moon.'" "Yes," she said to herself. "This is most timely, for I am certain the sunflowers need watered, and the moonblooms pruned, while the weeds need weeded and the trees talked to." She looked at the boy. "Are you still here? You had better hurry up if you want to have the gardening done before the Sun returns, and you certainly don't want to be there after dark." The boy quickly left the feasting hall, followed from a distance by a number of mischievous-looking stars, who were most unhelpful when asked for directions. The boy began to look through the rooms of the palace again, searching for any hint as to the location of the Garden. Soon he realised that certain rooms, like the cow room, and the Moon's feasting hall, were in the wing of the palace made from black stone, and others, like the trophy room, were in the red half. Then some, like the throne room, were half red, half black. Unless I am mistaken, he thought. The red half belongs to the Sun, the black to the Moon. Since the Garden belongs to them both, it must be in the centre. So he passed through a room where molten gold flowed through endless pipes, and a corridor strewn with broken idols, to the place where the two halves met, and there was a staircase made from chequered wood, pale pine and dark walnut. He followed the alternating steps upwards, and came to the garden. It was filled with many flowers, red, orange, yellow, black, blue, purple, with long grasses and thin trees, with crystal waterfalls, and sundials and moondials and tiny fish that flitted from tree to tree, plopping into birdbaths every now and then to breathe. Over it all was a glass roof, that magnified the Sun's warm light, so that the garden was hotter than the scar-faced boy's village in summer. He stripped off his furs, and splashed water on himself from the streams. He was very thirsty, but he resisted the urge to drink. By the water was a vase, and he guessed he was to use it to water the flowers. He decided he had better pull out the weeds first, so that he did not accidentally water them too. "But which are the weeds?" He asked himself out loud, because he knew nothing about gardening. The stars, who had followed him, tittered hysterically. "The weeds," replied a voice. "Are the flowers which the fish do not touch. " "Thankyou," said the boy. "But who said that?" "He did." Said another voice. "Who is he?" Asked the boy. "He is a tree," said a third tree. "Oh," said the boy. "I see. The Moon did say that I needed to talk to you." "That's nice," said a tree. "It's been a while since anyone talked to us. Did she tell you what you should talk to us about?" "No, she didn't. What do they normally talk to you about?" "We can't remember." "Well, perhaps I should tell you to grow big and strong, and to be beautiful and symmetrical." "Why don't you tell us a story." The boy thought for a moment, and began to tell them some of the stories that had been told in his village, some from the harvest-time festivals, some by his foster mother, some the shaman had told the whole village. When he had run out of stories to tell he told them how he had come to be in the Palace of the Sun and Moon, and the trees listened intently, and occasionally asked questions, or made comments, or laughed at a clever turn of phrase or one of the voices he put on to represent the different characters. All the while he walked through the garden pulling out the weeds, which he soon recognised, for the little fish scrupulously avoided them. When he had finished, and the weeds lay in a pile in the rockery, his hands were sore, he was sweating from the heat, and his mouth was so dry that he felt he could no longer speak. The trees realised this, and troubled him no further. Next he filled the vase with water from a stream, and watered all the blooms that were left, trying not to think of the cool liquid pouring down his throat... By the time it was done, the Sun was starting to set, and he realised that he had yet to trim the moonblooms, and that he didn't have any idea what they were. He wandered along a pathway, and was thankful that it was starting to get cooler as the day neared its end. Then he saw a bed of flowers, deep purple. While all the other blossoms were beginning to close, these were starting to open. Perhaps they are moonblooms, he thought. Walking up to them, he saw a small, silver sickle on a smooth rock nearby, and picked it up. Each of the flowers, he noticed, had one head, and three large leaves, but a few had other buds growing out of their stalks. With the sickle, he cut off these buds, and made every one of the flowers identical. Finally, his work was done, and the blooms pruned. As he left the garden, walking along the path, he realised that the Sun had finally set, and the garden was growing dark. The fish fluttered anxiously to their little nests in the stream, and the trees snored quietly. The flowerheads closed. It was now too dark to see the path, and from the furthest edge of the garden, the boy heard a blood-chilling shriek. He was afraid. The shrieking sound came closer, and the boy cast about for a weapon, fearing he would have to break the Wolf's command. Then he heard from close by a pitiful little moan, and looked round to see a star, cowering in the petals of a flower nearby. Quickly, he put his hands round the flower, and shook the stem so that the tiny spirit fell into his grasp. It struggled a little, and stung and bit his hands, burned them with tiny spits of heat, but the radiance it let out was great, even through his fingers. Crouching low, he could make out the path, and he raced along it as fast as his aching, tired legs could carry him. The shrieking followed, but though it gained on him steadily, he was through the garden gate, and safe, before he saw the creature that caused it. He let the star go, and it blew him a raspberry before floating off to join its siblings in the night sky. 6 The Sun and the Last Task The boy with one eye found himself alone in the palace. It was dark now, lit only by a few candles set on the walls. He walked down the steps from the garden, and found his way back to the throne room. The Wolf waited at the door. "You have done well, boy," said the White Wolf. "But I must leave you now. I think I have repaid my debt, and I am not welcome in the Palace when the Sun is in attendance. He is no friend of mine." "You have been very kind to me," said the boy. "I wish I could give you a gift." "You already have," said the Wolf cryptically. "Now go into the throne-room, and remember the instructions I gave you. Your body will feel pain, and hunger and thirst, but if you do as I have told you the chief's daughter will be yours." Then the Wolf, who had looked like a man, was a wolf once more, and he slipped through the gates, and out of the courtyard, into the world beyond. The boy went into the throne-room, and saw the Sun on his dais, made from red-veined marble. His golden cat was curled by his feet, a beautiful beast with amber eyes that watched the boy furtively, half-closed. "You have completed the first two tasks," said the Sun. "Will you attempt the third?" "Yes," said the boy. "I would do anything for my love." The Sun lifted the book from the Moon's throne, and thumbed through it to the third golden page. He read: "'The boy with one eye will kill the creature that waits in the courtyard.'" The boy nodded, but the Sun was no longer paying him any attention. Instead he scratched his cat's throat, while she purred noisily. The scarred boy left the room, frightened, and walked to the courtyard. The fountain was no longer running, and seated upon its edge was a man twice the height of the boy, with silvered skin like the scales of a fish, and long hair and beard like spun gold. Before him were four weapons- two long spears, and two short clubs. When he saw the boy, the man picked a spear, and ran at him. The boy dodged, and fled as swiftly as he could, the man followed, chasing with whoops and yells. The gate at the end of the courtyard was locked, and between the boy and the door into the palace was the man-monster. This is ridiculous, said the boy to himself. I cannot run forever, but how can I kill this terror? I cannot use the weapons. Then he thought of the girl, and he resolved to complete the task. The man swung his spear back and forth, forcing the boy back, until he was against the wall, in the shadow cast by the moon. Then, when the man came close enough, he lunged, and tripped the creature, and wrestled furiously with him as he had wrestled bears and raiders. At close quarters the spear was useless, and the boy was surprised to realise that victory was within his grasp- he had his opponent in a chokehold, and his resistance was growing weaker by the minute. Then they rolled out of the shadows, and immediately the man threw him off, and began to run for another weapon. The boy tackled him again, tripping his slower foe, but each time he was thrown off, taking painful bruises and cuts from the monster's claws. Then he thought: How is it that before I beat him so easily, but now I cannot hurt him? Then he realised: When we were in the shadows, he was weak, but as soon as the moonlight touched him, he became strong! I have to get him out of the light for good, and then I will kill him. As the man picked up his second weapon, one of the clubs, the boy ran around him, and headed for the door into the palace. The man followed, and though the boy slowed every so often to let him catch up, the club was too short to hit him. Then when they were inside the palace, the boy slammed the door, and the moonlight was cut off. He took his enemy, and killed him easily, as he had killed animals and the enemies of his tribe before. Bruised and cut, he dragged the body of the man into the throne room, and tossed it before the Sun. The god looked down at the body, and his pet sniffed it daintily. "You have done what I asked," said the Sun. "And you will have your reward. But do you wish no food, no drink, before you leave?" "No, thankyou." "Then return to your village and wed the girl." "If I return, your lordship, how will the people know that I have won her? I have been gone only two days." The Sun stood, and walked over to a chest, and from it took a necklace. Six gems, garnets, like tiny drops of blood, were strung together by a silk thread. Each gem was a different size, the first tiny, the last five times its size. He handed it to the scar-faced boy, watching him carefully for the first time. "Take this to your people as a sign. You have earned it. And my mark will be gone from the girl's thigh. Take it. Go." The boy took the necklace, and tied it around his neck.

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