Lighting up the sky

By: Kailee E. Earwood

Once upon a time, there was a place called the Great Forest. The Great Forest was a place that has never been discovered by humans, which is one of the reasons that it is beautiful. It is full of animals of all different types and some no human has discovered. Nothing in the Great Forest is normal. Like on how in the very center of the forest, there was a lake of water so blue, it looked like the sky, only with a darker tint of blue. The unusual thing about it, is that it is in the shape of a perfect semi circle. Animals always drank from the lovely water.

One night, something weird happened. A few animals were going for a midnight drink when they saw it. Even though it was the middle of spring, the lake was iced over, but it was not any normal ice. The ice had reflected the black color from the night. In the middle of the lake, staring up at the crescent moon, was what looked like a human, if the animals had ever seen one. “Who are you,”howler the majestic wolf, her silvery fur rippling, demanded, “and what have you done to our lake?!”

The creature turned around. He was wearing a indigo color cloak with a gold rim. He was holding a big stick that had a band near the top with some strangely colored feathers hanging from the band. At the very top of the staff, where it bent to look like it was trying to form a circle, there was a crescent moon in the gap. The hood he was wearing was very round and went up to his face in a perfectly round circle-ish way and bent about half-way up to his face. Covering his face(if he even has one) was a matching white crescent with a hole in it for his eye. “I have done nothing to your lake”, he replied softly.

“Then who are you and where did you come from”, growled the Great Bear in a voice that sounded like thunder.

“You know who I am”, said the creature.

Lightning the bald eagle sighed, her brown and white feathers glimmering in the moonlight, “No, I’m afraid. No we do not.”

The strange creature nodded up towards the moon. Prowler the black panther hissed from on his perch on a tree, then leaped down, still hissing.

“I am the moon and I need your help. But I prefer you just call me Lunar”, the creature said.

“Lunar” lifted up his staff and slammed it on the surface. The animals watched in amazement as the surface, starting with the spot that Lunar stood, added lots of white circles connected by white lines, like a drop of water landing on the surface, rolling small waves.

Lunar then lifted his wand up and tilted it a little. Two light blue colored lines popped out of the top of the wand and started twirling around each other until they formed a small circle, not as small as the ones on the surface, but not that big. One of the lines formed an ordinary circle while the other one went around the first one but was curving around it like a sound wave(as if the animals know what a sound wave is).

“I am not as bright as the sun. I need help lighting up the sky.” Lunar said. “You do not get that much light from me. Especially when my back is to you.”

Then four animals appeared below the image of the moon, all of them connected by stars: and oxen, a bear, a wolf, and an eagle.

The animals exchanged glances, nodded, then looked back at Lunar. “Ok. We will help you all that we can.”

“But how do we help you?” Ocotillo the oxen asked.

“Try it and you will see”, said Lunar.

The Great Bear looked to the others, he hesitated, then began walking on the ice. Soon, he reached one of the white circles. He looked down at the circle, with

Mrs. Campbell’s 4th Grade enjoy a visit from PHS Cheerleaders. one paw lifted, looked back at the others for confirmation, then he looked down at the circle again, and cautiously placed his paw on it, then lifted his head royaly. He then rose up into the sky, formed a pose, that included his left-front paw in front of him, his rear right leg stretched out behind him, and his head held high. Surprisingly, he turned a navy colored blue, and his main-like neck fur turned a lighter shade of blue. His body then turned into stars.

One by one, the rest of the animals stepped onto a circle and rose into the night, forming constellations. First the Great Bear, then Lightning, then Howler, then Ocotillo, and finally Prowler.

While this was happening, a young fox named Ezmia was watching a clearing as it was buzzing full of cyan colored glowing things, unaware of the strange events that were going on. She then found one leading off from the clearing and decided to follow it. She jumped over a log and came into view of the lake. She turned and was just about to run that way she could get closer to the lake and almost ran right into a gray wolf, where she opened her eyes wide with fear and her ears flat. The wolf only glanced at her, then went back to watching. The fox went around the wolf and stopped on the edge of the lake. Different types of animals had already turned into constellations, and she watched as the last animal, Leo the Lion, became a constellation. But before Leo became a constellation, he looked back at Ezmia and smiled warmly, as he always did, then touched the last circle and turned into a constellation.

The fox then jumped onto the ice and jumped around batting her paws at the circles. She slipped and started spinning around in circles on her belly until she came to a stop just behind Lunar. She planned on getting back up, but then gave up when she pawed softly at the closest circle and nothing happened.

Lunar, noticing Ezmia, asked softly, “what is wrong little fox?”

Ezmia looked up with a solemn expression on her face when she noticed she was being spoken to. “I tried so hard. I just want to be a star like everyone else. ”she muttered sadly, then drooped her head again.

“Oh, little fox,who ever said you can only be a star?” Lunar asked.

The fox, not looking up, said, “All the other animals get to be something special but I never get involved in anything because I’m just a dumb fox.” Lunar saw tiny tears form at the sides of her eyes even though he noticed how much she was trying to keep them from showing.

“Look behind you”, Lunar responded, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Ezmia, doing what she was told, stood up and looked behind her and noticed that there were no longer the white circles and lines, instead, all she saw was a circle that was glowing a nice, green light. She walked over to it and looked down at it, sticking one of her white paws in and out of it. She stuck his paw in further and realized that it made her red fur a snow white color. She took one step in, then two, and watched amazingly as her red-orange fur turned snow white. She then put his whole body in the circle and all her fur turned snow white. Her tail started glowing the same green the circle was glowing. Then she lifted into the air, and she looked down at the ground, her expression went from confused to excited as she realized she was flying and looked back at Lunar. Ezmia could have sworn that she saw a smile on Lunar’s face, but just after Ezmia smiled back, there was a bright flash and Lunar was gone.

The young fox began to run in the sky, her tail leaving behind a trail that, today, we call, the northern lights.

The End