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The gods, many would argue, were gracious and benevolent beings. With celestial forms of pure stardust and burning fire, they were unlike the world had ever seen. Beautiful beyond compare, traveling across the heavens to bring splendors and spoils to the people below, they brought light to the darkness and darkness to the light.
After all, there could be no sun without a moon.
Out of the two, the Sun always had been the most well-known. Not many people gazed upon her face but they all lived and thrived under the light that she gave. Under her watch, plants reached for the sky with uncurling leaves and opening petals.
She brought new beginnings and new life, giving energy to all around her and inspiring. When she glowed the brightest, people would flock outside to spend time with her. They shared their smiles with her and partook in countless activities.
The Sun loved her people, and they loved her in turn. Children wished she could stay up forever, allowing them to play. Others believed she shined forever once the never-ending march of death caught up to them, sending them to her domain.
However, her fellow goddess had fewer people admiring her despite being in the sky for much longer hours.
The Moon brought with her darkness when she took over for the Sun, overtaking the land. In her wake, the Sun’s people and creatures would fall drowsy from their excursions of the day, allowing the Moon to help them follow the other goddess into the dream world.
She closed things in the world by ending the day, beckoning those at the end of their life with open arms and kind smiles, allowing the chained to run free. Powerful and divine, she did not move the living and instead the rivers and mountains, letting them flow and grow.
With her, she brought peace and serenity, though not without her own brand of mischief. Perhaps by her own back and forth with the Sun, the Moon always terrified her subjects through things that go bump in the night. Her own trickery made many people terrified of stepping into her shadow-filled dominion of the world.
Though never did the Sun ever mark her for this behavior. In fact, the benevolent and pure figure she always presented herself has actually liked the performance of her counterpart. It had been said that she would laugh to herself when the Moon would ascend to her place in the sky and whisper in her ear.
The two of them rarely met, though always had been in the sky together, hanging as the Moon watched the other perform her daily activities at the people below. Together, they would talk idly, both wanting to get closer to one another, but fate never allowed them to.
Over time, it became rare to look into the daytime sky without seeing a crescent shape floating in the void of blue. Even when the Sun dipped below the horizon to carry her subjects with her, the Moon still glowed from her light, following in her suit and paving the path for the creatures of the night.
There were times though, on rare occasions, would the Sun and Moon finally see each other. Once every three months, the Moon would rise up once more, now able to pass through the celestial barrier that kept the two apart.
A reunion that would blind the many, but a spectacle for those who could see. She would bar the people’s view from the Sun, having the daytime sky turn into a beautiful clash between the brightness and the dark.
Bittersweet, she only ever had a few minutes with her dearly beloved goddess. With whispered words, kisses against bare knuckles, and breaths against lips, the two would share their reunion.
After hanging in the sky, suspended without even touching for so long, the wait was all the sweeter when they finally embraced each other again. The Sun would hold the Moon in her loving embrace, the fires of her form spreading around the cold rock. One day, maybe the strands of flame would keep the Moon from being dragged away once more.
One day, she waited for them to lock the world in that eternal eclipse.
Though it had never been meant to be. Celestial forces carried the Moon away once more, and they held each other’s hands until they let go with fingertips. Each hug and kiss had been cherished, relics that they would keep with them until their next meeting.
They always made promises to one another; that they would return and be able to hold each other one more time. The Moon had always been the more overbearing of the two, trying to fill the gap between them as much as possible.
Perhaps if she ascended into the sky with the Sun, then they would be able to experience another solar eclipse.
The world only knew these solar eclipses, as the Moon never lost the Sun’s light on her. Either pale blue in the sky with her lover or yellow in the night.
That was why it came as a surprise when the world experienced its first lunar eclipse.
Much like the thousands of years preceding the unforetold event, the Sun had set beneath the horizon to rest her eyes and her mind from the day before. Though when the Moon returned to her position once more to oversee the night, she brought no light with her.
The creatures of the night stared in awe at the spectacle, their paths now darker than the inky sky above, in which only stars shined. Only a few with the best of eyes could see a dark blot in the sky, only where the Moon could have been sitting.
No one knew why this had been the cause, not even the Moon herself. She could no longer feel that watching eye on her and she called across the darkened land for the Sun. The trees whispered and the lakes rippled.
The Sun did not rise when morning came around. Nor did she when the clock ticked to the afternoon and never set when it finally reached evening.
All throughout the day of no light, the blackened Moon sat in the sky, worry beseeching her. She could not find the Sun, there hadn’t been any sign of her and she could do nothing but wait. The dream world had become emptied with those leaving, now finding that when they needed to return for rest, they could no longer do so.
This fueled the Moon’s hysteria and she cried out to the stars. The land became colder without the guiding warmth and the people’s own fears were getting the better of them.
The Moon did what she could to salvage the world she had looked after for so long but it had all been in vain. After the day-long night, the dark circle in the sky vanished as well.
Just like the Sun, the Moon had joined her in the realm of nonexistence. All without reason, they had simply vanished.
After all, there could be no moon without a sun.
Or that is believed.