The Timeline of Tauber - The Great Moonstone Bloom - 668

Luna laughed as she watched Florian cavorting with the other children. He was small for his age but all the cuter for it. The short curls of his blonde hair bounced with his movements. His mouth was a grin of pure joy worn only by the innocent.

“Treasure it whilst you’ve got it.”

Luna glanced sideways into the wizened face of Elder Tuckett. The matriarchal leader of the village of Effloro was tapping her feet in time to the tune, her smile wrinkling her face to the point where her eyes were barely visible as she watched the young ones enact their carefree dances.

“I intend to,” said Luna.

She glanced about the village green. The day was drawing to a close with the setting sun. A day for celebrating the Time of Young Shoots and all the new beginnings it promised. Trestle tables that had once bowed beneath the weight of food now lay mostly bare, littered with the scant detritus of leftovers and receptacles. The formerly mighty fire was guttering out, the remains of the hog that had been roasted above it dripping fat to spit and pop amongst the embers

The great trough that had hosted the apple bobbing lay abandoned, devoid of the fruit that had drawn people to it. Ring toss. Stone throwing. All had seen activity during the daylight hours but were now retired. Indeed, aside from the youngsters dancing to the motley collection of musicians striving to put together a tune within the chaos of their mismatched instruments, only a few keen and slightly inebriated men were active, pulling at either end of the thick tug-of-war rope for what little kudos it would bring amongst them.

“All over for another year,” Luna sighed.

“You youngsters,” Elder Tuckett laughed, “always wishing away your lives. It’s a whole year until the Time of Young Shoots comes again. Make the most of the time in between.”

“Oh, I will,” Luna assured her. “I just meant that this time of year is the one I look forward to the most.”

Elder Tuckett shook her head. “It’s easy to think like that when you’re young. When you’re as old as I am, you treasure every day. Will I even see next Young Shoots? Will I live beyond the end of Fineblossom? I don’t know the answers any more than you do and so I treasure every day. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t do the same.”

Luna frowned. “In what way am I not treasuring it?”

The elder nodded towards the dancing children.

“You’re still a child yourself,” she pointed out. “Just because your parents passed and you’re looking after your brother doesn’t mean you have to forego your own childhood.”

Luna felt a sudden lump in her throat and didn’t trust herself to speak. She’d almost managed to put that tragedy from her mind. Today had been a rare moment of peace.

“I’m sorry,” said Elder Tuckett, placing a kindly hand on Luna’s crossed arms, “but it needed saying. You don’t have to be your parents. You don’t even have to be what you think your parents would want you to be. You’re not an adult, no matter what life has thrown your way.”

“What should I do?” Luna managed, her voice hoarse with the effort of keeping it even.

Elder Tuckett shrugged. “Whatever you want to do. It’s your life. But you could start by dancing with your brother.”

Luna glanced about her. Only the children were dancing. The adults were looking on as they chatted in small groups.

“You’re a child,” Elder Tuckett reminded her. “And even if you weren’t, there’s no law that says you can’t dance. I’d be up there with them if my old bones would allow it, let me tell you.”

Luna managed a small smile, all too easily imagining the old woman joining in with a jig of her own. “Maybe another time.”

“Suit yourself but please think on my advice. Every opportunity you pass up is one less until you don’t have that choice any more.”

Luna nodded. “I will,” she promised.

The evening wore on. One by one the musicians retired. The children drifted away to their respective guardians and to bed, leaving the remaining adults to complete such tidying of the green as their waning enthusiasm could sustain. Only when Florian was snoring peacefully and she herself was abed did Luna give herself time to reflect.

Elder Tuckett’s words had marred what had remained of her evening and she resented the older woman for it. She knew her parents were gone. For the briefest moment she had managed to push the fact from the forefront of her mind. Not exactly forgotten - she didn’t think that would ever happen - but certainly less prominent in her thoughts. And all it had taken was the briefest mention to pull the memory right back into focus.

The tears she had suppressed at the festival sprang unbidden into her eyes and she sobbed gently, wanting to wail in her grief but unwilling to risk waking her younger brother. It shouldn’t have been like this. Her mother and father should still have been there. The four of them a family with a whole future ahead of them. She had been robbed of a strong father and a loving mother and been compelled to pick up both roles in their absence.

She rolled over, adopting a foetal position for comfort as she gazed out of the window. The woodlands that bordered Effloro were a darker silhouette in the blackness. Above them, the moon hung huge and full and bright amidst the stars in a cloudless sky. Its haunting light was strangely comforting; a focus of hope in the otherwise bleak firmament.

Slowly she uncurled, pushing herself to her knees to better take in the spectacle nature was providing. Treasure the moments, Elder Tuckett had said. Well, she had to start somewhere.

Luna reached her sill and gazed out at the heavens, at that magnificent orb in a sea of stars. Stars above. Stars below. She shook her head and rubbed her her eyes, unsure of what she was seeing.

It was as if the village green was a still ocean; a perfect, natural mirror reflecting the sky. There was no moon there but a multitude of fallen stars stretched across the grassy expanse.

Luna had heard the rumours. The whole village had. Moonstones, they’d been dubbed. Crystalline growths that bloomed with the moon and vanished with the sun. A settlement a couple of villages over had claimed to have seen them but Luna hadn’t given much credence to the story.

And why would she? The whole concept was ludicrous! Stones that grew from nothing? No seed? No substance from which they could bloom? No logic as to how they could be? Nothing. A trick of the night, surely, conjured by tired minds. That’s what she’d told herself and yet there they were, laid out before her, refusing to disappear no matter how much she blinked or rubbed at her eyes.

There was a shout from elsewhere in the village, a joyous cry. Then another. Others had noticed the strange phenomena now. They were coming out of their houses, some still dressed from the festivities whilst others were in their nightclothes, wandering up to the field of glowing stones, their gentle radiance bathing the villagers in moonlight.

Luna’s first instinct was to join them, to be close to the ethereal objects and admire their beauty. Then she checked herself. Florian was abed and sound asleep. She couldn’t just leave him. She had responsibilities. To him. To his wellbeing.

Elder Tuckett’s wisdom washed over her. What was Florian’s wellbeing about, after all? Eat now. Play now. Go to bed now. Follow the rules at all costs. Only have fun at designated times no matter the circumstances. That didn’t sound right. That didn’t sound like seizing the moments when they were presented, as the elder had advised.

What was worth more, Florian getting a full night’s sleep or exposing him to this night of magic that might never be repeated again in his lifetime? Put like that, there didn’t seem to be a decision that needed to be made.

She crept into Florian’s bedroom, not wanting to startle her brother awake, and shook him gently. Florian rolled over, twisting in his bedsheets and rubbing his eyes blearily.

“Is it morning already?” he asked in a groggy voice.

“No,” Luna confessed, “but do you want to see something magical?”

The excitement and mischievousness in his sister’s voice appeared to spark something in Florian and he sat up sharply, eyes suddenly wide.

“Yes,” he whispered.

In that moment, Luna was transported back to when they were younger, when their parents had still been around, and they had cooked up trouble together. She missed those times but clearly they could still be recreated, if only she would make it so.

“Follow me,” she whispered in reply.

Both still in their nightclothes, Luna led her younger brother from the house, holding his hand tight and giving it a reassuring squeeze. She felt him stiffen when he saw the green and then gasp and she relived seeing the moonstones for the first time through his eyes and cherished the experience. She tore her eyes from the sea of glowing stones to glance down at Florian, who was staring with mouth agape and wide eyes sparkling in the mirrored light of the scene before him.

Sounds of laughter caught Luna’s attention and she looked up to see children playing amongst the stones, jumping and prancing with the wild abandon of youth, living in the moment. And then Florian released her hand and ran forward to join them and Luna found the words, “stop!” and, “be careful!” springing to her lips. She seized them before they could go further and swallowed them, refusing to mar this experience for him or for her.

She cast her gaze about the green. Adults were clustered about the edges now, looking on as the children played or else chatting excitedly in small groups. Her eyes found the frail figure of Elder Tuckett, bundled up against the chill of the night. She was neither talking nor watching the children play. Her gaze was firmly fixed on Luna.

They remained stationary for several moments, neither moving, regarding one another. Then Elder Tuckett’s head dipped almost imperceptibly in a nod of permission. That one, small movement was all it took for a weight to drop from Luna that she hadn’t even been aware she was bearing.

Her feet moved of their own accord, rushing forward in graceful steps to move amongst the glowing stones. She found that she was dancing, her bare feet carefully picking out a path amongst the moonstones to an unheard beat as she revelled in the beauty of the nature about her. The skirt of her nightdress twirled in unison with her, every aspect of her picking up shifting highlights from the luminescent stones about her. Her hair tossed with wild abandon, her mouth open to permit the unreserved laughter that spilled from her.

And, amongst this otherworldly maelstrom, she spied Florian and adjusted her course. They collided in a tangle of limbs and then separated, connected at arm’s length by clasped hands as they whirled about, their laughter and joy adding to the magic of the moment.

Elder Tuckett had been right. There would be plenty of time to be an adult when she was older and even then the dancing didn’t have to stop. She would continue for as long as her body would allow, treasuring each day as if it was her last.

The moonstones were a metaphor for life, beautiful but fleeting.

All she could do to honour it was to enjoy it whilst she had it.