The Moon and the Land

Tempest, sister of five, was a woman of dreams.

Every night, her eyes would gaze up at the moonlight, and though she was not tantalized by the moon's advances like her sisters were, she would wonder what it was like to live in a land of air, to be of the sky and free to go where no one else could dare.

The moon promised her that he could give her such things, and she wasn't sure. He had tried to goad her, to bring her to him with advances that promised warm breeze nights that he would light. He told her he could help her swim more upright, but she was not swayed.

Still, Tempest would rumble the water surface, pushing back at the windy messengers who came to visit each day. She tired of the moon's advances and so she ventured out from her depths where the shore came and her world became shallow. This was the place of man, a place Land had claimed and called its own, but Land had no soul, no spirit per say and spoke to no one. Still, she sat on his shores and lamented that she could be no freer from her home than a prisoner of the depths, but Land did not answer.

Liking the silence, she returned to him once more, washing over his beaches and asking if he minded. No answer. And so she started to swallow up little caves, filling them with pretty little things, returning Land his people, and sometimes when man was dumb enough, drowning them to tell Land to respect her realm. Still, Land did not respond. Despite his lack of response, she felt free, more free than she ever had, but Moon became jealous, tugging on the waters surface with his pull to bring her back. To ask her to come away with him since he could not have her. Her sisters became angry, bemoaning his advances on her as he gave them less attention and Tempest remained resolute. She would not feed into it.

And so, every night, Tempest rises up to the shores to see if Land will answer her, but feeling at home with being able to be herself, she continues to ignore Moon's requests for marriage. On some nights, his tug is stronger, keeping her busy and away, but on others... she returns and Land sprinkles gifts from beneath his shores of what little trinkets Tempest left behind.