Gate: The Moon

I stepped through the vision gate and was standing on a shining path under the moon that led between the trees of a dark forest.  A wolf mournfully howled as I took my first steps down the path, making my way between the trees towards an unknown destination.

Suddenly, a little ways ahead, I beheld an elvish figure dressed in a silvery cloak and hunting gear on his hands and knees in a puddle filled with moonlight.  He splashed frantically through the water again and again as if he had lost something. I ran to this spirit and knelt beside him.

“What are you seeking?” I said. “Perhaps I could be of assistance to you, I have some small talent at finding lost things.”

“I know that voice,” said the spirit and when he turned my direction I recognized the elf king Oberon.  Where he should have had pupils, the elf had two full moons shining from his eyes.  “Heidi, welcome back to my world,” he said. “I felt a presence from the skies calling me from this water but I can’t see her to interpret her message. Do you see what I cannot? Do you hear the call too?”

“Oberon, the moon is shining in your eyes so brightly that I couldn’t help but hear the call,” I said. “It has caused some temporary blindness. We will remedy this somehow. Do not fear.”  I raised the elf to his feet and cupped some of the moonlit water in my palm. With two fingers, I smeared the water on his closed eyelids.

“I once pulled down the moon so that you could travel the Inner Worlds with the ease you knew in the time before,” I whispered as I tended to his eyes. “I call it again to restore your sight to you tonight. Hear me, Lords of this world, and please heal Oberon’s eyes. Creator of All, hear my plea and have mercy.”

Oberon gave three long blinks and the reflection of the moon cleared from his eyes. “You’ve done it! Whatever god listens to you is a quick panacea. Thank you!” he exclaimed. “I wonder how long I was floundering upon this path. No matter, back to work. There’s no time to waste in idle chitchat.”  The elf reached into his cloak and pulled forth a flask made of thick glass.  He filled it with water from the puddle, returned the flask to a pocket within his cloak, and began to walk away at a brisk pace.

“Wait, Oberon,” I called and followed in his footsteps like a shadow.  “How did you find yourself in such a state in the first place?”

“Oh, it was silly,” he replied. “I gazed too long upon the sky’s face in the puddle so that the one who called me imprinted in my eyes.  If I had traveled the worlds more regularly, I would have remembered to look away from time to time.  I will not make that mistake again.”

We moved together through a dense wood beside the path, batting branches and leaves out of our way.  After a short walk, we arrived at Oberon’s home, a well-appointed cave that sits next to a swiftly flowing river.  We entered and Oberon moved to the middle of his abode where the moon shines perpetually down upon a deep pool of water.

The elf had replaced the heavy wood covering that had once concealed the pool with a circular lid made of glass.  Now even when the pool was covered, the moon was able to shine down upon the water.  He raised the glass lid and brought the flask containing the puddle’s enchanted water out of his cloak.

“To know a power is to know their name,” he chanted softly, decanting the water into his pool.  “To know their name is to know their essence.  I call you now, Lady of the Moon, bright shining light in the darkness and gloom.  I summon you forth, beautiful being of the sky, to answer our questions, our wonderings, our whys.”

Oberon stepped back from the pool as mist and moonlight began to bubble from its surface in a circular, spinning vortex.

“I call you,” he whispered, kneeling now. “Mother.”

A goddess made of silver light stepped from the pool into the cave.  Moonlight streamed from her long hair and gown, filling the space.  The ceiling of Oberon’s home was carved and painted with stars so that in the light of the moon they twinkled down upon us, alight with energy.

“Rise, my dear son,” the goddess said and kissed his forehead as he did so.  “I bid you know it grieved me when you became moon blind.  You must promise not to gaze so deeply at the skies in the future.”

“Mother, it will be as you wish,” he said. “I could hear someone calling to me from the skies and I’m sorry for my unbridled enthusiasm.  But see, I have brought the one who cured me, twice now, to stand in your exalted presence.  Her name is Heidi and she is from another world.”

The beaming goddess turned to me.  “I have you to thank for returning my son to his glory,” the Moon said. “My blessings upon you, traveler and healer.”

“I asked the ruling powers to heal your son,” I said, bowing my head before the goddess. “They healed him through me. I simply offered him a comforting presence in his time of trial.”

“Whatever you did, it was effective and appreciated. In addition to my blessing, I will offer you some of my ancient wisdom and secret knowledge. I have taught my son the art of stargazing and fortune telling,” said the Moon. “What shall I teach you? The same?”