The New Moon (Abbreviated Short Story) BY: Matthew Wattles

 

The New Moon

            “I will give you a moon, and you may do whatever you like with this moon” – Said the Dragon.

            Lucius Clay took time to accept the offer. He asked his heart, and his heart said resist the temptation. He asked his spirit and it spoke of uncertainty. Then he envisioned the opportunity and examined the potential with his mind. Pictures of the moon in full were intimidating and exciting. It was an opportunity as well as an enormous responsibility. The idea of a more perfect, healthier, and beautiful civilization was something Lucius knew as eminent, but was unconfident that he could fulfill this responsibility. Lucius Clay refused the offer.

            “I do not wish to have a moon” Lucius said to the Dragon.

            The Dragon did not retract the image from Lucius, and for a moment Lucius thought that the image of the moon grew larger. “Instead I would like to fulfill my desire….or uh…potential to be the best that I can be with what I currently have, and where I am currently at.”

            The Dragon paused for a moment and said. “Very well, this moon is now yours.”

            Lucius Clay held back a tantrum of terror and panic and yelled “No! This is not what I want!”

            “Your thoughts are loud Lucius Clay. You have bravery and a certainty within you. There is a logic and excellence to the things that you do. This is something that your peers do not have in the way that you do. I cannot put them to this test because they are not going to pass it. I have examined what would happen, and I have even given some of them a shot at this mission. As I predicted they did not pass. You are the only remaining option and there are no other candidates.” The Dragon Explained.

            The Dragon was changing colors and had mostly gold and red around him. It was a psychedelic and transitioning thing to stare at. It felt like something of such importance that even thinking about a decision around the dragon mattered toward the outcome of the entire conversation. The kind of force of nature that could make a spectator feel transparent and even hollow, but something that you wanted to make the right move around. Lucius was very good under pressure, and sensed that this may have something to do with why The Dragon chose him.

            He was physically talented and could think sharply and his responses were often very stable and certain. The kind of nervous system that knew how to fly, the kind of emotional type that did not want to fight, but could do that as well. He had a reputation for being assertive and while he was not buried in assignments from the institution of workplace conformity and responsibility, academia, community service and volunteering he was planning to do something creative and abstract with his life and the people around him. Lucius was the epitome of someone with an obligatory moral intent. He was sometimes overconfident or perhaps self neglecting in a sense that he always thought he was brave and capable enough to help even some of the nastiest peers he had met throughout his life, career, and rather extensive journeys as an investigative and creative traveler.

            “I see what you are saying. I must have you know that I am very busy, and I do not see myself having the time to take care of something like this.” Lucius spoke and thought for a second. “However; I have never seen a Dragon in my fucking life, and I am not one to turn down such an ambitious challenge. Also the way you sell it is just so flattering.” “This sounds like an offer that I will accept, under the consideration that I will return back to my normal life at some point.”

            “Hmmmm.” went The Dragon’s grumbly and surprisingly lofty baritone voice.

“ This moon is now yours.” the Dragon said.

Lucius found himself in a grey and black wormhole traveling at what he perceived as light speed. He had always imagined this being a very intense and harsh ride through the vacuums and dimensions of time and space. He had heard from his physics teacher that these were supposed to be very harsh and unpleasant experiences. Much to his surprise the traveling was all around gorgeous and tingled him with a resonance that he could not tell if it was vibrations from sound or acceleration. Either way this was a nice ride, stimulating to the senses and full of a feeling that could only mean fresh air. The oxygen was much fresher than that of the Earth. He inhaled deeply and could not complain. After all he was getting a fresh start.

            Suddenly there was a buckle and he realized that he should have braced himself. Lucius lashed himself with a masochistic discipline. The memories of destructive antics bore a burden of hierarchical displeasure. The anger that rose out of him was derived in fear of failure, and the nerves shook his consciousness like a boat on rocking swells. His neck was buried in his pectoral and he was not able to lift his head. He was being held down by the centrifugal force of a massive speed that he was not warned about from The Dragon.

            He anxiously stumbled along the ground regained his balance and bravely walked to the cliff of his new moon. The view from this cliff could see mile of land that needed cultivation, invention, and civilization. He could see bare rocky lands stretching miles, and a horizon filled with colorful energies, stars, and celestial beauty.

            “Well if I own a moon now then I will rise to the challenge of making it a habitable, healthy, and wonderful place.” Lucius yelled with an optimistic passion that blistered doubt as if it were a solid rock being blown apart by dynamite. “Our population will make these hard rocks green, and our ecosystem will flourish as an emerald in the galaxy.” He yelled this very loudly even though he knew no one could hear. Even though he knew no one had inhabited this land before him. He yelled with such pride and confidence that the air began to become denser. The mountains grew a little bit higher, the waters ran a little bit faster and the currents were a bit louder like rapids with rushing sounds at a constant and cooling temperatures emitting off of them.

            In an instance of excitement a hawk flew to the ledge of the cliff. His beak was crescent like a scythe of wisdom. In a perceptive moment filled with hope, doubt, and glory Lucius turned to the hawk and anticipated a challenge.

              “I see you own it now, but you are obviously insular. Your eyes have red balls of fury in them. Your mind is softened by a spoiled culture.” - Said the Hawk.

            “You cannot read my heart.” – spoke Lucius.

            “That is because it is yours.” The hawk replied.

            “Do you know my intentions?” – Lucius asked

            “Your intentions are to take credit, and leave other cultures as inferior. You will build and you will owe credit and retribution for our perfect ecosystem. – The Hawk replied.

            The Hawks brazen wing shielded his face for a split moment and Lucius was quick enough to check on his comrades’ sullen, but swift movement.

            “You see, you are here, but you do not understand. You are ignorant and you know it. However; are you capable?”

            Lucius thought for a moment. He took all his fears and doubts into consideration. Then he flashed his courageous pride. Lucius’s protruded chest showed a might within his brawn, the Hawk was impressed by his immunity to skepticism.

            “Alright then, we will put you to the test.” – The Hawk challenged.

            The Hawk swirved away like a curving shadow in time. Lucius was left alone and felt with a harsh sense of surrealness that entertained his very senses down to the color and vibrations that he perceived as his own personal reality. He looked over the mountains and expected to see the dragon in the sky granting him another wish. He was dazzled by the soft impression that the sky was touching him with. He felt like a whole sense of gravity was just a belly that simply is him. He looked at the sky and watched the twinkles of the stars. They seemed orderly and consistent as he watched them spread as if they were sorted in some kind of blanketed pattern of fairness and they seemed like a single constellation. He felt protected by this orderly structure of celestial togetherness. He imagined a dome of lights flickering and flashing on some kind of stage right before his very feet. It was that kind of thought that could bring him back to his personal motion.

            He looked within his heart and searched for some sense of control. He knew he had a responsibility to cultivate, and he wondered what the Hawk was pointing out to him. He imagined a tribe of hawks or maybe people that were doing something, and surely he felt a great sense of hope in the fact that he was not truly alone. He was thankful and excited that there might be a great group of people to help him with such a huge mission. He was glad that the Hawk made him aware, and thought there was specialness to him. He hoped that they would get along and everything would be okay for him.

            Lucius had sweet and attractive features. He was the kind of physical talent that could grow in size and strength through very little work. He remembered back home and felt himself developing an interesting new strength that he was very excited about utilizing. He was all of a sudden confident in a way that he never really felt before, but it was warm and exciting to understand this new kind of functioning. The way his legs now moved were a bit more sturdy, and he chuckled at his own amusement in a way that he never imagined was right within him all along. He was less hesitant and was relieved to find that that word was not in his vocabulary quite as much as it was previously. His brow sharpened and he glared into the distant and saw this yellow, and green, and blue horizon that now all of a sudden wanted him every bit as much as he always wanted it. He poked his staff into the ground and HUMPH! He felt that the sounds that he made might matter and might cause some kind of frequency or ripple effect that he could communicate with the land in a way that would be useful to cultivating, creating, and harvesting this beautiful and colorful moon into the planet of his dreams.

            He walked and it felt as if he was deciding what he was wearing. He was in a Greco roman robe and sandals. He liked this as after all he was the tiller of the land, the Shepard, and the prophet. He was pretty much the (he decided to go ahead and shout it as loud as possible.) Lucius screamed with hope and freedom and glee. “I’m The King of The World!!!!.”. The newfound vibrations and resonances gleamed off of his chest like gold necklaces and pearls. Orbs were around his mind as he imagined they would be when he finally became this way. He looked into the sky and saw an eclipse. The eclipse was very still and his eyes adjusted perfectly to it at first, and he instantaneously remembered that his eyes needed to calibrate and adjust to avoid harm to his pupils, iris, and retinas. He shook his head and his long golden hair blew in the wind and seemed to create its own breeze as his locks swayed back and forth. His freedom, his confidence, and a protective moon with a beautiful shielding, dark shadow on it was a great start to this amazing and creative adventure.

            He walked and hustled around for a bit, seeing the vitamins in the soil, and watching seed around his feet planting and falling around his sandals, burying themselves supernaturally and naturally all at the same moment in time of every pace. The happy chemicals in his brain dripped imaginatively into the solid like water droplets, he was doing such a great job and felt so free and happy that he could make such an awesome mission real and full. He ran on top of a mountain that was very tall and at first he thought it was a simple plateau. He reached the top with some kind of ease, and looked in the distance over miles of land. Water, vines, jungles, and waters were all silently nestling and rustling with each other in a soft and massive breeze.

            He could see very far and he looked very far over the jungle and saw smoke. He created the smoke he thought. He pounded his staff into the ground and all of sudden it took him well into the air. His leafy and hard staff felt firm in his hands and it made him wise and strong like a wizard with masterful and lucrative essences. It extended itself and brought a jolly Lucius along with its lengthening bean stalk like extension. Curving over the mountain range. Stars were around him, gleaming, and shining he examined the stars around him and made sure they looked perfect and pleasing to the eyes of the people he would create to admire them. He quickly soared over them and blew them kisses and slapped some of them around encouragingly. He floated and glided through the cloud and met what seemed like a mountain in the sky. This was a unexpected and grandiose scene to him. Something gargantuan that wants attention. The gigantic shadowy entity was clearly a massive lifeform of some kind, they were being pulled into together with mutual gravity. The shadowy figure grew larger and larger knew how to draw Lucius in with magnetic pull. It looked like the huge shadow was trying to rear its head in some kind as some kind of monstrous body. He knew what was going on now. He realized that what he was approaching, he wanted to mold, shape and morph, something that wanted to be changed by him. Where he suspected he would see the dragon that granted him this very moon.

            The sky was bright blue and he liked that there was a transparency to the exhibit morphing in front. It was a behemoth sight to behold. He realized in that moment the dragon was not here at all, and he was creating the sky himself. He stopped doubted and landed in something and onto something at the same time. This abstract and flipping behemoth of a object. Has Lucius and thick cohesive feeling about it. It was drawn to him, and he was drawn to it. It became everything he ever wanted, and he was able to dominate it, morph it, it was quite capable of doing things like that to him too. However; he knew he had control. He knew that he felt something for this object as if it were not just an object, but a soft and beautiful sensitive person worth time and touch. He wanted this love to be true and pure in ways that materialized objects from back home could not corrupt, and tempt this lovely beast that he was creating.

            The beast was not fanged and it was not ugly. Lucius knew that here he was creating something that was meant to be beautiful, and delicate in ways that his people would love and cherish. This massive satellite was like a rock or piece of charcoal that he wanted to turn into the women of his world. However; his powers were all of sudden being challenged. He was able to dismiss that as an illusion and he created these beautiful women with gorgeous faces. They has beautiful and fit bodies and they were all full of praise for the men. Lucius was certain that they would love them. He thought of different hair colors, different shapes and sizes, some of their eyes were different. However; they were all compassionate in the end. He was sorting through different characteristics and personality typed for them that would be compatible for their husbands and families. Then all of a sudden he sensed a sharp instinct of what felt like a dangerous intrusion on his behalf. He looked through his peripherals and saw the Hawk shaking his head in disappointment. He noticed that the Hawk saw this as immature and he was for a second somewhat frightened at what the Hawk could do. He felt selfish and as if his invincibility that he had been experiencing was wrong and corrupt in a way that was truly disappointing toward him. Before he had time to think of how he could be so selfish. He realized the Hawk was about to set him straight.

            The Hawk’s eyes glared into Lucius’s. His beak turned colors and was now a burnt reddened brown. The metamorphosis of the chiseled stone was man becoming a face, a body, a mind, and a tribe. He was full of pain and effort, and there was a sadness in his eyes that flickered only for the wise and considerate. There was a mindfulness in the moth and a brazen strength in the jaw. The face that was once a hawk was not a colony of warriors and killers. They had thought and fought for independence. They knew how to build things, and their strength was best when working together. There was a massive sense of expansion that Lucius struggled to comprehend, but had mastery over. Fear flashed as a single entity and the Man and Lucius were not in a battle.

            The first one was not to cry. The man cried first. The second one was to assemble the wagon and the man was a tad bit slower. The third was a series of games that somehow invented themselves, one like chess, one like tic tac toe, and one like rock paper scissors. The first game was quick and the man was beaten badly, the second took longer and was tense for both but the man was beaten again. The third was a battle that took hours, turned into a war. The Man thought he had won, but when he lost he was slapped. That is when the colony of people Lucius created fell from the sky and landed on the ground as villagers. They were prepared at once to defend their women, feed their families, and progress their civilization into a better and more amazing society filled with whatever kind of palace, mosaic, building, castle, tower, moat, river, dam they could imagine.

            He was then turned back to his original focus. The beautiful and gorgeous women that he was creating for the men. He was relieved that the Hawk was willing to become a man. He looked at the beast and the women who were becoming beautiful, and conservative with one another. He saw some of their faces respond different ways to different gestures. He felt a sincere want to favor them, and spent some time building a cosmic effort that could give them some kind of magical powers to protect them from the strength of men. He thought that he needed to help them so that when their egos became hurt and their emotions were low that he could give them resources, and techniques to keep them going. He wanted their minds to have special powers that only they could understand, but he feared that they would use them against the men and that it would destroy the people that he loved and wanted to see live a healthy and beautiful life on this new and very special planet that was once a brand new moon.

            He saw the Woman and her face was gentle. Sometimes it was pale and delicate, other times it was worn and had a coarseness that said something about suggestion and hope. He showed her the stairs where she would learn to climb and aspire when things were not going her way. She quickly passed the test and he looked down at the men and wondered if they would stand by her side, they did. Lucius made sure of this. He then showed her two roses one beautiful and worth something amazing and rich, the other dark and curious looking with a vine and thorn. It was having trouble blossoming while the other was flourishing, and Lucius watched and smiled as she went first to nurture the one that was struggling to grow. The King of the New Moon then showed her a fountain. As she looked into it she couldn’t tell if it was a well or a fountain or a pond. She walked and peered closer to it. She saw something dazzling and desirable in it. She felt a rush of excitement and pleasure from what she saw after noticing her reflection. Lucius was proud of her for doing so well and excelling, he admired and thought the men would too. Then sadly on this third elaborate and final test the woman fell for this trick. For this vain and deep desire and temptation, and her powers to help The Man were gone. She became vain and conceited and was lost in the fountain as it swallowed her. She was first entertained by herself in a new way, she thought she had some kind of new found power. She thought that it was a great thing to have and that she could change the direction and purpose of the Man with deceit and foolery, betrayal, lies, and cheating. She fell into an orgy of decadence and anger that was resentment toward something that she loved about soul and virtue. Lucius The King of The New Moon uttered a chuckle. He liked that things were starting to take a consciousness of their own, and found the similarity of some of these occurrences to be charming. “Reminds me of back home.” He thought to himself.

            He turned his staff to a fishing rod with a ring worth the moon’s most expensive and rare resource and material. He was angry that he had to do this and it installed a voracious type of carnal desire and pleasure in him that the villages and small cities of men below him could feel within their bellies and legs. He cast it deep into the well, hearing moans and smacking of skin against each other. Sensing and smelling a musky perspiration that had vulgar and guilty ooze in it. The woman took the bait and was reeled back to the sky where she was hoisted onto the shoulders of Lucius, and spat out onto a platform of cushions and roses. A highway before her eyes was an escape route that dried and evaporated the wet sin of lust and temptation into a clean and serene sunlight filled with beams and rays of pleasant and innocent artifacts that tell the basic tale of a mundane and moral reality that is the very reason The Woman will always fail the third test. The Woman then dispersed and fell into the civilization below. A new found wisdom was to help the men and women progress as families that could conquer, civilize, and build something in the name of a great vision that was the New Moon.

            He looked below and admired his work. He then turned toward the fire that he was chasing and night fell and the stars were out again. That full and warm glow was vibrating and tingling now in a way that he liked. He glided over past the forest and sat right next to the fire that was burning. He noticed a log and a stone adjacent from one another. This was to be expected as he had a burning tendency in his subconscious to see himself long after the early phases of the New Moon. He saw himself with a pain that shook him raw and hurtful like a punctured whale belly bursting with a heart attack made of panic. He then realized a contentment, and how the scars he was seeing on himself were thick and deep. The eyes were lonely in ways that he never imagined he could see in himself. He felt a cold breeze on his back, and saw that there were things that he forgot to install. Elements that he did not take into consideration, and resources that he forgot to give his people. He wondered if the scars from his future self were from a rebellion. He hoped that they were, after all it was man’s job to check the arrogance of an under supplying creator. If he were truly a good King then he would accept that kind of upheaval. He thought that what scared him was not a lack of consideration or creativity, but rather a ruthlessness that made him feel sick and empty. As if somehow he had become the very creation of the Moon itself. As if he held it in his belly in a way that he knew secrets about it that the Men and Women simply could not understand, but rather because he did not care to tell them. He wondered if hiding the truth was out of compassion or the wrong thing to do. He looked at his future self-looking through the top of the flames at him. He thought for a second that he could see him. He felt the evenness of the glare. He had not changed as much as he thought. Maybe he was invisible; maybe he was blind in the future. He sensed seeing himself would alter some things, and he was not wrong.

            He saw some shadow like figures in the trees and he sensed the same behind his back. He thought that there might be a family of prophets of some kind in those dark and creepy shadows that were covered In green and thick brushy bushes. He saw one of the shadows eyes and saw himself sitting on the long, and he became scared for himself thinking that his future self was unaware of the shadow creatures lurking behind him in the woods. He then realized and remembered that he felt as if he was dead even with the stare of his future self. He looked back and screamed at the sight of something behind him. He quickly dodged and evaded the shadow. He ran from himself in order to alleviate himself from this situation. He wanted to perfect what was going on and go back, but he had no choice but to flee the scene. It was as if he was dragged out while wanting to go back at the very same time. He had no choice and was brought to the high ground away from him. He felt a sense of wanting to look back, but knew he had no choice but to move on and never look back.

            A path emerged and he sensed a disease of some kind making its way over the branches. He could see it as a wave of molecules traveling through the air spiraling in unison with a cleaner version of that very toxic substance. It seems as if it was a trail of disease and a force of cleanliness wrapping around itself and giving off various kinds of particles, energies, and vibrations. The naturalness of the stream was questionable, it seemed manufactured as well. He even went so far to think that something like this was ectoplasm or some kind of airbourne virus that could find its way to people. Lucius was drifting in and out of a kind of consciousness he did not expect to feel so early in the phases of developing this New Moon. He realized this was something to do with mortality, death, disease, and destruction. Not only of the self, but of the earth and it’s inhabitants. Things and creatures taking their own form to a new kind of toxic infiltration in which a certain kind of transformation is made that affects the experience of life in only a way that death can understand.

            Lucius thought that if things like viruses, toxic chemicals, and disease could occur then he would have to develop and create anecdotes for his people. He would find a way to balance these things with minerals and substances that could hydrate and build flesh, bone, and body happier. He thought of the mind and how he could strengthen it for the Men and Women he needed to take care of. He thought of ways to do this. He started walking down the pathway that had emerged and what he saw was gorgeous, exciting in creative ways, challenging, and encouraging, and intimidating all at the same time. If Lucius Clay was not the King of The New Moon he may very well have had the shakes right then and there. However; he was a brave kind and he moved forth onto the Path of The Creationist he named it The Path of The Journeyman. He sensed that he was not the first King to walk down a path like this, and he sensed that he would not be the last. This was an interesting feeling, and one that he saw was going to motivate him to do the best job he possibly could.

            He walked a few paces and discovered a box. The box was hard and dark wood with ivory and metals sealing it’s finished and dense sides and corners. There was a black metal lock on the box and he imagined there being something of value inside. He imagined that there was gold or silver in there along with something that could give him the power to heal. The box was shrouded and partially buried. He tapped the box with his staff and examined what kind of sound it made. All he heard was a clunk and he thought now that the box may very well be empty. He now saw it best to either leave the box there or take it on down the path. He decided to leave it.

            He then continued to walk down the path and the trees waved in a sultry and breezy sway in which he could feel and think calmly. There was a steadiness to his pace and he found the walk rather comfortable. He walked feet, then yards, then miles, and more miles until he came across a familiar shrub with a box that was identical to the one farther back. He tapped the box and heard a clunk clunk in a way that was just slightly different than the sound the previous box had made. It was as if there was something a little bit heavier inside the second box. As if the steps that he had taken and the time that it took added something denser to it. Lucius put his hands on the box and looked deeper into it than before. He started to see a rhythm and a riddle in this occurrence. He decided to break the cyclistic attitude, pick up the box and continue down the path.

            Inspired by the change as if it were an improvement to hear and feel something bigger and better in this box, he carefully wondered about what opening it would really be like. He loved the idea of there being something that he could help his society with. He thought it would be wonderful if it was something that could transform the things around him for the better. He journeyed forward and a glee took over his spirit and he found a triumphant happiness in the quest that he was on.

           

Lucius carried the box onward and thought many optimistic and pleasant things to himself. He was sure that if he turned around he would see a job well done. He was starting to vibe with something pleasant in the air that made him think he had done a great job. He looked up at the sky and saw blue cumulus clouds, bright streaming lights of gold in the heavens, and a warm crescent moon that reflected the time. All of  a sudden the dragon appeared to come speak to him.