A Dream

 

 5

A Dream

    Moon slept for what seemed like ages before she began dreaming. The dark enveloped her mind, and she floated in a vast pool of silence. It was a refreshing feeling. It was very much like things had been before the birth of Sun. The peace and the quiet rejuvenated her, and she could feel herself growing more calm and more centered as each moment passed. As she let the world drift away, her mind would wander, and her dream began to take form.
    In her dream, she placed an island of calm between herself and Sun. It was a place of cold stone, much like herself. She placed it right in the middle, where she and Sun could both observe and enjoy. As soon as it began to float before her, it started to change. Her side was dark and cool and calm, and reflected her own temperament. The side facing Sun became hot and wild. The very stone began to melt, and pulse, and flow. Moon was quite alarmed by this, and set the orb to spin slowly so the hot side could have a chance to cool on her side. The timing was challenging, because in order for the hot side to have time to cool, the cool side would get just as hot, so she had to find an acceptable rotation that would keep the whole thing about the same temperature all the time. One of her adjustments caused the sphere to wobble ever so slightly. She tried once or twice to correct it without much success. Since this was just a dream, she lost interest in perfection quite quickly.
    Laying back, and just observing the sphere’s wobbling procession, she began to notice that it was slowly changing. Sun’s side would melt, erupt, and flow, and then those changes would become frozen in place during their time on her side. The crust of this thing that she had dreamed continued to shift, and change. Soon the whole surface had melted and liquefied.
    In her dream she floated down, and as she descended she grew smaller and smaller. She flew across the surface of this great sea. Skipping over the waves, and then diving down into the depths. The darkness beneath the waves was every bit as silent and dark as the sky had been. There was one difference though. She found it harder to move. Her round shape was not sleek or smooth enough to glide through the water as she glided through space. She imagined a million different shapes and forms, trying each one. After each new shape had been appraised and measured, she would molt and leave a piece of herself inside it to continue exploring this new environment. Soon the seas were teaming with slivers of life, in every color and shape. From the largest monsters of the deep, to the tiniest plankton on the surface. She saw them swim, and dance, and play, and decided to leave them there, so a part of herself would always get to enjoy this magical sensation.
She rose back up into the sky and could see once again all of the varied forms that she had tried. They banded together into flocks and schools. Merging, diverging, pairing and replicating. They formed collectives of similar individuals, and began to differentiate themselves from the others. This was the formation of the first people. The soft bodied people with hard outer shells became the clam people, and the mussel people, and the chiton people. The many legged ones became the octopus people and the squid people. The large silver ones that flashed in the sun became the salmon people. They separated into five nations. The largest and most majestic of them were the Chinook. The most elegant and beautiful were the silver Coho. The blue ones that changed to a deep red were the Sockeye. The ones with a light pink hue were the Humpback. And the ones with long fangs called themselves the Dog Salmon people.
The world turned, time passed, and the ever changing surface gave new places for her offspring to inhabit. As the world was tugged between herself and Sun, Moon could see rocky peaks rise up from the water. Some formed like waves of rock, frozen into place, sharp like a blade. Others poked like a finger out of the land and ejected red hot stone into the sky. These ones were under influence of the volatile Sun. She noticed both the land and the people took on differing characteristics based on their shape, and their locations. Each was influenced by either Moon or Sun, and in many cases by both in strange and interesting ways that even Moon could not tell how they came to express those traits.

❖    ❖    ❖

Ages had gone by. She had come to call this world below her the Earth. At some point during those ages, some of the people that had moved onto the land began to change the environment themselves. Moon and Sun were no longer the only source of change on the Earth. The Eagle people, the Hummingbird, the Raven people and the Fishers all build homes from the various wooden people. The wooden people themselves built mighty cities of millions. They constructed towers from their own bodies, and reached high into the sky to be closer to Sun. The wooden people gave little regard to Moon. Like the feathered ones, the Beaver people also built homes from the remains of the wooden people. When the cedar people or the Firs, or the Hemlock would molt their dying limbs, others would salvage them from the ground, and use the material for their own purposes.
Recently a new and strange population had appeared. These people had neither fur nor scales. They had big heads, but small mouths. They hunted for food, but had no fangs nor claws. They seemed to be perfectly unsuited for every task, but there was no habit of the other people that they did not copy and adopt.
Moon was fascinated by them. They seemed so weak and slow, but they had no camouflage, nor any other defensive adaptations. She decided to get a closer look, so she formed a body just like theirs out of mud she had scooped from a river delta. She left her real body in the sky, and climbed inside this new vessel, and began to walk the Earth.
The first thing she noticed was how much differently time seemed to flow. From her perspective in the sky, ages could pass and she might hardly notice.  All in all, time was time, and things all came and went in their season. In this new form, time flew like a hummingbird, zipping from one monet to the next, and yet, even something as short as one turn of the Earth seemed like an eternity. Almost immediately she noticed an empty feeling inside. She recognized this as hunger, and was surprised how all encompassing it became. Nearby she found the beautiful lavender flowers of a patch of Camas, the sweet root people.
“Hello there,” she greeted the camas.
“Oh, hello,” replied the camas. “I did not ever expect you to come down from the sky to speak with us! This is quite the surprise!”
“You know me?” Moon was quite shocked. She never imagined that the myriad people on the Earth had been watching her just as she had been watching them. She was particularly shocked that this camas knew her immediately even though she had changed forms, and left her main body in the sky for all to see.
“Oh, we know you. All the Camas people watch you and admire your beauty while you float in the sky above us. We are simple people. We find a place in the Earth, and we dig down below the surface searching for minerals and nutrients. We breathe in deep, and our faces follow Sun during the day, and his warmth feeds us. But when the sky lands are dark, you shine like a jewel. Your cool silver glow calms us, and we rest knowing that our Mother is watching over us.”
Moon was quite moved. She considered all living things of the Earth her children, but to hear one of them speak of her as Mother made her just a touch dewy-eyed and emotional. She counted herself very fortunate that this camas was the first of her children she spoke with. It reinforced in her that she was right to come down and explore. Her children knew her, and she should take the time to get to know them all.
“You mentioned that you are fed by Sun,” ventured Moon. “On that topic, I find myself quite hungry as we speak. Can you teach me how to feed from Sun’s light?”
The Camas chuckled.
“Oh, mother Moon, I cannot teach this to you as you are. You have chosen a very unlucky form. The Human Beings, whose form you have taken, are the youngest and weakest of all your people. It is only by the generosity and charity of the rest of us that they survive. The Salmon people offer themselves up in their uncountable numbers to feed the Human Beings. The Bumble Bee people offer up their honey. The Cedar people freely provide their own skin and bones, and the Mountain Goat people provide their wool to protect the Human Beings from the elements. Even we Camas people offer our roots to the Human Beings during high summer so they might survive and grow. Our baby siblings cannot survive without us.”
This news came as a shock to Moon, but also was quite gratifying to hear. Her children, it seemed, all cooperated to provide each other with the things they needed to survive their infancy. Perhaps one day the human beings would learn to take care of themselves, but until such time, their older and wiser siblings would lead the way, and protect them from suffering.
“I am so proud of you,” effused Moon, with the hint of a tear in her eye. Her praise meant the world to this young Camas she was speaking to.
“Oh, well, it’s nothing much,” blustered the camas, obviously quite chuffed. “We all understand how difficult it is to find your place when you are new. We all have had our turn being brand new. It is the duty of the old to shepherd the new.”
Once again Moon considered just how blessed she was to have children such as this, full of grace, and compassion, kindness and responsibility. Though Sun was never unkind, he was so completely self centered that she had despaired of ever having offspring that reflected her own compassionate nature.
“You truly have given me a perspective I could not have considered before. You have my deepest gratitude. This journey down to the Earth has already been far more valuable than I could have predicted.”
“Well, I doubt you came here just to talk to me,” offered the camas. “If you are hungry, I can help you just as I would help the human beings. Take that fallen branch nearby, and dig beneath my stalk. You will find the yellow-white bulbs of my root. You may dry them out to store for next season, or you may roast them now over a fire. You seem quite ravenous, so roasting might be your best option. Once you have eaten the bulbs, then I will become part of your flesh, and the honor of being first to return to Mother Moon will be the greatest reward any one of us could imagine. Even those of us consumed by human beings are grateful for the chance to see the wide world beyond our small, rooted perspective.”
Moon knew better than to refuse, or argue the point. This camas had spoken only the truth to her thus far, and to reject her offer seemed much more disrespectful than consuming her. Moon conjured a small fire, and piled it with stones she collected from nearby. She then found a suitable stick shed from a nearby fir. She rooted out the camas bulbs, cleaned them off, and wrapped them in fresh cedar bark she pulled from a very old tree which offered it to her gladly. Once in the fire, she smothered the hot stones, cedar bark, and camas bulbs, extinguishing the fire, and allowing the hot stone to cook the bulbs until the stones had become cool enough to touch with the bare tender skin of this delicate human body she inhabited.
While she waited, she began crafting a band with the remaining parts of the camas plants. The stalks and leaves she plaited into a circlet that would help her control the long hair this body had on its head. The flowers, all lavender and periwinkle she wove into the circlet here and there placing them where she thought it would best showcase their beauty. Once finished, she donned this crown, and offered thanks to the camas.     
“I will tell all who see me of your generosity and kindness,” she offered.
Once cool enough to eat, Moon tentatively tasted a bit of one of the bulbs. The sweetness, and the earthy notes were almost overpowering. She had never had occasion to eat anything before, and the experience washed over her like a powerful wave. She swiftly devoured that bulb and all the others she had harvested. Once sated, she gave thanks, and said a small prayer in honor of the camas that had offered her such a selfless gift. This prayer was a song she could not prevent from escaping her body. It was loud and unselfconscious. There were no words, just sounds of joy and peace and a heart filled with gratitude. She was uncertain if her prayer was offered to anyone in particular, but its message was one of gratitude and honor. She hoped it was enough.
After the small feast, she curled up next to the still hot stones, and slept. She wondered if she would dream while sleeping within her own dream, but not for long. Soon she was fast asleep.