Legend+from+Lunaria

Aaron Delcourt
 * The Origin of Lunaria**

Shirva had spent the first thirty-four years of her life in the mountain city of Envelo. She worked with the local blacksmith, Kröm as a mechanic. They were business partners, and close friends. She preferred to work on small mechanisms like watches and door knobs. She had many hobbies. Her favorite being astronomy.

Like many others of her time, she was fascinated with the stars, and more specifically, the moon. She would watch outside of the city as it would glide above the horizon every morning. It would move across the sky, setting at noon and rising again at night. In the dark, only the moon’s horizon was visible, as that was the only point that still reached the light. During the day, however, the sun reflected off of it’s atmosphere, making it appear a bright violet. It was then that Shirva could properly examine the geography of it’s surface.

“It’s awfully large to be considered a moon. Whose to say we aren’t it’s counterpart, rather than superior?” She spoke to Kröm as they each worked on their own separate tasks. Shirva fixing a model wagon and Kröm pulling an axe head out of the forge.

“Mass has nothing to do with it,” he replied. “You see, the moon is above us, now. At night it’ll be underneath us, where we remain still. It can’t be a ‘Chimeria’ because that’s where we are, seeing as if we tried going up there we’d just fall back down here.”

Kröm didn’t study astronomy and failed to understand the laws of gravity. He was eight years older than her, making him forty-two. Although, he was a dwarf which made him physically about half that. Shirva wondered whether other dwarfs intellectually aged half as fast as humans.

“Kröm, I’ve wanted to see it up close my entire life, and now I think I can make that vision a reality.” Kröm made sure not to interrupt as she explained her plans. She had been working on some schematics for a new sky ship. One that could make it to the moon. It would need to be airtight and much stronger than the ships used for normal travel. She had met people in the city that shared her interest in the moon and with their help and resources they might be able to build this new ship.

Kröm was hesitant at first. He had faith in her intelligence. She was much smarter than him, but he was sure she didn’t know it. It seemed like a foolish idea, but if there was one person that Kröm trusted more than anyone else, it was Shirva. The room was silent for quite some time before he finally let out a long sigh and said, “Well your going to need a blacksmith and we both know you cant pay me. So, I’ll give you a hand on one condition. I’m going too.” An enormous grin cross her face as Kröm continued, “I want to see what this whole fuss is about. What better way to do it than to follow you all up there?”

Building the ship was a project that took many months of planning, trial, and error. They worked in a field near the forest. Many times they would lift fifty or sixty feet off the ground, only to have it fall back down. By the time the ship was finished, two years had passed. Their crew had grown to sixty-two people and they were now very glad they decided to build the ship as large as they had. They had made an agreement with the people of Envelo to return one day, keeping an open trade route after more ships could be built.

Although, the plan was to colonize after they arrived, Shirva and Kröm couldn’t be sure of what they would see when they landed. The ship was stocked full of food, water, tools, and other things that would be needed when they arrived. So, with no way of knowing what lay ahead they left, hopeful for the future.