Lyanna and the Palace of the Moon Elves

Lyanna and the Palace of the Moon Elves

A fairy tale to be read out loud

by Adam Manning

Many hundreds of years ago in a far away land there lived a girl called Lyanna. She worked for the Sultan who ruled that land. He was very rich but had a temper as bad as a troll with a splinter stuck in its eye. Lyanna was a good girl and a friend to all. One day a man that had the body of a giant scorpion came to the tower's door, asking if they had any soup to spare. The guard at the gate was ready to slice off the poor beast's tail with his scimitar but instead Lyanna befriended him and gave him not only soup but bread as well. This was the first time that Lyanna liked someone everyone else thought of as an enemy.

        As Lyanna grew into a young woman, she showed this affection for others who were looked on as strange by less kindly folk. Although she stayed in the confines of the tower, her spirit often felt as though it soared into the air like a hawk or spread out across the land like blossom from an apple tree. She was kept there by the lazy Sultan because he had seen Lyanna's growing beauty and wanted to marry her soon. Though Lyanna was like a prisoner, she still felt free.

        This feeling shone from Lyanna as if she were one of those glowing crystals that you can find in caves. So great was it that others could feel it too: not the people living in her own land (who were a mean lot in those days) but some magical people living far away. These were the moon elves. They lived far above the air in a place no-one knew about, because it was hidden by a fold in the sky. They lived on the Moon, which we can see now at night or sometimes in the day but couldn't be seen at all then. They also had seen her being friendly to everyone, including the goat men who had travelled a long way to meet her, and they wondered if she might be their friend too. As no-one from the world had ever been to the Moon, they had to help her.

        So they sent a flying carriage to collect her. It landed at night-time beside the tower when only Lyanna was still awake, working hard as usual, scrubbing the ramp that lead to the gate. When she saw the carriage she was scared. It was pulled by a team of five giant snails, each with two heads. The carriage itself was like a huge silver egg, encrusted with rubies. Then the driver came over to Lyanna. He had a pumpkin where normal people have a head and black, shiny fur where normal people have skin. Lyanna stood trembling as the pumpkin-man reached behind himself to get something.

        Right beside Lyanna was the alarm bell she could have rung to fetch the guard. They would have captured the driver for sure and put him in jail but instead Lyanna decided to trust him. Eventually he produced a silver box and opened it. Inside was a red, mushy lump. The driver told Liana to eat some and she did. It was sweet and very good.

        Then the driver beckoned Lyanna to get into the carriage, whose door he had just opened. This was the first time anyone had been kind to Lyanna and she agreed. With that the driver commanded the snails to fly off and they did so, spreading wings that looked like those of a dragon. They soared into the air and soon left the tower far below.

        As they flew up they first passed some thin children with spears in their hands and fairy wings on their back. These children warned them not to go any further. At this, Lyanna was frightened again. The driver ignored them and they flew up even higher. Soon the Winds blew up and flew alongside the carriage. One of them laughed threateningly at Lyanna and the others rocked the carriage from side to side until the driver fell off and plummeted to the earth. No-one saw him again. Now Lyanna was both scared and angry, for she had quite liked the pumpkin-man.

        Eventually the Winds got bored with playing with the carriage and just let it fly on aimlessly, pulled by the giant snails. They kept near it though and now Lyanna could see how they played amongst themselves. They were very rough, hitting each other and wrestling all the time. Often they hurt one another and although some of the time they had quite a lot of fun, they also just made themselves angry a lot of the other time. Lyanna did not like this and decided to teach them a new game. This was the game of "It" where someone is it and has to catch all the others. The Winds thought this was the best game they had ever played and enjoyed it a lot. Now they didn't have to hurt each other to have fun. One of them, the North Wind, even let Lyanna climb on his back for a while and when they were together they were always the winners; the fastest and most cunning. The North Wind now laughed for fun and not so as to scare people.

        When they had finished playing, the Winds started to feel sorry for having tipped the driver off of the carriage. They wanted to help her and asked Lyanna where she was going. She said she did not know. The East Wind (the wisest) knew that only the moon elves used dragon-snails to pull carriages and said Lyanna must be going to the  Moon. Then the South Wind (the bravest) said they should take her there. The North Wind agreed and they all pushed the carriage upwards. After a while they reached the fold in the sky. The West Wind (the strongest) realized the fold was actually part of a huge, ancient net. He blew right up to it and, using all of his muscles, tore a hole straight through it.

Through this they could see the Moon and the Winds landed the carriage on it. The Winds told Lyanna that they weren't really allowed to be there and had to go. She thanked them for their help and promised to always teach them new games and tricks, a promise she keeps to this day. After they had gone, Lyanna was alone until a monster with a man's body and an octopus for a head approached her. He bent down and Lyanna patted him on the head. Then he gave her a piggy-back across the valleys and mountains of the Moon. He carried her like this all the way to the palace of the moon elves.

        This was no ordinary palace. It's walls were black and shiny, reflecting the light of the stars. It's roof was made of silver and would have covered all of her city with room to spare. As she watched, she saw that the palace moved slowly across the plain of red dust. It was as if it slithered along as a slug does. The octopus-headed man deposited her at the gate and she had to run to keep up with the door as the palace moved on. She managed to fling it open and jumped inside.

        All was darkness and gloom until she came to the innermost chamber, where the Council of Moon Elves were. They were each short and thin, with crimson skin. Their eyes were large, round and stared lifelessly at her as she walked in. She did not like this place: the air seemed to hum with weird magical energy. Though they did not stop her from wandering where she would within the palace, the moon elves placed invisible barriers on the doors, preventing her from leaving. Eventually she returned to the chamber where the elder moon elves had remained, waiting expectantly.

She felt the emptiness within them and in the palace. It seemed as if nothing had changed there since the start of time. And although the moon elves had given her nothing but indifference, had offered her no meal but silence and had made her nothing but lonely, she sought to return to them all that she could. With that she reached inside herself and released all the beauty within her in a long, melodious song. It was as if she turned herself inside out, revealing her true nature. Shortly, several of the moon elves started blinking. Then one hummed uncertainly, then another whistled and finally two burst into song as well; a chirping accompaniment to Lyanna. Soon all within the chamber were doing something, whether it was merely twitching their pointed ears in time to the music, stamping their feet or laughing and cheering. Some even conjured bizarre instruments to play with out of the air, such as long, twisted horns and fiddles with only one string yet three bows. Where gloom had reigned before, now glee filled every nook, crevice and crack in the chamber as it was flooded with Lyanna's song.

She did not stop there. As the moon elves played and sang, she began to dance. Sometimes her dancing was slow and gentle, like a mother rocking her child to sleep. Other times it was fast and wild as if she was possessed by a banshee. Always it suggested the circle of life and death with twists and falls. Another miracle happened then: the chamber lit up with a brilliant light and along all the walls and ceilings of the palace, works of art grew from the red rock. On some walls, a painting of a beautiful creature appeared. In the middle of the chamber, an enormous statue of an antelope standing triumphantly on a mountain-top grew out of the ground. The whole palace changed in this way as if it were a living thing as Lyanna danced around it, followed by the beaming moon elves.

After all this was done, the moon elves gave her a meal of the same red mushy stuff the pumpkin-man had given her before. They realized she wanted to go back to her world, but they now loved her too much to be able to let her go. Once again Lyanna was almost like a prisoner but again she always felt her spirit reach beyond the confines of her pleasant prison.

For many years Lyanna was kept like this and she became a full-grown woman. Over that time she had begun to love her new home, with its groves of crystal- flowers and zoos of quartz animals. Her years there had also changed her; her hair had changed from being blonde to a sparkling ruby red. Her eyes now shone redly too. In a way she now felt as if she were of two worlds, but her longing to see the earth never quite left her. She was sad some of the time.

Those on the earth wanted to see her too. The strangers she had befriended all missed her and wanted her back so she could cast her friendship magic on them again. They had told their friends about her and they had told their friends, and so on until her legend had spread throughout the whole of the land. As she was no longer there to teach them about peace and love, many wars had started and much hate and anger was abroad in the land. Even the Sultan missed her, not only because he wanted to marry her but also because he had been used to her happy smiles and hard work around his tower. With all this sadness, finally even the earth herself wanted Lyanna back. So the earth looked up and found the direction Lyanna had sent her spirit when it had soared up through the air and beyond the sky. The earth collected up all the spirits of those who wanted to see Lyanna again into a long rope and threw it up until it tied onto the net that was the fold in the sky behind which the Moon hid.

Then something amazing happened. The earth, using the rope as a guide, threw part of herself up into the air, making a bridge. Upwards the earth thrust her bridge until it got to the net that is the fold in the sky. Where the rope had tied itself onto the net, the bridge smashed straight through, tearing the net to pieces. With the fold in the sky gone, the Moon was now visible to everyone on the world below for the first time. Then the earth-bridge crashed into the palace of the moon elves, right near Lyanna's bedroom. She came out to see what had happened and was astonished to see the huge bridge spanning the great gap between the Moon and the earth below. It was lined on either side by all her friends: goat men, pumpkin-men, octopus-heads, humans, green elves, dwarves and many others. The moon elves said they were sorry they had not been strong enough to overcome their love for her to let her go as she had wanted. Lyanna forgave them and then set off down the bridge to the earth.

On the way down, some Winds from a tribe different from the one Lyanna had met sought to destroy the bridge. But the North Wind and his tribe blew in to protect her and fought these other Winds. Their fierce battle merely added to the spectacle of her descent.

Once on the earth again, it seemed as if she were young once more: for every seven years that had passed on the Moon, only one had passed on the earth. The powers she had gained on the Moon were still strong though and her friendship magic spread throughout all the countries of the world. Where the earth-bridge had been torn from the ground, there was now a huge crater. On it's rim Lyanna created a great city with walls as tall as mountains and inside  you can find anything you desire. That city is the city we live in today. Lyanna became a wise Queen and all who loved her knew true happiness.

The Moral of the Story: Always return Hate with Love, for one day an enemy may become a friend.