an early man under the moon

An Early Man under the Moon.

The moon was full; brilliant white and round. Shining like the crown-jewels of the heavens. Looking up at her beautiful face was a creature half-man, half-ape. A man not quite yet formed. An early man. He stood among the branches of a tall willow tree, and the branches drooped about him like a thousand thin tentacles. The wind stirred restlessly, but without much purpose, other than to chill and to antagonize.

He looked up dreamily at the full moon and wondered at her mysteries and beauties. Surely she was more than human. Surely she was a goddess, like the sun was a god. More than human, much more than human. The old ones said the sun and the moon had co-existed in the heavens since time untold. The brilliant shining sun ruled by day, and the beautiful moon by night.

She was like a woman; he thought to himself, always changing her face. Never consistent, but always beautiful. Yes a goddess, he thought. A temperamental goddess, for she had the power to heave and pull the waters of the sea. A powerful goddess. Thus he looked and remained silent for a while, looking up at the enchanting moon, lost in his thoughts and his dreams. Lost in wonder.

A lonely bird started to sing a lovely song from a nearby tree, and the crickets made a constant racket in the dark night, other than this there was little noise. He still stood and stared at the moon and the heavens above him in wonder. The stars were strewn and spread out against the black canvas of the sky, like a billion sparkling stones. Like the souls of the dead, shining from out another world. A world of darkness. A world beyond.

So he stood and gazed up at the stars and moon for a long time, as they traversed their course across the heavens. Some stars, and groups of stars had names, and he knew them as he was thought by his elders. He repeated them softly to himself as he marvelled at them. It was as if they were so close that you could almost touch them, yet they remained forever out of reach. He wondered at them for a long time, and kept on wondering, as he did each night out here alone on the hill.

When at last he became tired and sleepy, he started walking down the footpath towards the enclosure where the huts were. His bare feet made no sound on the dusty soil as he walked, and he left a solitary pair of footprints behind that lay clearly visible in the bright full moon…