Heron and Moon

A short story about life

 Heron stood still in shallow waters, webbed feet covered in shifting silt. Its narrow legs, appearing as thin reeds to the water dwellers, supported the large blue/grey bulk of its body. Small ripples radiated out from its legs as the dark water slowly ebbed and flowed. Moon shone bright in the blackness above, reflected in slow wavering ripples of the water. Heron’s shadow was long across the water, Moon was low in the sky. Heron's right leg was bent back slightly at the joint, foot raised imperceptibly from the bottom. He was ready to strike, had been so for the last hour, but an observer would have seen no movement to portend action, merely a statue of a bird, standing rigid in the water. There were no observers though, this was not their world. Though his body and feet were still, it’s sinuous neck and fierce yellow eyes moved and tracked the creatures swimming in the murky waters below. Fish, fooled by Heron’s long inaction, swam around his reedy legs. There would soon be one less to do so.

 Moon sat in his space, gazing down on the warm colorful world below. Winds of photons caressed his craggy cheek, as they raced through space headlong to other worlds in other times. Tiny meteorites occasionally slammed into Moon’s surface, the largest of these causing silver clouds of dust to erupt from his surface, before settling slowly back down. He saw Heron, he saw everything on the dark side of this bright turning world. Moon had been watching Heron for a short while, as he measured time, and was curious.

“Heron, why do you stand so, unmoving, though I know you have wings to fly?”

“I seek life” it said.

“Life?” Moon asked.

“Yes… life, cold one.”

“Why do you seek life, for you appear to live already. “

“I live, it is true, but I like my life, and want it to continue. I can not laze in the sky, doing nothing, sleeping during the day and watching others all night. I have hot blood in my body. Those creatures below me have hot blood also. I would take theirs, to nourish mine. You have no blood cold one, you do not truly live.”

 This made Moon sad. It had never been sad before. He had not known he could be sad until he was, this made him sad also. Moon pondered this silently for awhile, watching Heron standing in the water. Why does Heron have life he thought, and not me? Why does he call me cold, I don’t feel cold. Pondering Herons words though, moon felt the cold of space for the first time, and realized he had been cold for his entire life, he simply hadn’t realized it. Moon did not like this new cold, and wished for Heron’s warm blood. Well, not the blood from Heron he thought, but blood like Heron’s. Moon did not want to take what was Heron’s, for it belonged to him. It would not be right to take from another merely to satisfy its own desires, but it very much desired the blood of life. Moon shivered in this dark night, shaking loose little whorls of silver dust over its vast circumference, and wished for life.

“Heron, how did you acquire life, for I would like my own?”

“I would like blood and life, would you give some to me?” asked Moon, trying to lose the sharpness of his desire in the vast darkness of space.

“I can not give you life or blood, for we are not the same. Ask this of your parents, perhaps they forgot to give you yours when you were born,” Heron said.

 Heron’s head darted quickly into dark waters, spearing a fish on its bill. He put the fish under his webbed foot, removed his bill from the side of the floundering fish, then picked it up again as it raised his head, shaking the fish down its sinuous neck.

Moon had been watching this process, much closer than he had in the past. He saw Heron’s satisfaction in his bright eyes as he resumed his hunting pose. Moon had so many questions, but he held his voice to let these new thoughts orbit around his mind. He had settled closer to the horizon by the time he spoke again. There was a light dawning on the other side of this earth, his brother Sun, who would not let him tarry in this world, once he gained dominion.

“Heron, what is that darkness that spreads in the waters at your feet. Did it come from the life you ate?”

“Yes” Heron replied, “Its life is now in me, although some small part spilled when I caught it. It always does, but I will catch more before the dawn.”

“Can you not share some of this swimming life with me, you would not have to give me yours, but maybe they would give me life.”

“I can fly high Moon, but not so high as you, and this life is much too small for one as large as you. Even I must catch many each night, to keep the life within me. I doubt there are enough fish in these waters to bring you life, and no way to get them to you. Seek your parents Moon, I can not help.”

 Dawn was breaking, though Moon’s mind swirled with tinier moons of thought. He had more to ask of Heron, for now Moon saw that Heron was wise. As his brother crested in all his brightness across the world, Heron swallowed his last fish for the night then, with wings spread wide, he forced them towards the ground in great blue / grey sweeps, lifting his bulk from the water. He squawked loudly a couple of times as he lifted himself into the air and headed for rest. Moon knew he would get no more answers this night.

 Moon watched the darkened world below, as his brother drew each part of the earth spinning towards him, basking it in his bright life. I wonder if brother has life he thought. As bright and boastful as Sun was, he knew he would have told him he had life if he had it. Maybe, he doesn’t know about life yet. Moon resolved not to mention life to Sun, until he found out how to acquire it. If he could not find out how to gain this life, he did not want Sun to mourn as Moon did now. He would wait, and if he found it, would gladly share it with his brother. He thought about parents, and wondered what they were. He did not think he had ever had parents, but how would he know. Maybe parents were the large balls of ice, hurtling through space, leaving trails of ice and rock in their wake. Were they his parents? If they could have given him life, why hadn’t they? Were they angry, because he spun slowly, staying in the same place above this world, while they roamed galaxies of other stars? Was he too large and ponderous for them to waste this precious life on him? Moon pondered through the earth’s revolutions, wondering what parents were and what he had done to cause them to forgo him life.

 Moon’s light once again fell through space to illuminate Heron’s waters. He had been waiting impatiently since dusk, for Heron to fly back from his nesting place. He feared his brother would come to claim this world before Heron returned, when he finally heard his squawking approach. Heron arrived with great sweeps of his wings, legs outstretched below him as he landed in the shallows. He fluttered his wings behind his back before interlacing them over his back. He waded out a bit more, walked up and down the shore for a bit, before settling in and becoming a living statue once more.

“Heron”, Moon asked “Do you think the great balls of ice that fly through space could be my parents?”

 Heron thought on this for a minute, cocking one bright yellow eye to look up at Moon, before resuming his hunting. “They can not be your parents, for my parents looked like me, and so I look like them. Those balls of ice do not look like you, they can not be your parents” he repeated. “Are there no others that look like you up there?”

 “Everything looks like me in space” he cried “how will I know which are my Parents? Some are much smaller while others are much larger, how do I choose?”

Heron pondered this for a moment before saying “My parents were the same size as I am now, they looked like I do now. Find those that look like you and are the same size as you, maybe those will be your parents.”

Of all the things that look like me Moon mused, none of them are the same size as me, maybe I don’t have parents.

“Heron, is there no other way to gain life, I don’t think I have parents?”

“If you have no parents you have no life. You do not live if you don’t have life.”

Moon pondered this for quite some time. Heron was wise, certainly, but perhaps he was missing something, overlooking something.

“Heron, what is life?”

“Life is living, silly Moon. I breathe, I eat, I mate and make more life. I think and see, and want to continue thinking and seeing, that is life.”

“You say the fish you eat have life, yet they do not look like you. Are there other things on your world that have life?” Moon asked.

“This world is filled with life, upon, below and above its surface. It teems with life. There is even life that wants to eat my life that they may live, but I am very wise and watch for them.”

“Do they all have parents?” he asked Heron.

“They must, for they live.”

“But they don’t look like you?”

 “No” Heron said quickly, for he had spied his next meal swimming close.

 Moon waited politely for Heron to finish before asking, “What do you all have in common? If you all have life but look different and live in different realms, what do you all have in common, besides parents,” he finished quietly, not wanting Heron to hear his loss.

Heron stopped fishing to ponder this, for it had never occurred to him to look at it this way. “We think, we see, we desire. We know who we are, and want to continue. We want the life that is within us to continue, that is life.”

 Moon thought for a very long time, his brother was just beginning to herald his arrival with red and orange glows, when he started to smile. Heron is wise he thought, but he does not know everything. He only knows his life, and those he sees around him.

“Heron” he said with conviction, “I have life.”

“How can this be so, you have no blood and you have no parents.”

“The photons that flow through space are my blood, and although I do not know my parents, I live, and thus must have them. I think, I fear, I desire. I live and want to continue living. That is life, I have life.

“You are very wise” Heron said. “I could not see that before, but now that you say it is so, I can see that it is. Now that you live, what will you do?”

Moon glowed brightly now, and not merely from his brothers reflected light. “I will seek my parents” he said.

“How can you do so?” Heron asked, “You control much of the dark sides of this world. Were you to leave, your force would be missed and much havoc will be wrought. I fear for the life that remains while you look.”

“I do not need to leave, for my blood is outside me, and already travels on the winds. My blood flows to every world, from every sun. I will whisper to them of my need, my blood will search for my parents.”

“What will they do when they find your parents” Heron asked.

 Moon thought for a moment before smiling then said “I’ll tell them to say Thank You.”

  Heron caught his last fish of the night, before flying off to sleep the day away. Moon glowed bright, even at dawn, and was seen in the morning sky for a long time after Sun arose. Moon told Sun of his discovery. Later, when Moon whispered to the photons of space, he said, “Make sure you tell them we are both grateful.”

Author's Note

New to writing, so I welcome all comments

Reviews

[quinfinn]

great write ! you should become prolific after this success.... eyes are watching

[RoughWaterJohn]

No pressure then, excellent. ;-)

[Marie]

This is very good, very interesting. I don't know how long you've been writing, but this is a polished job. One thing you aren't doing is something I consider correct punctuation. Example:
“Everything looks like me in space” he cried. There should be a comma after space and after any quote that doesn't end in a question mark or exclamation point.

[RoughWaterJohn]

Thanks Marie! I've been writing for approximately 1 1/2 years now. The last (and only) writing education I've had was basic English in High School, more years back than I care to remember. Writing basics, including punctuation can still be my downfall, as I'm learning it on the job as it were. Your comments are very much appreciated. I'll go back in later this week and correct the mistakes you mentioned.

[Marie]

I've never had any writing education. Either you can do it or you can't.