Once long ago, the planet had two moons, rising and setting like a pair of needy tenacious lovers unable to spend one rising apart.
One was smaller than the other but unrelenting despite its diminutive size. Being red and dwarf-like, it fed off the larger blue one, as if envious and desirous of attention and love. Sometimes, the inhabitants of the planet below pretended to see sand floating between the moons and made up stories that it was a form of communication between other inhabitants on the moon. Others thought the sands were trailing fingers, caressing like that of lovers were wont to do during nightly excursions.
But all of that was before the moons collided into each, wrecking havoc on the planet, which lost some of its gravity. Its inhabitants ran underground to avoid the storms and the tidal waves, tsunamis and cyclones.
It must have been a spectacular show to watch. The oceans and the sea raged the planet, buildings and cities burned down to ashes, crops died as fields and plains were flooded.
How any being could survive was a miracle.
But then again, aren’t beings a miracle of the universe?
One girl would know.
She had seen it happen.
From the moment the moons crashed like a lover’s angry spat, to the tumultuous seas of a wild planet, and the final formation of a planetary ring that circled like a celestial wedding band, she had seen marvelous things that nature can do in several hundred rotations and revolutions around a supergiant star.
After the storms passed many hundred revolutions and the ring seemed to settle comfortably around the planet, things calmed down as if they had found a habit they could follow routinely.
When the sun rose in the morning, mist would rise from the ocean, crawling onto land like tired soldiers coming home, and evaporated, clinging onto land as dew drops formed, much like tears of a lover’s welcoming joy.
And when the days are bright, the planet glistened greener than it ever did. And when it’s gloomy and rainy, the whole planet would cry a haunting song, bringing tears to whoever heard it.
Because all the inhabitants and animal had gone into hiding underground, the planet soon became overrun with plants and trees and flowers. They suffocated old buildings, walls, statues, and sidewalks. Some cities fell into the sea, where corals formed and a new city for sea animals swam. Some cities burned, its scorched walls now covered in rich moss.
It no longer looked like a vibrant planet where cities once thrived with bustling market and laughing children and the sea flourished with ships and travelers. It was a verdant and virgin planet, as if untouched by intelligent creatures. Unmolded and unyielding.
The trees were much taller than it used to be, its branches reaching high up as if awaken from a deep slumber. Theirs leaves so large it could house many families under its shade. Vines grew and wrapped themselves around trunks and branches, all yearning to reach out for the warm sunlight.
Flowers, rich and vibrant with colors soaked from the sunlight and then strutting its beauty, making others ashamed of themselves. They sang with all their colorful glory.
No large animals roamed the land. Only the sea. And even there, they glowed and shone their beautiful scales to the sun.
Small rodents ran around the ground, up and down branches. Birds of all varieties flew from branches to branches, singing a song of freedom and joy.
The blue skies looked bluer and rain tasted like fresh water. Nights are brighter than normal with the rings scattering from one horizon to the other horizon, glowing like a knife slicing the sky in half.
This girl has seen the world blaze on fire, rage with anger, tamed by the heavens, and soothed by nature. She walked mountains that remained unperturbed by the drama below. She watched as her fellow inhabitants scrambled to survive, losing connection with the world around, history and folklore becoming legends, and the sun becoming a mythical mystery, unseen by their naked eyes.
No one seemed to remember what life was like above ground, as they were lost trying to survive when the world seemed to rip apart under its own seams.
This girl cried her tears for friends, families, and her whole existence. She was tired and lonely despite all the wondrous and unclaimed beauty of this planet.
Until one day, she saw something in the sky that she saw before. Having spent her entire life mapping the sky, she knew every marking, every star, and every asteroids and comets that flew across the sky.
And that night, the sky had one additional star. It wasn’t just any ordinary star. It was moving and hovering within the ring of the planet.
Was it a visitor? She was so lonely on this beautiful planet. Isn’t beauty wasted when not shared with another companion?
So on one lovely sunset, upon a rocky beach that seemed to darken with blue shells, the sea waving in and out in tepid mood, an alien being walked the shores that no other being had walked since the crashing of the moons.
And this girl was waiting, though it was more like she was lurking, atop a cliff where once a beautiful, majestic lighthouse stood, overlooking the forgotten seaport town of Fiammetta.
