Summer Nights - Luca

❣ 𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐯𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧 & 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

When the song was over, they parted. Suddenly, Cecilia's eyes darted outside to the bright, glowing moon. She quickly ran out onto her balcony and called to Alberto, "Come on! Check this out!"

He followed her out and watched as she started climbing on the tall trellis next to the balcony that had pink hibiscuses intertwined in it. The girl climbed up the trellis light-footedly until she reached the tiled roof.

Alberto climbed up shortly after her and asked, "What are we doing up here?"

"You're asking a lot of questions tonight", she remarked.

"... Is that a bad thing?", Alberto slowly asked.

"No. It shows intelligence and courage, one of which has already been demonstrated generously", she told him, making him feel confident despite not having a clue what she said, "And to answer your question, we're here to look at that", she explained as she pointed to the moon.

"Oh", he sighed in understanding.

They both sat down on the tiles together and gazed up at the sky.

"The fish sure are pretty tonight", Alberto said while reaching his arm over towards the girl.

She blinked, processing what he had just said before repeating, "The fish?"

"Yeah", Alberto said obviously, before pointing up at the sky, "The fish."

She stared at him confused for a moment, "That's the moon and those are the stars", she corrected him, still baffled at what he said.

"The what?", he backtracked.

"The moon", the repeated, "Y'know, that white glowy thing up in the sky?"

Not wanting to look dumb in front of her, he said, "Pff of course I know what the moon is! I was just testing you."

"Whatever, Berto", she shook her head before looking back up at the moon from a different angle. She then remarked, "But, I guess it sorta does look like a fish if you look at it differently."

Alberto blushed before going back to his confident persona, "See? I was right."

"Ah, get over yourself", she scoffed with a slight laugh while gently pushing his arm.

Alberto's eyes then wandered towards the hills.

He pointed towards them and asked, "What are those?"

Cecilia's eyes went to where his were looking and realised he was looking at the fireflies emerging from the trees.

She told him with a wistful sigh, "Those are fireflies."

"... Are they stars?", he asked.

"No, they're...", she paused a moment, considering what she should say next. Since she met him, she could tell he didn't know much about the real world. She considered telling him what they really were but decided against it. He'd have plenty of time for that once he grew up, "They were stars... but they're not in the sky."

"Huh? How'd they get there?", he asked.

Cecilia then recalled a story her mom told her when she was little, "They fell down."

"How come?", he asked.

"Well, get comfortable cause it comes with a story", she told him.

He smiled and said, "I'm always comfortable."

"Good", she then began the story, "A long time ago, people believed there was a giant living in the moon. His name was Stolas. They say he watches over all the stars in all the dark sky during the night and during the day, his sister, Sole who lives in the sun, takes over and watches over the clouds and the blue sky. A long time ago, they each shared a half of the world.
It was good for a while but over time, all the people started to leave Stolas' half to go to Sole's because it was sunny and warm and bright. Stolas grew jealous of everyone adoring Sole and her daytime and no one appreciating the beauty of his night.
One day, he decided he had enough. He got so angry that the horizon turned bright red and he started fighting Sole. He chased her all the way to the edge of the horizon but just before he could finish her off, Sole had no other choice but to blast her brother back to his side of the world with the full power of the sun.
After their fight, Stolas kept trying to chase after his sister but she was always just fast enough to stay out of his reach.
And, to answer your question, during the fight, a lot of the stars got knocked out of the sky and those fell down to the ground and became fireflies."