The Lost Moonchild

Ariadne, a blond, straight, long haired young girl, with astonishingly huge green eyes, a skin as smooth as silk and as white as snow, uncommonly tall and thin, by far the most beautiful lunar nymph ever seen, was expecting her firstborn. The entire kingdom was delighted about their Queen being pregnant. Every single citizen sympathized with Ariadne because of her sweetness of temper and unparalleled goodness. All the people really wished to contemplate how graceful and refined will be her child.

Dante, the mightiest solar warrior in the galaxy, was a black, straight, long haired man with tanned skin, big blue eyes and a burly, tall body. He had married Ariadne one year ago due to an agreement made many decades before by their predecessors to form an alliance between the kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon, Delphi and Skyros, respectively. Dante proclaimed that his child’s advent would be the cause of the most magnificent celebration ever provided by a King. “That day will be remembered for centuries,” he proudly said.

But there was a terrible truth about Dante’s ascendancy. His father had told him that it would be a terrible disgrace to his reputation if his firstborn was a female. Other kingdoms would not respect him, and another man would have to take his place as king to preserve their ancient tradition of giving absolute power to the young monarch only if his firstborn was a boy. That was the reason why he desperately wanted his firstborn to be a male, in order to honor his lineage and keep the throne. If the new child does not resulted to be a boy, his rage would be unleashed with no limits at all, provoking very serious consequences.

Ariadne wanted to know beforehand what the future of her child would be, so she decided to look for an oracle that can foretell events to come. Dinah, an experienced enchantress who was present in the most difficult wars to defend the kingdom against its archenemies, resided in a distant, dark, cold catacomb in the northern region of the kingdom. Even though the Queen would have to travel four days on horseback to get there, it was well worth. Nobody was better than Dinah to accurately predict anything. But the trip had to be secret because Ariadne did not want Dante to know anything regarding the child if it was not a boy to avoid his reprisals against the poor creature.

Ariadne asked her loyal servant Delilah, a shy, tiny, curly haired, pink skinned girl, to prepare everything for her long trip. Even though Delilah’s eyes were slanted, when Ariadne gave her the instructions, they were so opened in amazement that looked almost like her Queen’s eyes.

She fell face to the ground and implore Ariadne not to go on that trip. “His Majesty the King Dante would not forgive you if you do that, my fair lady. Not asking him for permission to do that would be defiance to his authority, and probably he would punish you, my fair lady. You already know his temper… Please, I am begging you, my Queen, stay here! I do not want you to suffer.”

Ariadne smiled sweetly and said with a very confident voice: “Oh, my dear Delilah, do not be so worried about this. Nothing bad would happen to me. Remember that I am a lunar nymph, so the Moon is always protecting me. I will be fine.” With no other choice, Delilah obeyed and packed her Queen’s belongings and saddled one of the fastest royal steeds.

What was going to be the Ariadne's excuse to hide that long trip from her husband? She thought that it would be perfectly credible to say that she wanted to visit one of her beloved sisters in the northern region. “I will tell Dante that Meredith, my older sister, invited me to spend four days in her castle with her and my cute, twin nephews, Damian and Sebastian,” she murmured. After those meditations, she immediately went into the enchantress’ catacombs. With a mysterious look in her wide, penetrating black eyes, Dinah received her Queen.

Ariadne said to her: “I really need you to use your incredible premonitory abilities, please. What I want to know is simple: is my child going to be a boy or a girl?”