[Gift] dancing the night away

Eclipses didn’t mean anything to Anahera.

It was just a weird word, but crucially, it was a party she got to stay up for and wear fun clothes for!  Whatever it meant, she didn’t really care, because it was obviously a great thing!

Her mother had gotten her a sparkly dress that went from purple to black and had a lot of cool golden sequins on it, and she had glittery golden shoes on, and nothing else mattered to her!

Well, okay, the food mattered.

At the moment the eclipse began, she had actually just started shoving another cupcake into her mouth, stealthily taken from a server while her mom wasn’t looking.  There were limits on how many treats she was allowed to eat, after all - but if she could just eat it before her mom found out, there would be no problems!

Dimly, she registered that things were becoming oddly silent.  She wasn’t often awake in the day, but she knew vaguely that lots of animals were and made sounds.  Till then, the birds had been chirping.

But now it was quiet.

Less dimly, as she swallowed the cupcake, she noticed that the light was getting… dimmer?

Suddenly, her mother was crouching down to place a pair of weird glasses on her.  “Look at the sun, baby,” she whispered, as though afraid to disturb the silence.

Anahera screwed up her face a moment, because the sun was bright and hot, why would she want to look at it?  But…  She spotted strange little crescents of light on the ground, and the shadows seemed alive…  And so she looked, and gasped.

One of the moons was slowly covering the sun.  The night was covering the day in one direction, as streams of fire flowed from the golden disc above.

“Mommy, it’s being eaten!” she squealed, clinging to her as she stared, awestruck.

Stellara laughed softly.  “Not quite.  The moon is just covering it up for a little bit, and then the sun will be back.”

This was an immense disappointment to Anahera, who had hoped that if the sun was eaten by the moon, she would stop having a bedtime.

Still, the toddler was too awed by the sight to tantrum about it.  The temperature began to drop, even, and then her mother was wrapping them up in a blanket as soon as she shivered.  It was soft and purple, and she cuddled into her mother, not taking her eyes off the sun and moon above.

It was an experience she would remember far past her toddler years, seeing the sun vanish, hearing the animals so confused…  The world was so cool, and every day there was something new to see and learn.

“Why can’t we have eclipse every day?” she asked, when it was over, yawning.

“I uh…  Can I explain it tomorrow?” Stellara asked, nervously wondering where she could find a guide for how to explain it to a toddler.  She’d see explanations for older children, but…

Fortunately, luck was on her side - Anahera did not immediately answer, and when she glanced down at her child, she saw she had fallen fast asleep as soon as the excitement had died down.