The stars danced and twirled and streaked and fell and the moon floated low in the sky just an arms reach above the silent horizon. The mermaid laid halfway out of the cool water in the middle of her favorite lagoon on her favorite rock as she sighed deeply and gazed longingly into the secrets of the night. She had swam and explored and discovered and unlocked every mystery and treasure the ocean could hold. Her stomach grumbled and soul yearned to know the untold stories of the infinite sea of stars and moons and celestial orbs beyond the vision of the eyes trapped in her skull. She lazily rolled onto her back and let her head sway and roll turning the world upside down so that the sky became the sea and the sea became the sky. Her arm stretched out and she traced an imagineray circle around the moon in the sky and then let her fingers dangle and sink into the water just below the reflection of the smiling crescent moon. She quickly closed her hand around the water the moon laid in and brought her hand to her lips and whispered, "Trade places with me or I will swallow you whole...", her voice trailing off into a giggle. And as the moon gave no reply she sipped the water down and continued to laugh and giggle and she may not want you to know this, but she snorted once or twice as well, and then let out a deep sigh full of dreams and wishes. She slide back into the lagoon and circled her favorite rock and swam to the bottom and grabbed a handful of starfish and shoot back up and out of the surface of the water and tossed the starfish flying through the air to do their nightly ballet. She splashed back into the water and swam back to her rock and searched the sky for the moon. She looked left, she looked right... up... down... she swam on her back in circles and zigzags looking and looking, but the moon had vanished.
The mermaid pulled herself out of the water and sat curled tightly on her rock wondering and worrying about where the moon had gone. She quietly whispered to herself, "...no... no... no... I didn't swallow the moon, it was only pretend...". Her eyes began to swell and her heart trembled and a tear began to swim toward the corner of her eye and as it slowly crawled down her cheek a small white sliver cut open the dark indigo sky and a star came crashing through and whooooooosshhed over the silent horizon and splashed into the lagoon. Without thinking she slipped back into water and swam sure and fast to where the star was sinking and glowing brightly. With her two arms reaching far in front of her she swished her tail and body back and forth faster and faster until she held the star in her two hands. It was warm and cool and hummed and sang without making a sound and the mermaids lips spread into a wide smile. The star had been sent by the keepers of the secret of secret keepers to grant her her dreams and her wish and the mermaid instantly knew what to do. She swam three circles round and round and round her favorite rock and gathered one and two and three of her favorite star shaped fish and glided across the bottom of her favorite lagoon and then darted straight up and out of the water and into the night and arched her back and touched her tail to her nose and made a circle silhouette in the sky and then splashed back down. Then swam to the bottom and back up into the night higher and higher until she went so high into the sky that she hung there like a dream suspended and glowing and beaming and she became the new moon. And only the keepers of the secret of secret keepers and you and me know the story of The Mermaid Moon.