Once upon a new world two brothers walked a new dawn. Sons of both the earth and the wind, they wandered the earth at will. With each new minute years passed without thought and miracles arose and fell before innocent eyes. Mountains jutted into a flawless blue sky and white clouds raced before the breath of their father the Wind. With each new landscape the brothers devised a game to play. A game of discovery. A game of fun.

The game? As shape shifters both brothers chose to live an hour as one of the forms they now knew that peopled the land. Upon the prairie they moved as the great buffalo. Within the woods they stalked their prey as wolves among the sheep and as eagles they soared above the clouds upon the wind. While stopping by a stream to rest they saw the flashing of the silver fish within the clear water and in less than a heart beat both were swimming among the school.

In their silvery garb the brothers glinted in the noonday sun frolicking with their newfound friends as they followed the herd like they did among the land creatures. Light as air, the brothers found a new world to explore among the fronds and forests of the waterways. Traveling with the stream, over falls and rapids their silver bodies flashed brightly in the light, but they stayed too long in the depths. Where their father's voice could no longer be heard and through the water there mother's voice was mute

So, they were lost in the forgetting of their true forms and wandered among the watered paths of the earth. Until after many hours they found themselves beneath the short-limbed willow of yesterday that grew next to a pond of clearest pure water. Weary from their trials the two rested between its roots as dusk's first sunset fell upon the earth and in that dark sky a new deity appeared. The Moon.

A younger sister to the earth she shone brightly in a blackened night. The elder of the brothers looked up and in that second his heart swelled within his chest and he was lost to the face of beauty unimaginable. Enamored of the moon he began to climb the rough bark of the willow with short fins. The other brother confused darted about but couldn't speak.

"Where be you going brother?" The small silver fish seemed to yell as he launched himself over and over from the water trying to get his brother's attention as the elder climbed the tree. But his brother didn't notice and climbed higher and higher trying to reach his beloved moon. He also didn't notice nor did he care that lungs made for water were not made to climb trees in the atmosphere. With gaping mouth and gills that flapped trying to catch his breath he climbed farther and farther reaching the upper most branches.

Bathed in lover's moonlight and with the last of his strength the elder brother reached up with a silver fin and then tumbled off the branch falling into the waiting pool below. The younger brother watched in horror and within that fear he found himself. Arising from the shallow pool again the child of gods as his brother tumbled past and into the water. Splashing water droplets exploded like sparks and the younger threw up a protective arm as the droplets flew past him and into the night.

The younger brother opened his eyes and with the voice that had returned to him but a moment before. He called the elder brother's name and searched the empty pool but he was nowhere to be found. While the tears that streamed down his face dripped into the pool unabated. The younger raised his eyes and clinched his fists looking up at the goddess. And in that moment the willow tree's branches mourned with him and grew tumbling into the water like the tears from his face.

But wonder upon wonder he beheld with his own eyes. The droplets of water had filled the night sky like diamonds upon a sea of black velvet. And next to the beauty of she called the Moon, her consort shown brighter than all their children. His brother, forever set at the side of his heart's desire.

And to this day the eldest of both Earth and Wind is still the brightest star in the night sky and the willow still weeps at the loss of a brother.