The story of the Sun Ravens is well-known, with many books and videos that tell the story. The story of the Moonrabbits stops with the names of the twelve daughters and their parents. So this week filled in the gaps, with some imaginings of our own.
Our story began with the Three-Penny Dream from Madame Drak. In the dream, they visited a beautiful Chinese garden with a moon gate. They looked through a stone lantern with their Dragon's Eyes open, and saw the Moon under attack by fingery cloud-like beings.
Cai the Moonrabbit showed up with a chewed up issue of The Celestial Snews, a newspaper popular with the Celestial Beings of the Immortal world. Our clever team found a coded message hidden within the articles. This led them to the Moon and the palace of Chang'e, the Moon Fairy.
Magistrate was very concerned by the news they brought. He didn't believe them at first, but his books showed that they were right -- the story of the Moonrabbits was disappearing from the page as they read. If they didn't act fast, even the memory of their names would soon vanish.
Magistrate checked through his Book of Heroes for someone to undertake the saving of the Moon, but his heroes were pretty busy that day. Our detectives kindly offered their services ("I think he's talking about us," said one detective to the others), and a crack team of Celestial Heroes was born.
Our team accepted their secret mission and headed off to Madame Wu, the most ancient of the ancient Storytellers. They found her in the garden from their dreams, sitting by a pool where she was watching their story unfold. She already knew who they were, knew why they came.
Madame Wu taught the detectives about the Wuxing, the Five Agents. She also revealed the names of the Twelve Moondaughters and their relationship to the Five Agents. The most ancient stories were being forgotten, and the Cloud Wraiths were unraveling the little bits that remained. She also had some magic to help them retrieve their Starbowl, which they accidentally left behind them.
The spell to retrieve the Starbowl took the strength and magic of three Secret Keepers -- a Teacup Troll for Water and Earth elemental magic, a Shadow Demon for Fire and Metal elemental magic, and a Fairy Dragon for Wood elemental magic.
In the South, the Cloud Wraiths fought them and lost, so they freed Ssu, Wu, and Wei, the Rabbits of the Summer's Full Moon. The Red Bird of the South admired their courage.
In the West, they fought the Serpent Cloud, the leader of the Cloud Wraiths. He also lost, and Shen, Yu and Hsu were freed, the Rabbits of the Third Quarter Moon and Autumn. The White Tiger admired their Wisdom, and said hello to the two detectives who met him in April. He named the cub they gave him Peaseblossom.
In the North, they met General Tiger, the Tai Sui of Friday, July 20. He was the General who sent the Cloud Wraiths, and he was not happy about the interference the detectives were creating. He left to report to the Grand Duke. The team freed Hai, Tzu and Ch'ou, the Rabbits of the Dark and New Moon, and the Winter. The Black Warrior admired their Compassion.
The team headed off to the Eastern Sky, and found the Asure Dragon there. He turned out to be the Duke of Jupiter, who ordered his sixty Generals to chase the Moonrabbits from the Gardens of Jupiter. He was not happy that the Heroes of the Dragon's Eye were interfering with his plans, so he wrapped them up in wispy cloud filaments.
The Bailiff called the court to Order, and the case of the Duke of Jupiter vs the Dragon's Eye Detectives began. Everyone had their say, and the Yellow Emperor asked questions of Plaintiff and Defendants. The Jury was very amused and kept giggling as the story of the rabbit's mischief all around the Celestial Heavens was told.
They dug holes from Here to There everywhere, even in the Palace of the Sun.
They ate the buds off the Chrysanthemums of Longevity from the Duke of Jupiter's gardens.
They poured Magic Moon Dust into the Old Toad's Moon Pool and turned him half purple.
The list was long.
The Yellow Emperor summoned the Daughters of Di Jun and Changxi to the court, and the detectives brought forward the lovely rabbits. But something was very strange. The detectives had already noticed the robot-like actions and words of the Moondaughters -- but now it was revealed that the trapped rabbits were actually AI Bots, complete fakes that the daughters had left behind when they escaped from the traps.
So where were the naughty Moonrabbits?
Let me just say that they were revealed at last, their mischief unveiled, and appropriate actions were taken. The great Huang Di sentenced them to work with the Duke of Jupiter, rebuilding his beautiful gardens, to be followed by a round of apologies and reparations. The daughters agreed to tone down the mischief, and the Duke agreed that maybe his Generals and their Cloud Wraiths went a bit too far in their revenge.
The Detectives made a good case for the Moon's significance to the Earth. And Huang Di found them blameless in all of this mischief -- they were, in fact, true Heroes, helping to bring balance to the chaos and order of the Celestial Realms.
The judge requested their autographs, which they happily provided. The Celestial Snews went viral with the new story of the Mortal Children who saved the Moon. And the after parties were wonderful, with plenty of jewels left over for a grand showing of fireworks.
Photos of the children's drawings and their beautiful Moonrabbits are on the Dragon's Eye Adventures Facebook page! The creativity of our detectives was amazing this week.
Thank you, also, to Missy Heald and Krystal Hoehling for the rescue of one of our Moonrabbits. Its trip to the Moon missed slightly and it landed in the lights of the Maker's Room.