Information

Aphelion has a minion!

Minion the Aphelion

Aphelion
Legacy Name: Aphelion

The

Blacklight Yaherra
Owner:

Faune

Age: 7 years, 8 months, 4 weeks

Born: June 18th, 2018

Adopted: 7 years, 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Adopted: September 26th, 2018

This pet has been nominated for the Pet Spotlight!

Statistics

Level: 53
Strength: 128
Defense: 21
Speed: 10
Health: 10
HP: 10/10
Intelligence: 145
Books Read: 135
Food Eaten: 0
Job: Professional Lab Cleaner

Balancing the Universe

The young man leaned his face to the small round eyepiece of the immense golden telescope. He absentmindedly pushed back his dark, loose curls as he squinted his other eye closed and tried to focus. Carefully he began to turn and twist the knobs on the sides of the device before letting out an almost inaudible gasp of wonder.
At this the man sitting quietly, his gaze lifted to the clear night sky visible through the open observatory above, looked forward and rose from his spot at the heavy wooden desk. He stretched, leaning left and right then arching his back and leaning so far forward his fingers brushed the loose dirt on the sandy-colored tiles. He need not rush. He knew the young man would immediately sidestep out of respect when he felt his approaching presence, so he instead held back to give him time to soak in the wonder of the new part of space he was observing, to bask in the glory of God's unimaginable creation.

"You found it?" His deep voice was gentle and warm. He used the question to give warning of his approach, a heads up to give the young man a chance to wipe away tears should he need or to take a final deep look before conceding the view.

"Yes and it's ... unfathomable in its beauty"
The man smiled softly, knowing very well the feelings of awe and amazement. He leaned forward, bracing his rough hands carefully on the end of the telescope and peered through the lenses and to the great expanse of far away space. He could hear the scratching of the pen behind him as his assistant fervently logged every detail of the nights work, eager to get everything written before any of it could fade from his mind.

The two sat on the stone steps of the observatory sharing a dinner of fresh bread and soft cheese, a side of sparkling fruit juice washing it all down. The night air was cool and clean, the sky an unbroken blue so dark is was almost black, the stars brilliantly light and glimmering.

"It makes you feel small sometimes, doesn't it?" the astronomer asked his assistant as he caught the boy looking up, chunk of bread in his hand hovering forgotten partway to his mouth, a look on his face of deep consideration. The young man's attention brought back to the here and now, he laughed at himself and gave the astronomer a contemplative look.

"Yes. It makes me feel small, but not insignificant. It makes me wonder, you know? How does it all manage to work just so, how do the stars blink and dance and implode, how does life flow out of all of it."

It was the astronomer's turn to chuckle, a hearty and warm sound. This is why he had taken the young man as his assistant after all, the curious mind and open heart that made him feel so much kinship, made him see so much of his younger self in another.
"Have I told you yet the legend of Aphelion and Perihelion, of how they balance our universe and keep it always moving in line?"
The brightening of the assistant's eyes and the sudden rise in his posture as he leaned in with a fresh alertness was all the answer the astronomer needed.

It is said that when the universe came into being it was formed not through the violent fire of a forge nor the gentle melody of a song, but through the impassioned flicks and swoops of a great artist’s brush.
The Creator poured the colors of their love, beauty, creativity, intelligence, and intensity onto a pallet, blending them until they formed new and unnamed hues. They stood then before the great dark canvas of the nothing before time, and began to paint.
They dipped and shook – splattering droplets that crashed against the nothing and split into all types of sizes and shapes – the birth of planets and stars and meteors and moons. They stroked the brush against the canvas, smoothing and blending, creating the shimmering light of suns and stars, setting meteors dancing and planets spinning.
They walked through the dark, a canvas of dimensions we cannot understand and depth we cannot fathom, layering galaxies and universes, painting through time.
They reached into their own light and plucked strings of their very being, holding them above chosen places within creation, and blew against them so that they like dandelions shattered and spread, dropping seeds of life to blossom with nurturing and time.
The great canvas held within it all that was, and is, and is to come. And while the Creator could stand outside and view all they had created as one, the seeds who were to take root and grow could not. For they lived within the canvas, and could not comprehend the greatness until they had lived many lives and outgrown the bodies they would bloom into.
And so the Creator took the great canvas and divided it, each moment its own. They hung each canvas in a great gallery, laid out so the seeds would be able to walk from one to the other, to see in a way they could understand. And so became time. And upon time, the planets would spin and orbit, locked in their own celestial dance. Meteors would chase across the skies and burn in atmospheres or shatter amongst one another. Stars would twinkle and burn, sending out great power through their deaths and holding parts of the canvas together through their sacrifice.
The Creator had created, but their work was not done. They had stories now to write, threads to weave, melodies to sing. Life had to be shaped intimately and with great care. And so the Creator lifted their brush once more, and poured the colors of their devotion, strength, and wisdom onto the pallet. With the soft bristles of the brush they blended these, and then walked to each end of the universe.
At one end, they painted Aphelion, and at the other Perihelion. And when the painting was done, the Creator kissed each of them on the brow with great gentleness and adoration. In that kiss was the path of time, the instructions for all the celestial bodies, the map of their dances from one canvas in the great gallery to the next. And the children of the Creator understood. They locked eyes across the space that once held nothing and now held everything and began.
Then, and now, and for the forever beyond our understanding Aphelion and Perihelion will hold between them the balance and movement of creation. They are our eternal guardians and guides of the gallery, moving each celestial body along its journey with a perfect timing beyond our grasp. They walk the canvas with great power and with the peace that comes from living one’s true purpose, keeping time with each breath and step.

The astronomer’s eyes had risen to the stars and glazed slightly as he had recited the story of old, but they now twinkled back to the present. He turned his face away from the great beauty of the sky above to behold his assistant. The young man was still enraptured, his mouth slightly agape and his eyes burning with wonder. As silence fell he caught himself and closed his mouth, leaning back to an upright position and looking upwards to consider the words of his teacher.
There was no need to fill the silence. The great gift of such a story is the thoughts it provokes and the space it carves out for awe and wonder and a little faith to find fresh soil.
And so the astronomer, with a knowing smile, returned to his bread and cheese. The assistant sat within the silence, a grin forming on his lips, as he imagined the great canvas and the eternal work of Aphelion and Perihelion, invisible to his eyes but perhaps there before him, turning that twinkling star and shifting the moon just so. He envisioned them there, guarding the great beauty and balance of the universe, keeping in time all that he was yet to discover. And with that thought came a wave of excitement, and he leapt up to return to the golden telescope and the wonders it would show him.
The astronomer laughed with joy, but remained to finish his dinner on the stone steps beneath the great canvas above.

Credits:
Story by

Faune
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