The last two days have been like a sweet dream for me. Just a week ago, I would not have believed, that I would meet a cute boy when I was having a lakeside walk. What is even more unbelievable, is that he happened to be the Prince of the Moon!
I enjoyed the day chatting gladly with him along the forest path, while enjoying the refreshing air and scenery at the same time. In the evening, I invited him for a dance under the magnificent night sky of Kultajärvi, and after that, he also got to chat with the three fairies in my house. On the second day, we enjoyed some tea, and then I took him on my boat and showed him around the lake under the bright sunlight of mid-spring. At night, we gazed upon the stars, and I taught Serenity how to find constellations!
Seeing him enjoying every moment spent with me, I felt extraordinarily joyful. It is as if I have really found someone who loves being with me. A cute one, in fact. And that only makes my heart melt in immeasurable warmth.
Earlier, I have told both Serenity and the fairies that I want to visit the Moon. The notion of that would have sounded to be totally absurd to me a couple of months ago, since I thought only mythological beings are able to travel to the Moon, and no one in real life could ever achieve that feat in the near future. But if Serenity was able to travel all the way across the sky to Earth, then I think he can also bring me to the Moon.
I cannot wait to become the first person from the Kingdom of Kultajärvi, or possibly, the whole planet Earth, to land on the Moon! I want to meet Princess Mercury, and engage in an in-depth conversation with her about all forms of knowledge, from science, engineering, mathematics, to history and literature. I want to meet Princess Jupiter, and learn some cool martial arts from her, then enjoy some of her best Lunarian dishes! I want to meet Princess Mars, and listen to her premonitions about the world's future. And lastly, Princess Venus is who I wanted to meet the most. According to what Serenity told me about her, she is the leader of the Prince's Sisters and has been wielding her sword since she was nine, and apart from that, her appearance looks very similar to her brother, as if they were twins! On top of that, she is also said to be the most beautiful princess of the Moon Kingdom! I am already imagining myself being in her finely-decorated room in the Moon Palace, discussing with the golden-haired princess in her intricate yellow gown, about which outfit makes me look the best.
Having awakened from my beautiful dreams by the bright and easterly sunlight of early morning, I got up, stretching my arms to welcome yet another fabulous day. I made my way down the wooden stairs, and prepared some breakfast for myself.
Not long after that, I heard a voice.
"Hyvää huomenta, Aurora!"
Serenity seemed also to have woken up!
As always, his heartwarming morning greetings energized me like the moonlight. Seeing the Moon Prince awaken always gives me feelings of joy and elatedness, and I could not be happier when I know he is waking up.
Having finished preparing the breakfast, I laid the plates on the table while the sounds of Serenity's footsteps down the stairs came to my ears. Soon enough, Serenity turned towards me, and gracefully took the seat opposite to me by the table. It is time to begin our first meal of a new day.
Some time after we began enjoying the breakfast, I remembered my dream about going to the Moon, and asked, "Serenity, how did you arrive on planet Earth?"
Answering with a bright smile, Serenity said, "I arrived here with my spaceship. It's a ship that can fly you to anywhere in the Solar system, beyond the atmosphere of the Earth."
A ship. Flying anywhere in the Solar system, between the Earth and the Moon, and between planets! This idea sounds very novel to me, and I wonder, if such a ship really exists!
After thinking for a while, I told Serenity my intention to visit the Moon. "As I said some time earlier, I really want to visit the Moon and meet your sisters. Would your spaceship be able to take me to the Moon?"
"Uh..." Serenity hesitated for a short while, before coming up with an answer to my question. With a new clarity in his mind, he said, "Yes. It's a rather comfortable ship with reliable autopilot capabilities. We don't need to do anything after we tell the ship the destination coordinates, then it will fly us there, across the sky."
So, Serenity's ship is not only capable of travelling between planets, but can also fly itself to the destination automatically? Being amazed by all this, I exclaimed, "It sounds so magical!"
He responded with much enthusiasm, saying, "It indeed is! This kind of ship is designed by the Royal Lunarian Aerospace Engineering Institute, which allows us to travel to different planets of the Solar system."
With an inquisitive tone, I asked, "Has anyone ever reached another star system with that ship?"
And to no one's surprise, he told me that this was not the case, while the enthusiasm in his tone has reduced. "We've navigated beyond the Kuiper belt, which is regarded as the edge of the Solar system. But since the nearest star system to the Solar system is more than 4 lightyears away, we're not really capable of interstellar travel at this time."
I looked out of the window, and turned back to Serenity. With a dreamy expression, I let out my thoughts about the space to the prince. "I had a dream of travelling to distant stars I frequently see in the night sky. But they are so far away, from a realistic point of view. Although I may say, that going to the Moon may already satisfy my dream of making a step out of this planet, and travel through the vast space."
Serenity exclaimed, "The space is so vast, and we're so little, compared to it. Its expanse, and beauty, is endless. When I was a very little boy, I always wished to travel through the space."
I smiled. "And so you travelled to Earth and found me! You told me about a kingdom on the Moon, about your sisters... Now, I'm the one who wants to go to the Moon!"
We continued to enjoy our breakfast, as the rays of the spring sun shines into the house.
Later on the day, I decided to notify the three fairies about my trip to the Moon.
"Flora, Fauna and Merryweather," I informed them. "Two days earlier, I spoke of going to the Moon with Prince Serenity. Now, I have decided that today shall be the day where the trip begins. There, I will meet Serenity's sisters and share some time with them."
Merryweather nodded, wishing, "We've been notified. We wish you a safe and great journey on the Moon, Aurora!"
We then packed our belongings, and bade farewell to the three fairies. As we were leaving the house, we could still hear the fairies chattering about the Moon trip.
"How will this Moon trip turn out to be, Merryweather? He's a nice boy, but..."
"Let her be, Flora. The Moon is aligned with the good side of magic, just like us."
The sun is now positioned in the southeast, as I followed Serenity into his finely decorated silver spaceship with golden Lunarian motifs, and together, we shall depart for the Moon.
With the press of a button on a holographic panel, the open doors of the spaceship slid towards each other, until they decelerated and collided silently. Afterwards, the doors slid in seamlessly, completely enclosing the spaceship from the outside air. The red lights on top of the main screen turned green, signalling that the ship is ready to depart.
"Destination: Moon Palace, Docking Bay 1."
After Serenity entered the destination coordinates into the navigation computer, the spaceship started to ascend on autopilot, departing from the surface of Earth. The both of us felt a reaction force, trying to keep ourselves downwards as the ship propels itself up at an incredibly fast speed. We are now flying higher, breaking through the azure atmosphere of this planet, and towards the vast outer space, as the ship kept ramping up its speed.
I looked outside the window with feelings of curiosity. The blue color of the sky turns darker as the ship ventures further out into the space, with less and less air molecules to scatter the blue light from the concentrated light rays of the shining sun.
On the spaceship, there is a screen, which showed the altitude of the ship relative to the Earth's surface. According to that screen, we have passed the mesopause, and would soon reach the Kármán line. The numbers on the screen kept incrementing at a steady pace, regardless of whether it was altitude, speed, or acceleration. It is unbelievable, that we are still accelerating, even when the ship's current speed is beyond my imaginations!
The ship dashed across the thermosphere, and aboard, we sighted the natural phenomenon which I was named after, the Aurora Borealis. Noticing the green ribbons and bands of lights in space, Serenity pointed out at the window, excitedly catching my attention, "Look, Aurora! It's you!"
I noticed the auroras from where they were formed - where the solar winds collides with ions of oxygen and nitrogen and charge them with energy. This energy, once released, produces the vibrant phenomenon of Northern Lights, after which I am named. Perhaps this explains why I am so energetic?
Amused by Serenity's words, I broke into laughter, with a wide smile remaining on my face after that. "If I am the Northern Lights, then you are the Full Moon!"
Serenity looked towards the Moon's brightly-illuminated near side, then turned back to me and giggled. "Yes, I am! And we belong together in our sky."
It's so cute for him to say that!
Soon, the ship has completedly exited the atmosphere of Earth. Without the constraints of air resistance, the ship blasted off, like a ray of light, towards the Moon.
"Tää onko fantasiaa, vai alku rakkauden?"
I sung out my thoughts of all this on the spaceship, as the distant stars fly rapidly across the window. Is our love a real-life fantasy? Thinking back at the sweet and cute moments we've had in the past couple of days, meeting the Prince of the Moon still sounds like a fantasy to me, even though I know that he exists in reality, and that he is right beside me, in his pretty golden hair.
The ship made its way across the sky, as the Earth's apparent size gradually diminishes into that of a small blue marble, while the Moon augments into a giant silver sphere.