In a time so long ago it has almost been forgotten, when all the people could understand the wind’s whispers and the water's secrets, the sun and the moon lived in the same sky. Day and night were one. But gradually it came to be evident that the sun was growing stronger. As the sun grew stronger, the moon faded away. The sun, perceiving this, was full of grief. For who was he without his wife the moon? People worshipped him as the king of the world, but what was a king without his queen? In despair, he cried out, and his cry was heard. The only way for his wife to live was for him to die. How does an immortal being die? By releasing his hold on the world. By laying down his life, his wife could continue to draw breath. Not even stopping to consider this, he released his hold. With his last breath, he breathed some of his power into his wife. Then the sun, dying, left the world in an eternal darkness. The world gave up hope, only to see a glow in the sky. The sun had left some of his light for his wife, the moon. In this eternal darkness, the moon shed her tears of silver. These tears, shed in love and pain, shone so brightly in the night sky that they came to be called stars. The moon, no longer overpowered by the sun, still wasted away in misery, because she missed the sun. she grew smaller everyday, until she was but a sliver. She, like her husband before her, cried out and was answered. Only one of them could live in the sky at once. The moon could not live without her husband, but he could not live without her. The moon decided that she would give up half the time she had control over the sky, and trade that time for her husband. To this day, the sun and the moon take up half of the sky, and they take turns exerting their power over the heavens. But twice a day, the sun and the moon see each other, and they fill the sky with color because of their joy. They will never be together the way they were before, but they both live because of the other's sacrifice. This is why the sun and the moon are no longer together, why the moon has phases, and how the stars came to be.