The Lunar Cicada

  Every 17,000 years, a cosmic ballet unfolds in the heavens. It begins with a total solar eclipse, not as an omen of darkness, but as a veil for a spectacular rebirth. During such a rare alignment, the Moon, which for millennia has been slowly transforming. It ceases to be merely a celestial body and reveals its true nature: a colossal, cosmic egg.

As the last sliver of the sun disappears, the Moon cracks. From within emerges a creature of breathtaking wonder: a Lunar Cicada. Its form is ethereal, shimmering with starlight and having a vast translucent wings. This isn’t a destructive hatching; instead, with gentle, rhythmic motions, the Cicada begins to consume its former shell, the very substance of the old Moon. The process is one of quiet magnificence, the debris of the consumed lunar surface scattering into a temporary, glittering halo around the emerging creature.

Once the last fragment is absorbed, the Lunar Cicada settles, its enormous body suspended in the eclipse’s twilight. For precisely one hour, it emits a series of soft, resonant chirps. These are not random sounds, but intricate, melodic patterns that ripple through the void, audible only to the most sensitive instruments on Earth. As the hour concludes, the Cicada carefully deposits a new, perfectly spherical egg into orbit — the new Moon, fresh and nascent.

With its cosmic duty fulfilled, the creature then turns, its vast wings catching the faint light, and makes a silent, resolute journey directly into the heart of the sun, disappearing in a flash of brilliant energy.

For millennia, the tale of the Luna Cicada was dismissed to the realm of myth, a whispered legend among esoteric scholars. Yet, scattered across humanity’s most ancient sites were tantalizing clues. Deep within one of Egypt’s most ancient pyramids, hieroglyphics unlike any other depicted a celestial event mirroring the Cicada’s return. While many archaeologists often wondered if the cracked circle, a winged creature, and concentric circles were part of a fantastical artistic allegories for forgotten gods, there were a few who believed it to be an actual event our ancestors experienced.

It was only in the present era, with monumental advances in xenolinguistics, cosmic acoustics, and AI-powered pattern recognition, that a dedicated team of researchers made the breakthrough. The team began to analyze the faint, resonant chirps recorded and realized that it was not a simple song, but an incredibly complex, mathematical prophecy.

Embedded within the seemingly random chirps was an intricate narrative, detailing key events, technological breakthroughs, and even potential societal shifts for the next 17,000 years of human existence. The discovery sent shockwaves across the globe, forcing humanity to confront a future that has, in a sense, already been sung into being. The question now isn’t what the future holds, but how humanity will choose to respond to a destiny laid bare by a creature from the stars.

Note: Tasavvur Magazine on their instagram shared a prompt: What if… the Moon was a giant egg and it just hatched? I shared part of the story as a reply and then wrote some more to share here.