Children of the Sun and Moon (Part 3)

This is the third part of the Children of the Sun and Moon story.

## Story

From the explosion, a Dream Warrior emerged. He looked like Ra and Ranald's Golden Griffin Warrior Form, save for some differences: Red antlers grew from the pauldrons of his armor that are shaped like griffin ears, his right arm being Aurum's **Imperial Gold Crystallized Arm**, and a dragon tail has scales of brilliant yellow, fiery red, and saffron orange covering it, with a golden-yellow flame at its tip. He wore a Crown Head Gear like Ra's, but with red antlers, it's called the **Midday Crown**. "This is our combined form, **Aurum the Golden Griffin Warrior of the Blazing Zenith**," Aurum said from the griffin head breastplate on his Mate's chest. "I do not know how powerful it is compared to Dad's but..." "We'll try it out!" Arnaldo said. After that, he and his Mate in their combined form flew off to met their father. "How's Raleigh and Ariel?" Arnaldo asked his Dreamland Mate.

"They will do fine. I believe in them, just as how I believed in you," Aurum assured him as they flew over a part of Dreamland where Arnaldo's younger brother was.

Comet and Raleigh engaged each other in a contest of riddles. It was set up such that the riddles asked by the white reindeer start out easy, and then grow difficult. In short he was forcing his Mate to think out of the box.

"Can you write down eight eights so that they add up to one thousand?" Comet asked with a curious tone. Raleigh sat down and thought. He remembered a question like that once appeared in a test he took during math class. His teacher must be trying to be difficult back then. He walked around, thinking, until he nearly tripped over a tree branch. "Aieee!" He screamed, and regained his footing. Then he took the tree branch to where Comet was lying down. He scrawled this on the ground:

888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1000. "That's good thinking. Did your teacher from grade school teach you that?" the white reindeer asked, jumping with joy. "Well, yes," his Earth Mate told him.

"I am something people love or hate. I change peoples appearances and thoughts. If a person takes care of them self I will go up even higher. To some people I will fool them. To others I am a mystery. Some people might want to try and hide me but I will show. No matter how hard people try I will never go down. What am I?" Comet asked. Raleigh was stumped.

He thought for a while...he answered, "Health." His Mate shook his head. "Not correct." Raleigh then took the tree branch and tapped the ground. He thought of one time he heard his parents joke about their age and what they did during their university days. "Dad said that his time there changed him a lot..." he wanted to give an answer to Comet, but he held back. "But a university doesn't go even higher." So he answered, "Age" to Comet's riddle. "That's right!" he said. "Now brace yourself for this one."

"I am you and you are me, who are we when we be one?"

That caught Raleigh off-guard. "Huh?" He thought for a while. Comet is his Mate, how can they be the same. He remembered being told by his father that he and his mate have the same flesh and soul. Maybe it's the same with Comet and him. He looked at the white reindeer, puzzled, and then leaned next to him. "Maybe you...and me have the same soul?" Comet nodded. "We are Dimensional Mates, like our father before us. Same flesh, same blood, same soul. That means..." Raleigh whispered. "That we will fight evils together," Comet replied. "And we will stick with our siblings and their Mates, and each other," he whispered back. Raleigh stretched out his hand. His Dreamland Dimensional Mate touched his hand with his hoof. At that moment, a silvery white glow enveloped both the hand and the hoof.

"But we have different bodies," Raleigh told Comet. "You're a deer, and I'm a human." "Well, we can share our power," Comet spoke. That gave the boy an idea. Now he knew the answer to the riddle.

"I am you and you are me, together, we are **Comet, the Silver Deer Warrior of the Piercing Twilight**!" Raleigh shouted as both he and his Dimensional Mate became encased together in an egg of white light, with blue and golden wisps circling it...

A Dream Warrior emerged from the egg, wearing a silver bodysuit with Comet's head on Raleigh's chest as armor, and golden antlers with red tips growing from the shoulder plates. A **GoldenRed Antler Crown** sat on his head, and he wore white gauntlets and vambraces with saffron orange stripes on his arms while his hands are black. His right arm was a **Silver White Crystallized Arm** with a dark blue pyramid on his right hand. He had silver ribbons emerging from beside his flanks, with his knees covered by white knee armor, calves by white greaves with saffron orange stripes, and deer hooves as his feet. He wore a white belt with a pearl at its center, and a dragon tail covered in scales that are saffron orange at the base and transitioning to dark blue at the tail tip that grew from his behind. The tail tip has a dark blue flame on it. "I look amazing!" Raleigh mouthed in wonder as Comet the Silver Deer Warrior. "Yep, so that's why we must go to Dad now," Comet said from the chest armor. The combined form then bounded off to meet their siblings.

Silver Wing and Ariel were heard singing as part of the challenge the white griffin gave to her Earth Dimensional Mate. They have to be in sync for Ariel to pass her Mate's test. Silver Wing sometimes was faster than her Mate, sometimes slower, and at other times, Ariel would sing louder than her Mate and such. Even they had to sing different songs to harmonize, as that was the real goal of the test. As they sang, they glowed. They saw what was happening to each other and harmonized more.

"Our hearts shall be one..."

The Mates then faced each other.

"To fight as one..."

And Ariel placed her hands on Silver Wing's eagle talons.

"To defend all children from nightmares, like our father before us..." "To bring them happiness, hope and courage," "And...to inspire them by song, pen, and speech to do the same for their fellows," "So shall it be, that we aid our siblings true." "And visit our wrath on those who lie and break their oaths," "We," Ariel and Silver Wing said in unison, "As one, as **Mau, the Silver Griffin Warrior of the Harmonious Dusk!**"

A silver aura with dark blue streaks enveloped both the girl and the silver griffin, resembling an egg that floated in the air. It then exploded, revealing a new Dream Warrior, Ariel, as Mau, wore armor resembling Ra's armor, but wearing a silver bodysuit and white griffin-themed body armor, with Mau Silver Wing's head as her torso armor, Mau Silver Wing's eagle claws as her gauntlets and her lion feet as clawed boots, with dark blue stripes on them. Her right arm has a Silver Blue Crystallized Arm on it, a **Dusk Crown Head Gear** on her head, a belt with a and she has big silver wings growing from her back. She also grew a dragon tail covered in scales that are dark blue at the base to black at the tip, with a black flame shining at the tail’s tip.

"This is a wonderful form we achieved together!" Ariel exclaimed in her Mau form. She flew up in the air and did some loops, excited. She even swung her Silver Blue Crystallized Arm for a while before flying off to meet her siblings and parents. "Does this pyramid on my hand work? What's it for?" Ariel asked. Silver Wing answered from the griffin head chest armor, "It works as a dial like the one on Ra's right hand. Turn it, and you can your arm can turn into Crystallized Swords. But your swords, like that of your siblings, are unique to you."

Ariel turned the dial, and saw that her right arm turned into a Crystallized Sword that looked like her father's Fire Snake Chain, but resembling a combination of a rapier and a grapple hook with black edges. She saw it fit to call it the Ebony Hydrus Chain. She turned the pearl white pyramid dial in the opposite direction and her Crystallized Sword changed back to her Crystallized Arm. "Rest assured, dad and mom will teach us how to use our weapons well," Silver Wings spoke again to her Mate as she flew to where her siblings and her father were.

When Ranald in his Ra form, Golden Heart and Hydara saw the five children, fused with their Dreamland Dimensional Mates and wielding their new Crystallized Arms, they were stunned. Golden Heart turned to Ra and told him that his children passed the tests of their Mates and thus, they are considered worthy to be Dream Warriors. "Yet, my wife and I will train and guide them as their parents," Ranald told her. Each of the siblings told their father what they went through. "Your training as Dream Warriors has just begun, come, now in Dreamland, the spirits of the children are at peace. But on some days, when they sleep and visit this place, the nightmare monsters and spirits will come and try to kidnap them, or they will take any children who stray from the groups that go here. That's when me and Maya will take you under our wings and pass on our guiding, dream defending skills and martial arts to you."

Each of the siblings pledged to obey their parents and train to be worthy of their title of Dream Warriors and guardians of the children's spirits who visit Dreamland. Raguel as Nox the Luna Golden Hippogriff Warrior of the Silent Night turned the black pyramid on his right hand to change his Luna Gold Crystallized Arm into a Crystallized Sword called the Katanight, a sword that has a golden blade and red edges like his father's, but with a black mist surrounding it. Eliana as Eos, the Rose Golden Deer Warrior of the Rising Dawn turned the golden pyramid on her Rose Gold Crystallized Right Arm to turn it into a Seven Thorns Flamberge Blade, a sword with a rose gold undulating blade with silver thorns on each curve, and red edges. Arnaldo as Aurum, the Golden Griffin Warrior of the Blazing Zenith turned the golden pyramid on his Imperial Gold Crystallized Arm to change it into a Crystallized Sword called the Claw-ossal Khopesh, that resembled his father's Claw-ossal sword, but with a sickle-shaped blade with a smaller claw-like blade joined to it by a blue pearl joint made of Heavenly energy. Raleigh as Comet the Silver Deer Warrior of the Piercing Twilight turned the dark blue pyramid on his Silver White Crystallized Arm to change it into a Crepuscular Saber, a Crystallized Sword with a silver-white curved blade with black edge, and golden hieroglyphs carved on the flat of the Saber. Lastly, Ariel as Mau the Silver Griffin Warrior of the Harmonious Dusk turned the pearl white pyramid on her Silver Blue Crystallized Arm, turning it into a Crystallized Sword called the Rapier Wit, a sword with a straight silver white blade with blue stripes and black edges, with blue curved blades extending from the blade's bottom.

"Like my Claw-ossal, the Swords your Crystallized Arms just turned into can change size according to your will," Ranald as Ra spoke, as he turned the pyramid dial on his Crystallized Arm to change it into his Claw-ossal. Ever since Ranald and Ra graduated from Aether World Cosmic University, it transformed (or as Ra and Lilac put it, evolved) into its current form, and now consists of a pair of Golden Crystallized blades, one big and one small, joined together by a blue pearl joint made of Heavenly energy. The big blade has three silver crystals growing out of the main blade facing the opposite direction of the Claw-ossal's serrated edges. This represents its owner's growth and newfound power. Golden Heart and Hydara readied their swords and crossed their blade with their son's blade. Their children then crossed their swords with their father and grandparents, and swore to defend the children of Dreamland as their guardians and defenders.

Morning arrived. The five children were asleep in their beds when Ariel became the first to wake up. "We had a wonderful dream last night. The stories Mom and Dad told us are true," she said to her siblings as she awakened them. Raleigh, having been roused from his sleep, nodded. "I'm sure they will understand." Arnaldo, Raguel and Eliana too have already woken up, sitting upright on their beds. "Mom must be cooking something that will excite my taste buds," Raguel told his younger siblings. They rushed to the dining room, where they met Maya who had just cooked some pancakes, all with golden brown maple syrup on them. Ranald was up and asked his children about their sleepy time. When they told him about what happened, he spoke.

"You have passed the tests of your Dreamland Mates. I'm sure that when you meet again, you will learn how to work together and get along very well. While you share your feelings and experiences with each other, I will be there to guide you in your dreams, and Maya when you are awake."

The children nodded and ate their breakfast. "We will be ready for whatever comes our way," said Arnaldo, his mouth stuffed with food. "And we will help and protect each other, even correct if we ever make mistakes," Ariel said. "That's right," Raleigh added, "Guess our adventures in Dreamland are only the beginning." And after breakfast, they went to take their baths and prepare for school.

Ranald thought to himself as he and Maya watched the school bus pick their children up: I don't know what my children will go through as they and their mates grow together, and what joys and sorrows they will experience. Maya, seeing her husband deep in thought, then told him, "We'll teach them that there's always something to learn, not only in their happiness, but in their pain as well. All we need to do is to train them in the right way. And no matter what," she pecked a kiss on his cheek. "I will support you."

He smiled and brought his wife inside the church he lived in since childhood, while in Dreamland, Lilac and the five Dreamland Mates of Ranald and Maya's five children watched them. "Guys," Eos asked her siblings, "What do we do before our Mates arrive?" "One simple thing..." Aurum said thoughtfully, "PLAY!" And play they did in the island of Dreamland, happily among its lands while their Mates were at school, experiencing all that it has to offer that would make great stories to tell them when night falls and they sleep, and reach Dreamland.