An old story of the sun, moon and stars
(I can’t quite remember the full story, but I wanted to tell it nonetheless. I tried to fill in the gaps when needed!)
A long time ago, the god of the sun, Arao, and the goddess of the moon, Bulan, had their own families of stars. Each loved their stars dearly, and let them play in the sky as they ruled over day and night. However, Bulan's stars could not glow as brightly or as fiercely as Arao's, and she feared that the heat from Arao and his stars would destroy them. Overwhelmed with fear, she decided she must do whatever it takes to protect her children.
She confronted Arao, and convinced him that to maintain the balance between them, they must destroy their stars. Arao agreed reluctantly, and swallowed his stars whole. Bulan, on the other hand, cleverly wrapped her stars in the clouds, and sent Tala, her eldest daughter, to confirm the Sun's slumber every night as she prepared to rule the sky. Once Tala reported that his light shone no longer, Bulan would rise to the clouds and release her stars from hiding to let them play among the dark night sky.
Unfortunately, Arao had suspected something was not right, as he had mourned the loss of his children for days, while Bulan never seemed to mourn her own. One evening, he pretended to sleep and dimmed his light, tricking the moon’s stars into coming out from behind the clouds. Furious at the Moon's lies, Arao roared and rose back up into the sky, biting Bulan and turning the moon red with blood. Tala, watching her mother fight the angry sun, gathered her siblings and whisked them away. Bulan followed close behind, keeping Arao at bay as he chased them across the sky. They hid from the angry god in the clouds, until the bitter and wrathful sun fell victim to sleep once more, fearful of their safety.
When it came time for Bulan to rule the sky, Tala volunteered to rise first from her siblings to check to see if Arao had truly gone to sleep, and swore to the Moon that she would guard her siblings from his rage. She stood low in the sky, watching for the first sign that Arao had awoken. Once she spied the dawn on the horizon, Tala would usher her siblings into the clouds, and call for Bulan to follow them into hiding. Eclipses were explained by Arao getting close enough to Bulan to bite her, and the red light of the eclipse was her blood staining the sky.
