Rose of The First Moon

chapter 1: Marriage and Family.

                  One night while the mortals were hunting under the moon's light Nanna the god of the moon went on a walk through his secret garden. As he was walking he saw a beautiful young women trying to convince her father not to marry her to someone she did not want to marry. Every young man in her tribe eligible for marriage wanted her . After seeing her beauty and bullheadedness he wanted to take her as his bride.

                          He went down to the village where the girl lived to ask for her hand, but realized she did not want to marry anyone. instead he decided to find her and ask for her name. When he approached her she was standing alone by a stream crying by a rose bush. So he picked one and said " Are you alright Beautiful lady?"

She responded with "My name is Nangal and yes I'm alright."

                                 As he sat with her by the river she told him about what her father wanted for her, and how she wanted to marry someone who truly loved her and not just her beauty. Everyone in tribe called her the beautiful one. She was the most beautiful women in the tribe. Nanna sat with her the entire night and realized there was more to her than her beauty but her heart and her courage.

                                         He told her that she should be allowed to marry for love and not for her beauty. She looked at him with a smile he had tried too hard to bring out. To him she had the most beautiful smile that lit up the night brighter than the moon's light. He stood up and asked her to take his hand so he could show her his garden. As she walked through his garden with him guiding her by hand, she noticed a beautiful bush of multicolored roses.

                                         The roses stood out like a candle light glowing in the dark. Nanna noticed her glancing at the rose bush at the other end of the garden and took her to get a closer look. only one rose was blooming. He looked at her and said "This is the rose of the first moon, it grew on the very first night where the moon lit the sky. Every night when I look at this rose I see the beauty the moon can bring.

                                                 She looked at him and realized she had never asked for his name. "Who are you?" she asked. "I am Nanna." He said. She realized who he was and bowed to him. "Get off the ground Nangal, I want to treat you as my equal and someday hope to gain your love. You are beautiful and kind and full of heart, do not ever change. Those are the things I love about you." She smiled again, but not in the same way, she moved closer and said "Thank you for what you just said to me" and kissed his cheek.

                                                        "My darling Nanna, who is to say you have not already? You are the first man I have met who talked with me and never asked for my hand. I do not know why you chose not to, but I am glad you showed me enough respect to let me get to know you first" ,she said,"That means more than you know."

                                                             "Well you need to go home to your village, your father and mother are looking for you, I wish I could say I won't miss you until we see one another next." Then he took her back to her village and politely kissed her hand and returned to his garden.

                                                                 Later that night he went to his garden and picked the rose and enchanted it. In two months if Nangal was not his bride the petals would burst into flames and so would his garden. The very garden where he was born and grew up. He knew if she said no he would lose it all.

                                                                 For the next few days she came to his garden to talk to him and get to know him more, within a month she had fallen for him. She was unaware of the spell he had cast on the flower that had caught her eye. Two days before the end of the second month he took the flower and asked for her hand and she accepted his proposal.

                                                              On the night of their wedding Nangal revealed to him that she was not a mortal but a goddess of fertility masquerading as a young women. She had no idea he already knew, and later that night when they completed their vows she started to glow and two children emerged from her glow Utu the sun god and his twin sister Inanna goddess of love. The children looked at their parents and stood each with their own gift and power.