Eclipse with The Trespassers

When it happened the cryos were sunbathing. 

It was a lazy day, warm and peaceful. The carnivores were laying around on big rocks, taking in as much sun as possible. The day before they hunted a big game so they didn't have to worry. Their herbivore family members were grassing around, peaceful in knowledge that in case of a problem the cryos would come with help. 

The first one to notice a change was Cowsie. He couldn't sleep, not like his siblings, so he entertained himself by counting butterflies and looking for shapes in clouds. When a thin sheet of clouds covered the sun something seemed off. 

Cowsie kicked Jawor, waking him up. “Shouldn't the sun be round?” 

“It is round, obviously, let me sleep” said Jawor, not even opening his eyes. 

“No, but, just look at it. It isn't round.” 

Jawor groaned but listened to his younger brother and looked. Soon his displeased demeanor turned into confusion and finally into curiosity. 

“Huh,” Jawor said. 

“I know, right?! Hey, Niecierpek, wake up!” 

Another cryo got woken up and after a bit of commotion all of them were awake. Arrakis seemed to be still in the world of dreams but his eyes were open, as well as the eyes of Myrtle and Niecierpek. All of them were looking at the sun hidden behind a layer of quickly moving clouds. It was very clearly becoming smaller and smaller. 

Cowsie was speechless at that. He had no idea what any of that could mean, why was the sun getting smaller in the middle of the day. Was something other than clouds covering it? Was it being eaten by something? But how could something so far away be eaten by anything? Even the tapes and tropeos that Cowsie got to speak to never mentioned being able to fly close to the sun. Sure it looked so from the earth but according to Moss she never got even slightly close to it. 

Soon the clouds moved by and the cryos couldn’t look at the sun anymore. Arrakis went back to sleep while the others tried to still look at what was happening but with no luck. 

“Ah, it’s happening again,” said Mimicry, as he got closer. 

“What is, dad?” asked Cowsie. 

“The eclipse. The sun is being hidden by the moon.” 

“Something like that happens?!” 

“Sure it does. Not often but I’ve seen some partial ones before. I heard that sometimes the sun hides completely but never got to watch it myself. I wonder how much of it will happen today.” 

“Woo…” said Cowsie and tried to look at the sun again. Next portion of clouds was getting closer to it but Cowsie still had to squint heavily to even attempt looking at it. 

Mimicry giggled a little. “Try looking at it through a leaf.” 

“A leaf?” 

“In the past I used to hide under trees and look at the sun through them. It makes it easier when you don’t look at it directly.” 

“Oooh! Okay, let’s go, let’s go everyone! We need to see the eclipse. You too Ragwort!” screamed Cowsie. 

To get out of the pile of cryos he stepped on Arrakis’ tail and Myrtle’s leg and finally even on Niecierpek’s arm, but as soon as he got out he ran towards the edge of the forest to look for a proper leaf. Somewhere behind him Mimicry walked peacefully and others groaned as they slowly put themselves together. Even young Ragwort was slowly coming over, even if he did everything to look disinterested and upset about getting to see something so cool as an eclipse. 

Cowsie tried to look through many leaves before he found the one that worked for him. It was big and round but most importantly thin enough to see everything through it. He put it in front of his left eye and closed the other one. The sky looked a little veiny through it but it was okay. He could see the sun without having to squint. 

For a moment Cowsie looked through the leaf fascinatedly, as the clouds moved and the sun was getting smaller and smaller. It was strange but also beautiful. The colors were shifting, not to those he knew from the night but to something different, something new. The temperature was dropping and a shiver ran through Cowsie’s body. 

Suddenly Cowsie realized that Mimicry didn’t have paws the same way as he did so he couldn’t hold a leaf in front of his face. Quickly, barely thinking what he was doing, Cowsie got another leaf and climbed on top of his father. Mimicry was surprised but did not object when a leaf appeared in front of his eye. Without another word the two looked at the sun as it was closer and closer to being completely covered. 

And then it happened. The dark circle of the moon covered the sun completely, leaving only a ring of light around it. The world was dark and cold and as beautiful as a dream, or maybe a nightmare. Cowsie knew he would never forget that sight. His paw went down and with an open mouth he looked at the sun without any protection. He felt his eyes water and tears rolled on his face. 

“So beautiful…” he said.

It lasted but a moment and then the moon moved again, passing through. The light came back and the world was getting back to normal. The whole group stood there for a while before they were back to their senses. There was no more sleep, not slowly grassing around. There was a conversation, a story of the past, the group listening to Mimicry as he described what he saw before. Even Ragwort was asking questions and everyone was sharing their thoughts on the matter. It happened so suddenly, with no preparation. Arrakis mentioned that if he knew something like this was possible he would hold onto the things called “sunglasses” that he found some time before. But he didn’t so it didn’t matter. 

Soon most of the gang discovered that staring straight at the sun meant their eyes would hurt. But that didn’t matter in the face of the amazing memory they got out of it.