The Man In the Moon and the Leprechaun
THE MAN IN THE MOON AND THE LEPRECHAUN
When the Leprechaun went to the moon to visit his father, he was so excited that he couldn't fall asleep. It had been a long trip on the swan chariot, and there had been little to visually stimulate his forever young mind so that by the time he was in the crystalline salt caves of his father's home and cheese factory in the moon, he had built up so much energy that his skin was positively bristling. They laughed when they finally saw each other. So big were their smiles that it shaped the moon.
Everybody knows that the man in the moon is a champion jumper and prides himself on more than just height and length of leap, but also on accuracy. To satisfy this athletic pursuit, the moon man made a giant target on the surface of the moon, a hundred points for landing dead center and ten points less for every ten feet of concentric circle beyond that. This simple game was generally played up to 500 and was a quick warm-up to the dice-rolled, random-spot-generated target jumping they played and another game like cricket in darts (which originated with this moon jumping game.)
The leprechaun had gotten a late start when going to visit his father due to some extra work in the clover fields when Jack Frost and the Frost Queen had hosted a croquet match on the Leprechaun's emerald lawns, forcing him to thaw out all the plants with his whispers before he could set out on the swan chariot. It was already his bedtime by the time he arrived, but both father and son were too excited to see each other, so a game or two was in order.
Now, if anyone's as good of a jumper as the Moon Man, it's his son the Leprechaun, and their zeal for fun was also equally matched. They played until the first rays of the sun peaked over the horizon before finally going underground, but the Leprechaun still wasn't ready for bed.
Besides being a renowned cheesemaker and jumper, the man in the moon is also famous for his lullabies, but even after a dozen songs, sung in his sweetest lilt, the Leprechaun's eyes remained wide, his brain alert - even though his body was exhausted.
So it was that the Leprechaun finally fell asleep with his eyes still open. His father passed out in his rocking chair beside the bed, his long white beard resting on his chest and snoring like dads do.
The Leprechaun's many shadows, mischievous on the brightest days, saw their chance for escape, and leapt from his open eyes, catching a moonbeam back to Magicalena to have their fun and hide from the sun and the Leprechaun's mother - the Lord of Light.