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There are many gods in the world. They made the world and shaped it so that nichelings would have all we needed. Eve gave us the sky and made the islands from her footprints. Meis made the nut trees grow and blessed the fields with food. Mela brings us luck and fortune, so that in every dangerous corner, there is always a way out, even if it isn't the one you wish it was.

But there are other beings out there, those whose intentions are not so benign. Some call them gods, some call them demons. I don't know what they are and I'd prefer never to find out. And one such being is Eclipse, the eater of the sun. He still comes to us, long after many of his kind have fallen into the deep places, though these days the gods always chase him away before he can devour the light from the world.

But there was one time when he tired of being driven out of the sky before he could have his fill, so he stole the sun outright and hid it in his lair. He knew that nobody would suspect him, because if anyone would pull such a trick it would be Tata. Sure enough, he was the first suspect, and the gods summoned him forth.

"This was a very clever trick of yours, Tata," said Meis. "But we must ask that you return the sun now! My trees are dying in the dark, and there will be no food, no warmth, no light."

Tata purred a little at the words, because whilst he feared for the world as much as anyone else, he was always appreciative of a little flattery. "I'm pleased that you think me capable of such a feat," he said. "To tell you the truth, I have given the matter some thought as to how I might accomplish it. "But you have the wrong one, this time. It was not myself who stole the sun, but Eclipse!"

"Eclipse is a coward, and you know it," said Mafic. "If it were him, we would have chased him away long ago. Nobody believes you!"

Tata shrank back a little at those words, because Mafic held the power of the volcanoes and their new lands, and he had always been a little intimidated at his fellow god for that reason, but he couldn't let this continue. "That may be! But do you have any proof! If you look in my den, you will find the sun is not there. I wish it were, it is getting very cold here. Go take a look and you will see!"

"He makes a point," said Mela, and Tata was relieved at her words, because she had always been the most gentle of them and he had hoped she would stand up for him. "Show us."

So he led them to his den and they searched every corner and passage, but just as Tata had said, they could not find the sun. But they did not let him off so lightly, because it would be just like him to hide the sun somewhere else to try to prove his innocence. So they imprisoned him within his own den while they sought out all the places where he might have hidden the sun. And a dreadful time it was too, because not only was it terribly cold, Tata could not even dig his way out, because Mafic would know and put a stop to it.

But of course, the gods could not find the sun. And the longer they searched, the colder the world became. The plants died away, the prey grew scarce, and the rivers turned to ice. At last they returned to Tata in desperation, and he purred at their return. "Now do you believe me?" he said. "I'm just as cold and hungry as the rest of you."

"Don't you think I would have given it back now, if I had it?" Tata said. "If I fight Eclipse for it, will you listen to me then?"

"That would certainly be fair," said Meis, though Tata suspected she still didn't trust him.

"Then I will do it," Tata said, "but I will need your help. The sun is in the land of Eclipse, and I don't need to tell you how dangerous that is."

The gods looked ready to pile upon him there and then, and they might have done if not for Mela, the only one who did not show her claws. Her domains are luck and fortune, but what many forget is that she is also the patron of forgiveness, and she could stand to hear no more. "Wait!" she cried, positioning herself between Tata and his fellows. "We have searched the world and found no sun. The land is dying, and we will die with it, if we do nothing. Tata, if you can do as you say, I will give you my blessing."

And so, reluctantly, each god gave Tata a gift to help him in the land of Eclipse. Meis blessed him with her power over all that grows and gives good food. Mafic gave him the power of the land and the volcanoes. And finally there came Mela, with her gift of good fortune, most precious of all. And with these gifts, Tata set out to find the sun and to clear his name, with each blessing held close within his gems.

But as pleased as he was to be free of his den, he was more deeply afraid than ever in his life. It was true that he had been on many adventures and outwitted many more foes. But Eclipse, as I have said before, is no nicheling and no god, and he cannot be tricked so easily. And Tata knew this as well as you or I.

Now where Tata travelled on his search for Eclipse's lair, I cannot tell you. It may have been a terrible long journey full of hardships, or it may have been the work of a heartbeat. No doubt Tata would tell you many stories about it, but who knows how many of those you can believe? But whatever his methods, he came at last to the land of Eclipse. It lies in a place beyond the ocean and a time beyond forever, and a great dark land it is too, where nothing grows and the sky is dead and bears no stars.

Tata crept amongst the desolation, through crevasses and over boulders, but he could not catch sight nor scent of the missing sun. And wherever he went, he could not shake off the feeling that he was not alone. A scent on the wind, soft paws behind him, a flash of movement when he turned his head...

Before long, he could no longer concentrate on his task, but jumped at every sound, and that was when Eclipse chose to show himself.

Tata looked up, and there, perched upon a boulder, was a nicheling. There was no colour on his body but bone-white patterned with stripes so black they drank in the dead and desolate light, and his eyes were holes to nowhere that fixed Tata like a rabbil under the hunter's glare. But the most terrifying thing about this creature was what he lacked, for upon his chest there was not a single gem.

Yet Tata had not come all this way to be intimidated, so he gathered every piece of his scattered courage and spoke. "I am Tata, and I have come to return the sun."

"Oh, you have not!" Eclipse crossed his paws and bared his teeth, and they were not nicheling teeth but all sharp and identical, like those of the eyeless fish that lurk in the deep ocean. "You have come to play a game with me! Yes, I know how much you love to play your tricks. So we will play for the sun, and if you can catch me, then it is yours. But if I catch you, then something of yours is mine. Will you play?"

Tata was heartened by these words, because while every instinct told him not to trust Eclipse, he knew this creature spoke the truth, and furthermore Eclipse knew nothing of his blessings. For the first time since setting foot in this dreary land, he was emboldened. "Yes, I will play. What is your game?"

Ah, so he thought to hide? Then Tata would call upon his first blessing, there and then. He drew upon the gift of Meis, and as he chased down his quarry, great nut trees grew tall and strong wherever he ran. He led Eclipse a great chase through this forest of his own devising, playing every trick he knew to fool the nicheling that was not a nicheling. There was nobody who knew better than Tata the ways of covering his tracks and scent, and he had methods that you and I could not know. Any mortal nicheling would be hopelessly lost within moments.

But Eclipse knew these lands better than Tata could fathom, and while Tata sought out his trail, he crept up on him and took him by such surprise that he easily wrestled him to the ground, and Tata could not run, because the rules of the game would never allow it. And Tata knew, in that moment, what Eclipse intended to take as the condition for his victory.

And so Eclipse took the first gem from Tata's chest, and left him for dead in the ruins of his creation.

But Tata would not be defeated even by this. He awoke to find his forests withered and dead all around him, and Eclipse long gone. Yet he struggled to his feet, though his head was clouded with his loss. To lose a gem is to lose part of your soul, and Tata felt it deeply. But he had made a bargain, and when Tata makes a bargain, he upholds it to the end.

So he carried on, though it was a slow journey, until he came across the entrance to Eclipse's lair. As he had suspected, Eclipse waited for him in the caverns deep below the ground, and he was overjoyed at Tata's return. "You want to play again!"

"I still accept," Tata said, for those words gave him hope that Eclipse did not know of his remaining two blessings.

And indeed he did not, so while he hid in his caverns, Tata drew upon the gift of Mafic so that he might read the land and all that burrowed underneath it. This time he did not intend to track or evade Eclipse, but to trap him or drown him in liquid fire. Yet once again, Eclipse evaded every trap Tata set, and worse still, the wound on Tata's chest had not healed, no matter how much he tried to stem the flow. It bled out as though he had the flowing blood, and left a trail wherever he went. At last he could not carry on, and he fell to the ground, unable to fight any more, as Eclipse approached on quiet paws.

He awoke in a dark cavern, the stone so cold under his body that he scarcely remembered what warmth and light felt like. Yet still he got to his feet and sought out Eclipse, in the depths of his lair, further from the sky than ever before or since. And a terrible dark and cold place it was, with no warmth but Tata's own blood, and no light but that of his last gem.

At last he came to the deepest cavern, where Eclipse could run no further. Sure enough, he was waiting at the bottom of his foul pit, his tongue hanging out over his sharp, abyss-fish teeth, his empty eyes fixed upon the broken nicheling as he approached. And behind him...

It was a hole, but no hole that Tata had seen before or since. It was a creation of Eclipse's, and as you well know by now, Eclipse is no nicheling, and his ways are not ours. Its edges were smoother and cleaner than a broken stone, and in colour a perfect black that drank in what pitiful light remained in this place of darkness. It sat upon the world as though placed there by beings that cared nothing for stone or air, and as Tata looked upon it, he knew that, were he not broken and reduced to a single gem, he could never be able to see it at all. Only now, on the edge of his life, with no way back, could he catch a glimpse of its form.

And he knew, with the stone certainty that comes within dreams, that it was inside that terrible hole that Eclipse had hidden the sun.

"Eclipse!" he called out. "I will play one more game, but this time, the terms are mine."

"But what fun would that be?" Eclipse said. "You are already beaten. Your gems are nearly gone, and you will die here. What sport could there possibly be?"

At that Eclipse laughed, and what a horrible sound his laugh was, all high and cutting as it echoed through his caves. "There is no passage into my realm! It is no place for nichelings. There is nothing in there you can see and nothing you can understand. There is no game for you or I in that place."

Eclipse laughed again. "What, little nicheling? I have no need or your trees, or your liquid fire. I have no need of anything."

And that, for once, was enough to stun Eclipse into silence. Oh, he knew Tata was plotting something, and that something would be his downfall. But deep inside, Eclipse was curious. What could Tata hope to accomplish by giving up the very thing that made him a nicheling? Yes, he could have let Tata die here, and soon after the world would follow, lifeless and frozen. And this was what he had always wanted.

But he had been right to suspect a trick. Tata had one blessing left, and this time he did not intend to waste it. So as Eclipse tore away his final gem, he called upon the gift of Mela, that her fortune should follow him into the dark. And so he passed into the spaces beyond, no longer a nicheling, his own self gone, all thought and memory lost.

What happened in the realms of Eclipse, I cannot tell you. What Tata saw and heard in that place, no nicheling has known before or since. And he would not speak of it, from then until now, and from now until the end of time.

Yet deep within that place he came across the sun, and with the blessing of Mela he returned it to the sky.

Where he was now, he did not know, but he knew that he was as far from the realms of Eclipse as it was possible to be. Warm, golden light shone down upon him as he lay amongst soft, tall grasses. As he opened his eyes, he saw the ocean sparkle before him, a chain of tiny islands leading the way to new lands over the horizon. All around him the world flourished, and for a long while he could do no more than lie there, drinking in the beauty of it all and the joy of being alive – for at his chest, he found three smooth gems, as though they had never been gone. Eclipse had honoured the bargain.

It was a long time before he left that place. In truth he could have stayed forever, but he was still Tata, and not only did the world need his tricks, he was not one to turn down all the recognition he would surely receive for returning the sun to the world. So he set off on the long journey home, and eventually he found the gods waiting for him. And for once, he had nothing but gratitude for them and their gifts, most of all Mela, and it was to her that he ran first.

But Mela flinched away, nervous. She could not see him, but she knew something was new about Tata, as you or I might pick up on a strange new scent. And the others too looked away in disbelief, until Mafic spoke.

So he did, and he saw for the first time that while Eclipse had returned them, he had left his own mark. They had lost their spring-green colouration, and had become black, a deep, glossy black that drank in the light. At first he was shocked, but then he purred in appreciation. "I should have expected that it would not be so easy!"

But he was still Tata, new gems or not, and in time, the others of his kind grew to see it. No matter what else he might be, he was the hero who had ventured into the realm of Eclipse and returned the sun to the world. For a while he even got away with a few more tricks than he otherwise might have, although of course that could never last. And sometimes Eclipse still tries to eat the sun, but he has never stolen it since, for even he was impressed by Tata's feats that day.

But from then until now, and from now until the end of time, Tata's gems would always be as black as the centre of an eclipsed sun.

Chapter 42 - The Tale of Tata and Eclipse