How I wonder what you are....

Once upon a time,

I remember gazing at the stars that night.

Losing myself to the celestial bodies that loomed above me, resembling a canvas made of black silk with diamonds scattered upon its smooth surface.

It was like looking into a stygian sea with pinpoints of light to guide you.

Then, one of them began to move.

It was as though it were a crystal, rippling and shaking from the vibrations of sound. Then it broke away from the darkness and twinkled and beamed as it began its luminous descent across the sky.

I watched as it raced towards me. It was surreal, unexpected.

I reached out my hands as though I were trying to catch a ball.

As soon as it made contact with my fingers, I winced and groaned.

It burned upon contact, yet the star was the most beautiful thing I had ever beheld. Its iridescence was inhuman, colors of all kinds flashing and glowing, singing a soft melody as it felt my grasp upon it begin to waver.

I did what any sensible man would have done.

I put the star in a cage.

It hummed and buzzed against the gilded bars, but the star made no fuss as it hovered and danced within the tiny perimeter that surrounded it.

It almost seemed to enjoy its captivity.

As the days grew longer, I began to covet the star. Obsessing over its presence. I was plagued by its existence and the fact that it remained within my possession.

But then, one day, the star no longer sang its bright songs. It remained at the bottom of the cage. Its light flickering and dimming like an exhausted candle, choking on its own pool of wax.

I tried everything within my power to cheer it up and make it lively again.

Nothing seemed to work. Not even the sound of my own songs or musical instruments.

So I did the only thing I could think of...and dreaded.

I took the cage out into the middle of the star gazing field. Shakily unlatched the door, scooped the coldness out of captivity and whispered to it. Wishing upon the star.

It came to life, slowly but surely, it burned and blazed one more time, bursting like fireworks as it shot out towards the heavens and began its long ascent.

A journey that I knew all along that would have to be taken eventually.

With a smile and a tear, I watched as it diminished into the familiar blackness to join the others that twinkled above me.

"Then the traveler in the dark, thanks you for your tiny spark; He could not see which way to go, If you did not twinkle so."

With an empty cage, I turned on my heel and left the field. Hoping and praying that the star I once called my own would find the happiness it deserved.

A caged star is a dead star.

A free star is a living star.

They were never meant to be caught.

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C'est fini! I watched Howl's Moving Castle and concocted of this little idea for a story. It seems riddled with metaphors and symbolic meaning, but I'll let you figure them out. In the meantime, be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise!

~Piper