I went to a moon in the furthest place, unbelievably far away, beyond anywhere I'd ever seen. As the first human--Or life form of any sort for that matter--to visit the dull, brown ball, I carried a fairly low opinion of it. In the outlying area, as much as I could squint at anyways, ploughed farmland covered every inch of ground. Not a single crop grew in return. But beyond all that, the stars were unbelievably bright. So much that I couldn't imagine going home and being forced to look back into the sky. It seemed empty in comparison. I wanted badly to reach out and hold them; keep them all to myself forever. There were stars so radiant and lustrous they seemed to bleed into each other. It was like fluorescent paint spattered across a canvas encompassing everything above me. I had no one to share it wish.

As I dragged myself from place to place, going from one weepy field of sky-lit soil to another, I came to a crusty stone lily pad. And smelled it. It shared a scent with plaster, and I was reminded of the thousand walls I'd been trapped in before. But this was just the opposite. I was so far away from anything even resembling those all encompassing structures. Rooms and halls which were nothing but thinly veiled prisons. No, I had complete freedom, although to do what I wasn't sure. It was so lonely...

The structure stood several feet off the ground on a bowed plaster stem. Pushing myself away from the lifeless fields beneath me made me feel hopelessly trapped, alone in the air. There was not a single reminder of my humanity--Nothing to touch. I settled into the plaster blade and crossed my legs to sit, fairly thankful I was no longer afloat. I could feel the petal bending to welcome me in, its edges blowing away like a fine dust. The further I sank, the more the ends of the pad fell apart, coming up to float in the sky around me. And as they turned about, moving up and back down ever so slowly, the more they seemed to shine. Their vibrant white coloring looked like what a star should be, even more than the billions above everything. I had been given an amazing gift.

I put out my arms, almost as if to hug the sky, and I pulled the stars to my chest. I wasn't alone.