Story Seed - A Sea of Endless Stars

Image Source: http://moodyblue.deviantart.com/art/What-You-Leave-Behind-517307016

The desert before me stretches in all directions as far as my eyesight will go. Rocky mountains break through the sand and blasted earth; jutting upward and striving for the heavens in some bid for absolution from the scorching dry air. My mule plods along at my side, unaware of anything but the gentle tug of the reigns that dangle from my fingers.

But the desert is also the sandy beach on a shore of endless night. A sea of stars shimmer in the deep blue waters of the evening sky. Vast nebulae rippled across that deep blue sea like waves of an incoming tide so vast that no seawall could break it, and no mooring withstand it.

To the far west the light of early pre-dawn burned at the illusion like a flame eating away at the canvas of some vast masterpiece. There was beauty in this destruction much as there was beauty to the desolation of the desiccated landscape around me. Soon that sea would evaporate from the heat of the unforgiving fire. I stopped and drank my fill, sating a deep thirst that would return in due time. I drank deep, relishing in the cool waters of that starry sea. I glanced at the mule and knew it would not partake; you can lead a beast to water, but you cannot make it drink.