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Starlight

You know how much I love walks, especially at night.
Tonight, however, I just want to take it in.
The dimly lit scenery, the ambience.
The white noise of footsteps, the light conversations in the distance.
The gentle cool breeze, though I know -
We're running the risk of you getting cold.

Even the stars, literal diamonds in the sky.
They steal the show, no surprise there, they are stars.
They glimmer but stay there all the same.
Nature's morse code, like they have a story to tell to any who would listen.
In truth, they do have stories to tell.
The Greek alone, named about 44 constellations.
A plethora of them bordering on romance, stories of love.
A classic is that of Perseus and Andromeda.

As spectacular as that story is, it's not the one I want to tell you.
I rather ramble on about Altair and Vega, two stars split by the milky way.
As the lore goes, Vega was a celestial princess.
She had it all, except someone to share it with.
That singular fact undermined everything.
A mortal, Altair, caught her attention at some point.
He was modest, not particularly well to do, but he had a good heart.
According to some versions, he worked the farm.
It wasn't much, but it was honest work.

Legend has it that Vega would frequently descend from the heavens,
With the sole purpose of spending time with Altair.
The fondness grew the more they knew each other.
Getting closer with every passing day.
They were in love.
She made him promises, she said he'd join her among the stars some day.
The fairytale wasn't to last however.
Vega's father caught wind of the affair and was outraged.
He also found out about the promise his daughter made.
In the most cynical way possible, he made good on the promise.

He made them both stars, but they were placed at opposite sides of the sky.
They were in different constellations, Vega in Lyra and Altair in Aquila.
Not only did this put them apart, the celestial river (the milky way) came between them.
Only on the 7th night of the 7th moon could Altair attempt the journey across.
The journey was dangerous, he didn't always make it in time,
But such was the desire he had to be with his beloved.

What a wonderful story.
That's great and all but I sincerely do feel for them, I do.
They don't actually get to live out this fantasy, they're not real.
But we are, and we do.
We're everything they are and all they could want to be.
We have one up on them.
We're real, what we have is.
If they were real, what we have would be the stuff of their dreams.
You know what's crazy?
Some of the most imaginative minds came up with a captivating love story,
But someway, somehow,
It doesn't even hold a candle to what we have.