Once there were no stars in the heavens, or none that could be seen in the hazy mists rising from the swamp, at least. Though the Kimiti That Were often glanced toward the sky, they rarely saw more than a glimpse of blue or grey through the thick o’erhanging branches of the canopy above.

And that Suited Them Well, for what use had they for the knowledge of birds that flew beyond their sight? What good would it do them to see the storms coming when they could smell and hear and feel them just as well? They could not reach the topmost branches of the trees, so the fact that their underside formed the sky they knew best did not trouble them at all.

Not until Reaches Far dared to ask What Might Be.

He had always been a curious foal, asking questions that no one else had thought to ask. Why, for instance, were leaves growing in more than one shade of green, and why was it that the darker the green, the more bitter the taste? Why did the currents that sometimes pulled through the deepest parts of the swamp not run in all directions, but only chose to flow one way? Why, when he went to sleep with sunlight warm on his back did he wake with it reflecting off morning dew and into his eyes?

It was after a summer storm, when a heavy rain had fallen through the thick leaves above and made ripples in the swamp waters. Ripples chased the bugs that skimmed the surface, alarm lighting their backends as they raced away. Those glowing trails caught Reaches Far’s attention and he chased a particularly flamboyant beetle beast as it looped and whirled and skated away, leading the foal far from home. Farther than he had ever dared, and farther than he realized before he stopped to catch his breath, glanced up…and saw no trees.

Instead, above him, the sky was broad and dark. No, not dark, not entirely. It was spattered with glowing dots. Some were bright, some a little dimmer, some seemed to wink in and out. Dancing, his puzzled mind reasoned. Dancing like the bug he’d chased.

It was a festival of light. It had to be, he told himself. An insect celebration. The rains, as all Kimeti knew, signaled new abundance in the swamplands, and that lush growth heralded life. And if the Kimeti could acknowledge and celebrate it, Reaches Far knew, then so too could the bugs.

So there, beneath the open sky, Reaches Far danced and discovered that his curiosity and joy could take him farther, reaching beyond the trees and to the Stars.

(It is true, it took some time for the Kimeti to realized that no, the stars were not indeed simply dancing bugs, but lights that painted pictures and told stories of their own, far above the world they knew. Lights that could guide a lost and wandering Kimeti home if he knew which ones pointed the way. But the credit for their discovery—and the memory of his dance of joy—are left to Reaches For The Stars and the exuberance of youth.)