He was neither young nor old; his face had a glow of serene agelessness about it that made it seem like he was seeing things differently from the rest of the world, like he was somewhere higher.

He sat at the very front of the prow of the old ship, with his hands casually locked around one bent knee. The light breeze seemed to sweep down from the sky and caress the sails and ropes of the ship, strumming them gently, like the strings of a harp. His head was tilted back slightly and he was gazing at the sky, seemingly seeing more than just what was before his clear eyes.

The Heavens that night were breath-taking. This far North, away from the smoggy city, the nights were clearer than diamond, and the Aurora poured its shifting rainbow colours across the cloudless sky. Its light bathed his upturned face now, as the ship glided majestically through silk- smooth waters.

The stars were dazzling in their intensity, burning relentlessly in the deep midnight atmosphere. And the song of the stars serenaded him as he and the ship moved as one through the cool air, slipping between the wind's gentle fingers.

The waters were still and unruffled in their wake. The thousand stars in the sky splintered into millions where they touched the silvery ocean's surface, and it seemed to him that there was no barrier between the water and the sky; they were one. He was swimming in rainbows, immersed in stars. The light seemed to fill his eyes, his whole body, the depths of his soul, until everything was one. The flimsy barriers that contained the light within everything melted away until it all blended together into something so powerful that he was lost in its intensity. Perhaps he had become the Star Song.

The sky sang voicelessly. The ship sailed on.