“Braun? Braun, that must be you!” She backs up so we can see all of her face and let me just say I was shocked. I remembered her being a lot bigger than me but I could’ve sworn she was like 1,000 ft shorter than this or something. How was Braun not amazed? He was microscopic compared to her, how did she even see him? Or hear him? It didn't make sense. “It’s me! Can you see me?” “No! Braun I can’t ever see you, you know this,” he sighs, then lifts his head up and turns to me. “Miss Sahl, this is my friend Rayes! She’s really nice! Didn’t yell at me when I bumped into her or anything. And she’s a red star, just like you. . .but a lot smaller,”. Sahl looked around for a while squinting her eyes, “Can you talk, I have such awful eyesight. The war happened before I could get any extra help from. . .you know who,” “I’m right here! Next to Braun pretty much. Did you get extra hearing? How can you hear us?” She looked stunned for a bit and then moved toward me “There you are! And you guessed it! I do have enhanced hearing, it's kind of wearing out though. . .” She looked kind of sad. “It’s a pleasure to be in the presence of such a wonderful star, ma’am. From my cluster I've only seen the supergiants from afar. And you’re so pretty too! Braun told me so many good things,” I kept going on. She had a big grin on her face and started laughing slightly. “This girl should be an announcer, she sure can charm one.” “I was actually gonna ask if she could get a job as one! She told me about wanting to work so. . . could she?” Sahl smiled even bigger. “Of course, everyone has been needing something to do since the war. We’ve been quite understaffed at the arena, actually,” I wanted to jump with excitement. Ryko had to hear about this! Maybe she’d wanna work somewhere too, or when this was over we could get jobs together? I don’t know. . . I just wanted her to be happy. For us to be happy, maybe even Braun. I mean, 5 days together is a lot to some.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

*Supergiants are stars (normally red) in a late stage of life. They are (as the name suggests) very large, though red supergiants actually aren’t very hot compared to other stars. Blue supergiants on the other hand are. Also, note: hypergiants (which will appear later) are almost in the same class, but are a bit above due to reasons which will be explained.

Also, in star time, the equivalent of one year is around 1 million human years, and the rest of time measurements (minutes, days, weeks) works in accordance to that. For example, a star day is about 2,740 human years. The stars do recognize it is still a long time, but they still consider it small to their very long lifespans.

Braun is very happy about this and gives me a tight hug. His itchy green sweater vest forces my cloak out of the way and brushes the bottom of my wool shirt. Maybe his hug was a bit too tight and made me, but I started laughing. Sahl smiled warmly and clasped her hands. “You two sure are getting along well. Braun, you know the way to Spira’s galaxy right? Because if you don’t you should ask for directions-,” “I’m good!” Braun takes out an interactive map from his messenger bag and puts in some coordinates “If I ever get lost, all I have to do is use this.” “Well okay, I won’t bother,” Sahl says. “And Rayes, I’m sure you know better than I do, but be wary of the other supergiants and even the honored larger main sequence stars. Some of them have been on power trips ever since they were well. . . allowed to,” her head falls to the side, and her dusky orange- red waves with it. “Promise me you won’t let them get to you, you know they’ll try.”