Chilling winds blew through thick leaves that garnished what seemed like the tallest trees on Earth. They stood high, high enough that one could barely see where they ended, where the dark sky began. A duvet of obsidian lay over the slumbering clearing that the trees surrounded like guards, but a single soul was still there.

He could not sleep. 

For many nights by then, he had been through hell, then back: he was alone in the cold, ashen world. No colors seemed to exist in his field of vision just grey. But grey? It was everywhere.

It was the grass, it was the flowers. It was the water, the soil, the sky. Despite knowing well that he could see them all, his mind barely registered that they each had shades, and colors. To him, they were all the same.

He had no one he could share his lonely life with. 

A single star crossed the sky and his eye caught it just that moment, lips curling into the smallest of smiles. If he wished like this, would it be granted?

Childish hope made dark eyes fall shut, palms press against each other. A hurried murmur broke the concert of crickets."I just want somebody to love... is it so hard?" 

The next day, the ritual repeated. He was there as always, staring at the sky,