Apamvatsa the Zinzall

You run up to Apāṃvatsa panting as he bounds across the dewey meadow and pauses to stare up at the sky. He tilts his head at you as he pants happily. "Do you see that?" He points his shiny nose up, and you follow his gaze.

Among the pinpricks of the sprawling night sky you notice one that shone a strange, sharp, yellow glow. "Yeah," you wheeze, doubling over and stumbling back onto the ground. "A yellow star?"

"I think so. My mom spent her whole life chasing it, but she couldn't. I'm gonna catch it. And bring it back to her." He looks to you with a grin, and you don't have the heart to tell him the truth; that stars are too far away to fetch. "Did you know she was an astronomer?"

You raise your eyebrows, and imagine a Zinzall, grey around her snout, looking through a telescope. "Is that why she was chasing the yellow star?" You ask. Your throat hurts from the cold night air, forcing you to take deep and slow breaths.

"Yeah! She travelled with her friends. They found ways to hitch onto comets and made it pretty far out. She was having so much fun that she forgot to chase the star." Apāṃvatsa bounces on the pads of his paws, his fur glittering under the moonlight. "When I was a pup, she told me about how she wished she could see it. She's getting older now, so I want to do that for her."

You sigh. Your throat and chest hurt.