Brightest Star

Under the glowing light of the crisp white stars, Lord Malvon and his only son, Javam sat atop of a grassy hill, stargazing together. Malvon was trying to take his son's mind off worrying about his odd ears and lack of spots.

'You see, Javam,' said Malvon, looking down at his son's little face.' I was given my own star that reflects my heart. There are big ones, and smaller ones. The bigger the star the bigger your heart is. See that one?'

He nodded towards a fairly large and glowing one to the right.

Javam smiled, but slowly his head dropped. He began to worry about his ears again, but he managed to stop himself by asking a question;

'Pa?' he said.

'Yes, Javam?'

'Is my star quite big too?'

Lord Malvon gazed up at the brilliant lights in the night and slowly shook his head.

'No, son.' he answered.

Javam held back a sob, his long ears dropped terribly and a tear gently ran down his brown face, no matter how hard he tried to stop it, it kept running. His ears looked strange, he did not have many spots and now he found that he had a small heart too. Was there anything else wrong with him?

'No, son,' went on Malvon.' It's not quite big. Do you see that one, at the top left of us? The biggest one?'

Javam slowly looked up.

'Yes...' he choked.

'That's your star, my son.'

Drawn using watercolour pencils on pastel paper.