The stars in the night sky sit peacefully, far away from the troubles of the world. Without a care, they drift halfway between sleep and life, between the galaxies, between yesterday and today. Sometimes, they sing a gentle lullaby, and a lone wolf or an old oak will hear it. Raising their head to the heavens to listen to its quiet beat.
One day a star was born. Like all stars, he had no mother and no father and simply came to be. As a baby he sang himself to sleep with the lullaby all stars sing, and his young light shone bright and far and wide. One day when the star was a little older, he realised that he was one of many.
"Every day we sit in the sky. And every night we sing. We all shine the same light upon the same earth, and no day is different from the next."
The star closest to him heard him, and replied "That is the beauty of life. And it goes on and on..." She spoke in a gentle, melodic voice. There was the longest pause at the end, as if to say 'forever'.
"Aren't you tired of it? How long have you been here?"
"I don't know. It doesn't matter" In fact, the star didn't know it but she had been there for a hundred thousand years.
"I want more" the young star said to himself. "I want the brightest light. And I want the loudest song. I want to sing it all the time, so loudly that nobody can hear anything else."
He saw some space rocks nearby so he sucked in all the air around him to pull the space rocks towards him. Then he swallowed them up in one big breath.
The star felt stronger. And he got a little bigger with the space rocks in his stomach.
He saw a meteorite passing by, so he grabbed it by shooting out a flame like a giant tongue. He gulped it down, and he got even bigger and rounder.
He opened his mouth and now he could sing in a great big bellow.
Then he saw a great dusty planet pass by. In a flash he grabbed it and swallowed it up.
"Listen to me!" he cried. "I am the greatest and best star!"
"From today, we will sing a new song! We will sing the Happy Birthday song for me!"
"It isn't your birthday!" The other stars cried.
"Every day is my birthday now! And you must all do as I say!" the star screamed.
His shouting was noisy and the other stars found it annoying, so they ignored him and started singing their lullaby again.
The star was so angry that he ate all the other stars up. Now he was huge, so big he could look down on the sun and the moon, but he was all alone. Bored, he stopped shouting and sat silently.
The old oak listened every night for the sound of the stars singing but she could not hear them. Worried, she called the animals around for a meeting.
The animals gathered round. "We want our music back!" They cried to the night sky.
"I have a new and better idea. Let's sing Happy Birthday to me!" the star shouted.
And the star started singing Happy Birthday to himself. He sang so loudly and opened his mouth so wide that all the other stars flew out from his mouth on his breath.
After he had finished singing he had spat out everything inside him, and he was tiny again.
Now he was exhausted, and half way between being awake and asleep.
The oldest star, who was a billion years old, felt that the young star should be punished. But when he looked at him, the young star was singing the lullaby with the other stars so sweetly that he decided he would be no more trouble and left him.
"We all start off like that" he said.
