Author's Note: This story is a Secret Santa 2014 gift for Winter Oak! Her theme was "good things come to those who wait." I thought I could play out this theme best in a story about Wizzy-Wiz since I always imaged him to be an immortal wizard, or at least having a longer-than-the-average-human lifespan. This story takes place in the Animal Parade universe on Castanet Island in Harmonica Town with references to the Tree of Tranquility universe and the Waffle, Gull, and Tuscan islands featured in that game.

Winter Oak: I was not your Secret Santa to begin with, so this was a little last minute, but I hope I did a good job with your theme! I know my ideas and writing style can be kind of out there and hard to understand at times, but I hope you enjoy :)

Counting Down The Stars

Do the fish in the sea know how old they are? Perhaps they recognize the changing of the tides, so they count their age as such. To be this many changing-tides-old… it seems to be a silly thing to ponder, but it is a crucial aspect of human existence that we take for granted. Other beings do not experience time as we humans do. Time as we know it is an illusion, the measurement is continually re-invented by humans for human use. The stars know not of time as we do.

Time is a very interesting concept to me. It is purely subjective when you get down to it. How one person defines time is not going to always be the same way another person does. I am not speaking about the time-zones when I say this, but instead how different beings perceive time.

To the recluse in the forest, time is sun up, sun down. He does not know the days of the weeks, nor much else beyond that when the sun sets the moon rises. He does not have much of a definition of time beyond that there are several seasons, and they seem to happen in a set pattern. Other than that, he is clueless. Tell him it is "noon" and he will look at you without understanding. Say it is half-past-four and he will not get it. It is not that he is ignorant, but instead that time as you know it has no meaning for him.

It was only within the past 500 or so years that watches gained their second hand. Prior to that, they had but a single hour hand, not two as is common in this age. I still have a few watches like that. It was not until "time" became more refined, or at least the telling of it, that we began defining the minutes, and in turn, the seconds.

In fact, it was not until about 150 years ago that the time-zones were even invented! That was an interesting age to live through. Many people had a hard time grasping the concept of time-zones, and most rejected it all together. Before then, you were lucky to figure out what time it was when you traveled since there was no defined measurement. Each city set its time not by a mathematical method, but by when the sun rose... or when the man winding the clock thought the sun rose.

Time travels at a different rate on the moon than it does on earth. Huge stars cause time to move slower as you move closer to them. Black holes distort time in a way that eludes us entirely. The GPS satellites have to be constantly updated to take into account the different rates of time in space. Technically, time travels slower the closer it gets to the nearest source of gravity.

So, actually, time is not an illusion at all. It is as real as matter and energy; it is just more difficult to quantify into a scientific definition. People who do not understand Einstein's theory of relativity tend to assume that time is not real, that it is just a human concept designed to measure moments. But man did not invent the passage of time; he merely invented a way of measuring and describing it. That is the illusory part of time.

I remind myself of this as I look up at the stars. Time is relative, and depending on certain factors it can be altered. But I still count the days, the weeks, the years and years—the time that I have spent waiting.

The time I have spent waiting for her.

Winter has always been the best season for star gazing. The sky seems to be clearer; the stars seem to be shine brighter. For countless seasons, I have ascended up Garmon Mountain to get just a bit closer to them. Of course, the view through a telescope would be much clearer, but star gazing with the naked eye held a nostalgic feel that took me back to a time long past.

Orion's belt. Always the first constellation that I found. Even after countless years, my eyes were still drawn to it, and no matter how much research I did I feared I would never exhaust the literature on this one star cluster alone. Oh, how unfortunate it was, I used to say, that the human life was so short yet there was so much knowledge to be had! If only I could live forever, I would muse.

But the human heart is not made for forever.

So many emotions have run through my veins that I am now numb. So many years have passed away and left me that I feel as if I have experienced everything at least once. People were people, they never changed. And with nothing new to experience I had faded away into my small space in the world, accompanied only by the stars. As the local languages and customs changed, I remained removed, often unaware that I was adhering to an out-dated style of dress or an archaic way of speech. People began to view me as eccentric at best, but most of the time odd, and at worst I was feared. They did not understand me, and I did not understand them. Truthfully, I did not care to understand them, for there was really nothing new to learn. They did not realize that they were living the same life their ancestors had for hundreds of years before them, differing only on a superficial level. I only knew because I had lived to see it at least twice over.

I am by no means proud of my immortal condition. Yes, there was once a time when I was, when the blood ran hot through my veins and my will was brighter than a supernova, craving knowledge and desiring to acquire it all. But my light faded long ago when I realized that, despite my circumstance, I was still human, and the human heart can only bear the sadness of one life time. Since then, I have longed for an end to my prolonged existence, yet I shine on.

Slowly, the stars begin fading into a brighter sky. I stay a little longer than usual, the sky warming up to a pale purple as I wrap my cloak tighter around me and descend from the mountainside. My pace is swift and quiet as I hope to make it home before the people of Castanet awaken.

"Good morning!"

The voice is clear as it rings like a bell up into the mountains and out towards the sea. I turn to see her face, warm and lit from the now risen sun, her cheeks bright against her otherwise pale skin. She moves towards me as I take in the sight, my lips frozen from the closeness of another being.

"Boy, I haven't seen you in quite some time, Wizzy!" she giggles from the nickname that only she calls me—a nickname I hardly earned as we were little more than acquaintances in this life—"I was thinking that I'd take you up on that offer and stop by your place next time you're free. I'd like to see the magic of your crystal ball."

Her tone is teasing, which I interpret as cynical, as if she does not believe in the power of magic. This displeases me and I make a mental note to gaze into my crystal ball later for clarification on her intention. She continues to fill the silence.

"If you're busy that's fine though, I understand! I didn't mean to catch you at a bad time or anything, it's just that it's rare to see you out so I wanted to seize the opportunity."

I let my gaze linger on her a bit longer, nodding once she begins to fidget from the perceived awkwardness of our silence.

"I… am free in the later day. Perhaps you could… come by at 16:00?" She answers with a smile instead of words this time. Nothing more is said between us.