He loved the stars.
He had no name to call himself.
The humans called him "Midnight" and kept him in a cage.
He had lived in the jungle before. He climbed the trees and moved in the shadows and looked at the stars.
Here in the cage, the stars were all he had left.
It was like he had never gone anywhere. But he didn't know why.
The humans spoke many words over him.
"Population. Endangered. Conservation. Specimen."
He could hear them. He could understand.
And gradually, he began to learn, his cage mates could not.
They paced the enclosure, they yowled for their food.
They missed their freedom, too.
But they didn't love the stars.
He began to realize he was alone. And that maybe, somewhere, he had lost something very important.
Perhaps it was the stars. Perhaps it was a name.
Perhaps it was an entire being with thoughts and places and dreams and love.
It was lonely in the cage. It was lonely on the ground.
Every night he watched the stars and felt something terrible ripping him inside.
