The Midnight Gardeners

The Midnight Gardeners weren't tending flowers or vegetables; they were tending the night itself. While the human world slept, they gathered along the banks of the quietest body of water in the forest, the Reflecting Lake. Their job was sacred: to make sure the stars in the sky were perfectly mirrored in the water below. They didn’t actually move the stars, of course. They planted reflections, using tiny, glowing things they collected all day. This night was the Big Star Planting, when the sky was clearest and the need for a good, bright reflection was strongest. But as the sun dipped and the great velvet curtain of night pulled across the forest, Pip huddled on his favorite perch, his heart beating like a trapped drum. He knew he had to go down, but the darkness seemed to stretch on forever, a deep, silent void.