With a great heave, I pushed off my one leg and reached for the next steppingstone star. I made it, just barely, once again balancing on one three-toed bird foot. I jumped again... and again... and again... I wasn't entirely sure where I was going, although I was certain I couldn't remain where I was. Every time I thought I was finding balance, I'd start wobbling again, and the choices were clear: Jump. Or fall.

So I jumped.

Not that I jumped randomly. I knew there was... something... out there.

A direction. A goal. Happiness? Comfort?

Love.

Love still scared me, and as I flinched away from the idea, I lost my balance. Too Late, I tried to push off my steppingstone and reach for another, but I could already tell I wouldn't make it. I felt myself falling into the empty black abyss, but just before I did, something sharp and painful tugged at my butt. I felt myself elevating rather than falling, confused by the sudden reversal of gravity.

Of course, out in the vastness of space, there shouldn't have been any gravity pulling me down in the first place, but whatever. It made perfect sense at the time.

What did NOT make sense was the fact that I wasn't falling, and I turned my head around a hundred and eighty degrees to find a black cat with pale green eyes biting my tail feathers. For a moment, I panicked, thinking I was about to be eaten. Doom Kitty had come to end me.

But then I felt the steadiness of a steppingstone beneath my foot, and when the pain in my ass evaporated, I glanced back and saw the orange bird with green highlights standing by my side instead. On my other side, the red bird came back and held my hand.

Hey, I have hands again!

Finally, the yellow bird with the brown belly returned as well.

Together, the four of us jumped.

And we FLEW.

Heat.

Pressure.

Pleasure.

Something felt GOOD.

I wasn't asleep anymore, but neither was I awake. Instead, I hovered on a different plane of existence, between here and there. This wasn't a dream, and I wasn't a bird, but I wasn't alone.

Nor was I awake.

Heat.

Pressure.

Pleasure.

Something felt REALLY good.

Somebody moaned. Was it me? It kind of sounded Like me. But it also came from a place so far away and distant, like the echoes of an exploding star that died a hundred million years ago but whose Light and radiation were only reaching us now.

Heat.