Cassiopeia

“Look,” said Serpens, gesturing with his tail, tracing shapes between the stars. “That’s the constellation I’m named for. Serpens, the Serpent. And that’s the constellation you’re named for. Cassiopeia. A lovely lady.”

“I don’t think it looks much like a lady,” said Cassiopeia doubtfully. “Although it’s perfectly true that it’s lovely. All the stars are lovely. I could look at them forever.”

“Yes,” said Serpens. “I know exactly what you mean.”

They shared a look of perfect understanding, then turned as one to gaze upon the stars in companionable silence.

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When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
by Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

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Awakened familiars: Hannibal the Wispwillow Peryton, Boreal the Snowy Owlynx, Nacht the Moonlight Fungi, NotGravy the Vulpine Lamp