Galactic Ruffie
TIME
In the past, every fifty years a randomly-chosen constellation was allowed to assume corporeal form for a single day and visit a planet of their choice. Although this privilege could be waived by the selected star-cluster, this option was rarely chosen. Most stars spent their day eating, drinking alcohol, and engaging in debauchery from sunrise to sunset. Several centuries ago a constellation named Jaykob (who was referred to by the astronomers on the surface of Subeta as Catellus majoris) was picked. 
Jaykob took form in Centropolis on the morning of the summer solstice as the sun peeked over the horizon. Immediately he headed to one of the bakeries along Main Street that had just began opening their doors. Through a tiny bit of mind control Jaykob got the girl behind the counter to give him three donuts, twenty cookies, a complete apple pie, and eight brownies for free. Although he downed his first three cookies in record time, after that he slowed down and relished every bite. It had been almost two-thousand years since he had last been able to come down to Subeta, and he'd forgotten how amazing tastebuds were.
Around three in the afternoon Jaykob headed to the bar that all the constellations seemed to love: O'Connell's. He didn't realize that in the building a galactic gypsy from Atebus was waiting for him. Over the centuries the gypsies had come to learn about the celestial tradition of allowing stars a day of fun on Subeta from the slurred tales told by drunken constellations. They discovered that this day always fell on the summer solstice and, after observation, learned the locations the constellations frequented. Hoping that they could exploit a constellation's energy, the galactic gypsies developed a magical concoction that could trap a constellation in his or her corporeal body and prevent it from returning to its rightful place in the sky. 
Luca, the young gypsy who had been tasked with the responsibility of capturing the starbeing, fidgeted anxiously in his chair. He had been waiting in the bar since eight in the morning and with each passing hour the small vial in his pocket seemed to grow heavier and heavier. Every five minutes he scanned the crowd looking for a man or woman with starlight in their eyes. Finally, mid-afternoon when Jaykob entered the bar his eyes met Luca's for only a second but that was enough time for Luca to catch the glint of a galaxy in Jaykob's pupils. 
From the corner of the room Luca watched Jaykob carefully, sweating nervously and running his thumb over the smooth, cold vial in his pocket. After the line of empty beer bottles had grown to four Luca approached Jaykob and offered to buy him a drink. He gladly accepted and, in his tipsy state failed to notice when Luca dumped a silvery liquid into his gin and tonic. Several minutes after downing the drink the world began spinning before Jaykob's eyes and, in a few seconds, went black.
When Jaykob regained consciousness he immediately knew something was wrong. Surely he should be a cluster of stars in the sky once more by now. He looked around and found himself in a cave lit by soft, white light that shone in through an opening in the ceiling. "I'm sorry," came a voice from the entrance of the cave. The man who'd bought Jaykob a drink at the bar strode forward into the light that dimly lit the room. "Once we harvest enough of your energy Iltallo should let you go."
"What the hell are you talking about? Where am I?" asked Jaykob, his anger and fear growing.
"You're on Atebus in the Coda Caves. I'm sorry but you can never return to the sky again," Luca replied with a touch of sadness in his voice. Jaykob was dumbfounded and wanted to believe the man was lying but a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach told him otherwise. "If you'll come with me now we can get the donation process over with quickly." Jaykob just stared at the man, speechless. "Please, the quicker we get this done, the sooner you'll be released.""˜Do I have any choice?" Jaykob asked although he already knew the answer.
"I'm sorry, but no."
Reluctantly Jaykob got up from the cold, hard cave floor and followed Luca through a series of dark, damp tunnels before reaching a room brightly lit by torches. He was motioned to a wooden chair in the middle of the room positioned next to a table with needles, tubes, gauze, an elastic strip and several plastic bags on it. Although seeing these objects made him extremely apprehensive, Jaykob knew there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it. 
Along the wall to his left stood three young men and one middle-aged woman, all with white hair and gold and blue clothing. The female walked over to him and, with apologetic eyes, wrapped the elastic band around his upper arm and swabbed the crook of Jaykob's arm. After a little more preparation she stuck the needle into his vein and Jaykob watched in amazement and horror as a swirling mixture of blue-ish black liquid flecked with white dots flowed through the tube connected to the needle and into one of the bags on the table. 
By the time all nine bags from the table were filled Jaykob felt like he had been completely drained. He could barely move and just stared at the men still leaning against the wall, amazed that the humans he'd watched over for millions of years could be so selfish and cruel. "What are we going to tell the people, Iltallo? How are we going to explain where we got this liquid from?" asked one of men, turning to his companion.
"We'll tell them it was a gift from the heavens," replied one of the other men, presumeably Iltallo. "And we'll purge the astronomy records of Catellus majoris's name. No one on Atebus will realize he's missing from the sky."
"And what do we do with him?" asked the third man. "It wouldn't be right to kill him," replied Itallo with a cold, calculating voice. "We can dump him in the forests surrounding Veta Lake, though. The chances of anyone finding him there are slim. Now, let's focus on the more important matter of the wings." All the gypsies in the room nodded in agreement and headed towards the bags of Jaykob's blood.
Jaykob watched them fashion themselves shimmering wings out of his blood with shock and despair while one thought ran through his head over and over: "I'm never going to be able to rejoin my family in the sky.
