There once was an old king who dreamed that a red owl came into the throne room and plucked the crown right from his head and then flew through the marble halls and past the tapestries and out the open door with the crown in his beak, hooting all the while.
The king chased the owl through the castle and out onto the grounds and finally into a dark forest.
Give it back, I want it back, the king shouted as he ran.
The owl disappeared and the king stopped running and held very still. The forest was dark and he could hear the murmur of sleeping birds and the rush of a hidden stream. He tipped his head back and looked up and was astonished to see hundreds of stars pulsing quietly in the blue black sky.
When we awoke from the dream, the king got out of bed and put his crown firmly on his head. He went to the window and pulled the curtain aside and stood and looked out at his darkened kingdom.
The queen said, What are you doing standing there in your nightdress with your crown on your head? You look like a fool.
And then she went back to sleep.
The king walked from his bedroom and into the throne room; he went down the marble halls and past the tapestries and out the great door.
The sentry standing guard said Sire, are you in need of assistance? but the king walked past him without saying a word. He walked over the manicured lawns and into the dark forest.
And then he stopped.
He took the crown off and bent his head back and looked up.
And there they were, just as they had been in the dream: stars, hundreds of them, thousands of them, too many stars to count or own, all of them glowing in the night sky.
An owl hooted.
The old king laughed.
~Kate Dicamillo