Worlds' Ends & Whales

     This was it.
     The edge of the precipice.
     The end of the world.
     Don't think me dramatic, for this is simple truth. My feet clenched on the grassy fall away, toes sinking into the sucking mud that was beneath the turf supporting me, until it made contact with the back of the galaxy whale. I cautiously leaned my upper body forward, eyes straining to see.
     To see what?
     Well, wasn't that the question.
     The black was vast, seemingly never-ending. The only thing to break up the darkness was the faintly flickering stars. They had been dying for a long time now, and so the galaxy whale the earth sat on top of was sailing the planet through space. Even as it moved, stars blinked out of existence in its wake.
     No one was certain there were any stars left to be found. The planet, the civilizations and countries and animals and plants, they might be nearing their end if no star was found soon. But still the galaxy whale swam, toward salvation or oblivion.
     A sense of fear had settled in my guy, one I had become accustomed to. It was only natural. If you fell off the edge of the world...that was it. Lights out. No coming back, lost to the vast black. Just like the stars. I'd been raised on horror stories of those who had fallen from the edge. The numerous and ghastly manners in which people had perished. I didn't want to die like one of them.
     An entire galaxy spread out before me, and I had been sent to look for stars that appeared to be in good health. So far, I had seen none, but still the galaxy whale moved, as if it knew where it was going. And maybe it did, but if the galaxy whale had a higher intelligence, no one had yet to be graced by its wisdom.
     This was it.
     The end of the world.
     Maybe, even, the end of mine.