This is a memory I have of a night hike I did with my friend Laika, the border collie you see next to me. We, on a whim, decided to go out and hike a mountain in the pitch black of night. We brought our flashlights and traveled through miles of rocky, piney uphill. The smell was fantastic. The warmth of the summer night making us sweat in the jackets we wore to cover our skin from the swarms of bugs that followed and flitted about us. As we made our way back after becoming too exhausted to carry on, after conversations both deep and simple, we stopped at the very beginning of the trail, after crossing a small wooden bridge and noticed how bright and beautiful the stars in the night sky looked, along with the full moon casting its light across the tress. I felt like I had finally made a friend I could really get along with in that moment.