Chapter 2 - There is a Door

"Wake up, brother."

I woke up to see my companion's face above me. "We better get exploring early if we want to find food before nightfall in the process." He said
"Oh right, of course, brother Prempt." I grabbed his hand and he helped me up on my feet.

We were sleeping on a beach under the shade of a tree. Our ship had crashed on a small island, which was unpopulated from what we could to tell so far. There was a lot of sand and rocks, and there was a hill several dozen feet ahead which had a forest at the top.

"I'll leave that up to you," he said "To make for crashing the ship.
"Let's head to the forest at top of the hill."
"Don't you think it's a little soon for that? That's where we would head when we want to hunt, we should start with observation or reflection."
"I thought you said you were leaving it up to me? Besides, I'm hungry now."
"Well I'm giving you advice. I thought you had it in you to make a well-reasoned decision, I suppose not though. You can decide anything except for the forest, okay?"
"Fine then. Let's sit in the ankle deep area of the water, and meditate for 30 minutes or so."
"That's more like it, brother Fores."

I walked with him into the water until both our ankles our were submerged. Then we sat down inside the water and began to meditate. Or, he did, I only pretended to. I was determined to go to the forest. I let about five minutes pass, and then turned to look at my companion. He was deep into meditation already, and my movements would not disturb him. I stood up and made my way for the hill.

The hill wasn't as hard a climb as it looked like it would be from far away. I had a large grin as the beach turned to grass, and as I walked through the trees I analyzed what was around me. I may have lied to my companion, but make no mistake, I took our excursion extremely seriously. From my rope-belt full of small satchels and sacks,  which we all have, I pulled out my notepad and pen. And wrote down my thoughts on the forest, about the tallness of the trees. And the strange lack of birdsong.

I began to wonder if there was no animal life at all, until I heard something scurry in a tree to my right. I walked closer to the tree, and looked up it. It seemed to never end, as tall as it was. But some of the branches were as close as three feet above me, and I searched the branches for any sign of life. Eventually I saw it, a brown squirrel, eating some sort of berry on top of one of the branches. I reached my left fingers into one of my spice sacks, and spread the spice onto the back of my right hand. Then I reached and grabbed my camping knife with my right hand, and held onto it. I focused my eyes on the squirrel, cocked my arm back, ready to throw my knife. I whispered the words "shelleen miar" and threw my knife as hard as I could. It was boosted by the spell I cast, and the knife flew up with awesome speed. My aim wasn't so awesome, though, and it only hit the branch. This still knocked the squirell off though, causing it to fall to the ground. It scrambled to its feet and ran away, I chased it for a while and then tripped and fell on my face.

I was mostly upset that I had lost my knife. I picked myself up and looked around. Then I saw it. The thing that would change my life forever. An opening in the ground, surrounded by trees smaller than all the rest, about seven feet high. It seemed like a cave, or an opening to an underground passage. I inched towards it, filled with curiosity. Where could something like this lead?

I entered the opening, it seemed like a small shelter, but I'll call it a small cave. There were two, I'll call them platforms, that seemed to have been grown from the ground. The one to left held some sort of golden ball. The one on the right held a small golden rod, not much bigger than a fountain pen, but completely cylindrical. Two feet further from those, in the center of them both on the wall of the cave paralell to me, there was a door made of glass. The doorknob was made out of glass as well. The cleanest glass I had ever seen, it reflected like a perfect mirror. I had never been so amazed while looking at my own reflection before.

My mind was set on fire from the wonder and curiosity this filled me with. I inched my way to the door, and gently grabbed the doorknob. I turned the doorknob with more delicacy than I had ever used in my life, and finally I opened the door.

Beyond the door was just light. The whitest, brightest light, and I had to cover and avert my eyes because it was too bright to look at. I might even say it was brighter then the sun. But still, I stepped through the door, and my whole body was pulled through the moment I stepped through. I felt myself being sucked through, being carried away, flying faster than ever. My mind dissolved away, I dissolved away. Whited out.

A man who I knew as brother Innes Prempt came out of meditation to find me gone. Finding only my notepad, pen, and knife stuck in the branch of a tree. He had to go home early and confess the loss of his companion. I was long gone now.