It’s dark and dirty here. Shadows hunt me in the fog so I run (in my dreams I can run) to the small opaline grove by the ruins of a school. The birches stand for me.
Inside the school, among dark moss-covered stone, is a portal that glows purplish-blue like bachelor buttons. I don’t pay much mind, just accept the situation as if it’s normal (oh, another portal, fourth one today). I need to go through it to try to get home. What are the chances of that considering the insane number of worlds in existence? It’s like rolling a D20 and hoping for twenty-one. I have to try. If there’s monsters, well, at least I can run.
lambent light in darkness
giving hope to the hopeless
take a leap of faith
(c) 2026 Beth Ember