The sky was just starting to brighten. The sun was still hidden behind the horizon and the cold night was starting to finally warm.

“Pick up the pace,” Krift ordered, tugging a little harder.

Although our hands were connected, I more so held his sleeve than his actual hand. I’d accidentally grabbed it a little awkwardly, when we had left the inn, and hadn’t gotten a chance to correct it.

I did increase my speed, which brought me to a more of a trot than a walk.

The Rift Wall was close. So close that even when I looked upward, I couldn’t really see very far up it. From this distance, it looked like it went on forever.

And was dark.

I’d seen dark colors on the Rift Wall before, but not to this degree. Some parts had blended into the darkness earlier, before the sun started to rise. It was a little… concerning.

“Is it sick?” I asked.

“The Rift? No.”

It looked it.

Swirls of motion swam before me, and it was clear that the Rift Wall was… more liquid than not. Or at least, looked to be.

Massive whirlpools of colors, waves of mixed colors, swirls in-between them all. It was an almost impossible sight, but it was like looking at a giant lake, that was alive. Alive and colorful. One that rose upward into the sky, somehow.

Every so often a brighter color appeared amongst the chaos, forming out of a whirlpool or swirl, but as it spread out it got mixed in with all the darker colors… blotting itself out until it too was just another smudge of dull color.

The closer we drew, the more swirls appeared. Each large whirlpool, or wave, seemed to be made up of even smaller ones. Layered upon each other, continuously… endlessly…

“Is it wet?” I asked.

“The Rift Wall can’t be touched,” Krift said.

I took a few steps before speaking again, since he had hastened our speed even more. “Is it dangerous to touch?” I asked, wondering why.

“No. You’ll see as we pass through,” he said.

So we really were going into the Rift.

Not that I doubted it, since now we were close enough that at any moment we’d be standing next to it…

But a certain part of me couldn’t believe it. I’d been trying to get to this point for over a year, and without warning it was finally happening.

Oddly, I wasn’t too scared. Or excited.

But that might just be because I was still half asleep.

Krift had woken me not too long ago, hurried me to prepare then…

Out the door we went.

Although I had been going to sleep right after bathing these last few days, I still felt… tired.

“Come on. It’s starting,” Krift said, tugging.

“What is?” I grumbled, but didn’t expect an answer. He’s been rushing me since we left the inn, saying similar things. Yet wouldn’t…

If Krift was going to answer, he ended up not having to… since the dark wall before us went oddly still.

The colorful waves of motion seemed to slow… no matter which direction they seemed to be flowing.

Looking upward, I watched as the whole wall went motionless.

As if it was actually a wall now. And not something magical.

Then, everything pulsated. A wave of motion ran along the entire wall, originating from somewhere up top… seemingly from the sky.

And with the wave of motion, came color.

“It’s here,” Krift said.

A giant line of golden came falling down the wall, and at the angle it looked almost… alive. Like something was swimming within the magical liquid that made up the wall. It was like a fish was swimming down towards us, jolting back and forth as it did.

“What is that?” I asked, and almost tripped since I couldn’t look away from it. The line of gold then darted like a bolt of lightning in a storm every which way as if in random directions.

Krift turned a little, most likely because he had felt my near tumble through our hands, but I ignored him.

After all the sight before me was too beautiful to look away from.

It’d be an insult, to whatever it was.

The bolt of gold shot downward some more, nearly in a straight line. It looked unnatural, when compared to the arches and zigzags it had been doing earlier. Yet as it descended, it seemed to grow in both speed and size.

Its trail of gold, left behind in the dark swirls, seemed to defy the darkness. It refused to get absorbed, or even blemished. Countless little golden blobs, and lines, began forming as the gold got mixed into the different streams and swirls.

“Watch your feet. There’s a step,” Krift’s words forced my eyes away from the magical scene, but I was glad I had done so. The dip was more than that.

For the first time since leaving the inn, our hands separated. Krift dropped down the ledge first, and once he did I noticed how far down it was.

“That’s more than a step,” I said, staring down at Krift.

He said nothing, extending his hand to help me down.

I carefully grabbed his hand and hopped off. Once I was down, I glanced back at the section of earth we had just been on.

The edge of the ledge was just under my chin.

Step he had said. Sure.

“Come on. It’s opening,” Krift said, pulling me back into a run.

Spending a few moments to make sure there were going to be no more crazy drops before us, I allowed myself to look back to the wall.

And wished I’d not have looked away.

“Krift…” I groaned at the wall of gold before us.

The line that had been steadily growing, had met another. Emerging from the ground, directly in front of us, was a new line of gold. The two were connecting, about half way up the wall.

There was a small section of darkness, where the two lines were trying to connect. The lines of gold were twitching, struggling, to come together.

Then they did.

As the lines conjoined, the swirls of darker colors started to shiver. Rippling, as if it was windy.

It was as if the line of gold was separating two great lakes of darkness.

Looking down, I realized that the wall was close. We’d be coming up to it in…

I flinched when I heard a flying bug. Waving my free hand up to my ears, I hoped it’d leave me alone. It sounded big.

Yet the buzzing sound grew, and with an odd sweat I realized that I wasn’t hearing bugs.

The golden line began to grow in size, becoming brighter, as we approached… and as it did, the world around me became even more illuminated.

Showing flying objects all around us.

At first I shivered, thinking they were indeed bugs or some kind of creatures… but they weren’t moving.

Floating all over the place, rocks of varying sizes slowly raised up in the air. The vast majority looked to be no bigger than my closed fist… but a few were…

“Krift?” I asked, worried. The buzzing sound was growing louder too.

“It’s fine. The door’s opening,” Krift said, calmly.

Why would a door opening make rocks float?

I wanted to complain over them, and almost fell when one of the floating rocks appeared before me. It had begun to rise into the air a few moments before we reached it. I had to step to the right, forcing Krift’s arm to an odd angle, as to dodge it.

Krift came to a stop, as to stare at me.

“Sorry. There was a rock,” I said, pointing to the thing floating not far from my waist.

“I said it was fine…” Krift said.

“It’s floating!” I complained, a little too loudly.

With my shout the rocks jolted, startling me. All around me, hundreds of tiny rocks seemed to rise a foot higher, in unison.

“Don’t shout. Magic is fragile.” Krift stepped closer to me, speaking with a low voice.

“I…” I didn’t know what to say to that.

Fragile? Silence was fragile. I was fragile. Rocks floating weren’t fragile, it was unnatural.

Still I studied the thing I had almost bumped into.

The rock looked… normal. It wasn’t spinning. It wasn’t moving at all… it was just slowly rising up into the air.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As if on a string.

Yet it wasn’t moving any way else. Only upward. It, like all the other floating rocks around us, seemed…

Unaffected by the light wind. Or anything.

It was almost as if they were an illusion. Not real or…

I slowly reached my hand out, to touch the rock. To see if something was holding it, or if it was real or…

“Watch,” Krift squeezed the hand he held, drawing my attention away from the rock. He pointed to the glowing gold in front of us.

The buzzing sound grew louder, and as it did I noticed it…

It wasn’t really a buzzing. But something else. Like the purr of a large creature…

With the noise growing, I was able to notice that the swirls and movements of the colors… matched the sound. The ripples that spread forth from the golden line appeared with each note.

Almost as if the golden line was a heartbeat.

All around the line, the gold colors were spreading. What once was a wall of darkness was quickly becoming a wall of gold. Bright, shining…

Then I saw it. At the center of the line of gold, was a new color. Spreading forth from its center, blooming like a flower, came blue.

An azure blue.

“That’s the color of the Rift. The real color,” Krift said gently, and I noticed that he was watching me… not the sight before us.

Now aware that he was studying me, it became awkward. Why was he watching me, and not this wonderful sight?

Was it because he’s seen it so many times? Even still…

Even if I’d seen this often, I think it’d still be…

A flash of blue shot forth from the center, and the buzzing purring went quiet.

For a single moment, a single heartbeat, the whole world went still.

The rocks stopped moving. The ripples and swirling of colors froze, as if in ice.

Even the light wind seemed to hesitate, if only for a moment.

Then the moment passed, as if it never existed… and the gold before me became white with a flash.

“Let’s go,” Krift said, pulling me towards the white wall.

All around, the gold color that had been here was fading. Being molded and changed, by the myriad of dark colors. It seemed the gold was no longer strong enough to defy them.

“I don’t see a door,” I said, worried.

“It’s right in front of you,” he said, amused.

“A door…?”

The white line before us was indeed wide enough to be a door in size… but nothing more than that. If he or I walked a few steps in either other direction, we’d walk into darkness, instead.

Or at least, darkness being discolored by the gold remnants from earlier.

“I think a Riftborn would know a door when he sees one,” Krift said, as if I was accusing him of lying.

“Looks more like a crack than a door,” I said, looking upward.

Not too far up, the… now white line grew thinner. I could tell it’d not be long until the line broke, and was merged with the surrounding dark colors. For now though it was still a singular line, all the way up to the top… at least as far as I could see from this angle.

Approaching the white wall, I shivered at the sight of it.

It was pure. There were no ripples. No other colors.

Nothing.

Just whiteness.

“Keep hold of my hand.” Krift squeezed my hand, as if to emphasize his words.

The white was bright, and lit us both up as we approached. Looking away from the glow, I focused on our hands. Unlike before, they were properly connected. In fact, they were a little too connected.

I could see just how tightly he was holding my hand, not just feel it. Some skin was pinched, forced by his grip.

Was this why he had been holding my hand so much lately?

It had been a little odd. During certain moments, it had made sense. Like crossing that bridge. Or in the dark, when I couldn’t see where we were walking.

But he had grabbed my hand the moment we left the inn. And hadn’t released it.

So it was for this.

“Here we go, Mintmorency,” Krift said, glancing to me.

I nodded, though wasn’t entirely sure I was ready.

Something told me I’d never be.

He nodded back, and turned forward. Walking slowly, I watched in awe as Krift walked into the wall of white.

A part of me had expected him to bounce off it, as if it were a wall of stone. So when he actually… melted into the wall, I grew uneasy.

Krift must have felt my apprehension, for his hand tightened. Pulling me into the whiteness behind him.

I could tell by his grip that he’d not let me slip free, even if I wished to.

The wall of white drew closer as Krift quickly stepped into it. Disappearing within moments.

With wide eyes, I watched the white as I too got close… and wondered why I couldn’t see anything. There were no ripples, from when Krift had entered. Even though it felt as if there should have been.

There were no ridges. Or bumps. It looked impossibly flat… impossibly…

Krift’s arm pulled my own into the whiteness, and my stomach went funny as I watched my hand and arm disappear into it. As if being eaten.

One moment my hand and arm were there, the next they weren’t. Just like Krift.

“Magic,” I cursed, and closed my eyes out of instinct when I stepped into it.

Holding my breath in apprehension, I expected to feel something. To feel the wall hit my face, or leg. Or my feet.

Either wetness, or warmth. Something solid, in some form.

Yet I felt nothing.

Still following Krift, I felt the ground beneath me. Every so often I felt a tiny pebble, or rock, beneath my shoe. I still felt a light breeze, which was still cold from the morning air.

Even with closed eyes I could see the bright whiteness. In fact it almost seemed like it had gotten brighter.

Squeezing my eyes shut even more, Krift tugged me by the hand. I had slowed.

Picking up my pace, I dared to peek. And found darkness.

Krift was in front of me, striding forward with his usual confidence. Yet I couldn’t see where he was leading me. There was only darkness before us. Absolute darkness.

The sight frightened me. Especially since the glow of white was still behind us.

Glancing back, I flinched at the bright white wall. It was far brighter than it ever had been.

Yet for as bright as it were…

Looking back in front of me, I found that Krift was now gone. Or at least, I couldn’t see him.

I reached out with my other hand, and confirmed he was still in front of me. Grabbing his arm, I got another tug in response.

He was there. I just couldn’t see him. He had been devoured by the darkness.

Which meant…

Looking back at the bright light, I watched in awe as we left it behind. It felt like it was the only source of light around… in the whole world, maybe.

The vast darkness was eating away at the line of light. Unlike the outside of the wall, where the colors merged slowly and melded… this darkness was devouring the light completely. Leaving not a trace.

After a few more steps, the light from behind us dimmed. It continued to fade the farther we got from it… Until it was… far away.

Then it wasn’t there anymore.

When I realized that we were now surrounded in complete darkness, I picked up my pace as to get closer to Krift. Something told me if we got separated in this blackness, we’d never find one another again.

The thought scared me, almost more than it should have.

“Krift?” I asked just to verify he was still here.

When no answer came, I tugged on his arm, and said his name a little louder.

And this time I knew why he hadn’t responded.

There was no sound.

No wind. No sound of hard leather shoes scraping the rocks beneath us. No voices.

Krift kept pulling me, unyielding, and I was glad for it. If not for him doing so, I might have turned and ran back out. Or at least…

Looking around, I felt a weird wave of nausea. There was nothing around me.

I could see nothing. Anywhere. Nor could I hear it.

As if nothing existed.

Not even me.

Squeezing Krift’s arm and hand, I got a hard squeeze in return. One that hurt.

Yet that pain was real. It was there. I could feel it.

Focusing entirely on that pain. On the warmth in my hands, I hoped and prayed this wasn’t the Rift.

If the whole Rift was like this, then I’d not… I’d not be able to…

“Welcome, Mintmorency.”

Looking up, since it seems I had been looking down… I blinked at the sudden world around me.

Krift was standing in front of me, smiling. His amused look told me I had looked funny, and…

With a dry mouth I hurriedly looked around and almost couldn’t believe it.

We were in a field.

Knee high grass was all around us, and off in the distance in all directions were trees. Lush ones, with thick branches and leaves…

“What…?” I spun a little, as well as I could while still holding tightly onto Krift’s arm. As I did so, I found only more fields and trees behind us.

There was no sign of the Rift Wall or its darkness we had just gone through. Not even far off in the distance, above the tree tops. The only thing beyond our little field seemed to be large clouds and open sky.

Running a hand through the grass around me, I felt relief. The blades of grass felt familiar. Just like the ones back home.

“Wasn’t so bad was it?” Krift asked.

I gulped, since my mouth was no longer dry, and realized I had a layer of sweat too. But I knew it wasn’t from the walking, or near sprint we had done at the last moment.

“Yes it was. I wish you would have told me. I panicked,” I said honestly.

“I’m sure. But no amount of warning could have prepared you. Trust me,” Krift said.

Shaking my head, I wondered where we were.

“Yes. This is the Rift,” Krift said.

“It looks… normal. Other than I don’t understand how there’s so much life, when we were just in a barren wasteland,” I said.

“Hm. Normal,” Krift said, as if he found my words funny.

Didn’t it? Sure the grass was tall, and the sky looked… oddly bright, but…

The trees in the distance didn’t look too odd. Maybe a little too dense. There was no weird sounds, or smells…

“Where’d the wall go?” I asked.

“To our north. About a day away,” Krift said.

“A day?”

He smiled, and I could tell he knew I found it ridiculous.

Yet he didn’t explain, and instead chose to turn and begin walking. Since I still clung to him, I got pulled along.

Following him, I noticed that the ground beneath us was… soggy. A little wet, maybe.

I couldn’t see the ground, since the grass was so tall and thick… but I knew fertile soil when I walked upon it.

This land was probably perfect for farming.

The thought interested me, so I was going to ask Krift about it… but something loud and heavy moved to our left.

Startling at the sound, I stared over the field… to the clump of trees that I had heard the sound come from.

It had almost sounded like…

Another thump echoed, and with it the trees shook. My stomach knotted at the quick understanding of what the sound meant.

“Krift…”

“It’s fine. Just a tree,” he said.

The sound thumped again, and I heard something break. Wood snapped, as if a tree had been cracked in two.

“A tree?” I barely believed it.

“A tree. Probably.”

Although Krift frowned, he didn’t increase his pace… nor seem too worried.

Sadly that somehow made it even more worrisome for me.

Before I could complain, a shadow passed overhead. Similar to a cloud passing.

But it wasn’t a normal cloud.

My limbs went weak as I stared up at the sky, and the thing blocking said sky from view.

“Krift,” I groaned, hating the reality before me.

“Just a bird,” Krift calmly said.

A giant cloud flew overhead; eerily slow, not too far above us. The thing did indeed have the shape of a bird… with wings flapping, and a long tail. Yet it looked to be made entirely of clouds. Thick, white, bulbous clouds.

For a good moment I was too transfixed by it to say or do anything. All I did was get pulled along by Krift.

As it flew… it ran into other clouds. Head first. Those clouds however didn’t pass around it but instead seemed to get absorbed by it. For as it flew past it left a trail of cloudless sky behind.

Was it eating them?

It didn’t take too long for it to disappear over the treetops, out of sight. And although I was glad it left, without noticing us… a part of me had wished to watch it longer.

No one would ever believe me. A bird made of clouds.

Looking down, I felt silly when I found Krift smiling at me.

“Welcome to the Rift.”