Dark swiveled all around me, as if it were a living thing, with hopes and dreams. It encompassed the entire world, and I stood in complete black—all except a small light that came from the Dragon’s Eye amulet.

Holding it out in front of me, I was surprised that I felt no pain. I reached down, feeling for my injuries, and they weren’t there—

I was completely healed

Before I could fully wrap my mind around what was happening, I saw something out in that eternal darkness. An outline. Squinting, I could just make out the silhouette of a figure. As they came closer, I saw they wore a hood, but it was still too dark to tell more about it.

“What have we here?” they asked again, their voice drifting forward like a pleasant aroma on an autumn day.

Something about them already pissed me off.

They came ever closer, and I noticed that their feet weren’t touching the ground. They flew… or hovered, above a sea of black. Looking down, I saw nothing at all below, and my heart leapt into my throat as I imagined falling into it forever, never hitting the ground, but never dying either.

“Wh-wha-what-is-this,” I stammered out, my entire body shaking; from fear or lack of nicotine, I could not say.

The hooded figure drifted ever closer, coming into the light of the Dragon’s Eye. “Careful…” the Dragon warned. “This one is a dangerous foe.”

“Dangerous…” I muttered in response, but sensed nothing of the sort.

“Dangerous?” they repeated. “Yes, I suppose you could say that. But dangerous to you? Hardly.”

The cloaked individual was now directly in the light of the Dragon’s Eye. The hood they wore was embedded with intricate silver weave, and the colors of it seemed to shift as often as they breathed. From the inside of the hood, in stark contrast to the world around us, was a blinding white glow. So powerful that I couldn’t see any features of their face.

Swallowing hard, and forcing my nerves to calm, I asked, “Where are we?”

“Hmph,” they replied, as if I were a complete moron. I was right to dislike them. “Still ignorant I see. This before you is the in-between; the place between the strands of the web. And you, my handsome fellow, are an Araneae.”

“Araneae…” The Dragon repeated in my mind, as if the word held deep meaning.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I ignored the Dragon. “And what is that?”

The hooded figure held their hands high to the sky, or what would be the sky. “It is everything!”

The dark shifted suddenly, swirling, like water in the faucet of a sink. The inky black drained from the world, leaving us standing in its absence. When the shroud was lifted, I looked out in awe and wonder, my mind not fully comprehending how this was possible. There we stood, in the deep vastness of space, the completeness of the universe around us in full light and spectacle.

The figure pointed a long gloved finger behind me. “Look!”

Reluctantly, I turned to the sight of two moons, one as red as Mars, and the other, white, matching Earth's own moon. These two planetary forces were engaged in some type of battle, for lack of better word. A battle where multicolored strands of light tried to envelop the other, and, between them, the inky black swirled integrated with strands of light.

It was a sight unlike anything I could have ever imagined.

“Beautiful, is it not?” the hooded figure asked, gliding to my side.

I couldn’t pry my eyes away as I replied, “Mmm…” was all I could manage to say at the time; I was speechless, utterly and completely speechless.

“I do this for you so that you can understand. My power—this power—it can be yours. No, it will be yours.”

I turned back towards the hooded figure, hoping to catch a glimpse of the god I spoke with. But the inside of the hood, it was still too pure—still so bright. “All of this could be… mine?”

“Will be yours,” they repeated. “Will be.”

“Don’t listen!” The Dragon boomed into my head, sending pain flooding through my body. “They Lie! They Lie—”

Then, as if someone closed a door, the Dragon’s voice was gone. Just gone. And in its place, only the soft silence of the universe was there, whispering sweet poems of eternity in my mind.

“That one is… unexpected,” the hooded figure said. “But it doesn't matter. They are weak, not like you.”

“The Dragon is the weak one? And I'm strong?” I couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s a Dragon—how could I possibly be stronger?”

The figure clapped me on the shoulder. “Dragon’s are weak… compared to gods. Now, it is time for you to go back. I merely wished to show you your future. We will meet again, at eternity's end.”

“My future…”

The figure sighed. “You’ll get there. Soon. Soon. Soon” The voice drifted away.

A silver portal appeared before me, the same that I had taken in my living room; that felt so long ago now.

Looking around, I realized that I was all alone now, the hooded figure—the god—nowhere to be found. Looking at the Dragon’s Eye, I could sense rage flowing from it. Pure unbridled fury. Despite my sudden fear of it, I held it close, and stepped through the portal.

[https://mj-gallery.com/7094926d-a660-4b9d-a97e-48932907d504/grid_0.png]