Krystle wiped the sweat from her brow as she studied the terrain ahead. The rock she stood on was steady, but she knew that would not last long. The platforms ahead looked stable enough, but she had learned the hard way how dangerous it could be to step on one without first studying it. She shuddered at the memory. The rock had leaped out from under her just as she had planted her feet and she'd had to move quickly to avoid falling into the pit below. The cavern that surrounded her glowed with an eerie red light that, combined with the heat, made her fear what she would find should she fall to the bottom of it. She didn't dare look down. She'd tried that once, too. When she couldn't see the ground beneath her, she'd shifted her focus to what lay ahead.
She finally saw a platform several yards away that was moving slower than the rest, but obviously moving. That was one she could trust. It was the ones that looked steady she could never be sure about. They could move the instant she came into contact with them, and she was never sure which direction it would be. The only way to avoid falling was to stay away from them as much as possible, to minimize her contact with them. But the one she was aiming for was too far for her to go directly to it. She would have to step on two others first. They looked stable enough from where she stood; she prayed they would stay that way when she landed on them. Bracing herself, she jumped, placing her right foot on the platform ahead of her. It lurched to the right, but she was already jumping toward the next. This one fell away from her feet and she couldn't push away from it hard enough to land squarely on the one she was aiming for. She had enough momentum to carry her to the edge of the platform, but she landed hard, wrenching her knee. Her vision blurred from the pain, and she stayed where she had fallen, breathing hard, her knee throbbing.
When she finally looked up, she found that she had come within sight of her goal: a metal doorway with an etching at eye level of a diamond inscribed within a circle. Krystle almost cried with relief. This place had been terrifying and dangerous, but it was almost over. She was almost done. She got to her feet slowly, gingerly putting weight on her injured leg. It was a good thing she was almost done traveling through this land. She would no longer be able to make the jumps that had carried her this far.
She limped to the far edge of the platform, thankful that it was large and fairly flat. This land was rarely that kind to her. She looked ahead; the doorway was only four yards away, but the platform it was on was moving quickly. She would have to move fast. She braced herself against the pain, jumped to a platform on her left, and did her best to land with both legs. Her knee buckled as the gravel she landed on slid beneath her feet. Krystle panicked as she started to slide over the edge. She reflexively sat and grasped frantically at the loose rocks under her hands and finally found a firm handhold, but by the time she pulled herself up the doorway was almost out of sight. She screamed in pain as she landed on the next platform, but made herself jump again, and again, and again, only allowing herself to think of the doorway ahead. Just as she reached it, the platform started to fall- fast. She slapped her palm into the middle of the diamond and screamed, "Open sesame!" For once she didn't even think of the irony of the cliche password that opened these doors for her. The door pushed outward, and just before she stepped through it she discovered the consuming red fires as the bottom of the pit that had lit up the cavern. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes to the advetures of a new world.
Krystle blinked as the hot sun seared her eyes. An endless desert stretched out before her, and even as the door closed behind her she knew this world would be every bit as horrific as the one she had just escaped. That thought slipped away from her as all her memories faded and her wounds healed. The door closed behind her and faded into the scenery. Krystle didn't turn around to watch it. Somewhere in this hellish land was a doorway she had to find. She shaded her eyes against the sun, but the sand beneath her feet reflected so much sunlight that the effort was fruitless. Her mouth already felt dry, and the sweat that had soaked her shirt when she'd stepped through the door was already beginning to evaporate.
Walking a few steps, Krystle discovered that the sand under her feet shifted easily, but did not kick up much dust, for which she was extremely grateful. However, the walking was hard work, and if she was going to find the next door, she knew she had to keep moving. The sun was low in the sky, and Krystle desperately hoped this meant the day was almost over. She had long since lost all sense of time, and she didn't know how long she'd been awake.
Krystle set out with a puposeful walk. She wanted to find the doorway before nightfall, if possible. The thought of what might come out at night in this desert sent fear down her spine. She walked on, noting with dismay that the sun was still rising. As it climbed to its zenith, her skin burned, dried, cracked in the scorching heat. Her walk deteriorated to a determined trudge, and as her body slowly lost the moisture it needed, her mind began to wander. She began to see things that weren't there. She knew she needed water, and she followed the apparitions her mind created in hopes that one of them was real, that she would find an oasis that promised life. She licked her lips, only later realizing that the only moisture she felt came from the blood seeping from the cracks in her lips. The world spun around her, and the first time she fell she scraped her chin on the sand before she realized she was going down. The hours passed, step after weary step. With no other goal in sight, she continued to follow the visions her mind showed her. She knew she needed the life-giving moisture, but didn't understand why she needed it. And she didn't understand why she never reached it, no matter what direction she went or how fast she tried to go. She forgot why she was walking. Only the knowledge that she must keep going pushed her on. Each time she fell, she pushed herself up- up and on. She forgot everything but the glare of the sun on her face and the ache that had become her body. Her mind wandered, but she didn't even realize it was not with her. A constant thought told her that none of this was real and added to her delirium. Her tongue felt like sandpaper. Her eyelids were raw, and her nose burned like the fires at the bottom of a pit she had just escaped hours before. She clung to that thought, knowing it was real, but lost it before it had time to form.
A mirage disappeared before her. She forgot how long she had been following it, but knew with sudden mental clarity that she did need the water it had offered. The fog of her mind swirled for a moment. Through the shifting sands, Krystle realized one reality. "This must change," she said. She spoke to herself, for she was the only one around to listen, but her voice held a note of strange determination. "I need..." the fog swirled again, obscuring thought. "I..." she trailed off again. The thought that had driven her to this point re-asserted itself. Again she pushed herself forward, dazedly searching for something she couldn't remember. The sun beat down upon her relentlessly, mercilessly sucking moisture from her body. Krystle trudged on, knowing only that she must continue.
Her knees hit the sharp rocks on the ground, and dimly she realized that the landscape was subtly different around her. Instead of shifting sand below her feet, the ground was firm and scattered with small stones. Occasionally boulders dotted the landscape, and as she lay on the ground breathing in short, rasping gasps, she thought she saw a stunted plant growing low to the ground not far away. She saw it, and vaguely she sensed that she was in a better place than the one she had just traveled through, but she didn't know why it was better, or how she could use that information. She closed her eyes, only for a moment, against the heat while she caught her breath. When she opened her eyes again she made herself use every ounce of energy she had left to force herself to her feet. "I will not die here," she whispered to herself in a gravelly voice. Exhausted, she pushed herself onward. Each lurching step became a fall and each time she fell she caught herself by putting an aching foot in front of her. Through the fog that had become her mind she realized that the land had grown dark around her. The sun had set. The thought came that she should not travel through the night, but she ignored it and pushed on. She didn't see the deep ravine that opened up before her. She pushed herself forward, and when her foot found nothing but air, her body propelled her forward until she fell into a blissfully dark oblivion.
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