[center][h3][color=a187be][u][i]THE MOON[/i][/u][/color][/h3]
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[right][h3][i]Chapter 1: The Land Beyond the Door[/i][/h3][/right]

	It was a feeling unlike any he'd ever experienced. Theo felt like his very being was pulled from his throat, like he was suffocating. Then he was travelling, faster than the speed of light, faster than recognition, past all the stars in the sky and into a void. Then he jerked, ricocheted off something infinitely distant, infinitely beyond his understanding of anything in the universe.

	And as fast as it had begun, it was finished. As Theo's head stopped spinning, he felt cool concrete on his face and hands. He opened his eyes, trying to find his room, grasping for the chair he was so sure he was just sitting in. But there was only darkness, and silence, and the scent of a musty old basement.

	[i]Where am I?[/i] Just as the thought formed, a soft golden flow filled the room, like the first rays of dawn. A familiar orb appeared before him.

	"[i][color=fff79a]We have arrived, little light.[/color][/i]" Her words sounded more like a voice, then, in that place, singing out from the light to every corner of the room.

	"Where are we?" Theo asked. It was a small room, seemingly made of stone, with a worn rectangular pedestal in its center. Eerily, it reminded him of a tomb.

	"[i][color=fff79a]This is the Southern Shrine,[/color][/i]" the orb said. "[i][color=fff79a]Open the door and witness the land I have brought you to.[/color][/i]"

	Theo did as he was told. He shuffled around the pedestal to a shape in the stone walls that seemed like the door. Upon examination, a web of faint lines ran over its face, and it possessed no handle. Theo shrugged, and pressed his hands against it. A brilliant flash of light enveloped him, and the lines on the door came to life as bright light in an amalgam of colors crawled through them. White, orange, red, blue, and even black light spiraled together in orchestrated beauty. When the lines were filled, the door descended into the earth without a sound, opening the shrine.

	[i]That was amazing,[/i] Theo thought, stepping through the opening.

	The land beyond the door was...familiar. It was night, and tall, lush grass painted the dark landscape. Clusters of trees could be seen in the distance. It was a beautiful rolling prairie, illuminated by moonlight.
	
	It was the sky that was strange. Billions of stars made pinholes in the void of night, a hundredfold more brightly than anything he had seen before. And there were moons. Not just one, but three, each different in size from the last. The smallest was pale, with a blue tinge, the closest to the real thing. The next was a large orange ball in the sky, like a harvest moon, but way bigger than it ought to be. The last was blood red, and absolutely massive, eclipsing a large fraction of the stars and half-hidden by dark clouds. Together they cast a glow on the ground, an aurora of gentle lights.

	Theo couldn't help but stagger backwards, struck with vertigo. As he did, he felt something behind him, like a blossoming warmth. He turned back to the depths of the shrine to watch several other orbs, just like his, materialize in the darkness.