In the same quiet moment -- while the dark sea breathed and the distant light flickered -- what follows happened all at once:

Evelio Laughier laughed at the pitiful distress of a puppy trapped in the swirling refuse.

Madame Grouse snapped for her cane to be fetched, so the same pup could therewith be rescued.

Capella Seis toppled, rolling and tumbling, from her perch atop a dune that overlooked the mote.

Demorra rushed across the sand, arms outstretched, in order to prevent Capella's injury.

Griff Sylvestro gave an echoing shout and, with a flash of a blade, struck the face of the mote.

A sudden blue light seared their eyes and engulfed them all. The hollow toll of a bell reverberated in their skulls, as loud and ominous as if they stood in a belltower at the turn of the hour. The shock of light and sound would send the weakest of them to their knees -- and when their hands hit the ground, they would feel thick grass where there had been sand a moment before.

When the bright blindness faded from their eyes, they would find bright daylight sifting down through the soft branches above.

When the ringing faded from their ears, they would hear the cheerful warble and chirp of songbirds all around.

The sand, the water, the distant light, the [i]night[/i] ... were all gone.

[url=http://hddesktopwallpapers.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tree-wallpaper-birch-forest.jpg]The birch trees here were pencil-straight[/url], and the ground clear of all but a soft carpet of bright grass -- above, the high canopies shifted the dapples of sunlight. The result was a forest that seemed hollow and empty, full of thin white columns and quiet mysteries.

The reluctant travelers were not alone.

A mote sat in the small clearing in which they found themselves -- but it was not the same mote they had found at the seaside. This was perfectly round, made of a dark reddish stone that towered a few feet higher than the tallest of the travelers. It was etched with carvings that were very different from those of the first mote, but somehow the strokes resembled a similar style. These were dim, but a faint red light glowed deep within.

As they watched, the grass directly surrounding this mote began to grow and change color -- violet grasses thickened, jointed, curled and waved their new fronds in an unsettling manner ... as if they were fingers seeking something to grasp.