A glance upwards while walking through the portal and I see black so deep and dark I need to blink my eyes when my vision also fills with starlight. The stars seem to have shifted, or perhaps the glimpse I am provided is too brief, too meager of a bite to be able to actually savor the sight before me. A sensation I can't put a name to, pulls my gaze to a cluster of stars that hum with an energy that thrums inside my veins. A drum that sounds in tune with my heartbeat for a moment before I pass through the other side.
Distracted by the vast breadth of the cosmos and feeling smaller than before, a drastic drop in humidity and a staggering rise in temperature halts my breath and overwhelms my senses. My feet stumble and I come to a shaky halt along the edge of a steep ravine that has nothing but rock over three hundred feet straight below me. The small rocks that I shook loose beneath my feet careen off the cliff before me and tumble down the bare and red-washed rock face.
