There is a lot of falling in this world.

Air rushes past me as I plummet, whipping at my clothes, but it does not sting my skin. There is nothing to see. Nothing to feel. Just the sensation of tumbling lower, and lower, a never-ending descent into pure black.

Falling.

Still falling.

Gradually, the darkness lessens. It becomes a dark grey, then a pale grey. I am still falling.

Finally, I am surrounded by white, and the white is soft, like fluffy clouds. It does not slow my descent, but at least I can see, even if there is nothing to see but shades of white. I feel safe. The clouds envelop me, protecting me as I drop through layers and layers of it.

Then I break free.

Below me, I see an entire world. Forests of green spread out in every direction, and I am high above it all, too high to even see where one tree begins and another tree ends.

I am still falling rapidly, with no sign of slowing my descent. I grasp on to the words that echo in my mind, a reminder of the guide standing watch over my unconscious body.

You will begin to feel your wings unfurling along your back, stretching out from your shoulders...

BAM.

The wings (that I most certainly didn't have before) do not start to slowly unfurl from my shoulders -- they immediately snap out to their full length, wide and strong, quickly catching the air. I am jerked back by the sudden change in my velocity. The accompanying sting that tingles along the unexpected addition to my form sends me careening sideways, and I struggle to regain my balance. It takes me a moment to level out into an even flight. My gaze scans the landscape. I have dropped quite a ways already, and I'm now close enough to make out the crowns of the trees below me. The next step of my journey is to find the gate to the realm of the totem animals.

A change in colour from the corner of my eye catches my attention. In the distance there is a towering stone structure, seemingly a gigantic rock jutting into the sky. The ground around it is a dusty tan, markedly different from the sea of mottled green around it. The proportions of it are so epic that I marvel at how I hadn't seen it before now. I tilt my wings and make straight for the landmark.

As I approach the giant stone, I trim my wings and begin to make tight spirals above the earth in order to complete my descent. Soon my legs reach out and my feet touch down against the golden earth. As soon as I am standing steadily, my wings tuck up against my back, slowly dissolving until it were as if they were never there. I am hit by a feeble pang of loss, but I know that I was never meant to keep my wings. I will not need them going forward.

I turn to face the stone. There is an opening near the base of the rock, more of a doorway than a tunnel. I can see through it to the trees on the other side, but it is surrounded by an aura that I can only feel, not see. I get the feeling that walking through this opening will not take me to the other side of the stone; it will take me to another realm entirely.

This is certainly the "gate" I am looking for, no doubt about it. But now... where is the Gatekeeper?

"Hello?" I call out tentatively. Nothing is moving near the gate, and a quick glance from side to side tells me that there is no one else around. I had been told that a Gatekeeper is supposed to materialize for me. But then, where is it?

My heart, still thrumming from excitement, begins to beat in anxiety. Why hasn't my Gatekeeper appeared? What happens if there is no Gatekeeper? Do I have to turn back?

The ground rumbles, matching the rumble in my chest, and I take a reflexive step back. My gaze darts around fearfully. The ground underneath me is moving, shifting, transforming. Pebbles run down the slope that is forming in the ground. Jagged spines rise up from the dirt.

I stagger back, moving until the earth beneath my toes seems stable. I have only just cleared the dangerously shifting ground when a long, monstrous shape rises up out of the rubble. Dust forms a cloud around it. My eyes focus on the slender neck and gleaming eyes of the beast just in time to see the dragon's head lunge towards me with wide open jaws.