Mom ducked and stepped through, snagging my nearest hand, though whether it was to encourage me, or for her own fortitude, I couldn’t be sure. I shivered a little as I passed through the portal and set my foot onto the soil of yet another world I had never known existed. Idly I wondered how many of these there were… how many portals, how many worlds.
Beneath our feet, the ground crunched, and I bent down to examine the blackened remains of plants. It had the crunch of being frozen but the grass was black and scarred as if from fire. I had no idea what would cause the effect. I stood to get a better look around me. The skies were a dull gray with heavy black clouds that threatened us with rain. Around us, the boulders and rocks formed a circle of sorts, the gray of granite with splashes of
