The landscape was a beautiful, vibrant green forest, the treeline stretching all the way to the horizon. In the center of the picture, one lone tree towered over all the others, dozens of times the height of even the second tallest tree in the forest, jutting through the clouds, spreading outwards and upwards like a mushroom cloud. There was a large shadowed area around it where the vegetation was far sparser, the one giant tree hogging almost all the light.

Crisis was putting the finishing touches on it. This was one of her favorite pieces she had done. She had seen this place in dreams many times. She had no idea why she had dreamed it up, but she always felt that it seemed familiar somehow.

She often drew landscapes like these, half familiar, half alien. She drew deserts, underwater cities, endless jungles, blasted tundra, twisting caves, and many other things. Critics loved them, because they depicted impossible scenes with a sort of realism that almost made you believe the artist had been there. More than anything, they depicted a sense of scale, an endless, open world, too vast to imagine.

She had gotten many lucrative commissions making backgrounds for video games, movies, book covers and the like. However, Crisis felt that even if she wasn't successful, she would still be unable to resist drawing these scenes. It made her feel more "at home" than anything else. Sometimes her friends worried that she might get lost in these worlds she created, but she always had time to hang out with them as well. She was an eager, energetic person.

Speaking of which, Crisis had about a half hour to wrap up her work, before she went to hang out with her best friend from college, Beth.

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The skating rink was perhaps predictably filled with the sounds of people falling, skidding and grunting on the laminated floor. Crisis definitely wasn't one of the ones falling, though.

"How are you so good at this, Crisis?"

Beth stood shakily on the edge of the skating floor, smiling as she watched Crisis skating effortlessly around, jumping and spinning, dancing to the unheard beat of her mp3 player, her long blonde hair whipping around, having the time of her life.

"Come on, Beth, all you need is a little practice!" She smiled warmly, stopping and extending her arm out to her friend.

"You never seemed to have trouble. It's like you were born to slide instead of walk." She took the offered hand and smiled, though. She did want to learn, and Crisis was the master.

"Look, the first thing to do is relax. Don't lock up your legs, I know it feels like you're trying to stand up, but you get better balance and control if you bend your legs a bit."

Shakily, Beth bent her legs and tentatively let go of the wall. She wobbled a little, but managed to stabilize. Then she picked up her right foot and tried to step forward. Her left foot rolled back due to the low friction, and she face-planted, frantically bracing herself with her hands.

"Oof, I'll help you up." Beth grabbed Crisis' hand, struggled up and grabbed onto the wall again. "That hurt!"

"You can't walk in the skates. You have to slide. Like this! See how my feet are pointed." Her left foot was pointed diagonally away from the wall, while her right was pointed diagonally towards it. Then she pushed off with her right foot, sliding on her left foot. "Just do that!" She brought her right foot back, sliding on both feet briefly before repeating the same motion in reverse.

Beth tried to do it this way. To her credit, she did manage to do it a few times, slowly, before face-planting yet again.

"See! You're getting it!" Crisis beamed. "You learn quick! Everybody falls, and most fall more than you!"

"Doesn't make me feel much better," Beth mumbled, but there was no malice in her voice. She had improved, and she was glad her friend was there to help.

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Crisis and Beth walked down the street together on their way home. Their apartments were both near the rink, and both in roughly the same direction, so it would be a while before they would have to part ways. They chatted about art, life, work, friends, drama. Neither of them would remember much of what they said, though, as it would soon be overshadowed in their minds.

Suddenly, without warning, Crisis heard a loud "ZAP", making her and Beth jump. A man nearby startled, then turned to them. "What was that? Did you see that?"

"What?" Beth asked, but before the man could open his mouth, her question was answered. Something like a bolt of lightning appeared in the air for a tenth of a second, shining bright blue, making that same "ZAP" sound.

"That!" But even more bolts of lightning started appearing rapidly. None of them hit Crisis, Beth or the man, but they seemed to strike within a dome shape around their position on the street, preventing any of them from leaving without getting shocked many times. The three people cowered underneath the dome as the bolts came faster and faster. They squeezed their eyes shut, covered their ears and ducked as the bolts became too numerous to look at without being blinding, their sound almost deafening.

"What is going ON?" yelled Crisis. But she could barely be heard over the din. They stayed cowering there for about two more seconds, until the noises abruptly stopped.

Crisis waited a while before gingerly opening her eyes. Somehow she felt dirt instead of pavement where her head touched the ground, felt warmer air than she had just a moment ago. What she saw, though, was what really blew her breath away.

The street was gone, and in its place... well, there was no way to explain it rationally. It was the forest from her painting! But... something was very wrong. The grass was taller than any she had ever seen before, coming up almost to her full height. She saw a line of trees far in the distance, and even further away, that same gigantic tree, but... even the regular trees seemed to be impossibly big. She couldn't be sure how far they were away from her, but it looked as though they were miles away, and still they seemed to loom over her.

That was when she noticed the man in front of her. She briefly saw him staring, terrified, at something behind her, before he screamed. She jumped and whirled around. She gasped in shock. The trees were closer on this side of the clearing, and there was no longer any doubt in her mind that they were far, far too big. That wasn't what had scared the man, though.

A giant had stepped out from the forest, leering down at them, a wild look in his eye. He was wearing a ridiculous purple cloak, and holding a staff the size of a normal tree, looking for all the world like he was in a goofy wizard costume. Nobody was laughing, however, until the "wizard" started to laugh. It was a horrible, hoarse noise, as though he hadn't laughed in years, and he was only laughing now because he'd finally snapped.

The giant's laughs kept booming, until he started coughing, and cleared his throat. He spoke.

"Welcome to Felarya!"