Though racked with pain, my thoughts were lucid and focused. I looked at the little people oblivious to the battle, who seemed to fancy themselves neutral and at peace, making choices so as to maintain dual citizenship in the two warring kingdoms. I was shocked at their ignorance and indifference to the gravity of this ferocious war. Above all, I was shocked that I had been just like them, blind to reality.

I turned toward the hideous face of the dark commander, battle-ax raised, only thirty feet from me now. As I writhed, I listened to the eerie gasping of my punctured lung. The irony struck me that the greatest moments of clarity I’d ever known would now be culminated in my slaughter. I would have welcomed death, except … I had a horrible feeling what awaited me on the other side was far worse than oblivion.

Poised above me now was a raised battle-ax. Trembling, I looked into the shark eyes of my gloating executioner.

I watched the ax fall, but just as it came upon me, Shark Eyes disappeared. All the warriors from both sides disappeared. The people on the plain popped back into normal view, as solid as the warriors had been the moment before. Silence.

I pulled my head up out of the dirt and looked from side to side. It took a moment to grasp the fact that the pain in my shoulder and arms and ribs and lung had disappeared, replaced by an aching void in my chest. I looked around, relieved to see an empty landscape.

All seemed peaceful. There was no battle. At least … none that I could see.

Several people out for a stroll stared at me, lying there in the dirt. I started to explain what had happened. They looked at me as though I was crazy, then suddenly I recognized them. I’d seen two of them killed in the battle! And yet … here they were, the walking dead. How could that be? We traded stares, each frightened by the other.

Marcus, his long dark hair dripping with sweat, approached me, haggard and limping, favoring his left leg.

“What happened?” I ask him, but before he could answer, he turned into a raging fire. My face blistered at the heat. Then a portal opened in midair, giving me a moment’s glimpse of something beyond. Face grimacing and resolute, like a soldier headed back to battle, Marcus walked through it, to the universe next door.

When he was gone, I felt my body again, barely able to believe my bones were no longer broken, my lung was not pierced, and I could move. I stood slowly, reeling, then sank back down to the ground and clutched the dirt, closing my eyes.