Under The Oak Tree Riftan Novels & Stories

The earth looked bleached, drained of life, as if the bones of a thousand years had crumbled to dust and nothing dared grow in their wake. Dorian came to my side, his eyes sweeping the terrain. “This is where we stop,” he said. Not loud. Not a command. Just a knowing. Even the air was different here. Heavy. Expectant. I stepped forward slowly, like every inch cost something I hadn’t agreed to pay. The closer I came to the rift, the more I felt it - tugging on the core of me. Like gravity. My feet sank slightly into the cracked soil. The rift shimmered just ahead, a slash of silver-black light suspended in the space between trees that had long since petrified. And then everything stilled.