The sun slowly retired for the day as moonlight began to take hold.

Raine’s landing was met with some turbulence. He braced himself holding the straps on the parachute backpack. He was distracted by the turbulence and only got a brief glimpse of the scene before him. The expansive landscape held miles of greenery, roadways and many many lights. It appeared he was landing on the outskirts of a small town. “What is all this?“ he wondered.

He didn’t know exactly how the aircraft maneuvered and handled the wind gusts and all but somehow it recovered and there wasn’t a crash and burn landing...he was going to make it safely to the ground. The aircraft chose a spot in a lusciously green, grassy field—a small spot of farmland perhaps? Raine took a minute to observe his surroundings, taking everything in before slowly getting out of the vehicle. After completing its job, the vehicle dissipated into fog and that was it. Raine had made his great escape. The sky let him go but not without a fight. He couldn’t help but notice how the sky and clouds were above him now instead of beneath his feet. It felt weird to him to have his old home towering above him instead of below.

He felt an overwhelming sense of grogginess. He didn’t quite know what it was (‘jet lag’ perhaps?). He couldn’t describe it but he felt so much heavier and lethargic. The full force of gravity most certainly had kicked in. He took a moment to perceive all the sensory info he was feeling—the smell of fresh air, the ground and grass beneath his feet. There were a few vague passing car sounds in the distance.

He laid down in the grass for a minute to look up at the moon. The moment was quite serene. The grass, even though it wasn’t as soft and billowy as clouds, still felt great to him.

“So this is how it all looks from here. You can only see the clouds and the moon and stars. You can’t tell there are people and kingdoms in the sky. How beautifully far away it all is.”

Even though he was lost in the moment and felt at peace, he didn’t want to lay there forever. There were things to do, people to find and meet. So he got up and followed his instincts by walking towards the sounds and the lights.