A cool wind whips across the peak you stand on, sending tiny dust-devils
whirling about your feet.  The stars above you seem especially bright tonight,
their silver light reaching across generations to speak to you.  It is
midnight, the hour of magic.  The moon is not in sight tonight.  All is still. 
All is waiting.

   Perhaps it was a mistake to come and camp out here on this night.  Not
something you could have predicted in advance, of course, but still ... 
perhaps it was a little foolish.  All Hallows' Eve is not the most auspicious
of nights.  Still, you packed your bags up, tossed them next to the one-man
tent in your trunk, and drove out here to spend a few days and get your life
sorted out.

   You were awakened in the middle of the night by something.  You weren't
quite sure what, but you could tell something was wrong when you woke up.  The
desert was too quiet, too dark ...  too eager.  Like a sleep walker, you
stumbled to the cliff nearby.  You stood for a minute, catching your breath,
and looked around.  Behind you, at the other end of the shaky dirt trail, your
car and tent wait patiently for your return.  In other directions, you have a
wide-open view of the desert, and can see it stretches in all directions,
until it touches the feet of the mountains.  The missing moon, curiously, does
not concern you, nor does the fact that you can see as well now as if it were
there.

   You absentmindedly take another step forwards.  If possible, the night
becomes even more quiet, and the stars even brighter.  Another step, and then
another.  You stand silently at the very edge of the cliff, looking outwards.

   Then the ground gives way.  "I've gone too far," you think, almost
casually.  Not even screaming, you fall from the edge of the cliff.

***

   There is a sudden sense of a presence around you as you fall.  When you are
rescued in mid-air, the event seems almost natural -- bluesilver wings
surround you, feathers caress you, and merciful darkness embraces you.

***

   You awaken, and find yourself in a grassy field.  The sun is shining
brightly overhead, and a brook babbles gently as it flows along.  A small tree
grows in the center of the field, its branches ripe with apples.