1 Prologue

She sat overhanging the edge of the perfectly smooth stone ledge so much that if just one gust of wind came from behind, she would likely have fallen to her death.

Laid out far below her the fake world of green stretched as far as she could see broken only by a small fracture of shining silver.

Hanging over her head was a deep blue sky. That sun, much larger than that from Earth, heated her and the air so that she was fine sitting there wearing just her jeans and tee shirt.

No matter how much she told herself this world was fake the gentle caress of the wind told her otherwise. As did the feel of her soft cotton tee shirt on her skin, and the hard rock digging into her legs.

The warnings those aliens had given her, that though this world was fake if she died then she would die in reality too just didn't make sense. For this was reality, this wasn't fake.

Which meant that what they taught her must all be a lie.

For this was her world.

For this was her one and only life and there was little she could do other than sit alone and wait for death to come to her.

How could the air smell so alive and the wind so gentle if this was a fake world? It must be real. Must be.

How could those giant blades of grass taste perfect even after who knows how long?

A sense of dread filled her.

The pressure in the air changed ever so slightly.

For half a moment she thought about escaping over the edge of the ledge, down onto the rocks far below. But she shuffled backwards.

Her hair started to float gently. The oppressiveness and heaviness of the air didn't keep growing as she expected. Maybe this was one of her kind…

She hoped not.

Far too many had not survived.

She turned towards the peak of the mountain behind her. It reached even higher over the grassland than the platform did. Once or twice she had attempted to climb it but never got far. The one person, an elderly Italian man, who had climbed higher than her never came back.

With ease she magically shifted a seemingly normal part of the peak open. The stone flowed like water revealing a dark tunnel behind. She darted in, closing the tunnel as she did so.

Before the tunnel completely closed she stopped closing it and watched through a hidden opening. If her kind were to die she felt she needed to at least watch them in their final moments. To keep them some kind of company unlike the moment of her death when she would be truly alone.

A man, about her age of early twenties, appeared out of nowhere. She waited for him to fall to the ground when the air poisoned him.

But he never fell.

He stood there mesmerised by the world which she had spent so many months watching from up high. His trousers were sodden and clinging to legs that were just a bit sticky. A fleece hung over his narrow shoulders.

He unzipped his fleece letting it hang even looser.

Carefully she magically shifted opened the mountain and closed it behind her. She saw he was looking at a bulky rhino like creature. Though it was much larger, and faster, and very much territorial.

The Rhino-like creature reared up on its rear legs and slammed its front legs down. The thunder like sound was the loudest sound she had heard since coming to this world.

Along the back of the creature red, orange, and yellow colour patterns flashed. Something had annoyed it. The creature shook its head from side to side.

The man took off his fleece and let it slip to the ground. A nasty habit leaving artefacts and clothing on the ground, leaving signs to the Diablo that someone was here. But she couldn't find it in her to care.

Though his tee shirt hung loose from his shoulders she was drawn to him. This was the first human she had seen in… She didn't want to admit it.

This was the first man her age she had seen in an even longer time.

'They're one of the reasons why I stay up here in the mountains.' She found herself talking to him. Her quiet voice surprised her with how clear it was.

For a while he said nothing. She wanted to break the silence. It was hard to thinking about something to say, nothing was coming to her mind.

'H-Hi.' He said.

She dared not look at him. If she did it would make things harder. All she could see was the world in front of her. It was the only thing she could think about talking about.

'It's beautiful. It really is.' Maybe that was why she hadn't made the pilgrimage to the rocks below.

'Y-yeah. I-it is.' He said.

'It's the only reason I'm still here.' She admitted the truth she had only just learnt a moment ago to this perfect stranger.

It was the only thing she could think about saying.

He didn't say anything, just stood there watching the wind play with the tall blades of grass down below.

The green was broken when the creature reared up once again. Its back was still full of reds, oranges, and yellows.

She was trying to think of something to say to him.

She needed to hear his voice.

She needed to hear something other than the occasional thunderous booms from those Rhino-like creatures.

'From here it's hard to see but that grass is taller than us. It's also much thicker than you expect. It makes great mats to sit upon.

'Oh, sorry, forgot to say.' It had been so long since she had talked to someone that she had forgotten to welcome him. 'Welcome to the Third World.'

'The Third World?'

She sat down, much further back than normal. There was no need to balance on the edge any longer, her legs dangled comfortably over the edge.

He came down to sit next to her. It seemed like he was sitting too close to her. She wanted to shy away slightly but forced herself to stay still.

Someone was alive and sitting next to her. It was nice, even if she felt slightly crowded.

Flashes of memories of screams echoing through the dark chamber before fading away. It had been too long since she had last thought about those deaths.

Maybe it was because he was next to her, or maybe because she just wanted to hear his voice again and she couldn't think of anything else to say. She shared another secret with him, 'too many people fell onto the rocks of this mountain and died by the time enough shifting power was available to shift this platform.

'Now though the few people who come here have a nice safe place to walk out onto. And a nice view too.'

She still did not dare to tell him how she expected him to die.

'How many people are here now?' He asked.

She was grateful she could answer that simple question easily. 'Two.'

'When will I get to meet them?'

She didn't get what he asked. There were two of them sitting on this platform. 'You already have. There's just the two of us now.' Maybe she needed to tell him how she expected him to die. 'Something here on Third kills you before long. Either…' She just couldn't say it to him. He seemed full of life sitting there in silence waiting for her to finish.

After struggling to take a few deep breaths she found the courage to carry on. To tell him the one thing she didn't want to say.