Story Seed - Haven

Image Source: http://shpacia.deviantart.com/art/Island-in-the-Sky-335042978

I opened my eyes and blinked at the brightness. We were safe; free of the caved in crypt where the soulshorn had trapped us. Beside me I heard Jeff get up, and I started to look around to get my bearings.  We were on a small hilltop surrounded by fog and mist. A great pine of some kind rose up above use offering a sort of timid shade in the indistinct light.  I could hear the sound of water nearby and caught a glimpse of a small coming down over a rocky rise. The whole hilltop was barely fifty feet across, but it was peaceful, and there was nothing trying to kill us.

I stood up myself, turning in place and taking in the view, or the lack of view I suppose.  Nothing beyond the hilltop was visible, the mist seemed to enclose and enshroud everything below and also obscured the view of the sky and the horizon. I mused that it was like some kind of pocket of clear air within a rolling fog front, or the eye of hurricane even, though the mist seemed as calm and peaceful as the hilltop itself.  I picked a direction, toward the stream and in the general direction of its flow, and headed that direction.

"Hey, don't wander!" I heard Jeff call after me.

I turned, walking backward and called back, "It seems safe enough to me." Then I thought about it and added, "Say, where the heck did you take us anyways, I don't think I've heard of this recursion."

"STOP!" he yelled, commanded really. I think he was using a little bit of the strange itself on me because I stopped dead. Jeff was jogging over and pulled me forward, spinning me around in the process. "You damn near walked off the edge of the world."

The mist was thinner than it seemed and I saw now that he was not exaggerating. The ground sloped downward a bit and then dropped off completely.  Below I could see a a large boulder floating within that sea of white, and beyond that apparently nothing.  "Where the hell are we?" I asked, sounding more scared than I wanted.

"It's my personal recursion," he replied, a hint of sadness in his voice.

I sensed there was something there, and discreetly asked, "What happened to the others?"

He looked at me, and shook his head, "That soulshorn happened. That wasn't the first time it and I crossed paths. This place is all I have left of them. We created on the down low, took time and effort and if the Estate finds out I'll be in deep shit, but its safe and quiet, and now you know about it. So I hope I can trust you to keep it secret."

I nodded, taking in the small world again, from an entirely different non-literal point of view.