ERIS
I woke to beauty that shouldn't exist.
Sky so clear it looked polished, like someone had taken a cloth to the atmosphere and buffed it until it shone.
Mountains rising in the distance, peaks crowned with snow that caught light and scattered it into prisms. Waterfalls cascading down cliff faces, their mist catching rainbows. And everywhere, everywhere... flowers.
They carpeted the ground in impossible abundance... delicate blooms in shades of white and pale blue and silver, petals edged with ice that never melted.
They grew in clusters around trees whose bark looked like frozen lightning, climbed up stone outcroppings that defied gravity, floated on the surface of pools so still they mirrored the sky perfectly.
I was lying on my back in the middle of it all.
I sat up slowly, muscles protesting the movement. My body felt heavy, like I'd been sleeping for days. Or maybe like I'd burned myself from the inside out and was still recovering. Hard to tell.
