She'd never seen a land like this. Elisabet left the forest behind and skirted the plains, following instead strange, flat mountains on the horizon. It was hot, here, hotter than any winter had a right to be, and the plush of her coat soon discouraged her from traveling beneath god-mother's eye. Paradise's moon would be better company.

In fading light the colour of her fur, she craned her head up at the high, shear walls of the red plateaus, having no word for them, but admiring the way goats scaled their sides in such graceful ease. She couldn't even understand where they put their hooves to do it, they seemed to be dancing on the very edge of land and air.

Strange plants grew here, too. Bristling things, tall and rounded. Little grey birds impaled irridescent lizards on the spines, and gigantic bats sipped nectar from pink flowers. It seemed she'd stepped into some kind of upside-down wonderland, and that awe distracted her from more practical things — like realizing she wasn't alone.