A black star rises.

Light bends around the gravitational mass. It scatters outward into the void around you, rippling and distorted as if your surroundings were underwater. Casting everything into a twilight of pale blue shadow. The air is cool, but not cold. A gentle petrichor scent permeates the stillness. It seems as though you've found yourself in a dark and very peaceful place. Gazing into the abyss above, fascination outweighing fear as your eyes strain to peer into the star's core. An endless deep accepting of all that is and ever will be.

This nightmare is refreshingly different to the others. Cthulhu's realm was a suffocating pressure squeezing until your eardrums popped. Nyarlathotep was a searing dagger chortling with hollow laughter as it repeatedly gouged into your forehead. While Yog-Sothoth's cacophony of moist glowing spheres shone with spectrums of such terrible and captivating radiance that the liquid in your eyes boiled and seethed. Since making the mistake of opening that accursed book, this is the first time falling asleep has taken you to any world within a dream that didn't outright assault your senses.

Ahead in the distance, beneath the black star, you think you can see an island. One side a sprawling wilderness of forest and meadows, the other a cosy little town. A towering temple structure rising from the island's centre where nature and civilization meet. Presumably the keeper of this realm resides there, and there might other creatures with him. It might prove to be just as bad as the other realms were deeper in... but then again, perhaps you might be pleasantly surprised instead.

A dear friend  FenAesirs introduced me formally to  Shwonky today, who turned out this piece in record time! I had an absolutely wonderful time seeing it take shape and chatting with them. And the result... to say I love it would be an understatement. I adore this piece so much, and it really helped lift my spirits after a difficult couple of weeks!