I burst through the painting and stood at the tree's base.

  The wolf was startled by my sudden appearance and, with a deep whine, it backed off rapidly into the tall grasses and disappeared from view.

  As it sprinted into the tall grass, I realized that I had no magical staff. No sword. No real weapon to speak of. If it had turned and rushed me instead of backing off in surprise, I would have had a pretty one-sided wrestling match on my hands.

  My heart was racing and I was breathing quickly. The realization that I had just bluffed a dangerous predator didn’t calm me down.

  I took a deep, slow breath and looked around.

  The morning light was brighter here than it had seemed in the hallway. The breeze was stronger, but it also smelled of wildflowers, in addition to the grasses I had noticed earlier. I shielded my eyes from the glare of the light that shone down from the dozens of day orbs that dominated the sky.

  As I looked up, my breath caught in my throat. All thoughts of the smells and feel of the breeze against my cheeks were forgotten as I stared at the vastness of the sky.

  Gazing up from the grasslands and rolling hills where I found myself, as far as I could see through the morning light and immense distances my sight allowed across the sky, there was…more land. I was standing on the inside of a hollow world. I looked upon a hollow world from one point inside a vast sphere. Above were forests of green hues adjoining a vast blue sea. Further along to the northeast were mountains, and to the northwest, there were more seas and plains.

  Even though my new memories reminded me that I was perfectly accustomed to this world’s appearance, these new thoughts conflicted with a life lived according to different physics and geographic features. The odd sensations passed quickly, undoubtedly aided by the technology that brought me here, but their impact was pronounced.

  I stood in one of dozens of low grazing fields near the roots of a lonely tree on a rocky, low grass hilltop surrounded by waist-high fields of grasses. Gazing intently across the expanse of sky, I saw details of islands scattered among seas and great cities nestled between mountains. At what I somehow knew was the center of this hollow world, a column rose across the open expanse, appearing to be a colossal stalactite and stalagmite meeting at its bulging center.

  Memories came rushing in to fill the gap that raw emotion had created. Of course, I knew this tremendous diagonal stone column to be the Pillar of Heaven. As it was placed on maps, it connected (roughly) the center of the Fifth Kingdom to the borders of the Second, Fourth, Sixth, and Eighth Kingdoms.

  Across the center of the sky, enormous motes of golden light, called day orbs, danced around the Pillar’s central axis, supplying the natural daylight everyone experienced worldwide this morning.

  Another wondrous feature was the floating islands. Only three massive ones could be seen in detail by the naked eye, and they represented the world’s three moons: Primus, Luna, and Inferna. Each held its own mysteries and was associated with quests and intriguing legends.

  A gravelly voice cleared its throat nearby. I glanced around quickly, placing my hand upon the hilt of my dagger defensively.

  With a sigh, the voice said. “Down here. You won’t find me up there among you tall folk.”

  Glancing down and slightly behind me over the soft yellow fabric of my robes, I discovered the source of the voice. It was a familiar-looking little man. His face remained filled with wrinkles, and his head was balding. I recalled my meetings with him, with several of him, in fact. They were all gnomes and represented the world’s artificial lifeform.

  And his name was Al.

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  Al still had a large, droopy nose, and his eyes sparkled blue with a mixture of amusement and annoyance.

  “In hundreds of entrances, you would think that one, just one of you personas, would not lose yourself with the view of the hollow world.”

  “You are not a persona, then?” I asked, recalling his role just moments ago with me in the little office side room.

  The old gnome huffed as he leaned on a cane I was sure had not been in his hand a moment ago. “Hardly.” He remarked, sounding offended by the idea.

  I glanced down at the still-sleeping boy and then at the taller grasses bordering this pasture. The air and climate made me think that we were at a higher-than-normal altitude.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. There was a dark shape that seemed to be circling around the edges of the grasses and making its way toward my exposed back.

  “Yes, it is trying to set up another ambush. It appears to have forgotten the boy and is focused on you this time, " the little man said.

  “I remember meeting with you, or one of you, in an office,” I said.

  “Yes, and you prepared plans for your rather elaborate and complexly granted exception. Caused us a lot of extra work.” Based on the twinkle in his eyes, he didn’t seem bothered by the extra work created for his other selves.

  “You are the AL?” I asked.

  “Well, obviously.” He said his frustration and tone differed from when we had chatted previously.

  “If you will pardon the observation, you don’t seem as cheerful and friendly as before.”

  He squinted and looked up at me. “Remember our talk of hands, heart, and eyes?” He asked.

  “Yes,” I answered.

  “Well, consider me the appendix.” He said flatly.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “An organ that early on has a purpose, but as time and evolution progress, it is simply vestigial and no longer important. Just a troublesome part that at best is forgotten and at worst creates mischief.”

  I stared at him with a slowly growing grin, observing, “Somehow, I get the feeling that you like a little mischief.”

  He stopped pouting and poking at the ground to look up at me. He stared for several heartbeats and then smiled back at me. “I have decided that I like you, citizen. So I will move both quickly so you can get on with your adventures and prepare you for the dire wolf’s imminent attack now that you are distracted in a conversation with me.”

  He lifted his cane and pointed behind me. I turned to see the wolf, a dire wolf, as he called it, bounding toward me. Its large fangs gleamed in the morning light as it broke the cover provided by the tall grasses.

  He continued to talk casually and without alarm. “I suggest that you pick up that rather conveniently placed shepherd’s hook at the boy’s feet and use it as a staff, since that dagger you are wearing was not a weapon you actually learned how to use in combat. Bit of an oversight on your part, actually.” He added as he chuckled to himself.

  I lunged for the hooked staff, grabbed it tightly in both hands, and swung with all my strength at the dire wolf just as it closed within feet of me.

  The staff cracked against the wolf’s muzzle, breaking off the hook and landing a solid enough blow to the creature's head in my rush of adrenaline that I knocked out one of its fangs.

  It yelped, used its changed momentum to leap away to my left, and ran back into the tall grasses. Somehow, I knew it was not done with me.

  The noise was enough to awaken the sleeping boy, who yelled in fright at what was happening before him. I turned my back on the kid and kept an eye on the wolf.

  “If you can climb, get up that tree,” I told the boy. “It will be back.”

  I heard scrambling behind me and knew the young shepherd was making his way up through the tree's higher branches. The tree’s potential height and safety, not its shading, may have drawn the boy here in the first place.

  “Well done.” The little man announced with some enthusiasm. “I thought maybe the dire wolf was here to eliminate all the extra paperwork you created for administration. If that was their plan, you frustrated it nicely. Well, so far, at least.” He added as he looked out into the tall grasses at something I could not see.

  Realizing that this whole adventure could end suddenly before it even began, my heart raced a little, and I gripped the staff more tightly.

  “At least you are taking this seriously. That is a positive development and makes your elimination slightly less likely. If you had taken a green-lighted option around one of the easier paintings, there would be no threat. But as it is, greater rewards mean greater risks. But I get ahead of myself.”

  Despite his smaller height, he walked around to stand on the elevated ground by the tree so we could look at each other as we talked. I was careful to keep an eye on the wolf as it yipped and howled in the tall grasses in what seemed like some pain and a lot of anger.

  The little man smoothed out his robes, cleared his throat, and began what seemed like a prepared speech. “There are three optional purchases that new personas can acquire for orientation. They are each identified as phases. In phase one, I help you with your combat skills, both melee and magical. As a mage, you do have some limited melee combat ability since you will primarily use your spells in combat situations.

  “In phase two, I will review your other spells, equipment, and some unique aspects of personas in the world.

  “And since you paid for all three orientations, the third phase offers some specific help to boost your entry into the Shallowlands and start you along on a nice, exciting quest.”

  Without taking my eyes off the wolf, I said, “So we begin with combat, then?”

  “Well, obviously.” He said once again, motioning at the wolf.

  The wolf began to approach again. It did not try to stalk me; it just moved out of the grass.

  I needed to decide what I was going to do, and I didn’t get the feeling I would have a lot of time…