A vast tableau of rolling hills rising steadily towards distant mountains.

As you pass through the narrow cavelike entrance of the box canyon, the mists which had been obscuring your sight suddenly clear and you gasp in wonder. Green hills rise and fall like giant satin sheets, dark stands of trees scattered across their slopes. The bases of the hills flow into light foggy mists. In the distance, the sun is closing in on a formidable-looking mountain range capped by ice and snow. The scene is utterly mesmerizing. Back on Earth, there were few such untouched wildlands left, and no VR movie was ever able to replicate the feel of the cool, damp breeze on your skin or the scent of grass and soil and nature. You never realized it, but you had been looking for this your whole life. This is where you are meant to be!

The most remarkable thing, and also the most frightening, is that there is not a single building in sight. No cities. No towns. No villages. No friendly roadside inns. For that matter, no roads, not that you can see. It hits you hard; despite all the beauty around you, you are utterly alone for the first time in your life. It is thrilling and terrifying all at once.

You soak in the sights and wallow in your terror for a few moments, but then shake yourself out of it. You just do not have the time to waste doing nothing like this, and there is no point to being afraid of something you can't help. Instead, you need to focus on living your new life, and the first step in that is to find yourself a source of water, some food, and someplace to make a semi-permanent camp.

You decide that the best way to go about doing that is to climb one of these hills and get a better vantage point than you're getting from down here at the entrance of the canyon. You use the butt of your spear to probe the ground ahead of you, partially hidden in the mist swirling about your feet, as you begin your ascent. The ground is somewhat soft and spongy, and between the mists themselves and the condensation on the long grass, you quickly become quite damp from the thighs down to your feet. Thankfully, you quickly leave the mists behind and the ground also becomes somewhat more firm as you climb. And climb. And climb.

Reaching the top of the hill directly in front of you seemed like a great idea at the time but as you hike onwards you begin to realize that you might have underestimated both the size of the hill and the amount of time and effort it would take you to get to the top. After what feels like at least an hour of walking, you are still nowhere near the summit. You've had to move sideways a lot more than you would have preferred, as there have been several points where the hillside sloped upwards too steeply for you to easily walk up and you felt completely unprepared to try and climb up. Again, though, there isn't much point fretting over it, so you just do your best to solider on.

The sky has grown quite dark by the time you finally approach the crest of the hill. You don't think the sun has completely set, but if it isn't dipping behind the mountain peaks you'd be quite surprised. Looking down at the way you came, you can see that the mists have risen up behind you nearly to the halfway point of the hill. Hopefully the mists don't quite reach the top of the hill, because that's likely where you're going to set up to rest for the night and you'd rather not wake up soaked. You keep walking at a steady pace, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, taking your task one step at a time.

Finally, just as the last rays of the setting sun begin to fade behind the peaks, you crest the top of the hill. Again you are awestruck by the natural beauty surrounding you. You can't make out much of the terrain now that night is nearly upon you, but the sky above you is utterly covered in a tapestry of stars that is beyond anything you ever dreamed of. With no light, there is no light pollution, so even the faintest of stars is visible. It isn't just a slight spatter of stars like you're used to on Earth. Here, you can't even say that the night sky is black -- billions of stars paint the night sky in clusters and seas. It truly speaks to your soul. Tearing your eyes away from the galaxies of stars above you, you scan the skies and spy two moons, both smaller than Luna. One is maybe half the size of the moon you grew up with a consistent pale blue in color, while the other slightly larger and a rusty red color, much like the pictures of Mars's red plains. You bask in a moment of perfect beauty for an indeterminate amount of time, but finally you shake yourself and get down to business. You find a patch of relatively soft dirt and plop down, sliding your backpack off your shoulders and setting your spear down in front of you.

You reach into your backpack and pull out the box of holding, then pop it open and retrieve one of the sliders. To your surprise and no small amount of pleasure, it is still piping hot. The night air is getting a little chilly, so the heat of the tiny burger is quite welcome. You finish it off in a few bites and debate pulling out another, but decide to be frugal until you secure some other source of food. Thankfully, after a few minutes, the hunger gnawing at your belly begins to abate. You plump up your backpack and lay down on your back using it as a pillow. You stare up at the sky, feeling serene and even a bit joyful until finally the day's events catch up to you and you slip off into sleep.

Some time later, you wake up, completely alert. The sky above you is still cloaked in stars and there's no sign of the sun on the horizon. You're not sure what awoke you, but you have a feeling that you are not alone.