WEBVTT

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The world ended somewhere around her ankles, dissolving

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into a seamless expanse of pink and lavender.

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Elina adjusted the straps of her pack and

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took another slow step across the endless salt

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flat.

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During the dry season, the ancient lake bed

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transformed into a stage of pure illusion,

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a vast, cracked crust of white salt that

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gave way, here and there,

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to paper -thin pools of water left behind

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by forgotten rains.

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Beneath her boots, the ground crunched like frozen

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snow,

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but above and below her, the landscape defied

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gravity.

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She paused, looking down. There was no line

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where the earth ended and the sky began.

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A pastel sky of apricot, periwinkle, and pale

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gold stretched both upward into the heavens and

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downward into the ground, framing her solitary figure

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in a surreal landscape of infinite symmetry.

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Every step she took sent faint, concentric ripples

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across the detailed reflection beneath her,

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as if she were walking across the ceiling

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of a cathedral made of glass.

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For hours, there had been no sound except

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for the crunch of salt and the rhythm

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of her own breathing.

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It felt less like a desert and more

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like the inside of a dream, a place

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where time had been

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folded in half. She walked toward the horizon,

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an unbroken line where the pastel hues bled

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together into a glowing seam. As the sun

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began its slow descent,

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painting the mirror salt flats in deeper shades

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of violet and rose,

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Alina stopped at what felt like the exact

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center of nowhere. She closed her eyes,

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breathed in the cool, crisp air tasting faintly

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of minerals, and stepped forward into the reflection,

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standing gracefully suspended between two identical skies.