and smelling the stale air. For the first time in several years, it seemed to worry me.
Reality is not here, just close your eyes. It’s easy.
I pushed my childish agitation aside and took a deep breath, remembering that I’d ascended thousands of times before. With a surge of will, my eyes closed and I surrendered control.
- - - -- --- -- - - - - --- -- - - --- - -- - -- ---- --- - - --- -
It was a beautiful spring day in a barren, contested land; beauty being relative, of course, in a war zone.
I kept telling myself that I had three days: plenty of time for bombing raids and adrenaline and replays. Where I normally jumped straight to the action, being in-and-out in hours, I felt like giving myself the first day as an ‘acclimation period,’ picking up a softball bat and trying to see how the battle simulation could handle its own downtime. That first idea passed quickly, though, since I was terrible at sports: after my third out, I was content to sit in the stands and watch the game.
I tried to imagine how terrifying it must have been, with the possibility of enemy troops hiding behind any hill – or even sitting in the stands as spies – the troops knowing that the next day they would be deep in enemy territory, in mortal danger. It made
Reality is not here, just close your eyes. It’s easy.
I pushed my childish agitation aside and took a deep breath, remembering that I’d ascended thousands of times before. With a surge of will, my eyes closed and I surrendered control.
- - - -- --- -- - - - - --- -- - - --- - -- - -- ---- --- - - --- -
It was a beautiful spring day in a barren, contested land; beauty being relative, of course, in a war zone.
I kept telling myself that I had three days: plenty of time for bombing raids and adrenaline and replays. Where I normally jumped straight to the action, being in-and-out in hours, I felt like giving myself the first day as an ‘acclimation period,’ picking up a softball bat and trying to see how the battle simulation could handle its own downtime. That first idea passed quickly, though, since I was terrible at sports: after my third out, I was content to sit in the stands and watch the game.
I tried to imagine how terrifying it must have been, with the possibility of enemy troops hiding behind any hill – or even sitting in the stands as spies – the troops knowing that the next day they would be deep in enemy territory, in mortal danger. It made