The trees fade to plains and rolling hills lead you to the ocean's edge. Great fissures bisect the plains and the sea breeze cuts through like a knife. Despite the Pyrian heat, the wind stings your cheeks and slices through your fur. The taste of salt is on the air and the gulls spiral above, feathers glinting like pearls in the sky.

Below, the waves crash against the stone. There is very little sand, the tide usually high enough to lap at the craggy mountainside. What patches of silt and sand remain are crawled upon by small rock crabs. They carry in their claws blue, bioluminescent sea anemones. Stray too close, and they will pinch your toes before you can ever make it to the sand bar leading to the island.

Though eerie often brings to mind dark shadows and dismal tunnels, the cove gets its name for the bioluminescent sea anemones at night. As the crabs carry them, they look like the brightly shining spirits of the damned being banished to the ocean.

A man once sought to build a forest for his wife to show his mastery of the earth. He wallowed in temptation, greedily stealing saplings of mangroves and evergreens and birches. With muddy paws he dug within the soil and replanted them, ever eager to prove that the God and Goddess were not the only ones with the power to reshape their world.

Though charmed, his wife feared for the repercussions of his folly. She bided her time, attempting to disway him from planting that which did not belong. He was undeterred and, out of her godly duty, she went to commune with the dual deities.

Their vengeance was as swift as their forgiveness. While the wife was making her way back from the sacred isle, they sent great tusnamis to bathe the land in water. The man's trees twisted, the land became choked with new streams and lakes... and his body floated within the center of the destruction.

Having sheltered at the island, the wife returned to witness the consequences of his hubris.

Now, many kinds of trees form a parody of a forest. Evergreens and mangroves and birches grow at odd angles and their branches hang limp with lichen and algae. Stagnant waters are ripe with mosquitos and darkness seems to press in at all angles.

Inhale the tangy brine of sea salt. Feel the crushed shells and rock underfoot. Here there is predictability in life and death, in coming and going. It is barren, then it blooms. Such is life in the tidepools. Unsheltered and exposed, the tidepools spread haphazardly in the indistinct space between ocean and land. Rocks form barriers between them, some smooth and others ragged. The frigid coastal wind batters the shore with merciless abandon, slowly weathering natural edges to dust.

When the tide is low, the pools are dotted with creatures. Predators overhead circle prey that lingers below. Slinking, creeping, and crawling, the ocean’s creatures are dredged up from the salty depths and exposed to the merciless world above. But soon enough the pools disappear and the ocean returns, wiping clean the slate and reducing feast to famine.

The God and Goddess giveth, and the God and Goddess taketh away...

Here lies a holy land. The island stretches high into the sky -- so high, in fact, that it is often topped by low-hanging clouds. When you reach the top of the highest rise, it is said that you might feel the soft touch of the God and Goddess on your fur or hear their whispered wishes in your ear…

When the earth crashed together to form the island long ago, it did so unevenly and imperfectly. The landscape of the island is varied. Hills and cliffs are juxtaposed by inlets and smooth, open spaces. Palm trees and scrubby brush are equally dispersed. Creatures of all shapes and sizes have found their way to the island and call it home. Predator and prey are plentiful. However, the island’s inhabitants are varied and unpredictable, as any creature from the mainland might find its way across the sand bar connecting the mainland to the island at any given time. This is a place for travelers and natives alike, though its sacred secrets are oft kept to the children of the God and Goddess.