Parched

"It's been awhile. More than a dozen hours, but probably less than a few days. A traveler moves through the discord, an endless mirror glaze extending to the tips of the horizon, scorched by a twilight sun from above and below. An island breaks the monotony and juts from expanse, this one is different than the rest. The dark treeline at the shore promising a safe haven from the heat of the light, but something about it unnerves him, as if something is lurking in there, right behind the curtain of that dark border. The image of a beast or some horror appearing from within and wordlessly beginning to make its way to him to do what all manner of beasts and horrors do those who come their way. It is more horrible to know he is moving towards that place, than what it must feel to be within it, anticipating the horror that may come whenever it so pleases. The trail of smoke rising from the island provides similarly conflicting emotions.

He decides to go around the island.

However, in this place, what one leaves behind comes back, and soon, somehow, he is up against the same island and the same thoughts and emotions, but even more severe and troubling than before."

high-res: ko-fi.com/i/IP5P74W54B