lanna Kawa stood on a canyon edge in a snowbound mountain range. She gingerly looked over the edge. A layer of motionless clouds floated lazily a hundred feet below. The opposite wall of the canyon was a pale, precipitous rock face. The peaks of the mountains in the distance were obscured by small gray clouds.

She turned around and brushed a lock of hair from her eyes. A path of dark, dense soil littered with patches of snow and smooth gravel led into the mountains from the small ridge where Alanna was standing. She took a few steps up the path just as a bracing gust raced down the incline and out into the open sky.

Alanna closed her eyes, shielding them from the icy gale. The ground was soggy, but she found good footing on the very slight incline of the rocky path as it turned sharply to her right. As she walked, she passed several very shallow half-frozen puddles. She could hear the sound of water dripping from behind the rocks and from under the narrow shelves of ice that encrusted the rocks on either side.

It seemed that despite the freezing wind, this part of the mountain range was thawing. Alanna could hear a faint rumbling sound in the distance. What clouds were discernable in the gray sky were moving very slowly. Alanna guessed it might be morning.

The sound was getting louder as she carefully climbed. The ground was beginning to feel more solid. At the end of the path the rocks formed a crude doorway of sorts that seemed to lead into the sky. Only grayness was visible beyond it. A storm of icy water vapor and a frighteningly loud rumbling sound greeted her as she reached the end of the path. A majestic waterfall rained lightly on the smooth rock.

The source of the waterfall was not visible above her. It landed on a crudely semi-circular outcropping another fifty feet below, forming two smaller falls which disappeared into the frosty haze.

Alanna winced and shielded her eyes with her hand at the reflected glare from the haze.

Maybe the sun is out? she thought.

The sound was pleasing even though it was loud. Alanna reached out into the silver sparkle as it rained down. As the first sheets of water drenched her hand and arm, the waterfall vanished!

Alanna felt as if she had suddenly been transported to another place. The silence was so sudden. Dozens of tiny white butterflies fluttered past her. In the place of the waterfall was a translucent bluish spiral staircase that rose from the clouds below straight up into the sky!

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