Where the Sun Meets the Earth

I. The Last Horizon

The village of Elaren sat at the edge of the world—or so the stories said. Nestled between steep cliffs and golden plains, it was the last place before the sun dipped beneath the earth each night, setting the sky ablaze in fire and promise. For generations, the villagers believed that if you stood on the western cliffs at just the right moment, you could see the place where the sun meets the earth.

They called it Solmar—a mythical point where day and night shook hands, and where one might glimpse the gods resting.

Kaelen, a curious and stubborn seventeen-year-old, had grown up with stories of Solmar. His grandfather had been the village storyteller, painting vivid scenes of glowing cities and bridges made of light that connected the stars. As a child, Kaelen believed every word. But as he grew older, and the world demanded reason, doubt began to creep in.

Still, the stories lingered.

Every evening, Kaelen climbed the cliffs to watch the sunset alone. It became his ritual, a moment of silence in a life full of unanswered questions. On the eve of the village’s midsummer festival, when the sun would set at its farthest point on the horizon, Kaelen decided to go farther than he ever had—to find out once and for all if Solmar was real.

II. A Trail of Light

Before dawn, Kaelen packed supplies, slipped past sleeping houses, and made his way westward along the cliffs. The old trail was overgrown, barely visible. Few dared venture that far anymore—too many stories of people disappearing into the light, never to return.

But Kaelen wasn’t afraid. If anything, he was desperate—to find truth, to escape the quiet sadness of his village, to step beyond the boundary of myth.

By noon, the plains stretched endlessly behind him. The cliffs had narrowed, and the sky felt closer. The sun hovered above like a watchful eye. That’s when he saw it: a narrow stone path, half-buried by time, leading down toward a strange shimmer at the edge of the sea.

It pulsed with warmth.

He followed it.

The path wound down into a canyon, where golden grass glowed as if lit from within. The air shimmered with heat—or maybe magic. As Kaelen descended, the sound of wind gave way to something else: a humming, deep and resonant, like the world itself was singing.

And then he saw it.

III. Solmar

It wasn’t a city. It wasn’t even made of stone or wood.

Solmar was a living horizon.

A vast, glowing boundary where the land melted into light. It pulsed like a heartbeat, golden and white, where rays of sun bled into the soil. Strange silhouettes moved within it—tall figures made of flame and stardust, walking across invisible bridges in the sky.

Kaelen stood breathless. He had found it.

The figures turned toward him—not men, not beasts, but something in between. One stepped forward, its voice like thunder wrapped in silk.

“You have crossed the veil.”

Kaelen fell to his knees. “Is this the end of the world?”

The figure knelt beside him, touching the earth gently. “It is a place where endings and beginnings are the same. You stand in the threshold.”

Kaelen looked at the light. It was warm, beckoning.

“Can I enter?”

“Only those who choose to leave everything behind may step through. Time moves differently here. You will not return the same.”

Kaelen looked back the way he came. The trail, the cliffs, the village—all swallowed by distance and shadow.

He thought of his grandfather. Of stories passed down like torches. Of the restless yearning in his chest.

And he stepped forward.

IV. A New Sun

In the village of Elaren, a boy once vanished on midsummer’s eve. His footprints ended at the cliffs. Some said he fell. Others said he ran.

But the storytellers, the ones who still believed in magic, said otherwise.

They spoke of Kaelen, the boy who walked into the sun and found the place where the world begins again. And on certain nights, when the sky burns gold and the wind hums low, you can still hear his voice, telling stories of Solmar—the place where the sun meets the earth, and where dreams step out of the light to become real.