A pale, milky vapour over the ground began to succeed the black
night, while in the upper sky rosy tints appeared. On earth, one
would have said that day was breaking. The brightness went on
imperceptibly increasing for a very long time.

Maskull then discovered that he was lying on sand. The colour of the
sand was scarlet. The obscure shadows he had seen were bushes, with
black stems and purple leaves. So far, nothing else was visible.

The day surged up. It was too misty for direct sunshine, but before
long the brilliance of the light was already greater than that of the
midday sun on earth. The heat, too, was intense, but Maskull
welcomed it--it relieved his pain and diminished his sense of
crushing weight. The wind had dropped with the rising of the sun.

He now tried to get onto his feet, but succeeded only in kneeling.
He was unable to see far. The mists had no more than partially
dissolved, and all that he could distinguish was a narrow circle of
red sand dotted with ten or twenty bushes.

He felt a soft, cool touch on the back of his neck. He started
forward in nervous fright and, in doing so, tumbled over onto the
sand. Looking up over his shoulder quickly, he was astounded to see
a woman standing beside him.

She was clothed in a single flowing, pale green garment, rather
classically draped. According to earth standards she was not
beautiful, for, although her face was otherwise human, she was
endowed--or afflicted--with the additional disfiguring organs that