Late February, mid-morning, a chilly northern wind blows through the trees. The light of the pale winter sun is shining between the bright verdant needles of the pine trees high above the forest floor. A young fox boy with pale green eyes, and fur of a light chestnut color, with white fur on the tips of his ears and tail, sits upon a huge tree stump bathed in the light of the late winter sun, looking up towards the trees looming so high above him. Less than 10 meters from where he is sitting, enjoying the sunlight and the cold breeze, the forest ends in a cliff overlooking a valley far below.

The valley that lies below the shadow of the forest is full of tall golden grasses and beautiful purple flowers called mauve windcatchers, that glow in the sunlight beautifully. Gurgling along through the forest, past the stump where the fox boy sits, is a decently fast creek that has a bottom full of huge rounded gray and black stones. The creek is full of quickly moving incredibly clear water that sparkles wherever the sunlight hits it, shining with such a level of clarity, that the water seems as pure and clear as melted snow. Icy Fang the creek was called, for it was cold all year long and the water's chill bit into the body. The creek continued through the forest, eventually crashing over the cliff forming a waterfall, amazing to behold.

Shining with more colors than could be named, the waterfall had long ago gained the name of Prism Falls. The fox boy stood up from the stump where he was seated, stretching his legs, and walked over to the precipice at the edge of the Falls to look upon the valley as the sun was rising over it. The light slowly moved over the valley illuminating it in it's entirety. Bathed in the sun, the valley known as Prism Valley was lit in such a way that all of the homes throughout the valley could be seen in the morning light. An old style village, all of the houses in the valley had thatched roofs made of the same tall grasses that inhabit the flower filled valley.

The fox boy, who was named Matthew had his home in this very valley, lying not too far a walk from the falls themselves. He lived with his mother, Lucy Redtail, in the house closest to the falls. Matthew's father, Theodore Redtail was a treasure hunter who loved to explore ancient ruins. He had kept in touch with the family while he would delve ruins until recently; a couple of months ago, he disappeared without a trace. A friend of the family Sasha Windrunner, a rabbit, who helped Theodore with extracting artifacts from ruins was the one who brought the news to Lucy and Matthew. She had told them that Theodore had entered a hidden chamber in the Shimmersand ruins, and when she went in the room to check on him, he was nowhere to be found. His backpack was on the floor, and the room looked like it had never been entered.

Sasha brought the backpack back to the family after she and a group of archaeologists spent days searching the ruins for him. The only things that they found in the backpack were a beautiful hourglass, with large flat gears made of a strange silvery metal for the top, and base of it. When Lucy asked Sasha and the archaeologists about the strange metal, they told her that it was unlike any metal they had ever seen, and that the hourglass was probably quite valuable. Rather than send it to someone to examine it, to find out it's mysteries, they decided that since Theodore had went to so much trouble to procure the artifact, that the family should keep it. Lucy put it in a safe place in the attic with a few other artifacts. The only other thing that Sasha brought back to them was a strange gear made of the same type of metal, that was hidden in a secret pouch in the backpack; Lucy gave that artifact to Matthew.

Their house was of a modest size, with a small garden in the back where they cultivated an unusual plant not native to the valley. Copper Gearthorns was the name given to these unusual flowers, so named because of the way the flowers were shaped like gears, and raw copper could be extracted from them. Theodore had brought a few of them back from one of the ruins that he had explored, telling them about how they were growing underground in a hidden room, with a beam of sunlight coming in through the ceiling in the chamber. They traded some of the grown metal extracted from the plants to the village's metal smith, in exchange for tools for farming and home repair. Everyone in the village was nice to each other, like one giant family.

The fox boy slowly walked along a path near the falls that went down at a slight incline, leading back into the valley. After walking down the path for a while, he found his way back into the valley, and looking back up behind him, he could see the waterfall crashing down into a small creek in the valley not far from where he stood. The easily 300 foot tall waterfall sent rainbow colored water droplets flying through the air where it landed, dousing the fox in a light mist that was frigid to the touch. He jogged his way along the creek for a few minutes, eventually reaching his home. It was a modest home, square in shape, but rounded along the corners, with walls and a door made from the pine trees in the forest above the village; it has a thatched roof like all of the other houses with a few holes in the roof from the rough winter.

Lucy Redtail, a relatively tall fox woman, with eyes of a pale green, and fur the color of the deepest mahogany with auburn hair was waiting at the door for him; She was wearing a modest dress of the palest mauve, almost the same color as the flowers. She had an exasperated look upon her features, as though she had been very worried for some time, but had calmed down slightly upon seeing him.

She waved over towards him to attempt to get his attention, then started to speak.
"Where have you been?"

He walked over towards her, a guilty expression lit upon his features.
"I'm sorry mom, I didn't mean to worry you; I just wanted to look over the valley and see the sunrise."

Her expression calmed, then she gave him a very stern look denoting stress.
"You should have told me where you were going before you went all the way up there Matthew, i was so worried."
She furrowed her brows, then continued.
"You need to be more careful, you can't forget about your weak heart; What if something had happened to you up there?"

Matthew looked at the ground, the remorse apparent on his face, then he walked closer to his mother and embraced her in a tight hug.
"I'll be more careful from now on mom, I just wanted to see the valley from above because I'm always stuck in bed."

She embraced him back, and ran her left hand through his auburn hair, then put her right hand under his chin to make him look up at her; The look of guilty sadness still on his face.
"You need to remember that I'm always here for you Matthew, I haven't forgotten that you are 15 summers old already, but I worry so much about you sometimes." "You are all I have left now Matthew, I don't think I could ever bear to lose you."

She put her hand on his shoulder and steered him back into the house, back into the warmth and shelter from the wind outside. The inside of the house was very cozy, 2 small bedrooms, a dining area and a main room. A fire was burning merrily in the hearth on the far end of the main room casting it's warmth throughout the small little home. Matthew sat in front of the hearth warming his fur, and drying the mist off of himself while his mother started to make breakfast for them.

The sun had risen close to the pinnacle of the mildly cloudy sky by the time they had finished eating breakfast, and the clouds were starting to darken with contained water. Matthew was standing next to the window in the main room looking up towards the sky where the clouds were forming, a frown clearly visible on his features. He turned to look at the chair sitting close to the hearth, where his mother was sitting, reading a large book.

"Mom?" Asked Matthew, stretching his legs, "I saw a strange looking hourglass in the attic this morning when I was retrieving my canteen for the hike up to the forest. Do you know what it is for?"
Closing her book, and focusing Matthew in her gaze, Lucy spoke softly. "Your father found it a few months ago, Sasha Windrunner had brought it back to us after he disappeared in the Shimmersand ruins among the Fang Mountains."

Matthew walked over to his mother, and leaned on the chair before continuing the conversation. "I didn't know Dad was an archaeologist, though I do remember him bringing home interesting objects."

Lucy smiled to herself before returning to the conversation. "Your father Theodore wasn't an archaeologist, he was a treasure hunter; Ran into a bit of trouble with the Silver Claw royal family a while back for exploring some of their ancient crypts."

Matthew chuckled softly, then stood up, and walked past the chair and into the back room of the house where there was a small staircase. Slowly climbing the staircase he made his way into the attic and looked around. There were old wooden boxes everywhere, some crumbling, some in almost pristine condition. His eyes turned to the far wall on the right, to where a shiny hourglass was sitting on one of the older boxes. Navigating his way through the aged items Matthew slowly made his way to the hourglass and picked it up. The sand inside the hourglass was a deep purple color which shimmered slightly whenever it was caught in a beam of light from a crack between boards in the roof. Looking at the hourglass with wonder upon his face, he examined it closely noting it's intricate details. The hourglass was about a foot long and 5 inches across at the widest point. Attached upon the topmost and lowest point of the bell shaped sand holding parts were filigree spirals made of gold and the top and bottom of the hourglass were made of a incredibly shiny silver like metal. The top and bottom of the hourglass were shaped like huge gears and there appeared to be a slightly indented area on the top shaped almost exactly like a gear. It almost looked like a place to put an object, but Matthew had no idea what might fit there. Holding the hourglass carefully, Matthew made his way out of the attic and down the stairs to the main room.

Holding the hourglass out to his mother, he pointed at the top with his other hand. "The hourglass has a strange indentation on the top of it like something is supposed to be inserted there"

Lucy held her hands out to hold the hourglass and Matthew placed it in her hands. She looked the hourglass over thoroughly to take in every detail, before looking at the top of the hourglass and noting the indentation shaped like a gear. She stared at the indentation for a while before she remembered an object shaped like that. "Matthew can you bring me the pendant that your father left you after his last treasure hunt?"

Matthew nodded, then left the room and headed to his bedroom, opened the door, and retrieved the pendant from the top drawer of his dresser. The pendant was shaped like a gear and was made of a strange metal that was incredibly shiny. He left his room, shutting the door behind himself as he left the room. Matthew walked back into the main room and handed his mother the pendant with a look of excitement on his face.

Lucy placed the hourglass on the floor in the middle of the room and after carefully removing the gear like object from the pendant, slowly placed the gear into the top slot of the hourglass. The hourglass didn't move immediately, but after a few seconds, the gear that was the top of the hourglass began to turn slowly. Once the gear began to spin, the purple sand shimmered once more, and began to flow backwards through the hourglass to the top, until there was no more in the bottom. Then the gear began to turn in the other direction, and the sand started to flow back down slowly like a normal hourglass.

Lucy, who was startled when the hourglass had begun to move, began to grin and laughed, enjoyment evident on her facial features. "Unbelievable, it's a self resetting hourglass!" She turned to face Matthew and chucked a little more. "I was afraid that it was going to be something dangerous when it started to move, but apparently it is an ancient timekeeper of some kind, Theodore would be proud that we figured out how to get it to work."

Matthew however was staring at it with wonder in his expression. "Can I have it mom?" He looked at here imploringly, "I promise I will be careful with it."

Lucy looked at him and smiled, "Yes you can keep it, just be careful, it looks quite fragile" She then picked up the hourglass and handed it to him carefully, then returned to her chair and picked up her book. "See if you can figure out any other things it can do, after all, I know how much you like artifacts like this."

Matthew smiled at his mother, and noting that the sun had already set, he took the hourglass into his room and started to examine it. He looked it over again now that the gear on top was slowly turning and watched the purple sand fall slowly down into the bottom bell of the hourglass. He couldn't find anything more special about it, so he placed the hourglass back on his dresser, and got ready for bed.

Later that night as he lay in his bed trying to fall asleep, a thought occurred to him. "If I turn a normal hourglass upside down, the sand falls down from the new top resetting it. What would happen if I turned this one upside down?" Matthew sat up, looking over at his dresser where he had set the hourglass, gear still spinning, then stood up and walked over to his dresser. He had an intense feeling of trepidation, though he could not understand why. Picking up the hourglass, he turned it upside down, and carefully placed it back on the dresser. He heard a soft click from the hourglass, not unlike a door shutting, and the world went dark.