Off in the distance, perhaps a mile away, was the cause of my wild ride.  There, embedded in an impact crater and still smoldering, was the remains of the mightiest Redwood tree I had ever seen, fully a thousand feet long.  The base of the tree was still intact, cut square and to perfection, and jutting into the air at a drunken angle.

The remaining two thirds of the tree were scorched horribly, burnt black and twisted... fissures in the still smoldering log spat out flaming globules of pitch five hundred feet into the air, while others vented thick clouds of white smoke that funneled skyward like tentacles.

The quality of blackness shifted then, as one mountain went dark and another drifted back into the light.

The tentacles of smoke decided to do a little dance then, too, swishing left, then right, then a chaotic little jumble before returning to their steady climb upwards.

Something was Up.

I swiveled my gaze upwards...

Miles away, to the left and right, was fuzzy yellow light.

But above me all was black.

Infinite, star less, Black.

Then there was a glimmer above me.

For just an instant a faint flash, a reflection, as if off a circular bit of glass, flashed in the skies above me.  I focused on where I thought I saw it and waited...

It flashed again.  A faint, translucent outline, like a soap bubble floating in the darkness with just the dimmest of lights to illuminate its shape.

I zeroed in on it and watched.

It flashed again, a bit brighter this time, the barest outline of a wet, glassy sphere.

And then there it was.

Zap.

In focus.

A large glass lens hanging in space, and behind it an eye, gazing downwards, not quite looking at me.

Something about that eye seemed too familiar...

The quality of darkness changed again.  As the lens in the sky shifted more towards me it flashed brighter and fuller, reflecting its light downwards in a soft glow, but I also noticed a brightness shimmering off to my left, from the ground itself...

I hated to take my eyes away from the spectacle in the sky, but as the brightness grew nearer I decided I'd best take a peek.

I swiveled my gaze down and to the left.

There, on the ground, a few miles away, was an intensely bright white circle of light moving slowly in my direction...

I swiveled my gaze back towards the lens in the sky.  It was turning slowly towards me...

I looked back at the circle of light, drawing an imaginary line between the two...

If I'd had eyes I would have rolled them *laughs*

Instead I just mumbled 'oh bloody hell'