Elements of Nature

A cold, desolate place. All around you, all you can see is cold, white snow. An endless plane of existence, everywhere you look you see nothing but the blinding white of the snow. Everything you do seems to only make you colder, especially if you expect it to make you warmer. Everything here is cold, and just as you feel your hope and will to live freeze over, you see a warm light in the distance, through the snow. Just looking at it makes you feel a little warmer. As you get nearer to the light, an invisible force stops you. Halt, it says. Before you continue, you must know what it is that lies before you.

The Northern Land, the Southern Blaze,
The Eastern Wind, the Western Waves,
Raise your smoke and move your soil,
Churn your waters and blow your spoil

Fight, toil, churn your souls and hate
Your blood, take glee in the chaΩs.
Love one another, together
You can make peace with your brother.

The choice is yours, and yours alone
Determines the fate of the world.
One for all and all for one,
Or you leave it all unfurled.

Do you still wish to continue forward? The voice and the force disappear, and despite what it said, nothing seems worse to you than the cold you feel now, so you continue forward, and just as you reach the warm light, you feel so warm you could sing out, and you almost forget the cold that stands behind you. Just as you reach out to touch the source of the warmth, a small candle flame, it flares and engulfs you, waking you from the dream. You lie in your own bed, in your own home, the morning sunlight of your 21st birthday shining on your face.

A dry, desolate place. In the heat of the sun, out in this vast, endless desert of sand dunes and an empty blue sky, you find yourself alone and filled with despair. Your throat is dry, as if it has been centuries since you last tasted sweet, clear water, or water of any kind really. As you walk through this place empty of all but dunes of sand as tall as castles, you sometimes find small puddles of water, but just as you bring your mouth to them, they dry up and you get a mouthful of sand, making you only thirstier. You can feel yourself weakening from this lack of moisture, and you can feel your hope and will to live are drying up. Just as you reach the top of one more sand dune, expecting to see nothing more than more dunes, you see a wide river running into a vast ocean, as endless as the dunes. Just looking at it, you can feel your body filled with a new strength, you throat filled with moisture. Before you can move, though, an invisible force stops you. Halt, it says. Before you continue, you must know what it is that lies before you.

The Northern Land, the Southern Blaze,
The Eastern Wind, the Western Waves,
Raise your smoke and move your soil,
Churn your waters and blow your spoil

Fight, toil, churn your souls and hate
Your blood, take glee in the chaΩs.
Love one another, together
You can make peace with your brother.

The choice is yours, and yours alone
Determines the fate of the world.
One for all and all for one,
Or you leave it all unfurled.

Do you still wish to continue forward? The voice and the force disappear, and despite any feelings it may have stirred inside you, you imagine that even Tartarus is preferable to what you just went through. As you move toward the river near where it meets the sea, it seems to get deeper and deeper, and you want to do nothing more than jump in and live your life under that water, never leave it again. Just as you bend your head down to taste the water, a riptide from the ocean sweeps you up and pulls you deep under the water, waking you from your dream. You lie in your own bed, in your own home, the morning sunlight of your 21st birthday shining on your face.

A bare, enclosed space. In this bare, grey box, no matter where you look you find nothing but smooth emptiness. You have been in here for days, or at least if feels like it, as you can hardly breath. The air in the box is still, and not even your own movement or breathing can move it, as if there is none left to move. Your lungs are empty, and every time you try to take a deep breath, they only get emptier. Your vision is starting to darken, and you can feel your hope and will to live leaving with the air. Suddenly, a crack appears in a corner of the box, and you can see a thin, white stream of air rushing through it. Just looking at it, you can feel your lungs fill with the happiness that is air. Before you can move toward it, though, an invisible force stops you. Halt, it says. Before you continue, you must know what it is that lies before you.

The Northern Land, the Southern Blaze,
The Eastern Wind, the Western Waves,
Raise your smoke and move your soil,
Churn your waters and blow your spoil

Fight, toil, churn your souls and hate
Your blood, take glee in the chaΩs.
Love one another, together
You can make peace with your brother.

The choice is yours, and yours alone
Determines the fate of the world.
One for all and all for one,
Or you leave it all unfurled.

Do you still wish to continue forward? The voice and the force disappear, and it seems nothing imaginable could possibly be worse than what you just went through, so you move toward it. As you get closer to the thin, white stream of air, it gets larger and larger, and you can feel yourself filling with strength and air. Just as you bring yourself up to it, though, the crack in the wall is suddenly a massive hole, and you get so buffeted with air that you wake up from the dream. You lie in your own bed, in your own home, the morning sunlight of your 21st birthday shining on your face.

An open, empty sea. You can see in all directions nothing but sparkling water and clouds and blue sky. You feel like you have been out here, swimming in this ocean for millennia. Your limbs are aching and sore and you have a thousand pains in your sides. As you swim, you sometimes see an island in the distance, but as you try to swim closer to it, it only gets farther from you. You can feel your hope and will to live drowning in this endless ocean. You turn around, though, and suddenly you find yourself looking up at a cliff, with a beach covered in fruit trees stretching out in front of it, toward you. Just looking at the land you can feel a new strength fill your limbs, but before you can swim toward it, an invisible force stops you. Halt, it says. Before you continue, you must know what it is that lies before you.

The Northern Land, the Southern Blaze,
The Eastern Wind, the Western Waves,
Raise your smoke and move your soil,
Churn your waters and blow your spoil

Fight, toil, churn your souls and hate
Your blood, take glee in the chaΩs.
Love one another, together
You can make peace with your brother.

The choice is yours, and yours alone
Determines the fate of the world.
One for all and all for one,
Or you leave it all unfurled.

Do you still wish to continue forward? The voice and the force disappear, and despite anything the voice said, nothing could possibly be worse than staying here in this ocean a moment longer. As you swim to the beach, you can feel it stretching to you, your hooves sometimes touching the sand as you swim. Just as you reach dry land, though, a loud rumbling comes from the cliffs above and they fall apart, burying you and waking you from your dream. You lie in your own bed, in your own home, the morning sunlight of your 21st birthday shining on your face.

A dead, open desert. Everywhere you look, there is nothing but dirt, sand and rocks, bare and with not a significant feature in sight. Your limbs are weak and your hooves feel heavy as you walk across this place, hunger clenching your guts like the teeth of a long-dead skeleton. Though you occasionally come across a small body of water, just barely enough to quench your thirst, it does nothing but make your hunger hurt even more, as you feel you have not eaten in forever. You can feel your hope and will to live withering away. In your endless searching of the earth for something to eat, on the horizon you see a small bush, and just looking at it makes you feel fat and full. Before you can move toward it, though, an invisible force stops you. Halt, it says. Before you continue, you must know what it is that lies before you.

The Northern Land, the Southern Blaze,
The Eastern Wind, the Western Waves,
Raise your smoke and move your soil,
Churn your waters and blow your spoil

Fight, toil, churn your souls and hate
Your blood, take glee in the chaΩs.
Love one another, together
You can make peace with your brother.

The choice is yours, and yours alone
Determines the fate of the world.
One for all and all for one,
Or you leave it all unfurled.

Do you still wish to continue forward? The voice and the force disappear, and despite any feelings of worry it may have stirred inside you, you feel that nothing could possibly be worse than enduring this terrible hunger. You dash toward the bush, and as you get closer, you can see it expanding to become a paradise of lush trees, round bushes and thick, thick grasses. You finally reach it, and as you bend your head down to taste the green, sparkling grass, it suddenly gushes from the ground like a geyser, swallowing you and waking you from your dream. You lie in your own bed, in your own home, the morning sunlight of your 21st birthday shining on your face.

A dark, empty place. All around you, everything is black and bare, full of nothingness and empty of everything. You feel like you have been here too long for time to matter anymore, and you can no longer tell the difference between your eyes being open and closed. You can feel nothing, hear nothing, smell or taste nothing, but most of all you see less than nothing, you see absolute lack of existence. You can feel your hope and will to live fading to black, becoming one with the nothingness all around. Suddenly, you think you can make out a faint light off in the distance, but before you can move toward it an invisible force stops you. Halt, it says. Before you continue, you must know what it is that lies before you.

The Northern Land, the Southern Blaze,
The Eastern Wind, the Western Waves,
Raise your smoke and move your soil,
Churn your waters and blow your spoil

Fight, toil, churn your souls and hate
Your blood, take glee in the chaΩs.
Love one another, together
You can make peace with your brother.

The choice is yours, and yours alone
Determines the fate of the world.
One for all and all for one,
Or you leave it all unfurled.

Do you still wish to continue forward? The voice and the force disappear, and despite any doubt the voice may have stirred inside you, nothing can possibly be worse than this endless emptiness. As you move closer to it, the light grows stronger and larger, and you can feel energy all around you, smell and taste ozone coming from the light, hear it crackling with pure energy. as you reach your hoof forward to touch the glowing ball of energy, it suddenly shoots out arms and tentacles of electricity that wrap you in a blinding light and wake you up form your dream. You lie in your own bed, in your own home, the morning sunlight of your 21st birthday shining on your face.

I know. Yes. Yes I'm well aware; it was intentional.