The Elementalist
Chapter1: dreams of things unreal
It was everywhere…filling the area around me but surprisingly, not overwhelming me.
I was at least 20 feet under the surface of the water, yet I was still breathing air… as though in a bubble…my own little bubble, in which I could view the utter turmoil of the raging ocean and still feel as calm as if I were just sitting in the breeze, revelling in the air.
The sudden cool draught of wind snapped me out of my intense dream, leaving me feeling as though it had actually taken place while still not changing the harsh reality outside my overactive mind.
'no.' I thought to myself sadly, 'it was not real.' as I stood to move inside out of the cold. "It never is" I reminded myself out loud, while heaving a giant yawn. I didn't realize how tired I truly was until that moment. It always amazed me how a day that seemed so long could slip away so blindingly fast.
As I wandered down the hall to my bedroom I was again struck by my overactive mind, thinking about the implications of what my dozing dream could have entailed. To have been in complete control of the structure of the bubble I was encased in to be able to hold the air in position with my will alone… these were the things my mind threw at me. Shaking my head to clear it, I climbed into bed and simply lay there. Calmly breathing deep mediative breaths, until I felt my hold on awareness slipping away and let myself fall into the realm of sleep.
There it was again, the raging water of the ocean. I could feel the ebb and flow of the tides and the pull on it that the rips and currents created, feel the rushing haste in which the wind was blowing. I could feel the earth beneath me, the life force of the trees and bushes not more than 20 yards downhill from where I stood at the top of the cliff… then I felt it. Just the smallest of sparks, beginning at the soles of my feet and rushing upwards, flowing through my body- tingling as it travelled- and to my head.
Suddenly I was engulfed in lightning, millions of volts of electricity just flowing around me in the air wild and out of control, twisting turning then withdrawing back to me. The wind suddenly ceased. The ocean calmed and the clouds split to reveal the sun in all its blazing glory, just floating there in the mid morning sky. The rays of light shone into my eyes. And I was forced into the realm of the conscious.
I groaned, pushing myself up on one arm while blocking out the light with the other. Again the dreams were vivid, almost to the point of being real experiences, almost as if I was really out there on the cliff controlling the wind, waves, storms and the earth itself…controlling the elements. 'not again' I thought to myself. "Why does this happen whenever I sleep?" I asked the air before me, but as always there was no response. This insane sequence of dreams that I'd been having for the last two to three years was really starting to get to me, to the point that I started to want them to be reality just so I could stop them.
I stood up and walked to the front door, hoping against all hope that there would not be heavy clouds or gusty winds. My hopes were not, it seems in vain because there in the cloudless blue sky was the full round sun sending it's warming light down at me. I stepped off the porch and onto the lawn, and felt a strong pulse hit me upon contact, surging through me, filling my head with knowledge on everything grounded, the deer in the forest about 50 yards away, the tree 3 feet to my left my own cat right by my feet and the blindingly complex weave of roots and tunnels in the earth around and below me, shoots of grass fighting through the soil, rose buds reacting to the light of the sun. it was as if a dam had broken, flooding me with everything there was to possibly know about the earth and its inhabitants. As the pulse finished I heard a ghostly voice say quietly, "holder of the elements receive the earth, first of five. The legacy of your forefathers has been awakened in you. Soon the prophecy will unfold." before my vision faded to black and I knew no more.