The Academy: DREAMS CAN BE SO MUCH MORE THEN JUST DREAMS;

Darkness.

It is just that, the fleeting essence of things to come, what have been, and what will be. It is that, that has touched the lands long before it had been known. Long before he had been alive.

He sleeps now, restlessly. His body tenses and relaxes, his mind flooding with thoughts, with images he has never known or seen. They are, darkness in itself as shadows flicker, and the gentle waves as they beat against the sand fade into some foreign melody. No longer something of comfort, but distance, so distance.

He feels old, but he is so far from it, he spirals down the vortex as he feels his element spark to life, it blooms and it speaks with sympathy, with pain, with the darkness. His earth vibrates inside his chest, and it bursts.

There is nothing, in this abyssal domain, he is alone within the blackness and even then some light shines upon him, his form somehow illuminated. But he cannot see within the darkness, he can not hear even the echo of a hesitant footstep. But eventually they show themselves, the captives, the wielders, the hidden. Each form conjures from the darkness, its essence glowing, in forms of animals of beast, they are like ghosts, hollow. Each representing one piece of this enigma. There are four. Each essence as it moves so swiftly towards him. Red, green, grey, and blue. They do not touch but shift through the willingness of the shadows, bending and breaking before reforming. They play though, one touches the other cowards, finding strengths between weakness.

And he watches, oh he watches with transfixed eyes as the elements display themselves with such righteousness.

But they touch, as they naturally should, all of them, as they dance with each other, and the earth grows before him, the darkness disappearing and a display of mountains, and waters, and forests begin to form, each element claiming a piece of it. But even as the land fills, even as the soil is so real beneath his own feet they do not stop, they continue. And they still dance, so purely, they continue, and the storms brew. Pregnant clouds begin to expand as thunder rumbles through their bodies, his body. There was lightening. But it only moves through the clouds, lighting them. It does not dare venture down to play with the others, it is alone, uncertain, and a violent force.

Micah takes a step back, as everything grows loud and a flash of light moves across the sky, and then there was white, and there is a wave of static as it buzzes inside his head. His vision blurred but coming back to him. And there where the elements stood, was another essence, it was gold, it flickered violently, threatening. But for now none remained the same, as they stood around in a circle of five, in the center lay a stone. And he watches as each element crumbles to the ground, vanishing to their natural pieces of this world they created to lay dormant within the darkness they themselves came from. The stone never moving, now controlling that which was free willed, taking hold of that, that created it. Harnessing and possessing the powers as they now pulsed through it and only it. They must have a master, everything must always have a master. Even as they created the lightning, it to is its, for all powers is the stones. Power is always something of corruption. The air surges violently, but even as it does its touch is gentle as life springs from its remaining pieces, the remaining energy, as the butterfly appears within the spiral of wind above the shard. He can feel it almost smile, feel the hope it has to share. .

Even as life is born, for every good there must be an evil, and every evil there must be a good, he watches this seed as it vanishes once again in the wind, knowing that it is, the only ray of hope as he is left watching the stone alone.

It cackles within his mind, mocking him, look it whispers with a malevolent voice, nothing feminine or masculine, just holding the darkness as it now writhes and engulfs him, holding the darkness the original four came from, holding the darkness as the lightning and its violent rage moves into it, it encloses on him, as the shadows reach for his body.

He screams. Even as he sleeps it echo’s upon his shores of Solira.

He watches time before his eyes, seasons change and night and days wear in the blink of an eye, before his breath reaches inside his lungs it stops to where it had been before, it stops as he watches the first true sign of life move across the land, alone. He knew him, he didn’t know why or how he just did, he watches him as he embraces the unknown land. He is a protector, a leader. He watches him, this kind, almost gentle male stumbled within the light of the day. He watches as the sun allows the half exposed shard to glint within its rays, bathing almost, still laughing. He brings his nose to it, and then a paw, scraping away the pieces of the earth that encrusts it.

Micah wants to scream, even as his own echoes in his mind, he knows he will never hear him.

It laughs, as it cuts him, and enters him. Laughs as it seals up inside him into a particular scar, it laughs as it still bleeds. It Utters words that are inaudible to here as the stallion nods almost daze like, transfixed. He watches him as he withers away, in just one moment, as that kind face turns hard and unnerving. All that there is left to hear is him whisper. mine

Somewhere in the distance, lightning moves upon them, laughing.

It is dark once again in his mind, and he sleeps. The images fading into its last breathe.

The elements chose him to know what had happened, but in the end, they will never let him remember.

M I C A H