It entered the mind of the dreamer as it had done since mortal beings first existed to listen to its message. From the dreamers memory it found an old fashioned Itallian parkway with the houses and shops packed together and towering over the pedestrians below. The street shone everywhere with signs of life: domestic animals of all varities chasing one another and pleading for attention, children playing at tag and jump rope and pretend, old maids batering with voicetorus shop keepers more for the show of seniority than for the sake of capitalism, old men debating politics over marble checkers' tables, young couples holding hands and walking blissfully through the crowd, trees full with green and window boxes overflowing with flowers like rainbows on a waterfall. With a stoke of will it brought the flows of power into the dream. From the east came a powerful ocean wave ripping the siding off of the buildings; the raging front spewing the remenants of everything that blocked its path into the sky above. From the west flowed a pool of blood seeping its way over the cobblestones; engulfing the brightly colored decor in a sea of crimson. Like armies charging into battle the two forces surged towards one another, heedless of the effect their battle was having on the street dwellers. Many of the people ran aimlessly about the pavement, too dazed and confused to avoid the trouble that was quickly approaching them. Others accepted their fate and ran towards one of the fronts with reckless abandon. Those who were consumed by the ocean roared in agony as they were transformed into oceanic predators of all varities when their bodies hit the wavefront who then rode with the wave, snapping maciously as whatever met with their teeth, including each other. Those who fell to the blood screamed with unbearable pain as their skin melted off and their internal organs unwinded from their skeletal frame, their bodies dissolving into the blood. As the two forces surged forward, devouring continually more victims, their fronts became covered in a net of sparkling green lighting, a visual manisfastistation of the energy that was being released from the sacrifices. As the forces neared one another, reaching the apex of their fury, the few people who remained unharmed began glowing with white light and were transformed into birds to fly above the chaos. Some of the larger birds swooped down to rescue those who were already trapped inside of the fluids, and a few lucky souls were transformed at the touch of these flying saviors into birds themselves. Soon, all but one of the airborne creatures had scattered into the sky above, and all that remained was for the two forces to meet. The lone creature left behind was a brave swan who had chosen to make her nest in a fountain at the center of the parkway plaza. In desperation she covered her nest and cried for the others to return and help her carry her eggs to safety. Some heard her cry and turned back to help, but already the wave of destruction was towering over, and the pool of blood around, the fountain. She closed her eyes in fear, hoping that somehow her and her children would be saved. With that image, the prophet left the dreamers mind, and moved on to another in the desperate fight to have it's message heard.
-By Jim Albert, 2004