The Wizard – Across the Water

A green glow appeared in the distance, feeling strange as if it had come out of nowhere. He waited a moment, in between pangs of hunger, his body depending on nourishment to fix itself. He waited to see if it would disappear. It didn’t. Not believing his own luck, he got up, ignoring his weakness, and rubbed his eyes. It didn’t go away. There was something in the darkness!

“Of course, there is something in the darkness, it’s me! Your one and only light! Now go back down and start thinking…”

He ignored the feminine voice tempting him to give up and took a step forward. The cold of the water startled him. He took a step back and looked down, but of course, there was nothing to see. For a second, he felt a disembodied feeling of nothingness. He ignored it or tried to.

“You are just a serial ignorer, do you know that? You ignore this, and then you ignore that, you are ignoring me again!” growled the voice inside his head. He looked up once more, fearful that the glow had disappeared, but it didn’t.

Making a decision, he had to brave the water. Slowly, helping himself with his stick, he walked forward. The cold water was a jolt to his weakened and enfeebled body. Each step was a challenge.

“You are really insisting on going there through the water, huh? Well, go give it a try,” the voice challenged, and that gave the wizard pause. The voice had always been malicious, and this time it was no different. “Malicious? Who? Me? Oh no, I am trying to do good, I am trying to help you. Each step forward you take is filled with misery and failure. Just slump over there, over the nice sand by the flowing water. Let all your problems wash away in the tides of time, through the dust of eons. Come on, chop chop, you don’t want to cross the water. There is danger across the water. In here, you are safe, in this realm of dreams and safety, my realm. Soon enough, you are going to fully cross and we are going to be together.”

The wizard listened to what she had to say, he paid attention, but nonetheless, there was something pushing him forward. He took another step, and then another. Other than the cold, the current was gentle, it’s just that he didn’t know how wide the river was nor how deep.

“Are you wondering how deep this is? Well, let’s find out!” And with that, he felt a force push him down into the water. He struggled and rose up, taking a breath of air. The force pushed him back down. He pushed forward, each time weaker and weaker but determined to reach the other end. It was then that he felt the ground rise.

“I won’t allow you to escape!” the voice roared, and there was a mighty push downward. He felt the rise in the terrain; he was about to make it. But the force of the push was too much, too strong. He lay there under the water swallowing sand and water.

He was about to give in, about to fall into darkness, but a force inside of him gave him the final push, the final thing that he needed, and he forced himself out of the water.

He coughed sand, water, and blood. And then lay there. He had made it. He was across, all the while the voice, now in the distance, was roaring in anger.