Earth, Wind, Fire & Water

The sea bubbled and frothed in a deep purple haze as yet another powerful morning sun glaring down upon the dead landscape. A torrent of crystal rain would be more than enough to persuade this creature to leave the sea. 

It drifted lazily towards the plasma’s edge and slunk up onto the shore, resembling that of a river bank; it sat there, a conscious puddle barely aware of the world outside this one. These creature had no names and were not yet discovered by other species if indeed they did exist. The creature twisted shape and merged to represent a giant snake, crawling further away from the sea and settling back into a puddle form.

Another of these creatures materialised from a dense vapour that became a cloud, then settled next to the puddle as a Rodent. Its mind turned towards that of the puddle. No words were exchanged but between them there was a vibe of communication. The puddle got the impression of depression and pointlessness, a nematic substance… it had no idea how long it had to live or how long it had lived. The Rat had become a Dragon and was affecting the temperature of the puddle with its breath. The puddle shifted and became a Sheep giving its first show of emotion of that day. It bowed its head and turned away but the dragon was already in front of it imposing its view. 

The Sheep became a Tiger and growled ferociously at the Dragon but it took flight now somewhere unseen by the Tiger, they had both left the surface of the mound and were unaffected by the crystal rain that fell straight through them. The vibes projected by the Dragon were powerful, too powerful to be allowed, the Monkey (once a Tiger) in its grasp realised something through the vibes, to really experience time it would have to live. 

The beings vanished to be one with the air, travelling faster than time itself and had arrived in another strange environment the Sun had no access to this place at least for the moment. They experienced their surroundings, noticing many objects they had never seen. Light from the moon was shining through the space in the wall.

They had agreed on one thing, to become the replica of the first creatures they saw and to try and mimic their language so that they could blend in while they experienced life here.

When the Sun shone upon the land for the second time. The Dragon had become a Dog and the Monkey had become a taller human boy, around the age of twelve. Given that humans had names… Ruben was the name he’d heard the big guy calling. The being was now in control of the boy and would have to learn quickly as not to draw attention to himself. 

“What yer doin’ there son?” He asked

Ruben didn’t answer but the dog jumped up putting its paws on his shoulders and trying to lick his face.

“Down Pickles, I’ve told you already not to jump up! Naughty dog.”

Ruben gave the dog a blank look and received a quizzical one in return. 

“Why aren’t you saying anything Ruben?”

Ruben held one hand over his throat and coughed into the other.

“It’ll be good if we can get that cold sorted out, in time for your date”

The boy stared blankly but said few words “What yer say, anything cold be good any date we get in time”

“You’re not making much sense, if you’re asking me for alcoholic drinks, I can’t in good faith let you drink underage” the man chuckled and ruffled the boy’s hair

Ruben was trying to send vibes to the man but the communication seemed only to be going one way, he learned that this man was the boy’s father, people called him Farley and that humans normally communicated by smiling to one another.

Ruben gave it a try and worked a merger smile.

“Wad-da-ya say boy, shall we catch some fish for supper?”

“It’d be good to catch what we can, anything, not colds.”

The father looked confused for a minute then said “Hey, leave the Dad jokes to me son, your mother gets more annoyed when I tell em’.” 

Ruben was amazed to find water of this colour and even to be able to see life swimming around in it… he was slightly scared of them, what if they turned into larger creatures and ambushed him together?

Pickles had been sent to the cottage to rest in her basket. Ruben was receiving channelling vibes with essential details of the lady who lived there. She seemed nice, friendly, the right kind of person to be a dog owner, she would often give their dog bits and pieces from the insides of animals that once lived among them. So apparently slaughtering animals and eating them and feeding leftovers to your pets was considered normal however harsh it felt to the beings that had lived in peace. 

‘We’ve got to find ourselves a place they don’t kill to eat’ thought Ruben sending his vibes to the dog. Ruben and his father caught many fish that did not change shape but laid on a dry net struggling to breathe until they finally gave up and began bleeding from their eyes.

Ruben flinched and looked away from the fish feeling sad, devastated. The fish had been innocently living their lives and then had been snatched away at a moment’s notice. 

“Everything okay Ruben? You seem tense.”

“I don’t like the sight of bloody eyes.”

“Well, it’s never troubled you before, why now?”

“Got my mind on my date, do they enjoy killing this much?”

The father looked confused once again and said “How could you not remember, you’ve not been yourself today Ruben.”

Ruben was sweating, he knew based on his father’s determination that he was not going to be talked out of killing more animals for the village feast. 

Pickles had already communicated that she was on her way and their plan was to jump into faster animals and make a break for it so that this ruthless killer could have his life back. 

Farley lined up his shot, the focus on a pig, but as he made to pull the trigger Pickles jumped up and knocked Farley off balance. As he stumbled the pigs began running into their pen for shelter. Farley was furious with Pickles and was shouting at her but she looked scared and confused wondering why her owner was shouting at her, she hadn’t even jumped up. A Horse galloped towards them stopping between Farley and his view of the other animals.

“Stupid horse! Move, or you’ll be on the menu for a week!” The horse neighed manically and brought its hooves down on his weapon. Farley dropped it in shock and nursed two sprained wrists. 

“I’ll get them for you dad.” Said Ruben picking up his father’s gun and mounting the horse. 

‘Where are we going?’ He asked in thought once they left Farley to pick himself up. 

‘Back to the water, we’re going to teach that man a lesson, you’ll toss his gun into the water.’

They reached the water where the fish had been caught and Ruben threw the gun as instructed. He felt he horse twitch as it regained control and watched as one of the larger grabbed the gun in its mouth and carried it to the deepest bed. Ruben watched in awe as the fish jumped out of the water and splashed back into it once again but not before its consciousness had reclaimed the horse.

‘That’s that, now we’ll need to find a new form for you to assume’ 

‘Yes, or we could stick together and give them impression his boy and the horse got lost in the forest?’

‘As justified as that ending would be, we can’t be as cruel to others as they are to us, we have to lead a better example.’

‘I don’t like this planet, what it has become, what they do just to survive, I could never harm another creature let alone eat it!’ 

‘Look a bird, I’m sure that boy knows his way back to his dad from here.’

‘Yes but he won’t remember anything he’s done today.’ Said Ruben.

‘It is for the best outcome, let karma take care of the rest. We’re going to borrow these two birds until we find our way home.’

‘Okay, but next time I’ll pick the vacation destination.’ Said the cuckoo to its mate. They glanced down at the boy confused to find himself out by the water with a horse that was returning to the pen to feed on a bucket of oats the farmer had left for her. 

Ruben eventually found his father and hugged him, he grabbed some bandages for his father’s hands and said “It’s just been one of those days, everyone has an off day from time to time.” 

Two birds sat in the tallest tree connecting deeply with one another asking themselves the same question looking out across the starry sky… ‘Which way was home?’