The Heart Fountain

 
Return
My mind slips back, falling down an endless hole.
Until the body lands solidly in my awareness.

The warmth of the liquid in the vat surrounds me and supports my body.

How long have I been in the vat?
No way to tell yet.

The vat feels smaller than before.
I slowly stretch my muscles.

I feel relaxed and well rested.
Not sore, not weak.

I look at the liquid with energy eyes.

The energy shines and flows into my body from the liquid.
The liquid feeds us as we dream in the vat and journey far away and within.

The old ones tell me that the vat accepts us when it is time and not before.
If I’m awake, it’s time to leave the vat.

For now.

My body seems to run down the ladder.

I feel energy that I can only describe as a smile.
It begins near my navel and shines throughout my body.

The room seems a little smaller than before.

I look at the dreaming travelers in the other vats with my energy eyes.
I see the energy shining from the liquid in the vat.

And I see their bodies, like giant whirlpools, pulling at the energy with endless hunger.

The whirlpools look like great wells.
And deep within each well is a window that spins slowly.

And through those windows I see other worlds.
The worlds that the travelers are visiting.

The heavy wooden door of the room calls to me.

I run a single finger in a light touch along the edge of the door.
And it opens without a sound.

I hear the old ones in the middle of another song.

Those who awake in the middle of a song must wait for the song to end

The temple will not let us enter.
The air above the temple will not accept us.

I walk toward the temple in the center of the room.
Everything and everyone seems smaller than before my journey.

I’m happy for this time where I can see the dance from the outside.

I walk around the edge of the temple, in awe at the flying dance above me.
And the song that resonates through my whole body.

The old ones say that you can’t feel the song when you come after it begins.
But I feel it as powerful as the last time.

I watch and listen for at least an hour.
I can’t really keep track of time.

 
Together
Then my gaze is caught for a moment by an old one, twenty feet away.
She watches the dance with a radiant smile.

She seems to feel my eyes upon her.
A few seconds later she turns her eyes and looks at me.

Her smile falls away for a moment.
She is puzzled, and a little afraid of me.

Then the smile returns brighter than before, and she runs to me.

“I’m Diza,” she says, and raises her right palm in greeting.
“Yagrin,” I answer, as I smile and place my left palm against hers.
My hand is much larger than hers, and I am much taller than her.

But in the last dance, we were all about the same size.

An orange fire circles our joined hands.
It feels and looks like Jaina’s orange fire from the forest journeys.

“You’re inside the temple, Yagrin!”
I look and see that she is right.
One of my feet crosses the edge of the temple.

I wonder if I’ll get in trouble for this.

She raises her left palm in greeting, and I meet it with my right.
The orange fire now circles our bodies, and dances wildly around us.

Then the fire pulls us 30 feet up into the air.
Our hands stay together.

We welcome the fire into our voices, and the two of us begin to sing, and fly.
Each of us is part of the great harmony of the song.

But somehow we have our own song within that.
Just the two of us.

I am larger now than all of the old ones.

For a moment they all stop, as they see that we have joined the dance.
That the two of us fly together.

And this never-changing child’s body is growing up.

Then the song continues.

Sometime later we all settle to the ground.
Diza runs to Niyta, the leader of the old ones.

“He grows, and we fly together, Niyta!”

Niyta nods her head with a smile.
The smile is real, but it has sadness, too.

“Our time here is short,” she says.
“The prophecies live before our eyes.”

“Soon, a year or two, we must leave the temple, and face the troubles to come.”

“You will leave before us Yagrin.”
“You have started to grow.”

“Your body has moved to the age of 14.”
“One or two journeys, at the most, and you will cease being an old one.”
“Then, you must leave this place.”

 
The Tower and the Well
“Your training is not finished yet, Yagrin, but you have so little time.”
“Let your whole heart wish for the lessons you need.”

I feel a strange itching on my upper legs.

“Look through the robe, Yagrin,” she says. “There’s something you need to see.”

I misunderstand, and lift up the robe, but there’s nothing on my legs.
I look with my energy eyes.

There on the upper legs are energy tatoos of black fire in the shape of Jaina’s long knives.
On one of the black knives, I see the image of a white tower, and on the other the image of a well.

“What does it mean, Niyta?”

“It’s time to return to the vats, Yagrin, and find out.”
“Usually we rest days or weeks between journeys, but your body will not wait.”

I open my energy eyes, and see that the long knives are glowing.
I reach with hands of energy toward the energy knives.
The left energy hand pulls at the right knife and throws it high to my left.
The right energy hand pulls at the left knife and throws it high to my right.

The knives move together and circle high above the temple.
Then they fly quickly toward one of the doors, and pass right through it.
A few moments later, they fly back towards me and return to their places on my legs.

I open the door and walk inside.
There on one of the empty vats, I see a glowing energy image of the tower.

I climb the ladder and lie down on the warm liquid.
And feel myself fading away into the journey.