NATHANIEL

Death was not really what most people hyped it to be. But Nathaniel wouldn't know that because he was stuck, and he knew it. It was like being held between a moment of deep sleep, and the moment when you woke up.

For Nathaniel this feeling was accompanied by an encompassing darkness that he could not see through. It was terrifying and there was nothing he could really do about it, but wait. But if this Is what dying truly like then, there was nothing peaceful about this.

Nathaniel lost track of time, all he could see and feel was darkness, it was all around him, and deep within him. It was all of him and he was a part of it. But within that darkness, Nathaniel could feel power the likes which he had never experienced before. It was intoxicating, it was alluring, it was death.

When Nathaniel opened his eyes, he was in a completely different place, it was a desert, but when he looked at the ground he was standing on, all he could see was the sky. When he looked up there was an ocean that stretched far and wide.

But from that ocean massive pillars of fire shot out and connected to the desert that was the sky. It was strange to say the least, when he looked straight ahead all he could see was an endless expanse of white sand. But when he looked down, he was standing on a sky of fluffy white clouds, he could even see flocks of birds flying between his feet. It was quite the optical illusion, but Nathaniel wondered if this was the afterlife, it did not look anything like hell or heaven.

"Where the hell am I?"

"That's depends on what you believe in."

Nathaniel was startled by the voice he heard, it echoed through out the entirety of this strange world, sending ripples through everything. But still Nathaniel could not find the person who just spoke.

"There's no need searching for me, you won't be able to see me until you're ready."

It was not as if that made it any less strange, but strangely Nathaniel was completely devoid of fear. No matter how this strange world looked, he could not muster the fear that was required for a situation such as this. But he still needed to figure out where he was, and figure out a way to get back to his family.

"Where am I."

"Seriously! Didn't you already ask that question."

"But you didn't give me an answer."

"I gave you an answer, it was just not what you were expecting."

Nathaniel was quickly getting annoyed, whoever this voice was, it seemed he wanted to play games with him. But Nathaniel was not in the mood for such things, there was no meaning to this conversation.

"What am I doing here?"

"Finally, another question. However I have an answer for you, am not sure it's the answer you want, but it is the answer none the less. You're here to find, to destroy, to create, and to understand yourself. You're here to kill Nathaniel, so that...… .... Can live."

"So that who can live?"

"You're not ready to know his name yet, but he is essentially you. Think of this as a trial, and once you're done, you would be given a new name, a true name."

Nothing he said made sense to Nathaniel, it was like listening to some sort of wise man Zen crap. But it seemed there was no way out of this, Nathaniel had watched enough fantasy movies to know exactly what was happening here. Of course he might just be dead and this was his own strange and personal hell, but he still had to play this game.

"What do I have to do?"

"Huh, just like that?, come on I expected a little more resistance and denial so that I can say some really deep and profound words."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Oh well, the first thing you have to do is........ Tell me what you see, and tell me what this place is. Mmmmmmmmm good luck."

And then there was silence once again, and no matter how many times Nathaniel called for the rather eccentric voice, he did not receive any reply. With nothing left to do, Nathaniel sat laid down, he was not really exhausted, but he just needed to lay down for a bit.

A sky that is an ocean, the earth that is the sky, but at the same a sky that is the earth. Pillars of fire that stretches from the depths of the ocean all the way to the sky that is the earth. This place was a complete contradiction, everything was completely opposite of the other or existed in a way that could not be considered natural. It was weird, very weird.

Nathaniel spent hours lying there, but he could not really understand what this place was all about. He could not help but ask himself the questions again, over and over again.

"What do I see, what do I see. I see water, earth, fire, air, the elements. Is it nature...….no that's not it. Everything is upside down, but they all seem to have created a balance. All together they are the very essence of life, life,...…..LIFE!"

Nathaniel felt like he was hit by an emotional truck. Unless someone has come across it before, no normal person would have been able to guess the answer to this riddle. What he could see was obvious, anybody could see it. What he really needed to know and understand, was the meaning of what he saw by looking at everything as a single picture.

"Hey I know the answer to your questions, where are you, I said I know...….."

"Jeez I heard you the first time you spoke, there's no reason to shout. Whew. It took you long enough, I was going out of my mind with boredom watching you trying to figure out the answer to something that is quite literally sitting within you...oops, I've said to much."

Nathaniel had a half assed answer prepared, he was not exactly sure of his answer, but it was the only thing he had. And then the voice went on to say something is shouldn't have, and what he said was enough to confirm Nathaniel's incomplete theory.

"This place is literally a depiction of life. It is said that all life is created from the four main elements, life is also fed and sustained by it. They each have a symbiotic relationships with each other, with one feeding the other in a balance rotation. But all elements are chaotic, so it is hard to imagine things so different could come together to form something. This place however has every element in its chaotic form yet there's still balance. There's only one thing that is born from chaos and balance, it is..."

"Oh for God's sake does it ever end, just get straight to the point."

Nathaniel was surprised and very upset, and more so embarrassed he felt like digging a hole and throwing his head in it. He would have loved to say something in protest, but what could he say. It was obvious the voice was not one for long conversations.

"The answer is a soul, to be more specific, this place is my soul."

"Yes, yes! I can kiss you right now. This is your soul, which means absolutely nothing at all, but you answered the first question so that's good for you. Now let's move on to the next trial, and believe me when I tell you this, you're going to hate it."

Before Nathaniel could say anything in protest he felt someone slap him, hard. And boy was it quite a slap as it spun him around and flung him straight into the sky beneath his feet. Somehow the slap set the world right, and now the sky was where it belonged, however the ocean was not beneath him, instead he was looking at a mountain range with massive craters, and from his position in the sky he could see that a lot of those craters had boiling green liquid in it. Nathaniel scrunched his eyebrows a bit as he felt the draft of the wind around him. It was then he realized he was actually falling from the sky.

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhbhhhhh oomph!"

"Ow, my face."

"Hello, who are you, strange man from the sky."

"Err hello little red girl that just came out of no where."

Nathaniel hated whoever that owned that voice with a passion, because right now he had a mouth filled with rocks and was being stared at by a girl with red skin, horns, a tail and a snow white rabbit in her hands.

"Well the hell am I now."

"silly man, everyone knows where this is, this hell."

"Ehhhh!!!"