My body was cold. 'I know this feeling.' I thought as my stomach cried out.
'Hungry... why am I so hungry.' I questioned.
Like my energy had been drained away from me, I felt small, pitiful and weak. Barely able to move, I poked my head out of my shell briefly before my body crashed back against the cold, uneven ground below me.
'Huh.' I said as I tried to look forward through my blurring vision but all I could see were small dots in the distance. Gold and shiny, the dots glimmered in orange in the dying sunlight. One large dot stood out from the rest. Giant and colourful... it looked like a beacon of hope whenever I glanced back at it.
'Is... that... no, it can't be.' I thought as I crossed a suggestion out of my mind.
The sun was dying, but it still shone on my body. It as humid... but I felt cold. 'Why am I so cold?' I questioned as suddenly I was hit by an uncontrollable sadness.
'Don't leave me... brother.' the thoughts of the tiny snail poured into my head. Without my control, my body... or the snail's body seemed to gather just a little more strength, and I tried to move forward to the glimmers in the distance...
'I'm... I re-living the snail's memories.' I thought as I crashed on to the branch below me. My whole body ached as I tried to get up once more but hopelessly crashed back onto the branch.
"Please... stop..." I tried to say out loud but barely made any noise. I felt a pang of pain hit me deep within as I continued to watch the group in front of me move forward without me before I collapsed once more.
"Please..." I cried out loud, crushed by the own weigh to my shell. Like they heard my call, they stopped and seemed to rest before me.
Sighing in relief, I struggled to get up once more.
'Th snail that I left...' I thought as I knew this scene. 'This snail was the one I left behind during the migration... the one that died.'
...
"Just wait..." I, the snail called out.
"I'll get better... better by tomorrow morning." I managed to get out before I crashed on to the branch once more.
My whole body pounded. My stomach ached and yearned for the sweet taste of fresh leaves... desperately, I scraped against the hard bark beneath my body but it as just too rough... there was no food.
"Why isn't there any food?" I questioned myself as my vision darkened... and my body tingled all over. "Am I going to die?" I questioned myself as my body began to shrivel up. My heart pounded within my chest as I tried to breath, but I couldn't... I didn't even have the energy to breathe.
My body kept tingling.
'I can't die here, my family... is ahead.'
But the tingling sensation grew and grew. Before I felt nothing and I became nothing. Everything went black and I was pulled back to the orangeness of the pit.
I gasped. I gasped for air the moment I got back. It burned... the air burned but I gasped uncontrollably. Blobs of mucus appeared a top of my skin and dripped down my body as I looked forward. Another snail seemed to beckon me to approach.
'This... trial.' I thought to myself as I managed to calm myself down. 'No wonder the ancient snail didn't pass it.'
But before I could even think about the trial anymore I felt the entire room heat up from behind me as I was hit by a blast of hot air.
Looking backwards. I saw it flicker. The flicker of a tiny flame.
"Repent." I heard the apparition call out as my attention returned to its glowing body. Sliding slowly, I approached it. The second time, I knew what I was getting into as its body splashed into mine.
Another heat entered my body and I was brought to another scene.
Grey. Grey and green. 'A leaf.' I thought. 'I'm on a leaf.' Looking forward, I felt my whole body shake as I clung to the leaf below me. A large crevice had formed in the leaf and I had looked down below it. 'The green abyss.' I thought as I urged my body to move. But I couldn't.
I was frozen in fear.
More sounds other than the howling of the wind and I glanced upwards. In the distance, a rainbow-shelled snail, giant and gallant was madly collecting up other snails atop his back.
'It's me again.' I thought. 'I remember this too.'
Once again, I couldn't control the body I was in. Like I was firmly secured for the ride, I felt everything, but I couldn't do anything.
...
"Save... SAVE ME, BROTHER!" I madly called out but the snail didn't hear me. "Brother..." I tried to say as a rumble filled the air.
Reacting without my control, I ducked into my shell as the leaf below me shook. I felt my heart pounding within my shell as I held on to the leaf below me for dear life.
Seconds later, I withdrew from my shell.
But just as I did, I felt the ground below me shift.
My stomach dropped. But what was truly dropping was me. The leaf had fragmented and broken off and I spun while plummetting towards the green abyss below me.
I hid my shell. Wind rushing, my heart pounding the only thought that went through my mind was the simple question.
'Am I going to die?'
And I soon got the answer.
Bang. I hit the edge of something before it seemed to absorb part of my momentum.
'I might survive!' I thought, but no.
I was wrong.
I hit the ground moments later.
Crack. The sound of cracking and a wet splatter.
"..." I tried to scream but I couldn't.
The pain... it was unbearable. An immense pain spread through my entire body as I tried to move. I lied. How could I move? I couldn't. I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even cry out in pain.
My body had ripped apart - my guts sprawled all over the forest floor.
I was bleeding out as I felt everything drain away from me as my dying heart pounded the last bit of blood out of my body.
And I was dead.
...
But I wasn't.
I was back. Back in the orange pit. Back in line for another.
Instantly I felt relief wash over me as I continued to pant as I relished the ability to breathe.
Flame behind me in the pit burned a little brighter as another creature waved for me to come forward.
Recollecting myself, I glanced upwards at the hundreds of bodies above me and solidified one thought within my mind.
'It's just a few hundred more... the ancient snail probably had hundreds of thousands...'
...
And that was probably the truth.
It became clear.
If there was truly something called karma, then the second trial was an excellent example of it. For every life I ended, for every life, I interacted with before I died, I was penalized. Be it a fall, be it being crushed between a set of jaws, I re-lived each and every one of their deaths as I slid upwards.
How did the trial know how each of them died?
I don't know. Maybe... our World Tree sees all through the seeds and continues to live on?
Was I repenting for my sins?
No.
Now I believe that I was purifying myself.
The trials were just preparing me for what was to come.
...