Earlier today, as I was lifting in my front yard, under the blazing and wheeling sun, I was suddenly transported by a magical force to a dungeon far under the earth. There, I was tormented by torturing fiends, who recanted me disfigured memories from the past, which were twisted and mangled in gruesome shapes, so as to appear more terrifying.
They howled and screeched, and gleamed at me with their ghastly eyes. Their hands had talons like a raptor of the skies, and they were covered in a thick brown fur like that of a bear. Their nose blew amethyst vapor that was redolent of crushed deadly nightshade.
I was frightened and still fatigued from upraising steel. My legs were weak and shaky. I called out for help, and heard no reply. I called out again, and nothing returned. Finally, with the strength remaining I had left, I started to run throughout this dungeon’s corridors, of which there were many, as in a winding labyrinth. While I fled, they chased, each taking wing on a feathery flank that twice outspread my body’s length.
I ran, and I grew tired, and at last I called out for support once more, using the dissipating breath which made my lungs crush. This time, I heard a voice that seemed to come from my heart region. It said, “Do not react. If you work through it, by not reacting to their hideous taunt, it will turn into the most beautiful experience you have ever had.”
I was afraid to heed this voice, yet trusted that the heart could steer no wrong, and it would protect me. I dropped to my knees, and knelt motionless before their oncoming assault. They swirled around me, sending into my nostrils their vaporous fumes, and screeching a loathsome uproar into my ears. But after a period of minutes, the noise all receded, and then it dispersed.
I was there alone, back in my front yard, staring at the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. The colors had all become more vivid, since I went away, and there was a release on my heart, like a burden was cast off, so that the most serene lightness lingered in my body and the air. A relief set upon me; and I picked myself up, dusted myself off, went into the house, and fell asleep for the twelve most restful hours of my life.