I watched the rain fall…and it was beautiful.
Each drop was filled with energy, growing as they fell to the ground. Light shone in the center of every last drop, light of every color imaginable…even of those that are not. The light radiated warmth, small and gentle, but strong, which multiplied with the millions of rain drops to create an atmosphere of pure, mindless happiness.
I smiled as the drops hit the earth.
They landed in every place imaginable; some fell to the soil, their moisture spreading out, becoming the center for the sprout that emerged immediately after. Some fell to rocks scattered through the land; the moisture spread, but nothing grew, and eventually the rock became dry again. I observed birds flying through the watery skies and realized that other drops clung to their wings, carried away without ever seeing the earth below them. Still, the rain fell, covering the world in sprouts, each more beautiful than the last while at the same time just as beautiful as the first. I watched it all and just smiled.
Then something changed – a single drop. It became an ember as it fell.
Concerned, I stretched out my palm and caught the dying ember. It vanished as it touched my skin. Its light, its warmth, its beauty…all gone. Not a trace remained. I looked up to the clouds, searching for any other drops of embers…and was horrified at what I saw.
The rain was set on fire.
Flames roamed around a single cloud, igniting the rain as it fell, burning away all of its beauty and leaving nothing but a downpour of embers. Not every drop got caught in the inferno, but the blaze grew, slowly spreading to other clouds nearby. At first the flames were not strong enough to burn away each raindrop, but their strength increased with each cloud they alighted. As I continued to watch in disbelief, more droplets were set on fire, until the air was filled with a sickening red light. No more did the rain fall; no more did water touch the earth.
A tear rolled down my cheek.
As my tear hit the ground, I noticed that the air was not as void of matter as I once thought. Ash fell from the burning rain, smothering the earth, burying the sprouts that sprang up from earlier showers. The plants grew still, but twisted and distorted. Some grew to shine brightly with life, a lush sight to fight against the deathly atmosphere. Others grew to be dark giants, stretching up to the flaming clouds, fueling the inferno, intensifying it.
My stomach churned at the sight. A second tear fell. Then another.
Tears flowed down my face as I wept, wept for the burning rain, wept for the blackened trees, wept for the few sprouts that continued to thrive. They fell to the earth and gathered together, growing faster than my single body could produce. A final drop fell from my eyes and struck the pool of tears beneath my feet, and with it, the pool began to swirl. The swirl was slow, but built speed, until it became a massive whirlpool of sadness and pity. It reared up to the sky, reaching out to the raging flames surrounding the clouds. As the descending embers connected with my surging tears, the fire was quenched from them and the whirlpool grew even further. I urged it onwards to meet the source of the burning rain…until the tip of the whirlpool touched, briefly, a flicker of the troublesome fire. It was if the whirlpool exploded; tears scattered across the sky, quenching every fire and saturating every cloud. The two forces clashed until all flames were extinguished.
I watched it all…and when it was over, I found that I was able to smile once again.
