Over the hill came a heat craven sun, anxious to get to work. The clouds of the pervious night trembled at its site and fled to the Earth below. The birds shouted fiercely at the merciless sun, while their arch enemies stood a far of in the distance below them, waiting for their share of breakfast. The grass reeked with the sweat of nightly labor and the thick trees stood silent amidst the frightened clouds. Here and there could be seen the rotting remains of tree children, mashed and mutilated silently crying for death.

The weary traveler looked this way and that across the empty valley for as far as his strained eyes could see. He took a step forward onto the wilting grass and instantly found himself under siege. The grass retaliated, the trees roared with the unyielding cries of their inhabitants and the dismal tree children begged him to mash them to oblivion. Then he took another step forward and the frightened clouds became electrified and aimed their electric daggers at the poor man's soul. The man stopped for a moment and drew in a portion of the freezing air. He picked up his dimly colored bag, lying only a few inches away from the withering grass. He looked this way and that again, checked his watch and then sprung forth onto the fearless grass to begin his journey. The journey of a thousand an one miles.

The sky ran shades of orange and gold as the sun dived behind the Great Wall to the east, leaving behind its golden resilience on the grassy land. All around, quietness ruled the cooling air. Loneliness and isolation swept over the hills -and roofed off toward the east. And then the people sprang forth from their hiding places and assembled themselves on one of the hills.

They mumbled complaints among themselves about a problem that they had come to know all too well, and knowing only one answer for this problem they glided off the hill in a great mass exodus. Down this hill and over three more went the people, leaving their old land in search of a new one.

The night wrapped its cold air around the people as they plunged onto the concrete road. Children clung to their parents, who complained about them. Parents clung to neighbors, who complained about them also. And all the peoples' complaints and hatred were wrapped around the journey leader, who knew and cared nothing of the people. He had been chosen to lead the people to a land of green and this was all he cared about.

Up, up and over the Great Wall the people climbed and stumbled on to the Thousand Mile highway. There would be no rest or sympathy for those who couldn't make the journey. If they fell, they would pushed to the side and left to perish. If they got too far behind, they might fall victim to the wild.

The road was as unforgiving as the people, with its coarse reddish stones spread as far as the eyes could see ahead. It seemed to demand the peoples' blood and soul as its toll for traveling on it and it would not be long before it would began to take up its collections.

Like an evil sorcerer who craved vengeance, the sun leaped into the air and threw its fury down upon the weary travelers. The coarse stones in the road became flaming coals. The air became dry and hungry and fed itself off the sweat of the people. The people plodded on keeping their heads low, cursing their heated oppressor, cursing the road, cursing their leader and their children and their neighbors in low rumbling tones.

The leader traveled on, unaware and unconcerned about the people who followed him, never once looking back. All he knew was that he must keep going and that he must find a new land.

The sun was now at its peak, and sending its flames of heat down on the moving caravan. Already some of the older travelers had fallen to the wayside and had become snacks and meals for the merciless vultures that followed.

But now came the flocks of birds who had no fear of man. They circled over the moving caravan, picking their meals with careful precision. Then they began to dive down and claim what they had skillfully chosen.

Cries and screams rang out from the people as the multitude of birds descended upon them, tearing at their flesh with their steel talons and beaks. Some of the people tried to fight the birds off and others tried to hide themselves, but it was no use. The birds tore viciously at their ears and fingers, choking down what they could and coming back for more. And then they were gone, back to the skies they had descended from, and to the hell from whence they came.

The screams of terror were replaced by the screams of pain as some of the people fell to their death, while others prayed for theirs. But there was no time for this, and the people knew it. They licked and bandaged their wounds and continued onward.

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Behind them lay the dead and dying, in a puddle of lost blood, in the midst of the desolate road. As the sun cast down its fiery eyes upon the massacre, those who were near death became death, and their blood poured out onto the road. As the blood began to trickle down the roadside, a small crack opened up in its path and tasted the blood. And when the road had tasted the blood, a great many fissures opened up on the roadway and drank the red gold.

On and on the people continued down the road, like mummies wandering through the very tombs that they guard. With missing fingers and ears and festering wounds, they struggled down the road. They traveled along day and night, never departing from the road, never stopping and never turning back. The sun baking them a different color each day, and the cold night air freezing that color to their skin. Those who could travel no more, dropped off, for the birds to eat and the roads to drink.

They followed a leader. A leader whose intestines and stomach had been partially eaten. A leader who had no heart for the people, but lead them on. Onward over the thirsty road and the brutal sun and the ravenous birds, into the strange lands ahead.

Through the strange lands they continued with their wounds gnashing at them and their pain whipping at them, on the endless road, until at last they came to a giant wall.

Up the treacherous wall they climbed, and there were some who found that their strength had departed from them and they plummeted to their death. The leader used the last of his will and strength to climb the wall. As he surfaced the wall his eyes grew luminously wide. This would be the last site he would ever see again. It was that of an emerald forest.

The rain drops danced on the fat green leaves, as the plump green trees dined on the new rains. All around there stood the leafy green natives ready to serve their succulent fruits to all those who so desired. The rains continued and then ceased. And out of the wet fertile ground sprang a nursery of new green life.

The travelers thrived here. They feasted off the majestic fruits, swallowed the life-saving oxygen, slept in the warm green undergrowth and bathed in the crystal clear waters. Their souls were rejuvenated as well as their marred bodies. Missing fingers and ears began to grow back. Aching flesh wounds began to heal themselves. Their old tired bodies became young and strong. This was truly the Promised Land.

Caught up in the fascination of their regrowth the people didn't realize at first, that there were no other living beings in the forest. But then they began to wonder, so they searched but found no one. They began to wonder if there was any life, save that of the trees, in the forest, so they searched and searched throughout the magnificent forest, but they couldn't find so much as an insect.

Now worry began to replace wonder. Why were they the only living creatures in such a beautiful forest? Had there once been others along with an abundant wildlife here? And what had become of them? And what would become of us? They became desperate for answers, so they turned to their inflated egos. They were obviously the first people to make it this far down the Thousand Mile highway thus becoming the first inhabitants of this magnificent forest and obviously there had never been any animal life, thus allowing the forest to grow undisturbed for perhaps centuries. And the people clung to these home grown answers, like hungry babies sucking theirs mothers breast.

Eventually the people stopped worrying and even ceased to wonder anymore. They built up a wall of ignorance. They

put this wall between themselves and the real truth about the emerald forest. A wall reinforced by neglect and laziness. A wall that seemed permanent to them, until this wall began to crack.

The rains came and watered the forest and then forgot to come back. The leaves became a shiny brown and hard with thirst. The trees became rough and stiff as if they were petrified. The rich succulent fruits withered up and their corpses fell to the parched earth. And the people looked into the dry, hopeless sky and all around in the strange forest, with its new shiny brown armor, and cursed at it. They cursed at it not because the forest would no longer yield its luscious fruits, (for they had saved up on these delicacies), but because their new playground was becoming inconvenient for them. They could no longer run through the forest barefooted on its lush green carpet, for it now felt as if it were made from brittle burlap. They could no longer float carelessly away in the crystal clear pools, for they had become dry basins of dust.

The people grew impatient and short-tempered. They cursed the forest for ever coming into existence and made hollow threats to burn the forest to hell. They grew restless, and obliterated the forest a thousand times in their minds. And as the rainless days continued, their threats became more blatant and vicious and they had no remorse in their hearts for what they said and thought, until the very treetops themselves hummed and the skies echoed with their hate and blasphemy. Then at last the clouds came, and the people rejoiced, but these clouds were not made of just water, for leaping through them like over-joyous children were the rumblings of the thunder of rage, the flashes of the lightning of anger and at their base were the seeds of hatred.

Over the brown treetops the clouds poured in and huddled together. They snatched what was visible of the blue sky. They massed around the steel sun rays and finally severed them off, leaving only their shadows of death upon the forest below. And all the time the people watched in awe but still mumbled their curses at the clouds for taking so long to come.

The clouds gathered strength and the lightning of anger lighted up the skies, and the thunder of rage rumbled so that even the ground the people stood on shook in fear. The people looked and listened, ignorant of the luminous and thunderous meanings. Then they grew impatient, and commanded the clouds to drop their rain and be gone.

And the maddening clouds heard their commands and became angrier. And the clouds let loose their furious rains on the people below. The same rains that had ignited the flames of hell, passed over the shiny brown leaves and hardened trees, and leaped upon the people as fire. Some of the people tried to run from the rains, but the rains caught them, and the fire singed them to ashes before they could fall down to the ground 1n defeat. Some of the people tried to hide from the rains, but the rains were master detectives, and found them all the more quickly, and the fire burned them to ashes before they could utter a word.

The rains continued to fall until all that remained of the people were black cindered ashes, and then they ceased. The clouds parted, and retreated back to whence they came.

A hungry sun thrusts down its brilliant light upon an emerald green forest. A forest where crystal clear waters flowed. And even though this forest was devoid of any human life a new lush carpet of green life sprang forth out of the fertile ground.

The story of these people is in no way through, for you see there were a few survivors who hid themselves in the healing grounds away from the angry lightning and the thunder of hatred. From these few refugees of the emerald forest sprang forth an entire civilization that conquered the unconquerable eventually bringing their majestic paradise to it's knees begging for mercy. But mercy was not in their hearts and this same civilization, under the instigating eyes of their leaders destroyed their heart land for all eternity.

The callous leaders, fearing an uprising of the people against them decided to journey back to their original homeland. Back to the birth place of their ancestors from long, long ago. Even though they expressed a great amount of uncertainty about the exact way back across the great white desert, fear of losing their life and power impromptly sets a course for them. This is their story and their fate.

The omnipotent white sphere danced near the great hill. It gleamed as though it were the reincarnation of the sun itself, but its' beams fell cold and hard upon the lifeless sands. Magnificent as it was the glorious spheroid played too closely with the great hill, a folly which-had done it's celestial predecessor in for all time. Soon it would 'come Another casualty of the great hill and darkness would invade the great white desert and would capture it with it's universal magnitude.

The foolish leaders stood looking fast and ready to brave the perilous white expanse that lay before them. Their bewildered eyes strangled the glistening lands searching for a sign. Any sign that would give them a glimpse of hope once more and pardon them for the great wrongs they had committed and the even greater one of which they were about to partake.

These uncaring leaders had forsaken their land and the people who had sacrificed it. The murderous civilization who had taken up a fool-hearty allegiance to follow and obey them. The land from which this fool-hearted breed had plundered and massacred, all in the name of civilization. Lush, green, fertile coves, poisoned to death with the by products of evolution. Crisp, stinging rivers and streams constantly raped to the point until they reeked with the rotten stench of progress. And the air! That once beautiful, effervescent giver of life itself, now screams out like an aborted fetus and is filled heavy with the history of fools. And up until now those few who distinguished themselves as the leaders continued to deceived the people by disillusioning them into believing that they could breast feed off the land forever.

But now forever is deceased.

The strange white incandescent body was colliding with the great hill. The pillaging people grew nervous and anxious as they bode over the luminous white ground. But their cunning and devious leaders calmed their irrational thoughts by lying to them about how close to the end of this arduous journey they actually were. All around the dense air waited patiently for the exact right moment, till at last it came to the place where it kissed the thirsty white sands and melted into the captive night.

While the ignorant people marveled at the invisible cage surrounding them, their shallow-hearted leaders huddled themselves together away from the masses of star-struck beings they led. There was nothing to say. What had been done was now irreversible. Now matter how many times they checked and rechecked their ancient maps and compasses, the error of their judgment had already set itself into a slow moving caravan of reality.

They hastily resumed their original positions as the ordained leaders of the belligerent people, nervously stuffing their useless maps and metal trinkets back into the cursed compartments from which they had come. And those who would still call themselves leaders casts a cautious glance toward their followers and quickened their pace.

The great hill took bite after bite out of the awesome white sun. The people were growing tense but their determined leaders had become both blind and deaf to this smoldering situations They aimlessly over-focused their minds out into the great white land before them, all in vain. To the wandering people, this same great white desert stretched an eternity in every direction. They kicked and cursed the white menagerie beneath their feet, desperately hoping to alleviate their rising fears. The same fears that awoke them as little children screaming mad in the midst of the night. Their fears raced from their minds to their hearts and they cried out into the stagnantly dark night for deliverance. Their cries echoed across the impermeable ears of their leaders in front, up into the bitter darkness and then fell dead upon the lifeless ground.

All at once a deep, growing, incorrigible anger shot up through bones like fire itself. Their perception of this entire journey had changed and for the first time their eyes were opened to the evil of those elements who stood out front and lead them through this wasteland. The voracious air began to fill with their hostile thoughts and swelled under the torrent of their furious emotions. Soon the ground and the air teemed with their thoughts of violence. Vicious eyes scoured one another until at last they came to rest and focused sharply upon the ill-fortuned leaders. With an energetic surge they swarmed the helpless leaders and thrusts themselves upon them, trampling their very souls into the abyss of the night. And under the hell of a host of feet that ran fast and ravaging, their blood spewed forth to rot on the foreboding plains and their bones became one with the beautiful white sands.