The leaves quivered quietly. He opened one eye and then the other, then woke up. Alemen was still sleeping. He quietly left the network of branches. Suddenly he sensed something new. All around him he could see a flow of energy. He felt the colossal tree pulsing with powerful energy.

“Is that you?” he said inside his mind. “The sage who transformed into a tree?”

“Yes, Ollváni, it is me. How is it possible that you can sense me?”

“I don’t know. Something has changed. Overnight.”

“Just as I thought.”

“The world is completely different. Somehow more alive.”

“Climb down, lad, and let Alemen sleep.”

It was a fresh morning. Here and there rays of sunshine penetrated the branches and lit up the inside of the tree like a kaleidoscope. Ollváni quickly jumped down to the lower branches. The strange smell disappeared into the background and he could distinguish a wild energy shimmering in the air. The old man was waiting for him on the wide lower branches. Ollváni went over to him and he reached out his hand.

“Pleased to meet you, Ollváni.”

Ollváni knew that it was Enten Filigrán, the old man who had transformed into a tree. He looked at him in amazement. He could feel the pressure of his hand perfectly. Enten smiled.

“See how perfect your imagination is? How real I am? And that’s just the beginning. Now I will be able to teach you and make a Creator out of you. And you know how a student repays his teacher?”

“No,” whispered Ollváni in wonder. He knew about Creators from the book The Awakening and he admired them.

“He surpasses him,” smiled Enten. “And I’m sure that’ll happen soon.

“How is it that I can perceive everything so clearly?”

“It’s thanks to Celkel. He underwent an initiation in the Land of Self-Realization. Now it is certain that a Creator slumbers within you.”

“Thanks to Celkel? How am I connected to him?”

“I wouldn’t want to deprive you of finding that out for yourself,” said the old man mysteriously. “And what’s more, it will be beneficial for your relationship.”

“And can I go and see Celkel now?”

“Yes, lad. I think that would be appropriate. However, I’d like to explain about the powers you’ve acquired.”

“Can we do it now?” Ollváni was very impatient. He wanted to see Celkel as soon as possible.

“Yes. I’ll tell you everything which I think is of vital importance. You might not understand everything now, but when you experience it for yourself, everything will be clear to you. The Dream has awoken inside of you. The Dream is the beginning of a Creator’s spiritual development. Your mind opened up thanks to the pilgrimage which Celkel undertook. Otherwise the Dream would have appeared much later – fifteen years of age at the earliest. The depths of your mind began to filter through to the surface, and energy pathways in your brain and body began to mature and develop.”

“And what is this Dream?”

“It is the essence which is common to all people. But it is so deep that only a Creator can embrace it. It is so peculiar that if anyone other than a Creator attempts to delve into it, their mind will be lost in a whirlwind of ideas, and suddenly their mind will be unable to recognize what is real and what isn’t. Such people go mad. Do you know who the Bluenans are?”

“The blue angels of ruin?”

“You could call them that. They are tasked with searching for a Creator and awakening the Dream within him. Whoever looks at them must uncover Depth in his mind.”

“And is it really just a Dream?”

“Yes and no. It is as real as everything around us, but at the same time it is only a dream.”

“And who dreams it?”

“A young girl who is only a couple of years older than you. She is from the Ejimén family. Over history this family amassed an incredible spiritual wealth. They were people who, above all else, cultivated purity of thought and propriety of behaviour.”

“What does that mean?”

“They belonged to the Nature Artists. They lived in perfect harmony with nature in the city of Lezeb. They did everything in order to be pure beings. They were able to delve very deeply into the wellspring of human action. This predestined them to be able to see even the darkest recesses of the mind and heal them. What is more, the openness that the Nature Artists acknowledged meant that they could not hide anything. The girl isn’t entirely of pure blood because the Ejimén family died out. She doesn’t know anything about them. However, the mission which the Ejimén family made their own lies deep within the girl. The depth of her soul is filled with the atmosphere and methods of their way of thinking, their passions and myths. It is as large as our world. And our world is slowly evolving to become the image of this mind. We also come from it. Our world absorbs it and materializes it to become its image.”

(Translated by Graeme Dibble)