Lender paused for a second then continued with a
new question. "By the way, what are the choices
for our destiny? Except for the name, I've seen
nothing to indicate we'll ever have a choice,
let alone any kind of destiny."

These were all good questions raised by the
Livings and the situation in this place was more
than confusing, it was chaotic. First of all,
Majestic has called Swami a liar, saying that
the mystic has taught them wrongly about the
third vital. Yet, what they've learned about this
vital seems to work quite well. Secondly, the sky
has changed from bright blue to deep red,
apparently causing the vegetation to slowly fade
and die, and Swami seems to be avoiding the issue.
Thirdly, why would a place be called, Chosen
Destiny, when not even a hint of any choice has
been presented to the Livings? Unless it's a
choice of who is lying to them. But what does that
have to do with one's destiny? Finally, both
Majestic and Swami have disappeared leaving the
three cosmic ping pong balls filled with questions
they cannot answer. This is all quite perplexing!

The sky was getting darker, signaling the end of
another day. The three headed back toward the
Fountain of Understanding to rest for the night.
By the time they reached the fountain, it was
completely dark.
 
"Do you feel that?" asked Builder. 
"Feel what?" responded Lender. 
"The air is moving. There's a slight breeze," said
Builder with arms outstretched and palms open.
 
Advisor and Lender also extended their arms to
feel the wind. Within a minute, the breeze had
become more noticeable and they all turned their
faces into the cooling air. They were facing the
fountain, with backs to the cavern, when a blue-
green gaseous illumination began rising from the
cavern entrance. The mysterious vapor was escaping
into the atmosphere unnoticed by the Livings. The
breeze was clearly increasing in intensity and
felt good on their skin.

"Did you see that?" Builder asked the others.
"What?" they responded together.
"I had my eyes closed. I didn't see anything,"
said Lender, "but I thought I heard a low rumble."
"It looked like very weak sheet lightning, similar
to what I remember during the hot summer evenings
on the flatlands,"explained Builder. 
"There it is again!" Builder voiced excitedly to
his companions, relieved that the elements pro-
vided an encore to underscore his credibility. 
"Wow! That was something! I've never seen the
whole sky light up all at once like that before!"
exclaimed Lender.
"What did you call it?"
"Sheet lightning."

The red sky lit up again and the three to four
seconds of rolling thunder that followed shook
the ground. When the thunder quieted, Advisor
heard a hissing sound behind him. He quickly
turned and saw the growing blue-green vaporous
cloud for the first time. He yelled grabbing
both of his mates by the arms.

"Jumpin' Jack Nicklaus! What the hell is happen-
ing?" shouted Builder.

The entire sky lit up again and this time they
could see the atmosphere churning into huge red
billowing clouds with fiery blue darts of light
shooting everywhere. The thunder was awesome.
They held their ears. Where could they find
protection from the storm? The cavern was the
only reasonable place, except for the vapor.
So they began running away from the cavern and
the fountain in a new direction.

The air was now a full hot wind that burned
their faces as they ran toward a part of
Chosen Destiny that neither Swami nor Majestic
had introduced to them. Advisor looked back
quickly to see an incredible plume of blue-
green vapor rising rapidly toward the fiery
clouds. The hiss of the vapors was joined by
an indescribable ear-piercing shrieking, as
if thousands of voices were crying out in
agonizing torment and pain. It was the most
terrifying experience yet encountered by the
Livings. The flood and fire consuming fellow
Livings was no match for this celestial
display of horror.

They crossed the expansive fairway, as Builder
called it, and entered a meadow. The deeper
into the meadow they ran, the taller the grass,
until it was waist high and they could run no
more. The three Livings dropped to their knees
and huddled together to watch the nightmare.
Catching their breath was difficult. Fear had
so frozen the witnesses, their breathing was
reduced to spasmodic gasps forced between long
periods of oxygen depletion. When the snakelike
plume of gaseous vapors reached the fiery
clouds, a spectacular light show resulted.

Explosions, lightning, fluorescence and fire
of every color of the spectrum filled the
heavens. Endless deep booming reports of
thunder mixed with sharp bursting claps of
fire and light churned with constant life-like
squeals of anguish so shrill the Livings
covered their ears to shield them from intense
pain.