The Lost Horizon
Evan stood in a desert. It wasn’t any desert he had seen with his eyes; it was the desert of his mind. And no matter where he looked all he saw was the horizon.
He had no thoughts in this desert, no inner contemplation or wondering of his situation. He was content to stand in his desert of peace and tranquility, it was part of his being. Eventually he would wake in the morning and go about his daily tasks without giving a thought to his dreaming wanderings.
However that all changed when he saw the fire. He didn’t notice it at first but when he did, he couldn’t stop looking at it, thinking about it, wanting to control it – to make it his. All he had to do was walk toward the horizon, toward the wall of flame but he was scared. Scared because he knew the life he was living would be forever gone and he would have a new life – one of flame and power.
He had tried running away but couldn’t. His horizon was burning closer every night, enclosing him in his own power. The closer it came the faster it burned. He would be powerful, that he knew. He would control the burning element and he knew he should walk to his lost horizon.
He wasn’t going to. It was coming for him but he wasn’t going to it.
cbraz
Steve Barnett
Constance Neeser
docinatrix
elementalsystems
nantalith
parfles
Micro Fiction 
I think is lovely and abstract. The ideas of inevitable personal change and the rather strange neutral attitude towards it resonant well with me. Especially the combination or dread and fascination with the flame speak to me of my love of novelty and fear of change.
Really liked this little dream-piece.
As ES says, this is a very abstract piece which works well in that way – the space in your head. Reminded me a lot of “the Cube” (http://www.career-and-test.com/cube-personality-test.html) visualisation (which if you have not done is a very fun exercise).
I would have liked to see some more detail about the inner world as that can convey a lot more realism even in an inner space type scenario like this one.
This was an interesting piece, and the calm desert/encircling flames are vivid images. I found myself wanting more clues, though, as to what the flames actually represent and why the dreamer should resist them so powerfully – the whole scenario is so abstracted it’s a little difficult to relate it to anything real about the central character.
Minor nitpicks: I don’t think you needed to say explicitly that “it was the desert of his mind”, that’s perfectly clear from your description. I think “wondering of his situation” should also be “wondering about his situation”.
Basically he will become a fire element user and he resists the forced change in his life.
I loved this and really enjoyed the small amount of detail. For me, it was a completely abstract piece, which the visual metaphors enhanced. I didn’t know what was going to happen to the man when the wall reached him, but that didn’t matter for enjoying the world.
I also liked his ambivalence about this.
Thanks.
I enjoy the image of someone’s mind being as barren and empty as a desert.
As the others, I also thought this was a fairly abstract piece. I had not thought that he was resisting becoming a fire-element user.
He is not so much resisting becoming an element user as resisting the change. Or rather that he has no choice – he is resisting because he can. It’s a little bit of control he can exercise.