The wind began to blow. I was taken by surprise - I had not expected the icy wind to be so unrelenting, nor powerful. The cold pierced my clothing and chilled my bones. Moving forward became an exercise in endurance, and for each moment the cold air that blew around me, I lost a bit more of my strength. Yet I continued forward, resisting the chilling grip of the air flowing around me. I told myself that I was too strong and experienced to let the frigid air stop me. Nature provided an answer to my thoughts. A heavy storm of hail and ice began over the area. My body was hit with a barrage of ice. Some of the ice was solid and physically hurt. Some of what actually fell was water - incredibly cold water that froze as it hit my body, chilling me far more than the wind ever could. Individual lightning bolts or waves of fire could be dodged by the nimble and quick, but there was no way anyone caught in a storm like this could ever escape unharmed. I was incredibly impressed by this manifestation of Nature's power. At that point I saw the truth - this was the power of water. Not only a nourisher of life, but also a steady, unrelenting, unavoidable force of destruction. -Excerpt from Journey to the Peaks by Arch Druid Kaerven, Original Member of the Circle of Temperance