The tide was not always free. An old philosopher once stood on a massive outcrop facing the tide and said to a child, "The tide is already moving beyond our reach. But our hearts are tamed by necessity. Without glory, the tide will remain on some obscure path near a horizon that is beyond even the millennial reach of starlight." The child who listened to the philosopher looked at the tide and saw the reflection of a warrior. It observed how the reflection shone through the fog. The philosopher turned to the child again and said, "You have already become a man. Glory is within your grasp. You must let your heart reflect it. You must let the dawn remain undimmed." Then the boy finds himself trudging along the solid ground with the bare, massive feet of a man. The dusk became dawn in an instant. The philosopher was gone, his words traveling along the surface like the shimmering dots of the new dawn. The boy sees the reflection of Leonidas in the tide. The reflection allows the tide to remain undimmed. The once instant-dusk becomes distant.