In "Dreams", a chapter in The Last Stand, his retelling of Custer's defeat at the hands of Sitting Bull and his Lakota warriors, Nathaniel Philbrick recounts the visions experienced by young Lakota men on spirit quests: "A vision could occur at any pivotal moment in a Lakota"s life. After days without food and water, alone, often on a mountaintop or butte..." As Philbrick writes, "the vision was not hazy or ill-defined. It was real." He includes a description from a Lokota, John Fire: "It hits you sharp and clear like an electric shock. You are wide awake and, suddenly, there is a person standing next to you who you know can't be there at all ... yet you are not dreaming; your eyes are open." Crazy Horse had such a vision at age 20, after fasting for days he saw a man on horseback rise out of a small lake. This figure dispensed admonitions that Crazy Horse observed the rest of his life. Sitting Bull himself would seek out such experiences, which were also achieved through the Sun Dance.