Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 13:07:51 -0500
From: Jerry <jerryli@systec.com>
Subject: Arin 8

The following story contains scenes of boys having sex with other boys
and/or men, depending on what I decided on by the time I got around to
writing it. ;) It is science fiction and fantasy, and as such contains
things which simply don't happen in real life. If your imagination is
not good, you won't enjoy it very much. As for the sex thing, if this stuff
is against your personal moral codes, don't read it. If there's anything
you don't understand, ask your parents or friends or whoever you think will.
If you like the story, feel free to write me a letter at jerryli@systec.com.

You're allowed to do anything you like with my story with the following
exceptions:

1. You may not place it on a system which charges people to read it unless you
   request permission from me first. I have no problem giving you
   permission, but there will be a slight one-time fee. ;)

2. You may not post alterations to the story, or write sequels to it,
   without my permission.

Happy reading!

=====================================================================

Chapter 36

      "No, we haven't seen him here, honey. And you completely missed
dinner last night."

      I sighed and side hugged my mother; a middle-aged, skinny woman with
dark hair.  Sometimes I wonder how I ever wound up with red hair,
considering that she's a brunette and my late father was blonde, like
Cedra. Like poor, missing, lost and alone Cedra.

      "Don't worry, Arin", Tarus implored. "Cedra's a big boy, I'm sure
he's fine."

      "I know he is, I just... I wish he was here. I need to talk to him."
I began absentmindedly packing my things, but all I could focus on was
Cedra. Where was he?  What happened? I had just given him the most I had to
give. What if... what if the elves had come back? I didn't know what to
think.

      I was a wallflower as I accompanied the others to visit the town
sage. They were looking for clues to the location of the second amulet
fragment. I was asked to help.  It was hours of grueling searching through
old and dusty books. Every now and then I was able to get lost in one
passage or another about the amulet, taking my mind off of Cedra. But for
the most part I just stared veinly at pages, pretending to read as I
continued to worry.

     I looked out the window of the library and stared at two boys around
my age playing with a small dog. They knew nothing of Orcs, Vampires or
gold; they had probably never left this village at all. They were still
children, while I had chosen to sacrifice my care-free spirit for the joys
of glory, adventure and love.  It had been a wonderful choice for me, with
definite benefits. It was tough to remember that, though, when all I could
think of was the downside in front of me.  Glory risked catastrophe;
adventure had long periods of monotony in it's threads; love was wonderful,
but it led to loss.

    "Aha!", Dejana cried, ripping a page out of one of the books. "I've
found the answer." I took notice that it was one of the books I had skimmed
over a couple of hours ago. A stream of guilt mixed in with the lakes of
loneliness and depression inside of me.

    "According to this", Dejana said, "the second fragment of the Amulet
was taken as part of the horde of a Red Dragon when it ransacked Vhif's
kingdom. There's an illustration showing the dragon carrying it off." She
held up the paper to reveal a large, scaly creature carry off an upturned
building in it's talons. The building was filled to the rim with the
treasures of the burning city, pictured faintly below. The amulet fragment
was at the top of the treasure trove.

    "We have to take it away from THAT?!?!?", Tarus whined. "That thing
will barbecue us before we get close to it."

    Dejana nodded. "A large force would be pulverized by the dragon, but
this was eons ago. The dragon has surely gotten old and infirmed by now. A
single person, say.... a *skilled thief*" - she added this staring directly
at me and smiling - "should be able to sneak in and take it without too
much of a fuss."

    I blinked. "Uhhh ummm I-I-uhhh...", I stammered, not really sure which
way would be the most proper for telling her she was COMPLETELY OUT OF HER
CRAZY LOUSED-UP MIND to think I was going to try to sneak past a Red Dra--

    "See?", she stated, as if I had just told her it was a cakewalk. "No
problem whatsoever.  Now, the route is detailed here, we should be able to
get there in a little over a week if we leave tonight. We should travel at
night and sleep by day anyway, seeing as how we seem to have pissed off an
entire colony of dark elves in this area."

    The group nodded it's agreement. "What about Cedra?", I demanded.

Chapter 37

    The group was packed and ready to leave, and there was still no sign of
Cedra anywhere.  "Please be sure and tell him the route, will you mother?"

    My mother smiled down at me with a warmth that I had forgotten over my
months of adventuring. I was sad to leave it so soon, especially since I
hadn't expected to. I was supposed to be staying here with Cedra and
building a new life. But if he wasn't in the village, then maybe he'd
somehow gone ahead.

   "You really like him, don't you?", my mother asked.

   ~Heh, if she only knew the HALF of it~, I thought. "Just tell him where
we've gone, please?", was all I could manage to say.

   Her smile broadened and she stroked my cheek. "Alright, Arin, I'll see
to it."

   With that we were on our way. That first night's travel was a mass of
confusion for me at first. I wanted to draw my sword and swing at whatever
approached me, for fear that it was a dark elf. But I was afraid I'd
accidently cut down Cedra on his way to find us, so I kept it sheathed. The
others got tired a few hours before daylight, and I insisted on taking the
watch.

   Somewhere around four in the morning I felt the need to urinate. I moved
slightly away from the camp and opened my trousers, exposing my flaccid
penis to the cool night air. I was in mid-piss when a hand came from
nowhere, reached around, and began moving my immediately stiffening penis
back and forth in an arc, playing with the stream. I turned back, startled.

   "Remember this?", Cedra asked me, with a playful smile.

   I threw my arms around him so quickly that the last of my pee wound up
splatting across his tunic, my pants fell all the way down and my erection
poked his belly button. "CEDRA!", I exclaimed, in an excited voice that I
had to fight to contain - I didn't want to wake the others.

   "Hey", he said, stroking my hair, "calm down there. Easy."

   I sniffled in the cold air and pulled back to look at him. Now that I
knew he was completely okay, I could move on to my next emotion - fury. I
slapped him on the shoulder. "Where did you GO, Cedra? I've been so worried
about you." I was still half-crying.

   Cedra shrugged. "I had some errands to run. No biggie." SLAP! The words
hit me like a brick across my face. No, not the words... the *tone*. He was
brushing me off. His eyes were cold and stony, a flicker of grey in amidst
the normal blue.

   "But you didn't say anything. You just left."

   He chuckled quietly. "Yeah, like I *really* wanted to stay after that."
SLAP! A second slash across my heart, deeper than the first. How could he
say this to me? Was it me? Had I done something wrong? Did it... have to do
with our last night together?

   I looked at him meekly. "Was it... was I not good?", I asked.

   His laughter grew louder, as if he'd just heard the world's funniest
joke. SLAP! In a tone of absolute sarcasm, he said "Oh yeah, you were
GREAT, I thought you were an expert." SLAP!  SLAP! SLAP!

   "How can you say this to me?", I demanded. I was done being hurt. I was
MAD.

   "Oh, c'mon", he asked, "why do we have to make such a big deal?"

   He began casually stomping bugs, when I noticed the second difference -
his holy symbol was missing. It wasn't around his neck.

   "Well", he said, "I have to go. I'll be back soon, Arin. Don't worry."
He started walking off into the forest.

   "Cedra!", I cried. He turned to face me, and the look was so cold that
it knocked all the fight out of me. I felt horrible. I felt completely
disconnected from him. "I love you", I said, hoping somehow to be right
with him again.

   "I love you too" he said, flashing me a sheepish smile and turning
away. SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!  The deepest slap of all. Because although the
words were right, they were said with no feeling at all. They were empty,
vacant, a lie. He didn't even care that I existed.

Chapter 38

   "It's a glamour", Tarus said. "Cedra must have been kidnapped, and this
was a dark elf taking his place."

   "No", I said, shaking my head. "It was Cedra."

   I had woken Tarus up and led him on a walk around the camp perimeter. It
was still almost an hour before the first sun would rise on the horizon,
casting light on the most dreadful evening of my entire life. But I had to
talk to *someone* about what I had just experienced, and I felt closer to
Tarus than to Rath or Dejana.

  "But you said yourself", he reminded me, as we rounded another large elm
tree, "that the holy symbol was missing. Whatever it was that duplicated
him couldn't wear it, because it was the symbol of a good deity. Cedra
would have had it on him."

  "I know, it doesn't make sense, but everything in my instinct tells me
that it was Cedra.  He... he knew things... private things. Things only
Cedra would know."

  "What kinds of things?", Tarus asked.

  "Well..."

  Suddenly, a cry from the camp! We drew our weapons and ran into the camp
clearing. There was Dejana, frozen in place with her crossbow half-raised
into the air. Her long hair was frozen as still as a painting, spread out
in midair. And there, in front of her, stood Cedra. He was holding a dagger
to her neck, a glint of pure evil in his eye, and speaking to the horrified
Rath. "...message to deliver to Arin."

  I stood before him, weapon at the ready. "Why don't you tell me
yourself", I demanded.

  He smiled coyly at me, dagger still to Dejana's neck. "It's not the type
of message that you TELL, really. It sort of involves finding the BODIES of
all of your friends."

  I was horrified, but I did my best to hide it. "Leave her alone, and deal
with me."

  Cedra ran his free hand along her frame, from her neck down past her
breats and to her stomach. "But she's so cute, and helpless...", he
said. Taking advantage of the distraction, Rath threw a dagger with deadly
accuracy, slicing Cedra's shoulder open.

  "AHHHHH!!", he screamed, and suddenly Dejana was mobile again - whatever
spell that Cedra was using to hold her had been disrupted by his lack of
concentration. Outmatched, he ran from the remainder of the group towards
me. He stopped dangerously close to me. In a menacing voice, he said
"Things are about to get VERY interesting." With that, he kissed me full on
the lips, pushed me back, and walked away.

  He hadn't hurt me. He could have run me through with his dagger, but he
didn't. He wasn't interested in killing me, but hurting me - hurting me in
a way that made me wish I was dead.  He had succeeded. His kiss cut me
deeper than any weapon could have.

  The silence among the group that day was unparalleled. No one could
really believe it.  Dejana and Tarus would occasionally give me a sideways
hug, to try to cheer me up. They meant well, but every time they did it the
emptiness inside me grew.

  The landscape we were travelling through was some of the most beautiful
on the entire continent. A beautiful four-winged bird flew over my head and
landed on a nearby oak branch.  A beautiful sunflower the size of a toddler
sprouted out in seconds before my eyes. The wind whistled over a nearby
lake with a pleasant sea breeze.

  I hated all of it.

  I hated the world and everything in it. I looked forward to my upcoming
encounter with the Red Dragon, so that I could ask it kindly to eat
me. There was no sense to anything any more. No reason to live.

  That night, I demanded the first watch. The others tried to talk me out
of it, but I was adamant about it. As soon as they went to sleep, I
cried. I cried for a long, long time. It felt good, but it was an endless
well - I could cry for hours and it still wouldn't take away the pain.

  The attack came suddenly - two drow elf warriors. Both experienced
masters of the night, adults with at least a foot on me each. Their long
swords could slice through the wheel of a wagon and make a cut without so
much as splintering the wood.

  They didn't stand a chance.

  My long sword had already been drawn, as I was etching feelings of
blackness and terror into the ground beneath me. When the first of them
approached, I swung around and sliced straight through his stomach, ripping
his internal organs straight out of his body. I hadn't known it was someone
who intended on killing me, and it didn't matter - at that moment I'd have
swiped at anyone.

  The other elf took one look at his fallen companion and decided that he
was going to run. I could have let him go - it would have been the right
thing to do. But I was beyond what was right and wrong. All I felt was the
desire for vengence, and I was ready to take it out on anyone or anything
around me.

  What I did to that second elf, I won't tell you. I will save that as my
own personal nightmare, and live with the guilt of it for the rest of my
days. Suffice it to say, he was in no condition to hurt anyone after I was
finished. The only thing I will tell you is that, just before he died, he
was able to get in one critical blow on me - he said, "Cedra says hello."

  By the time I had come back to camp, Tarus had already mercifully sliced
the first elf's throat open, ending the horrible pain that I had caused
him. The others had identical looks of concern, horror, and sympathy on
their faces. "Are you alright?", Dejana asked, placing a hand on my
shoulder.

  I ripped some fabric off of the dark elf's tunic and used it to wipe the
fresh blood off of my Long Sword. I moved over to my backpack and pulled
out a waterskin to clean it with. "I'm fine", I said curtly. The others
dropped it.

Chapter 39

  We arrived in a large town two days later. The others were getting new
weapons and supplies for the next leg of the journey. I was already well
stocked on provisions, so I spent most of the time mulking around.

  "Ready to leave?", I asked, with very little enthusiasm.

  Rath shook his head. "We heard there was an expert on the Amulet in
town. We're going to see him." I nodded somberly, and kept my head low, but
curiousity began to overwhelm my depression and, as we walked towards the
expert's shop, my interest distracted me from the hurt I was feeling.

  We walked into, of all places, a church. It was non-denominational -
worshippers of any good-aligned deity could pray there. Cedra would have
been ab-- but no, Cedra wasn't here.

  It was in that state of self-pity and distraughtness that I first met
Tyrin. He was speaking with an acolyte near one of the altars, who nodded
and turned away from him. Then he turned our way, and his eyes met mine. He
was a young man, in his mid-twenties, with dark hair and dark brown
eyes. He wore a large chest plate with the holy symbol of Apollo on it's
crest... ~I wonder if his God fails him the way Aphrodite failed me and
Cedra~, I thought spitefully. Some goddess of love SHE turned out to be.

  The man was looking at me strangely, but I was too lost in thought to
notice it. He smiled widely, coming over to our group. "Welcome, my
friends, welcome."  The second welcome was directed to me,
individually. "Is there something I can help you with?"

  Tarus nodded. "We're looking for a Tyrin Maskerwul."

  Tyrin extended a hand to Tarus. "You have found him", he declared,
shaking hands with everyone. When he shook my hand, he lingered there for a
second longer, moving his thumb gently across the back of it. Again, I was
too distracted to notice it clearly.

  Dejana leaned in a bit closer. "Is there somewhere more private we could
go to talk? We'd like to discuss something with you."

  Tyrin nodded, smiling down at me again, when I allowed the truth to
slowly sift into my brain - the man was interested in me. I gave him a
brief look of appraisal. He was handsome enough, and he seemed nice. That
may have given him a chance in hell two months earlier. Now, of course,
there was none.

   He led us into a small antechamber which was decorated meticulously with
the order and care that only a devoted priest could provide. It was
seemingly a shrine to Apollo, merely being used as an office. Tyrin sat at
a small wooden desk. "So", he wondered, "what brings you here?"

  "The Amulet of Wonders. Heard you were something of an expert on it."

  "You heard correctly, Mr...?"

  "Tarus." One by one, we introduced ourselves. I went last, stating my
name matter-of-factly.

  "Well", Tyrin said, removing a book from the bookshelf behind him, "This
notebook is a record of my research." The book was large and thick, more of
a full fledged tome than a casual notebook. "As you can see", he said,
smiling at the look of approval on my face, "the research is quite
detailed.  What is it you wish to know?"

  There was a moment of silence among the group, an unspoken question - how
much do we tell him? I gauged the expressions of each of them, and decided
that the cleric was of little threat to us. "Well", I began, "we have one
of the three fragments..."

  That got Tyrin's attention. That most DEFINITELY got his attention. He
looked at me not only in lust and admiration, but in awe as well. Then he
cast a look over the rest of the group. "You people have recovered part of
the Amulet of Wonders?"

  "Yes", Dejana nodded. "The Amulet is right here." She reached into her
backpack and pulled on the Amulet chain. But instead of pulling out the
amulet fragment, what she pulled out was a complete amulet.

  My first thought was that the Amulet had somehow managed to reconstruct
itself, making our lives incredibly easier. It was on closer inspection
that I realized we weren't looking at the Amulet of Wonders. We were
looking at a holy symbol of Aphrodite - Cedra's Amulet.

  My eyes started to tear again. Dejana had a look of total confusion on
her face. Tarus let out some choice words and slammed his fist into a
nearby wall.  It was Rath who exclaimed it for us - "That lousy
traitorous... he pulled a switch on us!"

  Tyrin looked back and forth among all of us. "Perhaps you'd better
explain."

Chapter 40

  We told him our tale, conveniently leaving out the fact that Cedra and I
were recruited against our will. We told him of the Keep in which the fragment
was kept. We told him of the box on the pedestal, and the men chanting around
it. And we told him how Cedra had turned against us, switching his amulet for
the artifact and allying himself to the dark elves.

  "I don't understand it", I said, the pain in my voice apparent for everyone
now. "He's completely different from the boy that I knew."

  Tyrin nods. "You cared about him a lot, didn't you." It wasn't a question.

  I just nodded and sighed, tears slowly dripping down my cheek.

  Tyrin looked at me sadly. "Well, I'm afraid I can offer an explination. It's
not something you're going to want to hear."

  I looked at him curiously. "You know what happened to him?", Tarus asked.

  Tyrin nodded solemnly. "I believe so. I believe that Cedra has been possessed
by the demon Rynth." We all looked at him strangely. He opened his notebook and
turned to a full color drawing of a dark figure with fangs and wings, towering
over an ordinary, grovelling human. "This is Rynth in his original form. When he
battled with the knight of Vhif, this corporeal body was destroyed, and the
release of energy shattered the amulet into three pieces. The knight went quite
insane, I'm afraid." He shook his head, as if to emphasize his sadness at the
knight's plight.

  "From that day forth", he continued, "Rynth has been leaping from body to
body. He started with a young serving girl who was with the knight at the time
of the battle. When she died, he moved onto his next host, then the next, and
so on and so on. Do these eyes look familiar to you, Arin?"

  I looked at the drawing. Sure enough, the eyes had a flicker of grey in them,
same as Cedra had had in my dream. And.... and wasn't that flicker of grey
in his eyes when he talked to me in the woods? Yes, there was.

  He looked at me sadly. "I'm afraid the gentleman who had clawed Cedra during
your attempt to get the amulet fragment was Rynth's last host."

  I shook my head in disbelief. "No, he was a vampire. I saw him crumble."

  Tyrin shrugged. "Vampire, human, elf, doesn't matter. Rynth can possess
anything. He transferred himself into Cedra at that moment, made Cedra his
host."

  Rath jumped in. "Cedra was with us for many days after that incident, and
he seemed completely normal. Why all of a sudden?"

  "From what you told me", Tyrin surmized, "the transferrence ritual wasn't
completely correctly. Arin had killed the last host before his actual blood
could be mixed with Cedra's. Rynth remained dormant inside Cedra's body."

  "Well then what brought Rynth to the surface?", Dejana demanded.

  I started sobbing immediately. Because I knew. Even before Tyrin answered,
I knew. It was *me*. What had happened to Cedra had been my fault.

  Tyrin said, "When a demon is trapped like that, it's incapable of getting
past the impure and discontent feelings that are natural in a person. There
must have been a moment of pure love and contentment - a moment where the
demon inside Cedra could find an opening into his soul."

  I got up and ran from the room. As I was bolting, I heard Tarus saying
"But I don't understand, what could have caused Cedra to have a moment..."
I assume at that point he registered my running out of the room, and
understood the significance. "Oh", he said. And the rest of the room was
silent.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello everyone. I apologize for vanishing off the face of the planet for
a little while there. q=) Two reasons for having done so:

1.) I found this chapter difficult to write. Not in the sense of what I
    wanted to see happen, but how to handle it. What you see up there is
    like, draft #2049, because I was never satisfied with how it came
    out.

2.) I took on another writing project in a different area. For any of
    you interested in TaleSpin, there is a group on the internet
    calling themselves "High Flight" which has done wonderful things
    to continue the original cartoon through fan fics. There's no sex,
    obviously, but we deal a lot with Kit Cloudkicker's past as an Air
    Pirate. It's lots of fun to put dark secrets into that boy's life. ;)
    My story hasn't actually been posted yet, because the series kinda
    leaks out slowly. But check out the others, you'll love them. Just
    don't mention the erotic story thing, some writers frown on that. ;)

Coming A Lot Sooner then This One Did: Part 9, in which the group tries
to get the amulet... and Cedra/Rynth tries to get the group...