Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 22:20:20 EST
From: Athos6182@aol.com
Subject: "Entering Harmony" Chapter 2

Disclaimer:  Anyone not legally allowed to view this story...Don't! It
sucks I know but that's how the world is, sorry. Any references similar to
any other story or person is entirely coincidental.

Authors Note: This is my first attempt at a story series, updates should be
weekly. Please excuse any grammar mistakes. I love feedback, so e-mail me
at Athos6182@aol.com, all comments welcome.

Entering Harmony
Chapter Two
By: Inanimate_Transformer

	Confused.  If any word could describe Ballards and Kathains mental
state at that moment, confused would hit it out of the park. Less that a
minute ago both were facing their attackers head on, hands clasped
together. Knowing that nothing they did could stop the inevitable, they
knew they would both go fighting.  Seconds from death there last thoughts
were of protecting their village and each other from this...Maikirks!
       But now, they were sitting on a lush cushion of dark green grass,
near the bank of a lake the size of their old village.  The water was the
richest sapphire blue they had ever seen, so different from the murky
waters of the few wells and ponds near their home. They can see fish
jumping out of the water, along with large blue creatures about 6ft
long. They have strange paddle shaped appendages, and a large sail rising
from the middle of their back. They had no legs to speak of, and a hole
near the top of their...head. When they leaped out of the water, they let
out the most beautiful haunting melody any human had ever heard. It rose
and fell along with the ripples caused by their leap from the waters, as
each note seemed to penetrate their skin, as if touching the inner most
chambers of their rapidly beating hearts. Dozens could be seen leaping from
the water, adding their own voice to the chorus until it seemed as if both
Kaithan and Ballard were being massaged by increasingly dense walls of
music. The sound was familiar, rising in pitch and timbre until every blade
of grass, every aspect of this new landscape was shimmering in perfect
harmony.
       	Both men held each other as tears streamed down their faces, a
normal cause, they would come to find, of this melody. They both,
transfixed on the melody, did not notice the large silver orb descending
from the sky, until it settled with a soft: THUMP: a cow's length
away. Both men, shocked out of their revelry, stood up prepared for
anything. Joints, muscles, hands, eyes, all were tense as the orb opened
and a tall four legged creature emerged.
       	To say that they both were shocked, would be a sever
understatement. What stood before, them looked like something out of a
dream, not a nightmare, but a dream, as with one look you could tell that
this creature was Good.  Standing on four legs, each ending with what could
only be described as Ivory hooves, the creature radiated a soft white
light. The body remained the two of a very large shire stallion, but this
was like no shire they had ever seen. Its pure white coat stood out in
stark contrast to the dark green grass. Its hooves seemed to not step on
the grass at all, but in the grass. No horse head was present, as a large
lithe torso arose from the neck, as white as the rest of his body. No hair
was present above the waist, except for the slightest hint of eyebrows, and
a flowing mane of pure white hair, which cascaded down the creatures
back. The most shocking aspect of the creature is the dark green emerald
eyes that gazed out from a youthful, yet wise face. Ballard leaned a bit to
the left, and sure enough that "part" was present in all its
glory. Breaking out of the shocked mind set, Kaithan was the first to
speak.
       "Umm, well, uh, excuse me...sir? Do you know where we are, or where
this place is located?" Kaithan stammered, "And perhaps by chance how we
came to arrive here?"
       "Yes," said Ballard finally speaking, "a second ago we were about to
he slaughtered, while watching our friends die trying to save us, and then
this beautiful roar of music escalated from around us and right as our
lives were about to end, we appeared here." Ballard stated, "Do you know?"
       The ivory shire crossed its arms on its chest, and gave a most
disarming smile. The next instant, when the first sound emerged from those
pale white lips, both Kaithan and Ballard were shaken to their very
core. The voice was a deep clear bass, which seemed to resonate in perfect
harmony with the world around it.
        "Your world, has just taken a very dangerous step into the dark of
existence. Those men who came to your village were from a malicious empire,
bent on gaining control and keeping the people under their rule. They
within the past year have set up your world's first religion." The shire
continued on as both sat there in apt-attention. "I know this word is not
known to you, but the concept has grown over the last hundred of your
years. Religion is the means of having a form of worship to a deity, idol,
or god; and having a strict guideline by how to worship that being. These
guidelines are meant to also become the rules by which people live their
lives. This in and of itself is not a harmful idea, as rules and law keep
chaos from swallowing existence. But with these rules also comes a desire
to control, and that my young humans is when the darkness folds in. Many of
these rules come from a desire to keep things simple and unchanging, where
difference is looked upon with disdain. Those who make the rules for a
religion are driven by their own fears and prejudices, and attempt to force
others to act and limit themselves they way they do in order to appease
their own views. To attempt to change ones own morals and beliefs through
violent acts is both foolish and ignorant. Since violence will only cause
the victims to resent the group responsible for it.
       But alas, I fear that humanities days of self realization are coming
to a crossroads. Over the next few millennia your race will face horrific
war, death and destruction over this issue. However for those people who
are able to tune in to this realm will be safe from harm and persecution.
       "Do not be afraid you humans, you're now safe from all those who
would cause you ill-will. You, along with your friends, managed to give you
entrance into this safe haven. Their willingness to protect you, and you
them at the same time, allowed you to come into perfect rhythm with this
rare place. The horror you just experienced is over young Ballard and
Kaithan, and here you may create a place to help others such as
yourselves."
       "The realm in which you now reside is known are Harmony. Harmony
exists in a realm parallel to you world. From what my race has gathered,
this "special" place has an infinite number of pockets, in which different
species and races can access. It retains a fair amount of your planets
natural laws, while still remaining outside of the natural order.  Sine you
two are the first ones to access this specific pocket of Harmony, you, with
my guidance shall set forth the ground work for others like you to enter
and exist in this realm."
       " I am known as Caanderal. My race the Treandians, have been
watching your planet and others like it for eons, we have taken the task
watch over these planets to help them avoid the failure we experienced long
ago in our own race.  Long ago, our world was much like yours, rich in life
and discoveries about your own lives. However like so many others we fell
into conflict over petty differences and our planet spent many millennia
battling one another, trying to make each groups views, law.  Then at the
height of the conflict, before we could strike the final toll for our
planet, something so horrific occurred that it caused a cease fire all
across the planet."
       "Our race's young, tired of the constant violence, and abundance of
chaos came together to made a drastic sacrifice, so that we would not
destroy ourselves. In a single solitary act, 93% of our young took their
own lives. For they believed that death was the only way out of the violent
circle our planet had succumb to. Our children's deaths, forced by the
violent nature of their elders, cause such a wave, that all the different
groups decided to come together and resolve the battle once and for
all. After many, many days of debates and verbal bantering a conclusion was
reached."
       "What we realized was socking. Every argument, every fight, every
death was caused by our race's fears of difference. Instead of accepting
change and things that are uncommon we lashed out, created rules, and false
gods. With the creation of the gods, came the worshipping and intolerance
of and thing that went against those sect teachings.  This shook us to our
very core, since our society had long determined our history of how we
evolved over time. But it was the second guessing of these facts that led
to the ideas that differences were "wrong" and "evil", and allowed religion
to take hold."
       "Once this conclusion was reached, it was like a sieve opened, and
we began to latch onto ideas that were light years ahead of us. As we
worked to change our ways, we notices a strange occurrence.  Our genetic
make up began to change.  Specifically our breeding changed. Originally we
were always as you see me now, a cross between your native horses and
humans. However once the conclusion occurred that began to change. Our
species has never had a strong "need" to procreate as our birth mortality
rate was very low. So it was common to see a male and female together as
well as two of the same sex. It is in the male female breeding that the
changes occurred.
       After the occurrence the first children born in each couple was just
as all the others had been, however it was in the second births that a
drastic change began. As the child was born either the mother or the father
began to change. The parent's torso shrunk down into our chest and our
necks thickened as our faces elongated, until we became much like you
horses here on Earth. The parent lost their power of verbal speech, but
gained a telepathic speech process, as well as a high empathy trait,
allowing them to feel those around them, and interpret their feelings and
wishes properly. If the couple had a third child the other parent would
succumb to the change as well. The second and third children took on the
appreance of the shifted parent, along with a stronger set of the mental
abilities.
       Thus started the exploration of our surrounding galaxy, where we
discovered many other races on many other worlds, being plagued by the same
things that caused us such a ground shattering change. So, after much
discussion we decided to stand as watchers and guides over the planets in
our sphere of travel and try our best to help them not fall into our
traps."
       "At first we began contacting the races directly, and offering our
council, however this ended in bloodshed and violence. Such intrusions into
the lives of other races are traumatic, and often frightening. So after
many failed attempts, we developed a subtler approach."
       "We began to use a nudging effect. We would drop our empathetic
young off in a remote location on the planet along with provisions and
supplies, which would allow them to integrate into the planet as a native
species. In that sense it allowed them to gently nudge the population in a
safe direction, while watching out for fantastical grasps for power. But
that young ones is a story for a later time."
       "I am sure you have some questions to ask of me, and I wil be happy
to answer them all..." with that Caaderall sat his large body down, and
listened as Ballard and Kaithan stirred with questions.

       To be continued...

       I hope you have enjoyed Chapter 2 of Entering Harmony. I plan on
updating once ever 2 days, but with college you never know. If you have any
comments, questions or critiques feel free to e-mail me at
Athos6182@aol.com .