Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:59:40 -0500
From: Jon Lappin <jontlappin@gmail.com>
Subject: Ludan: Prologue

**Disclaimer: All characters and writing within this story belong to Jon T.
Lappin.  If you do not approve of gay characters or gay sex, please read no
further.**

" This is all a little fuckin' much... I mean, what the Hell Abraham?  The
Taj can't be trusted. You know that," Alexander spoke softly, hoping the
lightness of his words will still make an impact on Abraham.   He knew the
Taj were Apostates, enemies of the Zalphera, thus enemies of the One True
Creator, Zalpher.  It was a truth that had been beaten, sometimes with
chains, into him and Abraham since they were mere children.

The sky opened and the rain started pounding down, little crystal droplets
fell on Abraham's brown, spiky hair, catching the faint moonlight.  The
precipitation seemingly highlighted the part of Abraham that first attracted
Alexander to him, causing Alexander's penis to stir.  He pushed the sinful
thought out of his head by turning away.  Self control... he needed to show
self control.

With those first few drops, Ludan's rainy season began.

" For once Alex, will you just listen to me?  Freakin' trust what I'm
telling you... please."   Alexander glared at Abraham, but quickly softened
as his eyes settled on the other's beautiful blue irises- seas of strength
and knowledge that always seemed out of place on the 17 year old.

" This shit's nothing but trouble, Abe.  The Taj's worship of the Old Ones
brought Original Sin into this..."

" Fuck that, it's all a lie.  I've seen the truth," Abraham cut in, pulling
the large brown hood over his head to keep the rain from chilling his body.


" I hate these stupid clothes, it makes us all look the same, like we're all
just one big mass of screw ups," Alexander said, softening his tone and
deciding to at least think about the incredible story he had just been told.
 He had no choice, his love for the boy taking over his brain, pushing all
reason out, as it always did.  He pulled his brown, Zalphera issued hood up
as well, and moved closer to him, placing his forehead against Abraham's,
their lips brushing against each other.

Abraham spoke softly, " Trust me with this... please, for once, you have to
trust me."

Alexander opened his mouth to protest, but was then muffled as Abraham
kissed the boy instead.  Alexander opened his mouth slightly, letting the
familiar tongue enter him, messaging his soft insides, slightly.  The two
had first met each other when they were both five.  Over the next 12 years,
they had spent every moment together, growing up, and into each other,
intensely.

The rain continued beating down, as it would, nonstop, for the next six
months.

Abraham broke the kiss and lightly tugged on Alexander's arm, signalling for
him to follow through the large wooden doors, and into the main foyer of the
Zalpheranial.  Alexander had always viewed it as a silly room.  Its 60 foot
high domed ceiling was adorned with glass, edged by pure silver and
supported by six walls covered in the epic story of Zalpher's defeat of
Tajan, painted in brilliant colors.  Despite its beauty, Alexander viewed it
as simply a room with the sole purpose of being a room - a wasted space that
could be used to store more of the building's inhabitants, clearing out the
clutter of the cramped sleeping quarters.

" Pack a bag, only shit that you can comfortably carry.  We have to leave
before the morning, " Abraham said.  He walked briskly towards the closed
doors blocking the way to the inner rooms of the great building.

" There's no way I'm going, Abe, and I'm not going to let you, either.  Our
calling is here, we must wait for our Ascensions."  Alexander stool in the
center of the nearly 700 foot diameter room and pushed the hood off of his
head.  He ran his fingers through his medium length blond hair, its slight
dampness held his bangs out of his eyes, and he felt he could see more
clearly, in more ways than one.  For once, he was going to hold his own.
 For once, he was going to stand his ground and keep Abraham from veering
off the path and onto one of the dead ends that his life often brought him
to.

This time, he was going to stand firm.

" It's not up to you this time.  You have no choice, and none of your
self-centered bullshit is going to stop this.  I'm going, and that's it.  If
you want to come, then come, but you aren't stopping me."  The look on
Abraham's face was twisted, otherworldly, and Alexander was taken aback for
a moment.  For all his faults, Abraham had never been anything but loving
toward  Alexander.

It sort of turned him on, causing him to once again push the thoughts from
his brain.

" If what you say is true, if we are fated to die by the hands of the
Zalphera, then why you?  Why did they show you?  You're just another one of
us, another person ravaged by Original Sin.  Why you?"  It was a question
that had been creeping into Alexander's brain, taking over his thought
process, reaching into his sin riddled soul and grasping tight.  It was the
part of the situation that didn't make sense,  the one thing holding
Alexander firm to his skepticism of the whole story he had been told.

" I'm special.  My blood.  It's special."  It was just like Abraham to think
that he was something that he was not.  From the time they were taken from
their respective parents and brought to the Zalpheranial to be taught and
await their ascension, Abraham had believed that he was more.  A crusader in
his own mind, although all Alexander ever saw was trouble.  Yet he loved
him.

" That's just like you."  The words weren't meant to sting, but the sudden
shift on Abraham's face told Alexander that they did.

Abraham turned from Alexander and continued toward the inner-sanctum of the
gigantic building.  " I've got to leave soon.  The Fathers will be up within
an hour, and then there will be questions.  If I'm going to succeed, there
can be no questions."  There was hurt in his voice, causing Alexander to
shiver and relent- his resolve eroding as fast as it always did, when
confronted by the boy.

" Let's hurry and get our shit packed, then.  We're going to have to bring
quite a few outfits.  It's going to be wet for awhile."


***

The Zalpheranial sleeping quarters was just one large and dreary room.
 There were 537 boys, 200 sets of bunk beds organized around the outer
walls, and 137 cots in the center of the room.  No matter what, there were
always 537 boys housed within the walls of the Zalpheranial.  It was one of
the mysteries of the Ludan world... whenever a boy turned 18 and was
ascended, another boy would be found carrying Original Sin, and brought to
the Zalpheranial.  To Alexander, it signaled that Original Sin could never
be killed, simply moved from one boy, to another.

For there were always 537.

When a new boy was brought in, he was given a cot in the center of the room.
 While they weren't as comfortable as the outer-beds regulated to the older
boys, they were sufficient, and no boy ever complained.  No boy ever
complained about anything.  From the first day, the boys were taught that
complaining was just part of their Original Sin, and that in order to
successfully ascend, they needed to conquer this affliction.  As a sort of
behavioral reinforcement, when a boy complained, they were brought to
solitary and left there for a week's time. No human contact, no
entertainment, no toilet.  Nothing but one cup of water and two pieces of
bread per day.

Not that Alexander had any firsthand knowledge of solitary, for he had
mastered Original Sin from day one, and understood how to control himself,
 How to conform to the rules of Ludan.  Abraham, though, had described the
ordeal to him in full detail, with pained face and hushed voice.  He had
disobeyed, and though Alexander felt for Abraham at that moment, tears
welling up in his own green eyes, he knew that what Abraham had faced was of
his own doing.

At that moment, Alexander had made a pact with himself to watch over
Abraham.  To keep him on the right path.  Abraham was two months older than
him, and even with all his strength and wisdom, he was riddled with faults
that he needed to be saved from.

With their bags packed, and 535 boys surrounding them in apparent slumber,
the boys sat on Abraham's bed.  Alexander watched as Abraham absently played
with the blue crystal that always hung from his neck- a pretty little
trinket that his mother had given him on his third birthday.  It was all
that remained of his former life.  Abraham looked up from the brown blanket
and met Alexander's eyes, staring intently, the look slightly unnerving
Alexander.

" When I die, you have to go forward.  You can never come back here.  When I
die, you continue what we set out to do.  Finish it."  The words flew out of
Abraham's mouth and into Alexander's perplexed and slightly terrified
brain.

" What the hell, dude?  You're not -"

Abraham jumped off the bed and grabbed his bag, the unexpected movement
interrupting Alexander in mid-sentence.

" When I die, continue on.  Nothing is ever as it seems."

<i>** This is just the prologue for the fantasy series.  Starting with
chapter one, we'll be getting into the good stuff  ;-).  I would love to
hear from you guys, please send any and all comments to
jontlappin@gmail.com </i>