Chapter One-DARK HUNGER

 

 

At the forested edge of Yutanius, the second largest city on the island of Atlantis, a thick mantle of dense clouds hung, electric and brewing. Beneath it, a spongy green mist settled, camouflaged by fragrant foliage. The lurking mist settled unseen near a gazebo in a verdant park.

The shimmering structure of gilded metals was resilient, bending beneath the raging fury of the mounting tempest.  Nature seared the sky with a dazzling variety of chain lightning, arc lightning and ball lightning. The gazebo repeatedly drew each bolt of blasting heat and safely absorbed the flashing energy into its silver and gold alloys.

As this scientific wonder transformed Nature’s fury, two young lovers danced, were sheltered and dry within the embracing gazebo. They breathed deep of the wet fragrance of heavy ferns encircling Artan Park. Their hearts charged by the high drama of rampant nature. Excited by the storm, the fatal enchantress laughed with the winds and whirled. Her head was high, golden robes thrown open, breasts exposed to the wild storm. Her young man gazed, growing ever more amorous. He seized her soft shoulders, pulling her close with an intimate caress not meant for prying eyes.

Body giving, head tilted, the girl’s arms shot around his neck, rising on her toes to meet his searching lips. Jagged lightning crashed and illuminated their secret moment with a brilliant burst, light forms flashing against ebony night. Love against all.

Suddenly, a feeling of being watched stirred the boy’s genetically engineered instincts. Something subtle moved in the night. Something apart from wind and rain, thunder and flash. Something so sinister, so alien, so cold, he froze in the heat of her lightning embrace.

He stood apart from the girl, glancing away, then back to her pleading eyes. He smiled, reassuring her that he was her Protector -- but against what phantasmal forces? What leering malignant minions made his neck-hair stiffen and bristle?

From nowhere and everywhere, a silent slithery green mist suddenly engulfed the two. The boy battled with fists, raging against the relentless assault of invisible raiders. 

Ingested by predatory hunger, the girl screamed in panic. Thunder drowned out her banshee wail. The mist vanished forever beneath a hideous roar of triumph, rolling over the rain-soaked valley.

The fog gorged. Glowing, turning a sharper green, it moved on, huddled and heavy.

 

--

 

The sun of Atlantis crept tentatively over the far eastern horizon. The storm and the green mist were gone. Animals crawled from their burrows. Yutans stirred and peeped out. Atlantis had survived. Everything was as before.

Yet in Artan’s Park, a robustly charged and glowing gazebo stood empty in the unusually chilly morning air. Across one gilded rail lay a fragile satin scarf, virgin white stained slimy green. Left behind, it was simultaneously an ending and a beginning, a mute reminder of lost love and a screaming warning of a coming prophecy to pass.