Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 19:05:40 -0700 (PDT) From: crispin emrys Subject: Crispin-and-Zephyr/Part-1-Crispin/Prologue-revised This series of stories are the product of my imagination. However, nothing happens in a vacuum. Like most fiction, it is based on real people I have met, places and events I have seen. The Prologue and Chapters 1-13 appeared on Nifty this winter. They have been extensively revised (especially Prologue and Chapter 13) and Chapter 13 has been completed. I will post two per week then continue with Chapter 14. It may be against the law to read where you are because of its content (sexual relationships between boys and a man) or your age. Or you may feel uncomfortable reading it because of the belief systems you have accepted. Follow the dictates of your heart. If you do read this series, I hope you enjoy it. When this five part story is completed, it will have told the tale of one boy and one man and how their intimate relationship and love for each other led to the creation of a modern day legion of boy knights. These knights errant became young champions of human and social rights and defenders of the weak and the downtrodden. These Boy Knights of the Green Republic reveal the true meaning, purpose and power of boyhood. You may be aware of the etymology of the word knight, that it is derived from the Old English cniht, meaning page boy, or servant, or simply boy. Knighthood, as in the Old English cnihthad, had the meaning of adolescence, that most intriguing period between childhood and manhood. In this sense every boy is a knight, and in my estimation a potential knight errant. Copyright 2007 Crispin Emrys. All Rights Reserved. This series may be displayed on any website so long as no money is charged for access and attribution is retained. Just ask permission first. Thanks. This project is dedicated to Guy Davenport, a gentle genius and unsurpassed writer of short stories who died in 2005, to every Crispin and Zephyr in this or any other world, and to you the reader that you may be encouraged by it. I am Crispin Emrys at crispinemrys@yahoo.com. Feel free to contact me. I always enjoy hearing from my readers. Crispin and Zephyr Part 1 - Crispin Prologue - Revised September, 2002 Boulder, Colorado Crispin leaned his right shoulder against the door frame and stared at the sleeping boy. Through the high windows above the bed the golden leaves of the aspens danced wildly in the wind. And as the sun streamed through the tree branches into the room, those leaves created a complex interplay of golden light and dark shadow across the boy's handsome face and upper body, a fine chiaroscuro effect. The doorway in which he stood separated the warmly furnished bedroom from the spacious main room of Cris's garage apartment. Crossing his arms and placing his weight onto his left foot, Cris drew up right foot so he was able to rest it on top of the left. He kept his hazel eyes singularly focused on the face of the young boy stretched out on top of his platform bed. Cris nibbled contemplatively on his lower lip as he stared at the boy. The autumn sun that flooded the room gave everything a rich ocher hue. The boy's nicely tanned body, set off by beige bedding, appeared several shades darker than it really was. Once again Cris found himself musing over one seemingly irrefutable fact: he had never before seen a more beautiful boy, neither in person nor in picture. Maybe a few came close, but nothing like this. "A nimbus for an angel," Cris said to himself in a hushed tone, for the warm afternoon sunlight that washed across the boy enclosed him in a golden luminous corona. Today for the very first time Crispin felt free to confess that he loved this boy more than any before him. Any save one, that is. But that was a long time ago. In spite of that he had to resist calling up that memory so filled with cross threads of intertwining joy and tragedy. No, not in the presence of this boy, this wonderful young lover. For today, after several years of warm friendship, this incredible boy had passionately given himself completely to Cris without any reservation. Cris likewise had given himself equally to Zephyr. No, let the past remain untroubled for the present. From this day forward new chapters would be written in which he and Zephyr would live their lives united as one. Crispin smiled and sighed. He was happy beyond words that things turned out this way, for they might not have. It had been very clear to Cris from the beginning that this relationship would have to be completely consensual and overtly reciprocal for it to be right, much less for it to work at all. Otherwise, Cris would never have allowed his feelings for this unbelievably gifted and precious boy to go this far. At least he had made that determination. Now Cris was indeed glad it was not a case of 'otherwise', and that he had not been required to test his resolve in this matter. Stretched diagonally across the bed, Zephyr lay on his back. From the waist down he was covered with only a sheet that clearly outlined his lithe boyish frame and nicely defined his sweetly shaped boyhood. Cris soaked it all in. He watched as the boy's bare chest make slow but regular movements up and down confirming that he was in a deep sleep. Cris unfolded his arms, placed his hands in the front pockets of his comfortable jeans, happily entranced by the angel peacefully slumbering on the jumbled bed. Zephyr's small arms were thrown carelessly over his head. He was naked from the waist up except for a single piece of jewelry. The beautifully worked Tai Chi cloisonné pendant that hung on a fine silver chain rested just below the base of his neck. It had been gift from Cris on his last birthday. It was an engagement gift, something that Zephyr had nearly given up hope of ever receiving. Cris never regretted making this pledge to his young friend, for from that point it had sealed the direction their relationship would take. Had Zephyr lived in an earlier age he could have served as the model for a Greek or Roman sculptor or Renaissance painter. In addition to his sensuously athletic body, he had classically beautiful head. His high forehead was usually covered by the bangs of his long shaggy sun bleached hair, though his hair had been pushed to the sides as he slept. Although almost white from countless hours in the mountain sun, his hair nevertheless showed the mottled blond roots that were its darker natural color. His arms, neck and chest bloomed with muscular definition, having little of the residual baby chubbiness common to his peers. His long involvement in gymnastics, and before that, ballet, and his almost daily discipline of swimming assured that. Cris continued admiring at this beauty who had finally and completely captured his heart, something he had believed could never happen twice time in a lifetime. Surrounding his now closed eyes, which were a stunning sky blue, were long curving thick dark lashes. Above them were golden brown eyebrows, neatly spaced apart, neither spare nor bushy. Zephyr's nose probably lacked the size and certainly the high bridge of the classical Roman, but it had good proportion, fitting nicely into the center of his sweetly rounded face. In fact, Cris preferred it. His moderately sized ears which protruded slightly from his disheveled locks sat close to his head and sported no piercings. His rosy colored lips were very full, almost pouty, something Cris especially liked on a boy. As he examined Zephyr's lips more closely Cris started to wonder if they were curved upward slightly, offering just the hint of a Mona Lisa smile. In the end he could not decide and finally concluded that it really did not matter. It was evident from the boy's face that he was completely at peace with the world. As Cris continued to lean against the door post he began to recall some of the events that had brought this amazing young lover into his life. How over the past several years circumstances had conspired to encourage, even compel this relationship. In the beginning Crispin had tried very hard to avoid it, or at least to postpone it, but in the end, his efforts were to no avail. One can resist what is clearly supposed to be for only so long and still maintain a sense of harmony with the universe. He smiled to himself as he thought back to that spring weekend in San Francisco more than three years ago when this adventure began. It all started with the phone message from Gwen. Actually, come to think of it, it really began just before that, as he was concluding up his regular Friday afternoon session with Robbie.