Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2011 15:27:41 +1300
From: Arthur <artcart65@vodafone.co.nz>
Subject: Elios 1

				   ELIOS

				 CHAPTER 1

			       NOW IT BEGINS

				 BY ARTHUR



The three boys lay together on their mutual sleeping mat, they had shared
the same mat since they were sent down here to the level for boys, it was
marked in the ancient's symbol of B3, the boys could not read but they
guessed it meant it was level 3 for boys. These levels went all the way
down to B15 but the lowest three levels could no longer be used as there
was a continual seepage of water that was slowly filling the levels at
about two hands (approximately 12") each Yarn.

The boy in the middle was smaller than the other two; his body was slim and
wiry and when standing he was about 10 hands tall, the other two boys could
almost have been brothers as both were the same height, eleven and a half
hands, the same strong build and like most boys born into the world of
125AH looked very much alike. All three boys had the same light sandy hair
colour, the same grey eyes with faint green flecks and the same tawny tan
bodies.

At times it was discussed by older people that the sameness came from the
breeding habits of the caves but all knew it was just the way things
were. The boy in the middle liked to be pressed tightly between his two
friends, it gave him a feeling of belonging and it felt even better when
one of his friends entered him with his hard boyhood, this was the really
good times, when both boys would make the game they called "pushing" and
the smaller boy would groan in pleasure as the other two took turns to make
him feel good.

The boy in the middle was named Elios, after the level he had been born on
just the same as his two friends, Elam and Elvan, they had all come to this
boy level together on the same day and so the old crones of the boy levels
placed them on the same mat and they had stayed that way for the last 13
Yarn. It was tradition that, as soon as a boy showed signs of man hair, he
would be sent from the breeding cliffs to make his own way in the world,
but Elios and his friends had been deceiving the old crones that looked
after the boys.

As Elios was smaller and therefore seemed to grow slower than Elam and
Elvan, each night they would let him inspect their boyhood for the faint
man hairs, when he found some, they would put aside the stinging pain as he
pulled them free of their bodies so they could stay together until Elios
had some of his own, it had taken nearly a full Yarn before Elios started
to show some and now the crones had seen them, tonight was the last night
for the three boys to stay in the breeding cliffs, tomorrow they would be
sent out into the world to make their own way.

As they had vowed to each other many Yarn ago, when they were sent out to
be Rovers they would stay together as this was the best way to stay safe
and also gave them a better chance to find whatever it was that they were
going to look for, besides, being a Rover could not only be dangerous but
it was also very lonely and the three boys didn't want to be parted from
each other, especially Elios for he enjoyed his two friends boy game too
much and trusted them with his life as they did with him.

In the years of searching for food and artifacts, they had been a force to
be reacconed with when battling with other boys for food or artifacts that
had been found, Elam and Elvan had been the muscle, Elios had been the
speed and brains, it was not often, even against older boys, that the trio
lost a find, they lived almost as one entity whether eating, sleeping,
fighting or playing boy games they worked as one.

It was difficult for the three to fall asleep, even after a long time of
playing the boy game, each filling Elios small tight hole and bouncing on
his slim narrow butt three times each, Elios had groaned and moaned in
pleasure each time as he too spent his small quantity of boy juice on the
mat below him but, still they could not sleep deeply, each thinking of the
new morning when, for the first time in their lives they would be given
their parting gifts and sent out into the world.

The thought of the small tanned skin clothes had excited Elios, he and his
two friends had never had their bodies covered before and it excited him to
think of his boyhood pressed tightly to his slim body instead of projecting
straight out like it seemed to do all the time which made it difficult to
run fast as their boyhoods would flop about and break their rhythm which
caused all sorts of comments by others watching them.

No one knew who made the gifts for the boys but many suspected it was their
own mothers as they had very little else to do while waiting for the next
cycle of breeding or birthing, the spia were the most prized as wud was
very rare and had to be searched or bartered for and this was only done by
Pap or one of his helpers, it was seen as his personal gift to one of his
many, many sons.

Finally the first rays of morning began to make themselves seen at the
entrance to B3, the crones went around waking the younger boys to get them
fed and ready for their day of searching, Elios, Elam and Elvan sat up and
looked around the large open level for what would be their last day in the
breeding cliffs, it was a very large flat surface made from the hard grey
stone of the ancients, the roof was held up by thick grey stone towers in
between each tower there were faint white lines evenly spaced, there were
ten lines to each section of towers, the boys were allotted one marked
space each or in the case of Elios and his friends, they used one space for
the three of them just as some other boys joined together would use one
space, some had one boy others would have up to four in the one space, it
depended on how many came down from the breeding level at the same time.

Boys from one level would never be mixed with boys from another level, even
if they were brought down on the same day, it was tradition that boys of
the same level stayed together when they were born under the same symbol of
the ancients. It was easily noticeable which were the first time children,
a breeder who was birthing for the first time would usually have a smaller
baby than one who had given birth a number of times before, such as Elios,
his smaller size told everyone his mother was a first birther where as Elam
and Elvan were obviously from a breeder that had had many more babies and
so produced bigger and stronger children, this didn't bother a boy like
Elios, all he knew was his two friends were as good as brothers and that
was all he needed to know.

In the new world the idea of Mother, Father, Brother, Sister was not a
concern, nor was the ancient idea of marriage, there was no longer any type
of religion or god hood, all these arcane ideas had been destroyed by the
Horror, besides, who could believe in something that just sat invisible
from man, they or it didn't provide food for the dei, nor did it or they
fight the battles of men therefore it or they did not exist, life was much
simpler, albeit harder.

The three boys rose and went to the far corner where the crones had placed
the days water, taking a small amount of water in their hands, they rubbed
the sleep from the eyes vigorously and wiped their slim stomachs with the
remainder, they then made their way to the entrance where three crones
waited for them, this was the time of leaving, they all knew that Pap would
not be seen by them today because he had to leave them from his mind on
this their last day in the breeding cliffs.

Each crone held out a small grey cloth sak, each name had been sewn on the
outside with small even stitches; this marking had been the reason for the
boys to think that their birthing breeder had made them for their boys. In
each sak were the small breach-clout a pair of ankle length moccasins a
small bled a small metal cup and four rounds of dry bred (bread), the
crones each held the boys wud spia in their free hand.

The three friends held out their hand for the sak and their free hand for
their spia, around each boy's neck was their own hand made sling, it was a
natural part of every boy and they could be a deadly weapon when used by
these boys. Taking their sak's and spia, the boys gave a slight nod to the
crones who had looked after them for all of their short lives and, without
further acknowledgement, left the breeding cliffs for the last time.

Once outside, the boys quickly opened their sak and pulled out their new
treasures, first it was the soft tanned skin of the breach-clout, putting
these on for the first time elicited a lot of laughs and whistles from the
three friends as well as the younger boys just now leaving for their days
searching, the fit was tight the Main flap was shaped so that at both the
front and back there was a wider flap, in the middle, where it went down
between their legs and covered their boyhood was a small pouch that was cut
thinner where it passed between their butt cheeks and then flared out again
to a wide flap to cover their rear.

All three boys were instantly hard as the feeling of the soft tanned skin
touch and caressed their skin, the looks given to them by other emerging
boys said a lot about how they looked with their front and rear covered but
their flanks bare and contrasting the colour of their tawny skin with the
bleached whiteness of the tanned skin. Next came the moccasins for their
feet, all three boys tried these for fit but soon replaced them in their
sak as they felt better with their feet bare, the moccasins would be good
for any cold times or when the ground was to rough to walk or run on in
comfort.

The boys took one bred from the sak and, as they began their life journey,
chewed slowly on it, they were well aware of the dangers that lay out there
in the wilds, first they would have to make their way clear of the four
breeding cliffs and out over the rubble and detritus that had been their
hunting grounds for the last 13 Yarn, this in itself was not really all
that dangerous as they were now clothed and armed and most of the boys
roaming and searching would give them a wide berth but they were not the
only boys leaving the breeding cliffs on this day and any chance to
increase their goods would be taken by others if given the chance.

The three boys stopped along the way at their special hidden place, it had
been found a long time ago by Elvan as he rummaged in a pile of broken
stones, it was a large square metal box, at first no one of the boys could
work out what it was or how they could make use of it until, Elios looked
at the rear of the half buried box and saw some small shiny spots that
stood out from the rest of the dull red colour that the rain caused on most
metals.

The boys had sat and discussed what use the box could be if they could find
a way to open it, it took most of the first half of the dei and the sun was
high before the quiet Elios jumped to his feet and began to search the
ground.

"What you looking for Elios?" asked Elam.

"Some small metal to fit into the holes in the shiny parts." Replied the
smaller boy, Elios.

The other two didn't argue with Elios, if he needed some old metal for
something then it was their duty to help him and, so the search began. The
sun had gone past half way to night by the time the boys had found an old
piece of metal that would do what Elios wanted and so Elam and Elvan sat
and watched their smaller friend squat behind the metal box and begin to
play with the small shiny parts.

It took a while but eventually Elios worked out how to turn the shiny parts
a certain way and they began to come free, soon they were all sitting on
the ground beside Elios as he reached up with his small hands and pulled
the back off the box, inside there was no hint of why the ancients had put
the box there, there were some metal plates and thin steel ropes covered
with strange coloured stuff, four shiny gles towers lead up to the top of
the box but had been broken on the outside, the rest of the box was empty,
the boys had no idea what it was for but Elios suggested that they use it
for their secret place to hide the things they may need when the leave the
breeding caves, both Elam and Elvan agreed, after all, Elios was the real
smart one and always had good ideas.

Over the next one Yarn and five Mune, the boys collected small things they
could carry with them that might be useful on their roving, Elvan had
secretly taken a fire stone from one of the old crones as she slept, Elios
had found a small opening one day and had wriggled his small body inside to
find a huge underground cave, the inside was once very large and on the
floor were lots of broken pieces of coloured gles, most to small to be of
any use but Elios had also found, hidden under a wud box, a large block of
the soft wud that the ancients seemed to have had a lot of.

This one was large and heavy, the outside was like all wud, hard and rigid
but the inside was full of the thin soft wud covered in the ancients
mysterious symbols that no one knew what they meant, this was indeed a
great prize and Elios had taken it outside to the other boys, they had
pulled a handful of the soft wud pieces out and rolled them up so they
could carry them to the secret place for later, the rest they took back to
their cave for the crones to use as fire starters, it never crossed Elios
mind what the large symbols on the front were, after all, what did, "HOLY
BIBLE. ST JAMES VERSION" mean to three boys of the new world.

Elios also found in the same place a new metal they had not seen before,
his quick mind soon saw the possibilities for this new metal, it was in
long thin ropes and had been used to keep the coloured gles in place, it
was soft and much to Elios surprise, quite heavy for its size, it didn't
take him long to realise that if he heated it in a fire, it would become
really soft and could be used to make small hard pellets for their slings,
much better than the uneven stones that were normally used as the metal
could all be made the same size and weight which increased its accuracy and
hitting power.

It was Elam that found the strangest item, they had been out all day and
found nothing, just as they were about return to their home cave, Elam
slipped in a small hole and, after a rumbling sound below him, discovered
another of the ancient's hidden caves that had been covered by time. The
three boys had carefully climbed into the opening and found themselves in a
square box like cave, it was like many others that were occasionally found
and just the same this one had been cleared out many Yarn ago, but this
didn't stop the curious boys from looking in every corner and in ever old
box, it was Elam that found the soft wud box at the back of the cave, it
had been tucked under another hard wud shelf but somehow water had got in
and melted the soft wud until what was inside had fallen onto the floor of
the cave.

At first the boys could only stare at the strange objects, they were two
coloured oblong blocks of stone, one side was red stone and the other
opposite side was grey stone, Elam ran his fingers over the strange stones
but could not see any use for them, they were rough, not shiny and smooth
like so many of the ancient's items, slowly Elam looked around the cave
until he saw an old piece of metal laying on the floor, just out of idle
curiosity, he took one of the stones over to the metal and began to rub it
vigorously with an edge of the stone.

It took only moments for the old metal to lose its red dusty covering and
become bright and shiny, Elam could plainly see the scratches on the metal
from the stone, he turned the stone over to the finer red side and
continued rubbing, again it took very little time for the old metal to now
become shiny and now also smooth from the stone, Elam looked at his two
friends and smiled, they would keep one of the stones and take the other
five back for Pap.

Elios and Elvan continued the search as Elam played with his new stone on
the old metal, in a dark corner, Elios spotted and strange pile of old torn
cloth, picking it up he felt it was smooth and shiny but was all in
tatters, what really interested Elios was the strange metal contraption
that had held the cloth in place, it was made of a very light metal, each
side was about three hands long and holding it together were three shorter
lengths about two hands long, small pieces of the cloth still hung around
the metal pipes, for they were hollow and still after all this time, quite
shiny in that they had no one of the red dust that the usual metal had.

It took Elios quite a while to work out how to pull the five pieces apart
so that he ended up with three short pieces and two long ones, the three
short ones would make good water drinkers when they went on their roving,
the two long ones he didn't know what to do with but decided not to leave
them for some other boy to find, as he turned back to his friends his foot
went down on something hard that had been lying under the strange item.

Elios looked down and saw another unusual piece of stone of metal, he
wasn't quite sure what it was made of, picking it up he found it looked
like stone but felt like metal, it had three sides and at one end tapered
to a blunt point, running his fingers over the rough surface, Elios
discovered it had lots of small teeth like ridges in it, he lightly ran it
over his thumb nail and was surprised to see a deep groove in the nail,
quickly he went to the old metal that Elam had used and pushed the strange
rod over the surface, again a deep groove was cut into the metal, Elios
eyes brightened, `now this could be really useful' he thought to himself,
no one had ever found one of these before.

The three boys left the newly discovered cave in high spirits, it was
almost the best haul of artifacts they had ever found and there was enough
for them to hide some in their secret place for their roving. On the day of
their leaving the breeding cliffs, the boys had stopped off and collected
all their treasures and put them in their new Saks, evenly distributing
them between the three of them.

It took, what in the ancients time would be called three hours, but in this
time was not acknowledged the same way, before the boys were clear of the
area and, as they looked out onto the bareness of their future home, they
tightened the string of their sak and shrugged it more comfortably onto
their shoulders and. All three, at the same time, took their first step out
into the new world.

Each took up their searching position just as they had back at the breeding
cliffs, Elam in front followed by Elios and coming behind as the rear
guard, Elvan, each boy had his own strengths, Elam had the eyes of a
preying bird, Elios the speed and flexibility of the giant cats that
sometimes came looking for food in the breeding areas, Elvan had the solid
strength and fighting ability that had saved them many times from being
ambushed by other boys.

These three new Rovers made a formidable trio as they took their first
steps into manhood, there were many trials ahead of them before they could
or would find there eventual haven although each had a different idea of
what that would be, Elam wanted to find his own breeding cave, Elvan wanted
to find new places and hopefully new worlds, although they weren't sure if
such things existed and, Elios wanted to find a place where he could grow
food and be safe from the trials of survival, while each had his own dream,
for the moment they were together for better or worse.

As the trio made progress towards their destinies they caught occassional
sight of other boys in the distance, each going his or their own way, the
boys had decided to head in the direction of the dying sun, this they knew
would lead to a nearby Oshun that was only two dei's walk away, it would be
a place where they might find some of the rare food that came from those
places and was now and again traded to the Pap of the breeding caves.

As they moved, Elios again went into silent thinking mode, he had to think
of a way to move faster but still be safe, every boy knew that Renegs
waited for boys to leave the breeding cliffs and that they always went in
different directions, but the pace in which a boy could move sometimes made
it easy for the Renegs to work out where the boys would stop for the night,
Elios did not want himself or his friends to be anywhere near those areas
and so had begun to think things out as he was inclined to do about
everything.

Slowly a plan came to him, it would make them move further faster but at
the same time keep them safe, he called a halt and the three boys sat in a
small circle as Elios explained his idea, Elam, with the best eyesight,
would take the lead and search out in front, Elios would stay in the middle
and search to each side, Elvan would keep watch on their rear, this was to
be done as the walked for three plus ten paces, on the last pace, the three
boys would start to trot at double walking pace for another three plus ten
paces then again back to walking pace to search and save their breathes for
the next set of three plus ten and so on until they stopped for the high
sun stop.

During the time of the highest and hottest sun, the boys found a small cave
in a shallow cliff face, there they settled down to rest until the sun lost
a little of its raging heat and the red sands would begin to cool a little
making their trek a little easier, water was always a concern and although
their bodies were used to minimal amounts of it, they still could not take
chances in the heat of the middle of the dei.

Over the period of their young lives, the boys had learnt many tricks to
survive, one of the most important was finding water where none seemed to
be or to find food where only innocuous weeds seemed to grow, these and
many more lessons were what made the boys of the new world very adept and
independent, there was no place in this world for the weak or unprepared.

As they lay resting, Elvan saw again the sight that had excited him the
full time they had been walking, Elios small butt had intrigued him like
never before, the rhythmic movement of his small hips and the unseen
pleasure that was now hidden from his view by the new breach-clout had
caused Elvan to stay rock hard the whole time, oh he was well aware of what
delights were under the tanned skin, he had seen and felt it many times
before, but, now, for some unknown reason it was hidden and therefore more
delectable now that it was covered from his view.

All three boys had the same trouble and that was a small amount of chaffing
from the skins on their tender flesh, it was not used to being covered and
the sweat had caused the chaffing, with relief, all three seemed to remove
the breach-clout at the same time to give their skin some relief, it took
only one brief glance from Elvan to see the smooth wetness between Elios
cheeks to bring him to full mast again, without further thought he reached
over and began to rub softly over Elios butt, it was their unsaid signal
that it was time to play a boy game.

Elios grinned broadly as he felt the hand rub him softly, quickly he turned
so he was facing Elam's rising boyhood and, with practiced ease he rose
onto his hands and knees so his own boyhood was at Elam's mouth and his
mouth was on Elam's boyhood, Elvan knew the position and quickly kneeled
behind Elios and pushed slowly forward until he was starting to enter
Elios, the moisture of Elios sweat made the entry a little easier than
normal and he slid slowly deeper until he was fully inside the warm
welcoming hole.

In complete unison the three boys began to take their pleasure in the boy
game, moaning and groaning in pure delight as each fulfilled the desire of
the other, time meant nothing to the trio as they tried harder and harder
to make their friend feel good until, finally all three could hold them
selves no longer and released their pleasure into each other, with great
sighs of relief and satisfaction they all collapsed back onto the sand of
the small cave and wrapped and arm about each other in contentment, there
first day of manhood was beginning with a real bang.

Some time later the three boys donned their now dry breach-clouts and
prepared to leave on the next part of their walk, before they went, Elios
walked around the cave looking for signs of ground water, it took a little
time but eventually he recognised the signs right at the back of the cave,
he first cleared all the loose sand from the floor and then, with his spia,
began to dig deeper into the hard surface, finally after a short time he
had a small bore hole dug and in the bottom could be seen the first
dribbles of moisture, the three boys sat and waited for a short time as the
hole filled with water and then, taking out a small thin metal rod each,
they sucked up the water until the hole was empty again, it was enough for
their needs for now, Elios filled in the hole again and then the boys left
the cave to continue their walk to the Oshun.

By the time the sun was beginning to disappear they had covered more than
half the distance to the Oshun because of Elios walking plan and could have
made it all the way had they decided to continue but, for this first night
they decided to find a place to sleep and start fresh at sun rise although
their eyes were quite capable of seeing in the dark when the stars were
shining bright as they did most nights, they decided safety was a better
option as there were things out at night that could be very dangerous and
that was not only the animals.

As the sun dipped further, the boys quickly searched out another cave to
sleep in, their meal tonight would be another of the hard dry bred, it
wasn't much but it was better than nothing, besides, the boys were still
too excited by their new freedom to worry about good hot food. This new
freedom had been planned by Elios and the boys for more than a Mune, they
had collected all their treasures, Elios had invented a way for them to
move quickly but not get tired and they had each other.

It was agreed that they would not light a fire this first night, it was too
easy to been seen from a long distance and would attract unwanted attention
from anyone searching for new boys as was proved by Elvan spotting two
separate fires far behind them, obviously of some new boys settling down
for the night, the boys knew that this was just what the Renegs would be
looking for so they left their cave in darkness as they settled down
together for the night after eating their bred, there would be no boys
games tonight as they wanted to get a very early start at sun rise and try
to be at the Oshun before high sun.

Sometime during the night, Elios was woken by loud yells and screams
echoing over the sand below them, as he moved the other boys sat up as
well, they quickly recognised that all was not right out in the sands,
slowly and very quietly, they made their way to the entrance on their
stomachs, in the distance behind them, they could see a large fire, their
sharp eyes soon picked out moving forms around the fire as People moved in
front of the flames.

While it was difficult to pick out individuals the general indication was
of Renegs, there wild animals that they rode could be heard stamping in the
still night air, these animals were fast and dangerous, it was said that
even some of the Renegs died trying to tame them to ride, they were big
animals with four large legs and strange flat round feet, it was said that
the ancients called them a Haws and had once had many of them tamed for
their work and pleasure, the boys could not imagine why anyone would want
one of the wild dangerous beasts for pleasure, they were ok to eat but that
was all the boys knew of them.

The screams went on for along time until finally there was silence and the
sound of the Renegs on their Haws moving away into the night, no doubt
looking for more boys to play with, Elios and the others moved back inside
their cave, they would have to wait for sun rise to check out what had
happened before moving away from the safety of their cave, if Renegs were
around they would be better to stay in here safe until it was clear to move
on, the boys lay down again and tried to sleep but it wouldn't come, the
sound of the screams were still fresh in their ears, eventually they sat up
and started to discuss how they should move on from here.

All agreed that they should keep up the same way of walking but now go over
the cliff behind them and stay on the high ground so that they were not
caught out in the open sands by any roaming Renegs, three new young boys
would not be able to do much against fast running beasts and dangerous,
heavily armed Renegs, the boys continued to make plans until the first
signs of sun rise made its appearance at the entrance of their cave, they
ate a little more bred and dug for cave water at the rear, sipping the
water through the metal pipes Elios had found for them, checking that they
had replaced everything back in their sak's, the three boys went to the
entrance and studied very carefully the outside sands.

In the distance they saw the last remains of the large fire of the night in
the form of a faint wisp of smoke rising in the windless dawn air, they had
no desire to go and see what mayhem the Renegs had caused during the night,
they had heard all the stories as young boys and knew there would be
nothing their for them to do or get, it was better to ignore what had
happened and continue on their own journey to the Oshun.

Once outside the cave they looked up at the cliff, it was no more than two
plus ten lengths, and while it would not be easy to climb it was possible
for the three fit boys so they began their ascent carefully, they did not
want to slip and fall at the beginning of their new life, an injury could
be the means of their quick death.

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*Explanation of measurements* The people of the new world counted on their
hands and fingers, when bartering they would start with their right hand
and close the small finger as the sign for 1, then the next and so on, when
the thumb was also closed forming a fist, this was 5, then the left hand
was used in the same manner and would bring the total to 10, knocking the
two fists together would indicate 20 and so on so that two plus ten
equalled 20, for odd numbers they would open one or more fingers to
indicate smaller numbers by those that were still folded. Distance was in
hands, 1 hand was approx 6 inches, a length was approx 5 feet, and a leag
was approx 100 feet they used no other measurements for greater distances
as they used land marks to go from one point to the next and further than
that was only spoken of in the number of Dei's to walk there.

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After a few moments of scrapes and scratches the trio finally made it to
the top of the cliff face, once there they looked out at where they had
travelled from the previous dei, for as far as they could see there was
nothing, no signs of life, no signs of movement, the Renegs had disappeared
into the far reaching sands and any of the boys from the previous day had
now either been taken by the Reneges or had found their way to a safe
hiding place until it was clear to move on.

The first rays of the rising sun lit up the immense sands with highlights
and deep shadows, the boys eyes adjusted quickly to the first rays and they
took the time to turn right around and see where they should head to, as
they stared out, Elios though he caught a faint glimpse of something shiny
in the distance just across the narrow valley below them as the sun hit
something for a moment, quickly marking it in his mind before it
disappeared, he nudged Elvan and pointed in which direction of the opposite
ridge and told the others they should start their day in that direction,
the shiny something had piqued his imagination and he wanted to
investigate.

Although the ridge top was rough and a little uneven, the boys continued to
use Elios way of walking and they speedily covered the ground while still
being able to keep a sharp look out for trouble, when Elios thought they
were approximately opposite where he had seen the glimmer of light, he
signalled that they should start to descend the ridge into the valley
below, a few more bruises and scrapes and they were on the floor of the
small narrow valley but still heading in the general direction of the
Oshun.

Elios stood still for a long moment as he tried to work out where he had
seen the glimmer from, finally, just a little further along the valley he
spotted something that looked out of place on the barren sandy valley, it
was the edge of something square and looked as though it had once been made
from the metal of the ancients but most of it was still buried in the sand,
there must have been some wind lately that had uncovered the item and a
small piece of broken gles had reflected the early morning sun.

The three boys moved cautiously towards the object until they were standing
only a few short lengths from it, as usual, Elios was the first to move
forward and, using his small hands, began to push away some of the sand so
that he could see more of the large metal box, the other two boys jumped in
quickly to help their friend. A short time later and the three boys could
see a faint outline of two bodies inside the large box, Elios removed his
small breach-clout and used it to clean away some of the grime and sand
covering the gles, inside they saw two white skeletons sitting upright, one
was holding some type of tool while the other was sitting in front of a
large wheel, vestiges of ancient cloth of a green colour, hung on the
whitened bones.

Looking closer through the still grimy gles, Elios could also see some type
of belt around what would have been the waist of the once live men, the
belt was made from a strange material that the boys had never seen before,
it had a metal fastening and two rows of holes around the centre, on one
side there was what looked like a small box made from the same odd
material, it had a flap covering whatever was inside, the boys couldn't
wait to see what they had discovered and went back to hurriedly clearing
away more sand so they could open what was obviously a metal door.

Finally the metal door was clear, the boys took a short rest and then Elios
began to try to open the door, it was strange at first because it was not
like the doors of the breeding caves but after trying various ways, Elios
finally heard a heavy `click' and began to firstly push and then finally
pull at the metal, with a loud groan of tortured metal, the door began to
slowly open and reveal the inside of the metal box.

Elios looked over the white bones of the two bodies, the box was a about
ten hands wide and six hand deep, one skeleton sat against what looked like
another of the metal doors on the other side holding a before unseen
artefact, it was black and about seven hands long, at the base it was flat
and wide, at the other end it was just a small round pipe held on to
another thicker pipe below, there was another strange box sticking out
about half way along, this was indeed a great find, something that had
never been seen by any of the boys before and none of them had even heard
of such an item.

Elios, being the more adventurist of the three, reach over to the side of
the skeleton behind the large wheel and tried to lift the small lid of the
box on the bodies belt, it was very stiff and a small button was holding it
tight, with a strong tug at the lid, Elios pulled it open, his eyes grew
wider as he looked at another unknown artefact, with trembling fingers he
grasped the item and pulled it free of the box.

Elios was surprised at how heavy the small metal item was, it also was
black and one part was at right angles to the other and seemed to be held
together with a funny looking half circle with a piece of metal coming out
where the two pieces met, Elios turned over and over in his hands, to his
racing mind he felt it had to be important for a man to wear it so close to
his body, he continued to turn it over and over and noticed there were
small buttons and levers fitted onto the sides, on the top at one end was a
small thick bled and at the other was another piece of metal that was fixed
crosswise and had a small grove in the centre.

Suddenly Elios concentration was broken by the call from Elvan and Elam,
while he had been hunting inside the box, the other two had been trying to
uncover more of the big box and had discovered that the box with the
skeletons was only a small part of the strange artefact, by clearing more
sand they found that the box had another larger part behind it but this
part was covered by rotting and decayed material and held up by steel ribs
that went from their side and further under the sand.

Elios joined his friends and the three looked up at the sun, it was almost
high sun, time for them to find some shelter until after the main heat had
gone, Elios suggested that they should clear the bones away and use the
smaller box to hide out of the sun, it would be a tight fit but it was
better than sitting out in the full heat of high sun, the others agreed and
left their new find to help throw out the bones, the two artefacts Elios
had found were put on the floor of the box until they could investigate
further.

Once all three were comfortably sitting inside the box, they began to
discuss what they should do, after a while it was agreed that the finding
of the box was too important to leave without trying to see everything it
held, there was no real hurry to get to the Oshun as they still had enough
food for two days more even though it was only dry bred, they were used to
living on less if they had too but the box was just to tempting to resist,
once they agreed, all three hugged close and tried to doze off for the main
heat of the dei.



Artcart65@vodafone.co.nz