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 .