Chapter 1 - Beginnings

Here it was in this moment of man where culture was so caught up in art and music where it had self discovered and now looked upon it’s sins as water passing below. It wasn’t to be even suggested that sins were forgotten but rather engraved into the soul of every word and passing thought. Every flick of the tongue was a masterpiece and each step was planned with the utmost concentrated art that took no thought but to reach out and kiss the pavement.
    
Nature was recognised by man once more. Gods leaked into the imagination and science in it’s prime was a bible spoken as easily as art. Strangely enough people had no need to be selfish, there were still crimes and wars but the pedestrians of life had no fears of them belonging to no one but nature and the songs that played at chance the next cornerstone away.

Here a couple turned to a corner market in the flagstone alley of the inner hideaways of the city and pass through a circle of jazz performers in a center plaza. Thin roots springing into trees create a fictionalized globe to hide the moment of joy for the city and to shield the dancers with their long curls golden and brown. Flickering feet and silhouettes of flowered dresses exposing their sweat entrenched torso and breasts dripping from their tireless dance. 

Love was so hard to come to in this time, the dance was to release heat and to make words for old temptations that boiled up in the city. Release and appeasal of the gods was the energy sparked in all of them and if enough stress was sparked scenes such as these eventually boiled into a hungry orgy of violence and sex.

Sprouted high above the lower levels were single skyscrapers amung lush patches of domes and rooftops. The city leveled itself around ten to fifteen stories arcing around itself with pathways, streets, orchestrated architecture that flowed in and around itself so wholesomely that each neighborhood or grove of buildings had a name. 

Gardens and fountains riveted walkways and streets. Statues of man, nameless faces and depictions of animals, gods, truths. Every part of the city was breathing with life and certainty in it’s place. The piping and recycle centers, gates and bridges all had a prayer and all were blessed by passerbys. 

The streets were bustling with movement. A small group of children ran through a line of cyclists nude and giggling. Their faces held onto bliss and the cyclists in their business suits frowning. Their holo displays projectong forcasts and reports on data feeds.

The news was reporting a trade agreement and war in chicago. A statue was seen tumbling into buildings on fire and smoldering. There were flying tanks and militia running through streets. A tear passed down the eye of few for both the beauty and loss. It was certain that flowers would spring from the soil and new monuments would be created.

Footsteps down the white granite raised walkways and suits flowing in the wind and bustle. A young woman with silken black hair tied up in a flowering bun garnished with a rose ornament walked among the crowd holding her hands behind her hidden by by long black straight hair extending from the bun down to her thighs. 

The dress she wore split front from back, red with golden lining tied at the waist. Her white and black lingerie exposed with each step. Her black gloves thin and up past her elbows. The sleeves drooping over her shoulders and the crowd led to her home at the circular walkway leading up to a front door tucked secretly into a wall of other buildings coming into a corner. Each house she knew was a secret location known only to it’s inhabitants unless you lived in a community where you shared everything. Perversion!

She walked into the house lifted by the cool veil of air conditioning to the counter where she dropped off her bag and kicked off her shoes and nudged them together with her toe. From the crabbed she grabbed small bag with dried vegitables and fell back onto the fluff of the couch. The house was lit well from the window at the front and the windowless projections from the holo-screens set in a three dimensional view of the city from a suite sitting up on a tower in the city.

The interior of her home was brown and comfortable her parents were businessmen and were home on the weekends. The three of them were so happy together when they were around like best friends or even siblings. She had three other more serious siblings each in school studying. Art was a bit beyond them, they had goals and dreams. 

Athalia was content walking around the city, drawing fantasy pictures, and skipping through the patches of grass. She never once felt that she should grow up she was content living free listening to the will of her heart. In walked her brother through the front door and dragged himself and his shoes up with him and shut the door. She looked back over to her computer screen in her hands and sighed. She shut it down and walked up the wood steps leading upstairs. She swayed into her room and set herself onto the bed. Her brother walked out into the hallway and into the shower in the center of the room undressed and started the circular glass room. He wasn’t bad looking for a man he was fairly sharp having both their father's cheekbones and his eyes. He looked something like a foriegn figure in the house that still somehow belonged. His body was a language of it’s own. His presence was like a serious narrow sighted adult man. 

The steam breathed out as he stepped out and she turned away again. She thought for sure she was acting strange but she couldn't tell how. Wasn't she allowed feelings and besides he had already had his sexual training at 12. He was no longer a sexual being.

Dinner time and the kiosk at the counter had prepared dinner. She was the only one here and she set the table. Jezebell walked down from the stairs and sat down. Her face was blank and concentrated. The holo displays were a series of green lines over her lenses and blue flares that sparkled in her black soulless eyes. She giggled at that strange thought of an empty soul and set a plate in front of her sister. 

“What’s funny sis.”

“Ah, you know. How’s work, Jeze.”

She was quiet for sometime. Athalia played around at the rice and beans in her bowl with her chopsticks and began to wonder about the rocket launches she watched earlier. She finished her bowl and put her plate in the washing tub next to the food dispenser. The dish fell in and was whisked away by a stream of washing fluid.

Her brother was out the door again, she heard it slam and she soon followed stepping out into the brisk afternoon. She walked out to the courtyard beside the building to a stone floor and put a command on her watch to spring up the pool and waterfall from the ground. A holo projector made it look like a lavish green setting with willows, white daffodils, and deer. She dropped her clothing to the cement floor and dipped into the pool. 

Two boys stepped out of the building next door and waded into the water not too soon after. They were joking and laughing, stripping down and splashing into the water. Sometimes she wished sexes could have been separated but it was no matter. She lifted herself to the top of the cement fountain and began to play with her hair running her fingers through looking over the grass with Specks of white flower dotting it. The boys below lounged around in the pool talking and they called over to a couple girls walking down the street. The girls hesitated for a few moments before deciding to hop in. Boys could be so strange with their body language she would never understand how some could be so social and flirtatious. 

They changed the holo settings to a pool in the center of an open marble courtyard hidden in a forests clearing. The outside world became blurred from view and Athalia no longer sat on a waterfall but a chizzled overlooking pillar of marble hidden from sight until they looked up but they were too preoccupied. She still washed her hair enjoying the cool water dripping down her body and the breeze licking over her. 

She found herself lost in her own mind and then looked back down. They were already lost in a frenzy of passion. One girl sat on a lap stroking a cock while the other was holding the side of the pool moaning while the boy mounted her. 

A hidden scene of love in the forest, not something she stumbled upon often. She pretended to see nothing and let the heat build up in her loins and to restrain herself she began cupping up water and pouring it over herself.

She walked inside feeling very aware of her heat as she laid over the island counter in the kitchen and groaned in frustration. Somebody walk by and ask me what’s wrong please. She blamed liturature for making her feel self absorbed and dramatic.

Her father walked in and placed trash into the disposal and put his mug under the coffee dispenser. He laid his briefcase on the counter in front of her and shuffled through folders. His face turned blank while he accessed holo displays.

Athalia made a frustrated groan that sounded more moan than not. Her face freckled pink and she stretched out pulling her arms above her and one knee up while kicking out the other to distract her from embarrassment. She nudged his cheek with her toes lifting him to look at her.

“Daddy don’t you miss me.”

“I-.. Athalia, darling, I’m working. You know.”

“Daddy, give me a kiss so I can go to sleep then.”

He looked up at her with brown and now focused eyes. His short straight hair folded over the side of his head black like hers and his angular cheekbones very high class and statue like. 

“Do you know you’re eighteen now, honestly.” Her father reached over the counter to kiss her on the forehead and she turned herself to face him. At a glance he saw her pink lips parted from fullness and still wet from the pool as she turned and held her legs just over him. 

She wrapped her legs around him for moment and looked into his eyes with a smile. “Carry me upstairs?”

He looked at her rhetorically.

“Busy, I know.”

She released him and dropped to the floor. She kissed him on the cheek and skipped up the stairs. She's not a child anymore she's going to have to dress like an adult. I'll have her mother do it.