The Geode King

by H A Tisdale

  If only it were true that most men weren’t weak. If only men could easily resist the wily waves of temptation. But that is usually not the case, nor is it often the truth. For even though I truly loved another, I could not remain faithful. Even though I knew Kecelia stood married, I could not control my passions. And in a single moment, the walls of my conscience came crashing down.

  Flooded with lust, my lips passionately met Kecelia’s, and we kissed as our birthstones burned with the fervent flames of amorous ardor. We slowly progressed in the dance of our intimate inferno until we finally arrived at the destination of our disordered desire. And as the light from the cavernous ceiling shifted from day to night, the two of us united our bodies on the sand by the water under the shade of the palms.

  When our decadent deeds had diminished, Kecelia laid herself in my arms, stroking my chest as we regained our breath. “That was amazing,” she exhaled with a sensuous smile.

  “Truly,” I replied, breathing in her delightful aroma as the breeze of the night cooled down our warm bodies.

  “And the best part,” Kecelia inserted excitedly, slipping in a kitten kiss, “we can do it over and over for the rest of our lives with no one to stop us. We’re free to live and love out here.”

  Shamelessly, I smiled, noticing for the first time how cute Kecelia could be. With my carnal nature satisfied, I looked at Kecelia with another lens. She possessed a playful innocence, a natural inclination to enjoy the pleasantries of life with someone beside her. I liked that. Indubitably, I fancied the idea of living out my days with someone who would strive to make me happy as I worked to return the favor.

  And I should have felt guilt, shame, fear, or something else along those logical lines. But I experienced nothing of the sort. Kecelia and I had committed adultery together, and it felt great. Not only that, it felt right to me: What’s the harm? We’re lost in the middle of the desert after all. Who could possibly find us out here?

  Of course, I wanted to find Reina and her children, Meina more than any of them. Indeed, I desired to find the Glorious King. But I was stranded in the sand and seriously doubted I could find anyone in these conditions. So I theorized getting lost must have happened for a reason, that fate had orchestrated these events to bring me into the smooth arms of Kecelia. So I set my resolve to wait for fate. I determined for myself that I would enjoy my days under the cavernous ceiling, indulging in the pleasures of the Pit.

  And that’s exactly what I did. Every morning, I woke up with Kecelia in my arms before we would rise to the beautiful light of the cavernous ceiling. And as we gazed upon each other’s alluring and appetizing figures, we would soon engage in a passionate session of lovemaking. Then after a breakfast of luscious fruit, we would build and decorate our hut made of palms. After a late lunch, we would cool off in the pool near our bungalow and roll around together until we eventually launched into our second liaison of love for the day. We would then take an evening stroll where Kecelia would discuss all her dreams and memories. With much pleasure, I would listen to her speak as I simultaneously enjoyed the breathtaking image of her naked form.

  This cycle lasted for weeks, and not once the whole time did we wear even a single article of clothing. I was literally living the dream, or at the very least, I was experiencing every guy’s futile fantasy. But somehow, something inside me felt empty. At first, I hardly noticed it, but when the emptiness expanded, I had to force myself to overlook it. Eventually, I could no longer ignore this great void. Something inside me simply yearned for more.

  This sensation baffled me, for I had more nourishment and pleasure than I could ever imagine. Yet my heart cried out dissatisfied, aching me with reminders that my misery would only increase with each passing day. This stone in my chest was demanding true love, and though Kecelia seemed to love me, I in truth did not love her, not in that everlasting way. I enjoyed her company of course and her beauty no doubt, but my soul required a better fit. I needed to find that missing piece somewhere else in the Pit.

  Resolved to break free from this paradoxical puzzle, I contemplated how I could best persuade Kecelia to leave the oasis so we could find something more for ourselves. And as we lay in our bed of soft palms one evening, I intended to discuss the matter with her, though her amber eyes admiring me was making it very difficult.

  “Kecelia, there’s something I want to talk to you about,” I brought up rather nervous.

  “Oh, Benjamin, me too,” she beamed. “I can’t hold it in any longer!”

  Taken by surprise, I silently conceded to her announcement with curious anticipation.

  “I love you, Benjamin,” Kecelia delivered the lethal blow. “I love you more than anyone I have ever encountered in the Pit. You fill my birthstone with so much joy. Let’s never leave our havenly home. Say you love me too, and I’ll know you wish to stay with me for the rest of our days.”

  I could not believe my ears. What could I have done in this moment to convince my fragile friend that we needed to depart? She stared at me longingly, desperate to hear the coveted chords of requited affection. Again, I wish I had been strong and not weak, but my mind folded under the pressure as I felt obligated to please my compelling companion.

  “I love you too,” my lips lied in the candlelit shadows of our hut, for as I professed my feigned affection, my soul pined for the one who got away. Sweet, sweet Meina seemed so far away yet at the same time rooted deeply within my ailing heart.

  “Promise you will never leave me?” Kecelia whispered to me softly.

  “I promise,” my mouth moved without my permission. What was happening? Why did I no longer have control over my own speech?

  “Kiss me, my love,” Kecelia’s luscious lips dripped with desire.

  Without hesitation, I obeyed my lover’s request and consented forevermore to a life with my perilous paramour. So we consummated our relentless intentions on our palm-leaf bed that night and continued in the corroding cycle of our extramarital affair.

  Feeling I had completely lost myself beyond retrieval, I tried to accept my destined decision to dwell in the desert with another man’s wife. In fact, I found new life in the idea of being “in love,” and our pleasures soared to new heights. But I will spare you the intimate account of the days that followed and instead give you a warning in its place. Be careful not to play with fire like I did, for when you play with fire, you will inevitably get burned.

  The woeful, windy, and vengeful evening blew in like a thief in the night. Outside, the wind was howling like a wolf while we howled inside like hyenas. When our animalistic activities subsided, we both collapsed on the wrinkled sheets, panting vigorously from our ravenous relations.

  “Benjamin,” Kecelia exhaled heavily, “I have wonderful news to share you with you, my love.”

  “What is it, my dear?” I breathed just as heavily as I stroked her soft hair.

  Kecelia put her hand on her belly. “You and I are having a baby.”

  My eyes shot open as my breath departed. I had not considered the possibility of inseminating my wanton woman, though I should have been ostensibly aware, especially since Reina had given me the genelixir talk.

  “That’s wonderful,” I hurriedly uttered when too many seconds had passed. My hand then moved to her belly, and I smiled at the prospect of a little Benjamin running around. Wondering what color the birthstone would be, I tried to imagine the blinding birth taking place in the oasis.

  “So wonderful, Benjamin! Hive always blamed me for our infertility problems, but now I know he was the inadequate one.” Kecelia looked at her belly as a tear rolled down her cheek. In that moment, I felt I had made the right decision to stay and be there for her. In that instant, life seemed good as if happiness had decided to stay for a change.

  But the door to the hut suddenly slammed open. “What the Shale is going on here!” yelled a burly man from the doorway.

  “Hive, sweetie, this isn’t what it looks like,” Kecelia frantically cried when she turned to s
ee her husband. With his bare chest showing beneath his fur vest, Hive took a step into the cabin, ignoring his wife’s pathetic efforts to conceal her treacherous deed. “Baby, I can explain,” she continued while holding the silk sheet over her naked body.

  Instead of addressing his unfaithful spouse, Hive pointed at me with the utmost ferocity. “You’re dead, you piece of gravel,” he muttered.

  Intimately situated under the sheets with his wife, I stared at the cuckolded man whose onyx eyes glared menacingly back at me, burning with a focused rage, and his nostrils were flaring fiercely though his thick, black beard. Scared out of my wits by the sight of this figure, I had no choice but to lunge from the bed to take on the man who threatened my existence. I would not accept death in the desert, and I certainly would not accept death in my own bungalow.

  Hive instantly thwarted my initial attack, taking me in his arms and launching me through the walls of the hut too fast for my reflexes to combat. Crashing violently through the layer of wood, I hit the ground with a brutal thud where the wind swirled the sand around me as it had when I fell from my windcycle.

  Meanwhile, Kecelia screamed, “Stop it, Hive, stop it! You’ll kill him!”

  “I intend to, my insolent whore,” he bellowed without mercy.

  Hive proceeded to jump out of the hut and tromped over to me with fuming anger. He reached me before I could recover from the crash and pounded my face with his fists, each blow launching the sensation of fireworks going off in my head. He then switched to kicking me hard in the stomach. He kicked me again and again, mercilessly unleashing a ruthless beating on my defenseless body.

  Utterly subject to the wrath of Kecelia’s husband, I cried out in agony between kicks, “Hive…please…have mercy!”

  “You want mercy?” Hive yelled incredulously, kicking me in the stomach once more. “I’ll give you mercy,” he spoke deeply with controlled fury. Now convinced I would soon die, I closed my eyes in an effort to wake myself up from the nightmare. Hive then grabbed me by the legs and dragged me through the cool sand. Barely able to breath, I struggled to stay conscious in my excruciating pain, though even in my daze, I heard Kecelia’s wild squeals.

  After dragging me for a bit, Hive threw my legs back to the ground where I released an uncontrollable grunt. He quickly scooped my entire body up and held me above his head, his robust arms fully extended. In vain, I writhed to escape before his arms thrusted me down into the pool where I uncontrollably choked on water. In response, I lifted my head above the surface for air and gasped in some precious oxygen while I still could. But Hive gave me little time to breath before he jumped in after me and held my head underwater while I vigorously blew bubbles in an attempt to stay alive.

  Suddenly, Hive released me though, and I resurfaced just in time to catch my breath. I weakly swam to the far end of the pool where I could barely pull my body out of the water. Up ahead a few feet, I saw Hive’s windcycle roped to a tree, but then I looked back to see Kecelia hitting Hive over the head with a long, sturdy stick.

  “I won’t let you murder the father of my child,” Kecelia unwisely grunted as she swung.

  Being in the water put Hive at a disadvantage but not for long after this confessional comment. His hand suddenly snatched the stick away, leaving Kecelia disarmed by the water. Overtaken by monstrous rage, Hive jumped out of the pool and snarled with a bludgeoned face. Kecelia screamed and turned to run, but Hive grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to the ground where he unloaded a severe beating on her.

  In horror, I stood by and watched the brute of a man batter his defenseless wife senseless as he struck her face again and again. He soon switched to her stomach, however, pounding his fists against her womb with an egregious amount of force.

  “Help me, Benjamin, help me!” Kecelia cried out in desperate agony, both physical and mental as she knew what Hive aimed to do.

  And with more shame and guilt than I can bear, I confess now that I did nothing to help the woman who had just saved me from drowning. But what could I have done? Hive certainly would have killed us both if I had tried to come to her rescue. That’s at least how I justified my cowardly choice in that moment when I decided to forsake Kecelia on the sand by the water under the shade of the palms.

  Yes, I admit to you that I shamefully turned away from defending the mother of my unborn child, and unborn that child would remain as Hive ruthlessly had his way. I could have acted valiantly that night. I could have faced the consequences of my actions like a man, but instead, I abandoned the woman who loved me to the wrath of her husband.

  Hoping there would be enough time to flee, I hobbled toward Hive’s windcycle, for that vessel tied to the tree was my only chance of survival. I had to escape death after all, though this unrighteous escape would come at a terrible cost, a cost that someone else would have to pay.

  Chapter 10

  The Master of Kairou

  Trying to untie Hive’s knot proved tougher than I imagined. As it finally began to loosen, Hive became aware of my intentions. I looked over at him as he struck his final blow on Kecelia, and his black eyes looked over at me. With even more of an amplified rage, Hive made his fierce way around the pool to put an end to my abominable presence.

  With my pulse surging like electricity, my hands shook into overdrive as I untangled the loops from the tree. And by what felt like a miracle, the rope came free just in time for me to mount the windcycle and press the button, releasing the flaps before my foe could reach me. Thereby, as Hive leapt with a dive to stop my escape, the wind whisked me away in a rush, out of the little oasis and into the vast desert.

  I felt a tug, however, and looked back to see Hive holding onto the attached rope. The windcycle’s acceleration was dragging him violently through the sand, so I steered sporadically from left to right in an attempt to loosen his grip. With a big turn to the left and a sudden shift to the right, a great weight lifted from the windcycle, causing it to shoot forward unencumbered, and I triumphantly turned to see my enemy face down in the sand.

  The mighty gale took me far from my deadly disaster, far enough for me to feel safe from Hive’s reach, for even if he sought to pursue me, the wind most likely covered all the windcycle’s tracks. Unable to fully rely on that theory though, I still rode as far as I could to further the comfort brought by the increased distance between us.

  All the while, my wild ride proved painful. Hive had beaten me to a pulp, and the only thing keeping me awake was the massive amount of adrenaline fueled by death’s proximity. This adrenaline eventually wore off though, and my mind could no longer sustain its consciousness.

  Thus, somewhere on the outskirts of the Sands of Suffering, I fainted and fell to the ground where I lay with a low likelihood of surviving. Surely, someone in a similar situation would have perished. Between the severity of my injuries, the absence of any resources, and the complete lack of direction, every factor pointed to my imminent destruction.

  But I did not meet my end in that desolate desert, for the force behind fate had decided to deliver another happenstance of deliverance in my favor. Indeed, like the Ruakia moving the wind to the benefit of the wind followers, a supernatural strength was controlling the inner workings of fate for my good. I had not been aware of this mysterious power’s presence in the Pit, but this hidden reality had been aware of me since the beginning. Even before my time in the Ancient Boulder, my insignificant existence had been known by this ubiquitous energy.

  So like a drunkard who wakes up in an unfamiliar place, I awakened, opening my swollen eyes to the low glow of the cavernous ceiling, and for a brief moment, I hoped I was coming out of a longwinded dream. But my body ached beyond precedent. No former dream of mine had ever unleashed such pain on my senses.

  “Holey Pit, when will this nightmare end?” I panted to myself, lightly slapping my cheek in a futile effort to awaken. Of course, slapping myself accomplished nothing, and I remained there alone in the night as the agonizing seconds slowly passed.
>
  The still night dragged on in silence without a sign of life nor a trace of motion, that is until my puffed-up eyes made out a foreboding form in the darkness. The shape of a four-legged beast arched its back in the shadows, and I gasped as a crippling fear gripped my heart. The menacing monster then growled in a threatening manner as it became aware of my existence.

  “Easy, now, easy,” I tried to soothe the predator taking steady steps in my direction.

  My words seemed to anger the animal, and it began barking incessantly. “Wruh, wrrrughh, wrughh, wwrruh, wrrughh, wrrrughh, wrruggh, wrughh, wwrrughh!” The barks pierced my ears violently and shook my entire being as I curled up with the expectation of death.

  “What is it, Kairou? What did you find?” an unfamiliar voice called out in the darkness, prompting the creature to cease its horrible sounds and retreat from my presence. Sensing the danger had subsided, I glanced in the direction of the gentle voice and saw the glow of a torch in the hand of a hooded figure who carried a staff in his other hand.

  “Hello there,” the man greeted me softly. The light from his torch revealed the beast to be a dog who sat next to the man in a peculiar squat. “You don’t look so good, friend. How did you end up like this?”

  Stunned at this uncanny appearance, I did not quite know what to say. “It’s a long story,” I managed to utter, feeling very lightheaded.

  “Here, let me help you,” the cloaked man offered as he drew near and knelt down beside me.

  “I don’t deserve to be helped,” I erratically whined in my delirium.

  “Why in the Pit not?” the man inquired rather surprised.