Servants of the Goddess: Chapter One (closed)

[jennifersdreams]

The sun rose over the distant mountains, and Zheni held her arms up to greet it, letting it warm her. Already, she was hours down the road from the home she had grown up in. It was a small farm, on the outskirts of a village no one who wasn't from there had ever heard of. Zheni's family had many children, and she was the oldest, the only child of her father's first wife. His new wife had made it clear that as soon as she was 18, she would be married, and there had been many offers. She had been interested in some, but that was all behind her now.

Today was her birthday. She was 18, and she would have married whoever had given her family the best price in a few days, except for the dream. It had come last night, and it had been unlike any dream she had ever had. She had dreamt of the pink temple, the garden of Luridia, the goddess of desire. She had seen herself there, in robes that seemed to shine like gold and were at the same time transparently sheer. She had seen the Imperial City spreading out below the hill that the temple was on.

She woke up with the moon shining bright through her window, and her body trembling with a sort of hunger she had never felt. It wasn't food that she wanted, but something else. She had seen stallions mounting mares, and it had always been a fascinating sight, but now she felt a hunger to be taken, to be the object of pleasure and to be pleased in return. It called to her, and she remembered the story of Luridia. The goddess had walked into the Imperial City naked, in the midst of a civil war, and where she went the fighting stopped as men looked at her and their lust made them forget their hate. The city had fallen into an orgy that lasted nine days, and the warring factions had made a peace that had lasted forever, so that now their two families were joined in one great dynasty that had ruled the Empire for a thousand years.

Zheni knew she could not stay on the farm, or marry some tradesman and spend the rest of her life in a tiny village on the fringe of the civilized world. She knew that the dream had been a vision, that the goddess had called her to the Imperial City, and that to delay would be not only pointless, but dangerous. She had wrapped her nightdress around her and walked out, still dreaming, ignoring the cool of the night.

By the time the sun rose, though, she had remembered. The cold breeze cut through the thin cotton and made her shiver, and the ground under her bare feet was cold and hard. She did not know the way to the Imperial City, but there was only one road that led out of the village, so that was the road she took.

Zheni had been blessed with beauty all her life. Her hair was long and silky and her eyes bright, her body sensually curved and slender. She did not know that the sun rose on a girl transformed that morning. She did not know that the beauty that had always been exceptional was now otherworldly, and that she was not the only one who had been given a vision of the goddess that night. There were others who had seen the same thing. There were others who knew what the visions meant, and already they were sought to use that knowledge to further their own desires.

((the ooc thread))

 

[EkedSad]

Visions, some had them some didn’t. Those that did have them, they could be shared or the same. They could also be different. Then there were those were not the same, but tied into others. Kai – Rae was born with visions. Visions of a lovely girl with brown hair and eyes that made you lose yourself in them. He’d see her upon paths not known to him, but soon he would know them when the time came. He felt a sense of familiarity at first, as if he knew here. As time went on and he grew, he deferred this sense of familiarity to the sense she was often in his dreams and visions.

When he grew older, the training at the monastery only increased. He would be forced to balance himself on his hands upon poles, while avoiding the swinging staves of his fellow monks. His hands were tied, as his legs, and he was beaten. This toughed his body for abuse, as well as teaching him to block out the pain of any injury. This of course did not make him immune, but it certain allowed him to work through most of any kind of pain that could come to his body.

His mind was strengthened by the wisdom of the teachers. Languages long forgotten where learned once more. Though he could not speak them fluently, he could read them. His mind was introduced to the scrolls of old, secrets of the gods and their will. Artorius, the namesake of his order, had much to tell his followers. There was only so much one could learn while awake, so while he slept, he was read to from the scrolls.

Finally there was the last part, the flesh. Pleasures of it mind you. It was in his own bed that he learned this. Women from various parts of the world brought to the temple to help instruct the young warriors how to best please a woman, and to best be pleased by her. He was favored by these visitors for his eagerness to learn and please them. His appetite also was almost insatiable, and it didn’t hurt matters that he was quite blessed by the echelon of creation in the loins department.

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Today was the day. His visions had told him so. It was way he’d left the monastery when did. The elders had known as well this day would come, and he was given supplies for the trip. He was then given their farewells, some with sadness as they knew the trials and trails he would face in the future. So the circle would repeat was what they said. Such things did not make sense to him, as he did not know the meaning behind their words.

So he traveled to fate, to meet it head on without any thought behind it. This is what he’d been training for and born to do. It was time to take his place in fates scheme and he would do what he could to keep things right. The girl he was going to see he knew of her, but did not know her purpose. He however knew his; it was as her guardian and protector. He would serve her as this role, and perhaps more.

He paused a moment and took a view from his vantage point. The wind wiped at his cloak and he merely shrugged at its cold draft. The hood that covered most of his features was of a separate article of clothing, not attached to the cloak. He mm’d and adjusted the backpack, walking down the trail to meet his fate, the girl in his dreams.