Read Flame of Cytherea: Cytherean Chronicles book 1 Online
Authors: D. R. Rosier
Flame of Cytherea: Cytherean Chronicles book 1
Flame of Cytherea
Cytherean Chronicles
Book 1
D. R. Rosier
Copyright 2014.
This
is a work of fiction.
Names, Characters,
Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used
fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual events,
locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.
Dedication: To those who encouraged me to write and publish.
of Contents
She looked down at the young man carefully.
His life, his ambition, lay bare.
His every thought, deed, impulse and emotion
from his eighteen years of life were all revealed.
She was not omniscient, she simply read it
from his soul, the soul that had cried out moments ago.
She had answered.
Time was frozen, there was no rush.
But she was pleased with what she saw.
He was a good man, one who tried to do what
was right.
It was why he had rushed into
the alley, why the woman who fled was not a victim of rape.
It was also why he lay on the ground, crying
out for life.
His soul’s cry had reached her, he was what she was looking
for, but he belonged to another.
To one
far beyond her station and power.
She bowed her head reverently,
Father.
She directed the
thought respectfully.
A powerful voice filled her mind, she knew at its height it
would shatter her mind, but it was tempered and gentled, “
You wish to claim him as yours daughter?
I can see what you have planned, do not
forget, his will needs be his own.
Remember that, and you have my blessing.”
She answered with a smile, “
I can see his heart will lead him where I need.”
She heard a low chuckle in her mind, “
Surely his heart and soul are compatible to your wishes, he is a good
man, but I see a twisted route that lies ahead for him, he may not always do
what you expect.”
She nodded her head in acceptance.
It was not in her nature to deny free will to
a mortal, at least, not anymore.
She had
grown in wisdom the last two millennia.
But still, she had high hopes.
She knelt beside him.
He was
handsome, an inch over six feet.
Brown
hair and hazel eyes.
He was in shape and
knew how to fight.
Kick boxing and other
fighting styles were known to him.
He was also riddled with bullet wounds in his chest, and
extremely close to death.
She leaned down and lightly brushed his lips with her
own.
His body started to glow, his
wounds knit and his body was transformed.
The glow grew brighter and brighter…
Time resumed and the world around the alley came to
life.
Horns could be heard in the
street.
The revving of a car engine and
a cool breeze made its way down the now empty alley.
Justin woke up, reached a hand, and touched it to his
lips.
They tingled strangely and he
wondered what the hell had just happened.
He slowly opened his eyes.
There
was a canopy of trees above him, he turned his head slightly each way, taking
in the surrounding trees.
He closed his
eyes and shook his head in denial.
The
strange question popped into his head, what was a forest doing in downtown
Chicago?
He laughed a little hysterically then shook his head, but
when he opened his eyes the trees were still there.
He closed his eyes again, but it didn’t help,
he could hear the birds singing and the rustling of leaves.
He gasped as his recent memories came back.
His eyes popped open and he looked down at
his chest as the encounter with a gang of rapists flooded into his mind.
He touched his chest in disbelief, not only
was he in a forest with birds, but his wounds were gone?
Was he dead, crazy, or just dreaming?
A last dream for him to be lost in as the
bullets claimed his life, his blood draining away into an alley gutter?
The idea that he was both healed and in a forest wasn’t even
entertained.
It was sad when the best
case scenario was you lost your mind, but when the other two choices were dead
or dying, it won hands down.
He also noticed he was wearing strange clothes, it looked
like a tunic and breeches, something you would wear to a renaissance fair.
Feeling foolish he called out, but no one
answered.
He chose a direction at
random, hoping his dream would get better before he died, and started
walking.
He had a stray thought that
maybe this wasn’t a dream, maybe he was healed somehow.
He snorted.
Right,
next thing he’ll be on another world, like in some book.
Of course, that’s when he walked into the clearing, and
clearly saw the sun was directly overhead.
The disturbing part was there was a second sun on the horizon, and off
to his left was a moon looming large on the horizon.
Very large, it was too large really, to be a
moon.
Yeah… either that he thought panicked, or he was on the
forest moon of
Endor
and that huge rock was the
planet.
He put his hands on his knees
and leaned over, breathing deeply.
He
muttered to himself over and over that he refused to get sick.
He could feel himself start to
hyperventilate, none of this made sense.
He was almost sure it wasn’t a dream at this point, so he was
either dead or crazy… or he reluctantly added… healed and on another
planet…
Snorting to himself he looked
over the trees from the center of the clearing, trying to see something,
anything, to indicate what direction to walk in.
He saw smoke rising slowly to the sky in one direction.
He frowned; it looked to be several miles
away.
He sighed deeply and started
off.
It felt a little different, walking
that is.
He didn’t know if he was
lighter, if the gravity was different, or if he was just stronger, but the
quick pace he set did not tire him.
Curious, he started into a jog.
This was too weird for this to be a dream or
crazy time, either he was dead and alone here, or on another world.
He fell into a comfortable rhythm, not really
paying attention when he stumbled into a large break in the forest.
The grass was knee high and moved with the slight
breeze.
When he stomped on it in a
brilliant stumbling entrance, it made a loud scratchy noise as he flattened the
blades.
He watched a few deer running from
a small stream on the edge of the field back into the woods.
He realized quickly he must have startled
them.
He froze at the next thing he saw,
a huge tiger stood, appearing from the grass as if through magic.
He had never seen a tiger outside of TV, but this one
appeared bigger than he would have expected.
It looked beautiful, and powerful.
Not to mention deadly.
A shiny
light brown coat with streaks of black, he knew he should probably be running
back for the trees himself, but he couldn’t move.
His feet were obstinately ignoring his plea to
move.
The tiger looked at him and roared.
He could swear it sounded more annoyed than
angry, then he watched as it chased after the fleeing deer.
He stood there a few minutes, breathing
shallowly.
Finally he broke from his
shock and started jogging again toward the smoke, hoping he wouldn’t run into
the tiger again.
He also had a disturbing thought, he doubted there would be
deer hunting tigers in the afterlife.
Not that he wanted to be dead, it’s just what that left him with as an
option was… crazy.
Or possibly on
another planet.
He wasn’t fully
convinced yet, though he doubted even his dreaming mind could come up with the
surprising things he had come across, but he resolved to move more
cautiously.
If he was on another world,
who knew what could happen?
Besides being eaten by a tiger that is…
He reached the edge of the woods and was looking out from
the path, carefully considering.
Of
course, he couldn’t live in the woods all his life, so he felt a little silly
about it.
Still, for all he knew they
were cannibals or something.
He sighed
in relief when he saw a human walk out of one of the buildings, he didn’t
realize how much he was worried about it until now.
After all, an alien world should have… aliens
right?
Apparently not.
The smoke itself was coming from behind a large building
that had a fairly large sign out front with a mug and a bed.
He assumed this was some sort of tavern.
The road was just dirt, and the buildings
were all made of wood.
There were a
large number of small buildings with no signs that he could see as well as more
with signs that were too small to read from a distance.
The town went on farther than he could see from his position
by the forest.
The tavern of course,
brought up the idea of money.
He patted
down his pants and shirt, he didn’t have any.
That could be an issue.
He was
getting up the confidence to go check things out when he heard a silky, yet
annoyed voice, right behind him.
“Well, you going to stand there all day?”
He turned while considering the fact that he understood what
was said.
It wasn’t English, but he
understood.
All thoughts of how that was
possible fled his mind at the sight of the woman behind him.
She was about his age, maybe a year or two older.
Long lustrous brown hair, a heart shaped
face.
She was beautiful… and her figure
was curved in all the right places...
She was wearing hunting leathers but he didn’t see a weapon
on her at all, and she was dragging a dead dear that was already dressed on a
travois, and he suddenly realized spying from the head of a well used forest
trail was stupid, and… he was also in her way.
He also wondered how she had snuck up on him while dragging a deer…
“Sorry, I’m new around here.”
She rolled her eyes expressively and said, “First you nearly
ruin my hunt, now you’re in the way, please move, I need to get this thing on
the fire.
Tavern doesn’t run itself you
know.”
Her face flashed with annoyance.
Did her eyes just turn yellow a second?
Couldn’t be, must have been a reflection of
the light.
He stepped to the side, then
turned his head, realizing he had been staring.
He asked, “Need some help?”
Her words finally hit him, ruined her hunt?
He hadn’t seen anyone else in the field.
He looked over again and saw her studying
him.
He shrugged helplessly.
“I’m really not from around here, no money.
I need to find a job, a place to stay.
Sorry, my name is Justin, you are?”
She looked thoughtfully at him.
“Katrina, you can call me Kat,” she rolled
her eyes again, “My pa had a weird sense of humor.
Walk with me and we’ll talk about it.”
He didn’t get what she meant, but he felt that he
should.
Shit…
Kat, hunt, tiger, dead deer, and no
weapon…
He refused to take that line of
thought any further and fell in beside her, taking one of the handles he helped
her drag the deer into town.
Kat asked, “So, what can you do, job wise I mean.”
He took in the town’s obvious lack of technology, and
frowned.
What could he do?
Thirteen years of school and… he had no
idea.
He knew a lot of… apparently
worthless information.
“Well, I was still in school back home so I don’t have much
practical experience.
I’m strong though,
and I pick things up quickly,” he wasn’t sure it would help, but he threw in,
“I’m also good in a fight, not sure how useful that would be around here.”
He berated himself… pick things up quickly, might as well
have added good with people.
They dragged the travois to the back of the tavern, there
was a large fire pit already lit.
She
pulled the deer onto a spit and hung it.
“If you were younger I’d say apprentice with the blacksmith,
you look in good shape and strong.
I
could use a server in the afternoons and evenings, one that could handle
himself for the more rowdy folk.
Maybe
help out with the wood too?”
She studied him intently, as if measuring him, then
nodded.
“Show me you can fight and I’ll
hire you.
One silver a week plus a room
and three meals a day.”
She looked at him challengingly, holding herself in a
fighting stance.
He was amazed by this
young woman, barely older than him and apparently in charge of her own
business.
She had talked of her father
in the past tense, he wondered if she was alone.
His parents had passed as well years
ago.
He felt a sharp pain, wondering if
he would ever see his grandparents again, but shook it off.
He could deal with the loss of his old world later, after he
took care of the basics of his survival.
He moved in to put her in a hold but underestimated her
strength badly, not wanting to hurt her.
She jerked out of his grip before he could get a good hold on her, which
pulled him forward, and his face went straight into her elbow jab knocking him
back on his ass.
“You’re going to have to do better than that Justin, if you
want a job here.”
He looked up to see a playful smile on her face and relaxed
a little.
Taking a deep breath he
stood.
The second time he didn’t
underestimate her at all.
He led her to
make another elbow strike, giving her a false opportunity while they grappled
closely, but caught her arm and twisted, putting her in a joint lock.
She fell to her knees, her face pushed
against the ground, her butt in the air.
He couldn’t help the stirring in his groin, she looked…
hot.
And the way their bodies had met
during the short spar had tried his focus and concentration and he couldn’t
take his eyes off of her perfect ass.
He
couldn’t help but notice her breasts were heaving as well as she took deep
breaths.
She looked up at him with a bemused smile on her face, as if
she was reading his mind.
He let her go
with a slight blush then helped her up.
She looked him up and down deliberately, smiled and said,
“You’ll do just fine.”
He wasn’t entirely sure she was talking about the job…