Cain: Son of Adam launches in 13 days! To celebrate, I will be posting the first few chapters here. Feel free to read before you buy!
"But the first chapters of the romance have been torn out of the book;
and we shall never read them."
- G.K. Chesterton; The Everlasting Man
In Principio
"In the beginning God…"
(Genesis 1:1)
"Then war broke out in heaven"
(Revelation 12:7)
A Light shone in the darkness, brighter than the Sun, fairer than the pale Moon. It burned like a fire, yet moved like water across the blackness.
The Light whispered.
And as It spoke, more lights appeared; lights of every shape, color and size. They burned alongside the Light, though not as brightly or fiercely. They danced around the Light, filling the void with a wordless song of bliss.
Another whisper, and suddenly all the lights were still. There was silence.
The Light whispered again, speaking more elaborately than before.
And when It had finished speaking, one of the lights, the biggest, brightest, and fairest of the lights, turned dark.
The Dark Light had not gone out, but burned on as a shadow. A dusky voice filled the void, and a third of the lights fell into murky shade.
A new song filled the void, a song of discord, of anger and of pain.
The lights and shadows charged at one another with the ferocity of hungry wolves, clashing on a field of cloud, which turned deathly grey as the battle wore on. At the front of the lights was the figure of a man shining like a star. His skin was radiant as moonlight, his golden hair like a lion's mane, his eyes, the color of the sea. About his body lay a golden fleece and, in his hand, was a blade of opaque white glass made hard as diamond. Behind him came the other lights, beautiful, leaping like deer across the plains. They sang a wordless song of valor and righteousness as they joined the golden-haired warrior.
But against them stood the shadows, led by the Dark Light himself. His flesh was sickly black, his body, encased in an onyx shell of the bones of great beasts. His weapon: a giant tusk, sharpened and wielded as a sword. His face was hidden by a ram's skull, showing only a mouth filled with thin fangs and a pair of ghastly green eyes. Behind this shadow came his followers, staggering like wounded animals, their flesh rotting as the battle wore on, and their shrieking voices shouting chaotic melodies of rage.
Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and the war raged on, and the very foundations of the heavens trembled. Though outnumbered, the shadows refused to yield.
And then, amidst the clashing music of battle, there was another whisper.
The Great Light shown brighter still behind the lights, and the clouds caught fire. The shadows' song of rage turned to pain as the flames ate at them, but the lights were not harmed. The lights charged once more, pushing their foes to the very edge of the clouds. The Golden Warrior and his Nemesis locked blades again as the leading Shadow let out a violent howl. With a cry of valor, the Warrior knocked his enemy's blade away and slashed him across the chest.
The Shadow fell. All the shadows fell, down, down into the pit of darkness, shrieking. Shrieking for revenge…
* * *
With a gasp, the small boy awoke, shooting up from his bed of grass and cowhide. It was still dark, save for a patch of moonlight coming in from the cave’s mouth. As the boy's heavy breathing slowed,his eyes adjusted to the meagre light.
The boy looked towards the mouth of the cave, and saw his family, their sleep undisturbed by his waking. His father, tall and strong as the trunk of a great tree, was at the very edge of the cave, so that any wild beast that dared to come in would have to face him first. The boy’s mother lay next to his father, her face shining in the moonlight, like a lily surrounded by fireflies. And in her arms were two small children, a boy and a girl, sleeping peacefully.
Such sleep, the boy knew, would not come to him, not after what he had just seen.
Quiet as a breeze, the boy rose from his bed, drew a soft hide around his shoulders, and crept out of the cave.
The air was still and warm outside the cave, and not a sound could be heard. Even the crickets seemed to have gone to sleep. There was no sign of movement outside, neither on the hillside above the cave nor below it. Seeing nothing alarming, the boy made his way up to the top of the hill.
Once there, he sat down on the grass.
It's quiet up here too, he thought, though he hadn’t really expected anything else. The boy had, according to his parents, lived six years in this place, and in all that time one thing had not changed: he didn't like the quiet. It was like a hole that needed to be filled, yet it felt like breaking the surface of a pond when he did.
Oh well, he thought, At least it isn't dark out here.
Turning from his thoughts, he looked up at the night sky. The moon was full, hanging in the sky like a pale stone, and all the stars were out. Seeing the stars, his thoughts turned back to what he had seen in his dream. A big Light and lots of little lights and some of them turned dark. And the fight afterward… Had he really seen that?
"Up a little late, aren't you?"
Startled, the boy turned around and saw a tall figure standing on the hill behind him.
"Father," said the boy.
"What are you doing up here, son?” said the boy’s father, in that soft, strong voice the boy always found so comforting.
"I saw something," said the boy.
"Out here?"
"No. In my sleep."
"Ah.” His father sat down next to him, and the boy met his loving gaze.
"Was it scary?"
"Kind of. I didn't understand a lot of it."
"Tell me about it.”
"Well, there was a great big light, bigger than that one," the boy said as he pointed at the moon. "And then there were a lot of little lights all around it."
The boy smiled as he spoke, "They were all dancing and singing… and then…"
The boy paused.
"Go on," said his father.
"And then one of them turned dark."
"Turned dark? What do you mean?"
"It wasn't a light anymore," said the boy, his voice uneasy. "It was dark like a shadow. And then other lights went dark. It was…They were so horrible!"
"What happened next?"
"The lights charged at the shadows. They fought… The shadows fell… and then I woke up."
"Hmm…" the boy’s father stared thoughtfully up at the sky.
"What does it mean, Father?" asked the boy. “It has to mean something.”
"Who can say?" his father replied. "Elohim sometimes speaks to us in our dreams. More to your mother than to me, though. He used to speak to her and show her things in her dreams all the time.”
"Do you think He's trying to tell me something, Father?"
"Perhaps. If He wants you to know something, you will find out soon enough."
"If He wants me to know something, why doesn't He just tell me?"
His father smiled and sighed, a distant look in his dark eyes. "Things," he paused, considering his words carefully, "Are not as they once were."
"You mean Elohim used to talk like we do?" asked the boy excitedly. "Why doesn't He now? When did He stop?"
His father looked down at him and smiled. "I think we had best get back to bed.”
He stood up. The boy took this to mean that their conversation was over, but he pressed on anyway as he stood to join his father, “Aw, but I want to know."
His father laughed, "Don't worry, I'll tell you when you're older."
"But I'm old enough," said the boy.
"You're not even old enough to go hunting by yourself. And you won't be going with me tomorrow if you're too tired. Come, now, off to bed."
"But I'm not…" the boy tried to stifle a yawn and failed, "Not sleepy."
"Come on, son," he said, laughing and patting the boy on the back. "I can slow down for you to catch up, but we won't catch anything if I have to carry you on my back the whole time."
The boy nodded, too tired to argue.
The boy and his father walked quietly back into the cave, so as not to disturb the others. The boy crawled into bed, and his father put the blanket over him and kissed his forehead.
"Good night, Father," said the boy.
"Good night, Cain."