Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2004 21:50:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Taylin Asterifos Subject: The Lost Land of Ouranos, Chapter 5 The Lost Land of Ouranos-Nisi Dear reader: First of all, I would like to apologize about the Kernel VS Colonel problem in CH2. I have a corrected version that I will be posting along with several other corrections. I suppose I'm just too anxious to post these and get feedback, and if you are enjoying this series, please write! Feedback from readers means sooo much to me! Disclaimer: If you are offended by relationships between teenage boys, please hit the `back' button on your browser and trouble yourself no further. This story has been copyrighted under the pseudonym Taylin. A copy has been placed here for your enjoyment. This story cannot be used to derive monetary gain, nor placed in archives that require payment for access, or printed and distributed in any form that requires payment either directly or indirectly. This story is fictional, and is solely a product of my imagination. Any similarities to real individuals, living or dead are entirely accidental. Please send any comments, suggestions, or constructive criticism to: Any input at all would mean a great deal to me. Ok, on with the story: --------------- Chapter 5 -- Break Through! On a snowy slope of Mt. Whitney, not far from the summit, a mountain goat gave a start when it was suddenly blinded by a bright flash of light. If that wasn't enough for the poor goat, after the light dulled down, three figures appeared directly in front of it. The mountain goat reared its head, and then bolted down through the snow. The snow was deep, but packed down hard from melting and refreezing. The sun shined down on Chris as he reacted to the goat in almost the same fashion the goat had reacted to him! Chris fell over backwards, shocked by a goat appearing right in front of him! After getting up from his brief visit with the ground, Chris watched the goat disappear out of sight down a slope that he would only go down if he had skis. Looking back, he realized that Keith and Taylin were having trouble hiding their smirks. "If a mountain goat scares you off your feet, then I am going to have quite a time getting you through the gate!" Taylin and Keith both laughed, causing Chris's face to turn a deep red. Taylin came over and ruffled Chris's hair. "Aww Chris, don't worry! Just hang in there; we have a little ways to climb first before we get to the summit." Taylin waved his hand toward the direction of the summit. "I didn't want to teleport directly there and give ourselves away, so I put us down about 1000 feet from the top." Turning his back to the mountain, Chris looked out on the western horizon. Taylin had said Mt Whitney was in California, but he didn't believe it until he saw a definite coastline in the distance. Looking closer, Chris could also make out a brown haze coming from two spots along the coast line. `That one must be Las Angeles', he thought to himself, identifying the much larger haze to the south-west. `I wonder if I'll ever get to see it?' Chris gave an inner sigh, thinking about how much of the USA he had never really seen. Maybe Taylin would show him sometime! Taylin shook Chris out of his pondering. "Chris, we are going to start up the mountain, but before we do, I have to ask you to do me a really big favor!" Taylin motioned Keith to stand next to Chris. "Ok Keith, I want you to take Chris's hand." Keith slowly edged over to Chris showing signs of fright from the height they were at. Taylin gave Keith a reassuring look, and Keith reluctantly took Chris's hand. "Good, now Chris, I need you to concentrate for me just like you did on top of Soldier Mountain, ok?" Chris shook his head slowly and resigned himself to the task. "Ok, just like before, picture the void in your mind, and slowly fill it with a single point of light. Let the light grow until is fills the blackness with light, then let it explode out into the darkness." Chris concentrated and found the void much more easily than before, and created the point of light. Chris let the light spread outward into the darkness until it finally exploded into millions of colors. "Now Chris, don't open your eyes yet, remember what I told you about channeling asteri during the day? We have to be VERY careful! I want you to feel the fos around you, but don't pull a DROP of it to you!" Chris nodded his head, beginning to get a little worried. Just as fast, he shook it off. He trusted Taylin. `Just have faith in what he says!' Chris thought. "Now, slowly open your eyes." Chris opened his eyes, and was almost BLINDED by the sheer amount of asteri he could see. Chris had to narrow his eyes down to mere slits to make out his surroundings. "Good Chris, you did it! You touched asteri during the day!" Taylin gave him the kind of smile that reminded him why life was worth living, making him beam with the accomplishment. "We're not out of the wood yet though Chris, the hard part is still ahead!" Taylin then spoke to Keith. "Keith, now I need you to touch gifos and link with Chris. Please give him whatever strength you can spare; I won't be able to support Chris for this one, and I will be counting on you!" Keith nodded again, unsure of what Taylin was trying to accomplish. Taylin turned back to Chris. "Ok, now for the hard part! Chris, remember that curtain you made for the asteri? I need you to make it again, and make sure its closed extra tight! Now, I need you to imagine using a tiny sewing needle to prick the smallest hole in the curtain you can think of. Also, be ready to close it on my word." Chris did exactly like Taylin wanted, poking the smallest hole in the curtain he could imagine. When he did, more light than he though possible came through it, and flooded directly into him, filling him with life and energy. Fos continued to flow into Chris until he thought he was going to burst at the seems with energy! "Ok, close the hole, you have plenty!" Chris took another look around, and was amazed at all the colors he could see on the horizon. The browns, the blues, and millions of greens, but Taylin didn't give him any time to soak it in. "Ok Chris, now comes the really hard part! I need you to feel the sunlight on your body. Feel the sun shine down on you and hit against your face and hair. Try to feel where the sun hits every part of your body. Now, I want you to try to erase that feeling Chris. Try to remember what it feels like during the night when there is no sun shining on you. Picture what its like to be in a dark room with no light shining on you at all, no light touching you. Now, let the light pass through you!" Chris struggled hard to think of what it was like when there was no light shining on him. It really didn't feel like anything! How was he supposed to imaging feeling nothing? Chris stood there for a while, concentrating, but nothing happened. `What am I doing wrong, what am I missing?' "Chris, try to picture what it would look like if the light couldn't touch you, what would happen?" Taylin's voice asked inquisitively. "I would be invisible?" And then it dawned on him, Taylin was trying to make him turn invisible! Chris redoubled his efforts, thinking what it would be like if the light didn't touch him, but passed through instead. In that instant, Chris `winked' out of existence, and Keith, holding Chris's hand, squeezed even tighter, as if checking to see if he was actually still there. Keith's expression was a mixture of awe and fear. "I have NEVER seen someone turn invisible before! I didn't even know it could be done! This is truly amazing!!!" Keith flopped Chris's arm around, causing him to break out into laughter. "It's so weird, I can't even see myself! How am I going to walk?" Chris let go of Keith and little tracks started appearing in the snow around Keith, and then thump, a Chris shaped print in the snow! Both Taylin and Keith started laughing uncontrollably, almost falling in the snow themselves. Keith went over to `try' to help Chris up, waving his arm around the Chris shaped snow print. Chris grabbed onto Keith's arm after a couple tries, and then stood up. Taylin's expression sobered quickly, and then he motioned Keith into silence. "Ok, now for the last step. Chris, Keith has linked with you and I need you to feel that link." Chris hadn't really been aware of it until Taylin told him about it, but taking a closer look at Keith, he noticed a small, white tendril linking himself to Keith. Chris backed away from Keith, but the tendril still followed him. "Chris, What I need you to do is picture Keith with less and less sun hitting him. This is different from how you turned yourself invisible, you need to imagine Keith fading out of existence. Concentrate HARD Chris!" Chris focused long and hard, trying to make Keith disappear, and found that it was HARDER to make him disappear than to make himself disappear. "Keith, lend Chris all the strength you can, He cannot channel anymore asteri safely unless you support him. Now Chris, feel the connection of the link and let it give you strength. Now, poke another hole through the curtain, and let more asteri come in. Your link with Keith will let you hold more, and give you strength to channel again." Chris could feel the link supporting him, and found it easier to draw in more asteri. Chris again tried to imagine Keith fading from view, and this time, something happened!! Keith was beginning to somehow go `out of phase', as if he were getting harder and harder to see. Eventually, Chris could not see Keith at all, and once he was completely faded from view, Chris felt sapped from the amount of exertion and concentration he had to use. "Hahaha, I'm invisible, this is incredible! Man, if only the other seekers could see me now! ...Wait..., they CANT see me, hahahaha!" Both Chris ant Keith laughed hard at that one, but stopped when they saw that Taylin had started up the mountain without them. Taylin turned back and yelled, "Hurry, we have to reach the summit quickly now, we have wasted enough time playing tricks with the light! The summit is straight up this way, just follow the ridgeline once we are through the snow. Also, from now on, NO talking! Your invisible for a purpose, and that's so you wont be noticed! That will not do you much good if you blab too loudly. Now, lets move!" Taylin turned around and started climbing the mountain. Starting very slowly at first, unused to having invisible feet, Chris followed Taylin through the snow and over to the ridgeline. Taylin then stopped, and turned back to them. He waved his hand and he was gone. "Don't be alarmed," he whispered "I'm here with you, just follow the ridgeline to the summit, and try to be quiet. I realize the invisibility won't help us if any of these magus can detect fos signatures, so lets hope they cant, or at least hope they are not looking." Chris felt a gentle hand nudge him forward, and Chris started up the ridge line. ********** "Excuse me; can you repeat that again for me please?" Adrian looked one step away from exploding. Devon really didn't want to tell him again. Devon tried to keep his posture as straight as possible as he made his report again. "Colonel Davidson lost a seeker sir, one of his rank 6 gifos. I still don't know if I believe it myself. According to the Major that was assigned to him, there was some sort of battle between the seeker and another strange magus. He said that the seeker threw everything he had at this magus to no avail. The strange magus then called down lightning from a stormy sky, and when he was done, he rained down thousands of missiles of light. Supposedly, the Major was in a state of hysteria when he made his report to Captain Southerland, so we do not know this information is reliable." "Devon, we both know that there is only one magus who can do what the Major described. The seeker did battle with Taylin asterifos magus, and there is no possible way he could win. The real question is, what was Taylin doing there in the first place? Ever since we erected the barrier, no magus from Ouranos has tried to take a native magus. It's not worth the energy. We now have full control over all new magi born in the US, and many other countries too, thanks to the Colonel. Maybe Taylin is beginning to see us as a threat!" Adrian stood up and his eyes flared a bright orange. "We now have over 2,000 magi and 20,000 fos! Soon we will have the power to strike back at Ouranos, and then all magus will be leashed and under control. We cannot allow Taylin to play god over mankind anymore! It is time for mankind to stand on they're own feet! They have proven it with the discovery of nuclear fusion, and everyday, mankind makes bold advances!" Adrian's eyes practically drove Devon under the table. "Magi are a thing of the past Devon! The advent of the children of Giea is at hand, and soon the children of Ouranos will no longer be needed. The children of Giea are Earth's true inheritors, and we will be unnecessary when man is ready. But for now, we will place ourselves under man's control, and guide them into their glorious future!" Adrian's eyes blazed for what seemed to Devon like eternity before finally dieing out. Devon cleared his throat. "Sir, that's all well and good, but what are we going to do about Taylin now? According to the Major's report, that battle took place two hours ago, and whatever Taylin came for, he has it now! Shouldn't we try to stop him?" Devon almost looked like he did not want to hear the answer. "Well, since Taylin stopped a seeker, it probably means that he has a new magus, or maybe even magus twins! Whatever he has, he will try to escape back to Ouranos with them. Well, he wont be getting through again, not with 75 magus charging the barrier all over the country, and not with 3 biosfos charging the gate. I have already informed Samuel to be on the lookout at Mt. Whitney, and he will be guarding the gate with an extra 10 magus. Taylin will NOT get through, I don't care if he is asterifos or not. NO magus has the power to bring down the gate alone. Samuel will capture him, and then leash him! The head of the Ruling Counsel of Ouranos will be MINE, and without Taylin, Ouranos-Nisi will fall, and so shall end the reign of the children of Ouranos!" Instead of laughing maniacally like Devon expected, he spread his arms wide, and bio-electricity arched between them, eyes glowing a furious orange. Devon backed away, and kept his mouth tightly shut, until he finally scrambled out of the room for dear life. ********** Chris looked down at his feet in dismay. He was used to climbing mountains, but he was also used to seeing where he placed his feet, and he was finding it difficult to gain ground without tripping or stumbling. Along the ridgeline, there was a path that steeply zigzagged past markers on the rocky trail. Chris tried to concentrate on the familiar feeling of the act of climbing itself, and then refocused his eyes on the rocks in front of him, rather than where he thought his feet were going. Chris eventually found a rhythm to his climbing, using his arms and legs on a path that he tried hard to memorize. The path wound in and out of snow, steadily going higher and higher. The air began to thin, and Chris was beginning to have a hard time breathing. When Chris stopped to catch his breath, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and Taylin's voice addressed him softly out of the thinness of the air. "Chris, air shouldn't be a problem for you. Concentrate on the air flowing around you, and feel the light and life of it." Chris closed his eyes and concentrated on the wind flowing across his little invisible body. Even though he couldn't see his skin, he could still feel the wind against it, and when he opened his eyes, he could see the light blue glow in the air. Chris reached out to touch that glow, and all of a sudden, his breathing slowed, and he found that his feet felt lighter, and the air around him teemed with untapped energy. Chris started climbing again, and realized how much EASIER it was when he was touching aerasfos! Chris practically FLEW up the rest of the mountain, but he held himself back when he remembered what Taylin had said about being quiet. Chris was near the summit now, and a wooden shed came into view. Taylin stopped him again, and he felt a light breathing on his ear. "Chris, I want you to keep your touch on aerasfos. At the same time, don't forget about your invisibility. Now, I want you to imagine your feet making no sound as they touch the ground, and no sound coming from your movements. Try to make the air around you freeze in place, so not even sound waves can budge them. I want you to still all the air around you, so that both you and Keith will not be heard. As soon as you have stilled the air, keep focus on yourself, and go hide behind the shack. I will see what I can at the summit." Chris tried to still the air around him, but it was no easy task. Chris redoubled his concentration, and began to pull in aerasfos, using his link to Keith for balance and support. Soon, the air around Chris and Keith was silent, and he couldn't even hear himself breathe, he couldn't hear anything, all was silent. Chris then felt around for Keith's hand, and held it tightly, then made for the back end of the shack. As Chris gained the summit, he could see that there were many people there already. What the people were gathered under took his breath away. Chris didn't think he would have been able to see it if he hadn't been touching aerasfos. Floating at least 30 feet in the air, there was a large ring glowing a feint orange. The ring was at least 20 feet wide, and it seemed to be linked to a gigantic faintly glowing orange cylinder that shot straight up into the sky as far as he could see. As Chris stared up higher and higher, soon he realized that the ring and the cylinder looked like something very familiar. The eye of a gigantic curved funnel! Taking a closer look, Chris saw to boys with orange hair who couldn't have been any older than 15. Their eyes were open and glowing a fierce orange and their arms reached up to either end of the ring, orange-blue electricity flowing all around their bodies and jutting up to the ring. That weird bio-electricity shot all around the gate and across it, warding away any who might try to go through it. There was also another orange haired boy that looked younger than the other 2, and was talking to a group of men and 1 woman. The men appeared to be any age from early 20s, to late 40s, and the woman in her late teens. Chris counted 6 men with brown-orange hair like Keith's, and three with red-orange hair. The woman had deep-blue hair with an orange tint. All the people under the ring were wearing the same black clothing Keith was wearing, and they all had gold leashes on. Chris decided to stand on his tiptoes and look through the window of the shack he was hiding behind. Inside, there were several older men in officer uniform, and one was talking on a radio and jotting down notes. Chris tried to see what he was writing, but he was too far away. From his low vantage point, he could only see a few bunk beds inside, and a small refrigerator with a microwave sitting on top of it. It looked to Chris that whoever these people were, they had been here for a while, and they were part of the military. For several minutes Chris sat and waited in silence, occasionally squeezing Keith's hand to make sure he was still there. Chris's concentration of the silence spell began to slip, and he could begin to make out what the boy and the magus under the date were talking about. Chris then heard the man who was talking on the radio leave the shack. Chris peeked over to see the man walk over to the orange-haired boy and give him the note Chris had seen him writing. The boy read the note, and then looked up and addressed the magi. "Be on the alert. We just got a report in from Adrian that Taylin captured a seeker and is on his way to the gate. According to Adrian, the seeker couldn't even put up even minor resistance against Taylin. Well, what do you expect from a half grown gifos? Some of the seekers Colonel Davidson chooses these days! Gifos make horrible seekers anyways. Some of them can't even piss in the toilet bowl straight, let alone catch another magus!" The orange-haired boy threw back his head in laughter, soon joined by the other magi. Chris could feel Keith's grip on him tighten when he heard the boy discrediting him, but Keith's gasket must have burst when he heard that last insult, because Chris felt a wind rush past his face as Keith ran past him and out to the gathered magi. `What the HELL is he doing?' Chris swore to himself, but he could only watch in horror as Keith began to run full stint at the orange-haired boy. All conversation between the boy and the group of magi stopped, and as one, their eyes lit up, each matching the color of their hair. The orange-haired boy waved his hand in the air and a wave of bio- electricity rent through the air. The bio-electricity slammed into Keith and sent him flying backwards, but the boy wasn't done yet. The boy reached out, and bio-electricity began to gather around his arms, pulsing brighter and brighter. The brighter the electricity got, the brighter his eyes glowed, and the brighter the eyes of every magus standing with him. Desperately, Keith scrambled to his feet, eyes beginning to glow. Keith stretched out his little arms, and began to raise stones from the ground. Just as fast, the orange- haired boy raised his arms, and sent out bio-electricity, smashing Keith's protection to dust. "Do you honestly think those meager tricks will defend you against a biosfos linked to 10 rank 7 magi? What do you think you are doing, little seeker gifos magus? Where is Taylin?" The boy sounded very angry, shouting out in his low alto. At the same time, Keith realized that they were just playing with him, and if they really wanted him dead, they would have killed him with the first attack. The boy raised his arms again, and sent bio-electricity to smash every last rock Keith had managed to gather. The boy then waved his hands around in a strange pattern, and Keith lost all control of his body, and was wrenched backwards. The boy then raised his arms, and Keith felt himself lifted off the ground, his small 12 year-old frame being spun lazily in the air. Higher and higher he went, being spun round and round. Keith tried to fight back, tried to get his limbs to obey his command, but it was useless. All he could do was murmur in fear. "Why don't you come on out and play Taylin? We have your little toy you saved, although I have no idea why you would need a rank 6 gifos. What garbage!" For the first time Keith looked like the small child his body inhibited, completely defenseless and broken. With that, the boy motioned to fling Keith off the side of the mountain to his rocky death, but before he finished, Keith dropped out of the air and landed gently on the ground. "I did not come for Keith, Samuel. It seems Adrian doesn't know everything yet, but enough to put a group of 10 magus between me and the gate. You will not be able to stop me Samuel, not with just 10 magi." At first Taylin's voice came out of nowhere, but slowly he faded into view, hovering between Keith and the group of magi. "Let us go Samuel. Neither I nor Ouranos will move against Adrian unless he starts subjugating humans. I may not agree with what you are doing, but as long as you do not use your power directly against other humans, I will let you do as you please. If the humans start using you as weapons though, I will have to put a stop to it!" Taylin's voice boomed with an air of command that should not be questioned. "Samuel, think twice about the power you are giving to a race that is not yet ready for the responsibility you lay down on it. It will lead to disaster!" "YOU are the disaster Taylin, living up there on Ouranos-Nisi, suppressing human growth and development. Just look at how far humans have come technologically since we came down in 1938. Without the hidden suppression of Ouranos, human-kind will travel the stars and explore a universe YOU have held back from them for 4,352 years!" The boy called Samuel was RAGING mad, and his eyes kept lighting up and swirling in orange patterns. "Mankind is not ready for the stars yet, and by handing them this Earth on a silver platter too early, you doom us all to death or worse! Ouranos will NOT let the children of Giea leave Earth before they have fully matured, to do so would be folly! Do so, and you are doomed, this I SWEAR!" Taylin's voice cut through the air like a razor sharp knife, penetrating everyone there deep into their very being. After the initial shock, Samuel's eyes raged again, and the entire mountain shook. Samuel and the 10 magi rose off the ground, hovering at the same height Taylin was, leaving Chris and Keith the only ones on the ground. The ground began to shake harder, and Taylin yelled down "Link with Keith and touch aerasfos Chris, and fly! QUICKLY!" Chris quickly reestablished his link with Keith and aerasfos, and willed himself to fly, just as he had before in Timmy's basement. Still invisible, Chris flew over to where Keith was lying, and concentrated hard on getting Keith to fly. Driven by desperation, Chris managed to get Keith in the air. That's when Chris made a serious mistake. Concentrating so greatly on areasfos, Chris lost the tiny amount of concentration he needed to maintain his invisibility, and appeared a little ways behind Taylin, floating 10 feet in the air. "What do we have here?" Samuel caught sight of Chris the moment he became visible, and a half smile appeared on his face. "So you did come here for a new magus! And a cute one too!" But Samuel's smile didn't last very long. "With WHITE HAIR? NO, this CANT be possible!!" Panic and desperation spread across Samuel's face. "All of you, double bind to me now! Give me ALL of your strength! We MUST kill him now, we cannot allow Taylin to have another asterifos!" At that moment, bio-electricity connected all 10 magi to Samuel, and Samuel seemed to `suck' all of the energy out of them and into himself. Clouds began to gather around the summit of Mt. Whitney, barking with thunder. Samuel then raised his arm and sent all of the bio-electricity racing directly toward Chris. It didn't get there though. Taylin swooped in front of Chris, eyes blazing white. Three feet in front of Taylin, the bio-electricity hit a barrier of pure light and raced off in every direction. Samuel kept the bio-electricity flowing though and the ground below was still shaking. The fotiafos then spread their arms wide and from out of the distance, 4 massive fireballs came racing at them. The gifos raised their arms, and the ground shook harder and harder until 6 huge spikes of rock came racing out of the ground up at them. The nerofos lifted her arms too, and hail the size of baseballs came down on them. Taylin hovered back closer to Chris, still maintaining his shield of light against the bio- electricity, and then spread his arms wide. Light poured out of him in all directions, forming a gigantic bubble of brilliant swirling colors. Just as the bubble completely formed, the fireballs smashed into the sides, and hail smashed on it from above, and gigantic spikes of rock slammed at it from below. None of it got through however. Chris held on to Taylin tightly and watched even more fireballs come at the bubble. `This is NUTS', Chris thought. `Can Taylin really hold up against all of this forever?' Chris was noticing the colors in the bubble were beginning to weaken and dull out. The bubble was shrinking too, but Light kept coming out of Taylin like a shining star, feeding it more and more energy. "You always play defense first, don't you Taylin? You always try to wait until the other magus has exhausted himself, but I have the power of 10 magus behind me, and I am also borrowing from the power of the gate. I can keep this up for a LONG time!" Samuel's smile frightened Chris to the point where he had to bury his face in Taylin's back. "Are you ready for my next move Taylin? I will crush you with the very barrier you seek to breach! There will be NOTHING left of you when I am through!" Samuel turned then and sent his bio-electricity flowing to the other 2 biosfos at the gate, and established a double link. The gate and the entire funnel shaped barrier then glowed a fierce orange, and a MASSIVE wave of light came down through the barrier, through the gate, and into the summit of Mt. Whitney. Samuel and the 10 magi began to rise higher and higher, and then slipped through the gate. Samuel then channeled massive amounts of fos through the barrier and into Mt. Whitney, causing the entire sky to light up in waves of orange. "Chris, I need you to touch asteri, QUICKLY! Keith, I need your power too!" Chris scrambled to picture the void in his mind again, and let the light in his head explode into a galaxy faster than it ever had before. "Link with me Chris, I need your power. I will channel it though you, I just pray that I will not burn you out, but if this doesn't work, we will ALL be burned!" Chris tried to direct a small amount of asteri to form a link with Taylin, and was almost blown clear off Taylin's back. Taylin was channeling SO much energy. As soon as the link was formed, Chris felt MASIVE amounts of asteri begin to flow through him, and the bubble Taylin was maintaining stretched out to twice its prior size, color rippling through it as brightly as ever before. Orange light from the gate continued to pour into Mt. Whitney, and the ground shook harder and harder. Then, without warning, a MASSIVE crack opened, rending the entire summit in two! Liquid hot MAGMA shot out and hit Taylin's bubble, and swallowed Taylin's bubble WHOLE! Taylin glowed like a miniature sun, and Chris begin glowing too. Two shining stars, in a bubble of light, being hit by an erupting volcano, were threatened to be extinguished forever. Taylin and Chris continued to shine brightly, Keith overwhelmed by the sheer amount of light coming out of them, unable to contribute. "Chris, it's time. Raise your hands and let the energy of the universe flow freely from you. We are going to use the power of this volcano to fuel our escape. Hold on to me tightly, and don't loose concentration for a nanosecond!" Chris nodded, continually reminding himself of his love for Taylin, and that he had his undying trust! "Chris, I love you, and no matter what happens, I promise we will get through this alive!" Taylin hugged Chris close, and they both lit up even brighter, the fire of love adding to the energy flowing between them. The bubble was beginning to crumble again under the pressure of the erupting magma, but the love between Taylin and Chris let more energy flow into it, and then without warning, sent them plummeting down into the volcano. The bubble raced down further and further, faster and faster until Taylin finally leveled it off. Taylin then nodded to Chris, and Chris hugged him tighter. The bubble then shot upwards, seemingly as fast as light itself. The bubble shot out the mouth of the volcano and SLAMED into the gate like a speeding bullet. The gate SHATTERED with the contact of the bubble, and the entire barrier vanished in a bright flash of white light! All the other magus in the area were scattered into the winds as the bubble broke through, speeding upwards at a great velocity. "I can't bloody believe it, you broke through the barrier! Hell, you BROKE the barrier! Taylin, you truly ARE a god!" Keith spoke like a priest addressing his god, with complete and utter reverence. Finally, after a while, the bubble slowed to a stop and the light flowing out of Chris and Taylin died out, but the bubble still remained. "No, I didn't do it alone this time. I couldn't have done it alone. Only because of Chris are we now safe. Chris gave me the power I needed to breach the barrier; otherwise it would have been far too strong for me to crack." Taylin stared into Chris's eyes long and hard, and Chris stared right back. "You saved us Chris, my twin shining star. I love you with all my heart and soul!" With seemingly endless care and boundless love, Taylin drew Chris in and kissed him deeply, tongues intertwining. Taylin slowly begin running his hands all over Chris's body, causing Chris to instantly become hard. Taylin let a hand feel the tender flesh of Chris's back, and another rub through his beautiful white hair. Chris wanted to go so much further with Taylin, his love for him stretching to limits beyond comparison. Chris's little boyhood ached for release as he ground it into Taylin's side, kissing Taylin as passionately as he could. "Oh Chris, I love you sooo much, but we can't continue here. My power wanes, and we need to make it to Ouranos-Nisi before I am fully spent. If you keep doing this to me, I'm going to loose my concentration, and we are going to plummet right back into the volcano!" Taylin slowly and very reluctantly pulled himself away from Chris, but still kept their hands intertwined. Keith was watching with an expression of inner confusion and worry. "You two have something so special between you. I have never seen that level of love between two people for my entire 48 years of life." Keith's eyes begin to tear up. "Actually, I have never known that kind of love at all." Keith held his fist over his mouth, and stopped himself from shedding a single tear. Chris let go of Taylin and turned in the air to give Keith a BIG hug! "You can be my friend Keith. I know you're a lot older than me, but you don't have to be alone anymore! Me and Taylin will be here for you, right Taylin?" Chris turned his big puppy dog eyes on Taylin, and Taylin couldn't help but take both Keith and Chris into his arms. "All magi are welcome in Ouranos-nisi, big and small, young and old, gay or straight, we will love you as long as you have love in your heart!" Taylin sang with a joyous tone. Keith did cry now. He let his tears run freely until he was spent. "We're finally out, aren't we? We're finally free of Adrian's grasp?" Keith asked, wiping tears from his face. Taylin nodded his head. "Yes, and now we need to go, before Adrian can reorganize. We need to make it to the safety of Ouranos-Nisi quickly." Both Chris and Keith nodded, and Taylin raised his hand. The bubble shot straight up to the heavens, through the clouds and out of sight. --------------- Well, this officially ends part 1 of my story. Chris is on his way to Ouranos now, and there he will experience a completely new way of life. On Ouranos, Chris will meet MANY new people of all different sorts and types. Also, a word of warning, I plan to make Ouranos's culture as involved as possible, and some of its cultural views will be substantially different from current views in the United States. Chris will learn much more about what it means to be a magus and, at the same time, explore his budding relationship with Taylin much deeper. I also want to thank all of you who have sent me emails about this series and I want to encourage you to keep sending more! Please, if you haven't sent me an email yet, and you are enjoying this series, please do! Also, I know I haven't gotten very far into Chris's sexual development yet, but know that he has at least 1000 years before his body turns 10 (but it won't take nearly that long, hehehe). At the same time, please realize that when Chris and Taylin do finally have sex, it will be because of the great love that they share. Thank you very much, Taylin