Fall of Man, Birth of Wizard
by hey citrus
1.
The blond boy and the darker boy lay under the apple tree, naked and unashamed, cushioned and gently tickled by the long, plump grass. The sun parted the branches and warmed their skin. An infinity of green stretched out before them; an eternal, unblemished summer.
They daydreamed and dozed in this tranquil paradise, children of the Earth, for whom Earth was created. They made sleepy, dreamy love, soft mouths on dewy skin; limbs and souls entwining in pure innocence. They clung and gasped in view of the plants and trees and animals, in view of a watchful, sadly smiling God.
2.
They were not afraid of the snake. They did not know fear; had never learned mistrust. They had only curiosity for the red-green serpent which wound around their legs.
When it spoke, only the darker boy could understand it, and had to translate. The blond boy agreed immediately; impulsively plucking an apple and proffering it to his lover.
The darker boy faltered; loyal to the God with whom he had walked many times through the Garden. But his loyalty was clouded by the feathery touch on his leg, the gentle breath in his ear.
He took the apple and bit.
3.
The snake reared up, hissing and grinning with aggressively bared fangs.
The sky swelled with purple-black clouds and grew heavy with electricity. Stinging rain battered them; earth-thumping thunder shook them.
Leaves withered on the trees. Fruit shrivelled and became rotten. The grass beneath them turned patchy yellow-brown and water-sodden. Mud smeared their legs as they slid about, terrified, on the puddled ground. The temperature dropped and they shivered with a bone-deep chill.
They realised with horror that they were naked. They coated themselves with thick mud, layered with crumbling leaf skeletons. They hid behind tree trunks and cried for mercy.
4.
They hunched in shame and cringed from the steady, resigned voice of God as He berated them. With pained effort, he spoke his judgement. The curse clung to them like the mud on their bodies.
They wailed and pleaded as He waved His hand and the ruined Garden disappeared, replaced by dusty desert land where little could grow. There, in the throat-singeing dry heat, amongst the endless rocks and scrubby, dry bushes; amongst the snakes, spiders and scorpions, the vultures and jackals which all now bore them menace; there in their new world of evil and sin, they were abandoned.
5.
As God had prophesised, they bickered and fought and struggled to stay alive. They lost their cherubic plumpness as their malnourished bodies became jutting and angular. Their rosiness became a sallow grey. The skin on their feet grew hard as they roamed in the dust, scratching around like hens for food.
They covered their bodies in jackal skins and spent nights huddled in caves where they clawed and bit and mauled each other in selfish, lustful frenzy.
They invented guilt and blame, and carried both like a boulder in their empty stomachs. They learned to fear and hate. They raged.
6.
One day, as they scoured the arid landscape far from their shelter for bitter berries and stringy rabbits, they were attacked by a huge and unknown beast, golden with a long mane.
It lunged, roaring, for the blond boy, landing paws-in-stomach, knocking him to the ground. Jaws wide, teeth exposed, it readied itself to rip out the boy's soft throat.
With a matching roar, the darker boy leapt at it, jamming a sharpened stone in its side. Furious, wounded, it lashed out with strong claws. Undeterred, he set at it with sticks and rocks until it took fright and fled.
7.
And so the lion helped them to relearn the lesson of selfless love.
The blond boy nursed the deep claw-wounds striping the darker boy's sides. He bathed him like a baby in dusty rivers and, birdlike, fed him food from his own mouth. He sang him remembered songs from the Garden; the lullabies of God from their innocent youth.
Soon the darker boy was healthy, and wore his scars as a reminder of his fierce, protective love, and his lover's nurture.
The two boys, abandoned by God, left to perish in the desert, became each other's Gods, and became strong.
8.
They lay in the cave, bundled like puppies, so that it was hard to tell which boy owned which limbs. They snored and purred and woke and spoke their love.
A bird flew over their heads, coughed, dropped a tail feather before them, and landed, wheezing, in a corner of the cave. Before they could rise, it burst into blue flames, casting a light both terrible and beautiful over their bodies.
The darker boy picked up the feather. The far end sparked. From the cave floor, bright flowers bloomed.
Thus was magic born; thus was the birth of the wizard.