Well, here is the first chapter of this fic. After seeing how many hits just the prologue got I wrote out an outline and charicter bios just for the hell of it. I just got so wrapped up in writing the bios, that I figured I may as well do the whole fic, so here it is. Thanx for reading, and please don't forget to review.
The days come and the days go, and I usually pay them no mind, but, today is different. Today sticks out among all the days of my five thousand plus year life, because, today is the day that I die. A quick slash of the sword, a flicker of light, and it's all over.
You have an amazing amount of clarity the moments before your death. The nanoseconds before the final darkness seem to stretch out for an eternity. Something that is rather ironic given that I'm over 5000 years old. Many immortals find ways to ground themselves as they make their way through the years. It is a hard thing to go through life having to watch your friends and loved ones die and fade away into dust. As strange as it may sound, many immortals never make it through their first year, and those that do, never make it past their first half century. Not because they lose their heads due to inexperience. On the contrary, in matters of survival, most step up to the learning curve quite quickly. What makes things hard on most immortals is when people from their previous life as a mortal start dying off. After you die the first time, it's hard having to let go of all the loved ones of your former life. To them, you are dead. It's not like you can just show up on their door step and take them out for a pint. The easiest way is to just let them get on with their lives, and you start out on yours. But as they get older, and start dying on you, you lose them again, and losing someone you love twice in one lifetime is something that few have the constitution to handle.
Many immortals are constantly on the move. Partially to avoid being found by other immortals, but for the most part, mostly so that they don't form too many attachments to the mortal world. Granted, it may be a lonely existence, but many find that it is the best way to maintain their sanity. They move in, and move out, never staying in one place for too long, which for an immortal could be anywhere from a few decades to a century.
Then there are the social immortals. Immortals whom are not able to handle the solitary life. They travel through the centuries making friends with other immortals. They take a great risk living their lives in a circle of other immortals. Never sure if they or when their supposed friend will come for their head. As the gathering draws closer and closer, it is inevitable that you will have to face them one day. Some, like Duncan and Connor, were fortunate to have kinsmen to accompany them through the centuries. Duncan and Connor had each other, and I had my brother. From the day we were born, we were inseparable. We were born together, we fought together, and we became immortals together.
It is thought among believers of the Methos legend that I was the first immortal. On the contrary my brother, Lucipher, and I were the second immortals on this little blue ball. Actually, if you want to get technical, my brother was born a little before I was, so that would make me the third. My brother and I made our way through life trying to find meaning to our lives. It's easy now. If you become an immortal, all you need is for another immortal to fill you in on the rules, and send you on your way….. Well that is if they don't take your head first. But for me and my brother, it wasn't that simple. There were no rules for combat, there was no one around to explain to us what a quickening was, or about the gathering. All we knew was that for some reason, we could not die.
We both lay on some long forgotten battlefield to some long forgotten war in some forgotten long country. I remember glimpses of memory appearing to me as I lay in the darkness of death. I remember the battle. My brother and I stand back to back in the middle of the battlefield killing everything in sight. Our faces splattered with the blood of our fallen enemies. Their bodies, lying, eviscerated at our feet. We were twin terrors. When we were together, no one would stand a chance. When we fought, it was as if we could read each other's minds. When one of use dodged a lunging attacker, the other was right there to end their pathetic existence. But this time, I parried a blow, but Lucipher was not there to finish him off. I turn to see that some how, they had split us up, and five men had surrounded my brother. I fight my way through the battlefield towards my brother. I see Lucipher take out one of the warriors. I cut my way through the battle. Slashing through bone, smashing skulls, killing anyone who got in my way. It didn't matter if they were friend of foe. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and right now, I was carving one through that battle field.
I charge through the remaining four men, taking off one of their heads in the process. My brother is preoccupied fighting two men. I take out another one before someone pushes me into my brother. With lightning fast reflexes, Lucipher turns around and runs his sword right through me up to the hilt.. I didn't even feel it.
We gaze into each other's eyes. I see the horror in my brother's eyes as he watches the life slip from mine. Three enemy warriors take this opportunity to rush my brother. One of them stabs my brother through the back. They pull him away, he doesn't even fight back. Our eyes never leave each other until he finally disappears into a sea of bodies.
I lay in the darkness of death when I feel a sharp pain in my stomach. I feel someone rummaging through my clothes. No doubt grave robbers looking for valuables. I sit up and take in a deep breath. The woman, who was picking at my body like a vulture, falls back. Believing that I was some sort of demon, she screams and runs away from me in terror.
My vision is blurred, and there is a ringing in my ears. As a gut impulse, I call out for my brother.
"Lucipher!" My vision slowly starts to clear up. "Lucipher!" I survey my surroundings. The battlefield is carpeted with dead bodies.
I distinctively remember being stabbed. I feel around my abdomen. Sure enough, there is a hole in my clothes, and dried blood, but there was no wound. Perhaps that woman was right. Maybe I am a demon. After a lifetime living with a twin brother, a part of me starts to get terrified at the thought that I will be alone for the rest of my life. Suddenly, I hear a muffled voice calling out to me. I see a hand sticking out from a pile of bodies.
I dig through the corpses trying to find the source of the voice. I finally pull off the bodies, to find Lucipher groggily looking up at me. We spent hours searching the battlefield, rummaging through corpses, looking to see if there were others like us. Others who, for some reason, could not die. For the next century my brother and I went from battlefield to battlefield looking for other immortals.
It was early morning one morning. We had set up camp near a stream in what is present day Turkey. We had begun to think that we were the only immortals in the world when we felt that strange sensation for the first time. It woke us from a dead sleep. We didn't know what it was. It was like all the hairs on our body standing up on end, and some sort of electric current flowing through us. We almost never left each other's side, so it was the first time that we had ever sensed another immortal.
We unsheathed our weapons not knowing what to expect when a lone rider on a pale horse rides towards us through the morning mists.
"Greetings fellow immortals!" a voice calls out as a shady figure dismounts from his horse. "My name is Azriel"
"Fellow Immortals?" my brother warily asks. "We had begun to think that we were the only ones."
Azriel steps forward and offers his hand.
"Holt" I say as I hold my sword up to this stranger's throat. "How do we know that we can trust you?"
"Be calm friend, I mean you now harm," Azriel says while holding his hands up in a defensive posture. "and besides, we are immortal, it's not like we can kill each other.
Lucipher steps in and lowers my sword. "Yes Brother. Let's trust him. He is the first immortal that we have crossed paths with. This means that we are not alone. If he is immortal like us, then there may be more."
"More of what?" I expound. "Abominations of humanity like us?"
"I pray you sir," Azriel says calmly, "if you would just come with me, all will be explained."
"By whom?" I ask "You? From your appearance, you are barely twenty."
"As my appearance suggests, it is true that I was barely twenty when I first became an immortal, but my death was nearly fifty years ago."
"Then who? Your master?" I ask.
"I have no master!" Azriel remarks, breaking from his calm demeanor. "Our leader and the first immortal, Michalus, will explain all."
"Wait! There are more immortals?" Lucipher asks excitedly.
"I don't trust him." I whisper to my brother Lucipher.
"We must trust him, what other option do we have?" My brother says. "I love you brother, but we cannot persist to make out way through the centuries alone."
"I still don't know about any of this," I say hesitantly "but if it is what you want brother; I will go along with it for now."
It was a three day ride before we finally reached the base of what is now known as Mount Ararat. Azriel lead us through a secret pass up the mountain. It was the middle of winter. The bitter cold of the wind penetrated to your bones. I had begun to lose faith when I started to make out a dark shape in the distance through the blowing snow. As we approached, I was able to recognize that it was a building, and the closer we got, the bigger it got. When we finally reached our destination, I was amazed as to the shear size of the structure. A gust of warm air rushed out at us as the huge double doors opened, creaking loudly.
As the centuries passed, mortals came to believe that it was on Mt. Ararat where Noah's Biblical Ark landed. I have no idea where the biblical scholars got this notion. Of all the immortals in the world, I can assure you that there was no Ark, or a flood for that matter, but the first time that I walked through the secret mountain sanctum, I could see where mortals first got the idea for the story. Lucipher and I could not believe what we were seeing. The sound of foreign birds and the fragrances of strange tropical flowers bombard our senses. All things that should not be on the peak of a barren mountain, during the bitterest of winters was right before us; a menagerie of plants and animals.
Of all the beauty around us, it all paled in comparison to the beauty of the creature that approached.
"Azriel, you made it." said a beautiful woman with long golden blond hair flowing behind her as she greets Azriel with a hug "Everyone else is here….. Oh you've brought friends."
All through my life, I never believed in the existence of angels, but at that moment, I was in the presence of such beauty that I thought that I had somehow stumbled through the gates of heaven. Lucipher notices the blank expression on my face. "What is the matter Brother?" he asks quizzically. I can barely comprehend what he said. My eyes never left the blond hair beauty before us.
Azriel and this angel on earth dressed in a white gown walked towards us. "Porpheria, I would like to introduce you to Methos and Lucipher. They are Immortals as well."
She greets Lucipher cordially, and then turns to me. Our eyes meet, and all time seems to stop. After a long few seconds she remembers her manners. "G-Greetings dear sir" She says with her cheeks deeply flushed.
"Err Follow me please, Michalus and the others will want to meet you." Porpheria squeaks meekly.
"Pardon me miss, but how many others are there?" Lucipher asks Porpheria.
"Well counting you two, there are thirteen." Porpheria says before motioning for them to follow her.
"Come friends" Azriel says. "As I said before, all will be explained."
Porpheria takes Azriel's arm and they walk, arm and arm, though a big archway. She looks back over her shoulder at me, and her eyes beckon me to follow her.
Still hesitant about all of this, I give my brother a quick nod, and we follow Porpheria and Azriel through the archway.
This chapter was shorter than what I usually write, but I wanted to get something posted given how long it has been since I up loaded the prologue. This has more of a set up for what is going to happen as I set up the story arch. I hope that you like this chapter, and based on what I have outlined for this story, I'm really looking forward to writing this fic. Thanx for reading and Please don't forget to review.