To Live Again In Paradise - Segment 08

Chapter 36

New Earth, Home of the Golden Ones

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Vulcan yelled this even as he ran out of the bedroom. Since that room was at the very end of the motor home, he was unable to see Melody near the middle of the darkened coach. The intermittent lightning flashes from the receding thunderstorm would light up the area right in front of him for a second two, but Melody was nowhere in sight.

“Melody, where the hell are you? Oh, damn, that hurt,” cried a surprised Vulcan. As a god, he never had to experience pain before. In his rush to come to Melody’s defense, he had forgotten his bare feet and stubbed his toe on a protruding chair.

“Stop yelling. You’ll scare him even more than he is right now.”

Vulcan followed Melody’s voice in the dark, and soon found her. She was sitting on the floor next to the kitchenette’s small table, so he squatted down before asking, “He? Why were you screaming, and who is this he?” He peered under the table and regretted the fact he had not taken the time to put on a robe. Melody seemed unperturbed about sitting naked next to a wild animal. He quickly stood and began pulling on Melody’s arm to get her away from what he perceived as a dangerous situation.

Melody her arm pulled out of his grasp, annoyed at him for making such a fuss. “This is only a scared little dog. Now, sit down and be quiet while I try to calm him down.”

Vulcan still disliked and resisted having someone, especially a woman, order him around. With a lot of muttering under his breath about bossy women giving him rabies, he once again joined Melody on the floor. “It’s a filthy beast. When did it get inside here? Never mind that. How did it?” He cringed when he saw Melody slowly reach out one hand toward the dog. “What are you doing?”

“Shush! He’s more scared of us, and I want to get him out so I can check his condition.” It took a few minutes with Melody speaking softly, but eventually the dog crawled out on his belly from under the small table. Both humans were able to see a worn collar around the dog’s neck from which hung a small identification tag.

By now, Vulcan had relaxed, especially when he saw the dog begin licking Melody’s fingers. “If he’s been in the motor home since we left San Francisco this morning, I think he might be hungry.” Vulcan again got to his feet and began checking in their recent store supplies for something a dog might want to eat.

“Give him a couple of those hot dogs I was going to cook for our supper,” suggested Melody. “We can go back to that store tomorrow and load up on regular cans of dog food.” Spotting something, she looked closer at the dog now lying on its side. “Um, Vulcan, he’s a she. Either she has been eating very well lately, or we’re about to have puppies.” She pointed to the dog’s slightly bulging belly with its row of nipples. “And I think it will happen soon.”

* * *

Just before dawn the next day, the two of them watched the dog they named Molly give birth to three tiny puppies. Seeing Melody get misty eyed over the beautiful babies, Vulcan became curious about something and quietly asked, “Sweetheart, when was the last time you bled?”

Startled, Melody looked away from the squirming puppies. “If you mean the last time I had my period, not since before Jupiter gave me to you.” She thought back to her time as his sexual slave on Luzon. “When I was living at the seraglio I don’t remember having one either.”

“None of the concubines did.” Vulcan stated that fact as if it were of no importance. ”Jupiter refused to allow any woman to have a child. He also insisted the slaves always be available for sex, so they never bled.”

“So why are you asking me now?” Melody tried to hide her anger. Vulcan obviously saw nothing wrong with Jupiter’s callus treatment of the women.

Vulcan did notice how upset Melody was, but he was not sure what he had said to cause it. He wisely decided simply to answer her question. “Well, we’ve been on New Earth for a couple months now, so I’m curious if you…”

“No, I haven’t and never will, thanks to your father’s rules,” interrupted Melody. “Being a father to the golden ones will have to satisfy you.” Glaring at him, for she always had wanted to have a big family, Melody hurried back into the bedroom. She wanted to get as far away from Vulcan as she could. Once in the room, she lay face down on the bed, unable to hold back the tears for her loss of any future children.

Chapter 37

Auspasia, Home of the Goddesses

Freya fell to her knees in terror when she watched the black cat coming toward her. She shut her eyes in disbelief as the feline began growing in size to tower over her. She only dared to look at him when she felt the vibration of his deep voice through the hardwood floorboards.

“My love, that’s better. I want you to see me as I sometimes show myself to females. Only males can withstand seeing my true image.” In front of the kneeling goddess stood a handsome, tall male. His skin was a black as Ralph’s fur had once been, and he stared down at Freya with the cat’s large, copper-colored eyes. There did not appear to be an ounce of fat on his lean body, and Freya was able to see every inch of him since he was completely nude.

She managed to say in a frightened whisper, “Who are you? Where is my Ralph?”

The man reached down and pulled Freya to her feet. “I am Ralph, or rather that was the body I recently chose after trying out many others.” He put his hands on her shoulders and gently walked her over to the table. “I am known by the name of Ra, but you may continue to call me Ralph. If you will sit very quietly, I’ll tell you why I’m here on Auspasia in your home.”

Once seated, Freya could not stop looking at the Egyptian sun god. His burnished, dark skin appeared brushed with oil. Obeying his request to remain quiet, she listened while he spoke, mesmerized by his sultry voice.

“When the other gods and minor deities unanimously decided on a migration to Luzon, I chose another path for myself.” Ralph stopped to make sure Freya was paying attention. Seeing she was, he continued, “Learning you and the other females were creating a world without those males, I knew this is where I would be the happiest.”

The malevolence in Ralph’s sudden smile broke the spell he had over Freya. She quickly asked, before she lost her nerve, “What have you been doing all this time? You said you only recently became my cat.”

“Quiet, woman!” His voice thundered throughout the room, and Freya cringed back into her chair. “You will learn all about me in good time. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, I decided a world with all the other gods sharing Earth females was not for me. I do not share a woman with another, never have, and never will.

“Arriving on Auspasia, I found myself in a sunlight meadow. This was a most fitting place for a sun god, don’t you think?” Ralph did not wait for an answer. “Dancing among the flowers was a beautiful female I later learned was a vestal virgin. You know, she was one of those women who worshipped that old hag Hestia. I’ve always thought this was such a waste of beautiful females, but that’s neither here nor there.”

Freya had met many of these young virgins. She also was a good friend of Hestia. Despite this, she held her tongue at hearing Ralph’s insulting comments. Hearing his next boast about what he did in that meadow, she wanted to cry.

“That little virgin was so beautiful and innocent.” Ralph appeared quite pleased with his ingenuity when he continued, “I decided to follow an example of what Jupiter as Zeus once did and turned myself into a white bull.”

“At first she thought I was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. Even though my urge to take her immediately was strong, I generously gave her time to become comfortable with me in this disguise. Wasn’t that thoughtful of me?”

Again, he did not wait for Freya’s response. “When I felt she was ready for me, I returned to a more human male form. The minute I picked her up in my arms and headed for a soft place in the meadow, the foolish woman began to scream for me not to rape her. Perhaps the sight of a magnificent naked man upset her.”

Ralph shrugged at this idea and went on, “I couldn’t believe she actually wanted to remain a virgin, but there are other ways to sexually enjoy women. Gracious to a fault, I left her hymen intact and agreed to only sodomize her.” It pleased Ralph to share this act of kindness with Freya. “I know this had made her happy, so I spent the next few hours doing it repeatedly. Yes, I must admit that was a delightful way to spend an afternoon.”

Ralph noticed Freya horrified expression and mistook it for delight in his generosity toward the vestal virgin. “For months now I’ve been leaving here at night and prowling around the village disguised at first as your cat. Since none of you lock your doors or windows, I’m able to enter any home and search out the sleeping female inside.”

“When your friend Aine told you about originally seducing that brutish Earth soldier by making him think it was a dream, I wanted to laugh. She was simply doing what I’ve been doing all this time.” Ralph finally stopped pacing and sat down at the table. He wanted to see Freya’s reaction at how good a lover her cat was.

“Once I changed from a feline into the man you see before you, I’ve since taken that same female and also many of the other virgins. Also, Freya, I never thought of it as rape since they all seemed to enjoy their dreams of me.”

Freya remembered stories many of the confused vestal virgins in the village had shyly told her. Ralph was correct that none of them felt that the man in their dream forced them to do anything against their will. Experiencing sex in what they considered a vision was the only way they would ever know a man. Each insisted she remained a virgin in mind, if not in body.

“I had one regretful incident happen since coming to Auspasia,” complained Ralph. “None of those women will ever see me as those in Egypt did. They will never see me in all my brilliance, for I’ve learned they cannot survive.” He gave a big sigh. “The one and only time I showed my true form as the sun god Ra was after I had sex with a beautiful but rather greedy woman.

“She insisted on touching my body, despite my previous warning. As I feared, the woman burst into flames and died screaming her love for me. As others in Egypt have done before her, the woman was unable to live long enough to enjoy the sun’s glory that I was willing to share with her.”

Ralph, or rather Ra, stood and walked to stand in front of Freya. He pulled the frightened goddess to her feet and took tight hold of hand. “Thank you for telling Aine that you approved of her soldier. With men now welcome on Auspasia, I no longer have to retain my feline persona. You, my love, will be the first to benefit from this new way of life.”

Freya tried to resist him, fighting with all her strength, when Ra started toward her bedroom. He ignored this and dragged her relentlessly through the doorway until they were only a few inches from her bed.

“Don’t worry, Freya, you’ll enjoy this.” His smile grew even crueler. “If not, it doesn’t matter. I am in charge now of what happens in this bedroom and on Auspasia.”

Chapter 38

New Earth, Home of the Golden Ones

Melody angrily pulled away when she felt Vulcan’s hand on her shoulder. “Go away, Vulcan. I love you with every fiber in my body, but right now I can’t stand the sight of you.”

Confused, Vulcan decided to ignore her and try to get to the source of her anger. “Sweetheart, what did I say? I just asked if you…”

Melody rolled over and sat up to face him. “I know what you asked. If you wanted to show me how cruel you could be, you succeeded.” Sorrow over the loss of any future children was stronger than her anger. She threw herself into Vulcan’s arms and began to cry in earnest. Her tears soon soaked the front of his shirt, but he knew anything he said right then would be pointless.

Finally, when Melody’s flood of tears slowed down to a trickle, Vulcan quietly explained why he asked that question. “I could not do anything about Jupiter’s rules while on Luzon. None of us could since he was the ruler of the universe. Until he ordered me to melt the chains of submission to create the new civilization, I had no real chance to fight back against his orders. Do you understand?”

Seeing Melody was listening and no longer crying, he continued on, “Since we came to New Earth, his harsh Luzon edicts no longer have any power over us. Why I asked if you had bled is you might already be carrying my child.”

This turned out to be the case. For the remainder of the long road trip up the coast, Melody could not stop smiling, at least when she was not throwing up. Vulcan did most of the driving while she spent the time on the kitchenette’s floor playing with Molly’s puppies. Vulcan named the two males Huey and Louie, while Melody insisted on calling the tiny female puppy Dewy.

“Sweetheart,” called out Vulcan one cloudy afternoon as they neared the outskirts of Seattle, “is there any place in particular you think we should settle down?”

Melody came forward and sat down in the passenger seat. Looking out the large front window, she watched as the motor home passed through the once crowded city. Here and there she would see a few of the golden people of New Earth, and all would wave as their parents drove by. “If you follow the road signs to downtown, we can stay at a hotel until we decide where we want to live.”

“Sounds good to me. Until you have the baby, I’d rather we have other people around us.” Vulcan headed the coach down route 5 and finally pulled up in front of the Hyatt-Olive 8. He chose this modern hotel since it was only a few blocks from Puget Sound, an area he wanted to explore.

Nine months to the day after Melody and Vulcan came to New Earth, she gave birth to a girl. Vulcan asked and got no argument from Melody that they name the baby Grace. Their first child, within minutes of her birth, had her delighted father wrapped around her tiny finger, and he insisted they have another child immediately. His exact words were, “Melody, when can we start making the next one?”

While Melody had been busy with the baby, he had spent time exploring the mainly deserted city and found a perfect place for them to live. He came back to the hotel one afternoon more exited than usual. “Sweetheart, how would you like to live in a place once called the Eagle’s Perch? One of our golden ones told me about this waterfront home with great views of Puget Sound!”

Having just finished feeding the baby, Melody put Grace onto her shoulder, patted her back, and smiled when the baby gave a tiny burp. Only then did she answer an impatiently waiting Vulcan. “How big is it? You insisted we have lots of children. Remember?”

Vulcan nodded, a big grin crossing his face. “Any time you’re ready, I’m more than willing and eager. Anyway, I checked the place out, and it has three bedrooms. That should be enough for now, and we can always move if we outgrow this home.”

Soon after Grace turned three months old, and with Molly and her rapidly growing family of three, Vulcan moved both human and canine families to nearby Bainbridge Island.
Never one to refuse her beloved husband anything, Melody soon became pregnant again. She never tired of his enthusiastic lovemaking, and he was an eager participant even after the children stopped coming.

Their second daughter, a petite redhead lovingly named Sabrina, soon had three brothers, Nathan, Aaron, and Jacob. All five children grew into delightful adults, getting their beauty from their father and their wisdom from their mother.

Chapter 39

Luzon, Home of the Old Ones

At the bottom of the mountain, a few centaurs were rounding up half a dozen horses that had managed to escape from their nearby village. Among them was Chiron, and he was the first to hear the sound of pounding hooves heading down the mountain pass road toward them.

When the horses came into view and then raced on by, the startled centaurs saw the beasts completely lathered in sweat. The four horses were still in their harness with the long leather leads dragging behind the last two animals. Chiron and two others galloped down the road after them and eventually managed to bring the four winded horses to a complete stop.

“These are the horses I sent down to Luzon Prime. Some of the old ladies must have taken the carriage out, but where is it?” Chiron looked back toward the mountain pass, but he was unable to see anything but empty road.

Rogete, another centaur who was also friends with some of the old ones, moved nervously on his four hooves about before saying, “Chiron, something is wrong. I think some of us ought to go up there and check it out.”

The third one interrupted before Chiron could answer. “Are you crazy? You know what’s up there. What did those old biddies ever do for us that we should risk our lives for them?” He snorted and left them to head back to the field.

Chiron sadly shook his head. “Forget him. He’s always been a coward. If you’re willing, let’s go see what spooked these horses.”

It took them only a few minutes to gallop up the mountain pass. When Chiron, closely followed by Rogete, came upon the bend in the narrow road, he heard the sound of someone hysterical screaming. “We’re coming,” he yelled and then immediately regretted doing that. Both centaurs frantically tried to stop running when they rounded the curve in the road and saw what was there.

Both centaurs were familiar with the Cyclopes, most especially with the one standing in front of them. Polyphemus had attacked their village recently and snatched up a couple of their horses for his lunch. Only after a heated fight with all the collected might of the centaurs was the Cyclops driven back to his mountain lair.

Chiron took his eyes off the creature long enough to find out who was doing the screaming. He quickly spotted Birgit crouched behind the tree on the side of the road. She had her eyes shut tight to keep out the horrific sight of the Cyclops gnawing on the remains of her friend’s leg.

Polyphemus was too intent on finishing his meal to come after Birgit right away, although he knew she was hiding behind the tree. He planned on catching her later and bringing her back to his den for a midnight snack. His snack, not hers. Because of this inattention, he failed to notice the two centaurs.

Birgit saw then, though, and stopped screaming. Noticing Chiron frantically motioning for her to move closer to the road, she slowly made her way out from her hiding place.

“Help her up on my back,” whispered Chiron, when the terrified old woman reached them. “That’s it, Rogete. Now, ma’am, hold on tight. We’ve got to run for our lives.” Birgit wrapped her arms around Chiron’s chest, and the half-man half-horse centaurs began racing back down the mountain pass road.

They could hear a loud furious roar even over the sound of their pounding hooves. Polyphemus saw his evening snack disappearing and threw Janine’s leg bone after them. He then began to follow them, but tripped over the remains of the shattered carriage. The gigantic monster fell causing a massive earthquake.

The violent trembling of the ground reached the fleeing trio, and they raced to get to the bottom of the mountain pass as quickly as possible. It took another half hour to reach Luzon Prime, and the centaurs headed immediately for the seraglio. Birgit slid off Chiron’s back and landed on her knees, unable to stand from the fright she had just experienced.

“You’ve safe now,” said Rogete, although he also was unable to forget what he had seen on the mountain road. He stood next to Chiron and watched the old women pouring out of the big building. “I think you’d better warn them about what’s happening outside of the city.”

Chiron agreed. Rumors had started to reach the centaurs’ village about monsters suddenly appearing throughout Luzon. Birgit had escaped with her life only because of the centaurs’ intervention and the stupid greed of Polyphemus.

“Ladies, I need you to pay attention,” called out Chiron, raising his voice so those women watching him from the second-floor balcony could hear him. “Something terrible has happened to Luzon since the gods left us.” He turned and helped Birgit to her feet. “You all should stay within the confines of Luzon Prime where you hopefully will be safe.”

“Listen to him, please.” Birgit leaned against Chiron’s side, taking comfort from the nearness of her rescuer. “I watched Janine die, and I would have been next except for these two.”

“Janine’s dead? What happened?” Izzy was the one who asked this, having risen from her sick bed on hearing Chiron’s loud voice outside the seraglio. She weakly swayed back and forth at the foot of the stone stairs, waiting impatiently for someone to answer.

Interrupted now and then by each of the centaurs, Birgit told of their encounter with the hungry Cyclopes. By the time the three of them finished sharing all the horrendous details of Janine’s death, many of the old ones were in tears.

“So, you see,” concluded Chiron, “until we can figure out how to rid Luzon of this danger, I think those from the various villages should come and live here. There might be safety in numbers, and we can stay in the many homes the gods deserted.”

In this manner, Luzon Prime became home to the satyrs and selini who had once worshiped Dionysus. Centaurs and their horses along with a myriad of occupants from the outlying villages streamed into the city.

The world of Luzon soon contained those huddled together in Luzon Prime and the ravaging monsters moving ever closer to the city.

Chapter 40

New Earth, Home of the Golden Ones

Over the next several decades, all five of the children born naturally to Melody and Vulcan married. Their spouses were among the children of the original golden ones of New Earth. Their progeny scattered around the world, and eventually the bloodlines intermixed to end as one glorious race of humans. Skin colors did eventually change according to the climate where people lived, but harmony continued despite or perhaps because of these differences.

There was peace throughout the earth, but it was no utopia by any means. Good and venal personality traits of the ancient gods and their women remained in the cloud-seeded offspring, but pure evil no longer existed among them. It sat trapped on a shelf in a faraway Luzon forge. Vulcan had poured the melted gold from Jupiter’s chain of submission into a mold, and there this dark vileness waited for someone to set it free.

When Melody was in her 93rd year, she lay in bed beside her recently departed husband. Vulcan had died peacefully in his sleep, and Melody talked to him for the last time, her love still as strong as when they first came to New Earth. “No regrets, my beloved, none at all. We were blessed with exceptionally long and happy lives, and we both knew it had to come to an end some day.”

Her voice was soft in the quiet bedroom. “Vulcan, you were the love of my life as well as my best friend and playmate. When you slipped away from me during the night, you left me so lonely. If there is an afterlife, I am more than ready to join you in our next adventure together.”

Melody looked at his mane of dark hair, which had turned gray with age. She knew his beautiful green eyes now hid behind closed eyelids. She slowly pulled back the blanket that they rumpled many times in the past while making wild, passionate love. Even as Melody’s eyes filled with tears, she saw Vulcan as he was when they first met, not as he was now, so cold and lifeless. With a sigh, Melody moved as close to Vulcan as she could and felt her breathing slowing down.

Her last memories during those few remaining minutes of her life were of his powerful and naked body joining forever with hers. Her last whispered words were, “I love you and always will.”

To continue reading this story, chapters 41 thru 45 are in the link below.

To Live Again In Paradise - Segment 09  (GC) Chapters 41 thru 45 #2091518 by J. A. Buxton