The Sons Of Cleito (The Abductions of Langley Garret Book 1) (6 page)

'I have some reading for you. Can I come in?'

'Eh, sure,' I said, surprised at her request.

'For you,' she said, as she held up a canvas sack.

'Oh yes. Leda told me I would need to do some homework.'

'I'll just put them here,' she said as she laid the sack on my writing desk.

'Yes, fine.'

'Have you eaten?'

'Um no, not yet.'

'Can I prepare something then? And we can start over lunch.'

'Fine, um, but start what?'

'Studying. I'll be your tutor for the next few days.'

My face must have shown my surprise as Chara smiled and nodded her head, then turned. She opened the wall to the buffet cabinet and started on preparing our lunch.

'What will I be studying?'

'History,' she said, turning her head to me and smiling. 'Why don't you have a look at the books while I get our food ready?'

I took the books from the sack.
Evenor and Leucippe
was the first title I saw followed by
Sons of Cleito
. The next was
The First King
. I started to gather immediately that my history lessons with Chara would be about Greek mythology as I took the last book from the sack.
Of Gaia, Uranus and Chaos.

'So we're studying Atlantis I suppose?'

'Among other things,' she replied without looking up from her preparations.

'So I see. Can I start reading?'

'Sure, lunch won't be long. There's a fold out table in the cupboard near the bathroom door. Maybe you could set it up near the sofa and we can have lunch there.'

'Yes ok,' I said, and trotted off as ordered. Returning with the table and getting it ready before grabbing the book that first caught my attention;
Of Gaia, Uranus and Chaos.
I sat down on the sofa and started thumbing the first few pages as I waited for lunch. As I returned to the first page and started reading, I couldn’t believe what it contained. I must have read thirty or more pages of total improbability about the creation of the gods and how they lived forever, and then how they had been despatched by the disbelievers, but would return again soon to rule over those who are not of us, when Chara interrupted my concentration by serving lunch on the table.

'I see it's taken your interest,' she said, and then sat rather close beside me, due to the size of the sofa. The small table now replete with sandwiches, fruit and orange juice. She poured a glass of orange juice for me and we clinked glasses. After my nap, a glass of fresh cold juice tasted good. She refilled my glass and offered me a plate of sandwiches. I munched away on egg, lettuce and mayonnaise thinking about the book I had started to read.

'A fantasy I ….,' I went to say, but was then stopped mid sentence by the strangest sensations. My skin began tingling and the sides of my neck were becoming very hot. I clasped my hands together to stop them trembling and coughed as I nearly choked on my sandwich. I looked at Chara sitting next to me, so close that I could feel her body against mine.

'It will pass soon,' she said, as she gently laid her hand on mine, still clasped together and trembling in my lap. 'We have only ever known of you as Soter, the spirit of safety, preservation and deliverance from harm. We have all wished, waited and dreamt of your return and that you will protect us once again.'

'I'm sorry, I don't underst …..,' I managed to say, as my body continued quivering while weird sensations rained all over me.

'You have never been close to one of your own before, so it will take a few minutes for your body to adjust to me being so near and touching you.'

My trembling extended from my hands, up my arms and into my chest as I looked at Chara. She wrapped an arm around my neck and then hugged me, as I felt my erection throbbing, and then a taste of salt on my lips and tongue. The sides of my neck were on fire and I struggled to breathe.

'It's your natural arousal. It will pass soon,' she whispered as she held me tight.

I couldn't be sure but it must have been well over fifteen minutes before some of the sensations began receding. My neck was the first, losing the intense heat slowly, then the trembling in my chest slowed, as well as my arms. My erection started to relax and the taste of salt in my mouth lessened while my gasping for breath reduced and I could breathe, rapidly, but without the feeling of fighting for air.

'Fuck,' I managed to mutter and I heard Chara giggle in my ear. After a few minutes she let me go and sat back a little from me. I waited for my composure to return before I tried to speak, while Chara munched on a sandwich. I had feelings of confusion, shame and guilt as I reached across and took a sandwich as well, then sat back and wondered what I should say. I chewed on tuna and tomato as I thought about it, and hoped my stomach would be welcoming of my offering.

'Feeling better?'

'Yes a little, thank you,' I said, without turning to look at her. 'Did you do that?'

'Yes. It's one of the things we'll need to talk about. Your mind, body and spirit will have to adjust to being on Decem Filios for the first time in your life, and being in contact with other Deos.'

'Gods?'

'Words and names have been affixed, changed and misunderstood over eternity and mythology has created more mystery and confusion. We are the original inhabitants of our planet, from the sea unlike the mortals, and once again our evolutionary birth right to be here is under threat. But it is also the perfect opportunity to strike against them with the element of surprise and regain our rightful place on the throne of sovereignty.'

I finished a mouthful of my sandwich, which my stomach hadn't argued with so far, and digested her little speech for a moment. I turned to her. 'So this is Atlantis then?'

'Probably not. It was a myth created a long time ago, but perhaps the myth had its origins through some accidental human contact with us and then of course, misunderstandings. Humans, or mortals as we call them, have always tried to explain why we are here, even though they can't prove that we are here at all, but they use their own understanding of reality to believe we are.'

'Are you saying you, or we I should probably say now, don't exist?'

'Of course we do. We just don't want the humans to know that we do.'

'Like mermaids?'

'Exactly,' Chara said, and poked her tongue at me playfully.

'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be trivial.'

'It's not. It's exactly what I mean about how humans have tried to explain our existence.'

'You did a pretty good impersonation of one this morning.'

'Were you shocked?'

'Strangely enough, no.'

'So what went through your mind when you saw me?'

'Apart from you nakedness and beauty? That you belonged there.'

'Thank you, and you belong there too. That's why you craved the taste of salt when your lust for me manifested itself.'

'Oh I'm getting awfully lost here,' I said, as I took another sandwich and munched on it for a few moments. Trying to put the pieces of our conversation together into something logical I could understand. Chara waited silently and patiently. I muttered to myself as I played with the puzzle. 'Ok, we're both gods, so I presume Leda is one a well. You can breathe underwater, so you must have amphibian genetics of some description and my attraction to you made me crave salt. How am I doing so far?'

'Keep going.'

'My neck got all hot over you, so maybe it wouldn't have felt so hot if my head was under water. Salt water I gather would be preferable. Now if I put all this together I come up with the conclusion that you, or we I suppose, evolved from the sea and somehow changed in form over millions of years to become a land dwelling animal as well. So some strand of an ancient amphibian species, and because of that, maybe we can only procreate by returning to the sea.'

'Very good. Anything more?'

'You make very good sandwiches. But they'd taste much better with wine. Or is the wine and gods collocation a myth as well?'

Chara leant forward, and a little closer to me. 'No, it's not a myth. I'll see what I can do,' she said smiling at me. Her face so close to mine that I could almost taste her breath. The temptation to kiss her swept across me, but not with the force of my first rush of lust for her. She didn't move, except her eyes. Moving almost imperceptibly back and forth between my eyes and my mouth. It had been so long since I'd had to decide if a woman wanted to be kissed for the first time or not that I couldn't decide what to do. I looked at her eyes and mouth as she did mine. I moved my head a few microns closer and she didn't make to move away. Only her lips moved. Opening only a little, in invitation. Our eyes locked as our mouths moved closer, and then when her eyes slowly closed, I knew. I kissed her gently and then moved back from her. Finding her eyes asking for more.

Chara had her legs curled up on the sofa with my arm around her as she leant her head on my shoulder, while we finished the sandwiches she had prepared.

'I was expecting to be reading ancient text books all afternoon and evening.'

'Are you complaining?'

'Of course not, it's well, a bit of a surprise to have a beautiful young woman in my arms.'

'As I was never expecting to be held tenderly by Soter.'

'I'm just Langley, Chara. Just Lang.'

'By any name then Lang. But we know that you have been returned to us so that you will ensure our protection.'

'Protection from what or who?'

'Only you know Soter.'

'I don't know anything, really.'

'But I have to tell you that this afternoon wasn't included in my briefing notes. I'm sorry.'

'So our kiss wasn't part of the plan?'

'No.'

'I don't understand.'

'Nor do I Lang. I promise you, nor do I,' she said, looking up at me. Her eyes though, asked me to kiss her again. I did.

*****

The rest of our afternoon took the form that was probably originally envisaged by the other gods, or whoever they were, who had planned our study session. With me reading at the desk and Chara lying on the sofa, watching something on a flexible screen that she'd had folded in her jeans' pocket, but was ready to answer my questions or offer explanations. While she gave me the choice of the book to select, she knew from my short reading session before lunch which one I wanted to read first.

'Was the original plan to deliver these books to me and then go back to whatever it was that you were doing?'

'Perhaps,' she said, without looking up from her screen.

'Then come back later and collect me for a question and answer session in a sterile meeting room or something like that?'

'Maybe.'

'And no one knows that you decided to change the plan a little?' I asked as I continued reading.

'I doubt it.'

'But you did know who I was when you found me sitting on that rock.'

'No, not until we were in the elevator.'

'No one told you who you were sent out to collect?'

'No.'

'So what happened in the elevator to bring you to believing I was Soter?'

'I didn't know you were Soter then. I only knew that I would fall in love with you.'

'How?'

'Being one of us has its advantages.'

'Meaning gods?'

'I prefer us.'

'As omniscient though it would seem.'

'Perhaps, but I did need Leda to tell me that you were Soter, so maybe not so omniscient ' she said, but for the first time in our conversation she looked over to me and smiled.

'Ok, I have one more question.'

'And?'

'If Gaia is Earth, what or where is Uranus?'

'Just before Neptune I think.'

'Right. And a little way past Saturn,' I said, responding to her attempt at humour.

'Exactly.'

'Ok, but what I mean is; is there a connection between us as you call us, and Uranus? A godly connection from Gaia giving birth to a distant planet?'

'Good powers of assumption so far Lang.'

'Some kind of division that was designed to keep us separated from the humans, by being Uranians?'

'Possibly, but as I said, names have been mystified over time, so they are hardly likely to be literal in meaning.'

'Yes I understand that, but if this separation exists and we are hidden from humans, how was it that I was brought here by people who were clearly and most definitely more than likely CIA or MI5 humans rather than gods?'

'We can't survive in total isolation from humans. There are lines of communication and practices in place that allow us to interact with humans when necessary. After all, there are many of us, like you, who live or have lived a human existence.'

'So? The CIA like people?'

'No names, but I suppose your idea of Uranians works quite well.'

'What?'

'Let's say that there are those who help us that don't belong on either side.'