Hello again to all my fans and readers! So I've finally gotten to getting my next series up. Just a little note to you all, this series has nothing to do with my previous series "The Road Of Life." This particular story is set in a post-apocalyptic world (as will be explained.) I hope you all like my new series! To start us off I've decided to tease you all with the prologue! Also, as always I LOVE comments, constructive criticism, ideas and suggestions! This is a M/M Story series. Here's the prologue of The Nature of Life.

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The Nature of Life

Prologue - The Great War:

Centuries ago, in our distant past, fur-kind raged a great war, filled with destruction and malice over petty differences. Intolerances of the different races, differences in opinions, difference in the way furs believed in religion, differences in the love shared between genders; All these brought on the Great War. The great technologically advanced weapons laid waste to the Earth and laid waste to innocent life. The toxins laid ruin to the Earth; poisoning the air, soil and water beyond repair. Mother Earth was furious with fur-kind and made certain that the only safe place for our kind was below the surface, where we would never again feel the warmth of the sun, feel the spring breezes or any of Mother Earth's grand works we had come to enjoy over the centuries of time. Few survived the aftermath of the Great War, but those who did survive settled in colonies below the surface, trying to find ways to make the surface safe to live in once more and to appease the Earth Mother.

Centuries passed and our people had returned to our primal instincts. We hunted on the surface carefully, using special breathing masks that could filter the toxic air for up to half a day. Our weapons had become primal too. We learned how to use spears and axes as well as regaining our instincts with tooth and claw. Most of the 'modern' weapons had been lost in the Great War. Our life was simple now, driven by our efforts merely to survive. We retained our intelligence and furmanity, but lost a great deal of comforts in the world we had at one point taken for granted.

Those of us born in the aftermath knew little of the world before. Though our parents and elders taught us of what they knew, all we saw was the darkness of our caves and colonies. Elder Miesh always told us wonderful stories of the surface world, making it seem more beautiful than anything, making it seem as though the world above was still beautiful and always would be. I grew up on those stories and often fantasized about freely walking in the world above again one day. In our colonies, the moment we turn 16 we are allowed to go to the surface world to hunt with the rest of the men, receiving breathing masks of our own and getting the opportunity to prove ourselves as great hunters.

In the aftermath of the Great War the Earth Mother allowed animals to survive on the surface. She allowed them to adapt to the new, harsh environment and to be able to breathe in the toxic air. Mother Earth was also kind to us by allowing animals to still be an edible food source. For centuries colonists have tried to deduct why this is possible, but none can come up with a solid answer. Those of us who still practiced the ways of the Earth knew simply that the Earth Mother allowed it to be so because we were all her children. Even though we had, in our past, become ruthless, heartless beings who almost destroyed the world, we were still her children, which is why she still allowed us to live. Since the animals above, on the surface, had always been the innocent creatures in life they were allowed to thrive on the surface, free from the toxins that forced us to live underground.

My first trip to the surface world was amazing. Merely because everything Elder Miesh had said about the surface world was true. It had become a world overgrown with plant life and trees. Though most people only saw 'deadly, poisonous, toxic plants' I saw beautiful flowers and intricately designed foliage. From Elder Miesh I learned about certain plants, learned which ones were toxic and which ones were actually safe to use and bring back to the colony. Only a year after my first trip to the surface Elder Miesh passed away. I took what knowledge he had given me and continued to learn about the world above. My story and adventure has just begun, there are many things I would come to learn in this new world, many lessons the Earth Mother had yet to teach me and the rest of fur-kind.