Hey Guys! Been working hard with lots of stuff coming up in life but I finally did get around to finishing up Chapter 1 of my new series, The Nature of Life! I won't get much into detail about it, I'll just let you read. Just some fore-warnings though: this story is a M/M Post-Apocalypse Adventure story and contains elements of explosions, awesome epicness, gay romance, Violence, and gay graphic sexual content that is not suited for viewers under the age of 18. You have been warned, if you don't like any of the above it is best to avoid this new series. (Basically this story series as a whole is probably ((definately)) rated R). As always I love suggestions, Ideas, constructive criticism, comments, rates and stuff. So without further ado here's chapter 1!

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The Nature of Life: ~Chapter 1~

Who We Are:

My name is Arian Blackwell, I have lived here in the Willow Colony for seventeen Earth cycles and am still a follower of the late Elder Miesh. I'm a Wolf, standing about 5'9" which is actually quite short for my age. Living in the colony here are many different furs, but as for my family it's just me and my elder brother, Tyrus Blackwell. Our parents passed ten Earth cycles ago, lost to a tragic accident while on a scouting mission. My brother Tyrus has cared for me ever since then.

Tyrus can be a bit of a hard ass at times, he was greatly affected by the loss of our parents and practically forced to grow up right away to take care of me. Due to this at times he seemed cold and extremely protective. We differed greatly from each other because he was strong in voicing his opinions and not at all afraid or ashamed to use brute force to back his opinion or way of life. I held tightly to my beliefs and ways, but I was always open to new ideas, new ways of doing things and never used brute force to force my own opinions upon others. Although if someone wanted to try challenging me and my ideas with brute force I was usually strong enough to defend myself.

Me and my brother got a long well enough, but there was always a bit of a gap between us, something that separated us from being as close as brothers should be. We rarely talked to each other, mostly because of both our differences in opinion and differences in how we spent our day. He spent most of his time in the colony, working or training his body, even though he was strong he was no air-head. Tyrus was a great orator and usually able to sway his friends and others into doing what he wanted them to do. He was great at public speaking, unlike myself. When I was set in front of an audience I got the overwhelming feeling to vomit or was simply unable to utter a sound. I spent most of my time on the surface, either hunting or learning more about the Earth and her plants. Tyrus had no care for living things of the Earth, and at times on the hunt he would torture his prey for his own enjoyment. It made me sick to my stomach that he could be so cruel and cold at times, but there really wasn't much I could do.

The great elders, from centuries ago, passed down rules by which we still abide to this day. The rules were mainly for our own protection, so that we would not annihilate each other in another Great War. The greatest of these rules was that use or creation of Machina was strictly forbidden. Machina is a term that we colonists use for any kind of machine or old age weapon, weapons that I've heard are called guns or bombs. The great elders wanted to ensure that such weapons of destruction would never be used in the world again.

Also, the great elders came together to form their own colonies, but they agreed to set aside their differences and live in peace and harmony with each other. Even to this day we all lived in peace and traded with each other often to help each other survive. I sometimes went to the Burrow Root Colony to trade the skins of my hunt for Glow Fruits, a special kind of fruit that grew in complete darkness and glowed when it was ripe and ready for harvest.

Each particular colony had a trade at which they excelled, the Burrow Root colony were seamstresses, tailors, and well renowned for their ability to continuously plant and harvest the special Glow Fruit which all colonies traded for to enjoy. Finding Glow Fruits in the deeps of the caves was a dangerous task as they were often guarded by Cave Beetles, a very large, beetle that would stun and eat its prey. This is the reason most other colonies didn't bother with maintaining Glow Fruit farms of their own, because of the risk involved. Burrow Root Colony was the only colony to be successful at maintaining a safe, beetle free farm of Glow Fruit.

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, 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 own colony; called the Willow Colony, were known as the hunters. We knew much about trapping, hunting and preparing game to be edible. My colony was also well known for our healing abilities. Those of us who followed the late Elder Miesh learned much about gathering medicinal herbs from the surface and how to safely use them to heal wounds or any common ailments. Sometimes people from some of the outer colonies would travel here to seek our aid. Often times the travelers would bring trade items to barter for our services. I did my best to help those in need, sometimes I would tell them no trades were required for my services, but if I happened to need something I did accepted trades on occasion. I became known to some of the outer colonies as a great healer, because my knowledge of the herbs was one of the best in Willow Colony and because of my generous nature to heal without payment.

Often times my brother got mad at me and chastised me for not taking payment, saying things such as "We could be rich with supplies!"

My simple responses were usually along the lines of, "What I do not receive in material wealth I receive in the satisfaction that I can save lives."

Then again he'd usually have a comeback like, "You're such a fool, Arian."

I usually shrugged off his responses and continued to do what I did. I enjoyed healing others and I enjoyed seeing their fears melt away when my cures helped. Because of my generosity and skill I often had a lot of return customers. Unlike my older brother I knew that kindness in the world far out won spite and force. I often think to myself on days when I have nothing else to do, in the future will people wonder who we were? Will they look back and wonder what made us so great or horrible? I thought to myself that the people of our future will judge us based on our actions, based on the roads we took to build their future, just like we judged the people of our past based on their ill conceived actions. I shook my head and frowned, why, at one point in time, was there so much hate among the people? Why did it have to lead to the destruction that now forced us to live in the underground caves when the land above remained beautiful even in the aftermath?

I sighed and continued with grinding up an herbal blend for my medicinal storage. The way our main cavern was built was a mid-sized hole with a stone spiral staircase that led to a bottom level that ran into deeper caves and routes we had marked to travel to other colonies. There were side caves carved into the walls on each floor that we used for our homes or businesses. The uppermost floors were usually designated for business, entertainment places, or other places for trade. The middle floors were left for the wealthier members of the community, the Elders, and some of the middle-class. Lastly, the bottom floors were designated for the poor and the rest of the middle class because they were generally more dangerous.

The way we managed to light up our tunnels, homes and the main circle was rather unique. Long ago the elders had gone on raids into the abandoned cities of the surface at taken large mirrors, placing them in just a way that the natural sunlight would reflect off the mirrors. The mirrors traveled down the main tunnel until they reached the main circle, where the mirror pointed up to the roof of the cavern, where many large mirror panels had been placed. When the light reached the top panels there were enough mirrors that it lit up the whole main cavern all the way to the bottom. It was almost as if we had our own sun inside the colony. When the sun went down at night we just lit torches to keep the caverns decently lit for night travelers and late returning hunters, this kept away the beasts of the deep caves as well.

The light was actually sufficient enough that I was able to cultivate a decent sized herbal and flower garden on the very bottom floor, many people feared that my plants would bring the toxic air with them into the caverns, but surprisingly, after careful planning and transportation, this proved to be false. In fact, after transplanting the plants into the caverns they helped to clean up the air pollution from the torches. I found it a bit odd, after all many Colonists had believed that it was the plants that made the air on the surface as toxic as it was. If this was not entirely true, then what was making the air so unbelievably toxic? I couldn't really even fathom an answer. I was no scientist after all, just a humble herbalist and hunter.

In the upper Business levels of the colony shop and house caverns were a little more secure than the bottom level living spaces. Shops, if you could afford to hire an Architect, Stone Carver, and a Carpenter from Stonewall Colony you could get a shop carved out in the upper floors with wood framed doors, including windows that locked for the main store doors. You could also get extra rooms carved out to store some extra product or just for already traded items or whatever you had need for. I had designed the outlook of my shop myself so I had only hired the Stone Carver and Carpenter.

My shop was a mid-size square room with double wooden doors for the store entrance, a back smaller room with a single wooden door with a lock but no windows where I sometimes kept all my personal items and such. Items inside the shop consisted of a long wooden block table for trades, a few chairs to sit down, a couple wooden cabinets with windows on the right side of the room and a few shelves to hold extra empty jars, vials and bottles. I had the cabinets designed to look unique, they were the fanciest things my shop contained. Inside on each shelf of the cabinets I had carved into the shelf different sections, ranging from medicinal to cooking and toxic. I kept all the toxic and poisonous herbs in the second cabinet, to ensure they didn't get mixed up with the herbs that my regular patrons came to buy.

Why did I keep toxic herbs to begin with? Well, I had drifters come in sometimes; usually people who said they had a old uncle or something that was dying in a lot of pain and they wanted something that would let them pass in ease or quickly. Almost always I would ask them for the symptoms and see if I could find a cure before allowing them to purchase toxic herbs, but if they simply just insisted on buying the toxic herbs I usually refused to sell, under the grounds that their story was probably false. If I deducted that I couldn't cure an illness at all then I sold my toxic herbs so that the dying could pass quickly, I didn't like it, but sometimes it was necessary.

One of the Colonies to the East were a Colony based on witchcraft, if I remember correct it's the Wraith Hall Colony, they often traveled here to my shop to buy the toxic herbs they used in potions, elixirs and ceremonies. I had an appreciation for witchcraft and so I usually sold them my toxic herbs for healing secrets and techniques of using the herbs aromas for certain purposes. They didn't always want toxic herbs, but sometimes needed them on rare occasions for special ceremonies. Why not just harvest the herbs themselves? A lot of the time they did, but when an herb was hard to find or come by on the surface world, they came to me. Besides they had grown a liking to my store since my technique for preserving the herbs freshness was incomparable to a lot of other herbal shops.

To take my mind off things I stared across the way from my herbal healing store to gaze at the obsession of my love interest, Kaio Hender. Kaio and his family were hunters and fur traders. They knew the arts of tanning hides in the surface world without ruining the furs and leathers with over exposure to the sun and elements. Kaio's lean built male wolf figure always made me blush, he was a bit of a serious fur at times, but he knew how to kick back, relax and have fun.

His mom, Lucinda, had come from the Cieella Colony to the north, a colony renowned for their cooking. His mother had always used herbs to cook with, herbs that few down here in the south colonies knew how to find or even knew what herbs she used. He traded with me to get herbs his mother often cooked with, though we both knew it was just an excuse to spend some time together. I blushed a bright red as I realized that Kaio had caught me staring at him and was now waving back at me with a smile. I was usually better at being discreet with my staring, but lately he had caught on. The embarrassment showed on my face and I waved back to him with a sheepish grin.

I noticed him turn and talk to his mother who was organizing a pile of furs and leathers. After a moment his mom nodded and he walked out of the shop, headed my way. I surmised that he must have asked his mother if she needed any herbs. Now, because I liked Kaio so much, I often said I'd give him the herbs for free, but his mother always made him trade something. His mother was a firm believer in giving equally for what you receive so I always got at least a good fur or leather portion per trade that I saved until I had enough to go to Burrow Root Colony to get a seamstress or tailor to make me a new outfit. As I assumed he was carrying a decent size portion of leather material for trade.

"Hey Arian!" he said as he got closer to my shop, a light blush playing on his face.

"H-hey Kaio." I responded still a bit flustered that he had caught me gazing at him earlier.

"So uh... my mom needs some herbs for a meal she's cooking tonight.." he smiled at me, the blush still dancing on his face.

"What does she need today? I'll see if I have it in stock." When it came to trades and such I took on a bit more of a serious, professional mood, after all, I was the face of my business.

Kaio handed me a list of some herbs, which I looked over. On the list was Thyme, Rosemary, Purple Basil, Sage and St. John's Wort; also listed was the amounts needed. I looked to the side where I had a wooden cabinet to hold and store my various herbs and opened it, looking in the cooking section and medicinal to see if I had what was needed. After a quick browse I looked up and smiled at Kaio.

"Looks like she's in luck I do have all the requested items and the requested amounts." I pulled out a few medium sized jars of ground up herbs and began to fill smaller bottles with the requested amounts, labeling each bottle.

"So what's your mom need St. John's Wort for? I've never heard of it used for cooking..." I stated, slightly curious.

Kaio's ears perked up a bit, a slightly embarrassed look covering his face, "Well, It's actually for me.. I've been having trouble sleeping lately..." he trailed off.

I simply smiled at him, "You know... my brother's going on a hunt tomorrow, he's also going to Fiore Colony to do some trading and won't be back till evening the day after."

I paused, the feeling of butterflies gathering themselves in my stomach growing with each moment that passed, "You could, uh, come spend the night and I could help you get some good sleep.." I offered.

Kaio smirked at me, "That would be great, I'll see you tomorrow then?" he questioned, the blush on his face growing.

"Yeah, he leaves around mid-day." I responded.

Kaio nodded and turned to leave but turned back, soon realizing that the pile of leathers was still in his hands and that he had left the herbs on the table.

"Heh, almost forgot to leave this with you and take the herbs." he said, a bit flustered from his mess up.

"You know you don't have to give me anything for these..." I said, my blush growing a bit.

"Yeah, I know, but my mom would scold me if I brought the pile and the herbs back." he said with a slight chuckle.

"I know, I'll see you tomorrow." I waved goodbye to him and put the leather pile in a leather bag I kept in the back room. I had it made for me to transport trade items the last time I was in Burrow Root Colony.

Both of us found it funny, how obviously we liked each other, how clear it was to either of us when we talked to each other, but we had to be careful about it. Other furs in the Colony might not agree with such a thing and even chase us out of the colony. I sighed to myself, it was almost unfair that it had to be so hidden. My brother would certainly be angered if he found out, after all, he hated same-sex couples.

As the day wound down I closed the shop and took my trade items with me to the bottom levels. Because my herbal business had really taken off and because of my brother's hunting trades, we were able to live in one of the upper bottom level floors, which was better than having to live at the very bottom. It took roughly about a half hour to walk down to my floor level, I really didn't mind the walk, though sometimes it was a bit lonely.

I was used to it though, so it usually didn't bother me. When I walked through the clothe material that served as our door I saw my brother sitting at the table, eating some kind of soup he must've gotten in the market earlier. I said nothing to him as I walked in and set my bag in my room. Our house was a bit small but for as small as it was it was comfy, some of the furs I had gotten from Kaio's mom in trades I had turned into rugs to keep my feet warmer in the house instead of walking on the cold stone floor all the time.

I cleaned up my room a bit in preparation for Kaio's visit tomorrow and then went back out into the kitchen to see what food I could scramble together for myself. There were some leftover meat chunks from Tyrus's hunt earlier which I took and cooked, adding a bit of herbal flavor to them to make them tastier. Tyrus usually didn't mind if I just used whatever was left over from his hunt, whether it was left over hide portions or meat portions. These days Tyrus and I rarely spoke to each other, we kind of just acknowledged that we were in the same room, or around each other and that was it. On occasion we'd talk about things like hunting spots or Tyrus would complain about our living situation, but not much else.

After I finished with my dinner I went to my room, laid down on my bed and let the world drift away as I fell into a deep sleep. As I slept thoughts and visions kept racing through my head, visions of the great war, the bloodshed, the hate, the fear, it all made me want to cry. Then my dreams drifted on to Kaio, happy dreams, dreams of sharing a lifetime together, of being out in the open with nothing to hide from, to be free of hate and fear.

'Fear is nothing but an emotion, an emotion that can hinder us from progress, we must feel fear in order to learn but we must not let fear control us and our actions. Hate can break us, break our morals, break our furmanity, it can turn the best of furs into a monster if it is not controlled. The two go hand-in-hand, neither one should control us, we should be the masters of our emotions. Some fear what they do not understand and that fear can turn to hate, and that hate can change the world in a horrible way. Hate and fear are sometimes the reasons that wars begin, sometimes the reason that peace is burned to a crisp and all life dies. Mastery of your emotions is key to living amongst the world. Mastery of yourself shows everyone just who you are.'

~End of Chapter 1~