The Story Of Axilles And Astrogarde - Part 2 - Axilles meets Astrogarde

Now that the Farmer was a Duke, he could afford to give his son a real education.

He sent Axilles to the finest public school in Lovingod, where he would learn to be a dukes son, the Summacum school for noble boys,and it was there that he met the young Prince Astrogarde of Lovingod.

Given that we know the curse that lay upon the family of Axilles,it is reasonable to assume that destiny moved the face of the mysterious dukes son into the heart of the fledgling prince and that some dark power was at work when their young eyes first met, for when the blue eyes of Axilles touched against the brown eyes of Astrogarde, both were gilded by the spell of love and were bonded for life.

Far more than friends, did they become,though they were still unknowing in body and mind yet there was an ageless love within their hearts. From their first meeting within the realm of love they spent every scrap of time that they could salvage for themselves being together, whether sitting together at the back of their school room or duelling with fallen branches on the playing fields of Summacum or whispering in the dark of their dormitory late at night.

“If I were not a prince”, whispered Astrogarde on one such night, “then I would have been a priest,living in the temple,reciting the ancient blessings. Those are things that I love”.

“Dead,dry things. How can dead dry things ensure a life beyond death”, said Axilles, “I want to live and only freedom is life”.

“Life is not freedom”, argued Axilles, “Life is duty like the duty of the priests to keep the sacred flame burning. Without duty there is nothing. I will be king one day and a king is made of duty”.

“My only duty shall be to you,my prince”, swore Axilles, “This shall be written in my blood and engraved upon my heart like the law”.

“You are terrible, Axilles and yet I know that you will be at my side in heaven”,said Astrogarde.

“And I know that heaven shall be being at your side”, said Axilles.

But the bridge that unites hearts is often treacherous and rocked by gales of misfortune and so it was with these two friends.

When summer came to Summacum, the two boys were allowed to return home for two weeks and, while they were staying at home, Astrogarde said nothing of his new love to his father or mother and was surprised that he felt slightly ashamed to speak about it, but Axilles was the opposite
and was bursting to tell both his mother and father about his love but the father of Axilles turned purple when he heard, “I did not send you to the best school in the kingdom to be wasting your time in those sort of games”.

“But Father. I know that it is destiny. God or the universe approves of it. I am; we are
in love”.

Then Axilles felt his father pinch hold of his right ear and he was dragged out into the fields to watch the workers till the soil.

“Do you think that God is interested in the hearts of dukes sons. Everytime the lips of two rich,fat,foolish people meet, six million peasant children die. Everytime they embrace, six million peasant woman are raped. Everytime they declare that their love is like a raging furnace, a thousand villages are burned to the ground by the soldiers of tyrants. Everytime they weep because they are married to someone who is dull or ugly, a flood sweeps away another screaming city.
Why, in hell’s dung hole, should god care about the love affairs of a few pointless,talentless,
selfish and lazy aristocrats when it seems to care so little for the vast majority of human beings? No, Axilles, our world is not Gods plan; our happy Dukedom is built upon murder and dishonesty and human hearts picked; sucked clean and discarded like grape seeds and romance is a devils sick joke; two people complaining about their sore little hearts in the middle of a vast loveless and aching world. These things, life will teach you if you’re lucky”.

“Oh but Father”, argued Axilles, “Surely love exists to conquer pain and death”.

“True love does but the other type of love between only two people is not true. It is merely a veil and an oblivion to hide the rotting meat and all the pretty scent of roses merely a sweet stench to hide the viler smell of blood. That hollow kind of love comes easily but true love is a real mountain and all but saints with wings are far too weak and cowardly to climb it, that is why rats and rooks prosper in this world”.

Then Axilles ran to his mother crying, although she was not his real mother but only the pretty living illusion conjured up by the demon at the farmers request.

Axilles real mother had died when Axilles was young and her face and the peasant life the farmer
had rescued his son from were long forgotten.

The pretty dukes wife mollycoddled the young boy. “Poor little Axilles”, she said, “Your father is too harsh. He doesn’t understand the heart and mind of sensitive young boys. He is not a scholar or a poet. Do not listen to him”, she whispered, and the demon hissed from behind her pretty mask, “Listen to me. You are a child with great powers and possibilities. Let me give you something that will help you”.

And the dukes pretty wife gave the son a golden heart shaped locket. “This is a magical locket”,she said, “Fill it with your own blood and the blood of the one you love,then the ruby in its centre will shine with a magical fire which will allow you to fulfill your hearts deepest desires, but be careful that your father does not see it and nor must you speak about it with any but me or that pretty one with whom you are so smitten”.

Axilles had longed for some secret magic that would allow him to live freely in the way that he dreamed of, a magic that would allow him to break the laws and traditions that were so confining to him and so,kissing her rouged cheek and seizing the locket,he thanked her and ran outside to play.