First Love

Long hair flowing in the breeze, the man soared through the sky. His
blonde tresses reflected the light of the radiant sun... his strong
wings; replete with glorious feathers; moved him gracefully through the
atmosphere, propelling him forward. He was clothed in a simple cloth of
sorts over his loins. He had a sword in a sheath at his side. Aside
from those garments, he was naked.

He peered downward, toward the garden... toward the special ones whom
his creator had likewise created. Every muscle in his perfect body
tensed and rippled as he realized what it was that he saw...

Guiding his trajectory with his powerful wingspan, the man began to
rocket toward the garden, far below. The wind whipped more violently at
him as his speed accelerated... fueled by his fury and by the sheer
force of gravity. Behind him... above him... the sky grew dark, as if
the very sun were being extinguished. Anguish filled the winged man's
heart, an agonized cry escaped from his lips. They had done it. The
fools had done it. Did they not realize? Could they not see? Now he
would have to intervene... and he knew he himself was unlikely to
survive. Still, he had to try...

Because he had, in essence, already failed...

*****

"What have you done?" the man asked the woman. She stood before him, a
branch full of leaves covering her nakedness. The man, this one naked
and without wings, shook his head sadly. He knew the cost of what she
had done... that they were no longer equal. He knew when the creator
realized that, she would surely die... unless...

"The Serpent beguiled me," the woman made excuse. The man knew better
for of all the creatures in the garden, they themselves were the
smartest; they had been given dominion over all there was. The man
looked at the half-eaten fruit in her hand and angrily snatched it
away. It was then that he realized that he really didn't have to eat of
the fruit to know the failure of sin. He had already swallowed it with
his small fit of rage...

"Damn us both then," he said as he bit a large hunk out of the fruit.
He felt weak... he felt sick... and he knew that one day, eventually,
he would feel death.

Still, he smiled at the woman. She smiled at him, shyly and slyly. He
had actually done it... proven his immense love for her at the ultimate
sacrifice of his own life... surely one day, if not this day... She
felt a stirring in her heart that she had never known before the fruit.
She felt a moistness in her nether-regions... at the thought that the
man, who before now had loved her because he had no choice... had
chosen...

She dropped her leaves and stood naked before him. The man realized
that he had never before appreciated her beauty. He took her by the
hand and drawing her close to himself, hungrily kissed her... his
perfectly sculpted body pressing tightly against the one that had been
created purely for his pleasure. There was a hunger between them that
neither had ever felt. And standing as they were, the man allowed his
male appendage to glide inside that special place that the creator had
made... the sexy sheath for the weapon of his manhood...

*****

The winged creature saw them, the woman's head thrown back, her back
arched in passion. The man's lower body moved with an increasing rhythm
and the woman let out a long moan, as if from the depths of her soul.
As lightning flashed in the newly blackened sky, he prayed he was not
too late to intervene.

*****

The man felt the urgency and felt the soul satisfying expulsion of his
pent-up fluid. The pair were drenched in sweat and he saw a madness...
that was all he could conceive it as... in the eyes of the woman. A
hunger that had been fed... a fire that had been ignited... a passion
that had been unlocked... never to be satiated, extinguished, or locked
away... ever again...

*****

"ADAM," came the thunderous voice, "Where are you?"

It was in essence an asinine question. If the creator didn't know where
they were, how were they supposed to know? Still, the man and the woman
shook with fear for the first time since they were formed. The beauty
of their nakedness; the passion that they shared; seemed awkward and
wrong now... as they prepared to face the one who had instilled it in
them in the first place.

The man grabbed the limb the woman had held earlier... and snatched off
a couple of leaves for himself. The woman did likewise, and doing their
best to be modest and pure before the holy one, they stepped from the
brush that had so poorly shielded them from him.

I'd like to be able to tell you that the first man was a man... but he
tried to weasel out of the responsibility... and shirked the
opportunity to love and protect the woman... thereby setting the stage
for far too many of his descendants for millennia to come. The woman,
for her part, tried to shirk her own part of the blame as well...

"It was the serpent..." she claimed.

"The woman you gave me..." he dodged.

"Did I not TELL YOU that you would surely DIE?" the creator asked, his
fury rising. The man, who had only recently walked and talked openly
with his creator and his friend, now could not look his god in the
eyes. For him it was a fortuitous thing, for he would not have liked
what he saw in them.

The fury of a god is an awesome thing; a terrible thing if you are to
be the target of it's wrath. With a wave of his massive hand, the all
mighty caused a mighty tempest to form and trees were toppled like so
many matchsticks. Lightning danced around, striking the ground all
about them. Adam stood, head bowed, his arm wrapped tightly around his
wife. She hid her face against his chest...

"You gave her to me," Adam finally found the courage to say, "And I
love her!"

"Love?" God bellowed, "YOU speak to ME of LOVE? HOW DARE YOU?"

*****

The winged creature felt as if he were flying through molasses. The
sudden mighty wind had driven him far off course and he had to strain
his powerful wings as hard as he could to fight his way through the
storm... through the wrath of god... He neared the location, saw the
man and the woman huddled together in the face of god's wrath... He saw
the outstretched hand of his own creator glow white... and without
further hesitation, he found himself more fool than angel as he rushed
in...

The force of the lightning would have incinerated both humans where
they stood. As it was, the angel was driven backward, crashing through
several trees. His singed wings smoldered from the heat and the fire of
the blast. Slowly he climbed to his feet.

"What do you think you are doing?" the creator barked at the fallen
angel.

"Doing what you assigned me to do," the winged warrior shouted back,
"protecting the man and the woman!"

"From ME?" came the thunderous reply, "You think you can PROTECT THEM
from ME?"

"From any who would dare harm them," the angel replied.

"They are MY creation... as are you..." the deity shot back, "and THEY
disobeyed me. There must be an atonement..."

"Atonement?" the angel asked as he withdrew his sword, "Death is not an
atonement, death is a punishment. But apparently death is also what you
do best!"

"Insolent cur," God asked. "You QUESTION me? Are you CRAZY?"

"No," the angel replied softly, "are you?"

*****

The man and the woman clung to each other. The battle that threatened
to wage nearby would probably spill over to them anyway... and they
would be blasted back to the dirt they had once been... but for now
they had each other for comfort...

With tears flowing freely down their faces, they held one another and
peered deep into the others eyes.

"I'm sorry," the woman said, "I knew better..."

"I'm not sorry," the man said, "because now loving you is MY
choice..."

*****

The angel stopped. He looked at the ultimate power in the universe and
knew that compared to it, he was almost as insignificant as the man and
the woman. Still, everything in him cared for them. Perhaps it was
their new found capacity for love. Perhaps it was because the woman
reminded him of his own partner who he had lost in battle so long
before... Regardless of the reason, he knew that only death would abate
the fury of the creator. He could not allow it to be theirs...

"Damn you," the angel cried out as he launched himself forward, "You
created them to be able to do the things they do... I will not allow
you to punish them for it!"

His singed wings spurred him onward, his sword drawn back over his
head. He knew the futility of the effort, but better to die in battle
with the unbeatable foe than to stand by and watch such beauty be
destroyed.

"Now YOU dare to attack ME?" the creator barked as white hot lightning
shot from his visage...

*****

Clothed in the skin of sheep, the man and the woman toiled alone in a
hostile environment... the lush garden had been decimated by the
battle, their guardian had been dispatched, and more angels had been
sent to insure that they would never again enter into what paradise was
left.

The furious rage of the creator had indeed been abated by the death of
the angel. His sacrifice had not been in vain. He had finally fulfilled
his assignment, protecting them from the one who had assigned him
originally...

Adam and his wife... created for him but ultimately chosen BY him...
were alone. They lived and they loved, and to the first man and the
first woman, it was enough... for they had each other... and eventually
their love covered the world...