The First [5:27-31]

It began with a girl. Acqlimia’. Olive skinned, slender arms, her eyes glowed like the light from the heavenly sky. She smelled of flowers and trees, and even of that sacred fruit, the apple, and she felt like home and hearth. She made no sound when she walked over the earth, glided, floated almost. Her hair was dark, and gleamed with secrets and glimmered with sweet nothings. Her lips small, red, tempting.

When she came out to call each of them, one from his fields, one from his flock, each felt something in their stomachs they could not explain. A fire in their loins. A tingling in their feet, their faces each turned red, and burned with the glow of the setting sun. The sky would be turning dark, beautiful orange, yellow, and red painted all over. The ground evergreen and lush, the sheep fat and heavy, the crops thick and strong. The smell that pranced around reminded them of the home they had left. It was lush and fresh and made them all feel giddy and heady.

She would turn and walk to call the other, and the first would feel an emptiness rising in his stomach, hungry, gaping. A green in his heart. Red in his head.

Acqlimia’ would then turn back and go home, as both men stared at her, and then found themselves looking each other.

When it came time to marry, both wanted her hand. To help make the decision, her father said that each must present a sacrifice. The elder gave his crops that were slow in growing, and had not yet yielded. The younger gave his fattest sheep. The younger won the bride.

The elder felt a fury, that red slowly turning crimson, becoming hotter, until his sight was blinded, blurred, tinged with hues of fire. He felt the green in his heart becoming deeper, uglier than it already was, until it became the green of the deepest, darkest ocean. Both these feelings mixed, and filled the emptiness in his stomach, filled his hunger, overwhelming him, a tide in a storm becoming stronger, faster, longer, larger. It confused him, and if he was honest, it scared him, this feeling. He did not know what to do about it. It would consume him whole.

One day, as he was tilling his fields, his head growling with pain, he saw a shadow flit around. He looked up, confused. The sun was right above him, still. How was the shadow moving around. It moved, and pointed towards him, gesturing. He stood still, shock coursing through his veins. The shadow pointed at itself. It grabbed a stone, and threw it at a bird pecking at his corn. The stone hit the bird, with a plop, it fell on the ground, a piece of corn scuttling out of its mouth. Plip, plop.

The sky darkened, for just a second, or did he imagine it. The smell faded, replaced by something sour, and pungent. Just for a second, or did he imagine it. The ground trembled, shivering. He shook his head, waving his imaginations away.

He felt elated, the feelings that had been swirling around his stomach, making him feel sick rose to his heart, and made him feel happy. With purpose.

Cain dropped his tools, grabbed a stone, and went to find his brother.