Prologue-- Oasis

They lay in the grass bare naked and laughing. Woman touched Man gently on the face, running her hands lightly across his strong, nimble jaw. He closed his eyes and leaned his head softly against her fingers, allowing her to caress him as she rested his head on her bare chest. She kissed the top of his head softly and began humming a weightless melody that enveloped him in desire like he never felt. Euphoria sang as it traveled above in waves til it spread apart from its individual pieces like cousins touching fingers as they say their goodbyes at family gatherings. Man turned his head to look up at Woman and felt a tremor of pleasure run through him like electricity. He kissed her all over her golden sun-warmed skin, silently declaring his pleasure at such a mate. She was so beautiful she glowed at night. She was perfection. He ran his fingers through her long black hair that shone in the starlight like melted silver. 

He thought of the night before. Music sang around them as they danced in the pale moonlight. A torturously sexy number that allowed them such intimate closeness they breathed each other's oxygen when their bodies collided. Angels with large feathered wings that carried them through the air as they emanated light from their very being played the music while they flew in graceful aerobatics above. White silk adorned in gold accoutrements barely covered what little each individual angelic being cared to. 

Breathless, Woman pulled her lover to the ground, straddling him and announcing her conquest. He was HERS. He went stone-faced at her proclamation, and she stopped laughing. Not this again, he thought. Not tonight. 

You are mine, are you not? Woman raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms above his belly.

Of course, beloved, Man replied. You are mine and I am yours, and we will reign over the Heavens and Earth for all of eternity as King and Queen of the world.

Man shook off the memory before he forgot where he was. Smiling down at her perfectly oval-shaped face with big almond-shaped eyes that pleaded with him for a firm grasping of her chin. Her soft sultry lips pouted without provocation and it always made him rise. The stiffening was returning at a rapid rate now and his breaths indicated as much. 

He grabbed her roughly by the hips and lifted her off the grass, turning her over to face the ground so smoothly it looked like choreography. He rubbed himself against her skin groaning and grunting in response to the quickening throb and pulse. Her body tensed as he grabbed her long, curly black hair in a rough fist and thrust his hips into hers from behind. 

Wait... she said. She was shaking her head and pulled away from him so quickly she looked like she was struck by lightning where their skin had just touched. How DARE you? she screamed. Man stared incredulously, shocked by her sudden impassioned displeasure. The angels were not present in the Oasis this night. Man and Woman were accompanied solely by the remnants of the previous nightfall's full moon. Moonlight poured to the ground from the sky in wispy billows, enchanting the air as a cascade of floating moon petals picked up speed. 

Still surprised at Woman's response, Man attempted to coax her back down to the ground with him, but she refused. Why do you insist on overpowering me as if when we are One I am not a part of the Whole? Why can you not treat me as an equal in love and life? The cruelty you inflict as though I am cattle to be herded and corralled about!

For what would I do that I may bring pleasure to you, My Moon in Heaven? replied Man. As you know, you are My Moon in Heaven, and I am your Sun who rises above for you each day. But not for the Sun, the Moon would have no light to shine from the galaxy of the Heavens in turn. You quarrel with my power, which I know not of how to stifle. Please, My Moon in Heaven, can you not forget to contain me as I, for one, cannot be contained? 

On that we agree, Woman concurred. You cannot be contained, but it is not I who attempts to contain you. This is where our summations default. It is you who lives in a prison of one's confines and therefore cannot foresee the harm you inflict as you remain assured with devout prejudice you are the sole collateral damage from your cell of self-inflictions. 

Man, stunned by her biting accusations, opened his mouth to protest, but no sound came forth. Woman stood on her feet and, glowing with the silvery shimmer of the moonlight behind her said, I will no longer suffer your harsh, half-hearted, thoughtless, and careless affections. As Queen of the Moon in Heaven I declare I am free of your kind for all expanses of time. You will miss me. You will long for me. You will ache for me. You will attempt to harbor replacements, but they will never compare. Any woman after me will forever be a lessor unless she is of me. I will never bear sons as they will be of you, and I can not proclaim the weakness of your progeny over my own. My Daughters will bear the fruit of Heaven and move mountains with their minds. Their tears will spill out into the oceans filling them when they are dry, and their blood will raise fires from the depths of overflowing riverbeds. By the power of the Moon in me, may your progeny be so unfortunate as to fall for mine, I bid my progeny die if she so chooses to endure him everlasting. May she leave upon him voicing his intent to ensnare her never-ending, as I have freed myself of you. If she does neither of these things, may your progeny suffer the same fate as their Earth Father, keeping them apart the same as one pole from the other or the East from the West. 

Before he could say another word, Woman was gone. As she walked out of the Oasis looking straight ahead, the golden wrought iron gates came to a close in a silent hug. Lifting himself up from the shock of the moment, he ran all over searching, but the only thing that remained was the single strand of silver hair he still held in his hand.