The Bowman Prologue

Prologue Take Two

The Bowman

Amy gripped her books tight as she weaved in and out of the other students coming and going to classes. She hated history but today they were going to talk about the other continents and she truly wanted to learn about them. Ever since yesterday in class when the teacher told them what they were going to be studying she got excited. The bell rang.

'Damn, I'm always late!' She thought coming up to the door of her classroom. She burst through the door and rushed to her seat. Here in eighth grade, they didn't have assigned seats like in grade school, she had to sit up front with all the nerds, but today she didn't mind. Her teacher, Mr. hollanday, just looked at her frowning as she sat down.

"Today we will be discussing the political ramifications of the technological impact of foreign technology on an un-technological society. But first, we need to study the five continents." He brought up a map of Horizonz and it showed all of its continents. She always did love the way they used holograms in school. "This is Sandavareth, our continent." He said grabbing the continent and enlarging it with his fingers. "As we all know, we have greater technology than any other continent on the planet. I'm sure that you have all heard that we are the only continent that doesn't have magic. You are right but did you know that Faradell also has technology?" He made Sandavareth smaller again and points to Faradell. "This continent is the closest to us and therefore is the easiest one to sneak technology into. Their kings and queens aren't concerned with anything that we do, so they don't tell their people not to have technology, but every person that goes over with technology has to register with the kingdom they are planning on using the tech in. They are also told to hide technology at all costs. Why do you think they don't want others to know about the tech?" He asked the class. A boy in the back of the class raised his hand, Amy was shocked, he wasn't a class participator, and so, what was he doing participating now? "Yes, Arman?"

"Maybe they just don't want their subjects to have or be able to use tech."

"Okay, but why not?" Amy shot her head back again to look at Arman awaiting his thoughts and noticing that he was actually kind of cute.
"Be . . .cause if the peasants knew about things like refrigeration they would revolt against the kings and queens to make all that technology available to them?" He stated it more as a question than an answer. "And also the kings want to have total authority over the people and the tech could give the peasants an advantage. I don't know."

"That's just one of the many reasons but we won't get into it in too much detail today." He said. "Before we continue with this discussion let's take a look at the other three continents." He walked back over to the holomap and reset it to the world map. Then he simply touched one of the other continents and it blew up. "This one here is Fathernork. These people and the other two continents despise technology. They believe that we shouldn't be using the alien race's technology and that we evolved too quickly. We learned how to use it so I think we evolved just fine but people on these continents hate us for it and they sometimes send their mages over to us to try to sabotage our equipment and kill those who use it. They especially despise our space program. This is where we think dragons originated. Fathernork seems to have the most dragons of any other continent; they are also the only magic users that don't seem bothered by our use of technology. The forth continent is Telenobi and it is the worst place to go on this planet, again there is no technology on this one either. There is only one ruler and he is as ruthless as they come. So stay away from that place or they will kill you. The final continent is Croityson. This is where the bulk of the mages come from. They have an abundance of people who use magic and they're good at it. They're also good at hiding it that is why there have been so many terrorist attacks on Sandavareth. This new test that we are going to use on everybody on the continent is going to be very effective in neutralizing any threat against us. And anyone coming onto this continent will be checked before they are even allowed off the transport." He reached over, brought the map down, and touched Faradell again. "We will talk more on this tomorrow." He said as the bell rang.

She had two more classes today, Biology and sexual education. She made it to both other classes on time.

***

"Today we will be giving a quick overview of our reproductive patterns; pay attention there will be a small quiz tomorrow to make sure everyone gets this because it is important that you all know what could be in store for you." She had heard stories about this, you know how teenagers talk.
Another holoemitter brought up a hologram of our world and its two moons.

'Wait, what does our planet have to do with mating?' She thought.

"I'm sure you're all wondering what this has to do with sex and conception. You'll soon find out and I'm sure you will all have questions but let me explain this to you first, hold your questions and I will answer them as best as I can after my presentation." Mrs. Telard was also a walker; she walked to the middle of the room with the holoemitter and placed it on the table. Her class was set up in a circle so that everyone could see and hear her equally.

These two moons rotate around Horizonz but did you know that every eighty years they can both be seen in the same sky?" She touched one of the moons and they both lined up so they were both visible in the same sky. "This is when it begins. It's called the time of the rift and it begins every living things reproductive cycle. Now we don't know why it works that way, our scientists have been working on that for centuries and have come to no closer of an answer as to when they started to study the phenomenon." She stated and of course, hands went up immediately.

'Some people just don't listen, even the all intelligent Nathaniel . . . figures.' He was the class nerd, he was very smart.

"Let me finish my presentation, then I will answer questions, write them down and I will try to answer them all at the end of class. Okay, where was I? Oh yes, the time of the rift. You may notice that your hormone levels will increase right now as you turn into adults. In about sixty-five years when the time of the rift arrives, you will notice a drastic increase in those hormones. It's like your hormones on steroids, so what you're going through now will be enhanced by tenfold, at least. Hopefully, most of you will have found your mate and you can then make little ones. Again, we don't know why it works only that that is the way it works. When the two moons become visible in the sky every part of you will awaken. It is also during this time when wars stop and only essential businesses stay open and even then given extreme leeway. Also during the time of the rift crime drops by fifty percent at least. There is hardly any rape because it's all consensual. The only real crime happens at night when the stores are closed and people need food so they don't starve." She walked over and turned off the holoemitter. "There are real dangers during the time of the rift. There is an extreme risk of starvation. You could even die during intercourse. This isn't the time to give in to your desires; you need to plan-ahead.

"Why could you die?" Asked one student without raising his hand.

"Alright, I will answer that one question since I know that you are all wondering about that. What happens is that since your body is on overdrive and your hormones are overloading your system when you have an orgasm it could be so powerful that it overloads your heart and causes heart failure. To put it in terms you might understand better, you have such a great time that your heart explodes during orgasm. So you must be careful to contain yourselves. Now, not all of you will have heart failure when you orgasm, it is somewhat rare, but it does happen. And it can happen at any age."

"The other way you could die is to starve to death. When you have that many hormones running through your body at this time and orgasm can be twenty times as powerful as those that you would experience now, your body tends to metabolize much more quickly. You can technically starve to death in just a matter of hours if you don't plan-ahead and get the food you'll need. There is no way to stop the time of the rift. It is just matter-of-factly going to happen." She paused as if she were deep in thought, the room fell silent. The seconds felt like minutes which felt like hours. "The only escape from this is to go beneath horizonz, deep underground in a cave somewhere or by isolating yourself in a large dense forest for eight months and you can't just go to another continent because it happens on all of horizonz not just here in Sandavareth. Just remember, if you ever want kids you must go through all of this.

The bell rings, far too early for her to want to leave. She wants to learn more, much more. Unfortunately for her, the day was over. 'Maybe I can become one of the scientists who study this phenomenon; I have plenty of time to learn before the next one happens.' And with that she went to the library to check out some books on her newfound obsession.