Catharsis, Legend of the Lemurians

Prequel to THE EARTH SHIFTER

Bonus: Excerpt from THE EARTH SHIFTER

the upcoming dystopian YA fantasy/thriller

Books
by Lada Ray

GOLD TRAIN, rip-roaring
thrill ride across Russia. (Accidental Spy Russia Adventure, Book
2)

STEPFORD USA,
psychological mystery/thriller (Accidental Spy US Adventure, Book
1)

GREEN DESERT, riveting
story set in Iraq (Accidental Spy Prequel)

Coming soon:

THE EARTH SHIFTER, new YA Fantasy

DRAGON GATE, Accidental Spy Asia
Adventure

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012 Lada Ray

Cover copyright © 2012 Lada Ray

Visit author’s official website:
www.LadaRay.com

Blog:
http://LadaRay.wordpress.com

All rights reserved. Except as permitted
under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any
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Earth Keepers Chronicles: Book 1

Before recorded history, before Humanity, since
times immemorial, the Earth Keepers have been watching over our
planet. Marked at birth and endowed with supreme powers, the nine
chosen ones are the Earth’s record keepers and moderators, and when
the time comes, the ultimate decision makers. This is the first of
their chronicles.

P
lanet Catharsis
was a beautiful red planet located on the outskirts of the
Andromeda Galaxy. Everything on the planet was a lovely shade of
red, orange, or fuchsia. Catharsis had two beautiful moons: the
purple moon and the orange moon, which illuminated the nightly sky
when its red sun was napping.

Just like the planet itself, its inhabitants
were truly beautiful: gorgeous women clad in exquisite gowns and
elaborate hairdos, stately men with dignified features, and
adorably angelic children. Even the old people were beautiful: nice
grannies knitting pretty hats or baking delicious cakes and
cheerful grandpas taking lovely morning strolls to discuss the
latest news at a nearby café.

Catharsians prided themselves on their large and
beautiful houses. In fact, one house was more beautiful than the
next. People of Catharsis treated beauty as an art form and a
lifelong competition. On this planet, being a beautician was a high
honor, but what was even better was to be a plastic surgeon.

Once, the planet of Catharsis possessed a rich
animal kingdom, with animals of varying species living in the
woods, fields, and waters. Catharsians also kept adorable pets. But
at some point, they realized that all these pets were terribly
messy, what with chewing on their owners’ stylish shoes, scratching
valuable sofas, and leaving fur everywhere—and that was
unforgivably ugly. Soon, all the pets were gone, vanished, as if
they never existed.

Initially that caused a stir in society, with
children crying for their little furry friends and even some adults
longing for them. But what wouldn’t one sacrifice for beauty? So,
eventually everyone in the Catharsian society adjusted to the
absence of pets.

However, there was still the question of all those
wild animals, which continued to bother the beauty-oriented
Catharsians. One day, all the wild animals were gone as well. That
caused much less of a stir, although the group called Fair
Catharsis tried to stage protests. The population at large hardly
noticed the disappearance of all of the wild creatures. The truth
was, the entire planet was now clean and sterile, and no one could
argue that this wasn’t much better.

Next, an ingenious company, called ELPET, introduced
the new electronic pet. Catharsians were tripping all over
themselves to purchase one for their household, because these pets
never ate, never made a mess and were (you guessed it!) beautiful.
Before long, every self-respecting Catharsian household had an
Elpet, one model more gorgeous than the next. ELPET stock went
through the roof, and the population returned to its happy
equilibrium. Harmony and beauty was restored.

The whole planet was clearly basking in the rays of
its Golden Age, and it seemed nothing, absolutely nothing, could
spoil it.

But wait, there
was
something of
which Catharsians were both afraid and ashamed. Something they
didn’t even admit to themselves. The thing was, not every
inhabitant of the planet was beautiful. Sure, there were degrees of
beauty. Not everyone could be strikingly, impossibly beautiful.
Some had to be plainer than others were. That was true. Although it
was never admitted publicly, some Catharsians were less attractive
than was socially acceptable. However, they would become more
beautiful with the adept help of plastic surgeons and
beauticians.

No, the people we are talking about were not
beautiful by any stretch of imagination. In fact, they were truly
and exceedingly ugly. As ugly as one could get! The truth was…the
beautiful Catharsians had to share their planet with another race,
which they called the Uglies. Of course, the Uglies themselves
preferred to be called Lemurians. Alas, on beautiful planet
Catharsis no one cared what the Uglies preferred.

The Uglies were as different from Catharsians as day
was from night. While Catharsians cared very much how exquisite
their gowns were, and how well their high-heeled shoes accentuated
their meticulously groomed feet, the Uglies ran around in simple,
home made outfits. And, oh horror of horrors, they often walked
around barefoot! When asked why they did so, they smiled serenely,
explaining that this is how they connected with Goddess Mu, the
Sacred Mother of All.

Catharsians didn’t mind the Uglies
worshipping their Mu, as long as it distracted them from any
thoughts of rebellion, keeping them docile and submissive. Indeed,
it had been noted that the Uglies were especially meditative and
quiet after they’d prayed to Mu. In fact it seemed, thanks to their
prayers, they took their fate and abuse exceedingly well.

Another thing that really bothered
Catharsians was the sheer openness of the Uglies’ smiles. They had
these very large mouths, and when they smiled their plump lips
would open wide to reveal their unnaturally white teeth. How
exceedingly ugly! Everyone on Catharsis knew that one’s mouth was
supposed to be small, with thin lips, and teeth—a lovely shade of
orange! Anything else was completely unacceptable, and the planet’s
plastic surgeons and dentists were hard at work to make sure
everyone’s mouths and teeth were in strict compliance with the
universally accepted standard of beauty.

But that was not all, far from it. The
Uglies possessed very large, almond shaped eyes, which slanted
upwards, while it was common knowledge that the most beautiful eyes
should be round and small. Plastic surgeons had their job cut out
for them, as Catharsian women lined up to make sure their eyes were
that unattainable shape and size. One of the most irritating things
about the Uglies’ faces were their noses. While Catharsians prided
themselves in their long and sharp noses (the sharper the better),
the Uglies had these strange short noses, which made their faces
look eternally young. That was the last straw for many Catharsians,
who spent big chunks of their incomes on battling the relentless
aging process.

And to add insult to injury, the Uglies were
significantly taller than natural, towering over Catharsians like
big, sore thumbs.

Because Catharsians were ashamed that some of them
could be so ugly, a long time ago they built a special reservation,
called Camp Ugly. The camp was equipped with a lethal voltage
electric fence and watchtowers with state-of-the-art monitoring
equipment. All the Uglies on the planet were herded into Camp Ugly,
where they lived out their drudgery generation after
generation.

It wasn’t an act of cruelty on part of the
Catharsians, oh no! It was firmly believed in Catharsian society
that being ugly was in fact a disease. Therefore, herding all the
Uglies into the camp where they could be carefully monitored and
isolated from the rest of society was a fully justifiable
measure.

However, it proved difficult to find guards for the
camp. Not only was it an awful strain on the eye to look at the
ugly people all day long, but what if ugliness was also contagious?
Of course, the researchers were never able to prove conclusively
that was the case, but what if it was? The camp guards were paid
double salary, but even then they wouldn’t stay for long. The
turnover among the Camp Ugly guards was simply terrible.

Catharsians prided themselves on being fair
and just, because, well, the alternative would not be beautiful.
The truth was that once upon a time, the planet’s administration
tried to cull the population of Uglies, but the Ugly Rights Groups
were up in arms. Another time, a controversial bill was introduced
proposing that all Uglies be sterilized and denied mating rights,
but it didn’t pass the Senate. After much deliberation, the
compromise was reached according to which, when an Ugly reached a
mating age he or she would be allowed to take a mate and have one
child, but no more than that. The hope was that slowly but surely
the population of Uglies on the planet would be reduced.

And so, Catharsians and Uglies co-existed without
much interaction, nor with much knowledge of each other.
Catharsians went on living the high life, attending beautiful
parties and having the time of their lives, while the Uglies were
left to fend for themselves behind electric fence built to prevent
their escape and the spread of the much dreaded “ugly disease.”

Camp Ugly occupied a large wasteland
territory, just outside the capital city of Thar. It consisted of
eight sectors divided into forty villages, each populated by one to
two hundred Ugly families. The population of these villages used to
be substantially larger, but now many huts stood deserted, as each
new generation of Uglies would get smaller and smaller. It was
apparent that the one child policy, imposed on the Uglies, was
working.

The focal point of Camp Ugly was the Gathering
Square, where the Uglies sang, danced and worshiped Goddess Mu in
their ancient Lemurian language. On the corner of the square stood
the house of the Supreme Elder, as well as what the Uglies proudly
called the Temple of Mu. In fact, it was just a large and rather
unattractive barrack.

But the Uglies didn’t notice its outward appearance,
because inside was the most important and valuable thing the Uglies
possessed. This ultimate treasure was the famous Lemurian Mother
Crystal, which was guarded zealously day and night. The crystal was
so huge that even a hundred Uglies couldn’t lift it. It consisted
of a myriad of points growing like a gigantic flower out of the
crystal’s center, and it sparkled like a zillion stars when the
light of the torches reflected from its thousands of facets. No one
knew where the crystal came from, or how it appeared in Camp Ugly.
But according to the Lemurian legends, the crystal was the ultimate
protective shield and energy booster for the entire planet of
Catharsis. The Uglies called it the Crystalline Engine and
considered themselves its keepers.

Truth be told, it was an incredible stroke of luck
for the Uglies that Catharsians saw no value or beauty in the
Mother Crystal. If they did, they would have taken the sacred
crystal away from the Uglies, broken it into pieces and sold it off
to the highest bidders. But since they thought that the pointy and
heavy crystal was just an ugly rock, the Lemurian treasure was
safe, at least for the moment.

Camp Ugly’s eight sectors lay beyond the
main square, spreading outward according to the compass directions
like slices of a giant pie. Each sector was comprised of five
villages, and beyond these villages were agricultural fields. Each
village specialized in growing of one kind of produce, which they
shared with the rest of the camp’s population in an equitable and
fair manner. If one village had a bad crop, which happened often
due to substandard equipment and scarce water, others stepped in to
fill the food shortage.