Hall of the Mountain King Softcore

By K.R. Columbus

Alaric is not like other teenagers, he has an unnatural affinity to nature and he is not affected by cold or disease. Sharing similar problems, Ralph; a handicapped teen, becomes his friend and together they try to discover the secret behind his nature, and the amazing reality of where he comes from, all after surviving a terrible tragedy that gave him a vision about a horned man-beast seated on a throne of stone calling him to go back home, claiming to be his real father; The Mountain King.

• Language: English
• Publisher: K.R. Columbus
• Release date: Aug 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301969074

K.R. Columbus

Born August 4, 1982 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, K.R.Columbus [Kemuel Ríos Colón] is a prolific Puerto Rican Science Fiction and Fantasy author, with more than twenty novels, and young adult books sold all around the world. With novels that have reached the top 50 charts in England and Australia. Before becoming a writer, he trained to be a sumo wrestler for four years. Currently lives in Puerto Rico reading good books, drinking coffee, enjoying rare music, and obscure Cinema. To contact the author – [e-mail]

Book preview

Hall of the Mountain King

By K.R.Columbus

Copyright 2011 K.R.Columbus

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Antiquarian Age Books

By K.R.Columbus

(Release dates and titles can change at any time…)

………….

(G) - Contains Gay Characters

(S) - Contains Strong Sexual Content

(M) - Contains Medium Sexual Content

(L) - Contains Light Sexual Content

(D) - Contains Disturbing Situations

(Ω) - Contains Speculative Religious Themes

-We Shall be as Gods Series- (L) - (D) - (G) - (Ω)

1st Testament - Vestigial Dream

2nd Testament - The Weaver and the Herder

3rd Testament - Shadows of Me

4th Testament - Children of Exile

5th Testament - Beyond Destiny (2014)

-Hyper Speed Inertia Series- (D) - (G)

-Yamato Trilogy-

Battle-Submarine Yamato

The Fires of Kawaita (Coming Soon)

-NOVELS- (Not part of a Series)

-MAGNA MAQUINA- (G)

-YAKUZA RONDO- (M) - (D) - (G)

-Sodom’s X Duology- (M) - (D) - (Ω) - (G)

-Hall of the Mountain King- (L) - (G)

-The Last Southern Mountain- (G) (Coming Soon)

-Young Adult Fiction-

-The Treasures of Shamarkand Series- (G)

Wanderers to Shamarkand

Daughter of the Gods

Carnival of Shadows

The Mechanical Labyrinth

The Mirror Tower (2014)

-Totemic Haven Series- (G)

Totemic Haven

WildChild

Father Sun, Mother Moon (Coming Soon)

Ps – To avoid confusion, character thoughts, important words, songs and messages are in ITALICS.

This is the Softcore General Edition of Hall of the Mountain King. This edition has been cut and edited for general readers. Both are the same novel, the only difference is that the Hardcore Uncut Edition contains numerous graphically described sex sequences. The Softcore General Edition is my favored version of Hall of the Mountain King, but both are canon. The 2013 edition contains a previously unpublished bonus short story, -Sticky Paws-, set a few months after the events of the novel.

Thank you.

K.R.Columbus

This is a very personal novel. I planted a lot of myself in it, along with many issues and social problems that the gay community has, like peer pressure, misconceptions about our nature as homosexuals and what is expected of us by society and our own community. Since it’s so personal, I'll share a very special moment from my early childhood. My first encounter with books and trees.

I had been recently accepted in kindergarten. I had learned how to read recently, so my mother took me to the school’s library for the first time. Don’t ask me why, but the first thing I chose was an illustrated encyclopedia volume, that for some reason I can't imagine, my younger self found very interesting. I was so happy with that book that I went outside and sat under a tree to read it. Let me tell you, I was in heaven. I was so happy that I took that book and began to jump up and down on a gigantic tree root. Up and down, up and down, up and down…I slipped, fell on my fat ass and hit the back of my head on the tree trunk. The book broke. Its spine was separated from the rest of the pages. I was bleeding and crying. Was I crying because I hurt my chubby little self? No. As odd as that may sound, I was crying because the book broke. The librarian came over and did some magic, he took the book away and five minutes later the book was back on my hands, as if it had never been broken. I wonder where he learned to cast such spells. He probably just fixed it with some adhesive tape, but I still think it was magic.

What did I learn from back then? Trees and books are not very good friends, even if they go hand in hand!

Hope you enjoy the story, and thanks to all of you that put up with my work and me. I love you.

-K.R.Columbus

Chapter 1

-Alaric Underwood-

Is the mountain sound that makes us wander? Are we really looking when we see and touch the trails under our naked feet? Rough, rough, rougher than the paths followed by bears looking for honey, or elks seeking salt. I look at my hand and I see, feeling the signs of my true nature. There, curling and ragging the pillars of on which I stand, to state, to be as rock is for moss, as bark is for tree. For I'm like a mossy rock, that instead of moss, grows wild fur to play makeshift beast into wild affairs. Seeing with rage and omnipresent glee, the same sounds heard by those that saw the past and the ancients leave. I'm beast in human skin, I'm man of beastly truth, and that I shall not forget.

Nature calls, the wild calls, and you must answer.

Alaric Underwood loves going to school, even if he has to wake damn early to get there. It takes his father almost an hour to drive down the mountain to reach town, but no matter what, Alaric is always the first one to get to class. It has been like that since Alaric was very young. Jonathan would get him to school before heading to work, all before five in the morning. What Alaric loves about school is the fact that he can learn about how things work. Still, after all of these years he hasn’t been able to keep a friend for more than three months. People he meets start to drift away after that period of time, when they understand how he thinks and acts. He is a wild thing.

Alaric grew up to be strong, stocky, and very hairy, to the point that that most of the other boys his age were scared of him. After all, most of them were starting to get facial hair when Alaric had to shave daily just to keep his bushy beard from becoming a full-fledged grandpa beard. Most of the time he would come to school clean shaven, only to end up with a deep shadow by lunch time. That beard was always itchy, so he kept scratching it even when he was completely clean shaven. Alaric was very pale in skin tone, so pale that at times depending on the weather he looked almost as if made from stone. He was very handsome; his eyes carried a sense of wonder only seen in newborn babies. To see him look at the mountains beyond gives you the feeling that there is something hidden about him, a secret. His green eyes reflect the mountains, the rivers and the sky, but nothing else, almost as if his eyes were ignoring anything else.

Alaric Underwood, pay attention! His teacher would say again, and again.

I'm sorry Sir. I was distracted by something I saw in the mountain. That was always his answer. As the years passed they stopped caring if Alaric was looking at the trees outside, or just lost in the firmament, no matter what, in the end, Alaric always had good grades.

Their school wasn’t very large, it was contained, but serviceable, and was surrounded by thick vast forests. The reason why the school was like that was because it was built at the edge of town, there’s nothing beyond the school, only the mountains in the distance. It was a peaceful place, but the teachers thought it was a bit desolate. Students would run away into the forest at any given chance.

There was a local legend among the students, about a pond deep in the woods behind the school where students would go to’ve sex. How many of the stories were true? In truth, Alaric knew the place well, and he hadn’t seen any sex in the years that he has been in that school. Maybe everyone else was talking about another pond, or about events that happened years and years ago. Maybe the legend just stuck. That legend was odd to begin with, especially in a small southern town. The stories were a sordid collection of little heart stoppers. Alaric only laughed at those stories, because he knew that none of that was happening in the forest behind the school.

Bear boy come here! One of the students called to him from the bathroom door. It was a red haired young man named Henry Lee, who has been in Alaric’s class since they both entered kindergarten.

No Henry, I'm late. Alaric said, knowing that Lee meant trouble.

Come on Alaric, it’s something very amusing. I'm pretty sure it’s something you haven’t seen before. Henry Lee laughed as he came to Alaric, and laid his arm on his broad shoulder.

Alaric looked at Lee with wide green eyes, his sense of wonder a little shy, because he knew very well that Lee had something planned. When they were younger, Henry had enjoyed making fun of Alaric’s hairy body during shower sections after gym class, or made rude jokes about his genitals. Henry felt inferior to Alaric, who was both huge in size, weight, and pretty much everything else. Henry lee was lean, a bit gaunt and averagely endowed. Henry Lee had been Alaric’s friend when they were little children. Henry was the first boy to spend any time with him when he first got to school, and they both wet their pants when caught catching glances at girls’ panties. It had been fun, but Alaric had only done it because Henry Lee wanted to do it, he only enjoyed the fact that he was doing something with a boy his age. Their friendship didn’t last long, Henry Lee saw Alaric naked in gym class, and everything changed. At the tender age of ten, Alaric was built like a teenager, while the rest of the boys in his class were still endowed like children.

Henry Lee I ain’t stupid. Alaric shied away.

I know, but I know you enough to know that you’re very curious. Henry led Alaric into the bathroom.

Inside, one of Henry’s friends, Ben Hill, other wise known as Big Ben, was jerking off in one of the stalls. Alaric swallowed hard when he saw the chub. Alaric’s hands trembled slightly.

Is anything wrong Alaric? What is it buddy? Henry Lee patted Alaric’s belly.

I gotta go. Alaric turned to leave, but Henry Lee stopped him.

I knew it! You like men! You’re one of them queers! Henry laughed as he noticed Alaric’s jeans.

Henry Lee, leave me alone. Alaric left the bathroom, and heard the boys laughing inside.

Look away! I wanna finish. Big Ben said to Henry.

Now fourteen, Alaric has learned that the only way for him to be happy, and to keep everyone happy, was to keep away from everyone else. The only other person that drifted to him was a special education student named Ralph Gentry.

I drove Ralph away. Even if he liked to spend time with me, I was making his life harder than it had to be. The others at school were making fun of him as it was because of a speech disability he has, but at my side, it was even worse. I don’t know if I did right. I still don’t know, but the possibility of having a friend was a nice delusion.

At lunch, Ralph would go to the lunch room, and eat plenty, but no matter how much food he had, he was always hungry. Most of the girls would come to him with what they couldn’t eat; leaving offerings in front of him before giggling away like butterflies. Some of those girls would even sit at his side and watch him eat what they had left. It was almost as if a sick part of them enjoyed seeing Alaric eat.

Gross! How can you eat so much? One of the girls would laugh as Alaric took another bite, or emptied another bag of milk.

Back then, the Department of Agriculture used to give free meals on some schools, but there wasn’t much choice, if you didn’t liked what they prepared for the day, you were screwed, and no matter what you’d to eat the vegetables and drink the milk. Sometimes when fresh milk ran out, they would feed the students powdered milk.

Not again! Everyone would cry in desperation.

It was as if someone was feeding them poison. The powdered milk tasted horribly, like a mixture of plastic, horse piss and flour. Still, Alaric would drink all of the milk the others left behind. Afterwards he would scurry out of the school grounds into the woods behind the main building, and once there, he would lay down shirtless next to a pond to look at the sun filter down into the forest floor.

I think I had too much milk. He burped and then caressed his furry belly, breathing in the fresh mountain air. In the distance, I can hear the birds, and sometimes, the mating calls of wild animals, echoing, as if telling me something important.

That day he had decided to skip one of his afternoon classes to spend a few hours swimming in the pond. That is why he had so much food at lunch, well, maybe too much, because he had to take nap before going swimming.

Half asleep, Alaric felt his body temperature rise. This had happened before, and when it happens, he usually runs to the forest and gets completely naked. Feeling a thin layer of sweat on his face, Alaric unbuttoned his jeans and kicked them away. He preferred going commando. No matter how much Jonathan had tried to make Alaric wear underwear, he would always end up going everywhere without any. Actually, Jonathan was pretty sure that if it wasn’t for his constant nagging, Alaric would be naked all of the time.

Resting on the soft foliage completely naked, Alaric curled up beside a rock next to the pond, and relaxed his mind, feeling the power of nature crawl in him as if it were a living thing. The spring water flowed into the pond, cold, constant, and filled with life. Alaric could feel the fish living inside the pond, the little tadpoles in the small puddles beside it, and even the very rocks, guardians of the many leaves floating on the surface like delicate schooners. The wind painted colorful pictures on the very air, as branches and leaves play a melody so ancient that Alaric couldn’t remember its origin. That melody meant nothing to his peers; even his own father had a hard time hearing it. It was a melody composed by the sounds of nature, and it brings peace and stability to his soul.

Lulled by that melody Alaric cooled down, his body in perfect harmony with his surroundings, feeling every movement as if it were happening in his body and soul. It was as if he was the mountain, as if his heart was the foundations of stone, deep, deep inside the depths of those monoliths of stone and ancient earth.

Alaric knew from an early age that he was connected to nature. It was hard for Jonathan to keep him away from the wild. It was almost as if the wild was calling to him, howling at him to seek its embrace, see and feel what hides there.

At times I wake in the middle of the night, anxious, but full of a deep excitement that I can't comprehend. It’s as if I suddenly I had realized something that I wasn’t supposed to know, and all the universe had suddenly, and inexplicably, opened up to me in such a grand way, that I can see the details within the particulars of everything in creation.

I wander the night flying high above the clouds, with the moon and stars up above me, lighting me with their cheery light. Oh, moon, mother! The moon sings such songs that at times I find myself twirling, and swaying on its call. In those nights, a rougher side of me takes over, and I'm free like a bird. But such nights are rare, and far in-between.

What I do the most in my dreams is run, I run unhindered into the forest, into the mountains, as if I were a wild beast on an untamed brouhaha, ready to explode from within my bounds. In those dreams, I jump over chasms, swim endless rivers, and run over both thorns and sharp rocks without being harmed. Not even deep cold ails me. It’s as if my blood was liquid fire, keeping me alive and content. There, in that rumpus of wild delight I explore the deepest caves, and speak to the wild beasts, as if I was someone else, as if I was a different creature. I'm content and familiar with that form, but I can't comprehend its sway.

"I'm totally free." Alaric said softly as he gripped soil, and leaves.

Alaric closed his eyes tightly as he remembered Henry Lee In fast lapses of memory, remembering what Big Ben did. Alaric knew that Henry Lee was feeling very confused, and had no idea on how to deal with those emotions. Alaric got hard thinking of Ben.

Alaric knew