I have to say I don 't read very much as I prefer creation than reading . I know this is a controversial point of view but I 'm looking for approval . However , it was refreshing to see places like this still existed . I walked around the room and only saw a one small and elderly woman in a corner , sitting in a high stool , reading a book . I think it was Moby Dick but I wouldn 't say for sure . A guy , a bit older than me , appeared from behind one of the piles of books . I was startled and tried to fake it but he had noticed and started to laugh . I was really annoyed by this so I turned around and started checking the books in the opposite shelf . I gazed at the window : the downpour appeared to have gotten worse , if possible . I could even see the light of a thunder and the sound , this time , didn 't startled me although I felt worried I wouldn 't make it to my date . The guy appeared again , blocking my view of the window . He asked if I was looking for a particular book . I told him I wasn 't . He then asked if I had just entered the store because of the rain to which I answered with a soft " Yes " . Trying to come up with something to say , I didn 't realized the guy had grabbed my hand and was making me walk towards the back of the room . When I did realize what was going on , I felt blood rushing to my face and tried to release myself from him but he only tightened his grip . He opened a door and then made me follow him up , to a second floor . There , there was a room as large as the one below . Shelves were also all around but in the center of the room there were only a few tables , to be shared by two people at most . Each one had a lamp and they seemed to be really comfortable . He released my hand and went to the back of the room , close to a circular window through which I could see the rain continuing to fall . The guy started looking for a book as I watched around , seeing only one of the tables occupied . There was an older man that went back and forth in the book , apparently comparing phrases or maybe images . I got closer to him and tried to watch over his shoulder . He then said " You can come closer if you want " . So I did . He was reading an encyclopedia , apparently only dealing with sea creatures . He was comparing two types of salmon . I smiled at him as I saw the guy telling me to come closer . As I walked across the room , he sat on a chair and turned on the lamp . I sat down in front of him . He told me he had a present for me . I smiled and asked him " Why would you give a present ? We don 't know each other ? " . He answered " Precisely " . He gave me the book and I realized it was a first edition of the first book of the Harry Potter series . I couldn 't refrain myself from laughing . But he didn 't laughed . He actually look at me disappointed , as if I had hurt him horribly . He corrected me : the store was owned by his grandparents . " You have already met them " . I turned around to see the older gentleman flipping pages and scratching his head . Salmons were puzzling him indeed . His grandmother was the Moby Dick lady , he confirmed . That was his next question . I told him my name and then he told me his : Marcus . He told me his parents loved the Antiquity and if he had been a girl he would have been named Cleopatra . I smiled at this . It was a sweet anecdote . He smiled back and told me he loved Harry Potter and thought it would be a nice present for someone who doesn 't read much or so it seemed . I told him he was right . We started talking for a while : I told him what I did for a life and what I liked and he told me about his deceased parents , his love for books and his grandparents . Marcus told me we should meet when I finish the book . I agreed . I was about to come out of the store when I realized I wanted to ask something more . He looked at me and then I thought it was better to ask about it the next time we would meet . Some time later I was on the bus calling my friend , telling her I would be arriving a bit late due to the rain . She said it was ok and we hung up . I then thought of Marcus and how guilty I felt having not told him that I had known Harry Potter for years . I read the books when I was younger , as they came out . I really liked the story and that was , in part , the reason why I laughed when he gave me the book . Helena Humphries lived with her dog Alan and her crow Lena . They had been together for several years and weren 't planning to separate any time soon . Her husband Harvey had died five years ago and both animals were greta companions for an elderly lady like Helena . For years , she had taken care of a small shop , located just below her apartment . The place had been the property of Harvey 's family but they all died out fast and he was the last one . So he gave the shop to Helena in his will . To be honest , she had not been very happy when she realized she had to take care of business . She was 74 years old and planned to live the rest of her days in peace and tranquility . The shop was too much to do , too much to pay attention to . She had always thought the place was perfect for her husband , an innate businessman . But she didn 't have it in her . They had met in high school and from then on she was only a wife . They never had children and , to be honest again , she didn 't resent it . She thought children should only come to the world if they were " looked for " and if they were guaranteed love . One day , a particular windy one , a woman called Virginia entered the store . She browse around but didn 't appear to be really interested in anything . Helena had recognized her : people of the neighborhood said she was a prostitute and that she had a son out of one of her clients . Virginia looked at Helena and started crying . The older woman didn 't know what to do , so she grabbed some hankies , the one she sold , and gave them to the woman . She cleaned her face , tainted by ruined make up , and blew her nose . Helena asked if she was fine and the woman started her story : it was true . She was a prostitute as she had been laid off from her job at a brewery and she found herself with no husband and a child . But the child was not a consequence of her new work , more like the cause of it . She did it for him , so he could have food and a better life . The younger woman moved in with her son and life was good and quiet for a week or so until a man named Gregory came into the store , with a body guard as big as Mrs . Humphries wardrobe . They started pushing things to the floor and insulting Virginia for failing to do her job . She asked for forgiveness and told Gregory she would pay any debts . The big man grabbed her by an arm and almost broke it . Suddenly a loud bang was heard . No one really knew what it was until Gregory fell dead on the floor . Mrs . Humphries had come down from her apartment , where she was taking a nap next to Virginia 's baby , with her rifle . It has to be said that Harvey had always been cautious and didn 't trust the authorities too much , as his younger brother had been drafted illegally by military men and then died in a faraway land . So when he married Helena , he taught her how to shoot and use all kinds of guns . On saturdays , they would share an evening at the shooting range and then have milkshakes for desert . Helena had always loved those days as she felt strong and with purpose . From then on Mrs . Humphries took care of Virginia as if she was a daughter and Virginia learned to think of the older lady as a mother . She proposed Helena to close the store for remodeling in order to turn it into a nice little café , which could attract more clients . Virginia was skilled at baking and pastries and had always wanted to do it for a living . The new café was a success . Every person in town wanted to have one of Virginia 's pastries for dessert . Helena helped too and , finally , gave in to her Harvey 's wish of her becoming more than a wife . She became a proper owner , a good hostess and a great surrogate mother for Virginia and her baby . Half an hour later , she got to her house . She finally let go of the bloody tube that hit the floor hard . She slowly took her coat off , trembling a bit , remembering how he looked after she had killed him . No , she didn 't felt pity or remorse . She just couldn 't . Ariana had promised herself never to be a victim again and she had taken steps for that not to happen . She went to a martial arts school and began doing yoga , although she failed miserably at the latter . So that night , when she killed a man that had attempted to rape her , she felt powerful and strong , filled with adrenaline and ready to take the world by her rules and not by the ones society imposed . She was fed up by the feeling of fear and hopelessness . No , she decided to take action . Many people , mainly man , were afraid of strong women . Days after the killing , she went out with a former lover called Richard , by her request . He had stated she was different somehow but that he liked it . She just smiled , not really understanding what he had meant . News of the murder filled the papers soon but the man was a reported rapist and many of his victims were thankful for his demise . Some actually said they were happy as that was what he deserved . Others just wanted time to heal , both physically and mentally . But Ariana had already healed , or at least that was what she said to herself . Before the first attack , the one that almost made her insane , she was just a fearful girls just sailing through life , not really counting on anything . The attack just made her even more shy , more scared and she even lost the will to live . Now , however , she had taken the bull by the horns . Richard , now her boyfriend , was specially surprised by how much she had changed over the years . He knew hair as the bookish , rather dull girl in high school . To be honest , he never paid attention to her back then . But now it was impossible not look at her : she had blossomed into this sexy and daring woman . Sex was wonderful and even better was sharing long talks with her . Ariana had always loved reading , so she had decided to open a small bookstore . She did it all by herself and just a year after she was a favorite in the neighborhood . Richard moved in with her and they shared even more than before : travels , memories , experiences and more . One day she finally told him about her rape . Richard was an even better man that she taught . She kissed and hugged her and promised to be there forever . Of course , sometimes she still remembered everything : the rape , the aftermath and the killing of that man , in a dark alley . That was her biggest secret and she never told anyone . Ariana never felt guilty for what she had done but she knew it was a sin with which she would have to live forever . And she did . She lived a full life , doing what she loved , living life by her rules . The man that loved her shared her feelings for the beauty of life and the horrible events of her life never tainted the powerful drive to keep on going . They were almost there . Raul , the guide , had said it was only a hundred meters or so to the tallest point . Or so they thought he had said . Hearing wasn 't an easy task , as the wind blew stronger in the altitudes Breathing was also difficult and the freezing cold made it even harder . They walked another fifty meters and then they understood what Raul had said . Laura , the scientist from Pasto , fell in a crevasse and pulled everyone else into it . Luckily , Raul and Juan had their tools ready and held strongly on the white floor . Fast , the others helped Laura getting out and avoided the crevasse . Franco put a red flag by the gap on the floor , pierced the snow with all his strength . They continued for a few minutes until they made it to the top . Raul warned them , breathing with difficulty , that they could only stay for a few minutes . As they had no oxygen tanks , staying more than necessary could mean dying there or on the way down . Juan , as experienced as he was , took just one moment to see the scenery and then went back to Raul and started talking about the descent . It wasn 't that he took it all for granted , not at all . Juan was just thinking of so many things at same time and seeing mountains from the top of another mountain didn 't do anything for him . He had a wife and a baby girl to think of . At the cost of loosing what he loved most , he had to choose either a well paid job or loosing them both . Laura , however , sat on a rock and filled her lungs with the purest air she might ever breath . It was true that oxygen was scarce , was somehow it felt cleaner and better than anything else . She loved how the mountains looked and how beautiful the world looked like this , just peaceful . It was different of what she had known her whole life , and the fact that this beautiful place existed not that far from home , was overwhelming to her . Luis , an mature hiker with a thick beard , inhaled too but many more times , as if he defied the world . Only Raul knew that Luis was dying of cancer in the blood and this journey was a way of saying to life " you can 't beat me up " . The mountains and what he saw weren 't as beautiful to him as the fact of having being able to do it all on his own , this last few months . He was going to die , true . But he wanted to imprint his mark on the world . Veronica , a geology student , had come with a camera and started taking pictures as soon as they had reached the summit . She was a cheerful photographer , having documented her life and her family 's life in huge amounts of pictures . Digital or analog , she didn 't care . She only cared about keeping memories alive forever and this was her way of doing so . She had lost her father recently , and he had promised to go hiking with him . She wanted to take the most beautiful pictures to honor her father 's memory . Marcos and Tomás thought of each other as brothers . They admired the view , never kneeling or crouching or sitting but standing up to it , taking it all in as if it was a gift that one couldn 't just let pass by . Both men , still young but already working through life , had decided to take this trip to defy their bodies and test , once more , the limits of their friendship . Marcos and Tomás were not real brothers , not relatives by blood . They had lived together from a young age as orphans , on the streets and under the care of others . But they never let each other go . The six visitors came to the mountain , each one with a kind of mission . Some of them were successful , others not so much . But what was valuable wasn 't the physical prowess as such . It was the fact that they had decided to take a challenge in order to honor something , to be true to themselves . As they returned to the base camp , near a beautiful blue lake , their lives seemed to have improved , at least a little , even for a tiny space of time . They had learned no one defies a mountain out of courage or for the need of glory . All who do it , do it just for the urge , the need to define who they are . Anyone in the planet knew about the Empress , about Alysthina Jygda . Daughter of a butcher and a baker , she grew up in one of the many villages of the marshlands . Such a sad place wasn 't the place one would expect to find such a beautiful girl , dedicated to the gathering of marshons , fruits that only grew deep in the wetlands . No one really knew how , but she was very skill at navigating his spaces and she was adored for this , as marshons were the primary export of the villages . No member of her original family was alive to see her enthroned , as her parents had died some years after her wedding , of old age , and she hadn 't had any brothers or sisters or any other relative that was know . Her family now was her only child , princess Sygma . She was named by her father after the star that brought its heat to the planet . She was as beautiful as her mother but with some traces of her father 's features . One day , however , the princess also died . As stated by the Empress , she had wandered through a nearby forest , slipped on a rock near a river and hit her head on other rocks . Her burial was broadcasted planetwide but , oddly enough , the Empress seamed always calm and never dressed in black . Actually , she wore a stunning pearl white dress the her daughter 's burial . People fell in love again with her , more than ever . The wedding , as expected , was magnificent . But something strange happened . The first night they would expend together as empress and emperor , changed the lives of everyone in the planet . The man escaped the castle , frightened to death . He yelled and screamed through the nearby town , stole a starship and left the planet . Every one was confused by this until they discovered the reason he had left : the day after her wedding , Alysthina appeared with dark green skin and red eyes . The reason of her youth was revealed : as a young woman she had given her life to Omaku , the god of evil . Why ? she thought rulers had been neglectful to the planet and that she would make it all better . But the pact did not contemplate a second marriage and , least of all , for love . So he took away her beauty as payback . This , of course , had not happened out of miracle . No . Michel was born a chef . From age five , he enjoyed staying at home with his mother and grandmother and see them planning breakfast , lunch and dinner . He was particularly fond of grand feasts that his family held every once in a while to celebrate important days as July 14th , every family member birthday or a town gathering which his family was always asked to cater . The solution ? Learn by himself . His uncle was a postman and left early and got in late . This time was used by Michel to watch all kinds of cooking shows on TV . He would also look for high cuisine books in a nearby library and would even come in the butcher 's store to ask him to teach Michel how to cut pork , veal and lamb . Believing to be ready , he went through the hard test in the Cordon Bleu . He was denied entrance and that put him in a severe depression that lasted for a couple of months . It was a hot summer but he wouldn 't come out of bed . His uncle begged him to go out , meet girls and go dancing but Michel wasn 't interested . Be that as it may , Michel excelled in all classes and soon got his diploma with the highest honors . Then , again , he applied for Cordon Bleu and failed once more . This time , however , he wasn 't sad or disappointed . He had decided to be the best french cook to have ever lived and nothing would be able to stop him . That was his turning point . He became obsessed with success and recognition . He went from loving cooking and food to just use them to surprise people and be loved as he had always wanted to be loved . Although no one ever knew it , Michel had never really been physically attracted to anyone . He had never had the need for romantic love or sexual intercourse . But he was obsessed with people knowing who he was . This was likely to be a result of people never really believing in him , except his mother . He did not trusted people and had a passive aggressive behavior , that rarely bursted out . He visited her only after he got his first restaurant job . He was sous - chef for Gaston Bisset , a respected chef in the city of Lyon . The man had seen Michel 's talent and decided to hire him for his restaurante , the Licorne . When Michel told his mother the news , she just hugged him and kissed his cheek . It was all she wanted . After all , the father had died when Michel was very young and she had always regretted not giving him a sister or brother to share with . In the Licorne , Michel excelled . He was fast , thorough and clean . His cuts were precise and his deserts found a place in the restaurant 's menu . Everyone in Lyon knew of this young man that made the most delicious deserts . The situation became tense . People saw them quarreling , yelling at each other and not talking to one another for days . It all ended one day when Bisset didn 't show up and Michel had to take care of everything . Bisset was said to be very sick and Michel took this to his advantage : the Licorne was his . In one week , he created the most splendid dishes : salmon in lychee sauce , passion fruit chicken and macadamia nut ice cream on chia seed cake . Bisset died . Officially it was a stroke . Some wanted Michel to stay in the Licorne but he decided to leave as he needed to create his own place and did so in the city of Quimper . Bu then , when all was great , Justine Bisset arrived went to Paris . She had seen her father in his last days and believed in her heart the stroke was just the final part of his death . She proceeded to sue Michel of killing her father . Soon , the necessary evidence was gathered and , sure enough , the Austerlitz was lost , as Napoleon did many years ago . Justine cried in the court and explained how Michel poisoned her father in a moment of weakness and then proceeded to take over the Licorne . Michel always denied it all but the evidence was hard to overlook . But he wasn 't surrendering . In a stroke of genius , he escaped the police and the country . He grew a beard , started to exercise and opened a small pub in Scotland . Every now and again he made his amazing pastries for the townsfolk . And when someone was too disrespectful or didn 't like his creations , he simply added a thin extra layer cream on his sweet works of art . We were never the kind to dwell on anything . It was simple really : we were officially not wanted anywhere in the world . It wasn 't surprising or confusing , just a bit painful . People in general didn 't care . That had enough with the war ravaging life here and there . Human rights were not really on the top of the list of things people cared any more . They just wanted to live in peace , like before . We did too and that 's how we decided to leave . Besides , Iceland had signed a pact with the Confederation : they wouldn 't mess with them as long as they didn 't mess with Iceland . Fair enough . The Confederation wasn 't really interested in them , at least not yet , as they had bigger fish to capture . We gathered the few possessions we still had , put them on one big suitcase and hugged goodbye our families . It was clear that it might be the last time we saw them , so we were sure to say it loud one last time , in case they died or we died . That was the reality of things . For one whole day we hitchhiked to the coast . Many men and women were heading there : they thought that there was still a chance to head out of the country as the Confederation hadn 't invaded yet . The government , strangely , didn 't care or was sure no one would be successful . No one really knew . I said goodbye to my city too . Bombings and rioting had left the mountains hollow at some points . It had always being a rather grayish city but now that gloomy ambiance was permanent and real . The rest of the journey was easy : several days on the Aurora , helping the sailors and becoming sailors ourselves . We worked hard , helping with everything but we knew nothing of the sea . We didn 't feel relieved when we got to Saint John : we had learned to loved the sea in just those few days and we felt the ocean might be the perfect getaway from the crumbling world around us . But we had to go on . We were careful as the Confederation had been in control of the territory for quite some time but they still permitted life to go on as normal as it could . For three days , we avoided contact with anyone , hiding in almost destroyed buildings or in the surrounding wilderness . Finally , one night , we entered an oil tanker bound for Reykjavik and prayed for the boat to sail soon . And it did . They discovered us but we begged for them to let us go as soon as we got to the mainland . Of course , we had to make an agreement : we were slaved for the duration of the journey . Everything from kitchen duties , to moping floors and cleaning bathrooms . I cried every night , wishing all would end . Eric couldn 't infuse me with positivism as he felt exactly the same . The truth is that we were part of the resistance , the one that existence for just a few weeks before the invasion of our country and the signature of the annexation treaty . A puppet president , a former president to be exact , was established and we became something less than a colony . Eric and I met for the first time after I had put a bomb on an official 's car . He saved me from being arrested and I thank him for that up to this day . We offered our work as fishermen and soon we had steady jobs , fishing herring of the coast . Our boss was a fat oppressive man , but he was fair nevertheless . He never missed a payment and even let us live on one of the boats . Two months after arriving in Iceland , we were sent to Akureyri , a small port in the north coast . We sailed alone , the two of us in our boss 's boat . I think that was when I really fell in love with Eric . The beautiful scenery , the relative calm and the fact that we could finally be open without anyone looking , pointing or eavesdropping , were all ingredients for it . But life was a bitch with us , with all the letters . In Akureyri we met with the boss 's son , who wanted us to fish in some dangerous places . We were obliged to do it as we had no papers and , officially , immigrants were banned . So we did it , we had to use explosives for fishing and I almost blew a hand off when using one . It all ended one night , after we had arrived from our fishing trip . We were exhausted and in need of food . We didn 't had much money so we shared a plate of herring and a beer . And then , again , the looks came back . It was like being in our country all over again . We finished fast and left the place . We thought that they were going to leave us there , in a dim lit street , but they decided to put us on one of their cars and rode for more than an our . I was on the edge of fainting but couldn 't . Eric did faint but he was woken up when they got us out the car , by the road and the started again . They spitted us at the end and one of them peed on our heads . They laughed and threatened us and then they left . I finally fainted , wishing I was dead once again . I thought that if needed , I would kill myself if I woke up . Sure enough , we didn 't died . I woke up to a sniffing and licking dog . He was a shepherd dog . I recognized it as my grandfather had one when I was little . I could only open my eyes a bit but not talk or stand . I couldn 't see Eric and I thought of his death . And I cried , with horrible pain all over . So it happens , the dog 's name was Odin , as the norse god . And his owners were farmers . They owned sheep in a small farm near Lake Logurinn . I have no idea how these two elderly people could do it but hey put both of us on the back of their car , alongside bags of manure and dog food . I fainted and had a an awful dream , of the beating and Eric dying . It seemed to go on forever until I woke up . It was a beautiful little house , made of wood , as if it had been taken out of a fairytale . The room was small , only big enough for a double size bed and a furnishing with some drawers . After I had overcome the pain of my injuries , I noticed Eric sleeping besides me . He wasn 't dead . I hugged him , hard , not caring for our physical pain . Him being there was everything . We recovered slowly but steadily . Antonia and Carl told us we reminded them of their two sons that had left the country to fight the Confederation in Canada , some years ago . They decided to pick us up and help us as they thought of our parents . It was painful but , in order to fit in completely , I had to change my name . I became Johannes . Eric 's name was just perfect , as he was after all that happened . Often alone on the hills and fields , we could really fall in love with each other . sharing every single part of our lives . And we were fine with it . Only taking his hand made me feel safe , even if this place seemed to have been forgotten by the world . The Confederation never came here , we were told by our friends , they only cared for resources and the vicinity was deprived of minerals or anything they would care to steal . A year after our arrival in the country we were able to build a small house near our friends home . We did it ourselves with stones and wood . I think that helped us regain some trust in ourselves and makes us heal psychologically . And that was our life . For five years , before the Big Battle , we were happy and everything was perfect . It wouldn 't last forever but that wasn 't important : we were given time with each other and to heal and I have always being grateful for that . What Paul didn 't expect was running into an old school mate . No , they were not friends . Far from that : they despised each other . Jonah was always the athletic jock , not that beautiful to be honest but always life of the party and center of attention . Paul was just the opposite . Jonah was buying a sandwich from a lady in al old kiosk and then he saw Paul . And Paul saw him . It was one of those moments when time freezes because you don 't really know how to react . It was too late to fake not seeing the other man and too strange of a situation to say anything . It was Paul that came closer and bought a hot beverage from the same lady . It has to be said that he had being trying to change his elusive and shy self in order to be more assertive and spontaneous . So , when he saw Jonah , what would be more spontaneous than just greeting him , as if he was better than all that had happened in school . To be honest , only discomfort happened . There were never awful jokes or nasty discrimination : it wasn 't a movie high school or an american one for that matter . They just disliked each other and that was it . Anyway , Paul greeted Jonah and Jonah responded . They asked for their respective lives : Paul was in Paris in a holiday . He lived in Berlin , working in a restaurant as an apprentice of the main chef . He had always loved food . On the other hand , Jonah lived in London and was working in a big advertising company . Jonah nodded . Paul didn 't know but Jonah had a nervous crisis a year earlier . He had being in a relationship with a girl from school and realized he was bored to death by her . They had come together because of their " status " in life but that faded fast when they moved to London . But he didn 't say this to Paul . Only that he always wanted to visit the palace and see its grandeur at least once . Paul agreed : it was a personal dream of his to visit Paris , a well regarded place for food , and specially to walk through places so charged with history and beauty as these gardens . - I had a crush on you in high school . I thought you were so perfect . I knew I could never be like you . It was weird . Paul was confused . He hadn 't had the intention of making Jonah feel bad or obliged somehow by his story . He expressed this to him as they neared Versailles - Rive Gauche train station . - It 's not that . . . I 'm just here ' till January 2nd and it would be nice to see the city with someone else . Don 't you think so ? It wasn 't strange when , after two bottles and only a few hours until sunrise , Paul kissed Jonah and the former jock stood still . Paul was ashamed and Jonah was speechless . He decided to grab his coat and leave . Paul barely slept , all alcoholic intoxication lifting from his body by the thought of his mistake . He had gone to far and he had to learn from it . So much for the walk around the Rive Gauche . After lunch time , he decide that walking would be better than staying at home . As he put on his coat , the phone rang . It was the front desk lady stating someone was waiting for him downstairs . And there they went . The day was gray and gloomy but it went perfect as they slowly became friends . No mention was made of the kiss , not once all day .