Chapter Two Athens. The city lay sprawling around the base of the enormous flat hilltop of the Acropolis, housing the hundred thousand or so people as they went about their lives today as they did every other day, each performing their own function in a metropolis that allowed it’s citizens to live their indolent lives. The sun danced it’s image on the window panes, sparkling off the stream as it meandered along through the city. Children ran and played on it’s banks in a carefree fashion tha...

Chapter Two Athens. The city lay sprawling around the base of the enormous flat hilltop of the Acropolis, housing the hundred thousand or so people as they went about their lives today as they did every other day, each performing their own function in a metropolis that allowed it’s citizens to live their indolent lives. The sun danced it’s image on the window panes, sparkling off the stream as it meandered along through the city. Children ran and played on it’s banks in a carefree fashion tha...

Chapter One 530 B.C. Caria, Western border of the Persian Empire. Ice was slowly defrosting on the pine needles, water gently melting, trickling down the branches of the trees. A late winter sun sent shimmering reflections of light bouncing off the droplets, enhancing the almost ethereal quality of the surrounding woods. Birds were singing their enjoyment and appreciation of the change in seasons while a deer was methodically chewing tops of small plants that had been revealed by the defroste...