Favors of the First Ones

Favors of the First Ones - Chapter 5 What follows is a work of complete fiction.

This series will include detailed descriptions of sexual encounters between a human male and other males from various alien races in a science fiction setting.

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About the story:

This series tells the story of an ordinary man who's life is near its natural end, but who suddenly finds himself, at the moment of the unexpected destruction of his world, the victim of an alien abduction with a bizarre motive, that ultimately opens the entire universe to him and propels him into a life of adventure that he'd never imagined was even possible.  He eventually finds himself thrust front and center into events that could, both figuratively and quite literally, change the shape of the entire known universe.

I hope that you enjoy it.

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Favors of the First Ones - Chapter 5

Jake came back to consciousness slowly this time.

As his brain began to come on line he prepared himself to face the embarrassment of explaining to Xelzix how things had gotten so screwed up with the match.

He suddenly realized it would be three months later now.  What all had happened in the meantime?  Did he still have a contract?  Did Komakwa get through the trial?

Jake wondered why the hell his head hurt so badly.

He opened his eyes to relatively dark surroundings.

Where was Xelzix's smiling face?  Did something go wrong with the process?

As his brain sluggishly returned to full lucidity he realized he was lying on his side mashed up against a hard wall.  He shook his head and turned and sat up to look around.

He was still on the ship with Komakwa!

He remembered now how the floor had tilted to almost vertical under his feet and he'd been thrown through the air and against the back hull of the ship.  The force of it must have knocked him out.  He reached up and felt the top of his head.  There was a large bump there but his skull seemed to be in one piece.  It must be the hardening of his bones that the favors were doing that had saved him.

He wondered how long he'd been lying there.

He stood slowly up on shaky legs and tried to make sure, as he wobbled toward the front of the small ship, that he hung on to anything he could along the way in case it tried to toss him again.

He saw as he headed forward and looked through the canopy that it was early morning already.  He assumed it was anyhow.  It had been nearly dark when he'd gone out to the hanger.  Now he could see the sun low in the sky off to the side ahead of them.  He must have been unconscious all night.  Had they been flying the whole time?  Mak was still sitting in the right hand seat at the front of the ship.

"Mak," he said.

Komakwa tensed and jumped like he'd just been hit with fifty thousand volts of electricity.

The young bull turned his head and looked around his seat to the back where Jake was standing.

"Jake, what are you doing in here?  How did you get here?  You shouldn't be here!" he shouted.

Jake saw the bull turn back and fumble in front of himself, there were a couple of beeps and then Komakwa stood out of his seat and came back towards Jake menacingly.

Jake backed away and said, "Wait, just hold on and let me explain."

Komakwa stopped and glared at Jake waiting for some explanation.

"I heard the things Troska said to you.  He twisted things.  What he said, it's just not the way it really is.  I followed you out and chased you into the ship to explain things.  You need to give me a chance to explain!"

"You mean give you a chance to pull the wool even further over my eyes!  What sort of person are you to do that to someone?  How much did they pay you?  Did you do it just for the immortality?  Is that it?  I thought I loved you!  I thought you loved me!  It was all a lie!"

"No!  It wasn't a lie!  I love you, Mak!  That's the truth!  Please, you have to understand.  I said nothing to you that didn't come from my heart."

There was a soft beeping and a light began to flash on a panel at the front of the ship.

"Come from your heart?  Do you even have one?  They grew you in a tank!  Are you gonna try to deny that?  Do you even have a real race or are you just something they stole from my dreams?"

"Please, could we sit down and talk about this calmly?  I'll tell you everything from my side as it happened right from the beginning."

There were a few more beeps but they sounded more urgent this time and an additional light began to flash at a high rate on the front panel.

Jake looked past Komakwa and out the front canopy of the ship and saw what looked like a cloud of smoke a ways ahead of them.  Komakwa wasn't facing the right way to see it and he wasn't hearing the beeps because he was too caught up in his rage against Jake.

"How can I possibly trust anything you say to me now?  I know you were payed to be my playmate!  I don't know why, but you were!  Anything coming out of your mouth will be designed to try to lure me back in again so you can keep your resurrection contract!"

"No!  I don't care about the contract, not anymore.  I care about you!  We'll have your father cancel it!  I'll be mortal again!  I don't care about that right now.  I just want you to know the truth.  Just listen to what I have to say and then let your heart decide, please?"

Jake saw the cloud of smoke growing to the point where it nearly filled the sky ahead of them and it began to resolve into large grayish brown shapes.

"Uh, Mak, I think you need to get back in the pilot's seat, now!"

A couple more lights came on and suddenly a klaxon started to sound.

Komakwa spun and saw what was coming toward them.

"Get in the other seat, fast!" he shouted and then he jumped back into the pilot's seat.

Jake rushed forward and just as he was about to jump into the seat he saw what looked like an incredibly large bird rush right at them and when it saw the ship coming at it, it swerved sideways and upward but struck a glancing blow against the canopy that actually caused it to crack.

The impact caused the ship to jerk violently and Komakwa fought to bring it under control.

Jake was knocked off his feet and slid part way to the back of the ship again.

"Doesn't this damn thing have shields?" Jake asked with a groan as he struggled to get back up.

"It's not a fighter or a big shuttle.  It's just a long range scout craft.  The engines aren't powerful enough to generate shields!"

More alarms started to sound.

"Jake, get in the seat or you'll be dead in a minute.  The ship is not going to survive this if I can't get us out of it.  There's a whole flock of them and we're in the middle of it!  We may need to eject!" Mak shouted as he wrestled with the ship's controls.

Jake struggled to get forward again and grabbed the edge of the seat and then pulled himself into it.  Mak smashed at a button and Jake sank into the seat and it held him.

Komakwa yanked the controls again and they narrowly missed plowing into another of the huge birds.  Jake saw that they weren't actually birds but they looked a lot like pterodactyls from the movies with massive leathery wings and heads that were narrow and long with a bony ridge at the top and serrated teeth.  The sky ahead was absolutely thick with them.  It was some kind of mass migration.

Mak pushed the control stick forward to bank the ship down to dive out of the mass of dactyls as quickly as possible.

Just as they were about to clear the flock a large one appeared in their path and Komakwa banked hard right to avoid it but it was too late.

The creature hit the left wing directly and tore it half off.

The small ship began to spin uncontrollably while it dropped like a rock and more klaxons started to blare at them.

"Hang on!" Komakwa shouted and he flipped a panel open on the right next to his seat and twisted a handle he found there and yanked it up.

Suddenly the seat Jake was in sucked him in so deep he almost disappeared into it with only his face exposed and it firmed up again to hold him tightly and the top of the ship blew off and as the ship lurched onto its side the seats rocketed outward.  Jake and Komakwa were now tumbling and plummeting down toward the hard ground in just their seats.

As Jake turned slowly through the air Mak's seat came into view and Jake saw one of the large creatures headed right at him but it veered at the last second to try to avoid the collision.  It clipped the seat with one of its feet as it swerved and the jolt knocked the bull downward at an even faster rate with a wilder spin.  Jake lost sight of him again as his own seat slowly tumbled around in the air to face the other way while it carried him down toward the hard ground.

In moments they had fallen below the flock of dactyls but the ground was now very close and coming up fast.  Shouldn't there have been a chute opening by now?  Would it still work for Mak while he spun end over end through the air so fast?

Once again Jake prepared himself to open his eyes to a smiling Xelzix.  He briefly wondered where Komakwa would be resurrected.  Would it be long before they could come back together and Jake could try to explain everything to him?

Jake's seat continued to turn slowly around and Komakwa came back into view.  Mak was much closer to the ground thanks to being clipped by the dactyl.  Jake's heart felt like it was going to seize up while he watched in horror as the young bull plummeted toward the rocky ground.  The chute hadn't opened and Mak was going to hit hard enough to leave a crater.  At least his death would be quick and painless.

Jake was about to close his eyes so he wouldn't have to witness his new found love getting mashed into the ground but just as Mak was about to impact he was suddenly surrounded by a set of large white balloons that instantly inflated around him.  It was an air bag system like the ones used on the probes Jake had seen dropped on Mars!  He saw the tight bunch of huge balloons hit the ground and bounce very high into the air before there was a series of loud bangs and his own vision was blocked by the balloons that suddenly surrounded him shortly before he finally reached the ground.

He must have hit the ground with a lot of force but the balloons acted like shock absorbers and springs and he felt only a small amount of jolt while he was held firmly in the hardened foam seat.  Then he felt himself rising back into the air again.  He continued to sense himself rising and falling as he rolled and bounced along the ground.  He wasn't sure how many times he bounced but finally he came to rest nearly upside down at an odd angle.  There was a long pause and then he heard hissing all around as the balloons began to deflate.

He was slowly lowered to the ground as the balloons shrunk around him and though the top of the seat hit the ground first it was such a slow movement that the seat simply rolled as it continued to come down and ended up with Jake on his back facing upward by the time the hissing stopped.  He felt the material of the seat suddenly loosen as though whatever electric current held it tight stopped and the material relaxed into a soft malleable memory foam substance again.

Jake was able to easily pry himself loose from the seat and moved to get up.

He struggled with the deflated balloons briefly until he realized they had all been separate and he just had to find the gap between two balloons and open it wide and he was out in the open air.

He stood and looked around.  He was at the base of a small hill next to a thick green forest.  There was a massive mountain range just past the hill, and off to his left a distance away was what looked like an active volcano.  It was not violently exploding but there was smoke issuing from it steadily.

He looked over towards where he thought Mak should be but it was all deep forest in that direction and he couldn't see very far.

"Mak!" he yelled as loud as he could and waited for a response.

There was none.

"Komakwa!"

Jake waited again but heard only a bit of echo from his own shouting and then nothing once again.

He prayed Komakwa was alright.  He'd seen the balloons inflate and bounce him so there was no reason to think Mak would be injured.  He needed to find the bull.  Mak would have some clue how to survive out here and how to get back to his father's house.

For the time being Jake was on his own.  He had no idea how to survive in the wilderness.  He'd never once even been on a camping trip.  He had to find some way to get help.

He wondered if the seat had any sort of emergency radio gear or rations or anything stored in it somewhere.  He looked around it and found two compartments in its base.  The first one he opened was empty and looked more like a slot for electronics of some kind that had not been installed.  He checked the second compartment and pulled out a large kit that had been stored there.  He opened up the kit and found what looked to be first aid supplies, a serrated survival knife and a few orange tubes with a thick base that looked like they might be flares.  He didn't see any sort of flare gun but the flares looked like they might be designed to be launched without one.

He pulled out one of the flares intending to fire it off and hopefully give Mak a clue where he was, but just as he was about to try to figure out how it worked he saw a red flare shoot up from the trees far back into the forest.  It appeared Komakwa had the same thought.  At least he knew the young bull was alive.

Jake looked around at the angle and direction of the sun and the large volcano with it's long plume of smoke in relation to the flare in order to fix its location so he would not begin to wander in the wrong direction.

Jake assumed Mak was now going to wait where he was for Jake to come to him.  There was no point shooting his own flare as it would just be a waste and there would be some confusion as to who should go where.

He stood and picked up the kit again and started walking toward the direction of the flare.  The going was rough.  Jake had rushed out of his room the night before and had only thrown on his leather shorts.  He was barefoot and his feet and legs were being badly scratched up by the brush he had to wade through.

He walked for what seemed like at least an hour and then shouted, "Mak!"

There was still no response.  He was having difficulty seeing even the smoke from the volcano from deep in the forest but occasionally he would climb a larger tree to get up high enough to get a fix on it once again.

He continued in this way for another hour or so and once again shouted Mak's name.

This time after a brief pause he heard Komakwa shout, "Jake, over here!"

The sound came from ahead of him and a little off to his right and not too far away.

"Coming!" he shouted.

Jake headed in the direction of the bull's voice and soon came into a small clearing.  Mak sat cross-legged on the ground by a camp fire waiting for him.  He did not jump up to rush to Jake.  He didn't even bother to look at Jake at first.  He just stared into the fire looking angry.

Jake looked around and saw that Mak had been busy clearing some brush away on a low sloped section of ground and had built a large fire on a pile of rocks.  There was a big pile of dried deadwood and branches off to one side.

Jake sat down by the fire not far from Mak and looked over at him but the bull still refused to even look at Jake.

"Welcome to Olgunkwae, alien.  You're the first one not of my race to set foot on this sacred land as far as I know," Komakwa said sullenly.

"Where are we exactly?" Jake asked.

"We're on the original home world of my people.  The place where I would be ascending in three weeks, if you hadn't made us crash," Mak snapped.

"I made us crash?  You were the pilot!"

"Yeah, well I was a bit distracted.  Why did you have to follow me on to the ship?  Why couldn't you leave me alone?"

"I had to explain things to you.  I didn't want you running off with the twisted version of things that Troska filled your head with.  I thought you were going to go for a ride on Jibble, so I came out the back of the house and saw the ship taking off.  I didn't have time to think.  I had to act, so I jumped on board.  Why did you come here?"

Komakwa glowered at Jake for a moment as if asking what business it was of his, and then his shoulders slumped slightly and turned his gaze back to the fire and he said in a somewhat defeated voice, "I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this.  The things Troska said sort of hit me hard.  He said that because I loved a man I had the character of a woman and that I couldn't possibly survive this place.  I wanted to stay here, just for a while, to see what it was like.  I wanted to know for myself that I was man enough to survive my ascendance.  I guess you could say I was cheating."

"Try not to think about what Troska said.  You're all man and then some, Mak, trust me"

The bull shrugged his shoulders but said nothing.

Jake continued, "So you flew us all the way across to the sacred planet?  I thought no one was allowed here?  How were you going to explain it when you went back home?"

"No one would know I came here," Mak explained, "They wouldn't know where I was and I would just give them some story about going off into the plains and camping by myself to think things through.  I've done that before so there likely wouldn't even be any one searching for me for a few days at least.  I made sure they wouldn't know where I really was."

"How did you make sure?"

"I disabled all of the tracking equipment on the ship and shut down the local radio comms so they couldn't triangulate and find me."

"You mean nobody can find us out here?  I looked for a locater beacon of some sort in my seat back there but didn't see anything.  Surely they must be built in or something?  Are the seats transmitting a signal right now?  Is there a black box in the wreckage?"

"No, sorry.  There are normally beacons in the seats and they run constantly once the ship is powered up to avoid the possibility that the pilot is unable to activate them due to injury in a crash.  I pulled the beacons out of their compartments in the seats and threw them on to a shelf back at the hanger so that nobody could track the signals and know that I was coming here."

"Wonderful, so how long do you think it might take for them to figure out where we are?"

"Honestly, I don't know.  There's no reason for them to think I would come here.  They'll be searching all over back home.  It would take them a long time to finally search all of it and when they find no sign of the ship and no wreckage they might decide to start searching here.  It would take them a lot longer to search this planet and the red tape to even get permission to do it would be a nightmare.  The planet is even off limits to satellites and probes.  We could be here for an extremely long time.  It could easily be a couple of years."

"Years?  Can't they just send some ship into orbit here and have someone peer into a glowy box and say, 'Humanoid life forms detected at coordinates so and so, it must be them!'  How the hell can it take years?"

"I don't know what sort of technology your people have been keeping to themselves but we don't have anything like that.  The planet would have to be imaged with orbiting drones and that process would likely take over a year to do the whole planet and the images would have to be examined to try to find traces of us or the wreckage.  It would be a big job," Mak said.

"Ugh, sounds like we're in a real jam then.  Would we be able to find food and water do you think?  We must be able to survive if they do the trials here, right?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, we should be able to get by if we use our wits and put in the effort, but it won't be easy.  There are some dangerous creatures out here that will see us as food.  It would be a miracle for us to survive that long without something going wrong."

"Well, should we just die then?  I saw a volcano back there we could jump in to," Jake suggested.

"What?  Are you crazy?" Komakwa asked in anger.

"What's the big deal?  It only hurts for a split second, then you'll be waking up from the resurrection.  It takes three months for me but I got the impression from the one who brings me back that it takes different amounts of time for different races.  In any case it feels like an instant.  How long would yours take?"

"My resurrection?  I think it takes a few months for my people too, but I wouldn't be coming back."

"What?  Why wouldn't you?"

"I don't have a contract, Jake."

"Why the hell not?  Did you cancel it?  Did those people you've been hanging around with talk you into it?"

"What people?  You mean the movement?  No, that's not it.  No one of my race gets a contract until their twenty fourth birthday when they become adults.  That's the way it is.  It's one of our traditions.  Even then, you can only get one if you can afford it, and females can only get one once they're mated.  Males can only get one once they've survived the ascendance and proved they are worthy to live as men in the first place.  My father would have a contract set up for me, but only in three weeks when I turned twenty four and only if I survived the trial.  They've never mapped my brain, so there's no coming back for me."

"Shit!  Do you mean to tell me if you die out here you're really dead?  I'll lose you forever?" Jake asked.

"Lose me?  Why do you care?  Go ahead and kill yourself, Jake.  Right now I feel like I might just be happy to do it for you.  Leave me alone out here to try to make it on my own.  Wake up in one of their chairs out there somewhere and maybe try to get yourself another match with someone else to keep your precious contract," Komakwa said.

"I don't give a shit about the contract!  I love you!  I can't lose you," Jake lamented.

"Bah, you don't need to keep the act going any longer.  I know the truth now."

"It's no act!  I wish I could explain this somehow.  My feelings for you are real.  Hell, your feelings for me were real too.  The person you fell in love with, that's me.  The real me.  I wasn't changed into something I'm not, just to fool you.  You weren't changed either just to make you fall for me.  Our love was natural and it comes from our attraction to each other and our compatibility with each other," Jake said.

"It comes from a massive sum of fuel credits moved from my father's account to the First Ones.  That's where it comes from.  You looked so strangely familiar to me when I first saw you in the dining room.  Like a long lost friend.  Like someone I once loved but had somehow forgotten.  Now I know why.  Troska told me.  You were someone my lonely mind created in my dreams as an ideal lover and they stole that dream and grew you from it.  You don't even have a race do you?  It's all a big lie."

"You've got it half right.  You did see me in your dreams first, but only because they flashed an image of me at you to see if you would like me or not, and you did.  It's a test they do to make sure we would be compatible.  They couldn't look at your dreams even if they wanted to.  They just can't do it.  They flashed images of me while you slept and if you didn't like what you saw then they would have tried showing you someone else.  The way I look is the way my genetic pattern says I will look.  It was determined by the combination of my mother and father's genes, the normal way.  I'm just a regular guy from Earth!  When we get back, I can probably arrange to get you access to all of the information you want about my home world and what happened to it.  The captain of the ship that brought me to your world had studied a bit about my race.  He would have all the information.  Your father could probably get it too.  You would see that the other people from Earth all look like me.  I have a real race.  We're called Humans.  Our planet was destroyed by a meteorite just six months ago just like your father said but there are others of my kind out there somewhere."

"It all seems like a convenient story.  I guess I'll find out if that part's true if we ever get out of this mess.  Tell me this though, how can two races that are so different fit so well together?  How was I able to fit myself all the way into you and it felt like you'd been built for me?"

"Well, the honest truth is that part of me was actually slightly modified.  It was done so that you wouldn't tear me apart and so we could please each other and not be concerned about how we went about it.  It's standard procedure when they do a match.  If you were smaller than me they would have made my parts smaller to match so I wouldn't hurt you.  In truth I was not engineered from the ground up for you, just slightly modified so we could make love without fear of physical damage.  Everything else is the real me.  Once you see images of more humans you'll see.  Please, Mak, I'm telling the truth."

"Alright, fine.  I suppose that makes sense.  So you really look like this and weren't just stolen from my dreams but were put there intentionally.  You were matched to me because I liked what I saw and you were the most compatible.  I can't deny that I'm attracted to you, but why was there even a match in the first place?  I didn't ask for this.  I've heard of these Matchmakers of course but I've never heard of them doing it for someone who didn't ask for it and keeping it a secret from them.  Why did my father do it?  Was it to trick me into forgetting about the movement and being what he wants me to be instead?" Komakwa asked.

"Sort of, though 'trick' is a bit too strong a word.  He wants you to be your own man.  He wanted to be sure you had a better idea of what life could be, rather than just the views of that group.  He was worried about you.  He wanted to make sure you would explore more options before you made any big decisions about your future.  The truth is he suspected you preferred males, but were denying your desires because you were starting to follow the beliefs of that group.  He told me he'd even encouraged you to explore those desires to learn more about yourself but that you denied they existed, and that worried him a great deal.  He wanted to give you a chance to discover yourself before you completed the trial and ran off with those people to join their movement.  He told me that the way you'd been acting towards him lately suggested that if he tried to pull you away from them directly it would only drive you more towards them."

Mak chuckled and said, "Yeah, that's probably true.  I haven't been treating my father right lately and I know it.  I guess when you explain it that way it doesn't sound quite as bad as Troska made it out, but it still seems pretty low to come here to sweep me off my feet to prevent me from being brainwashed, by just brainwashing me in a different direction."

"That's not how it is.  I did tell the Matchmaker that I felt bad about it too.  That it felt duplicitous.  He told me, as did your father, that I was not to try to convince you to change your mind about anything.  He told me the intent wasn't even for us to fall in love but that it would likely happen due to our extreme compatibility and attraction to each other.  He told me that if the fireworks didn't happen I could simply end it.  I didn't come here to sweep you off your feet.  The idea was more for our natural compatibility to allow us to become friends so you would have someone to talk to about things.  Someone who really had no say in your life and who you could just bounce your thoughts off of.  I didn't have to talk to you long to find out how terrific you are.  I saw how much you were like me."

"What do you mean?  I was like you how?" Mak asked.

"I knew from when I was little that I liked males and didn't care at all for females.  My own religious beliefs told me I was wrong to feel that way.  I had to push those desires down and bury them.  It sort of ruined my life.  It made me miserable and confused.  I couldn't be my true self around anyone and so I couldn't really be friends with them.  You can't build a friendship based on lies about who you really are.  It was tearing me apart.  I could see the same thing was happening to you and it made me feel a deep connection with you right away.  I don't want you to live that way.  I want you to realize how beautiful you are and accept it.  I want you to realize it really only matters what you think of yourself, not what others think of you.  If you be who you really are, and love who you really are, then those that do eventually come to love you will be loving the real you, not some act you're putting on.  Those who don't care for the real you are the ones you wouldn't need around you anyhow."

Mak seemed to relax a bit more said,  "You made it sound simple then, and it still sounds so simple.  I guess you're right.  I was trying to deny who I really was.  I suppose in the end whether what happened between us is real or not, it did serve its purpose.  I know now how it feels to be wanted and loved by someone who I want and love, and to not care what anyone else thinks of that.  I don't want to go back to letting some ancient religion tell me how to live my life.  I wish Troska had never stuck his nose in so I could still be living that dream with you."

"It isn't a dream, Mak!  Do you still not get it?  I love you!  I really do!  I'm still the same guy you made love to in that creek bed.  I'm still the one you fell in love with.  None of that has changed.  I sort of wish Troska hadn't got involved too but, to be honest, I feel better that you know the whole truth now.  I'm glad it's out in the open.  I didn't like withholding anything from you.  It just felt wrong, especially after I fell for you and saw that you were falling for me too."

"How can that be anyhow?  How do you love me when we just met?  Why did I love you after just a few hours?  Love can't be that easy," Mak said.

"There's another guy I love and it happened just as fast for me with him.  He believes that when two people are compatible with each other they fall in love immediately.  It's just that most times it takes them a long time to realize it.  It seems to them like they fell in love over a long course of time but the truth is it just took them that long to come to terms with it and to admit it to themselves.  I think he's right.  We are as compatible as two people can possibly be according to the Matchmakers.  It's natural that we should hit it off right away.  I may have only just met you in person but we've met in our dreams several times and in that sense we formed an intimate attachment long ago.  I know how I feel and I don't care to question it or doubt it.  You're the most beautiful person I've ever seen with a wonderful soul.  I've never been more attracted to anyone in my life.  I look at you and my heart swells.  I want to be with you.  I want to be close and to touch you.  I want to talk to you.  I want to do things for you.  I want to make you happy.  I get a sort of scared feeling when I think of losing you or of you not loving me back.  What are all those things if not love?"

Tears began to well in Komakwa's eyes as he listened to Jake's heart felt words.

He looked at Jake for a long time and finally said, "You're right.  I can't deny how I feel.  All those things you said, I feel them too.  I was so angry and hurt because I thought your love for me was a lie when I knew my love for you was real.   I felt scared, like you said, when I thought that you didn't really love me back.  I love you.  It seems stupid when I try to rationalize it but I can't deny it."

Jake felt like a massive weight had been lifted off him.  He got up and walked over to where Mak was sitting cross-legged and climbed into his lap and wrapped his legs around the big bull's waist and hugged him.  Komakwa put his massive arms around Jake and squeezed him hard and held him tightly.

"I love you.  Don't ever doubt that," Jake whispered.

"I won't, I love you too," Mak said and squeezed a little tighter.

The two of them held each other for a while and then Komakwa said, "This other guy you love, does he love you too?"

"Yes, he does.  Does it bother you?"

"Not really.  Not while I'm with you anyways.  I think it would be hard for me if I were alone and knew you were off somewhere with him.  It must be very hard for him to know you're here with me."

"I think you're probably right.  It's difficult for him.  It was difficult for me to leave him too.  Things weren't planned this way, they just sort of happened.  To be honest I wanted to cancel the contract with your father so I could stay with him on his ship.  He could have easily just gone along with it and we'd be together but instead he convinced me not to give up the chance to experience the match.  He knew how amazing this experience would be for me and he loved me enough to want it for me whatever the cost to him.  I have to say I'm very grateful to him for it and it just makes me love him more.  I would not have met you if he hadn't done that.  I love you.  I'm glad I followed his advice and came to you," Jake said.

Mak gave Jake a loving squeeze again and said, "So am I.  I'd sure like to meet him and thank him for pushing you to come.  What's his name?  What's he like?"

"His name is Srythryn.  He's the captain of the ship that brought me to you.  He's a wonderful guy.  He's got a terrific sense of humor and a kind heart and he's almost as sexy as you are in his own way.  I never thought to ask him what his race is called but he looks like a crocodile from my world."

Jake described Srythryn in great detail and Mak nodded and said, "They're called Siskreths.  I like the way they look but I've never met one in real life.  I hope we get through this so I can meet him."

"I think he'd love to meet you too.  He didn't know anything about you personally but he did say he'd met some of your people and found them to be very impressive," Jake said, and then he paused and said, "I just realized I don't know what your people are called either."

"We're called Miquanowans," Komakwa said.

Jake nodded.

Mak uncrossed his legs and placed his big booted feet flat on the ground a little ways away from him with his knees up and leaned slightly back on his hands, and Jake leaned back against the bull's massive thighs so they could face each other.

They smiled at each other and they sat silently for a few more moments and then Mak broke the silence again and said, "Would you really give up your resurrection contract just for me?"

"Yes, if it was the only way I could be with you I would do it.  I've lived without one before and it wasn't really so bad.  I lived without love before too, and that was really bad and I would never want to do that again.  It wouldn't be so terrible to go back to being mortal again so long as I could be mortal with you, though I suppose I'd have to go back to being much more careful.  Wouldn't you have been giving it up too if you joined the movement?" Jake asked.

"Yes, I would have.  They are against the First Ones' interference in our lives and they would refuse the favors.  I was in a bad place though.  I didn't really see what the big deal about life was and I have my own reasons for not trusting the First Ones so I didn't care.  I don't know exactly what's gonna happen to me now when they find out what I did in coming here.  There's no way for me to hide it now that our wreckage is scatter across the landscape and someone will eventually find it, and us.  I may be shunned by my own people for coming here.  The land is sacred and even I shouldn't be here, let alone bringing an alien along.  I don't think this will go over well at all.  I'm not sure if I'll even be able to get a contract now.  I don't think they'll just let me come back and go through my ascendance.  If my father insists on setting up a resurrection contract for me regardless he'll lose his position and be shunned by our people too.  It's a real mess.  I don't really care what they do to me but I won't let my father give up everything over it.  I'm prepared to deal with the consequences whatever they are but I have to make sure this doesn't affect him in any way.  I'll just have to find another way to get a contract.  I'd rather be immortal right beside you instead of both of us being mortal."

A sudden realization came to Jake and he said, "I think I may have an idea.  You can fly the scout ship obviously, can you fly a fighter?"

"It's a bit more complex than flying a scout ship.  You have to be able to think and act a lot faster.  The ships are way more powerful and maneuverable.  They're almost all engine.  You only have so much energy available and you have to be able to quickly transfer power between shields, weapons and thrust while trying to avoid getting blown up and trying to take down as many enemies as you can.  It takes a lot of practice to survive even the tests they make you do to get certified.  I've messed around with the simulators but I've never spent enough time at it to pass the tests.  I suppose I could learn quick enough if I had to.  Why do you ask?"

"One of Srythryn's crew who was on the shuttle that brought me down to your place said that all members of the crew that are certified to fly the fighters get resurrection contracts in return for fighting to protect and defend the First Ones that use the ship as their resurrection site.  If things fall through for you at home and you can't get the contract then maybe Srythryn would agree to take you on to his crew and you could get it that way," Jake said.

"If that's the case, maybe he could take you on too, right?  You could learn to fly I'm sure," Mak said.

"You're right.  I never thought of that.  Then I wouldn't have to rely on your father's contract.  I would get to be with you and Srythryn at the same time.  If we ever get out of this I'll ask him if he can help us."

Mak nodded and the two sat quietly for a few more moments and then the young bull said, "I'm so glad you're here with me, Jake.  I've never really had an adventure before.  We're sure in one now and it seems like I should be scared or worried but really, because you're here, I feel excited.  I feel like this is the best thing that ever happened to me.  I know it sounds stupid but I'm almost glad you made us crash."

Jake chuckled and said, "Yeah, you're right.  If we hadn't crashed we wouldn't be sitting here having this wonderful moment.  Something tells me we're gonna get to know each other really well before all of this is over, now that you made us crash."

"That's what I mean," the young bull said with a grin, "Now that you made us crash here, we don't have to worry about interruptions from Troska or my dad checking in on us or anything.  It's just you and me.  We have this whole planet to ourselves.  It's sort of like we're doing a relationship ascendance.  We'll find out if our love can survive the two of us being stuck together out here, though it might be for a lot longer than forty days.  You crashing us was the best way to find out just how strong our love can be, so thanks for crashing us, Jake."

Jake smiled and said, "Yup, it will be a great test.  I can't think of anyone I would rather have been crashed by than you.  I'm glad you made us crash, Mak.  You're the crashiest guy I've ever been with and you can crash us any time you want, you little crasher you."

Mak laughed and said, "Alright, alright, enough about who made us crash.  Let's just share the blame."

They grinned at each other for a short time and then Mak suddenly got a look on his face like he'd gotten an idea and said, "Something just occurred to me, we might not be completely cut off.  The ship has long range communication equipment in it.  It's untraceable by nature so I didn't need to remove it or anything.  All of the major components are well protected in hardened enclosures and there's a good chance it would survive the crash.  We'll need to find it and see if it's still usable.  It's a slim chance but at least it's something to shoot for."

Jake nodded and after a moment's thought he asked, "Is the comm equipment limited in range?  Could it communicate with Srythryn's ship if its still in your star system?"

"The local communication uses radio signals so it's limited in range and that's what I had turned off so I couldn't be tracked by triangulation.  The long range comms use the quantum entanglement communication hub, called QECH for short, which is untraceable because of how it works."

"What's the QECH exactly?  How does it work?" Jake asked.

"Well, how they do it is complicated but the basic principles are fairly straight forward.  We learned it all last year at school.  A long time ago the First Ones figured out a way to do something called quantum entanglement on pairs of photons and then keep each photon trapped in a microscopic device that can read or alter its state.  Once two photons are entangled they will always mirror each other perfectly.  The weird thing is it doesn't matter how far apart they are, the moment you change the spin of one of the photons its partner will instantaneously change its spin to match."

"I remember reading something about that back on Earth," Jake said, "The effect was discussed in a paper by a guy called Albert Einstein and some other physicists long ago.  He called it 'spooky action at a distance'.  I think he gave it such a goofy name because it pissed him off that it broke one of the laws of his own theory of relativity that shows that information can't travel faster than light.  Come to think of it I think one of the other physicists who wrote the paper with him was a guy named Rosen.  The two of them theorized something called the Einstein-Rosen Bridge which is pretty much what you guys call a wormhole."

"That's interesting," Mak said, "because it turns out the link between the photons that are entangled is actually a wormhole and that's how they can transfer information faster than the speed of light.  The information travels outside of space so it's not bound by the laws of physics.  Anyhow, every long range comm device, even the favors that are spread all over the universe, is built with one of a pair of photons encased in a microscopic device.  The other member of the pair is kept at one of the communication hubs, a QECH, that's controlled by the First Ones.  They have a few different hubs.  One is used for standard communications for all the races in the collective.  One is dedicated to communication with the favors by the First Ones.  There are several others too.  Their locations are kept secret because if they were destroyed, all of the comms that rely on the system would never work again because they can only ever communicate with the photon that was originally entangled with them.

"They're also kept secret because the hubs are the only places where communications could be tapped into and intercepted.  Photons can be in two different spin states.  That makes it possible to use them for binary transmission of information.  Call one spin state 1 and the other 0 and you can send any information as a stream of bits.  Because the signal between the photons is instantaneous and non-directional, it can't be traced.  Also, because it relies on the unique link between only two photons it's impossible to tap into it to listen in on communications.  When I talk into the gear here the signal is instantly received at the hub.  It doesn't pass through any space in between so it can't be intercepted.  When the signal is received at the hub it can be transferred through normal electronics to another photon in the hub that is linked, for example, to a photon in the comm gear on Srythryn's ship.  Since the signal travels through a wormhole outside of space its not limited to the laws of physics, so there is no limit to the distance and the communication is instantaneous so there's no delay."

"I've said this more times in the last couple of days than I think I ever said it before in my life but I need to say it again, that's incredible!  Instantaneous communication across an unlimited distance.  Wow!" Jake exclaimed.

"Yeah, we couldn't really have a cosmic collective without it.  Any signal traveling through space would be limited by the speed of light.  According to what my father told me your star system is a few hundred light years away from here.  If I tried to send a message from here back to your home world with normal radio it would take hundreds of years to get there, and I'd have to wait hundreds of years for the answer.  Radio just wouldn't cut it.  The QECH gear is expensive to buy and use so we still use normal radio for local comms, but when we need to talk over a long range or we need to be sure our communication can't be listened to or traced, we use QECH.  The bottom line is, the QECH comm system could communicate with Srythryn's ship instantaneously no matter where in the universe it is.  Why did you ask?"

"Srythryn is a pretty wonderful guy," Jake said, "I don't think he'd have a problem sneaking over here to get us if I could contact him and ask him to.  I'm sure he'd even be willing to pick up the wreckage.  We could drop it somewhere back on your planet and make up almost the same story you had intended to in the first place.  You flew out to camp somewhere in the plains to think, but you crashed.  No one would even have to know you were ever here on this planet and you wouldn't have to be shunned.  You could come back and do your ascendance and get your contract.  You and I could live happily forever after.  Its only been a day so it wouldn't take him more than a day to get here to help us out.  If we can get the comms working quickly we could even be back on your planet before a few days are up and they start looking for you."

"It seems like a long shot but at least it's a goal for us to work towards," Mak agreed, "We'll need to find a high vantage point and see if we can spot the wreckage."

Jake suddenly noticed that it had been getting slowly darker instead of lighter.  It must actually have been late in the day instead of early in the morning.  This was a completely different planet now so there was no correlation between the time of day here and the time back when he was knocked out on the ship.

He gave Mak a quick kiss and then stood up and looked around.

"It's getting to be dark, we're gonna have to look for the crash in the morning.  Are we gonna be OK out here in the open tonight?  Should we be looking for shelter?" Jake asked.

Komakwa looked up at Jake quizzically and shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know.  Didn't my father tell you?  I haven't been preparing for my ascendance.  I have no clue how to survive out here.  The place is a complete mystery to me.  I was counting on you to take charge and get us through this.  Our lives are in your hands, Jake.  I'm still just a boy.  I need you to take care of me."

Jake looked incredulously at the young bull and said, "What?  How the hell am I supposed to do that?  I'm not some outback bushman.  In my former life I was a company executive sitting behind a desk, not Crocodile frickin' Dundee!  I've never had to take care of a boy before, let alone a boy who's really a four hundred pound tower of muscle.  Hell, if we really want to get out of this jam quick you could probably pick me up and throw me hard enough to launch me over to your home world for fuck's sake!  Me, take care of you?  Are you nuts?"

Mak chuckled and said, "I'm sorry, I was just kidding.  I studied a lot about this planet even though I've never been to it before.  Every boy does as part of our regular schooling.  I don't know who this Dundee siskreth is.  I've never met him, but he probably doesn't know any more about this place than I do.  You'll be safe with me, Jake.  I promise I'll take good care of you.  I know where we are.  We were over a continent called Kupwae when you made us crash."

"Hey!" Jake protested.

Komakwa chuckled again and said, "I'm sorry, I meant to say 'When I crashed the ship...'"

"That's better."

"...with your help."

Jake laughed.

The bull smiled and continued, "Anyhow, on Kupwae there's only one very large predator that might pose a problem for us.  Luckily, they hunt only during the day.  We should be safe for the night with the fire to keep the smaller ones away."

"How big are the smaller ones?  What are they like?" asked Jake.

"They look sort of like a siskreth but only if they were down on the ground on their bellies instead of standing upright.  They also have black fur instead of green scales and they have six legs.  They have long jaws and long thick tails and they're low to the ground so it's hard to see them until they're on you.  They're not very big though.  It would take at least two of them to drag you away so if you only see one of them you're still good," Mak said.

Jake chuckled, "That's reassuring."

Komakwa nodded, "Even more so for me.  It would take three of them to drag me."

"So you're pretty safe then."

"Not really, they only ever hunt in packs of four or more," Mak said.

Jake laughed, "So what was going to be your strategy to deal with them when you came for your ascendance?"

"I was going to start by running really fast.  I didn't give it much thought beyond that," Komakwa said.

Jake chuckled again and said, "I see.  Well I suppose that strategy would work just as well for both of us."

Mak shrugged and said, "If by 'work just as well' you mean 'work just as badly' then you're right.  See, there's really nothing faster on the planet than them, other than that predator that hunts during the day.  We couldn't hope to out run them.  It was really just sort of a draft strategy.  I was planning to tweak it a bit before my ascendance."

Jake laughed again, "How will I know when you're being serious and when you're just pulling my leg?"

"Well, when I'm being serious I can start the sentence with 'Seriously'."

"Sure, that would work," Jake said.

"Seriously, we couldn't hope to outrun them," Mak said.

Jake laughed and shook his head and said, "I do love a sense of humor.  You have that in common with Srythryn."

Komakwa chuckled and said, "Seriously, the fire is our only real defense against them but it's all we really need.  They hunt only at night and sleep during the day.  They see at night quite easily using an extremely sensitive heat sensing vision.  It evolved to pick out any warm blooded prey even on a hot night.  It's so sensitive that the fire completely blinds them and causes them pain even from a fair distance away.  They will avoid it completely.  If you look closely at the fire you'll see I built it on top of a bunch of big boulders and smaller rocks.  Before we go to sleep we'll pile a lot more wood on there so the fire will burn for hours.  The rocks will absorb tons of heat while the fire burns and then when it finally burns out the rocks will start radiating the heat back out for hours afterward keeping the predators completely blind to us for the whole night.  We don't even need to stay awake to watch the fire."

"That's pretty ingenious.  So we're safe from the smaller ones that hunt at night thanks to the fire.  You mentioned a major predator that hunts during the day.  What's that one like?" Jake asked.

"It's sort of like a bird.  Think about a kwarren that is about twice as big but with a shorter neck and stubbier wings and a razor sharp hooked beak that could slice you in half with one bite, and ten inch claws on its huge feet.  They hunt mostly in the open because they're so gigantic that the deep forest is too difficult for them to get through so even during the daylight we'll be pretty safe if we stick to the woods.  Of course, they're vicious enough that they will even hunt their own young and the young ones protect themselves from the adults by living, and hunting, in the forests while they're still small enough to do so.  We'll need to keep an eye out for those, but they're small enough that we should stand a chance against them once we make some weapons.  There are all sorts of other predators around but most aren't aggressive enough to bother with the two of us.  They look for easier prey."

"So we shouldn't have a problem if we're careful.  It sounds like we're safe from predators at least."

"Yes, we rely on the fire though, and we still need to take steps to protect it in case it starts to rain while we sleep.  The material from the crash balloons on the seat is completely fire retardant.  We should make a slanted canopy over the fire with some tree branches so that even if it rains a bit the fire will keep burning," Mak suggested.

"Yeah, hopefully the material will be able to keep me warm too.  I think I might have a problem since I don't have a nice warm thick hide like you do," Jake said.

Mak stood and went to Jake and wrapped him in his massive arms.

"It goes without saying that I'll be sharing my warm hide with you," he said and kissed Jake on the lips.

Jake turned his head and put it against the big bull's warm chest and sighed.

"That will help, but I think some sort of tent would be in order too.  It would hold our body heat in," Jake said.

"Yes, there will be plenty of balloon material.  The survival kits have needle and thread in them specifically so we can use the material any way we need.  We should be able to build a makeshift tent and use more of the material as blankets inside it.  I don't think you'll be cold," Mak said.

"Good.  I guess another high priority will be water.  I'm really thirsty already and we just got here.  I'm hungry too," Jake said.

"Well, it was a long flight out here.  I slept most of the time while the ship took us across the gap of space between the planets.  Why did you wait till we got here to talk to me anyhow?" Mak asked.

"I was unconscious in a heap at the back of the ship.  I stood up to go up to the front to talk to you and then you punched the throttle and I got thrown and cracked my head against the back wall and got knocked out."

Komakwa hissed in sympathetic pain and kissed Jake gently on the top of his head and said, "I'm so sorry.  You were lying there the whole time and I didn't even know.  Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine.  My skull bone is a lot thicker and harder than it used to be.  My old brain would have splashed up against my skull and then swelled until I died.  I guess my fancy new semi-synthetic brain must be able to withstand a hard hit and recover from it.  There's a bruise but that's about it," Jake said.

"Well, you were out for almost twelve hours, that's why you're so hungry and thirsty.  Didn't you take the water and dried food packets from your seat?"

"I only saw two compartments.  One was empty and one had the survival kit.  Did I miss something?"

"Yeah, the seat back opens up," Mak said, "There's four liters of water in it and a bunch of packets of dried food.  We should be good for tonight.  We can share what came from my seat.  Water isn't far and there's plenty of food running around out here.  We just need to catch it.  We won't even need to go back to your seat to get the stuff."

"How do you know water isn't far?" Jake asked.

"I don't know what you were doing while you were falling through the air," Komakwa said, "but I was using the time to look over the area we were going to land in to get an idea of what we'd be up against.  We crossed over a river as we fell.  If we head back towards where the wreckage should be we'll be crossing the river to get there and running parallel to it for a ways.  Water won't be a problem."

"Well, I'm glad you kept your head together.  While I was falling through the air I was busy wishing I wasn't so pinned into the seat so I could bend over, put my head between my legs, and kiss my ass goodbye.  I don't think you would have had much trouble with your ascendance trial.  You seem to have the survival instinct down.  We'll still need to figure out containers for water and how to catch the food that's running around."

"The balloon material is water tight.  We can make water skins out of it until we can start to get what we need from the animals.  Catching the smaller animals will be easy with some simple traps.  You only need to know what animals are available, what they like to eat, and how to use that to your advantage to catch them.  I know about every useful animal that lives here and how to trap them.  The smaller ones will provide us what we need to work up to catching the larger ones.  While I was waiting for you to find me here I already set a few traps and made a couple of crude spears by sharpening some sticks and hardening the tips in the fire," Mak said and pointed to a couple of long sticks on the ground near the fire.

"So, food won't be much of a problem either then.  What do we need from the animals besides their tasty meat?" Jake asked.

"Hides for leather of course, and brains for tanning and bladders for water skins and guts for bow strings and bone shards for spear tips and fur for warmth and so on.  We'll need their teeth too, for necklaces.  We can't ignore fashion or we'll really become uncivilized.  First thing we'll need to take care of, well, maybe the second thing after the necklaces, is getting some rawhide to make you something to cover your feet."

"Wow, I think I might just start calling you Crocodile Komakwa.  We won't need that Dundee siskreth after all," Jake chuckled.

Mak smiled and said, "I was nervous about my ascendance, but that doesn't mean I haven't been mentally preparing for it.  I know how to survive out here.  I just wasn't confident that I could pull it off for forty days alone.  Now that you're here with me I feel like I could tackle pretty much anything.  The nerves are all gone.  We'll be fine and, honestly, I think it will be fun."

Jake gave Mak a big hug and a kiss and then said, "I have this sudden strong urge to get horizontal with you, but I think we should at least deal with the canopy over the fire and a rough tent of some sort before we get frisky again.  What do you say?"

"I'd rather just fuck, but if you insist then we could act like a couple of girls and start up a sewing circle I guess," Mak chided and tickled Jake in the ribs.

Jake chuckled and walked over to where he'd left the survival kit from his seat and pulled out the knife.  Mak followed suit and picked up the other knife and the two set about freeing the deflated balloons from the seat and cutting them open to stretch out the material.

Once cut open, each balloon gave them a very large piece of material and there were twelve balloons in all so even with the one seat they had far more material than they needed for the canopy, a simple tent, and blankets for sleeping.  The material was incredibly thin and light, like parachute silk, yet strong and water tight.  It was easy enough to cut yet very durable once stretched out tight, sort of like Kevlar.

One balloon cut open and stretched out was already large enough for a large canopy over the fire.  They had enough excess that they used a few balloons layered and stretched out between four trees around the fire to make the canopy just in case one popped off or something.  They sloped it so that the smoke could rise up past the high side and wouldn't choke them out, and if it rained the water would run off the low side away from the fire.

With that done they set to work on a rudimentary tent.  Again, a single sheet of the material was so large they simply needed to lay out a couple of sheets for a floor, then they sewed two large sheets together and staked that piece down and pulled up the middle with a couple of tree branches as poles to form the main part of the tent.  Then they loosely attached a front and back to it so it would keep most of their heat in and threw additional balloon material inside to use as blankets.  The resulting tent as quite large and they could actually sit up in it under the peak and still had several feet up over their heads.

They spread the rest of the material out on the ground to give them a clean, dry place to sit near the fire while they ate some of the dried rations and drank some water.

They finished their meager meal and sat quietly for a short time staring at the fire when Mak suddenly said, "You said you were a company executive in your former life.  You look like a young man to me and I can't imagine you any other way.  I know the Matchmakers can do anything they want with your age when they resurrect you.  How old were you in your other life?"

"I was sixty eight.  By our years that would actually be old enough to be your grand father.  I hope that doesn't seem too old to you," Jake said.

"Too old?  My father is just over twelve hundred years old so by those terms you'd have to be a lot older to be my grand father.  Age doesn't really have meaning out here in the collective.  Not for those that have the insurance of return anyhow.  Think about it this way, if we both had contracts, ten thousand years from now I'd be ten thousand and twenty four years old and you'd be technically ten thousand and sixty eight.  For all intents and purposes we would be the same age so there's no reason not to think of us that way right now.  Like I said, I can't really picture you any older than you are.  It doesn't bother me at all.  How old do your people normally get?  We live to be close to two hundred of our years with no insurance.  Were you middle aged?"

"I was past middle aged.  Our people rarely reach a hundred.  We weren't in the collective.  We didn't even know it existed.  There were no options to extend our lives.  I was sick and dying when they came to get me too.  I wasn't going to live another year."

"Wow!  You mean you knew you were gonna die, and suddenly they came and told you you could live forever?  That must have been amazing!" Mak exclaimed.

Before Jake could answer there was suddenly a loud scream and thrashing in the bushes behind them and Jake nearly had a heart attack as he jumped up to turn and look in the direction of the sound.  Before he could even focus on the darkness beyond the camp Komakwa was running past him, spear in hand, and disappeared into the bushes.

There was another scream that was cut short and all went quiet again.  Moments later Mak emerged from the darkness of the forest wearing a big grin with his now bloodied spear in one hand, and in the other he was holding up what looked like a giant rabbit hanging limp.  It had a strange color of fur that almost looked greenish brown and had three legs instead of four.  The one hind leg was massively muscular and had a big wide foot and the two front legs were short and thin.  The creature had a plump body with a tuft like tail and long, wide ears.  It was surprising how much it put Jake in mind of a rabbit except for the three legs and the fact that instead of cute little buck teeth it had long fangs that stuck out of its closed mouth, and it was roughly the size of a Rottweiler.

"I had a trap set back there," Mak said, "These guys are probably going to be the easiest thing to catch out here.  We'll get a couple of tasty meals out of this one at least.  He'll have all sorts of useful parts to get us started too."

"If that's what passes for a bunny around hear I don't think I want to meet what passes for a wolf," Jake said.

Mak went to a wide tree near the other end of their campsite and leaned his spear against it.  He then reached up and sawed a narrow branch off using the serrated side of his knife leaving a pointy hook-like stub sticking out of the tree trunk.  He then sliced a part of the hind leg and reached up and pushed the stub of branch through the hole in the leg hooking the creature up by its ankle joint to hang it.  He then cut the creature's neck open and left it to drain of its blood and he picked up his spear and turned back into the camp to join Jake again.

"We'll let it hang over night and I'll deal with it in the morning.  I have more traps on that side of the camp so if anything comes sniffing around for the blood we'll catch it and have even more to work with.  We can catch anything we want to out here.  All we need to get started is the right bait and a long pointy stick," Mak said and held up his spear.

Jake watched as the massive bull walked back towards him, spear in hand, to sit beside the fire.  He seemed to exude confidence now.  It was like he was completely in his element out here.  It was a huge turn on to see.

Mak was clearly going to be the one in charge here.  He would be the provider and the protector.  He had all the skills and knowledge they would need.  Jake was the one who would have to be taken care of and he felt as though he couldn't possibly be in more capable hands.

Seeing the bull like this was making Jake yearn to be taken by him again.

"You are so appealing to me Mak, I can't describe it.  You were already pushing every button for me but now, seeing you this way, so full of confidence and capability, taking care of us and providing for us, it's setting my blood boiling.  I feel so drawn to you I couldn't deny my desires if I wanted to.  I want you so bad right now."

Mak chuckled softly and said, "See?  All I need is the right bait and I can catch anything I want.  Right now I want you.  Every job has the right tool for it though.  Let me put this pointy stick away and get a less pointy one ready for you."

"I can help you get it ready.  Come over here," Jake said.

Mak put down the spear and went over to join Jake on the spread out blanket of balloon material and sat next to him.

"Lie back and relax, my big strong provider, and let me help you forget the worries of the day," Jake said.

Komakwa smiled and lay down on his back and hooked his big hands behind his head.

Jake stood and slipped off his shorts and threw them aside and then moved his naked body over top of the young bull's muscular torso with his knees to either side and moved his face in and gave him a kiss and said, "I love you so much."

Komakwa moaned and reached up and pulled Jake into him and thrust his wide soft tongue into Jake's mouth and began to explore.  The two continued to moan softly as they began the process of rediscovering each other physically.

Jake began to feel his level of lust building higher as they necked and he ground his hardening cock against Mak's warm hard belly.  He began to get that feeling that he wanted to touch and taste and smell every inch of his big beautiful lover and he couldn't do it all fast enough.  He wanted to wrap him in his arms and squeeze him so tight he would merge their bodies into one.  His heart began to beat faster and his head began to spin with desire as he sucked hard on Mak's tongue and then pushed his own outward and plunged it back into the bull's mouth.  The two began to wrestle their tongues with more of a frenzy and Jake could feel the growing bulge of Mak's massive penis under him.

He broke their kiss and then worked his knees back to move himself down until his face was at the level of Mak's crotch.  He smiled and moved his face in to kiss the growing hardness within the shorts.

Mak hooked his hands back behind his head again and looked down and smiled as Jake sighed and turned his head to the side to rub his face against the warm bulge.  He turned his face back in again and kissed the bull's thickening penis along the length of the shaft towards the base until he came to the massive bulge of Mak's balls.  He brought his hands up and rubbed them along the tops of Mak's thick, muscular thighs and slid his fingers up inside the leg holes to try to get at Mak's big balls but the shorts fit him too snugly.

Jake reached up and undid the laces and the button on the shorts and opened them up.  He began to work them downward and Mak helped him by lifting his butt slightly off the ground so Jake cold pull the shorts down past his ass towards his knees.

The sudden heady, masculine, sweaty, musky scent that blasted Jake as soon as he freed the big bull's crotch from the confines of the shorts made his head spin.  It was the single most male scent he'd ever encountered in his life.  He plunged his face in to one side of Mak's huge balls and wedged his nose right at the point where the bull's scrotum met his inner thigh and Jake took a long slow sniff.  His toes immediately curled at the incredibly appealing scent.  He extended his tongue and began to lick at the sweaty crook between Mak's balls and his thigh until there was no sweat left to lick up.  He moved his face to the other side and did the same there.  He kissed and licked at each of Mak's grapefruit sized testicles through his soft, leathery scrotum and then kissed his way up the incredibly thick base of the bull's penis to the end of the sheath.

Mak's warm, pink, wide, blunt cock head was already emerging and was freely oozing precum as it began to stretch upward and outward as it thickened and hardened.  Jake moved one hand up to gently rub and stimulate the bull's massive balls and used the other hand to alternate between squeezing and rubbing at the thick base of his penis while he watched in wonder as the impressive penis continued to get thicker and longer as it emerged from the base.

The end of Mak's cock was glistening with moistness from being inside of his sheath and it had a light scent of urine and musky moist dankness that pushed Jake's buttons harder.  He kissed and licked and sucked at the pink shaft as it came out into the firelight and moaned his lust as it just kept on coming.  More and more of the hot, thickening tool revealed itself until finally the skin at the sheath stretched out again and the entirety of the eighteen inch glistening tool lay before him.  Jake was breathing heavily and beginning to lose control as he moaned and kissed and licked and rubbed his face along the length of the thick meat.  He wanted it inside him and he couldn't wait much longer.

He pulled his face back and moved to kneel to one side of Komakwa and he pulled the bull's shorts the rest of the way down and worked them over his hiking boots that he was still wearing from the night before.

Jake threw the shorts aside and then stood and walked back over to Komakwa's face and then stepped over him with his feet on either side and kneeled down so that his own throbbing and lengthening member bobbed right in front of Mak's face.

Mak moaned and reached up to stroke Jake's tool.  He pulled the stiffening cock down to his face and kissed the tip of it and then began to lick it down the shaft towards Jake's balls.  Jake worked his knees forward to put his balls right over Mak's nose.  The bull moaned again pushed his face up into Jake's scrotum and snuffled and sniffed and extended his tongue to begin licking Jake's sweaty balls clean.  Jake moaned his pleasure at the sensation, but what he really wanted was for Mak to help him get lubed and ready for the bull's massive cock.

Jake lifted himself up so his crotch was out of reach of Mak's tongue and the young bull opened his eyes and looked up at Jake with eyes glassy with desire.  Jake smiled and stood up and put his feet to either side of Mak's head and then crouched down to put his asshole right in front of Mak's wide mouth with his balls hanging over the bulls big, soft nose.

Mak groaned and inhaled deeply and extended his long tongue up to lick the full length of Jake's sweaty crack from his tail bone, past his pucker, and right to the base of his balls.  He licked him several times until the area was completely clean and then he began to probe at Jake's anus more urgently, pressing against it with the tip of his tongue and trying desperately to gain entrance.

Jake moaned at the sensation and began to push lightly to open himself up.  Mak groaned again as his lust began to take him over.  He reached up with both hands and tried to spread Jake's butt cheeks wider while driving his tongue hard and it breached Jake's anus and began to push itself up into his rectum.

Jake groaned and pushed more to let Mak further in and the bull was able to push at least five inches of his thick, moist, warm tongue up inside Jake's rectum.  Jake marveled at the incredible sensation while Mak moaned at the taste of his lover and the feel of the silky smooth walls of Jake's rectum against his tongue.

Jake flexed his anus to tightly squeeze Mak's thick tongue and then slowly pulled his ass up to enjoy the sensation of the bull's long tongue being pulled out of him.  Just before the tongue came all the way out he relaxed and pushed his ass down again and Mak moaned and thrust his tongue hard back up inside Jake as far as it would go.  Again and again Jake would pull his ass up and then pause and push it back down.

Mak was beginning to salivate and breath heavily and his lust was going higher and higher and he wanted to lick Jake's insides clean.  He put both his big hands on Jake's hips and pulled him hard down onto his face to prevent Jake from lifting up again and he drove his tongue as deep as it would go and began to snake it around inside of Jake licking at every inch it could reach.

Jake sensed that Mak was going so crazy with lust that he wasn't going to last much longer so he reached down and pried the horny bull's hands off his hips and squeezed Mak's tongue hard with his anus one last time and raised himself firmly up, pulling at the tongue and enjoying the sensation as it ran along the sensitive nerves of his anus until it finally came right out and Jake stood and moved backward until his ass was right over Mak's crotch.

There was a massive puddle of precum on the young bull's belly now.  It had been oozing constantly from his thick cock while he'd been working himself into such a frenzy of lust.  Jake reached down and scooped as much precum as he could and rubbed it along the bull's thick penis and then he lifted the beautiful tool up and lined it up carefully with his anus and began to push himself down on to it.

He had to push incredibly hard and he worked it slightly side to side and forward and back while pushing his anus open as much as he could until finally he felt it spread open sufficiently that the thick, blunt head breached his anus and inserted itself into him.  Mak moaned long and loud while Jake tensed slightly against the fire he felt once more from his anus being stretched to its limit.

He relaxed and waited a brief moment for the flash of pain to subside and then he slowly lowered himself down onto the thick and incredibly hard tool.

The sensation of this giant log being pushed up into him was mind blowing.  Once again every nerve ending in his anus was firing its pleasure up at him and as he pushed himself further down and more of the massive cock pushed up into him, one ring of muscles after another engaged to squeeze the powerful member and add their signals of pleasure to the storm of sexual stimulation that began to wash over Jake.

More and more of Mak's cock pushed up into him until at last Jake's balls mashed into Mak's pubic bone and Jake's ass bumped against Mak's huge balls.  Jake took a deep breath to regain control over his own rapidly growing lust and then slowly pulled himself up again.  He moaned and groaned as the head of Mak's thick cock pulled back, bumping past each of the rings of muscle again until it nearly emerged from Jake's ass and then he stopped and took another breath.  Mak moaned loudly as Jake once again pushed himself down firmly and steadily and more quickly this time until he had all of Mak's tool up inside him.

Jake began to build up a rhythm that increased in speed as he pulled himself all the way up the length of Mak's cock and then plunged himself down.  He began to shout from the intensity of the sensations that assaulted him as the thick, throbbing tool thrust hard up into him and then pulled back for another round.

Mak began to grunt and groan and lose control.  He wanted to go faster and he wanted to thrust himself deeper into Jake than was even possible.  He reached down and grabbed Jake's waist.  He brought his knees up a bit and planted both big hiking boots firmly on the ground several feet apart and then shouted as he thrust his hips up hard at Jake while pulling him down onto him as hard as he could and the full length of his cock slammed up into Jake's body.

Jake moaned at the explosion of electricity that began to bloom out inside of him as Mak took over and pushed Jake up while pulling his hips back down and then he drove himself hard up into Jake again with a grunt.  Faster and harder Mak thrust up into Jake, grunting his lust and moaning his pleasure.  Jake's long hard cock was bouncing up and down and smacking against Mak's hard belly and Jake balls were getting hammered each time Mak pulled him down against him and Jake could not take any more as the the waves of powerful electricity began to spread out from his loins.

His orgasm drove into him like a freight train and he shouted as his balls tightened up and the thick head of Mak's penis pushed and squeezed against Jake's prostate and Jake's pelvic muscle contracted hard forcing out a huge gush of fluid that combined with the sperm being squeezed out of his balls and Jake felt the long, thick, hot jet of semen rush along the full length of his penis just as the head expanded to squirt the long stream through the air to land on Mak's face.  Mak's tongue came out immediately and he moaned has he licked at the treat and he pushed Jake back up and then roared as he pulled him back down onto him and his own massive balls tightened up to shoot a hot jet of semen up into Jake's bowels as Jake's cock once again pumped a long stream of cum out to shoot onto Mak's chest.

Again and again Mak lifted his lover up and then slammed him back down while bucking his hips up and grunting as he shot another pulse of his seed into Jake.  Each time Jake's cock would shoot again covering Mak's chest and belly with cum.  Finally the two of them began to settle down as their orgasms ran their course and began to die down.

Jake's balls felt completely empty and he felt more satisfied than he'd ever felt before by the time Mak finally pulled him down one last time to thrust the entirety of his thick cock into him and then held him there while it pulsed its last few spurts of cum into Jake.

Jake sat fully impaled on his lover's thick cock and sighed his contentment.  Mak removed his hands from Jake's hips and ran them up his belly and chest to cover them with Jake's cum and then softly moaned as he licked it off.  He repeated this until he couldn't find any more cum to lick up while his cock finally stopped pulsing and began to soften and pull back into its base.

Jake lifted himself off of Mak's penis and then lay on top of him and kissed him long and deep.

Mak pulled Jake into him so hard it felt like he was going to crack some ribs and then breathed, "Thank you so much.  That was amazing.  I don't care how long I live I'll never get tired of fucking you.  I love you so much it makes my head spin."

"I love you too," Jake said, "When you're inside me I feel more complete than I've ever felt in my life."

Mak moaned and kissed Jake again and then lovingly rubbed his long face against Jake's and the two of them held each other in silence until finally Mak's breathing began to go deeper and steadier and Jake knew he'd drifted off to sleep.

Jake was so deeply satisfied and so relieved to be back in his big bull's arms that he quickly drifted off as well.

The two began to snore softly as the fire they'd neglected to build up collapsed with a light shower of sparks and then flickered its last flames.

It was still early night as the large rocks that made up the fire pit began to radiate the last of the heat they'd stored up into the air, and the two sleeping lovers, bodies glowing with warmth, were cloaked in the cool embrace of total darkness.

***

If you enjoyed this story and would like to read more from the author please look in the Gay/Adult-Youth section at Nifty.org for...

The Patriarch -  The ongoing adventures of a man, possibly the only one remaining in the world, and the young boy he takes under his wing as they travel through a world where the majority of the human race has been wiped out by a plague.  The disease's lethality was linked to sexual maturity killing the adults and leaving the earth's children to fend for themselves.

The Sock Thief - The heart warming story of how a humorous encounter brought about by a fetish not only leads to unexpectedly wild sex between a man and a teenage boy, but also changes their lives in a way neither could have foreseen.

Bang the Drummer - The story of a submissive man who uses his video game skills to win the right to be properly used by some neighbors.

Predators - The story of a man who enjoys a hobby of luring teenage boys in for a bit of innocent exploration in the woods.

or check the Gay/SF-Fantasy section for...

Love and Lycanthropy -  What if after a long life of loneliness you finally found the one person who you could truly love?  What if you found out that there might be moments when he wanted to tear you to bits and eat those bits?  Find out how a man who brings home a homeless teenager finds love he never knew he was capable of and learns to cope with the one minor quirk the boy is afflicted with.

The Hawthorne Accord -  The adventures of a teenage boy who is rescued from a cruel fate in his home village by a friend, but ultimately finds himself on his own and hunted in a world that is being ravaged by brutal race wars between the humans and three races of monsters: kobolds, orcs and ogres.  He discovers in his travels that the world is not quite entirely the way he'd thought it was and that even a single teenage boy can make a difference in the fate of entire races, including his own.

James and the Giant Perv -  A humorous modern fairy tale involving three teenage boys, some "beans", a very tall pervert who dwells in his own kingdom in the clouds, and the various interesting ways they find to enjoy each other sexually.

Feedback is the fuel for the author's engine.  All comments are much appreciated even if they say nothing more than "Liked it, thanks." or "Hated it, don't go there again."

Thank you,

JakeXtraTall@gmail.com

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