Planet of Desire IV: Secret of the Turtle Men
Chapter 6
"The Three-Cornered Sling"
By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
Inside the largest cavern entrance, six Ifriti sat in a semi-circle on high boulders, lit by many narrow shafts of red light from the planetary fires below. There were other rocks seemingly strewn about randomly, and other Ifriti, including Ashmid, perched on one. Pavel had found another one vacant and was about to try and sit on it when he was called. "You, human, come forward."
Pavel did and looked up. These Ifriti were old! White-haired, lined faces looked down at him! How was this possible?
"Human, Ashmid of Shemedel has said you have offered to bring your brothers to this valley if we will carry you here."
"Well...I wouldn't put it quite that way. The men of my valley need to get across the mountains to the plains, and the men of the plains want to trade with us in our valley across the mountains. To do this, they need a way across the mountains, which you could provide. In exchange, they would agree to stay long enough to tend a clutch of eggs. Everyone would benefit. I'm not my father to make this a binding promise, but it makes sense to me. If you would let me get to my father, I could ask him and I feel certain he would agree with the plan." Pavel hoped!
"You show your ignorance of our lands and ways, as does your master." the leader intoned. "The Angels' valley is between your lands and ours. They do not permit our people to pass, for fear we would snatch up their Turtle Men for ourselves. And they would be right!" the Ifriti leader said, chuckled.
"Well...I could talk with them." Pavel said.
"What of your promise to the children of Shemedel?" the leader asked. "You promised to stay and tend their clutches."
"Oh." Pavel looked at Ashmid. "I'm sorry, I was drugged and not thinking clearly. I would stay...I guess."
"Your reluctance speaks much of your thoughts. Is this a scheme to get out of your promise both offered and accepted to Ashmid?"
"No!" Pavel said. "I said I'd stay and I will. I just hadn't thought it all through."
"You can speak with the Angels?"
"I can." Pavel said. "They are allies with my people and we have sworn to help each other as needed. But they have no interest in performing this service. As you point out, they have the Turtle Men."
"If we decide against this course of action, will you stay as you have promised?"
"Yes." Pavel said. "Provided I'm free to go afterwards, that is. I don't plan to live here, if that's what you mean."
"Your honesty speaks well of you." The leader turned to Ashmid. "Ashmid of Shemedel, we of the Council need this human. You will trade him to us in exchange for one of the Council servants, who will tend your clutches in this human's stead."
"Yes, Councilman." Ashmid bowed, beaming.
The leader turned to an older human who stood to one side. "Ibrahim, go with Ashmid. Tend the clutches of Shemedel's children with all care and duty, and when they are born, you may return to our service and win our praise. This is pleasing to the Council of the Ifriti."
"I obey, O Leader." Ibrahim bowed.
"You may take Ibrahim and leave, Ashmid of Shemedel. May all your eggs hatch well and true."
Ashmid gave an odd obeisance, in that he rose into the air with his wings, his legs folded under him, and folded up into a ball briefly, before catching himself as he fell, landing thus on his feet, just the same. Ibrahim followed him out.
"As you can see, human, we of the Ifriti know how to keep our word. It is our hope that word of our honor will be carried to your peoples, and that they will join with us more freely. But our need is such that we also require you humans keep your word as well. You agreed to serve the sons of Shemedel for forty days; we now require an equal service to the Council. It is our wish that you carry out this duty by speaking with the Angels and persuade them to permit the Ifriti to fly across their domain, so we may in fact bargain with your people as you have suggested. Is this service acceptable to you?"
"Of course." Pavel said. "I have to get my friend free of the Angels anyway."
"As you do the one taken by the Djinni. Would you bargain with the Djinni as you have bargained with us?" the leader asked. "The Djinni are far more numerous than we are, and their need for human aid is equal to our own. Can you still keep your word to serve us, knowing this?"
"I...I don't know." Pavel said. "I want to help the Ifriti any way I can. I like your people."
The leader smiled. "Your honesty is our best hope. To deal well with the Angels, you need information about us. Human, you may now question us as you wish." the leader said.
"I know that you only are able to live a single year, hatch a single clutch of eggs, and you die doing so." Pavel started.
The leader bowed his head. "That is unfortunately true."
"So how did you few live longer than a year? You are older than the rest of the Ifriti, yes?"
"Yes." the leader nodded. "We are chosen from among the children for our intelligence and wisdom. We must agree to be selected. In exchange, we are given extended life."
"Yes, but how?" Pavel asked. "If they can do it for you, why not all of the Ifriti?"
The Ifriti only smiled ruefully. "The extended life is bought by removing from our bodies all of our reproductive organs before they mature. We live many years, but we are unable to give birth, or even to engage in the joys of intercourse. It is a high price, as you may well imagine; still, to be selected is an honor and all have an equal chance to be selected."
"Oh." Pavel said. This form of government didn't fit into any of the human categories he had studied in school, but how could it? "How many of there are you? I mean, six eggs from each of six brothers like Ashmid and his kin, that's thirty-six babies. And every year, too." Why hadn't they flooded this little valley?
"If all six eggs survived and grew to maturity, that would be so." the Ifrit answered. "But few are so lucky as Shemedel was with his six sons. You have seen our Ceremony of Twilight. Some eggs do not hatch; others die soon after hatching. Our mortality rate is high for the first months of life; of the six eggs laid, usually only one, or two or three survive to adulthood. Still, our numbers increase steadily and are a cause of concern to us. This one valley will not sustain our numbers for much longer. It is another reason for us to seek an alliance with your people. The time of simply snatching up stray humans to serve us is ending; we must find another path. We hope to do this the same way as the Angels have done so successfully, to raise a group of humans in our own midst, to serve us and be served in turn. But the Angels are able to offer the humans children of their own; this we cannot do."
Pavel's ears perked up. "The Angels have a way to let humans breed?"
"The human companions of the Angels have a sufficiency of children." the Ifrit explained. "We presume that these children are due to some action of the Angels. We have no clear proof of that."
"But you don't have that?" Pavel said.
"No, nor would the men of the plains be interested in such an offer, as they have their Waters of Life. We were trapped; so for many years we simply captured the humans and would refuse to return them to their plains until after they had tended the clutches. Now, we suffer a well-deserved evil reputation which will take many years to remove. We have embarked upon a policy of dealing only honorably with the humans we take, but the fruit of this change of policy has yet to show itself. We need the humans, both of the plains and in your own valley, to learn that they can join us in safety and freedom. Even if you fail with the Angels, your words of our new honor among your people will serve us well."
"That at least, I can promise." Pavel said.
"That is well." the Ifriti leader said, and paused.
"Well...why don't the Ifriti guard their own clutches? I mean, why do you need humans for that?"
The Ifrit regarded him for so long that Pavel regretted the question. "We said you could ask all questions, and we would answer." he said at last. "And so I shall, though it is a source of great shame to us. It was thus on our home world as well, the legends tell us. When an Ifrit lays its clutch, the parents hide them away from the world until they hatch, perhaps with other family members, building burrows such as we have here and guarding the clutch until their young are born."
"Guarding them?" Pavel asked.
"When an Ifrit smells another Ifrit's eggs, it is...as if a part of the mind is turned off. We speculate that it is a territorial instinct remaining from our pre-intelligence days. The Ifrit will attack and destroy the eggs. Only the eggs of one's blood kin are safe. So on this planet, an Ifrit about to lay his eggs walls off his cavern so that none may enter. A human must be left within to tend the eggs, keep them warm and turned regularly, and when the young are safely born, can signal us to open the cavern once more."
"Oh." Pavel said. That explained why all six of Ashmid's family lived in one cavern, and even further, the niches in which the nests were built, inside a separate inner chamber.
"Uh, I can't think of any more questions right now." Pavel said awkwardly.
"Then it is time for you to depart."
"Now?" Pavel said. It was nearly dark now!
"Now." the Ifriti agreed. "The Angels will not tolerate a flight into their valley, so we must carry you there by stealth and the cover of darkness, and leave you on the edge of the Turtle Valley."
Pavel saw no way out of it; he left with the three Ifriti selected by the Council and was surprised to find himself led to a triangular length of cloth. "Step inside." the largest Ifrit told him.
"Why?" Pavel asked. "What is it?"
"A riding sling. We use it to carry heavier loads, and to carry a human such as you sometimes. Your weight is grievous and too much for the long trip to be carried by only two. This lets three of us bear your weight, and even to shift the weight as we go, so that we may rest somewhat as we fly. Also, there it another benefit to this cloth for a night trip."
"What is that?"
"The night is cold and the warmer mist rises from the valleys. It is how the mist makes its way from its source over to the plains. Had you never wondered about the mist that thrust itself at you twice daily? It is the wind currents, combined with the warming and cooling air."
"Oh." Pavel said and stepped into the cloth. Though what this cloth was going to accomplish baffled him, no simple cloth could keep out the mist.
The Ifriti grasped the corners, which held small rings for that purpose, and soon, bundled up like a swaddling, Pavel was borne through the night sky. The air was chill upon his thinly-clad frame, and he was glad of the cloth after all; he would have frozen without its added warmth. The Ifriti themselves were silent, so much that Pavel wondered at the risk they were taking in carrying him through the dark night.
The mountains were strangely, eerily beautiful, seeming to be blue in the moonlight of the cloudless stars. All he could see was the barren rock, and he agreed with Ashmid; there was no path through these mountains. Humans would need the Ifriti's help if any of them were to travel from his valley's jungles to the plains beyond the mountains and back again. This would work. All he had to do was convince the Angels to let the Ifrit fly over their valley. Surely they would agree, in preference to forming a ferry service of their own? He remembered the frowns he earned by asking them to ferry only that handful of humans to Connobar.
He found himself tingling all over, and knew that they were inside the mist now, even if he couldn't see it. He reached down and fondled his crotch, enjoying the way his cock responded with eagerness to the slightest touch. He could have brought himself to orgasm by masturbation so easily, but...he was not alone. "I hope I know the reason there are three of you." he said huskily.
The Ifriti laughed and Pavel was unsurprised to find two of their cocks crawl around his arms like twin snakes. Entering at his wrists, they ran underneath his shirt and in the chill night air, they were warm, warm! So very unlike snakes in this!
"What about you?" He asked the third Ifrit, who brought up the rear, noting that this one's cock was still the globe at the juncture of his legs. "Aren't you going to join in?"
"Of course, as soon as they have a good grip."
Twin cockheads burst through at the collar of Pavel's shirt and Pavel smiled, reached out to lap at the questing eyeless organs.
"Now I can join in." the third Ifrit said. He made a strange movement, and somehow ended up with the cloth hooked to his waist instead of in his foot-claws, he had joined Pavel inside the sling. His wings continued to beat, but less intently, perhaps supporting his own weight but no more. The warm, furry body was pressing against Pavel, and the tied leggings formed no barrier to the agile Ifriti cock, Pavel's pants weren't even undone, the Ifriti prong slithered into the slight gap between the leggings and probed at Pavel's anus.
The mist was stronger than ever now, Pavel felt the cockhead slide in easily. Sliding in, sliding in. Not large around at all, and it slid in, slid in. The shaft rubbed his prostate as it slid in, slid in.
God, how deep would this Ifrit go into him? They could stretch that dong out to five or six feet, maybe more! He wondered if the cockhead would push through his esophagus and thrust out his mouth!
The strangest feeling, that long dong crawling into him. Pavel writhed as he felt it inside him, not by direct touch, but the way his body's insides moved inside of him. "Oh, man, you're moving around my insides!" he groaned.
The Ifrit chuckled, a warm blast of air on his cool neck. "Not at all. I am being most careful not to damage you. But I want to be inside of you, totally inside of you."
"Yes, yes!" Pavel groaned. He had warm Ifriti cockheads to suck at, and he went back and forth from one to the other, tasting and tonguing them, unsurprised when the Ifrit groaned in pleasure, then in frustration, until with a common, unspoken accord, they pressed their prongs together and in that way they dove towards Pavel's mouth.
And still that cock in his ass slithered into him. God, it WAS going to make it all the way through! He dove and took the two cockheads into his mouth, wondering if they all three would meet up there in his mouth and throat, to explode there together.
The Ifrit's hands reached and freed Pavel's cock, stroked him as his cock slid in, slid in, more and more.
His prostate was being stroked incessantly. He hadn't felt such a sensation since Jethro's talented pud had been in him, vibrating him to ecstasy and this was a different feeling entirely.
The Ifrit cock stopped and swelled; Pavel felt it throughout his lower abdomen, growing and pressing against him at all places within. He spit out the twin puds and heard the two Ifriti bearing their weight
"Oh, God, how deep in me are you?" He gasped. His cock was doing a hell of a lot more than tingling now, just the idea of that cock, that long, long cock, inside of him like this, it was driving him insane!
"All of it." the Ifrit crooned as it jerked his dick, awkwardly and inexpertly, but Pavel didn't need expertise here and now. He was full, totally full of cock and it was pulsing now inside of him! He'd expected his prostate to love this, but there were other places inside that loved it, too, loved it, LOVED IT!
"Ah, my little lover, you are so passionate." the Ifrit crooned in his ear. "I can feel how your body loves me inside of you, welcomes me. I could stay within you like this forever."
"Yes, forever, yes!" Pavel sobbed with lust. His body was wrenching without moving, muscles danced of their own accord, rippling in time to the swirling Ifrit pud inside of him, while two more roiled around his arms and the cockhead imperiously thrust themselves back into his mouth. He couldn't do more than hold them there, but the Ifrit didn't need any more than that, Pavel kept the cockheads warm and clutched in his cheeks as they warmed up hotter, and hotter!
"Ah, hah, ah-hah!" his Ifrit ravisher rasped in his ear, and the hairy hand on Pavel's prong sped up to a rough, almost painful race on his pud. The Ifriti cocks on his arms were heating up, too, and now the cloth was almost too hot on him, now the night air felt good against his face, warmed as he was by the three puds of passion that wrapped around him and coiled up inside of him.
"Huh, huh, uh-huh!" the Ifrit fucking him groaned. Somewhere inside of him, Pavel knew, he was being blasted with come, but he only felt it here and here as the come boiled down the long, long shaft and ended someplace inside of him, pooling in his insides. The Ifrit gasped for so long, Pavel knew he would be loaded with the jism, but felt not a tinge of it at his anus, it was too far inside of him to dribble out as it usually would. That jism was in him to stay! Pavel wondered in the mad dreams of rising climax if the jism was landing directly in his stomach? Just how far in had the Ifriti made it?
Well, the two Ifrit at his arms weren't so puzzling, the cockheads dived deeper into his mouth and Pavel felt the flood pouring directly into his throat, he choked, stopped breathing to drink the copious flow, though he needed breath desperately, it was near, it was near!
As the Ifriti cocks deserted his mouth, all spent and shiny with his saliva, Pavel groaned and roared his lust into the night sky and he jetted his wad under the Ifrit's flailing hand, and soiled his riding-sling, bellowing his joy into the rushing night-air!
When he was done, the Ifrit behind him took back up his burden. Pavel felt the prong snaking out of him, out, out, out. "Just how far in me did you get, anyway?" Pavel asked.
"As far as I could." The Ifrit said. "But I did not want to tear you and I hit an obstruction. I stopped then and settled for letting my cock grow fatter inside you instead."
"Yeah, I felt it." Pavel said.
"Did you enjoy that?" One of the other Ifriti asked.
"Yeah!" Pavel admitted so heartily that his three bearers laughed. When they finished, Pavel said, "I kept waiting for it to pop out of my mouth!"
And the Ifriti laughed again, and Pavel with them. He felt the mist continuing to nestle into the pores of his skin, and asked, "How much further?"
"Quite a ways, still." the largest Ifrit assured him.
"Will we have time to do it again?"
"If not, we'll make time. But not too long. You must make it to the Angel's Valley before dawn and the flight is long still."
"All right." Pavel looked around. All he could see was blue-tinged mountains and paler snow atop the tallest of them. He had never yet touched snow. Too bad this mission wouldn't let him go there in the sunlight and let them linger.
As if to answer his question, he felt the bitter, stinging bite of the wind again. He would have to be bundled up better than he was to pay a visit to those peaks that still rose above them in their flight.