Secret of the Turtle Men, Chapter 12
"Reunions"
By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
Between them, Pavel and Jethro managed to wear out the entire contingent of Guards in the barracks, who were now sitting around and comparing notes quite unabashedly about the merits of their two new playmates, when the expected order came to get them to the Tribunal. Pavel and Jethro were lounging exhausted and sweaty and filthy and ignored on one of the couches.
"Now what happens?" Pavel asked Jethro.
"They will go out for their exercise program." Jethro motioned to the Guards, who were in fact gathering themselves up. "We'll have a few hours to ourselves now."
"Finally." Pavel sighed in relief. "My ass feels like a tunneling machine has been using it."
"Mine, too." Jethro said, standing up, staggered. "I don't know how much more of this I can take."
"I'm already worn out." Pavel agreed, arising with a groan. "Where do we wash up."
"They have a bathing chamber. It's through here." Jethro led the way, staggering somewhat and Pavel sympathized. The Guards had clustered around him like the jungle fruitflies on a fallen and burst-apart piece of fruit, when one would leave him, another would take their place. Pavel at least had serviced them one at a time, Jethro had taken two and three on, non-stop.
Pavel caught up to him, put one of Jethro's arms around his shoulder, who sank into it gratefully.
"I sure hope the Tribunal lets us go." Jethro said. "I just want to get back to Connobar and rejoin my troop."
"Home again. I'm with you." Pavel said. "But these Angels are a powerful force, more powerful than we had realized when my father dealt with them. We'll need to be on our best behavior, so buck up soldier."
Jethro's response was to straighten and remove his arm. "Yes, sir." he said. Then, "Damn, my ass is sore. Those men wore me completely out."
The room was a single, large, deep bathing basin, a square some fifteen feet by forty feet in size, which steamed gently. "Very nice." Pavel said.
"The water is warmed somehow, it's like floating in warmth." Jethro said. "I always come in here when they get done with me, wash myself out and then float, dreaming of home."
They dropped their clothes upon a bench which seemed to be for such purposes, and Pavel stepped into the water. It was not very deep, perhaps two feet of water filled this enormous pool.
But the waters moved through him, electrifying his legs and sending a warm wave of pleasure up his thighs to intersect and fasten on his groin, and Pavel threw an immediate erection. "Oh, man!" Pavel groaned. "This water is worse than the water in Facilitata! I can't believe how powerful the mist is in this valley! We must be right at the center of it! I keep this up and my cock is going to fall off!"
"I know." Jethro said. "I've felt it, too. But as long as you don't want to fuck me right now, I'll help you through it. My ass feels like it's had tree-trunks shoved into it."
"Those Guards are so damned big, all of them." Pavel agreed. "Any bigger and I wouldn't believe they were human." He waded out into the water, the basin grew slowly deeper with each step.
"That's close." Jethro said.
"What?" Pavel asked him.
"A Guard is born, not made." Jethro said as he stepped into the water, gasped, threw his head back and arced his back, his cock pointed quickly and urgently at Pavel. That powerful pud, which had plowed Pavel so many times, beckoned to him not in domination, but as the gesture of welcome of an old friend. Pavel smiled and stretched out his arms, urging Jethro to join him where the pool was deeper.
"What about the Guards?" Pavel asked as Jethro waded after him, Pavel backing up. Now the water churned about his balls and stroked his asshole with each wavelet, he stopped for this was the center of the pool.
Jethro moved slowly, speaking as he walked towards Pavel. "Something about the way they're born. Every so often, a Turtle Man's son comes out a little different. Bigger, like you see. Also, you may have noticed that they're not very smart. They need special care at first, and so the father turns him over to the Angels. The father gets to visit the child any time he wants, even stay with the child if he wants to; it's not abduction or abandonment. But most of them just visit a lot. They have those ferries into town from all over the valley the Angels use, and that's their primary purpose, to bring the fathers to visit their children...." But now Jethro was in Pavel's arms, Jethro's cock was bludgeoning Pavel's stomach, and Pavel cut him off with a kiss. Long, slow and sweet.
"Damn, Pavel, I've missed you." Jethro heaved as the kiss ended. "You know, I'm beginning to remember how things were while I was living with you. The way your family cared for me, all of them did, but mostly you and...and some black guy, that's still fuzzy."
"Fortin." Pavel agreed. "He cared for you non-stop at first, he was the one who...." and Pavel was cut off as Jethro kissed him.
"Fuck him." Jethro said when he ended that kiss.
"You did. Repeatedly." Pavel said. "Me, too."
"I know." Jethro said. "Now. You must have gotten awfully tired of me fucking you all the time."
"Actually, I kind of miss it these days." Pavel admitted. "I've missed you."
"Well, I've been remembering, and I've realized that for all the times we've had sex, I haven't made love to you once."
"There's a difference?" Pavel asked, a little confused.
"Oh, yes. In Connobar, at least." Jethro leaned very close to him, his eyes bored into Pavel's own.
"I'd be interested in learning that difference."
"In Connobar, when you have sex, it's quick and impersonal. Mouth on cock, cock in ass, very little other contact. To make love, it's, well, let me show you. For all those months you took care of me, let me make love to you now."
"I'm all yours." Pavel said and reached out to touch Jethro's cheek.
Jethro lowered Pavel back into the water, and the water, warm with heat, warm with passion, coiled about their bodies. It was like Jethro was holding him up instead of the water, the water and Jethro's arms were equally warm about him.
Jethro kissed his lips, taking his time and without force, then those lips left his own and traveled over his cheek, brushing the fine white hairs there (soon he would need to start shaving like his father, those hairs declared to him), and Jethro's hands roamed over his back, feeling of him, tracing out his lines, marking him, possessing him.
Pavel wrapped his legs around Jethro and now the water held him up entirely, he relaxed, offering his body to Jethro, not to be taken by near-brutal force as it had so often this day, but offered to be touched, to be tasted, to have attention burnished over his body, cleansing it free of the soil of his position of hands-around whore of the Guards.
And now Jethro had his arms at Pavel's waist, and now Jethro kissed Pavel's breasts, suckled there with tender, circular-tensioned suckling with his lips, turning upon Pavel the Connobaran muscular control so relished by the Guards, but in this way given the flutter of butterfly wings, so softly did they dance upon Pavel's skin, so that Pavel was not forced to his pleasure, but rather, it was awakened within him, as if the gentle passion of the water had made its way totally into Jethro, and had through Jethro taken on fingers and lips to bring his body alive!
Pavel groaned in his need, and this need was not the rough rutting of the body he had felt so often since setting foot in this valley, he was in need because his body recognized this touch from the many centuries that this had been the signal for mankind, the grooming of the man-apes turned into this gentle caress, and Pavel threw his head back, not caring that the waters covered his eyes and washed up to near his nostrils as he did so, for now Jethro was at his waist, and Pavel's cock rested upon Jethro's shoulder, throbbing impatiently there.
"Ah, ah!" Pavel sobbed out. Jethro was taking so long! Every touch was enjoyable, every caress brought his body alive, but oh, God! Release! Release given, not wrenched from him. Jethro was right, there was a difference, and this was what he had sought from Jezreel, dreamed of ever since, the giving of himself to another and knowing as he gave that there would never be a regret of the gift, that he would only gain thereby. And now, now, God, yes, Jethro's lips so slowly crept up Pavel's cock, tasting and clinging at every step, the tongue an insolent dancer across the ridged and veined surface, yet the dance was of joy and life, and there was nothing he wished more than that this dance would go on forever.
And yet this dervish of pleasure find his crest, touched upon the slimily-oozing pit of his cockslit, and skated across it without breaking stride, turning from dancer to skater upon the ice of his precome, not bringing it up into Jethro's mouth, but spreading it around, until all of Pavel's cockhead was smoothed and slicked with the slippery clear liquid.
And now, only now, did Jethro take him down, and Pavel groaned in ecstasy at the mere touch at last, at last, he was within Jethro, Jethro had taken him into himself, and in this act there was more than there had been before, now Jethro was doing it of his own volition, the mist mattered nothing, their plight was insignificant, for they had found each other, and their need had awakened at last, at last!
Jethro's lips plied their skill upon him, that talented mouth playing his body with a hundred vibrations of light that coursed through his body, and Pavel groaned, "Oh, God, Jethro, let me do you, please! Turn around and give me your cock too!"
Jethro released him only long enough to declare, "When I am done, if you want to. For now, enjoy." And Jethro resumed once more.
Jethro's mouth plied its magic spell with his more-than-mere-human control, and Pavel's body wracked once more with his pleasure, a pleasure unlike any he had felt before, this arose from within himself, the cock was the expression of the desire, but not the source, that source welled from within and danced about his body, breaking the surface as would a pack of whales, he groaned, his body wove back and forth through the water, the bobbles of waves caused by Jethro's steady movements, and the need of his own body exciting the water more, so that it sloshed over him, and Jethro's hand held him steady while the water's hands touched him completely, and Pavel writhed in the clutch of those thousand fingerlets.
The pleasure now lined up along his spine, turning him rigid, his body was a log in the water, unyielding, only Jethro's lips and mouth and body moved, Pavel held still, caught up in his joy, unable to give any other command a higher priority, his body remained quiescent and relished his joy, and the line of electric-white joy along his spine became wide and broader.
Pavel grunted out incoherent sobs of his pleasure, Jethro milked him unceasingly, and now his cock was contacted by the pleasure, and now the joy had an outlet it could use to release the building pressure, it exploded throughout him like a dynamite stick bursting apart with the power of the ignition, and Pavel yelled out his need made reality by his body, he released and satisfied his need with a hundred pearls of blazing light that exploded upwards into Jethro, who gulped them down, extinguishing them the way the night swallows up the fireworks of a celebration, and so Pavel pumped his euphoria into Jethro, who accepted all of it as a reward for his labor.
Pavel lay limp upon the water after Jethro was done, and Jethro ended with a hundred small kisses upon his manhood, before releasing him at last. He turned Pavel gently in the water, so that Pavel's face wafted around to meet his own, and Jethro looked down into Pavel's exhausted face with a great deal of self-satisfaction.
"Now that was making love." Jethro concluded. "What did you think of it?"
"I think it's better when I do you at the same time." Pavel smiled up at his blond soldier.
"That's another thing about making love." Jethro said, tapping Pavel's nose with a finger in reminder. "You don't keep score."
"Agreed." Pavel said. "So can I do you now? Just because I want to?"
"Let me get up on the edge of the bath." was Jethro's only comment.
His long, white body was splayed out upon the bath's floor, and Pavel was able by kneeling in the water to ply himself upon Jethro's tool. As he did, he realized that he was not giving Jethro as well as he had received, he should make love to Jethro and this was a simple blow-job.
Oh, well, as Jethro pointed out, you don't keep score.
He nursed Jethro's rod, which pulsed in sympathetic vibration, so that Jethro's pud was a living thing within Pavel's mouth, so rapid was the vibration that Pavel could have held still and Jethro still would have been wrenched with joy, but he chose not to hold still, he bobbed his head upon Jethro and Jethro raised up onto one elbow to watch him, and Pavel grinned as well as he could around Jethro's ample prick, and Jethro ran his fingers through Pavel's hair and Pavel let Jethro semi-guide him upon his task. He forced his tired body faster and faster, so that his blood churned in his skull, dazing him but that didn't matter, he was sucking Jethro and he wanted this to be a special blow-job, something beyond the mere sex they had had before, he turned his every trick to making Jethro's pleasure increase, and soon Jethro's cock was a thick pillar of slime from Pavel's mouth, and Pavel drove himself like a man possessed to keep up the tension, and was rewarded with Jethro's groans of desire.
Now Jethro's hand clutched the back of his head tightly and Pavel realized that Jethro's pleasure was near, he clutched Jethro's cock even tighter and mauled his blond lover's schlong, Jethro groaning, moaning, thrashing about below him, and then the cock heated to a shaft of fire within Pavel's mouth, and Pavel worked him only the more and Jethro's groaned reached a crest and then crashed back to earth and Pavel's mouth was filled with Jethro's semen, he drank it down as quicky as Jethro could jet it into him, and Jethro's gyrations beneath him were only the spur to cling tighter, work him more, and even when Jethro stopped squirting into him and lay quiet beneath him, Pavel continued to ply his lips upon Jethro's dick, stopping only when it succumbed at last and became limp and satiated in his mouth, and then he let it go, and grabbed Jethro's legs and pulled him back into the water, and Jethro slid like an eel back in and on top of Pavel, and Pavel found his lips and took many kisses, and gave his own in return.
The water was still warm around them as they coiled and thrashed in post-coital embrace, but now it was a lover's touch, desirable and enjoyed, but not requiring a response.
Jethro released him at last. "We'd better take our bath while we still can." He pointed out. "Those Guards won't be exercising that much longer and then they'll come in and want us all over again."
"Oh, jeez!" Pavel said. He had nearly forgotten their plight. "I just hope the Tribunal calls for us first."
"The soap is over there in that box near the water." Jethro pointed.
They made a game of washing each other, and it was when they finished, rinsing each other playfully, that the Guards came in search of them. They were wanted by the Tribunal.
Dressed, Pavel and Jethro were escorted past the same barrier of Guards who had before hauled Pavel away (different Guards this time, Pavel realized that there were at least as many Guards out on duty as were at the barracks; if the Tribunal decided to keep them, he'd be fucked by two or three times as many Guards, on a regular basis.
But Pelen waited on the other side. "My friend." he said, embracing Pavel hurriedly. "Is this your comrade whom you sought?"
"Yes, this is Jethro." Pavel said. "Jethro, this is Pelen, my friend among the Turtle Men of this valley."
"So you are a Connobaran." Pelen said. "I hope to learn about your people when the Tribunal is done with us. But for now, we must get back to the Tribunal Chamber and take our place again at the end of the petitioners."
"We're at the end of the line still?" Pavel asked. "As long as it took, I thought that we were next."
"I was fortunate enough to be among the first few with unscheduled business, but they had to send for you, so now we move to the very end. I pleaded your case already as well as I could, but the Tribunal wishes to question you further."
"So we wait." Jethro said as Pelen nodded to a Turtle Man at the entrance, who apparently knew him well enough to not question them; this Turtle Man merely made a note on a paper and handed it to a young pageboy.
Inside the Tribunal, a mist, this one green-tinged, permeated the gathering, giving it an air Pavel found somehow sinister. It was as if everyone was sitting in mist up to their necks, and so an array of heads looked up at the Tribunal. They were looking at this gathering from one of the rather-large room's corners, instead of entering at the middle of the room as Pavel expected, they had come through a door at the very edge, and were facing the backmost row of seated visitors.
The Tribunal sat on three tiers which formed a pyramid, the topmost was an Angel, who was propounding with an air of authority. Below him sat four more Angels, and below this was fourteen humans, most of them elderly and dignified and the remainder were younger who strove to seem the same.
The Angel in charge finished his spiel, whereupon the two humans who stood before the Tribunal, waist-high in mist, bowed and left, and the entire congregation then rose and shuffled forward as the ones seated nearest the Tribunal stepped up. Pavel saw now that what he had thought was an array of seats were in fact a single row which snaked back and forth across the room. As if a line of standing people had kindly been given seats for their wait.
"No wonder we had to go back to the end." Pavel said. Heads turned immediately towards him from the gathering nearest him.
"Shh." Pelen hissed as they took their seats. "Speaking is not permitted in this room, save for the petitioners being heard. "We must stay silent."
Seated, Pavel, who was in the middle of them, reached for Jethro's crotch with one hand, and Pelen's with the other.
"No, you mustn't do that, either." He whispered. "Please, we must keep still and stay silent."
"But...but how?" Pavel asked Pelen. "The mist will drive us insane if we deny it." They had waited for hours before being called for, if they had to wait for more hours....
"The Angels have a mist which counteracts the pink mist." Pelen said hoarsely in Pavel's ear. "We are seated within it now. Your body will wait until we leave the chamber. Now, please, we must not offend the Tribunal, under penalty of having our petition denied by decree."
That sounded ominous. Pavel whispered this to Jethro.
Jethro considered this, then whispered back quickly. "So we can't talk, can't move and can't fuck."
"Yeah." Pavel nodded.
Jethro was silent, then gave a grunt. "Going to be a damned dull afternoon."
Pavel decided to sit back erect, settled keeping one hand fondly on Jethro's thigh. Jethro rested his hand atop Pavel's.
It was good to have family back by his side.
Fatigued by the incredible exercise he'd had at the barracks, Pavel fell quickly into a semi-stupor. He had kept attention long enough to see that he'd be permitted a short statement to the Tribunal, they would then ask questions, Angels on the second tier, then the Turtle Men, then the one at the top would render a verdict. Pavel wondered why so many men were needed for the questions, perhaps they voted in some unobvious manner. He noticed the men and Angels appearing to look at changing things on their desks and touching their desks, this tiered Tribunal podium must be wired like a ship's command center.
He understood enough, and was tired, so he moved in a near-dream-state until they got to the very front row. He took the opportunity of the four still in front of him to waken himself as well as he could and arrange his thoughts. When the last group bowed and left by the door near the Tribunal podium, Pavel was ready and stepped up.
He started to speak, but was hushed by Pelen.
"My Lords and Masters, these are the two men from outside of our valley. I remind you that they came not as colonists, but as emissaries from their own groups which live in the direction of sunrise, and I would ask you to permit them to speak to you."
"Let them speak, and we will hear them." the topmost Angel agreed.
Now Pavel could speak. "I greet you in the name of my father, who is leader of our valley. We have formed an alliance with those Angels who live in our valley, but I have seen that this alliance does not extend to you. My people would offer that extension if you are agreeable, but this is something my father should speak to you about. I come to you instead as a friend of your people, even though you don't know me, and to ask for your help in three ways."
"First, before I came to your valley, I was among the Ifriti, and I formed an agreement between the Ifriti and my own people, a simple exchange of services. They agree to fly my people from our valley to the plains across the valley, and we agree in return to help them guard their clutches of eggs. But I have learned that for them to do this, they must have permission to fly across this valley. So I have come to you on their behalf to request this. They agree not to molest your own citizens, and they will not need to, for according to the terms of our agreement, every human they ferry across the mountains must pause in the Ifriti Valley long enough to ward a clutch of their eggs. So they no longer have a reason to snatch up your own people."
"Second, I and my friend from Connobar had two more companions. One of them was taken captive by the Djinni the same time as we, and the other is lost in the mountains, all alone. I would ask your help in rescuing them as much as you are able."
"And third, my own people need to reach an agreement with you. We have lost the Tree of Children, by which my people had children such as myself, a clone-child as you called me. Without our own people's aid, Jethro's people, the Connobarans, will also be unable to have children. I know from my talks with Pelen and his father that you have your own means to give children to the Turtle Men. I would ask if that means may be made available to my own people's valley, according to terms which can be negotiated later with my father. For now, I only mention it to you."
Pavel turned to Jethro. "Anything you want to add?"
Jethro shrugged. "I am not a speaker, and you have said everything well enough for me."
"Then I am done." Pavel said.
The questions were not what Pavel expected, the Tribunal wanted to know how many people lived in Pavel's valley and in Connobar, and also the population of the Ifriti and how they all three were doing in terms of their crops. Pavel answered as well as he could, but the questions rapidly grew beyond his and Jethro's abilities.
"I am not a census-taker!" he said in exasperation at last. "I remind you again of why I am here."
"He knows nothing more of value to us." the main Angel said. "Let all cast their votes who have not yet done so."
He surveyed the results at his own screen. "Pavel Paskov of Facilitata, and Jethro of Connobar, you have requested four things."
"First, passage for the Ifriti across our domain of the mountains. If we grant them this passage, then their numbers will no doubt increase. It is not in our best interests that their numbers increase. Your request is denied, and our soldiers will be ordered to prevent any such passage through our realm. You journey from your lands to the plains of the west at your peril. We warn your peoples through you."
"Second, aid for your friend captured by the Djinni. The Djinni's numbers have become far too numerous, and we know that they intend to soon make war upon the plains peoples of the west, to capture them for their brood-chambers. The Djinni do not require humans to guard their eggs, their larvae require live creatures upon which to feed as they grow. Your friend there is without doubt now in such a chamber being consumed. We recommend that you treat him as already dead."
"Third, aid for your friend lost among the mountains. We will tell you that we have located him, too near the realm of the Djinni to be rescued. He will be taken by the Djinni soon, and so is lost to you as well. "
"Fourth, our methods of assisting humans to breed is our valley's greatest asset. Your kind have proven in your recent war that you cannot be trusted not to destroy the means as you destroyed your own. Your request for such aid is denied."
"Finally, we are not heartless. You will be provided with transport to whatever location you wish, and supply you as we are able for your journeys. Make your choice wisely."
"This audience is at an end."
Pavel would have argued, but Pelen's tug at his elbow was not to be ignored. Seething at this cavalier treatment, he went with Pelen out of the Tribunal Chamber.
Were these people so selfish and unfeeling that they would let their neighbors suffer when they had the means to rescue them?
Outside the chamber, Pelen quickly tugged Pavel to one side and clustered them in a conspiratorial triangle. "Listen to me." He hissed. "What they told you is untrue. Your friend among the Djinni is alive. One of the men from our village came to us from the Djinni. The Djinni don't kill their human captives. The larvae feed from the humans, yes, but it doesn't kill them."
"How does it work, then?" Jethro asked.
"It's complicated. Later." Pelen said. "But for now, trust me that they're alive and well. But they aren't lying, in that the Djinni plan to raid the western plains very soon. Their numbers are as large as the Tribunal said. So let us start by getting your friends back from the Djinni. Then we'll try to make the Tribunal see sense."
"Us?" Jethro said.
Pelen seemed abashed. "I'll go with you if you'll let me. We'll have to sneak me past the Angels in some way."
Jethro smiled. "Pelen, I don't know you, but what I do know, I like. Let's go get outfitted and figure out how to slip you along for the ride."
END OF CHAPTER 12