2. Settling In - The Work Camp Earth-boy

The Work Camp Earth-boy

By Earth-boy

Quick disclaimers:

• This story contains descriptions of sex between teen and pre-teen males. Do not read if you’re under 18 or it is illegal where you’re living.
• Copyright by the author. Do not upload to pay-to-view sites.
• This story is fiction; references to individuals are coincidental.
• No children or teenagers were harmed in the creation of this story.

Chapter 2. Settling In

I was awakened in the morning by Savros gently rocking me by my shoulder. I noticed I’d covered myself in my sleep, or Savros had done it for me, perhaps to spare me any embarrassment at being naked. Not like I cared either way.

“Time to get up,” he said. “We need to make breakfast for the crew and clean up afterwards. If you’re tired after that, you can catch a couple hours sleep before lunch.”

I yawned, stretched, stood up, located my belt and breech-cloth and put them on. Together we walked the short distance to the main kitchen. The morning was cool, even by earth-boy standards, but for the first time since I’d arrived I didn’t feel like I was in imminent danger of heat stroke. The kitchen had cooled down overnight, so I found it tolerable.

“Standard breakfast fare is scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, and pancakes. We do everything on the stovetop by putting a large griddle on top. It’s heavy, so I’m happy someone else is here to help me with it. It’s over here.”

We pulled the griddle from its space beside the stove and placed it on top of the burners. Savros was right; it was heavy, so I suspected it would take a while to heat up. He turned on all four burners and set them to high.

“Can you prep scrambled eggs and pancakes?” he asked.

“Eggs, yes, but I’ll need to learn your recipe for pancakes. I can handle toast, but in the groves we have electric belt toasters, so you’ll need to show me how you do it on the stove. I also don’t know how much to make.”

Savros started giving me numbers based on his experience of how much everyone ate at breakfast. I tried to remember as much as possible, then said I’d work on the scrambled eggs. I found the eggs, got milk out of the fridge, and began breaking eggs into a pot.

No sooner had I started than I heard Savros swearing under his breath, then saw him frantically searching through supplies on a shelf.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Pilot light’s gone out on the stove, so the burners aren’t starting!” he exclaimed. “And the igniter’s been broken since God knows when. I usually have a supply of long matches around so I can relight the stove, but I can’t find them!”

“Oh. Would a lit stick work?”

“Yeah, but how are we going to light the stick? Use a magnifying glass?”

I smiled. “Nothing so fancy. I’ll need paper, some dry leaves, twigs, and a suitable stick. You find the paper; I’ll run outside and get the other stuff.”

Because the camp area had been recently cut out of the forest, it took me less than a minute to find what I needed. I brought them inside and put them on the griddle. Savros was there already with a sheet of paper.

“What now?” he asked.

“Watch.”

I tore up the paper and added it to what I’d collected, then held the stick to the lot and channelled some of my eren. It began to smoulder, then in a few seconds burst into flame. The stick ignited as well. I put it to one of the front burners and twisted its dial. It lit, so I started the second one too. I blew out the stick and started the back burners. The small fire on the griddle burned itself out.

I grinned. “Firestarting. It’s an gift all earth-boys have. Now, I’m afraid I’ve made a bit of a mess on the griddle, so I’ll clean that up right away. But a couple of the guys might notice a charcoal flavour in their toast.”

Savros regarded my little performance with amazement. “Can you do other things like that?”

“Well, all earth-boys have what you’d call ‘magic,’ although we don’t think of it that way. If you’re interested I can show you some other stuff, but that will have to wait.”

We finished preparing breakfast. Savros handled the griddle while I unpacked bacon and sausages, poured out scrambled egg mix, and ladled pancake batter onto the griddle. Following his verbal instructions, I set up an old gas heated coffee urn with a filter, ground coffee and water, and lit its burner.

Savros pointed me to a collapsible table, and I managed to figure out how to set it up. I put coffee cups and a stack of plates on it along with utensils. Cooked food went into covered pans on a warming area at the back of the griddle, which I took out to the collapsible table when the crew started coming in. Unlike last night’s supper, breakfast was buffet style with each man taking what he wanted.

✵   ✵   ✵

I rested after eating breakfast and cleaning the kitchen with Savros’ help, then joined him in the kitchen again to make lunch. Things were starting to get uncomfortably warm for me. Worse, my breech-cloth was chafing my inner thighs whenever I moved. I was unused to wearing it for extended periods, especially when on kitchen duty.

“How is it you know so much about working in a kitchen?” Savros asked while we were cleaning up after lunch.

“Oh, all earth-boy groves have one,” I replied. “We don’t live in walled-in houses like you do, so everything’s sort of outside. It’s a lot easier for a grove to have one big kitchen for everyone instead of a bunch of them scattered all over. If one of us doesn’t have anything else to do, we’re expected to help out in the kitchen. After all, there are about 250 earth-boys in each grove that need feeding, so there’s always a few of us either in the kitchen or close by.”

“Outside?” Savros asked. “What do you do when it rains? Or snows? Or when it’s freezing cold?”

I smiled. “The meadow—that’s the inner grove where we all live—has eren or earth energy in it. Climate-wise it’s more like a burrow than a clearing in a forest. The temperature stays more or less the same all year round. Rain hits the top of the meadow and turns into mist. Storms sway the trees, and we can hear the wind, and see lightning and hear thunder, but everything stays calm. It’s a lot like, say, a tropical house at a zoo, but of course it isn’t as hot.”

“That’s amazing! So, no heating bills, no air conditioning, no expensive repairs …”

“Yup! I learned in school that humans see food, clothing, and shelter as their basic needs. We don’t bother with clothes and the groves give us shelter. So food’s our main concern. But even there the rural groves always have lots of it and they send the surplus to the town groves.”

“The same way farmers supply food to the cities,” Savros observed.

“Yeah, that’s one of the things we have in common with humans.”

✵   ✵   ✵

For the supper shift the kitchen was on the verge of being too hot for me to handle. I thought about asking Savros if I could skip working and find something else in the camp to do, but I felt I shouldn’t because I knew he was the one who wanted me here. I took to splashing myself with water to cool off. It ran down to my breech-cloth, which sort of helped keep me cooler down there but also made it heavy. Looking at my inner thigh, I saw my skin was red and starting to become raw where the fabric scraped against it.

I’d had enough of the stupid garment. “Hey Savros,” I asked, “would you mind if I took off my breech-cloth and worked naked? It’s, well, I mean we’re always naked in the groves and this thing’s really starting to bug me.”

Savros smiled. “Go right ahead! You’re a really cute boy and I wouldn’t mind an extra bit of eye candy around here.”

I smiled back. “Something tells me you want to see me naked.”

“Well, I already did this morning, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it again!”

With much relief I undid my belt and tossed it and my breech-cloth aside. Savros grinned and nodded approvingly. I paused to channel some eren to my raw skin and relieve the discomfort. Then I splashed some more water on myself and, more comfortable now, went back to work.

I never wore it again in the camp.

Like the day before, Savros called the crew to dinner with a long blast on the horn. Actually, I did it tonight and Savros said it would be my job from now on. We filled up five plates and waited for the men to come in. They headed for the table when they saw Savros standing in the door to the kitchen like last night. He asked me to take plates out to Riley and Egan.

“Yo, put something on boy!” called Martin when I emerged from the kitchen. “I don’t want to have to watch your dork swinging around all evening!”

“Why should he put something on?” asked Larry. “Earth-boys never wear anything in their groves. Alright, he’s working for us for now, but I don’t see a need for him to conform to our dress code. Would you like it if you joined a work place and they told you you had to work naked?”

“Well …”

Egan nudge Martin with his elbow. “Not that anyone wants to see you naked!”

“And, hey, he’s cute like that,” added Jared. “Not to mention, well, natural. To me, an earth-boy wearing anything looks strange.”

Riley ended the discussion. “While he’s here he can wear what he wants. Or not, as the case may be. We’ll get used to it soon enough.”

“Thanks, Riley!” I said as I headed back to the kitchen to get my meal.

Like yesterday, Jared was sitting beside me. About half way through the main course I felt a hand brush up against my bum. I looked over to him and smiled. He smiled back.

During dessert he not only brushed my bum, he held his hand there for a few seconds and gently squeezed. My penis started to swell. I got a little concerned; Martin probably wouldn’t like it at all if he saw me semi-erect at the dinner table. I whispered to Jared, “Enough for now, okay?”

“Alright,” he replied, and removed his hand. He didn’t touch me again for the rest of the meal. I really didn’t mind him doing it, but I figured all these prudish humans would have issues with it. I knew for them sex was something they did in secret.

✵   ✵   ✵

A board game came out again after dinner, and tonight Savros invited me to join in. Of course I didn’t know how to play, but it was a simple “roll the dice and move your marker” type of game, so I caught on pretty quickly. Both Savros and Jared, who had managed to position themselves on either side of me, gave me pointers and tips. They also kept rubbing my thighs and feeling up my bum. This time I didn’t do anything to discourage them, and even shifted back on the bench to give them more to play with. Of course I got hard, but it was hidden under the table.

To my surprise, when the game was over I ended up third overall. They packed it up, and the cards and beer came out. Tonight Savros joined in, but Larry excused himself and sat down a short distance away in one of the four chairs in the hut. I figured I’d join him, since I didn’t understand poker at all. I was also annoyed by Martin’s cigarettes. I sat down in a chair beside him, and modestly put my hands into my lap to cover my penis.

“The Economist?” I asked, noting the magazine he was reading. “That seems a bit out of place here.”

“Well, I am too, I guess,” replied Larry. He didn’t seem to mind me chatting with him. Maybe I was a change from what he usually dealt with. “I used to work at a high-powered financial firm.”

“I think that’s what humans call a ‘professional’ job. Uh, don’t you usually make good money at that? And don’t all humans like money?”

Larry smiled and nodded. “After twenty years at it, I came to realize money isn’t everything. And it was really stressful.”

“What’s ‘stressful’?” I asked.

He had to think about it. “It’s sort of difficult to explain, I guess, to someone who’s used to living comfortably in a grove like you do. Um … does your grove ever get into fights? Like, one group wants to do one thing and another wants to do something else?”

“Sometimes. I recall one time someone came up an idea to turn our pool into a waterslide, with lots of slides and a bunch of smaller pools with different temperatures. Part of the grove liked the idea, but a lot of us didn’t. They were also afraid it would be too much trouble and we’d stop using it after a while. We argued about it for weeks.”

“Sound like a dispute, yes, but probably not that stressful. What happened, by the way?”

“The council decided against it. About fifteen earth-boys who really wanted it left and went to another grove.”

“Sour grapes,” said Larry.

“What?”

“That means the earth-boys who wanted the waterslide were angry about their idea being rejected, so they got pissed off and left.”

“No, not really,” I said. “It’s one of our four flowers: There’s a grove for me. There’s a grove for you. That’s how we usually resolve disputes. It’s not seen as cowardice or ‘sour grapes’ or ‘I can’t stand you guys!’ to change groves because we don’t agree on something. It just makes sense to find somewhere else where you can get along. We joke about it: When the going gets tough, the earth-boys get going … to another grove!“

Larry chortled. “And it’s not like there’s a shortage of groves for you to live in.”

“For sure. Urban groves, rural groves, all with only about 250 earth-boys each. So it’s usually easy to find one you can live in.”

“Anyway, back to this stress thing,” said Larry. “Have you ever been attacked? Say, by something like a large dog?”

“It’s happened maybe three times, and twice because a human sent his dog after me.”

“Were you scared?”

“Yeah, I was scared when it came charging toward me. As soon as it got close enough for me to touch it, I grabbed hold of its head and used our calming gift to take the fight out of it.”

Larry nodded. He didn’t ask about me being able to calm down an aggressive dog, so I assumed he’d heard about that gift from somewhere. “Now imagine you don’t have a calming gift, and there’s always a dog or two around barking and growling at you and trying to bite you. That’s what stress is like.”

“Oh! Yeah, that sounds bad. So why didn’t you leave?”

“Well, for one thing, yes, the pay was really good. And when you’re in the thick of it you don’t see the toll it takes on you. Then my wife divorced me and took our kids. And then the company restructured and I lost my job.”

“Oh …” I mused. “Maybe like … well, we don’t marry and the kids are raised by the grove as a whole. And we don’t have jobs. Maybe it’s like, well, maybe the only grove on a desert island kicks me out for no reason and the next closest one is a hundred kilometres away across the open ocean.”

“You’re really perceptive. Yes, that’s sort of what it felt like. I did a complete re-assessment of my life after that. I sold our house and gave most of the money to my ex-wife in exchange for not having to send her child support every month. And I’ve always loved the outdoors: camping, canoeing, hiking, skiing, things like that. And I’d spent twenty years not really having time to do them. So I figured I could take a year or two off from working and do things I actually enjoyed.”

“Is that how you got here?”

“Sort of,” said Larry. “I spotted something on the web about a project up here in the hills that wanted able-bodied people to spend a couple of months in the wilderness. The pay was good, so I asked about it and they gave me an offer.”

“And what are you doing here?”

“I’m helping out the crew with their work in the field north of here.”

“Well that’s pretty obvious. But what’s the crew doing? Why are they here?”

There was a distinct pause. “Uh, they haven’t exactly shared the details with me. And what they have told me was on condition I don’t say anything to anyone else. That included Savros, so that means you, too.”

I chatted a little more with Larry about his work: what it was like to work in an office and some of the things he did. The details of high finance were way above by ability to comprehend. I didn’t even know what sort of questions to ask.

Eventually Larry suggested he’d like to go back to his magazine, so I played with the darts some more until the poker game came to an end and Larry balanced the night’s winnings and losses.

“Okay,” announced Egan, “tonight Riley has the pleasure of entertaining our earth-boy. But before you go, boy, I like to shave in the morning and I need hot water for that. You’ll notice only Riley and Martin have beards, so the others will need hot water too. So every morning from now on, you’ll deliver a bowl of hot water to me, Larry, Jared, and Savros promptly at eight o’clock.”

Savros said, “Well, not me. I’m already up by eight.”

I looked questioningly at Riley. He understood what I meant.

“I don’t think that’s too onerous for you to do,” he told me. “There’s always hot water on the stove, so all you need to do is take a jug and three bowls. Put a bowl each into Egan’s, Larry’s, and Jared’s hut and pour the water into it. Remember to knock on the door and wait for them to ask you in.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Egan responded. “Just come into the hut with your bowl and pitcher. That way we’ll know it’s time to get up.”

“What about Riley and Martin?” I asked. “Should I get them up, too?”

“No need to bother me in the morning,” said Riley. “I have an alarm clock, but I’m usually awake before it goes off.”

Martin added, “And I get up when I hear the other cabin doors opening and closing.”

“So that’s settled,” Egan said. “Remember, do that every morning from now on in.”

“Okay,” I said.

✵   ✵   ✵

I went with Riley to his hut. I was already naked, so I just lay down on his bed and waited. But instead of attacking me like Egan had the night before, he gently moved me to one side and, still clothed, lay down beside me.

“You’re okay doing this with me?” he asked.

For an earth-boy this was a really strange question. “Of course I am! I don’t know how much you know about us, but the stereotype of a totally sex-crazed earth-boy is more than a stereotype. It’s really close to the truth. Egan said last night I’d visit every cabin every night if I didn’t need to sleep. Well, you guys need to sleep, but I could totally do that if you wanted me to.”

“Okay. Just thought I’d make sure. Yes, I understand earth-boys will happily have sex with someone even if the other just starts in without even saying ‘hello.’ But humans are expected to get consent.”

“Go for it!” I told him. “I’m more than happy to please you, and I want it too!”

He quickly stripped and got back into bed with me. But instead of treating me like a sex doll, he began with a hug and kisses. He didn’t go full on my lips but he was all over my cheeks and neck. His hands went to my chest and he started massaging it like he might a woman.

I was getting really turned on! I raised my feet and legs to give him access to his goal.

Riley went lower, carefully avoiding my now full erection and balls. Then he was at my rear, prodding it with his fingers and following up with lips and tongue. It seemed he was familiar with earth-boys: our back end is always clean and there’s never a danger of something unpleasant lurking there.

“Alright, I’m going in now,” he said.

He lined up and went in all the way in one smooth motion. I could feel his hairs in my groin. In moments he was gently moving back and forth. I wasn’t sure when was the last time he had sex, but for now he didn’t feel deprived or desperate.

I joined in, directing the sensations from his action to my own penis. It felt exactly like I was inside an earth-boy myself, the phantom amoryn caressing erection the same way Riley was doing me. He started murmuring. I raised my arms high and began touching his upper body with my hands, sliding my palms around where I could reach.

He was really starting to feel it now. His rhythm picked up and the action on my own cock did too. For the next couple of minutes my world was mostly Riley pleasuring my insides and my cock feeling it in kind.

We went at it for several minutes until I felt Riley was ready. Carefully I wrapped my amorial muscles around his member and gently started a barrel-roll motion. It worked wonders, and in seconds he was in the throes of a big orgasm. I was, too, with two days’ collected spunk blowing out all over my chest and stomach.

Carefully I pushed Riley to one side as he settled down on the bed. I didn’t want him on top of me; he was a lot bigger and heavier than I was. Not to mention I was quite messy right now. I would use the warm water in the kitchen to clean up after I left his hut.

“That was good!” said Riley. “I’ll say one thing—having you here has a neat side benefit. Every one of us guys will get some, er, relief at least once a week.”

“More than that if you need it,” I replied, “as long as Egan doesn’t keep adding to my chore list.”

“You were certainly a lucky find. When I asked him and Martin to hire someone to help Savros, I wasn’t expecting him to come back with an earth-boy. I’m happy you agreed to sign up with us.”

I hesitated, wondering if I should tell him the real circumstances of my “recruitment.” I knew Egan well enough to know he’d be furious if he discovered I’d told Riley.

I figured he should know. “Uh, I didn’t sign anything. The story Egan told last night was … a story. He made it up. What really happened was him and Martin grabbed me off the street and shoved me into the truck and drove me here. They threatened to beat me up, and Martin looks like he could do a good job at it.”

It was very dark in the hut, so I couldn’t see Riley’s face. He went quiet for longer than I’d expected him to. When he finally spoke, he sounded uncertain.

“I know Egan has a hard edge to him, but … I’m not sure if I should believe his version or yours. I mean, you’ve adapted really well here. If you were press-ganged like you said you were, why aren’t you yelling and screaming and refusing to work and demanding we send you back?”

“It’s a choice I made on the way here. Yeah, a human would do all that and more, I’m sure. But I’m an earth-boy, not a human. I don’t have a partner or a family or a job to miss me or go back home to. Okay, I was kidnapped, but I figured where I was being taken might actually be interesting. And if you mistreated me I’d simply run away.”

Riley’s answer was more certain now. “Alright, I’ll confront Egan and Martin with your story tomorrow. And if I determine you’re telling the truth, I’ll drive you back to town myself and pay you for the work you’ve done.”

I must have shocked him with my reply. “No, don’t! Please! I’m enjoying it here! I’m living in a forest like I’ve always done, but it’s a neat change from normal grove life. I’m preparing food and helping in the kitchen, which is second nature for us. I like Savros and Jared—they’re nice to me. You and Larry are alright. I think even Martin will come around, especially after the good time I’m planning on giving him tomorrow night.”

“You’re sure about all that? I mean, well, even if you’re willing to stay, it’s illegal just to grab someone off the street and put them to work.”

I thought about that. “Well, we can make it legal by giving me something to sign. Yes, I understand the idea of contracts. I might look like a twelve year old kid, but I’m almost fourteen and at that age earth-boys are as smart and nearly as knowledgeable as a twenty year old human. Even more so thanks to TV and the internet. Practically, I’m almost the same age as Jared, and I’m sure you’re not planning to send him away.”

Another pause while Riley thought it over. “Alright. Tomorrow I’ll ask Egan to see the paper he implied you signed. If he makes an excuse as to why he can’t give it to me, I’ll accept your version of events. Although he could say it’s on file with our lawyer.”

“And he can forge one in a couple of days.” I had a sudden burst of inspiration. “Hey, what’s my name?”

I think Riley understood immediately. “I’ve never heard it!”

“Right! Yesterday when we were doing introductions, I got all your names but I was just ‘the earth-boy.’ I’ve never given it to Egan. Come to think of it, I worked yesterday’s dinner and all day today with Savros, and not even he knows my name. We get along so well that whenever he wants my attention he just touches me or says ‘Hey there’.”

“That’ll be the acid test then. I’ll ask Egan what name he put on the contract. If what you’re saying is true, he’ll either mumble something about not remembering it or more likely will make something up.”

“And he may pay me a visit to get me to tell him. If that happens, I’ll say I’m called Lalnsu. Are you familiar with that?”

“No. Should I be?”

“No, not at all. Lalnsu in our language means earth-boy. Oh! My cell phone has my real name on it. But … its battery was running low when I was grabbed, so it’s probably dead by now. So that’s no use.”

“Actually, it is. I have a phone charger that works with the truck, and we can also charge phones from the solar array.”

“I’ll have to get it back first. Either Egan or Martin have it. They took it from me when I was grabbed.”

“So that’s the first thing we need to do. You’ve probably noticed Egan doesn’t work with the rest of the crew; his job here is to make sure his uncle’s money is being well spent. I’ll send him into town tomorrow for some supplies. I’m giving you permission to search both his and Martin’s huts to find your cell phone. Go through everything if you have to.”

“Search the truck, too,” I suggested. “It might be there.”

“As soon as it’s light enough outside to see. Well, you should go now and get some sleep; you’ll be needed in the morning. I need sleep too, but I also have a lot to think about.”

Comments are welcome at earth-boy-2755@protonmail.com, and constructive criticism as well. As I’ve mentioned before, this story is complete (12 chapters in all.) But as of the date I’ve posted this, I can entertain suggestions as long as they don’t break the established plot or have a serious impact on the remaining chapters.

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Created on 2023 May 2 at 03:24