Tribune Vengeance

TRIBUNE VENGENCE

This is a story about sex between adult males and young males. If that offends you (How you got to this page if you're that kind of person puzzles me) then you know how to leave or you should; the back button, closing the window or your browser, even turning off your device will all work for that purpose. You must be 18+ (21+ in certain locales) to read this legally, if you're not of appropriate age go back now even if it doesn't offend you (my escalating mind powers will enforce this restriction, right?). In certain places having this story and in some really backwards places even reading it is illegal. Be aware of the laws regarding that where you are and act accordingly. This story is my intellectual property and may not be posted in any way or used for anything other than personal reading without my express permission.

Archive;'Tribune Vengence #2'{Mikhail Conrad}( HIST MB BB M^M NC BD SM )[2!3]

OKAY! I'M SORRY! I know I fucked up on the tags on the first chapter. I made a mistake and forgot to change my notepad format. You could just welcome me to the human race and quit trying to make me feel like a moron. It wasn't intentional. I hate when I screw up like that already.

This is a story set in the days of Imperial Rome. I've tried to be accurate, but if you do find any historical mistakes other than literary liscense with the language forgive me and mark it up to fiction. Comments are always welcome: mikhailconrad@yahoo.com

TRIBUNE VENGENCE

Chapter 2

The next day as the sun rose found Garrit naked on his back tied spread eagle on a waist high table somewhere in the depths of Centurion Varrus' villa. He woke groggily as the sun crossed his face through a narrow window. He was stiff and sore everywhere, but those pains were insignificant to the one in his anus. After the Centurion had gotten him to his estate, he had had his slaves wash him thoroughly paying especial attention to the evacuation of his bowels. He was then tied down where he was now on the table. That had been unpleasant enough, but the worst had been the series of incrementally larger olive oil slicked wooden rods that Varrus had used to penetrate him with for hour after hour.

The biggest humiliation had been when the cruel muscle bound officer had begun twisting and manipulating the third pole in his hole and his phallus had erupted its seed spontaneously. Varrus had laughed uproariously and had one of his attending slaves lick the gelatinous deposit off of Garrit's stomach and chest. Then the pain came faster as the man went on to shove all but the two biggest rods up his chute. Garrit's screams went unnoticed, his sobs ignored, and his pleas unanswered. Varrus kept at it until the forester began to whimper and shudder uncontrollably.

"We've made a good start slave," the Centurion told him before he walked out, "Your rectum will be a pleasure hole for any cock in the Legion in no time at all. You'll learn to like it, even to beg for it. You'll grow to need the flow of man seed up your anus as much as you need food."

"See to his bodily needs as you've been taught," Varrus commanded the three attending slaves and left.

He was fed plain oat bread cakes and as much water as he could drink. The slaves saw to his elimination needs with basins and jars, towels and sponges, their precise actions letting him know they had had plenty of practice. Not a one of the three ever uttered a word regardless of anything Garrit said. He had ended up cursing them all as degenerates. They continued their mute ministrations, flooding his chute with water poured through a curved glazed pottery tube placed in his anus over and over. As the night grew late, one of them eased a wrapped bundle of reeds behind his neck as a pillow and they left with their oil lamp, leaving him in the dark to ponder his fate and eventually to fall into a restless sleep.

When he was fully awake the second thing to his aches that he noticed was that his full bladder needed emptying. It was always that way for him upon awakening. His male member was swollen to a half stiffness and he need to urinate.

"Hey!" Garrit yelled into the empty room and got no answer.

"HEY!" he yelled louder, not willing to wet himself if it could be avoided.

"Be quiet please!" a voice hissed from the doorway above his head, "For gods' sakes be quiet before you wake someone."

An older boy in a slave tunic and sandals appeared at his side with a dagger in his right hand. Garrit didn't have long to wonder what was going on before the boy started cutting his bonds, beginning with his left wrist. Before the boy had finished severing the final ties on his right ankle, Garrit was sitting up and rubbing the circulation back into his limbs.

"They'll kill you for this," the forester told him.

"Not if they don't know I was here," the boy replied quietly, "We slipped a large dose of lotus nectar into the evening wine. If no one starts yelling and making loud sounds the whole house should sleep well into mid-day."

"How did a slave come by lotus nectar? Who is we? What are you up to?" Garrit whispered his rapid string of questions.

"No time to explain now," The slave told him in an undertone, "Out the window, I'll be right behind you. It's a two height drop, be sure and roll when you land."

The boy tugged Garrit by the arm to the window ledge. Looking out Garrit could see that a cleared area extended ten paces out from the wall of the villa on this side and then there was a lush full growth of grape vines on tall crossed trellises covering the hillside beyond as far as he could see in the foggy gloom of the breaking dawn. He put his legs over the edge and shoved off. He landed on his bare feet absorbing the impact with bent knees and rolled onto his side to stop his forward momentum. He stood up and brushed the clinging dirt and debris from his bare bruised body.

The slave boy landed right beside him firmly on his feet in a crouch and stood easily. Garrit's look made him smile. He faced the man and indicated a direction into the vineyard. Garrit took a break to face one of the vines and empty his bladder while the slave boy nimbly moved around the trellises checking the surroundings. The forester watched him and was entranced by his graceful maneuvering.

"I trained as a gymnast in Greece from the time I could walk," He explained to Garrit as they made their way up the hill deep into the thickening vines with their half ripened fruit, "My father became overly indebted to a Roman Senator by taking usurious loans and my brother and two sisters were sold into bondage along with me to make recompense. My father was killed supposedly by thieves shortly afterwards before he could redeem us. That's how I became a slave. I was fortunate that Relius came to own me. He has let me continue my training."

"Who in Orcus' burning pits is Relius?" Garrit asked the youth.

The youth gave him a puzzled look, and then smiled at something behind the forester. Garrit spun around and came face to face with another boy, no he was more of a youthful man. A stunned expression came over his face as he realized it was THE boy, Tribune Marius' beautiful son.

"I'm Relius,' the young man said, "Aurelius Albus to be exact. I believe you recognize me now. That's good because we don't have time for you to check out the part I know you'd remember. Good job Belkis. Where are Semses and Carn?"

"They're breaking and burying the nectar jugs in the charnel pit," the slave answered as Garrit finally recognized him as the one that Relius had been fucking when he ran across them at the stream, "They won't be smelling any too pleasant, but we wanted to make sure any evidence wouldn't be found. They can take a quick bath in the river. They'll meet us at the rafts as soon as they can."

"What in Great Mother Juno's name is going on?" Garrit demanded.

"I'll explain the plan as we walk," Relius offered as he handed him a regular commoner's tunic he had been holding in his hands, "I have a pair of sturdy boot sandals for you at the rafts, but I had to run here and I didn't want to encumber myself."

Garrit took the tunic and slipped into it. He then planted his feet firmly apart and put his hands on his hips. His poise was one of stubborn determination. `Relius saw it at once and cut in before Garrit could get a word out.

"We don't have time for this Garrit," he said quickly, "Make a choice now. We can get you back in Verrus' training room if you choose, there's a ladder by the wall close by. There's a store room in there with ropes and other less savory items and we can have you tied back down with no one the wiser in minutes. OR, you can take off on your own. Listen to me! I know Varrus and my father fairly well. They'll have the dogs after you before the sun peaks. They're sure to catch you before nightfall unless you can outrun the dogs and the Legion horses, or swim the river in peak flood. OR, you can be smart and come with us and we'll tell you everything. I like you Garrit and I'm the reason you're in this mess. Let me help you and you help us. We need you as much as you need us right now. We've been planning this for a week. I've been wanting to escape from this cursed place for years. Now choose!"

Relius' Patrician bearing had little effect on Garrit. He had endured too much at the hands of Patricians over the past day to have any respect left for them. The young man's words however did. Relius' offer to join him was the only decent alternative.

"Okay, I'm with you," Garrit decided.

Relius smiled at him warmly and headed off through the vineyard at an angle that would take them to the wild tangled forest on the far side of the fortress from Garrit's cottage and the small village near it. These were thickly wooden copses that Garrit seldom entered. Not only were they populated by roaming bears, but wild boars were rife through it, not to mention that the barbarians across the river came there to make their primitive sylvan sacrifices, burning people alive packed in huge wooden cages.

"Leticia told me you speak the Germanic tongue of the barbarians across the river," Relius informed him.

Leticia was a seamstress in the village that had often had a round of mutual satisfaction with Garrit. Her brother Lerus was a whole lot more fun to have a tumble with though.

"I do," Garrit confirmed "I learned it from my father and his mother, my grandmother before the plague took them and my mother two years ago."

"I'm sorry for you Garrit," Relius said sincerely, "I lost all four of my grands to it too. They were the only decent people in my life besides my slaves."

The Greek slave Belkis patted Relius affectionately on the shoulder. Garrit could clearly see that this young man was nothing like his father. He hadn't found the slightest hint of cruelty in the good looking youth.

"Well it's good you speak the language, perhaps you could teach to me and my slaves," he said as they continued their trek, "Since that's where we're going."

"WHAT?" Garrit yelled stopping in his tracks.

"Quietly Garrit!" Relius admonished him pulling him along to keep going, "There could be vine keepers working out here even this early. The longer we keep our departure a secret the safer we will be."

Indeed the morning fog was starting to lift and before long a large group of workers would be somewhere out in this vast vineyard squashing pests, disposing of varmints, and pruning the dead vines. As quietly as they were moving, the three of them should be able to hear any group approaching before they were discovered. Garrit made a stern note in his head to keep his voice quiet from here on out. He sure didn't want to find himself back in the hands of Centurion Varrus whose property they were still on.

"It's the only way to go Garrit," Relius explained as he picked up the pace, "Every other direction would put us in the hands of Roman authorities and that would mean right back to my father in the end."

"Do you know what they do to Romans across the river?" Garrit asked the youth.

"I do," he answered seriously, "But I've gotten together enough clothing and goods for us to pose as Helvetic traders. There aren't many of them left after the uprising against Vitellius. I've heard that they were always welcomed by the Istævone Germanics. Carn, one of my other slaves is a Helvetii, he remembers the language from his childhood. We can make this work Garrit. We need you to help us survive in the wilderness. You're a forester. Can you do it?"

"I'll need a good bow and a supply of arrows to start. We can make more on our own later. I'll teach you" Garrit told the young man, "We'll need good knives, a cookpot, a fire starter box, rope, water bladders, a good spear, you say you have the clothing, but Roman footwear is a dead giveaway."

"I have all that and much more Garrit," Relius informed him, "The boots and sandals came from a Rus trader, they don't look even remotely Roman. I even have two Egyptian asses to carry our goods. Keep going, I want to know if I've overlooked anything."

"Herbs and medicines?" Garrit asked.

"A fully equipped pack from the Greek healer in the village," Relius answered.

"Salt? Lamp oil and a lamp? Bone needles? Thread?"

"All of that, yes," Relius assured him, "As well as a three cubit leather sack of Egyptian glazed beads for trade. And a fortnight's worth of Legion rations for four, fishing hooks, parchment, ink and quills, anything the four of us could think of."

"Why are you doing this Relius?" Garrit asked, "You could have left me to my fate and lived your life in luxury as an elite Roman noble. Why did you save me?"

"Many reasons Garrit," the young man responded, "I've told you already that I like you. Let's let that be enough for now. You can discover the rest as we come to know one another better."

"He believes in the Greek concept of ethos, logos, and pathos," Belkis said breaking his silence, "His mother's father taught it to him and he and I teach it to the others. It's the reason he's not beating me for talking out of turn. It's the reason he doesn't mistreat us. He has made us, his three slaves, into his friends and companions much to his father's displeasure. Mayhap you would like to learn this ideology. It will give you an inner peace and insight. It will strengthen your mind and your determination. It will lead you to be better and wiser and that is the path to veres which is goodness."

"Enough Belkis," Relius told his slave, "Let Garrit see the philosophia in us before you confuse him. What he experiences, he will be better able to understand. This idea, this concept, Garrit is what enabled us to be able to prepare so thoroughly for our escape and yours. Logos is the way to determine the best course of action. It is the idea of what works best and what is true in what we do. It is the principle of order and knowledge. All we had to do was decide what we wanted to do and then reason out what it would take to do so. The four of us together were able to accomplish that much better than one of us would have alone. And now we have you and your knowledge of the forests, woodworking, and outdoor survival to add to that. Our biggest advantage is that we will out-think my father. He would never try to combine his knowledge with another man's or gods forbid woman's. That to him would show a weakness. I know him. I know exactly what his course will be when Varrus gathers his courage together and his balls draw back up after he finds you gone and goes to report to him. He will call for the dogs. By the time the hounds and hunters have gathered he will have discovered my absence along with my slaves. That will lead him to the idea that I had something to do with your escape. While that will be the true state of things, it will still cause him to waste valuable time in searching the fortress and village for me. By the time he realizes that I have fled, and he will do that by discovering that the chest of gold which my grandfather left me, and which has been the means of our get-away is gone too, we will be well away on the three rafts I have acquired. We will travel a short way down the river, confounding the scent tracking abilities of his war dogs. He will most certainly find where we departed, but by what means and in which direction, he will have no idea. With the river full and sluggish and beset by devilish eddies and backflows, we could have gone upstream or down. He will have to disperse his forces in a futile visual search. He will assume upstream and concentrate his pursuance there since I have made sure to speak often of my desire to visit Rome again every day and night the past week. We have found a secure hidden place to while away the day and afternoon. By night we will cross the river and be away from his malice for good. Never again will he force me to clean the smears of his defecations from his buttocks while he lectures me on how to behave as a military tyrant. Never again will he lash my gonads for failing to match the Hastiliarius on the training grounds. And by gods, never again will he force me to watch Brachus Caltoris perform his fey office of Quaestionarius and wring useless bits of information out of innocent Roman citizens with his vile tortures and nauseating torments while expecting me to delight in it. Never!"

The three of them found themselves out of the vineyard at the edge of the tangled wild forest just as Relius finished telling Garrit about their plan. The forester suddenly had a much deeper understanding of Aurelius Albus, no longer a boy in his mind at all, but a young man that had been put through much more than he could have imagined. This was no growing child, but a determined and virile post-adolescent. He felt secure in the fact that he had chosen the same path as this intelligent decent young man. Something in Relius was inspiring and admirable. He was the Roman that all Romans should strive to be, a true son of Romulus. While Garrit didn't think that he thought of him as an equal, he most certainly thought of him as a worthwhile person. If there were only a handful more like him, then surely the Empire would have no problem conquering the rest of the known world and bringing the knowledge of engineering, economics, and enlightenment to it. How had Tribune Marius Albus produced such a son? The answer to that would take Garrit through some considerable contemplation and he would never arrive at an acceptable answer.

While Garrit was gathering his thoughts, Belkis had been carefully sliding aside a dead thicket of brambles. As the slave tenuously shifted the dense mass of withered growth, a clear but narrow pathway began to appear, carefully concealed by the obstacle. The Greek youth finally had the concealing thorn patch moved aside enough for them to be able to pass through onto the scanty pathway.

"Be very careful Garrit," Relius instructed him, "There are hidden traps set in the trees on either side. They were Carn's idea, thinking to slow our pursuit even more. He's good with traps and snares, his father was a trapper and fur dealer. Then Semses had the bright idea to poison them. He's an Egyptian and they seem to have a penchant for potions, elixirs, salves, and ointments, curative and poisonous. He boiled down hemlock into a tarry goo and then mixed it with rendered bovine fat. Carn carved holes in several heavy oaken branches and set thorns in them. Then Semses brushed them with his concoction. The fat keeps the rains from washing them clean. They are suspended in the trees around us and set to come sweeping down across the path if their triggering vines are disturbed. Turn sideways and sidestep five full regular strides before you touch anything around you. Semses tells me they will cause death by making one unable to breathe in a matter of minutes. Follow me. Belkis will be right behind us and catch up quickly after he has replaced the brambles. We practiced this many times before I allowed Semses to apply the poison. Did you find a marking Belkis?"

"No Relius," he answered, "They haven't been through here. They were planning on using the bladders to swim down anyway."

Relius stepped into the opening and turned sideways and began to sidestep his way down the constricted trail taking care to not disturb anything in passing. A gentle breeze moved through the trees and caused Garrit to start sweating profusely. What if the wind shifted a dead limb and set off the trap? Garrit had a real hatred and fear of poisons. He had seen the Sagittarii, the archers of the Legion, use poisoned arrows to bring down a rogue bear once. The excruciating way the animal died was ghastly.

Relius reached the point of safety and motioned to Garrit to join him. The forester took a deep breath and began his traverse of the pathway. He was a good bit larger than Relius and had to move through with more care, but he made the short distance without incident. He looked back through the gloom that now surrounded him in the overgrowth and saw Belkis at the entrance meticulously moving the thorny bramble heap back into place.

"Come on Garrit," Relius urged him, "It's not far, just a couple of stadia or so. Belkis will be along, don't worry about him, he's the most agile person I know and as graceful as a cat."

The long blonde haired forester followed after the young Patrician and pondered his words. He had never heard any Roman tell someone not to worry about a slave. The slave owners he knew would never have considered that anyone would be the least concerned in the first place. This young Roman noble thought of Belkis as a friend and then as a slave somewhere lower on his list of identification. He was anxious to see if the same standard applied to the other two slaves as well.

They came to the end of the path and entered what appeared to be a clearing at first, surrounded by huge white oak and black alder trees that had their intermingled branches entwined with thick hanging ivies and creepers that almost blocked the new day sunlight completely. Upon closer inspection, Garrit saw that what he had at first mistaken for a clearing was in fact an oblong area of water that opened into the Rhenus River through a thick curtain of trailing vinery. The place probably couldn't be seen without careful observation from the river. The forester had seen similar pond-like pools before. Sometime in the past, a huge aged tree, most likely an oak, had stood here, eddies from the river had eaten away at the soil under its roots on the water side and it finally had fallen into the waters during a storm flood and been carried away down the ever-flowing river. Backwashes in floods over the years had formed this pool. It was probably only a dozen feet deep at the most and full of fish hungrily seeking to feed on the fry that found it a safe haven from the flowing turbulence of the main river, and a feeding ground for the fingerlings too, with an endless supply of insects landing on the surface every minute. The area was amazingly free of mosquitoes. Garrit took a deep breath through his nose and caught the scent of charred cedar. Someone had taken the time to smoke out this entire eddy pool area, making it more amenable for people.

He caught movement in his peripheral vision and turned to it to see Relius skirting the narrow mossy edge of the pool headed for the other side where he had detected motion. He followed and soon got close enough to make out the shapes of two light grey jackasses. In front of them were three large rectangular rafts pulled up to rest on the shoreline that was wider on this side, having been cleared of undergrowth. Bags, packs, and sacks of supplies were tied securely to a standing post in the middle of each raft that was obviously the center structure of the crude vessel's frame. The timbers that were lashed together with carefully interwoven ropes were tarred keep them buoyant. Garrit recognized the Gallic styling of the craft. Relius stepped onto the first one, rummaged through a large bag, and removed something from it. He tossed whatever it was at Garrit and the forester caught it deftly, wincing as his reflexes aggravated his bruised body. It was a pair of boot sandals crafted in the manner of the barbarian sea traders to the far northeast.

"My thanks Patrician," Garrit told him trying to be respectful for all that the young man had done for him today, "And not just for the foot gear."

"None of that anymore Garrit," Relius said to him as Belkis entered the area from the almost impossible to see pathway opening, "Come on around to us Belkis. You're going to have to adhere to this too."

When the young Greek slave had joined them, Relius gave them some instruction.

"I can longer be called Relius," he said, "Or Aurelius, or even Alba. Those names are undeniably Roman, and while I'm neither ashamed nor embarrassed by them in spite of my father, they will get us all killed where we're going. From now on you must refer to me as Rels, a simple Helvetic trader from the high Alps to the east. Belkis, your name, and yours to Garrit, will be fine. No people carry any ill will toward Greek slaves, gods know there are enough of them, and Garrit is a Germanic sounding name anyway."

"It is Germanic," the blonde forester told them, "More correctly Istævonic. It's also the name of the language you've asked me to teach you. My name was my father's mother's father's name, my great grandsire. He was from the Usipetes tribe which I was told is far down the Rhenus. If I can, I would like to ask that we consider that for our final destination if we can find them, we might be safer with them. From what I learned from my grandmother, the clans are very family oriented. It has some proof in the language itself. There are specific words for even distant relationships, like third cousins. The language delineates them into matrilineal and patrilineal names. They might find a place for a distant relative that is fleeing the ire of the Romans and for his companions who have helped him."

"You are even more learned that I thought Garrit," Relius told him with a friendly smile, "And your suggestion has more than repaid the risk we took to save you which we would have attempted in any case. We'll make that the final goal of our plan. We will aim for getting you to your ancestral people and hope that they will receive us in friendship. What say you Belkis?"

"Anywhere away from father's reach is acceptable," the Greek replied, "If he catches us now, you'll be impaled in the courtyard and we'll all suffer crucifixion along the road to the gate. We'll have to find some way past the IV Macedonica. They're said to be patrolling on both sides of the river now since raids from the Mattiaci have increased. Tribune Brucellus is even worse than your father I've heard the Primus Pilus say and the two of them are in a struggle to be made the next Dux over the Rhenus Legions. He'd love to get his hands on you. Ibli came from his household Slaves you know, he's one of your mother's domestici. Not only was he emasculated to keep him girlish and high voiced, but his anus was pierced with two rings on either side so it could be parted easily for a fast entry."

"That's horrid!" Garrit responded with his face paling.

"That's the pleasure slave world you barely escaped," Belkis told him.

"Enough," Relius said, "We can make plans for bypassing the Fourth after we've landed on the far shore and concealed ourselves. Where are Carn and Semses? We need to be away from here. Belkis go ahead and attach the water yokes to the larger raft and get the animals in them. Garrit, help me get the other two in the water. Then we can leave quickly when they arrive.

Just as Relius and Garrit were pushing the second raft in the pond, Centurion Varrus was notified of the escape of the new slave Garrit. He flew into an insane rage and beat two of his more subservient slaves bloody and into unconsciousness. The first for being the bearer of the news and the second for just being there. As he recovered from his tantrum he felt an icy shiver of fear crawl up his spine. The Tribune was not going to be happy. He wondered if he'd live long past the report he knew he was going to have to make. And he was going to have to make it soon. He grabbed a decanter of wine from his side table and took a long drought from it. It had a delicate floral flavor to it. He made a note to himself to learn the exact pressing of this one from his head vintner. He'd have to put several casks of it back for special occasions. When he discovered the exact reason for the enticing taste later that day from the Medicos who examined him for inexplicably dozing off in the saddle, he would fly into another tirade. This was not going to be one of Varrus' better days.

Relius was pacing the shoreline of the pool in anxious concern when he heard the sounds of splashing water at the vine covered entrance. He looked over and saw his two missing slaves coming into the back eddy with one of them struggling in the water and the other one helping by pulling on the bladder belted around his waist. Belkis shed his tunic and dove in to lend his assistance. Garrit stripped and followed him. Relius didn't join them, he knew his weak swimming skill would be more of a hindrance than a help. What he did do was jump over on the raft nearest them and hold a pole out to pull them aboard. As they all clambered onto the raft, Relius went to the foundering swimmer and helped him to sit up.

"What's wrong Semses?" he asked the slave, "Why are you so late?

"Never mind Relius," the slim Egyptian answered, "We must go now. A trireme could get here at any time. There were four at the dock when we passed by them an hour ago."

"Was the alarm out?" the handsome Roman asked.

"Not that we heard," the other slave answered standing up and jumping across to the large raft and reaching for one of the sacks in its center.

"Never mind clothing right now Carn," Relius ordered, "Let's get out of here. You can take the time to dress when we get to the cave. You'll have to handle the big raft with the asses. Semses is hurting."

Belkis leaped onto the unmanned raft and picked up the pole on it pushed off.

"Stay there and pole the raft out Garrit while Relius attends to Semses," the Greek slave told him as he slid past.

"RELS!" Relius reminded his slave.

"His blisters ruptured under the bandages while we were swimming," Carn told us as he switched the beasts that were attached to the larger raft on each side by some kind of modified yoke.

As the bigger platform went into deeper water being carried by the asses, Garrit saw that the yokes supported them in the water and yet allowed them to churn their legs and propel the raft forward. Belkis' raft came to the overhanging growth, he leapt up and swung up into the vines and over to a large tree branch above where the rafts had been. Garrit noticed that there were several large urns on the wide branch that he hadn't seen before. The Greek upended them one by one sending a cascade of water out of each one that splashed and obliterated all signs of the raft launching. He then tossed the urns into the deepest part of the pool where they sank out of sight.

"Ready?" he called down to the others just as Carn's raft bumped into the lead one that Belkis had left.

"Go!" Relius urged him.

The agile slave jumped back across and caught a vine as he dove through the air over the water. He switch to another hanging creeper with his other hand and it took him over the lead raft. He let go and dropped right onto the back end on both feet, picked up the rafting pole, and pushed out into the main stream of the Rhenus. Carn switched the yoked asses once more each, and picked up his own pole and followed. That left Garrit who drove his long pole into the bottom and gave a mighty shove even though it made him wince in pain from the abuse he had suffered the previous day and night, propelling the raft he was on with Relius and his slave Semses through the trailing vines and out onto the river.

Just as they came out into the full light of day, horns sounded in the distance. Garrit turned to look behind them as did Belkis and Carn. They saw nothing but the river and the forested shore behind them.

"They're still a long ways off," Relius told Garrit as he was unwinding the wet wraps from Semses left arm, "Sound travels a long way over the water. Pick up the paddle and follow Carn. The current will take us right where we want to go fairly fast."

"What happened to him?" Garrit asked nodding at Semses.

"They made me tell forester," the lithe Egyptian that had delighted in sucking on the big head of his cock responded, "I tried to keep it in, but the pain was too great. Forgive me!"

"My father had him tortured for information about you Garrit," Relius explained quietly.

"The Tribune told me that he just questioned them," the blonde man said.

"My father is a liar Garrit," the young man responded, "I was concealed behind the draperies in back of the audience platform. I heard everything that was said and done to you. Would you like to know the truth?"

"Yes Rels, please," the forester answered and gave a few quick strokes with the paddle to keep up with the raft in front of him.

"You're smart Garrit. I'm glad you're with us," Relius said and pulled a case that was on their raft toward him, "They caught Semses as he was going to the latrine. By they, I mean Brachus Caltoris' personal contingent of legionnaires. They hauled him to the chamber of the Quaestionarius. Brachus had him tied to the iron box and they tortured him. They put red hot burning embers to his palm, wrist, and inner elbow and let them sear and sizzle into his flesh. Would you have held firm under that? He did, until the third hot coal."

"I hold no ill will to you Semses," Garrit said and set down the paddle to let them drift along behind the other rafts.

He went over to the Roman who was ministering to his slave and took the sweating Egyptian in his arms and held him close while Relius smoothed some salve from a jar on his hideous oozing wounds. Garrit well remembered the agony that Varrus had put him through on the cold hard floor of the audience hall and he had broken. His anus gave an aching throb as he recalled the previous day's torment. He had nothing but respect and compassion for this slender sinewy man-boy that had made his best attempt to protect his master as well as him.

"I'll paddle if you'll stay here with him Garrit," Relius said smiling at him as he finished rewrapping the slave's arm with fresh bandages and shut the case, "He seems to like the attention you're giving him. Chew this Semses."

The young Patrician handed his slave a sliver of dried willow bark. The boy made a grimace, but took it, put it in his mouth, and began to chew. Garrit knew it tasted little better than skunk water, but it would eventually abate his fever and ease his pain.

"You have very light skin for an Egyptian," Garrit said as he carefully leaned the youth back in his arms to a more restful position, "Are you one of the Greek-Egyptians like the Ptolemy's?"

"No citizen," he answered seriously, "My mother was an Egyptian slave in a house of harlots. She told me my father was a mariner. She thought he was a Gaul. She didn't know his name."

"Well that explains your lighter skin, but you still have your mother's dark brown mysterious almond shaped eyes," Garrit said as he ran his fingers through the slaves inky black, neck length, straight, wet hair, separating the strands, "And no more of the citizen title. And Semses, you must get in the habit of calling your master Rels. Roman words and behaviors could be dangerous for us where we are going."

"I know, we've talked about it every night," the Egyptian responded, "I'm sorry I betrayed you."

"You didn't betray me Semses," Garrit told him, "You're here aren't you? You risked yourself to help me escape didn't you? That's not betrayal. That's friendship. I hope you'll let me be your friend."

"I will, I really will," the boy said smiling up at him, "Do you remember the day at the stream when I beckoned you over to us?"

"Oh yes, I most certainly do."

"I wanted to be your friend then," Semses told him, "You were so strong and virile looking, and with such beautiful golden hair. You reminded me of one of the gilded statues of the ancient Minoans that Caesar Augustus placed in the Forum in Rome."

Garrit laughed, leaned over, and kissed the provocative slender youth on his damp forehead.

"Garrit?" the boy queried him, "Can I ask you something without incurring your ire?"

"I don't think that you could ask me anything that would rile me," the forester told him, "Go ahead and ask."

"Would you fuck me?" the youth asked him directly gazing into his eyes, "Like you did Reli... Rels. I'll be good for you. I promise. The others all say I'm good. Would you?"

"Semses!" Relius chided his slave, "I'm sorry Garrit. He has no humility. Be careful of him he's insatiable. Don't be fooled by his boyish looks and innocent eyes. He's almost two years older than me. He's had more experience than all the rest of us combined, probably including you even if what my father said about your libido is true. Sometimes I think that he is the god Pan taking the form of an Egyptian slave. He even plays the reed pipes."

"Should I be contrite and humble with the skills and gifts the gods have granted me master?" Semses asked.

"Oh that's right Garrit," Relius said laughing as continued to paddle closely behind Carn on the bigger raft who was grinning ear to ear listening to every word, "I forgot to mention conniving."

"I don't mean to take him from you master or to come between you," the Egyptian said making Garrit take on a look of utter surprise as Carn now laughed out loud.

"He's not mine to take or give," Relius said becoming somewhat thoughtful, "We're barely traveling companions yet Semses. He's a free man like you will be someday soon. Do as you choose with him as long as he's willing. Maybe some of his fierce independence will ease the bonds of slavery in your mind. Learn from him if nothing else. If he does deign to take you like you asked, enjoy it. I know I did."

Garrit's mind spun around in a circle of puzzlement, delight, apprehension, amusement, lust, and manly bravado. He had never known a slave to talk to their master and behave like this. Nor had he ever known owners to carry on so with their slaves. But then, he had never known anyone quite like Aurelius Alba and his three sexy slaves. On impulse, he bent to Semses ear.

"When we find a proper place, and when you are recovered well enough from your injuries, we'll share our bodies in ecstasy and you can have what you asked Semses," he whispered in the not so much a boy as he thought young man's ear.

The erotic svelte Egyptian smiled at Garrit and snuggled closer against his naked body. The way things had gone, Garrit had completely forgotten they every one of them was without clothing except Relius barring his and Belkis' sandal boots. Garrit looked around and noticed that even though it was still well before mid-day that it was pleasantly warm and mild.

"NEXT BEND!" they heard Belkis call out from the lead raft.

Carn and Relius joined the Greek in paddling strenuously, drawing the rafts back toward the left bank. The forested growth was even wilder and thicker than the tangle they had departed from at the eddy pool. Garrit looked ahead to see a huge mass of stone jutting out into a bend in the river they were headed toward. It was a small mountainous outcropping of dark gray stone with streaks of dark rusty brown striping it at an angle that followed the contours of the upper edge descending at thirty-five degrees and merging back into the forest about a half mile from the river. The cliff face came racing toward them looming larger and larger. Suddenly the rafts slowed and Carn was going back and forth from beast to beast, calming them from their panic of being driven at the rock wall that now towered before them. They had used the current's momentum and some deft paddling to propel the rafts into the calm placid waters in the lee of the outcropping.

Garrit loosened his hold on Semses, he noticed now that he had been clutching the young man frantically as the perpendicular size of the rock face above them had created an illusion of impended collision. As the rafts drifted closer toward the cliff, he noticed slabs of immense size that had sheared off the facing to land in the river below it. They stuck up around the base extending at haphazard angles out of the water. Splash after splash sounded from the rocks as hundreds of turtles hurled themselves into the river, panicked by the approach of the men on their rafts. Garrit wondered which bag, sack, or pack held the net. Turtle made for some really fine eating.

He gently sat the Egyptian up and stood up behind him to get a better view. Semses gave Garrit's bare leg a caress as he got to his feet. The blonde reached down and tousled the young man's now dry hair and raked his fingers through it smoothing it down to lie straight and ebony shiny around his face. He walked to the front of the raft and stood by Relius who continued to slowly paddle the raft from his knees. He, Carn, and Belkis kept the rafts well back from the rocks and cut a shallow angle toward the place where the forest came up to the base of the outcropping. The jackasses yoked to the central raft were calm now and their legs could be seen casually moving freely in the still clear river water below the cliff.

"You're a good man Garrit," Relius said pausing in his slow paddling to give the forester's thigh a firm reassuring squeeze.

"You think so?" the blonde forester asked, "Even after I brutally buggered your tight hole without a hello or even a thank you afterwards. Your father sure doesn't think so."

"That wasn't brutal, savage and rough most assuredly, but not brutal," the young man said and gave a twist of his paddle in the water to bring us around facing the Cliffside, "I like a little savage roughness sometimes Garrit. And I think we both know what brutal really is don't we?"

"Yes we do Rels, we definitely do."

"And let me tell you something else about the great Tribune Marius Alba," Relius continued, "He gets a deep vile thrill from attractive Germanic looking men getting worked over BRUTALLY by his soldiers. So even if he didn't have me as an excuse, he would have taken note of you eventually. He gets an insane fulfillment out of seeing men like you fucked and cock-slimed until they're a bleeding whimpering mass of useless flesh. He's made me watch it with Centurion Varrus as the directing lead many times. And when the victim is used up and can no longer gather the strength to make the slightest noise of resistance or protest, he gives them to Brachus to play with. That can sometimes lead to days of hellish agony. I've had to endure those spectacles more times than I care to remember. I wish Semses could brew me a concoction that would take all those horrid visions from my mind. If I dwell on it too long my stomach begins to heave. How can anyone be that way? Moreover, how can anyone enjoy being that way?"

"You're asking the wrong man Rels," Garrit responded and gave the young Roman a squeeze on the back of his neck in sympathy and as a show of support, "It is as foreign to me as the far off land of the Kush."

They slowed and gently nudged into the raft that Carn was directing. The two jackasses in their yoke harness shied slightly and Carn went to each one and gave it an apple that he produce from a nearby sack. That seemed to settle them down. Relius cocked his head and looked back upriver.

"Belkis is raising the branches now," the curly haired slave told them as he continued to soothe one of the beasts, "Are you sure we should take the animals in separately?"

"They'll be fine Carn," Relius told him, "The entrance is sufficiently wide enough and the river hasn't risen past the level that it was when we came down here the other day. I just hope that we get inside before one of the triremes comes upon us. We're behind schedule and I just heard another horn sound. The bend in the river would have muffled it beyond hearing unless it was fairly close. Every one keep your voices down and be ready to move ahead fast."

Garrit watched as the tree branches that hung in front of the lead raft almost to the surface of the water jerkily started to rise. He could see the Greek slave struggling to haul on a rope and figured out what he was doing. He took one look at Relius who appeared ever more anxious.

"I think he could use some help," he said to the young Roman and took a step back and then ran forward two to the edge of the raft and made an easy leap to the next one joining Carn.

"Watch yourself," the Helvetian slave told him, "Those branches have poisoned thorns in them."

"Like the ones at the path entrance?" Garrit asked him pausing before he went on to the lead raft.

"Just so," Carn answered.

Garrit crossed the larger middle raft and looked at Belkis who was using the center support post of his raft to belay a fairly thick rope that ascended into the overhanging branches. There was a gap of three paces between the floating craft. He went to the right corner and made an easy jump over the short distance well away from any of the branches and limbs that continued to slowly lift upward as Belkis hauled on the rope. He joined him and the Greek slave gave him a smile of thanks. Between the two of them, they had the overhanging growth well up and clear enough for even the large raft to pass through easily. Belkis took the gathered rope and ran it through an iron ring that Garrit had failed to notice. It was set firmly in the rock of the great stone outcropping that Belkis had directed his raft next to. It amazed the forester how carefully and well executed the group's planning was. The fates had surely smiled on him after giving him a bad run first.

After the Greek boy had fastened the rope that held up the branches, he picked up his rafting pole and poled it forward under the raised canopy. What greeted Garrit's sight as they entered under the trees was totally unexpected. He saw a wide stretch of water lapping against the cliff face that stretched along by it many paces wide. Giant oaks grew thickly along it and their branches grew all the way over the backwater right up to the face of the cliff. Two stone's throws up the channel a dark opening loomed at the base of the great rock structure. It wasn't very high, but it was wide, wider than all three of the rafts side by side. Belkis poled them directly toward it.

"You'll have to get down on your knees and probably then you'll need to crouch," the young slave told him, "I'm going to give us a big shove and we should coast right through. We can pull the raft along using the roof of the cave if we stall."

Garrit got down on his knees as the slave did just that. He quickly joined the blonde forester as the raft came up to the dark dank opening and slid over the water right into the darkness. The reason for the short center posts on the rafts became apparent as the one on this one barely cleared the rock ceiling. Garrit could tell by the sound of his breathing when the overhanging roof rose away from them. He could still see by the light that came through the cavern entrance and by the echoes coming from water splashing freely and gently lapping on something ahead of them, he could tell this place was vast. Belkis stood up and poled the raft forward into the darkness. Carn's raft appeared in the opening behind them and the shafts of sun coming through the branches glinted off his naked body and curly brown hair until he too passed under into the cavern.

"Relius and Semses will be along after him," the Greek told Garrit, "Someone has to swim back and let the rope loose. It would end up being Relius, he's the worst swimmer among us."

"It's Rels from now on Belkis. Get in the habit," he told the youth, "I'm going back to help."

Garrit didn't hesitate to dive off the raft and swam strongly back toward the entrance. He passed Carn just as he stood to pole his raft forward after Belkis. The naked slave just watched him as he took strong overhand strokes and left the cave. Garrit didn't swim all the way back down the inlet. He pulled himself out of the water on the far side and ran skirting the huge trees back to where he could see Semses sitting on the raft holding the pole out toward the cliff face where Belkis had tied off the rope.

The Egyptian turned his head with a panicked look as he heard the splash of water when Garrit dove in to swim to the raft. The forester dove under and came up on the other side of the platform and saw Relius struggling to keep himself afloat and untie the rope. Semses tried to help him by planting the rafting pole against the side of the rock to give him something to hold onto. It didn't work at all. Every time he would get the pole secured against the rock, the force of pushing against it would send the raft drifting back and the pole would fall loose.

"Let me do this Rels," Garrit said as he swam up to the Roman Patrician, "Get back on the raft and I'll join you soon enough."

The young man gave him a look of relief and grabbed onto the pole to let his slave pull him back aboard.

"Don't just let it lose all at once Garrit," he said as he held onto the edge of the raft before climbing on it, "The branches will come swinging down and might hit you. Let it out easy. Remember what Carn told you."

The forester shivered, not from being wet, it wasn't cold, but from the idea of the poison he had to avoid. He treaded water with just his legs and slowly released the loop knot that held the rope. He let his full weight hold the rope taut and slowly let it out. When there was no more tension in it he carefully looped it over an available limb to conceal it. Through the overhanging leaves, he caught sight of something red and moving on the river as it came into sight around the wide bend. It was a Roman trireme traveling fast under full oars and sail. He watched for just a second as the craft headed in his general direction. He doubted he had been seen. He couldn't make out figures at this distance, but that didn't mean that someone on board didn't have one of those Egyptian far seeing tubes. He swam back to the raft and climbed on it quickly.

"There's a trireme headed this way fast." He informed other two, "We need to hurry."

Relius wasted no time in shoving the pole against the bank and sending them on their way. Just as they got down to pass under the cavern opening a horn sounded. It was close, probably only a few stadia away out on the river.

"We have a long log covered in brush to conceal the cave entrance," Relius told him, "Do you think it will be safe to put it in place, or should we just stay put and be quiet."

"I think we should hide ourselves as best we can," Garrit answered and then pointed out, "I don't think they'll land. We didn't leave any easily noticeable sign of our passage. They're most likely just looking for some disturbance of where you might have left the river. Does anyone have reason to suspect that you have this hiding place or know of this cave?"

"No," Relius answered standing up to pole them forward, "My grandsire told me of it. He found it by accident when he was out hunting boar many years ago before my birth. My father never listened to a word he said. It took us almost four months to rediscover it two years ago. I didn't know how useful it would become then. We were just boys out looking for an adventure. We were all beaten soundly for taking off so far from the fort when we got home. We never said a word to anyone about what we had found. There were no signs of anyone ever having been here when we first explored it or since."

A light suddenly blossomed far in front of them. Two tiny figures could be seen off in the distance. Sparkles of shiny crystals twinkled off the great height of the cavern ceiling and its walls. The immensity of it was mind numbing. The entire fortress of the Twenty-second could have been put in here four of five times over. Behind the light, the cave came together to a cleft that had a stream running down through it. As they came closer, Garrit could see Belkis and Carn using the two asses to haul both rafts up on pebble sand stretch several strides wide that stood along the small stream on its right as he looked at it. To the left of the stream were gleaming creamy pillars that tapered to a point. The same formations hung from the roof over them in reverse. It looked like some kind of place out of the tales that his mother had told him when he was a small child. It was all strange and mystical.

They soon had the third raft pulled up on the dry spit alongside the others. Semses got two plain tunics out of a pack and handed one to Garrit, while the rest of them unloaded the rafts. They slipped the garments on and Garrit notice that Carn and Belkis had already clothed themselves.

"I know it seems foolish to unload all this, but we need you to go through it and sort out what you think we should take with us," Relius told Garrit, "The rest of it we can just leave behind. We need to unload one raft anyway so Belkis and Carn can tow the log to the entrance and secure it there. We pounded three hooks into the ceiling there to rope it in place. They'll need the raft to have a place to sit to tie the ropes in place."

When the two slaves had taken off with the big long brush encrusted log in tow, Garrit sat down next to a huge pile of firewood by Semses and Relius. Further back was a pile of hay rushes and the jackasses were there contentedly eating. He looked at the Egyptian who appeared to be better now. Relius had him chewing another piece of dried willow bark.

"Why can't we stay here for a while?" he asked them, "Your father can't keep the Legion out looking for us forever. If he makes a show of force out here too long the Chatti across the river will start to swarm the banks thinking that the Romans are coming for them. It would cause a war that the Legion can ill afford with the Mattiaci making their raids not too far downstream. It might even cause the two tribes to make an alliance."

"Would they?" Semses asked.

"They have before," Relius informed him, "And here we'd be right in the middle of it."

"Would your father push things that far?" Garrit asked.

"Not here," he answered after a pause, "Maybe upstream with the Vangiones, but Tribune Brucellus is in charge of the Fourth Macedonica whose fortress isn't much further down river than the Twenty-second's is up from us here. He would use the situation to discredit my father with the Emperor in Rome and my father knows it. No, you're right Garrit, we can take some time here. Semses can rest and recover, letting his wounds heal while we finalize our plans and debate the best course. We have oiled parchment campaign maps. I stole them last night."

"Is the water in the stream drinkable?" Garrit asked.

"The best you've ever tasted," Relius answered, "And in the middle of the day, the fishing in here is unbelievable. I think they swim in here to escape the sun. Most of this lake in here is no more than waist deep, though there is a fairly deep trench right down the middle leading from where the stream empties into it here. Don't bathe in the stream. It's icy cold. Use the lake and we'll have to arrange a privy."

"Spoken like a true Pilus Prior," Garrit said with a laugh that echoed ominously.

"Shhh!" Relius admonished him, "There's no telling how far our sounds will carry outside the cavern. And my Legion training has been useful to us more than once already."

"No offense was intended Rels," Garrit said, "It's just amusing that we're relying on Roman know-how while at the same time we're fleeing them like the plague."

"It's not the know-how we're fleeing. We'll take that with us. It's the who-we-know that we're running from."

Garrit smiled at him and once again noticed how handsome the young man was. As a matter of fact all four of his companions were high on the attractive scale. At least the one he used. He wondered if they all were as sexual forward as Semses. By his experience with them at the stream near his cottage he tended to believe it. He found himself thinking about how he could start something like that here since they were going to make it their camp for at least a few days.

Carn and Belkis came up out of the darkness with each one poling a side of the raft. Garrit noticed that he could no longer see the slash of light that indicated where the cave entrance was. The two of them had done a good job. As soon as they had the raft drawn up out of the water, Relius told them of the plan to stay put for a while. Both of them looked relieved. It had been a very stressful day and a chance to rest and relax in a safe haven appealed to all of them. Carn got a fire started with minimal effort and Belkis started going through the supplies getting out an iron pot and several utensils with the foods he chose to prepare. Semses took one of the poles, attached a fishing line and hook, and set off over to the weirdly melted looking upright tapering columns to try his luck in the water away from the small sounds being made. Relius threw out a woolen blanket from the supplies across the ground on the other side of the fire and laid down to take a nap.

"He's been awake for the last two nights," Carn told Garrit coming over to join him, "Ever since he heard his father telling his mother what she had to do to you and how to go about it. You know we all talked a lot about you after last week. You made an impression on all of us, especially Semses."

"So it seems," Garrit replied with a quiet laugh and looked over to where the Egyptian slave was baiting his hook at the far reaches of the campfire light sitting on what appeared to be one of the pillar things that had melted into the shape of a wide stool, "Not so much with you then?"

"I'm not as gushy as Semses, but yes forester, I find you very well put together and your performance with Reliu... that is Rels, made me uh..., well...," Carn stammered and started to blush.

"You're definitely not as forward as your Egyptian friend," Garrit said smiling at the cute slave boy's embarrassment.

"We all find you very pleasing to the eye Garrit," Belkis said coming up behind him and kneeling to massage his neck, "Do you find us desirable?"

The blonde man let out a moan of pleasure as the Greek slave gently started rubbing the soreness from his abused body. Carn scooted over, took his feet, and removed his sandals so he could rub on them. Garrit let the two slaves caress and massage him. It felt just too relaxing and good to resist. When Belkis began to remove the tunic Garrit had just put on, he started to object, but seeing Carn slip his off made him give in to it. Belkis followed suit and all three of them were naked with semi-erections as the slaves started back in on the ministrations to his body. He just laid back and enjoyed it as his member stiffened into a fully harden shaft. While Carn carefully worked the kinks from his inner thighs, Belkis went over to the pack Relius had opened earlier and came back with a fairly large blanket that he spread out on the ground beside them. All three of them moved onto it and the massage continued.

So far no one had touched his or their own rigid shafts. Then Belkis bent over and took Garrit's into his warm mouth and began to engulf it, taking more and more of the forester's thick long pleasure tool into the warm wetness of his mouth and throat. Carn joined him in Garrit's lap and began teasing the blonde's scrotum with licks, nibbles, and kisses. The blonde man was so caught up in the attention that he jerked in surprise when Relius leaned over to kiss his lips. He noticed that the young Roman had discarded his own attire too.

Just when the forester felt the approaching tingle of his impending climax, Belkis let the man's throbbing implement slide out his throat and off his tongue. Garrit groaned in frustration. The Greek youth got up and went back to his meal preparations.

"Don't be so impatient," Relius whispered in his ear and scooted his lap under the man to cradle his head against his own turgid member, "We have plenty of time and all four of us have looked forward to this moment for the better part of the week."

"You planned this too?" Garrit asked trying to think while Carn kept sucking on his gonads.

"No, how could we? The eros within pathos defies logos," the young man said cryptically, "We did expect that something like this might happen though. You gave us reason to last week remember? We all find you very attractive and erotic Garrit. Is that so offensive?"

"Would you have us leave you be?" Carn asked as he left off on his teasing of the man's scrotum and its hefty contents.

The Helvetic slave slithered up his body to come to rest with his head alongside Garrit's. He stuck his tongue out and began licking Relius' erect phallus that stuck up by the blonde man's cheek. Garrit gave his answer by turning his head and joining the slave in mouthing the Roman's tool. Relius smiled and let out a sigh of satisfaction.

"Will you fuck me now?" Semses asked unexpectedly walking up to them with a string of six large catfish in hand.

"No he won't," Relius answered as he extricated himself from the oral activity and helped Carn and Garrit to sit up, "Nor will anyone else until you're better. You must conserve your strength for healing."

"But...," the Egyptian started.

"I understand your frustration Semses," his Roman master interrupted, "But it's necessary. I'll pleasure you with my own mouth if you'll promise to lie back and not exert yourself."

The slave's eyes lit up and he readily agreed.

"That was easier than I would have expected," Garrit said to Carn as he casually stroked his hardened member.

"You haven't experienced Rels' mouth yet have you Garrit?" the curly haired youth asked in response.

"Come on everyone," Relius implored them, "We have fish to clean. Semses, you caught them so you can relax while we do the rest. Carn, get the smoking rack assembled. I think three of these beauties will feed us all quite sufficiently along with whatever Belkis is cooking. We'll save the rest for later."

"Red lentil soup with basil," the Greek slave informed them as he stirred the iron pot, "I can't make the delicacies that Semses can, but I think it'll be okay. And we have can roast the fish we'll be eating by the coals wrapped in some of those leaves left behind from the camouflage log."

In spite of their sexual play, the four of them got to work on helping with the meal. They were all hungry and the smell of the herbal legumes motivated them more than their yearning libidos. Soon they were all sitting down with wooden bowls of the lentils topped by nice helpings of fresh roasted fish.

I can catch more fish easily if you want to clean and smoke them Carn," Semses said as they licked the last of their soup from the bowls, "I can fish can't I master?"

"Yes," Relius answered, "I think fishing is a casual enough activity so long as you favor your bad arm. We'll make you a sling out of one of the tunics. We won't be needing them when we cross to the other side. Everything that indicates a Roman must be left behind."

With that said, they were off on a discussion of their plans. After much debate, they decided to stay in the cave for another week. At that time, Garrit and Carn, being the most woods wise among them, would make a careful scouting foray to access the situation. In the meantime they would stick to their hidden refuge.

"Now that we've decided, would everyone like to return to our play?" Relius asked standing to stretch and thrusting his crotch forward lewdly, "I think the cleanup can wait and the fish need to sit on the rack for a long while longer. That should give us plenty of time."

Garrit looked around at the others and found every eye centered on him. He realized that Relius' question was aimed at him. The three slaves all looked eager and willing. The looks they gave him made his phallus begin to swell and he stood up and went over to the young Roman.

"I accept your offer gladly," he said and took the young man's hand and led him back to the blanket still spread out by the stream.

The three slaves were quick to follow and they all found themselves on the ground starting on their final course. It was far superior to any regular dessert. Relius had Semses lying on his back and got between his legs on his knees and started tonguing the Egyptian's inwardly curving six inch erect rod. Somewhere before eating, the raven haired slave had divested himself of his tunic to be bare like the rest of them. Carn wasted no time in putting his face between his master's buttock cheeks and applying his tongue to the handsome Roman's upraised puckering hole. Belkis looked at Garrit and smiled. He then leaned over and went back to work swallowing the forester's large swelling phallus. Garrit, not willing to just lay back and be done, wormed his way under Carn and came face to shaft with the Helvetian's hanging organ.

Garrit took the slave's testes in hand and sucked the hardening tool into his mouth. He let his mind go blank and surrendered himself to his wanton sexual urges. He found his mouth down to the base of the youth's rod and the pubes that tickled his lips and nose were even curlier than the hair on his head. Carn began to thrust his lengthening prong into Garrit's mouth seeking his throat and the forester relaxed and let the meaty pole slide down his gullet. He felt the foreskin sliding on the far back of his tongue as the youth slowly pumped into the warm wetness of his mouth and throat.

Moans and groans of sexual debauchery filled the air and resounded provocatively in the echoes around them. Belkis and Carn had assured them earlier that they hadn't heard Garrit's loud laugh at the entrance where they had positioned the tree log so they didn't take care to be other than shoutingly quiet. They all just flowed into a group of pleasure seeking and giving males and gave into their libidinous pleasure.

As their play progressed, Garrit found himself on his back alone, Carn having removed himself along with Belkis to change positions. He saw the two join Relius who was bobbing his head up and down rapidly on the Egyptian slave's erect prong. Belkis started kissing Semses on his lips while Carn licked across his smooth lithe chest. Semses began to breathe heavily and let out a moan that could only be a prelude to a fulfilling ejaculation. Relius engulfed the youth's member and Garrit saw the Roman's throat muscles ripple as he swallowed the slaves squirting seed. Semses let out a sigh of repletion and his body jerked a few quick times before his master released his organ and licked his lips of a strand of creamy ejaculate that he had failed to swallow.

"That should hold you for a bit Semses," Relius said smiling at his post orgasmic slave and turning on his knees to Garrit, "Just relax and watch while we test our forester's staying power. He didn't show much with me and I'm curious."

Garrit watched as Relius knee walked the few steps it took to come to his side. Belkis moved over to his other side and Carn joined Relius. The three of them looked down on his muscular naked body and his large dripping erection with lust and unbridled desire. The blonde man waited to see what they intended.

"Let's see how long you can hold your seed Garrit and we'll try one at a time to make you give it up," the Roman said to him, "Are you okay with that?"

"What are you going to do with me?" the anxious man asked in return.

"Nothing you won't like," the young man answered and nodded with a chuckle to the curly haired slave across from him, "You first Carn. Make him fail. Go ahead. And Garrit..., do your best to not lose it, Belkis and I want our turns."

The Helvetian raised one knee and straddled the forester's lap. His buttocks spread wide to slide over the man's straining erection. Relius gathered a large gob of saliva from his mouth and applied it to the slave's hole with one deft move. Carn then took Garrit's rigid fat phallus in hand and set it to his spit slicked hole. The boy-man then sat back and put the half skin encased head to his nether lips and pushed it into his rectal opening.

"AHHHH!" he cried out, "It's huge!"

"I'll take it first if you want," Belkis told him with a licentious grin.

"I've got this," Carn replied with a grimace and squirmed his hole on the penetrating organ, "You'll get your chance."

It took several minutes for him to work his chute down completely on Garrit's fuck rod, but with several groans and a few cries of pleasure-pain he finally had his anal ring tight around the base of the man's thick meat with Garrit's blonde pubes pressed against his quivering ring. The forester hadn't just remained quiet. He sighed and moan in enjoyment as his pulsing shaft slid ever so slowly into the slave's warm gripping depths. Belkis and his master Relius offhandedly stroked their own leaking cocks as they watched the erotic impalement with lubricious looks in their eyes.

Carn looked down on Garrit and smiled mischievously. He squeezed his anal ring on the man's wide prong as he spit slicked his hand and began to masturbate. As his strokes increased he raised his hips and started to slide his hole up and down on Garrit's steel hard manhood. He increased his pace beating on his tool and riding the forester's now constantly leaking piece. Garrit tried his best to control his rising passions, but was losing the contest. Carn was by far the most masculine of the three slaves and his manly body with its sprinkling of chest hair and tightly curled treasure trail was seductively overwhelming him as the slave rode his rigid member seeking to obtain his man seed in his clinging bowels.

"OH FUCK!" the Helvetian youth yelled and threw his head back, "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

With that the slave's upright phallus exploded with a blast of semen that hit Garrit under his chin. Several more shots painted his golden haired chest with white creamy man milk. His spasming anus bore down on Garrit's pole and the forester lost his struggle. He joined the curly haired youth in orgasmic release.

"TAKE IT CARN!" Garrit cried out thrusting into the slave's clutching anus, "TAKE MY FUCK JUICE! MILK MY POLE!"

Carn collapsed onto Garrit's brawny chest and the man clutched him in a primal embrace as he drove his tool firmly into the youth's hole putting the last emissions of his load deep in the slave's warm guts. They both gasped for air and writhed on each other in the throes of ecstasy. Carn finally raised up and extricated the large organ from his anal cavity. A clot of warm semen trickled out onto Garrit's golden crotch hairs as the Curly haired slave fell over onto his stomach beside the forester.

"Well it seems like our forester has a lack in resisting your charms Carn," Relius said from Garrit's left with a laugh, "But to all appearances, his ability to deliver the goods remains firm. Are you ready to take your turn Belkis?"

The Greek looked at Garrit's still erect manhood as it jutted up from its nest of gilded hairs, wet and sticky from his ejaculation. Belkis scooped up the clump of gooey semen that had oozed out of Carn's hole into Garrit's pubes and slavered it on his anus. He then climbed onto the man and eased his hole onto the waiting fuck tool. He took it easier and faster than Carn had. He began to ride the man's shaft with an abandon that made every other fuck Garrit had ever had look calm and peaceful by comparison. The cute little Greek athlete worked the blonde man's still recovering rod with such exuberance that Garrit was gasping in orgiastic pleasure before he got his breath back from his first climax. Belkis hunch his buttocks and drove the man's thick shaft across his anal gland repeatedly. He achieved a rhythm that let him give himself delight while he titillated Garrit's man pole. This time though the forester had the benefit of a just completed orgasm to keep him from going over the edge. Belkis tried his best to draw another climax from him, but ended up feeling the jolting tingle of impending orgasm before he could carry the forester to completion. He too fell forward into the man's tight embrace, but unlike Carn didn't get to feel creamy pulses of forester semen squirting into his body.

"AHHHHH! UHH! UH! UHH!" the Greek gymnast moaned out as he humped and blew his sperm without ever putting a hand to his own shaft onto Garrit's muscle cut stomach.

He continued to rock back and forth fucking his hole on the member lodged up his rectum and grinding his erupting hard-on onto the man's tight belly. He drew a deep satisfying gulp of air and came to a rest. He raised up on his hands and shook his head to clear it. Relius helped him to dismount the now grinning man.

"Don't look so smug Garrit," Relius told him with mock seriousness, "You know as well as I do that if Belkis had gone first you wouldn't have lasted two minutes. Semses is even better. But now it's my turn."

Relius stood up, put one foot over Garrit and stood above him with spread legs. He shook his own ample eight inch tool and slung a string of clear penis dripping precisely across the prone man's lips. He then knelt down astraddle the forester's sculpted body, leaned into his face and licked the deposit up. He had Garrit's full attention and the man grabbed the back of the Roman youth's neck and held him to his mouth for a passionate kiss tasting the slick lubricative honey that was on Relius' tongue. While the forester engaged him in the kiss, the good looking Patrician undulated his hips and used his spread cheeks to move Garrit's erection back and upright between them. He rotated his hips forward and slid his crack across the blonde's stomach coating his cleft and the tightly clench hole in the middle of it with the spew from Belkis' orgasm. He continued the kiss as he used his buttocks to maneuver Garrit's iron hard penis to his anal opening. He exhaled a sigh of lust into the forester's mouth as the fat head slipped into him. Garrit released him and held him up by his shoulders wanting to watch Relius' beautiful face while he took Garrit's length into his warm tight chute.

He rotated and ground his way down on the rigid man shaft, moaning and groaning the whole way. He tightened and loosened his sphincter randomly as he fucked himself sending jolts of erotic pleasure radiating through the blonde man from his thrumming tool. Relius started sliding up and down on the leaking prong smearing the Greek slave's semen between them. He reached out with one hand to pull Carn over from where he propped on his elbow bent hand watching the lascivious fuck. Keeping his up and down, in and out movements, he turned his curly haired slave around and using his first two fingers, slipped them into the young slaves well fucked hole and brought them out dripping with Garrit's creamy fuck fluid.

He held himself on one knee, clinched the invading rod with his rectal muscle, and carefully brought his other knee over and across Garrit, rotating around on the man's huge phallus. He took care to keep the turgid member in him and ended up with his back to the forester still riding his fuck tool. Garrit put his hands to Relius' hips and aided him in his ride. The blonde felt the young man's hand go past his balls and his sperm slicked fingers went between Garrit's clenched cheeks and sought his anal entry. The man shuddered in lascivious delight as Relius teased his pucker with the semen lubricated digits. Suddenly Relius began to plunge up and down on the man's fuck pole faster and faster. Garrit gripped his hips firmly and bucked his organ harder and harder into the young man. Without warning Relius' middle finger penetrated the forester's anus deeply and rubbed against the hard bump of his anal gland sending a bolt of ecstasy from the man's rectum into his rutting phallus.

"FUCKING GODS!" Garrit cried out as his testicles drew together snuggly and sent his seed blasting up his shaft into Relius' cock milking guts.

Relius in turn dropped back onto Garrit's Chest and pounded his hard manhood in a frenzy. As the forester clamped his arms around him and fucked his heavy spurts of juice into his chute Relius surged into his own orgasm and ejaculated four thick ropes of semen across Garrit's encircling arms and his own chest. The forester rolled them over onto their sides and slam fucked the last of his load into the spasming young man. Then they both lay there panting out their exertions as both of their organs slowly shrank and went soft. The length of Garrit's manhood even flaccid was enough to let it remain in Relius' fuck loosened rectum and he pushed back into the forester to show his willingness to have it there. They all five drifted off to sleep replete and satiated.

Back at the Legion Fortress Tribune Marius stood at a large campaign table looking over a series of maps. They were copies from the Legion Archives. Someone had misplaced or stolen the working drawings. The Tribune suspected his traitorous son. He twitched in exasperated anger over the entire situation. Just let him get his hands on the sodomizing little catamite he prayed to the gods he didn't really believe in anyway. The thoughts of what he would do to Relius, his slaves, and the escaped forester Garrit had his phallus so hard under his dress uniform tunic that it ached. A Decanus entered the map room and handed him a scrap of parchment. Reading it, he picked up a charcoal stick and made a series of marks on one of the maps. It didn't draw his interest much. It was information from downstream. Even though they had found the place where surely the group had set out on the river in that direction, at the cost of four war dogs and three regulars from the first cohort to an ingenious poisoned trap, he strongly suspected that his misbegotten offspring was just on the other side of the river somewhere awaiting the cover of darkness to be off upstream headed for the way to Rome. He had ran his mouth about it too much.

The boy, Marius refused to think of him as a young man, wasn't very bright when it came to being circumspect. Gods knew how hard he had tried to force that skill into the boy's head. A Roman needed to be cunning to rise in position in this day and age. Relius was a huge disappointment there. It didn't matter now, he could have more sons. The little deviate had betrayed him. He smiled cruelly at his attending Actarius making the man shudder, as he thought of just how much blood he could cause his son's Legionnaire raped hole to leak and still keep him alive and conscious enough to suffer impalement on the sharpened post he had already had set in the courtyard. He would have to inquire of Brachus Caltoris for his expert knowledge.

So the boy like it up the shit hole. Well he'd get it, from an entire cohort of the Legion. Marius hoped the first won the lottery for the rights, they were the largest in number. In fact he rig it for them to win. Relius would have his phallus seeking nether hole used as a sperm dump for a full day and night tied to a cot in the first's barracks. He'd have to have Brachus oversee the rape. He didn't want his son fucked to death, just into agony. He squeezed his sore shaft and decided that he would save it. He would keep it for the final rape of his treacherous son. He would have Varrus join him in fucking the last two ejaculations into the boy. The Centurion's mammoth foot long phallus would surely rip Relius' anus wide open and tear it painfully when he shoved it in next to his own not small member. He could hear the boy's screams in his ears already. Oh yes, he'd get his revenge, and his enjoyment of it too.

Little did he know how badly he had underestimated his son.

TO BE CONTINUED

ONCE UPON A TIME,

There was this person who had a few very good, most assuredly magical, skills with a computer and the internet. Now this person also liked to have some personal fun with an erotic story every now and then. But alas, the type of stories the person sought were few and far between and they were difficult to access because of the evil dark powers of the wicked Council of Censorbitches. The person knew that there were many erotic writers out in the mystical realm of the World Wide Web, but they had problems posting their feel good stories because the Censorbitches would descend on their postings and desecrate them with vile slashes, malicious blackouts, and even... YES!... horrid deletions. Well the person decided to fight against the uncanny hate-mongering Censorbitches. The person made an enchanted place within the mystical realm of the World Wide Web and named it Nifty. It was free from the loathsome pernicious deeds of the Censorbitches and at last writers of alluring erotica could set their creations in a place of safety. As with all good things it came with a cost. Many long hours of magical programing were required to keep the enchanted place Nifty secure and accessible. Many more hours were spent in the exchange of the small marvelous packages of electric information called bits that made up the enchanted place. The person withered and languished spending all their mana maintaining the enchanted place Nifty until one day a minor wizard made a donation and enhanced the magic of the person. Stories flashed into existance that had never been seen before! And so I send forth this missive across the mystical realm of the World Wide Web. Help the person maintain their mana and fight against the dastardly atrocities of the Censorbitches by making your own donation to the enchanted place Nifty. You can access the magic portal of giving at http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html