Eastern Promise (Closed)

[AmandaAce]

The sea at night is not silent. It is quiet, peaceful, at times calm and still, but it is never silent. One can always hear the gentle thud of the water against the hull of the boat, one can always feel the vibrations of life fathoms and fathoms below.

Lysbeth de Vries stood on the aft deck of the Konijn and breathed in the salty night air. There were no lights, save for the lantern she held in her hand and the torch that the watchman carried as he made his slow rounds. In front of her, the sea stretched rich and thick and velvet dark to the horizon. It was her first time on this particular ocean, but she thought to herself that all seas were the much the same. The air here, in the East, that was what was different.

It must have been nearly one of the clock, but Lysbeth couldn’t sleep, had been unable to sleep for days, and rather than toss and turn another night, she had slipped out to walk the deck, alone with her thoughts. Andries, her husband, had slept like a log since they'd left home, months ago. The sea lulled him to sleep whether it was night or day, but it kept Lysbeth awake, and watchful.

She pulled her wrap tighter around her against the night air. Her long blonde curls escaped her cap and brushed against her pale shoulders. She shivered.

There was something, she could feel it deep in her bones, a heavy vibration that seemed to rise from the deep and shake the boat underneath her feet.

She watched the watchman’s light move away, bobbing up and down, his footsteps echoing back to her in the night. The light disappeared, and Lysbeth turned and leaned over the rail. The vibration thrummed deeper, the ship creaked alarmingly. She stepped back from the rail, startled. There was a heavy grinding noise, and Lysbeth heard the watchman shout. The whole ship shuddered as though it would fall apart, and she was thrown to the deck with a cry. She hit her head solidly on the wood, and slipped into unconsciousness.

 

[ericrodman101]

Day dawned with a cool mist lapping the coastal valleys. After the storm the sea was eerily still, grey eddies beneath the clouds or diamonds flashing where the first rays landed.

Gaku eased himself to the open front of the shelter, being careful not to wake Shinji. The rain had been steady all night, but the wind worse, lifting the edges of their blanket and beating the low black pines against the roof. The young samurai raised himself on his elbows so that he could scan the horizon. He expected to see nothing that wasn't there yesterday, but it was his waking habit when he spent the night on the bluff.

Behind him, deep inside the shelter, his fellow apprentice snored loudly. Gaku was often partnered with Shinji and while he enjoyed his friend's skills as a samurai and his daytime companionship, it was only the storm which provided relief from Shinji's snoring. They'd fucked, of course. Not only because it was required by the master, but because they enjoyed it. They bonded over it. And when they fucked other apprentices at the direction of the master, it was Gaku or Shinji always thinking of the other and not their partner of the moment.

Kuromatsu lay a few miles off the coast. It was a small rocky island without a natural harbour. When the boats called they hove to offshore and any visitors or cargo were ferried onto the beach in canoes. In the centre of the island was a rocky peak surrounded by thick pine forest. The island was ringed with curved beaches and abrupt headlands, evenly alternating. The monastery was the only building large enough to be seen from beyond the breaking waves and even then only the grey tiled roof was visible above the brush.

The monastery was home to the samurai school. The year of its foundation was lost in time, but the Kuromatsu school was famous for its remoteness, the harshness of its environment, the discipline of its masters, and the staunch loyalty it instilled in its graduates. To be invited to join the school was an aspiring warrior's strongest wish, to graduate his greatest desire, and to be sent home worse than banishment from your family.

The mist rose before Gaku's eyes, drawing his gaze higher to where the indistinct horizon was only where he remembered it to be. As it rose, a window opened to his left. He gathered his clothes, feeling behind him as he saw the cloud open to reveal the semicircle of sand and lapping waves at the foot of the bluff. The storm had deposited a new line of driftwood along the tideline. Gaku and Shinji would examine it later and return to the monastery with the most choice pieces. Already he could see there was much more than they could possibly carry.

And there was something else. It lay between the driftwood and the water's edge, coloured, unlike the monochrome wood, in two tones, dark and light. Gaku focussed hard on the object, trying to understand its strange outline and the way the few waves which reached this far up the sand bent around the thing smoothly, not breaking into foam the way they did with driftwood.

"Shinji, wake up," Gaku said, an idea forming in his head. "Wake up...there is a body on the beach."

 

[AmandaAce]

Lysbeth came to to the sound of running feet. She opened her eyes. Her head throbbed. Her vision was fuzzy. Lights bobbed up and down the deck in front of her. Men shouted.

She got to her feet, slowly, and was almost knocked back down by a mass of sailors who ran past her, their faces grim in the orange light. The ship listed alarmingly, and for the first time Lysbeth realized that she was wet. All down the front of her gown, where she had lain on the deck. She looked down. Her feet were hidden under an inch of water.

"Out of the way!" A sailor yelled as he ran past her.

"What -" she began. There was another loud, groaning crack, and the shouting got louder. Seawater frothed at the hem of her dress.

"We're losing her!" someone shouted.

Lysbeth turned and began to shove her way back down the deck, pushing through the running sailors. Her feet slipped in the water and she nearly went back down.

"Andries," she said. "Andries!"

Everyone was screaming. She couldn't push back against the crowd any further. They shoved toward the aft deck, following the sailors in a roiling knot that caught Lysbeth in its center. The deck dipped from one side, to the other, the hull boomed. Cracks began to splinter under their feet. Waves crashed and broke across the deck. Stinging salt water splashed their faces.

The ship sank backward, the aft deck dropping with uncanny speed, the hull breaking under the immense pressure of the water now streaming in. The crowd pushed, shoved, and then let go as they were all spilled into the sea. Lysbeth looked up once more at the orange lantern lights above her as she sank, and then she was under the water.

 

[ericrodman101]

Gaku felt his friend slide alongside. The two young men lay on their stomachs together in the narrow mouth of the shelter where they'd spent the night.

"Look," Gaku said. "On the sand, beyond that tall pine. What's that?"

The morning was cool, but Gaku sensed Shinji was still naked as he was. It was the second time this month the master had directed them to spend the night in the shelter. Six months had passed since Gaku turned eighteen and already his life at home felt shallow and ordinary. He'd dreamed of becoming a samurai for longer than he could remember. His father and mother had neither encouraged nor discouraged him. Life in his village was hard and simple, and if a male child was motivated to leave, or follow a different path, that was what the ghosts of his ancestors willed.

"Do you see it?"

"I see it," Shinji said. "But is it a body or cargo washed ashore?"

Shinji was older than Gaku. Of noble birth. He'd grown up in a minor house, grandson of a lord, but not the inheritor of the title. Second sons were groomed for the military or the priesthood. Shinji remembered being told early of his two choices. His father took him to the temple above the village beyond the family garden. Shinji had been left for a month where he learned to scrub the stone floors and perform the priestly ablutions. Life in the temple had not been Shinji's choice.

"We should climb down and see," Gaku said.

"But we must return to the monastery by the first bell."

Gaku looked to where the sun danced low in the sea haze.

"First bell is not so soon," he said. "We can climb down and return across the beach."

Gaku turned his head and examined his friend's face close, the neatly cropped hair, straight nose, hint of stubble on his chin. The mouth with which he'd been pleasured during the night was closed tight in concentration. Soon the master would initiate them into gishiki bodishēbingu, ritual body shaving. He hoped he would be paired again with Shinji.

"Then let's go see what has washed up in the night," Shinji said.

 

[AmandaAce]

“Lysbeth! Lysbeth?”

Andries. Lysbeth tried to call out to her husband but she couldn’t seem to speak. She couldn’t seem to see, either. She felt a tremendous pressure in her lungs and throat.

“Lysbeth!” Andries’ voice was closer now. “Wake up!”

Ah, she thought. Andries, trying to wake me. She slept like the dead, he always said. Let me sleep, Andries, she tried to say. Let me sleep.

“Wake up!” he said urgently, right in her ear, and with a gasp, Lysbeth opened her eyes. Instead of the sun drenched bedroom of their house in Amsterdam, she saw only the moon, shining bright, surrounded by a cluster of dark clouds. Her mouth filled with burning, salty water and she coughed and spat. Pieces of splintered wood floated all around her, glinting in the moonlight.

There was no Andries. There was no house. There was no ship. There was only Lysbeth and the dark water that threatened to swallow her up.

Unconscious, Lysbeth had risen to the surface and floated, but now, awake, the water threatened to drag her down. Her slippers were gone, but her dress was heavy. She tried to shrug it off but was unable to do so while keeping her head above water.

With a grunt, she floundered over to the largest piece of debris and flung her arm over it. She relaxed for a moment, letting the wood bear her up. She used her other arm to begin wiggling out of her dress, shoving it down to her waist before switching arms and freeing her other side. She worked it down over her hips and off, almost screaming with relief as the heavy fabric fell from her body. Her chemise offered no protection from the water, though, and she gasped at how cold it was, even though the air was warm.

It was difficult, but she managed to haul herself up onto the wood. She lay there, arms and legs dangling to either side in the water. She had time to briefly worry about sea monsters before exhaustion hit her and everything again went dark.

 

[ericrodman101]

The shelter was too low to stand upright. Gaku and Shinji jumped naked from the platform into the morning sun. They pulled on their loincloths and then their capes. They folded the blanket, and fitted their flasks and knives into the leather belts they wore across their backs. The forest birds chirruped close by as they stepped from the cleared earth and onto the rocks. The view of the beach was soon lost as they descended the bluff, although the waves breaking on the shore were a constant presence.

Gaku let Shinji go first. Even though Shinji was the elder by six months, and taller and stronger, Gaku knew that he was the dominant one in their relationship. It wasn't that he was more intelligent or quicker with a sword. The masters saw it too, and often matched them so that each could learn from the other. Shinji imparted his mannered swordsmanship to his smaller friend, and Gaku his streetwise ways to Shinji.

"Shinji is of noble birth," the masters would say. "Copy his ways and you will be urbane and successful. Gaku is poor and knows he must always make the right choice. Copy him and you will keep to the path in the darkness."

The other apprentices liked to be partnered with handsome Shinji. Gaku saw their jealousy of him and desire for Shinji even through the steely demeanour they were trained to exhibit in public at all times. The bold ones would come to Shinji at night to lay with him, and offer themselves for pleasure. And as Gaku knew, Shinji had a noble view of pleasure. He felt entitled to it as a birthright. On the nights when they weren't partnered, Gaku would complete his obligations to the samurai apprentice who lay in his bed. Then when his partner was asleep, Gaku would crawl under the boards between the floor and the ground. When he found himself beneath whichever cell had been assigned to Shinji, Gaku would lie still in the black night and listen to the sounds of fucking above. He loved how Shinji was committed to giving and receiving so much pleasure, swooning and wincing as the two apprentices lying inches over his head explored each other's bodies. And he convinced himself that however mutual and complete the coupling sounded, Shinji would always save his true feelings for their next meeting.

As the two young men climbed down through the rocks, Gaku watched Shinji's well proportioned head and the strands of black hair always standing awkwardly proud at the back, descending before him, his friend's strong brown arms finding the best hand holds and then gripping firmly. And now and then, when Shinji stopped to assist Gaku traverse a particularly difficult place, the younger man feigned hesitation enough to encourage his stronger friend to hold him tightly by the arm or place a hand on his back. And once Gaku let himself fall as if he'd lost his footing, so that Shinji was forced to catch him, and place both arms around him, the two coming together in a lovers' embrace. They both lingered a little longer than was necessary until Gaku sensing he might steal a kiss was stymied by Shinji's calling him 'clumsy fool' - 'Bukiyō!' - and moving on self consciously.

 

[AmandaAce]

“Lysbeth,” Andries whispered in her ear. She woke up slowly, leisurely, stretching her arms and legs - which were strangely sore, and turned to face him. He was right next to her in the big bed. The sunlight fell across his face and turned his sandy hair golden. She smiled sleepily at him. Outside the window, what sounded like a hundred birds chirped cheerily at the morning.

“Andries,” she said. “I had the strangest dream.”

“Hmm?” He asked, furrowing his brow. “About what?”

“About —“ she squinted for a moment. The chirping birds were making it hard for her to concentrate. “We were on a boat. To the East. To Batavia.”

“Well, of course you had a dream about it, liefje,” he said. “You’re nervous. It’s understandable.”

“We - we are going on a ship?” Lysbeth asked. The birds. She shook her head.

Andries laughed his great, hearty laugh. “You are joking with me,” he said. “Are you no longer excited?”

There was a thump and a screech as a bird hit the window above them. Lysbeth jumped. The other birds chirped louder.

“It will be long,” he admitted. “But liefje, it will be worth it.” He brought his face closer to hers, his blue eyes narrowed in concern. “Are you not well?”

“No, my love,” she said. She had to raise her voice over the birds. The chirping had turned into a raucous wave of cawing that pierced her ears. “I just feel strange.”

She reached to caress his face, but he was just slightly too far away. Lysbeth reached for him again, puzzled. He was just out of reach of her fingers.

“Andries?” she whispered.

“Lysbeth,” he said, and now he was miles away, across an ocean of white sheets.

“Andries!” She stretched her arms toward him. The birds screamed.

“Lysbeth,” he said, one last time, and then he was gone.

She screamed in frustration and grief, and the birds screamed with her.

Lysbeth opened her eyes. It was raining, heavily, the dawn sky dark with clouds. Her body was stiff, and painful, and she was surrounded by birds. Seagulls, picking at the remains of the wreck. They cawed at her, and she closed her eyes and cried.

She only allowed herself a few minutes of tears. She had drifted, she saw. Far from being in the middle of the ocean, she was floating on the debris in a shallow inlet, closer to land than she had been in months. The green of the trees hurt her eyes. With a grimace that stung her cracked lips, she righted herself, and began to paddle toward the shore.

The waves were on her side for once, and with difficulty, pelted by rain, she gained the shore. The rocks scraped her feet, and she was barely able to stand, but she struggled out of the water.

The sand here was littered with detritus. She picked her way around splintered wood, destroyed steamer trunks, clothing, leather, until she made it past the tide line. Her chemise was filthy. Her feet were bloody and cut. The air rattled in and out of her lungs.

She had saved herself. Thousand of miles from home, without her husband, with no idea where she was, with no hope of help, Lysbeth de Vries, the only survivor of the wreck of the Konijn, collapsed, unconscious, to the sand.

 

[ericrodman101]

The two young men finally came to the base of the bluff. They felt the sand beneath their feet and stepping forward, pulled aside the fronds of the low growing temperate palms, and were on the beach.

The climb down had taken longer than Gaku anticipated. He could tell from the height of the sun, even through the haze which stubbornly persisted, that they would miss the first bell. Ablutions and prayers. The second bell was another hour. Breakfast. If they found anything on the beach to delay them or slow down their return, they'd be half a day. If it wasn't a body, there'd better be a good haul of driftwood or they'd both be sanctioned.

The sea had been higher up the beach than Gaku anticipated. On the edge of the shade cast by the palms the tide had left driftwood, but also an array of strange and mostly unrecognisable material. For an inlander like Gaku the sea was a constant source of wonder. Just watching it move, seeing its moods change, feeling it heave and swell and slip back, was unspoken poetry. And to find what it spewed from the depths, things living and nonliving, challenged everything he'd learned to regard as fixed in the universe.

Shinji and Gaku picked their way along the high tide line. The beach was so thick with debris that they were forced to choose their footing so as to avoid the torn timbers and strange hair-like metals and odd-shaped boxes. The metals were especially interesting. The young men were familiar with the iron which the craftsmen heated in the forge and then beat into useful shapes; swords and knives, plates and tools. But this was new. Gaku leaned down whenever he was forced to climb over the tangled piles and fingered it inquiringly. It felt like metal, it twisted between his fingers and left a white line imprinted on his skin when he held it tight. And it was strong, but oh so thin.

Shinji was less inclined to stop and investigate, looking back impatiently, and calling Gaku on.

The body, for that was what they saw it to be, lay closer to the water's edge. As they came nearer, the pale white flesh and the remains of torn fabric which swathed it immodestly, gave it the look of a doll. Or a yūjo even. Gaku had never seen a real yūjo, but had seen paintings at the district fair. Ghostly white women with painted faces and high black wigs. His father had been transfixed, but his mother had tutted and called them Baishunpu. It was several years before Gaku learned the meaning of the word. Pleasure women.

The body was ghostly white, but the hair was long and fair, lighter than the colour of the wet sand with which it mingled. It was the colour of straw, twisted and matted with sea water, but still golden. Gaku had never seen fair hair before. He had lived in a world of black-haired people until that moment. The body's hair was a revelation. He said so to Shinji.

"Gaijin," Shinji said. He stood back a little, legs apart, hands on hips, surveying the body from head to toe. Gaku saw how Shinji tried to be impassive, but his friend's eyes betrayed him, ostentatiously taking in the bared breasts, the slender waist, the neatly curved buttocks, and the mysterious configuration lower down and just visible where the legs splayed.

Gaku knew that word - foreigner - but he'd never seen a gaijin, male or female. "There has been a wreck," Shinji said. "The josei has washed ashore, along with everything else. There may be others."

Gaku knew Shinji was familiar with foreigners. His friend had spoken about the occasional foreign visitors to his home. The traders and diplomats and missionaries who always had something to sell in their rudimentary Japanese, or sometimes just sign language. Shinji told a joke, too often for Gaku's liking, but the other apprentices laughed to please him, about the foreigner who was impressed with his sister's calligraphy and asked about the ink she used. But his father heard the word for penis and sent the foreigner away with a kick to the groin.

Gaku understood the meaning of Shinji's aloofness. Physically inspecting the body was for one of low birth. Gaku knelt on his haunches, slid his hand under the head and turned it to face him. The white woman with the golden hair stirred and took a breath.

 

[AmandaAce]

Lysbeth opened her eyes. The sun was high in the sky, burning off the haze of the storm, and for a moment, that was all she could see. The burning ball of light, the clear blue expanse of the sky, and then, slowly, a face. Two faces above her, looking down. The closer face was wide eyed, inquisitive, the other surveyed her with narrowed eyes and a tight jaw.
Both faces were tanned brown, topped with thick black hair.

“Am I dead?” She tried to say, but only managed a croak. Her throat burned. Her lips were cracked. The sun hurt her eyes. This was Hell, she decided. She was dead and somehow she had ended up in Hell.

Or perhaps it wasn’t Hell, but it was definitely not Batavia. She lifted her head a little to look around. The beach around her was littered with debris. The tall palm fronds that surrounded the beach nodded and dipped in the breeze.

Even though the sun was high, her skin was cold, and she looked down to see that her chemise had ripped to the waist. She hurriedly covered her bare breasts with her arms, but she was still so weak that the sudden exertion caused her to cough, a deep, painful cough that left her gasping for breath, and the edges of her vision went white.

She struggled to keep consciousness but she was wracked with another coughing spasm, and with a gasp, again, she fainted.

 

[ericrodman101]

As Gaku slid his hand under the head and turned it away from the sand and towards him, the josei opened her eyes, blinking slowly. Gaku held her softly. Something told him that this strange foreign creature should be handled delicately and not only because of the trials she had recently undergone. She was strangely beautiful, like an apparition, a god. His older relatives talked about the yūrei, the white ghosts who came to them with news of the spirit world. But she wasn't a spirit, not the way she felt soft and solid on his skin.

And then she croaked something at them, not words, but some alien sound like a dog barking. A tiny dog for sure, but still a dog.

"They bark like that," Shinji said, standing and not helping. "Yap yap yap. I saw a dansei once talking to the house inu, down on his hands and knees, yap yap yap. And the inu answered him back. I asked my teacher if the gaijin spoke dog and he said yes. And they eat them like the savages from Kankoku."

Gaku wasn't listening. The josei had lifted her head from his hand and was looking about. She seemed to realise she was mostly naked and tried to gather the torn fabric around her chest, but the exertion was too great. She coughed, spewing up a milky white liquid, but no seawater, and slumped down again.

"We will need to carry her," Gaku said. "You and me, friend. She won't be heavy. Not a slight josei like this. Come on, give me a hand."

Shinji was unmoved. He looked first at Gaku and then back at the josei, stepping a little closer. Gaku could see his friend's interest was in what lay between the legs. For a moment he felt instinctively that he should cover her up. Gaku had seen josei naked before, not his sister or mother, but the street girls who ran about naked or nearly naked because that's what the lowest classes did. Gaku was poor, but his family never went naked except at the bath house where the sexes were separated.

Shinji was leaning down now, on his haunches like Gaku, but between her legs. He put out a hand and touched the soft white skin, above the knee where the flesh thickens and the thigh begins.

"Have you not seen a josei naked?" Gaku asked.

Shinji ran his hands slowly up her thigh, until his fingers reached the thin soft hair in the pit between her legs.

"Have you not?"

Shinji scoffed. "Orokana inu! I have seen everything. You forget I am a nobleman. When a boy becomes a man at eighteen it is the noble way to take him to the baishun yado and let him choose a whore."

All the while Shinji spoke, he played with the hair and the flesh between the legs, softly at first, but with purpose.

"You liar!" Gaku said. "You have never told me that. When I said 'look at the pigs fucking in the pen' you watched like you'd never seen such a thing."

Shinji turned and without warning, pushed Gaku backwards onto the wet sand, before turning back and continuing his examination. Gaku felt highly offended, not just for the push. He expected as much from Shinji for whom nobility always trumped friendship, even if they fucked.

"She is very beautiful," Shinji said. "And she is a worthless gaijin, washed up here like the debris from the storm. Playing with her is making me hard. Harder than I get with you, geretsuna!"

"Chikuso!" Gaku sprung to his feet and punched Shinji hard in the side of the head. Shinji rolled away, grabbing Gaku by the leg. The two young men collapsed onto the sand, cursing and flailing, each attempting to gain the upper hand. They'd wrestled many times, both as directed exercise at the monastery and as a precursor to intimacy. Wrestling with Shinji always brought to mind his first time, tumbling on the sand, expending all their energy, then lying back in the sun, dozing, waking to find Shinji's hand on his cock. And what followed was bliss like he'd never known. Being paired with Shinji by the master for ritual fucking just compounded Gaku's joy.

But now, as his friend pushed his face down, he wasn't so sure. Shinji had his leg over Gaku's back, pinning him painfully against a sharp piece of driftwood. Shinji had been rough with him before, but this was uncharted territory. Gaku wanted at all costs not to display frustration, let alone pain. He squirmed and twisted, catching his friend unawares, managing to get a hand into Shinji's eyes which he gouged. It seemed that they might be reaching a stalemate, although for how long Gaku wasn't sure given Shinji's greater strength. The two samurai pushed hard against each other, willing victory, but getting nowhere, until Gaku's fingers managed a deep bite into Shinji's eye, causing the older one to yell and roll back.

"Shōri!" Gaku cried, much too soon. But as Shinji came at him again, Gaku saw the woman move.

 

[AmandaAce]

Lysbeth opened her eyes with a gasp. Her chest hurt. She looked down at herself, sat up, covered her bare breasts, and drew her knees up to her chest. The wet sand scraped her bruised knees and feet. It was cold.

She had thought her two rescuers were boys, but now she could see that they were men. Young men, around her age, and they were fighting. Fighting seriously, in fact, grappling with each other in the sand, their wiry, muscular bodies battling for dominance.

She scooted back painfully as they rolled across the sand in front of her, shouting at each other in their abrupt, musical language. They sounded like birds to Lysbeth. It made her head hurt, and she briefly closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, they were still fighting, although they had slowed somewhat. The larger one kept staring at her, even as he tossed and was tossed around by the smaller one. Lysbeth didn’t like it. The way he looked at her made her nervous.

Everything about this situation made her nervous. She had survived a shipwreck and two nights in the ocean and none of that had made her feel as deeply unsettled as she did when he looked at her. She was nearly naked, she knew that, and he was looking at her body, but it was more than that. He was looking at her like she was a thing, no more a person than the debris littering the beach.

The two men scuffled in the sand some more, and Lysbeth made a decision. She had survived this long by listening to her intuition, so she listened to it again. She took a breath - her chest hurt — pulled her torn chemise about her, stood up, and started to run.

Normally Lysbeth could run like a deer, had been scolded for running with the boys as a girl, but now, she was slow. Painfully slow, her feet cut and bleeding, but she took one last look back at the scuffling men, and she ran.

 

[ericrodman101]

"Shinji, she's running away."

His friend pushed Gaku's face hard down into the sand again. He sensed his lips moving and the sound of his voice inside his head, but felt only Shinji's hand on the back of his head and the grit in his mouth. Even though Gaku knew he was the smarter of the two, Shinji had him at a physical disadvantage. It was time to surrender, lick his wounds, and plan his revenge. And besides, the josei was running away.

Gaku spread his arms on the sand in ritual surrender. He knew Shinji well enough to know his friend would respect the sign. And Shinji did, but not until he'd inflicted several blows to the back of Gaku's head and kneed him firmly in the back.

"Stand up and beg for forgiveness, you snivelling jakutai-ka."

Gaku looked up from the sand. Shinji stood over him powerfully in just his loin cloth. Gaku realised he was similarly clad, their capes having come adrift in the struggle. As he watched, Shinji realised the woman was not lying where he'd last seen her. He lost interest in Gaku and looked about for a sign.

Gaku had noticed the josei running, if that is what her painful movement could be called, across the sand, onto the grass and into the trees. The words of betrayal rose in his throat, but something told him not to speak them. Shinji's interest in the josei maybe wasn't for the best, not that a minute's search wouldn't disclose her hiding place. She can't have got far.

Still Gaku hesitated. The josei, with her white skin and gold hair, gentle curves and thin-lipped smile, was alluringly new and different. He would find her. And protect her. Why? Gaku hardly knew, except that everyone he had ever seen and spoken with and imagined had yellow skin and black hair and spoke to him in words he understood. He knew there were lands across the sea with strange people who ate dogs like in Kankoku, or Ainu who painted their faces and plaited their wavy hair. The masters told the apprentices enough to know that all gaijin were best avoided. They retained their harshest criticism for people who traded, or worse prayed with gaijin, like the foreigners Shinji spoke of visiting his house and saying 'penis' to his sister. 'Gaijin have nothing to offer,' the masters said, 'except ugliness, disease, penury and hell.'

Was she a visitor from hell? Perhaps she'd been through it, Gaku thought, adrift on the sea in the storm. If that is how she arrived on Kuromatsu. The white ghosts who came to the elders were spirits from the ground, his grandfather said. But he'd described frightening, skeletal apparitions who wailed in the night, not a gentle, golden-haired creature like the josei. No, he wanted to find out who she was and where she came from. He wanted to feel her soft face against his hand again. He wanted to run the golden hair through his fingers. He wanted to touch the small round breasts and maybe even the mysterious flaps of skin between her legs.

"She's in the trees," Shinji said, jolting Gaku out of his daydream. He ran after his friend, anxious to make sure Shinji didn't spoil everything.

 

[AmandaAce]

They were coming after her. Lysbeth allowed herself a brief glance back and saw them, running fleetly across the sand towards the tree line. She struggled through the thin, spindly foliage.

She had hoped to get more of a headstart - they had been fighting each other so fiercely - but it had only been moments and they were already so close. The larger one was in front, the smaller one close behind him. They shouted to each other in their strange tongue.

A stick poked her heel sharply and she stumbled and cried out. Big flat leaves whipped at her face and breasts. She looked around again. They were in the trees already, she could see the white of the loincloths they wore flickering between the green. Silently, barely even disturbing the trees, they ran, twice as fast as she could.

She kept going, though. Part of her wanted to stop, to fall to the ground and beg them to help her. If it had only been the smaller one, she would have asked. Perhaps she would not even have run. He had looked at her with kindness in his eyes. The other one, though, scared her.

She could see something glittering in his black eyes. Not lust, or not just lust. There was a cruel curiosity there. He looked at her like a child would examine a trapped insect.

She looked back again. She shouldn’t have. They were close enough that she could see the sneer on the larger one’s face. She could see the worry in the smaller ones eyes. Her feet carried her forward as she looked back, and suddenly her foot hit a rock, her ankle turned, and she fell to the ground with a cry.

Lysbeth screamed in frustration. They were right there. She scooted back as they came toward her, covering herself with one hand, holding her other hand out to stop them. Her hair fell over her face.

“Please!” she shouted in her ruined voice. “Please don’t! I need help, please help me!”

 

[ericrodman101]

Shinji entered the trees first, ahead of Gaku. The josei hadn't run far. Already Gaku could hear her, stumbling and crying out. He could see his friend ahead, his bare back dodging between the palms, and then the thicker trees, in and out of the shadows deepening as they went further.

Gaku often felt he was trying to catch up with Shinji. He lacked his friend's physical strength. When they wrestled or swung their swords in ritual practice, Shinji always had the upper hand. Gaku knew how much Shinji enjoyed himself, dominating the shorter, less powerful apprentices. Some of their fellow trainees saw Shinji as a mentor, and exploited his weakness to take charge, to win, by letting him think he was even stronger than he was. They were pathetic.

But Gaku knew Shinji's vulnerability. He was stronger, there was no doubt. But Shinji was not a quick thinker. When the masters presented them with a conundrum, with an obstacle which was not overcome merely by brute force, Shinji became baffled and uncertain. And here Gaku came into his own, applying his mental acuity to the problem, thinking and reasoning, testing and experimenting, applying his will until the barrier was breached.

This was when Shinji deferred to him, to puny Gaku. The look of bemusement and inadequacy, the stepping back, silence, letting his little friend take charge. The quiet acquiescence that this was Gaku's time to shine and he, Shinji, was the secondary one, the apprentice, the underling.

These things went unspoken, of course. Gaku saw them in Shinji's face and manner. There was no need for verbal concession. That would be humiliation. Gaku understood how they complemented each other. The brain and the brawn.

And yet it was more than that. They weren't equals in the world. It was like the house inu. At home Gaku saw how the big dog ruled within the four walls of its kingdom. How it commanded respect and obeisance from its two-legged helpers. And how they coddled it and proved to the inu that he was top dog.

But outside, in a world without the protection of four walls, something changed. In the natural order of inu, the house dog was suddenly emasculated. The other dogs, big or small, had a hold over the inu. It whimpered and cowered, rolled over and submitted, whenever it encountered them. There was a pecking order, not based on size or the sharpness of teeth or the strength of the jaws or the hind legs. It was something inside them, something only the inu understood.

That was how it was with Gaku and Shinji. Sure Gaku would submit to his friend when they wrestled, or when they lay together in the dark and Gaku felt the inkei hard in his back. He would submit to Shinji happily, bend over and allow his friend to relieve his sexual energy inside him. But in return, Gaku would put his inkei into Shinji's mouth. On his front in the dark, being fucked was just a physical act, an intrusion, a venting of pressure, a quick unloading of tension. But face to face, with his cock in Shinji's mouth, looking into his friend's eyes as he was pleasured, that was power. That was true submission. That was proof to Gaku that he was really the stronger one.

Ahead, Shinji had located the josei. She was lying, wounded and afraid. Gaku rounded a tree and saw Shinji standing angrily over her. She held a hand over her face, afraid of what Shinji might do, gabbling away, high pitched like a cornered rat.

Gaku knew he would have to call on all his powers now to keep Shinji in check.

"Touch the josei," he said, stern and admonishing, "and I will kill you."

 

[AmandaAce]

Lysbeth looked up, through the screen of her hair. He was standing above her, the cruel one, his forehead beaded with sweat, glaring down at her with contempt.

“Please,” she said again. She had no chance of fighting him off. He wanted to fuck her, she could see it in his eyes, and that she had resigned herself to handle. What worried her was what else he might do. She was afraid he might be angry enough to kill her, and she had not clawed her way out of a shipwreck to die at the hands of a cruel, angry man.

She crossed both arms across her chest and looked up at him. It was strange, she thought, that he and his companion went nearly naked so naturally, but were so fascinated by her near nakedness.

He leaned down to look in her eyes.

“Don’t,” she pleaded.

And then the other one was there, appearing from behind a stand of trees. He stopped and called out to his companion, challenged him in their strange tongue. The larger one turned to face him.

Lysbeth struggled to her feet and slipped around him to stand behind the smaller man. This one was barely taller than she was, but he was as packed with wiry muscle as his friend. She cowered right behind him, her hands on his back, her eyes closed.

Please, she thought to herself, please let me get out of this.

Above the three of them, a flock of birds flew screaming over the line of trees.

 

[ericrodman101]

Gaku was confident Shinji would heed his words. As he came up behind his friend, he watched him opening and closing his fists, leaning down over the whimpering josei. At the warning, Shinji turned his head. Gaku saw the blank look in his eyes, the steely hardness, the bloodlust.

What he didn't expect was for the josei to stand, and then dart behind him. Gaku had no desire to fight Shinji, only to shame him. And now she was touching his naked back, her fear beating against him like a tiny, fluttering bird. Gaku was unprepared to defend her and Shinji only had to raise his strong arms and bring them down on Gaku's head and shoulders to best him and claim his prize.

If that's what Shinji wanted, of course. It was one thing to run down your prey, and another to devour it.

The two young men stood, glaring, fists clenching, nostrils flaring, waiting for a sign of where this stand off might lead. High in the trees a flock of gulls screeched, then wheeled away over the beach. Closer, a light breeze danced among the lower branches. Gaku watched as it played with the unruly strands of hair on the back of Shinji's head. He wanted to look away, to check the josei was OK, fully expecting her to collapse behind him and drag him down, or try to run again and injure herself. He had seen the soles of her feet red and bruised, and running through the undergrowth would have scratched her bare skin.

Shinji broke first. "Have the kuso josei," he said, shouldering Gaku as he walked past, his muttering fading as he made his way out of the trees. Gaku turned to the josei who fell into his arms sobbing. He put out his hands to take her weight, but she was heavier than she looked, and they fell to the ground together. He wondered whether to help her stand, but she seemed utterly broken. Gaku let her rest and waited.

And as he watched her, trying to decide what to do next, Shinji returned with their capes which he'd retrieved from the beach.

"Cover her with these," Shinji said.

Gaku stood, smiled at his friend, who failed to smile back, and took the capes. He helped the josei into a sitting position and fixed one of the capes across her back, knotting it over her breasts. "When you are ready to stand," he said "I will fix the other manto about your waist." And then he grinned at the realisation that the josei didn't understand a word he was saying.

 

[AmandaAce]

The gulls screamed.
Lysbeth peeked over the smaller one’s shoulder. The two men stood there, glaring at each other, their fists clenched. Everything was still except for the calling of the birds and the far away slapping of the waves.

She held her breath. Her nails dug into the skin of his back. The breeze stirred their hair. Lysbeth shivered.

Then, suddenly, it was over. The larger one shrugged and pushed past them, hitting the smaller one with his shoulder. The glittering hardness had gone out of his eyes.

The other one turned to her, and she fell into him with a cry. He opened his arms to her and they both tumbled to the wet sand.

She pressed her head to his chest and sobbed. He didn’t move, only sat patiently, his arms loosely around her. The sobs wracked her body, poured out of her, until her voice gave out.

Eventually, the larger one returned. He made a brief and cold statement to his friend and offered several pieces of cloth.

The smaller one disengaged himself from Lysbeth’s grasp and stood up. He took the fabric and knelt down again in front of her, covering her with a length of cloth, tying a knot over her breasts.

She looked up at him gratefully, her face still streaked with tears. He spoke to her in his abrupt, musical tongue. She didn’t understand, but he grinned, and gestured with the other garment he held.

For a moment Lysbeth didn’t get it, but he did it again, mimicking fastening the garment around his own waist, and then she understood.

“Help me up,” she said, extending her hand. He didn’t understand what she said, but he understood the gesture.

With his assistance, she struggled to stand. She winced as the sand bit at her lacerated feet. The other stood away from them, almost at the tree line. She leaned into him, looked into his eyes, placed her hand on his chest, the fabric he held rustling between them.

“Don’t let him hurt me,” she said.

 

[ericrodman101]

Gaku sat with the josei while she recovered. She seemed to understand what he meant about the second cape. And she spoke to him, yapping breathlessly. He helped her stand, unsteadily so that she put her hand on his chest, and spoke again, fear in her eyes.

He remembered how hard the wind and rain had blown during the storm overnight. And worse, he remembered the crossing from the mainland to Kuromatsu when he first came to the island. As an inlander he'd only ever seen the distant ocean, like a blue plain, from a mountain top. He came down the rutted track in the donkey cart to the harbour, trying to feel eighteen and manly. Yet when he saw the sea up close he wanted to whoop and paddle and splash with the young children.

The boat to the island looked sturdy enough, made of fine timbers with a tall mast and a white sail which slapped in the breeze. He joined the other newly selected apprentices on the quay where they were crossed off a list by a master, then herded on board. It felt like one of those jolly outings he'd been told about in the village school. And in his imaginings he was a fully fledged samurai, bedecked in his armour, his sword in hand, setting sail to vanquish the dog eaters of Kankoku. The trusty ship sailed, leaving the quay and the flags gaily waving.

As soon as they left the harbour the trouble started. The swell increased. Waves slopped against the side and splashed onto the deck. The boat leaned this way and that, so unexpectedly that he couldn't stand.

And then, when they rounded the headland and saw the horizon, the wind spat in their faces and the salt spray wet them to the skin. Gaku wasn't the first to throw up, but he soon joined the other apprentices leaning over the side of the boat and emptying their stomachs into the heaving water. Much as he wanted to enjoy his first boat ride, see the sights, have a faintly heroic story to tell about conquering the seas, the rest of the day was miserable.

At lunch, the master served them a hard salty bread and a thin broth to moisten it. Not one of the boys finished his portion, although the gulls fed happily, not just on the discarded chunks, but on the contents of their stomachs and their bowels which followed the boat like ribbons of refuse.

After such promise and anticipation, Gaku was never so happy as when the boat pulled alongside the little quay at Kuromatsu, whatever new torments lay ahead. At least they were land-based.

So what must the josei have encountered in the night? What terrors and deprivations alone in the dark and cold? He wanted so badly to ask, to ask so many questions, about her land and her people and what she was doing here.

But if that would ever be possible, who knew? The skirmish with Shinji, and then sitting with the josei while she recovered a little, had taken up time. Morning devotions would be finished, and swordsmanship, by his reckoning of the sun in the sky. The masters would be teaching calligraphy, and then courtly etiquette. And soon they would be not just missed, but looked for. It was time to help the josei back to the monastery, if she wanted to go there.

"We are leaving," Gaku said, tying the second cape about her waist. She did not resist. He saw Shinji nod in his direction, pleased that his friend had waited, even if he sat apart, watching the waves. Gaku was sure Shinji meant no harm to the josei, but was just overcome with an urge he couldn't explain.

The josei looked at him, exhausted. She would have to walk, but leaning on my arm, Gaku thought. Unless....he looked at Shinji.

"Shinji, my good friend. It is a long walk to the monastery and she is worn. She is too heavy for me, but....I wonder..."

Shinji nodded. He understood. "But will she let me carry her?"

 

[AmandaAce]

The smaller one said something to his companion and decisively knotted the cape around Lysbeth’s waist, smiling at her reassuringly as he did so. His friend nodded at him, but kept his distance. The angry light seemed to have gone out of his eyes, but she was still wary.

The sun was higher now, and hot. The waves lapped at the shore. Her head was beginning to hurt. She was thirsty. She was bruised and cut and covered in dirt. All she wanted was water, to drink, to wash, and then to lie her head down and close her eyes.

They were talking about something, not disagreeing, only discussing. She let her eyes wander away from them, across the short spiky grass, the tree line, the sand, the waves.

She watched them come up and break along the beach. Up and down, up and down, with every retreat leaving something behind. They had left her behind. Alive, but behind.

Lysbeth turned back to them. They had stopped talking, were looking up, back the way they’d come. It was a long and rocky climb. She couldn’t even see the top. Her head throbbed.

The smaller one looked at her, smiled, held out an arm. She took a step toward him, but her turned ankle gave out and she pitched forward. He caught her, lifted her up, stumbled under her weight. The other stepped forward and scooped her out of his arms neatly.

Lysbeth opened her mouth to protest, but she was too tired. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. Her throat burned.

They started to walk, the larger one carrying her as easily as if she weighed nothing at all. She laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes.

 

[ericrodman101]

Shinji carried the josei in his arms without complaint. Gaku spoke to his friend a couple of times to see how he was faring, but Shinji just grunted in reply. Walking across the sand and then climbing the low headland to the next beach was hard work. Gaku knew that Shinji never liked to admit defeat or ask for help.

As for the josei, Gaku couldn't make out if she was asleep or had lost consciousness, or just thought it best to go limp in Shinji's arms.

At the base of the headland where the sand and rocks met, a clear stream emerged from the palms and burbled across the beach. Gaku could see Shinji struggling and in need of a rest.

"Put the josei down near the stream," Gaku said. "She needs a drink and a wash."

Shinji did as he was told, carefully placing the josei onto the sand, then standing and turning away to hide his breathlessness. She was close enough for Gaku to trail her hand in the water. He placed it carefully in the cooling stream, then gently tore a strip of fabric waving from the strange garments she wore, wet it, and mopped her brow.

At the same time, Shinji strolled to the tide line where the waves broke, a little stronger here in the open sea. Gaku imagined his friend might swim. Shinji was a strong swimmer and Gaku often watched him lapping the beach beyond the waves when the masters awarded them free time. He gazed at Shinji's strong back and muscled thighs, expecting him to undo his loin cloth and dive into the waves.

And under his hand the josei stirred again.

 

[AmandaAce]

Lysbeth’s eyes flew open as the cold water touched her brow. The smaller one knelt over her, his hand on her forehead. Her hand was cold, and - she clenched her fists and felt sand in one and in the other, water.

She struggled to sit up and looked around. Next to them, a small clear stream bubbled across the sand. She leaned over it. Her reflection looked back at her, rippling and disturbed by the flowing water, but she could still see herself. She dipped a hand to the stream and cupped it, bringing water to her mouth.

The water was cool as it rolled across her parched lips and down her throat. She drank quickly, leaning over the stream, bringing handful after handful of water to her mouth. She knew she had to stop, she could not risk making herself sick, so she took one last drink, then sat back on her heels.

The smaller one was sitting next to her, but he was looking far out, across the sand to the open sea. She followed his gaze. Out in the water, beyond the waves, she could she the larger one swimming, cutting powerfully through the waves, his body brown against the deep blue. Lysbeth envied him, to be able to swim so freely. She had loved to swim once, but now, the thought of giving her body to the sea again terrified her. He disappeared behind a wave, and she shuddered and looked away.

With wet hands, she scrubbed the dirt and sand from her face, the grit from her tender and cut feet, gathered a double handful of water and poured it over her head. She did it again, and again, and her hair, which had been matted by sand and dirt and sea water, came clean and shone bright gold in the sunlight.
For moment, she simply sat there, looking up into the sun, letting it shine on her face.
She leaned forward to take another drink. The smaller one was still looking out toward the sea, but his gaze had changed. She turned her head to look.

The other one was striding back toward them across the sand, completely naked. Seawater rolled down his body.. His body was large and strong like Andries’, but packed with muscle. Lysbeth could not help but stare at him as he made his away toward them.

She looked at him for a long moment - he was so physically impressive - before glancing back at the smaller one.
She saw the look in his eyes and she understood everything. She looked away, turned back to the stream.

Lysbeth heard the grass rustling as the larger one approached. She heard him say something to his companion, heard the other one answer back. She could feel him standing behind her.

He called out to her in his staccato tone, and she turned around. He stood above her, naked. He had the biggest cock she had ever seen. He grinned at her embarrassment, and Lysbeth gasped and dropped her eyes, a hot blush rising in her cheeks.

She couldn’t help but look again, though, and he knew it, laughing down at her as he watched her raise her eyes. He said something else she didn’t understand, spread his arms at her to indicate she was free to look as much as she liked. Lysbeth turned around to face the stream again, blushing. She pulled the cape she wore more fully around her.

“Stop it,” she said. She tried to sound stern, but her voice wavered, and he laughed even more.

 

[ericrodman101]

Gaku felt he was losing control of the situation. It wasn't how he liked things to be. When he and Shinji had woken this morning on the bluff overlooking the beach, everything had been perfect. Being nominated by the masters to spend the night with Shinji was as much as Gaku ever wanted now. He could hardly remember what it felt like before he'd met his companion, before he'd found someone to complement, to work with, to learn with, to be his foil.

And now as Shinji stood naked, arms wide, his beautiful cock swinging between his legs, laughing and goading the josei, Gaku thought maybe he was wrong about everything.

Even if they couldn't say a single word to each other and understand, Gaku could see her embarrassment. He could feel it. Whoever she was, wherever she was from, she was not used to being confronted by a naked man disporting himself, however beautiful and erotic it was.

The josei looked away, even as Shinji placed himself more directly in her line of vision, until she had to shut her eyes not see his manly display.

Ordinarily Gaku only had to tell Shinji how to behave, and his friend would defer. That was how it was between them. Respectful and deferential, when they were training together, eating, washing, sword-playing. When they fucked. To give the other pleasure was their only goal.

"The josei doesn't want to see your inkei," Gaku said, raising his eyes from the sand and staring at Shinji. "Cover yourself up."

At this Shinji's face clouded over for a moment. And then, with a slow deliberation, Shinji turned from where the josei was sitting, pulling the manto tightly about her, to face Gaku, also sitting, but cross-legged, his knees drawn up against his bare chest.

"I am not showing the josei my inkei," Shinji said. "I am showing you."

 

[AmandaAce]

Lysbeth sat, her eyes closed, hands in fists, her cheeks red and hot. She could hear the stream burbling along in front of her, the gulls calling overheard, but mostly she could hear the fluttering, nervous beating of her own heart.

It wasn’t the sight of his cock that upset her, or not that alone. She’d seen cocks before. Andries had a large cock as well, not as big as that, but large enough. On occasion he had her put it in her mouth, down her throat, had held her head firmly against his hips while she squirmed and gasped for breath. There was no shame in that. There was nothing embarrassing about a cock in particular.

It was that was making fun of her. He hated her. She had done nothing to him, but from the moment they had pulled her helpless from the sea, he had been against her. She could hear him laughing at her even now, and she clenched her fists tighter.

The smaller one said something to him in a chastising tone, and Lysbeth could feel the larger one turn and move away from her. She thought perhaps they would start fighting again, and she opened her eyes and risked a glance over her shoulder.

The larger one was turned fully away from her, facing his companion. He replied, looking down at the smaller one, who sat hugging his knees to his chest, but his voice didn’t sound angry. It was hard to tell, the way their words went up and down like swooping gulls, but it didn’t sound like anger.

The two of them looked at each other for a long moment, then the smaller one got to his feet. They had a short, quiet conversation. Without a glance back at Lysbeth, the smaller one turned and walked through the low undergrowth and away, into the trees. The larger one followed, but he turned back to look at her. She dropped her eyes.

They disappeared into the trees. Lysbeth sat, the cape pulled tight around her, watching the stream as it rippled away in front of her. The sun shone. The birds called. She was alone again.

 

[ericrodman101]

Gaku could feel the eyes of the josei on him as he led Shinji into the trees. He didn't look back. The josei needed to be sheltered. He and Shinji had to carry her back to the monastery. Today. Gaku didn't want her to spend another night outside. And besides, the masters would already be alarmed at their failing to return. Being an apprentice samurai meant total dedication, subverting oneself to the will of the masters, to the cause. And even when you were granted a night away as he and Shinji had been so privileged on more than one occasion, it was a test of obedience which could only be satisfied by returning.

When he reached the trees Gaku walked into the cool shade, far enough to be beyond the gaze of the josei before he turned. Shinji was behind him, but not on his heels like a puppy. His friend hung back, loitering when Gaku turned, looking away, feigning indifference when Gaku knew Shinji's motives were quite the opposite.

"You are scaring the josei," Gaku said, waiting for Shinji to look up and catch his eyes, yet being distracted by his friend's naked beauty. "She is fearful and tired, and needs attention. And this is not your home town where the son of a noble can torment josei and show her your inkei and force himself upon her."

At this suggestion Shinji looked up and glared. Gaku saw his lips move as if trying to speak. Even in the deep shade, he saw how Shinji struggled with the thoughts moving through his head and showing on his face. Shinji talked about his experience with josei, to impress Gaku and the other apprentices. But Gaku knew Shinji was not experienced and that most likely they were each other's first lover. Man love didn't trouble Gaku the way it troubled some people. It would trouble his father, Gaku knew, but then he believed that his father understood what transpired on Kuromatsu and the special way the bonds between samurai were sealed. While ever they were primed to fight, no josei must stand in their way, or trouble their mind, or divert them from their ultimate cause. Shinji knew that, even while he pretended to be a man of the world. There would be time for josei, for children, for making a home, and growing old and fat, when their fighting days were over.

Shinji came right up to Gaku and stood over him, scowling and clenching his fists. "I am not tormenting the josei," he said, then looked away, his face suddenly fearful and distraught. "I am tormented by you, Gaku," he said, wiping away a tear without embarrassment. "You are enraptured by the josei. Instead of me. I thought by scaring her, she might go back to her own kind, and leave us alone."

Gaku was surprised to hear such a long speech, and gratified. He placed his hand on Shinji's shoulder and drew his taller friend to him. They rubbed noses, Gaku smiling, Shinji mixing laughter with tears.
"You are jealous," Gaku said. "Kotta." The two young men moved their mouths across the other's face, not directing or pushing, just feeling the rise and fall of cheek bones, tasting sweet flesh, drinking in scent, embracing, until finally their mouths found each other. They kissed.

"I want you...." Shinji said plaintively, "under me...."

"Now?" Gaku whispered. "What if she finds us?"

"I don't care," Shinji said. "It is what I want."

Gaku kissed his friend again, took off his loin cloth, and lay down between the trees, the soft earth under his stomach. As he dropped down he could see Shinji and the inkei, hard and proud.

"There is some aloe," Gaku said, pointing. Shinji plucked a leaf or two, crushed them in his hands, and rubbed the oil onto the inkei. Gaku spread his legs, raised himself a little on his elbows, and closed his eyes, feeling Shinji's breath on his back, bracing himself for the intrusion, and preparing himself mentally for the reward he would receive once Shinji was sated.

 

[AmandaAce]

An ant trundled across the rocks in front of her, holding a leaf. Lysbeth bent down to look at it, her shadow falling over it, and it stopped for a moment before scuttling out of sight between two rocks. In front of her, the stream coursed and rippled around her feet.

They had been gone for some minutes, no doubt discussing what they were going to do with her. Possibly arguing. It made sense, she thought. They had to have come from somewhere, were likely expected somewhere. They hadn’t planned on finding her half dead on the beach this morning.

The larger one wanted to leave her. It was possible he would convince his companion to leave her as well. That made sense, too. What was there to gain by helping her? She had nothing to give them. They had no obligation to her.

The sun baked off the sand and the salt sea air dried her hair into a thousand unruly loose curls that spilled down her back. She brushed an errant strand from her face and looked down at her hands.

And they were immature, she thought further. They fought with each other like children, made up with each other like children. They had found her on a whim, might they not leave her on a whim as well? Lysbeth herself was no older than they were, but she had been married for two years, had run a household. She was an adult.

She was also most likely a widow. Andries could not have survived the wreck. It was a miracle she had. He’d been sleeping soundly, deep below deck, when she went for her walk. She had slipped out quietly, so as not to wake him, without even a glance back.

Lysbeth knew his face by heart. It was a part of her heart, but she felt cheated out of that last glance. The world had stolen it from her. The world had stolen him from her.

Tears fell from her eyes and pattered down onto her hands. Her chest heaved with silent sobs. Her husband was gone. Her rescuers had deserted her. She cried for Andries, and she cried for home, but most of all she cried for herself. And the wind rustled the grass and the gulls screamed and the tide lapped against the shore, and Lysbeth was alone.