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Survivors 2-V


aurelius

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Survivors2-V: 21-25

 

 

21

 

Dad and Amare had moved their beds to the lookout.  Amare woke up in the middle of the night.  He said he heard something regular that didn’t sound like waves.  He got up and looked out to sea.  He immediately woke up Dad and told him to run and get Abari and me and Xander and Zuberi.

 

Dad came into our house, pushed at each of us to wake us up, and said, “They’re here!”  Then he turned and left for Xander and Zuberi’s house.  I got up and pulled on Abari’s arm: “We need to go to the lookout.  You need to shoot some Egyptian ships!”  We both got our bows and quivers and left for the lookout.

 

We got there just before Dad, Xander and Zuberi.   Amare had lit the fire basin.  I immediately took a grass-knotted arrow, lit it from the fire and shot it up over the ocean.  We could see two ships heading our way, and two other ships further out to sea.  I turned to Abari and Xander and said, “Do you need me to shoot another arrow, or do you remember where the ships are?”

 

“I remember,” Abari said.  He lit a snakeskin-wrapped arrow in the fire basin, then loaded his big bow with the flaming arrow; his muscles gleamed in the fire light.  He aimed at the nearest boat and let the arrow go.  We could hear a definite hit on the hull.  Abari stepped back.  Xander stepped up, hefting a large rock.  He aimed for the flaming arrow in the ship’s hull and threw.  The flame on the arrow went out; we could hear the hull crack.  Then he threw another rock and the hull crashed open—we could hear cries from the ship about water coming in.

 

I said to Abari, “Now shoot a flame at their sail.”  Soon the sail was aflame.  In that light we could see men leaping over the side of the ship.  

 

“You’ve got one ship sinking—congratulations!” I said, “Now you need to get the other one.”  Abari took another arrow, lit it and shot at the second ship headed our way.  That ship was further away, but he hit it.  Xander’s throw, however, splashed in the ocean.  Amare said, “Let me try.”  He took one of the small—for him—boulders and heaved it at the second ship.  This time, we heard the hull crack.  Next, Abari lit another arrow and hit the ship’s sail.  In that light, Xander was able to hit the hull again, and again, we heard cries of men about water coming in—and men jumping into the ocean.

 

“Two for two!” I said.  We could already hear the cries of men in the water as the sharks found them.  The water churned with other men swimming rapidly to get away from the sharks.  I turned to Zuberi:  “It looks like it’s our turn.”  Then I turned back to Abari and Xander.  “Those other ships are probably headed to the far lookout.  You guys should go there now—and both of you need to take a few rocks with you, just in case Garin didn’t load the lookout with enough rocks.  I’ll join you as soon as I can.”  I then turned to my dad: “Dad, please come down to the beach with Zuberi and me, and help with the water.  Once enough prisoners are asleep, I’m going to the far lookout.  Oh, and bring your khepesh.”

 

As Zuberi and I made our way down to the beach, we could see soldiers swimming into our bay, and some soldiers on the other side of the bay, walking along the beach.  By the time they got to our beach, Zuberi and I were there with water jugs.  As long as the soldiers carried no weapons—and none of them did—we would give them water.  “You must be tired; here’s some water!” Zuberi and I would say to the men walking—and crawling—out of the bay.  They said “Thanks!” and started drinking. 

 

 “Careful!” we added, “our water is different.  If you drink it too fast, you’ll fall asleep”—but often they didn’t hear the end of that sentence; they got drowsy, we took the water jug back and gave it to the next man, saying, “He must be tired from the swim.”

 

That worked for only a little while.  Soon a soldier asked, ‘What’s in this water?”  Zuberi and I answered truthfully: “It’s water from the island.  If you drink it too quickly, it will put you to sleep, but when you wake up you’ll feel a lot better!”  Some men refused to drink.  Zuberi led them to the side of the beach with his battle axe and told them to strip.  If they wouldn’t strip, he hit them over the head with the blunt end of the axe.  The others stripped.  Dad showed up with his khepesh as reinforcement for Zuberi.  So now the rather skinny soldiers had two armed muscle men guarding them.   And I left the sleeping men, took out my bow and went over to the non-drinkers.  I even got recognized:  “Are you one of the archers who killed so many of our men in our last invasion?”

 

“I am,” I said.  I thought about saying more but decided to let their imaginations fill in the rest.

 

But most of the men drank the water.  The fell asleep and we let them sleep.  A few men who at first refused the water changed their minds; they drank and fell asleep.  Things seemed calm.  The non-drinkers were only a handful.  I felt certain that Dad and Zuberi could keep them under control.

 

Before I left for the far lookout, I talked with Dad and Zuberi.  I said clearly—and loudly enough that I could be overheard—“If any of these guys wants to bargain for anything, ask them where Menes and Shakir are.  Tell them that nothing happens until our friends are returned to us.”  Dad and Zuberi nodded.

 

Then I ran off the beach and up the hill.  I stopped by the lookout and asked Amare to keep an eye on the beach—and even go down to it, to scare the few non-drinkers.  Amare smiled and said, “Sure!”

 

 

22

 

I ran as fast as I could to the far lookout.  It was nearly dawn, which made running easier and safer.  When I got there, Abari and Xander were already targeting the ships, and one was aflame.  Men were jumping overboard and swimming toward the island.

 

As soon as Garin saw me he said, “No, Jabar, I am not going to mind the prisoners again.  I want to fight, not be a prison guard!”

 

“But you were so good at it!” I said, smiling.  I turned to Tafari: “Would you mind watching the prisoners and giving them water?  I’ll give them water with you—and maybe Lateef?”  I turned around to see Lateef nodding his head.  “I just did this at our bay.  Zuberi and Dad are minding the handful of prisoners who wouldn’t drink the water—and I’ve asked Amare to go down to the beach and scare them with his sheer size.”

 

“Hey!  I can do that too!” Akhom said with a smile.  “Besides, I’ve already helped sink one ship and after I throw this boulder, I hope the other one will be on its way down.”  He took a big boulder and heaved it out over the ocean toward the second ship.  The boulder hit the bow of the ship and crushed it.  The ship started taking on water.   Abari shot a flamer at the sail and soon it was burning—and men were jumping overboard.  Akhom said, “One job done!”

 

Tafari, Lateef, Akhom and I went down to the beach.  Garin joined us, grumbling.  We had three water bottles, which Lateef, Tafari and I started sharing with the men walking out of the ocean.  I repeated the same things I had said at the bay.  Lateef and Tafari also said the same thing: “Don’t drink too fast or you’ll fall asleep”;  “This is our island water; it will make you sleep but then you’ll feel better”—everything we said was the truth.  After all, we wanted these new men to join us.

 

Once again, only a few refused the water.  These Akhom and Garin could scare—and both of them enjoyed doing it.  The narrow beach below the lookout was full of sleeping men.  The few holdouts were being guarded by Akhom and Garin further along the beach.  I started to think about going to the harbor, to see what was happening there.  I talked with Akhom and Tafari about minding the prisoners and refusing to deal with anyone about anything until we knew where Menes and Shakir were.  Both Akhom and Tafari gladly endorsed that idea.

 

Then I turned to Garin:  “OK, big boy.  The rest of us are going to the harbor.  I suspect that you’ll get to kill some Egyptians there.”  He smiled.  I signaled to Lateef to join us; we went back up to the lookout and got Xander and Abari.  “My love, how are you doing with arrows?”  “I only have a handful left.”  “That’s too bad.  When we get to the harbor, use them well.  You and Xander may be able to sink a ship, but I imagine we’ll have to help the archers and swordsmen with a real invasion.  Does anyone know a quick way to get to the harbor from here?”

 

Xander knew, so he led us from the lookout to the quarry, through the quarry and then up a hill at the end of the quarry, through some trees and grasses—and soon we could hear clashing swords and shouting men.

 

“Let’s hold back until—“  but of course Garin couldn’t hold back.  He took his battle axe and charged through the last line of trees and toward the sound of battle.

 

t was a good thing he was covered in mud—as we all were.  The first man Garin attacked was good with his khepesh; Garin got a slash on his arm.  Lateef ran the few steps to the top of the hill and shot an arrow into the soldier’s neck.  Garin turned and nodded to Lateef, but then he plunged ahead again.  He only retreated when he saw the other swordsmen retreating—following the pattern which the swordsmen and the archers had worked out.  Xander also joined Garin and the swordsmen, although Xander was not as wild in his attacks.

 

Lateef, Abari and I joined the other archers on the small hill, standing beside the houses.  Archers on the ship fired at us.  We fired back at them and only fired at the soldiers on the beach when our swordsmen had retreated again.  But the Egyptian soldiers figured out the pattern, and as soon as they saw our swordsmen retreat a little, they retreated as well toward the ship.  So it was difficult to pick them off.  We got a few—but not nearly as many as I had hoped.  And the bigger problem remained: there were more of them than there were of us.  

 

We needed to get their archers off the ship.  The ship provided them with a platform and it was easier for their archers to shoot at us.  I took Abari aside and asked him if he still had some flamers.  He did.  But the nearest fire basin was at the lookout, and going to the lookout meant being vulnerable to Egyptian arrows.  Nonetheless, I suggested we go back down the hill a little—because I was going with him, to provide some cover—until we got to the lookout.  Then I would shoot at the Egyptian archers while Abari fired his flamer and shot it at the ship.  That was the plan.  “And,” I said, “I will be fighting at your side.”  He smiled.

 

I briefly described the plan to Lateef, so that at least one person on our side would understand we weren’t deserting them.  But I paused.  Tambal was shouting at the ship—in a language I didn’t know.  Ketti filled me in: “Tambal’s shouting at the Nubian archers; he’s telling them that they should abandon ship and come join us.”  Then Tambal made a muscle with his arm.  Ketti smiled and said, “And now he’s showing them what they get if they drink our water!”  Tambal’s yelling seemed to have some effect.  Some of the Nubians on the ship stopped shooting.  We could see them looking at each other and talking.  One of them disagreed.  But he was soon knocked on the head.  Several Nubians went over the far side of the ship.  In a few moments, we could see them swimming toward our shore.  There were now only a handful of archers on the ship.  I thanked Ketti for the translation and said I hoped Abari and I could get the rest off the ship.

 

 Abari and I took off.  Going a little ways down the hill was not problem—the problem would be our exposure when we got to the lookout.  And it was possible an Egyptian archer would figure out what we were doing.  I would have to be fast and accurate while Abari lit his flamer.

 

Just before we reached the lookout, my arm was grazed by an arrow.  I didn’t see who did it, but once got to the lookout, we both crouched down.  I looked for archers on the ship while Abari got his arrow out and put it in the fire basin.  I saw an Egyptian archer standing at the end of their ship closest to us.  Still crouching, I put an arrow in my bow and drew back the bowstring.  Then I stood up and fired—I got him.  I stayed standing, shooting at any Egyptian archer that looked our way.  Abari loaded his bow; his arrow flamed; he drew the bowstring and fired.  It hit the sail and it slowly started to catch fire.

 

It had the desired effect: archers started leaving the ship.  As they got off the ship, they had to shoot up to our archers next to the houses.  And it was easier for our archers to shoot down on them.  Three archers, however, did not leave the ship; they just relocated to the end of the ship close to our lookout.  I hit two of them and the third abandoned the ship.

 

Meanwhile, when the swordsmen retreated, Tambal, Oshi, Ketti and Lateef had fun picking off archers who had left the ship.   After their archers were down, our archers concentrated on their soldiers.  Finally, the odds were turning in our favor.  Abari and I left the lookout and returned to the houses—running along the top of the hill, since there was no more danger from Egyptian archers.

 

When we got back to the houses and looked down at the battle, we realized that our swordsmen and the Egyptian soldiers were equal in number.  Or they were—Garin and Xander were both hacking and stabbing their way through what was left of the Egyptian soldiers.  Finally, the remaining soldiers simply threw down their weapons.  Garin seemed to be happy returning to prisoner duty—after all, he had killed about a dozen Egyptian soldiers.  He moved the prisoners away from the ship—which was now burning—and further down the beach.  Lateef came down the hillside and offered the prisoners water.  Everyone was thirsty, so the water jugs circulated freely and soon the dozen or so prisoners were asleep.

 

 

23

 

But there was another ship coming into the harbor.  I called to Xander and Abari and Garin—“We need to throw some rock!”  We all ran back to the lookout.  There weren’t many boulders left.  Abari and Garin left to find some more.  That left Xander and me in the lookout.  I only had one flamer left, so I couldn’t use that.  And I could barely reach the ship with regular arrows.  Xander threw a few small boulders and hit a couple archers on the deck of the ship.  But one of the other archers took aim and fired at Xander—and hit him in his thigh.  He collapsed on the floor of the lookout.  

 

I knelt down beside him.  Some of his mud had come off—possibly from sweat, possibly from the hand-to-hand combat down on the beach.  And that’s where the arrow lodged in his thigh muscle.  I pulled the arrow out; Xander winced but forced himself not to scream. “I don’t want to give them —“ he paused for a breath—“the pleasure of my scream!” he said.  There was a little water left in the only water jug in the lookout.  I carefully poured some of it on the wound.  The water bubbled.  I fed the rest of the water to Xander.  “You rest here,” I said.  “I’m going to get more water.”  “I’m not going anywhere!”

 

I ran down the hill.  I heard a couple of arrows zing behind me—but the new ship was still too far away for archers to be accurate.  I found Lateef and said, “Xander’s been wounded.  Give me some of your water.”  “Of course,” he said as he poured some in my water jug.   As I turned to run back up the hill, I noticed Tambal, Oshi and Ketti were having a grand time talking with their new Nubian friends further down the beach.  I called to Tambal: “You can have your Nubian reunion later.  Please come to the lookout and fire at the archers on the new ship!”  They quickly said their goodbyes and followed me up the hill.

 

When I got back to the lookout, Abari was kneeling by Xander.  “Do you have more water?”  “Yes,” I said and gave him the water jug.  He gave Xander a drink and then spilled some on the wound.  The water bubbled—but it looked like the wound was smaller than it was when I first saw it.  

 

Meanwhile, Garin lobbed a couple of pretty big borders at the new ship.  One hit the deck and caused a big hole—I could only hope that it caused another hole below deck.  The other one cracked the mast and then hit a couple of soldiers.  But the ship was getting closer and their archers were easily within range of hitting us. “Get down!” I yelled at Garin after his second throw.  Proving my point, an arrow scraped the outside of his arm.  He crouched down.

 

Tambal, Oshi and Ketti had crouched down behind some boulders half way to the lookout.  One by one, they slipped away from the boulders, ran down the hill a little before coming into the lookout.  Tambal went to the end of the lookout and shot at the new ship.  Soon Oshi and Ketti were with him.  But none of them had many arrows left.

 

I went over to Abari and Xander.  “How’s he doing?”  “He’s asleep, but the wound looks better.”  “That’s good,” I said.  “Do you have any more flamers?” I asked Abari.  “One,” he said.  “Same here.”  “Then let’s use them,” he said.  “I’ll shoot at the sail—you shoot at the hull and you—“ I pointed my finger at Garin—“throw a rock at his flamer.  You are taking over Xander’s role.  Understand?”  Garin nodded.  Then I turned to Abari:  “We’d better do this together, so they get two flamers at once.”  He nodded.  “Ready?”

 

We put arrows in our bows and drew back the bowstrings.  Then we stood up together, aimed and fired together—I imagined that we were fulfilling Abari’s dream of us fighting side-by-side.  We crouched down together as well—and Abari was smiling; I gave his lips a little kiss.

 

Garin then crouched down after he had thrown his rock.  “I think we scared them!”  We could hear shouted voices from the ship and only a few arrows zinging over our heads.

 

The three of us peeked over the rock wall of the lookout.  The sail was slowly catching fire.  There was a pretty big hole in the hull of the ship where Abari’s arrow and Garin’s rock had hit.  There was some chaos on board, but some of their archers were looking at our lookout, trying to find us.

 

I turned to Tambal:  “How many arrows do you guys have left?”  Tambal had a quick conference with his friends: “We have eight arrows between us.  We scavenged some from the beach.”

 

“Then use them carefully,” I said, “The rest of us will have to throw rocks.  Garin, please go find some more.”  He crouched his way to the end of the lookout and went down the hill.

 

I looked down at the beach.  Our swordsmen had the few surviving Egyptians well in control; they and Lateef were circulating water jugs.  Just then, I saw Baniti, Kashta and the other archers come into the harbor.  I waved at them: “Up here!  But look out for arrows!”  I soon saw them conferring with Lateef, who pointed at the houses.  Baniti and the others ran up to the houses, then behind the houses and then found their way to the lookout.  And I could see they all had pretty full quivers!

 

“I am so very glad to see you guys!”  I said.  I motioned for them to crouch down.

 

Baniti said, “You look to have things under control—one ship aflame with men drinking water, and this ship getting that way!  By the way—this is the ship that evacuated men from the jungle.  We first ran to the training field before coming here.  There should be a few swordsmen coming our way from the training field.”  I looked down the harbor and saw about a dozen swordsmen coming out of the trees.  I allowed myself a second of pleasure: our men were so beautiful; grouped together, their muscles looked so very fine!

 

I turned to Baniti: “We’re almost out of arrows.  Can you guys give a volley to the ship?”

 

“Of course.”  Baniti and the others spread out along the lookout.  With Tambal and his group, we now had seven archers.  They stood as one and shot.  I peeked over the wall.  Several Egyptian archers and soldiers fell to the deck.

 

And then I saw a white flag being waved on the deck of the ship.

 

 

24

 

First, we yelled at each other.  A man on the deck of the ship wanted our leader to come down to the beach.  “Don’t go,” Lateef whispered in my ear. “Or tell him you’ll meet him there.”

 

I yelled back: “You go to the beach and I will meet you there.”  The man talked with some soldiers; then he and four others jumped from the ship into the water; the water wasn’t deep there; soon they were walking out of the water, onto the beach.

 

I chose Lateef, Garin, Banditi and Tambal—but then Abari insisted he come to: “But I don’t want you in danger,” I said.  “If you’re in danger, then I want to be in danger too,” he said.  The six of us headed down to the beach.  I didn’t even bring my bow—I was out of arrows.  So was Abari; he brought two rocks, one for each hand.

 

On the beach, I heard one of the Egyptians refer to the man who yelled to me as “captain”.  So when we met on the beach, I faced him.  He spoke first: 

 

“I see you have one of our ships on fire and I don’t see any of our other ships—“

 

“They’re also on fire,” I said.  “And we have captured all of your men.  Some of them have drunk our water and are asleep; others who refused our water are being guarded.  No one is coming to save you.”

 

The captain looked a bit shocked.  I don’t think he had considered such a sweeping victory on our part.

 

“Will you kill us all?” he said.

 

“We have no intention of killing you.  We just want you gone.”

 

“But for us to go, we need to repair our ship.”

 

“You can stay here and repair your ship—but you must first surrender your weapons.”  I didn’t even bother to look around to check with my brothers and friends; but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Garin nodding his head.

 

“And,” I continued, “once your ship is repaired, we will give you all the Egyptians who want to return to Egypt.  There won’t be many.  Most of your soldiers and archers will want to stay here.  They have drunk our water.  Soon they will be as muscular as we are.”  Here Garin flexed his arms downward in front of his body and growled.  I was enjoying his bravado—it made me look more reasonable.

 

The captain asked, “So it’s simply water that turns you into muscle men?”

 

“It’s our island water.  It brings health, cures sprains and bone breaks and arrow wounds—and it makes us fall in love with other men.”  Here Garin couldn’t resist turning Lateef toward him and kissing him deeply.  Abari looked at me as if he wanted me to kiss him—but I didn’t want to lose my concentration.  I shook my head; he settled for moving behind me and kissing the back of my neck.  I smiled but I nearly slapped him.

 

The captain turned to Kashta and said, “You have a fine scarab necklace there.  Did you buy it in Crete?”  Kashta looked at me, then said, “No; it was made here on the island.”

 

I said, “My brother is a fine artisan; he made Kashta’s scarab, my ankh and the thunderbolt you see on my muscular brother.”  Another growl from Garin.

 

“But,” I continued, “there’ll be no trade with us until you return two of our brothers that you stole: you must return Menes and Shakir.”  The captain looked confused.

 

“Those were the men you stole in a raid a few days ago.  If you don’t know where they are, you need to go back to Egypt and find them.  Nothing—I repeat, nothing—happens beyond the repair of your ship until you return our brothers to us.”  I was surrounded by the nodding heads of my brothers and friends.

 

The captain looked like he was thinking.  I decided I would stop his plans immediately: “No; you will not be able to find my artisan brother.  You couldn’t even land your soldiers on our island.  You have no chance of making another raid and finding him.  But—“  here I smiled the kind of sly smile I had seen Lateef smile—“go ahead and try.  We will kill or turn those men too—and you will have even fewer men to bring back to Egypt.  Just imagine what kind of lies you will have to tell in order to save face!”  Here my brothers and friends started to chuckle.  We were humiliating the captain—and I felt it was perfectly justified.

 

I was tired of this discussion.  “So, surrender your weapons—have all of your men jump off the ship and bring their weapons with them.  We will take away your weapons and hide them.  You can have them back once your ship has been repaired.  But you need to work fast.  If you want your men to return to Egypt, then they must only drink the water on board your ship.  If they drink our water, I promise you, they will become like us and want to stay.”  I paused.  “Do you want our prisoners to help you will your repairs?”

 

“Yes; please bring them to us.”

 

“We will.  There are only about ten of them.  All the other soldiers and archers drank our water; when they wake up their lives will be changed, and we will welcome them as new men.”

 

As the captain returned to his ship—climbing up a rope dropped over the side—I signaled for the other archers in the lookout to come down and I signaled for swordsmen from further down the beach to join us.  Soon we were over twenty men—all of them battle-tested; some of them, like Garin, more than happy for another battle.

 

At a signal from their captain, the men from the ship started jumping into the water.  Archers brought their bows and quivers; soldiers brought their swords and spears.  We divided and made a path for the Egyptians to take their weapons toward the hillside and drop them there.  If any Egyptian even looked like he wanted to use his weapon, Garin growled, Abari threatened him with rocks3w, or Hamadi threatened him with his sword.  Mostly they meekly did as we had commanded.  Then they went back into the water and climbed back onto their ship.

 

When we had collected all their weapons, Hamadi chose seven men to pick the weapons up, carry them up the hill, and deposit them under two slabs in the quarry.  Our men could easily move the slabs; we doubted if five of their men could move one of them.  Then those seven men returned to the beach.  I put Hamadi and Hasani in charge of guarding the ship.  And I asked Tambal and Baniti and their friends to stay for further protection—and for Baniti and his friends to share their arrows.

 

I was tired. I wanted to go home.  I embraced Hamadi and Hasani, Tambal and Baniti—as did Lateef, Abari, and Garin—and we headed up the hill.  In the lookout, we checked on Xander.  He was barely awake.  Garin and Abari put his big arms around their shoulders and started to carry him home.  

 

 

 

25

 

On the way home, Lateef put his arm on my shoulders: “You did great, Jabar!  You stood up to that captain and made him follow your orders!”  Abari said much the same thing, dropping Xander’s arm at one point and coming over and giving me a big hug: “I hate sharing you with the rest of the island, but you were great!”  And I got a big kiss before he went back to carrying Xander.

 

But soon he was the only one carrying Xander.  Garin left Xander with Abari and came over to pick me up and say, “Didn’t I tell you that you would figure something out?  And you did!”  And he swung me around.

 

I must’ve blushed because I ducked my head: “Thanks, my brothers and my love.  But all of you helped and everything I did, I did because I love you all.”

 

“Aw,” Garin said, “Are you going to get all mushy again?”  He paused and looked at Lateef. “But of course you are—and that’s why we love you, Jabar!”

 

When we got to the far lookout and Zuberi saw Xander, he was nearly beside himself.  “Xander!  Xander!  Talk to me!”  But Xander could only manage a few slurred words.  Zuberi asked what happened.  I gave a short history of our battle at the harbor; then I asked, “Do you want to take care of him here—or should take him to our fathers?—maybe your dad can take him the pool.”  Zuberi wanted to take him home.

 

But we had some work to do.  I asked Akhom to get a khepesh and take the resistant soldiers to the harbor.  He said, “There are only three now; two drank some water.”  I smiled.  “Then your job just got easier.  Give them their clothes back—but check the clothes for hidden knives.”  “Of course.”  I turned to Tafari: “That means you get the boring job of watching our new men as they sleep.  If any wake up early, answer their questions.”  Tafari nodded.

 

We brought Xander back to the bay and down to the beach, where Dad and Amare were guarding the resistant soldiers and the sleeping new men.  Amare took one look at Xander and took him from Garin and Abari; he, Dad and Zuberi headed for the pool.

 

That left Garin, Lateef, Abari and me to figure out who was going to take the resistant soldiers to the harbor and who was going to mind the sleepers. 

 

Garin volunteered to take the soldiers to the harbor: “I can scare them a little on the way!” he said with a smile.  Then Lateef said, “I’ll go with him—and give you two lovebirds some privacy.”

 

“Thanks, Lateef,” I said.  “And if someone wants me, tell them that I trust you to make decisions for me.”

 

Once Garin and Lateef had checked the resistant soldiers’ clothes and got them up and clothed, they left for the harbor.  That left Abari and me alone the beach with the sleeping new men further along the beach.  We watched them a little, how their bodies were changing in sleep: arms and legs and chests getting bigger, how they stretched a little as their arms and legs grew, how their breathing got more labored as they changed.  

 

Abari said, “Did we do that when we changed?”

 

“We must have.  I know you changed a lot—you got so much bigger in one night, I didn’t know who you were in the morning!”  He looked at me: “You didn’t know who I was?”

 

“No, I didn’t,  Your dad had to tell me that the large young man in your bed was you.  Not that I minded—you’re so big and beautiful!”  I kissed him and he kissed me back.

 

The waves hit our feet as we sat on the shore.

 

“Well,” I said, “we’re sort of alone, at last!”

 

“Yes, we are!”  And Abari reached over, pulled me to him, and we kissed again.   I got the sense that he was making up for missed kisses.

 

When we broke off, Abari said, “Can I throw you in the bay now?  You said I could, if I burned some Egyptian ships.”

 

“But do you want to do it with only these sleeping guys around?  Why not wait until some of our brothers are around and I can be more humiliated?”

 

“Oh, I don’t want to humiliate you,” he smiled.  “I just want to throw you!”  The logic of a six year old.  “But you’re right—I’ll wait until some of our brothers are around.”

 

So I had delayed my humiliation.  I really didn’t mind; I had promised Abari that he could throw me if he burned some Egyptian ships.  And he and Xander had burned at least four ships.  I wasn’t real sure who burned the one in the harbor.

 

But we lay on the beach and the waves played on our feet; I felt at peace for the first time in days.  I rolled on my side and started to caress my love, moving my hand down from his shoulder to his arms, feeling his muscles, then I moved my hand down from the thick muscles of his chest to his hard abs—but not going too far down his abs, since he got ticklish.  So I went back to caressing his arms.  I didn’t hear any objection.  Did he like being worshipped—or was he?—I checked—yes, he was asleep.  

 

Which I guess was a good thing.  He’d fought hard the last day—there had been a lot of tension for a six year old.  So I contented myself with looking at my big, beautiful lover, and occasionally caressing his muscles.

 

In the distance I could hear Garin and Lateef arguing as they came closer.  I didn’t care what they were arguing about—I only wanted them to be quieter, so that Abari could sleep.  So I stood up and waved my arms as they came out of the trees.  Then I pointed to Abari.  Lateef got the idea immediately.  He hit Garin’s thick arm as the big boy was about to open his mouth and say something.  He turned Garin’s head so he could see Abari on the beach, and then Lateef put his finger up to his mouth. “Oh!” Garin whispered.

 

I met Garin and Lateef at the fireplace.  I hoped that the sound of the waves would cover anything we might say, and Abari could sleep.

 

Garin said, “I thought Abari would be throwing you in the bay—or maybe you guys would be fucking on the beach—or at least sucking cock!”  Lateef hit his arm again.

 

“We managed a couple long kisses, but then I discovered, as I was caressing his muscles, that he had fallen asleep.  The battle was a big event for him.  The boy is still only six!”  I paused.  “And as for my humiliation, I suggested he should wait until more of our brothers could see me tossed in the water.”

 

“Well, we’re here now!” Garin smiled.  And Lateef hit his arm a third time.  I don’t think Garin felt it—his arm is pretty thick.

 

But then, at the other end of the beach, Amare and Dad, Zuberi and Xander walked out of those trees.  At least they weren’t arguing.  But I stood up and waved my arms and pointed at Abari and put my two hands together near my tilted head.  They got the idea.  We all moved to the part of the beach closer to the house.

 

“I guess my son is pretty tired,” Amare said softly.

 

“He had a very big day and fell asleep.  I had to get up and stop these two—“ I gestured to Garin and Lateef—from arguing and waking him up.”  I turned to Xander and said, “How are you?”

 

Zuberi still had his arm on Xander’s shoulders.  The wound now looked to be no more than a scratch.  “I’m getting better.  Someone—“ he pointed at Zuberi—“thinks I’m still at death’s door.”   But then he turned to Zuberi and gave him a kiss.

 

“He’ll be better tomorrow,” Dad said, “but he wanted to come home.”

 

“Besides,” said Xander, with a smile creeping over his lips.  “I wanted to see Abari toss you in the bay!  He told me you promised to let him.  And just think how much more energy he’ll have after this nap!”

 

“You’re right!” said Garin.  “I think it’s time to wake the boy up!”—and he yelled the last five words.

 

Of course Abari woke up.  He looked at where I had been and said, “Jabar?”  I said, “Over here!” and I knew in a few minutes I would be tossed in the bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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