Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 01:17:54 EDT
From: Tommyhawk1@aol.com
Subject: PofD4:Secret.of.the.Turtle.Men--CONCLUSION!!!

		   SECRET OF THE TURTLE MEN, CONCLUSION
			  "Beyond Every Mountain"

     The hospital of Efram's people was like those he had seen in his
holoviewings of Old Earth, white, clean antiseptic, and completely free of
the pink mist.  Had they not assigned a guard to escort him with Jethro and
Jassem to see Mahmoud, Pavel might have thought himself in one of those
Earth hospitals.  Jethro and Jassem waited by the door to Mahmoud's room.
     Pavel entered and Mahmoud's son Salim was there, holding his father's
hand.  Mahmoud's bed revealed its alien origin, it was shaped like an
elongated hexagon, and above it odd machines hovered, either by being
attached to the wall, or two which floated without any visible means of
support.  Salim rose and greeted him the way a prince would greet the man
who had (legally) usurped his father's throne, only to adopt him as his own
child, which was with cordiality but no real affection.  "My father." he
said.  "Asalam alaykum.  You are well to come here.  And how are you?"
     "Walaykum asalam, I am well, al-hamduh-lilah, as are my family and
friends." Pavel cut the ritual greeting short.  "I have come."
     The doctor in attendance pulled out a small device and waved it like a
wand over Mahmoud's body, and Mahmoud roused, winced, groaned.
     "He is in a good deal of pain." the doctor said.  "I won't permit this
for more than one minute of time.  So say what it is you have to say and do
it quickly."
     Pavel dropped to one knee to get close to Mahmoud.  "I am here, my
husband." he said, taking one hand--once so strong, now limp and
unresponsive--into his own.  "You asked to speak to me.  What can I do for
you?  Name it and it is yours."
     Mahmoud looked at him first as if at a stranger, then recognition
slowly entered.  "My husband and sultan.  Have I served you well?"
     "You have served me very well." Pavel said.  "More than I could have
ever hoped for.  You saved my life in the Djinni Valley, and I am forever
in your debt."
     "Then permit me one thing before I die."
     "Name it, and it is yours." Pavel insisted.
     "Our son, Salim...place him on the throne." Mahmoud said.
     "You want me to abdicate?" Pavel asked.
     "Please." Mahmoud said.  The grip on his hand suddenly tightened and
Mahmoud the powerful man was briefly returned.  "All I have done, I have
done for my children.  You do not wish the throne.  And, for my children,
it is all I have ever wished."
     "Then I shall do it, at once."
     "Now...please...so I may see it." Mahmoud pressed.
     Pavel turned to Salim, who was stunned.  He tugged the heavy signet
ring from his finger and placed it in Salim's numb brown hands, the same
way Mahmoud had done it for him after their wedding, in which Mahmoud and
not Pavel had been altered by the Waters of Life.  And like Mahmoud did on
that day, Pavel then knelt with head bowed before his adopted son, a young,
strong, handsome lad with golden skin and fiery eyes.  "My sultan." He
said.  "May you reign long and well."
     "I...Father, I...." Salim stammered.
     "Take it." Mahmoud said.  "Place it on your finger, my son, so that I
may see."
     Salim dumbly obeyed his father's request.  Without needing prompting,
Pavel took the hand and kissed the ring, as a subject should in the
presence of his sultan.
     "Now...come...here...my sultan." Mahmoud gasped.
     "I need to turn it off again." the doctor warned.
     Salim hastily stepped to his father, who took his hand and kissed the
ring himself.  "May you...reign long...and well." Mahmoud sighed.  And his
hand dropped and eyes closed, head lolled.  The doctor hastily plied the
ray over him, but a tone suddenly rang from the display over Mahmoud's
head, an incomprehensible display of lines.  The doctor looked at it and
shook his head.  "He is gone." he said.  "I'm sorry.  We could do nothing,
the Djinni venom is too complex, too toxic.  We have not yet found a proper
antidote."
     "He did all he set out to do in his life." Pavel said.  "Established a
kingdom and put his son on the throne.  And he died fighting, in battle.  I
think he enjoyed that battle a good deal."
     "He...he feared dying of old age." Salim said.  "I could tell from his
eyes that he intended to die in the battle.  Instead, he died here, far
from his home."
     "He died when he intended." Pavel insisted.  "He had to stay alive to
see you take his place.  And now, my sultan, what are your commands?"
     Salim looked at his father's body, now decently covered completely by
the sheet, and tears formed in his eyes.  "I must take him back to Medina
Jadeed." he said.  "And...and we will proclaim a hundred days of mourning
for him.  All our people shall weep."  And Salim trembled, looking far
younger than he was for all his height and broadness of shoulders.
     Pavel took the young man in his arms, feeling for the first time some
modicum of fatherly duty to him.  "You'll be a worthy successor to him." he
said.  "Far better than I was.  I'm glad to have you take over; I was
looking for an honorable way out of it."
     Salim straightened up and Pavel could see him putting his grief away,
not forgetting it, but setting it aside for later.  "You, my father, shall
need a pension.  The same way that my elder uncle received his observatory
upon his resignation.  What do you wish your pension to be?"
     "The Hall of Doors." Jethro said from the doorway.
     "What?" Pavel said, startled at this.
     "Medina Jadeed has the Waters of Life." Jethro pressed, coming into
the room.  "Of all the humans of Desire, they're the only ones who won't
require the Hall of Doors to have children."  His eyes were strongly
insistent.  "But Facilitata, Connobar, the Turtle Men, all of us will die
without it.  Better it to be in our hands than in those of Medina Jadeed."
     Pavel was abashed.  "Yes..." he said, stuttering.  "The Hall of Doors.
I shall...I shall administer it from now on."
     "For you and your children, in perpetuity." Salim agreed.  "A finely
grand pension, since you can charge fees for its use by the peoples of all
the valleys."
     "Exactly." Jethro said.  "Just what I intended."
     "I...I should go now." Pavel said. "I...I don't know just where I'll
be, but I won't be far from the Hall of Doors, I promise.  Send word to me
when I should return for the funeral."
     Jethro took him by the arm and led him out.  "That's a relief." he
said, a heavy sigh pervading his words.  "I was afraid for a while you were
going to refuse to take anything."
     The guards were now leading them back to the doorway through which
they had come.  Pavel saw other Arabs and Connobarans in the corridors, for
this entire arm had been turned over to the victims of the battle with the
Djinni.  Efram's people could be generous when they chose to.
     "Where do we go from here?" Jethro asked as they approached the door.
     "Connobar first, I think." Pavel said.  I want to get back onto my own
side of the mountains again.  I'm ready to go home."
     The guard at the door nodded and gestured them through.
     "What of Pelen?" Jassem asked gently as they stepped through the
doorway, one which could be selectively tuned for its destination in some
unobvious manner.
     "I'll go back for him, soon." Pavel agreed.  "I just want a short time
to think, away from anyone who might try to convince me or persuade me or
trick me.  Connobar is as close to that as I'm going to get."
     He pushed his way into the city streets of Connobar, for this entry
had been here all along in the very heart of Connobar, disguised as part of
a wall in an alley near the edge of the town.  Pavel knew this was no
coincidental placement; he was sure that Efram's people had some means of
programming or shifting the location of those doors.  Once in an almost
unused location, it was now a busy place as the peoples of Desire began to
understand and try to use it, Pavel had to press his way through several of
the large, blond Connobaran citizenry to get into the broader street
beyond.
     "Well, coming home suits me." Jethro said.  "I'm going to take Jassem
home with me and introduce him to my fathers."
     "And what then?" Pavel asked, breathing a bit heavy.  The mist was
back in hold of him, for it held total sway in Connobar and Facilitata
Valleys.  "Going to explore some more?"
     Jethro gestured, for they were on a slight hill north of town, and the
mountains beyond the farmlands were clearly visible.  "I don't know." He
said.  "Going and seeing new places is incredible, but it seems like,
beyond every mountain you climb, there's always another mountain.  I'm
tired of climbing mountains right now.  I just want to go home.  Maybe
later, when," and his eyes fixed on Jassem, who smiled bashfully back,
"when I have worked some things out, I'll know more."
     "You'll come visit me, won't you?" Pavel asked.
     "You bet." Jethro said.  "Soon as you figure out where your home is,
send me a postal and let me know."  In the few days the Hall had been known
and operational, a messenger service had already been created and put into
service, and "postal" had become a term both for the runners between the
valleys and their messages, both words and news either written and oral.
Small and tenuous still with no set schedule or fees, it was easy to see
that it would soon form the beginnings of a planet-wide postal service and
so the word had already sprung up in their language.
     But where his home was?  Jethro's words gave him pause; Pavel realized
that in the past few weeks, he had somehow grown out of his family home,
and yet hadn't found one of his own yet.  Where was his home?
     "Pavel!" came a familiar voice, and Pavel reeled about in a sudden
burst of happiness!
     "Father!" he called out.
     It was Ivan, coming out of the same alleyway that he had.  His father
had come to Connobar...why?  No matter, Pavel ran to his father's large,
strong arms and kissed the face that was so much like his own, older than
he, but with hair still untouched by gray and face still unlined, and a
smile that looked just like the one on his face felt!
     Pavel kissed that face, feeling safe and secure and warm in the arms
of his father and he reached up and kissed again, and longer, deeper.
Whether the renewed influence of the mist on his life, or the need to crawl
as close to his father as he could, didn't matter to Pavel, he needed his
father's touch, and here on Desire, what better way to obtain that touch
and soothe the beleaguered body at the same time?
     So Pavel ground his groin against his father's, and was unsurprised to
feel a twin prong in his father's trousers rising the same as his own.
     "Take it to the park." cautioned a passerby.
     Pavel released his father's lips, looked with lust-glazed eyes as if
into a mirror.
     "One's this way!" sighed Ivan.
     They ran to the park, a crowded and rather boisterous place, too small
for the increased crowds it now had to support, but they were lucky enough
to find a bench a couple finished and vacated, and Pavel sat down upon it,
not caring that he sat in a puddle of Connobaran jism freshly shot onto the
stone.
     "Dad, please!" Pavel sighed.  "Fuck me!" and he stretched back onto
the bench, and tugged at his lower clothing, pulling the sash off and
tossing it aside, letting his pants fall open without its support.
     Ivan continued to be the tender lover, as he sat straddle of the bench
between Pavel's legs and helped Pavel remove the satin shoes, the
silken-smooth clothing.  It was a billowing mass of light cloth in the warm
breeze here, and Ivan let the wind snatch it from his hands, and so it fell
to the ground, quite nearby but a leg dropped over a Connobaran couple in
mid-fuck on the grass there.
     "Hey!" the guy on top said.  Connobarans didn't have to move to
pleasure their mates, so he could spare the time and motions to lift the
offending cloth from his back and toss it back their way, all the while
glaring at Pavel and his father, and his partner continued to moan
appreciatively at his lover's pulsating prod.
     "Sorry." Ivan said.
     "Come on, Dad, fuck me!" Pavel begged.
     "Let me get some spit on it first, son." Ivan said.
     "Need some help with that?" a Connobaran, solitary, came over.
     "Only with the lube." Pavel said before Ivan could volunteer.  "He's
my dad, and we haven't seen each other in weeks and weeks.  So I don't want
to share him!"
     "Now, son..." Ivan chided him.
     "No." Pavel said sternly.  "You're all mine."
     "That's all right." the Connobaran said.  "Let me slick your dad up
and I'll sort of watch until someone comes along who doesn't mind sharing."
In relationship-oriented Connobar, he had a longer wait than he would in
more relaxed Facilitata.  So Pavel let him take his father's prick and suck
on it, a blissful look on his handsome, strong, blond face while he suckled
the long, hard prong.  Ivan rose up to crouched legs still straddle of the
bench, and he groaned and hunched back at the clutching mouth which settled
into unmoving deep-throat, and Pavel knew that this man was vibrating his
father's cock rapidly.
     "Enough of that!" He ordered.  "Now it's my turn!"
     "But..." the Connobaran said, one hand still on Ivan's cock at the
base, holding the now-red-and-angry pud ready.
     "Let it be." Ivan said to the man.  "There's someone coming in alone
over there!"  And Ivan pointed.
     The Connobaran left hastily, and Pavel said, "Thanks, Dad.  Now shove
it in me."
     Ivan remained the tender lover, he knelt down and rested his son's
legs on his shoulders and gently guided his cock into his son's quivering
anus, and Pavel felt his ass clutch and pull at his father's dong as if it
wanted to suck it in hard.  Which he did!
     But Ivan kept the pace slow, and Pavel was groaning when the last few
inches went in, and Ivan was firmly inside of him, and Ivan leaned over and
Pavel grabbed his father's body and pulled him down tight.
     "Now, Dad!" he gasped out.  "Fuck me hard."
     "Slow down, son." Ivan panted.  "We don't have to hurry."
     "I'm in a hurry." Pavel sobbed out.  "God, it's been so long, Dad,
come on, come on!" and Pavel began to use his legs to hold onto Ivan's back
and thrust his butt up against his dad's prick and send that thrilling rod
deep into his bowels.
     Ivan had been holding back, Pavel could tell, and this last effort of
his son drew him over the brink as always.  Pavel always had to use this
trick on his father, work away the last dregs of conscience and get his dad
into the fuck, and then his dad was a terrific fuck, such a wonderful cock
that plunged in and found his button every stroke, just like now, now!
     "Oh, God, Dad, you're so good!" Pavel grunted.  "Can we take a day and
just find somewhere and fuck and fuck...."
     "I wish we could." Ivan agreed.  "When I'm done, I'll stay home for a
while and we'll make up for lost time, I promise."
     "Make it up now, Dad!" Pavel groaned, fucking himself on Ivan again
despite Ivan's thrusts into his son's body.  "Fuck me now, now!  Oh, God,
harder, Dad, harder!"
     Now his father fell into the frenzy that Pavel loved the most, the way
in which his dad forgot it was his son he was fucking, but just knew he had
a hot asshole to plunge into and he vented his lust totally in his motions,
and in the process he drove Pavel absolutely wild with that thick, meaty
prong of his, so that every move Ivan made was pure joy to Pavel, he was
being fucked and it was great, it was wonderful!
     Pavel felt as always when his father fucked him that wildly gyrating,
chaotic rise to climax, his body wrenched and writhed in his dad's arms, he
was tumbling in a cyclone, he was caught in a whirlpool, his body was being
sucked into a force stronger than him, and in that tide, that black hole,
that quicksand of passion, he threw himself willingly and his body clutched
and he climaxed, his cock sprayed his father's chest liberally with
white-hot juice and Ivan gasped as Pavel's asshole clamped onto him and he
groaned, and Pavel's jism splattered him on the face as he lowered it
downwards and Ivan rose his head up again, dripping and splattered with his
son's jism and his teeth were a grid of white blocks as he roared and his
mouth opened wide and he hunched into his son's butt hard and Pavel felt
the familiar flood of his father's load as it spewed into him, the way his
own sperm had splattered both of them, the very same sperm bearing the very
same genes, for his father was himself, and he was his father, one body in
two forms and two minds, now joined again so briefly in the moment of
mutual pleasure, and Pavel seized that moment for what it was, he climbed
into his father's being and joined his soul with his father's again for a
brief, wonderful instant, and felt whole once more.
     Ivan finished his climax and fell briefly against Pavel, only to rouse
himself still weak in order to lift the weight, and Pavel caught him and
held him down tight, not letting his father pull away, for when he pulled
away, the tie would be broken again.  He wished this moment could last
forever, but despite his tight hold, the time ended, and he was alone in
his body once more, and his father a separate being outside of him, a
sweaty, wonderful, gentle man, and Pavel kissed him gratefully, and dreamed
of the next time.  They would spend some time together soon, he swore to
himself, days and days of just the two of them.  He'd manage it somehow.
And Ivan rose up and sat back on the bench, only Pavel's legs touching him
still.
     Pavel rose with a sigh, both of relief and disappointment at once, and
said to his father, "What brings you here to Connobar?"
     "I was about to ask you the same question." Ivan said as he adjusted
his clothing.  He was always so bashful after sex with his son, fighting
off those obsolescent taboos of Earth.  This was Desire, sex was an urgent
part of life more demanding as food and as demanding as thirst, why limit
it like this?  If a father and his adult child were to be near each other
for any period of time, incest was inevitable.  Even the Arabs, who still
held it to be a taboo, treated transgressions quite lightly, it was more a
social gaffe than a crime, akin to picking your nose in public, and not
nearly as serious as using your left hand to eat with.
     "I just wanted to get away from the Angels and Ifriti and Djinni and
Arabs and Turtle Men." Pavel admitted.  "They all wanted something from me,
and I needed some time to think."
     "I'm told you're now the sole owner of the Hall of Doors."  Ivan said.
     "Yes, but I don't plan to do anything about that." Pavel said.
"Everyone can use it without me charging or anything, as far as I'm
concerned."
     "That's not a wise decision." his father cautioned.
     "Huh?" Pavel looked at his father.  "Why not?"
     "Because the world has gotten more complicated, thanks to you and
those Doors."
     "I thought I had solved the problems of the world." Pavel said, a
trifle irked at this response.  Hadn't he done a wonderful thing, saving
his whole people from eventual extinction on this world?
     "There's no such thing as a solution." Ivan said, smiling and placing
a friendly hand on Pavel's shoulder.  "Only the shifting of problems into
new fields."
     "Beyond every mountain there's another mountain." Pavel said, quoting
Jethro's choice.
     "A whole range of them, usually." Ivan said.  "That's why I'm here.
To tackle all the problems you've just caused by solving the one we already
had."
     "Like what?"
     "First, we need to charge Connobar for the use of the door in order to
get trade goods for Facilitata." Ivan said.  "We haven't been charging for
giving them children, which suits me, but we have to have something to
trade them, because there are a lot more of them than of us, and we need a
lot of what they have.  Like clothing, for one thing."
     "We're going to have to invent money." Pavel said, seeing it.  "Rent
the Hall of Doors to Connobar, and use it to buy stuff to take back to
Facilitata."  Everyone would gain from that, and the fee could be small and
still worthwhile.
     "Exactly.  And the same with the Turtle Men, because the Angels have
things the Connobarans don't."
     "Make them set up some of those people carriers they have in the
Turtle Valley over here." Pavel agreed.  Charging the Angels didn't bother
him one bit; if they'd been more generous with humans to begin with, a lot
of misery could have been averted.
     "And we'll need something to buy the help of the Ifriti with." Ivan
pointed out.
     "What?  Why?"
     "They own the valley with the Mother Trees." Ivan said.
     "Mother Trees?" Pavel asked.
     Ivan shrugged.  "I had to call them something.  And they do take very
tender care of their victims inside those hollow cores of theirs.  You saw
Aram, he feels very affectionate toward that tree.  They think his child
will be born some five days from now.  It'll be worth seeing how it turns
out."
     "I felt the same way inside that tree." Pavel said.  "Like I was safe
and it would take care of me."
     "Well, that's what a mother does."
     "That's what a father does." Pavel clarified.
     Ivan smiled in the praise.  "Well, we're not using the word for
anything else, might as well let a tree have it."
     "Okay, so they charge us for the use of the Mother Tree Valley." Pavel
agreed.  "We know what they want, guards for their clutches."
     "Which they can get easier from the Arabs." Ivan pointed out.  "We'll
have to pay high for the use.  Another reason to get from the Angels and
Connobarans all that we can."
     "Whoo!" Pavel was seeing the problems.
     "And of course, the Priests of the Temple of Children want to get
permission to try to transplant one of the smaller Mother Trees to their
Temple."
     "A replacement Tree of Children." Pavel agreed.
     "Can you see the Council of Ifriti letting us go in and dig up the
very reason we need their help?"
     "Not really."
     "So I get to mediate between those two." Ivan said.  "And I also need
to speak with the former owners of the Hall of Doors, see if we can set one
of the working doors for Facilitata, that one with the water, or the one to
the Djinni Valley.  It'd save us a lot of time and travel.  But of course,
the Connobarans won't want that, us slipping around them to get to the
Mother Trees, so I'll have to do that on the quiet and then find a way to
make them happy when they find out."
     "You're going to be very busy." Pavel agreed.
     "And so will you, son." Ivan said.  "Or should I say, Keeper of the
Hall of Doors?"
     "Oh, brother!" Pavel groaned.  He had dumped one title just to be
saddled with another with just as onerous duties.  "Dad, what am I going to
do?"
     Ivan hugged Pavel.  "You do whatever you want to, son.  Whatever that
is, I'll work with it.  I promise you that.  Why don't you go home and
think about it?  I know your Father Al and Uncle David would love to see
you."
     "Go home?  But where is that?" Pavel asked.  "Where is my home now?"
     Ivan understood his underlying question.  "Home is where your heart
is." he said gently. "Think about it and you'll know.  I must go now, the
Council is waiting for me."  He hugged and kissed Pavel on the forehead
gently, a father's kiss for his son, and then strode off purposefully
through the throng, looking more like a man on the tramp than the one on
whose shoulders the fate of his world rested.
     But didn't that same appellation apply to him? Pavel thought to
himself.  "Home is where the heart is?" he asked himself out loud, not
caring if the nearby Connobarans looked at him curiously.  "But where is
that?"  He asked his heart.
     And his heart told him.  Pavel rose up and strode back into the alley
* he had just quitted.  It was still early afternoon, he had time to get
* everything done before nightfall if he was lucky.  * * * *
     Pelen turned and stirred in his bed, for it was now just past
nightfall.  Pavel set the bachelor's light down on the floor as he crawled
in the window, and Pelen looked up and his face lit up.  "Pavel!" He
shouted for joy and leapt into Pavel's arms.
     "How long can you stay?" Pelen said as he kissed Pavel.
     Pavel kissed him a good, long while before he let go long enough to
say, "Quite a while."
     "Good." Pelen kissed him again.  "I've missed you!"
     "Shut up and kiss me." Pavel said.
     Pelen did, and with a lot of fumbling, they got Pavel's clothing off
(he was wearing Turtle Man-style clothing now) and nude, Pelen pulled Pavel
on top of him onto the bed and they bounced!
     Pavel laughed, and so did Pelen at the almost-trampoline effect they
got, they were flying in all directions, and Pavel ended up askew on Pelen,
and he took advantage of that to skitter on around so that he could find
Pelen's cock and slurp it down.  Pelen groaned and reached a long arm out
to grasp Pavel's prick, and Pavel steered his lower body around to meet
Pelen halfway.
     They sucked each other in this way, Pelen apparently settling in for a
long session, but Pavel found himself craving more, he pulled himself loose
from Pelen's clutching mouth and clinging to Pelen's rod until the last
moment and slathering it with his lips and mouth so that it shone in the
light of the bachelor plant on the floor, a golden tower of manhood, Pavel
held Pelen in place when he attempted to get up and straddled Pelen and
sent that beautiful pud attached to this beautiful body into himself.
     As his body sank onto the turgid pole, and Pelen sighed and stroked
his thighs in contentment, Pavel found his emotions very akin to those he'd
had with his father earlier that same day.  There was the same sense
of...connection, of returning to the place where he belonged.  He fucked
himself on Pelen's prick and that same wonderfully bright, magnificent,
multi-colored explosion of contented joy spread through him.
     He looked down into Pelen's eyes, framed with hair the color of fire,
and the light in his eyes burned brighter by far.
                                             "I love you." he said to
Pelen.
     "I love you, too." Pelen said.  "My wonderful friend from across the
mountains, stay with me."
     "Always." Pavel said.
     "I don't care if we can't marry." Pelen said as Pavel rode his prick.
"This is enough.  Give me the nights, and I will surrender the dawns."
     "Say instead that I may remain." Pavel begged him.
     "I would never chase you away." Pelen agreed, but his eyes and face
were softened, and Pavel knew that his lover was close to climax.  He
closed his own eyes and rode the tall schlong, letting it take him, possess
him entirely, giving it every last dreg of his existence, so that nothing
was denied to his gentle Turtle Man.  He'd almost sneered at Pelen's simple
loyalty, now was the time to return it in full.
     And in that moment, Pavel felt his own climax surge up the back of his
neck and assault his brain, and Pelen was hunching upwards into him in
fierce need, attacking with all the danger of a kitten, for there was love
in this assault, and no anger at all.  Pavel hadn't yet touched his cock,
but he did now, a couple of flogs from his hand, and he struck his summit
of joy, his eyes saw sparks flying all around him, dimming the room and
even Pelen beneath him, and Pavel groaned and squirted his wad onto Pelen's
broad, fair chest, and Pelen gave a low keen while his head rose upwards to
where Pavel only saw his neck, and Pavel felt Pelen's jism flying into him.
     And again, as with his father, was the sense of joining into a whole,
but here it wasn't a return, but a sense of something new, complete and
whole though never having existed before.  His soul clung to this new part
of itself, and even when his climax slid away from him at last, and he
leaned over to press his body against Pelen and feel his come on Pelen's
chest as wetness on his own, the sense remained, a steady burning flame.
     He kissed Pelen, and this was no expression of the new self, but
rather an affirmation of it, it was as if he were Pelen and Pelen were him.
     He had come home.
     Pelen sleepily pulled the covers up over both of them in a haphazard
way.  "Sleep now." he urged Pavel.  "I'll wake you up before dawn, I
promise."
     "No need to do that." Pavel said.  "Mahmoud passed away this morning.
So this afternoon, I went to the Tribunal and demanded the right to take
you out of the Turtle Valley with me."
     "You did?  And what did they say?" Pelen said.
     "They refused me outright.  Other Turtle Men may leave this Valley,
they said, but not you.  Blackmail pure and simple; they didn't even try to
pretend it was anything else.  I stormed, I yelled, I even threatened to
wall up the Hall of Doors; but they wouldn't budge.  You have to stay
here."
     Pelen was silent.  "So...so now what do we do?" he asked.
     Pavel smiled.  "So now I will live here in the Turtle Valley and take
great pleasure in charging the Tribunal all that I can for their use of the
Hall of Doors." he said.  "That should make me a very rich man by Turtle
standards.  And if I'm going to live here for the rest of my life, I should
have a husband, don't you think?"
     Pelen looked at him with a nearly featureless face, then turned
without a word, got out of bed, picked up the bachelor plant and carried it
back toward the window.
     Pavel was puzzled and worried. He had presumed too much.  "Pelen,
maybe I didn't ask you right, but...."
     Pelen threw the bachelor plant out the window, turned back and looked
at Pavel.
     "Why'd you do that?" Pavel asked, confused.
     Pelen shrugged.  "It would have woke us both up just before dawn,
flickering like it does.  And besides," a smile spread over his face, "I
don't need it any more."
     Pavel felt a silly grin on his face as Pelen climbed back into bed and
into his arms.  Pavel held him tightly and, after kissing that sweet face
more times than he could count, let himself fall at last into the darkness
of sleep, there to wait for the dawn of the new day.

				  THE END

[Author's Note: I won't swear to never do another series in this universe,
but I definitely need a very long break before I even think about it.  So
no promises about a sequel this time.  There was a five-year break between
"Planet of Desire I" and "The Sperm Wars."  Maybe I need another five years
before I return to this one.  --Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM]