The Fishfull River, after running swiftly to the north-west, with a bend changes course an flows directly west. Wide and majestic until it placidly flows into the Ocean, its waters seem loath to mix with the salty water of the sea. For a good stretch the clear flow of the Fishfull can be distinguished from the darker open sea waters.
Where the Fishfull makes the bend, the small Rough River gives its waters to its bigger brother, with a tall foaming waterfall. Especially now that, even in the mountains, Spring has made its entry. The waters of the Rough are full and generous, and the waterfall thunders with a powerful voice its solemn and eternal song. The tall curtain of small droplets, rises like a veil from the roaring waters and glistens under the sun.
Between the rocks facing the waterfall, where the shining water's veil never settles, there is a staff, a bundle and a few clothes which seem to have been hastily abandoned. A little farther away, wallowing in the water, is a nineteen year old young man, named Fine-Man-By-The-Dear-Eye. Merrily he sings, while washing away from his body the dust and dirt of the long journey that brought him from the high valley of the Fishfull to this point. His strong and sound body shines under the sun at each dart of his full muscles, while he vigorously brushes his golden skin.
Finedear, as he is called, decided to leave his native village between the mountains; he wants to go to the Capital, to become a soldier of the Emperor. His strength, his height and his agility are give him an advantage. But before he continues his journey, he has to stop at Narrowport Town, where a friend of the village-chief will give him a letter of recommendation to give to the recruiting officer.
Meanwhile, coming down from the Rough valley, is The-Last-Friend-Of-The-Moon, known as Friend. Thin for his sixteen years, his body clearly shows the first signs of virility. Cautiously, he climbs down from rock to rock to the side of the waterfall, and stops to watch Finedear. He asks himself, how can, the young man, be comfortable in these icy waters, and at the same time Friend enjoys Finedear's beautiful shape. The young man, still unaware that he has an admirer, continues to brush his seductive body with energy.
Friend descends a little more, stops to again enjoy the scene, and feels pervaded by a light sensation of pleasure. The gentle wind, coming down from the mountains, disperses part of the luminescent water curtain. The resulting half rainbow, disappears into the air; shaped like a triumphal arch over the sensual body of Finedear. Friend holds his breath and for a moment imagines that he is next to the young man, and it is he who brushes with his hands that sound body.
Finedear see him and shouts something; but the roar of the waters drown out his voice. Raising his arm, he waves a greeting, then gestures for him to approach. Friend answers the greeting and resumes his descent and sees Finedear face opening in a smile. Reaching the bottom of the waterfall, near Finedear clothes and belongings, he stops. The young man, raising his hands to his mouth in a funnel shape, shouts him:
"Come on, it's gorgeous!"
"Isn't the water cold?"
"Icy, therefore splendid!" the other shouts.
Friend is hesitant, but puts down his staff and his bundle. He unties his short skirt, made of two light blue squares hemmed in yellow. These are the colors of his people and his village. Removing the white new loincloth his mother had sewn for the occasion, he carefully puts everything away and with a tip of his foot tests the water. Finedear approaches him:
"It's only at the beginning that it seems difficult. Dive in!"
Friend smiles hesitantly, sees the other stretching his arms towards him and then, with a deep breath, his feet joined, he jumps into the water, shivering. Finedear welcomes him and start brushing Friend's body:
"Soon, you will feel good." he says with a wide smile.
Friend trembles, he feels tempted to get out at once; but the sensation of the other's hands on his body is too pleasurable to forego.
"Isn't it already a little better?" the other asks him continuing to vigorously brush the boy's skin.
"Yes, a little."
"My name's Finedear. Yours?"
"Friend."
"Where are you going?"
"To the Capital."
"I too, to become a soldier. But you?"
"To enter the Imperial School."
"Ah, I thought so, you do not have the body of a soldier. But you are handsome." Finedear said and started to caress the boy in an intimate way.
Friend closed his eyes, quivering at these caresses. Finedear brush his lips with a finger and says:
"I like you." and holds the boy tight against his body.
Friend relaxes in those arms and starts to lightly caress that sound body, those firm muscles.
"Come..." Finedear says, pushing the boy out of the water towards the shore, to a point where, among the rocks, there is a grassy spot.
Here he lay the boy on the grass. Friend looks at his beautiful, firm and well shaped legs, his narrow waist, his hollow belly, the muscled chest with just a light tuft of hairs between the dark nipples, his wide shoulders and feels burning with desire.
"I want you!" Finedear tells him, looking at him with lusty eyes, and goes down, lying with his body on him.
Friend is pleased at having been able to arouse such a fine youth male and to be desirable in his eyes.
The two naked bodies hold each other tight with eager desire. Finedear spreads the boy's legs, and Friend welcomes into his channel the young man's hard flesh, and caresses Finedear with expert hands, in his most sensitive spots, giving him a strong pleasure. The young man enjoys the boy under him with fierce determination and joy.
Friend is rather amazed at how everything happened, with extreme spontaneity, almost without words, as if both had always know that it would happen. Two strangers, united like two lovers. Two strangers that had lit up the desire in each other, that had acknowledged it, accepted it, and that now are consuming it under the spring sun, both full of passion.
Later, when their sated bodies parts, Friend feels strangely filled with contradicting emotions: pleasure for what had just happened, but at the same time, stupor to have done it with a perfect stranger, and the desire to leave as soon as possible. On the other hand, Finedear seems fully satisfied. Caressing Friend between his legs, with a feeling of possession, he says:
"We will travel together. I have to stop at Narrowport Town, then we will go together to the Capital."
"I can't, I have to get there with all possible speed, I don't have enough time." Friend lies, feeling a little uneasy.
"That's a pity. But in the Capital we can meet again. I will be in the Imperial Army, you in the Imperial School, so it can not be very difficult to meet again."
"The Capital is huge, it isn't like one of our villages, where everybody knows everyone." Friend answers while dressing.
"But I want you again, Friend, therefore we will meet again." Finedear answers, putting his own clothes back on.
They go down the valley together, in silence. Friend tries to analyze what he feels toward Finedear... He feels strongly attracted to him, but at the same time he feels the young man is a perfect stranger, far apart from him. The other has a handsome body, sensual, makes love in an extremely pleasurable way, and yet Friends is aware he doesn't want him as a lover. No, he decides inside himself, he will not look for Finedear when he is in the Capital. It was good, but everything ends here. It isn't like with his Rock, his friend, a year older than him, back there at their village. With Rock, there was affection and because of that, when the priest said to Friend's family that they had to send their son at the Imperial School, Friend hesitated for a long time: he didn't want to part from Rock. But his friend had insisted that Friend had to leave...
They had been lovers for two years, he and Rock. The first time had been one winter, when a sudden snow storm stranded the two friends for five days in a mountain hut, with their sheep. They slept under the same rug, huddling against each other to mitigate the cold and give warmth each other. Then Rock embraced him, caressed him, aroused him little by little, until he taught him to make love. It had been really wonderful. Their old friendship resulted strengthened by that. Rock wasn't handsome like Finedear, and yet gave him, since the very first time, something that Finedear did not seem to even know: tenderness, affection and not just pleasure.
With Rock, he also had very fine, long chats. Finedear, on the contrary, seems to have nothing to say and at Friends conversation attempts, answers with little more than monosyllables. Sure, even now, walking at his side, Friend feels the sensual power emanating from his companion's body, and that reawakens his desire.
When they reach the town gates, they part. There is nobody around, so Finedear takes Friend in his arms:
"You'll came to look for me in the Capital?" he asks with warm voice, slipping his hand under the boy's short skirt and rummaging in his loincloth.
"Yes... sure..." Friend lies, but he feels aroused.
See, now Rock would have kissed him, but Finedear parts from him saying: "I count on that." At a fast pace, he sets out for the town, without even turning back for a last look.
Friend continues on the coastal road, to the north, towards the Capital.
Everything considered, Friend is happy to enter the Imperial School: at the village, at the temple school, he always had been the best; and the priest had given him a presentation letter, full of praise and commendation. Just the best of the best are sent to the Imperial School, and from his village, he was the first after many years. The village had held a great feast, before he left, with an oratorical competition in his honour. His fellow townsmen, his family, his Rock were proud of him. His mother had sewn expressly for him the two squares of the skirt and the white loincloth that, as the priest had explained, only the aristocrats and the students in the Imperial School can wear.
Friend walks at a rapid pace. By sunset, he reaches a fishermen's village. He sits down in the square as it is custom for travellers to do. After a short while, a woman approaches him with a cup of water that she hands him, and asks:
"Where are you from, lad?"
"From Resonant village."
"I see... and where are you going?"
"To the Capital."
"A long journey... why are you going to the Capital?"
"I have to enter in the Imperial School."
The woman makes a great surprised gesture and gives a loud shout, then, leaving the cup with him, runs to the village houses to spread the news. Soon, many assemble around Friend, giving a wide berth to the boy, observing him. Then the woman who had befriended him before, said to him:
"The journey is long and you, noble student, will need a good rest, tonight. If you want to came to my humble adobe..."
"Come to my place, noble student, it is wider and more comfortable, and I'll give you my own bed..." a man says. And soon everybody vies to offer him hospitality.
Friend, a little astounded, stands up and looks at them - he didn't expect such a warm welcome. He is trying to decide from whom to accept an invitation, when the village-chief comes forward - he can recognize him from the historiated staff and the copper collar.
"You will come to my house, noble student. I have already had the food made ready. Come."
Friend thanks him and follows him. They enter the house and he is seated at a table. The chief's wife puts an abundance of food in front of him :
"Eat as much as you wish, noble student..." she says.
Friend doesn't need much persuading, he is hungry. He says thanks and starts eating. One by one, the chief's children enter the room and line up on the other side of the table, watching at him. Friend looks at them: there are five, the oldest a boy about his own age, the youngest a girl about five years old. When the girl notices being watched, shyly asks him:
"What's your name?"
"The-Last-Friend-Of-The-Moon."
"And are you called, Last?"
"No, Friend. And you?"
"I am Flower-Of-May-Field and I'm called May, he is Stone, she is Well, he is Reed and he is Scythe." the girl says introducing her brothers and sister in order of age.
"Scythe?" Friend asks of the older boy.
"Yes, noble student, my full name is Sun-Reflection-On-The-Scythe."
"And, how old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Like me."
When Friend finishes his meal, the children start a flurry of questions. Scythe is the only one to listen and he is silent. Scythe has a swimmer body, lean and firm, and a serious expression. Friend likes him and thinks that if they were of the same village, for sure they would have become friends. The sun has set and they lit the lanterns. The adults send the children to bed and, around the table, just the chief, his wife, Scythe and Friend remain.
The chief asks a few more questions of Friend, then, later, says to his son: "Show to our guest where he will sleep. It is time for him to have some rest."
"Yes father. Come, noble student..."
Friend follows him to a small room.
"Here, this is my bed. You can sleep here."
"But... what about you?"
"I'll sleep here, on the ground."
"No, it is not fair. The bed is wide enough for two to sleep in."
"I wouldn't want to disturb you, during the night, with my moving..."
"No, really, I don't want to deprive you of your bed."
"Well, it is just for one night. And you have to travel, you need to have a good rest."
"No, I insist." Friend says pulling off his short skirt and lying on the bed so that he is using just half of it.
So Scythe lies on the part left empty for him: "Thank you, you are really kind."
"You are kind, offering me your bed." Friend answers.
Scythe blow out the lantern.
Friend feels his warmth near him and is lightly aroused, but he doesn't dare make any advances.
"I would like to go to the Capital, I have never went that far..." Scythe whispers.
"Neither have I. They say it is really beautiful."
"In fact, they also call it The Beautiful, and The Great or also The Golden City." Scythe says in a dreaming tone. "But it is so far away, it seems that it is twenty or more walking days from here." he then adds.
"Yes, a long journey." Friend says.
"You have to be really good, if they send you to the Imperial School." Scythe murmurs. Friend doesn't answer.
After a while, Scythe whispers: "You wear the white loincloth, like the aristocrats."
"Yes, the Imperial School students have to wear it." Friend answers.
"And it is of very soft cloth..." Scythe says, lightly passing his hand on it.
Friend quivers, excited. The other boy notices it and increases his caresses. Friend emits a short pleasure moan. The other boy slips his hand under it and gets hold of his turgid member, fingering it. Friend spreads his legs moaning again, anxiously waiting.
"Untie it..." Scythe murmurs bending between his legs and he closes his lips on his guest's member.
He sucks it, with evident pleasure and skill, and he moves his lips and tongue in such a special way, that his guest feels an intense pleasure. While sucking, the boy caresses all his guest's body and Friend, little by little, feels more and more intense sensations that culminate in a final explosion. The boy drinks almost greedily, and at the end, parts with a sigh, and murmurs: "You have a really good taste. Thank you."
Oddly, Scythe doesn't want to be touched, reciprocated. He neither untied his loincloth. As Friend falls asleep, he thinks that this journey has started in a decidedly pleasant way - two adventures, with foreigners, just on the first day.
The following morning, as he prepares to resume his journey, the chief gives him some friendly advice. After passing through the next village, there is a road on the right, it's new road built on the Emperor's order. This road, passes a little more into the hinterland and so avoids all the coastal curves. Friend thanks him and continues his way, at a good pace. He reaches the following village at mid morning and, seeing the crossroads, he takes the road to the right.
It starts out as nothing more than a small narrow path and he begins to think that he has taken the wrong road, but after a short way, it opens up to a wide paved road. Looking back, in the direction he had just come from, towards south, Friend sees squads of men working to build it. After he had been walking on the road for a while, he sees another squad of men, on both sides of the road, planting a lines of trees. In a few years, Friend thinks, this road will be splendid.
He walks for a long time. The spring scenery, the more he goes to the north, is of a gentle beauty, full of perfumes and colours. On his left, a little lower, the great ocean laps at the indented coasts. In the serene sky, birds in flocks, fly high in a kind of fluid and solemn dance.
By evening, he reaches a kind of inn, a new building recently built at the road side for the travellers. When he passes in front of it, a girl standing near the door, addresses him with a wide smile:
"Young traveller, night is almost here, why don't you stop here to eat and rest , at our place?"
"Yes, I would like to stop..."
"It is not expensive here: you can have food and a bed for just six small piasters."
"Six small piasters? But I only have ten of them to begin with and I have to travel for twenty more days! I could never afford such an expense!"
"Ha, then... I'm sorry." the girl says, suddenly surly.
At that moment, a man appears in the doorway: "Where are you going, boy, in twenty days, to the capital?"
"Yes, I have to enter the Imperial School."
"Ah, then you must have a letter of introduction..."
"Sure, here it is." Friend says, taking it from his bundle, and showing it to the man.
The man takes it and reads it. "Good," he says giving it back to the boy, "in that case I'll offer you a stop in this inn. Enter and be my guest."
"I thank you. Who are you?"
"The Imperial Roads Official. I'm going to control the work on this road. Come, we will eat and have a chat together."
The man is pleasant company. He tells Friends that he has a twenty year old son in the Imperial Guard. He lives in a new house in the Capital's outskirts and invites him to go visit him, sometimes, explaining how he can find his house. Then, later, after showing him a bed in the communal room, bides him good night and retires into his personal room. Friend is stuck by the generosity of the official, by his gentle manners, by his elegant speaking.
The official, of course, spoke the "flowery language" that is, the official 'lingua franca' of the Empire that Friend learned in the temple school. While Friend is of the White Mountain People, the official is of the Jaguar People; he noticed; the slightly darker colour of his skin, his rounder eyes, his square chin and his aquiline nose. They say that once the Jaguar People dominated all the northern part of the Empire, ages before the Sun People founded the actual Empire. They say that the Sun People men are the most beautiful and strongest in the Empire and that the men of the Jaguar are the most refined and decadent. The official, seemed to Friend, a really refined man, but definitely not decadent.
The following morning, after thanking the official, Friend resumes his way to the north. Approaching the equator, and with the passing of days, it is becoming warmer, so that at times Friend sleeps in the open without any problems. Being nearer to the Capital, the road is more and more congested with traffic: Emperor's couriers, merchants, rich and poor people, all kinds of people. Friend watches, filled with curiosity, the thousand types he crosses. At times, he talks of his journey with somebody, so that, walking, they chat and time seems to pass a little faster.
On the eleventh day of his journey, from a side road a couple of youths enters the Imperial road, that Friend thinks to be husband and wife. They greet and walk together for a while. The couple are not going to the Capital, but will stop at Greatstone, a town famous for its gold mines, where they live. He is a gold foundry man. As dark approaches, the couple decides to stop at an inn and asks to Friend to be their guest. They all dine together, then she goes to her room to sleep.
Then the man says to Friend: "My sister likes you a lot - if you want, she's waiting for you in her room..."
Friend looks at him astounded, and says: "I thought she was your wife..."
"No, we are brother and sister. She has recently became a widow and I went to fetch her, to bring her back home with us, because she is not comfortable with her late husband's family. So, if you want to go..."
"I..." Friend says slightly embarrassed, "... am very young, I never had a woman..."
"Never?" the young man asks amazed, "and don't you feel like trying?"
"I don't know... I don't think so..." a hesitant Friend says.
The other, studies him for a moment, then says: "Well, then, if you prefer to come to my room, instead..." and under the table he slips his hand under the boy's skirt, daringly, caressing him.
Friend had not had sex in ten days; he is instantly aroused.
Feeling his excitation, the other one smiles and says: "Are you coming, then?"
Friend nods yes. They go upstairs to the young man's room. He puts down the lantern, and pushes Friend to sit on the edge the bed. Kneeling between his legs, and rising his skirt, he brushes his cheek on his swollen loincloth, pushing his nose on the groin crease and touches it with the tip of his tongue. Friend leans back on the bed, spreading his legs a little more, fully aroused. He feels the man's teeth lightly biting his erection through the cloth, while the youth's hands rummage with the knot to open it. Friend closes his eyes, shivering with pleasure, letting himself go with the increasing lust of his companion.
Baring the boy, the young man then strips himself. Settling the boy's body, he kneels between his legs, sliding his widespread knees under the boy's thighs at the sides of his small bottom. Pushing forward, resolute, self confident, strong, like an army climbing up the valley, wedging itself in it, and conquers the valley without meeting any resistance, takes it. Friend relaxes fully, savouring that virile assault and while the mighty rod wedges in him, his hands roam, in a frenzy, the body darting on him and in him at every push.
It is a long, strong, hot mating. They smile at each other. The young man, to get better leverage, holds the boy's shoulders, pulling his body to him at each thrust.
When at last, the young man relaxes on the boy, whispers to him: "You are better than my wife... I always loved the hot boys like you."
"Are you married?"
"Yes, sure, and I've two children. And an apprentice, your age, with whom at times I take my pleasure. But he isn't handsome as you are."
They sleep. The following morning, the young man wants to have sex again and Friend willingly accepts. He likes feeling the strong rod of the man sliding in him with such impetuosity. He likes seeing how the man, pleased, smiles at him while taking him. He feels the orgasm that is approaching, so he rises a little, enough to gently bit the youth's nipples and the man unloads in him with a few powerful thrusts. Friend comes between their tense bellies, holding tight, the man's body now laying on him, panting and satisfied.
Then, while the young man goes to wake up his sister, the boy resumes his journey.
On the fifteenth day of his journey, around noon, while the sun continues to shine, a thick but very light drizzle starts to fall and shapes luminescent veils that make Friend recall the waterfall and his encounter with Finedear. Of the three he's made love to, since the start of his journey, Finedear had been for sure, the most sensual. He asks himself if they will meet again and his feelings are conflicting. On one side, for sure, he really enjoyed their meeting, but on the other hand, he feels the other is like a perfect stranger.
After a while, the drizzle stops, and the sun rapidly dries Friend's skin - just the skirt is slower to dry, and the humid feeling of it against his thighs, is enjoyable. Friend walks until sunset. He stops at the side of the road where, close by, he sees a farmer's hut. The ground is still wet, so he goes to knock at the hut door, and he asks and obtains hospitality for the night.
The following day, early in the morning, he resumes his way. Now the road cuts inside a forest, not really thick, but beautiful. Bird songs, animal calls, the sun that brightly filters through the trees, make fascinating that stretch of the road. Friend looks around, enjoying the scenery. He stops when the sun is high, sits in a small clearing, and takes out some of the food he has in his bundle, begins to eat. He is thirsty, so he stand up and explores, looking for a stream of water. He finds it after a while, and crouches to drink, making a cup with his hands. Then, feeling the need to evacuate his bowels, he leaves the road, walking beside the stream, he unties his loincloth and crouches between some shrubs, and relieves himself.
He starts to get dressed again, when something brushes his cheek with a hiss, and the bundle he is about to put on his shoulder, falls on the ground, pierced through by a lance. Friend screams and sees an athletic, strong young man jumping out of the leafy branches. The man, seeing him stops abruptly, dumbfounded.
"Are you crazy to squat down amidst the bushes that way? I could have killed you!" the other says, frowning, and goes to retrieve his lance.
"I had to evacuate..." Friends excuses himself, bowing, because he notices the golden collar and the white loincloth and understands he is in front of an aristocrat.
At the center of the thin golden collar, there is an eagle with stretched wings, the symbol of the aristocrat's tribe.
"This is a hunting zone, you are reckless!" The other says, and turning his shoulders, disappears into the thicket at a fast pace, without saying another word.
Friend hurriedly goes back to the road. But in his eyes, still lingers the image of the nearly naked young man, of an unbelievable beauty. He had black, straight, shining hair, cut like an helmet; wide shoulders, narrow waist, powerful arms and legs; piercing dark eyes, sweet and thin lips, and, notwithstanding his frowned air, a gentle expression. Friend had risked being pierced through, and he really is, not by the man's lance; but by the vision of that young male. Like a vision, he appeared in front of him, and like a vision, he disappeared. But Friend still has his eyes and heart, full of him.
When at last, Friends comes in sight of The Beautiful, The Great, it is the dusk. The town stretches on the left to the great sea, and on the right up the slope, immense, white, pricked by the temples and tall buildings. Friend holds his breath. The sun, lowering into the sea, reddens the sky and the waters, so that everything seems suffused by a warm light, like a fire, without flames and without smoke. The white stone seems pure gold.
Friend feels it is better to sleep there, so that he can enter the town in the morning and search, at his ease, for the Imperial School. He parts slightly from the road, looking for a convenient place to lie down, but a spot which will allow him to enjoy the vision of the capital. He finds it, and remains seated for a long while. The sun now licks the waters and a long shining ribbon crosses the surface of the wide sea, connecting the solar disc to the town, like a liquid gold ribbon. From thousands of roofs, thin smoke lines rise, straight and soft in the still air. The sun has been completely swallowed by the waters and the sky is rapidly darkening. Here and there, spots of light from far away lanterns appears, mirroring the stars that are lighting up in the sky vault.
Friend thinks of the two gods that, transformed in powerful trees, lifted the sky from the earth, in the fifth creation, and mentally thanks them for what they had done. Now the sky is dark and black, in fact, the god Moon hadn't yet come to see this world. The town is almost invisible, if not for the faint and distant spots of light from some lanterns. Friend lies down, his heart completely filled with joy - he is about entering the Emperor's Town. A completely new kind of life is about to begin for him. If he excelled, he could become an Imperial Officer, or go back to his village, loaded with honours and prestige. But Friend is not ambitious, he just has a great hunger of learning, of knowing. He had been lucky to have been chosen for the Imperial School, and Rock, who really likes him, did well to push him to accept.
Friend cannot fall asleep just yet. The subtle excitement that got hold of him at the view of the Capital, still keeps him awake. In his mind, thoughts, fantasies and memories get crowded. He recalls Rock and asks himself if his friend is now sleeping, or if he too is thinking about him. Strong-More-Than-A-Rock, strong and tender, gentle and passionate, with whom it had been so beautiful to discover and live on the road of love. He wished he had him here now, next to him. To caress his familiar shape, that he could recognize even in the dark. To awake his desires, to savour his intimate and deep kisses, to feel his breath, smelling of mint, to suck his nectar, like the bee does in the flowers, to unite at last, after exhausting caresses, to the final explosion, one inside the other.
He falls asleep, aroused by his warm memories, by these warm thoughts, asking himself, would he ever find another lover, so complete. His Rock... Not beautiful, like the aristocrat that nearly killed him, not sensual, like Finedear at the waterfall, and yet so perfect.
The first sun is lapping at his body, heating it, like the embrace of his lover; awakens him. He stands up, voluptuously, stretches his muscles, take his bundle on his shoulder and, after retrieving from it, the letter that he slips in his stick top's slit, he sets out at a fast pace, entering the town.
He asks directions, several times to the Imperial School, finally he arrives in sight of a powerful building complex - on the right, towards the mountains, the Imperial Residence, on the left, towards the sea, the School, looking down on a wide terrace bordered by the Sun Temple, the Guard barracks and other important buildings.