Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 09:57:05 -0700
From: gayauthor@hushmail.com
Subject: Little Alexander - Chapters Nineteen Twenty and Twenty One

Chapter 19  Palestine

It was three hundred and fifty miles from Issus to Tyre, down the coast
of Palestine.

The column stretched for miles, winding its way down the coast.  Mounted
scouts patrolled far inland.  Occasionally reports coming in would have
the cavalry thunder off, kicking up a cloud of dust that hung like a
haze until dispersed by the sea breeze.

The army marched prepared for action.  Shields were slung over their
backs, swords chaffed along their thighs and they carried their spears
acting as staffs as they navigated the rocky pathways by the sea.

"You're limping, Leo.  Go and sit down over there."

Leo flung himself down on a grassy tuft.  Xeon took his shield off and
bent down to examine Leo's foot.

"There's a thorn.  Does it hurt."

"Mmmmmm."

"I'm going to pull it out."

"MMMMM"

He held the boy by his ankle and pulled.  The thorn had gone in deep.
 Xeon himself winced as he pulled it out.

"You need boots."

"Don't need them."

"Yes you do.  We'll see if we can find some with the quartermasters tonight."

Draxus had caught up with them and flung himself down next to Leo.  A
red faced Kalix leant heavily on his spear, and waved a tired hand at
Xeon.

Draxus said:  "How much fucking further?"

Xeon laughed.  "Welcome to the army boys."

"Seriously though, how much further?"

"You boys should be finding this easy.  How come we old men aren't complaining?"
 He winked at Kalix.

"Because you are stronger than us."  said Leo.  "This shield is killing
me."

Xeon ruffled his hair.  "I'll carry it for a bit.  Just up to that tree
on the horizon, you see it?"

"Thanks Xeon."

Kalix held out his hand for Drax's shield.

"Thanks old man!"

"The cheek of it."

With a quick look at each other, the two boys raced off, sprinting all
the way to the tree on the far horizon, then collapsing in its shade.

Xeon looked at Kalix.  "We've been had, old man."

"Who are you calling old!?"

They picked up the shields, slung them over their backs, and trudged
on up the hill.

Tyre was welcome relief.  White washed houses tumbled down the hillside
to a little port, guarded by a     fort that had surrendered as soon
as the army crossed the horizon.  There was fresh fish and wine from
Greece, spices from Egypt and everywhere the smell of cooking.  The market
square buzzed with exotic languages.  There were Syrians and people who
spoke Cilician, Phoenician and Aramaic.  The boys wandered around picking
up fruit they didn't even know the names for, staring open mouthed at
Egyptian traders with their dark leathery skin.  In the market the twins
drew a crowd of curious women, wrapped in colourful shawls, who stood
and pointed and gossiped about them.

Before leaving Issus Machers had spoken with Cleitus about the twins.
 He asked if Cleitus would ask Polymedes to take them and join the Sacred
Band.

"No."

"But why not?  That way we can all stay together."

"Son, it is better that they do not go with Polymedes.  Trust me."

"But..."

"That is my final word."

So the twins had been assigned instead to a hoplite division.  Polymedes
had remained with the Phalanx.

Xeon found the boys sitting with their legs over the dockside, fishing
for crabs.

"Boys, I've got some serious news."

The twins struggled to their feet and pulled in their lines.

"Alexander is marching south tomorrow, towards Egypt.  The Sacred Band
is to stay here to garrison Tyre and to train."

The boys looked at each other.

"Can Alpha and Omega stay?"

"No.  They will have to join their division.  I'm sorry boys."

Drax knotted his brow.

"It's alright," said Alpha.  "We'll be alright.  You lucky pricks get
to stay here while we get to do some more marching."

It didn't take much wine to make the boys drunk that night.  After much
laughing and crying they had fallen to sleep in a tangle of legs and
arms.

The next morning the twins were gone.

Polymedes, swung by before marching out.

"Xeon, Cleitus, Kalix - so long.  You are going to miss the looting.
 I hear the Egyptians are rich pickings."

"So long, Polymedes.  Be gentle now."

"You know me!"

-

Alexander had the Sacred Band he had asked for.  Over a thousand men
and boys formed the division, commanded by Pantordanus, who had ridden
with Leo into the forest at Issus.  Pantordanus had his own lover, another
officer, who was with the troop.  Roughly half the couples were in their
late teens or early twenties, many of them boyhood friends and lovers.
 The other half were men and their boys.

The Sacred Band was to be lightly armed shock troops.  The emphasis was
on speed and maneuverability and lightening, ferocious attack.

Day after day, in the hills above Tyre, the Band practiced and drilled.
 Shield drill, orchestrated by trumpet blast, saw them form up, much
like the Phalanx.  Cleitus was to the right, protecting Lysomachus, who
protected Xeon who protected Leo, who protected Kalix who protected Drax.
 And so on down the line.  They practiced locking their shields, then
co-ordinate a move that allowed them, as one, to lift the shields up
and over to protect the rear.  They spent days perfecting a move that
saw the front line open up to allow small squads through.  These squads
would launch lightening mini-attacks, before retreating into the line,
 that opened again to swallow them up.

Leo, Xeon, Machers and Cleitus were one of these squads.

For days they practiced the Phalanx push and the 'V' shaped formations.
 The boys learned how the whole formation could, at command, slide left
or right to take advantage of a weakness in the enemy line.

Leo's face was a picture of excitement as he learned the new skills.
 Every time they got a maneuver right his little face would beam up at
Xeon and he would say:  "We did well, didn't we?"

The three men took the boys into the hills to practice on their own.
 Despite the heavy training regime of the Band, Xeon thought it wasn't
enough.  He wanted Leo to be tougher, quicker, stronger than anything
he might face, and the boys loved to train.

They used to finish their workout with a push, boys against men.  It
was such an unfair match, but the boys would squeal with delight and
effort as they dug their heels in and swore at each other before collapsing
in a heap.

One afternoon Leo raced into camp to find the men.  "Come on, we've been
practicing the push, you won't beat us now!"

Grabbing their shields the three men lumbered up the hill, following
Leo into a clearing in a thicket of trees above the camp.  Machers and
Drax were already in a line in the middle of the clearing, the three
shields of the boys locked.  Leo sprinted round the back to take up his
position in the middle.  "Come on then you weaklings!" he goaded.

The men spat in their hands, locked shields and advanced at he boys.

"Come on then!" shouted Machers wildly.  Drax was grinning like a lunatic.

They drove into the boy's shields and hit a brick wall.  They pushed
hard but the boys didn't give an inch.

"Lay in men!" said Kalix.

Grunting and sweating the men put their shoulders into the push, their
feet scrabbling in the dust.

"What the fuck?"

They broke off.  The boys were lying in the grass in hysterical laughter.
 Behind their shield wall was a massive dead tree-trunk.

"You monster!"

Xeon chased Leo around the clearing, at last catching the hysterical
boy, sweeping him up in his arms and kissing him all over his face as
he tried to wriggle away.


Chapter 20 News from home

It was months before Alexander returned to Tyre.

The Sacred Band had become a formidable unit.  With the basics not just
learned but honed to a fine point, the commander concentrated on endurance.
 Kalix and Cleitus were big men, but now they were expected to be able
to sprint and run for miles.  It was tougher for them than it was for
the boys.  Cleitus took to training in the evenings up to his chest in
the sea, running along the bottom.  By nightfall he was usually exhausted
and fell into a deep sleep as soon as his head hit the bed.  On these
nights Machers would remove the man's hairy arm from around his waist,
 slip out of bed and into the village.  There was a nine year old Egyptian
boy he had met by the dock, who, as he told Leo, had learned a way to
make love by sucking a cock like a mango.

Leo slept nestled in Xeon's left arm.  Xeon would spend hours running
his finger-tips over the boy, stroking every inch of him.  Leo would
be hard long before the fingers brushed over his tight cock.  Many times
Leo would cum without his dick being touched at all and Xeon would pull
the boy on top of him, all slippery with cum.

Kalix would masturbate Drax at the most peculiar times and in the most
peculiar places.  Often it would be around the fire as they ate or talked
in the evenings.  He would pat his thigh as a sign for Drax to sit in
his lap, then would masturbate the boy in plain view of everybody else
until the boy spurted.  Then he would wipe off his hand and continue
talking or cooking or whatever he was doing.  Sometimes he would do it
during a lull in training.  On these occasions he would often sit on
a tree-trunk or rock, call Drax over and masturbate the boy standing
up.  Leo never once saw Drax masturbate the big man.

One day, Leo and Drax were running oiled and naked along the beach.
They ran themselves to a standstill and bent over, their hands on their
knees to get their breath back.  Leo saw something sticking out of Drax's
bum.

"Drax, what the fuck is that?"

Drax blushed and stood straight.

Kalix was training the boy.  He had whittled strange looking wooden penises,
 a series of five, each one larger than the last.  For the past month,
 Drax had been wearing these things inside him, to gradually stretch
his sphincter.  He was on number four.  He showed them to Leo.

"Are you frightened?"

Drax shrugged.

Then, without warning one night, while fish cooked over the fire, Kalix
ordered Drax onto hands and knees.  Without a word Kalix oiled his stiff,
 monstrous cock, and fucked Drax as they watched.  One of his meaty hands
was under the boy, wanking him, as he thrust away.

Machers, grinning broadly, walked in front of Drax, squatted down and
patted his cheeks as the boy rocked forward and back.  "Drax has joined
the cavalry!"  Drax lowered his head and let his sweat drip into the
sand.  Kalix grunted, his huge buttocks twitching, but he didn't pull
out until his boy's white cum had splattered on the sand beneath him.

Cleitus, by contrast, took Machers off into the hills to fuck him in
private.  The only way they knew it had happened was from the way Machers
walked.  Drax chose these moments to make loud neighing noises.

Watching Drax being fucked had been nightly entertainment for almost
a week.  In the early hours Leo lay awake in Xeon's arms.  His small
brown hand fondled the man gently, bringing him eventually to full erection.
Leo moved to straddle Xeon, then lifted himself up, reaching round to
try to guide the swollen cock towards his hole.

Xeon's hands reached up and held Leo's pretty face.  "Not yet little
man, not yet." he said as he pulled him forward on his chest.  Leo kissed
him in the way he liked, deeply, playfully as Xeon held him tight.  As
they kissed the man's cock jumped and Leo felt the stickiness dribble
down his thigh.

-

"You've got a letter Leo!"  Drax was excited.

"What?"

"The commander gave it to me to give you."

They spent the day trying to find someone who could read.  In the end
Xeon took Leo with him into the market.  An Egyptian there could read
Greek.

"From Philotas to my dear son Leonnatus, hail.

We send you greetings from home with our dearest Love.  You have a baby
brother now called Aspertes.  He is a strong boy and looks a lot like
you.

We wonder where you are and what great adventures you have seen.  News
of Alexander's conquests has reached us and we are very proud of you.

The harvest was kind this year and the goats have done well for us.
We think about you all the time and pray to Zeus for your safe return
to us.

If you can, send us word, if only to say you are safe.  There is a scribe
in the market now who can read your words to us.  It is he who is writing
this now.

My son, I pray you have a good man on your right with his shield to protect
you.  We love you."

The Egyptian set the tablet down.  "Three Drachma.  Seven for a reply."

Xeon carried the boy on his shoulders down to the beach.

"Shall I race you to the end there?"

The tears were making streaks of dust down Leo's face.

"Come on, Leo, I'll race you and I bet I win."

Leo was blinded by tears when he started the race, but was smiling weakly
by the time he'd won it.

"Too slow old man."

Bending down and looking closely at Leo he said "Who are you calling
old, young man?" as he began to tickle.


Chapter 21  Fire Boats

Alexander returned and they were immediately on the move.  He swept through
Tyre at speed and on up through Damascus.

The scouts had reported seeing the Persian army inland at Thapsacus and
he was in no mood to let them get away.

The Sacred Band rejoined an army that was full of stories of a near disaster
in the Egyptian desert.  The whole army had been close to death, only
to be saved by a miraculous oasis.  There were stories about the Oracle
at Siwa pronouncing Alexander to be a god and of the Egyptians proclaiming
him Pharaoh. These stories circulated through the army as they marched
north at breakneck speed.

Leo searched for the twins throughout the camp, but they were nowhere
to be found.  They searched for Polymedes in the camp of the Vanguard,
 but it was hopeless.  The infantry units alone were 43,000 strong.

The Sacred Band, with only a thousand or so men and boys, was easy to
find in the sprawling camps, and they hoped against hope that the twins
or Polymedes would find them.  But day after day passed.

"They died in the desert."  Said a glum Leo.

"Leo, they could be anywhere.  Alexander established whole cities down
there in Egypt.  They could be down there, or even in a garrison in some
town they took."

They met up with Syphes, however, but he had no news.  The scouts were
busier than ever, as information about the movements of the Persian army
was critical.  He was away for weeks at a time, sleeping at night with
his horse, miles out from the main army.

They arrived at Thapsacus at nightfall.  The Persian commander, Mazaeus,
 had taken position on the far bank of the Euphrates.  The river was
in flood.  It was too deep to cross, and too fast to bridge.

Alexander instructed his naval engineers to build floating pontoons.
 These boats would be lashed together to create a floating bridge.  Greek
archers kept the Persians at bay, giving the engineers time to construct
the pontoons.

Alexander himself addressed the Sacred Band.

"You will be the first to cross.  You must secure the bridgehead and
hold long enough to be reinforced.  They will come at you, but you must
hold.  You will cross during the night.  We will try to take them by
surprise."

The pontoons were constructed on dry land at the riverbank.  They would
be set afloat after dark.

The boys prepared in grim silence, checking each other's armour.  Moving
quietly about their tasks.  Xeon looked over Leo, pulling his straps
tighter.  "Shake your head for me.  Harder."  The helmet slipped over
Leo's eyes.  "Take it off for a second."  He fetched a leather hide and
cut out a piece, stuffing it into the helmet.  "Alright, try again."
 Leo pulled the helmet back on and shook his head from side to side.
 "That's better."

Drax, in full armour, looked scared.

Machers slapped him on the shoulder.  "Cheer up little man; you'll scare
the shit out of them.  They'll think their being attacked by a skeleton
in armour."

"Fuck off."

They waited in the darkness looking out over the wide black river.  At
last the pontoons were ready.

Far upstream a soldier slipped naked into the river, clutching a rope.
 He swam hard against the rapid current which swept him downstream.
The man was lost and the engineers retrieved the sopping rope.

Another took the rope between his teeth and struck out for the other
side.  His head stuck out of the silver water as he was swept along.
 Somehow he managed to reach the other side.  In the darkness the rope
went taut.

Between them they lifted the first pontoon and staggered down to the
water's edge.  Cleitus' massive neck was bulging with the strain.  With
the pontoon afloat they boarded in silence and set out, hand over hand,
 for the other side.

The strained silence was shattered by a single cry.  A soldier close
to Leo on the pontoon had spotted, up stream, fire on the water.

The Persians had made fire ships, loaded with wood and tar, and were
sending them down the raging current, directly at the pontoon.  There
was panic.  The first fire ship hit the pontoon dead on and exploded
in a furnace.  Men caught fire, coated in the burning tar.  Soldiers
plunged over the side to escape, into the murderous torrent of the river.
 Leo threw off his helmet and struggled with the buckles on his armour.
 Xeon's shield was ablaze.  He tossed it into the river.  "Leo!"  He
had lost sight of the boy.  Thick smoke was rolling across the river.
 "Leo!"

The second boat struck the front of the pontoon and spewed fire.  The
rope across the river was burning.  In their panic to get away from the
flames the soldiers were tipping the pontoon.  Xeon lost his footing
and slid down, getting tangled with other desperate men.  The heat was
unbearable, his face was blistering.

The pontoon tipped up and over.

Xeon clung to the side as the men around him toppled into the water.
 The pontoon was being swept downstream, completely out of control, still
ablaze.  Leo was beside him.  "Leo!"

The boy was pulling at his buckles, tugging till they came free.  Leo
reached underwater to unstrap the iron greves around Xeon's shins.

"We've got to swim, Xeon."

"I can't Leo."

"What?"

"I don't know how."

Leo's face was right up to his own, dripping water.

"What?"

"I can't swim."

"Of course you can.  Just lie on your back and splash."

"I can't Leo.  You go.  Save yourself."

Leo was prising Xeon's fingers off the log he was gripping.

"Let go!"  the little boy screamed at him.

He let go.

He entered a green world, the world of Posidon, a slow motion world where
his arms and legs seemed to want to float away from him.  It was strangely
peaceful.

Then he bobbed to the surface, to the roar of the water, the smoke and
the screams.  Leo's hands were on him, trying to roll him onto his back.
 The boy's arm grabbed him by the throat.

Leo's little legs kicked and kicked.  Xeon's weight was on top of him,
 pushing him under, he spluttered to catch a breath then held it, his
head under water as he kicked.  He couldn't breathe, Xeon was too heavy.
 Leo wriggled sideways to grab a gulp of air, then slid under Xeon again,
 kicking madly.  He kicked and kicked and kicked.  His arms ached, his
ears were ringing, until, at last, his legs were spent.  He kicked again.
 And again.  The next would be the last.  He kicked.

It was over.  He had no more to give.

He clung, wrapped to Leo as the river took them.  He thought of home,
 of lying nestled in Xeons arms, of his father, of the twins and Machers
and Drax.  He closed his eyes and could smell his mother's hair, feel
her hand on his cheek.

His heel bumped on the river bed.  He stretched out his hand.  It touched
bottom.  He dug his heels into the slimy mud and they spun into the bank
and came to a halt.  Leo pushed Xeon off him and sat up.

"Xeon!"

He stood up in the shallows and tried to pull Xeon out of the water.
 He was too heavy.  He put his arms under Xeons armpits and heaved but
it was no good.

"Damn it!"

So he sat there with Xeon's head in his lap, wiping the mud from his
face.

Soldiers with torches were moving down the river bank.

"Over here!  Over here!"

Hands lifted Xeon out of the water.  They placed him face down on the
ground.  Leo bent over him, stroking and kissing his cold cheek.  He
spluttered and coughed and Posidon gave him back to Leo.

--

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