On the boat after four days in the boundless Pacific Ocean, not a strip of land was on sight. But Santiago recovered his senses. As soon as Juan said so, everybody left the oars and approached their companion.
"How do you feel, Santiago?" Felipe asked him.
"I'm... alive? Whe... where am I?" the man asked.
"Now it's too long to explain. You are amongst friends, anyway."
"And... and Lope?" the man then asked, searching with his eyes between the faces looking down on him.
"He is not here..." Felipe answered.
"Where is he? How... is he?"
"All right, now. Yes, now he is all right." Felipe answered trying not to tremble as he spoke.
"Do you feel hungry?" Jose asked, to change the subject.
"Yes, I'm hungry."
"A good sign. Wait, I'll give you something..." Jose said.
Hernando said to Jose in a whisper: "Double share, until he's fully recovered."
"Sure."
Juan helped Santiago to eat and to drink. Then the man fell asleep quite suddenly. They carefully settled him and started again to row.
Then it was Esteban and Sancio's turn in the "cabin". When they were inside, Esteban asked his boy:
"It still hurts, right?"
"A little, yes. But we can try, if you want."
"No, I prefer to wait some more."
Sancio stretched his hand and caressed his friend's genitals through the coarse cloth of his breeches and felt his erection. "But you are aroused. Open your breeches, I'll suck it."
Esteban just shook his head and smiled: "Let's just have a rest. We will have time, later."
"I don't know if we really will have time. We still haven't found an island."
"No, Sancio, we must hope for the best."
Sancio took his friend's hand and guided it between his legs, pushing it down: "Do you feel, my friend? I really desire you."
"I too, but... if you want, I can give you a hand job..."
"If I can do it to you too..."
Esteban nodded yes. They both opened their breeches and started to mutually masturbate.
"It is beautiful, your cock, Esteban."
The man giggled but said nothing.
"Really, man! I saw so many sailors on board, you know it, but yours is the most beautiful."
"Ah, really? And of whose did you see it, little pig?"
"Of all those I had sex with, no?"
"And there have been so many in so few months?"
"Well, without counting Carlos and Jaime, I've seen that of Luis, Manuel, Pedro... and naturally Gonzalo who initiated me, poor Lope and Ignacio."
"Nine, with me. And before Gonzalo initiated you, didn't you do anything, on land?"
"Well, yes, but... child's play. And you are always the man with the most beautiful cock I ever saw."
"All right, thank you for the compliment, boy."
They continued to masturbate each other in silence for a while. Then Sancio Started again:
"That's why I really would like... making you enjoy with my mouth rather than with my hand. And you would enjoy a lot more... Please..."
"If... if you really want..." the man whispered.
Sancio happily sat up and was about to bend down to his friend's groin but the man stopped him.
"Move, come more upwards, I want to continue to wank you too."
Sancio sat at the level of his friend's shoulders, then bent down on his body, and while Esteban resumed masturbating him, he took the man's beautiful rod and went down on it. He started to lick it with longing, and was pleased to see the enjoyment of the other.
"Oh, Sancio, Sancio... that way... you make me cum soon!" the man panted in a low voice.
"Do you like it?" the boy asked happily, looking at him.
"Fucking yes! You are fantastic!"
"Don't worry, I don't want you to cum too soon. Just when you cannot resist the pleasure anymore..." Sancio said and resumed taking care of the man's rod with skill and joy.
He put his lips on the hard and shiny gland, teasing it for a while with his tongue, then he made all of it slowly slip inside his mouth, moving his tongue against it, until the gland tickled his throat. Esteban had a long shudder of pleasure. The boy sucked for a while, moving his head up and down, and then made it slip out of his mouth and started to lick it on all its length, and also on the hard and swollen testicles, then up up, until he reached again the gland. He stopped for a moment but Esteban, with a hoarse voice, murmured:
"Go on, it's too good!"
Sancio started again to lick with small laps the pole and the gland, then made it penetrate again completely into his mouth, between his tight lips. He sucked the tasty meat until he felt it swelling, strongly throbbing, and the ship's boy prepared himself to welcome the now imminent explosion. He readily swallowed all the load that the man poured in his mouth, and he too came in his friend's hands. When Sancio understood that he had squeezed from that beautiful rod even the last drop of seed, he let go and laid near his friend.
"Did you like it, then?"
"Very much!"
"More than cumming into my ass?"
"No, it's different. It's very good both ways."
"I'll do it for you any time you wish."
"But, do you really like it?"
"Yes, a lot."
"I see... who knows why they say that a man has not to do it?"
"There is also who says that all the rest is not to be done... that you have not to fuck in the ass..." the boy said with a giggle.
"Let's rest, now, we need it." the man said, settling down to sleep, and the boy followed suit.
Santiago was healing and his vigour was coming back, so that his companions told him what had happened after he lost consciousness. And at the end they had also to tell him about Lope's death. Santiago cried. Nobody found strange that a man, and a sailor at that, cried.
He could not yet row, because the wounds on his back that were slowly healing could have opened again. To give him something to do, they asked him to fish and to be on watch, in the hope to catch sight of land.
They were now in their ninth day of navigation.
Following the example of the others, also Esteban and Sancio started to swap partners. Santiago refused his friend's proposals saying that he still didn't feel like having sex, and also because of the state of his back. Also Manuel and Hernando refused, simply explaining that they were in love with each other. The men just took note of it, with simplicity, without being stupefied and without being ironic.
On the eleventh day Santiago caught sight of something on the horizon: it could be an island or a ship.
"Provided it is not a Spanish ship... or it will be jumping from the frying pan into the fire." Felipe commented.
"Anyway, they cannot possibly know about us." Juan said.
"Not now, but when we land..." Santiago answered.
"And then... let's hope it isn't the Morisco." Alvaro said.
But after a few hours everybody was convinced that it wasn't a ship but an island. The night came and they still were far. But they were all full of hope.
"Provided there is water and food... and not hostile people..." Alvaro said thoughtfully.
"How come you always expect the worst?" Sancio asked annoyed.
"No," Juan defended him, "It is simply that, fearing the worst, is a kind of omen.
"After all," Esteban added, "he who doesn't illude himself, doesn't disappoint himself."
The following morning to their relief, because even if nobody said it all of them were afraid, rowing in the dark, to have gone off course or to have been dragged away by the current, the island was still there and looked bigger.
"Hernando, Felipe, how much will it take to reach the island?" Manuel asked.
"By sight... seeing how much the shape has grown... before night, if all goes well." Hernando answered.
Felipe nodded in assent and said: "And it doesn't seem to be a little island."
They rowed with renewed vigour. The island was bigger and bigger, and nearer. Felipe was looking at it with care, frequently verifying their position according rapport to the sun, and they rowed to the south.
"It must have a mountain a little less than one mile high, and it must be, for what we can see from here, about two and half miles long."
"Therefore there must also be clear water and plants." Hernando added.
They reached the island without problems, before the sunset as their chief had foreseen, and this increased the men's esteem for him. Approaching they didn't see any sign of human presence. They landed and beached the boat. They looked around carefully, but visibly relieved: the vegetation was blooming, luxuriant. Hernando said to the men:
"Good, first we have to find water, then a place where to spend the night without fearing bad surprises. Santiago and Sancio stay to watch the boat. Alvaro, Felipe, Jose and Juan will explore the coast in that direction, Esteban, Manuel and I in this other. We have not to go too far from the boat and not too much in the interior. Anyway, when the sun touches the horizon, we will come back to the boat."
Everybody nodded in assent and the two small groups left. Santiago and Sancio, sitting near the boat, started to chat. After a while Sancio asked to the man:
"Do you often think about poor Lope?"
"At times."
"Do you miss him?"
"Well... sure. He was a dear boy. And so young..."
Sancio nodded yes and said: "It's a pity he is not here with us. But perhaps... perhaps he is now better than all of us, survived but hoping for a miracle on an unknown island."
Santiago looked around and said: "No. I'm glad to be alive. And this island is beautiful, seems the Earthly Paradise."
"It can hide monsters..."
"Never as in a man's heart. I'm more afraid of that..."
"Perhaps you are right." Sancio murmured.
After a while the boy lightly brushed his companion's back - "Does it hurt?"
"Not anymore. At times I feel like heat waves, at time a strong itch."
"It means that it is healing."
"The scars will remain."
"A shirt, or even just a vest will cover them, they are just on the back. And anyway you are always a very handsome man."
Santiago smiled at the compliment.
Then Sancio said: "I would like very much to make love with you."
The man again smiled: "Not yet. Moreover, it is the older to propose to the younger, ship's boy!"
"We are no more on the ship, here. Those rules have no more value. Why do you continue to say not yet?"
Santiago looked the boy in his eyes, then said: "I don't know... Possibly, because I had just started to enjoy making love with Lope, I had just entered him when those traitors caught us. When the most beautiful moment was about to begin... the nightmare started."
"But now all is over, no?"
"Right, now I am amongst friends."
"Perhaps... perhaps you don't like me?"
"You? No, on the contrary. It is not you, but I don't feel like, it doesn't get hard. Possibly it is just question of time. Soon or later the desire will wake up again, I think. Possibly with the beauty of this island, probably with the dangers we will have to confront together, will make me desire a mate again. And possibly you. But I need time. I don't have scars just on my back. I have others, not visible. But it still rankles."
Sancio understood and felt a kind of human warmth and respect for his unlucky companion.
Sunset came. When the sun hid its last rays under the horizon and with the sky tinged in gold and purple, Santiago said:
"At any moment they will be back."
"Who knows if they found something?" Sancio asked himself aloud.
The sky slowly changed colours, darkening while further up in the heavens the first stars started to shine. And at last the first group was back.
"Find anything?" the two on watch asked.
"Nothing special, a continuous sand stretch, bordered by a thick vegetation like here. We left a signal where we arrived, so tomorrow morning we can proceed further hoping to find some water at least." Felipe answered.
Jose went in the boat to prepare supper. "Food and water for three more days." he announced.
"It should be enough." Felipe commented. "With all this vegetation there must be water somewhere. And possibly also edible plants. And anyway, for the food, we can always fish. Water is the most urgent problem."
Also the others arrived. They also hadn't found any water, but they were bringing something. It was a wooden small cylinder, about two spans long and as thick as a wrist, and carved in a refined way.
"Therefore, there are men, somewhere." Juan said admiring the object.
"Possibly the sea brought it from who knows where. Or it fell off a ship." Alvaro said.
"No," Hernando answered, "it was too far from the shore and it was driven into the sand, perfectly vertical. Somebody living on this island or not far away, must have put it there on purpose, for some reason."
"Whoever carved it must be really skilled and must have perfect tools. It seems a very refined design, really well done and deeply carved in a very hard wood. Who knows its purpose and what these drawings represent?" said Felipe, closely observing the object. The faint light of the night didn't allow him to see clearly.
They sat in circle to eat then Hernando gave instructions for the night. They will sleep inside the boat in six, while three of them in turn would have been on watch out of the boat.
The morning came. They decided to resume the exploration of the island, but no more on foot. So they pushed back the boat to sea and started to circumnavigate the island remaining near the coast. When they rounded a small promontory, almost at the same time they saw two things: a wide stream cutting the shore and flowing into the sea, and another island, bigger, not so far away.
They landed. First they filled the goatskins with water. It was very limpid, fresh and good and all they stayed in the stream for a long time to wash away the salt and the dirt of those days. And also they washed their clothes. They wallowed naked in the clear water of the stream like kids on holiday. Then, while they were drying under the sun, and waited for their clothes to dry, they discussed if it would have been better to circumnavigate the island or go to directly towards the bigger one. The opinion to end the circumnavigation prevailed.
On the opposite side, the shore was steep and rocky but there was an inlet opening on a wide sandy crescent: it was a kind of natural small port. They landed at the centre of the sandy part and went to explore. Here also, towards the interior, there was a stream that made a waterfall a little less than two men high, which poured into an oval pool from which the estuary parted, circling one side of the beach, and then falling into the sea.
"It will be the ideal place to live: clear water, a sheltered landing place..." Hernando said.
They were going back to the boat to take again the sea, when Manuel called:
"Here, come see!"
There was a rectangular platform of squared stones, well finished, evidently made by the man, half hidden by the vegetation.
"What could it have been?"
"To judge from its dimensions, perhaps the base of a building..." Hernando suggested.
"But there is no trace of walls."
"Or it was never ended, or it is very ancient and perhaps the superior part was of wood. It is difficult to say."
They freed the manufacture from the vegetation and exactly in its centre they discovered a cubic stone, perfectly finished, about half a man tall. The lateral sides were carved in the same style of the wooden cylinder they found the day before, and on the top it was perfectly smooth.
"It seems a throne." Esteban said.
"Or an altar." Hernando noted.
"Or a grave." Juan suggested.
"We possibly are in a sacred place and are profaning it..." Santiago said thoughtful.
"Perhaps, even if it seems abandoned since a long while." Hernando said admiring the carvings on the stone.
They left the place and went back to the boat. They ended the tour of the island. No trace of men or buildings, at least for what was visible from the sea. They were now back at the first stream and there they ate. Then they decided to head towards the bigger island, which was on the North-West.
They were half way between the two islands when Santiago, who was on watch, saw on the sea a set of small dots between them and their goal, coming towards them. They were small boats, slender, slightly emerging from the surface of the water, and on each there were two men. They were clearly heading towards them. And they were dozens.
"Are they friend or enemies?" Alvaro asked.
"Who knows." Manuel answered.
"Let's get ready with our knives." Juan proposed.
"No, if they are friendly, they can take us for enemies... and they are too many. Keep your knives at hand reach, but so as they are absolutely not visible." Hernando said.
The nine men had stopped rowing and were waiting, all standing up and tense, the arrival of the tiny boats. When they started to see clearly the men on the strange and slender boats, they gradually relaxed. They were almost naked men, apparently without weapons, of a sturdy but elegant build, their skin was of a light brown colour, they had black and straight hair, an oval face with agreeable traits, and they were smiling. They had flowers garlands around their heads, necks and wrists.
"Fucking shit, aren't they handsome!" Sancio exclaimed.
"And they are smiling." Manuel said.
"And they have no weapons." Felipe noticed.
The small boats surrounded them. The men from the island were looking, curious but smiling, at the nine sailors in the boat. Then one of the small boats drew nearer, one of the two men stood up and said aloud something incomprehensible. Hernando answered, in Spanish:
"We are coming in peace... peace... peace, do you understand?"
"Paz?" the native man repeated in a questioning tone.
"Yes, in peace. Peace."
"Paz." the man repeated, took away the flowers garland from his neck, and handed it to Hernando.
He took it and put it at his neck. From the boats rose an approval murmur, then all the natives vied to offer their garland to one of the sailors. The man who first spoke, pointed to the great island and said something.
"He wants we to follow him, perhaps..."
"He is inviting us."
In fact the man sat down and the small boats turned their prow towards the great island and started to do with their arms great gestures to follow them. The garlanded sailors took their places at the oars and rowed toward the island, escorted by the natives. The natives, while rowing their slender and tiny boats, intoned a very sensuous song. The beach was crowded with people and, behind them could be seen a row of rectangular huts with a two sloped roof.
"It seems quite a welcoming party." Felipe observed aloud.
The people on the shore, in fact, were dancing and singing. It was a fascinating dance: men and women, in two divided groups, were almost still with their feet, but their bodies, hips, arms were moving at the rhythm of the song in a sinuous and sensual way, shaping a splendid choreography. Women were wearing just a long cloth covering them from the hips to the ankles, tied and open on the right side. The men had a shorter cloth, from the hips to half their thighs, tied on the left side. And all were adorned with flowers. It was an enchanting view.
As they landed the sailors beached their boat and went up the shore. As they proceeded, the two groups parted at their passage, continuing to dance and sing, so that the sailors were walking in a corridor of bodies, to their right the men and to their left the women of the village.
"But everybody is young and beautiful, here?" Esteban exclaimed aloud, stupefied and in admiration.
"This is the Earthly Paradise!" Juan joyfully exclaimed.
At the other end of the corridor that the small crowd had shaped, they saw a man advancing toward them: he was tall and vigorous. He must have been in his forties to judge from his face, but his body was that of thirty year old. He had on his head a kind of crown of bright colour feathers, and a feather mantle hung from his shoulders. At his loins the same short cloth as all the other men, and the rest of his body was naked. He had a really regal bearing.
"He is their chief." Hernando said and bowed deeply to the man. The natives discretely giggled for that gesture, for them funny and unusual. The chief made a long and incomprehensible speech, but from the tone it was possible to understand that it was well disposed. Then Hernando answered with a similarly long speech, surely incomprehensible to the natives. At the end the chief nodded in assent and made a gesture with his hand, saying some words. Immediately all the natives swarmed away and the nine sailors remained alone with the chief and four women standing at his shoulders.
The chief, with gestures, invited the foreigners to follow him. He arrived in front of the most beautiful and great hut, sat on a low stool and made a gesture to the foreigners to sit on other low stools that the women had rapidly brought out from inside.
All the inhabitants of the village were coming back carrying baskets with food and drinks in profusion, and small drums. While everybody was starting to eat and to drink, two groups, one of boys and the other of girls, started to dance while others were playing the little drums and sung. These dancers had skirts, long to the ground the girls, and to the knee the boys, made of long, soft and flexible golden straw threads, decorated at the waist with a belt of flowers. They also had garlands on their heads, necks, wrists and ankles.
"Good God, how beautiful are these boys!" Alvaro exclaimed and added: "I've got a hard-on!"
His friends giggled.
Jose asked him: "Which one would you choose?"
"All of them!" immediately Alvaro answered making his companions laugh.
Men and women were continuing to offer them food and drinks. Then, after several hours of celebration, the chief stood up and said something, and each of the sailors was invited with gestures and smiles by a different group of people.
"They want to separate us!" Santiago alarmed said.
"I don't think there is danger. If they wanted to harm us, they didn't need to give us this wonderful welcome, and not even to divide us now. The men are more than two hundred, and we are just in nine. They want just to host us in their houses." Hernando said.
So, the nine sailors separated. Hernando was hosted by the village chief.