The day after, as soon as Eugenio had some free time, he took his cellular and opened it: "Are you there?"
"This question again! You know I'm here."
"The fact is that I still wonder how it's done: do you receive a signal when I open my cellular?"
"No, I hear your voice, so to say. That is, I feel variations in the metal with which I am."
"With which you are? In which you are, you wanted to say?"
"I don't know, I'm not matter, I'm not inside it, I'm not around it, I'm not with it... I am, almost like with my body, I think."
"What conscience do you have of this cellular telephone?"
"Shape, energy fields... I don't really know, I'm trying to interpret."
"But are you... tied to an object?"
"Yes, even if at times I suddenly feel like being sucked in another object. Possibly because it is composed of a more noble metal, but in reality I don't exactly know. I don't have enough experiences yet."
"Do you have another life to narrate me?"
"Sure. Do you feel like listening to the story of my life as Caius, the roman legionnaire?"
"Yes, why not."
"I come to life in a patrician family in decadence. I can say we are poor, compared to other patricians, even if we have seven slaves in the household. I am born in the year 628 of Rome..."
"That is?"
"125 B.C. When I am fourteen, I catch two of our slaves in the larder and they are doing strange things. One of them, Matius, stands against the wall, his short tunic raised in front, his legs a little apart, his eyes closed. The other, Velius, is kneeling in front of him, and moves his head backwards and forwards in a rhythm... Being curious, I draw nearer and they don't hear me coming, as I am barefoot. I stay to look at them, my mouth widely open: the one kneeling has the thing of the other in his mouth!
Suddenly Velius becomes aware of me and pulls away with a choked moan and I see that thing, free, glossy with saliva, throbbing, and then Matius sees me also, and hastily covers himself and kneels in front of me and beseeches me not to tell anything to no one, especially not to my father, who is a severe man. I ask them what they were doing; it seems so strange to me! 'A game', Matius says. 'If it is just a game, why would my father punish you?' I ask. 'Because it is a forbidden game', the slave explains to me. 'But is it amusing?' I ask. 'Yes, we like it a lot...' Then Velius tells me that, if I keep the secret, while Matius stays in watch, he will do the same game with me, so I can understand. I say yes. Matius goes out of the door to keep watch. Velius raises my short tunic, caresses me there. It is agreeable. Then, continuing to caress my belly and my thighs, he puts his mouth there and... I like it very much! I feel my legs go weak for the pleasure. I do sometimes caress myself there until I reach a strong pleasure and come, but I never felt something so strong and fine. Velius perceives me enjoying it and brings me to orgasm. I glide on the floor, panting. Velius smiles satisfied, and asks me again to keep the secret.
I nod yes, persuaded, but I put a condition: the next time it has to be Matius to do that to me, he is younger and nice... So, Matius consents and starts to do that game with me. I like it very much, for sure I will not tell anybody!
Then, after some months, I lay my eyes on Nika, a sixteen year old slave bought shortly before. I ask Matius if he thinks that Nika also knows these games. He says he doesn't know, but if I want, he can check. I think that Matius and Velius did, somehow, convince Nika to consent.
I just know that Nika takes Matius' place and I like him even more, and I also like to touch him while he is servicing me, to arouse him with me. Matius, after some time, asks me if by chance I don't want to try a new exciting way to do it with Nika and he explains me how and what I have to do... It seems fun, so I tell him yes. He calls Nika and, while Matius is on watch, I first ask the young slave to arouse me in the usual way then I ask him to turn around and to go down on the floor, on all fours. He obeys and I take him, I enter him. I like that even more than what we did up to this day. And, while taking him, I like to touch him so that he reaches his orgasm a moment before me: his contractions make me rejoice much more.
When I am seventeen, my father enrols me in the Legion. I miss Nika and what I did with him. I want to do it again. In the barracks life is rigorous and the discipline hard. And to see my fellow legionnaires naked on several occasions, does only increase my desire. To see these sound bodies, these virile members, these firm asses becomes a continuous torment and temptation. Until one day, while we are soaking in the tepidarium, one of my fellow legionnaires, Marius, stretches a leg under water and pushes his foot between my legs, brushing me there and staring in my eyes persistently. I get a hard on and blush, but I don't move away. He continues for a while, now with a light smile on his lips then stops as if nothing ever happened, changes his position and starts to talk with another fellow. I have to wait for me becoming soft again before going out of the water. But Marius is waiting for me outside the thermae, and while we go back to our barracks, he cunningly tells me that I'm easy to excite. I blush again, but he continues, saying that anyway I suit him and that during the night he will come in my pallet. I object that, as we all sleep in the same room, the others will see us, but he laughs and tells me that everybody will pretend not to notice. He asks me, almost astounded, if I never realized that during the nights almost one third of the pallets are empty, and another third has two bodies in them. No, I didn't realize... The very night he comes. I'm waiting, already aroused. But he, to my surprise, crouches near my face and presents his member to my lips.
I shake my head no, but he grasps my head and pushes it against his groin. The warmth, the smell, the strong throbbing of his member against my face excites me and finally I do what he wants. I don't like it so much, but I satisfy him. And then, he satisfies me. That's a lot better... He comes back a couple of nights later and everything is repeated, but then I try his back hole with my finger. He brusquely pulls my hand away and whispers to me that between two legionnaires this thing is not to be done! So I content myself with satisfying him, and to be satisfied by him in his way. Better than nothing. But one day, while we are chatting, I tell him that I need something different. He proposes to go with him to a brothel. I tell him that I'm not at all interested in women. He laughs and says that it's better that way: men are cheaper. They are nothing special, the brothel slaves.
They are young, but too effeminate and silly, but I content myself and give vent to my needs. I am eighteen and half when we are sent to fight in Gaul, where a local chieftain has rebelled. The travel, by foot, is without story. Except for the nights, when we go out for a hunt game in groups of three..."
"Hunting, at night? What kind of animal were you hunting?"
"No, not animals. The game consists in lying near some villa and waiting for a young slave to come out for his physiological needs... We then jump on him, keep a firm hold on him and blindfold him, so he can't recognize us, and while two keep him in position, the third of us fucks him. Even if the slave complains to his master, and even if the master comes to complain to our centurion or our decurion, for the slave is not able to recognize us, all ends there."
"A really nice sport, raping slaves!" Eugenio said in a disapproving voice.
"Well, you know, it is a different epoch. There are trios going to hunt slave girls, and trios going to hunt for slave boys. But the majority is not hair splitting, and fuck everything they can put their hands on. Sometimes, by mistake, it even happens that we fuck a free youth. In this case our chiefs just blow us up very severely, telling us that such things are not to happen, but again, all ends there. And anyway, more than one of our preys loves it: you can hear them asking to fuck them harder, longer... Especially along the consular road where the legions pass often. I think that some of them come out on purpose, to be fucked, and not just slaves or servants, but also some young patricians disguised as slaves. So you don't have to feel scandalized, I think. It is very, very rare we really need to gag them so they don't scream while we fuck them, I can guarantee you.
Finally we reach the Transalpine Gaul and we start to play seriously.
They are handsome, those Gauls, especially some of them: blond or ruddy, strong, very virile. But, being our enemies, we can just look at them from far, and when we meet physically, it is hand-to-hand-fighting and surely not to have sex, but to kill and not to be killed. But sometimes, when I walk near some of the prisoners, I cannot avoid being aroused.
My secret dream, and not just mine, I know very well, is to be able to have a handsome young Gaul under me...
This war is really divided in thousand episodes, skirmishes, ambushes, real battles, raids, but the legions, slowly but irresistibly, go forward. Our century is often sent as reconnaissance patrol to explore the area. Our spies told us that the Gauls are organizing an ambush, so we are again sent in reconnaissance.
At the beginning we proceed fast, even if carefully. We are in sight of a keep built to protect a settlers' villa. The villa is in ruins, ravaged by a recent fire. The keep seems untouched, even if it doesn't hoist the roman vexilla anymore. We now proceed with prudence. It is afternoon, the weather is fine. Suddenly they spring up, they are a lot. The centurion orders us to rush to the keep: there, their numerical superiority will be balanced by the fortification. We succeed in entering the keep: the weak point is the gate without the doors, but a few men can defend it and the others align on the glacis. The Gauls surround the keep, but don't attack.
Their plan is simple, they just want to starve us out. But our centurion smiles: if we don't return, the legion will move forward, with prudence but steadily, and will come to our rescue. So we have just to ration our food and resist. We settle down, fix the watch shifts. Gauls never fight at night, so we sleep rather safely, leaving the minimum of sentry at the gate and on the glacis. And sometimes we start again to have some oral sex with each other. Also because, in a sense, we are bored.
The Gauls are always there, they don't attack, they don't withdraw. At night we see their bonfires, we hear their songs. They must be approximately five hundred men. Every now and then we can see their food supplies wagon: they start to tempt us. Somebody proposes to sally forth, but our centurion is firm, we have just to wait. We start to feel the hunger and still the legion doesn't show. How long can we resist? So, one night, by common consent with my fellows, we decide that one of us should try to do a sally alone, towards one of the wagons, which seem easier to reach, to steal some food. We cast lots and I'm the one drawn. I'm happy to go, a little to drive away tedium, a little to show off to my comrades, a little for hunger, a little because I am one of the nimblest... I leave my armour behind, also my sandals, I remain with just my short tunic on, which I girdle with my belt in order to attach as much provisions as possible to it. In silence, I glide down from the glacis.
Lying down, I slowly creep forward on the ground, sheltered by weeds and low bushes, holding my breath. I approach the goal little by little. Sincerely, my heart is in my mouth. But there is no hindrance - the wagon is close to me now. I succeed in slipping under it.
I look towards the keep: it is almost indistinct in the night darkness, notwithstanding the faint moonlight. It is just a far whitish mass, and I can't even distinguish the sentry I know is there. I re-emerge on the other side of the wagon, that is on its front, I stand up and start to rummage inside, taking and putting some food on the ground near my feet... A rustle makes me turn round, and I see a shadow moving. I lie down on the ground with my heart throbbing. I see the shadow approaching, I hope he didn't see me... The problem is that, lying like that, I cannot see him anymore.
Suddenly he is in front of me. Possibly just because I'm lying on the ground and looking up to him from below, he seems enormous to me, powerful. And he looks at me with eyes like embers. He has a sword in his hand and raises it slowly, without losing sight of me. I feel I'm dead. If I have to die there, I don't want to be stabbed on my back, so I turn on my back and offer my chest to his sword..."
"How brave! A real Roman soldier!" Eugenio said, slightly ironically.
"We Romans are a proud people, especially when facing death. And in particular us patricians. We grow up with that concept. You probably know the words 'dulce et decorum est pro patria mori!' don't you?"
"You were dying for your stomach, not for your country..."
"How matter of factly you are! I feel I'm near dying for my country, anyway, and therefore, even if I'm scared to die, I accept it and proudly."
"All right. And then?"
"He rises his sword, then bends down to me and grasps me by my belt and rises me. I see he is about stabbing me. Our eyes are fixed on one another's.
Strangely, it is like my fear abandons me, while he raises me. My body is unbalanced towards my head, I instinctively spread my legs to balance it and my short tunic rides up and I see his eyes looking on what, inevitably, becomes exposed to his eyes, with a look of surprise. He slowly lets me back down on the ground, he plants his sword on the ground, kneels down between my spread legs and I can read lust in his eyes, while he unties that kind of breeches he wears. I feel like hypnotized. When he notices my eyes looking between his thighs and widening, he has an ironic smile, he grasps my legs and pushes them up to my chest. I try to wriggle away, but he is incredibly strong and after a short, silent struggle that arouses both of us, he bends me to his will. He puts his saliva on my anus, and then he impales me.
It hurts like hell, but for pride, I don't emit a sound. While he is fucking me, his eyes are fixed on mine and he smiles, and I think confusedly that he is beautiful. Well, I think, afterwards he will kill me, I may as well enjoy those last moments. I relax and start to like it. Even more, the pleasure, even if mixed with pain, is growing more and more. So, a little for the pleasure I feel, a little to show him I'm not a coward, I smile to him. His smile widens and again I think he is a beautiful man. He brushes my nipples, I quiver and emit a soft sigh. He wears a kind of sleeveless vest: I slip my hands under it and lightly squeeze his nipples.
He seems delighted, he emits a low moaning and continues to fuck me with evident pleasure. He also continues to titillate my nipples, always looking straight into my eyes. I feel his hard rod powerfully slipping in and out my ass and I love it. And as I feel him coming inside me, I also come. He slowly rises, ties his breeches again and takes his sword. Then, with his foot, he lightly kicks the food I had taken from the wagon and makes a gesture with his sword towards our keep. I look at him, still unbelieving. He steps back and repeats the gesture, imperious, but continuing to smile slightly.
I slowly take the food, without losing sight of him, and ask myself if he wants to kill me while I have the stolen food on me, stabbing me at my shoulders. He seems to understand - he steps back again and lowers his sword. So, taking the food at last and fixing it to my belt, I start to crawl on my way back. I turn to look at him, and he is still there. I leave the camp without problems. I'm back at the point from where I left the keep and utter the agreed signal. They lower me a rope, I grasp it and climb up. They give me a hearty welcome, even if they hoped I could bring back more food. They ask me why it took so long. I say there was a sentry, and I needed to wait for it to go away. Just the dull pain I feel between my buttocks can belie me, but they don't know.
Two days after the legion at last arrives. Our besiegers rapidly withdraw, chased by our vanguards. We are safe! The Gauls abandoned their wagon, still containing a few provisions. We join the rest of the legion and advance. Well, the campaign is long but successful, and finally we can go back to Rome where the triumph awaits us. My family is proud of me. Now I am twenty-two and my father wants me to enter politics, so he asks a friend of his, who is Senator, to take me as his secretary. Three more years pass. I marry, have a family, and a little house on the foot of the Quirinal."
"You did marry?"
"Sure, a marriage combined by my family, of course."
"But you liked just men, right?"
"Yes, but this doesn't mean I cannot perform my duty with a woman.
Anyway... I'm passing through the Forum and I stop to look at the slaves auction sale, thinking that I can now afford having a slave for housekeeping. A Phrygian girl, possibly. It is said they are the best to care children, and I already have one child and wait the second in a couple of months. I look around.
There are also some very attractive boys, especially the Saguntans, but they are expensive. Then, I see in a corner a young Gaul, standing up waiting for his turn to be auctioned, and I recognize him at once. He doesn't seem to me as giant as I remembered, now, but I'm sure it is him.
Beautiful, even if now, he has a dejected, serious, dark look. He wears just his characteristic breaches, dirty and worn. His chest is naked; the waved hair long on his shoulders has the colour of ripe wheat. I decide to buy him, at any price. Luckily for me the Gaul slaves are not amongst the most valued, so when they auction him, I'm able to win him. I have the faint feeling that he also recognizes me. Having paid the money, not even much, I take him with me. He follows me in silence.
Along the way I ask him his name. 'Narbonix, master' he answers in broken Latin. He is twenty-six years old, one more than me, and is a slave since three years. Arrived at my home, my wife doesn't seem so happy with my purchase, but she says nothing. She just tells me to have him washed and to give him a decent tunic. While Narbonix is washing himself, I stay there and look at him. For sure it is him, he is splendid, I'm aroused. When he dries himself, I draw near him and touch him with a smile full of desire. And he says 'You could have your revenge now, master, now you have the sword and the food'. He says those words with some pride, looking me straight in the eye.
So, it is really him, and he remembers me. I'm excited. I make him lie down. I raise my tunic, I put his knees to his chest and I take him. Now the parts are reversed. It is really enjoyable, also because he is participating with evident pleasure. After I give him a slave short tunic and have his hair cut in the roman fashion, I explain him his duties in the house, I assign him a place to sleep, and he starts his work. He soon gets used to his tasks, which he carries out with care. He attends to my son, cooks, cleans, and learns to go shopping. He has a good character, reserved, proud, but careful, so little by little my wife starts to appreciate him. I too appreciate him more and more and often, at night, I go where he sleeps. He receives me with evident pleasure and little by little our way to have sex also changes and becomes more gentle and pleasurable than ever.
He is affectionate to my children and they are to him. He has the tendency to spoil them, but he is also able to make them behave well. Things are going all right, we have in our household now two female slaves and three male slaves, including Narbo as we call him.
But he is the only one taking responsibility for my sons and I make him chief of the slaves. And our relationship continues and becomes deeper. I pass delicious hours with him and I am so grateful for the pleasure he is able to give me that I decide to allow him to take me as I feel he desires.
He is moved, and also while taking me he is able to give me very intense pleasure. When I'm elected magistrate, I buy a new house on the Velium.
I decide to free Narbo. He asks me to remain in my household, at my service, and I willingly agree. Also because it is now evident for us that he is my secret lover, evident to both of us, even if we never touched the subject. And that's when, for the first time, we talk about our first, old encounter.
I ask him why he didn't kill me, and he answers that he was impressed by my beauty and my courage and that he did took me not in scorn but for desire. He tells me that, even if in Gaul he was married, he always loved men and than now that he was with me, even if far from his country, from his people, he feels happy. And happy I am for this lover, devout and sincere.
The republic is passing difficult moments. Often populace riots burst out. They are instigated by the various patricians trying, with this pressing mean, to impose their will, their politics on the Senate. And it is during one of those riots that I'm stabbed with a dagger by somebody and I die, at the age of thirty six. So, as a soul, I enter the iron that separated me from my body and remain there for almost three years..."
"So, you don't know what became of Narbo."
"No. Even analyzing the memory of the following life, there is no trace of Narbo."
"Didn't you look for him?"
"I couldn't, because in my new life I didn't have memory of him. I could have met him by chance and, after the death of that body, I could become aware I have met him again. But it didn't happen."
"I see. But that's a pity... Well, Now I have to leave you, I'm busy. But tomorrow I want to hear another tale abut your reincarnations."
"What period?"
"I'll tell you tomorrow, otherwise you could prepare yourself."
"You really are unbelieving, eh? All right, see you tomorrow, then."