Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2018 23:59:19 +0000 From: Nicholas Nicholby Subject: Boys Guild Chapter 17, Gay, SciFi/Fantasy, Adult Youth, This story is a work of fiction. It never happened, it never will. The characters and locations are all make believe and any resemblance to any place or person, living or dead, is simply in the mind of the reader and totally unintentional. Situations and sexual activities of the characters are fantasy, don't try dragon riding at home. The story is also the first in a series of stories about Kind Draviad's Realm. Please let me know if you enjoy by email to nicholas6996 (at) hot mail dot com Copyright 2018 by Nicholas Nicholby, all rights reserved. Not to be distributed or duplicated without express written permission of the author. 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I really appreciate the reactions and comments at Nicholas6996 (at) hotmail.com Chapter 17 - Inspecting Detecting Projecting Cobar had spent the morning kneading through the situation in his head while he kneaded out the morning's loaves. Kingsday wasn't particularly busy, the family type customers had loaded up during marketing on Queensday and the laborers who bought the sweet rolls and lunch breads mostly had the day off so the Baker concentrated on breads that would go to table, but not a lot of that. Between kneading and proofing both breads and Master Baker Cobar had taken a moment of leavening bliss to tell of Clipper's situation. "All's a recipe boy. Just find the right proportions and you'll know the answer," the Master Baker had advised. Cobar wasn't sure that was helpful but it did provide a another line of reasoning. Somewhere in the swirls of flour and thoughts Cobar realized the boys would be well hungry from their early morning searches. During the next post slap and tickle session he had made sure the Master Baker was well lubricated up and down by offering the secret liquid spirits. It was a great time to ask if he could make the experimental meat rolls and provide them to the boys. The Master Baker thought it was a capital idea, besides Cobar needed a little more practice on his stuffing techniques. While stuffing the sausage in the bread and then the sausage in the Baker, Cobar made his plan for the rest of the morning. As soon as the rolls and the ardor were cooling Cobar threw on his loincloth, britches, shirt and tunic and hightailed it for the Cutpurse's shop. He did giggle that it wasn't much of a hightail as his `tail' was plumb tired out and wouldn't rise again for a candle or two. At the Cutpurse's Cobar asked the other tots what he thought might be the important recipe questions. He was right, Jaxx had only asked if Clipper was there. That he had headed home after dark was a free answer gift in the telling rather than intelligence gained in the asking. Cobar found out the team had a great day with the stick, shade and dip ploy resulting in a buzz of the half tankard of ale, the full stomach from the celebratory meat pies, the promise of shared pickings on the day, the frilly white frock that Clipper had seemed to really love and the missing red ribbon. The girl who was the dip giggled that she had first made Clipper's working pigtails and then afterwards braided his pony tail and tied it with a string just before Clipper giggled his way out the door. She only noticed the missing red ribbon when she went to put it on as Clipper half skipped half staggered down the dockside road. She could just make out the flash of red disappearing in the mist and thought it made him still a pretty little thing even if his clothes were now the dark brown of evening. Well it was something, Cobar thought as he ran along the dock front on his way back to the Guild Hall. He didn't expect to, but he would have been happy if he ran into a besotted and bedraggled Clipper coming out of some gutter sleeping hole. Back at the boys' cafe Cobar could see that many boys were gathered and others were still returning. From the glum expressions and general lack of boyish hijinks he figured that no one had been successful. He ran to bring the meat rolls from the Bakers and that certainly raised everyone's spirits. As boys happily munched the reports were sadly given. Nothing. Jaxx of course was devastated, Tomas chose the higher ground, "Great guys! I'm really proud of you all. Clipper's likely not dead! The Castle Guard told Zekial that without the `corpus delicious' there was no crime, I'm not really sure why a body would be delicious, but the Guard seemed to think that was important. So we keep on looking, now we start sniffing out the taverns and other places someone might have stashed Clipper if they wanted to maybe cause trouble for the Cutpurse or something." Several older boys could clearly think of other `or somethings' that might be just as bad as murder, but they chose to be silent. Cobar stood and said he'd found out a lot at the Cutpurse's and maybe they should stay searching around the docks. He gave a quick run down of what he learned and suddenly knowledge began dawning across several faces. "Hey!" Flame the Chandler's Tallow Boy spoke up, "At The Kraken Arms near the chandler's one of the girl's saw a child in a ponytail and red ribbon stop. She thought it was funny that a little girl could piss like a boy on a bollard. She figured she'd have to try that sometime." "Hey," another boy chimed in, "Near Molly's Red Door House down at the middle of the docks a little girl with a pony tail was seen skipping toward City Center." "And look!" the Ragman's Muffin yelled out. "I finded this brown cloth for us'ns just in Crab Alley. I hadn't lookeded but its'ns a shirt shure and them button thingies is rippeded off'n." "Great!" Tomas cried out. "Now we're getting somewhere. Let's concentrate on the docks, the taverns and maybe the Red Door Houses. Don't just ask if they've seen Clipper either. Ask first if there was anything strange or unusual, if they heard about a little girl or a little boy, if anybody boasted about doing something and then didn't finish the story. Then you ask if they saw Clipper, but try to get information and ideas, not just find Clipper. Meet back here again. Let's go!" Tomas helped Cobar gather up the baking trays and take them back inside. He helped with the pot washing too, after all, Cobar had found out something useful and made everybody's tummies happy. He deserved a little help in return. Clipper idly wondered if Tomas had learned any invisibility tricks or other useful things from Zekial. Not that it would help Clipper any, but perhaps he should cultivate a Wizardly connection when this idiocy was all over. In the meantime he willed his hands to disappear, or at least stay hidden. Of course they weren't hidden at all, in fact not much of Clipper was hidden. There was that little bit covered by his course tattered pants, but he had a suspicion that might not last long either. As the thugs clomped to the door of the room they took a look inside and somehow managed to find room in the hallway to stay outside. It was quite obvious that nothing had been done to clean the place up and that the deposit on the room was probably as forfeit as that on the tankards. The weirdly hanging door wouldn't help any. The Boss gave a groan and a string of expletives as he stepped forward and saw the oafs gone, the mess still present and the spreading stain and stench of days old piss seeping into the floorboards. "I'll skin that Albee for a rug and Olaf is about to find out the difference between braun and brains..." he muttered. Stepping around the pile of crockery he noticed the weirdly angled wire. He reached up and plucked it like a harp string near where it attached to the wall. It didn't thrum, but it did draw his eye down its length and to the small hands seemingly beseeching something from the heavens above. Following the hands to the arms and the arms further to the body the Boss came eye to eye with the frightened face of Clipper. Not a particularly appealing face what with crockery dust marked with rivulets of sweat and tears, but a surprising find among the wreckage anyway. "Well well, what have we here?" the Boss intoned somewhat unimaginatively to Clipper's way of thinking. "Maybe those two found a way to pay off some of their debt after all? What are you? Boy or girl? Not that it matters much, just breathing you're worth at least two gold." "Interesting contraption this wire," the Boss seemed to have focused away from Clipper and that was alright with him. Maybe the man had a poor memory. "Can't believe them two could come up with it, must have been a holdover from a previous tenant." He turned to face Clipper who sighed that he wasn't seeming to get any breaks lately. "Heard there were some girls here at Molly's that could do some very interesting tricks with their bodies." At least Clipper knew where he was now. "Let's get you up here and see what we have. You two! Get in here. Grab this one and get him standing up," the thugs came in and almost ripped Clipper apart as they tried to stand him up. It seems they couldn't get their feeble minds around how the wire worked. Finally Clipper managed to get a couple of kicks in and as they backed off a little he stood up and walked toward the Boss until his hands were at his chest and he was standing about a kick's length away. "Ha ha ha, not likely little one," the Boss seemed to have gauged the distance too. "Give me your belt," he growled at one of the thugs. "Huh?" the thug responded. "Your belt! It holds up your pants! Give it to me!" The Boss screamed. "But my pants might fall'n down," the thug grumbled but the searing look from the Boss had him quickly unhitching it. "Now, slide his hands up the wire toward the wall," the Boss instructed. The thug of course found his pants sliding down as he slid the boy upwards and he faltered between which was more important until he glanced at the seething Boss. Then he quickly forgot about his pants and slid Clipper up the wire until the boy's arms were stretched high and his toes were on the ground, but not his heels. Clipper wondered if this was how the hide boy found his hides. The Boss took the belt and slid it somehow around Clipper's wrists then slid it through the ring on the wall and then cinched it up again. At a glance the thug let go of Clipper's hands, grabbed his pants and stepped quickly away before the Boss wanted his pants too or something else. Clipper found himself hanging unassisted, toes barely touching the ground, arms stretched high overhead. Yeap, if he was going to slit a throat this would be a darn good way to hold the client. Only better way he could think of was maybe upside down. He didn't mention that to The Boss. The Boss must have seen possibilities too because the next thing he did was rip Clipper's tattered pants down. He didn't spend anytime on the lower end though, he reached up and grabbed Clipper's hair. Yanking the head back Clipper yelped and the Boss stuffed a thumb in the side of Clipper's mouth effectively pinning it open. Turning him side to side he seemed to be doing the inventory the oafs had promised. "Yeah, nice sweet little mouth. We have all them teeth yanked out and that'd be a perfect little slidey hidey hole that some people would pay real good money to poke in to. The sparkly eyes and long lashes'll stay looking real pretty too, although a little apothecaries' boost'll make the hole more ready but the eyes a little fuzzy. Spit on my hand boy." The Boss tilted Clipper's head forward and the boy could see the hand that had just recently been pawing his mouth. He thought he knew where it was heading. He shut his mouth tight and didn't spit. "Suit yourself boy. It's gonna' happen you spit or you don't. Maybe you like it kind a' rough?" the head hand shook him and pointed his nose again at the open hand. Clipper swished his tongue around and tried to suck some more saliva out of his cheeks and hacked it forward into the hand. The head hand spun him, the spitted hand slapped against his exposed butt and first one finger and then it felt like the whole damn hand slid up inside his quivering hole. "Ooh, nice and tight, but not too tight. Some lucky man or boy getting to play some little night games, eh?" the Boss loudly whispered into Clipper's ear. Without withdrawing the fingers the Boss slid his tongue inside Clipper's ear and the boy gave an involuntary shiver that travelled clear through his body. The Boss could feel it around his fingers and added another gold to his mental tally of the boy's worth. Clipper was almost as shocked by the sudden withdrawal of the fingers as he was by being flipped around and having them stuffed back in his mouth. "Clean `em off boy. Do good and maybe the next part might not hurt. Much." Clipper swirled his tongue tasting himself and the greasy meat of the Bosses lunch. Popping back out of his mouth the Boss let go of Clipper's hair and stepped back a half step. The Boss knelt down and the wet fingers began a twiddling fiddle of the hanging living stones. Clipper again gave an involuntary shudder and his lance rose in spite of his wishfully willing it not too. The fingers gave it a strong stroke or two then pulled it roughly down and let it snap back up to slap against Clipper's abdomen. Hoping the inspection was done Clipper was not happy when he felt his stones grabbed roughly and pulled as far out from his body as the folds of skin would let them. With the other hand giving them a sharp snap Clipper jumped in his bonds as pain raced up his backbone to his brain. The sharp intake of breath and explosion of pain was not quite enough to wipe out Clipper's hearing. He almost wished it had been as the Boss said, "One of you got a knife? Give it here. This one's worth a good ten more gold if these extra pieces is sliced right off." Clipper's eyes almost bugged completely out as a large pocket knife was unfolded and handed across to the Boss. As the Boss slid the cold hard steel down Clipper's belly and out of sight Clipper couldn't help it and his bladder released. "Ha! I saw that one coming Sweat-Pea. Taken a few stones in my time I have. Won't do it today though, too much danger of spoiling the merchandise. I'll either get the barber or maybe sell the privilege of harvest to the highest bidder. Now that's a good thought. Bet that would make another bunch of gold. Maybe we pick the cherries one at a time and can make even more money! I think ol' Olaf and Albee might just have paid for all their idiocy. Of course I'll not let them know that." Giving a vicious squeeze to the stones still in his hand the Boss stood up and said, "Well boy, or girl, which ever you turn out to be, enjoy feeling the breeze between your dangles for a day or two. You! Get someone in here to shovel this crap out of here. And get Molly to send someone up to bathe our little beauty and find him a frock to wear when we take him to market. I'll arrange for the farrier to come pull them teeth. Not much different to a mule, ha ha, sexless soon too." "Yes sir, Mr. Fritjof sir," Clipper heard a new voice say. He was still trying to get out of the red fog of stone pain and shell shock of cold steel and into the plans he was intimately involved in but unable to have much say about. He did notice that the damned red ribbon wasn't dangling from his somewhat frayed ponytail braid. Good riddance he hoped, maybe now his luck would change. Cobar with Tomas helping had cleaned out all the ovens and even restocked the first wood load. Cobar was happy, it would make a slightly easier morning. Tomas was happy as he had some things to occupy his mind aside from worrying about Clipper. Now they were heading toward the rag merchant's shops on the far side of the castle. Tomas had sent a couple of thoughts toward Zekial and finally gotten one that told them to meet where the Ragman's Muffin had headed with his finds of the day. As they crossed the weaver's square Zekial slipped in beside Tomas and gave him a shoulder squeeze. "Any news?" He asked. "Not really, some ideas on the dock area. Clipper might have been seen outside Molly's and of course the ragamuffin's find in Crab Alley. That's right at the back door of Molly's too. I can't believe the girl's would have anything to do with it, but you never know the johns." "Yeah, I heard the Wizard talking to someone and they were saying the Red Door Houses of Profane Orechasm might not be much different than slavery depending on who was running it. That's why we're supposed to get the rag of his shirt and head back to the Wizard. Maybe there's some way to track him by the cloth. I don't know, the Wizard always has me making things disappear, not finding them!" Thankfully it wasn't hard to find the ragamuffin and for a penny the Ragman agreed to give them the cloth of the shirt although he claimed it was practically robbing him, he had expenses and fees and keeping the boy and everything. Zekial scoffed, he knew the boy slept at the Guild and ate whatever and wherever he could find something. If the Ragman was `keeping' him it was keeping him in poverty and perpetual hunger. That was the beauty of the Guild, they could band together and provide some sort of security. Soon enough the boy would reach his fourtweenth and have more say in his future. Zekial asked Cobar if he wanted to meet the Wizard. Cobar gulped and thought about all he knew of Wizards. Of course it had worked out good for the green elt, so maybe it'd be okay. He reluctantly nodded yes. Zekial slapped him on the back and he and Tomas lead Cobar quickly on to the Castle Gate. Daytime entry to the castle was a whole lot better than twilight to Tomas' way of thinking, Zekial simply waved to the Barbican Guards and they nodded back and the boys practically could have skipped through to the Wizard's Tower. Zekial just had them walk fast saying it wasn't always wise to be a boy running along the keep. After all Guards were trained to think thief or enemy, not fun and play. As Zekial opened the Tower door Tomas was surprised to find themselves right at the top of the tower and below the sliding stone which led to the parapet. Zekial reached up for the handle and brought the stone down and the noise of the cooing birds had Cobar shivering at what weirdness was he in for. Tomas scampered up and called back for Cobar to hurry. With Zekial quickly behind Cobar didn't have much choice and suddenly he found himself in a swirling world of white feathers and squawks. Quickly moved through by Tomas and Zekial Cobar was astounded to have walked straight in and then up a tiny ladder and now he was standing high above the town on the Tower Parapet. It was so high his knuckles were white where he was holding on to the stonework of the crenelation. He hadn't thought he was afraid of heights, but he suddenly realized he had never thought that heights could actually be so high. "Ah, young baker," a tall figure in a swirling blackish or was it reddish robe turned from further down the parapet and looked directly at Cobar. No Cobar thought, it's kind of silverish or maybe gold-like. It just wouldn't seem to stand still in his vision long enough to tell. In fact he had to look away, the darned cloak was making him dizzier than looking out over the town did. "Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the Elt Miglodiandecidua and now for Clipper. The baker says you wield a fine pin too, he compliments your kneading style when he shows me the different loaves," the smooth voice intoned. Cobar didn't know whether to blush or just accept a baking compliment with the possible two meanings of the praise, he giggled instead and pointed down at the block where the bakery faced the castle side of the square. "Zekial, do you have it?" The Wizard turned his attention from Cobar. "Yes Master, here," Zekial held it out. "No, you hold it. Think of Clipper, think of him happy, think of him close. Ask the fabric to tell you of him," the Wizard directed. Zekial wasn't exactly sure how to ask the fabric something, but he thought of Clipper. Thought of that time he and Tomas had taken Clipper to bathe and they had made the silly hair sculptures. The fabric seemed to warm in his hands. He thought about washing Clipper from head to toe and Tomas leaning in to take Clipper's small lance between his lips and his own finger slipping up and then slightly into Clipper's secret place. The fabric became actually hot to hold and the happy laughter of Clipper seemed to find itself into Zekial's mind unbidden. He thought of Clipper's small squeal of Orechasm and then collapsing into Zekial's lap where Zekial cradled him and made sure he did not drown while Tomas had his turn at bathing. The fabric slunk across Zekial's hand and happy thoughts of pure bliss flowed out and around it. Then the happy thoughts gradually changed, they slid from joy and radiant Orechasm toward fear and uncertainty. A small snap of pain flowed across to Zekial and then more fear, a feeling of stretched arms and over stretched legs. A wash of trepidation as if a foreboding of evil had crossed Zekial's mind and then a final flippant thought of how he didn't even like the color red. The cloth went limp and the heat drained away and suddenly Zekial was standing as he had been, thinking of how to ask the fabric a question and the wind was blowing his hair around and the birds were cooing in their cote and Tomas and Cobar were looking at him as if he had just told the stupidest joke of the evening at the boys cafe. "What?" Zekial asked. "What do you mean you don't like red?" Tomas asked. "What's that got to do with Clipper?" "It wasn't me!" Zekial quickly replied. "I think maybe it was Clipper speaking in my mind? I do like red!" "Did you feel anything else, any other thoughts or emotions?" the Wizard asked. "I felt Clipper happy as I thought of him, happy as we were at the river that day Tomas," Zekial looked at Tomas who smiled that he remembered. "The cloth was very hot in my hands and then the happiness turned to fear and uncertainty and then it was like something happened and it wasn't just fear, but it was like something really bad was going to happen. Then I knew I didn't like red, but I do?" Zekial looked at the Wizard. "I think that means you connected. Clipper is undoubtedly alive, or was a moment ago. If he's scared of something still to happen that would be the anticipatory feeling. The red is probably something silly, but foremost in Clippers mind at the moment." "The hair ribbon!" Tomas blurted out. "I bet it was something about the hair ribbon. That's the only red I've ever heard of around Clipper. "Yes, that might be it," the Wizard agreed. "Now Zekial, take the fabric again and stand looking out over the town. See if it can tell you where he is. Look all around if you make a connection, see if different areas seem more liable to be correct." "Uh, okay," Zekial did as asked. the fabric did warm up and somehow Zekial knew it was when he looked at the middle of the dock area. When he looked up the river or down at the town nothing felt right. The dock continued to draw his eye. "I think it's just right in the middle of the docks. Nothing else feels right," Zekial turned to the Wizard. "Good, then that's where to look. Of course it might be just the area that the cloth was last in contact with Clipper, but you can't tell exactly in these types of things. If we had a precise target we could go look, like we did for the ship, but when it's just a vague area and it is close good old honest footwork is the best method. Come, we'll go below and you boys can be off to search. I've other things I must needs do." The Wizard seemed to step into nothingness and Cobar was very leery of following Zekial and Tomas. He was probably right to be leery, this time there were like a thousand steps to go down before they were at the door again. Only good thing he thought was that down was a lot easier than up, he wondered if Zekial had ever thought about a slide.