THE LYCIAN PRINCE Chapters 16-19
By Pueros

copyright 2006 by Pueros, all rights reserved
Comments to the author can be sent to pueros@hotmail.com

This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY

This long saga, describing the adventures of a young Prince in the Roman Empire of the 3rd Century AD, was originally posted elsewhere but has been revised and amended, including a changed ending, for this site by the author. The tale is mainly a work of pure imagination and the writer hopes that historical truth will be forgiving!

Chapter XVI - Capture

(August 290 AD)

Anthonius felt that he had spent most of the two months since Diocletian's games for boys in the Emperor's bed. As a result, he had hoped for some respite when the Princeps left for Germania to inspect the legions there.

Anthonius' hopes for a respite from prolonged daily sexual molestation were, however, thwarted when Diocletian unsurprisingly chose him to be one of his four accompanying boy pages, another of whom was Armillatus. Consequently, the two boys now found themselves forming part of the Imperial entourage currently resting on the banks of the River Rhine, a couple of days away from the legions' main base but in an area that had been peaceful for many years.

The day was a glorious summer one, with the sun beating down from a cloudless blue sky. Diocletian had gone hunting with his guarding cavalry contingent, leaving the Imperial encampment protected by just a small number of infantry.

Anthonius had become quite friendly with his now fellow 13 year-old Armillatus during the long journey to Germania from Rome and the two boys were currently frolicking with each other in a small tributary stream of the Rhine close to the Imperial encampment. As the Emperor insisted that his young pages were never seen naked in public without his approval, the pair had found a secluded spot, hidden by trees, in which to have their fun.

Anthonius in particular had another reason for preferring relative privacy when naked. To him, the wearing of a humiliating cockring, as did all of Diocletian's pages, including Armillatus, was bad enough but being the only such servant currently to display brandmarks was much more shaming.

Anthonius now did not mind other pages, such as Armillatus, noticing his brands, as in the course of his now many sexual duties for Diocletian, such boys had observed him naked and seen his humiliating markings often enough. However, letting other people do so, and thereby having to tolerate their inevitable amusement, was something that he wanted to avoid whenever possible.

As Anthonius and Armillatus played in the stream, a loud commotion arose in the nearby Imperial encampment. Both of the alarmed boys therefore stopped what they were doing and quickly redressed in their loincloth underwear.

Without bothering to dry their damp bodies and with Anthonius momentarily forgetting his concerns about publicly displaying his brandmarks, the boys subsequently ran back to the encampment in order to ascertain the reason for the loud commotion. The shocked young pages, lovely bodies still glistening as a result of their wetness, subsequently found the place to be under attack by a large force of German warriors, whose fearsomeness was exacerbated by their long hair, copious beards and spectacular horned headgear.

Nevertheless, Anthonius immediately bravely picked up a short sword discarded by a slain Roman infantryman and entered the fray. The unarmed and petrified Armillatus followed, somehow overcoming his instinct to flee but too numb with terror to find his own weapon.

Armillatus anyway had not been trained in wielding weapons, whereas all Lycian Princes were taught swordsmanship and the like from a very early age. Anthonius had been a fast and able learner.

Despite, or perhaps because of his slight size, the skilled Anthonius, as he entered the chaotic fray in the encampment with the terrified Armillatus literally in his shadow, took several Germans by surprise, temporarily saving a young Roman infantryman from a death blow as he did so. He could also see the look of shock in the faces of his adult victims as they realised that they had received a fatal wound from the weapon of a small boy.

There was less surprise in the eyes of the enemy at the sight of Anthonius' brandings. Many of the German warriors instead admired the markings.

All of the Germans sported tattoos, which they considered to be sacred symbols of manhood and warrior status. Anthonius' similar markings therefore drew only respect.

Anthonius' valiant efforts eventually proved to no avail in deciding the outcome of the overall battle. The conflict was quickly coming to an end, as the ferocious and far more numerous German warriors overpowered the small number of surprised Roman infantry.

Consequently, Anthonius, with Armillatus still at his back, was speedily surrounded by the enemy, who began to close in for the kill. By now, the German warriors knew that one of the boys had been responsible for killing several of their comrades and they therefore were not inclined to grant the pair any mercy.

The German warriors were, however, stopped in their tracks by a bellowed command. A man, clearly their leader from his magnificent war apparel, subsequently emerged through their ranks, looking in particular at Anthonius.

The chieftain had recently been to Rome, ostensibly on a trading mission but actually on a spying one to find out about Diocletian's plans for this visit to Germania. His supposed pacified tribe had suffered much at Roman hands over the years and his plan had been to assassinate the Emperor and raise a local rebellion.

The chieftain had actually been a guest at Diocletian's birthday banquet and so had instantly recognised the boy whom he had seen from afar killing some of his best men. He therefore called on Anthonius by name to surrender in understandable Latin, albeit with a strong Germanic accent.

The resolutely brave and defiant Anthonius, however, shouted "Never!" The boy still considered himself to be a Lycian Prince, and all of such lineage would prefer to die in battle rather than surrender.

The chieftain, however, now noticed Armillatus cowering behind the defiant Anthonius and, perceiving his opportunity, announced "Surrender and I'll let your young friend go free. Continue to refuse and I'll have him, after your own undoubted imminent demise, tortured to death very, very slowly!"

Anthonius heard Armillatus whimper behind him and realised that he had no choice but to surrender. The boy, who was bravely unconcerned about his own fate, felt that he could not be responsible for his friend's death, especially by slow fatal torture.

Anthonius was also intelligent enough to realise that, after his surrender, the chieftain might not keep his word. However, the boy additionally recognised that what the German leader was offering was his friend's only chance of surviving the debacle.

Anthonius therefore reluctantly threw his sword to the ground, whilst maintaining a look of brave defiance in his sensuous blue eyes. The boy's audaciously brazen demeanour almost positively invited the Germans to do their worst to him in revenge for their own lost warriors.

"Good, you've seen sense," the now smirking chieftain commented on seeing the short sword on the ground. "Now, place your hands on your head," he subsequently instructed, "and let some of my warriors approach you from behind."

Anthonius felt a shiver run through his body as he reluctantly complied. The boy, though, realised that this reaction had not resulted from direct fear, as it had been accompanied by a strange hardening of his cock within his loincloth underwear. His act of surrender, utterly committing his fate to his vengeful German captors, somehow for him had arousing sexual connotations.

Anthonius next soon sensed the German warriors' careful approach. The person they were about to capture might just be a boy but he had proved bravely formidable in battle and they did not want to take any chances with him.

Anthonius subsequently heard the whimpering Armillatus being dragged away and felt the sharp tips of two spears press against his lower back. The chieftain then instructed "Slowly drop your hands behind your back and allow my warriors to bind them."

Anthonius again reluctantly complied, whilst strangely his body shivered again and his hidden cock hardened even more. Such an apparently perverse further sexual reaction to his predicament had arisen from the fact that the boy fully appreciated that allowing his hands to be bound would be a defining moment for his fate.

Whilst his hands remained unbound, Anthonius knew that he still had a chance of reclaiming his sword and subsequently seeking to die nobly in battle. However, allowing them to be tied confirmed his shameful capture and submission to whatever fate, probably gruesome, that the chieftain had to have in mind for him in order to satiate the clear vengefulness of his warriors.

Such an appreciation of his desperate situation, however, momentarily only caused the return to Anthonius' form of the strange perverse sexual stimulus. Fortunately for the boy's pride, though, his skimpy loincloth barely bulged to give his embarrassing arousal away to the many enemy German spectators of the scene.

Despite his recognition of the potentially dreadful significance of the moment, Anthonius somehow overcame his instincts to resist and, after next feeling adult hands grasp his wrists, he reluctantly but submissively allowed himself to be bound. Meanwhile, the strange perverse arousal coursing his body intensified as he did so, which almost caused him to cum within his loincloth. However, the boy did not quite succumb to depraved orgasm.

As soon as Anthonius was successfully bound, he was held tightly by the arms by two German warriors and roughly dragged in front of their chieftain. The latter smiled and then punched the captive boy hard in the stomach.

Anthonius' body instinctively tried to double up but the tight hold on his arms prevented this and, by the time that he had partially recovered, the chieftain's knife was at his throat. "Now, Roman boy harlot," the man subsequently announced, "you will have to pay for the lives of the warriors you killed."

Anthonius initially believed that his young life was to be immediately forfeit. The boy thought that the chieftain, whose face had suddenly contorted into a clearly furious and vengeful snarl, would now surely sever his jugular without further ado.

The chieftain, however, suddenly moved his knife downwards and away from Anthonius' throat. The man instead next pressed the very sharp blade against the slight bulge at the front of the boy's loincloth.

"The next of kin of the warriors you killed," the chieftain now menacingly declared, in respect of the future of Anthonius' currently covered but clearly endangered genitals, "will first delight in cutting these off." The man subsequently moved the knife slowly upwards to press against the boy's navel and promised "They'll then enjoy slowly disembowelling you!"

The chieftain then moved his knife again slowly upwards to press against Anthonius' chest and continued "But before you die, they'll have the final pleasure of extracting your heart whilst you still live. Afterwards, we'll all relish in sending your extracted organs, along with your head, to your Imperial whore-master!"

"And, by the way," the chieftain subsequently added, as he returned his knife to its sheaf, "as you're so good at it, you'll dance in honour of our gods before we sacrifice you to them. If you don't, I'll have to reconsider our agreement over your friend."

The chieftain then dismissed Anthonius from his presence with another belly punch and, on this occasion, the bound boy was allowed to fall onto his knees in agony.

Chapter XVII - Captive

Elsewhere in the encampment, German warriors were completing their ugly work. Their chieftain had recognised early that they had sadly missed Diocletian and so he just ordered his men to concentrate on killing as many Romans as possible, whilst also destroying their tents, baggage and equipment.

There would be little room for prisoners and loot in the speedy flight that the Germans would later have to make to escape the Romans' undoubted subsequent wrath, apart from the traditional human sacrificial offering with whom they would celebrate victory, and their chieftain had already made his selection. Consequently, of the Imperial entourage left in the encampment by Diocletian whilst he went hunting, only Anthonius and Armillatus emerged alive and the latter boy only did so to ensure that the former remained obedient literally until death.

Anthonius and Armillatus, still attired in just their skimpy loincloths, eventually found themselves with their hands bound behind their backs and attached together about two paces apart by a rope tied to their necks. The former was in front, with his throat also connected in a similar way to the rear of the saddle on the chieftain's horse.

The chieftain, mounted on his horse, was about six paces in front of the boys, as he led them through the dense forest towards his tribal lands. Anthonius and Armillatus had to keep up with him, or they would otherwise have been dragged by their necks.

Fortunately, most of the German warriors did not possess horses and so the pace of the column, which was necessarily narrow because of the sparse width of the forest trail that was being traversed, was not too taxing. Consequently, the speed by which the chieftain led Anthonius and Armillatus was not a danger.

The greatest peril facing Anthonius and Armillatus instead arose from the undulating unevenness of the trail, especially where the roots of trees bisected the route and when the heavily leafed branches overhead cast dark shadows. Occasional trips almost led to disaster but miraculously they somehow never quite caused the boys to fall.

Short rests were sometimes taken, although, of course, not for the sake of Anthonius and Armillatus but for that of the German warriors on foot. However, as these men possessed formidable stamina, such respites were rare.

The setting of the sun did, however, finally bring the march to a complete halt. Even the native Germans, who knew the forests so well, appreciated that traversing the locale at night was not sensible. The sounds of wolves howling provided one clue as to why.

To ensure that Anthonius and Armillatus did not attempt to escape overnight, they were bound tightly to trees adjacent to each other. They were also sadly granted no sustenance or opportunity to toilet. Consequently, the two boys became very thirsty and hungry and both wet themselves.

Only their bladders' needs caused this unfortunate and embarrassing soiling of the boys' loincloths and not fear, although they had every right to be afraid. After all, the chieftain had promised Anthonius an appalling sacrificial death, whilst the young captives were sensible enough to consider his promise of ultimate freedom for Armillatus to be unreliable.

After severely initially testing the security of their bondage and unfortunately finding the relevant ties sound, neither Anthonius nor Armillatus felt inclined to chat. Weariness after the long forced march and fears for their futures instead caused them to be rather morosely quiet until both boys fell into a fitful sleep.

The subsequent fitful slumber of Anthonius and Armillatus was regularly interrupted by a mix of three causes. Pangs of pain, resulting from their awkward bound postures, occasionally awoke them. So did frightening nightmares, invariably relating to the horrible bloody attack on the Imperial encampment or to scenarios of future terrible barbarian sacrifices. The similarly scary sounds of the forest in darkness also aided insomnia. The only consolation for the scantily clad boys was that the summer night was relatively warm and so chill did not pervade their young bodies.

As a result of the regular interruptions to their sleep, Anthonius and Armillatus were still quite tired when they were awoken at dawn, this time not by pain or frightening nightmares or sounds but by German warriors. Nevertheless, the boys soon found themselves, still without sustenance, again tied to each other and the chieftain's horse and being force-marched deeper into the forests.

On this new day, the forced march was very long and wearying, with few rests. However, Anthonius and Armillatus still somehow managed to keep up the pace without stumbling disastrously.

By the time that the main tribal settlement of the German warriors, which was full of thatched roundhouses of the Celtic type, had been reached by nightfall, both Anthonius and Armillatus were naturally exhausted. They were also very hungry, thirsty and filthy. However, their own condition was not immediately at the forefront of their worried minds on the boys' arrival.

The arrival of the returning warriors, announced in advance by mounted scouts, was greeted ecstatically by the settlement's population. The chieftain and his men might not have assassinated Diocletian but they had secured a victory against the Romans, massacring many in the process.

The captive Anthonius, despite admiration for his brandmarks, and Armillatus naturally drew a lot of scrutiny and mockery from the populace, with the worst abuse emanating from the native children. The insults continued for a while after the boys were bound to sturdy wooden stakes in the centre of a clearing at the middle of the settlement for display as war prizes.

Of course, neither Anthonius nor Armillatus could understand the local German dialect but they did not have to be able to do so to understand the gist of what was being verbally hurled at them. Accompanying gestures, which were frequently obscene, even from the children, left no doubt as to the inherent abusive meaning.

The obscene gestures also suggested to the understandably shamed and scared Anthonius and Armillatus that the chieftain had spread word that the boys were not just pages to Diocletian.

Chapter XVIII - Display

Not just verbal insults were hurled at Anthonius and Armillatus, as they were bound to the stakes. As well as screaming abuse at the scantily clad young captives, delirious German boys and girls literally spat bile at them.

By the time that the settlement had quietened, as most of the populace retired to their beds, Anthonius and Armillatus were literally dripping from head to toe in phlegm. Their already soiled bodies and loincloths were also to remain in this condition overnight because no one came to release them from their bondage.

The boys therefore remained bound to the stakes overnight, somehow slumbering occasionally despite being on their feet. Only at dawn did some warriors arrive to release Armillatus and drag him away, whilst two sinister men in long black priestly robes collected Anthonius.

The priests subsequently curiously guided the weakened Anthonius, whose hands remained bound behind his back, deep into the surrounding forest until they came to a fast running stream, where they allowed the dehydrated boy to kneel and take his fill of the much-needed pure cold water. They then stripped him.

Anthonius had earlier not attempted to escape by running away from the priests once his ankles had been untied after being released from the stake. The boy failed to do so not because he was afraid of the consequences of being unsuccessful. After all, he had every motivation and nothing personally to lose in at least trying because the alternative was to be horribly sacrificed in honour of the barbarians' gods. His lack of effort was instead due to four other reasons.

First, despite his natural speed and agility, Anthonius was sensible enough to appreciate that he would probably anyway not reach far before he was recaptured. The maintained bondage of his hands would undoubtedly adversely affect his balance and consequent ability to run fast on uneven ground. His badly weakened physical state would also seriously reduce his stamina and therefore his prospects of going any great distance before becoming exhausted.

Second, on Anthonius' arrival in the German settlement, he had noticed the large, fierce and fast hunting hounds kept by many of the populace. The boy realistically realised that his chances of escaping these dogs, which were undoubtedly expert at tracking humans as well as game, would be puny once they had been set on his trail.

Third, Anthonius recognised that, even if he did somehow manage to escape the clutches of his German captors, his chances of emerging alive from the vast forests around him were slim. The boy believed that he might succumb to exposure to the elements in a changeable climate, when a warm summer's day can easily be followed by a cold and damp wintry-like one. Alternatively, starvation or wolves might overtake him long before he reached safety, even if he managed to unbind his hands and somehow went in the right direction, neither of which was certain.

Fourth, and both most importantly and the deciding factor, was Anthonius' selfless unwillingness to abandon Armillatus, for whom, despite his doubts about the value of the chieftain's promise, he still harboured hopes of safety. However, in order to ensure that such aspirations were not entirely lost, the brave boy appreciated that he had no choice but to remain acquiescent to the will of the Germans, even if this, as apparently was so, was to lead to his own death by horrible means.

Anthonius was naturally very concerned and scared about his prospective fate. However, the courageous boy was simply not prepared to sacrifice Armillatus to secure his own safety.

After depriving the shamed Anthonius of his loincloth, the two priests initially laughed at the sight of the boy's cockring, which was, as insisted upon by Diocletian, currently adorning his smooth sexual organs. However, the men quickly recovered from their surprise at seeing the genital adornment to proceed instead with their solemn duties.

Guiding Anthonius principally by gestures, as they clearly knew no Latin, the priests encouraged the now naked boy to toilet in the stream before they thoroughly washed him in the chilly water, with one taking up position at his front and the other behind him. He shivered with the cold as the damp rags used for the purpose caressed his nude body.

Anthonius' unruly cock had long before returned to flaccidity, after the perverse arousal experienced at his capture. However, to the boy's further embarrassment, his penis began to harden again when the cold damp cloth wielded by one of the priests cleansed his smooth genitals, whilst the other rubbed his bottom.

Fortunately for Anthonius' pride, the priest at his front appeared to ignore the humiliatingly perverse phenomenon and instead, having completed his genital task, seemingly nonchalantly progressed further downwards towards the boy's legs and feet. When the man had accomplished this chore too, he gave his attention to cleaning the discarded loincloth.

Unknown to Anthonius, as the priests cleansed the boy, their seeming nonchalance was actually feigned for they had quickly begun to realise that, under the superficial surface grime, an immense beauty had been captured. Their appreciation was confirmed by a hardening of their own cocks, which were safely hidden under their flowing black robes.

The priest's pretended nonchalance was an effort not to be enticed to do more with Anthonius other than cleanse him. After all, to rape the boy, which they were both privately sorely tempted to do, would be a great sacrilege to their gods, to whom he had been sacrificially dedicated by their chieftain.

Anthonius was supposed to be presented as a sacrificial offering to the Germanic gods in a pristine state. The priests would therefore be grossly profane to their own deities if they soiled the boy with their own seed and so their temptations had to be resisted.

As the humiliatingly naked Anthonius stood compliantly to allow the priests to wash him, he wondered whether their action indicated that his sacrifice to their barbarian gods was now imminent. The boy feared that they might be ritually cleansing him in a sacred stream, after which he would be returned to the tribal settlement to die horribly without further delay. This very frightening thought caused his already shivering with cold naked body to quiver even more.

Anthonius' fears, however, soon proved unfounded, at least for now. After accomplishing their task of cleansing the exceptionally delectable boy and redressing him in his now clean but damp loincloth, the priests guided him even further into the dense forest and away from the tribal settlement.

After a while, the threesome suddenly emerged into the sunlight on a high escarpment. On all sides behind them, there was nothing but trees and, far below them, there was a river beyond which the forests seemed also to continue endlessly as far as the eye could see.

The priests led Anthonius to a tall rocky promontory and onto a ledge just below the highest point. The boy's immediate thought on arrival was that he was glad that he was unafraid of heights because the location was precariously narrow and the drop below precipitous.

Anthonius next noticed that strange symbols had been carved here into part of the steep rock-face, which was the ledge's immediate backdrop. The boy also saw that metal rings with attached shackles were additionally embedded there.

The sight of the metal rings and shackles actually relieved Anthonius because he initially worried on his arrival on the precarious and precipitous ledge that, despite the chieftain's description of how he would be sacrificed, the priests were about to hurl him off the tall promontory. They instead chained the boy face-forwards and spreadeagled to the decorated rock-face.

The priests also chanted prayers to the sun overhead in another cloudless blue sky and subsequently again deprived Anthonius of his loincloth, on this occasional in a ritualistic manner, as if formally revealing the full naked glory of the boy to their gods. They then uttered more incantations and one rubbed the young sacred offering all over with some scented lotion, contained in a small jar that he had carried in the pocket of his gown, before both suddenly departed whence they had come.

The naked Anthonius was left alone, chained in his spreadeagled manner to the rock and facing the narrow ledge immediately in front of him and the river and huge expanse of trees far below. The scented lotion applied to the boy's cleansed body also caused his gorgeous form to sparkle in the bright sunlight.

Anthonius naturally tested the efficacy of his chains, which he disappointingly found were sound. The boy therefore could do little except contemplate the vast wilderness before him, whilst wondering why he had been left here.

Anthonius briefly wondered whether he had been left, chained helpless to the rock-face, so that some sacred creature, such as a bear, wolf or bird of prey, could come to devour him. However, the boy quickly dismissed the notion, as he instead finally became convinced that the German chieftain would indeed want him sacrificed in exactly the manner that he had worryingly described.

As Anthonius contemplated the spectacular scenery before him, he also began to experience another stirring in his groin. The boy therefore glanced downwards and saw that his now exposed cock was again hardening.

Anthonius was reluctant to do so initially but eventually, as his cock became fully erect and started to throb visibly, he had guiltily to admit to himself once more that he somehow perversely found his current dire predicament to be sexually stimulating. Even attempting subsequently to think of sad matters, including his undoubted short future and ultimate horrible fate, could not tempt his unruly penis back to flaccidity.

The throbbing of Anthonius' unruly cock instead gradually grew more visibly intense and began to dominate his mind. The boy eventually even became desperate to masturbate himself to climax in order to relieve the tension but his chains prevented him from satisfying this deep desire.

Manual masturbation, however, soon amazingly proved to be unnecessary. A blinding white light suddenly appeared to obscure Anthonius' vision and his whole body also convulsed within the tight confines of his chain bondage. The boy simultaneously experienced sexual pleasure of an enjoyable intensity not previously encountered.

Anthonius' eagerly quivering and now almost vertical cockhead additionally spurted several long strings of creamy cum, some of which actually fell over the edge of the narrow rocky ledge in front of him.

Chapter XIX - Confinement

Anthonius' amazing, considering his perilous and uncomfortable circumstances, sexual intensity did not cease with his sudden acute orgasm. The boy extraordinarily climaxed on two more occasions whilst chained to the sacred rock-face, aided in enjoying his perverse pleasure by tiny creatures.

Anthonius' lovely naked body, glistening in the bright sunlight, attracted the attentions of midges and other flying insects. The boy consequently found himself constantly squirming within the tight confines of his chained bondage in order to avoid their bites. However, his natural libido, stimulated as intended in line with Diocletian's whim by his cockring and the aphrodisiacs constantly being secretly fed to him in his diet, caused such movements to have an embarrassing side-effect.

The frequent sudden movements encouraged the return of stimulation to Anthonius' groin and not only eventually restored his unruly cock to further erection but also on a couple of occasions produced the inevitable literal climax. Consequently, the boy's semen twice more spurted out onto the rocky ledge, as he enjoyed more perverse pleasures.

The situation was made more embarrassing for Anthonius by the fact that much of his spilt semen, some of which had also dribbled onto his splayed legs, should, although dried, be noticeable to anyone who eventually came across him. In fact, after many hours had passed, during which the weary boy had managed some sleep despite his awkward standing position, this assumption proved correct when the two priests returned for him at dusk.

Anthonius could tell from the amused expressions on the returning priests' faces that they had seen his spilt sperm and therefore knew that he had orgasmed at least once whilst chained to their hallowed rock-face. He did not need a translation of their resultant clearly entertained conversation to be able to confirm that they had become aware of his guilty depravity. The only consolation for the thoroughly shamed boy was that the men exhibited no displeasure at his perversion, thereby suggesting that his sexual climaxes at the sacred place had at least not also been a profanity to their gods.

After overcoming their amusement and ending the relevant conversation, the priests released Anthonius from his chains and afterwards immediately firmly rebound his hands behind him with rope and redressed him in his loincloth. The boy again remained quiescent to their requirements, making no effort to escape for the same four reasons as before.

Anthonius' prospects of successful escape had anyway deteriorated even more since dawn because being chained spreadeagled to the rock-face all day without sustenance and under the hot sun had further weakened him. The boy's limbs were now very stiff and sore from their previous enforced very discomforting lengthy posture and the lack of food and water was actually beginning to make him dizzy.

Nevertheless, Anthonius somehow managed to walk successfully back to the tribal encampment under the supervision of the priests but otherwise without help. As the threesome returned along the forest trail, which they had originally traversed from the other direction just after dawn to reach the sacred rock-face, the boy experienced another mix of emotions.

To the stiffness and soreness of Anthonius' limbs, his serious thirst and hunger and his overall weakened state was added trepidation as to what final arrival in the tribal encampment might entail. The boy again fearfully wondered whether, regardless of the gathering nighttime gloom, he would be immediately sacrificed. However, to these deep concerns was also appended some wishes.

Anthonius naturally wished not to be sacrificed. However, the boy also did not believe that such a desire was realistic. He had instead already pessimistically accepted that he would die horribly soon, knowing that he could not escape and believing rescue to be highly improbable.

Anthonius' principal wish related instead to his current hunger and thirst and overall weariness. The brave boy simply aspired to be allowed to eat, drink and rest before being sacrificed, not for the luxury of such pleasures but to enable him to be strong enough to face his planned terrible death with dignity.

Anthonius' aspirations were actually met on his return to near the tribal encampment, where he was confined alone and under guard in a roofed and lined circular pit normally used for storing grain in winter but presently empty of such produce. The bound boy had actually been thrown in but his landing had been soft because of the fresh cushion of thick straw already cast inside in readiness for his arrival. Armillatus was actually similarly imprisonment close by.

Awaiting Anthonius inside the pit were also bowls of cold gruel and water. However, the continued bondage of the boy's hands meant that his hope to act in as dignified manner as possible could not be met in respect of consuming this fare.

Anthonius' maintained bondage forced him to consume the gruel and water in a very unseemly manner, as if he were a dog. However, his acute hunger and thirst served to ensure that all concerns for his dignity were momentarily overcome for now.

After Anthonius had eventually satisfied his need for food and water, he sat for a while, with his back against the lined wall of the pit. The boy was aware that his face would now be messy with spilt gruel but, as there was nothing that he could currently do to rectify the problem, he concentrated instead on his wider predicament.

Given his incarceration in the pit, Anthonius now assumed correctly that he would not be sacrificed overnight. The boy also wondered whether he would be subjected to any more weird rituals before being killed, such as the one that had seen him chained to the sacred rock-face for some unknown reason, or whether he would be facing his death at dawn.

Perhaps fortunately for Anthonius' mental state, he did not ponder such matters for long because his acute weariness caused him to drift quickly into a sound sleep. The answer to the boy's question was anyway provided at dawn when the two priests returned.

A ladder was now provided to allow Anthonius to ascend out of the pit, which was still difficult to do because his hands remained tightly bound together behind him. Nevertheless, the boy somehow managed to achieve the precarious feat without falling back in again.

The peculiar rituals of the previous dawn were subsequently repeated, as they were for another five days. Anthonius also experienced several more amazing incidents of involuntary orgasm whilst chained for prolonged periods naked and alone to the sacred rock-face.

Anthonius was never to understand the exact meaning of the relevant rituals, after the seventh day of which, once he had been safely returned to confinement in the pit, the priests shouted down at him that he was now to be sacrificed at next daylight.

(To be continued)