Wrecked Chapters 7-8

Wrecked Chapters 7-8
By Pueros

This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY

For Heredia

These are chapters seven and eight of a long saga about the adventures in 19th century Africa of twin English boys.

Chapter Seven - Repairs

(Northern Mozambique, summer 1850)

Whilst the sound of leather striking young flesh and accompanying shrieks still reverberated from behind James and John, the appalled and petrified twins allowed themselves to be led by Gambo to a small hut behind the much bigger version that was the chieftain's abode. In order to reach this destination, which was previously hidden from the white boys' view by the tribal leader's residence of mud, thatch and human skulls, they had to pass the tethered zebra and some of the small stockades occupied by a few of the man's other now rather quiet exotic pets.

Nevertheless, despite their superficial calm, the zebra and the caged male cheetah, gorilla and dogs, all of which James and John could not help but now notice displayed fulsome animal erections, visibly exhibited great interest in the twins. The beasts did so by clearly keenly watching the boys and sniffing their scents as they passed.

James and John felt very uncomfortable about the animals' apparent sexual interest in them. The twins were therefore at first rather grateful to reach the sanctuary of the small mud hut to which Gambo had led them, and which they entered through a hide flap covering the doorway.

The hut proved to be completely empty apart from the matting of dried reeds on the ground. The windowless interior was also rather dark because the only decent light came from a round hole in the middle of the thatched roof, which allowed smoke to escape on the rare occasions when a fire was needed to warm the occupants.

The fact that James and John were also now sheltered from the view of the obviously excited crowds of villagers and the hot overhead sun only added to their gratitude for reaching the sanctuary of the hut. However, the thankfulness of the twins proved short-lived when their young black escort now asked them to strip.

James and John were accustomed to public nudity only in front of their friends at boarding school, when they washed in the communal baths. The twins had otherwise been very shy of such display, having for years already declined the help when at home of their governess, Elisa, in the daily cleansing process. The boys therefore hesitated to comply with Gambo's latest request.

Gambo, however, was not disconcerted by such hesitation. Having lived amongst white people, the black boy appreciated their affront at the idea of being naked in front of others, which was an attitude that actually also applied to the African tribe for whom he currently acted as a slave.

Although the black Africans wore far less than whites, this practice was connected to personal comfort, given the normal hot climactic conditions and the fact that their dark skin could tolerate the effects of the overhead sun very well. They still considered complete public nudity to be extremely shameful, which was why even their youngest children wore loincloths and their slaves were permitted some cover for their genitalia.

Complete public nudity was generally reserved for slaves being punished, as the poor black boy, who was currently spreadeagled between two wooden posts and being comprehensively flogged, was presently experiencing. James and John had been unable to resist the temptation to glance back briefly at this young penitent, as they were led to the hut by Gambo.

The English preparatory public school at which James and John had been boarded had practised caning on naughty pupils but only on trouser-covered bottoms. Also, partly as a consequence of this painful deterrent, and partly as a result of their natural pleasant temperament, the twins had been sufficiently well-behaved to avoid such chastisement, which only intensified their horror at what was being perpetrated on the young black penitent.

James and John had seen that the back of the naked black boy now bore a number of bloody stripes, whilst the man who had inflicted the damage was now concentrating inflicting similar on the tearful shrieking young penitent's buttocks. After the twins had reached the hut, they could not help momentarily forgetting their own desperate predicament in order to ask Gambo why the 12 year-old was being so horribly flogged.

"He fail contest," Gambo answered, in his broken but nevertheless decent and understandable English and just before deciding that the latter word was inappropriate. "I mean challenge," the young black guide and translator subsequently said in correction.

"What challenge?" James, who was always a bit more forwardly talkative than John, next enquired. "Chieftain sometimes for fun allows slaves to try escape, giving them full day start," Gambo replied.

"He then chase them with his warriors, cheetah and dogs," Gambo continued, whilst at last enlightening James and John about the species of cat pertinent to the Chieftain's logo. The twins were later to lean that such spotted felines were perfectly capable of being tamed and trained to hunt, as well as indulge in other pleasures.

"Tribe own about thirty slaves," Gambo went on to explain, "men, women and children. You no see them now because they work outside village, looking after cattle and goats and crops, their feet manacled together." James and John immediately recognised in dread a description of what they might soon be doing.

"Beating is part penalty for failing escape challenge," Gambo added, whilst indicating that other punishments were also subjected. The fearful but curious James and John perceived this insinuation and rather naturally next asked about what else the poor black boy would suffer.

"I no tell, as you will soon yourself see," Gambo responded, fully knowing that the chieftain would want his new white acquisitions to observe the black boy's further punishments. The tribal leader would desire to cow the twins into utter subservience through subjection to such intimidating visual terror.

As Gambo clearly intended to provide no further elucidation in respect of the question, James asked another. "Has anyone ever won the challenge and actually escaped?" he enquired.

James was hopeful that, if he and his twin brother were indeed now enslaved themselves, they might be offered the challenge and thereby escape. The answer to the question would also enable him to judge whether flight in other circumstances might succeed.

"No!" was, however, Gambo's disappointing blunt one-word answer. Nevertheless, the curious boy could not resist asking another question, given that he was determined that he and his twin brother would somehow sometime escape the dreadful plight in which they now found themselves.

"What happens to anyone caught really trying to run away?" James enquired. "They die!" Gambo replied with further bluntness.

"How?" James next asked, curiosity having overcome his consternation at Gambo's curt response. Knowing that the chieftain would want him to answer truthfully in order to help brainwash the twins into complete subservience, the black boy answered by referring to the narrow wooden spike protruding vertically through reasonably strong basketwork trapdoors covering a pit outside.

"Spike stuck up bound slave's bottom," Gambo explained, "and then doors opened. He or she then slowly impaled until he or she die!"

The look of utter horror on the normally very pretty serene faces of James and John subsequently confirmed to Gambo that the twins had learnt the lesson that trying to escape would be unwise. He also realised that time was passing and he did not want the tribal chieftain to become angry with him for not quickly preparing the twins for their imminent ceremony.

Gambo therefore instructed James and John not to ask any more questions but instead to undress as previously requested. In order to ensure compliance, whilst now aided by the punishment stories he had told to the twins, he added "Or I have to tell mighty chieftain that you not co-operate. He then have you both forcibly stripped and beaten!"

Rather understandably, this threat encouraged James and John finally to comply with Gambo's request, albeit very reluctantly and with resultant slowness. The twins first unbuttoned their dark blue and now dishevelled, shrunken, ripped and sweat-sodden satin jackets, followed by the underlying shirt, which would normally be pristinely pressed and white but was currently crumpled, torn and dirty.

James and John next slowly untied the laces on their soiled shoes, before removing the black leather footwear. Their socks were next shed.

The now barefoot and bare-chested James and John subsequently reluctantly turned their attention to the buttons on their dark blue satin trousers, which were as unkempt as the matching jackets had been. After unfastening the top one, the twins slowly did the same to those keeping their flies closed.

Having eventually accomplished this unbuttoning, James and John reluctantly moved their hands to the sides of their trousers. However, their intent then to push downwards to remove not only that garment but also simultaneously their underpants from their loins was momentarily halted by shame at what they were about to do in front of Gambo.

Noticing the hesitation of James and John, Gambo tried to overcome the twins' obvious embarrassment by saying "No be shy, as you not have anything I no see before." The 13 year- old also attempted to prove his point by unashamedly lifting up the minuscule front flap of his loincloth to expose his own nicely proportioned smooth black genitalia to the view of the younger white boys.

Gambo was actually fibbing when he had suggested that James and John did not have anything that he had not observed previously. The young black had by now seen many sets of male genitalia, not least when he serviced their sexual needs, but all had been dark ebony in hue, apart from the brownish adult one possessed by the Portuguese ship's captain, whom he had attended in both bath and bed. However, he had never before seen those pertaining to young white boys.

Gambo was secretly looking forward to the sight, and not just for comparative reasons. Having been forcibly subjected to so much homosexual sex, including performing relevant acts with other pretty black boys as adults watched, he had not only become accustomed to such deeds but also been transformed into someone who actually enjoyed practising pederasty.

Meanwhile, on the part of James and John, their initial acute hesitant embarrassment at stripping completely in front of Gambo had quickly changed to being ashamed of their cowardly delay because the black boy's words of reassurance and the sight of his own bravely revealed genitals. Taking a deep breath to aid their fortitude, the twins therefore summoned sufficient courage to lower their trousers and underpants simultaneously to the ground, before stepping out of the shed garments. However, their new-found nerve did not extend to allowing the young slave to look at their own exposed smooth white sexual organs for too long because the very pleasant 11 year-old attributes concerned were soon shyly hidden behind their hands.

Nevertheless, Gambo still had time to observe that the twins' own nicely proportioned genitals matched each other perfectly, like virtually every other aspect of their bodies, which, despite the dirt, sweat, little cuts and insect bites present, were undoubtedly inherently gorgeous. The black boy had managed to see that the slender flaccid penises of James and John were both uncut, possessing an agreeable covering of foreskin, and dangled delightfully above pleasantly rotund scrotums.

The sight encouraged Gambo's own cock to begin to harden, which was an embarrassing reaction that he attempted to hide by dropping his loincloth flap and to lose by thinking about other matters. Unfortunately, he was not immediately entirely successful.

Gambo had to conduct his next chores whilst his loincloth flap was no longer vertical but instead protruded outwards because the unruly cock underneath declined to soften until a few minutes had elapsed, by which time he had gathered up the twins' discarded clothing. Fortunately, the embarrassing penile phenomenon had disappeared by the time the black boy subsequently temporarily left the hut.

"Wait here," Gambo had requested of James and John, "I be back soon!" His entreaty was, of course, completely unnecessary because the twins had no intention of leaving the hut in their present completely unclothed state.

"I take clothes for repair and wash," Gambo added, just before disappearing through the hide flap that covered the hut doorway. The spirits of James and John immediately rose on hearing the black boy's declaration of intent.

James and John hoped that perhaps Gambo's mission meant that they would be allowed to wear their normal clothes after all and not instead be fitted with the iron rings and minuscule loincloth sported by the black boy. The twins also began to think that the threat of imminent enslavement might not actually exist and had only emerged because of a translation error.

Perhaps, James and John conjectured, this African tribe was after all going to look after them well and return them safely to white civilisation, perhaps motivated by the prospect of a reward. The twins' hopes were reinforced when Gambo returned as promised to the hut, this time carrying a wooden pail, full of water from the village well, and some cloths for the white boys to wash themselves. However, still being extremely parched, they first took several thirsty gulps of the cool refreshing liquid.

Gambo also brought a pottery jar, which contained a herbal ointment to help repair the cuts and bites apparent on the naked forms of James and John. The black was looking forward to applying personally the salve to the twins' white skin, which was a pleasure that he would insist on despite any protest.

Reinvigorated by thoughts of potential salvation, in the event James and John did not protest too much after Gambo had insisted that he personally rubbed the ointment gently onto the damaged parts of the twins' flesh. By this time, having washed, they had also lost their shyness at exposing their cute genitals to the interested eyes of the black boy, giving up shielding them from view with their hands.

The spirits of James and John rose even more when Gambo later collected their clothing, which had been subjected to decent sewing repairs, washed in the nearby river and dried under the hot sun with remarkable speed. As the twins subsequently rapidly and joyously redressed at the black boy's invitation, they began to think of food. Perhaps, they contemplated, the tribal chieftain might now kindly provide them with some sustenance to allay their ravenous hunger.

Unfortunately, the optimistic hopes of James and John were quickly to be extinguished, and not just in respect of food.

Chapter Eight - Caravan

(Northern Mozambique, summer 1850)

As James and John were redressing, the attention of the black villagers outside was distracted by the overdue arrival into their stockaded settlement of a long caravan. At the front of the convoy was a single covered ox-drawn wagon, driven by an Arab, who was dressed in a rather dirty and tatty robe.

The Arab's wagon was initially followed by a train of camels and mules, which were tethered together, laden with goods and luggage and escorted by several black men, attired only in loincloths. The rear of the caravan then consisted of a line of a similarly protected young Africans of both sexes, who were, however, completely naked, as well as linked together like the animals, albeit by chains connecting iron collars rather than by rope.

The hands of these young black Africans, who had been abducted in raids or captured in war by rival tribes and subsequently sold to the Arab trader, were also manacled behind their backs. Those of them that survived the long arduous journey ahead were destined for the infamous slave markets of Zanzibar, which supplied Arabia, Egypt and the rest of the Ottoman Empire with many of their black servants.

The Arab trader was enthusiastically welcomed by the villagers and their chieftain. They would barter a few of their own young slaves to him in return for some of the goods that he had brought.

The tribal leader had not yet decided which of the two white twins, whom he had just joyously acquired, would be similarly bartered and which he would keep.

(To be continued)

[Comments to the author can be sent to pueros@hotmail.com]