Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:46:24 EDT
From: Tommyhawk1@aol.com
Subject: Tempered in Fire

			     TEMPERED IN FIRE
			   By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
		      WWW.TOMMYHAWKSFANTASYWORLD.COM
			WWW.TOMMYHAWKSROGUEMOON.COM

[This tale of Carlovain is rather out of line with the chronology I have
used so far, telling only of centuries ago. The year of this tale is late
Spring 1939, World War II will soon begin in earnest, and Carlovain is at
this time in a firm alliance with Hitler's Germany. The relationship up
until the date of this story has been beneficial to Carlovain, which had
and was still suffering from the worldwide financial disaster we know as
the Great Depression. Still, Carlovain paid dearly for the folly of that
alliance, as you can imagine.  I hope these characters' political leanings
aren't too worrisome to my readers, please remember that we enjoy the
benefit of hindsight, which was denied them...and if that all by itself
doesn't convince you, I suggest you read carefully our own newspapers today
and ask yourself how we ourselves will be judged by posterity, say, fifty
years from now.]
     "Come on, varan, keep up!" Darban called to him. "You're falling
behind!"
     Temon panted. "I'm trying, sir!"
     "Come on, hut, hut, hut!" Darban called. He was a good thirty feet
ahead of Temon on the trail; it wasn't really fair, Temon felt, that Darban
would be setting the pace, for Temon was the one with the heavy pack on his
shoulders!
     But Darban wasn't the one trying to get into the Tiresval Youth Corps,
Temon was the one who had to prove himself worthy. Darban had the body that
Temon aspired to, the firm shoulders, the narrow hips, the muscled legs in
those hiking shorts, Darban could have carried this pack without the
panting that Temon was suffering, the ragged breaths that made him hoarse
and hurt his throat, they had gone on so long, icy despite the warm day of
late spring.
     And it was worthwhile to join the Tiresval Youth, especially for one
like Temon, mostly because a member of the Tiresval Youths could count upon
aid to help his family. And his family needed help! His father had died of
tuberculosis three years ago, his mother worked when she could, but cabbage
soup and day-old bread was the order of the day. But families with members
in the Tiresval Youths got a monthly stipend. His family needed that money!
     So he had to pass this test of his stamina and endurance. Even though
it meant a hike of thirty miles wearing a pack of thirty-five pounds. When
he graduated from the Tiresval Youths into the Carlovain Army, the stipend
would be increased...enough to care for his family, let his mother stop
working. And so would the distance and the weight of the pack, with a rifle
added to that....
     So he gritted his teeth, although every muscle in his arms and his
shoulders and his backs and his legs ached on the edge of pain, they would
knot into cramps any moment now!
     Don't give out, he begged his body, don't give out! It can't be much
further, it can't be that much further. They'd been walking for hours, with
only short breaks, so short that he didn't have time to do much more than
catch his breath and his heart rate would slow somewhat...and then it was
up again, shoulder that pack, that horrible, horrible pack!
     And he had to keep up to Darban. This levaran of the Youth was his
mentor, he was to be under Darban's wing and taught everything he
needed. And a part of him had hoped that his mentor would be more than
merely the teacher...the rite of soldiers of ancient Carlovain revived, the
warrior-pair fighting side by side! War would be coming soon, anybody could
see it, and Carlovain fighting alongside Germany to bring the new order to
Europe! Carlovain would be part of that new order, a favored ally borne by
an alliance that had endured for centuries and renewed ever since Hitler
had come to power....
     Darban had stopped and turned around Temon kept walking, his orders
were not to stop until ordered. He had his orders, his life, his fate
depended upon always obeying his orders....
     "Halt!" Darban said and Temon obeyed, went into attention stance. He
wasn't yet allowed to rest. He hadn't been given his order.
     The order didn't come. Temon held himself as still as he could, but
his body was trembling, and he couldn't stop it.
     "Tell me, varan," Darban said to Temon. "Why should you be allowed to
become a member of the Tiresval Youth?"
     Why? Why??? "Because," Temon stammered. "I wish to become a member of
the Carlovain Army and become the best soldier I can become, and to do
that, the Tiresval Youth is the best course, for the Tiresval Youth is our
future!" It was in the book....
     "That is the answer in the book, varan!" Darban sneered at him. "I
asked for your answer!"
     "But...I...I...." Temon said and his trembling grew worse.
     "Don't you know why you want to belong to the Youth?" Darban
insisted. "Why, varan," and the old term for "private" used by the Youth
burned at Temon's soul. "Why do you want to be in the Youth, you,
yourself?"
     "I..." How could he answer that? He knew the answer, but to say it?
     "Answer me, varan!"
     An order was an order. "I joined for my family." Temon said
miserably. "My mother and my two sisters and my brother, they suffer so
much. The Youth will let me help care for them and still stay in school. If
I don't get into the Tiresval Youth, I...I shall have to quit school and
try to find a job." There. He'd said it.
     To his surprise, Darban's response was a smile and kindly hand on his
shoulder. "Why don't you take off that pack and rest? We've hiked enough
today, don't you think?" His black hair was shiny and clean despite the
long tramp, not a hair out of place. Temon's own hair was in place, for the
simple reason that he had been shorn of all his hairs upon his acceptance
into the Youth as a prospective member, his first day at their prospect's
base which was much like the basic training he'd face when he entered the
military.
     "I obey my superior." Temon said. He'd been honest enough for a while,
time for the "right" answer. But he gratefully removed the pack, made his
body set it down in the proper place on the ground. The straps had to be
laid just so, to be picked up quickly without tangling.
     Only then could he place himself on the ground. Darban was already
there, on a soft patch of grass, lounging with a smile on his face. He
patted the ground beside him, a place where they could lie near each other,
share that soft grass. Temon obeyed gratefully. His muscles hurt so much,
but maybe, maybe they wouldn't cramp after all.
     "We'll stay here tonight." Darban assured him. "Camp out under the
stars, like you must be ready to do in the military."
     "Sounds good to me." Temon said. It was a familiarity, but Darban
hadn't called him "varan" so maybe this wasn't a private-sergeant situation
just now. He hoped not.
     "Your family really in that bad shape?" Darban asked him.
     "It's pretty bad." Temon agreed. "Mom cleans houses, but that's only
twice a week. The money she gets barely pays our rent."
     "So how do you eat?"
     "Mother...brings home things from the houses where she works. Scraps
from their tables or their refrigerators." Temon blushed.
     "That can't be enough."
     "It isn't." Temon agreed.
     "So you steal food." Darban said, understanding.
     Temon licked his lips. "I--It is against the principles of the
Tiresval Youth to admit anyone who is guilty of criminal acts." he said
instead of answering.
     "True." Darban said, "but it is also true that we are meant to be a
place to aid those who struggle against the degradation that has enveloped
our society. It is why we must join with our brothers in Germany to bring a
new society based upon the scientific certainties that will permit the best
of the human race into leadership roles."
     "Yes, sir." Temon was so grateful for Darban's apparent sympathy for
his situation, he was in no mood to quibble about the politics involved. He
was uncomfortable with Carlovain's alliance with Germany...but there was no
doubt that the military contracts Carlovain gained from the alliance was
fueling its recovery from the decade-long misery it had been under. "I
agree with you completely. Carlovain must be in the front of the new
society."
     "So why wouldn't we be ready to help out our best and brightest, who
are doing nothing worse than trying to survive as best they can? We can
only take our best and temper them with the fire of discipline and
instruction, and then let them lead us to glory."
     "I am grateful for your understanding." Temon said.
     "Not at all." Darban said. "My own beginning in the Tiresval Youth was
hardly more edifying."
     Temon had to laugh at that. "So we're a couple of reformed petty
thieves?"
     "Saved from our ignominious fate by the Tiresval Youth Corps." Darban
affirmed.
     Temon dared to hope, and to voice that hope. "Does that mean, sir,
that you will give me a favorable report to the Commander?"
     "I am leaning toward doing that." Darban said. "There are still some
tests yet to be passed, but if you can make that hike without balling up
into cramps, then you can manage the rest of them, I think."
     "It was close." Temon said. "I still may have a cramp or two before
tomorrow. And that hike back...." he shuddered.
     "We'll take it in slower stages." Darban promised. "And if you have a
cramp, I will massage it until the pain goes away. If need be, we will stop
by a farmhouse and requisition a ride back to base."
     "That's good to know." Temon said. He looked at the sky, the sun was a
good two hours until sundown.
     "So, varan." Darban said and Temon tensed at that word, was Darban
about to play levaran again after gaining his confidence? But the term was
given lightly. "Did you have any other reasons for joining the Youth Corps
than our financial assistance?"
     "It was my main reason." Temon admitted. "I guess we all have several
reasons for doing anything."
     "When you were out stealing food for your family." Darban seemed to
change the subject abruptly. "Did you ever have recourse to the other means
by which a young man may obtain money easily?"
     "I don't know what you mean." Temon frowned, he had a suspicion about
the meaning....
     "You come from Merlemagne, yes?"
     "Yes, sir." Temon said.
     "Have you heard of Nusgrav Street, and of the Obten Park there?"
     Temon gulped. Now the meaning was very clear. "Yes, sir."
     "Did you ever have reason to ply the trade available there to
attractive young men?"
     "I...no, sir." Temon said.
     "Come now, varan." Darban said firmly. "There is no shame when you are
driven to extremes, to sell the only thing you have, your body is yours,
and if a price can be had....."
     "No, sir." Temon said firmly. "I would not do such a thing. If I make
love to someone, it must be because I choose him and he chooses me, not for
money."
     "I beg your pardon." Darban said. "I meant no offense."
     "I have taken none." Temon said, hesitated. "If...if I do not make it
into the Youth Corps, then I may find a visit to Obten Park to be
necessary."
     Darban's hand went to Temon's waist, and rested lightly there. "You
need not fear, young varan." he said. "You will gain your first stripe, I
feel sure." The stripe of rank in the Youth Corps, it glowed in Temon's own
mind.
     "I hope so." Temon said. Darban's hand hadn't moved from his waist and
he felt it there, warm and solid. "I hope that I will be worthy of your
instruction for the next year." After his admittance, he and Darban would
be paired, the ritual of the Winter Solstice would bind them, though they
would by then have been together as mentor and student for over six
months. Still, he looked forward to that most ancient and honorable ritual
of the warrior bond, for that was a badge that he could wear even when he
left the Youth Corps at age nineteen to enter the military. It was
well-known that he could request to join Darban's unit when he did, and
such unions were favored. Such warrior pairs had made Carlovain soldiers a
fearsome foe that all of Europe trembled before, even though their public
face was that of ribald songs they jeered in their pubs. Nobody in
Carlovain would dare sing those songs, even the foreigners, but they were
known just the same. Another reason for Carlovain to be ready to teach
those tainted neighbors a little respect for the warriors.
     "I feel sure you will be." Darban said. "And that brings me of course
to your next test."
     His muscles hurt him still, and begged him not to move, but he must
obey. "I am ready, sir." he said. "Command me and I obey."
     Darban's hand at his waist now moved back and forth in small strokes,
up over his ribcage and then down to his hips. "I shouldn't make it an
order, and there is no chance of failure." Darban said softly. "Only the
question of willingness."
     Temon licked his lips. "A soldier should be willing at all times." he
said. "Especially when his superior officer needs his assistance."
     "Again." Darban's smile was positively charming now, the hint of clean
teeth gleaming at him in the light of the sun, the eyes dancing with
sparkles of captured light that he tossed at Temon as if they were jewels
from the beneficient hand of a sultan going among his subjects. "Again you
are not compelled." he said. "But there is the bond that soldiers have that
need nothing of discipline and command to bring about, a bond that is older
than orders, that date back as old as time."
     Temon dared to reach and touch that face, the way he'd dreamed of
doing ever since he had stood in line, Darban walking down the rows with
the other older members of the Youth Corps, and his heart had melted at
that face, their eyes had caught each other and he had dared to smile at
Darban, who had smiled so briefly, then turned the stern taskmaster Temon
had endured for so many weeks. But now the worst of that was over, and
Temon could touch that face at last, the touch made more powerful for being
so long denied, the feeling of this face, so warm and soft, that had plied
a frown at him so long and still he had desired it, now it was not hard at
all, it was warm, warm!
     He touched the face and it was warm and he dared to reach for it, and
the lips reached for his in return. The kiss was almost orgasmic all by
itself for Temon, he shuddered and wondered for a moment if he would cream
his shorts so abruptly. Longing can burn a man as easily as the most
frenetic thrusting of the groin, and the slightest end to that longing is a
knife of delight that poets have waxed upon for ages...and never truly
captured save in pale shades of puerile prose.
     Darban's hand and arm reached behind Temon and pulled him up against
him, and Temon felt that firm body pressing against his...at last, at
last!...and he groaned and his kiss became an inferno on Darban's, he
wanted to do everything at once, everything, and since all he was doing was
kissing, that was all he could do to express it, and he was working his
lips like a man possessed...for wasn't he?...and Darban had to fend him off
to catch his breath.
     Temon's face, pressed beyond those succulent lips, could only kiss now
that cheek, so clean and soft and unadorned by hair (a member of the
Tiresval Youth Corps was to shave twice a week at a minimum, more if
needed), and Temon's lips felt the angle of Darban's jawbone like a
miniature square corner, and he ran his tongue over it ardently, his nose
tickled the lobe of Darban's ear and it beckoned him upwards, on and up,
and he sent his tongue into Darban's ear and tasted the sweet, odd flavor
there, in a place where soap and water had trouble traveling, and the body
was left more to its own devices, and which dealt with it by a layer of
soft waxy essence, and Temon's tongue tasted that and it wasn't at all
unpleasant, only a secret part of Darban that he now explored.
     "God, varan, you are eager." Darban said in wonder. "I think I can
recommend you for the Corps most highly if you keep this up."
     "Even were you to say that I was to return to my family tomorrow."
Temon panted. "I would not do less."
     "And that is why I would recommend you so highly." Darban assured
him. "It is time for you to be inducted into the secrets of the Tiresval
Youth, and why we use our mentoring program to bring new recruits into our
upper echelon."
     "I had guessed that." Temon said. "That is, I had hoped." And he
kissed now the neck.
     Darban's cock was pressing against Temon's thigh and Temon slid his
hand between them so he could squeeze that firm interloper, the thin shorts
did nothing to impede it for Darban was not wearing any underclothes. Ah,
yes, the summer clothing of choice, as few clothes as you could, enough to
cover you, but not more, no, never more, than that minimum.
     Darban's hands lifted Temon's shirt over his head, the light material
came off like a second skin, for Temon had sweated onto it most profusely,
and who would not with such a load to be borne, such a distance to be trod,
and yet the sweat that remained upon him was something that Darban seemed
to crave, for he began to lick at Temon's young body most eagerly, tasting
the shining sheen that youthful exertion had laid upon his chest, and Temon
ran his hand up and down Darban's cock still inside its shorts, the
material between them, and yet he managed still to bring some measure of
pleasure to his levaran, his mentor, his angel and his partner!
     "Yes, you'll make a fine addition to the Youth." Darban said as he
lifted himself out of Temon's embrace and was above the prone young man,
kneeling like a god above him, and Darban's biceps flexed and gleamed as he
stripped off his own shirt with one smooth motion, and then Darban's
hands...
     "Oh, God!" Temon gasped out. "Yes, sir, yes!" Darban's hands were at
his shorts, and the buttons were happy to part company with their holes to
let him enter. Darban opened Temon's trousers and then his hand.
     "Oh, oh, ohhhhh!" Temon groaned. Darban's hand had hold of his cock,
Darban was holding onto his manhood and his life, and that hand, that
wonderful hand that had moved to teach him the many skills a Youth Corps
volunteer had to know, now that hand was pulling at his prick, each motion
a symphony of unfettered joy such that angels in heaven would be
hard-pressed to render into proper song!
     Darban was kind enough to shift around and Temon's hand dove for
Darban's crotch and his fingers danced madly over the buttons, those
damnable, stubborn buttons, they held for only a brief time, but it was an
eternity for his lust-driven brain! He finally got them apart and his
reward sprang out at him, Darban's dong ready for his worship!
     Temon scooted, his muscles screamed at him as he did but he ignored
them happily, and let their renewed pain only drive him the more as he sank
his mouth onto Darban's cock and his lips milked at it happily, the nectar
gained was salty and hot and marvelously dabbed upon his tongue, a generous
portion of precome.
     "Oh, ah, oh!" Darban panted huskily. "Easy, varan, we have the rest of
this day and all of this night. Ooh, oh, oh!"
     Temon's eager tongue and lips were not to be denied so easily, and
when Darban scooted down onto the ground once again and wrapped his mouth
around Temon's prod, it was only an added spur to his thrusts. His muscles
had been fired in the kiln of the weeks of intensive training, the
calisthenics, the obstacle courses, the practice runs that could mean a few
minutes of exertion or several hours. Today had been the worst so far, but
that was nothing to Temon just now, he was able to sustain himself as long
as need be!
     Yet he could not sustain himself in another way, his body had been
deprived for too long, ever since he had joined the Tiresval Youth Corps,
he had neglected his prick, the organ of his pleasure through both lonesome
nights and nights of joy with other lads from school, he had been so
exhausted from his labors that he had quite frequently fallen asleep mere
moments after getting into his monastic bed...and waking up was a matter of
jumping to his feet and standing at attention...no, his cock hadn't been
properly chastened for its rigid insistence by the beating that tamed it
for only a few hours, it hadn't received this for several weeks, and now,
now that it had everything it had wanted, it was not to wait overlong just
for the privilege of prolonging its master's joy!
     His cock surged with its need and his climax climbed into his
brain. Temon fought it off as well as he could, he didn't want to make this
moment, this joining, a time of shame at being unable to control himself!
He had to sustain himself, he had to endure...he had to last!
     But Darban's mouth was an insistent tender of his pleasure, he was
being wrung by his mentor's lips into a joy that had transported him far
above anything his own hand could have wrought, he could only fight it off
for so long, for so long....no longer!
     Temon's throat formed a few brief grunts of warning, and then he was
beyond any ability to do anything but throw himself into the fire of his
ecstasy. His body hit climax, he groaned one last syllable of lust, and
then he exploded, ejaculated fiercely, frantically, filling his friend with
a flood of fluid delight, the steaming salty semen that spurted out of him
and with it went his soul, went his life, went his energy and his strength
and his stamina, he was jetting it out every bit and every drop that gushed
from him went into Darban's mouth and throat, which drank it down with
every seeming of grateful revelry, if that was not enough, Darban's own
mouth, now choked with Temon's seed, managed a few desultory grunts and
then Darban's cock burst into Temon.
     Temon found himself with a load that matched his own in fury and
volume, his mouth filled up instantly and when he gulped at it, all he did
was end up with a larger amount, now partly in his mouth and partly in his
throat, and he gulped again, and that ended his breath and he when he tried
to breathe in, sperm hit his windpipe and he snorted, and when he did that,
the salty sting of sperm sniped at his sinuses and slid down his nostrils
and mocked him as a rank amateur of the art of drinking down a man's
come-load. He felt insulted at this and renewed his effort, and managed now
to gulp it down as it unloaded into him, and even to wring more from
Darban's prick by moving up and down and Darban's moans of orgasm were all
the reward he could ever want or need.
     And when they were done, two young men in the first bloom of life,
lying in the grass of a wooded hillside, panting life back into their
bodies, the warm sun kissing them with its enormous mouth that could touch
you everywhere at once, the wind a timid set of fingertips that gently
stroked those young masculine forms, the blush of youthful vigor, the
promise of masculine form, and Temon opened his eyes again and then sought
out Darban's face once more, crawling as if he were a mouse upon the grass,
and when he found Darban's face waiting for him, he kissed that face and
tasted the hot saltiness upon his own lips and upon Darban's, and he could
not decide which of them was the better. Both were wonderful, just
wonderful, to taste and be tasted and he rewarded Darban with as many
kisses as he could manage.
     He rested his head on Darban's arm, the way he had dreamed of doing so
long, and said, "I hope we can stay together. Would we be allowed to sleep
in one bed when we get back? Or maybe I could sneak in to join you?"
     "I shall move you in with me." Darban promised him. "And you will see
that nobody will say a word, except perhaps your fellow trainees, who
wonder what they have to do to get to do the same with their own levarans."
     "Should I tell them?"
     "No." Darban said. "As you know, too many are too eager to join us,
they would do this as part of the price, not from the joy that you and I
know." he said. "The true test to be passed was whether you had joined only
for the money, or if you had joined to be a member of the Youth Corps."
     "It was both." Temon said again. "I am glad it was both, for I would
have hated to have been turned away, yet how could I have chosen to stay
when my family needs me."
     "Do not worry any longer." Darban said. "The Tiresval Youth Corps
takes care of its own. There will be the stipend, and we can find a better
employment for your mother. We need workers in the munitions plant run by
one of our elder sponsors, he needs to make many more bombs for shipment to
Germany. Hitler will soon move to create his Greater German Reich, and you
know as well as I that Poland will be the first, as it will let him rejoin
Prussia to the rest of Germany. Carlovan will have a place with Hitler and
the Europe he is building, and we can only gain by his friendship."
     Temon again felt no need to argue this. There were things about
Hitler's speeches that bothered him (would he truly treat Carlovain as an
equal in his new world order?) but still...if Darban said that Hitler was
good, then he must be good. "You and I shall help him, then." he
said. "Perhaps we should go to Germany and enlist in Hitler's army
instead?"
     "We might do that." Darban said. "But maybe we should start in our own
Army, after all, if England and France get involved in the war, Carlovain
will march with Germany against them."
     "Of course." Temon agreed. "So there will be...Uh! UH, UH, UH!"
     "What is it?" Darban asked him.
     "Leg cramp!" Temon said. "Leg cramp!"
     Maybe he wasn't as tough as he'd hoped he was!
     Darban's hands began their promised massage. Temon determined again to
work on building his strength and stamina so that such cramps and pains
would be a thing of the past, to be "tempered in fire" as Darban had said,
become the perfect man, the best possible warrior.
     He felt certain he would need all his strength in the days to come.

				  THE END
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