Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 17:09:29 -0500 From: Robert Costic <robertcostic@gmail.com> Subject: The Thunderbird and the Raven The Thunderbird and the Raven By Robert S. Costic Robert Costic has written a collection of fairy tales, "Flamethrower Fairy Tales," a novella, "Kepler's Revenge," a collection of aphorisms, "Lightning Words," and a translation of the 19th century German writer Theodor Storm's fairy tales and ghost stories. All are available as ebooks everywhere. ----- When the humpback whale swam docilely among the dugout canoes rowed by Skaay, his lover Ghandl, and their fellowmen of the Sealion People, they paused from their hunt and put down their spears to observe it like one would a god. It glided only a few feet below them, its enormous, undulating body generating small waves that made the canoes bop up and down in the water. Although the moment was calm a shiver ran across Skaay's spine with ominous foreboding. Was it from the breeze that picked up and ruffled his black hair? Was it from the disappearance of the sunlight on the water? Skaay did not know what worried him until he turned his head and looked up to the sky to see an enormous thunderbird, the legendary creature of supernatural power and strength hovering high above him, its wings outstretched, blocking the sun, ready to make a kill. Skaay shouted out to his tribesmen to flee, but it was too late. From its talons the thunderbird threw two lightning bolts that struck the whale, which convulsed involuntarily from the shock and violently overturned several canoes. In an eye blink the thunderbird plunged from its unfathomable height into the water, grabbed the whale, and lifted it into the air. The canoes were dashed. The tribesmen were submerged underwater. Once Skaay regained his senses he swam to the surface and saw the bird carry its prey toward the highest mountain of the Haida Gwaii archipelago, and to his horror he saw Ghandl clinging to the whale's back, yelling out for help, his voice growing fainter the farther the bird flew. After Skaay swam to the coast he found his tribesmen and told them, "We have to go save Ghandl. I saw him on the whale's back." "Forget him," Kasaan said. "He's as good as dead, and we would never be able to reach the thunderbird's nest." "Go, then," Skaay said, "I will save him by myself." While the other tribesmen began their walk along the coast to their village, Skaay walked inland toward the jagged mountain. He walked for hours, undeterred by the formidable distance that lay between him and his destination, but night fell and the darkness made further travel impossible. He lay on a patch of smooth soil and gazed up at those stars of the Milky Way unobstructed by the treetops. Just then Skaay heard a voice, "What are you doing so deep in the forest, Haida warrior?" Skaay turned and saw two dimly lit eyes looking back at him. Once his eyes adjusted Skaay could make out the figure of a raven. "I'm here to save my lover, Ghandl," Skaay said. "He's with the thunderbird at the top of the mountain." "You'll never reach the mountaintop with human hands and feet," the raven said. "There has to be a way," Skaay said. "With wings you can," the raven said. "I have flown there before." "Can you take me?" Skaay asked. The raven contemplated and answered, "I'm not much interested in going there myself, but I'm willing to offer you a deal. I will exchange my skin for yours. With my skin you can fly to the mountaintop and retrieve your lover. With your skin I'll go down to your village and live among your tribesmen. When you return to your village we can return our skins to each other." "That sounds generous of you," Skaay said, "although I don't know why you would want to live as a human." "I would enjoy the novelty," the raven said with as much of a smile as a raven can smile. They slipped out of their skins and put on each other's. The next day Skaay flapped his black wings and rose above the trees and toward the mountain. Within a few hours he ascended the lenticular clouds surrounding the cascading walls of rock and reached the clear, sun-soaked summit, where a gargantuan nest made of whole trees sat, and where the enormous thunderbird ate distractedly out of the belly of the humpback whale. Skaay flew discreetly around the nest and spotted Ghandl hiding among the uprooted trees. "Ghandl, it's me, Skaay," he said to him as soon as he approached. "I'm here to save you." "What happened to you?" Ghandl asked. "I borrow a raven's skin to fly up here. Climb on my back and we'll coast down to the base of the mountain." Ghandl did so, and they descended from summit, passing through the clouds to the treetops and finally a small patch of grass beside a stream. There Skaay let Ghandl climb off his back so that Ghandl could walk the rest of the way back to the village while Skaay fluttered casually beside him. By nightfall they reached the coastal village. Most of the tribesmen were asleep but the raven, dressed as Skaay, sat by an open campfire anticipating his arrival. They returned their skins to each other. The raven flew off, and Skaay and Ghandl retired to their clan house. There they quietly made love so as not to wake the others. Ghandl squatted like a dog and received Skaay, who pressed against and inside him with his firm, sweaty body. With discreet inward flexes of his butt cheeks Skaay's engorged penis swelled and stroked Ghandl's prostate. Ghandl suppressed a moan, but the sensations inside of him provoked him to climax, and when Skaay saw this and felt Ghandl's sphincter convulse with orgasmic spasms Skaay climaxed as well, spraying Ghandl's prostate. They collapsed and fell asleep on top of each other. The next day the villagers expressed surprise to see Ghandl among them. "How did you come back to us?" Qqaasta asked. "We were sure you had died." "Skaay rescued me," Ghandl said. "But Skaay was here," Qqaasta said. "That wasn't Skaay," Ghandl. "Skaay and a raven borrowed each other's skins so Skaay could fly up to the summit of thunderbird's mountain to retrieve me." "Oh," Qqaasta said incredulously and walked away. Meanwhile, Skaay found himself the subject of conversation and the advances of all the men of the village. "Without Ghandl around you were insatiable," Kasaan said, "Do you think we could do it again tonight?" "I don't know what you're talking about," Skaay said. "You don't have to play dumb now that your boy is back," Kasaan said. Skaay just shook his head, so Kasaan left. But then another tribesman, Ttii, approached him again and bluntly asked, "Think we'll fuck again?" "We've never fucked!" Skaay said. "Enough with the lies," Ttii said. "Every man in the village fucked you yesterday, and you instigated it. You practically begged everyone to take you. You were grabbing men's crotches and wetting so many with your tongue that the men finally gave you what you wanted and used your body for hours. You were amazing. I can't remember a time when the Sealion People have had more fun. You were the envy of all the women. Even now they're saying that you'll sap so much of the tribesmen's juice we'll no longer have children." "The raven!" Skaay blurted to himself. The tribesmen also began to harass Ghandl. "Do you think you could share your lover with us?" Lawaak said. "It isn't fair that you have him all to yourself." "Why don't you guys just fuck each other, if you're all so horny?" Ghandl asked. "None of the tribesmen are as beautiful or as skilled as Skaay in the art of lovemaking," Lawaak said. "He gave all of us too powerful a taste of what he is able to accomplish, and we are all yearning now to drink again from his cup of pleasures." Skaay and Ghandl tried in vain to ignore all the attention now received from the tribesmen, but it became insufferable. At night they tried to make love in the clan house, but they found themselves stared at by the watchful eyes of the men wanting to live vicariously through them. The two lovers contemplated packing into a canoe and fleeing to another village, but before they committed to a plan the villagers made other arrangements for them. One day Skaay awoke to find Ghandl missing, and as soon as he inquired as to whereabouts Ttii told him, "Kasaan kidnapped him and has taken him to the forest." "What!" Skaay exclaimed. "Don't worry. He's safe." "Then why did he do that?" "The villagers want to sleep with you again. We hoped that if Ghandl left for a while you would let us gangbang you again." "No! You can't do that! I'm not going to gangbang with you," Skaay said. "Where did Kasaan take Ghandl?" "I'm not supposed to say," Ttii said. Skaay grabbed Ttii by the balls and angrily pulled on them. Ttii winced in pain. "If you don't tell me where Ghandl is," Skaay said, "I'll pull your balls from your crotch and you'll never have sex again." "He's at the Black Bear Silver Stream," Ttii said. Skaay relented and left Ttii. He packed food and weapons and journeyed from the village into the forest to find Ghandl once again. After he journeyed under tree cover for some hours he came across the raven, who crowed with laughter at him. "You've caused me more problems than the thunderbird!" Skaay yelled angrily at the raven. "Why? Are the men missing me?" the raven asked. "Yes, and I want nothing to do with it!" Skaay said. "So you're running away?" "No. They've kidnapped Ghandl to try to make me have sex with them again," Skaay said. "I'm sorry to hear that," the raven said. "I don't mean for anyone to be harmed." "Then help me get Ghandl back." The raven agreed and flew with Skaay to Black Bear Silver Stream, where Kasaan had Ghandl tied naked to a tree. Skaay pointed an arrow at Kasaan with his bow and shouted, "Halt! Untie him immediately!" Kasaan stared and reluctantly did as Skaay commanded. As soon as he was loose Ghandl ran to Skaay's side, but Skaay ran toward Kasaan and hurtled him to the ground, dropping his bow and arrow to threaten Kasaan with a knife. "I should kill you right now, but I'm willing to make you an offer. I'll let you live if you exchange your skin with the raven's." "What?" Kaasan asked dumbfounded. "Do you want to live?" Skaay asked. "Yes." So Kaasan exchanged his skin for that of the raven. The four of them returned to the village, Skaay and Ghandl arm-in-arm, the raven beside them in Kaasan's skin, and Kaasan flying overhead as the raven. Back home the tribesmen solicited Skaay once again for sex, but now the raven as Kaasan rebuffed their advances for Skaay by lunging at their genitalia and servicing them with the gusto of an addict. Soon the villagers had forgotten all about Skaay, or if they had remembered Skaay it was only to say that Kaasan had eclipsed him as the most sexually rambunctious and wild man they ever knew. They took full advantage of the raven's appetite for dick and ravished him incessantly, while Kaasan sat perched in a tree watching.