Alterations

Here's the next part in the story. I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: This is a fantacy story with male to male sex and love relationships. If you are under the age of eighteen years, you should not be here. You have been warned.

Alterations Part 3 by dymondbolt

Our meeting with Chief Metaxas was uneventful and we were able to get back to Anthony's hotel by eleven O'clock am. Janos had the lunch basket ready for us and even checked the yachts gas tank, oil level, bilge pump, emergency radio, and med kit.

Anthony smiled and looked at Janos with his head tipped to the side and asked " Do I pay you enough? "

Janos smiled like a kid and said " Yes. With compliments like that. Have a fun time."

Anthony said " We will. How are you going to spend your day off?"

Janos is shocked but he smiles anyway and says " Boss! I have dinner to prepare for us tonight and we have eight guests all adults and male, to get ready for. They arrive in two days."

Anthony groans and says " The Murphy party from Missouri . I forgot." He frowns and then smiles and says " Are you sure I pay you enough? "

Janos says " I'll let you know after they leave. Luckily they are only staying a week."

Anthony says " See you at sunset."

Janos nods and heads towards the hotel as we push off from the pier . Anthony gets the yacht away from the pier and turned out into the open sea. we start to get a very mild chop after we pass the tiny break water built opposite the natural breakwater that is part of the hills north of the hotel. We head east for half an hour and Anthony stops the engines .

Our faces ask the question Anthony answers with " I found the Island by accident the first time. But the following visits I had to calculate from returning to my hotel. GPS is able to help up to a kilometer from the Island and then it won't work, and I have tried three different brands of GPS device. None of them will identify the direct location of the island, and I don't know why."

I'm puzzled by this and then I smile. Another quality piece of Anthony's character comes into view. I tell him " And you didn't ask any of the people you bought them from so you could keep it secret."

Anthony says ' Of course. I never took anyone to the Island. I've known about it for three years, but I never found anyone I felt like telling. Janos doesn't even know about it. When you directly asked me about an island where no one goes, and then asked me if I was living with anyone; I knew you would be the first person I would tell about it. Then when all your emails made me feel like i've known you for years, I knew you were one to open my heart to." He turns his head to me and smiles.

I've been in back of him and to the side and after his smile I come up in back of his seat and put my arms around his chest and kiss the back of his neck. He turns his head again and we briefly kiss. He holds my arms as he turns back to piloting the ship. My head on his shoulder gets him to lean his head against mine. Sometimes happiness consists of this, Touching the one you love.

It's a beautiful day and after an hour, the weather above an island in the distance , tells us we are getting close. I ask Anthony " Is the island with the weird clouds over it our Island? "

Anthony nods and says " Yes. And the clouds never seem to leave , though they don't cut down the light very much."

Then Anthony and I both get a little surprise when Matt says " What are you two talking about ? There's nothing in front of us except open water."

We look at Matt and I'm the one to ask " You can't see an island two miles in front of us?"

Matt is a bit cross with the questions and says " No, I do not see any island , and I don't see any clouds in the entire sky. So if this is a joke on the straight guy I would like to know it....."

Matts anger seemed to evaporate as we moved into the shadow from the clouds over the Island. Matt seemed shocked and his eyes got wide . His voiced was much softer as he asked us " Where did that come from? "

The Island is now just under a mile away and a harbor inside a natural bay seemed to be Anthony's destination. I could hear a soft slight buzzing. Just barely audible.

Anthony tells Matt with a slight grin on his face " I think that when the African continent thrust into the European continent the collision caused .." My hands were on Anthony's shoulders and I squeezed them as I started to laugh. Matt was not in the mood, but waited like a good friend. I got serious and turned and got closer to Matt.

I told him " I would have said something just like that, but Anthony beat me to it. " I let my serious face get through to Matt before I continued. I tell him " Matt I had no problem seeing the Island from a distance. Obviously you couldn't see it. I have no idea why that should be so, or why you can see it now. I do know we are going to have to investigate the phenomenon."

Anthony says " Matt I apologize if it sounded like I was making fun of you. What would have been better to say is that the Island came from the same place that the GPS system seems to fail. Every time my yacht enters the shadow of these clouds the GPS gets a failure code and acts like we're under a mountain of rock. At least thats what the manuals say that came with the GPS units."

Matt says " Apology accepted. It's like an ancient cloaking device."

Anthony smiles as he reverses engines and gets near the shore in the harbor. He flips two switches and two anchors , fore and aft, start lowering. A little light over the fore switch lights and Anthony turns that one off. A few seconds later the same goes for aft and with the engines off a friendly sort of silence is felt.

Anthony says " Like Star Trek"

Matt asks " So why can you two see the Island , and I don't see anything until GPS fails?"

I tell him " Like I said, we will haver to investigate, but after we get to see the temple."

Matt's face lit up for that and says " Sounds good to me. I'm sorry if I sounded like I thought you guys were playing with my head."

I tell Matt " We'd be glad to play with your head, but you aren't our type, and you prefer innies instead of outies, so we figure you wouldn't really enjoy it if we stuffed one of our rigid members up your bum." I end it with a winning smile.

Anthony helps it along with " Though technically speaking that would not be playing with his head at all , unless you jerked him off while pounding his bum."

This got a serious look on my face but Matt just tipped his head sideways. I tell Anthony " We could slowly disrobe to see if any of this is something he'd like." Anthony and I smile and look to Matt.

Matt has straightened up and grimaces at us before he points over his shoulder and asks " Is that shore where we're going to start looking at the Island?"

Anthony and I both nod yes. Matt smiles bigger and says " Good. I'll see you two over there." He promptly started to pull his shirt off, kick off his sandals and wrap them in his shirt. From his pocket he pulled out a large sealable plastic bag. He then unzipped his shorts , pulled them off and stuffed them and his shirt/sandals into the bag. Then Matt, naked as a jay bird tells us " This is as much as you get. Please bring a dry towel."

And with that said Matt turns steps onto the railing and jumps into the blue adriatic. Anthony and I just look at each other for a good fifteen seconds before I say " Well that worked out well."

Anthony says " Yes, and he seems to work out as much as you do."

I say " Really? Do you think so? "

Anthony says " Why yes! Yes I do. Very buff, the both of you."

I say " Why thank you for mentioning that."

Anthony says " You're very welcome."

I don't know how much more we could have done before we would start laughing our heads off, but Matt helped out just then with a shout half way to the Island, " Would you two stop talking like Mac and Tosh from the looney tunes cartoons and start moving to shore? Please? I jumped in before I realized how hungry I am. And don't forget the cameras and the carbon fourteen test kit. "

Anthony says through a chuckle " I never knew the names of those two ground squirrels in the cartoons."

I get the backpack with the cameras and the test kit , and the backpack with extra water and sunscreen. I tell Anthony " I'm pretty sure he's right about the names. Are there some towels we can take over .." Anthony picks up the lunch basket ( a large one) and there are at least four towels and a table cloth tucked into the handle. We smile at each other and head for the little dingy secured to the aft. Anthony lowers it into the water and jumps in and reaches for my backpacks and then helps steady me as I get in the dingy. The engine starts right away and in about five minutes we're at shore a minute after Matt gets out of the water.

Matt is standing with the bag of clothes in front of his crotch. He has already pulled the sandals out of the bag and looks a bit less sure of himself after his swim. I figure Matt has been a good sport through all of this so I throw a towel to him before we jump onto the beach and pull the boat out of reach of the water.

Matt says " Thanks. I'm sorry about the attitude. I'd just feel better if my fiance were out here." He finished drying off and pulled on his shorts and then shirt.

Before he can go on , Anthony tells him " You are doing fine. All this romance Nick and I are throwing back and forth , and the one you love is far away. I won't apologize for being so happy, but I do hope you can convince her to get on a plane."

Matt smiled then and said " Thanks Anthony."

I whispered to Anthony as he headed up a trail " I love you"

He smiled just for me and took my hand for a few minutes as we walked along a rather wide flat pathway.

We come up to what looks like a big triangle about twenty feet on a side. The path we were on seemed to be the one less traveled. Anthony starts towards the left path and I ask "Anthony, what's down the other path?

Anthony turned and said " that path leads to the temple, but since at least two thirds of us are very hungry, I thought a beautiful setting would be better. "

Just at that moment my stomach put in it's two cents worth with a loud grumble. Anthony smiled and said " I could be wrong, but I think that makes it unanimous."

I just smile and say " Lead on."

Back in amongst the trees again we quickly come to another clearing. It's at the bottom of a small waterfall. It was about twenty five feet tall but only a foot and a half wide. The path curves to the right and up to the top of the cliff the waterfall falls over. I see something to the left of the waterfall and ask " Is that a cave to the left of the waterfall? "

Anthony says" Yes, and a very large one once you get inside. The opening you can see is really ten feet in diameter, but it opens up to a hollow about twenty five feet across . It appears to be natural." He starts to spread the table cloth out under a very wide spread tree. He opens the basket and smiles. He tells us " Janos is practicing American style cuisine."

Matt and I look at each other and I say " We have a real cuisine ? "

Anthony pretends to be shocked " Hot dogs, French fries. Gumbo. " he looks lost in thought.

I tell him " Well that last one really is American. But Gumbo, hot dogs and fries aren't good cold."

Anthony says " which is why janos sent some dolmas , a nice red greek wine and " He pulls out croissants with a lot of white meat stuffed in-between the two halves. He finishes with " Turkey sandwiches."

I jokingly say " With provolone and avocado? " He just smiled and pulled out two more along with a covered bowl of the dolmas, the wine and a corkscrew.

Now I am shocked. I tell him " That's my sandwich you ripped-off my sandwich."

Anthony smiles and says " No. You told me about your killer sandwich and i told Janos." I'm not really angry but I'm close enough to be able to tickle Anthony which gets him to move away enough to be able to say " You know It wasn't easy getting those frozen turkeys shipped here" Tickle. " you would think with the country Turkey just next door" Tickle. " That we would raise turkeys in Greece " tickle. " but that's just not the case " Tickle tickle tickle.

Anthony is on his back and I have him where I want him. He smiles and admits" Ok Ok. I ripped off your killer sandwich. How can I make up for my theft? "

This gets me to lay down next to him and ponder his punishment. As my face screws up I look at him smile and point to my lips and tap them.

As he props himself up on an elbow and looks down at me he says " You know this form of punishment will only make me want to steal more."

Just before he can kiss me I tell him " My hearts next." It's one of those kisses and Matt has to drag us back to reality with his laughter and the word " amazing"

We part and I immediately look on the back of my arm closest to Matt. there is a little spot that is missing hair. I look at Anthony who checks his arm and finds the same thing. Anthony snorts a laugh and we look at Matt.

I tell him " You have got to stop that or patent it as the painless hair removal system."

Anthony says " I wonder if it's the hair or the laugh, or both?"

Matt says " Next time I'll try the laugh first and wait."

I tell him "thank you" Then I notice the wine is open and two glasses are full and one empty and the dolmas cover is loose, and there is only two sandwiches on the plate. I say " That long huh?"

Matt smiles and says " Only fifteen minutes this time, but we have to get some work done today."

I nod and Anthony and I tear into the food and Matt helps put away the dishes when we're done.

Anthony says " We can leave the basket here. Before I take you to the temple, I want to show you where they quarried the stone for it, and something Else. "

I tell him " Sounds good to me."

We follow the path up and around the pool above the waterfall and see that the waterfall is artificial. Anthony leads us on a brisk walk up to the top of the Island. Not quite a mountain, but close. the top of the Island is clear of all brush or trees and we start seeing the quarrying marks in the living stone. Then we come around a bend and find a strange structure.

It looks like a stelle but shorter. the buzzing sound that was in the background and all but ignored, now sounds louder. and as we get closer the volume goes up until we are twenty feet from the stelle and suddenly the buzzing goes away. The object is made out of marble. White with blue and gold streaks through it. The symbols carved on all four sides are close to demotic but not quite. Matt has a camera out and is taking pictures. He hands me the collapsable meter stick and I unfold it and place it against the stelle. The back of my hand brushes against the marble and I feel intense cold. Anthony suddenly grabs my hand before I can touch the stelle again.

He looks into my eyes and I see concern. He says " It would hurt. Colder than I've ever felt before."

I give him a smile and say "Thank you."

We move out of the way for Matt to take two shots and then Anthony produces an oven mitt from his small backpack and positions the meter stick onto the next side. Matt and he finish the other sides and Anthony retrieves the meter stick. He smiles as he hands it to me. I expect it to be freezing and its neither hot nor cold. Matt takes it from me and starts taking shots of the quarry.

I ask him " Does a thermometer register the stelle as cold ? "

Anthony says " I never thought to bring one to check. The base isn't cold to the touch, just the marble."

Matt folds the meter stick up and says " This is just preliminary work here. Lets see the temple."

I nod yes and Anthony says " Then we retrace our steps to the crossroads." He leads us back past the pool feeding the waterfall and I suddenly realize the island is not big enough for this much water flowing into and out of a pool this size .

I ask " Anthony, is this Island big enough for this amount of water to be flowing over it?"

We're almost at the crossroads and Anthony stops and frowns as he turns back to us and the waterfall. He says " As a matter of fact any stream should have dried up by this time of year."

Matt says " Maybe the same force thats making most people ignore the island is what's making the clouds form over the island. And if the clouds dropped what water they had each night, that would explain the lush forest and full streams"

I tell them " More mystery for us to investigate. Along with the next one which is; where are the statues of Hermes which are normally placed at crossroads?"

We all look at the area around the crossroads and nothing but underbrush.

Anthony says " Maybe they didn't want the roads to be traveled like other roads."

Matt and I shrug and look to Anthony. He smiles and says " On to the temple." We head down the third path and about fifty feet along the way we hear trickling water. To the side of the path a stone lined channel about four inches wide and at least a foot and a half deep carried about a third of what the waterfall was spilling from the top pool. The temple was looking to be even more elaborate than I imagined.

I ask " Anthony, are we in for a very big surprise? "

He slows down and says " The stone they gathered from this island only was used for the structure. They used so many beautiful marbles and other stone I have no name for. The time before the last time I visited the temple, I was standing in front of the alter to Zeus and I prayed I could have someone to share this with." He stopped in front of a very large opening to the back of the temple. He's looking down to the left of the wall across the path. the channel cuts right into the wall with an ornate opening for the water to travel through. He tells us " One week later you emailed me about the very Island and temple I had discovered. Until I was presented with so much beauty and no one to share it with, I had been able to ignore how lonely I was. For that week I thought Zeus very cruel to show how alone I was and not hear my prayer."

He turns to me and seems to be a bit shy but happy. He says " When I got your email, I had Janos buy a plate of his mothers baklava and I found a bottle of the best wine from the hotels cellar and the next day I took them to this temple and placed them on his altar and thanked Zeus for opening the ache in my heart for someone like you to fill."

All I can think is ' I wish we had some more of Janos special baklava ' as I reach for Anthony and bury my head in his chest. We just held each other for a minute, and then we parted and turned to the back opening.

It was at least twenty feet tall by eight feet across and was positioned so you had to turn right ninety degrees from the path. The opening lead between an inner and outer wall the same distance apart. The path seemed to head up hill as it entered the temple, ( a logical idea, so as to keep rain from flooding the temple with mud ). As we got to the end of the hall that was the back opening we had to turn left and found ourselves on a ledge about ten feet above the main floor of the temple and ten feet wide. The ledge itself was about fifteen feet outside a hip wall where the Altars and statues were arranged against. Light came in through a hole in the ceiling and the main entrance to the temple. The hip wall is U shaped with the opening pointing to the main entrance and about forty feet across. the main entrance is about fifteen feet tall and ten feet across. in the center of the temple is a shallow pool lined in white marble, four feet deep and ten feet in diameter. A shell shaped basin sitting just above the pool ( opposite the entrance ), acts as a fountain and fills the pool from a larger basin in back of the Altar to Zeus. The pool has a small channel that heads towards and through the entrance.

Before we can move down the ramp to the floor of the temple Anthony stops us and says " I think it is proper to remove your sandals before entering the temple."

Matt and I follow his example and follow him down the ramp. In stead of heading to the altars , Anthony follows the channel of water flowing out of the temple to another basin that where he washes his feet. Again we follow his example and see the path splits around the basin and leads down two sets of stone stairways to a stone dock with short pillars for tying boats to .

Anthony waits for us to finish cleaning our feet and we walk back into the temple. I decide to pay my respects first and ignore the other altars, as I head past Anthony to the Altar to Zeus, The statue is ten feet tall and massively muscled. His left hand lightly holds a thunderbolt, and his right hand is palm up and open. While his head is pointing straight ahead his eyes look down to where the faithful would be placing offerings. His penis is enormous and the sculptor showed it starting to rise. What size it would grow to is left to the imagination.

I move up to the flat space in front of the statue and place my hands on the altar. A little shock like static electricity hits my hands , but it's so mild I keep my hands there. I'm about to thank Zeus and suddenly there are arms folded over my chest and Anthony holding me. We both tip our heads down and silently thank Zeus for bringing us together. then together we look up into the eyes of a happy loving Zeus. My hands come off the altar and I turn to kiss My love as he pulls me closer and we lose track of time . Until we hear a sad voice murmur " please, I miss her so much " We part , and the feeling like a teardrop fell into the palm of my hand, made me look to the altar and there's Matt with his head bowed and tears dripping from his nose onto the altar.

Anthony and I are shocked and I ask " Matt what's the matter?"

Matt looks up and wipes his eyes and says " I lied. I asked Andrea to marry me but she hasn't said yes or no. She asked me not to go and i told her I couldn't pass up this chance for something this big. Then she said she had hoped I'd be near her when she decided. She said she loved me when I left but she still hadn't said yes. I was just hoping Zeus would smile on me too." Matt's face screws up and the tears start falling. I give him a hug and Anthony rubs his back, as Matt holds onto me while he aches for his love to want him too. Anthony and I look into each others eyes and together we pray for him to find the kind of love we have.

I silently pray; 'Let Andrea know how much he loves her, Please Zeus. He is a good man, and a good friend.'

Matt became calmer and when his breathing got more even He says " I'm sorry. I'm messing up your happiness..."

Here is why I love Anthony . He tells Matt " How could we be happy and care free with a friend in so much pain. But you have been brave in what you told Zeus. Only a strong man can set his pride aside for love. To admit he needs help and ask for it, shows how much love means to him. Shows what he would do for love. You sacrificed your pride to Zeus for the one you love . Surely she will find her heart turn to you as deeply as yours turns to her."

Matt smiled and hugged Anthony like i've seen him hug his brothers, as he tells him " Thank you Anthony, Thank you for making my best friend so happy."

Anthony chuckled and said " He makes me very happy too"

We let each other go and take in the beauty of the place. Then we notice the statue of Hercules and the altar to Priapus

Hercules almost rivals the massive muscles of Zeus but Hercules cock is fully erect and gigantic. It is only equalled by the partial statue of a body with an erection that reaches up to his neck and almost as thick as his thigh. What did these people think they could do with dicks that big. Humans surely couldn't tolerate something that size inside them! Could they. Perhaps the gods helped out in that department too.

Matt says " We have got to get some pictures of this temple. I don't think a temple has ever had these altars grouped together before. "

We left our packs at the back opening and Matt goes to them and brings back my camera with his own and the meter stick. He starts from left to right and takes shot after shot on his digital camera but pauses when he gets to Zeus and I hear him murmur" Only for your glory"

I felt a lot better after hearing that from Matt. Respect for place and the spirit of the temple , was high on my list when working on a religious site.

I took shots of the water entering the temple and the path it took through the temple. I got a beautiful shot of Anthony with his hand in the pool and his face just looking up at me with such a loving smile. If I died tomorrow I would be content, for love has smiled on me. I put the camera down and sit next to Anthony. He pulls me into an embrace and Matt says " Hey you two. Smile! " I'm sure the camera caught just how happy we are.

The End Part 3

I hope you liked this part. More to come. Please leave feed back. It really helps. And thank you for reading this.