LANCED-A-LOT 5
By: Silenos
This story is a work of fiction and involves teenagers in sexual situations. If that offends you, don't read it. If you are underage, don't read it (like that's going to happen). This story belongs solely to the author and may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part without permission of the author.
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If you are new to this series and explanation of its origins is at the base of this installment.
LANCED-A-LOT: Chapter 5
We were blessed with sun for a second day on our Journey to Castlemount. Many not native to these islands of ours believe we are a dour people as gloomy and damp as the perceived gray of our skies; but if you have never been here for a clear, sunny, day then you have not seen beauty or felt the joy of life. Even the hardest of hearts melts on a long sunny day here. Grateful for that our troupe of men and prisoners, bound and traveling in a cart, were quite merry, in spite of hangovers and wounds. Of course, the anticipation of rewards for a successful expedition did no harm either.
Though we rode next to each other Idris and I still kept our voices low. We were not exactly conspiring, so much as we were learning of each other, as well as concocting our stories of how I had come to be his squire. We also managed to learn a bit about our more, shall we say, "nocturnal proclivities and preferences".
As it turned out he was the youngest son of a Welsh Knight, such as they may be, who held extensive lands in the northern valleys, and hills of that country. Wealthy and powerful as that might have made him Idris was still the youngest son and had been farmed out to another Knight as was the custom. As a page he had met Robin Gallant and they had grown up together the two became more than friends. Gallant had been Knighted a year before Idris and returned to his home which abridged the Castlemount lands. He was engaged to be married Sir Castlemount's eldest daughter and, as the Knight had no sons, was looked on as a contract that would bind the neighbors. Gallant, like Idris, had no real interest in the fair sex and longed for his lover's company. On hearing of Idris being Knighted (an event which only happened because Idris' then Lord's daughter had been making eyes at Idris and the father thought it better to be rid of him), Gallant had sent a message urging Idris to make haste to join him and enter into his service. In fact, the message had been clear, it was urgent Idris join him as quickly as possible.
I spared nothing and told him of me, sort of (a boy must have some secrets), and when he learned I actually had letters, thanks to Brother John, and that I was not only an acrobat, but a boy of many trades even to barbering he was intrigued thinking I must have led some sort of romantic life.
I did nothing to dissuade him of this and tried not to roll my eyes, but was glad to hear him say "Many talents, many talents, and we shall make good use of them, I think. But they will not do for a squire. No, we must concoct a story for others."
So saying, it was decided that I was now to be Jack Gwenyn, who was also a youngest son and had been sent to Idris as squire. My father being a knight pledged to Idris' father, and who held some minor lands worthy of nothing but sheep and rock farming. This would explain my being penniless (I said nothing of the purse I held). We also decided I would remain sixteen summers in age, though nobody would believe it, as it made it made me more believable in my position.
All that being settled we whispered about nocturnal bedroom likes and dislikes to the point it making it uncomfortable to ride from our arousal. In all honesty you would have thought us nought but a pair of gossipy maidens. During that part of our discourse I learned that Robin Gallant was more than just a friend, but in fact Idris' true love. They had to keep it a secret because sexual relations between grown men, Knights at that, is bad enough; but love? Talk about abominations!
Perhaps the most important thing to come of the ride was the friendship which developed between myself and Idris. What was not to like? He was affable, handsome, and loved to laugh. Often pointing out some thing of beauty whether it was a bird, or a tree, that others would just pass by. Frankly, he just seemed to take joy out all that life had to offer; even the little things. It was quite plain he was no ordinary Knight, certainly not a typical one. Most of the ones I had run into up to that point were self-centered braggarts who felt entitled to have their way no matter the cost to others and damn the damage they caused to get it.
We reached Castlemount in the early afternoon. Not a bad place, a town trying to be bigger than it was. The main draw of the place was the river it abridged and two main roads that crossed at it. Farms stretched out around the place and in the center of the town a small hill (the mount) interrupted the entire setting. On top of it stood a rather unremarkable castle. Four towers, each of no more than four men's height, were connected by a walls in the final stages of construction. That construction appearing to be the major business of the little metropolis. In reality the "castle" was little more than a fortress and was notable only because it was being constructed of stone in the Norman fashion.
As we rode through the town the folk there waved, or greeted in some fashion, various members of our troop before going back about their business. The Captain, seemingly annoyed no one had yet heard of his great triumph sent one of the men ahead at speed to announce our coming. He asked us all to hasten our pace as if he was in desperate need to move his bowels or something. Right before passing through the gates my eyes met those of another boy. He, to me, was staggeringly beautiful. Slender, but toned in a way much as myself. Every muscle was defined and had a purpose to which it excelled. His long straight dark hair was pulled back and bound behind his head creating a tail much like that of a luxuriously groomed steed. A deep tan covered his almost hairless body hidden only by some sort of undergarment which hugged his firm bubbly rear and a bushel which seemed to grow at the meeting of our eyes (as indeed did my lance rise to wish for it). His brows and chiseled features were the framework for dark eyes deeper than a well; but which sent pleasurable shivers through running up and down my spine as they caught mine with an spak of light that flashed from their core. He had been carrying something, I recall not what, when our eyes met as we passed. I knew right away he was one of my kind, as he knew the same of me, only I hoped he was more than that and resolved to seek him out as soon as time permitted. Approaching the castle gate I looked back, to find him still staring at me with an intensity matching only mine for him.
"Bug! Er, I mean, Jack! Hullo, are you there?" laughed Idris, having seen where my attention lay. "A comely arse I will grant you, but a worker boy of some sort. You are a Squire now and must look to your station."
"Um, what?" I gathered my wits "I have no idea what you are talking about."
"Of course you don't, because your brains have been taken over from the dagger between your legs," he chuckled, saying "a dagger I would like to sheath if it were not for the hope of taking in my Robin's own blade tonight myself." I faked a laugh, trying to shake the image of that glorious boy from my head as we dismounted to enter the, so-called, "great hall" of the castle which was really no more than a high ceilinged extensive room adjacent to the castle kitchens with an actual floor of somewhat uneven slate with a fire in the middle of it. Thankfully a hole in the roof was there to draw the smoke out through its thatch.
Rough hewn tables and benches lined the length of the room leading to a small dias where another table with actual stools ran almost the length of the room. Behind it, in the only chair, sat an older bearded man of at least 50 summers. This corpulent man did not rise as we entered and the Captain rushed forward to bow, before gushing out "Lord Castlemount, I bring great tidings! I found the bandits who plagued your roads and have vanquished them."
"Do tell," said a typically arrogant Knight standing beside the man. He was quite becoming, and from the way his hand trembled at the sight of Idris I deduced him to be Robin Gallant.
"In our search we came upon Sir Idris," he nodded in my master's direction "who had narrowly escaped the villains, having single handedly slain six of them in the process. Whereupon I (?) set a trap for the rest and took them in their camp dispatching sixty (?) of the villains, and taking some few prisoners."
Idris began to bristle at the man's gall, calming only when I accidentally stumbled and stood on his foot. Castlemount "Well done!" bellowed Castlemount in a deep voice through the even deeper depths of his graying beard. "You and your men shall be rewarded for your courage against such odds, a feast tonight for them here in the hall..., um, what's your name again?"
The Captain flushed "George, Lord Castlemount, CAPTAIN of your guard."
"Captain? Oh, yes, of course, Captain." The man was confused by so unfamiliar a title he had no idea existed, shrugging it off to eagerly beckoned Idris forward "Sir Idris, come up and be recognized. Sir Gallant has spoken highly of you and we have great..." Gallent nudged the man with his elbow none too elegantly with a smile and a blink of innocence, "...um, great plans to celebrate your arrival."
As Idris moved in front of Captain George to be acknowledged I could not help but think there was some plot afoot and became wary. Bowing from the waist Idris said "My honor to meet you Sire, I have been summoned to pledge my service to Sir Gallant, who has been my boon friend since our days as pages."
"Welcome Sir Idris, another Knight is always welcome here." Castlemount was about to go on before Gallant interrupted him.
"Well met Sir Idris. You must be tired from your journey and exploits, perhaps you would care to refresh yourself before we learn the full details of your valiance this evening?" The man openly winked at Castlemount, who took a moment before nodding and blatantly winking back. "Come with me, you shall have the chamber adjacent to mine this night." With that he spun around expecting us to follow, which we did, bowing to Castlemount as we scurried after through a door behind the Lord's* chair.
"Quite, quite," harumphed the big man confusedly "I shall come along shortly to speak of our plans." Plans? If I had thought something was afoot before it now appeared to be a very big foot.
*In translating this there are, or were, many different titles used in many different ways at the time. A landed Knight was one step above a Thane, and what we would now call a Baron and therefore a Lord. In the interests of understanding I have translated people of this status with all their different appellations as Baron. This signifies a Knight with lands and a hereditary right to those lands for his offspring. The historians among you may pick nits about this, but to define each of these characters by each of their titles would certainly bore the common reader.
The following tale came to me from a wealthy friend who found it bound in his family's extensive bookshelves. Nobody could read it as it was in a strange hand and written in a mix of the common tongue and Norman French of its day. His family has lived in the same place, if not home, for centuries and are what one might consider landed gentry. My friend brought it to me in hopes I might be able to transcribe it into the English of our own time as that sort of thing is what I do. I have updated it only in that I have made such things as measurements, expressions, and such understandable by our reckoning today. What I found in my labors was quite startling. It would be wise for the reader to remember that mores were different then, and that the perception of "age" was as well. Average life expectancy was about 33 years, and people were smaller too, the average height being about 5'7". Insofar as I can tell these pages were written after the Norman conquest, but not by much. England, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall were all very much their own kingdoms, with petty kingdoms within, and Vikings could still be something of a nuisance in some parts even though history says their terror ended in exactly 1066.