THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2006 writen on March 7, 1995 translated by the Author English text kindly revised by Bill
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.
CHAPTER 4 - Prince Hawthorn invades Silvana for six months. Gentle's heroism. New dangers
On year 4 Fl LXVII Prince Hawthorn O'Tower, who had conquered the Texts' territories of Richton, entered with his army into Silvana territory and conquered its four fortresses. The Regency with all the soldiers that succeeded in escaping from O'Tower, took refuge in Garden Castle. On this occasion the Regency stipulated a pact with the O'Villas of Breadmount. In fact they understood that the Commune could not oppose by itself such a big and well armed army.
Prince Hawthorn was well known for his cruelty, his dissolute and pleasure-seeking life. In the first decree he issued after conquering the Commune, he declared that all the boys in the age of the Fruit belonged to him and had to be ready to give themselves to him for his pleasure. The episode we will later narrate shows how strong the pride of the young Silvanites was; the majority flew to Garden, others opposed giving themselves by being imprisoned and some with their lives; very few were those who subjected themselves to the Prince's greed.
Hawthorn's rule over almost all the Commune territory, lasted exactly six months. In fact the Great King sent his troops against the Prince, who had to leave the Commune in a hurry to protect his seat in Braveton. In his flight he dragged with him the few youths that had given themselves to him, and nothing else was never heard of their destiny.
The Commune and Breadmount Lord fought side by side with the troops of the Great King, who recognized their respective dominions. The Great King offered to the Commune some territories bordering Braveton and Kindton beyond Swift river, but the Commune, thanking him, didn't accept. Therefore the Great King sent them as a gift and a gesture of thanks, many weapons and much gold.
Gentle's story, a seventeen year old boy, happened in this occupation period.
Gentle was brought in front of Hawthorn and the Prince, stunned by his great beauty, ordered him to undress and to go to wait for him in his bed.
Gentle answerd, "You have no rights on me; neither you nor any living being. How can you just presume you can order me to do such a thing?"
Hawthorn burst out in laughter, "How can you say I have no rights? I have the right coming by my strength. This land now belongs to me, therefore also any and every thing that stands or lives on it. Hence, you too are now mine."
The youth shook his head, unworried, "You are a thief, a marauder and you will be punished for this. You say I belong to you, but you are wrong. No free man belongs to another man. You can steal my body, my life, not my freedom."
Hawthorn said, "It is just your body that I want; what use can I have for your freedom? I cannot have your freedom in bed with me and enjoy it!"
Then Gentle said, "If it's only my body you want, you can also take it, as you are stronger than me."
"Good, I see you understood; so, then, undress yourself, and I will take you here, in front of everybody, so you will learn not to oppose my orders!"
"I will do as you ask, Hawthorn, I will strip myself here, in front of you and your men, but I will not rid myself of my clothes, but of my life. A body you want, a body I leave to you," he serenely said and extracting a dagger from its scabbard, he immersed all of it into his heart before any of the attending people could have time or a way to stop him. He fell on the ground without a wail.
Hawthorn bent over him, raising his head from the ground; Gentle was still alive. "Why did you do that?" he asked.
"You wanted my body: take it, here, in front of everybody as you said. Be a man of your word, take me." He said with a smile, and breathed his last.
Hawthorn stood up, his face pale, "Take him away!" he only said.
His soldiers raised Gentle with care and respect and took him outside. They went down to Flowerfield and deposited him amongst the flowers. Then the Brothers and the Friends came, dug a grave and, wrapping him with their mantles, as they had no time nor means to make a coffin, they buried him.
When Hawthorn had to flee away from Silvana, they went back to the place of the temporary sepulchre. They exhumed him; his body was intact and was fragrant like flowers. They put him in a wooden coffin, buried him again in the same spot and built on his grave a monument representing a young man lying on the ground, with a dagger embedded in his heart. On the dagger hilt there is a gold sun with sixteen rays, the symbol of freedom. Gentle's face is suffused with a sweet smile and his eyes are turned towards the point where, behind the Cliff, each morning the sun arises.
On 6/3/4 Se LXVIII (1393), the Commune faced a new invasion attempt. The new Lord of Richton, Nut O'Valley and the captain of the Great King in charge of Braveton, reached an agreement and, during the night entered Silvana territory with two columns of soldiers, with the intent of climbing Blazing Mount and canceling the ancient freedom of the territory. One of the columns, bypassing Weir, took the road from Richton and the other column crossed the Swift river between Serene and Lilvalley.
But on that night an unforeseen snow blizzard happened with great violence and the second column was lost in Mines territory, unable to find their way back. The other column, that was going along a more smooth road, went on without problems, albeit more slowly than planned. Going around Borough, they went up to the Valley gate and were preparing to climb the Cliff, when some stray dogs started to furiously bark. The sentries, amazed by that unusual furious barking of several dogs together, went to the parapet and looked down and became aware of the attempt, so they launched the alarm signal. The defenders of the four castles of Silvana, and also those of Livewaters, Borough, Serene, Lilvalley and Woods armed themselves and approached this column between two fronts, forcing it to disband and flee away.
While running away, they met the men of the other column and told them that the surprise had failed, therefore also these soldiers, lost and tired, went away back across the borders. But on the field they left eighty-four dead, while the defenders didn't count any victims. To celebrate the escaped danger, outside Valley gate was erected a monument to the pack of dogs (and not wolves as some tourist guides say) howling on a snowy field.
Around Silvana walls, in the mean time, several Friends' houses had been built, mainly those of artisans, so that, to also protect those houses from a possible attack and at the same time provide a further defence to the complex of the four main castles, the Commune decided to build a second town wall. It goes from the confluence of the two small rivers of Livewaters and Silvan, which is the one that springs from the Founder's house where the hot and cold waters mix, to the Livewaters castle; it then turns to the boundary with Terraces territory, under Sunsweet castle, runs along the Road including Flowerfield and, continues running along the Road, then once more joins the wall at the confluence of the two rivers. On this second wall there are only three gates: the Plain gate on the road leading to Richton, the Woods gate on the road that from Borough leads to Temple, and the Sun gate leading to Woods and Garden.
This same year the Castle Guard is formed, to outfit this army unit. They wear a green jacket and red breeches, have a red drum-shaped hat with long white feathers softly going down to the left shoulder. They at first were armed with crossbows and, several generations later, with bayonet rifles. The Castle Guard has patrol dogs and they have to sleep in special lodgings built within the new wall.
Six years later, on l'1 Fl LXVIII (1399), the Commune undergoes a new invasion attempt that is repelled with great difficulty after eight days of bloody battles, where for the first time the women are also armed to defend the territory's freedom. Then the commune renews a pact of "perpetual alliance and absolute protection" with Breadmount Lord, engaging both territories to a reciprocal rescue in case of attacks or invasions.
But on 2 Se XLIV (1431), the last Lord of Breadmount dies. As he had no heirs and he was married with the youngest daughter of the Great King, his territory is included in the kingdom. Fearing, and with a good reason, new attempts to be annexed, the Regency sends to Royalton a delegation to ask guarantees. The Great King partially agreed to the Regency requests, but he imposed two conditions: every other year the Commune had to send a thousand soldiers to his army and each year the Commune had to send to the State Treasury three thousands measures of fine gold or an equivalent amount of goods.
The Regents managed to obtain two things: that the thousand soldiers had to form a special corps and would never be dispersed in the royal army under any pretext and that the payement to the State Treasury would be defined as a "gift". This had the advantage of not declaring the Commune subject or tributary to the kingdom, but that was enough for the prudent and wise Regents.
Moral decadence of the Commune. The reforms. Rebirth of the Commune
But gradually, the Commune life decayed. Once the external dangers were ended, the Commune withered under the weight of internal discord, of moral decadence, of administrative corruption. The Council and the Forum were unattended. Public education was neglected. The asylum right had crowded the territory with common criminals. Justice, as with other public offices, didn't function because of lack of means, caused by the heavy yearly "gift" the Commune had to send to the Great King.
In this period was written Lilbold's story, well illustrating to which point the morals of the proud Commune had lowered.
Lilbold was a Brother teaching at Woods. An evening, while he was making love with his companion Bull, said, "It has to be amusing when, at the Fruit age, you could make love with all the others and not just in twos. I heard that when I took refuge in Silvana."
"Yes, we did it also in three or in four, but it was just kids' amusement."
"Yes, very amusing I guess. I would like doing it. Would not you?" he asked, tempting.
"Well... yes it could be amusing." Bull said.
Then Lilbold said, "So, then, let's do it; wouldn't you like a little ass, still fresh and delicate, a sweet and perfumed mouth?"
"What are you thinking about?"
"Our school boys, who are right now enjoying each other."
"You know it is forbidden."
"Therefore it would be even more exciting. Come, let's go and amuse ourselves." Lilbold said.
Silently, they entered the Flower dormitory. They saw a fourteen year old boy who was taking another boy and with his mouth was satisfying a third one. Bull moved away from the latter and, offering himself to the first boy, said, "Taste this, it is more saucy!"
The boy looked at him in amazement and said, "But you are an adult..." but he could not go on talking as Lilbold went on top of him to mount him. So the two made use of the boy until they were satisfied.
The boy, when they let him go, was in tears. All the other boys had assisted, mute.
"You had not to do such a thing." Said another fourteen year old boy.
"Oh, really? And why? It has been agreeable, therefore tomorrow we will do the same to you. And if one of you will tell, we will slit his throat like a lamb, so remember this well. Your families entrusted you to us, therefore we can do with you all that pleases us."
On the following night, after asking the others to make them aroused, they took advantage of the boy who had dared to protest as they said they would do. The boys, scared, complied to all the two adults' requests without daring to breathe. Not yet satisfied with that, the two companions also started going to the single rooms of the boys in the Fruit age, and taking advantage of them as they pleased, and the boys, willy-nilly, surrendered to their requests.
Then Lilbold, during the lessons, invented a new kind of amusement: who got the higher note, as a "prize", had to crouch under the teacher's desk, between his legs, to satisfy the teacher's desires with his mouth. This led to the fact that all the students tried to get low notes. So Lilbold imagined a "punishment" for those whose notes were lowering; the boy had to bend over his desk and Adroit, a nineteen year old boy who was their accomplice and who was famous for his genital size, took them in front of all the students.
One of the boys, when the school-year was over, complained to his parents, who reported the two teachers to the Father of Woods fraternity. The man carried out an investigation, but the majority of the boys, scared, denied everything. The Father was all the same convinced of the truth of the report, but Lilbold and Bull, using three of their accomplices amongst the boys of the Fruit age, threatened to report the Father to the Regency telling them that he had several times taken advantage of the three boys, against their will.
The Father, scared, declared that Lilbold and Bull were not guilty and condemned the boy who reported them to five months of prison. The result was that several families didn't send any more their boys to the school. When the army officers went to investigate, Lilbold and Bull, giving them costly presents, persuaded the officers to leave and to declare that the boys not attending the school were were absent because they were ill.
One of the boys of the Fruit age who still attended the school, one day decided to take revenge on the two teachers for what they were doing. Therefore he went with some school mates to see the soldiers of Woods and offered to have sex with them if they, in exchange, made an ambush to Lilbold and Bull and made them undergo the same treatement they were doing to the boys. The soldiers willingly accepted. Eight of them, one evening, waited on the road for Lilbold and Bull and while they were going up to the Cliff, assaulted and immobilized them, undressed them and all eight of the soldiers raped them.
Lilbold and Bull, furious, reported them to the Defender, asking he punish them. The Defender made an inquiry, but the boys and their families declared that each soldier, that evening was their guests and never left their houses. Therefore the Defender acquitted all the soldiers. Then Lilbold and Bull went to see the Father asking him to appeal to the Regency, but the Father said, "You reaped what you sowed. Don't complain and in future try not to exceed."
This short story shows the degree of moral decline that the community had reached. The story tells us that Lilbold was a former refugee, therefore possibly a criminal who escaped the guards of the Great King, but this doesn't justify the Father's behaviour, nor the fact that a common criminal could even become a teacher. Moreover the Father doesn't tell the two to stop, but just not to "exceed"...
The one who tried to put a check on this situation, understanding that the foundation of all the evil was exactly the educational system, was Rector Handsome Basketmaker of Gardens. On 2 Se LXXVII (1541) he reformed the school system. Everything concerning the students was exactly as before, but the teaching had to concern not only "letters and arts, but morals and customs as well" and he totally reformed the teachers' training: he founded a course for the youths between twenty and twentyfour years of age so that whoever wanted to become a teacher was trained and kept under observation. Moreover he established that only people who were born in the Commune could become a teacher. He also decided that a body of inspectors had to regularly visit all the school to verify their functioning.
Eleven years later another reform was approved by the Regency: The General Council was reduced from eightyfive to fortyfive members elected every five years, and each member was bound to attend the meetings, under prison pain. Moreover the Twelve Deputies Committee was founded, consisting of a representative of the Brothers of each castle, elected every four years, to assit the Regency. The General Council, along with the Forum, was the legislative body, while the Twelve Deputies Committee was practically the government, in fact they had to care about relations with those outside their territory, internal order, finances, territory, communications, health, education, agriculture and herding, commerce, handicrafts.
Rector Handsome Basketmakers also established that the Forum had to assemble twice per year, on the first day of the fifth month and of the eleventh month, to make proposals and requests. The Forum could also repeal a law previously issued by the General Council. Moreover, the Forum had to appoint, every six years, the nine Conduct Censors, that is the Superior Court who had to choose the Common Censors, that is the judges of the three instances of judgement, and watch over their conduct.
The last reform concerned who had the right to ask for asylum. If it was proved that they were guilty of crimes against persons or property, the asylum was denied. A refugee could get Silvana citizenship only after a period of time equal to twenty percent of his age when he applied for asylum.
All these reforms gradually led to a rebirth of the Commune which, therefore, once again deserved its title of "Very Right".
The invasion of Prince Tree Mastiff against the asylum right. New agreement with the king
On 7/6/5 Le LXXIX (1589) two men arived at Weir and asked for asylum. They were brought to the Censor to be scrutinized. From the records we know that they were one Friendly Counter, forty-five years old, and his son Pacific, twenty-two years old. They fled from the Great King's territories as they were servants of the Grand Priest and Prince Tree Mastiff and had been falsely accused of robbing him.
Pacific explained that in reality he refused to subject to the sexual demands of the daughter of the Grand Priest and she took revenge, accusing him of having stolen five ancient and precious gold statuettes.
"If we stole them, we will have them with us, or will have with us the money if we sold them." the father said.
The Censors examined them separately, questioned them for a long time, and at the end they were persuaded that the two did tell the truth, therefore they declared both of them acceptable and the Interiors Deputy issued them the residence permit. They were hosted in the special Refugee Shelter, standing near the Sun gate, waiting to find work and then a house.
Employment was offered to Friendly, who was a gardener, to work on Flowerfield and his son Pacific, who was a servant, asked to work with Master Refulgent, who was a weaver, to learn weaving. Master Refulgent willingly welcomed him and started to teach him his trade. Refulgent had four children and the second was named Sincere and was a seventeen year old boy, gentle and shy. He worked in the daytime in his father's shop and at night attended the school.
Soon Pacific and Sincere became friends, and the boy taught, with patience and skill, the weaving art to the young refugee, encouraging him and teaching him the little tricks he knew in order to do a better job. Finally Pacific was able to weave his first saleable cloth and felt very proud. Sincere explained to him also the Silvana customs and in their little free time narrated to him its history. Pacific always asked him plenty of questions.
When he heard about the sexual education in the Commune, Pacific was deeply amazed. "They teach you to make love?"
"Yes, sure. It is an important thing, don't you think?"
"But... also between men, you said?"
"Why, don't you make love between men, from where you come?"
"Yes... there is some for sure who do that, but in hiding. Here at your place, they even teach you how to do it! It seems unbelievable. And also that two of the same sex can marry, here!" the youth exclaimed, full of incredulous amazement.
"But you who said no to the priest's daughter, isn't it because you like men?"
"No, I just didn't want to do it with her."
"So you never made love with a man, a boy?"
"No, I never did. Well... besides when a boy, with a mate. But it wasn't really making love, we just amused ourselves a little, and carefully hiding," he then admitted, slightly blushing.
"Hiding? It seems so absurd, so ridiculous to me. Wasn't it a good thing?"
"Well, yes, it was amusing, agreeable, but it was just a kids' thing."
"And with girls, did you ever make love?"
"Really everything... just once."
"And you enjoyed it a lot?"
"Well, it was agreeable... yes."
"I feel it agreeable with a girl, but with a boy I feel it to be really beautiful, I like it a lot more."
"But why?"
"Bah... because two men, between them, can make love in the same way. And also, because I know the effect on my body of whatever my mate does will have, and as two boys have the same body, I know what he can enjoy most and what least and so he knows about me. A man takes a woman and that's all. Two men, on the contrary, can also take each other."
"So, then... will you marry with a man?" Pacific sked.
"I really think so. When I will find the man who is right for me."
"It seems to me so weird, all this. Two men can be great friends, but lovers..." the young man said, shaking his head.
"Two people can be so much friends that they want also to love each other, don't they? It's just natural, I would say. And it is beautiful, because you can tell the other, with your body, things that in any other way you can not be able to express." Sincere answered back.
Three and half months had elapsed since their arrival to Silvana, when three coaches asked to enter from Garden frontier. In one there was the Grand Priest Prince Tree Mastiff in person, and in the other two his train. The order to let them enter was given. At the Sun gate the Foreign Deputy welcomed them and, making them pass through Finegate, led them inside the Great Cave, where the Regents were waiting for him.
The Prince said he knew that two criminals, thieves and guilty of sacrilege, took refuge in the Commune territory and that, as they were his subjects and servants, he asked the Regents to hand them over to him so he could take them back, try and punish them. Silvana Lord answered that it wasn't correct that the Commune territory was hiding two thieves guilty of sacrilege, therefore he was not able to satisfy the Prince's request.
Tree Mastiff insisted that he got information from a reliable source that they were in the Commune territory and therefore, he arrogantly added, they should at once go and find them and hand them to him. The Lord repeated that there were no thieves guilty of sacrilege. The Prince, angry, said that he was looking for two of his servants named Friendly and Pacific Counter and he resolutely demanded a very fast handling.
The Lord, resolute, answered, "I have no man to hand over to you. Therefore, you can now leave and go back to your lands, Prince!"
The Grand Priest Prince stood up, in anger, and said, "It doesn't end here, I swear! I want those men and I will get them!" and went away.
Friendly and Pacific were terribly scared but everybody reassured them telling them they were in no danger as they were in a safe land. But on the seventeen of the tenth month at dawn, Tree Mastiff reached Garden heading thirty-nine knights, three hundred fifty chosen soldiers and 1647 infantrymen with seven war machines and stormed the castle. Then they went up to the Sun gate that they knocked down in just three hours then he attacked Road gate. After only ten hours of struggle, at night, he succeeded in penetrating inside the internal walls round. He arrested the Regents and all Deputies and proclaimed himself master and Lord of all Silvana territories.
Then he assaulted one after the other all the fortified boroughs and castles and took all of them. He disarmed all the Commune soldiers and gave orders to his men to mop up all the houses and to question all the inhabitants to find the two refugees.
But in the mean time, as soon as they got an inkling of the approaching attack, the Regency took two urgent measures: they sent to the Great King their Legates to protest against the encroachment of their rights, and at the same time ordered to hide the two wanted men.
Master Refulgent entrusted them to his son Sincere, giving them a sack of food, some blankets and heavy clothes, telling his son to go and hide in the mines. Fleeing through Plain gate, Sincere drove them to Mines territory; he knew it very well as, when a little boy, he often went there to play games. It was an inaccessible zone, full of ravines, shafts, galleries, some still in use, other deserted. Reaching one of the galleries, Sincere lit three lanterns and they penetrated into the mines. They walked in a maze of galleries and passages, now climbing, now going down, until they stopped in a small cave near which ran a small pool of pure water.
"Here we are. Under here it will not be too cold and we have water to drink and to wash ourselves. Even if Mastiff's men find these galleries, before finding where we are they will have a lot of trouble. The important thing is that they do not find us here while we are sleeping. Therefore, one of us has to stay at the last tunnel crossroads we passed; if somebody is coming from one of the other three directions, he will hear their steps and weapons noise well in advance. Whoever is on guard will have all the needed time to call the other two and I know very well all the passages, the ways out and we can escape again."
"But the food we have will last at most seven, eight days." Friendly objected.
"Don't worry, my brothers and their friends will organize to recurrently come and give us food and news. You will see that everything will go smoothly." Sincere answered and started to spread the blankets and to set the few things they had brought with them. Then he asked who wanted to do the first guard. Pacific offered himself and went to the crossroads with a lantern and sat in wait.
Sincere had brought with him paper and pen, to pass his time, and started to write.
"What are you writing?" Friendly asked him.
"All this story." The boy answered.
"But here in Silvana, everybody is able to write?"
"Sure. Not in your place?"
"My son and I, like the majority of servants, never learned."
"It is not difficult. If you want I can teach you."
"Not to me, at my age. But I would like my son to learn; he is still young. You would really teach him?"
"With real pleasure. When you do your guard shift, I'll teach him. This will also be useful to pass our time."
"Thank you very much. You all are so kind here."
"Well, unhappily not everybody, even though our teachers tell us that kindness is a great virtue." The boy answered with a smile.
When Friendly went to stand in for his son, he told him that Sincere would teach him to write.
So Pacific went back to the small cave and asked, "My dad says that you will teach me how to write. Is it difficult?"
"No. You just have to remember a hundred characters."
"Can we start now?"
"Sure." Sincere told him and, taking his copy-book and a pen, he started writing down their names and asked him to copy them, correcting him and making him repeat the exercise.
Then they ate, and Sincere went to stand in for Friendly and Pacific hit the sack, to sleep. They were hidden for a week when Pacific, who was on guard, ran to the cave to give the alarm: he heard some noises coming from one of the other three galleries. Sincere told them to pick up everything and went to the crossroads to listen.
When the two refugees arrived with the sacks, Sincere whispered, "It is only one person and he moves fast, he could be one of my friends. Wait here, I'm going to see."
"If it is a soldier, an enemy?"
"Don't worry. I'm going in the dark and will see him or them before they can see me and I will come back to direct you away."
"But how can we know it is you coming back and not somebody else?" Friendly asked worriedly.
"Right... If it's me, you will hear me snapping my fingers like that, alright?"
"Yes, I understand." Friendly said.
Sincere left, barefoot, in the darkness, following the wall of the gallery with his hand, fast and light, until he made out in front of him a little flame approaching. Quite soon he recognized his younger brother. So he called him, took one of the two baskets he was carrying and with him he went back towards the others saying aloud, "I'm coming back, it is just my brother, don't worry."
His brother told them that Mastiff seized all the Commune and was having his men search for them, but according his father there, under the ground, they were in the safest place. They hoped that sooner or later Mastiff went away and stopped searching for them. They agreed on special signals to give when somebody came again to fetch them with food and news. Sincere asked him also to bring them some more items that could be useful for a stay that would seemingly be long.
At last the brother left and Friendly went to do his guard shift.
Pacific said to Sincere, "I really am scared, you know? And you have been invaded because of us. Why are you doing all this for just two people who are not even of your community?"
"You two are, at this point, our people. Everybody struggling for their freedom is our people. But you are still trembling! Don't worry, everything will end nicely, I'm sure!" Sincere told him, caressing his cheek in a light, affectionate and reassuring gesture.
Pacific asked in a whisper, "May I embrace you?"
"Sure." Sincere answered.
They were side by side, sitting on the blankets. They approached and embraced.
Pacific said, "I feel better, now; I feel safer. Hold me tight..."
Sincere embraced him tighter and caressed his back then, on instinct, lightly put his lips on Pacific's. It was just a friendly, affectionate kiss. But Pacific pushed out the tip of his tongue and gently pushed it between his friend's lips. Sincere slightly quivered and started to suck it gently, caressing the nape of his neck.
Pacific shuddering let himself go to that kiss then, caressing his friend's back he asked with a soft voice, "Sincere, do you want to make love with me?"
"And you? Do you want it?"
"Yes..."
"Why?"
"I don't know, but I desire it. I want to tell you with my body what I wouldn't be able to say in another way." The young man said, kissing him again and pushing him to lie down.
Sincere smiled hearing him repeat the words he told him about one month earlier; evidently Pacific had thought about it for a long time. Lying down, their youthful members interlaced, their bodies searched for one another. They caressed each other all over the body with growing desire and pleasure.
When Sincere felt his friend's arousal, he started to pull off the clothes of Pacific who followed suit and in a short while their naked bodies tightly rubbed, full of mutual desire. Sincere gently guided him in the ways of sexual love until, filled with quivers of passion, they finally united, giving each to the other with joy.
When, slightly panting, still embraced, they relaxed, Pacific caressed the boy's body and murmured, "Thank you, my friend. It has been really beautiful..."
"Yes indeed." Sincere merrily answered and held him tight.
"Can we sleep like this, without dressing again?" Pacific asked.
"But, and... your father?"
"I told him that I was feeling more and more attracted to you. He understood and told me it was alright. There is no problem."
They had to stay hidden for two months. Pacific learned to read and write rather nicely and the two youths were now always sleeping together and made love often and willingly, feeling more and more attracted to each other and happy to be together. Outside, the snow had fallen but in the cave, being deeply under the ground, it was not too cold. The friends were bringing them food and news rather regularly. Mastiff demanded allegiance of all the population that, on the Brothers' advice, pretended to bow to the invader, but that in reality were only waiting the answer fron the Legates sent to the Great King or else the right moment to rise and rebel.
On the fifteenth of the twelfth month at last the Legates came back from the kingdom capital accompanied by a royal Plenipotentiary with his convoy. The Great King ordered Prince Mastiff to free all the prisoners and to immediately evacuate the Commune, wthout taking with him neither prisoneers nor goods belonging to the Commune. The Prince had to bow his head and to obey, under the personal control of the Plenipotentiary. He called back all his men and soldiers and left the Commune territories.
When everybody had left, the population had a great festivity and Sincere's family went to announce to the three hidden friends that all was over, that they were free. Sincere started again to attend the school, Pacific to work at the loom and Friendly to tend Flowerfield. But now Sincere had to sleep at the school and when he was back home he had to work, therefore for several days the two friends had no occasion to share a bed.
One day, while Sincere was explaining to his friend how to fit out the loom for a twill of five, Pacific said, "Sincere... I miss very much that we cannot make love any more."
"You miss it too?"
"I think that... I think I am... in love with you."
"Really? Oh, Pacific, you can't know how glad I am hearing you saying so! I too think I'm in love with you..."
"I would like living with you... forever."
"I too. But we have to wait some three more years before we can ask to be united."
"But meanwhile we can make love all the same, you and I?"
"Yes, we can. On the evening, before I have to leave to go to school, we can. I will ask my father to allow us to use the room on the upper floor. I'm so happy to know that you love me too!"
"Didn't you understand it in those two months?"
"I feared it was only because of the peculiar situation we were in, but now that we are back to normal life, you didn't want to continue. You never told me you loved me."
"You neither..." the young man sweetly reproached him.
"That's true, but it was only because I feared to embarrass you, I feared it was not reciprocal."
"No more fears now, right? You know, now, that I want to marry you!"
"Sure, my sweet friend." Sincere answered.
Well, this is the story as it can be reconstructed reading the small copybook that Sincere wrote in that period and that, for some peculiar reason, ended in the secret archive of the Commune. Some pages of the small copybook are covered by the writing exercises of Pacific, and his improvements can be seen.
One of the consequences of the unlucky incident with Prince Tree Mastiff was that the Commune and the Great King engaged a permanent Legation, in other terms they established diplomatic relations. Another consequence was the organization of the Milice. The soldiers, divided in the three old corps of the swordsmen, lancemen and bowmen, remained only as guards at the gates. But all the other men in military service were organized in the Milice that had a blue uniform with white decorations, and that was under the orders of a General Captain and eight fortress Captains. The Milice also formed the first musical band composed of fifty men.
At that time, they were armed with a sabre, besides the war weapons: crossbow or halberd; later they were armed with a rifle and in more recent times also with a pistol. Moreover the best elements of the Milice formed the so called Chosen Guard, founded on 12/3/2 Fl LXXIX (1591) and formed by sixty-one men with light blue uniforms with golden decorations, a golden kepi with a casc of light blue feathers, white gloves, armed with sabre until recent times; their duty was to protect and defend the Regents and the Deputies.
The Fortress Guard remained as the professional part of the Milice, keeping their old uniform and its duty to always be on watch on the glacis and, until several generations later, that is up to the founding of the Gendarmerie, they also had police duties. Later also the Fortress Guard was armed with rifles, and in more recent times with sub-machine guns.
CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 5
In my home page I've put some of my stories. If someone wants to read them, the URL is http://www.geocities.com/~andrejkoymasky/ If you want to send me feed-back, please e-mail at andrejkoymasky@geocities.com