THE GIFTS OF PARADISE
By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
WWW.TOMMYHAWKSFANTASYWORLD.COM
[Note: I don't intend to present any particular Pacific-Island group here; rather, I have blended several different island tribe's customs to create this place, a nameless island far from any others, isolated from the main trade routes, and so barely touched despite several decades of European colonialism in the area. The year would be circa 1820.]
"Wait!" Latavao panted as he jogged after Kuliketu through the lush growth. The sun was shining cleanly through the leaves, brushing yellow streamers across the shimmering green brush and ferns. Here and there a brightly colored bird dipped and wove between the palm trees, gnatcatchers mostly, sieving the air for the many small insects that made up their meals, catching them in mid-flight, fluttering and darting back and forth.
"Wait!" he called again to the brown form now far ahead of him on the trail. Latavao wasn't afraid of losing his friend (though that could happen in other places) for he knew the ocean beach was just ahead. But Kuliketu enjoyed racing and his strong legs made him a worthy adversary. Latavao could out-race him in clean ground like the sands of the beach, but here the wavering trail was enough to kill any hope of real speed, and so the advantage came to Kuliketu, who hunted the pigs as much as the elders of the village would permit him (for their ancestors had brought the pig to the island, if they hunted them too heavily, the pigs would die out and they would have to bring in more at a high cost from some other island), while Latavao did his hunting in the reefs and shallow waters, spearing the fish which were a gift from Tonofiti when he made the lands and the oceans, and placed his children upon these lands that he loved, giving them everything they needed, leaving them nothing to be afraid of so long as they kept his laws.
Kuliketu was laughing when Latavao joined him at the water's edge. Here the beach was a slight thing, a mere length of a man's arm to the water, and all of it dark with the waves that washed up to it. When the waters chose, they would cover it to the very rock where Kuliketu rested, his broad chest heaving back and forth as he laughed at his friend. His chest bobbed with the sharktooth necklace that was Latavao's gift to him of the previous year, giving his friend the fierceness of the shark to let him hunt among the forest, to become the shark of the forest.
That chest. It had always given Latavao a great pleasure to watch Kuliketu's chest. It was like the hand of Tonofiti had brushed those muscles upon him, so smoothly and sinuously did they dance upon his body. His hair was curled tightness, like the sponges Latavao sometimes dove for and brought to the village. His face was a solid, sensible, regular face, smooth as the stones that lived at the bottom of freshwater streams. His skin was the light brown of several of the children of his village, being born the elders said because of the regular visits by the pale-skinned peoples; that Tonofiti was giving the women children who could deal with these new visitors, while he gave others children of darker skin, who would thus remain close to the old ways.
All children came from Tonofiti, that was how they were born, his gift to women when and as he chose. Men had other gifts from Tonofiti, such as the huge pleasure organ between their legs, like a spear of joy. This made sex what it was, the delight of sharing bodies, the pleasure of being with another person, the ecstasy that was Tonofiti's breath, and there was no reason to equate this joy with that of children, who came when they came and wherever they chose to come. So he and Kuliketu had come to their mothers, and the men their mothers shared their lives with did so because they desired the women, and their love for the children was the love of sharing their lives with the happy noise of new life.
"You won." Latavao said to him when he caught his own breath. "Although I did not start out to race with you."
"One must always be ready to race in the forest." Kuliketu reminded him. "How else can you run down the wild pig?"
"That is why I place my spear in the waters." Latavao reminded him in his own turn. Then he noticed. "Your spear! That is very fine!"
"Is it not?" Kuliketu preened as he showed Latavao his new speartip. It was made of a large nail, a spike, actually, nearly a foot long. Kuliketu had sharped the tip to a fine point. Latavao looked on this spear-tip with envy; his own spear of fire-hardened wood was hardly as fine. Sometimes he would dash the spear at a fish, it would move and he would strike a rock, and that would end the day's fishing until he could put a new tip on the spear. But with the iron nails the pale-skinned peoples who came to them in the large sailing-canoe had brought to them, his people were rich indeed.
"How did you get it?" Latavao asked him. The canoe was still there, sitting far out in the water on the other side of the island. "Did you take your sister to the ship?"
The sailing canoe held only men, and an odd sort of men. They seemed to have heavy lusts, Latavao understood it was because they had been so long at their travels. They looked with passion at the women of their village, and were very willing to trade.
"You will not believe it." Kuliketu laughed. "I was taking Fanua out to them, she is a fine woman, is she not?" Fanua was his older sister, wonderfully full and plump, a proper woman with wide thighs. She had been blessed by Tonofiti twice already and borne children for their village.
"They gave you that fine speartip for a tryst with Fanua?" Latavao said comprehendingly.
"No." Kuliketu said. "Asenahana was also with us, she wanted to see the canoe up close, and they wanted her instead!" And he howled with laughter at the foolish men in their large sailing-canoe. "Three of them wanted her, and Asenahana was so happy at being wanted, she took them all, one after the other, and came away very happy. But not one of them wanted Fanua, and she had to go back to the village with her groin aflame. I took her to your brother's hut and he lay with her and kept her until dawn. Fanua made him please her again and again, all night long, and he was too tired to come hunt with me today."
Latavao laughed as well. Anyone could see that Asenahana wasn't as pleasing a woman as Fanua. Asenahana was very young still, and very thin. Her waist was small enough to let a man wrap his arms around, not like Fanua who was more than any man could wrap all the way around. Soft. Having sex with Asenahana would be like fucking a pile of bones! Her mother was working on fattening her up, like a proper woman should be. "That would be like those men." He agreed. "They do everything backwards. They leave their land and come to us, searching for things. Why can they not take the gifts of Tonofiti and be happy where they are?"
"They have things we do not have." Kuliketu said. "As you have seen."
"Yes, you are very lucky they want Asenahana." Latavao looked with envy. "My sister Halatoa is still rather thin, I shall take her to the men tomorrow and see if these backwards-living men like her as much as they liked Asenahana."
"There is more to their backwards ways than their love of a skinny woman." Kuliketu said. "I was standing there on their canoe, waiting for them to finish with Asenahana, and one of their men came up to me. He had on clothes as black as the sky at night, without the stars. He said he wanted to tell me about their god. I was curious and so I went with him to his room."
"Did he tell you about his god?"
"Yes." Kuliketu said. "But he speaks our language so poorly that I didn't understand. I listened to his words, and they were so ridiculous, that I began to laugh at him. He became angry, and then he started pushing at me to leave." Kuliketu went on. "I said to him, `But where is my gift as the others give to the women? For I have come to your cabin, everyone will assume that you invited me here to make love to me. This caused him to become very pale and nervous.'"
"What did he do?" Latavao was surprised at Kuliketu's brashness but also envious of the clever way he coaxed a gift from this pale alien.
"He tried to give me a horrible picture." Kuliketu said. "A man hanging from a tree, his hands fixed by nails like this one to the branches. I threw it back at him. And he said it was a picture of his god."
"His god!" Latavao was astonished. "What kind of god is nailed up to a tree?"
"His god is." Kuliketu dismissed it as unimportant. "I said my price was higher than that. I knew of these men and their god, they would have gifts to give, real gifts, so I held out. And he did."
"So what did you get?"
"Something I want to share with you." Kuliketu said. He brought it out from the package he had carried with them through the forest.
Colors. Many colors, bright colors. "He brought you cloth!" Latavao stared with delight. The clothing of the island was either woven plant fibers made into skirts, or dried and cured animal skins, like the loin-flaps they both wore.
"Two lengths of cloth." agreed Kuliketu. "Take off your flap, my friend, for this cloth is much softer and more beautiful."
Latavao did so willingly, for who would not remove a small flap of woven palm-tree cloth for this supple, bright material. It was the work of a moment to wrap it about his loins, as did Kuliketu.
"I am grateful to you." he said to his friend.
"There is more." Kuliketu said.
Latavao frowned somewhat, a single gift without return happened and could be mended easily, but to give him two...it put a distinct burden upon his status. "I have nothing to give you in return." he demurred.
Kuliketu showed him the gift. A nail, this one only about three inches long. "This will let you spear the fish. If you will fish for both our families for the next turning of the moon, I will say that we are equal."
"Done." Latavao said with pleasure, taking the nail, wanting to lash it to his spear and fish right then and there. He even looked out at the beach and the sea beyond, but it wasn't a good beach for fishing. "But why did you bring me out here to give me these gifts?" Gift-giving was usually done with as many witnesses as possible, to gain the greatest possible status. He would tell where his gifts had come from, of course (only a callous man would deny his friend the status gift-giving earned for him) but that was not the same as having the others watch.
Kuliketu's hand rested upon his shoulder. "I did not bring you here to give you the gifts." he said softly.
Latavao smiled and moved toward his friend and let himself be taken into Kuliketu's strong arms and pressed his body against him warmly. He had held Kuliketu a score of times or more. It seemed like these times presented themselves more and more frequently. And, as well, that these times were more and more precious to him.
Kuliketu's body was warm and strong, the tan-colored flesh clean and smooth beneath his lips. It was so easy to kiss his way across the strong neck, to taste the brief bitterness of the cord which held the shark's tooth about his neck, Latavao's hands loved the way his shoulders were so smooth and round and firm, like a smooth rock but covered by the softness of his skin, warmed from within and warmed by the sun. Kuliketu sighed and moved, and his cock was a hard stalk that thrust up between Latavao's legs to nuzzle his testicles. Latavao cupped his hands upon Kuliketu's shoulders from behind, his arms underneath Kuliketu's, and he nibbled and suckled the nectar from Kuliketu's flesh, the slightly-salty, slighty-musky, slightly meaty flavor.
Latavao prayed to Tonofiti that when Kuliketu should die that he would be honored to partake of this man's flesh one final time, in the ritual of final farewell. Or that Kuliketu would honor him the same way. To have a part of Kuliketu with him always, to eat his strength and his joy for life along with his flesh, would be a great privilege. For now, he would savor the rituals of life instead, letting his tongue taste this flesh still so very much alive, and how much better it was this way! He wanted that day of final farewell, but wanted it to be far, far in the future. Himself a toothless old man, soon to join Kuliketu on the other side.
Kuliketu groaned and thrust against Latavao's body and the sturdy prick dove between Latavao's legs, brushing the tender area of flesh between, where his man's hairs were a sweat-slicked, damp growth, it tickled his anus by stirring the hairs around it, reminding him of the times when it had plunged within him. The thought of Kuliketu's cock inside of him burned like a torch in the night, his blood pounded like the ceremonial drums after a successful hunt, and his body steered him downwards, there to take and slurp mightily upon one distended nipple, its button rock-hard and pulsing under Latavao's lips, he suckled at it as if he could draw nourishment from him. Latavao had an uncle whose nipples did produce a small amount of milk; as he had proven to Latavao one day when they had lain together, and Latavao had drunk his uncle's milk while his uncle gasped in the pleasure of orgasm, spraying his seed into Latavao's butt, finally to lay quiescent and Latavao licking his lips at the odd taste of man's milk, an astonishing thing. He had often played with his own nipples, trying to coax the fluid to flow from his as well, but it was not to be. A shame, he would have liked to have this to give to his lovers, male or female.
His uncle was a strong lover, but did not compare to Kuliketu. With Kuliketu, it was more energetic, more lively, they clung as equals to each other despite their positions, as now, when he knelt before his friend and now lapped at the slight tucker of navel, the wrapped flesh a small protrusion, a wrinkled knob of flesh on Kuliketu's body, the hairs that Kuliketu had on his lower body began their life there, a proud procession leaving from the navel as if from a hut, and he tasted those hairs, followed them downwards until he was stopped by the new cloth. It was simple enough to wrench around Kuliketu's body the wrapped and tucked length of cloth, and then the opening was in front and he could part it and let the proud majesty protrude unencumbered.
Eight inches, fat and neatly circumcised as was proper for any man who had come of age, it beckoned with its strongly arching length, its spear-shaped head, for him to let it impale him, Latavao greeted it with a lick of the tip with his tongue, came away with a salty orb of clear precome upon his tongue, a promise of things to come.
Kuliketu's body was aglow in the light of the sun, bright and gleaming, the way a rock shines after the waves have washed over it and water still sparkles from its flanks. His eyes shone down at Latavao kneeling at his feet, a smile of pleasure and kinship arcing a white crescent of pearl his way. Then Latavao placed Kuliketu's cockhead upon his tongue inside his open mouth, and Kuliketu's eyes closed in pleasure, his hips arched upwards, and the heavy shaft plunged into Latavao's mouth. Latavao let him do this, his friend could not harm him in his lust, it was welcomed despite its touch of roughness, and Kuliketu moaned as his cock slid down Latavao's throat and his hands came up and grasped Latavao's head and steered Latavao's lips as Latavao began to work his mouth back and forth, bringing the bulky pud sliding past his tongue until just the head remained within his mouth, then sending it back into his body, the brash dong quivering as he rolled his tongue beneath it on its journey, knowing how much Kuliketu loved his doing this.
Kuliketu released his head and sank back onto the rock, placed his hands upon it as well, and gave Latavao an open field, Latavao caught the long prick in his hand and pumped it as he worked his lips and tongue only upon the cockhead, and Kuliketu groaned and let his voice carry freely out over the waters, there to blend and become part of the unending song of the waves.
Latavao was intent upon his working of Kuliketu's prick, some time passed with him only half-aware of it, for time had no meaning, it being divided only into suns and moons, there was no changing of the weather to make longer times necessary, there was early sun, midday sun and late sun, there was full moon and no moon and the moon showing only half of its face, left or right. Beyond this, there was no time and no need for it, beyond the tracking of the stars and that was only for those who traveled upon the waters, and why should he, when everything he ever wanted or needed was right here upon this blessed land, these blessed waters? He could and did make this time last, bringing his friend joy the way his friend had brought him joy, this day with his gifts, and on other days with his body laying with Latavao upon his sleeping mat, there to lay intertwined until his mother came in, smiling happily at the pair as she told them that the morning meal was ready. Once even, Kuliketu had drawn his mother down upon the mat with them, and he had loved her there, while Latavao watched with pride the body which had joyed him, and now joyed his mother. They had laughed together afterwards like three old friends, and Kuliketu was now very welcome in their hut whenever he chose to enter. No doubt that was why he had fucked Latavao's mother, but such a clever man as Kuliketu was welcome in his own right. A shame he didn't seem interested in either of Latavao's sisters; if Kuliketu would leave his family and join Latavao's hearth, they would become rich indeed.
All these things Latavao thought of as he sucked his friend's prick, and Kuliketu loved it that way, the long slow lovemaking they shared, and his passion Latavao could tell grew slowly within him, not out of clumsiness or lack of desire, but that Kuliketu willed it that way, to be slow, so they could extend this time.
Finally, though, his chest began to heave and his breaths caught within his chest, and Latavao realized with some regret that this session was soon to be over, he sped up his sucking of Kuliketu's prick, felt the strong organ become hot in his lips, and Kuliketu gasped, panted loudly, then groaned and his sperm shot into Latavao's mouth.
Latavao always felt drenched when Kuliketu would climax, he could drink as hard as he could and still it was too much for him, and so it was this time, despite his urgent efforts to drain every drop into his own body, still part of it escaped him, perhaps clinging to his tongue and then to be scraped off as he continued to suckle Kuliketu in and out of him, but still, it dribbled and dripped from his mouth to splash in ripe plops on the salt-soaked ground beneath them, and Kuliketu pumped him harder in his coital frenzy, and more spilled, even sprayed from around Latavao's lips, and then it was over, and Latavao could swallow the last packets of seed and suckle the cock dry, leaving his friend drained and panting above him.
Kuliketu managed a feeble chuckle when Latavao reached up to embrace him again, and the kiss was tired but willing when their lips met. Latavao thrust his still-unemptied dong at Kuliketu's diminished crotch, and Kuliketu looked up at him, understanding.
The rock was undoubtedly uncomfortable to bare skin, but Kuliketu let Latavao lift his legs up and place him on his back upon that rock, and Kuliketu's legs wrapped around him, holding him while Latavao conveyed his mouth's saliva to his prick, to grease his dong and make it easier upon his friend, and Kuliketu joined him, two hands plying their moisture to Latavao's cock, and then Latavao felt that was enough and pressed his prick to Kuliketu's ass with no more prelude.
Kuliketu gasped as Latavao's dong entered him, as it had so many times before, and those wonderfully warm bowels made way for him readily. It was so wonderful a feeling, the way that Kuliketu's body reveled in his taking of it, for what could be a more genuine demonstration of their closeness than that? Latavao felt the guts churning around his dick, it was wrapping and clutching and stroking him as he pushed it in, so that it was like a family greeting the return of a beloved member who had been away, each in turn stepping up to be embraced or to touch or to kiss.
When at last, Latavao's pud was fully imbedded within his friend, Latavao looked down upon his friend's face, seeing the gentle warmness there, and a tenderness filled him. It gave his actions a compassionate touch, he did not lustily thrust his body against Kuliketu's, he gently inserted and withdrew it, taking only what Kuliketu would give him instead of wrenching it from his friend's body. Again, time remained in abeyance, he spent the moments in a daze of pleasure unending, of happiness unfettered and unconfined to the smaller motions of time, he had only the day which was still but well begun, he could take all the time he wanted here, while the sun crept its way across the sky, while birds wheeled overhead and did their own fishing in the reefs and on the shores, while the trees whispered their benediction upon their coupling, he kept his lovemaking to a gentle rippling like the gentler waves here on the lee side of the island and the bay that kept the strength of the ocean at arm's length, so that only small wavelets could make it to them, now kissing Latavao's feet and ankles as the tide rose once more.
Kuliketu groaned in gentle pleasure and at length, he said, "Let me finish us."
Latavao stood upright, expecting Kuliketu to do the same, but instead Kuliketu rode up with him and Latavao perforce fell backwards into the sand and the waves there at the water's edge, and Kuliketu stood over him, then squatted down and reclaimed Latavao's dong within his body. Now Kuliketu was sitting atop Latavao while their bodies, the entire length of Latavao and Kuliketu's legs, were washed by the waves. As of yet, they still only reached up timidly and kissed the pair, then withdrew.
Kuliketu could not do anything by halves, it was not in his nature to be anything but the boisterous, aggressive hunter, and Latavao was unsurprised when Kuliketu began to ride him hard and fast, for if he had done anything else, he wouldn't be Kuliketu! Kuliketu's bowels raged around his dong, his cock pulsed in angry response, waves of pleasure washed his body along with the warm waves of the ocean growing ever more insistent in their intrusions upon them. Latavao groaned as his body was ridden by Kuliketu, and now the water rising made shift now and then to cover his face, and after the third such time, Latavao rose up on his elbows and Kuliketu leaned down and they kissed, and Kuliketu bounced upon him harder than ever, and Latavao felt somehow in that kiss more passion than he had in Kuliketu's ass, his cock burned in response, and Latavao found bravery in passion for an instant and grabbed his friend and lover, pulled him down roughly, and in the waves that now clutched and pulled at them, they thrashed together, Latavao fucking Kuliketu hard as they rolled about, half on sand, half in water, and Latavao groaned, grabbed so tightly to Kuliketu that he cut off both their breaths at once and in that fierce clutch, he spasmed, his cock jerked, and sprayed its jizz into Kuliketu's ass, burning hot salty sperm accented by warmly salty water of the shallow bay. As Latavao's jism finished unloading into Kuliketu's virile body, a wave seemed to either cooperate or give up in disgust, he knew not which, and they ended up back up on the sand, against the rock now partly submerged, and the water withdrew and they were entrenched in the wet sands of the miniature beach, Latavao gasping for breath, and looking at Kuliketu's flushed face, realized with a pleasure that Kuliketu had joined him in that moment of bliss, and they lay together and the waves slapped at them petulantly, telling them to get up and get the hell out of there, like some cheap hotel landlord who rented by the hour, their time was up, get out so someone else could get in.
Latavao rose and adjusted his clothing, found his spear and rescued the nail from where he had left it atop the rock. He'd worn a garland of flowers this morning, one his sister had made for him, and that was gone, and he bade Tonofiti to take it for his gift of happiness at his good fortune.
"We should find another spot and you can use that new nail to hunt us something to eat." Kuliketu said. "I'm hungry after all that."
"So am I." Latavao said. "This beach is not good hunting, but I think I can find a fish or two if I look."
"I'll gather some fruit from a bush I know of near here." Kuliketu said. "Their berries should be ripe." Those berries, like the pigs, had been imported by their ancestors, but berries like the pigs had traveled all over the island, carried by the birds and deposited in their droppings back to the fertile earth.
It took another half hour, but then two small fish were roasting over a fire Kuliketu had built for them, and they ate the berries while the fish cooked.
"We work well together." Latavao observed. "You with the land, me with the water. Between us, we harvest the bounty of Tonofiti's gifts. I wish you would marry one of my sisters and come live with us." There, he'd said it out loud.
"I've thought about it." Kuliketu agreed. "My mother says it is time I should marry. So does yours."
"I know." Latavao said. "But somehow, I don't want any of the women, not all the time. So I stay where I am."
"So do I." Kuliketu said. "In fact...."
"What is it?"
"...if I could marry anyone on the island...." He trailed off again.
"Who?" Latavao pressed him.
"...I would marry you." Kuliketu finished, blurting it out.
Latavao looked at him. Such things were not unheard of, were permitted even, though you were teased by the village men if you did it. To make love to another man sometimes was fine, but to actually go so far as to marry...that was another thing. Still.... "My mother likes you. And you are a fine hunter." Latavao said. "I think we can do it." And he smiled shyly at Kuliketu's beaming face.
"Then we shall do it. I'll take Asenahana out to that boat again if she'll go." Kuliketu said. "A couple of nails would make a fine dowry back to my family."
"You'd have to deal with that black-clothed man again." Latavao judged.
"Yes." Kuliketu laughed. "He told me that it was against his god's wishes for a man to make love to another man. That was what got me laughing at him. I thought of you, and how much your body pleases me, so much that I feel Tonofiti's hand upon me. I told him that my god would never say such a thing, and he'd be a happier man if he listened to Tonofiti instead of his own god. That's when he got angry with me."
Latavao considered the oddity of that other religion. "They are a backwards people." he said. "In a lot of ways."
"He even told me that their god had thrown them out of paradise, and only for eating a piece of fruit the god had intended to keep for himself." Kuliketu finished. "You have to wonder why he bothers to worship a god as selfish as that."
Latavao looked at the fish on the fire, the berries they had still after eating their fill, the warm sands on which they lay, the balmy breeze and the friendly, generous ocean and forest upon which they lived.
"That must be why they come here." he said. "To try to find paradise once again. We are lucky that Tonofiti chose to keep us in the paradise he built for us, with all its gifts free for our taking." And he kissed his lover in the unending, unchanging world and sky, and the days that would go on forever.
THE END
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