Abyss

Chapter 2: First touch

Pheus used the time he had before Ayve came to communicate his decision to him for himself. He did not care what the other man did until then. Why should he? His journey had been long and tiresome, and the break from his duties was welcome.

Two days after their meeting, Ayve came looking for Pheus. Pheus was surprised by the determination in the young man; so far he had not perceived him as a very passionate person. Outwardly, Ayve still seemed relatively calm, although more certain of what he wanted than before, but the interesting part was the look inside. Someone had had a heated argument with his father, it seemed. That was the last thing Pheus had expected. He smirked inwardly.

He watched the half-nymph approach the fire he was sitting next to.

“I will come with you,” Ayve announced what Pheus already knew. “What do I need to prepare for?”

Pheus threw a chunk of wood into the flames. “There is no way to prepare yourself.”

“But what do I need to take with me?” Ayve asked.

Pheus smirked. “The more ballast, the harder it will get. You don’t want any baggage pulling you down when you cross the sea, believe me.”

Ayve gazed into the darkness of the trees that surrounded them. Pheus knew what troubled him – the young man had never left this area so far, and not being able to prepare himself for what was to come was making him realise that he did not know what he was facing. He was rendered to a situation he had no control over. In some way, Pheus mused, the fact that he was going to set out with a stranger at his side should worry Ayve even more. After all, that took further control from him since Pheus was going to lead the way and make most decisions, and Ayve did not know if Pheus was trustworthy, was competent.

“When do you want to leave?” the elder man asked.

“I have no reason to stay,” Pheus replied matter-of-factly.

Ayve looked at him blankly. “I don’t understand. I asked you when you want to leave, not why you would want to stay,” he said.

Pheus looked into those big, curious, puzzled, grey eyes. He started laughing. Nymphs were not familiar with sarcasm. “We’ll leave in the morning,” Pheus clarified.

They set out shortly after sunrise. Pheus had told Ayve that taking along something that would keep him warm in the nights until they reached the coast would be convenient. The two young men travelled in silence for several days.

Usually, Pheus found Ayve’s bed empty already when he awoke early in the morning. His companion came back to their camp within a few minutes, obviously having bathed as Pheus could detect through his scent and often carrying something to eat. Pheus was quick to communicate that he did not regard those fruits and other plant parts Ayve brought as proper meal; he was a hunter. From then on, Ayve always had some fish or a small animal to offer. Whilst Pheus went to the water place to refresh himself, Ayve was preparing the meal over the fire Pheus had built in his absence.

After breakfast, they would wrap the remainders of the meal into some animal skin as provisions and walk on until the sun started to set and they found a good sleeping place. Ayve tended to walk a few paces behind Pheus, carefully watching him and their surroundings. Generally, Ayve never came close. What was more, he did not only stay physically distant; he was also emotionally detached.

Pheus noticed how intently he was observed by his companion, yet he also saw in the other man’s mind that Ayve found Pheus’ behaviour as strange as Pheus found Ayve’s. Ayve was intimidated by Pheus’ confident movements, by his deep, rough voice and the decisive manner in which he acted. Nymphs were always careful, contemplative, weighing the consequences of their actions. Ayve did not know how to deal with this totally alien kind of person he was spending his time with.

After a few days, Pheus was sick of the other man’s disregard for him. He had never met anyone as dull as Ayve. At dinner, he started a conversation in an attempt to spice up their time together.

“What was the problem with your parents, anyway?” he asked gnawing on a fish. “Why were you blaming them for having a daughter beside you?” Pheus had seen the other man’s thoughts revolving around the heated discussion he had had with his father. Looking for him to discuss the offer Pheus had made, Ayve had found out there was a child living with his mother, much younger than he was, that he had not known about. Despite his skill at mind reading, however, Pheus had not been able to learn why the discovery had upset Ayve that much. There had only been a strong sense of disappointment and betrayal in Ayve, mixed with a feeling of guilt for having spoken to his father in such a harsh manner.

Of course, Pheus’ question was a provocation. It told Ayve that he was ruthlessly reading every private thought he had.

Ayve eyed him for a moment, then turned to look into the flames of their fire. “It’s not seemly to have two underage children at a time.”

“You look perfectly grown-up to me,” Pheus remarked.

“I wasn’t when that girl was born,” Ayve replied stony-faced.

Pheus laughed. “Goodness, you’re fussy! Honestly, why do you care at all? You haven’t noticed the child existed, so far!”

Ayve’s jaw tightened. “You don’t understand.”

“I asked you to explain it,” Pheus countered.

Ayve gazed into the crackling flames for a few moments. “It just feels as if they were replacing me with a proper child. A nymph. A child that’s truly my father’s. A child my mother takes lovingly care of whereas she never so much as looked at me in a loving way; she only panicked whenever my father took me to her.”

Pheus tilted his head and looked closer at his companion. At least there was one emotion in the man that he could relate to. In fact, this little revelation made him like Ayve much better.

They sat in silence for the rest of the night.

The next morning, during breakfast, it was Ayve who started the conversation.

“Hada said your people were not speaking our language. Is that true?” ‘Hada’ was a respectful name for fathers.

“Isn’t that obvious?” Pheus retorted.

Ayve looked at him confused.

“Well, if we were constantly speaking your language, I’d be more skilled at it, wouldn’t I?”

Ayve looked away. He had obviously noticed that Pheus’ strange way of replying meant that he was regarding Ayve’s question as stupid. “Travellers that visit us often don’t sound like the people in my tribe, even though they are nymphs as well,” he tried to justify it.

Pheus decided to drop his sarcasm for the moment; his companion apparently was not able to cope with it. “Our language is different,” he offered placatory. “You’ll need to learn it.”

Ayve turned his head back. “Could you teach me?” he asked timidly.

Pheus’ eyebrows moved up.

“Just a few words each day. We have plenty of time, haven’t we?” Ayve tried to convince him.

Pheus looked at the other man sharply for another long moment; then he gave in. “Fine. I don’t care.” After all, what else did he have to do on their journey?

From then on, Pheus daily taught Ayve a few words or a phrase in his language. It took Ayve a while before he managed to produce the sound of a rolling ‘r’ or the clicking sound of a ‘k’ correctly. Pheus was not naturally gifted with patience, but out in the wild without any other pastime it was an amusing distraction to hear the other man struggle with the words that came so naturally to him.

Their exercises also reduced the ice between them. At first they replaced the silence that usually spread when Pheus and Ayve sat down to eat next to their fire each night; later, the fact that they were already communicating about things that concerned Pheus’ people encouraged Ayve to ask further questions. He wanted to learn more about the life style of Pheus’ people and how they were like. Pheus was not the kind of person to tell things out of his own accord, Ayve had to constantly ask him. Still, this exchange made the long journey a little more bearable.

Pheus told Ayve about the tunnel systems under the earth his people lived in and that – due to the ever present threat of exposure to humans – they only left for a limited time per day to hunt. He also named the other members of their family and the hierarchy amongst them, something Ayve could not relate to. There was no hierarchy amongst nymphs. Even his ‘father’, who of course was especially highly respected for being the leader, lived like every other nymph at the end of the day. Nymphs regarded their leader not as a ruler but as an advisor. Given that Pheus had had to listen to lengthy speeches on the importance of his family being powerful to lead their people into better times, Pheus was gradually able to enlighten Ayve concerning the sense behind this social system. He did not do that solely out of good will. His calculation was that if he could prepare Ayve for what he was facing, this would lessen the potential for conflicts. As naïve as Ayve was now, he would only annoy Pheus’ father – and Pheus knew first hand that it was better not to annoy that man.

“How could that happen, that I am related to you?” Ayve asked one evening. He was lying in bed already; Pheus sat gazing into the fire.

His sharp green eyes moved towards Ayve, looking at him questioningly. The way he saw it, he could hardly tell Ayve why his idiot brother had been sent to the nymph tribe. It would scare the man, blissfully ignorant as he was concerning such matters. He went for a different answer. “What do you think? Someone’s wanted a good…” –fuck, he had wanted to say in his sarcastic manner. The only problem was that he had no idea how the act was called in the nymph tongue. “…to have a woman in his bed,” he said instead to cover up the gap in his vocabulary.

“Strange wish,” Ayve replied.

“Pardon?”

“Why would you want someone to take your bed? And how does that make me what I am?”

Pheus looked at Ayve disbelievingly. A lopsided grin invaded his face. “Don’t try to tell me men and women in your tribe never share bed with each other!”

“Share bed? Men and women are not even allowed to be in the same hut at night!?”

Pheus leaned forward. “And how – do you believe – are children made then?”

“I don’t exactly know. My father supervises the rituals, but he hasn’t told me anything about them, so far.”

“He supervises rituals? Do you mean he’s present all the time?” Pheus asked, dreading the answer.

“Of course he is,” Ayve answered, not understanding what was so remarkable about that.

“Well, that sounds like fun,” Pheus remarked sarcastically, enveloping himself in animal hide and imagining his father being present when he fucked someone neatly.

“How do your people make children if not like that?” Ayve asked curiously.

Pheus smirked, having turned away from Ayve. “I told you; they share bed.” His words had a final tone in them that indicated the end of their conversation.

They had crossed half of the island meanwhile. For orientation purposes, they travelled close to the eastern shore. The land flattened out gradually and the woods thickened. There were also more human settlements they had to bypass.

As he was frustrated by the lengthy, uneventful journey, Pheus took to hunting in the evenings. Of course, he also did so to boost his ego; relying on someone else to supply him with food was not to his liking. Should Ayve spend his time digging out roots and collecting herbs and fruits – Pheus was a hunter.

The lone hunting in the hours around dusk also secured Pheus a bit of time on his own. He was no child anymore, after all, and he preferred not to sate certain needs in the presence of someone who apparently knew nothing about such things and might therefore be alienated by such behaviour.

From their sexual education lesson on, Pheus was a little more interested in his companion. Perhaps it was just the interest of an adolescent who had just recently discovered the carnal pleasures and was intrigued somehow by meeting someone who was older than him but had no experience or knowledge in that field whatsoever. It tickled his playful nature.

“How long have you been living alone?” he asked when they were sitting together at night, enjoying the coney Pheus had caught (since they were travelling it made no sense to capture larger prey).

Ayve looked up from the other side of the fire. He had not expected Pheus to start a conversation this late in the evening. “I don’t know. For a while.”

“Haven’t you been lonely at times?” Pheus dug deeper.

Ayve eyed him more intently. He was surprised by Pheus’ sudden interest in him; so far he had not seemed to think much of him. “I’ve been lonely amongst the others as well. This way I was at least able to lead life my way without being condemned for it. I mean, I really tried to be more like them than they were themselves, but it was just impossible to please them.”

It was funny how familiar that sounded although Pheus had grown up in a totally different environment. “Hasn’t there been a single person you could trust?”

Ayve dropped his gaze to the floor and leaned forward to rest his upper body on his elbows. “Hada,” he replied. After a moment he added, “And one of the nymph ladies, about my age.”

“A girl?”

Ayve made a light clicking noise, a sound that indicated affirmation in his tribe’s language, while he turned his piece of coney to find the remaining meat on it. The silence that followed prompted Ayve to look up again. The previous weeks had given him plenty of opportunity to study his opposite; he knew his facial expressions by now. “We are not talking about inviting anyone to bed.”

Pheus smirked. “Ever touched her?”

“No,” Ayve said immediately (a low clicking noise). “She’s not my bond-mate; I’m not supposed to make a child with her. Why should I touch her?”

“’I’m not supposed to…’ –Is that all you ever think about?”

“If that was all I ever thought about, I’d never have refused to accompany my father any longer and chosen a solitary life over the life he wanted me to lead,” Ayve countered.

Pheus nodded in approval. Ayve seemed finally to get the hang of how to deal with his remarks. “Have you never felt the desire to feel another person’s touch on you?” he asked, returning to the previous topic. In the back of his mind, he saw pictures of himself swallowing the face of some random girl. Pheus could not say that he understood what the other men found so thrilling about the female body. It left him pretty cold. Yet, closing his eyes, he quite enjoyed a pair of plum lips kissing his mouth or caressing his lower regions.

“Touch me? Why?” Ayve questioned.

“It feels good. It makes you think you’re special to have someone who wants to be close to you.”

The nymph considered this. “Amongst my people it’s disrespectful to get too close to another.”

“Yes, your people are strange,” Pheus stated.

Ayve shot a sceptical glance at him; then he looked thoughtfully into the flames. “Perhaps.”

In a period of very hot weather, they reached the southern parts of the island. When they were nearing a stream, Pheus proposed to camp there. The rest of the way to the point were they would have to cross the sea would be manageable the next day.

Pheus was glad to be able to get rid of his clothing and jump into the cold water. He waded into the middle of the stream and let himself crash into the cool depths so that it splashed high into the air. When he re-emerged, throwing back his black mane in a wide arc through the air, he saw Ayve standing with an amused expression on his face on the bank. “Come in,” Pheus encouraged him.

Ayve smiled but hesitated.

“What is it?” Pheus asked. He remembered that Ayve always disappeared early in the morning, that he had never seen him undressed so far. “Is that one of your taboos? Showing yourself naked in front of others?”

The lack of an answer was answer enough.

“Do yourself a favour and get rid of your reserve; people will be annoyed by it.”

Ayve seemed to ponder over this for a moment; then he turned around and started to unwrap. Under the simple layer of woolly fabric that Pheus knew from the daily contact with Ayve, a second layer of fabric came to light. Ayve indeed literally had to unwrap since it was merely a broad, lengthy piece of drapery that was wound around his body.

When he had undressed, he knelt down, washed his clothes in the stream and draped them on a large stone. Eventually, he let himself slide into the floods.

As Pheus saw him swim gracefully against the flow, he realised that he had not thought of the eventuality that Ayve could just as well not have been able to do that. “How experienced are you in swimming?” he asked, coming closer to Ayve.

“On hot days like these, I often go swimming in the sea,” Ayve replied. “Why do you ask?”

“Because we’ll have to cross the sea like that.”

“-Swimming? Have you arrived this way?”

Pheus made a high clicking noise.

“How long did it take you?” Ayve asked while he turned back into a standing position, the water floating by his navel.

“I was unfortunate; a wind arose after a while. I started early in the morning and arrived when the sun had gone down already. If we’re lucky, though, and the weather stays like this, we should make it before sunset.”

“Will we be able to see the land we are swimming towards from where we start?” Ayve wanted to know.

Pheus made a low clicking noise.

“But how do we know in which direction we have to swim, then?”

Pheus smiled. “The sun will tell us.”

Ayve looked up. The light that shone on the water sent dancing spots on his light skin.

Pheus smiled. “Just follow me.” He took another step forward and brushed aside a wet strand of Ayve’s black hair.

His opposite was startled by the touch and looked at Pheus with big questioning eyes.

Pheus grinned. “A leaf.” He held out a yellowed oak leaf, one of the many that drifted in the water. It was autumn already.

They stood at the beach early in the morning. The sun had not yet risen; the sky was slowly changing from black into a dark blue. Gazing into the distance towards the fathomless depths they were going to cross, Ayve inhaled the clear air of a cool night’s breeze.

Since afternoon they had cooked the fat of a wild pig they had hunted down. They had prepared the clay pot the cooking was done in the evening before. Pheus had explained the lard that was the product of their cooking would protect their skin during the swim and keep them a little warmer. Now, he was calling Ayve.

“We need to get ready.” He undressed and bundled his trousers and one thin shirt. The rest of his clothes, including shoes, were going to remain behind. Pheus had explained to Ayve that they could only transport a few light pieces on their heads, the only parts of their bodies that would not be under water all the time. Otherwise the crossing would become even harder than it already was going to be.

Ayve followed Pheus’ example. He also braided his long hair in a circle around his head in a complicated fashion he had sometimes seen on nymph ladies so that he would not have to drag the hair behind either. Pheus refused such preparation, merely binding his shoulder length hair into a simple ponytail.

Both of them dug with their hands deep into the lard and applied it liberally on their bodies.

Pheus suddenly approached Ayve and turned his back on him. “Help me there,” he demanded. After a few moments of no reply that indicated Ayve’s reluctance, he finally felt the soft touch of the other man’s hand as he spread the fat between Pheus’ shoulder blades. Involuntarily, he felt pleasant shivers running down his spine and tickle his privates. The feeling only grew when Ayve’s hand moved lower, towards Pheus’ bottom. Had he ever been touched like this? So careful, so gentle? He probably just had spent too much time without sex; that had to be it.

“Turn around,” he said, so he could help Ayve in turn and conceal his physical reaction from the other man’s eyes. From the sound behind his back, Pheus could tell that Ayve had done what he had asked for. Pheus took a new amount of lard and smeared it onto Ayve’s back, intentionally making rough movements so his body had no cause for further reactions to their touching. He reached for Ayve’s bundle and tied it on Ayve’s head with leather straps. In fact, the clothing would protect the head from the sun and therefore was more than just a burden.

“You have no lard on your face,” Pheus noted as he stood in front of Ayve to check if the bundle was properly fixed. He held Ayve’s chin and carefully moved his lard-covered fingers over Ayve’s delicate features, his eyes locked with Ayve’s. When Pheus drew closer to them, Ayve closed them to keep the lard out. Pheus’ thumb was mesmerised by the soft touch of Ayve’s full lips. He felt drawn to touch them longer than necessary.

Finally, he forced himself to withdraw. Such thoughts were condemned by his father; every male in their family knew this was forbidden fruit.

He strapped his own bundle to his head. “Are you ready?”

Ayve threw a last glance towards the sea; then he clicked yes in a not very convincing way.

Pheus inhaled the fresh breeze, concentrating on the strenuous task in front of him, ignoring the strange attraction towards the man behind him. He stepped forward and felt the water on his feet. It had cooled down during the night but still held some of the warmth it had received from the last days of hot weather. Pheus kept his movements measured. There was no point in exhausting himself too early; he needed to ration his strength. The last thing they had eaten had been a light soup in the evening - swimming with a full stomach would not have been a very clever thing to do either.

Pheus heard Ayve follow behind.

As the time went by and the sun slowly rose and moved over the firmament, the water seemed to offer more resistance. Yet, it also grew warmer, which made the crossing more bearable. It was fortunate that around midday clouds invaded the sky. This way, the sun did not burn down on them too much.

At some point, Pheus stopped checking if Ayve was still near. He needed all his strength to reach the shore; there was no energy left for solicitousness.

Completely out of breath, with sore muscles, and very cold, Pheus finally dug his toes into sand and trudged out of the water. Only two or three steps away from where the waves licked at the beach, his knees gave way and he fell onto the still warm sand. With tremendous effort, he managed to lift his left arm and get rid of the bundle on his head and the leather strap that held his hair together.

Pheus breathed hard and turned his face towards the warm rays of the sun. Only then did he realise that indeed the sun still shone. That meant that the crossing had taken much less time than it had taken the first time – probably due to the good weather. At the first attempt, Pheus had seriously doubted that he would reach his destination. After all, all his knowledge about the crossing had originated from what his brother had told him – not the most trustworthy of all sources.

Pheus was just thinking that he should get up and look out for Ayve when in the corner of his eye he noticed movement. He turned to the left side and saw Ayve coming closer in the distance. The other man showed symptoms of aching muscles from the way he walked but held himself well. He had already pulled on his trousers again and his hair was loose and flowing in the wind.

The time his companion needed to reach him was enough for Pheus to very slowly get used to the idea of moving again and unwrapping his bundle to dry his clothes in the warmth of the late afternoon sun. Ayve sunk into the sand.

Pheus looked at him. “Your trousers and your hair are half dried,” he remarked.

“I landed a while ago somewhere over there.” Ayve pointed weakly into the direction he had come from. It bothered Pheus a little that the lank nymph had been faster than him.

Ayve let himself fall back and closed his eyes to enjoy the warmth of the sun. Pheus turned onto his belly. He watched Ayve’s chest move up and down. Golden grains of sand stuck to the black hair of his companion. He looked peaceful and gracious. Since nymphs had no body hair, they could not have goose bumps either, but Ayve still shivered slightly every now and again from the cold that remained in his flesh.

They rested like this for a while, until the sun stood low. His leather pants were still uncomfortably wet when Pheus pulled them on, but he had no choice. They needed to build a camp for the night, hunt and start a fire.


Comments are eagerly anticipated.