Well, these are the last two chapters. Please let me know what you think. If you are a teenager I do sometimes write stories to order, so if you want me to write one about you let me know. Thank you for reading this. I hope you enjoyed it. gayauthor@hushmail.com
Chapter 22 Thapsacus
Draxus and Kalix, Lysimachus and Cleitus, gone.
At daybreak Leo and Xeon searched for miles down-river. There were corpses tangled in tree branches that overhung the torrent, some washed onto sandbanks and spits, but they searched in vain.
Around midday Xeon cried out: "Leo!"
He had found the corpse of Cleitus wedged against some rotting debris.
His eyes were open, but blank and misted over. Weed matted his face and open mouth.
Xeon sat on the riverbank and hugged his knees, overcome with grief.
Leon came and sat beside him and the two of them stared out into the swollen river.
That night they built a pyre and members of the Sacred Band helped them lift the huge body of Cleitus into place. They wrapped up, with his body the few pathetic personal belongings of Drax and Machers, their Persian cloaks and a carved figure of Zeus that had been the prized possession of Kalix.
Syphes joined them and they stood, to the north, the south and the east,
and watched the flames lick up into the night sky, drowning in memory.
In the morning they shouted the names of their friends to the pale rising sun, then slept, wrapped tightly in each other's arms, while Syphes kept watch.
When Xeon woke from the heat of the noon sun he found Leo, leaning on one elbow, looking at him closely.
"Your face is all burned."
Xeon touched the skin around his eyes, it was raw and painful.
"You can see where your helmet was."
Xeon looked into Leo's green eyes. He was overcome with tenderness.
He blinked away the tears as he met the boy's gaze.
"You saved me, Leo." he said as he stroked the boy's cheek.
Leo sat up. "I'm fucking hungry. What's to eat?"
Alexander sent engineers downstream, with archer support. They set about constructing a bridge-like structure in full view of the Persian scouts.
But upstream his engineers were making new pontoons, hidden in a forest close to the river.
Scouts discovered a fording place for horses miles upstream and Hephaestion took the cavalry north on a looping ride that disguised their destination.
Two days later they were ready to attack.
The armourers re-equipped the members of the Sacred Band who had survived and lost everything to the river. Xeon was strapping Leo into his new armour.
"Leo, listen to me. Are you feeling angry?"
Leo nodded.
"Then listen to me, Leo. You have got to cool that anger. If you go over there and go mad and forget your training you'll get killed, and probably get me killed too. You have to be like ice Leo."
The boy's eyes were sparkling.
"Do you understand me?"
He nodded.
"Like ice, Leo. That way you get revenge."
To achieve surprise the cavalry crossed the river just before dawn, then raced south towards the Persian lines. As they made contact the pontoons were launched upstream, and guided down to the crossing point. It was urgent that the infantry attack in support of the cavalry. On their own the cavalry were in great danger.
The first pontoon reached the other side and the sacred band rushed forward,
taking up a defensive formation, their long spears bristling like the quills on a porcupine.
The other pontoons were lashed in line behind the first, one after the other, until the floating bridge was complete. The Vanguard crossed en masse. Alexander and the Companions rode across.
With the army safe on the far shore they rushed into the attack. The Persians had wheeled about to defend the surprise attack from the cavalry to the north. The main Greek army now slammed into their lines from the side in a massive flanking maneuver.
The Sacred Band, on command, ran hard across the back of the Persian line. They locked shields and attacked from the rear. Leo's spear stuck into something. He let it go and continued with the advance drawing his sword.
"Now Leo!"
They stabbed with the fast cutting motion they had rehearsed a hundred times. Leo felt hot blood on his arm. His thrusts punched home. He had not expected so much blood. To his left a Greek boy fell like a stone, his helmet split like an apple. Xeon's shield in front of Leo was being hammered. Leo stabbed and cut. A Persian archer was aiming an arrow right at his face from point blank range. He ducked and stabbed at once, slicing up into the man's stomach. They were in the middle of a pack of archers who were desperately trying to notch their arrows.
The trumpet blew and the solid line of the Sacred Band exploded into a melee, with every fighter free to kill anything and everything around them. Leo span left and right, hacking through bows and arms, slicing upwards catching an archer under his chin almost taking his head off.
Xeon was to his right, hacking and slicing, looking behind them to check there was no threat to the rear, watching Leo's back.
The Persians were running.
Leo's instinct was to run after them to chase them down. Xeon's hand grabbed his armour from behind and pulled him back. The Sacred Band regrouped and locked shields. Macedonian cavalry tore past towards the fleeing army.
The Sacred Band was ordered to halt. They stood in the wreckage of the battlefield, surrounded by the dead and dying. Leo suddenly found himself shaking, his teeth chattering uncontrollably. Xeon's warm hand was on the back of his neck, soothing him.
In the cold early morning air of dawn, the corpses and hot pools of blood were steaming, as if incense was being offered to the gods.
Chapter 23 The Garden
"I hear you burned all my things."
Leo looked up from the cooking pot.
"Machers!"
"Yeah, sorry to disappoint you, you little shit!" said Machers grinning first at Leo then at Xeon as they came to embrace him.
Lysimachus had clung to the pontoon for dear life as it shot down the river in flames. As the pontoon disintegrated he had grabbed a thick bale of straw, part of the buoyancy of the pontoon, and wrapping his arms and legs around it, the straw had carried him down river. The freezing current had sapped all his energy. He did not even attempt to strike out for the riverside. Many miles downstream a fallen tree had snagged him and he had managed to scramble ashore.
"You missed the battle."
"Oh dam!" laughed Machers, ruffling Leo's hair. "I'm sure you did enough damage for both of us."
That night Xeon stood watch as the two boys slept in each others arms,
still pained with grief. Machers drew comfort from the warm softness of his friend's embrace and drew the cloak tight about them. Leo woke only once.
"Machers' I don't believe you!" he whispered.
Machers smiled. "For old time's sake." he whispered back as he felt Leo's hot stickiness between his fingers.
The Army pushed deeper into Persia, encountering little resistance. The Persians were burning everything behind them as they fled, hoping to starve out the invading army.
So it was with some surprise that they came across a hillside village,
containing a royal summer palace. The village had been completely abandoned.
Market stalls were still loaded with produce, embers still glowed in fireplaces and food was still warm on tables. A small detachment of the Sacred Band were to hold the village overnight, while the army set up camp a few miles off. In the morning treasurers would arrive from Alexander's staff to inspect the palace.
Leo had his feet cooling in a fountain.
Xeon came into the little square. "Hey Leo, come with me."
He led him up a winding street past the bright whitewashed houses. A group of tiny black kittens lay basking in the shade. At the top of the hill, a green iron gate led into a cool walled courtyard surrounding a low fountain that tinkled with the play of water. At one side a staircase led up into a large open room.
The room was filled with sunlight from large windows. White cotton curtains swelled with a gentle breeze that came up from the valley below.
The room was filled with the smell of roses.
In the middle of the room a large bed, covered in a single white sheet was scattered with a dozen pillows in gold and red material. The posts of the bed reached almost to the ceiling carved with exotic animals.
Xeon stood in one of the windows. "Come and look, Leo."
Below the window was a fabulous garden planted in symmetrical perfection.
Low hedges zig zaged, interspersed with rose bushes in full bloom. Another fountain played quietly in the middle, planted either side with orange trees. At the edge of the garden the ground fell away in a steep cliff into the valley below. In the distance a mountain range shimmered in the heat haze.
"And look at this Leo."
A curtain gave entrance to a sunken bath, tiled in blue, with scenes of dolphins and mermaids. Water fed into the bath from a little pipe,
and at one edge water lapped into a chute that took it out into the garden.
"It's big enough for two."
Leo didn't need another invitation. He shrugged off his clothes, kicked them into a corner and scampered into the bathroom.
He squealed. "It's freeeeeezing!"
Xeon stepped in carefully. "It'll feel warmer in a minute."
They sat facing each other in the water.
Leo was beaming. The months of marching in the sun had bleached his blond hair. His face was sunburnt. His little white teeth shone like pearls.
He lifted a leg out of the water.
"Wash my feet."
Xeon laughed. "Alright little man."
He took the foot and massaged the underside and between the toes. He smoothed along the strong ankle.
"You have strong ankles Leo."
"And big feet."
"Not really."
He felt along the shin, stroking up to the knee.
"You have nice knees."
"Do the other one."
Another dripping foot was presented.
They soaked for a while, Xeon drinking in his boy.
"I'm bored now." announced Leo. He stood up and stepped out of the bath, shaking his head vigorously, sending a spray all over the bathroom.
"Hey!"
"Sorry." said Leo, smiling with his hair sticking out in all directions.
He lifted the curtain and disappeared into the bedroom.
He was on the bed waiting for Xeon, when at last Xeon came into the room,
still dripping with water.
Leo was naked, brown, loose limbed. His arms were above his head, tucked behind some of the pillows. His feet were flat on the bed, his knees up and apart. His strong young erection pointed up his flat stomach.
His ball sack was tight and wrinkled like a walnut from the cold water.
His hair was damp and gold and wild. His toes were curled in anticipation.
He spread his knees wide, revealing the brown darkness of his puckered anus.
"Well, well." said Xeon, as he sat on the bed and ran his hand along the inside of Leo's soft thigh.
He knelt on the bed between the boy's feet and splayed legs. He lifted Leo's cock, pulling it off his belly, taking it gently in his fingers.
He eased the foreskin down. The pink cock-head popped out like a cherry.
He bent down and sucked it into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue,
flicking over the piss-slit. Leo's feet slid down the bed, his legs flat, open wide around the kneeling figure of Xeon. He lifted his hips off the bed, straining to put his cock deep in the man's mouth. Xeon sucked him down, feeling the cherry bumping against the back of his throat.
He sucked hard along the stiff shaft and when the boy's cock slipped out of his mouth, it left a string of pre-cum on his lips.
Xeon pulled Leo's knees back up and apart. Leo's feet dangled in the air his back flat on the bed, his arms now splayed out wide.
Xeon spat repeatedly in his hand, applying the spit to his cock till it was slick. He shifted on the bed.
Leo's pucker twitched as Xeon pushed his knees wide apart. He was aware of the white curtain flapping in the breeze, the fragrance of roses as Xeon's slick cockhead touched his bud.
Xeon leaned right over the boy, his face right up to Leo's sunburnt cheeks,
staring into the vivid green eyes. Leo's pupils flared as he pushed in, his sphincter opening up under the pressure. Xeon's thick cock slid inside the warm tight anus. Leo's toes curled. He gripped the pillows tight. His neck muscles tensed and his mouth opened.
Xeon pushed in with all his weight, driving into Leo the full length of his massive erection. Buried up to the hilt he paused. Leo's head was back, his eyes wide. Xeon leaned back, and looked down. His cock was gripped tight. Leo's cock was rock hard, his balls tight. Xeon took it in his fingers and wanked him vigorously. The boy's sphincter was trying vainly to contract in rapid spasms. He pulled back his hips and his cock withdrew.
Leo moaned.
He looked down and thrust back in, his balls slamming against Leo's buttocks.
Leo thrashed on the bed, his feet shaking in the air, pinned back by Xeon's arms below his knees.
Again, he withdrew slowly, his cock seeming to ooze out of the boy's bum. He paused for a moment with only his cock-head still gripped by the tightening ring then hammered forwards.
Leo was biting his knuckles.
He pulled out again and paused. The boy's brown chest and tiny brown nipples. The soft golden hairs on his forearms. His tiny patch of golden pubes. His young erection, soft skin encasing solid boy muscle. His hairless walnut scrotum. The pale softness of his inner thighs. The boy's big feet and strong knees hanging helplessly in mid air on either side of him. The shock of bleached hair on the pillow. All of this was the boy that he fucked now, beginning slow, but increasing in tempo,
gathering pace until the bed rocked and creaked under a sustained hammering.
Boy and man were dripping with sweat in the frantic rhythm until Leo felt the man swell to unbearable tension, thrusting in deep, pulling him by his buttocks hard onto the shaft and then pulsing in massive ripples flooding him with jets of hot cum. Leo arched his back, and shot in spasms of cum that spat over his chest and face.
Xeon looked down at his boy, glistening with sweat, splattered with fresh cum, exhausted.
In the valley below, Alexander was already planning his next chapter. But, Xeon thought, if he was to write the story of Leo, this is where he would end it. Like this.