The Life of Koru, Chapter 76
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The mine overseers were hard to impress. They simply laughed at Mazo's efforts when he worked like an absolute beast in the mine, almost doubling the daily quota. He was really something to behold, as he was working at maximum speed but also careful enough so that he didn't injure his feet or break his spine. At his relatively young age, he was as agile as a monkey dancing to the rhythms of hard labor, but there was also a strong will that motivated him to be so subservient and productive.
"He only does this to win special treatment!" the overseers laughed. "Too bad no such treatment is given here!"
Or if there was any "special treatment" it was always in a negative way. So, the overseers used their whips on Mazo, even though he was doing nothing wrong. Mazo yelped and his back started bleeding.
"You need to thank us for whipping you, ape!"
"Yessuhs! Thank ye, suhs!" Mazo said.
"What a loser! Total slave!"
Mazo suddenly felt a cuff on his nape taking him down. He fell on all fours, then a large boot from above pressed his face into the ground, making him taste the earth.
"This is your place, slave! Learn it!" the overseer said.
"Yessuh!" Mazo mumbled with pieces of earth basically entering his nostrils.
He realized that life with these new overseers will not be pleasant.
At night the koru didn't sleep in the mine. They slept outside on the shabby site of a once imposing building, that was now only stone walls and ruins, with no roof to even protect the slaves. The site was surrounded by barbed wire and in order to get inside, the slave had to CRAWL on all fours because the entrance was less than 2 feet in height. This ridiculous crawlspace door was specifically designed to further humiliate the koru. They basically had to bend their backs and crawl on their bellies to get to their place of rest. And in the morning, when they had to go to work, they crawled out of their nest in the same way.
This so-called "koru nest" wasn't even that comfortable. The dwellers had to cuddle together on rough ground and they were exposed to the elements -- rain or even worse, snow.
That night, Mazo felt a feeble cold touch on his cheek and started to rub it.
"Whut's that?!" he said.
"That's snow, boy!" another slave said.
Mazo looked up. There were similar pieces of coldness coming towards him.
The koru had a love-hate relationship with snow. On the one hand, it was all fun and games when they buried their toes in the fluffy white mass or they made snow balls to hit a fellow koru. On the other hand, it was so fuckin' cold.
"It's so fuckin' cold..." Mazo said, starting to tremble.
"Love the suck, boy!" his fellow slave said.
It didn't snow much, just a little, and anyway the next day they were back in the mine which was as hot as a furnace because of the fumes and the proximity to volcanic activity underground. The Andes were a place of extreme temperatures, high and low. When they were in the mine, the miners longed for the refreshing coolness of the mountain air; when they were out in the open, they fantasized about being back in the mine, surrounded by its oppressive heat, which at least offered some semblance of warmth. Their bodies were either purple and freezing or sweaty and stinking of fumes. There was no middle ground.
And in this oppressive place, Mazo tried to be the best boy possible, working his hardest in the mine, sometimes breaking his own record with the sheer intensity of his labor, yet finding solace in the belief that his efforts might bring him redemption. Despite being praised by his mates for always meeting the work quota, he kept his head down and he was humble.
"Wow, Mazo, ye did it again, boy!" one of his mates exclaimed.
"I'se need to work hard because I'se betrayed muh Massa! I'se a vile betrayur, suh!" Mazo said.
One night, when Mazo was trying to sleep he heard a heated argument between the slaves. One of them had found a really old silver coin with the face of a koru on it. The image of the koru carved on the coin was very strange. He wore a crown like only a king would. He seemed to be dressed in fine clothes and jewels, or finey' and glimma' as the koru called them, as if he were a mighty Black Lord and not a simple koru. The koru were never allowed to wear finey and glimma. They were not allowed to wear even the most simple clothes unless it was for some sort of carnival for the entertainment of the Black Lords. This coin which belonged to a long forgotten past really challenged the belief system of the slaves.
"Lemme tell ye what I'se think of this!" said Noodzaak, the one who discovered the coin.
The koru fell silent and listened. With his eyes bulging out, Noodzaak declared:
"I'se think that based on the thingie that I'se found and I'se have long thought about this... I'se think... that long long ago in the past, we'se koru were not slaves, no, no, we wuz kingz `n shiet!"
"No way!" the other koru exploded. "Get outta here! It's dumb!"
"No, no! Listen to me! WE WUZ KINGZ `N SHIET!"
"No we weren't! Who told ye that?" one of the koru said.
"Nobody! It's just based on the thingie that I'se found!"
"Gimme that thingie! It's fake!"
"It's not fake! I'se found it at the foot of these ruins."
The koru fell again silent. Finally one of them said:
"So ye think we wuz kingz `n shiet?"
"Yes we were! We'se ruled the whole world from sea to sea!"
"No, the Black Lords rule the world and we'se just koru slaves!"
"Yea! But not in the past!"
It was hard to argue with Noodzaak who was so stubborn.
The next morning, the koru slaves had to line up at 4 am for inspection. They crawled out of their shabby nest and formed a line in front of the overseers. The slaves were visibly trembling because of the night chills, their bare skin almost purple, but what made them look most vulnerable was the pathetic aspect of their cocks, so shrunken and wrinkled by the cold that they almost looked like micropenises.
The overseers had a list and shouted out each slave's name:
"Noodzaak!"
"Here, suh!"
"Cheeser!"
"Here, suh!"
"Mazo!"
"Here, suh!"
"Hah! You're the good workerboy, aren't you!" the chief overseer laughed.
"Yessuh, always, suh!" Mazo answered respectfully.
His cock was almost frozen inside the icy cold cock cage, but he was ready to work hard for another day. He could bear anything. All the punishments came to him because he had betrayed his Massa, they were well-deserved, so he had to love the suck.
He quickly learnt the song of the mining slaves, which they chanted while they worked:
"Swing the pick, break the stone,
Sulfur burns, the earth will moan,
We'se are koru of the mine,
We'se work hard day and night!"
At one point, the slave Noodzaak caught a glimpse of Mazo's profile while they worked.
"Damn, boy! Ye really look like the king on the coin!" Noodzaak said.