Spirit and Space - 1. Of Boys and Men

The Watcher

The watcher gathered his company, they came from all over the universe to aide the chosen ones. It was time for the marking. A gilded silver ring suspended by star shine would test the heart of each who answered the call. None knew which chosen they would serve, some would be made aware today, some wouldn't know until the path was made clear. Each would plunge his left hand into the ring, if chosen to aide or protect the wrist would be marked. If not chosen, the person would die. Each knew the risks he took. The time came and a line was formed, at it's head was a little boy not yet five.

"Thor, are you sure you wish to answer the call?"

"I'm sure." He reached up on his tiptoes to put his hand through the ring. A single tear trickled down his cheek and he pulled his hand back, twin yellow rings encompassed his wrist. He turned and looked at his father who was entering the ring. Yellow. The older man gathered the boy and kissed him, both had been nervous and scared, but both had passed.

A group of teenagers and a man were next, two were visibly marked, while, the others did not die, so they would serve, but how was not yet revealed. A boy was marked green, and two more blue, then a girl was marked blue. An old man dressed like an Indian, then a brave and a squaw, and two boys each received black. Red claimed three wrists, the there were several who survived and a few who did not. The line seemed to go on forever, then it was over. The ring grew dim and accepted no more offerings.

The watcher looked at those who had passed the first test, some were close to the chosen, some would have to go out of their way to serve. It was time to explain.

"Thank you each who answered the call. You are called to assist, to protect, and to mark your chosen." Six silver hoops each with six stones of topaz, emerald, moonstone, black diamond, or sapphire, one for each chosen were boxed and passed out to those who would deliver them. Six were chosen to mark the elementals, others were told who they would assist, others were told they would know what to do when the time happened. Then all were sent out, it was time to begin....

Gypsy, age 13

"As your closest male relation, I have the honor of leading your initiation into the warrior sect." Running Deer was so serious and solemn.

"And as your eldest male relation, you honor me by choosing me to assist you in your journey to manhood." The man Gypsy knew as Grandfather had began his ritual preparations the night before with purging and fasting. Gypsy had not set foot on the reservation in years except for summer vacations. He was half Apache and half Gypsy blood, raised by his mother's family. His siblings were raised by his father's family. He never knew his parents and barley knew his heritage, but here he was at his brother's request, standing naked in a sweat lodge before the dawn of his thirteenth birthday. His hair was unbound and uncut since his birth, it fell in black cascading waves down his back. His first man hairs were starting to show and he was watching everything with golden eyes that were most definitely not Native. He was already tall as his brother and had not reached his full growth yet. Grandfather braided his hair and fixed the ceremonial paints on him, then bade Running Deer to leave them alone for a while. The break from the ritual caught Running Deer off guard, but Grandfather was an Elder and he knew what he was doing.

"Gypsy Phoenix, the reborn wanderer. Have you had a vision yet?" Gypsy shook his head. "Before we can continue you must. This will help, smoke it." He took the pipe from Grandfather and inhaled deeply, then passed it back, "all of it." Gypsy nodded and did as bid. The room floated in and out and he saw things that made absolutely no sense to him, but he knew it was the pipe's contents causing him to dream while awake. The biggest thing he remembered was the stars and the sky, wide open and crossed with white lines. When he came to his shoulder was on fire. "Little warrior, tell me what you saw,: gypsy could barely make out the faces around him, but he told all. "This is a gift from your Gypsy heritage, the shoulder is a gift from us." A little silver hoop earring with black stones on it was in his grandfather's hand. Then it was in his ear. He didn't remember having his ear pierced, and what did he say about the shoulder? Arms lifted him firmly, yet gently and he stood, naked in the sunlight. The pole was ahead of him, the one he would have to beat to claim manhood...

That night there was a feast in honor the fresh scars on his chest proved his bravery, the meat over the fire proved his ability to provide and the women serving him were eager to have him prove himself a man to them. Dancing and singing continued until after the moon was well in the sky. Grandfather paraded women in front of him... One of them would make him a man that night. Running Deer had provided him with the gift. He was to offer it to the woman he chose, and if she accepted it then they would retire to his lodge built the day before. One woman was across the fire from him and it was she he wanted. Star Blanket was almost thirty, but she was beautiful. She had been married, but her husband had died, leaving her a childless widow and eligible for this service. When Grandfather approached her she stood and was paraded before the not yet man. Gypsy stood and offered her the gift, she blanched and accepted it. He didn't understand her reaction, but she followed him to his lodge.

"Do you not want to do this?" She blushed...

"There has been no on for me except my husband, you should have experience the first time." He wrapped his arms around her.

"I desire you." He kissed her and she undid the ties to her dress... It fell on the ground at her feet. As one they sank into the fresh bed mat, he rained kisses over her body, and she responded to him like she never had to her husband. Soon his member was raging against her thigh and she took matters into her own hands, straddling him and riding him to completion. "So that's how it is." She giggled.

"Yes, if I do all the work, now as soon as you are capable, you will do all the work." He laughed and pulled her to him exploring her body with his hands and mouth. In no time he was ready again. With her guidance, he made love to her five times in total, each time driving his seed deep, by morning the elders on the tribe knew they had a warrior as they had been watched to be sure of it. Gypsy woke up to find Star Blanket gone from his sleeping mat, he dressed and went outside to find her and Grandfather sitting outside by the cook fire. She was fixing him breakfast, a signal to the tribe she accepted him as a man, and they could as well.

"Gypsy, I need to rub this ointment on you shoulder." He sat at Grandfather's feet and the old man rubbed his shoulder and it did feel better. "Your grandmother will be here soon to take you home. Thank you for submitting yourself to the Elders, it was not expected of you."

"Grandfather, I can not deny who I am any more than you can." Grandfather grunted and Star Blanket served them. Before the sun was high Gypsy's grandmother had arrived. It was a long drive home and Gypsy had school in the morning. He bid his brothers and sister good bye and left wearing jeans, T-shirt, moccasins, and braids. It was well after dark he finally found his bed, and dreamed of a woman twice his age with silky black hair and chocolate eyes. In the morning he dressed is his school uniform and assumed his routine until PE. Danus was in this bell with him, and as they dressed out he asked how his trip to his father's went. It was their code. Many of the kids here had divorced parents, so having to spend a weekend with the non-custodial parent was commonplace.

"It went well, I got some nice presents and got lucky... It's all part of the rights... She was old enough to be my mother." Dan laughed. He was still a virgin, and it didn't really bother him.

"I don't think I would like to loose my first nut to my mom or any of her friends, Dad's new girlfriend, now that's a different story." They laughed out to the gym floor. Couch had them do their warm-ups...

"Baseball today, shirts against the skins. Count off." Dan tactfully put another boy between him and Gypsy so they both called out two. "Ones are shirts, twos are skins. Let's go." Early in the year everyone got used to seeing just about everyone else with their shirts off. However today when Gypsy pulled his shirt off everyone stared. His shorts rode low and everyone could see the tribal markings done over the weekend. They had healed up nicely enough thanks to Grandfather and his ointments, but they did look odd. "Uh, Mr. Smith, what happened?" Coach blanched, but had to ask.

"Yesterday was my thirteenth birthday. It's a religious thing sir, I'm fine, really." He nodded.

"If you say so." The skins won the game by a landslide and on the way back in Dan told Gypsy he really liked the earring and the tattoo. Funny no one else mentioned it he thought.

"Do you have practice this afternoon?" Gypsy laughed.

"Don't I always. Why? Are you going to come and watch?" Dan nodded. He enjoyed watching Gypsy work out, he was fantastic. "I have to put in extra hours starting this week, if I plan to be ready for competition. I just don't have much time."

"How's your little project going?" Gypsy turned and faced Danus.

"We don't discuss that here and you know it. Come to my house after dinner and we'll talk." Dan nodded. They split paths now as Dan was headed for English and Gypsy Computers. He sat down at his machine and started work. The class was so easy it wasn't any fun to him, so he did the work quickly and then worked on his own projects with the rest of the time. Today he was writing some critical code for a virus. The bell rang. He saved it to disc and was off to practice. His grandmother enrolled him in martial arts classes when he was a little boy and since peewee tournaments he had been winning almost every competition he entered, which were few and hand selected. Some members of the team fought every weekend somewhere. Gypsy just didn't have the time with his other interests, but he practiced everyday. Over the summers Talon, his older brother, taught him how to fight hand-to-hand Native style, now Gypsy was incorporating the moves into this style as he rarely lost even in practice.

"So what's up with Enrico?"

"Rick? Nothing but trouble. Dad told him if he gets kicked out of one more school he's going to the military academy."

"Really? And what did Rick say to that?"

"He told dad it better be a boarding school or he would get kicked out of it too."

"What's the matter with your twin?"

"I think he's still angry with Dad for not letting him live with Mom. I don't blame Dad though. Mom, well, she shouldn't be allowed to keep a kitten."

"You still hate her?"

"Sometimes, but I know he didn't mean to make us...." He shuddered remembering the sexual abuse. "It was the drugs. It had to be the drugs."

Kazander, age 13

Kazander was pissed. Krayton and Mia had run off together the day after Krayton's trust fund became available, and Tyler went with them. Now, the three were living in a beachfront house and he was being packed off to boarding school. A military boarding school at that. Tyler told him he would miss him and he should continue to party and hand out with the gang, but he had to get away from his father. It was a shame he couldn't come too. Then his folks found out that Krayton was bisexual two weeks ago. He attended a rally and his face was on national TV. That's when his father got pissed and decided Zander should be removed from all possible influences of Kray, or Kray's friends, and shipped off to school. It was less than three weeks before he had to go. They even made him give up his position as a Spawn. He had to move back in the house and could only go off with Ken or Lette.

"Hey Zan, I'm going to the mall, wanna come" I'll drop you off at Tykwando practice after and pick you up in time to back here for the birthday bash. Happy thirteenth." His practices were now later in the day, as befitted his skill.

"Yeah sure." He threw on some jeans and a T-shirt and went down. His mom hated to seen him dressed like this, but he didn't care any more. They got in the car and were on their way.

"Zan, I need your help. I know you're really good at Spanish, today can you speak Spanish only to me? I'm really rusty."

"Sure." This was really easy for him. Last year he learned four years worth of high school Spanish in a single semester to help Kray and Ty. Now he was learning French and practicing using his computer and the Internet. Sometimes he picked up French or Spanish shows on TV and checked himself with subtitles. The morning went pretty well. His sister was doing her back to school shopping and didn't seem to mind when he wondered off to watch a group of young men who were as open about their sexuality as he wished he could be. He picked a table at the food court that was close enough he could watch, but far enough away it didn't seem obvious. One of them separated from the group and sat down at a table near him, it was Petros, from the Spawn.

"Your desire is clear in your eyes. Come my brother has something for you." Zander didn't even think... He just got up and walked over to where the other guys were. Petros was a little older than himself, but the brother was older than his father.

"Little brother, you have a long way to travel before you can find your true self. This is to aid and protect you on that journey." He handed Zander a box, within which Zander found an earring. It was a small hoop of silver with six white stones attached.

"I can't wear this." He went to give it back... But the man insisted.

"But you must, when worn it is not seen, but it protects. I will show you." He pulled the earring out of the box and went to put it on Zander... "Ahh, now I understand... It isn't you didn't want to, but you have no hole. Come." He was surrounded by these strange people, but felt perfectly safe. He relaxed into their banter and joined in. Petros and the others made him comfortable, he felt part of their group if only for a few minutes. They walked to the far end of the mall and went in a little shop that Zander had never noticed before. They went all the way to the back behind a curtain. "Sit." There was a stool and Zander sat on it. The man picked up several tools and other things and after a few minutes said, "This will hurt for a second and sting, but it will not last." Hurt it did, but only for a second. "There now you will be known by your companions. Only those who will protect you and aid you on your journey will be able to see it." The little earring was in his left ear near the top.

"I don't know what to say, thank you." The man nodded and smiled...

"I offer you one more thing, it's nature I can not reveal, if you trust, then drink." Petros handed him a foaming hot liquid, and against his better judgment, Kazander downed the entire thing. It was the last thing he remembered until he woke up with Petros sitting in a chair. Zan was laying on his stomach.

"Don't roll over, you need to stay off the shoulder. Would you like to see my brother's work?" Zan nodded. It was a tattoo on his shoulder, a compass with colors instead of words: north was yellow, south was green, east was blue, west was red, inside was a white triangle and it was surrounded by a black circle. "Do you like it?" Zander did, although he didn't know why. "Rub this on several times a day until it is all gone and it will not hurt and be smooth as it should be." He looked in Zander's eyes. "The desire is still there... May I help you sate it, my brother?" Zander looked at him, his eyes endless pools his could drown in... And nodded. As they dressed Zander noticed a white circle tattooed around Petros' left wrist.

"What does this mean?"

"I am pledged to the bearer of white, assisting him to his birthright. I can't explain more than that because I don't know." Zander nodded and an hour later he emerged from the shop more relaxed than he had been since Kray and Tyler left. It was then he realized he had been speaking Greek all day.