Stonehenge 4

By Pueros

Chapter 4 – Atonement

(Salisbury Plain, England, April 1850 B.C.)

The men dismounted and, after bringing their hounds to heel, approached the tremulous Bladud. The two tribal hunters grabbed the boy by the arms, after throwing his packed leather satchel to the ground, whilst the smirking priest from the great temple slapped the 13 years old across the face. The latter knew that this hurtful chastisement would just be the beginning of the awful price that he would now have to pay for unsuccessful flight.

“How dare you,” the priest declared, as he carefully examined Bladud’s attire, “try to escape from your sacred duties at the great temple. I also notice that you compound your effrontery to our gods by discarding your sacred tunic in favour of other garb, which you have obviously either stolen or been given by collaborators to your sacrilege. Whichever it is, we shall find out as your body will suffer great torment not only in atonement but also to secure the truth as to where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to during the past seven days. If friends have helped you, we’ll want to know who they were for they must be punished severely too!”

The priest then added greatly to Bladud’s terror when he withdrew the boy’s own sharp bronze knife from his scabbard and commanded the hunters restraining the 13 years old to remove his fleece. However, the youngster’s fear that the blade would now be used against his vulnerable body proved unfounded, as instead the ecclesiastic began to shred his tunic, which now formed his last cover.

“If you are not prepared to wear the sacred attire of our holy order,” the priest announced, as he began also to use his hands to tear the shredded garment from Bladud’s beautiful form, “you will suffer instead the disgrace of no clothing at all!” The boy soon found himself bare, his ruined tunic at his feet and his naked body shivering not only as a result of the chill that pervaded the atmosphere but also the indignity of being displayed nude before his three captors and, presumably, soon the rest of their people.

In the society in which Bladud existed, public nakedness was considered deeply shameful, reserved for vile criminals and runaway slaves. Even captured prisoners were spared such humiliation until they were either sacrificed to the gods or paraded on the auction block to be sold into servitude. The boy’s abashment was compounded when a length of cord was produced to bind his hands behind his back, thereby making impossible any manual attempts to hide the main focus of his dishonour, his revealed genitalia.

Much longer twine was affixed to Bladud’s neck, with the other end firmly grasped by the priest. After securing the boy’s valuable fleece and satchel to his horse, the ecclesiastic climbed on top of the animal and, accompanied by his similarly remounted companions, began the journey back to the great temple. The men had decided not to risk traversing the great bog but to take the longer route around the dangerous marshy landscape, with the tremulous naked boy trailing, needing to trot in order to keep up.

Bladud’s embarrassment and discomfort over the subsequent hours was compounded by the fact that his chagrin, running actions and the awful thought of what was publicly soon to happen to him somehow conspired to encourage his smooth cock to become fully erect. It was an intensely opprobrious shape that it maintained throughout the increasingly arduous journey.

The small but successful hunting party of men, horses, and dogs, now with one naked boy, eventually reached the outskirts of the village, adjacent to the unmistakable shape of the great temple, just before dusk. The group was greeted, as invariably were all new arrivals, by a large throng of curious children, which became raucous, rude and insulting once they observed the recaptured nude priestling, sporting an almost vertical fulsome penis, dribbling a little precum. Bladud wished that the earth could open up and swallow him rather than having to endure such copious verbal torment from the giggling and sniggering youngsters of all ages and both genders. His discomfort was not improved when, as progress towards the centre of the settlement was slowly achieved, many adults emerged from their roundhouses to see what all the fuss was about.

It was therefore with some relief that the priestly captor alone led Bladud behind the high wooden palisade that hid the ecclesiastical community from the view of the ordinary people. However, the mental respite, such as it was, was tempered by the fact that the adult eunuch members of the holy order, who watched the boy’s arrival, gave him contemptuous looks, whilst the eyes of his fellow still-whole priestlings conveyed a mixture of sorrow and pity.

Not one of the priestlings, most of whom considered themselves to be friends of Bladud, had not contemplated escape from their destiny at some time and they were saddened to see that yet another attempt had proved futile. They also feared, with good reason, for the recaptured boy’s immediate welfare.

The elderly high priest of the great temple, dressed in the usual red tunic but additionally wearing a magnificent gold medallion displaying a large round orb representing the sun, emerged from his own roundhouse. The priest who had supervised Bladud’s recapture dismounted from his horse to greet his superior with a graceful bow and report the circumstances of the boy’s detainment.

The smirking high priest acknowledged his junior colleague’s homage, listened to his tale and congratulated him on the success of his mission before advancing towards Bladud. He then slowly walked around the apprehensive and intensely ashamed naked boy, whose cock was still humiliatingly stiff, before concluding his reappraisal of the 13 years old’s sublime body by, as the other ecclesiastic had done earlier, striking the unparalleled beauty of the young pretty face.

“You have desecrated our holy order,” the high priest advised the quaking Bladud, “and will severely pay for your sins. You will also tell us who has been providing you with assistance, as they must suffer too. However, the extraction of such deserved vengeance on behalf of our gods and the information sought must be conducted according to our sacred rituals on the day of the next full moon. You will therefore be confined in bondage until that time comes.”

The high priest then turned to a couple of other burly colleagues, who were usually assigned to look after miscreants, and simply nodded at them. The pair stepped forward, untied Bladud’s neck from the twine that had linked its delicate form to his priestly captor, leaving a chafed and bloodied vivid red mark behind, and, with one lithe young arm held apiece, began to escort the boy away. However, before the trio had gone far, they were stopped in their tracks by a further comment from the ecclesiastical leader, causing them to turn to hear what was being said.

“Oh, Bladud,” the high priest confirmed, “despite your useless and evil attempt to deny your fate, your boyhood will still be presented to the sun god and his consort, the goddess of fertility, on midsummer’s day, when you will truly become one of us.” The 13 years old looked at the ancient eunuch and prayed to the kinder gods of his own people that such a destiny did not befall him. His wish was intensified by sudden remembrance of the delightful but all too short time he had spent in the lovely company of Boudda and Aethel.

(Salisbury Plain, England, May 1850 B.C.)

Bladud had to spend the few weeks waiting for the day of the next full moon in the punishment pit in the main village, a deep wide hole in the ground covered by a wicker roof, suspended above ground level at about a normal man’s height by short stilts. The environment in the pit during the cool damp spring season experienced at that time on Salisbury Plain was not pleasant, especially for a boy permitted no clothing.

The floor of the pit was invariably muddy, not only through the regular rain and drizzle flowing in between the gap between the roof and the ground but also through seepage from the walls. The unpleasantness of some parts of this surface was made more acute by the need to allocate part of it for toilet purposes.

Escape was impossible, primarily because Bladud, the sole occupant of the facility, was, after descending into the pit via a wooden ladder, subsequently withdrawn, kept bound, his hands tied behind him and linked to strong twine around his neck. Sustenance was provided by bowls of food and water, lowered on a roped basket once a day, which he had to consume as if he were a dog. It is perhaps a miracle that, in these cruel circumstances, the boy’s health did not suffer any long-term damage, with the one concession to some comfort, regular provision of fresh straw in which he could submerge himself to gain some warmth, possibly saving him from such physical harm. However, as the hole was publicly located, acute mental distress, from the frequent torments shouted from above by the children of the village, did have to be endured.

Bladud’s incarceration in the pit eventually came to an end, although the naked boy was made to clear up the extensive mess his stay had caused before he was finally permitted to leave for the ecclesiastical community. The appearance of the filthy and unkempt young nude, as he was led away, just before sunset, from his awful temporary accommodation, caused much hilarity amongst both the adults and their offspring who resided in the main settlement. This was increased by the sight of a mucky erection, caused by the young prisoner’s enforced weeks-long chastity, alleviated only by the occasional wet dream, invariably involving Boudda and Aethel. The 13 years old was therefore provided with one further moment of demeaning mental anguish, although he appreciated that such grief of the mind would be nothing compared to what his body would suffer on the following day, that of the full moon.

Bladud was taken to the roundhouse within the ecclesiastical community used for the bodily preparation of those to be the subjects of ceremonial in the great temple. The boy was grateful for the much-needed overdue bath he was given by the supervising eunuch priest, which included careful mouth ablutions to his recently neglected teeth, and expert grooming of his hair and nails. The net result was a 13 years old miraculously transformed from disgustingly dirty dishevelment to splendidly clean immaculacy, brown hair and eyes shining and pure white teeth sparkling.

Bladud was also grateful for the first provision of clothing for some time, as a priestling’s red robe was returned to him, and for the allocation of comfortable real bedding in which to sleep. Despite the horrors that the next morning would bring, the boy slumbered soundly, after initially satisfying the desperate needs of his loins and indulging in overdue masturbation whilst considering the wonderful feel of Boudda’s breasts and the delicious sensation of having Aethel’s cock inside him. His pleasure and rest made up for the many harsh, frustrating, fitful nights he had recently endured in the dreadful pit. However, the 13 years old, as had been the case for several days, received no food. There was a desire to minimise his stomach contents so that he would have little of which to empty himself as his dreadful agonising punishment progressed.

Bladud was awakened to be bathed again at dawn and redressed in a fresh tunic. As the frightened boy subsequently made his way amidst the formal ceremonial party towards the innards of the great temple, already packed with tribal dignitaries, old and young, male and female, present to witness the priestling’s awful penace, the 13 years old prayed quietly once more to the gods of his own people.

Bladud begged the deities to give him the strength to resist, or at least deflect, revelation of the roles of Boudda and Aethel in his flight, as he suffered the tortures before the sacred altar designed to elicit this information from him. However, the boy, now, albeit temporarily, physically restored to full bodily splendour, somehow doubted his gods’ abilities to help him succeed.

(To be continued in the penultimate chapter 5 – ‘Betrayal’)