A LOST WORLD WHERE DESIRE BRINGS FORTH AN ANCIENT EVIL
*
Ivan says 'I'll tell you a story. About a tramp-steamer, we'll call it 'The Caprona'. That wasn't its real name, but it will do for now. It was doing regular haulage work on the Pacific run when it fell foul of a raging typhoon, the kind of terrible storm mariners speak of in hushed tones. For long hours the vessel was battered by mountainous waves, it was touch and go if they'd even survive without being swallowed up and lost. Yet once the storm receded they discovered they'd run aground on a reef, the ship holed and stranded. The crew were able to reach the beach of a sheltered lagoon. As they explore they discover they've been shipwrecked on a small coral island, remote and semi-circular. A ridge of low mountains around its outer rim -- volcanic in origin perhaps, shelving down through rainforest slopes and valleys to the blue enclosed bay, across the mouth of which the ship lies wrecked, but still accessible. Using vines to lash logs together into a raft, they return to its sloping cabins to consult the charts but can find no reference to the island, its name or location.
'It seems we've sailed clear off the edge of the map' mutters Aleksy, with nervous humour. His skipper's peaked cap and holstered pistol denoting his status.
'Each time I calculate a fix, the results are different' protests the heavily-tattooed navigator. 'It's as though the stars are moving.'
'Stars don't move. Except across millions of years.'
'Then it's the island that's moving, phasing in and out of time.' Only half-joking.
Aleksy grunts his derision.
Yet their plight could be worse. There are wild pigs and goats roaming the island, streams of fresh water that cascade down from the highlands into pools, fish darting in the crystal-clear stillness of the lagoon, and more fruit than they can possibly need. They ferry supplies across from the ship, fix up a radio distress beacon, fabricate a circle of crude huts from a framework of branches draped with tarpaulin waterproofs from the ship, with sleeping bags inside. Then they settle in for the long wait to be rescued.
The youngest member of the eight-man crew, Fleur is just eighteen, with a slipstream of floppy blonde hair and quizzical blue-eyes. A soft smiling vulnerability attractive to both sexes, and all genders. Outwardly shy, he'd needed no persuasion to initiate a mutually pleasurable sexual relationship with both Aleksy, and First Mate Karel during the voyage. He enjoyed uninhibited male sex. When that situation continued onshore -- the Skipper made sure a supply of Vaseline was brought over from 'The Caprona', it provoked violent jealousy from other members of the crew. The Captain summoned a meeting to discuss the volatile situation. Two of the crewmen bashfully admitted they were sexually involved with each other, and so weren't interested in Fleur. Two others said they weren't Gay, and didn't want sex with a youth no matter how comely or willing he was (and he was both), even though they were shipwrecked and there was no other outlet for their sexual energies. So the remaining three work out a rota according to which Fleur would visit their huts and sleep with them in turn.
The compliant young man settles comfortably into the arrangement. However, once the others hear and witness what's going on, see Fleur entering the huts, followed by the slurping and grunting sounds of vigorously passionate sex, they begin to reconsider their decisions. A further meeting is called. Fleur stands quietly, passively awaiting their decision, his ragged shorts affording teasing glimpses of what it is they're negotiating for, as a new seven-day rota is worked out determining that he sleeps with, and has sex with each of them in turn through the week. From man-Monday through to man-Friday, with Aleksy and Karel taking the weekend nights. Fleur accepts the situation without complaint, eagerly participating with each new partner, never showing favouritism or preference.