Centaurian Ch. 05

"Ha Ha Ha, very funny," she said. "These men need to learn an important lesson. If they're incapable of empathy, then it's that speaking is an action and actions have consequences. As a law enforcement officer, I hope to find you sympathetic to my cause. And while they haven't broken any human laws, they broke mine. In front of me, they were cruel to someone I care about. Besides, I just caused their condition to give them a first-hand experience, and it's not necessarily permanent; they have an opportunity for redemption. I told them their penis would stop looking like it belonged on a two-year-old when—after three days—they acted like a man and apologized to William for what they've said with a promise to never do it again to anyone."

"Well, law enforcement should never exist to teach lessons, but I am sympathetic," said Liam, "and I suppose their opportunity for redemption does change things a bit. So, nineteen inches minus five minus eight leaves-"

"Six extraneous inches with nowhere to put them," she said.

Liam laughed. "And you need a mule to lug around your illicit inches until—at some point—you find them a home, is that it?"

"Minus the inches, you decide to keep," she said. "I wanted to give you the option."

Liam looked at Ronan for some input. "It's your burden to bear," said Ronan with a shrug, "so the decision is entirely yours, but"—he put his arm around him and whispered to him—"think of the fun we could have with so much cock."

"I can't wear the underwear available to me now with the twelve inches I have."

Emma just gazed upon Liam with a little smile. Beckoned him to come closer so she could whisper to him. He hesitated but complied, bringing his ear close to her mouth.

She said, "Have you ever had a god beholden to you?"

He drew back a little and looked her in the face as his brows drew together. "Do you mean...?"

She raised an eyebrow, gave him a tiny smile, and nodded. "Anything you want."

Feeling a tad apprehensive, he thought about it for a moment and came to the compelling conclusion that the benefit outweighed the inconvenience. He gave a slight nod. "Alright. You've got a deal."

"Wonderful!" She caressed his cheek with her hand before he could change his mind. "There you are, thank you, sweetie."

"So, when their penises grow back, where will you obtain their inches?"

"I have the energy to grow someone's penis," she said, "that's easy. However, if I make one shorter, I'm removing energy from it, and I can't just hold onto it until I need it; it must go somewhere."

"Oh...well, that makes sense."

Emma smiled. "I still marvel over you, modern humans. You're not scratching your head and looking at me like I've spoken a foreign language."

"Yeah, we're a little more sophisticated than that." He pointed to his crotch. "Will this grow as I sleep tonight?"

"Not this time," she said. "You may not feel it yet, but you're growing right now. It should only take about fifteen minutes."

When Emma left, Liam kissed Ronan who then said, "I should shower, I'm sure I taste fishy like the ocean."

"I think there's no part of you that isn't delicious, even now."

"That's nice to hear," he said, "but I would like to get the smell and salt off me anyway. The shower barely fits me, so inviting you to join me would only impede my goal, but will you stay in the bathroom while I clean up? I feel that I need you near me for a bit."

"Wild gay centaurs couldn't drag me away."

As Ronan showered, Liam sat naked on the lid of the commode and watched him, their eyes rarely leaving one another.

"So, what are you thinking?" asked Ronan.

"It should be fairly easy to make you a life jacket that could keep you afloat, right?"

"Actually, no," said Ronan, "we would have to make something so unwieldy; it would become useless. Humans are easy to float; your body is roughly 60% water already, and you all carry some body fat, which is lighter than water. So, you only need to offset your body's dense matter which is a fraction of your actual weight." Having finished, when he turned off the water, Liam handed him a towel. "I weigh 275 pounds, but my body uses little water, and I have no body fat. So, if the goal is to float me, think of the weights in the gym you've used, and imagine trying to float 275 pounds of that."

"Oh, shit...that would be a lot of weight. How did you reach the surface?"

"I had to reduce my body's density by mostly returning to flame to make myself lighter than water."

"You can do that?"

He nodded. "It sounds scary, doesn't it? Fortunately, water couldn't extinguish an eternal flame, and the process wouldn't hurt me so long as I kept my structure intact. Otherwise, I could re-form, but chances are I wouldn't look exactly as I do now. I would be a bit different."

"Like a stunt double?"

Ronan laughed and put his arms around him. "Maybe."

"So, when you became what you are now, what happened to the human body you had?"

Ronan's lips pressed into a line. "I wondered how long it would take before you asked me that question. When I tell you, I want you to know that I understand how horrific this sounds, so try not to think about it too much. Chiron is a non-physical essence who Prometheus bound to an eternal flame in the realm of the divine. In this world, it cannot become more than that unless it binds to a human. When the flame and Chiron passed to my former human self, it—for the lack of a better term—burned away my unconscious physical self by replacing it with one that included Chiron, so that—in some form—he could exist physically here. It had an identical appearance to the human I was, and in my dormancy—as the doctor put it—I grew into the person before you from the image I had held in my mind which Chiron had a direct influence over."

"So, what exactly are you made of?"

"I am sentient eternal-fire incarnated through my own will."

"You are actually made of fire..."

Ronan nodded. "Fire being whatever I will it to be.

Liam stood before him, expressionless, taking in all he had heard. "Now, I understand why it worries you that people would fear you. If I hadn't had the experience of you the last two days, knowing this now, if I got past the part about how unbelievable it is, I think you would terrify me."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"No no." Liam hugged Ronan. "You're fine; you don't frighten me. Although, if you can will this into existence, I can see why there's a question over what you may be capable, and why Zeus wants to see what you can do. He fears you can remove him from power, doesn't he?"

"That's the impression I got. So, has understanding this better changed how you feel about me?"

"No. My knowing this doesn't change who you are as a person, so you just seem even more like a superhero, and they always have unique origins. I know you shy away from the idea of being a superhero but let me give you some advice. Never deter anyone from viewing you in that light; there are worse things."

He held Liam to him. "You are my protector, it's your job to think of these things, so okay. Are you hungry? How about I feed you lunch, and a little later, we mosey down to the dining room to socialize with the others?"

"Shouldn't I eat regular food at some point?"

"It's not necessary," said Ronan. "You're a human made immortal through Ambrosia, so you could stop eating altogether. You would feel hungry, but it wouldn't kill you. I can satisfy your hunger with Ambrosia anytime you like. And if you're worried about losing muscle from not eating proteins, don't. You are as you are, so that won't change now. But there's a benefit to living on Ambrosia that you may like."

"What might that be?"

"You will never gain any body fat from it, and trips to the bathroom will be a thing of the past."

"Really?" Liam stood there in shock. His eyes narrowed and he gave Ronan a sidelong gaze. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Ronan laughed a little and nodded. "A preparatory cleanse before sex becomes superfluous."

"Oh, I'm more than willing to give up human food for spontaneous sex, but I hope your mention of this isn't strictly for my benefit."

"Well, no, of course not," said Ronan with a smile. "I have sexual needs too. So, as far as sex is concerned, if I had a profile on some hookup app, it would probably say something like: 'Horny horsey needs muscular man to mount. Centaurian seeks enthusiastic equestrian desirous of frequent bouts of bobbing and bouncing on giant johnson.' And from what you said, you know a thing or two about horses, so you sound perfect to me."

Liam gave a hearty laugh. "Have you just offered me your giant johnson as the source of both my pleasure and sustenance?"

"As a rule," said Ronan backing Liam onto the bed where he hovered over him, "Centaurs would refuse to suffer the ignominy of acting like a beast of burden, but you, my handsome lap-jockey-cum-dairyman, have my perpetual permission to milk and ride me as much as you like."

Turning onto their sides, Liam and Ronan began that most famous of double-digit positions, the sixty-nine. Liam had never felt anything as incredible as Ronan's ability to throat all eighteen inches of his cock. He hadn't realized that Ronan never needing oxygen would come in so handy. He slurped and slathered Ronan's Centaurian appendage for about ten minutes, and when Ronan came, he just allowed himself to experience an extended orgasm with Liam chugging every drop of his Ambrosia, and it wouldn't matter how long Ronan wanted to feed him, he would have taken every drop. However, cognizant of Liam's limitations, Ronan stopped when it amounted to about a two-liter bottle, which his body would immediately begin absorbing.

For the gods to drink Ambrosia was one thing, but for a human to have unlimited access to the magical liquid was unprecedented, and Liam had greater access than even the gods themselves. On that day, Liam overloading his body with enormous quantities of it had started something, and at first, it had gone unnoticed...

Life aboard the ship for the thirty crewmen had a certain rhythm with three rotating eight-hour shifts, including those who held positions that could not go unmanned during the hours of darkness. The daylight hours had much activity with either the crewmen working on general maintenance, cleaning, or defending the ship by various means from the corrosive sea air or crewmen relaxing off-the-clock in whatever means they saw fit until their next shift.

For the next three days, Ronan and Liam had taken to getting some sunshine just after lunchtime on the forecastle—the foreword most part of the bow where one would find the mooring station for docking. They also spent time naked in the sauna allowing Liam a non-sexual environment where he could release his—never fully flaccid—18-inch hose. (That's exactly what it looked and felt like at its softest, a smooth, rubbery hose, five inches in circumference, whose weight kept it from shrinking even half-an-inch from just below his knees.) Ronan loved it—its length allowed him to suck and fuck Liam simultaneously—so when they weren't talking, they also spent many hours in their cabin, pleasuring one another and slowly getting Liam accustomed to taking as much of Ronan's Centaurian appendage as he could, filling his gut with a glut of Ambrosia which his body would absorb, giving Ronan the room he needed to fill him again and again. Every day that passed as Ronan continued to feed and fill Liam with that magical fluid, he could see Liam growing slightly more muscular and more handsome, but on the evening of the third day—when his body had reached complete saturation—the changes grew more apparent in other ways.

After receiving three massive doses of Ambrosia that evening, Liam lay asleep atop Ronan for several hours, and at three that morning, a knock came upon their cabin door. Liam awakened when Ronan left the bed to answer it, where he found the pajama-wearing first mate, Paul Hurst. Apparently, he had knocked upon Emma's door as well, as she and William also answered their door.

"We have someone aboard the ship that most likely isn't a stowaway, and the captain wishes to speak with the three of you on the bridge."

"Okay," said Ronan, "we'll be right there." He closed the door. "May I turn on the lights?"

"You may as well," said Liam who moved to the side of the bed.

When the lights came on, as Ronan turned to get some clothing, he glanced at Liam but stopped, walked to him, and tipped his head back to study his appearance. "You might want to look in the bathroom mirror."

While Ronan tossed yesterday's clothing into his bag, zipped it closed then unzipped it again, pulling a new suit of clothes from it, Liam rushed to the bathroom.

"Oh my god!" Liam looked closely at himself. His dark-brown hair hadn't noticeably changed, but his skin had taken on a healthy golden-tan color, and most unusual of all, inundating his body the past few days with the yellow gold of the Ambrosia had turned his blue irises to a bright emerald-green color whose metallic glint looked stunning even in the poor bathroom lighting.

Liam left the bathroom. "Is this permanent?"

Ronan smiled. "The way we Ambrosia bomb your body? Probably."

"Well, it will just have to be permanent then because I want that to continue, and is it my imagination, or am I slightly bigger than I was?"

"It's not your imagination," said Ronan. "I've watched you grow evermore handsome and hunky the last three days. That's why I've given you as much Ambrosia as you've wanted."

"Are you okay with this look?" he asked digging into his bag for some clothing.

Ronan kissed him. "I would glow with pride to be seen with you in public. Wait until Emma sees you; we've hardly spoken to her the last few days; she's dead set on providing William every opportunity to use his new toy."

"So, who is this person on the ship, you think?"

Ronan shrugged and shook his head. "If the captain wants to speak to us, this can't be good."

At night, the usual mode for the bridge is to keep the lighting dim. It lessens the window reflections for a better view, but upon their arrival, they found the lights turned up a bit, and the bridge's usual night crew there, with the captain, first mate, William, and Emma staring out the window.

Emma turned to them when they entered. "We have a problem," she said. "For as much as the container incident a few days ago caused us some trouble, it was likely a coincidence. It seems Zeus has elicited the assistance of Kratos."

Liam and Ronan gazed out over the shipping containers illuminated by the ship's floodlights, and there stood an unmoving, muscular naked man not much different in appearance than a stone depiction of a bearded Heracles with a wide, rippled torso. He stood staring up at the bridge on top of the superstructure. Due to the distance, it would have been difficult to say between Ronan and Kratos which had the greater size of the two. With Kratos naked, however, one could easily tell which was the Centaurian. Ages ago, the people, in what is now Greece, viewed having a smaller penis as preferable; anyone oversized they considered a fool.

"Who is he?" asked Liam.

Ronan said, "He's the god of strength, and the guy who—at the behest of Zeus—used the chains forged by Hephaestus to bind Prometheus to the rock so an eagle could eat his liver every day."

"Oh, he's that guy. Ugh...."

When Kratos saw Ronan in the window, he yelled with a booming voice, "Centaurian! Fight Me!"

"He's a lunatic," said Ronan. "I'm not gonna fight him."

"I hear you have a fondness for these humans," yelled Kratos. "Will you fight me, or do I start tearing their weak little hearts from their chests until you do?"

"He's also known for his needless brutality," Emma added.

Kratos yelled, "Shall I start with your pathetic protector? He's human, what possible good is he to you, except to mount his ass like the stupid half-donkey you are?"

"Herr Stallion...," said Captain Stettler with a look of extreme concern.

"Captain, I'm sorry that my presence has endangered you and your crew. That was never my intention."

"You are not responsible for his actions," said the captain. "Obvious to me, you are a peaceful man but one not to be underestimated. What will you do?"

"If you fight him," said Emma, "he will try to kill you, and he won't stop until he does."

"Captain," said Ronan, "this world has people who refuse to leave someone to their peace, and to get back to that, sometimes you have to do what you have to do."

"Which shall it be?" yelled Kratos. "I won't wait long."

Ronan told the captain, "I need you to stop the ship, and when I get outside, gather everyone aboard—including you, Emma—and get as deeply into the lower part of the ship as you can get yourselves, stay out of the superstructure. You'll feel the ship bounce in the water. After that, wait 3 minutes, and you can come out."

"Will you kill him?" asked Liam.

"For the record," Ronan told him, "I'm not a killer; Kratos is the killer, and I'm just stopping him. I will try to avoid it, but I would never let him carry out his threats against the people I love"—he held Liam's chin—"most especially you." Ronan kissed Liam and left.

The captain stopped the ship, and the moment he saw him leave the superstructure on the CCTV camera, he used the intercom to draw everyone to the ground floor, and from there, he intended to take them down into the engine room.

Once the ship stopped, it seemed odd for everything to feel so calm; Ronan couldn't feel even a hint of wind. When he climbed atop the cargo containers, he moved closer to Kratos who stood almost amidship.

"There you are," yelled Kratos. "I wondered if you were cowardly as well as a stupid half-donkey."

They were about the same height, but Ronan appeared larger, not that it mattered. Kratos was the god of brute strength, which had to count for something. However, Ronan had more in his arsenal than that.

When Ronan inhaled to speak, he sensed a revolting stench. "Why are you here?"

"Zeus wants to know which of us is the stronger."

Ronan held his hand to his nose and kept it there. "Well, if Zeus has a nose at all, he will know it was you. I can smell you from here. What the hell is that? Hygieia should host an intervention. Look, no one needs to fight anybody. I just want to be left in peace with my sense of smell intact."

"Zeus knows you're plotting to remove him from the throne. We all know it. Even Prometheus knows it; he's seen it. I will never allow that."

"I know nothing about it," said Ronan. "I have better things to do than try dethroning Zeus; My purpose is to help people. So, since I don't want to fight you, I forfeit. You're welcome to strut into Olympus knowing that, between the two of us, you smell the stronger."

"You must find yourself amusing," said Kratos. "I will enjoy killing you. Afterward, I'll follow through with the rest of the crew, but not before I start with your pathetic protector."

"You will never get that chance." Ronan tipped his head back and yelled to the sky, "Zeus! I know you observe this. You have heard what he has said to me, and because of who he is, I must take him at his word. I am peaceful, and I have no ambitions for Olympus but think carefully on what you start here; my priorities can change, and if they do, you will have changed them. So, given a choice between his death or ours"—Ronan pointed at Kratos—"he dies. If you want to keep your little pet, you need to take him home before I put him down...and for goodness's sake, give him a bath!"