To the Hessian Hills Ch. 02

"Now you," Johann cried out, leaving no doubt that he had adjusted well to the attentions the sailor was giving him.

But Jocko didn't answer him seed for seed. Suddenly, he was tense, his torso lifted away from Johann's, and his head thrown back, his nostrils sniffing at the air and his eye on the horizon. And then he was out of and off Johann, and racing along the deck, his cock still jutting out of one of the loincloth's leg holes.

"Tempest! Tempest to starboard," he roared. "All hands aloft. Pull in those sails before the storm be upon us and tearing them to shreds."

Sitting up, frustrated that Jocko hadn't come for him—but mellow enough because he had done so—Johann looked to the horizon on all sides, not yet knowing what "starboard" meant. He saw dark clouds scudding across the horizon, yes, but they were still a good distance away. But then they weren't. Almost immediately the storm was upon them. The sailors were yelling, running in every direction, and crawling up the masts to fold and tie the sails.

Jocko was everywhere at once, yelling directions, pummeling sailors who weren't moving fast enough or working on the highest priority need. Already raindrops were pelting everyone on deck, stinging more like bullets than drops of water. The wind was whipping around on the deck so that men had to lean into the wind to make progress and then, without warning, it was changing direction and dumping men on their backsides.

"All below who tain't needed on deck," Jocko was screaming. The captain, sleepy eyed, buttoning the fly of his breeches, and preceded from his cabin door by a bolting cabin boy, seemed sluggish and unsure what to do. He picked the wisest course, which was to grab the cabin boy before he could distance himself by more than a couple of yards, pull him back into the cabin, and leave Jocko to the work at hand.

August and Claus drew up beside Johann, who had managed to stumble to his feet but was holding on to one of the ropes tying down a cannon to keep himself from being swept overboard.

"We are called to go below," August yelled at Johann as he and Claus struggled toward the hatch to the hold. Johann made to follow them, but just then they all heard the rumble of one of the guns, straining at the ropes holding it in place.

Jocko was there immediately. "You. You artillerymen. For God's sake run more tether rope on them guns. They'll break loose."

Faces ashen, August and Claus moved toward the guns. So did Johann, knowing they needed all the help that could be mustered. He reached down to search for the end of the rope he'd been lying on while Jocko was fucking him. As he did so, he heard the snapping of one of the ropes holding the cannon in place beside him—and he felt the timber of the decking shudder as the wheels on the caisson began to move.

He rose again—in time to grab August and pull him away from between the cannon and the gunwale of the ship. But he wasn't able to grasp Claus as well. It had been an instinctive move to grab August rather than Claus, not a purposeful one. Claus was positioned beyond August from Johann's reach. In an instant, the gun was rolling toward the side of the ship, pushing Claus ahead of it. The smashing of the gunwale railing was a torturous sound. And then the gun was gone, over the side, and so was Claus, plummeting into the boiling sea.

Johann and August struggled to reach the railing of the ship, but, looking down, there was no sign of either the gun or of Claus. Johann grabbed for the wailing August and pulled him into his body, but they were given no time for grief. Jocko was at their side and in their faces.

"The other cannon. More rope. Tied down better. Now!"

And there was nothing the two Hessian friends could do for now but obey.

* * * *

August and Johann were huddled together in the folds of the canvas between two of the guns on deck. Night had fallen a short time previously. The hurricane had passed over them swiftly, but Claus was not the only one who had been swept overboard. And there were those who had died in the mass of men in the hold being tossed about by the turbulence.

The artillery captain had been through and had initially only shown concern for the cannon that had been lost. It was all Johann could do to hold August back from lashing out at the officer about the loss of his friend—and an artilleryman—Claus. Jocko had helped by distracting the officer and noting how the Hessian soldiers on the deck had managed to save the other guns, which was no mean feat.

In the darkness, Johann held August tight and cooed to him while August, trembling in Johann's embrace, poured out his grief. In time Johann's murmurs turned more to the attraction August and Johann had for each other before Claus came on the scene, and his embraces and the movement of his hands on August's body became increasingly intimate. August's snufflings descended into quiet moans.

One of Johann's hands unbuttoned the fly of August's breeches and moved inside, grasping August's cock. August didn't stop him—and, in fact, was already hardening. Johann had gone hard earlier and positioned himself in the embrace so that August could not have missed that he was hard. August's body went limp and his head bent back as Johann's hand found the cock.

Johann moved his face close to August's and murmured what he wanted—and what he was sure August wanted now too. Johann said he would do it all this first time, August only had to lay there and savor the connection. August didn't demure, nor did he turn his face away when Johann lowered his lips to find and part August's. August sighed a weary sigh and began to move his hips in the rhythm of Johann slowly pumping his cock.

August just lay there against the side of the canvas-covered gun caisson and watched Johann with hooded eyes, as Johann rose enough to strip himself of his breeches, leaving him naked in the semidark of the deepening night.

"Oh, god, your body is beautiful," August whispered, as he ran his hands over Johann's torso.

"I want you so much," Johann whispered. "I didn't know before—when we knew each other before—that I wanted you. But I know now that I wanted you inside me even then. Don't turn me away. I'm no novice to this now. I will know how to please you."

Johann was trying to imply that he would do it so much better than Claus had. From Johann's observance Claus had lacked passion in the fuck.

August said nothing, but there was affirmation in his eyes, and there was a deep growl rising up from his belly as Johann threw a leg over his thighs, positioned himself in the saddle, and reached back, positioning the bulb of August's cock, and then lowering his channel on the throbbing shaft.

August's growl grew in volume and animal lust as Johann's passage slid down the cock. He grabbed Johann's slender waist between his hands, raised his pelvis off the deck with the leverage of the heels of his feet, and began to pump up into Johann. Johann arched his back, turned his face toward the stars, and let his arms dangle at his side, only his pelvis actively participating in the fuck, lost in the fuck that the man he had lusted after for so long was now controlling.

Hearing the sounds of sex and wanting to know who was doing who, Jocko sneaked up on the other side of the gun and looked over the barrel. He frowned when he saw that Johann was being fucked by August and seemed to be enjoying it immensely. He quietly moved away, in search of the young seaman who he had been eying before his attention had gone to the tasty, blond Hessian soldier. Finding the seaman, Jocko separated him from his friends, took him into the shadows of the far side of the deck, pushed him down on his back on a hatch cover, slapped his legs apart, skewered him, and angrily fucked the stuffing out of him so that the young sailor was bowlegged—and sporting a sloppy grin—for several days thereafter.

Jocko didn't come for Johann again for the remaining week of the voyage. As enamored as he was with having hooked up with his old friend, Johann may not have noticed the abrupt change in who was getting Jocko's attention, if his food and water rations hadn't returned to no more favorable than any of the other Hessian soldiers. As besotted as he was with August's cock now, though, he hardly noticed—and didn't complain.

If Jocko had been using the cutback in rations to pull Johann back to him, he was disappointed in the result. That he was angry about it, though, showed in how many sailors hobbled around the deck bowlegged for the remainder of the voyage.