Thistledown Chapter 8

Thistledown

Nella’s Story

River Sphere: Haven

“Welcome to Haven,” repeated the rotund man again, beaming at us. “I am Donoello, the mayor of this fine town, and this lovely lady standing beside me is my wife, Esme. And might I have your names?”

“Jay,” said Jay. “And Nella.” He patted me on the shoulder. I patted him back somewhat lower down.

“And are you a wedded couple?” The mayor’s eyes stole furtive glances at my body. I readjusted my stance to place my legs wider apart, revealing more of what lay between. His face, already a rosy red, flushed a deeper red. “Fu-fur-further,” he stammered. “May I ask what prompts you to visit our fair Haven?”

“We are not a wedded couple,” said Jay, stroking my back. “However, we are mates. As to the purpose of our visit here: we hope to catch a boat going up river.”

“There will not be a boat stopping here,” said Donoello, the mayor. “Until the Raven, seven lights from now. You will need accommodations, of course. Since you are not married to each other, you shall have to stay in separate places. Furthermore, if you plan to go wandering about our fine town, then we shall have to find you some suitable clothing. We cannot have you going about like that. It makes it very… eh –difficult –for a man to keep his thoughts chaste and pure. And a woman, also.” He added out of deference to his wife.

“Jay, Boreus here will be taking you to the place where you will be staying,” he said. “Master Edwyn’s Boarding House for Gentlemen is a very fine place for any gentleman” –he emphasized the word as he looked pointedly at Jay –“to be staying.”

Boreus, a hulking mountain of a man led Jay out of the square. They were followed by a large group of the younger men. I watched until they disappeared from view down one of the streets leading from the square. Already, I missed Jay’s presence at my side. Since the time I had first seen him, after I had been delivered to the ship, he had always been within touching distance of me. A hand touched my arm. I turned to face Esme, who moved her hand quickly away.

“If you will come with me,” she said. “I’ll take you to the place where you will be staying.”

I followed her out of the Town Square, and down a road that ran close to the river. At the end of this road, in the midst of a perfectly manicured lawn, stood a large, two-story house. It was decorated with carved vines, flowers, animals, curlicues, running barelegged maidens, and birds. And in the empty spaces between the carvings, I saw male figures with large erections, and male and female figures locked together in the dance of love. I smiled as I saw those things. Perhaps this would be a more interesting place than I expected.

“This is Maisie’s Boarding House for Genteel Women,” said Esme. “Shall we go in?”

I followed her up the steps, onto the wide front porch, to the double front door. She lifted up the large, metal knocker and let it fall. The door opened, and a tall woman wearing a snow white, frilled apron, looked out at us.

“I have a visitor here,” Esme pushed me forward. “Who will be needing a place to stay till the next riverboat stops here.”

“Come in,” said the tall woman, stepping aside. “I’ll go and get the mistress.”

We stepped into a wood paneled entry hall, and sat down on two of a row of chairs standing against the wall opposite a stairway going up to the second floor. A dimly lit hall led deeper into the house. Down this hall came a bird of a woman, clad all in black with white lace trim. She stopped in front of us.

“I’m Maisie, the proprietor of this place. So, this one needs a room, does she?” She said, looking me over with an appraising eye. “Do you have money to pay? I don’t rent my rooms out for free, you know.”

“I’ll pay for her,” said Esme. “Just tell me how much it will be for seven lights, and I’ll have the money delivered in the morning.”

“Seven golds will do,” said Maisie. “I have to give her food and drink, and keep her room clean.”

“I do not need food or drink,” I said. Something different, something I didn’t understand yet, provided the fuel for my continued existence.

“Nonsense, dear, everyone eats and drinks. We’d die if we didn’t. If you will follow me, I’ll show you to your room.”

I followed Maisie up the stairs: at the top lay a hallway lit by three dim lights. A door opened midway down the hall a door opened: a man walked out, made his way to an opening at the end, and passed through. Maisie opened a door. A bed squeaked loudly, rhythmically in one of the rooms nearby. She led the way into the room. A burning lamp set on a small table, revealed an iron-framed bed covered in white. A chair stood beside a drape-covered window. An armoire formed a dark mass in a corner, and next to it stood a table with a bowl and pitcher set on top.

“I’ll be leaving you on your own, dear,” said Maisie. “I’m certain you are tired and would like to take a nap before coming down to dinner. You will find a robe in there.” She pointed at the armoire. “It would be best if you wore it when downstairs. We do have gentlemen coming to visit and we must be careful not to offend their sensibilities. Our thoughts must ever rise into the realms of the spirit, and leave the realms of the flesh behind. So says Reverend Jaleb. I must find you a dress for wearing outside too. I’m sure you’ll be wanting to go out. We all need some fresh air, after all. Oh! And undergarments. You’ll need those also. Can’t have the wind blowing up your skirts and showing off your privy place for all the gentlemen to see. We do get some strong gusts of wind here in the light time. And I really must get that squeaking bed fixed…” she said, closing the door behind her.

I went over to the window, pulled aside the drapes, and looked out over the lawn. I had hoped to see Jay standing there. Nothing but grass showed in the circles of lantern light that lit the lawn. I let the drape fall, and went to sit on the bed. It creaked loudly under my weight. I lay down to the music of more creaking and squeaking. I heard the door of the room behind my head snick open; the floor creaked under heavy footsteps. The steps moved about the room. Then there came a long silence. After that, the thunk, thunk, thunk, of something hitting the wall behind mine.

Curiosity overcame me; I had to see what caused such a noise next door. Carefully I got up off my bed; it gave out only a few squeaks when I stood up. Silently, I made my way to the door, opened it, and looked both ways down the hall before stepping out of my room. I went to the nearest door to the left of mine. I turned the knob very slowly and opened the door just a crack. I looked through, and saw a naked woman, her flesh pale in the dim light of the lamp standing beside the bed, with her legs splayed wide. She clutched the bedspread in her hands, and her eyes were firmly squeezed shut. Between her legs a fully dressed man, pumped lustily. Ah, that is what they were doing. I wished more than ever that Jay were with me, so that we could pleasure each other like those two.

Although, the two in the bed were not getting much pleasure out of what they were doing, as far as I could tell. The woman had her face screwed up in an expression of pain, and the man looked bored. No. He had the expression of someone whose mind was somewhere else. He thrust harder and faster. The woman bunched more of the spread under her hands. The bed hit the wall with louder thunks. His mouth moved, and I heard the soft murmur of his voice: “Be in the spirit, be in the spirit, be in the spirit.” Followed by: “The flesh is nothing, the flesh is nothing. The… Flesh… Is… Nothing…” He gasped out this last, shook violently, and got off the woman. She remained as she was, with her legs splayed wide open –I could see blood between her legs –her eyes still squeezed shut. I closed the door and returned to my own room.

I lay down on my bed again and listened to the sounds around me. Behind my head, the heavy footsteps made their way to the door, and out into the hall. The footsteps receded down the hall, and at the same time, the sound of water splashing came from the room in the back of my bed.

Footsteps made their way up the hall, and stopped by my door. The knob turned. The door began to open. A man, clad all in black, stepped into my room, and seeing me turned to leave.

“Stay,” I said. I felt a curiosity as to what it would be like to link with a bio male. He was not good looking with his narrow face, watery bulging eyes, and the lump that bobbled up and down in his skinny neck. But his looks did not matter to me, for the linking program Jay had passed on to me, had kicked into high gear.

“I have come to test my commitment to the spirit,” he said. “I can see that you aren’t one of us, but if you are willing…?”

“I am willing,” I said. “What must I do to aid you in the testing?”

“You must lie still and not move in any way,” he said. “You must keep your eyes closed since it is not seemly that we look on each other during the time of testing. You must not use your hands to touch me. You must be silent at all times.”

“It sounds to me like I’ll be testing myself also,” I said, adjusting my position so that I lay ready for him.

“No! You must lie straight,” he said.

I straightened out my legs. I lay perfectly straight, with my legs neatly against each other and my hands folded over my middle. He was at the side of the bed in two quick steps. He moved my arm on that side onto the bed away from my body. He positioned my leg, so that it spread to the side. He repeated the procedure on the other side. He went to stand at the foot end of the bed. He stared at me as I lay there with my legs splayed, and the lump in his neck bobbed up and down even more violently than before.

“You are very beautiful,” he said. “All those colors are very attractive. Are you prepared? There will be pain. Pain is good because it means the spirit separates itself from the flesh. Are you prepared?”

I nodded assent. “Close your eyes.” I closed my eyes.

The bed gave out a symphony of squeaks and creaks, as he climbed on the bed, and crawled on top of me. With a soft rustle of cloth, he shoved himself into me, and thrust in and out. My pleasure nodes fired, and I gave out a small groan. He stopped moving. I squeezed my face into what I hoped was an expression of pain, and dug my nails into the bedding underneath me. I did want to take a proper part in this odd bio ritual. He started moving again. The bed creaked, squeaked, in unison with his thrusts. The cloth of his suit rubbed and caressed my skin, setting off sensors, and adding to the great pleasure I already felt from his male organ moving back and forth over my pleasure nodes. It took all the will power I had for me not to cry out in pleasure. He pumped faster and harder. The refrains of “Be in the spirit” and “The flesh is nothing” began to spew out of him in rhythm with his thrusts.

“Be in the spirit! The flesh is nothing!” he shouted. Then he groaned loudly in ecstasy, as a series of hard shocks went through his body, and his semen spurted into me.

His organ went limp and slipped out of me. The bed made its usual music as he crawled off me and off the bed. I opened my eyes slightly and watched as he stuffed a limp pink worm into his trousers and buttoned up. I wished I could see how it went from the little worm to the big hard thing he had shoved into me. He moved to the side of the bed, and leaned over me.

“Woman, I don’t know who you are,” he hissed in my ear. “But you are one who can make a man forget that he must at all times be in the spirit, and that the things of the flesh are nothing at all. I felt pleasure, and I have not felt pleasure since a long time past, when having special relations with a woman. Already, I feel like mounting you again… Be in the spirit… The flesh is nothing.” He said loudly, and ran out the door. “The Reverend Jaleb must know of you…” Came his voice from down the hall.

After a long while, a very large man with a round florid face and long white hair, stepped into the room. He wore a long robe, which was colored white on one side and black on the other. He closed the door behind him and locked it with a large key. In two quick steps, he was at my side and looking down at me with his pale, icy eyes. His small mouth made kissing motions, and his large, thick-fingered hands twitched in unison.


“You have been accused by an upstanding citizen of this community,” he said in a booming voice. “Of tempting him away from the pure things of the spirit and over to the pleasures of the flesh. I have come to you to determine the truth of his accusation. I will test the truth in your body. Your body tempts the eye and inflames the senses.”

He ran a finger down the middle of my body, and a shiver of pleasure followed behind it. His finger slid inside me. He hissed as he felt my readiness. He ran his finger along my nodes, and I couldn’t help but groan in pleasure.

“Most shameful of women,” he boomed at me. “You have given yourself over to the pleasures of the flesh. You are wet and ready for intercourse with a man. You show pleasure at being touched in your most privy place. However, that does not mean you can tempt a man away from the spirit. I must make the ultimate sacrifice and couple my pure, spiritual body with yours, to find what is the truth. Let me prepare myself.”

I watched with interest as he removed his robe, revealing an imposing expanse of flesh. The limp tube of flesh between his thighs lay within my reach, and I was tempted to touch it, to find out what it felt like. As I reached out, the tube began to rise and grow bigger, skin folding back to reveal a glistening bulbous end. An anticipatory tingle passed through my inner pleasure nodes, as I thought of that thick bulbous end rubbing over them.

“Great Sky Father,” he intoned. “I pray for strength to test this woman and myself. Give me power over her flesh. I ask that you reveal the truth to me. I stand naked before thee, O Great Sky Father, and humbly beg this boon of thee.”

I felt him crawl onto the bed, which sagged alarmingly amongst a cacophony of noise. He rammed himself into me, and his thrusts were so hard that my head hit the end of the bed with each one. With each thrust, I cried out with the pleasure I felt. I moved in rhythm with him. He knew I felt pleasure. So, why not show it?


He began to chant: “I am in the spirit, I am in the spirit, I am in the spirit.” His thrusts came quicker and harder. “The flesh is nothing, the flesh is nothing.” He thrust more violently. The end of the bed banged against the wall. “Great Sky Father, help me, Great Sky Father, help me.” He moaned. “Oh, oh, oh, oh!” he cried out as he climaxed and spurted into me. He collapsed heavily upon me and panted into the side of my neck.

I felt him still big and hard inside me, and after a while he began to move again. He grunted angrily with each hard thrust. Sweat dripped down from him onto my face and body. He made strange squealing noises as he kept thrusting and thrusting and thrusting. It was as if he didn’t want to climax. I was puzzled as to why he didn’t just pull out of me. He kept moving and moving, and the sounds that came from him were the sounds of pain. I groaned in pleasure with as he pumped in and out; and as the sensations of pleasure peaked, screamed loudly. At last, with a loud cry of triumph, he erupted into me. He went limp while he pulled out of me. I felt his semen leaking out, and what didn’t leak out my machines scavenged for building blocks for repairing the top of my head.

“Why were you so intent on hurting yourself?” I said. “Your penis looks all sore from rubbing against me for such a long time. I’m not a soft bio female, as you have found out.”

“ I wanted to hurt you,” he said. “I desired to hear you cry out in pain, and to hear you beg for me to stop. All I succeeded in doing was to cause to scream out in ecstasy.”

“You bios are sure silly,” I said. “You try to hurt by doing the one thing that causes a lot of pleasure. You don’t want to feel pleasure, so you do that very same thing. It makes no sense to me.

“What did you just call me?” He bent down so that his face almost touched mine.

“I called you ‘silly’.”

“No, before that…”

“I called you a bio, for that is what you are. You are made out of wet stuff and leak red fluid when an opening is made in your skin.”

“Bios is what the Most Holy Ones in the Black Temple in Carazon call my kind. Why do you, a bio like myself, use that term?” A puzzled look filled his eyes.

“You are certain that I’m a bio like yourself?”

“You have a woman’s privy part into which I placed my male organ. How can you not be bio? Moreover, you enjoyed the act of sexual congress. You must be a bio.”

“I enjoyed having your male organ inside me. It rubbed against all my pleasure nodes so nicely. Perhaps we have some more of this sexual congress. I would much enjoy it.”

I touched his limp phallus. He leaped backwards as it began to rise. His eyes bulged from his head and spittle flew from his lips, as he shouted at me.

“Most vile temptress! The accusation made against you is true,” he said. “In the name of the Great Sky Father, I say that you will go the way of all flesh, and that way is death.”

I watched him dress, and walk out of the room. Not long after screams came from the room behind me, and the bed thunked rhythmically against the wall. After a last hard thunk, his voice boomed through the thin wall behind me. “It is good to be with a woman who is truly in the spirit.” Then the sound of his steps marched away, and I heard only the sound of the woman weeping.

With the coming of the light, four large men came for me, and took me in chains to the Town Square. I could easily have gotten away from them, but I wanted to see how this strange bio ritual would play out. I was chained to four steel posts, with my legs spread open. The Reverend Jaleb loomed over me. All around me, I saw frowning, disapproving faces looking down at me. All around me, I saw bulging trousers telling me that the owners of the faces would like to be on top of me and inside me. I smiled at this thought.

“You dare to smile?” said the Reverend Jaleb. “This woman has given herself over to the flesh.” The crowd around us made a sound of disapproval.

“Not only has she given herself over to the illicit pleasures of the flesh,” the Reverend Jaleb continued. “But she tempts those of the spirit away from what is pure and true. With her own flesh, she traps the unwary, and drags them down into the fleshy mires with her.” The crowd sounded out its disgust. “Twice I tested myself upon her, and the test was very hard. I remained in the spirit, the Great Sky Father gave me strength, and I conquered her flesh and my flesh. The signs of my great struggle are still with me.”

He unbuttoned the front of his trousers and his erect male organ sprang free. It looked raw and bloody. He made a circuit of the crowd, and soft “ooohs” followed along with him. He winced and groaned in pain as he put his organ back into his trousers again.

“What is the way of all flesh?” He called out.

“Death!” Shouted the crowd in unison.

I wondered if Jay was somewhere in the crowd, trying to make his way to me. I wanted him to come and take me away from this place. One of the large men came with a small cage. Reverend Jaleb reached inside and pulled out a small skinny animal by the scruff of the neck. It opened its mouth to show a set of long, sharp needles of teeth. An orgasmic moan sounded from the crowd as he bent over and put the creature down beside me. I tested the chains and the spikes that held me, and there was no give in either.

I screamed at the sudden, terrible pain in my arm. The beast had bitten a good-sized chunk out of me, from the feel of things. I could feel the machines multiplying, repairing the damage.

“There is no blood!” called out a female voice.

“Look! The wound is closing up! It is healing as I look,” said a man’s voice.

“We must stop. She is one of the Holy Ones!” Shouted out another voice.

“No! This one is not one of the Holy Ones!” Bellowed the Reverend Jaleb. “This one is false and must die.”

He gave a sign and a dozen of the small beasts were set loose on me. I screamed for Jay, as they took one chunk after the other out of me, faster than my machines could make repairs. I thrashed about in agony and screamed and screamed. Then a mantis head with crystalline eyes darted in, and in seconds all the creatures that were eating me lay in bloody pieces around me. With a terrible cry of fear, the Reverend Jaleb dashed into the crowd.

“Let him go,” I said, as Jay started to follow him.

One of the burly men came over and freed me from my bonds, and Jay was there, helping me sit up, and holding me tenderly in his arms. He moved me onto his lap, entered me, and filled me with machines that would help heal all of my many wounds.

I touched him all over. I caressed his face: I ran a finger down his nose, barely touching it; I held my hand against his cheek, and outlined his lips with a gentle finger. I stroked his back, his shoulder, and any part of him I could reach with my one good arm. He filled me with yet more of himself. Slowly I was knitted back together, and the pain became more bearable. After a long time, the last of my wounds closed over. Jay traced my body with his hands, not touching; yet, I felt his every movement, and shivered.

I sensed the crowd standing silent around us. I opened my eyes and looked around.

“Where is…?” I said to them.

“He is gone,” said one of the women. “He went upriver in that large canoe of his. I wish I could’ve set those nasty little beasts to eating some of him.” I noticed then it was the woman from the room next to mine.

“What would you have us do, Most Holy Ones?” Asked a young man.

“We are not Holy Ones,” I said. “Just go home, and reflect on what has happened in this village.

A wave of movement passed through the crowd, and person by person, it thinned out. Only those who stood closest to us remained after a while. I stood up, and the remainder of the crowd gasped as they saw what Jay and I had been doing. With Jay supporting me, I made my way to the dock that jutted out into the river. We would stay on the dock for the next seven periods of light, leaving it only for the shelter of an open shed that stood along one side. We would use the shed whenever we wanted to link.

The citizens of Haven came to converse with us as we sat on the dock. Some berated us and told us that we should never have come there. Some wanted to learn from us, and we told them that we had nothing to teach them. Mayor Donoello and his wife Esme came and apologized for the way in which we had been treated. Men made their way to the dock, singly or in small groups, all wanting the pleasure that my body could give them. Sometimes, when I felt in the mood, I would take one of the men into the shed with me, and we would give pleasure to each other.

Most times when I took a man into the shed, Jay would remain seated on the dock. Sometimes he would come and watch as the man I was with mounted me. After the man had climaxed, and had moved off me, Jay would be on me and in me, and he would add his machines to the sperm already there. My body used it all for building blocks for new parts, for a place that was being readied: for what I did not know.

They told us about the Reverend Jaleb: how he had come to Haven three thousand light periods past in a single passenger canoe with a cage full of fierce little beasts. They told of him preaching about being in the spirit and about the evils of the flesh. They related of falling under his spell, and of the horrible deaths of those who opposed him. They feared him and did as he wished after they had watched their fellow citizens torn apart by the creatures till nothing remained but bloody bones. None of the husbands protested when he visited their homes and ravaged their wives and daughters. Nor did they protest when their wives and daughters were sent to Maisie’s rooming house to be raped by the men Reverend Jaleb sent there for testing. Anyone who displeased him was given to his beasts and died an agonizing death. Finally Jay and I came and set them free.

Late in the seventh period of light a small riverboat steamed up to the dock and made fast. A part of the rail was opened and a wide plank pushed out onto the dock. Four men carried bales and crates from the boat into our shed. Jay and I stood off on the side, patiently waiting. One of the men stopped for a moment as he went up the plank, and looked our way. A violent electric shock went through me at the sight of him. I wanted him. I wanted him inside me forever and ever. I wanted to take him to the Center with me. I took a step forward as he turned and made his way up onto the deck of the boat. I dug my nails into Jay’s upper arm.

“You feel the shock?” said Jay, pulling my hands from his arm. “I felt the same thing when I first set eyes on you. I had hoped you would feel the special shock for me. The instinct doesn’t work that way, I suppose.”

“I may not have felt any special shock when I met you, but I can’t imagine not having you around.”

A tall woman with short dark hair and dark eyes came toward us followed by mayor Donoello. “The good mayor has paid for your passage up river,” she said. “If you will wait until my men have unloaded the cargo, then you can board. I’m Gina, the captain of this boat.” She held out a hand.

“Nella,” I said, holding her hand in mine for a moment. “And this is Jay.”

When the cargo had been unloaded, we followed Gina up the gangplank onto the boat. She led us up to the upper deck to a small, but well appointed cabin, and asked if we would join her and her crew in the day room at the front of the deck, once the boat was underway again.

Thistledown Chapter 9  (XGC) Jay's experiences in Haven #735326 by Petronella60 -on hiatus