Gio of the Jungle!

Spike: Gio, I got it! I got that saucy, cut clip from your movie!

Gio: Wow, 'The Power of the Jungle King'! This is one of my first films. Good job, beautiful Spike. How did you manage it?

Spike: I had to make a deal with the guy who runs the naughty films cinema in town. Less questions the better. Point is, I got this. Fire up the popcorn and let's watch you be a sexy jungle stud.

Gio: Hahaha, sounds good! Playing Darr, the Jungle King, was a lot of fun! But, just know...I am a little shy when other people watch my work!

Spike: I totally understand! Cuddle up and watch?

Gio: Sounds like a perfect evening to me!

The Power of the Jungle King

It is a time of barbarism and strife.

Across the forested savannahs of the Land of K'hemrum. Yet, oases of civilization stand as beacons amid the darkness. In the Kingdom of Nuadd, Emperor Tarqan--as wise as he is mighty--rules with compassion and strength, behind greats walls of solid gold. Ever prudent, the king has forged alliance with the 'untameable' and formidable People of the Deep Green; the tribes of the forest presided over by 'Jungle King' Darr, son of the Unifier, his father. Though many of Tarqan's subjects balk at this treaty with so-called 'savages', the two lords share an amiable and unbreakable bond, an iron truce vital against the encroachment of the dark magick worshipping and cannibalistic Shemhadzzians, who threaten all of K'hemrum with their bloodthirsty ways....

In the palace of beautiful and strong Nuadd, a lofty, sand-stone manse lined with towering, painted pillars, the good King seeks audience with Darr, his friend and former sparring partner. On throne of carved gold sits this giant of men, with muscles wrought of iron, skin the color of night, and eyes the same sheen as the golden jewellery and adornment that line his intimidating form. Oiled with rare herbal tinctures, he resembles a statue of a divinity. Though mere men would tremble to look upon him, his eyes are intelligent, and his smile kind. He is a father to many.

At his side stands Brai, sinewy and clad in the skins of game; attire most foreign to him. Tall and lean, with sun-kissed, copper skin, the youth of eighteen-years is a son of neither Nuadd nor the lush realms of Deep Green. His are a people fallen. He is a survivor, his life forged in fire. Rescued by the good King, and raised as both warrior and scholar, he shares a table with the King's sonsl; has been reared in their ways. Brai stands tall and eager, though there is an undeniable awkwardness about him, especially in the way he tugs at the ceremonial skins granted to him. Perhaps they show off too much of his own flesh and muscle. Though always ready for a scrap, Brai is somewhat prone to shyness.

Today, an arrangement has been made. Two strong sons and a daughter the King has born, yet they are duty-bound to the kingdom. In lieu, and after great discussion, Brai is chosen as a 'gift' to the Jungle King. Far from a body servant or mere concubine, Brai is to taken on as apprentice to the mighty king Darr.

The young man has laid eyes on the 'terror of the Green' before. His image is burned in his memory, etched, like the ash paint used for the palace murals. Still, to look upon great Darr as he swaggers proudly into the audience chamber....it makes Brai's heart beat faster, and his eyes turned downcast. How could he prove himself worthy to such a god?

Darr, olive of skin, knotted with muscle, and clad only in the loin breeches of the man-eating leopard he slew as a promise to his people, stands before the two men. Curled, deep brown hair lines his head. Despite his feral origins, his beard is well-kept (a by product of his brush with Tarqan, insistent on male grooming). He portrays an intimidating appearance, with chest covered in thick fur, and arms and legs that have been known to crush the bones of wild beasts (and men). His eyes sparkle like the stars at night. An ever present, slight smile crosses his handsome face. Far from stoic, the 'Beast King of the Great Green' shows his inner joy proudly.

He bows for none. Except, of course, for Tarqan. Even so, there is a playfulness to it. As Darr kneels, Brai's eyes follow the slight breeze beneath his loin cloth. The young warrior blushes when he spies what lay beneath. 

"Stand, you beast!" Tarqan laughs, low and resonate, as he himself springs up from his throne to embrace his friend. "I will not have you stoop as a subject does!"

"Ah," the wily jungle man replied, gripping his beautiful friend in a tight embrace, "yet the respect is thine, good friend. It has been far too long."

Though he is a wild man by heart, Darr is well-learned in the tongue of Nuadd. Gods know that Tarqan, whose eyes light up at the mention of his ally, always prattles on about how Darr's mind is sharp and attuned. He is a man of brawn and brain.

At last, Darr's eyes turn towards Brai. It is only because of years of training and endurance that Brai does not look away submissively. "How you've grown," Darr says. There is restraint, and wonder, in his voice.

Brai appraises him. How he longs to hunt alongside this beast and man, all in one. Still, he knows his way around men. "Same as you have," he says, cheekily. "Though, perhaps King Darr has somehow gotten...shorter?"

Tarqan, still the fatherly, turns and gives his adopted son an annoyed look. "Manners, Brai."

"I will have to wrestle some respect of it this one!" Darr says mirthfully, before flexing his massive arms before his audience. A demonstration of his power.

Brai gulps, bashful, and adjusts his skins appropriately. "Yes, sir. I am eager to be trained."

There is much feasting and rejoicing that night. Slowly, but sure (and no doubt thanks to several helpings of wine) Brai begins to grow easy with his new teacher. Though they sleep alone that night, Brai yearns now to be nuzzled against him. That, however, will wait til tomorrow, when they set off into the Green at first light.

Weeks have passed since that fateful encounter. Through patience and determination, Brai's training continued smoothly. Long are the days Darr and Brai adventured through the Deep Green, surveying the earthen kingdom. Darr taught Brai the ways of travelling from tree branch to tree branch in the shortest distance, as well as climbing and getting one's footing on steep terrain. Already, Brai's muscle mass increased under the jungle king's tutelage. He senses are sharper. He has learned the ways of the wild.

Brai and Darrs days are spent hunting. Nights are spent locked in combat training, with naked, sweat-slicked bodies illuminated by a steady campfire. Even so, there is also time for simple pleasures. Learning to identify plants and fruits. Tracking animals. Swimming in the river. Long, physically exhausting days culminate peacefully in Brai cuddling up in his master's large, furry chest, and falling asleep in his strong, gentle embrace. The nobles of Nuadd might have spoken of the deep forests as a 'Green Hell', but for Brai, it is a paradise, tended to by a guardian god of strength.

Brai has never been happier. 

It was on a misty, humid morning in the jungle kingdom when Brai, stretching towards the light from the canopy, noted a shortage of berries in their food supplies. Though a wandering soul, Darr had seen to building a tree fortress high up in the branches, in order to protect his provisions from opportunistic creatures.

 Brai frowned at the sudden lack of sustenance. "We're lacking food, master."

"Oh? Perhaps if you had not been so greedy the night before..." Darr said, ruffling his ward's hair. It had gotten noticeably longer, more untamed, since Darr had absconded with the King's ward. "It is understandable. You are taking in more food because your muscles are growing."

Brain frowned. "And who's fault is that? Maybe if you didn't push me so hard, I wouldn't eat so much!"

Laughing jovially, Darr placed his ward, lovingly, in a headlock. "Such sass at so early in the day! Does your master need to teach you a lesson, cub?"

"Grr." Brai growled, trying to remove himself from his master's pit. "Ugh, Master Darr, you are unbathed!" Secretly, though, he liked his master's pungent, masculine scent. 

Sighing, Darr let him go. "Perhaps I have been a bit tougher on you lately, yes? Well, take some rest today. Your generous master will go on ahead and find some forage for both of us, okay?" He took hold of the vine nearest to the wooden fort's terrace. "Just make sure you don't leave. The Shemhadzi have been treading on my territory. They are to be avoided unless I am around. Understood, young one?"

"Yes, master." 

Darr leaned foreword and gave his friend a kiss on the forehead. "You are under my protection. I'll return soon."

With that, Darr jumped onto the vine with a gymnastic grace, and used it as a line towards the ground. Brain watched him go, marvelling at how dextrously he moved through the canopy. It was almost as if he flew!

Before long, Darr came upon the tell-tale signs of a small predator stalking through the brush. The jungle man grunted, crouching low. He had, attached to his length of leather around his waist, a small knife for cutting. He needed no other weapon to hunt. He followed the footprints to a small clearing, where a young, male, jungle cat drank from a puddle. Darr sized the beast up. The cat wasn't big, but he and Brai needed meat. He would do.

Though Darr was careful where he placed his feat, moving in near silence, he could only be so stealthy with so much loose brush around. A branch cracked under his feet. Darr winced. The beast spun around and reared on its haunches, growing and bearing his teeth at the intruder.

Darr met the beast's stare head on. He circled it. It circled him. Darr's movements were in lockstep with the creature. He had learned by now to become like them, take on the mindset of a predator. He would not falter.

Beast and man sprang at once. But Darr had long studied the attacks of predators, knew where they positioned their teeth and claws, so he could avoid their attacked. He dodged the cat's sharp weaponry and wrapped his giant, knotted arms around its neck.

SNAP.

The kill was swift and uneventful. The beast struggled. Nature was cruel, and Darr's strength was merciless, but he was not without respect for all life. He cradled the creature, softly, uttered a prayer of thanks for its sacrifice, before he squeezed down lightly and ended its suffering. It breathed no more. This was the harsh way of the wild.

"Your sacrifice be not in vain," Darr said, hoisting the creature over his shoulder with little difficulty. "Meat, and a fresh pelt! I should leave Brai to his own devices more often!"

No sooner had he said that though, than his keen ears picked up on the cry of a young, human male, echoing through the forest.

Darr winced. "Seems I spoke to soon." Annoyed at having to abandon his prey, but thinking quickly, Darr scurried up a tree and placed the creature's remains high up, in hopes other scavanegers might miss it. It didn't matter. There was something far more important to attend to. Darr grabbed a hold of a branch and let his eyes track his path through the canopy, every movement planned three steps ahead. He moved like water, but inwardly, his heartbeat quickened. When it came to facing down the treacheries of the woodlands, he had little concern for his own wellbeing (and certainly had the scars from all manner of beast to prove it). Others though? He couldn't abide them in danger. Not for one moment.

Perched atop a giant tree, Darr looked over the misty canopy. He closed his eyes, and waited, pushing away thoughts of panic. If anything happened to Brai...if he lost another...

"Darr!"

The beast man's body moved ahead his mind, instinct pulling him from branch to branch towards the source of his young friend's cries. Darr jumped forward, out of the brush and into the clearing. What he saw there didn't surprise him, but it made him rage.

Brai was alive (thank the gods) but in a perilous position, stripped and tied to a wooden stake in the middle of the clearing. Looming in front of the boy, the muscular, long- haired barbarian, with only a leather breechloth to conceal his modesty, breathed rancidly onto the struggling hero.

The necklace of teeth around his thick neck indicated his tribe. There was no doubt. He was a Shemhadzi warrior. These brutes had a knack for kidnapping young, virile males and sacrificing them to their lustful, deviant god.

The long haired demon with the pale flesh licked his lips savagely at the boy. "Such a delicious little beasty." He held the long knife out to Brai's throat. "I will do this slow. My god enjoys a suffering death, especially from a pretty one such as yourself. Hahaha!"

Darr's fists went white with rage. He would sneak up behind the oaf and snap his neck, just as he'd done to the jungle cat before.

But Brai was afraid, his senses gone from him. He looked over at Darr, his expression shifting, and thereby alerting the Shemhadzi warrior to the presence of an interlope.

Snarling, with sharp teeth clenched tight, the muscular brute turned around and growled at the intruder.

Darr did the same, roaring and striking his massive pectorals with his fists. Among two men of the wild, there was no need for words. Warriors of the wilderness spoke a more primitive language.

"Fool savage," the white devil snarled in Darr's direction. "How dare you interrupt this sacrifice? How dare you challenge the Great Kahl!"

Darr spat on the soil, a great insult. "Great? Ha! I've never heard of you. How can a man be truly great if he has no esteem?"

The Kahl brute was caught off guard. "A sharper tongue than I'd expect from a man of such..." the fiend looked Darr up and down, lustfully, and licked his lips. "Bulk. I think I'll cut out your heathen tongue and wear it around my neck!"

"Drop your weapon," Darr demanded. He cracked his own neck and rotated his arm, spoiling for a brawl. It had been ages. "Let's settle this like real men."

The challenge incensed Kahl. "I AM KING OF THIS REALM!" he roared, chucking his weapon to the side.

"YOU WILL BE CONQUERED," Darr bellowed, muscles tensed and rippling. He charged forward, meeting his foe in a test of strength.

Brai watched the display between the two godly men, their bodies rippling and contorting with force. Both of them covered in sweat, and with wild eyes, they were more beast than men as they struggled for dominance. Brai only wished he could undo these binds to help his master.

But his master didn't need assistance. He tossed the warrior to the dirt, and jumped upon him, hands together like a makeshift club. He slammed his fists into the brute's skull, eager to crack it open.

The warrior was quicker than anticipated. He shifted his neck at the last second, causing Darr to slam his fists into the ground, painfully. Kahl seized the moment and DROVE his knees into Darr's guts, knocking him to the ground

*swell of dramatic music*

Brai cried out as his master fell back, stunned. "Darr! No!"

"HAHAHA!" The evil Kahl cackled as he got back onto his feet and immediately went for his sword.

Darr clutched his wounded stomach, and heaved. The blow had knocked the air right out of him. He struggled to get back on his feet.

Brai, panicked, looked between the glinting metal in Kahl's hands, and his incapacitated friend. "No! Not like this. Get up, Darr! Get to your feet, king of the jungle!"

Darr spat, and looked to his pupil. He winced.

"Now, die!" Kahl shrieked. He sliced his sword forward.

With a low growl, Darr side-stepped the blow and grabbed Kahl at the elbow, pivoting around and driving his hand behind his back at the wrong angle.

CRACK!

"GODS!" Jahl shrieked, dropping his weapon to the dirt and nursing his damaged arm.

Darr took the opportunity to kick the sword away. "Have faith in your king, lad," he said, reassuringly, to his bound companion.

Brai exhaled with relief, smiling at his master. "Darr."

This wasn't over yet. Darr breathed heavily, dripping sweat, eyes nearly rolling back in his head like a beast gone berserk. He removed his dagger from his hilt, showed it to his foe, and tossed it aside.

He tugged on his leopard print breech cloth, ripping it away and revealing his erect manhood. "We. Fight. Like. Men." 

Kahl, hurt, but defiant, grunted at the challenge. He removed his own breech, exposing a fat, engorged member. 

Exposed to each other, the primal males were driven by a warrior's rage. They drove foreword again, ready to tear each other apart. Darr didn't hesistate. He wrapped his huge, naked form around Kahl's torso; the grip of a starved anaconda. The sweat-saturated king fixed his hands tightly around the small of Kahl's back and heaved, grinding his massive body against his and squeezing down hard.

"Gahhhh!" Kahl screamed. "You...bastard!"

Beyond rage and words, Darr shoved his head in the crook of Kahl's neck and grunted, squeezing down harder and harder. There could be no mercy here. Only swift punishment.

"This is the fate of all who would dare harm the jungle king and his companions! I am the protector of this realm. Know this, under the sound of your breaking body. I sacrifice you to the gods of the green. Be at peace."

Sur enough, a subtle creaking participated an even louder CRUNCH. Kahl went to scream, but the air had been driven out of him. His eyes, bloodshot with terror, went wide and white; his mouth a rectus of pain.

Brai liked watching his master fight, especially in a state of undress. But this was too much brutality. He looked away.

CRACK. 

Kahl's body went forward, slumped over his vanquisher. Still, he breathed, barely.

Driven by bloodlust and rage, the merciless hero held his foe for awhile, even gripping down harder and shaking him, like prey caught in the jaws of a larger beast. He recalled the mercy he had bestowed upon the jungle cat before. He would grant Kahl this much, at least.

From his deadly embrace, Darr leaned forward, gained momentum, and slung the struggling Kahl over his shoulders. With eyes blank, and mouth in a snarl, Darr brought both of his hands down quick.

He roared, guttural and primal, as he delivered the killing blow.

A plume of misty blood escaped Kahl's mouth, as he was quite literally snapped in half. That was that. Darr, knowing he had dealt deatj, let the man's body drop from his shoulders, and onto the dirt. He would not desecrate it. He was no cannibal, like Kahl's wretched kind. 

Yet still, Darr needed to show his power and glory to the jungle. Flexing his muscles, and roaring with primal rage, the sweat peeled off the jungle king's body in an almost supernatural explosion of strength. Brai could only watch, terrified and in awe. Darr was truly the master of this realm; the apex predator of the Deep Green.

The humanity flowed back into Darr. He caught his breath, wiping the sweat from his brow. He turned to face his ward. His eyes were sullen. The ways of the jungle were cruel, and he would not hide them from strong-willed and kind Brai, but he would have rather not done this in front of a pure soul like his.

But Brai understood. In silence, and reverence, he let his master pulled the ropes away as if they were nothing. He stood, the only creature in the forest who dared lock eyes with the jungle king.

Darr lowered his head. "Nobody will EVER hurt Brai, Prince of Nuadd!"

"Darr..." Brai trembled. But it was not fear that took him. He embraced his master's sweaty, muscular form. He felt a stirring in his loins as he did, overwhelmed with lust and affection for the man who had protected him.

"My liege. I pledge body and soul to you." He pulled his head back but did not dare let go. "You have the jungle. Now...have me.

"Brai..." Darr said, looking down. He stroked his ward's cheek, tenderly. "A spirit such as yours cannot be possessed. But...I would have your kiss."

"Master..."

Their lips met. Nothing in the world, perhaps not even the gods, could have pulled those men apart as they kissed passionately, locked in each other's arms.

"I am yours," Brai whispered, tears of raw emotion welling in his eyes.

"And you, mine," Darr said, tenderly. "A king needs a prince. Be mine."

"Without question, my lord. Without question..."

Spike: Wow, that was so hot.

Gio: Francesco was a good actor. Very professional and sweet. He was a football player back home! Alas, he is...the straight.

Spike: Oh, not the straight! Um...so like...do you guys get it on in the next scene?

Gio: Ha! Is not porn, Spike. But...would you maybe like to...re-enact what might have happened had the scene continued?

Spike: Oh yes, my lord. Master. I will have your kiss!

Gio: Haha. Perhaps leave the acting to Francesco and I. Now, lay down like a good beast. Let the jungle man make you his... 

The End!