Wealth
Wealth
I could never say what I want to say to Xiu. The only time I could ever admit how I felt for her would be at death's door.
I would say, "Xiu, I love you with all of my heart. I took many lonely steps from my native land to find you, but every print in the snow or sand and every time my poor feet became stuck in the mud or cut with glass; all of it became worthwhile when I met you. It saddens me so that it has come to this."
I ended up telling her that last night. Xiu, my lovable panda, her face lit up so wonderfully. Our lives have come down to something close to death. As we made our way through the shipyard with all of the foul sailors groping Xiu, but finding my fist instead, and that white wolf with his flashing, demon smile and fancy clothes, I recalled the time that I had in the big city.
I stole a man's money. That is how I survived and how I made my way to where I met Xiu. I worked at the rich man's palace with all of its toys for grown men and wealth plastered to the walls. It sickened me. Being in such a place of decadence was toxic. A single tapestry, or even some tiles out of the floor would be enough for me to buy weeks of food.
These old men with their pearls and their coins, they always have their wealth in their bedrooms as if it's safer in there. They feel as though they can somehow defend their spoils with their soft hands. They must know this is futile; this is why they hire guards.
Guards! For their very homes! They posture and pretend as though their homes are museums or some kind of palace for a real king. So they hire guards. Guards who were probably just like me at one point. They are drawn from the lonely souls that wandered the streets or who joined the ranks of an army.
In the old man's room, with rags about my feet to make me silent, I opened the small chest. It's full of money. So much! I would have taken a few coins, some diamonds or pearls, anything but the sight which greeted me! It was calling me. I could see Xiu in the robes she deserved eating fresh fruit. I saw shoes for my feet so that I would never step upon another's trash.
It was intoxicating. His wealth corrupted me.
I took the whole chest. All of it was so heavy and filled with want and guilt. There was no way for me to stay quiet. The old man never sleeps well at night. He could feel me taking away all those little pieces which make him a whole person.
"Gaurds!" he yelled "Stop Behrouz! He is stealing my money!"
Mushni, a large tiger like myself, came into the bedroom with his scimitar drawn and glinting in the moonlight. The greed had him too. In his eyes, I could see it the first time I met him. We had spoken about the wealth, how we would steal it. When he saw it was me, he turned to the old man.
"Mushni! Kill him!" he ordered.
"No," said the tiger.
He handed me his dagger. We would do it together.
"Mushni, Behrouz... oh god..."
I had stabbed, I had been stabbed. They leave, limping, bleeding. Villains trying to rob robbers; it never works out in the end. I am not to be preyed upon. I may have killed a man previously, but never like this.
Great hacks from Mushni's blade and delicate, piercing strikes from mine ended his life quickly. After killing him with his own weapons, we covered his torn face with the bloody sheets.
Mushni and I split the money. We didn't even count it. I ran to the servant quarters and lightly kissed Xiu to wake her. Then we ran.
It was fun for a time; Xiu and I were happy for once. I got some shoes and I was able to see her in those robes. And all of that food! She had always been fat and happy, that's what I loved about her. She was my fat and happy panda, the bright center of my universe. She got even bigger and happier with the money. Unlike our love however, the money was not permanent.
Everyone was looking for those tigers, those two foreign men who had killed someone's grandfather. They are all fools. If only they knew about the servants who had been pissing in his soup for years, or how his illustrious granddaughter had begged Mushni and I to show her how tigers fuck while he was in the garden. Of course, I was in love with Xiu at the time, so I left the room while Mushni gave her an education. The old man must have been so confused when he saw everyone turn their heads to the guest room window to better hear the lesson. God had granted him a gift when he made him hard of hearing.
Someone's gray hand grabbing at Xiu's bosom brought me back out of my memories. I felt the wolf's only remaining canine leave a mark in my hand as I bloodied his muzzle. With all of the money, I had been eating more meat than ever. I was the strongest I had ever been, but never had I been more frightened.
Xiu finally lead me to a huge freighter ship from a land across the sea. I had never seen anything like it before. Perhaps it is from England? Australia? I cannot read English, but I can speak a little. I held Xiu's black and white hand as she led me up the ramp and on deck.
"We should try this one before we give up," she said with her sweet voice.
"I agree," I said, "We came all this way, I don't want to turn back. I thought I saw a white wolf looking at us. It was this same man every time with his big smile."
"I saw him as well," calmly said Xiu, "He's following us isn't he Behrouz?"
"Yes. He looks wealthy. I saw a pistol in his coat. I think he is after the bounty on me," I grabbed Xiu and held her warm body close, "Xiu, I have seen men like him before. He wants to kill us, do you understand?"
"Yes," said Xiu with a pained look on her face, "My big tiger can't protect me from bullets."
"Well, I hate to say this Xiu, but I know what these men want. You do too by the way they touch you and look at you. I want you to know that I love you and that you will end up saving both of us," I said.
"I know this Behrouz. I know what they will want me to do," she said.
Both of us jumped when a booming voice said, "What the hell are you two vagabonds doing on my ship! We are about to set sail! Get off already!"
He was speaking that barking English that I had to learn to work at the old man's estate. Xiu was scared, but I calmed her down and then turned to face the man. He was huge, taller than me even. He had no fur and a great, horrible horn on his face. All of him was grey and weathered looking. He was the captain.
"Sir, we need to ride this boat," I stammered.
"How much money do you got?" said the great beast before me. He speaks so fast!
"No money sir," I said.
"What in the hell is your problem? Do you think that I am..." I lost track of what he said. He was angry though.
"Quiet!" I yelled, "Sir, we will ride this boat! We have no money. We will do anything to ride this boat."
The monster grew very interested. He waved a few of his sailors away and leaned in close.
"Anything, you say?" he asked.
"Yes, anything sir," I replied.
He whispered with his big lips next to my ears, "Be careful what you say, tiger. I think that you know what I want from your girl over there. Lend me her mouth."
This was not as bad as I had imagined, but still a great pit had eroded my stomach. I turned to Xiu and told her what the man wanted. She lightly nodded. I turned back to the captain.
"You get what you want, I will wait outside your door until you are done," I pulled the blood stained dagger from my pants and lightly pressed it against his side, "If she says my name, I will kill you."
I turned away from the captain and hid my knife once more, but he whipped me back around and started feeling my arms.
"You're pretty tough there tiger," he said, "No one gets a free ride on this ship. You don't expect your girl to do all the work do you? Thank wouldn't be fair. I want you too do something for me too."
I was stunned. This man, this is what he wanted? He wanted Xiu in front and me behind? He was so loud, such a commanding personality. He wanted me? This is not unheard of, men had asked me before and I had politely refused. However, there was no refusing this.
"Well..." I said, "Anything. We will follow to your room."
On the way there, I explained what the beast wanted and Xiu managed to expertly stifle one of her bright giggles. It's a shame, as I haven't heard one in a while.
"Really?" she asked "This man wants you too?"
"That is what he said. He said it would be fair that way. I have to admit, I almost prefer this," I confessed "With me behind him, he knows that I can slit his throat if he harms you. It's safer this way."
The horned thing led us into his cabin and shut the door tightly with a big lock.
"You are the only one who talks here, so this is what we'll do," he said, "Tell your girl that I'll put her where I want her. She'll give me a (my English is lacking, but I can assume that he wants Xiu to kiss his penis) while you fuck my (again, I do not understand, but there really is only one option here). Understand?"
"Yes. I tell her."
I turned to Xiu and explained in our shared language that the gray skinned man would move her where he wants her. She nodded.
"You did it?" he asked, "Great. Tell her to get naked. She's got big (unintelligible) and I want to see them."
I told Xiu to take off her clothes. The captain clapped his hands together when he saw her nakedness.
"GOD DAMN!" he exclaimed, "Now that's a woman! I love women like that! She's so damn healthy! You have a real prize, tiger. I don't know what you did to deserve a girl like this, but you got her."
Though crass, I have to admit that our benefactor has an oddly charming personality. Only a select group of men that I've met can appreciate Xiu's unique appeal. The captain directed her to his small bed and then took off all of his clothes. I was oddly interested in how he removed his shirt with such a large horn in the way. When he dropped his pants... well, let's just say that his horn isn't the only thing of outrageous proportions. Mine fits in Xiu's mouth like lock and key, but she would only be able to work with the very end of his.
This man is big. His voice, his ears, his horn; absolutely everything is massive. Luckily, as I saw when he bent over to fetch something out of a drawer, the end I had to deal with was generously proportioned as well.
He turned just as I started to take my shirt off. He forced it back down and said, "No. No. Just drop your pants. I want you to keep your clothes on."
I took off my pants and he spread some slippery oil from a bottle on me and then on himself. Obviously, this would make things easier for both of us. The whole time he was saying things like, "Never seen one like that before," and "Can't wait."
He finally turned to Xiu and then beckoned for me to get behind him. He placed my hands on his hips and told me to, "Take it away."
The big creature moaned pathetically as I pressed into him and sucked on his teeth as I withdrew. Though this is far from what I would consider clean, it wasn't painful. He stuffed whatever it is that dangles between his legs into Xiu's open mouth before he ordered me to go as hard as I could.
I guess he isn't the only one in the world who wanted to know what a tiger feels like. I dug my claws into his think hide and filled him as much as I could. He cried out as I made my hips rapidly pound his rough behind. Though I was literally throwing myself at him, my hard thrusts were barely shifting his massive bulk. I guess that is lucky since I wouldn't want to have Xiu gagging on some foreigner.
I looked around the beast's side, as I could not peer over his shoulder, to see how Xiu was fairing. Every time my hips would slap against the gray man, his penis would lightly thrust into her mouth. As she could not fit all of him, or even half of him, she was making up for it by touching his shaft. I guess we were making him happy because he was he was breathing very heavily.
I felt his hole clench down powerfully as he sprayed Xiu's face with an amazing amount of seed. I simply could not believe it. I was worried that he would force Xiu to swallow it. It would be hard to live with the fact that she had taken in another man; her lips would be difficult for me to kiss. Because of this, I was relived to see it dribble out of her mouth and onto his bed as he shivered and moaned.
The forceful clenching of his muscles caused me to go off too. However, it was seemingly unnoticeable compared to what he had just done. I would say that the captain had twelve times the amount that I could produce. Regardless, I sprayed his insides with it just the same. He seemed to enjoy it too since he was whispering words which I would never utter when making love to Xiu. For once, I was glad that she could not speak English.
When I had extracted myself, the captain turned to me and said, "Nice work tiger. Now, I want you to finish your girl."
I looked down at my already flaccid penis and then back to his face as if to ask, "How?"
"Use your mouth," he suggested.
"My mouth..." I repeated quizzically.
How does one pleasure a woman with his mouth? Surely this is impossible. What a joke! What kind of sex fiend was this captain?
He saw my inaction and raised a finger before asking, "If I may show you?"
I nodded and let him spread Xiu open since she was on her back resting and watching our conversation. He pointed to the hard area that she sometimes asked me to touch when we made love or were passionately kissing.
"See that, heathen?" he asked pointing, "Use your tongue on that."
I gave him a doubtful look before I bent down while carefully avoiding the spot he had ruined on his bed. I placed my lips near the black fur of Xiu's crotch. I could feel her muscles tense as I got closer.
"Behrouz, what are you doing? Have we not pleased this man?" she asked.
"Well, this is more of what he wants. He says that it'll feel good for you. I don't really see any harm in it."
I parted her just as the captain had done before me and stroked her with my tongue. She tensed and shuddered, but this time it was from pleasure and not surprise. I continued and she started to move her hips against my face. I stayed with her and got into a rhythm with my tongue as I sent it swiping across that spot again and again. Xiu moaned and held onto whatever she could reach of me.
I had fully pleased her before, but I had never seen it. I watched as her entrance pulsed and a clear juice slowly fell from it in infinitely small amounts. She let out a few cries until it had passed. It was all very arousing. Although the captain was some kind of deviant, he sure knew how to please a woman.
I stood up and he barked, "So what did you think of that huh? You can learn a thing or two from us imperialists!"
I nodded my head and said, "Sir, that was very strange, but I will do that again."
"Well now son, the great thing about that is that you can do it as many times as you want and she won't wear out," he said with his bright eyes and his deep voice.
"May we leave?" I asked.
"Yeah, get the fuck out of my cabin," he said in that awful language, "You can stay on the ship until we get to where we're going. They speak English there, so you should do fine. You'll have to watch out for your girl though, but something tells me that you've been doing that already."
"Thank you sir," I said before turning to Xiu, "You can put your things back on Xiu, we're done here."
She put on her clothes and we both thanked the captain again before leaving his cabin. We walked to the end of the ship and stared out at the busy market until it was time for us to set sail. It was such a relief to finally be leaving! Xiu wrapped her arms around me and said, "That wasn't so bad, but it doesn't compare to you Behrouz. That thing you did... at the end... you'll do that again sometime, right?"
I told her that I would walk to the very ends of the earth to please her because she was worth it. She smiled and we turned watch the large smokestacks belch some black exhaust from the bowels of the ship as it started to move. I looked one last time to the market to see a white wolf brandishing a pistol at us from afar. Rich men and their guns; the great equalizers between them and the poor.
He could see us, but he couldn't shoot us, nor could our mysterious bounty hunter ever have another chance to catch us. I pulled the dagger out of my pants and held it so that he could see it. The bloodstains could be seen in the light for one horrible moment before I cast it into the sea between us as if to say, "Yes, it was me. And now, I am leaving this far behind."
The wolf flashed his shimmering grin and cast his pistol into the ocean as he stood on the end of the pier. I then realized that those weren't his clothes and the gun wasn't his either. It was all a joke. He was just like me. Even through the sound of the steaming engines and the bustling seaport, I could still hear the white wolf's slow applause as we slowly drifted away from each other.