A Lesson in Anatomy

Standalone Story! This one is particularly brutal. 

Based off of picture provided by LowHangingBigHuevos. Picture is at bottom.

A battle-hardened soldier instructs his son in the anatomy of a Spartan's greatest weakness and the deadly methods by which it can be exploited on the battlefield.

The clash of bronze on bronze echoed across the sun-scorched plains of Attica like the gods themselves were at war. Demetrios, son of Miltiades, fought with the fluid grace of a panther, his hoplite shield painted with the stark owl of Athens catching the harsh midday glare. The soldier was a paragon. His battle prowess unmatched, he was handsome and slayed women and he did enemy soldiers. His black hair and beard was short but full and luscious. His athletic body statuesque, toned, and a testament to his masculinity. Fighting beside him, his son Alexious, has seen only fourteen summers but was was brimming with the vigor and confidence of youth. The boy was handsome like his father but devoid of hair other than a dusting of stubble on his face. His muscles were toned and tight rather than bulky like his father. 

Their foe on the battlefield were the Spartans. They were statues carved from granite, swift as the winds from the north. Each man forged through savage training and discipline, through trials of fire. But even they have their limits.

Alexious parried a thrust from an intimidating Spartan who fought with a terrifying, silent focus. Demetrios saw his opening. A feint, a shield bash that staggered the Spartan warrior, and the sharp, decisive thrust of his xiphos. The man fell, not in death, but with a grunt of pain as the bronze tip glanced off a rib, striking him down with the force of the blow. The battle surged around them, a chaos of shouts and screams, but for a moment, Demetrios stood over his fallen foe. He was magnificent, even in defeat. He had powerful limbs, a face carved with stoic resolve, the crimson cloak of a Spartan soldier, now stained with dust and blood. Like Demetrios, he ranks upon the pinnacle of men. No doubt from years of training.

"Bind him!" Demetrios roared to his fellow Athenian soldiers. "A worthy prize for Athens!"

Rough ropes secured the Spartan's wrists behind his back, and a gag was forced into his mouth to silence him though he had not uttered a single word since his capture. He was dragged through the aftermath of the skirmish, past the fallen bodies, until he reached the relative order on the outskirts of the Athenian camp. A thick wooden post, driven deep into the earth, served as a makeshift whipping block or prisoner's stake. The Spartan was bound to it, standing, his powerful frame pulled taut against the rough wood. His dark eyes met Alexious’s as he was being bound to the post. Searing wrath so intense, the boy had to look away.

Later, as the sun began to dip toward the horizon, painting the sky in hues of orange and blood-red, the camp began to settle. The wounded were tended to, the dead counted, and the small comforts of camp life resumed. Demetrios found Alexious by their shared tent, meticulously cleaning his own xiphos, the young boy's brow furrowed in concentration.

"Come with me, Alexious," Demetrios said, his voice low and firm. "There is a lesson the poets do not sing of, one you must learn."

Alexious looked up, a question in his bright, curious eyes. He sheathed his sword and followed his father without a word. They walked through the camp, the air thick with the smell of roasting meat, sweat, and the coppery tang of blood that still clung to the edges of the day. They stopped before the bound Spartan they had made prisoner earlier during the battle. The warrior straightened as much as the ropes would allow, his chin held high, a silent challenge in his gaze.

Demetrios circled the prisoner slowly, a predator assessing its prey. "You see a Spartan, boy. You see fortitude, you see discipline, you see the enemy. You must understand your foe to defeat them, Alexious, his strength and weaknesses.”

He stopped directly in front of the Spartan, who watched him with unnerving stillness. Demetrios drew a small, sharp-bladed knife from his belt. The Spartan's muscles tensed, a subtle shift in his posture, but he did not flinch. "The body tells its own story if you know how to read it," Demetrios continued, his gaze intense as he looked from the Spartan to his son. "Look at him, Alexious. A fine specimen with few weaknesses.”

The Spartan’s dark eyes flickered towards Alexious. There was no plea in them, no fear. Only the intensity he experienced earlier. Alexious swallowed. He felt a chill down his spine. Even bound and gagged, his presence was overwhelming.

“To know your enemy," Demetrios continued, his voice a near-whisper now, meant for Alexious alone. “You must understand his design." He turned slightly to face his son, gesturing with the knife towards the Spartan's exposed chest. The captured soldier’s torso was chiseled and tight, corded with muscle. “The vital organs lie deep beneath chest. Impale them with your sword and a man will draw his last breath. But, they are well protected. The sternum and rib cage are living shields for the heart and lung." He reached out with his free hand, pressing a finger against the Spartan's robust chest wall. The Spartan remained silent, refusing to acknowledge his humiliation. “You can also strike the abdomen, which is less protected, but the blow is less likely to be fatal. Even if so, during his last moments, he will slaughter you like a pig.”

"His arms and legs," Demetrios murmured, tracing the air just above the bound bicep and corded thighs. "See how the muscles are shaped? Not for the delicate work of a potter or painter. These are the limbs of a spearman, a swordsman. Forged for closing distances, thrusting and ultimately the kill. The sinews are like twisted cables, the fibers of the muscle itself packed dense. A terrible, functional beauty. A blow to them is the least effective of options.”

Demetrios followed his son’s gaze to the Spartan's face. “Strike the head or neck" he said, his own expression unreadable, “and perhaps the Spartan will fall. But a Spartan is taught that pain is a friend, that weakness is a disease to be purged. If the blow is not immediately fatal, expect a blow in return.” The Athenian soldier paused for a moment before he spoke again, his son captivated, hanging on to his every word. “But there is one target that will incapacitate any man. Though not fatal, its destruction is the one that a man fears above all.”

Demetrios's gaze, which had been tracing the rigid line of the Spartan's jaw, slowly descended. It traveled past the warrior's heaving chest, down the washboard of his stomach, to where the simple linen chiton, torn in the fight, hung in tatters around his hips. The focus of the lesson shifted, the air growing thick and charged with a new, unspoken tension. "And here," Demetrios said, his voice dropping to a low murmur that seemed to resonate in the quiet evening, "is the source of a man’s strength. Where even Spartan discipline cannot overcome its destruction.”

Alexious noticed a sudden change in the captive’s demeanor. The Spartan's body, a canvas of stoic endurance moments before, began to betray him. A fine sheen of sweat broke out across his brow, glistening in the dying light. His breathing, once a slow and controlled rhythm, grew shallow and rapid. The muscles of his abdomen tightened, a deep, instinctual clenching. The cold, defiant fire in his eyes flickered, replaced for the first time by a raw, primal fear. He understood the change in focus, the new direction of the Athenian's chilling lesson. He was no longer a prisoner being inspected by a jailer; he was a man facing a violation beyond the bounds of war.

Demetrios stepped closer and with a flick of his knife, cut through the fabric and exposed the Spartan’s pride and joy for father and son to see.  The man’s cock hung heavy between his thighs, a thick curve of flesh that swayed slightly, groped by the breeze. Veins traced the shaft like rivers on a map, pulsing faintly beneath smooth skin. At the end was the glans, maroon and curved, built for pleasure and scooping out the seed of rivals implanted deep in women. His balls rested beneath the shaft, in a scrotum that glistened with a faint sheen of sweat. The left testicle hung just a fraction lower than the right, a natural asymmetry that made the whole arrangement seem more real, more alive. They hung and were the size of ripe, juicy lemons.

The Spartan thrashed against the post, a muffled, guttural sound tearing from his throat behind the gag. The ropes bit into his wrists, the wood scraping against his back. His panic was a physical force, a frantic energy that made the very air around him vibrate. His eyes, wide and wild, were fixed on Demetrios's knife. He twisted his hips, a desperate, futile attempt to shrink away, to shield himself from the gaze and the blade.

"See how he reacts?" Demetrios said to Alexious, his tone utterly detached, as if observing a phenomenon of nature. "This is not the primal rage of a captured soldier. This is the sheer terror of a cornered animal. His body, which he has disciplined to perfection, now betrays him with this base, uncontrollable fear. This is a deeper vulnerability, Alexious. More potent than any unguarded flank."

He lowered the knife slightly, the flat of the blade now hovering just a hair's breadth from the taut, sweat-slicked skin of the ball sack. The Spartan froze, every muscle locked in a rigid spasm of anticipation. His entire being was focused on that single point of cold, gleaming metal.

"The scrotum is a marvel of design," Demetrios continued, his lesson unwavering. He reached out with his free hand, not with the knife, but with his fingers. He gripped the loose skin at the base of the Spartan's penis, pulling it taut. The warrior's body convulsed, a silent scream trapped in his throat. "It is a pouch of multiple layers. The outermost is skin, but within, there is a layer of muscle, the cremaster. Feel it? It is this muscle that draws the testicles up.”

With his thumb, Demetrios pressed firmly into the flesh, demonstrating the tension as the Spartan thrashed against his post. The Athenian soldier ignored the him and continued the lesson. “The function is temperature regulation, to keep the seed within at the perfect heat for life. An irony, is it not? The vessel of their future, so delicate, so easily compromised. The Spartans build their bodies into bronze fortresses, yet here, they are as fragile as any other man.” He held the delicate sac in the palm of one hand, lifting it slightly, presenting it to his son like a piece of fruit to be inspected. Alexious could not breathe. The scene was a nightmare made real. The clinical coldness of his father's words, contrasted with the terrified, pleading humanity in the Spartan's eyes. The Spartan made a choked, whimpering sound, the last remnants of his legendary Spartan composure shattering into a thousand pieces.

“Now watch carefully," Demetrios said, holding the knife steadily, the tip biting into the scrotum. With one clean, precise slice, the sack parted with barely a whisper. The Spartan's scream was muffled; a wet, ragged sound choked behind the gag, his entire body jerking against the ropes like a fish on a hook. As the soldier bucked, the skin of his scrotum opened as if it were a blossoming flower.

And then, they emerged. First the right, slipping free with a slick, glistening sheen, sliding out as if eager for escape. Then the left, slower, following its twin with reluctant inevitability. Both testicles tumbled forward, still tethered by the pale, coiled ropes of their spermatic cords. They hung there, suspended in the cooling evening air, swaying slightly from the violence of their sudden exposure.

Alexious stared at the twin organs now exposed to the open air, their slick surfaces catching the fading sunlight like strange, obscene fruit. The right one rested heavily in his father’s palm, the skin of Demetrios’s calloused fingers stretching slightly under its weight. It was larger than Alexious had imagined. The Spartan’s testicle was easily the size of a ripe lemon, the skin taut and smooth where it wasn’t veined with faint ridges. Demetrios turned it slightly, his thumb pressing into the yielding flesh until the shape distorted, then sprang back when released. The Spartan screamed, almost vomiting into his gag as the Athenian soldier inspected the gonad.

"Notice the resilience," Demetrios stated, his voice devoid of cruelty, merely instructive. "The tunica albuginea, this outer membrane, is thick but pliant. Designed to endure softer impacts, but never meant to withstand a blade." He pinched the spermatic cord between two fingers, rolling it like a merchant assessing the quality of a rope. The Spartan shuddered violently, his thighs trembling as a fresh tear cut through the dust on his cheek. The cremaster muscles contracted violently causing his scrotum to shrink in an vain attempt to retract the exposed testicles into his body.

Demetrios turned the Spartan's left testicle in his palm, tracing the taut spermatic cord with the tip of his knife. While studying the orb, Demetrios was seized by an unexpected insight: there was another lesson he could impart upon his son. "Alexious," he said, his voice steady, "you are becoming a man now. Just as I teach you the weaknesses of a Spartan, you must also understand the workings of a man's body, your own included. Since I have this marvelous specimen here to demonstrate..." A wicked smile formed on Demetrios's face. "I will show you the anatomy and its function.”

The Spartan twitched violently as Demetrios tugged lightly on the cord, his thighs trembling as if struck by an invisible current. "This," Demetrios continued, "is the spermatic cord. It carries the lifeblood of a warrior, literally." He pressed the flat of his blade against the pale, twisted length of tissue. "See how it pulses? Like the ropes of a ship's rigging, it feeds the testicle with blood, keeps it alive. Sever this, and the organ withers. But just as important as the coursing of blood to the testicle..." He glanced at his son, whose face was pale but rapt. “the cord also provides the initial pathway of a man's seed and its journey into the womb of women. All our unborn sons must travel this path, this very thread."

Demetrios dragged the knife's tip along the taut spermatic cord, tracing its path upward toward the Spartan's abdomen before coming back down. The warrior's breath hitched, his thighs quivering like a bowstring drawn too tight. "Watch closely, Alexious," Demetrios murmured. “Now this cord is the road of life itself. And here…” The blade pressed lightly where the cord vanished into the flesh of the gonad, "the seed begins its journey, brewed deep inside him like wine in a clay jar. After it travels upward, it curls back down through the shaft." He flicked the knife toward the Spartan's limp penis, still glistening with sweat. “Only then a man spills into a woman, it is this path his seed walks. Sever the road..." Demetrios's grip tightened on the cord, "and the traveler never reaches the gate."

The Spartan made a sound like a dying horse, his hips jerking uselessly against the ropes. Demetrios ignored him, turning the left testicle so his son could see all the sides of the gonad. Alexious swallowed hard. The Spartan's left testicle lay cradled in his father's palm like some grotesque offering, its surface pearled with beads of clear fluid. The smell, musky and metallic, clung to the back of his throat. "And... if both cords are cut?" he whispered.

Demetrios tilted the Spartan's testicles in his palm, letting the fading sunlight catch the slick surfaces. "If both cords are severed?" A cruel smile emerged from his face. "Then he becomes an empty vessel. A man without this..." he squeezed lightly, the gonad yielding like overripe fruit "is no longer a man at all. Not truly. He muscle will decay, his voice will crack like a boy's, and he will fertilize no wombs. He will bear no sons to curse your name.”

Demetrios pressed the knife's tip against the Spartan's right testicle, just where the epididymis curved along its surface. The Spartan's breath came in ragged, panicked bursts through his gag, his thighs trembling violently as the blade bit in. A single drop of blood welled up, dark against the taut skin, followed by something thicker, a viscous, pearlescent fluid that oozed from the tiny incision like honey from a comb. Demetrios caught it on the flat of his blade, holding it up for Alexious to see. "The epididymis," he said, his voice low and measured. "A coiled tube, like a serpent sleeping atop the gonad. This is where the seed matures, where it waits until the moment of release. We store our seed here like how we store our grain in granaries.”

The Spartan made a strangled noise, his hips jerking uselessly against the ropes as Demetrios tilted the knife, letting the fluid slide off onto his fingertips. He rubbed it between thumb and forefinger, the texture thick and slick. “Concentrated seed," he grinned. "A single drop holds thousands of potential Spartans. Imagine, each one a warrior, a son, a legacy. And here it leaks into the dirt, wasted." He flicked the fluid away with a contemptuous snap of his wrist as concentrated seed continue to escape the nick, course down the violated testicle, and drip onto the cold earth. All those unborn sons will die in vain.

Demetrios continued the lesson and pressed the flat of his blade against the Spartan’s left testicle, the cold bronze making the organ twitch involuntarily. "It is here," he murmured, his voice rough and ruthlessness, "that a man’s true power lies. Not in his sword arm, nor his shield. Here." The Spartan's eyes were wide; he could see the knife’s edge a hair's width away from the surface of his bollock. Demetrios smiled. "These twin orbs forge empires; they are the furnaces where sons are smelted, where bloodlines are tempered. All men treasure their family jewels above all as they are the source of their legacy.”

The Spartan’s breath hitched, his thighs trembling as Demetrios traced a slow circle around the gonad with his blade. "But this," he continued, pressing just enough to make the flesh yield, "is also his undoing. A man can survive a spear to the gut, a sword to the shoulder. But take these from him..." Demetrios’s grip tightened around the spermatic cord, his fingers digging into the tender pathway of vessels and nerves. The Spartan jerked against the ropes, a muffled scream tearing from his throat. "...and he is less than a man. A hollowed-out shell, fit only to watch as other men plant their seeds in the women he can no longer claim."

Alexious swallowed hard, his gaze darting between his father’s merciless hands and the Spartan’s contorted face. The warrior’s eyes were wide, his pupils dilated with terror. The Spartan's muffled scream turned into a high, animal whine as Demetrios angled the knife vertically. With one slow, deliberate motion, he pressed the blade through the taut surface of the right testicle. The skin parted with surprising resistance, not like cutting fruit, but like severing a thick tendon. A thin line of dark blood welled up first, followed by a gush of viscous, yellowish fluid that dripped onto the earth below. The testicle's interior glistened in the fading light, its cross-section revealing coiled tubes and fibrous membranes like the layers of an onion peeled back violently. Demetrius held the bisected organ closer to his son to inspect. “Beautiful isn’t it? It rivals Aphrodite herself.” 

Alexious leaned forward despite himself, his breath shallow. The bisected gonad resembled nothing so much as a butcher's diagram come to life—the rubbery white tunica albuginea membrane split open to expose the delicate seminiferous tubules within, their intricate spiral patterns now ruptured and leaking thick, opalescent fluid. Strands of connective tissue stretched like broken harp strings as Demetrios twisted the blade sideways, enlarging the wound. A bead of semen mixed with blood oozed from the severed epididymis, its coiled structure now clearly visible where it clung to the testicle's surface like a pale parasite. The Spartan convulsed against his bonds, his hips jerking in useless spasms and tears streaming down his face as his testicle was being sliced open.

Demetrios wiped his knife clean on the Spartan's thigh before sheathing it, then reached toward the innards of warrior's right testicle with bare fingers. The Spartan's breath came in ragged, wet bursts through his gag as the Athenian's calloused index finger and thumb made contact the warm nut flesh. With a surgeon's precision, Demetrios pinched a section of the ruptured seminiferous tubules between his fingertips, the delicate membranes stretching like wet parchment before yielding.

A thick strand of gooey pulp emerged, glistening with mixed fluids, pearly white seminiferous threads tinged pink where they'd torn from the testicle's vasculature. The extracted tissue clung to Demetrios's fingers in viscous strings, quivering slightly in the evening breeze. He held it up to the fading light, turning the specimen so Alexious could see how the coiled tubules unraveled into individual strands, each one a potential Spartan life now severed mid-creation.

"Do you see the nut pulp?" Demetrios murmured, rolling the pulp between thumb and forefinger until the semen-coated threads began separating. The Spartan shuddered violently, his remaining testicle contracting upward in a futile attempt to retreat as Demetrios pushed two fingers deeper into the same wound, scraping additional nut flesh from the testicle. "This is the vulnerable reproductive material and the flesh where seed is created." When he withdrew again, his fingertips were smeared with yellowish interstitial fluid leaking from the broken rete testis.

Demetrios wiped the gelatinous strands of ruptured tubules from his fingers onto the Spartan's thigh, leaving streaks of pink-tinged fluid across the warrior's trembling skin. "Now that you understand the anatomy," he said, turning his blood-slicked palm upward for inspection, "it is time to learn how to destroy it." The Spartan's remaining testicle jerked violently against its cord at those words, his thighs clamping together in a futile instinct to shield himself.

Alexious watched, throat dry, as his father flexed his fingers, the same fingers that had moments before been buried inside the Spartan's gonad, into a loose fist. "There are many ways to destroy a man's orbs," Demetrios continued, his voice taking on the cadence of a blacksmith explaining tempering techniques. "You can sever the cord with a blade. You can kick them until they pop like grapes." He tilted his head toward the Spartan's mutilated right testicle, its bisected halves glistening obscenely in the firelight. "you can even pierce them and let the life drain out, drop by drop."

The Spartan made a choked sound behind his gag, his abdominal muscles twitching as if trying to fold his body around his groin. Demetrios ignored him, instead reaching down to cup the warrior's left testicle, still whole and taut with unspent potential, in his broad palm. The organ felt impossibly warm against his calluses, pulsing faintly with the rapid beat of the Spartan's heart.

"But the most thorough and, in my opinion, satisfying way," Demetrios grinned, his voice rough as a whetstone, "is to crush one with bare hands."

Demetrios's hand closed over Alexious's wrist. The boy's breath hitched as his father guided his fingers toward the Spartan's remaining testicle, still whole and pulsing with heat. "Feel it," Demetrios murmured, adjusting his son's grip so the Spartan's left testicle was cradled perfectly in Alexious's cupped hand. The warrior's thigh muscles quivered like plucked lyre strings as Alexious's palm made contact. The gonad was heavier than he expected, a dense weight that settled against his lifelines with animal warmth, its skin slippery impossibly smooth except for the raised ridges of veins beneath. He could feel the organ throbbing violently, as if sensing its doom. Sweat beaded along the boy's upper lip.

Demetrios's calloused fingers overlapped Alexious's, pressing down until the boy could feel the rubbery resistance of the tunica albuginea membrane beneath the skin. "This is where you must grip," he instructed, positioning Alexious's thumb against the epididymis. The Spartan jerked against his bonds, the gag muffling what might have been a plea or a curse. His remaining testicle pulsing uselessly in Alexious's grasp, the cremaster muscle violently straining as the Spartan himself to retract what was already held captive.

Alexious felt his father's hand let go of his. He knew this was the signal to relieve the Spartan of his duty to procreate, to fertilize. With all his might, the boy squeezed the orb like he was juicing a ripe lemon. The Spartan's left testicle pulsed hot against his palm, the taut skin stretching as the pressure increased. He could feel the dense, rubbery sphere resist as if it was pushing back against his fingers. But he could see the gonad warping, deforming far beyond its anatomical form. The superficial veins ruptured, discoloring the orb and the boy continued his unrelenting assault. 

Alexious watched, transfixed, as the smooth surface of the gonad continue to distort. Then he felt it: microscopic breaks forming in the deep connective tissue as ruptured seminiferous tubules in the form of a clear, yellow liquid start seeping out through the developing cracks of the outer membrane.

The Spartan's hips bucked wildly as Alexious increased the pressure, his adolescent fingers sinking deeper into the collapsing organ. The testicle's interior folded inward, its coiled architecture collapsing in on itself as Alexious's thumb ground through the epididymis. He thought he heard a chorus of microscopic screams from a thousand unborn Spartan warriors as they sense their impending doom.

Then, the family jewel gave way beneath his grip.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

The bollock burst like rotten fruit struck by a blacksmith's hammer! Copious amount of nut matter escaped between Alexious's fingers, spraying the three men (or two men and a former man) in ropy strands and chunky pulp. The pulp was warm and sticky against their skin. Those microscopic voices Alexious thought he heard fell silent. The smell of musk, salt, and copper clung thick in the air. The Spartan will never fertilize another womb, his legacy, cut short.

Meanwhile the Spartan's scream reached a shrill, breathless pitch as his gonad exploded. The rupture sent a violent contraction through the Spartan's body. His thighs spasmed, his back arching against the post as a muffled scream tore from his gagged mouth.

Ignoring the fact that his face and body was covered in Spartan reproductive bits, Demetrios commanded his son to fully obliterate the rest of the ruined testicle. “Twist and pull,” he said sternly, “leave no trace.” Alexious twisted and pulled the flattened gonad and the scant amount of gelatinous tissue left began to disintegrate with the pressure, before escaping through his fingers, dripping down his fist and onto the cold earth. All that was left was a pool of nut pulp at the Spartan’s feet.

The Spartan's eyes rolled back, his body slumped against his bonds, and he became unconscious. Only then did Alexious withdraw his hand, his fingers glistening with fluids that dripped in slow, sticky strands to the dust below. The obliterated testicle look like a giant prune: an empty, shattered outer membrane with no pulp inside.

Demetrios lifted his fingers to his lips, the thick strands of pulped gonad clinging between them like sap from a felled tree. He stuck his tongue out and lapped the remnants with slow, deliberate strokes. The taste bloomed across his palate: game meat, iron, and salt. A warrior’s essence, reduced to paste. He grinned and swallowed the nut pulp with a satisfied hum, his lips glistening.

"Try it," Demetrios murmured, nudging his son’s elbow. Alexious hesitated, his hands trembling as he raised a small bit of pulp clinging on the back of his right hand toward his lips. The pulp had cooled slightly, its texture cloying as it stretched between his skin and lips. His tongue darted out and gave the sticky pulp a lap. The taste hit him like a spear to the gut. He recoiled, gagging violently as his stomach heaved.

Demetrios's laughter echoed through the camp, rich and dark as spilled wine. "You'll grow accustomed to the taste," he said, wiping tears from his eyes as Alexious retched into the dirt. The boy's face was pale, his lips still smeared with traces of the Spartan's essence. "Come," Demetrios clapped a hand on his son's shoulder, steering him away from the ruined prisoner. "Lessons are over for today." Demetrios laughed, “Next time, we will go over the anatomy of a man's other prized possession, the cock. With a different Spartan of course; this one’s done.”

They left the Spartan sagging against the post, his thighs streaked with the remnants of his own fertility. They head toward the camp's communal basin at the center of the camp to wash off the blood and nut meat." The evening air carried the scent of roasting meat and woodsmoke, ordinary camp smells that barely masked the coppery tang clinging to their hands. Alexious walked stiffly, his fingers curled inward, still sticky with reproductive material.

"Wash the Spartan's blood and nut pulp from your skin, Alexious,” Demetrios said, as they stood in front of a wide clay basin filled with warm water, the surface shimmering under the silver light of the rising moon. Alexious plunged his hands into the water. As he scrubbed, the water turned a cloudy, opalescent grey, marbled with streaks of pink and yellow. He watched the viscous remnants of the Spartan’s internal architecture swirl and dissolve, slipping away in slow, lazy spirals.

That night, the wool of the sleeping mat felt abrasive against Alexious’s skin, but he hardly noticed. He lay staring up at the velvet expanse of the night sky, the stars flickering like distant, cold campfires. Every time he closed his eyes, the darkness was replaced by the image of that bursting, pearlescent pulp. He could still feel the Spartan’s testicle in his hand, like a warm, rubbery river stone and the way it pulsed with a desperate, living heat. He recalled the squeeze, the explosion, and the sudden rush of gooey genetic material between his fingers. It was both an exhilarating and comforting sensation as he drifted off to sleep. 

He slept well that night.