Lewis Clark
 

 by: Hankster

© 2018 by the author

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

hankster@tickiestories.us

In the mid nineteenth century, Nathan Clark and his wife, Matilda, settled a tract of land in Northwest Montana.  They built a log cabin, and started to grow wheat on the land.  Long before they purchased their tract from a land company, the native Blackfoot Tribe had been herded to reservations.

About a year after their move from Georgia, Mattie Clark gave birth to a son.  They named him Lewis.  The explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, were somewhat local celebrities in this part of the country, and since his surname was Clark, Nathan named his son, Lewis.  From the time of his birth he was always called Lew.

The winters in Montana were harsh and bitter cold.  The nearest town was fourteen miles away.  As a result, Lew received no education except what his parents could teach him, and that was little enough.  He grew up hating the farm, and a farmer’s life.  He vowed to return to his parents’ native Georgia as soon as he was old enough. 

His mother succumbed to pneumonia when he was just fourteen years old.  After that his father became surly, and constantly chastised his son for one thing or another.  With each passing day Lew’s hatred for the farm and his father grew stronger and stronger.  His situation constantly reinforced his vow to set out for Georgia as soon as possible.

Before heading back east, Lew had one thing he wanted to do in Montana.  His dream was to hike The Lewis and Clark Trail, following the route of the two famous explorers. His father tried to dissuade him.  He told him that the country was still wild and unsettled.  The Indians were hostile, and his life might be in danger.  Lew was willing to take his chances.  In fact, the danger factor increased his desire to make the trip.

By the time he was sixteen, Lew was six feet tall, lean and muscular from working on the farm.  His eyes were blue and his hair was flaxen.  His uncut cock was five flaccid inches, and his morning woodie marched before him by nearly nine fat inches.  Lew had seen his father naked often, especially after his mother died.  He had always believed that his father’s manhood was massive, but he grew even bigger, and it swelled his ego.

Just before Lew’s seventeenth birthday, Nathan got a splinter in his hand while chopping wood.  He removed the painful sliver of wood, but in a few days the area where he had been penetrated was swollen and red.  The infection spread rapidly and Nathan died two weeks later.  Lew buried his father next to his mother.

As soon as his father was laid to rest, Lew packed only the most basic of needs, including a small pup tent.  He tied the folded-up tent and his knapsack to his back, and left the farm; abandoned the farm, would be a more accurate phrase. 

The only thing he took with him was his father’s cache of gold coins.  His father had kept it his secret, but one day Lew had accidently spied his father adding two coins to the stash.  He knew his father’s hiding place, so he retrieved the coins, and he placed them in a small box.  He placed the box carefully at the bottom of his knapsack.

He headed out toward The Trail, and into an unknown wilderness.

******

On a reservation, close to The Trail, a young Blackfoot of seventeen summers was preparing to take a preordained trip.  As custom dictated, he was to go out in the wilderness, and survive for four full moons without any supplies.  When he came back to the reservation alive, he had earned his passage to manhood, and he became a warrior in his tribe.  He was only allowed to take with him a bow and arrow, and a knife.  All he wore was a loincloth and moccasins. Unknown to the elders he also crafted a tote bag, which he had made out of an old torn loincloth.  He hid it under the one he was wearing.

Sharp Arrow had no fear of the unknown, nor did he fear for his safety.  Still he was filled with another kind of fear.  It was expected that he would kill deer and other animals to survive, but the sensitive young man was incapable of taking the life of any living creature.  He convinced himself that he could survive off the abundance of the earth and the trees, and he took his first step with confidence in his abilities.  As he left the reservation, the tribal elders prayed for his well-being.

He was pleased to note that his path was full of berry plants, which he picked and stowed carefully away in his makeshift tote bag.  The birds were also a big help.  He paid careful attention to them, and studied from which fruit trees they fed. He picked the fruit from those trees, and stowed them in his tote bag along with the berries.  Not one day into his survival ordeal, he knew he would be all right.  He was strong and tall.  His eyes were black and his even blacker hair hung below his shoulders.  Although he had not yet used it for sex, his cock was even bigger than Lew’s.  A healthy body and ample food boosted his confidence.

On the third day of his obligatory trip, Sharp Arrow smelled a fire.  Thinking it might be the start of a forest fire, he ran toward the smell and the crackling sound it was making.  If he was correct, he hoped he could douse the flames before they did any damage.  He came into a small clearing, and was shocked at his discovery.  He saw a small tent, and in front of it, a handsome young man was cooking meat over a well-controlled fire.  Sharp Arrow knew the smell of the meat.  It was rabbit, and his soul mourned for the soul of the animal.  Still, he could not fault the young man.  The men in his tribe always ate the meat of the animals they trapped.

Sharp Arrow’s first thought was to stomp out the fire, but it was too late.  The animal was already dead.  Instead, he approached Lew cautiously.  He did not want to frighten him, so he greeted him softly in his Algonquin tongue.  He had a broad smile on his face.

Lew’s father had warned him that the Indian’s were hostile, but Sharp Arrow’s smile belied all that, and Lew relaxed considerably.  He was pleased to have a companion if only for a little while.

Lew motioned for Sharp Arrow to sit, and offered him some food.  The Indian boy refused, and took out a handful of berries from his bag.  He offered them to Lew, who did taste a few, and found them to be delicious.

They ate in silence until Lew slapped his chest and said, “My name is Lew.” 

Sharp Arrow looked at him, and obviously didn’t understand, so Lew slapped his chest several times and repeated, “Lew,” over and over.  Finally, Sharp Arrow understood that the man’s name was Lew.  He slapped his own chest, and repeated his name over and over in Algonquin.  Lew knew that he was telling him his name, but it was too long and too unpronounceable.  Lew put his hand on Sharp Arrow’s chest, and repeated over and over, “Friend, Friend.”  Sharp Arrow understood that Lew had renamed him “Friend.”  He had no objection.  If either had initially feared the other, that fear was gone.

Since they could not communicate, they ate in silence, smiling at each other all the while.  Friend had no cooking utensils but Lew did.  When they finished eating, Lew cleaned his utensils in a small nearby stream.  His tent was small but would easily sleep two people.  He motioned Friend to enter his tent.  It was a clear invitation to sleep with him, which Friend clearly understood, or actually, he  misunderstood.

In Friend’s tribe, men often slept together.  There was no stigma attached to it.  The Blackfoot believed that all their souls came from one common soul, so that they were all interconnected.  One of the rites of passage, after the wilderness ordeal, was for the young man to have sex for the first time with one or more of his tribesmen.  Friend’s yearning for that day was consuming him, so when Lew offered him his tent, he believed he would finally have sex, even before the ordeal was finished.  He also believed that The Great Spirit had led him to Lew for just this purpose. Lew was oblivious to any of that.  He just wanted to offer Friend a safe, quiet and comfortable place to sleep.

Friend quickly dropped his tote bag and his loincloth, and he removed his moccasins.  He smiled at Lew, and extended an arm to him, inviting him into the tent.  Lew took the cue, and stripped rapidly.  He had no idea what he was doing, or why he was doing it.  The two young men entered the tent, and immediately, Friend threw his arms around Lew and started to caress his cock.  Neither of them knew anything about kissing.  Lew sighed loudly, and took Friend’s cock into his hand.  Back in Georgia, what they were doing was a crime, which could have them imprisoned.

They had not been taught, much less shown, how to masturbate, but they both knew how to do it, and they did it often.  They had learned to bring themselves pleasure purely by instinct.  It didn’t take any time at all, and they reached rapture simultaneously.  They went down to the stream and cleansed themselves of their semen.  Then they went back into the tent, wrapped themselves together, and fell asleep.

Friend awakened in the middle of the night, and went to the stream to pee.  When he got back in the tent, Lew was lying on his back.  His cock was hard and waving toward heaven.  Friend could not resist.  He wrapped a fist around Lew’s manhood and began to masturbate him.  Lew woke up, and wanted to tell Friend not to stop, but he didn’t know how, so he pretended to go on sleeping.  This time, he unloaded against his chest and in Friend’s fist.

Friend started to lick off the substance from his hand.  It tasted good and he offered some to Lew, who enjoyed it just as much.  They scraped the semen from Lew’s  chest, and enjoyed a meal together.

Friend remained with Lew for the remainder of his “ordeal.”  During that time, they learned to make love using fellatio and sodomy.  They enjoyed both activities more than masturbation, but what they enjoyed the most was when they learned to kiss.  Once they started, they could not stop.  They had no idea that they were in love with each other.

During that time Lew taught Friend some basic English and Friend taught Lew some basic Algonquin.  This enabled them to communicate to a limited extent, and that in turn helped to cement their growing relationship.

As the days passed, Friend tried to communicate to Lew that he had obligations, and had to return to the reservation.  It was difficult, but somehow Lew got the picture.  He begged Friend to stay with him in the wilderness, and to spend the rest of their days together.  There was nothing Friend wanted more, but his duty and his honor prevailed.

In the end Lew asked Friend to take him back to the tribe with him.  Friend could not believe that a white man, the enemy of his people, wanted to live among them, but he determined to give it a try.  He nodded to Lew, and two seconds later, Lew packed up his meager belongings, and they started their trip back to the reservation.

Friend was determined to do one thing before they reached his home.  He had to teach Lew how to pronounce his name in the Algonquin tongue.  They weren’t one mile from the start of the journey, and Lew was reciting Sharp Arrow’s name expertly.

******

The reservation was surrounded by a ten foot stockade fence.  The gate was open and Sharp Arrow led Lew inside.  A few young warriors saw Sharp Arrow and ran to greet him.  They wished to know who the white man was.  Sharp Arrow explained that they had met in the wilderness, and they both desired to live together.  If Lew expected any resistance, he was shocked.  He was greeted warmly and made to feel welcome.

After the greetings were over, Sharp Arrow took Lew’s hand and led him to his father’s tent.  The tent was quite large, and could easily accommodate several people. 

“This is my home,” Sharp Arrow said.  “This is where we shall live.”

Lew could not feature sleeping in a place with no walls, where Sharp Arrow’s parents lived, and where they could actually observe each other making love.  Later, he found out that Sharp Arrow’s brother lived there also.  He had no idea how he would handle it.

It was awkward at first, but he soon got used to his “in-laws” making love with Sharp Arrow and him so close by.  When his “brother-in-law” took a bride, the tent was filled with even more love making, and nobody was embarrassed. 

While he was assimilating, he became fluent in the Algonquin language.  When the odd fur trader came around, Lew acted as interpreter, but he also made sure that the traders did not take advantage of the tribe.

The men of the tribe were only assigned two responsibilities.  They farmed the land for sustenance, and hunted in the forest for meat.  Strangely, the tribe respected Sharp Arrow’s objection to killing animals, and exempted both Lew and him from having to hunt, but they had to do double shifts farming the fields.

Lew hated farming.  He might just as well have stayed on his own farm.  Little by little, he began to think about going to Georgia at last.  He knew that Sharp Arrow would not, and could not, go with him.  His race could well make him into a slave in that part of the country.  Then he thought about himself.  What could he do?  He could neither read nor write.  He convinced himself that he could apprentice himself to a tradesman, like a shoemaker, blacksmith, or tailor.  He was young enough.

The hard thing was breaking the news to Sharp Arrow.  Unlike Lew, Sharp Arrow was as happy as any member of an oppressed people could be.  He had no clue that Lew was so unhappy.  He was doing a good job of hiding it.  One backbreaking day in the fields, Lew blurted it out.  He told Sharp Arrow how miserable he was.  He offered him the option of the two of them going back in the wilderness, and if Sharp Arrow refused, he would travel to Georgia alone.

Sharp Arrow was terribly conflicted, but he chose to remain on the reservation.

******

Lew retrieved the clothing that he had worn when he first arrived at the reservation.  Appropriately dressed, he was able to hike to the nearest town.  From there, he removed one of his gold coins from his knapsack, and used it to pay for passage on a stage coach to Billings.  He actually got change.  He used the change and one more gold coin to buy passage on the railroad from Billings to Atlanta, Georgia. 

His heart was beating wildly with anticipation of what lay ahead of him.  Notwithstanding how happy and excited he was to be going on this adventure, he missed Sharp Arrow, and cried himself to sleep every night.  He would masturbate, fantasizing that he and Sharp Arrow were making love.  It did not help remove his sadness.

Once he arrived in Atlanta everything went according to plan.  He was directed to a boarding house where he procured a room.  Within a week, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith.  A year later, the blacksmith died and the business was his.  He was a respected member of society, and many women were interested in him, but he could not get interested in any of them.  Sharp Arrow was the only lover he could think about.

His complacency was broken as the War Between the States seemed to be imminent.  He knew that he would be conscripted as a blacksmith in The Confederate Army.  He also knew that he had no time to waste.  He bought himself a fine steed, and packed the same gear he had taken with him to begin his exploration of The Lewis and Clark Trail.  He rode out of town under cover of night, and headed northwest.

He and his steed traveled for five difficult months.  His own experience of surviving in the wilderness, along with everything he learned from his Blackfoot brethren, kept him and his horse alive.  Then one day, there it was in front of him; the stockade fence. 

Lew sat still on his horse and started to cry.  He rode through the gate, and several young warriors recognized him and greeted him warmly.  They wanted to know if he had come “home” to stay.  He assured them that he had, and they welcomed him.  He rode directly to Sharp Arrow’s tent.  He tethered his steed, and walked right in.  The first person he encountered was Sharp Arrow’s brother.  He looked very sad, but when he saw who it was, his face lit up, and he embraced Lew.

“Thanks to The Great Spirit that you are here,” he said.  “Sharp Arrow is very ill.  After you left, he wouldn’t eat or drink, nor would he work in the fields.  Then our father died, and he became worse.  I fear he has only days, perhaps hours to live.  Go to him Lew.  If anyone can save him, it’s you.”

 “Tell your wife to make a nourishing brew.  I’ll get him to eat if I have to pour it down his gullet.”

Lew ran to the bedroll that he and Sharp Arrow had spent so many happy hours in.  He was shocked when he saw the man he loved.  He was hardly more than a skeleton.  He gently held the dying man in his arms, and whispered in Sharp Arrow’s ears, “I’m home now Friend.  Please get well for me.”

It had been many years since anyone had called him, “Friend.”  Sharp Arrow thought that he was dreaming.  He didn’t open his eyes, but he smiled.  Lew kissed him on both eyes and they shot open.  Sharp Arrow wanted to talk, but only a guttural sound came out. 

His brother brought a hot brew with a ladle.  Lew sat Sharp Arrow up, and began to feed him the soup. He resisted swallowing any of it at first, but Lew started to cry.  “Please,” he begged.  “Get well for my sake.”  Sharp Arrow forced himself to take a few spoonfuls, and then he fell asleep in Lew’s arms.

Somehow, Sharp Arrow knew that he was sleeping with his lover that night. He cuddled up as close as possible to Lew, and fell peacefully asleep.  It was the first time in months that he didn’t toss and turn all night. 

Lew whispered in his ear, “I’ll never leave you again.”

Miraculously Sharp Arrow gained strength daily.  It was a slow process, but at the end of six full moons, he was begging Lew to take him into the fields with him.  Lew kept telling him that it was too soon.  Finally Lew could delay no longer.  He sat Sharp Arrow down and said, “I have a confession to make.  I don’t go into the fields.   I ride my horse into the nearby town where I have opened a blacksmith shop.  The tribal elders gave me permission, and every cent I make I give to the tribe.”

Lew thought that Sharp Arrow would be angry, but he smiled at Lew, and said, “You do what makes you happy, and now I’ll resume doing what makes me happy.  I have you, and you have me.  What more can a man ask of The Great Spirit?”