Chapter 22

Leolik was swimming at a good pace. He almost was not using his hands, working only with his flippers. The current was helping him. He was already swimming along an embankment. Despite the evening, there were ladies strolling along the promenade. There were customers in the caf; where they were drinking lemonade. They noticed him. The girls were pointing their fingers at him, shouting something. Leolik held his breath and dived in, continuing to swim along the current, working vigorously with his arms and legs. According to his understanding, he should have already been at the city wall. But it just would not appear. He already began to think that maybe he had swum into some channel. However, at last the walls appeared. A huge arch in the wall and near it there were boats, yachts, barges. There was a huge grate in the wall, and the grate was creaking down.
"Indeed! The Queen doesn't want to let me go!" - he was thinking.
 Leolik was working enthusiastically with his hands and feet, realizing that he was not managing that in time. Nyusha's suggestion that the grate had rusted and it had not been lowered for a hundred years - didn't prove to be true. The grate, though slowly and with a terrible creaking sound, still was lowering, regardless. It had already touched the water, but Leolik still had about twenty meters to go. Finally, he swam up to it, dived in and, moving his hands over the bars, began to descend lower and lower. The water was getting colder and colder. He was already thinking that everything was lost, but he reached the edge of the grating, dived under it and found himself at the other side of the grating, when suddenly it went down very sharply, dragging him down. And, finally, with a terrible rumble, it fell down. Leolik was short of air. He rushed up, but something was holding him by the leg. The grating pinned down one of his flippers. Leolik bent down, freed his leg from the flipper. And so, with one flipper, he jumped up to the surface of the water in a semi-fainting state. Holding on to the bars on the other side. He was breathing greedily, thinking feverishly.
If there was any protection on that gate, his favorite piece of jewelry might start strangling him again. But the pebble on his collar was attached well. Mara had done her best to attach it. And, it seemed to work. Leolik realized that it was necessary to swim away from here as quickly as possible. He inhaled some air and dived in. With one flipper it was not very comfortable to swim, he was being taken somewhere to the wrong directions. He made several more dives, trying to get as far away from the wall as possible. Then he lay onto his back and let the current carry him away. The stars were shining over his head, and the biggest star Blueberry was shining as well. He started paddling towards the shore, not really thinking about which one. There appeared some bushes and a small sandy beach. Leolik on all fours crawled out onto the beach and in that manner, on all fours, crawled into the bushes. He was really exhausted. He fell onto the sand and fell asleep at once. Even sex with three ladies did not exhaust him so much as this sportive swim, competing in speed with the grid.
He woke up early in the morning. The sun was just beginning to rise. His legs and arms were aching painfully. Leolik got onto his feet, made a few steps and almost fell down - his legs were painful. He got rid of the flipper, throwing it into the river. He unbuckled his gilded sandals from his belt. They were swollen, the leather on them became slippery. His gilded skirt was pathetic. Covered in mud, all of it. He tried to rinse it in the river, but he did not manage to make it far cleaner. Leolik took the knife out of its sheath. An excellent dagger. He cut his skirt in two parts. Into the one of them he made a hole for his head with the knife, and put his head through, so that he had a sort of cape over his shoulders. He passed the second piece between his legs and fastened it to his belt at the front and back of the waist. It was almost underpants.
He remembered that he needed to go to the East. But Geia was a strange planet. The sun did not rise on the East as it did on the Earth, but on the West. Milena had forgotten to tell him about that. So Leolik moved in the opposite direction, hoping to get to the road. And indeed, he reached some road. It was more like two ruts in the grass, not a highway. But it did not seem strange for Leolik.
"Probably that's the trace of carriages travelling along this road," - he thought, - "I've got to get as far away as possible, in case the Queen arranges one more chase. I wonder why Milena's changed the plan. Mara? Although they are friends, maybe it's really worked out better that way. Really, where's the smoke coming from? There was hardly any in the corridors. I wonder how the girls are doing now."
He walked briskly along the road, but his wet sandals were rubbing his feet, so Leolik took them off and walked barefoot. He looked back. At the horizon line there was the City of Women whitening. His feet stopped aching from walking, and Leolik, quite satisfied, was walking on, dreaming of his encounter with Milena.
Leolik went along the road for almost an hour. He was trying to follow the direction of the road, hoping that it would lead him somewhere. The road, for some reason, began to ascend gradually. Although the incline was not very steep, he was tired nevertheless. He decided to turn a little to the side of the road. He was tired of roadside bushes and trees, but they grew along the road, so he was not afraid of losing his direction. He walked just a little bit and came across a wheat field. For some reason he immediately realized it was wheat. He plucked a few spikelets and rubbed them in his palms. He put the grains into his mouth. Leolik, wondering how he knew something about wheat, returned to the road. He walked along the road for another forty minutes and decided to turn to the other side of the road and have a look at what was growing there. And it was indeed much more interesting than simple wheat. He noticed the pink field right away. Tits-grass! But as he got closer, he realized it wasn't tits-grass. A whole field of phallus-cacti. He recalled Tusya's words that they were bred from cacti. In front of him there was a whole field of male phalluses, standing upright. And they looked quite like real ones, ended with a head and flesh-colored. Leolik came up to the edge of the field. He sat down and with a knife forged one phallus-cactus out of the ground. Then he cut it open with a knife. There was something very fine spongy inside and it was quite difficult to cut. The smell was really pleasant, it smelled like a cucumber. Leolik was thinking what was the purpose of those plants? For lovemaking? But there would be enough for a million women here. He finally decided to walk through this field of phallus-cacti. He stepped with his feet and took a few steps inside. Oh, it was a delightful feeling. It was as if he was walking on rounded pebbles. But this pebble was springy and soft and warm on top. The sun had already risen and was warming up nicely. Leolik decided to lie for a while. Yes, it was very pleasant as well, it was like lying on warm and soft pebbles. He got up and decided to walk a little further. In the distance he noticed something like a pillar. When Leolik came closer, he gasped. It was a patriarch phallus. It was taller than Leolik's height and as thick as the girth of human arms. Leolik tried to put his arms around him, thinking to himself how silly it looked from the outside. Himself, hugging a giant cock. And that giant phallus decided to surprise Leolik. It suddenly shuddered and a fountain of whitish sticky liquid spurted from its tip. Leolik bounced away, but it still got on him. He licked it. Sweet, sticky. The smell of cucumbers. But other phallus-cacti, which were touched by that juice, also suddenly began to fountain, flooding Leolik's legs. Leolik, swearing, ran away from that patriarch cock. The small fountains were following him. When he reached the edge of the field, all his feet were covered with this sweet juice. Leolik did not know whether to cry or laugh. Suddenly he noticed an insect. It was a bee. Where did it fly from? But it was busily crawling along the cocks and its honeycomb was collecting sweet and sticky liquid. Leolik realized that he needed to leave as quickly as possible, that literally in half an hour there would be hundreds of thousands of bees there. And, for sure, they would start crawling onto his feet. He ran back to the road and started running at his full speed. Indeed, swarms of bees were flying towards him. He ran for about fifteen minutes, then stopped to catch his breath. The roadside dust had covered his feet, onto that sticky juice. His legs were black up to the knees.
"Well, I wish I could wash," - he thought, - "it's strange why the road keeps going up all the time. And how about the river? Where has it turned? Milena said to go eastward all the time and that the road was along the river. Well, I'm going east, probably correctly, but why does the road keep going up? Maybe I'm lost. But there it is, the road."
He noticed a small grove ahead. He quickened his steps. He entered that toy forest and was very happy. In the gaps of the trees, water flashed. It was a lake surrounded by trees. The shore was sandy. Leolik immediately threw off the rest of his rags onto the shore, wearing only his belt with a knife. He entered the water and began washing himself with pleasure, scrubbing the mud off his feet with sand.
- Yeah, I guess I'm lost. Milena didn't say anything about the lake. She mentioned only the river. Well, I need to walk along the shore of the lake and get to the road, anyway it would lead somewhere.
Clean and refreshed, he got out of the water, pulled on his rags and sandals, and walked slowly along the shore. He walked a little way. Literally after about two hundred meters he suddenly heard voices in the bushes.
Leolik instantly rushed into the bushes and fell to the ground. Why did he do so, he did not know. Probably, he decided not to risk it. He crawled to the place from where the voices were sounding and quietly looked out from behind the bushes.
The voices belonged to two men. The older one, was wearing a snow-white toga. The second, almost the same age as Leolik, but clearly younger, had a tunic on. They approached the water. They had baskets in their hands. They had obviously come for a picnic or for some relaxation.
The older man threw his toga off and remained naked. He spread it out onto the sand. The piece of cloth was huge. The younger one threw his tunic off and stayed naked as well. They were taking out food, fruit, bottles of wine, and arranging all that onto that piece of cloth. Leolik was watching attentively.
"Yeah, it would be a good idea to eat something right now," - he was thinking.
But going there with his rags on wasn't a good idea at all. And what should he do - ask them to feed him? They might misunderstand. And what could he explain to them, on earth? Leolik decided to watch how it all ends. After all, they came here to swim. The men drank some wine, took out some ham and began to cut it for a snack. Leolik was literally feeling in his mouth the taste and the smell of meat. He swallowed his saliva and continued watching. The men took a few more sips of the wine from the bottle.
- Finally, we're alone, - the older man said, - how are you feeling? Don't you mind? Do you wanna that?
- Yes, my Lord! I want that.
The older man kissed the younger one into the lips, moved closer to him and started patting his cock with his hand. The yonger fellow was doing the same with the older one. They fondled each other for a long time. The younger took the older's cock into his mouth and began sucking it with pleasure. Then the younger got on all fours, arching his back. And the older, kneeling on his knees, began fucking the younger into the ass.
Leolik gasped. A stupid phrase suddenly appeared in his head: "The gays weres eating, drinking, and fucking". Where the phrase came from, he did not know. The young and the old were moaning with pleasure. It seemed to be exciting for both of them. Finally, the old cummed. And both men fell onto the sand, exhausted.
Leolik, watching this picture, also felt horny. His cock was erected.
- They've gone mad without women here, for real, - he thought, - I guess I've really reached the wrong place. This is the City of Men. Well, how very dare they!
Meanwhile, the old and the young went for a swim. Leolik crawled to the unrolled piece of cloth, picked up the remains of the ham and the bottle of wine. Then he grabbed the toga and rushed to the bushes. The toga was dragging on the sand, hiding all his footsteps. In the bushes he wrapped the toga around his arm and sprinted as far away as he could. He ran for about fifteen minutes until he finally came to the road. He stopped and caught his breath. Then he sat down on the spread piece of cloth. He opened the bottle, took a sip. Then he used his dagger to cut up the rest of the ham, eating it. He had a very good and delicious meal, with appetite, drinking wine. The wine was red and not strong. Then he decided to get out of there, in case those two would notice the missing and catch him.
Leolik put the edge of the fabric over his left shoulder, then wrapped it around his back again over his shoulder. He found a pin-shaped clasp on the edge of the cloth. It had some sort of crest on it. Leolik fastened this pin onto his left shoulder. Then he fastened his belt over the fabric, hung his dagger on the left side. He put on his sandals, hid the unfinished bottle, the remains of the ham and his rags in the bushes. He walked quickly down the road. He was thinking where he had made a mistake, because he had got to an unwanted place, definitely. But that fact was not bothering him much, he was only thinking of one thing. How would Milena find him? He decided to follow the road, because it would lead him somewhere anyway. There appeared a forest ahead. And by the looks of it, those were pine trees. Compared to the toy bushes he had already seen on Gaia, they were gigantic. He had already entered the forest and had traveled a little way from the forest edge when he heard the stomping of horses' hooves. He was being pursued by riders on horses. It was useless to run, and Leolik was calmly waiting for them to catch him up.