We were the last of a dying breed. We were sexual entertainers and acrobats, the best, and because of that, we'd managed to struggle on when all the other troupes had finally collapsed. We'd always been small, and that's probably why we'd survived on our own as long as we had, but now we were in serious trouble, we were one body short.

Although there were ten of us altogether, it was basically a family troupe, and to a certain extent always had been, right from when my grandparents first started it round about 2230. Now, nearly fifty five years later, having reached a peak of twenty two members, and even then considered a small troupe, we were back down to ten. Jem and Shella are the oldest in the party at fifty two and forty nine respectively, and my parents; there's my two older brothers, Jek, thirty, and Pete, twenty eight, with their wives, Salla and Cin respectively both aged twenty seven; Relly, my sister, aged twenty four, plus two others, Liorn, thirty one, and his wife Ro, twenty six. My name is Kerr, and at twenty one I'm the youngest.

Salla, Cin, Liorn and Ro had all come from other troupes at various times. When there was more than one troupe, it was quite common for the troupes themselves to meet up during the off season to swap ideas, train up new talent, always easier like this, and just generally to have a two month long gossip and talk. This had also been the time when artists would move between troupes, allowing the different experiences to build up the troupes repertoires, because unlike ordinary circuses, in this profession there were no secrets between rival troupes. It was too specialised a profession to allow that. Salla had come like that, and then stayed when she and my eldest brother fell in love and married. Cin and Pete had met during the off season, and the only reason they stayed with us rather than going to Cin's troupe, was that we were temporarily short of a female performer as one of our performers had decided to leave the profession altogether, when quite by chance she had become pregnant...

Liorn and Ro had come to us at about the same time, but for a completely different reason. The troupe to which they had belonged had been forced to close down with massive debts. Over half of the performers had decided to retire and look for something else straight away, the rest moving to the three remaining troupes. We had taken only Liorn and Ro, as we never really wanted to be particularly big, just the best. Now, ten years later, we were the only troupe still going, the final one having closed down just a year earlier. We'd lost four performers in the mean time, but as luck would have it, we had managed to maintain our balance. We would have liked to have had one more couple, and ideally two, from outside the family. We had tried to tempt a few to come to us when the last troupe had closed, but sadly none of the redundant performers had really wanted to continue; they all assumed that we wouldn't be long behind them in folding. We regularly talked idly about giving it up, but none of us really wanted to, and while we were making a living, even if a poor one, we were determined to continue as long as we could. Ro in particular loved sex so much that if we'd had to close down, she would have gone on and done something else that would involve her having as much sex as she could possibly manage, and preferably in public as she was also an exhibitionist.

Ro had lost her virginity at fourteen, as was normal, but then, as was also normal, didn't have sex again until after her fifteenth birthday. When she started her training proper, her two trainers had been both excellent sex partners, as well as excellent acrobatic trainers. When the troupe had closed she was not quite seventeen, so had yet to perform in public, this being illegal until aged seventeen, and had come to us with the particular intention of proving that she really was good enough. Liorn had come with her because, unknown to her at the time, he'd been in love with her. They had been partnered fairly early on, and Liorn had used the opportunity to successfully woo the girl he loved. This combination of events had got her hooked on sex, to the extent that she was often the one who was pulled in to do acts when any of the other women were unable for whatever reason.

Jem and Shella, had virtually retired from active participation in the ring, and instead acted as coaches, trainers, costumers, ring masters and announcers. A couple of times a week they did their main turn, the rest of the time just filling in as and when necessary. Their particular act was always very popular, but they were no longer able to do it two or three times a day, every day. This was a real shame, as it was one none of the rest of us had ever mastered. Shella would hang over the trapeze, head one side, feet the other, looking away from her husband, whilst Jem would swing towards her on another. At the last possible moment, Shella would arch her back and spread her legs wide, and her husbands penis would slam into her vagina. This was done some thirty feet above the ground, and Shella never kept hold of her trapeze. It sounds simple, and even boring and uninteresting when described like that, but it was anything but. There were lots of things that could go wrong with it. With a serious miss, Shella could go flying off the trapeze, and as we used no safety net, she would hit the ground, or Jem could just miss his wife's vagina and hurt both of their genitalia quite seriously. Even if they did connect, there was no guarantee that the sudden jerk of their impact wouldn't cause one or both to fall.

Fortunately, it never had for them, but every time, in practice, something had gone wrong when any of the others tried it. Jek and Salla had tried it many times, once Jek had even broken his leg doing it. He had even tried it with both Cin and Ro, but after the experience, Ro had refused to ever try it again, Liorn had gone along with her and he'd never attempted it. I had tried it a couple of times with Salla, and once with Cin. Salla and I had so nearly succeeded the first time.

I had come flying down, and my erect penis had entered Salla's vagina neat and clean as anything, while her legs had gone around me to hold us secure. Unfortunately, she bounced slightly on her trapeze, and next thing we knew, the only thing stopping her from falling was the fact that her legs were gripping me tightly around the waist. Fortunately, being a practice, we were using a net, and in any case we were only five feet from the ground at this point, and everybody was there to rescue us. We had hung there laughing like drains for a few minutes until we had been rescued, my erection embedded deeply in Salla's vagina whilst her legs gripped me tightly. We had tried to rotate our hips a little, simulating real sex, not for the sex, but for the amusement factor. Our subsequent, and only other, attempt had been a severe disaster, putting us both out of action for a couple of days, as had my one and only attempt with Cin.

So, that was one act that was about to die.

We had another problem. A much more subtle problem, and one that probably wouldn't show itself for a few more years yet. Trainees and juniors.

Juniors had to have already joined us by the time they were eleven. In theory, by the time they were eleven, if they hadn't done any training with us of any sort, it was usually not possible for them to adjust to our way of life, as natural prudishness had started to set in. Occasionally older children were accepted, but they had to show a particular aptitude, and probably be ahead of whatever age group they would join. However we absolutely would not take on fourteen-year-olds or over under any circumstances as by then the training was too specific.

Outsiders, those not part of a troupe family, were expected to live with their own family up until they lost their virginity at fourteen, at which point they would move in with us on a permanent basis, and continue their ordinary education alongside their new training.

In practice and training sessions, every single person would be naked, even for those acts where costumes would be worn on stage. This was to get juniors and trainees in particular used to the sight of other naked bodies, and used to handling them, and being handled whilst naked. This happened right from when they first joined us, some as young as eight which was the youngest we would accept as it was the youngest at which we were allowed to start the training. Initially, the training was solely acrobatic, there would be no true sexual element to their training until they were fifteen, but for about three or four hours every day, and for six days every week, the under twelve's would be running, jumping, springing handstands and all sorts of general acrobatic routines designed to get them fit, strong and flexible. These exercises would never stop for the duration of their careers, right up until they retired at fifty or sixty.

Round about their twelfth birthday those that were thought suitable to continue the training were allowed to sit through a complete show, and watch what was going on. We had always rejected about thirty percent at this stage, some because of their looks, height or weight, we had minimum and maximum heights and weights; some because they hadn't reached a particular level of skill and fitness, and a few because we thought that either their attitude or their psychological make up were unsuitable.

Although strictly illegal for a twelve-year-old to watch the show, we'd had special legal dispensation, which along with parental and individual judicial permission, allowed us to let them watch. Having seen the complete show, they would then be given the opportunity to leave, which about twenty five percent did. Those that stayed joined the under fourteens and had extra lessons and training heaped on them. First, at the start of every day, all the under fourteens would be expected to sit, stand, lie, kneel, whatever they wanted, in a circle, boys and girls together, and masturbate themselves to climax. Surprisingly, this was much harder than it sounded, as the newer ones in particular got very embarrassed, which in turn occasionally made the older ones uncomfortable. The trainers, always much older, sometimes retired, performers, were used to this, and were able to reassure and help those who had problems, and it was unusual for them not to come through. On top of this was a series of lectures and classes, both about the sex act itself, about how and why we did what we did, and also the rules and moral strictures we lived by. There was a lot of theoretical work involved, and by the time they were fourteen, most of them knew as much as, if not more than, all but specialist doctors and nurses, about the genitalia and human reproduction. In fact it was not unknown for a few, once retired, to go into the medical profession specialising in reproductive medicine.

After three months in the U14's, new recruits would have yet another task thrust upon them. Once or twice a week, at the end of the day, they would be expected to masturbate one of the other class members to orgasm. Sometimes it would be a member of their own sex, other times a member of the opposite sex, but always chosen for them, and at all times closely supervised, and never in groups of more than about three pairs plus the instructor, the rest of the class finishing early. However, after having masturbated only themselves almost every day for three months, the first two other people they would masturbate would be their instructors. First of their own sex, then of the opposite. This was always a half hour one on one session, though always in sight of whatever else was going on, which could take three or four days; and only when the relevant instructor was happy, were they allowed to proceed to the next stage, to the instructor of the opposite sex, and finally to their fellow trainees.

When I was seventeen I had watched one of these classes, and watching twelve and thirteen-year-olds masturbating each other was surprisingly sensual. As a twelve and thirteen-year-old though, it had felt more like a chore, whether masturbating myself or someone else, albeit a chore with a climax.

On top of this of course, there was still all the acrobatic training which now included rather more relevant exercises, but still without any overt sexuality, plus the regular education, which often meant that they seemed to work as hard, or harder, than the professionals. Though in actual fact this was only in comparison to what had gone on before. Once they were actually working, many would reflect back to this time and realise just how easy it really was.

Once a recruit was fourteen they moved into the under 15's group and would be expected to lose their virginity. This was always left to their family to organise, and in fact there were a lot of traditions, rituals and customs that had built up over the years. Some had come from us, but most were much older that we had built on and which had allowed such shows to come into being in the first place. We never enquired as to how it was done, but it was rare for it to not be what we expected.

Within three weeks of this, recruits still living outside the show ground were expected to move in with us full time. This was because now they had lost their virginity we wanted to watch them closely, to ensure that there was no psychological damage, there rarely was because we hoped to have screened out all those we thought might be affected, but it did happen occasionally.

For the next year the training didn't change very much, though the U15 group, now far smaller than the U12 group, often barely half the size, would be expected to masturbate someone else every day of their training. At first this was only within the group, and now regularly included the instructors, but after about six months or so they would be expected to masturbate anyone the instructors wanted them to. Almost every other day at least one, and sometimes more, of the professionals and full trainees would get roped in to come and be masturbated by a fourteen-year-old trainee. During my final year as a full trainee, in the months before I was seventeen, and even in my first year in the full troupe, I had regularly been masturbated by fourteen-year-olds, and I'd found it strangely exciting. When I'd been doing it though it had felt much scarier. Trying to bring a veteran of twenty years in the ring to climax was not easy, and they always seemed to try and make it as awkward for us as possible. At least, that's how it had always felt to me.

During this time the trainees would not be allowed to have sex with anybody. Only to masturbate, and to be masturbated. Even oral sex was out. Anybody caught breaking this rule was instantly dismissed. I only ever knew of one person ever being dismissed, and that was because she had sneaked out and had had sex with an old boyfriend from outside the troupe. She thought she'd been careful, and was very surprised indeed when informed that she was to go and why. She tried to deny it, but the proof of her guilt was so overwhelming that there was no denial, and out she went. Even suspicion was normally enough to get someone expelled. This was only slightly more common, but by this time the trainees knew that this was what they wanted to do, and were extremely careful about what they did, where, and with whom. None of them wanted to be dismissed for no reason.

The acrobatic training changed only very slightly for the U15's. The males were expected to try and keep an erection, or at least the semblance of an erection, for anything up to ten minutes at a time whilst doing their exercises. For the girls it wasn't as obvious, but shortly after they turned fourteen, any pubic hair around the labia was permanently removed, and the instructors would be looking out for labia, and therefore vaginas, which were obviously closed, during the routines. There was no punishment for getting it wrong, but obviously everybody, both male and female, knew that they would be unable to proceed to the next step if they were unable to maintain a semi-aroused state. Most quickly got the hang of it, and learned that asking for help, and giving help when asked, was both expected and required. No one was ever failed because of problems maintaining arousal, simply because by the time they were fifteen, every single person was up to the required standard.

Once they turned fifteen, the final training was upon them, and they were known as full trainees. By now, hopefully, the various instructors would have decided which of the students would be better at which of the acts, and would start to tailor the training accordingly. At first it was very general, but over the two years until they were about seventeen, and ready to join the adult troupe, they would be schooled and trained in the various different aspects and disciplines, but always with an emphasis on their own strengths, though their weaknesses were not allowed to become failings either, as we were generally expected to be able to turn our hands to almost anything should it become absolutely necessary. The sexual side of the training was much the same though, whichever of the various disciplines they were destined for.

The first day as a full trainee would be spent by the male trainee penetrating first the female instructor, then all the female trainees from most senior to most junior, in order, but just for a few seconds. The new female trainee would spend the day being penetrated by the male instructor, then all the male trainees from senior to junior, again in order, and again for just a few seconds. By the end of the first week it was common for all the trainees to be engaging in penetration, at least a dozen times every day and it was felt that this would be a useful start.

The masturbation stopped within a week or so of them becoming full trainees. Instead, they would start each day by having sex with someone, sometimes oral sex, which was at last brought into the curriculum, and sometimes penetrative sex. Initially it would be the appropriate under seventeen instructor, but after three or four weeks or so it could be with absolutely anybody, first from the U17 group, and later anybody at all. As a fifteen-year-old, I'd found that making love, or at least, having sex, with my forty-four year-old instructor every day for nearly a month was at first strange, and then strangely relaxing. At some point, usually about two months into this stage of their training, the trainee would spend two or three days with a specific sexual trainer, who would educate them in all the ways of sex and lovemaking. An intense practical session, as by now the student was extremely well versed in the theory, that usually left the student a fucked out wreck. My instructor for this had been a twenty-seven year-old with a figure to die for. I thought I was in heaven when I found out who it was to be, but at the end of it I crawled away thinking I was about to die. I didn't of course, but it took me a few months to realise what she had taught me, and to a certain extent, even now six years later, I was still occasionally discovering aspects of her training that I hadn't thought of before.

Strangely, a very small percentage of students decided at this point that they were no longer interested, but if a student had reached their sixteenth birthday and had still not dropped out, there was an extremely high probability that they would remain until at least their thirtieth birthday.

From a month or so after their practical sex education, a student would be expected to spend one complete night every two weeks with another student, hopefully making love before they slept. I had found this strange at first, and I know the other students did as well, but we soon got the hang of what we were doing. If there was not enough students of the appropriate gender so that they would have different partners for at least three months, i.e. a minimum of seven members of the opposite sex in the group, then the instructors would get roped in as well. In my group there had been just six trainees in all, three males, three females, so all of the instructors had to get involved, which I happen to know irritated those who were still trying to train the few under twelves, and under fourteens, they had left. About three months before their seventeenth, they would start to spend these nights with a senior from the full troupe. Again a different one each time, and from shortly after their sixteenth they would be doing full acts, even if only ever in the practice ring, though small parts would be done from when they became full trainees at fifteen, and even at that age they would now be penetrating, or being penetrated, at least a dozen times every day they were training, rising slowly until it had doubled or more by the time they were seventeen.

When they were seventeen, those that still wanted to, which usually meant everybody, then signed up for the full troupe, at which point they might end up doing live performances quite quickly, but in any case became fully involved with the performances, even if, at first, only as stage hands, or helping performers before they went on, or after they came off. They had all the perks and privileges, as well as all the responsibilities that went with them, so that even if they weren't in any of the performances, they would be spending at very least one night every two weeks with another full member, making love, and they would be expected to practice and train so that eventually they would go into the ring as well. It was very rare indeed that someone didn't go into the ring at least once within the first three months, and even rarer for them not to go in in the first six. If the latter happened though, they were usually dismissed, though occasionally there would be some genuine reason and the person would stay in the troupe, but if the situation hadn't changed by their eighteenth birthday, then they were out, regardless of the reason.

Because everything happened on the persons birthday, or at least was based around it, there was usually a steady trickle of movements from one group to the next, and eventually into the full troupe.

But we now had a problem. I was the youngest in the troupe, and I was twenty one. We had no younger members, no juniors and trainees. Indeed, much of my training had been at another troupe, as there had not been enough people for both troupes to have training classes large enough to be practical. Now though, there were no other troupes. When the last troupe with a training class, had closed down, we had brought them to us, and for nearly half a year we had kept them going, but, slowly at first, and then much faster, they had drifted away. The last pair had left us over a year ago and no troupes and no trainees meant a gaping hole behind us that would take at least ten years to fill. If we could start now. If we didn't get trainees quickly, we knew we would have to close down within ten to twenty years. Jem had been in touch with many of the other performing arts schools, had placed adverts in many of the local papers at the towns and cities we passed through, but we never had anybody stay on for more than a few months as we just couldn't get enough in the classes to make it interesting enough. We were in serious long term decline.

We needed fifty plus U12's, eight to eleven-year-olds, at any one time. From a group of that size, around thirty would come up to the U14's, about twenty two to the U15's, and about seventeen would become full trainees. One or two more would drop out before they were sixteen, and another one or two before they were eighteen. So out of fifty under twelves, we would expect to get around fourteen staying beyond their eighteenth, which would be about three or four a year from around one hundred and twenty in training at any one time. Most troupes needed about two a year minimum, and the only reason we had managed to survive without any for the last year or two, was the fact that we had become so small that every body really did have a say in the running of the show, and this meant they found it more interesting to stay.

Jek was still sort of expecting the show to come to him when our father retired, but Salla, his wife, wasn't so certain she wanted it, and I knew that both she and Cin wanted children, which would put them out for nearly three years minimum. The entire pregnancy, plus the subsequent two years, and that assumed that they didn't have any more children in the meanwhile. Ro was still happy as she was, fortunately, and neither Relly nor I had found a partner, indeed there was no one else within the troupe for either of us to have as a partner. We were in quite a desperate situation. Strictly, Relly should have moved to another troupe, brothers and sisters were almost always split up. Generally, though not always, brothers would stay with their original troupe while sisters would move on. Relly had moved on briefly, had come back to us when that troupe had closed down, moved on once more, and come back a second time for the same reason, and stayed.

Now though, we had a much more immediate disaster on our hands. Liorn had broken both his legs, nothing to do with the show, he'd got drunk after a birthday celebration and fallen down a ditch, and would now be out completely, his legs still in plast for at very least another six or eight weeks, and after that, he would need muscle physio with only static and slow ground work for another few weeks while he built up his muscles again before he even saw the inside of the ring again.

This meant that his four main acts had to be performed by other people or dropped. After a long discussion, it was decided to drop one, not because it was particularly difficult or anything like that, but simply because it was one of the least exciting, more of a filler anyway. Two of the other three acts were easily sorted, Jek took over one and Pete the other. The third was rather more difficult and caused us a lot of grief.

The ones Pete and Jek had taken over, involved only Ro, but the third, known by its code as E3, also involved Relly. This wouldn't necessarily have been a problem, except that it involved penetration. Many of the acts we did, did not involve penetration, so working with another member of the family was not a problem. I had had my face in my sister's crotch regularly, as well as my mother's, and my prick in their mouths almost as regularly, and there wasn't a show go by when Relly would have her crotch handled by one or other of her brothers or occasionally her father, but there had always been a moral code within the profession that said that absolutely no public penetration of one family member by another would be done, and unless absolutely necessary none in private either. Now, with Liorn out of action, all the other male members of the troupe were family members. There had always been physical contact with other members of the family of course, both Shella and Relly had had the penis' of all five male members of the team in their mouths and hands, and we in turn had touched them all over with our hands and mouths, but apart from Shella with her husband, Liorn was the only person who had ever penetrated either of them, at least as far as our work went. Jem had taken Relly's virginity when she was fourteen of course, as was traditional in every family, just as Shella had taken each of her sons when they in turn reached fourteen. It was only the four outsiders, all non blood related, Ro, Liorn, Salla and Cin who were able to take anyone at any time.

It had been agreed that Ro and I would do it, but the discussion then centred on who would do it with us. Neither Salla nor Cin particularly wanted to do it as they were both already doing a lot more acts than Relly - a consequence of her being blood related to four of the five men in the troupe. Both said that Relly should carry on, but that it should be modified so that Ro took all the penetration. After a lot of heated discussion this was reluctantly agreed upon and we spent some time working out the changes.

After about an hour, we came to the conclusion that we were going to have to modify part of it quite considerably, or cut it out altogether. Ro, Relly, and I retired to the main arena to practice the changes and work out the best way of doing the finale. Jem came along to watch and offer his advice, but in the end it wasn't needed. We were professionals at what we were doing, and understood what wouldn't work as well as what might work.

The routine was a quick fire comic dance type routine, during which, under normal circumstances, Ro would have taken her husband's penis inside her vagina four times, and her mouth twice, whilst Relly would have taken him three times in each. The easy changes meant that we dropped one of Ro's vaginal entries, but gave her two of Relly's instead, passing one of her oral entries to Relly in turn. This might sound slightly odd, Relly was losing two, Ro gaining one, so apparently it would be one of Relly's that was dropped, but in fact it was all to do with timing and the strict order of what happened when.

Unfortunately it was the ending which was causing us the most problems. What should have happened was that Liorn would have sprung a hand stand over Ro, kissing her crotch as he went, do a summersault in the air, and then land on top of Relly, penetrating her from behind. This was the only one that we couldn't just swap, as the two girls would be in the wrong places from their previous moves, and believe me, we tried. After some discussion, we decided that Relly would lie on her back instead, and we would do a sixty nine to finish off with. This meant that one of us would have to spin around as well as the other changes we would each have to make, so that we would be head to foot.