A Road Without End
Chapter 2

Copyright© 2016 by RWMoranUSMCRet

David washed his body from head to toe standing in the natural basin formed of the hollowed rock next to the oasis far from the cluster of tents scattered like gaming cubes on the hot shifting sands.

The oasis was the one used mostly by the travelers on the road and not by the people of his village because the water sometimes was not pure enough for safe drinking and it was too risky to take that chance when they had no physician to tend their needs. David when he was younger had dreamed of becoming a doctor to tend to his tribe's illnesses but he was told in no uncertain terms by his mother that he was far too valuable as a shepherd of his family's financial success to get involved in taking care of other's problems. She drummed into him the necessity to think of his family first and not to be the "good Samaritan" sharing his last morsel of food with total strangers.

He had been worked hard by the sword master that had put him through all the classic moves of attack and defense and the sweat had poured off his battered body like rain from a stone roof. He even had several small nicks from overly enthusiastic clashes that had surprised him with their ferocity. The Roman taskmaster was a generation older than David but he was still astonishingly agile and his ability to find little chinks in David's defenses was the reason why he paid him extra coins after each session. No matter how hard he tried to learn all the tricks and movements, he found that the wily oldster had another trick up his sleeve that he hadn't shown him yet.

His sister Ruth thought it was humorous to imitate him with his sword fighting moves and she looked quite formidable in the way she hopped from the top of the empty barrels of olive oil to the long closed aqueduct that carried the precious drinking water into the town further down the hill. He spanked her tiny bottom to remind her that the village elders would take harsher measures with anyone that either accidently or intentionally damaged the system because it was the lifeblood of the village.

The practice swords were not very sharp but they stung with sufficient bite to make him determined to master the moves the talented swordsman showed him each session. He practiced on the padded dummy in the back room of the hut and his sister watched him with envy wishing she was the one wielding the sword and not him. His mother instructed him to remove himself to the hut of the tribal healer Samuel who was not really a physician but had knowledge of the herbs and healing potions that they had carried with them from Egypt so many years ago. He was wise enough to comprehend that his mother wanted him to sort through the four daughters of Samuel to select one to give her some grandchildren while she was still young enough to enjoy them.

They ranged in years from nineteen all the way down to sixteen with the youngest one barely having breasts developed enough to suckle a child. In all honesty, he had to admit they were all attractive for their own reasons but he was particularly attracted to the eldest girl whose name was Miriam.

Miriam had long flowing black hair as dark as the oasis on a moonless night.

She had a tendency to wear loose fitting dresses that did little to hide the fact she was not fond of undergarments. He knew it was probably shocking to the older generation but he found it tantalizingly exciting and was tempted to run his hands up under her dress and confirm his suspicions with certainty. Miriam was different than the others because she seldom giggled or hid her face behind her hand in accepted shyness and common for females of a virginal nature.

He didn't think that she had lost her virginity because he knew such a status would be unacceptable for many reasons for any unattached female of a recognized tribal family. Her family would be required to immediately ostracize her and eject her from the household. Since she was still the most senior child and recognized as the female most suitable for marriage, he availed himself of the opportunity to converse and noticed she trembled slightly when his hand crossed hers under the low eating table. It pained David to consider the need for mating and conceiving an heir for his family line but he knew the likelihood that he might be suddenly cut from existence was a constant threat and one that demanded him to couple within the bounds of accepted behavior sooner rather than later.

David made the necessary arrangements with his mother's financial organizer and soon the appropriate funds were transferred to the other family and he was informed the young bride would be meeting him under the canopy the following month. He had mixed feelings about that development because he felt somewhat constrained into the formality of union and a bit overwhelmed at the need to accept responsibility for his own household a lot sooner than he would have wished having a desire to see more of the world before settling down into the routine of making money for the family and starting his own family to carry on the line according to the conventional wisdom.

He envied the freedom of the Roman masters that roamed about at will and seemed to find no sin in coupling with females of any tribe or race in the privacy of their nocturnal quarters. His friend Brutus often described his encounters with the female slave servants that were generally expected to perform all manner of physical pleasures for the masters with abject obedience to their will and desire. He looked at the various females from far-off places like Germania and Frank-land as delicate flowers to be plucked and enjoyed while they blossomed with little thought to their personal likes or dislikes. He was a bit dismayed that the Roman was all caught up in exploring the limitations of the Nubian princess that was placed in his personal harem from the lower regions of the continent as a prize for his generosity in allowing the arena games to take place in the stadium near the town. It was much too advanced for a town of their size but now that they had it none of the elders wanted to lose the prestige of having duels to the death in their area of control because it gave them exulted recognition.

 
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