TITLE: A New Life 2/6
AUTHOR: Anne
RATING: R
PAIRING: Giles/Buffy
FEEDBACK: Oh yes please!
E-MAIL: bookmangal@yahoo.fr
CATEGORY: Action/Adventure
SUMMARY: Q gives Buffy and Giles a new life.
SPOILERS: none.
TIMELINE: Set in the future.
DISTRIBUTION: ODD. The BG Zone; Tweedy book guy; WatcherGirls. UCSL. Anyone else ask first please.
DISCLAIMER: The characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar Productions, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th Century Fox Television and the UPN Television Network. The story is written for the pleasure of the author and readers, and has no lucrative purpose whatsoever.
DISCLAIMER: For Star Trek the Next Generation: I do not own ST: TNG in any way or form. The Next Generation and related material are the property of Paramount Pictures. Characters used here are done so for fun, not profit. No copyright infringement is intended. Please don't reproduce this story anywhere without the author's consent.
WARNING: this part: graphic violence.
THANKS: thank you Annuette and Caz.
[thoughts]

Giles woke up many hours later, while it was dark. He perceived the full moon shining in the immense black sky dotted with stars and was suddenly shaken by a series of shudders. The air was damp and cold. He stood up with difficulty because he was quite stiffened and once up, he staggered in the direction of the lifeboat. He collected his meager forces and pulled it under the palm trees where he had slept a comatose sleep. He turned it upside down then lifted it and managed to slide himself underneath to protect himself from the cold and from the humidity, which contracted his painful muscles. He had no difficulty in falling asleep again. He was utterly spent.

*

When the Watcher crawled from under the lifeboat, the sun was already high in the azure sky. Feeling a little better but still being thirsty and hungry, he went inland hoping to find a stream or even better a river, there he would be able to drink and find trees perhaps with some fruits. He walked for more than an hour in thick jungle, grazing his feet, legs and hands without discovering anything. He was going to turn back to the beach, when he heard a noise, which he did not succeed in identifying: a sort of whistling. Suddenly a heavy net came down on him and he fell to his knees under its weight. Through the mesh he saw several muscular men, their body covered with paintings, red, white and black, with multicolored feathers in their hair approaching him carefully. They were armed with lances with flint points, which they held in front of them, or a bow and quiver filled with arrows and protected themselves with a round shield decorated with an animal picture.

"I mean you no harm." Giles said.

One of the warriors pricked his shoulder with the point of his lance he shouted and raised his hands.

"Do not hurt me. I am not your enemy. I am harmless. "

Two natives lifted the net to free Giles who immediately fled. He ran as fast as he could straight ahead, the natives on his heels and half an hour later finally reached "his beach". There, the warriors parted to surround him. Giles soon found himself in the center of a circle of lances. Three men left the group for some moments then returned each holding a liana at the end of which was a smooth knot. The circle of lances backed off some steps and the three natives approached the Watcher, spinning their lassoes. They suddenly launched them and the running knots surrounded Giles' neck, capturing him as if he was a horse. The three men pulled violently at their lianas, choking the Watcher. They made him run along the beach for almost an hour, until he collapsed, out of breath and energy. One of the warriors hit him on the temple with the shaft of his lance and he immediately lost consciousness.

*
* *

Giles regained consciousness and noticed several things: 1. Several persons around him, men, women and children, all naked, covered with red, white and black painting, with feathers in their hair, they touched his naked body then looked at their hands, some were frightened, the others curious, others were fascinated. 2. He thought that it was doubtless that this was the first time they had seen a white man and believed that he was painted in white. 3. It was again dark, thus he had remained passed out for long hours. 4. His wrists were bound and he was suspended from a high branch, some centimeters off the ground. 5. The muscles of his arms ached horribly. 6. He was right by a primitive village situated near a small creek. It was composed of huts made by the interlacing of branches and by palms with a roof made of big, wide leaves.

The lance of a warrior severed the lianas, which were attached to the Watcher's wrists suspending him from the tree. He fell heavily to the ground. He wanted to stand up but was incapable of it. He was exhausted and his whole body was sore. Two warriors raised him and transported him into a hut. They laid him down on a mattress of dry herbs then went away. An old man joined the Watcher a bit later, holding two halves of a coconut, the first one was filled with water, the second of grease. He wet Giles' dried out and cut lips before making him drink. The younger man drank in sips and grimaced when swallowing each of them, his throat was scorched and constricted by thirst. When Giles had swallowed all the water, the old man plunged his fingers into the grease and applied it over his sunburned face, then added a layer of it on his damaged lips. He applied then, bit by bit, all the contents of the bowl over the Watcher's body. Giles moaned with pleasure, despite the grease smelling bad, it soothed the sensation of burn, which overwhelmed him as well as all the different pains, which assailed him.

"Thank you." He said.

Another native entered the hut. He was regal, powerfully built and had a crown of red and white feathers on his head. He held a long stick ended by several sculptured human heads. Giles guessed that it was the Leader. He watched the Leader moving towards him, then kneeling down near him. He then watched him examining his teeth and feeling the painful muscles of his arms. Giles quivered. The Leader examined him like an animal at a fair. Did he intend to sell him to somebody? Was he going to become a slave? Frightened, he thought that as soon as he felt in better shape, he would run away. He frowned, to go where? He was no doubt on a small island forgotten by the world and especially by the maps. He could not hide for long. He frowned when the old man approached with another half of coconut filled with spices, which burnt slowly and exhaled a bitter smoke. He felt bit by bit a sweet torpor invading him; his body became heavy and his vision blurred. This smoke was anaesthetizing. He fought against the urge to sleep, which submerged him then gave up to it. He fell asleep.

*
* *

Much later

When Giles woke up, he was surprised to discover that he was sat in a natural washbasin filled with cool and crystal clear water situated at the edge of a river. Two women were standing near him and rubbed his rested and healed body again using natural sponges. He noticed that he had had to sleep for a long time because his sunburn and his different wounds had disappeared. The youngest of the women suddenly stopped cleaning him to take a razor made from a stone possessing a sharp edge. She scraped it on his bearded cheeks. Giles immediately ceased moving. The other woman, the one who was old began combing him with a rudimentary comb made from a sculpted bone. When he was clean, combed and shaved (his hair were cut), the two natives each took Giles by his hand and brought him into the biggest of the huts, the one that belonged to the Leader and he remembered the muscular man.

The Leader walked around Giles several times, observing him intently, and looking satisfied he then stopped to look again at the Watcher's teeth and to feel the muscles of his arms again. He then beckoned. The two warriors who were standing near the door rushed on Giles and seized him. They immobilized him whilst the Leader attached his hands behind his back with a liana. He then encircled his neck with a running knot and pulled Giles to him, roughly. The Watcher emitted a choked shout of pain and followed the Leader outside the hut.

Once Giles was outside, the young lady who had washed him and who had shaved him, underlined the outlines of his muscles with black painting. When she had finished, she plunged her clean hand into another half of coconut filled with red paint this time and began painting his penis and his testicles. Under the contact of fingers and palm of the young woman, Giles felt his sex sitting up and he was violently ashamed and overcome with embarrassment. To control himself, the Watcher concentrated on what the Leader had foreseen for him instead of thinking of the delicious sensations which the agile hands of the native produced in him: The leader had looked at his teeth twice, felt the muscles of his arms twice, he had been looked after, washed, combed, shaved, his muscles and his sex highlighted by painting … If it had been a beef, it would have meant his participation in an agricultural show with the aim of being admired, then sold … He doubted that the natives knew the terms to sell and to buy, and thought that they rather practiced barter. The Leader was going to exchange him for something valuable and he would doubtless become the slave of his future owner.

Giles emitted another choked shout of pain when the Leader pulled him to him again and against his will he followed the native who went into the jungle, which extended behind the village. Two warriors accompanied them. After a half-day of walking on a narrow path, the four men reached the other side of the island, right by another village built at the edge of the beach. Giles knew then that he was indeed on a small island and that at least two tribes lived there, which had stayed in the Paleolithic age. He noted that the huts were identical to those of the other village but they were surrounded with big pebbles. He noticed that people around him naked too and painted in green and blue was not interested in him as in the other village and wondered why. The Leader stopped in front of the biggest of the huts, that of the Leader of the village and shouted:

"Hoivaa omia namo kupa!"

A tall and brawny man with a crown of blue and green feathers on his head came out of the hut 10 seconds later, leaning on a long stick decorated with sculptured heads of birds. He immediately opened his eyes with bewilderment at seeing Giles.

"Gomia nataa merak sallaa. Baadi oru nibaat!" The Leader with the crown of red and white feathers on his head said touching Giles' shoulder. "Nedoppi iman kara Epoku." He stretched out then the end of the liana, which he held to the other Leader and added: "Faailed nibaat!"

The other Leader nodded and took the end of the liana. He then turned around and called: "Epoku!"

A beautiful young woman came out of the hut then and glanced at Giles stunned, and then she looked at the Leader of the other village, her eyes shining with pleasure and desire. When he held out to his hand, she took it and came near him. The Leader with the crown of blue and green feathers on his head smiled, happy then pulled Giles up to the closest palm tree and attached him to the trunk. He gestured so that he sit down on the sand and the Watcher obeyed reluctantly.

"I am a bloody wedding present!" Giles said watching the couple kissing upset to be decreased to the rank of object. "I am a man! A man! Not an object!"

The native raised his hand and slapped Giles hard.

"Valaa!"

[It surely means, "Shut up!"] Giles thought glaring at the man then he shut his mouth up as the Leader had ordered him.

The Leader went away.

"Pillock!"

The Watcher remained alone to be entertained by his fate as object and future slave, to think of his parents, family, friends that he loved and who considered him dead, for almost quite the afternoon while the marriage's party was going full swing in the center of the village. It was sunset when an old woman brought him a half of coconut filled with pieces of stewed fish and he hurried to eat them. He had swallowed nothing for days. He stretched out his empty bowl to the native then brought several times his fingers in his mouth to make sign that he was still hungry. The old woman returned with a bowl of water, which Giles drank very fast, he was thirsty. He will have no more food tonight. The old woman left him alone then. His stomach groaning with lack of food, his thirst past, tired by his long walking in the jungle, he rolled himself in ball at the foot of the palm tree and fell asleep.

Giles was woken by a kick in his ribs and moaned with pain. He saw the Leader of the tribe standing near him. The man had his left hand covered with black painting. Using his other hand, he untied the Watcher and made gestured so that he placed himself on all fours in front of him. Giles complied reluctantly and jumped when the native left the imprint of his hand on his shoulder then on his buttocks, marking him as an animal, as his.

"Nibaat moe."

Giles nodded Giles and scolded: "Yes, I belong to you, I know."

The Leader suddenly raised Giles's head with the running knot, choking him almost then he pulled Giles behind him up to the center of the village and called:

"Eloo! Eloo!"

Those who were in their huts joined those who were not there and all assembled around their Leader and around the white man. The native showed them the black imprints of his hands on Giles' skin meaning them that he was his property. He turned then towards the Watcher and with his finger indicated the ground. Giles understood that he wanted him to kneel and did it, his face unmoved, his jaws clenched, dreaming of being able to escape this island. The crowd were impressed and the Leader very proud to have a slave. Suddenly he put his foot on Giles' back, pinning him on the sandy ground then pulled at the running knot. The Watcher began to choke and struggled. The Leader did not loosen the pressure, neither that of his foot on Giles's back nor that of the liana which choked him. Giles guessed that the man was doing this to show to his people who were even more impressed, and to him too that he has the power of life and death over him, that he was completely his.

"Etto has ferasa aa me teo numad!" the Leader said before removing his foot of Giles' back and undoing the running knot.

The Watcher began sucking up the air as a man saved from the drowning, then he lost consciousness. *
* *

The rain, the wind and the thunderstorm awakened Giles in the middle of the night. Drenched, shaken by shudders, he squeezed up against the rough trunk of the palm tree at first, before realizing that he was standing under a tree while flashes of lighting streaked the sky. He removed the running knot of his neck and got up. He glanced around him and saw nobody. The storm raged and all the natives were in their huts shaken by squalls. He did not see a single human being - the guards including - the light of flashes of lighting allowed him to distinguish several dugouts aligned on the beach hundred of meters on his left. His heart was thumping in his breast. It was the perfect occasion to escape! He ran until the first one of the boats, verified that there were paddles inside and pushed it in the direction of the wild ocean. As soon as it was on the water, he jumped inside and began paddling at top speed, using of all his energy to fight against the waves, which were going to crash on the beach.

Having cleared several series of high waves then after having paddled some hundreds of meters Giles stopped faced a real wall of gray water and coral reefs. A wave crashed on him, pinning him inside of the dugout, filling it with cold water, another one made the boat turn over and Giles found himself thrown in the cold water shaken on the corals which tore the skin of his shoulders, his back and his arms, his legs too. His cries of pain got lost among the deafening noise of the thunderstorm, the wind which had strengthened and the waves which crashed on the beach and which pushed away him there, violently. Once in the sand he lost consciousness.

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