Author's note: There is spanking in this chapter, don't like please don't bother to read it. Reviews as always highly appreciated. Please remember though, that this is a story that contains discipline that includes spanking but is NOT a spanking story. I hope that this clarifies things for everyone.
Will walked behind Tom until he was within a reasonable calling distance of the rugs, where Ed was sat nervously waiting for his turn with Will.
"OK Ed, lets go" said Will.
Ed stood up and Tom smiled at him weakly as they passed each other. When Ed reached Will's side he turned and they both made their way back to the tree stump Will had taken Tom too.
Will sat down on the stump and pulled Ed gently by his upper arm until he was standing in front of him. "Well young man do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"No, sir, except I'm sorry Tom got hurt." said Ed quietly whilst looking at his feet.
"Look at me Ed please" requested Will.
Ed raised his head so that he could look at Will.
"Look, I know Tom was in the wrong, teasing your younger friend and he practically goaded you into the fight, but you have to learn that fighting is not the best way to resolve an argument. As you get older you will find many people will make you angry and you will then probably have a gun. If you do not learn to control your temper by then, you will react and end up killing someone because of it, or, if they are either a better or quicker shot that you, you can be injured or killed. Is that what you want to happen?"
"No sir, it's sure isn't, I'm sorry, I promise to work harder on ignoring someone I know is teasing me"
"Good lad. Right then, when we are finished here, you will shake hands and apologise to Tom. I expect he will do the same and I do not expect to hear of you fighting again, or I will drop by and tell your pa about today. Do you understand young man?"
"YYY...Yes, sir"
With that, Will pulled Ed around to his right side and guided him down over his knees, positioning Ed carefully so that he would have a good target for his large hands. Wrapping his arm around Ed's waist he said, "I'm going to give you 20 swats Ed, you may cry out if you wish, but I do not want you fighting me on this, so no leg kicking or I will have to restrain your legs too. OK?"
"YY..Yes, sir" said Ed nervously.
Will took a very deep breath and raised his right hand high before bring it it down hard on the denim clad backside in front of him. SMACK. "Aaaarrgh", cried Ed.
Will continued at the same intensity for another 9 swats with Ed crying out at each swat. After the 10th swat Ed's backside was burning like never before. 'Damn' he thought – 'Will sure can deliver a spanking, this smarts' and he began to kick his legs in an attempt to get away from the pain.
Will wrapped his arms tighter around the waist of the young boy and put is right leg over Ed's legs to lock them down. Two smacks later, Ed then tried to turn himself over on Will's knees.
"Stop it Ed, keep still or I will be forced to smack harder." Will growled out stopping for a second.
Ed blanched, 'harder, oh no I can't cope with harder' and he stopped struggling and began to sob loudly. Will knew he was spanking hard and he wasn't immune to the young man's cries, but he knew that Ed needed this, to help him learn to control his temper as well as deal with the guilt for hurting his friend, also truthfully he wanted to get this over quickly for the both of them.
"Eight more Ed and we will be done". Will then started swatting again – he eased up on the intensity a little but swatted faster. A few seconds later he had reached the 20 swats he had told Ed he was getting, so he stopped and releasing Ed's legs he started rubbing his hand gently up and down on Ed's back. It took a few minutes of this before Ed realised that the painful swatting had stopped and that Will was rubbing his back gently whilst murmuring softly that he was forgiven and he would be OK.
Will felt Ed's breathing slow down and when Ed tried to stand, he helped him get up off his knees. When they were both standing, Will pulled Ed into a hug and Ed accepted it gratefully. "Your forgiven Ed, now please don't give me any reason to do that again OK?"
"No sir, I won't" said Ed. Will released Ed from the hug and Ed immediately reached back to rub the sting out of his burning backside.
"Come one Ed, lets go find the others, hopefully Hoss has returned with some firewood and we can start a fire and cook some of the fish. I've noticed you've caught quite a few and certainly enough for supper".
Ed nodded and Will put his arm around the younger man and led him back to the rugs. As they approached, they observed that Hoss had indeed returned with quite a good stack of firewood and that both he and Tom had already collected stones and had started to build a fire pit.
"OK then who's up for fish for supper?" said Will.
"I am", said Tom
"Yeah me too", said Ed.
"No sir, not for me, my brother said I can stay out for a while longer today but that supper will be saved for me back at the ranch. I've had a few snacks though so I'm not that hungry." said Hoss.
"OK, if you're sure Hoss" said Will. "OK boys go get me some of the fish and I'll build a fire and get the fish ready for cooking" said Will heading over to his horse and collecting his saddle bags and a smallish frying pan he had tied to his saddle-horn.
Tom, Ed and Will collected up the fish and returned to the rugs with them. "Will, Hoss was gonna take some home for his family" said Tom.
"Fine, then let him choose the ones he wants to and he can string them up and tie them to the tree branch over there" said Will not looking up from laying out the cooking utensils.
Hoss chose enough fish for the family to have for lunch tomorrow and the boys then helped him string them together. Tom and Ed willing to do anything to help distract them from their smarting behinds. Hoss then strung the fish up on a nearby branch and the boys returned to the rugs.
Meanwhile, Will had prepared and started the fire and had put on a pot of coffee for himself. "Hey, why don't you guys go clean up and I'll clean the fish." he said.
The younger boys wandered off to the lake's edge out of hearing distance and bent down to wash their hands. Tom's head was still fuzzy and he felt a bit sickly again, probably due to bending his head forwards to much whilst on one knee as he was trying hard not to let anything other than his clothes touch his sore backside. He lent further over to cup water into both of his hands so he could through it into his face and off balance he fell in to the shallow water. The water was much colder than earlier and it was a shock to his system but he was able to turn over quickly and he sat in the shallow water.
Ed and Hoss as soon as they saw Tom fall in, started laughing. "Will said wash up Tom, not take a bath!" laughed Ed.
Tom shook the water out of his hair and realised that his head felt a little clearer and the cold water was soothing to his sore butt. He looked up and saw both Ed and Hoss laughing at him and he started laughing too. "Yeah well I didn't mean to fall in did I?" he said. "But I gotta tell ya, it sure is soothing to a sore butt sitting in this water." and he splashed water at Ed who was nearest.
Ed bent forwards a little more and splashed back at Tom and then he turned to Hoss and splashed at him. "Water fight!" he said playfully and he tried to get back before Hoss could splash him back. Unfortunately like Tom he was kneeling down on one knee as had been trying to keep everything away from his backside and he was unable to turn away without losing his balance and he ended up falling into the shallow water, landing on his side. Hoss who had been kneeing down properly lent back and roared with laughter "Look who else is taking a bath" he said.
Will looked up at hearing the second splash and Hoss's laughter and standing, he watched to make sure that the boys were OK.
"You boys OK?" he called out.
"Yes sir everyone's fine", said Hoss. "Tom and Ed just fell in is all".
Will smiled to himself. 'Yeah right, I'm sure I heard splashing and laughter before. Oh well, 'so long as they are OK', he thought, 'I'm glad that they can still play with each other, it looks like their friendship is still going strong'. "OK then, you boys make sure you don't go any further into the water though hmm and watch out for Tom, his head isn't clear yet you hear me?"
"Yes sir, I'll keep an eye on him" said Hoss.
Meanwhile Ed had recovered from the shock of falling in and was sitting up and playfully, Tom and Ed were splashing each, other only stopping when they heard Will call out. Waiting until Hoss had finished replying they then started up again. "Come on Hoss, get in here" they called out.
Hoss grinned enjoying the fact that Tom and Ed were playing rather than fighting. "Ah, I don't know about that, I got nothing else to put on and I don't wanna go home wet".
"Oh come on Hoss, Will's got a fire going now, you can always dry your clothes out before you go home, we got blankets you can wrap yourself in whilst the clothes dry and we can listen to one of Wills stories" said Ed.
Thinking that it was a good idea and wanted to be part of the gang again, Hoss jumped into the shallow water splashing Tom and Ed in the process.
The boys stayed in the water splashing each other for a while, but when they became bored of that they just sat there and chatted. "You know what Tom, you're right about the water soothing a sore butt, Will sure knows how to spank. He only gave me half what my pa would have and that was only with his hands but I sure can feel it." said Ed ruefully rubbing his backside in the water.
Tom nodded, "Yeah he takes after our pa, I reckon he musta had a lot of spankings himself over the years, 'cos he sure knows where it hurts the most" replied Tom. "Look Ed, I'm real sorry I teased ya and Hoss I'm sorry I called you chicken, you ain't really I just wanted to get ya to join in."
"It OK Tom, I forgive ya, I'm sorry I hurt ya ribs does it hurt a lot? said Ed.
"Nope not much now, not sure if its 'cos the water is cold or the pain in my butt overrides it" said Tom sadly. "Anyway, it's my fault, if I hadn't teased and challenged ya, you wouldn't have hit me" he put his right hand out "Friends?" he queried. Ed shook the outstretched hand. "Sure" he said.
Tom let go of Ed's hand and reached out to Hoss. "Friends?" "Sure Tom", said Hoss shaking Tom's hand.
Will stood up drinking his coffee and watching the boys in the lake play and then just sitting talking ,whilst he kept a watchful eye on the fire. He saw them shaking hands and knowing that things were going to be OK between them, he returned to sitting down and started cleaning the fish ready for cooking.
When the fish were all gutted he put on a billy can of beans and placing the frying pan on a hot rock in the side of the fire, he put the as much of the fish as he could in the pan. Standing up again he called out to the boys "OK boys, time to get outta the water afore you shrivel up" before he started to unpack some plates, cutlery and some metal mugs from his saddle bags. Refilling the coffee pot with water and some more coffee he carefully returned the pot to the stone he was using in the fire as a stove.