🔭 Nab the Scout

Next generation 360-degree scouting skills! 😎 Or how to not get bored at your work place...

Nab is a former slave who was freed by the scientist Cyrus Smith, who purchased him from the previous owner only to set him free.

Young Nab had some phenomenal skills and could easily make a living on his mastery of flexible dancing, but he felt like his life from now on belongs entirely to Cyrus Smith and begged to let him follow and serve to the best of his ability.

Seeing it was little change from slavery, Cyrus disagreed at first but then learned to see Nab as a very close friend, and friendship has nothing to do with slavery of course, so in the end Cyrus wholeheartedly agreed to let Nab follow.

Nab's main interest in life was improving his contotion skills, but as Cyrus learned it wasn't because his former owners toyed with his body like a piece of rubber. It started way earlier for Nab, when he was born to an African tribe famous for their stretching practices.

And Nab was pretty shameless to admit he was way better than the other kids, so good it eventually attracted the unwanted attention. He spent weeks in captivity and then was sold to slavery like a living toy. We all know the cruelty of children who eventually get bored with their toys, adults are only so much worse.

But the months of cruel treatment didn't break Nab's spirit or his spine, deep inside he was happy because his own family back in Africa never pushed him far enough. The American sadists had no limits and Nab got a lot more flexible very quickly. It was like a breakthrough to the second tier of legendary flexibility, made him feel almost godlike despite being a slave.

So having learned about Nab's main interest, the two used the scientific genius of Cyrus Smith to come up with completely new devices and training techniques to stretch Nab's body in even more incredible ways than before and get him to the third tier.

Cyrus learned that having a contortion trainee can be a whole lot of fun and they both brainstormed every evening to figure out what muscles and joints were still open to hyperextension in Nab's body. Every evening the boy would put on quite a show for his personal savior.

Nab's personal favorite was twisting his spine, turning his chest around while keeping his hipbone fixed. They set the goal to try and turn Nab's shoulders full 360 degrees around his spinal axis one day, and every single day Cyrus measured the progress: 187 degrees, 190 degrees, 192 degrees...

Little did they know that this ability will come in handy very soon. Not until they became prisoners of war, then escaped on an enemy airship, went through a horrific storm and ended up on a desserted island.

Although described in so few words, this event actually took many days and stopped their lives the way they knew them. The new life was entirely different: they were all alone on an island, no mainland to be seen around it!

Nab was the fastest to recover. Something in his blood told him what to do. Perhaps his ancestors were hunters and it was really natural for him to hunt and scout.

His love for twisting made him an incredibly good scout. While sitting there relaxed, he could easily observe a 360 degrees panorama around himself with almost natural easiness, moving his body in completely inhuman ways like it costed him nothing.

Cyrus could only marvel at how amazing his Nab looked while sitting on a rock and twisting his body that easily. With the grace of a limber panther he would jump on the spotted prey.

One day a terrible thing happened: Nab lost orientation and fell from a very high cliff. Cyrus couldn't hold his tears while running to the bottom of the cliff to see what remained of his friend but happy Nab was sitting there, only rubbing his rear: this boy was absolutely unbreakable! His body worked as if it was made of rubber instead of bones.

Of course they weren't alone on the island. Meaning that along with them there were a few others who escaped on the same airship. Namely Harbert Brown, a very cute blond boy who just celebrated his 18th birthday in these uncivilized conditions, his caretaker Pencroff and the journalist/illustrator Gedeon Spilett.

The latter, Gedeon Spilett, has made it his new hobby to draw sketches of Nab's contortions, it was readily his favorite way to pass time on the island where the five of them were seemingly the only human beings.

And the former, Harbert Brown, became Nab's pupil and colleague in contortion. This fair boy, Harbert, was naturally very limber and easy to work with. Not to mention he was handsome like an angel from some Christian fairytales.

Both Harbert and Nab were barely legal teenagers, both of them lost their parents and they were both boys, but those things weren't the only things in common between them, they learned. The love for flexibility and stretching became their new mutual passion and they spent all the time they could to help each other around with extreme practices.

Harbert Brown was so enamoured with Nab that he always looked like he was ready to kiss him all over. Nab's dark velvety skin hypnotized him, he touched Nab as if he was a deity made of gold instead of flesh. The feeling was deeply mutual and Nab couldn't look at Harbert's silky blond ponytail without losing his mind, Harbert's fair locks--that became even brighter after a few weeks on the tropical island--made him think of elves and angels.

The life on the island, especially in this great company, felt so natural to Nab. He almost wished they could just live in this paradise forever. Unlike the others, he didn't cherish so dearly the idea of escaping, it was a very fine place to live for him.

The others, however, never gave up their thoughts to find a way to get back to the civilized world and Nab tried to cheer them up as much as he could with his talents.