Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 22:19:48 -0500 From: Jerry Subject: Arin Part 4 The following story contains scenes of boys having sex with other boys and/or men, depending on what I decided on by the time I got around to writing it. ;) It is science fiction and fantasy, and as such contains things which simply don't happen in real life. If your imagination is not good, you won't enjoy it very much. As for the sex thing, if this stuff is against your personal moral codes, don't read it. If there's anything you don't understand, ask your parents or friends or whoever you think will. If you like the story, feel free to write me a letter at jerryli@systec.com. You're allowed to do anything you like with my story with the following exceptions: 1. You may not place it on a system which charges people to read it unless you request permission from me first. I have no problem giving you permission, but there will be a slight one-time fee. ;) 2. You may not post alterations to the story, or write sequels to it, without my permission. Happy reading! ===================================================================== Chapter 16 At first, we allowed the boat to drift during the night. The stream carried us at a gentle pace, and we were close enough to the village border that we weren't worried about anything big and nasty coming after us. On the third night we pulled the boat up on to the shore and set up a campfire by the river. It was a beautiful way to spend a cool spring night, that was for sure. Cedra cuddled up close to me and we watched the moon sparkle against the clear water. Every now and again a fish would jump up and the light would sparkle on it's body and it would land back in the water and ripple the waves. A beautiful sight under ordinary circumstances, but with Cedra's head against mine and his hands in mine it seemed like more then just beautiful. It seemed wonderous. Dejana and Tarus were cuddled up in the same way upstream. I hadn't even known they were a couple so it was totally out of nowhere for me. I decided to break the mood with that very objection. "Hey", I cried out, "when did you two become lovebirds?" Tarus giggled and Dejana cooed into him, kissing him lightly on the cheek. "I dunno", he called back, "when were you and Cedra born?" With that he turned to Dejana and gave her a long, passionate kiss. In a sort of subtle way, it turned into a competition. Straight couple and boy couple, each eager to prove that the feelings between them were were stronger and more powerful than the other's. Cedra and I began tenderly kissing each other's necks, and I put a small hickey on his chest, right where the birthmark was. It looked funny, when I was done - a small mound of red with a brown dot in the middle. Rath grumbled something on the far end of the campsite. He was leaning up against a tree, reading the incantation for some kind of spell. Studying the way it worked, how it moved the streams. He was the only one without a partner, which made me feel a little guilty. I whispered so to Cedra, and he nodded his agreement. We decoupled slightly, but we stayed in a subtle embrace as we fell asleep. We didn't have the tents, but we had the fire and each other to stay warm. Chapter 17 The next morning, we ran into a merchant caravan coming down the river, on their way to Tiarna. They had sleeping bags at cheap prices, so we were able to get a few. Enough for one per couple, anyway, and you could curl totally inside them in case it rained. That night the keep was in sight in the distance, although we would have another hour's travel in the morning to reach it. I was on watch and Cedra stayed awake to keep me company. Okay, I admit it, I wasn't exactly watching the appropriate things as I was sitting in front of the campfire, listening to the crackle it made as it burned twigs and leaves. Instead of searching the woods for intruders, I was searching Cedra's eyes and basking in the passion that burned there. Instead of feeling out the way the wind moved in the night, and smelling for some warning of company in the forest, I was feeling the bulge in Cedra's britches for signs of his definite erection, and smelling the sweetness of his young boy face as we kissed again and again, warmly and softly and with more burning desire than I'd ever felt before in my life. Slowly we took off our shirts and, barechested, we continued to make out. I loved the feel of his soft boy back, the skin so smooth and silky. The heat from the fire was hitting both of us, making us feel even more intense and more empassioned. He pulled away from me, looking into my eyes and slowly running his hand down my chest. "This is great, Arin." "Yes", I agreed. "Arin?", he said, in that shy boy way. "Yeah?", I replied, wondering if this was it. Was he going to tell me what I'd been waiting to hear? "I think...", he began, and my heart was fluttering in my chest. "I think I, well, it's just that, you're so cool and we get along so well and all..." Yes! This was it! He was going to say it! "...I just think you should know that, well, there's a dark elf behind you." I had barely picked up on the change of tone and expression, his face going from tender and warm to alarmed and afraid, and when he finished the sentence I almost didn't pick up on what he had said. When I realized it I grabbed my sword from the ground and jumped up and around as quickly as I could. There, before me, was a dark elf child around my age. He was dressed in a dark grey suit of armor with a strange symbol embriodered on the chest, and a dark purple cloak that glimmered in the light of our camp. He carried a sword, like mine, and he had it out and ready as he approached. Behind him I could see a rustling in the trees, and I believed it to be more of his kind. Cedra wasted no time. He immediately hopped back and started to stir the others. I stared at the trespasser and demanded, in as menacing a voice as possible, "Who are you and what do you want?" It didn't sound quite right with my little boy soprano voice. He was obviously intimidated, but he held it in very well. "I am Kurl Prachek of the Kynex Alliance. You are not welcome on our land." His company came out of hiding then, two adult dark elves in warrior's garb. "We're just passing through", I explained. "We should be gone soon enough." "Does your business include anything in the keep over there?" He pointed towards our destination. "No", I lied, "we're passing by it, but we're not headed for it." That seemed to satisfy him, but he was not done tormenting us. "This area is in dispute. Your safety is not guaranteed." I nodded, picking up a piece of creature meat from our last altercation. "We can hold our own", I replied. He grunted something, and without further word he turned away into the night and the others followed him. I turned around. The others were all behind me, weapons at the ready but lowered, now gaping between me and Cedra. "What exactly", Dejana began, "were you two up to before they showed up?" I began to reply, but Tarus cut in. "You were on watch, man. If the danger is going to come from the inside of Cedra's mouth, that's one thing, but--" "Okay", Rath said, coming to my defense. "I think he's gotten the idea." He turned to me and crouched down so that we were eye to eye. "Maybe you and Cedra should calm down a little bit while we're out on missions. This is the second time you've been caught off guard." I picked up Cedra's shirt and handed it to him. "I guess", I mumbled dejectedly. One thing was certain - I was now more eager then ever to get that box and go home. Chapter 18 The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Cedra and I made smalltalk for the rest of my watch and then I woke up Rath and we went to sleep. It was tough to keep from kissing him, but I did the best I could. It was easier knowing that there was a fully armed drow elf patrol out there somewhere. When morning broke, we loaded our things and pushed our boat back into the water. Cedra looked a little worried, occasionally glancing over his shoulder for the dark elf patrol. I didn't know much about Orcs or that funky looking thing that tried to make dinner of us, but I was pretty knowledgable on drow elves, so I assured him that they wouldn't be out in the daylight. "Like Vampires?", he asked. "Not quite", I replied. "They won't be killed if they stay in the sunlight, but it does hurt them and they don't like it." "That must be a weird way to live", he mused. Tarus and Rath stopped rowing as the keep loomed over us, a short distance away. "Well Cedra", he said, "this is the spot. Work your miracles." With that, Cedra closed his eyes and began to pray. His slow chanting droned on for a few minutes, occasionally repeating a word here or there. I have absolutely no idea what any of it meant. It wasn't a spell; he was grabbing at streams of magic and manipulating them. It was more of a ritual, a simple appeal to his deity to work her wonders on us. After awhile he opened his eyes and said, "Everyone jump into the water." "With our stuff?", I asked. Tarus didn't wait for any kind of a reply; he picked me up by my neck and my nuts and threw me square into the river. The others were close behind. Once we were in the river, it was the same chanting and praying, interspersed with swimming and bobbing up and down. I was about ready to complain about exactly how long I was going to have to tread water with a bag full of now wet equipment, when I began to feel a change on my neck. My neck was growing apart from itself!! Three small slits were sinking into it, pulling the skin back and apart. I felt queasy, like I couldn't breathe. I started panicking. "Go underwater", he said, and in an instant he was submerged. I tried to take a deep breath, but my lungs weren't working right anymore. So I just went down, and to my suprise found that the slits in my neck were perfectly working gills. It was like drinking and breathing at the same time, only the water came back out afterwards. It was strange, but also way cool. I was a fish! I tried to speak, but there was no longer air going to my vocal cords. Besides, I doubt I'd have made many noises underwater. Dejana motioned to a spot on the reef deep underwater, and we kicked off and headed for it. Chapter 19 I spun around under the water, watching the schools of fish swim by. We'd been going deeper and farther in the last half hour then I'd ever been in the water. I squirted up and playfully bumped past Cedra's side. He responded by flipping and punting back at my leg. It was a fun game, but it split us off from the group for a minute. It's funny, how two people who share a close bond can communicate without using any words at all. Cedra looked at me and saw the worry in my face. "Uh oh, I'm scared, we should find them", it said to him. He smiled at me and patted his chest. "Don't worry", was what he was saying. Then he pointed down towards a spot in the reef that was about 200 feet up and 1500 feet away. "That's where they're going", his actions said. Then he made a motion to his lips and a michevous smile. The meaning was obvious - "Let's try an underwater kiss." I started to turn off in that direction when I caught a chance look to my left. Blue and grey, moving fast! SHARK! Instinctively I dove down as fast as I could go, and the shark flew past my side. I swam over behind a school of small trout, hoping to hide there. But he flew through them, chomping on a couple as he came. Luckily, the impact and the chewing slowed his speed enough to back off a little from him. The shark turned again, ready to go for me, when something clanged against it's tail. Cedra. He had propelled something at the shark, trying to draw it away from me. Putting his life at risk to save mine. If I hadn't been in love with him before that moment, my heart would have flown to him then and taken refuge there. But the look of worry on his face as the shark turned on him told me he didn't have a plan past that point. So now it was my turn. I had the means to stop the shark, now that it was properly distracted. And the sacrifice would show Cedra that I care about him too. I was going to show him the one thing I hadn't shown anyone. I swam over to the now-distracted shark. It was a challenge to keep up with it, especially with my weighed-down equipment on me. But I made it there as it was backing Cedra into a corner. Luckily, the spell I was focusing on could be cast without words. I placed my hand on the shark's flank and concentrated. I didn't really understand what DNA was, but I felt the shark's flow through my fingertips and into my body. I closed my eyes and concentrated, and slowly I could feel my body begin to change. My legs fused together and got larger, and then my skin became tough and scaly. My face bulged out into the shark's bloated mouth and my teeth became large and serrated. I felt a growth on my back - the shark's fin. And my fingers melted together and stretched out to become the shark's flippers. As I changed, the shark had turned from Cedra, confused by this new prey whose scent was changing. Now he was staring at a carbon copy of himself. He swam around Cedra to protect him from me - this was his kill, and he wasn't going to have me muscling in on it. But I arced around and found a good angle to dive down on. I dove at him, overpowered by the polymorphed shark mind. It wanted to feast on Cedra as badly as the other shark did. Luckily, Cedra's reflexes were apt to move him out of the way. I fought for control of the shark body and turned to charge the other shark. We crashed head on, each trying to draw blood from the other. But I had an advantage over the other shark - I had my human intelligence. I waited for him to circle around. He came at me again, but this time I ducked under him and caught his tailfin as he swam past. Blood sprayed from the wound, and the shark took off, unwilling to fight now that the odds were against him. Cedra was still looking at me with fear, shock, and wonder. As I let go of the spell and felt my human body come back to me, I thought "Man. I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do." Chapter 20 We reached the sewage tunnel that was dug out under the reef. The area around it was disgusting to swim in, filled with the rotted garbage of past meals and the rotted waste of things I didn't really want to think about. There was a old rotted gate on the entrance, but it had long since corroded and fallen aside, barely hinged on. It was child's play to swim past it and into the tunnel itself. The tunnel was submerged for a distance, but after a short swim we made it to the above water section. My gills seemed to melt away and my lungs started working as soon as I crossed the barrier from water to air. The others were still a slight distance ahead; we could hear them, but we didn't take great pains to catch up. Cedra didn't waste any time getting to the issue at hand. "So Arin", he asked, "how exactly did you just turn into a shark back there?" I sighed. "Well, I may have studied a little bit more about magic then I've let on?", I said, ending my statement with the uncertainty of a question even though it was fact. "Uh-huh", he said. "And you were going to tell me... when?" "Hey", I said, "you guys kidnapped me, remember? I wanted to make sure I had an ace in the hole, in case you turned out to be psychos." He smiled. "Well, I guess I can understand that." With that he leaned over and gave me a playful peck on the cheek. I smiled warmly at him. The tunnel had gotten large enough so that we were standing in it comfortably. "Hey, catch me!", he cried. He bolted down the corridor at a frantic pace, shoes splashing in the murky water. "Wait up!", I yelled, darting after him. My stuff was still soaking wet and my shoes also made that squishy sound as I trampled down the corridor. I ignored the musty air and the dirt and the grime and the rather large rats that I had to dodge as I weaved through the tunnel. I was in a state of giddy boy happiness, running and playing with Cedra. Reality hit me, not for the first time, a few minutes later. Cedra's footsteps were getting closer, as I closed the distance between us. Either he was letting me win, or my boy legs were FINALLY outmatching someone. The corridor was opening up towards the end, with side drains in the adjoining areas. I bolted past the side drains, about to burst into the alcove, when a hand yanked at me and violently pulled me back. I tried to scream, but a hand covered my mouth. "Shhhhhh", Tarus whispered as he held me down tightly. "Look." I looked ahead into the alcove. It was a typical dank room, stairs leading up into the keep's galley, a couple of skeletons against the wall, probably victims of the lord's cruelty or the chef's cooking. Nothing particularly weird. That is, not until one of the skeletons moved it's bony hand and started walking in patrol fashion around the room. "They're moving", I said, stating the terminally obvious. "Yes", Tarus agreed. "Would appear this place is haunted." The skeleton moved in our direction... ----------- More soon. Keep writing! It helps me to know people actually read this.