Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:38:48 -0400
From: George Gauthier <georgegauthierdc@gmail.com>
Subject: Elf-Boy and Friends Part 1

 			Elf-Boy and Friends
			Part 1 of 10
 			by George Gauthier

			Chapter 1. Elf-boy and Unicorn

As thunder rumbled on the western horizon, the elf-boy stopped weeding the
kitchen garden and straightened up -- as much as his diminutive stature
allowed. From a kneeling position the nude youth turned his pretty face to
the sky and wondered whether the growling to the west meant that the spring
rains had arrived. The dry fields and pastures of his home valley really
needed several days of soaking rain. This hot and dry spell they were going
through threatened to scorch the whole country.

The elf-boy could do with a good soaking rain himself to cool himself off
and to flush away the sweat, salt, and dust from his sun-bronzed skin. That
would be more welcome than his usual evening shower with soap and water
heated by the sun. The elves placed a high value on cleanliness and
personal hygiene.

Whatever the practicalities of it, the elf-boy would rather stand out in
the open fully exposed and let cool rain sluice all over him. How wonderful
that always felt, to turn his face upwards, eyes closed, as the falling
waters plastered his raven locks to his head. He took pleasure in the flow
of the life-giving waters over his slender young body cleansing and cooling
him and touching his body everywhere at once like a lover with a hundred
hands. Rain was a gift of nature, one to which he willingly opened himself
every chance he got.

The boy had no concern about getting caught out in the ray since he never
bothered with clothing, spending his days perpetually nude as did all young
males among the elves. "Skin clad" they called it. And though perpetual
nudity made him careful of thorns and thistles, the boy had no worries
about insect bites or stings. The gods or wizards who had brought humans
and elves and the other races to this planetary refuge aptly named Haven
had deliberately not brought along any of the stinging, biting, or just
plain verminous bugs that had infested the environmentally depleted, war
torn, and worn-out worlds from which they had fled. They did bring along
good bugs -- pollinating insects like honey bees and butterflies -- but no
bloodsucking mosquitos, no biting horse flies, no stinging scorpions or
poisonous spiders either.

After a disappointed glance at the sky as the last rumble of thunder faded
without result, the elf-boy bent to his mundane tasks, once again engrossed
in the satisfying work of tending to growing things: planting, hoeing,
weeding, pruning, staking, and watering. Everything thrived under his
care. It was no coincidence that his own large slightly slanted eyes were
the same green as growing things. Like most sentients on the planet he had
a modest magical gift, which in his case was a green thumb. No wonder he
got such good results.

He did not mind getting down and dirty with the reddish brown soil in those
parts, sinking to the earth on hands and knees. So what if his knees and
feet and hands got soiled or dust settled on his sweaty flanks and chest
and back or streaked his face. It was top soil, good earth, the perfect
medium for growing things. Top soil had a clean pleasant smell to it which
brought him closer to the land, a sensuous connection to this planet of
Haven.

He much preferred tending the earth than tending to livestock. Farm animals
were messy and smelly and often had contrary personalities. He let his
older brothers take care of the milch cow, the goats and the sheep, and the
ducks. Mostly vegetarians, elves raised animals only for their milk and
fiber and eggs, never their flesh, though elves would eat fish.

Engrossed in his gardening, the youth was startled when he heard a voice in
his head, without a sound reaching his ears.

<Ho there, elf-boy!>

"What?" he exclaimed out loud, never having experienced mind speech
before. Still Dahl was more curious than apprehensive. He knew that several
races could speak mind to mind including human wizards and healers, though
the gift was rare among elves.

<Get to your feet, little one, and come over to the large oak next to the
hedgerow. I would have converse with thee.>

Apprehensive but curious about what kind of being could call to him
mentally, he walked over to the big oak, ignoring the gravel and grit under
his bare feet. Elf-boys develop thick calluses that protect them nearly as
well as moccasins.

By the hedgerow he found a horse of noble lines waiting for him, one with a
brilliant white coat and green eyes. Once it stepped out of the shadows he
could clearly see the long spiral horn growing out of its forehead, the
weight counterbalanced by a rearward bulge of the skull to house a large
brain. This was no horse then but that rarest of equines, a unicorn. A
stallion the size of a light riding horse, it stood sixteen hands at the
withers, a full hand higher than the crown of the diminutive elf-boy's
head.  By reputation peaceable though fearsome fighters when provoked, the
unicorn more stirred the boy's curiosity than his apprehension.

"Sir Unicorn," for such the elf-boy deemed it wise to address so noble a
creature. "What would you have of me? Shall I fetch my father? He is the
master of these lands."

<Nay, little one, for it is with you I wish to speak. You are the elf-boy I
sensed from afar; you must be. Though with that long black hair of yours I
cannot see the pointed ears characteristic of elves, and you are quite
short for an elf, but it must be you that I am looking for.>

"Well, I am indeed an elf, Sir Unicorn, though a very young one and small
in stature for my years. I have just sixteen summers" he said, sweeping his
hair back to let the equine see the pointed ears characteristic of elves,
ears that elves could actually cock toward a sound to hear it better, much
like cats only not so flexible.

"But my name is Dahlderon, though everyone just calls me Dahl."

<Yes, Dahlderon, the very person I was sent to seek out. And I am named
Meirionnydd, but you may call me Merry, as I shall call you Dahl. Here,
step into full sunlight that I may see you better.>

Dahl complied as the unicorn, standing as straight and tall as his height
of five feet one allowed. The elf-boy was proud of the trim and taut body
he had so recently grown into. Nor was he embarrassed to display the manly
parts which gave him so much pleasure these days.

Dahl had a beautiful body, slender yet muscular, tanned, taut and toned
with good shoulders, a ripped torso with corrugated abdominals, a flat
belly and narrow hips. He had one of those impossibly small waists you
could almost put your hands around which flared to a pert rump, with small
but firm and shapely buns. No hair interrupted the flow of his faultless
lines. Elves never grew body hair, even at the fork of the legs, and were
beardless all their lives.

The unicorn could see that the boy was a treasure. From his tiny red
nipples to a deeply indented navel, to narrow hips framing a surprisingly
ample manhood for one so slight in build, he was real beauty. His wiry
physique carried so little body fat that his flat belly showed a tracery of
downward pointing veins just under the skin. The beat of his heart showed
on the left side of his chest.

<If you please, turn around slowly that I may see all of you, Dahl.>

The elf-boy complied, glad for a chance to show off the rest of his
beautiful body. He knew he had a fine round rump. Everyone told him as
much. The truth is the boy was a natural exhibitionist.

From the rear, Dahl was all curves: the calves, the thighs, the globes of
the buttocks, the swale of the lower back, the slope up to the shoulder
blades which formed winglets on his upper back.  He had a fine coltish
build on him with legs that were strong though slender. The unicorn knew
that elves were good runners. It was a much as part of them as of any
antelope or equine for that matter. It was one of the things that had
always bonded unicorns to elf-boys.

<Yes, I see the druids have chosen well, young Dahlderon. Physical beauty
like yours if always an outward sign of good bloodlines and a healthy
constitution. Know then that you will accompany me to the Great Southern
Forest to begin your training, you and the others like you. My task is to
help you brave the dangers that no doubt will arise during the long
journey.>

"Chosen? Druids? Great Forest? What do you mean. I am not going anywhere!"
the boy exclaimed.

Actually the thought of travel and high adventure intrigued him. Every
boy's dream, it would be like the tales the bards sang of. One day they
might sing his song too. What else did he have to look forward to at home
but daily drudgery and endless mountings by his father and older brothers
plus the human friends they passed him along to. Still he had
responsibilities and told the unicorn as much.

<Ah but you must come with me, little elf-boy, else the Haven we know will
be destroyed. Your training as a druid must start soon. Come let us away.>

"ButÉ butÉ I cannot take off just like that with ... with... the
first unicorn that comes along." he finished lamely.

He was trying out excuses more to convince himself than to dissuade the
insistent unicorn.

"Besides, my father and brothers would never let me just run off." he
added.

<Which is why you must do just that, without telling them, for they would
not willingly let you take off with me. They would lose your services both
in the fields and in their beds. And your father doubtless knows what is
likely to happen between a youth and a unicorn.>

"What does happen? I think I have a right to know if you expect me to go
traipsing off with you into parts unknown."

<In the Great Forest you will be apprenticed to the druids, one of a
company of young males of your race and of other races trained to use your
powers for good. In time you will be transformed from an ordinary elf-boy
to a powerful earth druid with magical powers to command the natural
world.>

"Powers? What powers? I am just an elf, not a wielder of magic. My only
magical gift is a green thumb."

<That is true, right now. You are correct that almost everyone has only a
single magical gift, sufficient to kindle a fire or to light their way in
the dark or find their way without getting lost. Unicorns and elves are
different. We are magical creatures in and of ourselves. It was magic that
brought us into existence and magic which sustains us during our long
lives. Which is why elves may live for centuries and unicorns, while
unicorns go on till something stops us.>

<Don't worry that, young and small as you are that you do not fit the
stereotype of a druid in the stories the bards tell. Actually I have never
met a druid who really did fit the description: a tall man of stern mien
and with a piercing gaze and grey beard. Druids come in all sizes and
races, but they are perpetually youthful, so they don't have a single
strand of gray between them. As to what you can expect for yourself,
outwardly and physically you will look much the same as you do now, an
intensely comely young elf. One change you can expect is that your head of
hair will grow out to resemble the long mane of the equines.>

"No offense, Merry, why would a boy want to grow a long mane? With my
tousled locks I look girlish enough as it is, as so many have remarked as
they use me as their girly boy to gratify their carnal desires."

<You have entirely the wrong idea about a mane. I am a stallion and very
much a male. Does my mane make me look like a filly? Or consider the proud
mane of the lyon. No, there is nothing feminine about a mane at all. I
daresay you will come to appreciate it when yours grows out. It will look
sensuous when the wind whips it about or makes it stream back as you
run. But if you insist, you could put your mane up in a -- you should
pardon the expression -- a pony tail.>

"Ha, I know what my father would say to that. An elf-boy with a pony tail
dangling behind! But seriously, how shall I equip myself for such a
journey? What of tools or weapons or money? Will I have to wear clothing
like many humans do?"

<A druid uses no weapons of metal, certainly not of blades of cold iron nor
of steel to shed blood. As for clothing, you will have no more need for it
in the future than you have had in the past. We shall be heading to torrid
zone of the planet. You will find the Great Forest is a sweltering jungle,
much hotter than this sub-tropical valley. Besides, since when are elves
body shy. Elf-boys do not wear any clothing before they pass their
tests. Your kind spends the first century of life entirely naked. Even for
most elven adults a thong or loincloth are only optional and often
dispensed with. It is one of the things that brings your race close to
nature. I understand that perfectly. We are both naked creatures, are we
not, living just as nature made us?>

<As for food and shelter, we will live off the country, sharing nature's
bounty. I can graze in the meadows and you can gather birds eggs, starchy
tubers, fruits, nuts, and such. We will often sleep under the stars or in a
bower for shelter. As for what nature does not provide, we can find
accommodations at inns along the way. To pay for such we will earn such
coin as we might need in ways I will suggest to you.>

"Then I must take off from my only home just as I stand here now, empty
handed, penniless, defenseless, and stark naked?"

<Indeed, that would be for the best.>

"Well at least I will get to ride a unicorn!"

<Hardly boy. Disabuse yourself of that notion right away. I am not carrying
you on my back, slight though the burden of your weight would be. Instead
you will walk or run beside me, alternating the pace to cover ground
quicker. That should improve your wind and your endurance. If there is any
mounting to be done, it is I who shall do it to you.>

Did Merry's last remark really mean that a creature fully eight times
larger intended to mount him? He shook his head, rejecting the impossible
image that had formed in his mind's eye, an alarming vision of a small
elf-boy bent over, covered, and bred like a filly by the powerful stallion.

Despite his alarm, Dahl went off with the magical being. He knew no one
would question or stop him, especially in the company of a unicorn. On
Valentia travel was unrestricted. No one needed permission or papers to
cross borders. For the most part, there were no check points or customs
stations on the unmarked frontiers of the different states.

Dahl sent a letter to his father from the first village they passed
through. I was only several years later that his family learned of the
achievements of the druid Dahlderon.

			Chapter 2. Journey of Discovery

The unicorn liked the way the boy had kept up easily as he loped along. The
boy was light on his feet with a good running stride that carried him over
the ground efficiently, arms pumping, butt cheeks flexing, the rhythmic
breathing steadying him emotionally as he put distance between himself and
the only life he had ever known. The unicorn appreciated the trust the boy
had put in him, going off without money or weapons or the clothing that
humans put entirely too much store in. Elf-boys had the right idea: live
just as nature made you -- in your skin.

The mismatched pair, unicorn and nude elf-boy, traveled all that day and
the next. That gave them time to get better acquainted. Dahl learned out
that the unicorn was hundreds of years old and had been just about
everywhere. Merry told fascinating tales of the strange lands and even
stranger peoples he had traveled among. For Dahl the stories he wanted most
to hear were those about druids and wizards and magic in general. The
elf-boy wasn't sure yet that Merry would make a good friend, but he
certainly was good company.

For his part the unicorn took a real liking to young Dahl. The boy wasn't
just a pretty face and sexy body. He was intelligent and friendly and keen
to see what lay over the horizon. From what the boy told him, his was the
only family of elves in the area. If he not made close friends with the
human boys his age, that could not have been the fault of the personable
young elf.

After two days the travelers came to a large village. On the outskirts of
the prosperous settlement, outside the palisade, the travelers passed the
usual cluster of tin smiths, pottery kilns and glassblowing sheds, hives of
activity as boys naked against the heat of kilns and ovens assisted the
master potters and glass blowers.

Like the palisade that enclosed it, the village was built of wood and
shingle with the main street corduroyed with split logs to provide wheeled
traffic with a firm roadway. The settlement was almost large enough to
qualify for membership in the League of Independent Towns. Originally an
alliance formed to build trunk roads between the major towns, the loosely
organized League provided basic government services for the region
including militia, law enforcement, and commercial courts.

The continent of Valentia was the last settled of the three straddling the
equator which is why politically it was the most free and socially the most
egalitarian, not only in the towns but in rural areas as well. All elves
and almost all humans were free persons, bound neither to the land nor to
some lord or landowner. Nor did they owe allegiance to an acquisitive
monarch. No one on Valentia had any use for the institution of
monarchy. Most land was owned by those who worked it. They did not pay rent
or crop shares to grasping landowners. Slavery was confined to benighted
corners of the continent and to several island countries far out to sea.

<Here is where you will earn your supper and a bed to lie in as well as a
stall and oats for myself. I find the grass in these parts to be tasteless
and not very nutritious. And I am sure you must be very hungry for a proper
meal yourself.>

"You are right about that, Merry. I am starving, but how can we pay for
those things? We have no money."

<Let us seek an inn whose clientele prefers lissome wine boys rather than
pretty girls as servers. You would fit right in as a new pleasure
boy. There are many men who would gladly pay a silver penny for a tumble
with an elf boy. We'll let the proprietor keep the silver; we need just
lodging and sustenance.>

"What? So I am to be pimped out like some rent boy of the stews?"

<Oh quite a cut above any street boy. Think of yourself as a much sought
after courtesan. Pretty human boys are commonly available nearly everywhere
to those who appreciate a likely lad, but lusty men rarely encounter an
exquisite elf-boy such as yourself, or at least one who is available for
coin. As a young elf you would be no stranger to sex with males. It is in
your nature.>

Which was only true. At home the older males in their household took him to
bed and disported themselves with him regularly. For reasons going back to
their origins and deeply rooted in their biology, elven males only rarely
consorted with the female of their species, focusing their sexual energies
on younger males. Elves are a long-lived race, with a span of life of half
a millennium or more. The trade off for longevity was a slow reproductive
rate and a skewed sex ratio -- four male births to one female -- nature's
way to ensure that elves and their kind would not out-breed the carrying
capacity of the land.

Elvish females were receptive and fertile only briefly and only twice a
year, and even then conception was not easy. By contrast, elven males have
strong sex drives and are always able and even eager to indulge their
appetites with younger males, many of whom prefer the submissive role in
sex anyway and continue that way their whole lives.

It helps that thanks to their magical natures, elves are not only
long-lived, but they do not age steadily like humans. Their innate magical
nature lets them stay youthful-looking long beyond the first bloom of their
true youth. At sixteen Dahl was boyishly pretty, a vision of youthful male
pulchritude and would stay that way for centuries.

So Dahl was sexually experienced with males, almost always taking the
receptive role. His brothers and their human friends would seek him out
when it was time for sex play. Inevitably Dahl would surrender himself to
these older and larger males as their eager hands touched him everywhere,
taking rude liberties with the trim nude body, fingers boldly tweaking his
nipples, squeezing his butt cheeks, rolling his balls in their hands,
weighing his manhood.

Soon enough, someone would press the boy's face into his armpit or manly
chest letting the elf-boy's nostrils took in his manly scent, a composite
of sweat and farm smells, and male pheromones. That always set Dahl's pulse
racing; he went weak in the knees in the embrace of a powerful male. Strong
hands would hold him in place his legs spread apart, preparing the
complaisant boy for penetration. Soon he found himself impaled on cock
after cock after cock, often with another male member thrust into his mouth
for oral service.

Dahl's submissive libido responded strongly to such assertive treatment
from dominant males. He loved for grown men to feel him up, to touch him
everywhere, and to use his body for their pleasure. Though he sometimes
wished for a bit more tenderness from his suitors. A few of the humans he
had taken to bed had treated him gently, but his fellow elves took him very
much for granted, taking their access to his lush teenage body as only
their due.

His brothers in particular had been using him for more than a year now,
since he reached his full growth, such as it was. Unlike his much taller
relatives or human friends who topped him by a head or more, Dahl was
slightly built, and quite short by human and elven standards. Dahl was just
five foot one (160 cm) and weighed just seven and a half stone (105 pounds
or 48 kg).

Dahl sighed, wishing yet again that the older males would be a little
gentler with him, maybe take him one at a time instead of two or even three
at once. Trapping his small body between theirs, the older males stroked
and grappled and contorted his lithe torso and slender limbs however they
wished.

Sometimes the played rough. What was so urgent about sliding two cocks up
his butt at the same time? That was his brothers' specialty. Couldn't they
just take turns? Good thing his anal ring could stretch as far as it
did. Then too, limber as he was, there were limits. Didn't they realize
that a boy's legs would spread only so wide or that a young elf, no matter
how supple, could bend backwards nowhere near as far as forwards. And why
must they continually invite their friends among the humans, not only to
watch to but share Dahl's charms.

How often he had had to start his morning chores with sore muscles and a
bottom tender from a frolic the evening before, yet they still expected a
full day's work from him. Not that Dahl was a lazy boy, not by any
means. He worked with a will and to the limit of his strength.

Shaking his head at how casually his new friend the unicorn was ready to
whore him out to human males, Dahl went inside to speak to the
proprietor. The elf-boy turned heads as he entered, as well he should. It
is not often a beautiful nude elf-boy walked into such an unremarkable
rural establishment. The locals watched appreciatively as the boy's
buttocks twitched on his approach to the counter. The wine boys in the
common room frowned at their new competition. Cute as they both were, they
could see that Dahl was in a class by himself.

As Merry had predicted the proprietor readily agreed to Dahl's proposal. He
publicly announced that after supper, the beautiful elf-boy would serve
clients for the modest price of one silver pence. He then had Dahl dance a
bit to let potential customers size up what was on offer. A dozen men
immediately signed up for an assignation with the elf-boy while he went out
back to bathe and prepare himself for carnal service.

Though some folks frowned at the brazenness of it all, most of the locals
and the travelers at the inn were delighted at the chance to sample the
charms of an exquisite elf-boy. Here was a welcome change of pace from
their ho-hum sex lives with their wives and girlfriends, not to mention the
tired drabs the travelers usually coupled with or even the cute and
talented but by now familiar wine boys. The slightly built elf-boy was a
delicate flower of young manhood, cute as a kitten and in the bloom of his
youth. What was there not to like?

As for his walking around starkers, so did the local wine boys, whether on
duty or off. No point in their being body shy when they not only poured for
customers whose hands were all over them downstairs but were often rented
out and taken upstairs to service horny males. Besides, lots of boys and
men tended their fields and gardens and vineyards in the nude. Why get your
clothes dirty when cloth was expensive, easily stained, and so hard to
launder? Much easier to take a bath after dirty labors.

As for this elf-boy, everyone knew that young elves were kept naked and
used for carnal pleasure by older elven males. So the clientele here would
expect him to be an expert in the art of pleasuring the many human males
who preferred pretty boys either regularly or as a change of pace.

For their part, the married men among them knew that their wives would
overlook a one-time fling with an elf-boy who was just passing through
town. Like spending some quality time with one of the local wine boys it
would not count as cheating, not like taking a mistress. So one by one and
occasionally two at a time the eager customers went upstairs with the
elf-boy. Twenty minutes later, the boy courtesan would escort his customer
downstairs and beckon to the next who tossed a silver penny to the
proprietor and followed him back up.

A silver coin for a tumble was not cheap; a wine boy would have cost only
three coppers and a silver was worth a dozen of those, but the elf-boy was
unlike any partner these rustic men had ever taken to bed. The lad was
clean and sweet smelling and invariably polite and complaisant, even when
two men took him together. Some pairs plugged both orifices at once,
keeping their sex toy down of all fours between them. Others pairs
contorted the elf-boy's body to allow for a double penetration, with both
cocks up his ass as the same time. Poor Dahl thought they might rupture
him, so little care they took in their eagerness to fuck him, but the
elf-boy managed to accept both cocks at once, glad for once of his own
randy brothers' penchant for the same kind of dual sex play.

Many of the men left their mark on the boy, a reddened rump from a
preliminary spanking, a bitten lip, a hickey at his throat, cum oozing out
of his ass. One man left bruises on his buttocks where, in his passion, he
squeezed the boy's cheeks too tightly. Another client left a hickey and a
bite mark on his shoulder. These were all the obvious marks of rough
lovemaking.

Hurt and tired though he was, the only thing that really bothered Dahl were
the local standards of personal hygiene. Some of the men were rather ripe
from a hard day's work. A scrubbing down after his last client left Dahl
squeaky clean again. At least he had no worries about sexually transmitted
disease. None such had traveled to Haven with the original refugees. The
ancients had long ago stamped them out.

Then the proprietor, in appreciation of all the silvers the boy had earned
for him, set before him a substantial midnight snack and a tankard of his
best brew. They sat and talked a while about the road ahead. The man
recommended inns where Dahl might find custom. Naturally the boy revealed
nothing of their mission. The next morning the proprietor treated Dahl to a
hearty breakfast to fortify him for the long road ahead and wished him a
good journey. Theirs had been a profitable transaction for both sides.

That was their pattern over the next several weeks as the duo headed ever
south-eastward. Often they simply camped out, bedding down in the grass or
on soft moss. Every second or third day, they stopped at an inn to barter
the elf-boy's charms for lodging and meals. Occasionally when there was no
room in the inn, the boy slept on straw in Merry's stall. The unicorn was
careful not to evacuate in the stall itself.

Now Meirionnydd knew that the elf-boy would be startled by sexual advances
from an equine, no matter that Merry had warned him at the very
beginning. But he could not help himself the fourth time the boy shared a
stall with him. They had been so physically close together now for
weeks. He had seen the boy, heard his melodious voice, smelled his fresh
scrubbed aroma, felt his body as they rested in the shade during the worst
heat of the day, felt his hands as the boy brushed his coat with a borrowed
curry comb.

Here the boy lay naked, fast asleep, so very near and temptingly available,
sprawled out in a loose limbed X, absolutely lovely in the moonlight. Merry
moved his head close to the fork of the boy's legs, sniffing and snuffling
the scent of clean boy. His tongue reached out and licked the boy's
genitals. He found them delicious and their size was quite respectable for
such a small biped really.

After a while the boy rolled over onto his belly. The unicorn's tongue
delved into his cleavage, flicked his crinkly brown ring and brushed his
balls. The elf-boy stirred in his sleep then sat up, suddenly awake. He
looked at his companion, eyes wide.

"Were you... that is, did you... I mean I thought I felt something, well,
something wet on my..."

The elf-boy's voice trailed off as he saw that the unicorn's male member
had slid out of its sheath, the pink flesh a contrast to the white hair
everywhere else on the beast. Dahl watched mesmerized. It was huge, as well
it should be. From simple geometry a quadruped needs a member
proportionally longer than that of two legged creatures of the same weight
who make love face to face. Even for a small equine, the unicorn was three
times the mass of a big human male while little Dahl was not even half
that. In other words, Merry was eight times as large as Dahl, but with a
bigger cock than even a human that large would be endowed with.

Dahl shook his head in denial of what he was sure must be physically
impossible. Yet the smitten boy could not tear his eyes away. He stared
transfixed by the overwhelming masculinity of the magical
equine. Involuntarily he inhaled the scents of the stable, taking in the
aroma of the fresh straw under him, the fresh hay in the manger, the last
of the oats in the feedbag, the mildly horsey scent of his companion and
something else, something new, something that reached into his brain and
set off fireworks, the musk of the male unicorn. Like a helpless puppet,
Dahl came to his knees with his buttocks resting on his heels, presenting
himself for oral service to the equine male. He stared the unicorn's cock,
by now fully extended from its sheath.

The elf-boy nearly swooned at its raw sexual power. The shaft was too big
around for his small hand to encompass. The male member was longer than his
own forearm and very warm to the touch as all blood filled it out and
stiffened it. Dahl nearly fainted at the lascivious thoughts that passed
through his overwrought mind. This could not be happening, him kneeling in
service, in supplication really of an equine. Yet his own body's response
made his true feelings unmistakable. With his own cock painfully engorged
and rigid, pointing straight up along his belly, how could he deny the
carnal desires surging within him.

The elf-boy shifted closer, still on his knees. His inner voice told him
that this was where he belonged, subservient to the larger male, no matter
his shape or form. He moved his upturned face to within inches of the
equine cock and stared at the droplet of dew at its tip. Like an automaton
his tongue reached out and scooped it up. The taste was much better than
anything like it he had ever tasted.

<Yes, little one, taste me. This is part of our bonding, so necessary for
our ultimate success, and so important immediately for our own
satisfaction. Taste me, lick me, smooch the head and then take it between
your lips.>

That is just what the boy did, licking the last portion of the pink shaft,
circling the huge head with his tongue, poking the slit at the end with the
tip, surprised to realize he could actually get it inside his mouth. He
opened as wide as he could and, careful with his teeth, closed his lips
around the purple helmet, tugging and sucking and slurping. He pulled back
then smooched the head of Merry's cock once more before taking the entire
head into his mouth.

For his own part Merry was incredibly aroused but careful not to thrust
forward lest he hurt the boy, especially this first instance of oral
service. He kept still while Dahl, with short back and forth movements of
his head, stimulated his cock. It did not take long. Within moments Merry
was spitting his seed into the wet warmth of the boy's mouth. Dahl
swallowed much of it, though a lot got squelched out the corners of his
mouth. Also, at the last minute Merry pulled back so he shot all over
Dahl's pretty face and chest. That triggered the boy's own eruption which
splashed on his belly to join the unicorn's seed. The boy fell back onto
his butt, depleted of energy and suddenly fully cognizant of what he had
done.

"What happened just now?" the boy asked, stunned by the enormity of his own
actions.

<The beginning.> Meirionnydd replied supremely self satisfied. <And don't
wipe any of that gism off. I want to look at you as if dries to a crust. No
doubt you have questions for me now.>

"You bet I have questions, you damn horse! What did you do to me just now?
How did you bewitch me?"

Dahl cried out indignantly and tried to stand. Merry butted him onto his
backside.

<Get back down on your ass and keep a civil tongue in your head. Besides I
like seeing you like that, limbs sprawled, every part of you on display,
face and chest and belly covered with my cum and your own, my very own
human pet. No, that is unfair, a reaction to your own slur. I am not a
horse nor are you a human.>

"No, but I am not a unicorn either! See two legs!"

<Oh, but you might easily become a unicorn in a next life, young one, as I
was once an elf. My soul now inhabits it second shape.>

"Huh?" Dahl was floored both figuratively and already literally. "Do you
mean that literally?"

The unicorn simply nodded with a toss of its head.

"Is that why I, er... responded, I mean physically by uh..."

<Partly from sensing the elf-boy within me, partly just my maleness. Your
sexuality responds to that of males of more than your own species, to
humans obviously, to unicorns, and to others. And it is just as well it
does. Both our bodies and our souls must be united in the great struggle
ahead. We will share not only our sexuality but also our thoughts and
feelings once you learn to mind speak.>

"I didn't think that was possible, with elves I mean."

<It doesn't happen very often, but it will in your case. Our physical
joining will make it happen faster and better.>

The unicorn explained that a transfer of his seed to the boy would
stimulate the innate magic in an elf's nature to beyond anything imagined
by human wizards. With proper instruction, Dahl would become one of the
most powerful wielders of magic on the planet and a champion of life
against the dark forces gathering against the living world including all
the planet's intelligent races.

"So if we keep doing what we did earlier, it will help make me a druid?"

<Not quite. The best way to stimulate your magic is with seed introduced
during a real mating, a meeting of minds and bodies and feelings, a
mounting.>

"You want to mount me? Like a stallion does a mare?"

<Or a filly in your case.>

The elf-boy looked at his small frame especially his narrow hips and at the
unicorn's huge endowment, wondering whether it wouldn't just kill him,
split him apart. He suddenly felt very small and vulnerable and naked.

<Actually it is you who wants me to mount you. You yearn for it, don't
you. Search your feelings, Dahl. It wasn't just your mouth watering just
now. You were excited at the other end, weren't you?>

Dahl blushed furiously because it was true. His traitorous bunghole had
been twitching just then, aching to be filled. Here a damn horse (okay a
unicorn) was talking about fucking his ass, mounting him like a mare -- or
filly given his youth and size.

As for the notion of his own transformation into a powerful druid, somehow
Dahl didn't think a power capable of menacing an entire planet would be
overly worried by a small nude male elf of tender years who took it up the
ass from elves, humans, and equines alike. And probably other races in the
future. What would it be next: orcs, trolls, centaurs? A small bare-assed
boy dripping the cum of multiple species out of his bung hole would likely
not send such a foe fleeing in headlong retreat. More likely provoke
mirth. He told Meirionnydd exactly that, but only got a chuckle out of him,
not the rise he expected.

<We know what we are doing. You too will understand in time.>

The next day, the boy woke up feeling strangely energized. With a start he
realized it must be the result of ingesting the unicorn's seed. A first
inkling then of the transformation Meirionnydd had spoken of.

			Chapter 3. New Friends

<I don't like it, Dahl. These dark woods are entirely too quiet. Something
has spooked the denizens of the forest, and I am sure it was not merely our
own passage through these glades. The local wildlife must be used to
travelers passing along this track.>

Dahl agreed. Like all elves he was attuned to the rhythms of
nature. Something was clearly amiss. Was it the dark force the unicorn had
spoken of, or some more prosaic danger like a jaguar on the prowl or maybe
bandits. He cocked his ears, listening for signs of danger.

Suddenly a net sailed through the air and settled over the boy. The men who
had flung the net yanked hard, closing it around him and dragging him to
the ground. Dahl kept his head and did not give in to panic. Nor did he
struggle uselessly; that would only entangle him further. He waited till he
got pulled over to two smelly villains who leered at their pretty
captive. One made the mistake of putting his face too close to the
net. Quicker as a snake, the boy's right hand flicked out through an
opening in the net, fingers formed into a wedge, and struck at the man's
left eye. A quick thrust and twist popped the eye right out of its
socket. Howling, the man let go of the net, which let the boy work his way
free of it. He got to his feet and give the second man a kick in the
groin. The nimble elf-boy snatched a dagger from that man's belt and
plunged it into his belly. Finally he turned back to the first man who was
bent over moaning and holding his hands to his ravaged face. One quick stab
put him out of his misery.

Meanwhile Merry was struggling against men who had thrown nooses around his
neck. One of them was already dead having mistakenly supposed that a
unicorn, like a horse, would instinctively pull back from a rope, pitting
his muscles against the rope, but Merry was a member an intelligent
species. He knew that ropes work with a pull but not with a push. So
instead of drawing away, he ran straight at the man, who stood there
dumbfounded as the rope went slack in his hands. With only a loose rope in
his hand, the man found himself facing the charge of an angry unicorn.

Now unicorns have a choice of weapons: horn, hoofs, and strong teeth. In
this case Merry plunged his horn into the man's breast and threw him
sideways into two other men who were coming up in support. He sensed yet
another foe behind him trying to get ahold of the slack rope the first man
had dropped and kicked out with his rear hoofs, crushing the man's ribs.

Just when it looked like he was in the clear another assailant got a grip
on the rope around his neck and tied it to a deadfall. Then two more men
threw lassoes at him from the side. Merry blocked one loop with his horn. A
second noose settled about the noble creature's neck and the rope got
pulled taut and anchored to a tree trunk. It looked bad for Merry, doubly
roped and anchored as he was.

The man at the first rope had only a moment to enjoy his triumph before
crying out in anguish and surprise as Dahl slipped the blade of the dagger
through his ribs. The elf-boy then slashed the ropes holding the
unicorn. Together they charged the remaining pair of assailants, who backed
off allowing the two to pass them by. Merry told Dahl:

<Get on my back, boy and hold on.>

Dahl did just that, grabbing fistfuls of mane, as they galloped headlong
away from the scene of the ambush. The unicorn slowed to a canter
briefly. Dahl did not even wait for mind speech. He knew what his ally
needed and got him free from what remained of the trailing ropes. Then they
plunged into the woods, no longer worried about getting hung up. They ran
for their freedom if not for their very lives. Their attackers were slavers
who normally would not kill if they did not have to, but these men had four
or five of their number to avenge.

"What would they have done with us, Merry?"

<If they captured us without losing anyone, they would take us to be sold
in the slave market at Xamphool. You would bring a high price as a pleasure
boy in a brothel. Human boys can serve for only a few brief years. You
could serve for centuries. Naturally they would rape you first, many
times.>

"And yourself?"

<The arena probably, pitted against a cave bear or maybe a rock dragon,
with my horn sold afterwards to an apothecary as the basis of an
aphrodisiac.>

"We were lucky, then. I won't pretend we got away because I am some great
fighter. "

<Unlooked for wisdom in one so young. Yes, that is why you must learn to
defend yourself as part of your training.>

"With what weapons?"

<You did all right with your natural weapons, your hands and feet, in that
fight. Those will be your weapons, your whole body actually, and you will
learn to use a quarterstaff too, though in time you will enlist the natural
world to attack and defend.>

"I used a steel blade back there too, though I did not like the feel of it
in my hand."

<You did well enough thanks to surprise, but without technique or training
you would have lost a real knife fight. Anyway, blades are psychologically
counter-indicated for druids. Indeed the time will come when if you grasp
steel with intent to harm another the muscles of your hand will cramp up
temporarily. That is part of the price you pay to become a druid.>

The next day they camped just beyond a talus slope near a meadow. The
unicorn showed the boy the many kinds of foods a traveler may safely glean
from the land: wild carrots and onions, starchy tubers, ducks' eggs, fruits
and berries, the slow moving fish that live in slack-water pools, edible
mushrooms and how to tell them from poisonous ones, etc. He also cautioned
him against the many plants that produce toxins in leaves, fruits,
stems. and roots to discourage herbivores.

He next showed the boy how to grill, bake or boil these foodstuffs without
cooking utensils. As for lighting a fire, Merry instructed Dahl to build a
teepee of dry sticks, setting it on clear ground inside a circle of
rocks. The boy was skeptical as he laid the fire since he had been told not
to bother with twigs or grass or fibrous kernels for kindling. To Dahl's
surprise, when all was ready, the unicorn went to one knee and touched the
wood with his horn. Flames sprang to life and burned cheerily, crackling
and spitting sparks into the evening sky. It seemed fire starting was one
of Merry's small magics.

Following the unicorn's instructions, the elf-boy grilled fish on a green
stick propped over the flames. For the rest of the meal, Merry had him bake
tubers buried in the sand under the fire. Some days he boiled their
foodstuffs by heating rocks in the fire and rolling them into a pit filled
with water.

Dahl was gratified to learn that they could feed themselves quite well
without resort to inns along the way where he would have to bargain his
charms to all and sundry Much as he enjoyed male sex, he would rather not
whore himself out day after day to all and sundry. Sex for coin struck him
as a sordid business. He would never have the respect of folks who knew him
only for a pleasure boy, one who went around with his nether regions
perpetually on display as if trolling for custom.

The next night, in their stall at an inn, the boy fell to his knees next to
Merry's hindquarters, silently pleading for another chance to taste the
unicorn's energizing gism. The unicorn was pleased with the elf-boy had
accepted the fact that his existence would be transformed and that a
unicorn's seed would be the catalyst for that change. Dahl mouthed the
helmet of the equine cock while his fingers stroked it to life. It soon was
hard and fully extended. Dahl nearly swooned at the size of it. He did his
best to take it into his mouth and throat, almost choking and fainting from
lack of air. The second time around, the aroma of aroused unicorn was even
more intoxicating than the first time.

Abruptly, Merry ordered him to stand up and to bend over a nearby saddle
stand. Nervously the boy complied, trembling as the equine straddled his
small body, positioning his cock atop the boy's butt.

<No, I am not going to penetrate you tonight, but I want you to feel what
will soon be probing your depths.>

The equine's member reached from the bottom of Dahl's butt cheeks to above
his waist. Dahl both dreaded and yearned for it to be thrust into him, for
Merry to take him like a filly and mount him. The unicorn knew that it was
too soon for that. Instead he thrust his cock not into the boy's anus but
between the boy's thighs, rubbing it back and forth, pressing it into his
genitals and belly as well. When he was ready to come he mind spoke the
order for the boy to spin around and present his mouth at the cock head to
receive the seed, which they boy did, swallowing greedily.

The next day, they passed through pretty country, a woodland with copses of
beeches and aspens alternating with grassy meadows and threaded by babbling
brooks. Strange that no one had settled what seemed ideal country. As Dahl
fell to his belly to take a drink from a stream, a strange voice called
out:

"Stand up youngling that I might take thy measure."

Dahl jumped to his feet and spun around to confront a giant of a man. He
loomed over the elf-boy standing well over seven foot tall and was
massively built, with shoulders as wide as an ox yoke. The red-haired giant
wore a sleeveless leather jerkin over a dark green blouse and and deerskin
trews and stout sandals. The hilt of a two-handed sword protruded over his
right shoulder. His left hand gripped a quarterstaff, one end planted
planted on the ground next to him.

Clean shaven and with a handsome leonine profile he regarded the boy
steadily, a half-smile on his friendly face. A broad leather belt carried a
dagger a hatchet, a cudgel, and a canteen. For all his size and weaponry,
the stranger seemed benign rather than threatening, and the wink he gave
Dahl left no doubt that he would not mind sampling the boy's charms.

"Well, sir, as you can see by my diminutive stature, my measure really
doesn't amount to much, though, in my defense, I should say that I have
always thought that my slight physique was more about quality than about
quantity."

"Which would be my department, of course", the giant answered
genially. "Small you are but well-knit together, but then the elves were
ever a fine looking people, and you are among the very best of the
best. What are you doing in these parts so far from any of your people or
anyone else for that matter?"

"Just passing through. I hope we haven't trespassed on your lands or
somehow given offense, sir giant."

"We?" he asked looking around.

<That would be my cue to show myself,> Merry mind-spoke to them, stepping
out of the woods.

"Unusual company too, a unicorn no less. Wait, is that you Merry? Forgive
me, you one-horns really do all look alike."

<I suppose I should take offense at that Balandur, but I am just glad to
have run into you. This is my protege Dahlderon, or Dahl for short.>

"Short he is for sure, so Dahl I shall call him.  But only your protege, is
he, Merry? Such an exquisite boy with that impossibly pretty face, slight
build and and clean limbs, running around without a stitch on. Humph. That
pert rump of his constitutes a perpetual courtship display.  Everyone knows
how keen unicorns are on elf-boys, from having been elves themselves in a
previous life. It's a wonder if you haven't mounted him yet."

<Sounds like you fancy the boy yourself. Don't you then, Balan?>

"Why shouldn't I? Only a blind man would not be stirred by his beauty. He
is a walking wet dream."

Dahl flushed. They might make a game of their banter and sexual innuendo,
but it made him squirm the way they talked about him liked that. It seemed
that every male he met wanted to take him carnally, either by blandishment,
by payment, or by force. He suddenly realized that physical beauty like his
had a down side to it. Combined with his slight build and perpetual nudity,
it made others look at him hungrily seeing him not as a person in his own
right, but as a sex toy for them to play with, to possess, to mount, and to
fuck. Still he could not deny his own attraction to the giant, standing
there the very embodiment of strength and manliness.

Thunderstruck by the giant's overwhelming masculinity, the elf-boy stood
transfixed, mind awhirl as he wondered what it would be like to be hugged
by those huge arms and nearly engulfed in that huge body. What would it be
like to be covered by such a giant, taken like a stallion takes a filly. Or
would he want Dahl on his back, heels in the air, legs in a wishbone? Were
the giant's manhood were in proportion, he might literally tear Dahl apart.

Dahl's eyes widened as his gaze traveled down to the bulge in the giant's
trews. The elf-boy's face reflected his conflicting emotions, lust and
anticipation warring with trepidation for his bodily integrity, as he
visualized himself impaled on the giant's prong.

The giant grinned, having followed the lad's gaze and guessed his thoughts.

"I don't need mind powers to know what you are thinking boy." he chuckled
amiably. He then stepped close enough to reach out and to take the elf-boy
in hand, as it were, cupping his chin and turn his face side to side,
putting his huge hands to the boy's shoulders then running his fingers
lightly down the chevron of his ribs, even weighing and gauging his shapely
genitals, skinning back the foreskin with his thumb and rolling the spheres
in the palm of one giant hand. His ministrations had the expected effect as
the boy's already half way tumescent cock plumped up further and lifted
toward the sky. The giant nodded approvingly.

Dahl wanted to protest, to say that he could control himself. He wasn't
wanton by nature. His half-erection from the giant's roaming hands was
involuntary -- just a hormonal reaction to tactile stimulation. As to
standing there so meekly while the giant felt him up, surely it was not
Dahl's fault that elf-boys were sexually submissive. And everyone knows
that the dicks of teenage boys often have minds of their own especially
after manipulation by super masculine strangers. Besides, it would only be
polite, age-old custom among elves being what it was, that he not only let
older males pet his body and toy with his manhood but actually to offer to
satisfy their carnal desires. Between the dictates of custom and his own
cravings, Dahl knew that before the end of the day the giant would likely
have him on his knees or on all fours, letting the giant take his pleasure
of him, as so many had done in his short life already.

Dahl wondered whether Merry would watch their lovemaking.  Would he enjoy
the spectacle vicariously? Would he insist on a turn for himself and cover
the elf-boy like a stallion does a filly?

Giddily, Dahl thought maybe the way to thwart the dark force was for him to
seduce the physical incarnation of evil before the coming battle and turn
him from his foul purpose. It wasn't vanity for Dahl to acknowledge that
even for an elf, he was extraordinarily beautiful and sexy. He suggested as
much to the unicorn who responded with a head butt that put him down on his
ass.

<Don't even think that! The avatar would use your sexuality to turn you
from the light, to turn you to his own dark purposes. I am not the only
being who can transform the right kind of elf-boy by sexual impregnation.>

Dahl was appalled at this bit of news. Gods, was there no end to the use
that magic could make of his small elvish body. Now he had to worry that an
incarnation of evil might seduce him, literally fucking him into joining
the wrong side.

The giant warrior explained what had brought him to these woods.

"I had reports of Trackers in the hills to the southeast, heading this way,
so I came to check things out."

<Do you think they are coming for us?>

"You could probably answer that better than I could. What are you doing
here anyway, Merry, and why with this callow youth in tow?"."

The unicorn explained his mission and asked the giant to join them at least
till they got clear of the Trackers.

"What are these Trackers?" Dahl asked.

"Demon spawn, boy, dire-wolves sired by demons, so they are half-demon
themselves and very hard to kill. They never give up once they take the
scent.

"What can we do then?"

"We shall camp here for the night. This vale is warded by elven magics from
the old days which is why no one lives hereabouts. We shall be safe till
the morrow. Then we shall see. Meanwhile we still have two hours of
light. Let us put it to good use with some weapons practice. Have you ever
used a staff before boy?

Dahl admitted that he had used his brother's shepherd's crook against wild
dogs the previous spring when a pack came over the mountains to the north
and ranged over the land seeking the spring lambs and kids. In the crisis,
he had been pressed into service though he did not normally tend
livestock. Balan nodded then chose a sapling and cut it down with a sweep
of his long blade, then trimmed it clean. Brandishing his blade he
remarked.

"Forged with magic by the Stone Mountain dwarves, so it never needs
sharpening." he told Dahl.

He then took up his staff and sparred with Dahl. They made quite a sight,
the giant clad in just his trews, massive chest and arms bared, facing off
against a diminutive nude lad. The boy's pretty features screwed up in
concentration as he pitted himself against the experienced warrior. The
older male had the advantage of strength and reach and training, not to
mention centuries of experience. Though the boy did not have the hardened
muscles of the warrior, he was healthy and fit, and his size made him quick
and nimble. Even so his every strike was easily countered by the smooth
moves of his opponent.

The boy came off much the worse with bruises, rapped knuckles and a sore
elbow that left his left arm numb for a brief while. Still the giant
pronounced himself satisfied with the boy's skills. He had shown he was no
expert, but he wouldn't trip over the staff either.

That night the giant invited the boy to his bed but contented himself with
mere bodily contact as they lay spooned together with only the thin fabric
of his trews between his groin and the elf-boy's rump. He did not ask the
boy to give himself to him but merely threw an arm around him protectively
rather than possessively, stroking his chest lazily with his fingers and
nuzzling the nape of his neck before they both fell asleep.

Dahl was grateful that the man was treating him as a friend and an ally and
a traveling companion rather than just a pretty boy toy, though he would be
within his rights to do just that. Instead, the giant had sparred with him,
warned them of danger from the Trackers, and helped prepare their simple
supper. Now he was lying there with him companionably that they might
gather their strength to face the perils that lay beyond the elven
wards. Dahl had to admit that he felt quite comfortable in the giant's arms
though he hoped for a proper shag on the morrow. A giant mounting an
elf-boy. He grew hard just thinking about it.

The next morning, as they left the warded area, the elf handed the boy his
own quarter staff saying he would rely on his sword in any confrontation.

"I use the quarterstaff mostly as a hiking pole rather than as a combat
weapon. It makes a good prop going uphill and a brake heading downhill and
lets you test streams and swamps for depth, mud pits and quicksand. You
will find it handy clearing spider webs too. It makes sense to carry a
stick since no one travels brandishing blades. You keep them in a scabbard
or sheath or hung from your belt, but a staff is always in your hands while
you are on the move, so it is your first defense against sudden attack by
wild animals or anything else."

Indeed, with its long reach the giant's quarterstaff was a formidable
weapon in its own right. Made of hickory, the iron bands at the ends were
inlaid with rings of silver. The staff would not kill a Tracker, but it
could stun it and the silver burn it, keeping it at bay long enough for the
steel of Balan's sword or the horns or hoofs of the unicorn to end its
unholy existence.

Unfortunately for the trio their forward progress that day was dogged by
bad luck. Streams swollen by heavy rains upstream forced them to detour to
fords far above the normal crossing, lengthening their route. Then mucky
ground slowed all of them especially the unicorn with his hooves and the
giant with all that weight on only two feet. So they did not make it safely
to the next town. Twilight found them in a piney woods, dimly lit and
eerily quiet from the way the trees and the carpet of needles absorbed the
sounds of their passing.

With nothing for it, the trio looked for a defensible spot to make
camp. Now a pine forest has very little understory in it, letting them spot
a clearing a ways ahead. There a defile split the rocks, steep sides rising
all around to twice the height of a man. At the end of the defile was a
flat space large enough to make camp. Indeed they found a camp there
already set up, but no one was around.

Suddenly a nervous young voice shouted down at them.

"Drop your weapons and hold out your hands where we can see them!"

They looked up into the anxious faces and drawn bows of two young humans,
who looked so much alike they must be twins. Both were as nude as the
elf-boy. Though of no more than medium height, they carried themselves so
well they might be princes of the forest, lithe and boyishly handsome and
very blond. With the hair on their heads cropped short (though a blond elf
was hard to imagine), their slight builds and slender physiques, and their
youthful features, the twins might be taken for elves themselves. Both were
as naked as any youth of the elven race. The teenagers' comeliness would
normally have piqued Dahl's interest, but the arrows pointed at him were
all business. Dahl recognized the shafts as genuine war arrows with wicked
barbs, not the usual broad-head hunting arrows.

"Merry, beware of archers!" He called back.

His shout was just in time, before the unicorn joined them in the kill zone
of the ambush. There was little the unicorn might do just then against
bowmen perched on the rocks, but as long Merry remained at liberty, he
might effect a rescue later. Catching a glimpse of the retreating unicorn,
the boys lowered their bows though they kept their arrows strung.

"Welcome strangers. Your friend the unicorn is an earnest of your good
intentions. I am Jemsen and this is Karel, my twin brother. Now who are
you? and what were you doing sneaking up on our camp just now."

"We are honest travelers seeking a refuge for the night." the giant assured
them. "We come in peace."

"Then in peace we greet you."

The boys scrambled down the face of the rocks, landing lightly on their
feet at the bottom, their slender but strong legs easily absorbing the
impact. As they stood before the two elves Merry joined them, having heard
the blond boys' words of amity.

The two lads could not have been over eighteen though clearly at the end of
their growth spurt as evidenced by their well-defined wiry
musculature. Jemsen and Karel were so much alike it was hard to tell one
from the other. Likely the boys had played on that growing up, the sort of
harmless mischief that twins so often get up too. Still, it seemed that to
Balan and Merry that Jemsen was the one in charge. They explained their own
presence in those woods. The brothers were local hunters who had gone far
into the woods that day following the trail of a wounded elk they had shot.

"I hope that by now it has bled out and is at peace. I just hate for a
wounded creature to suffer. We hunt the forest creatures for their meat and
their hides to cure for leather, but we always try for a clean kill."

"Nothing dishonors a hunter more than the lingering death of an animal. We
are ashamed that our quarry has suffered hours of pain and fear." added
Jemsen. "If only that twig had not deflected my kill shot, my arrow would
have found its heart, sparing the poor beast this agony."

"Well, spoken, lads." Balan remarked, "But why are you running around bare
ass like young Dahl? And I could not help noticing your glabrous skin --
not a feather on either of you anywhere, not even at the fork of your
legs?"

For answer they turned to display small tattoos on their left shoulders
marking them as elf-friends. Two years earlier, when they were only
fifteen, the twins had chanced upon a pair of elves under attack from
slavers. Taking the evil doers completely by surprise, they skewered four
with their arrows before the miscreants realized the threat from their
rear. Together, the impromptu alliance of elves and humans had finished off
the slavers including a fearsome orc, an ugly brute with four inch tusks
jutting up out of his lower jaw.

After binding their wounds, the young humans had tended the two elves until
they recovered enough to travel to their home village where the twins were
welcomed as heroes. Inducted into the tribe as elf-friends, the boys had
spent the rest of that spring and summer with the elves, living as any
elf-boy would, going about entirely naked.

For the twins it was a magical time. Their village was a sylvan wonderland,
a community of tree houses supported by the trunks and main branches of a
forest of oak and ask. Each house consisted of separate but connected
platforms, providing space and privacy. The community was linked by
walkways and swaying rope bridges.

Their aerial location was not so much for defense as to raise the elves'
living quarters above the largely still air at ground level. Cooling
breezes easily penetrated the open architecture of their aeries. Stairs and
ladders provided reasonable access though counter-weighted platforms were
available for heavy lifting. Going down was easy, just slide down a rope,
either vertically or slantwise. Flowers grew everywhere: in the ground, on
climbing vines, or in tubs, pots, and hanging planters in the trees.

In the midst of a society based on same gender sexuality, it was inevitable
for the hormone driven human teenagers to turn to their fellow males for
sex, something the boys had only experimented with beforehand. With so many
willing teachers, the eager students quickly became accomplished in the
amatory arts.

The presence of so many elves had awakened the boy's inherent magical gift
which was an unerring sense of direction. That meant that they always knew
the azimuth to any place they had been to before or seen, as from atop a
height. They were never at a loss for orienting themselves to the points of
the compass, and their archery, already good, became uncannily accurate.

The twins eventually returned to their own village where they lived at the
home of their uncle. The villagers were happy to see them return
safely. They had feared the boys lost, being gone so long. Still what was
with their insistence on nudity? The villagers were not prudes and had no
problem with brief nudity at the baths or swimming holes. Their young men
habitually went about bare chested, clad only in a loin cloth, a strip of
hide passed between the legs and hung over a leather cord. Even that
garment might be laid aside for sweaty or dirty work like digging drainage
ditches, terracing fields, haying or harvesting nuts. Males also went nude
for athletic training and competition. And they slept nude as well.

The twins explained that having been inducted into the tribe as elf-friends
they intended to live as much as possible like the elves did including
giving up clothing and taking up with other pretty boys. The twins freely
acknowledged to their fellow villagers they had disported themselves with
elven males and intended to do so with human ones as well, including each
other.

Their uncle tried to reason with them.

"Boys, boy. No one minds you taking your clothes off as the other lads do
for hard work, exercise, or during the annual nut harvest but not all the
time."

Their uncle was right about the nut harvest, the prime time during the year
when public nudity by young males both expected and approved. During the
nut harvest village boys stripped entirely before clambering into the trees
to knock nuts off with a cane or stick. Without clothing, they could not
snag their garments or get hung up. Though a whole lot of hard work, the
nut harvest was fun too, a challenge and a chance for the boys to show
off. From the topmost branches that could bear their weight boys would yell
out in sheer youthful exuberance. What boy does not love to climb trees?

And if a boy also got a socially acceptable chance to posture and display
himself in the nude before a potential mate, why so much the better. That
was a traditional way for local girls to size up the village lads without
causing scandal by going off alone with them. As for the girls, they ever
so innocently bustled about on the ground, policing up the harvest of nuts
into baskets and not so innocently checking out a likely boy perched in the
branches above.

The village swimming holes were segregated by gender after puberty, as was
only proper, but the dense shrubbery along the banks held a number of
vantage spots for naughty on-lookers. Still for all that, boys usually did
not run around starkers, especially with impressionable young ladies
looking on.

Shaking a finger at his nephews the uncle added:

"I have a good mind to take a switch to those bare hides of yours, only I
don't think it would do any good, would it?"

The boys shook their head, a stubborn look on their pretty young
faces. Their grit and determination soon got through to the uncle who,
after all, really did love his wayward nephews, so he accepted them for
what they were.

As for the rest, the boys were already generally well liked and respected,
and the whole village benefited from their hunting which provided meat for
the pot plus hides and pelts. Besides, ancient custom was that those named
elf friends were traditionally welcome in any village.

Soon enough, a number of young males in the village realized that these
attractive youngsters were a convenient sexual outlet, an alternative to
village girls who, however much they flirted and courted with their young
swains, insisted on saving their virginity for their wedding night. The
twins were discreet in arranging trysts with them. So the twins were
tolerated to run around bare ass naked and as glabrous as any elf and to
consort discreetly with their fellow village youths. All in all things had
worked out.

"Anyway we spend most of our time these days in the forest, hunting and
scouting, pushing farther than we really need to, just to see what is on
the other side of the next hill." Karel explained.

"Entirely unclad as you are you might be denizens of the forest yourselves,
younglings." the giant remarked. "Not that I am complaining, mind you. As
sexy as you are I wouldn't mind sampling your charms myself, if that is not
being too forward."

"No, not at all. And yes, perpetual nudity does make us feel like creatures
of the forest who go about as nature has provided for them." Karel
explained.

With a mischievous smile on his face, his brother added:

"And we fully realize that going around in the nude in public all the time
is terribly naughty, but it makes us feel so sexy and wanton. Gosh does
that make us bad boys?" he asked with a facetious smile on his lovely face.

"Anyway, after two years, total nudity feels entirely natural." Jemsen said
simply.

"Tell me about it." Dahl remarked dryly. He had never worn a stitch in his
life.

Balan smiled indulgently and winked at Merry. Throw Dahl into the mix and
his three bipedal comrades were marvelous examples of youthful male
pulchritude, with Dahl rather more delicate looking than the two
humans. For the time being though, he would bide his time. He was in no
hurry. Let acquaintance ripen into comradeship before taking any of them to
bed.  Meanwhile they had each other and more power to them. He didn't
wonder that morning would find little Dahlderon sandwiched between the
blond youths when it wasn't their turn to stand guard against the Trackers.

"But tell us of yourself Balan, "Jemsen asked. "Are you an overgrown human
or a true giant?"

"Something of both though I am as much human as giant by blood. According
to our genealogical records, counting both sides of the family, my blood is
virtually half giant and half human. Which explains why I am rather short
compared to a true giant most of whom stand eight to nine feet tall. More
specifically, my red hair comes from my mother and my blue eyes from my
father. In my land we are basically human but with a significant admixture
from the frost giants who live north of the mountains and trade with us in
spring and summer when they can negotiate the passes."

"Frost Giants? Are they called that because they are cold-blooded or what?"
Dahl blurted out.

"Nay, lad. All humanoid races are warm-blooded. It is just that Frost
Giants live in a land of severe winters north of the mountains on a
peninsula that projects into the Northern Ocean. My people live in the
warmer climate on the southern side of the dividing range and at a lower
elevation. Also most Frost giants have hair so blonde it is almost white,
not the grey white of an old man mind you, but bright and glistening like
frost or ice."

"So much for introductions. Now to work. We must make this camp defensible,
lads. Let's set a barrier fire burning across the path to block and back
light any intruders. The flames will at least slow them down. Down here in
this defile, its light won't give away our position."

The giant asked the archers to lend him four of their war arrows. Balan
coated their points with a sticky substance from a small vial he carried in
his pack. It held a lacquer holding particles of silver in suspension. Many
of the creatures of the dark could not stand the touch of silver. The
coated arrows might not kill a Tracker but would inflict burns they would
find hard to ignore.

Balan then donned his only metal armor, a pair of metal vambraces to
protect his forearms and gloves make of mail, their backs covered with
overlapping scales. He explained:

"The work of Stone Mountain dwarves, like my sword, and much stronger than
you would guess from the thickness of the metal. Even Trackers cannot bite
trough steel forged by magic. And it never rusts either."

Unfortunately, although the barrier fire was hidden from observers on the
ground, there was an aerial observer in the sky, a raven with a strange red
gleam in his eyes, a sign of the evil power temporarily possessing the dark
bird of omen and using it as a scout.

The raven dove down toward the three Trackers spread out in a line at edge
of the forest, cawing to attract their attention, then arrowing in the
direction of the rocky outcrop. The Trackers converged, joining forces for
an assault on one of the hated unicorns. They arrived at the clearing after
midnight but waited till just before dawn, always the best time for an
attack. The alertness of sentries drops off with the first glimpse of
morning twilight, both from simple fatigue and from complacency.

The Trackers had not allowed for the keen senses of a unicorn. As they
crept up the defile, Merry caught their scent and aroused everyone with
mind speech. The unicorn and giant both called light, creating blue white
spheres that hovered overhead and illuminated the area.

Dahl ran over to his post and stoked the fire, using his staff as a lever
to slide bundles of pine boughs into the flames. The sap-filled boughs went
up with a whoosh, turning it into a veritable conflagration. Then came
bundles of harder wood to keep the blaze burning steadily. For a short time
anyway, the flames rose nearly as tall as Balandur.

Fierce as it was, the blaze did not stop the Trackers who, after a moment
of irresolution, jumped right through the fire, though one by one rather
than in a group. Despite singed fur, the killer canines forced their way
into the camp, their slavering jaws opened wide, ready to tear at their
enemies.

By that time the defenders were in position: the elf-boy on the right, the
giant swordsman on the left the unicorn in the center as backup for the two
fighters on the side, ready to lend a horn or his hooves if either got into
trouble. Meanwhile their two archers climbed up the rocks. Theirs was no
scramble to safety. No they took up firing positions ten feet above the
level of the camp which let them shoot downward at their foes, making it
less likely they would hit an ally by accident. As the most experienced
fighter, Balan had made these dispositions to take advantage of the skills
and capabilities of each of the five of them and to minimize their
disadvantages. Bowmen for instance have no business mixing it up close with
their enemies. They are all offense and no defense.

On the left Balan took out the first Tracker, swinging his sword two-handed
to split its skull.  On the right Dahl started off well with a righteous
smash to the beast's tender nose, causing it to yelp in real pain. It
pulled back for a moment but then bounded forward, intent on revenge. Alas
Dahl was just too small and too inexperienced with the quarter staff to
hold off his Tracker for long. The devil beast was much larger than an
ordinary wolf much less the wild dogs of his experience.

The hapless elf-boy was pushed back as the Tracker's weight slammed
him. Slavering jaws closed over both the boy's arm and the shaft of his
staff. He shook the boy like a terrier does a rat. Dahl wailed in
terror. Just then Merry's counterattack impaled the beast on his horn, a
weapon at least as deadly as Balan's blade.

Arrows from the twins slammed into the third Tracker, which was trying to
hamstring Merry who was turned away, busy helping Dahl. The Tracker howled
as the silver on the arrowheads burned it from the inside. Silver would not
kill such a creature by itself, but it did give the arrows as much efficacy
against them as if they had not been magical beasts.  The arrows occupied
the beast's attention long enough for Balan to cut through its spine near
the tail. With only its front legs working, Merry had little difficulty
crushing its skull with his hooves. Dahl dragged himself from under his
Tracker's carcass, holding his lacerated arm and howling with agony. Quick
thinking Balan scooped up some of the ashes from the fire and spread them
on the wound explaining that the Tracker's oral digestive juices were akin
to an acid which the ashes would neutralize.

The elf-boy's wound was ugly, a mess of torn flesh and blood though the
hard wood of the staff had protected the major blood vessels. Balan
bandaged the wound then wrapped the arm tightly to the boy's chest to
immobilize it. He gave the boy a powerful drug against the pain then
addressed Merry aloud rather that in mind speech so all would understand.

<The elf-boy needs a healer right away, or he will lose that arm. Will you
carry him to the nearest town?> Balan asked.

<Of course.>

Thanks to their unerring magical sense, the twins knew the way to the
nearest town with a healer. With a nod to his companions, Merry took off
with Dahl on his back. Dahl clung to his perch on the back of the unicorn,
one hand wrapped in his mane, hanging on grimly. His eyes were squeezed
shut with pain for even Balan's drug could do only so much. The elf-boy
wished only that his ordeal would end.

The unicorn traveled in an amble, a ground eating gait that was quicker
than a walk though slower than a canter. It made for a much smoother ride
for the injured boy than a trot or a pace and it was less tiring than other
gaits since it allowed the equine to keep three feet on the ground at all
times. For covering distance, it was ideal.

With his long legs Balan kept up easily enough, though the twins had to
run.

			Chapter 4. Joining Up

A couple of hours later they reached their destination and headed straight
for the green pennant that marked the home of the local healer. A very
young woman with a buxom figure and flowing red tresses greeted them at the
door."

"This boy was bitten by a Tracker." Balan explained. "Please fetch your
mistress the healer."

"And who did you think I might be, big fellow," she gave back with a saucy
tilt of her head. The name is Angelina, by the way."

All business, she settled on a stool next to the table they had laid Dahl
on. Nodding approvingly at Balan's use of ashes, she tsk-tsk as she unwound
the bandages and bathed it to examine Dahl's wound, an ugly mess of torn
tissue and suppuration. Now most healers will ordinarily try natural
medicine before invoking magic, but in Dahl's case no lesser measures would
do. Putting her hands to the wounded arm she invoked her healing powers. A
golden nimbus sprang into being and surrounded her hands and the boy's
wounded arm as she first expelled foreign matter from the wound and then
knit the torn flesh and nerves and blood vessels together. In a matter of
moments the only sign of the wound was the lighter shade of the fresh skin
she grown over it.

"Thank you miss, that is Angelina." Balan said. "Sorry I mistook you for a
servant, but you looked so very young.

She chuckled and reminded him that among healers, their own healing magic
held back aging. She hadn't been truly young for decades. When asked how
old she really was, she smiled knowingly.

"That is something you do not ask of a lady, isn't it? Especially with
teenage boys prancing around in the nude. The elf-boy I understand. Those
pretty blond boys, I don't."

Jemsen and Karel turned their left shoulders to display the tattoos that
marked them as elf-friends.

"Now I understand about them too. More power to both of you. It is a rare
honor and not easy to earn. The elves can be very choosy about whom they
induct into their clans as elf-friends. I am sure you two have quite a
story to tell."

"Now as to my fee, I am afraid that with all our expenses to run this
place, I must charge you a whole silver."

"And I must insist you accept a gold and nothing less for your services. I
know that the homes of healers are not only clinics but also schools for
non-magical healers whom you tutor without charge."

"Thank you Balan. Yes, we who fly the green pennant are teachers as much as
healers. We reach out to those in the other health occupations: nurses,
mid-wives, herbalists, chirurgeons and bone-setters and others -- even
hedge-witches, spreading the latest discoveries, methods and best
practices. Many illnesses and injuries do not need the attention of a
magical healer and respond well to natural treatments. And the patients can
be treated close to home."

Later, as they sat around a meal at a nearby inn, Balan summed up their
adventure.

"We got lucky, friends." Balan maintained. "If the Trackers had caught us
out in the open and come out of the dark from three sides at once, most of
us would have been killed. Don't think I am being hard on you Dahl. You
roused the fire handily and fought bravely and as well as you could, but
you were a weak point."

<That is true right now Balan, but once he finishes his training and comes
into his druidic powers he will be the most formidable one of us all.>

"Thanks Merry. I know Balan is right. I don't wield a staff very well yet,
and I am the smallest and lightest of us all by far. No wonder the Tracker
managed to sink his teeth into me. I was just lucky my staff was pressed
alongside my forearm, so he got a mouthful of both. Still it was horrible,
the way he shook me like a a dog killing a rat. I have never felt so
helpless."

"You boys did well with your bows." Balan continued. "In time the beast you
shot might have bled to death, for the silver would have kept its deep
wounds from closing, but the Tracker could have survived long enough to
turn on you and kill you. The problem with archers is that you are all
offense and no defense. You need a way to hold your own during close
attack. Forget those hunting knives, which are really tools for skinning
hides."

"Thanks for the advice on protecting ourselves, but I think my brother and
I will be moving on. We still have to go back for that elk and get its meat
and hide back to our uncle."

<I am very sorry to tell you this, but for your own safety you will have to
stay with us from now on. From the raven circling overhead earlier, the
avatar of evil now knows who you are. He will have you hunted down and
killed even if we separate and you go on alone.>

Merry explained their destination was the Great Southern Forest, explaining
why it would take months of travel to reach it.

<The Great Forest is hundreds of leagues wide and lies in the southeastern
quadrant of the continent we are on, nearly a third of the way around the
world.>

"That far?" Jemsen asked.

<As you may know Haven is about equal parts land and water. The oceans
occupy most of the temperate and virtually all of the polar zones of the
planet. Three continents girdle the planet, separated by shallow straits
which ships can sail across in a few days. Which makes for interesting
meteorology and ocean currents, believe me. Now our current position is
above the equator. The Great Forest is a ways south of the Line. The point
I am trying to make it that, to get there, we have to cross the continent
of Valentia diagonally, which adds considerably to our journey. Are you
game?>

The boys listened, then shrugged their shoulders, deciding they might as
well put the best face on things that they could.

"Count us in." the boys chimed together. "We are up for an adventure. Maybe
the bards will sing our song too in the years to come."

Merry and Balan smiled inwardly at the naivete and optimism of youth. Where
their centuries of experience saw deadly peril, youth saw adventure and
glory. Maybe it was better that way.

The giant and the unicorn liked the twins a lot -- stout-hearted lads the
both of them and extremely good looking. Merry liked to watch their bums as
the twins and Dahl walked ahead of them, appreciating the way their deep
cleavages ended abruptly at their tailbones. Only humans and elves have
such well developed buttocks or need them to maintain upright posture. And
those round rumps and the moist hole in between were a promise of the
pleasure they could give to other males.

He also liked the contrast between the narrow hips on the lads and their
wide shoulders, another adaptation to upright posture which put the
swinging arms farther away from their axis of rotation at the spine. The
momentum of swinging arms countered the rotational torque the opposite legs
put on the torso, which is what let human stride in a straight line rather
than waddle back and forth like a duck. There was a bit of side to side
movement as their dangly bits were lifted and gently pushed by the motion
of whichever leg was moving forward. Nothing to be ashamed about in that
department.

Such nice slim legs they had too, all muscle and bone and sinew, with
virtually no fat, the veins of the sculpted calves visible against their
taut skin. The legs were best watched with a boy in an all out run, his
entire body in motion, leaning forward slightly, enough to fall on his face
if he didn't thrust a leg forward to take his weight as the back leg pushed
off. Nothing like a run to display a boy at his best, legs thrusting, arms
pumping, chest rising and falling, hair blowing in the wind, sweat running
down the brow and nose, the very picture of life, strength, and physical
beauty.

After several more days, the party of five made their way to another town
and sought accommodation at an inn. The twins had only a few silvers
between them. As a group they decided to reserve Balan's purse for when
they could not earn silver and once more put Dahl to work as a rent boy,
his first such outing since their hard fight with the Trackers. With his
equanimity now restored, Dahl said that he was up to the task. In a strange
way, selling himself once again was a reestablishment of normalcy.

The twins and the giant stifled their envy and watched as many less well
favored males followed the lovely elf-boy up the stairs to a room where he
entertained his clientele. The twins themselves attracted much attention,
sitting there in the common room, entirely naked and as smooth limbed as
the elf-boy. Some patrons inquired whether they too were available for a
price.

"Too bad the elf-boy's dance card is full, but that still leaves you twins,
both scrumptious blond beauties. You look like you are trolling for custom
going around buck nekkid like your friend the elf-boy. How about it?"

"Not tonight." Balan said firmly before the twins could answer for
themselves. They had never sold their charms, but they both took it amiss
that a near stranger like Balandur had thought to take that decision out of
their hands. After all, they were (just barely) of age. So shouldn't he
have let them decide?

In a quiet voice the giant explained that all three boys were in danger not
only from dark forces but also from ordinary evildoers like thieves and
slavers. It wasn't unheard of for unscrupulous innkeepers to conspire with
slavers, to set up naive guests for capture and taming. Better to have the
others on guard while Dahl earned their keep selling his charms. The boys
could spell Dahl on other evenings of the long journey ahead of them.

The proprietor was not very happy about having to furnish food and drink
for a party of five, one of them a giant with an appetite to match and
three of them perpetually hungry teenagers. He assigned the twins, Balan
and Dahl to a single room furnished with two beds. When they all went up to
sleep, it was obvious that, because of his size, Balan would need one bed
entirely for himself and even then had to lie across it diagonally. Making
the best of things, the giant disrobed completely and lay down on his back
and fell asleep almost immediately.

The twins stared with horrid fascination at the giant's prodigious
endowment. Even flaccid it was as long and thick as a truncheon. How much
larger would it get all swollen and erect. What would happen when Balan
shoved that huge thing up their quims? Wouldn't it just rip their anal
rings to shreds, leaving them bleeding and torn. Maybe a tumble with the
giant wasn't such a good idea after all, no matter how much their hormones
drove them towards it.

Shaking his head in denial at a mental image of himself impaled on the
giant's member, Jemsen grabbed his ass cheeks protectively, a frightened
look on his pretty face. For his part Karel bit a knuckle and let out a
soft whimper, scared even more than his twin because he knew that no matter
what the consequences he could never refuse the giant but would inevitably
surrender himself to his overwhelming masculinity. Karel was honest enough
with himself to admit that, much like the elf-boy, he was an insatiable
bottom boy, born to fucked. Frightful or not, he would take that cock up
his quim or die trying. And what a way to go!

"You do understand, don't you, Jemsen" Karel said, as his twin hugged
him. "Even if it kills me, I have to let him take me, if not tonight then
soon."

Karel nodded. "Me too. He will want to fuck both of us so you won't be
alone, dear brother.

But that night they weren't going to bed with the slumbering giant. So the
twins took to the smaller bed. Not a problem for they were used to sleeping
spooned together after their nightly sport, and they were both so slender
there was plenty of room for a diminutive elf-boy. The twins looked forward
to sandwiching the elf-boy between them and once again fucking him silly
half the night. The elf-boy was so incredibly cute and sexy and took
direction well.

To the twins' disappointment, after finishing with his clients the elf-boy
went to sleep in Merry's stall. Dahl's sleep the last few days had been
troubled by nightmares about the attack. He got a good night's sleep,
knowing he was safe there in Merry's stall. No need for a sentry in the
stable. The unicorn's senses would warn him of hostile intent.

Dahl put his arms around Merry's neck and hugged him, pressing the front of
his body to the equine, the cum of the men who had used him still oozing
out of his sore hole. Then he lay down on the straw. The unicorn contented
himself with licking the boy's genitals and ass then letting the exhausted
boy fall into a well-earned sleep.

The next morning in the upstair room they shared with Balan, the twins got
a good look at the giant's morning wood. Once again they trembled with both
fright and lust as they considered the possibilities.

A few mornings later, with Dahl finally convinced his arm really was as
good as new, Balan and Merry declared that it was time to equip all three
boys with a quarterstaff. The local carpenter had staves on hand, genuine
ashplant walking sticks, so the elf used some of his silver to buy three
identical ones. He had the carpenter put a flat hook a foot or so from the
end of each stave. That way a staff wielder could slip the strap of his
pack onto the hook and carry it over his shoulder hobo style, the weight
balanced by the left arm.  In case of trouble, a quick flip of the staff
would let the strap and pack slip free, leaving him ready for fight or
flight. It was a much quicker way to drop a pack than releasing buckles or
even lifting a strap over the neck and shoulder.

The twins appreciated that the leather straps of their back packs would no
longer rub their shoulders, nor would the weight bounce against their
hips. As a bonus the pack would not obstruct the view of their lithe
physiques. By now the twins were shameless show offs. They knew that,
unlike with elves, their own years of extraordinary youthful male beauty
would be few, so they wanted to make the most of them and show off their
strong young bodies. As for their weaponry, they usually carried their long
bows unstrung and nestled next to their staff. Once strung the bows were
carried across the back or gripped ready to shoot. Their quivers rode as
before over their shoulders, though they could also be shifted to a hip
carry when shooting from cover.

Their journey southwards had carried them into a clime warmer than that of
the elf-boy's valley, turning what might be a pleasant hike into an
increasingly sweaty chore. The travelers stopped for lunch in the orchard
of an abandoned farm whose buildings had fallen in so badly as to be
uninhabitable though the ruins provided firewood.

After eating and resting the boys and Balan paired off for practice with
their new quarterstaffs. The twins had some trouble getting the hang of it
and wound up bruised and with skinned knuckles. It wasn't for lack of
trying, but the twins had to unlearn their training as archers which told
them to back off from a fight the better to employee their bows. With a
staff, you must close with your opponent and press him, not letting him
seize the initiative.

Merry watched the sparring from under an apple tree, pausing from time to
time to munch a fallen apple. The unicorn was fond of apples. They had a
taste that was both tart and sweet and their crunchy flesh cleaned both
palate and teeth.

As he snacked, the unicorn watched the training, admiring the fine lines of
the youthful males as they stepped back and forth, whirled and twisted
their bodies, raised and thrust out their arms, their muscles bunching and
moving erotically under their tanned skin. All three boys were lean, with
so little body fat that they had a tracery of veins on their arms and
calves and on the flat of their bellies. Yes, this is how pretty boys were
meant to live, free, naked, hairless, their handsome manhoods and
delightful croups always on display. Merry had not yet taken the measure of
Dahl's round rump.

He also fancied the twins but knew he had to leave them for the
giant. Unicorns and elf-boys were one thing, humans another. Spiritually at
least Merry was half elf-boy himself. Physically he was an equine but
secretly yearned to exchange that four legged form for the two legged form
of the elf-boy he had once been. What he missed most was having hands.

In the evening the party of five arrived at the twins' village. The arrival
of a unicorn, an elf, a giant, and the twins caused a stir. The fawn-like
physique of the elf-boy reminded the villagers that it was the exuberant
sexuality of elves that had tempted the twins into their way of life:
perpetual public nudity and promiscuous sex with other males. Still the
twins had been declared elf-friends and hence worthy of respect. And
everyone knew that unicorns were good luck. The giant was an unknown but
seemed friendly enough. So it was that their uncle Harleck welcomed them to
the village and invited all to stay with him at his home, the stone built
grange where the twins had grown up after their parents had died from a
fever.

After settling in, the five travelers and uncle Harleck sat down to a
scrumptious supper around a big table set up in the octagonal gazebo which
connected to the house by a sheltered walkway."

"Shade and breezes. Just the place for a meal in the heat of early summer."
Harleck explained. The stones of the main building soak up rather a lot of
heat despite the overhang of the roof, the awnings on the windows, and the
shade trees planted along the south side."

The elves and Merry discussed their proposed route with Harleck, a man who
had traveled much in his youth.

"By all means follow the trade road. Paved with flat stone and carried by
bridges over every river and stream, it will let you cover ground quickly,
and you can stay at inns instead of having to make and break camp every
day. At the end of the road take just about any dirt track that leads in
the right direction across the grasslands. Watch yourself then. The
grasslands are home to tribal folk, nomadic horsemen, and fearsome centaurs
dwell to the south.

"Will the nomads allow travelers to cross their lands?" asked Jemsen.

<Probably, though for the freedom of the plains, you have to pay a silver
or two to each tribe you encounter. They won't see you as a threat as few
of as you are and on foot to boot. They are horse nomads.>

<Besides, you will have a unicorn to vouch for your good intentions.> Merry
added smugly.

"Aye," added Balan but we need to watch for bands of outcasts who follow
the old ways and live by raiding. In these latitudes we will avoid danger
from centaurs who prefer the higher and cooler temperate latitudes farther
from the Equator. Just as well. Those fearsome creatures like nothing
better than to eat young males of almost any race cooked or raw for that
matter."

"Almost any race?" queried Jemsen.

"Even centaurs cannot stomach the taste of trolls or orcs." Balan
explained.

Most nights two youths paired off, though the sexy teenagers sometimes
frolicked in a threesome. Jemsen was the most sexually aggressive of the
trio; next was his twin Karel, with the submissive elf-boy getting plugged
at both ends at once. The twins would fuck him doggy style or more
typically on his back, his own hands at his knees to spread his legs apart
as the boys pumped away at his hungry hole. Dahl would shudder as the
impaling cock repeatedly stroked his joy spot as it slipped in and out,
sending his small body into paroxysms of erotic ecstasy. His eyes would
roll up and head whip around as he moaned and groaned, sweat pouring off
him, utterly lost in the surge of sensuality.

Jemsen would punctuate his strokes with occasional slaps to the bottom
boy's buttocks, emphasizing his dominance over the smaller male beneath
him. Till, in the fullness of time, one of them would reach climax, usually
setting the other one off as well. If Jemsen came first, the signal for
Dahl's own body to orgasm was the wet warmth he felt as Jemsen spurt into
his innards. For Jemsen, the trigger was the sight of Dahl's small but
shapely cock spurting ropes of white gism onto his chest and even his face.

"You know Dahl," Jemsen enthused, "I don't know which is more exciting:
taking you while your are lying on your back where I can watch your pretty
face and kiss those pouty lips of yours, or mounting you from behind, when
your are down on all fours like a dog or rather like a filly. Do you have
any idea how shapely you are back there? Just perfect: firm boy buns --
round where they should be yet flat on the flanks. And they dimple ever so
fetchingly when you walk in front of me. On the road, it is all I can do
not to push you to the ground and mount you every hour."

"That sounds like a lot of fun -- getting fucked all the way across the
grasslands. Still, it would be hard on my knees, and we wouldn't cover much
ground that way, now would we? Especially if Karel took the opportunity to
kneel in front of me and present his cock for oral service. You know how he
loves to double team me."

[Continued in Part 2]

			Author's Note

If you have enjoyed this story and others like it, consider making a
donation to the Nifty Archive. It is so easy. They take credit cards.

This is my first pure fantasy tale for the Nifty Archive. It is entirely
fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead.

Readers who like these stories might want to try my two series 'Daphne Boy'
and 'Naked Prey' in the Gay/Historical section of the Archive. My 'Jungle
Boy' series of Hollywood tales posted in the Gay/Authoritarian section. The
new series 'Andrew Jackson High relates the trials and tribulations of five
of its gay students. For links to these and other stories, look on the list
of Prolific Authors on the Archive.


Comments and feedback welcome.