Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2016 15:50:01 +0000 From: George Gauthier Subject: Elf-Boy's Friends 34 Elf-Boy's Friends 34 Snow Elves by George Gauthier [The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends'] Chapter 1 Snow Elves It was also clear that Axel's despondency had lifted fully. He was his old self again. Good. Axel was such a sweet kid; his was the gentlest soul of all of them. After a sojourn of three weeks at the Stone Ring it was time for the Corp of Discovery to push on in search of the fabled Snow Elves. Named not for their preferred climate but for their alabaster skin, shoulder length ash-blond hair, and icy grey eyes, they generally stood an inch or so under six feet with the willowy physiques and lissome bodies and glabrous skin typical of elves. Like all shape shifters they never tanned nor burned despite nearly constant exposure to the sun's rays. Even more than their cousins, the usual sort of Sylan Elves, Snow Elves elected to go about skin clad or sky clad as they would have it. Which was only natural for these were wirs or shape shifters who spent nearly as much time in their animal forms as in their human bodies. So garments were an unnecessary and indeed inconvenient encumbrance. Theirs was a nomadic existence, a perpetual walkabout. By contrast the much more numerous Sylvan Elves were dark haired with eyes the color of growing things. Not surprisingly many of them had the gift of a Green Thumb. Sylvan Elves tanned easily and mostly lived a sedentary existence in permanent agricultural settlements called vales where they cultivated mulberry trees and raised silkworms and spun and wove silk cloth. Both sorts of elves were talented trackers and woodsmen, whose field craft was unsurpassed only doubly so for wirs. That was the sum total of what the aged beast master Padraig himself knew about the elusive elves or could tell Dylan. Even as the Corps of Discovery took to the sky, the Snow Elves were being hunted by a posse of local farmers and crofters who blamed them for a series of savage killings of not only numerous cattle and sheep but also of at least three cowherds and shepherds also killed for their flesh. Another two boys had gone missing entirely. Completely ignorant of the depredations of the man-killers, the nomads were encamped by a stream after feeding well from a large antelope taken early that morning as it came down to the stream to drink. That had spared the family, as they thought of themselves, the need to hunt for the next two days. The carcass was large enough to feed all the wirs: the triplets who were dire wolves, a species larger and with darker fur than the gray wolf, the pair of cousins who were spotted leopards, and the solitary wolverine, only sixteen and the youngest of the bunch. All of them were male and very young — just getting started in life and all oriented to their same gender. The meat of a single antelope would not have stretched far enough to satisfy their huge allies, but the two giant Kodiak bears with white coats who traveled in their company preferred the tasty red flesh of salmon who swam up the stream driven by the urge to reach the sandy pools where they themselves had hatched and then spawn the next generation. Salmon were only a seasonal resource, but when the fish were running, the bears gave no thought to any other flesh. Salmon were that tasty. Sometimes the ursine giants just stood in the stream and caught a fish in their jaws. More often, swipes of their giant paws would propel one stunned fish after another right out to the water and onto the bank where they would flop about until the bear had caught enough for a meal and ambled over to consume his catch. The wirs were fond of salmon too, but they had taken the antelope before realizing that the salmon were running. No matter. A salmon run could last many days. Blackberry bushes heavy with ripe fruit were also on the menu as dessert though the wirs would have to change into human form to gather them, a task for which hands were much better suited than paws. Bestirring themselves at last, the wirs took on their human forms and began to gather berries, though at first many of those they picked wound up in their mouths rather than in their baskets. the bears sent over their mental link. Not that the bears could not see that there were plenty of berries for everyone. They often engaged in banter with their young charges, as they thought of the wir youths. For these were no ordinary bears. Ursine counterparts to unicorns hence the white coloration much like their counterparts of the polar isles, the bears were magical creatures though not shape shifters. Centuries old, they were fully sentient and gifted with projected mind speech which let them network their minds and those of the wirs. Now their range was quite limited, seldom more than four miles, but it made the wirs and bears an unbeatable team. Their usual tactic was for the trio of noisy dire wolves to drive deer or antelope toward where the leopards and wolverine were lying in wait in their natural camouflage, listening for the silent call to rise up and to pounce on the fleeing prey. Then all would share in the bounty of the hunt. As omnivores the bears would eat just about anything: wild onions and carrots, yarrow and other greens, fruits and nuts and berries, even carrion, though only when fresh, and grubs which they found by pulling apart rotting logs, something easily within the power of creatures more than three times size of a Frost Giant. The bears were giants compared to their remote ancestors on Old Urth. They weighed twenty-two hundred pounds and stood nearly seven feet at the shoulder when on all fours but twelve feet when fully upright on their hind legs. Solidly built and armed with strong claws and sharp teeth, the creatures were the embodiment of raw power, and when they put their minds to it, they were as ferocious as any wolverine. With both baskets full and with their immediate appetites satisfied the boys brought their harvest to their simple campsite, really just a fire ring. The three dire wolves had transformed into a set of identical triplets named Lobo, Lupo, and Volf. Eighteen but looking like they were going on sixteen they were blessed with fine-boned features which somehow hinted at their lupine nature. The trio were chatty and outgoing with personalities more ebullient than those of their feline counterparts, the cousins Leon and Brand. For the lupine triplets leisure was a chance for games, wrestling, horsing around, and rough housing. The feline cousins would rather relax, lie around, and challenge each other and all comers to solving the riddles they devised themselves or had collected in their travels. The wir wolverine, the youth Gulo, sweet sixteen going on seventeen but looking no more than fifteen, often preferred his own company. He enjoying settling down with a book when they were available, which they often were not. The bears were willing to carry their common kit in small packs of negligible mass to them, but they drew the line at serving as living bookmobiles. Regardless all of the wirs had the same alabaster skin, shoulder length ash-blond hair, icy grey eyes, willowy physiques, lissome bodies, and glabrous skin typical of Snow Elves. They had been together for more than a year, recruited by the bears who offered them a way of life better suited to their nature than that of the Sylan Elves from whose loins they had sprung. Their wanderlust might have lead them to become trackers or scouts, or wilderness guides and still live as Sylvan Elves, but those born with the gift of shape shifting heard the call of the wild louder than other elves. Hence they took up a wandering existence with others of their kind with the bears as teachers and powerful protectors. "One basket of berries for you two big guys, one for the rest of us." Lobo told the ursine brothers Bjorn and Bjarni. "Fair is fair." "And so it is young one." Bjorn agreed, then he and his brother turned their attention to the tasty berries. "Tomorrow keep an eye out for honeybees, would you?" Bjarni asked. "Bjorn and I have a hankering for honey." "All right, but you guys are real messy eaters," Leon told him. "so leave it to us to collect the honey." The truth was the bears just broke into a hive and tore out big hunks of honey comb and ate it all, honey, comb, and the bees crawling on it. Their long fur made them invulnerable to bee stings. The boys could blow smoke into the hive to calm the insects and remove the honey comb with very little collateral damage and few mashed bees. Of course naked boys did get stung, but that was of little concern to wirs who could move out of range and transform, healing all their hurts. Chapter 2. Posse From a hill two miles away, unsympathetic eyes watched the wirs and the bears through far-viewers. "That's gotta be them all right though I never thought that the killers would be shape shifters." "What does it matter, Sheriff Anders? True animals or humans who take the shape of beasts and behave like they did are worse than natural animals who don't know better and just follow their instincts. Whether true animals or wirs, put enough arrows into them and you can kill anything, even shape shifters" Old Jeb Hardin had lost four cows and a cowherd to the killers, the latter an orphan boy he had taken into his home and employ. He was in no mood for halfway measures. "Alright Jeb, take your riders and circle around to the south. I'll keep my half of the men with me and approach from the north. We'll catch them between two fires. No way they can scramble up the walls of that ravine they pitched camp in, not with us shooting arrows into their backs the whole time." Stealthy as the approach of the posse was, as they moved into striking distance they were spotted from above by Corps of Discovery. Not knowing who was in the right but not liking the potential for massacre that he saw below, Finn had the Corps settle their autogyros on the flat ground just north of the camp, rolling to a stop in little more than their own length. When they got out of their aerocraft the explorers were all fully armed though only Finn and Sexton were in uniform and wore their full kit. The pretty boys in the group were armed but wore no armor and precious little else, just those short shorts of theirs. Without the wooden armor built into the yokes of their cuirasses, the fetchers Drew and Liam would find it harder to fly, though they could always Lift their kukris and hand on. Going on full alert the wirs unlimbered their slings, their only distance weapon, and also hung the scabbards of their long knives over their shoulders, part of the equipment which they bears carried in packs for them. The bears positioned themselves on both flanks. The wirs remained in their human forms so they could communicate with the visitors via sonic speech and not give away their ability with mind speech. "Hello the camp." Finn called out. "Advance and be recognized." Lobo called out. Lobo was the oldest of the wirs, though only by minutes in the case of his siblings, and their leader. "We come in peace," Finn said, "and we bring you warning of mounted men moving into position for an attack." "What? Why would anyone attack us? We have done nothing wrong. No one claims these forest lands." "I don't think they regard you as mere trespassers or poachers. These men look like they are ready to ride you down." Finn answered. Just then the posse came into view, at least two dozen riders in each wing north and south all armed with crossbows and swords or more often axes. "Stand aside strangers, lest you be caught in the charge and trampled." the sheriff called. "We mean to put an end to these miscreants." "By what right do you condemn them to death?" Finn asked. "I am Sheriff Anders and this is no lynch mob but a legally constituted posse in hot pursuit of a pair of man killers though their victims were really teenage boys." "What? Us man killers? Not us, no way, no how." Lobo protested. "I would hear them out." Finn told the sheriff. "I give you back your own question," the sheriff said with some asperity. "By what right do you interfere? My men and I would be within our legal rights to attack you too for obstructing justice, harboring fugitives, and being accessories after the fact in at least three murders." "I am sorry, Sheriff but my friends and I will not allow you to kill these boys out of hand. Now climb down off your mount and come forward, you and one other, and explain yourselves. With the exits of the ravine blocked no one can get away. You lose nothing by talking first." "Ride them all down." Jeb Hardin urged. "I am tempted to do just that." the Sheriff told Finn. "What make you think six pretty boys, six elves, a couple of bears, and a smallish Frost Giant could stop us." "I may not be the largest of Frost Giants, but I am far and away the strongest giant on the planet, for I wield the power of Thor!" So saying Finn raised Mjolnir and called a bolt of lightning from a clear sky then blasted a rock off to one side. Pointing to one of the larger fragments, Finn hurled Mjolnir at it. Forged by dwarves with heat and magic from meteoric iron, the super hard hammer head would never rust and was virtually shatterproof. Instead it was the rock fragment that shattered when the hammer smashed into it. Finn gave it a second then used his control of the planetary magnetic field to call his war hammer back into his hand, to the astonishment of the posse. "There he goes again." Axel said sotto voce to Drew who frowned and gave him an elbow to the ribs. "This is no time for levity, Axel." Drew chided. "Sorry. I guess I'm just nervous." The rest ignored their brief exchange. "Impressive, but that would not deter us. Step aside or take your chances dodging volleys of arrows." Hardin warned Finn. Finn shook his head. "Fifty arrows, even five hundred would not get through our missile shields. I myself can magnetically deflect arrows into the ground. That is why I bear only a buckler against blades rather that a full shield. Also two of us are powerful fetchers who could sent the arrows right back at you point first, and another can throw up a shield of hardened air. Don't be rash." Even Hardin looked unsure. The eight who had arrived via autogyro seemed supremely confident and not the least bit intimidated by the odds against them. Maybe it was better to talk first. "All right, Sheriff." Hardin conceded. "I say let's stay our hands till after we talk some more." "I see it that way too, Jeb." The sheriff ordered his men to stay mounted and at the ready in case of treachery. He and Hardin stepped forward to easier conversational distance though both sides made of point of talking loud enough for their backup to follow what was said. After perfunctory introductions the sheriff told of the depredations of the killers and of how they had tracked them from the south for hours the day before only to lose the trail at dusk. Casting about they had finally picked up the trail several miles north of the ravine and followed it south, only to find the wirs and the aviators. "You lost a trail yesterday south of here and picked up a trail today north of here. Who is to say they were one and the same trail? Sexton asked. "Was the spoor the same?" "Not exactly," Anders admitted. "First it was a pair of big cats like those two spotted leopards. The trail we picked up today was much easier to follow. Two leopards, three dire wolves, a wolverine, and two huge bears made an easy trail to follow. We wondered why such different creatures would join up, but when we realized they were shape shifters we figured the killers had joined up with confederates." Lobo scoffed: "Big party or small, we don't leave a trail when we don't want to. The fact that we did leave sign of our passing shows that we were not trying to shake off pursuit. Don't think you can teach either elves or wirs about trails and tracking, and we are both." "A very good point." the sheriff conceded. "And here is another." Dylan said, speaking for the first time. "As an empath and a trained law enforcement officer I can tell you categorically that these elves are innocent." "So says a fellow elf." Hardin said, mistrust written all over his face. "Not just an elf, a forest ranger of the Commonwealth of the Long River, as am I." Sexton pointed out. "Harrumph!" Hardin snorted. "You fellas are way outside your jurisdiction." Sexton shook his head. "Not at all. Our legal authority extends everywhere on Valentia under a concurrent appointment by the Druidic Order." "And I too am a law enforcement officer." Finn told the sheriff and Hardin. Triggering the small magic that made his hand glow. "I am one of the Dread Hands of the Commonwealth." "The Commonwealth is a long way from here." "But its power reaches even to where we stand. To where I stand, to be precise." he said in a tone that brooked no contradiction. "And to where I stand too," Dylan added. "As a beast master I can take control of your mounts so they won't charge no matter how hard you try to spur them forward. I could even have them sink to the ground and roll over forcing the riders to dismount lest they be crushed." "A beware our powers too." Jemsen said. "One of us is a powerful earth wizard who can turn the ground under your feet into a quagmire or indeed make it gape open and swallow your posse whole. The other is an air wizard whose sun mirrors could turn you all into ash, as he did not so very long ago to an entire regiment of troll cavalry and then a battalion of archers in the war in Amazonia." "Lest you overlook Liam and Axel." Drew said "Liam is a war wizard who could disintegrate your whole posse with blasts of white fire. And that copper topped fellow holding an air gun which outranges your crossbows is one of the deadliest snipers in the Commonwealth. Axel, what was your motto in Amazonia: one shot, one kill?" "Yes, but I actually averaged a bit better than that." Axel replied. "One hundred two kills for every one hundred shots." Hardin wasn't buying it. "Nonsense. That's just not mathematically possible." "Sure it is," Axel assured him. "My gift of Unerring Direction plus endless target practice at both fixed and moving targets made me a sure shot. And like all the best snipers I am patient. I can wait till two targets line up, one head behind the other, then can drop them both with a single shot. An occasional two for one kill makes up for the very rare times I miss when the target moves during the flight of the bullet." "Now trolls have thick skulls so the bullet splashes the brains out the back of the skull of the closer target, but with the farther target, the bullet penetrates the cranium all right but does not exit. Instead it bounces and rattles around churning the brains to mush." "Thank you, War Mage Sir Axel Wilde," Finn began, "for sharing some of the subtler points of the art of combat sniping with us laypersons." "Oh and Sheriff did you catch that part about Axel being a war mage? I'll think I'll just let you worry about what his specific powers might be." All that put matters in another light. To the members of the posse attacking these eight as well as the shape shifters no longer seemed such a good idea. "How then can we resolve this without unnecessary bloodshed?" Sheriff Anders asked. "A compromise." Sexton began. "We forest rangers will take the wirs into protective custody with the twins as backup to keep everyone honest. Meanwhile, the other four will take to the sky and try to spot the killer cats from the air. It shouldn't be too hard." "All right, but please let our trained bears go free." Lobo pleaded. "Surely no one thinks circus animals like them could be involved." "Very well." Anders agreed. He ordered his men to dismount while the pilots and Dylan went over to the autogyros to begin the aerial search for the killer cats. Bjorn sent via mind speech. All four nodded. Then Finn sent back. Bjorn explained how he and his brother were the ursine equivalent of unicorns. He proposed that they coordinate their efforts. It would be best for establishing real trust if it were the bears rather than the four of them who actually killed the man killers. Finn agreed. As Sexton had predicted it did not take long to spot the killer cats who were resting in an thicket. Finn fired lightning bolts at them to chase them toward the bears. One cat sprang at Bjorn who killed it with a mighty blow of his paw which cracked its skull and scrambled its brains. The other pounced on Bjarni who had reared up on his hind legs to see better. The huge bear outweighed the cat ten to one and easily crushed it in a bear hug, squeezing the breath and life out of it. The wounds Bjarni took were of no consequence. Though not shape shifters, the bears too were gifted with innate healing magic. The autogyros landed and Drew loaded the dead cats telekinetically into Liam's air freighter. Liam then created a portal to the camp site and held it open long enough for the autogyros to roll through it followed by the bears. "That didn't take long." Sheriff Anders said. "How did you kill the leopards? I don't see any significant wounds on their bodies." Finn explained that it was the bears who had killed the cats by main force. None of his party had had to raise a weapon to them. "Then what is that small wound on the shoulder of the larger cat?" Finn frowned. "It does look like a stab wound. My magnetic sense detects a piece of metal lodged in the shoulder bone. Perhaps an arrowhead?" Invoking his power he drew the piece of metal to Mjolnir and examined it. "No, not an arrowhead but the broken off tip of a knife blade." Jeb Hardin stepped forward. "I think it will match the knife my boy carried. It was still in his hand when we found his body. The blood on it was not all his." Sure enough the tip matched the broken end of the knife perfectly, proving that these two leopards were indeed the man killers. Anders and Hardin apologized to the wirs and thanked the Corps of Discovery for preventing a miscarriage of justice. "You fellas in this Corps of Discovery really had us going, brandishing your powers." Finn shrugged. "It wasn't bragging, just a tactic for prevent a foolish attack from getting started." "More than foolish. It would have been suicidal." Finn shook his head. "No one would have died. We would have stopped you all right but not killed you or even hurt men who were all operating from honorable motives. And after all, we ourselves would be safe behind those missile shields I mentioned." Sheriff Anders nodded. "Your and your friends could face down an army and laugh at them while hurling lightning bolts, white fire, shooting lead bullets, and who knows what else at them. And I suppose those blond boys are really good with those long bows of theirs too." "You will never meet better archers than the twins." "Of course!" the sheriff exclaimed. Turning to the twins he told them: "I am usually not this dense, but you two would have to be the famous twins Jemsen and Karel." "In the flesh." Karel admitted. Now it was Drew's turn to nudge Axel and tell him sotto voce: "There he goes again." The quip put a grin on both their faces. The sheriff assured the wirs that they were welcome to stay and hunt in the forest as long as they wished. Bjorn sent to both him and Hardin. "What, Mind Speech now? From bears? You wirs and your friends are just full of tricks, aren't you? Very well, but if you should ever return to these parts know that you would be welcome. And I know I can speak for every man with me." We never got properly introduced, and I do have to write up a report on today's events so can you just tell us who you all are?" "Of course," Finn said agreeably. "Axel you have all that written out don't you?" "Sure, but with my eidetic memory I can recite it by heart." "Our leader here is none other than Finn Ragnarson, Dread Hand of the Commonwealth, Avatar of Thor, Thunder God of the Norse, Peacemaker, Pioneer of Flight, and Dwarf-friend. The powerfully built older man with him is Forest Ranger Lord Madden Sexton, Earl of Drangiana, Baron of Osrhoene, Conquering Lion of Sogdiana, and Master of the Royal Hunt." "Next are the twins who, as you belatedly realized, are Captains Sirs Jemsen and Karel, Twice Holders of the Military Cross for Valor, Elf-Friends, Twice Dwarf-Friends, Giant Friends, Peacemakers, Pioneers of Flight. Dragon Slayers, and Masters in the Honorable Guild of Cartographers." "Dragon Slayers?" the Sheriff said eyebrows raised in astonishment. "Truth to tell it wasn't really a dragon — just a monster snake, ninety feet if it was an inch." "You already know Sir Axel Wilde is a War Mage. He is also a Holder of the Military Cross for Valor, Orc-Friend, Pioneer of Flight, Peacemaker. The elf-boy is Forest Ranger Dylan of Reeling, Beast Master." Axel continued: "The auburn haired twink is Captain Sir Drew Altair, Holder of the Military Cross for Valor, Peacemaker, Pioneer of Flight, and Giant-Friend." "Ah, the famous author, then." the sheriff interjected. "Right. Last but far from least is that dark haired fellow, the War Wizard Sir Liam, Pioneer of Flight and both Sword and Shield of the Commonwealth, our nation's two highest military honors." The Sheriff shook his head. "Good thing I have fifty witnesses to back me up or the folks at home would never believe this. Uh Axel, I am not sure my man here got all that down, so could you write it out for us?" "No problem." Afterwards Bjorn ran down the names of the wirs. After that the posse collected the dead cats as trophies and rode off. Chapter 3. A New Beginning "So where will you go now, Lobo? Or is it the bears who will decide?" "It's a joint decision, actually. We talk till we reach a consensus. My vote would be to head toward the Commonwealth. We have never been there and these days so much is happening. A whole new world is coming into being with general prosperity, egalitarian ideals, clean cities, paved roads, printed books, news-papers, aviation, iron-roads, bicycles, and so much more. I want to see it for myself." "If I may make a suggestion..." Dylan began, "why not make your home in the New Forest? I cannot imagine a fitter home for persons of your sort." Dylan explained that the magically self-aware forest covered nearly one-hundred thousand square miles with boundaries clearly marked by a hawthorn hedge. No works of man were allowed in the vast expanse in contrast to the western side of the mountain range which had mines and sawmills, and hunting lodges and resorts." "The only settlement of any size on the eastern side of the mountains is the isolated vale of Elysion, the headquarters of the Forest Rangers and also the residence of the three druids who preside over and protect the New Forest during its infancy, if I may call it that." "We are all good friends with the folks who live there especially the Klarendes clan. They are fine folks. You'll like them. And one of them is a shape shifter and a super cute twink. His name is Aodh. He is another forest ranger and is helping our colleagues Brandon and Garret and Lorn hold down the fort while we are away." "You are right, Dylan. That sounds perfect for us." Lobo admitted. "Plenty of room to roam and hunt yet also easy access to the fruits and comforts of civilization when we want them. We snow elves are self-reliant, and our needs are simple, but we do seek out human company from time to time and even take brief employment to earn the wherewithal to purchase the minimal gear and equipment the bears carry for us in their packs." Karel brightened. "That gives me a terrific idea for how you guys could make big money: a circus act. Just picture it: a trio of animal trainers, identical triplets, stunningly beautiful Snow Elves totally nude and cracking the whip at two fierce leopards, a scrappy wolverine, and two ferocious bears and making them do clever tricks." "What do you mean scrappy?" the youth Gulo complained. "We wolverines are much more than merely scrappy. We can be as ferocious as any bear or leopard. Just ask Lord Sexton." Sexton smiled. "That's true as far as it goes young Gulo. Pound for pound wolverines are the most ferocious of predators, but it would take more than a dozen of you to match a Kodiak bear. And as they say in the army, quantity has a quality all its own." "All right, all right," Karel conceded. "Let's make it fierce leopards, ferocious wolverine, and mighty bears. Can we all live with that?" Bjorn told him flatly, ruling out Karel's brainstorm. Turning to Lobo, the bear said: Bjorn sent with mock severity. "But, but... that was just a tactic to give you and Bjarni freedom of action." the young elf protested, then trailed off as he realized that his giant protector was just teasing him. "And don't be strangers." Axel told them. "Elysion is not so very far away. Anytime you care to visit the capital, just go there and send word via the heliograph and I'll jump to Elysion and teleport you back with me. Or ask a druid to open a portal for you or at least to contact me via their long-range version of Mind Speech. Oh, and you'll be staying stay with us." Axel promised. "Er, I am not sure where we might put up the big guys." "And while you are in the capital you will have to visit Twinkle Town." Karel urged them. "Twinkle Town?" the wir leopard named Brand asked. "It's named for the cute twinks who are its chief denizens and of whom we are all prime exemplars. Twinkle Town is a district or rather a cluster of dining, drinking, and dancing establishments favored by males who fancy pretty boys, and by pretty boys who favor being fancied. You'll fit right in." "No they won't." Drew corrected. "Six lovely sky-clad Snow Elves won't fit it, they will stand out. You guys will be the sensation of the season!" "This calls for a celebration!" Axel enthused. Finn nodded. "Time to break out that sparkling wine we have been saving for an occasion. I'll put both bottles in the stream to cool. With two magnums there should be just enough to go around for the fourteen of us." "Wine is fine, but then let's pair off!" the youngest snow elf, the wir wolverine Gulo enthused. "If it's all right with you guys, I'll sit this one out. Except for the wine of course." Sexton observed. The others laughed. Sexton was relieved when the bears told them they too shared his preference for consorting with the female half of their respective species. The bears settled down next to him and conversed on a wide range of subjects. It turned out the bears were decades older than Sexton and had also been born on Karelia. Comparing notes, they realized that they had nearly crossed paths twice. Sexton asked if the bears ever wished that they too were shape shifters. Bjarni pointed out that a biped weighing over a ton was simply not viable. It was one thing for a Kodiak bear to rear upright briefly, but they could not maintain that posture for long much less walk on two legs. Still the bears admitted that envied their charges for their hands. If only they too could shape shift even if that ability were limited to their front paws. As things stood the boys acted as the bears' hands. As it had been down the ages, white Kodiaks and Snow Elves were natural partners. Sexton asked. After toasting their deliverance, the wirs and the boys from the Corps of Discovery paired off, as Gulo had suggested. The three wolf boys Lobo, Lupo, and Volf paired with the twins and Dylan. That brought together four elves and two elf-friends. The two fetchers, Liam and Drew went off with the leopard boys Leon and Brand, while the littlest guys Axel and Gulo paired off. Finn was odd man out and had to sit out the first couple of rounds. Next the wolf boys shifted partners though still with their original trio of counterparts, the twins and the elf-boy Dylan. The same kind of switch happened among the two leopard boys and the fetchers. Finn's patience was rewarded when Gulo later told him that yes, he had finally worked up the courage to tackle a Frost Giant, but Finn should take into account that he, Gulo, was just a little guy while Finn was so huge. So please be gentle. Finn was. He had had plenty of practice swiving little fellows like Drew. Finn was careful and gentle but also forceful and arousing. He gave pretty little Gulo the best sex of his young life so far, which served to confirm the youngster in his vocation as an abject bottom boy, one born to be fucked hard and often by males who knew how boys of his sort craved to be treated. The fun and games then progressed to three boys at a time in various permutations and combinations, double penetrations, and daisy chains. The Snow Elves showed that they were not only incomparably beautiful, they were sexually versatile and insatiable. Their couplings were athletic, acrobatic, energetic, and loud. Sexton finally had to pick up and move off a ways from the noise. Amused tolerance of same gendered relations was one thing but please, spare him the unmistakeable sounds of lusty sexual congress among young males. It wasn't anything the bears hadn't seen and heard before, but they shifted over with Sexton to continue their conversation. The climax of the festivities was when the twins and the wolf boys, all five at once, joined in a tangle of limbs and torsos, eager thrusts, and unbridled lust. Drew Altair actually stopped what he was doing with Gulo long enough to grabbed his sketch pad and record the events for posterity. After three quick sketches he and Liam pranked the boys by lifting them into the air as a group, then floated them over to a deep spot in the creek, and dropped them in. Then did the same thing with Axel and Leon. For good measure the mischievous fetchers called out: "Let that be a lesson to you! You guys were making the rest of us look bad." Axel swam to the surface, glared at Drew and Liam, fire in his eyes, and cried "Oh yeah?" In the next instant Axel had Jumped between the two miscreants, touched their shoulders, teleported them to a spot ten feet above the water and let go. It happened so fast, literally in the blink of an eye, that the boys had no time to muster their own powers to counter Axel's maneuver. With Axel having let go and with nothing to hold on to which they might Lift, for all that the fetchers were both Pioneers of Flight they dropped and hit the water with a huge splash. No sooner had they they surfaced that Karel called a jet of air to push a four foot wave at them and bowled them over. They came up half-drowned, coughing and retching. A clap of thunder out of a clear sky got everyone's attention. That was Finn's doing of course. Now he did't really have to raise Mjolnir to do it. The hammer wasn't magical. Finn was. But like many magic wielders he liked to punctuate his use of magic with gestures. That was why he had called his hammer to his hand from where he had laid it with his clothing then raised it dramatically to the sky. "Knock it off boys before someone gets hurt. A bit of roughhousing is one thing, but no powers! Magic is too likely to get out of hand." Still the incident made the fetchers realize that if they were ever again caught out like that, stark naked as they so often were and without their flying yokes, autogyros or even a a stick to hang on to, they should lift each other into the clear. Chapter 4. Elysion After another two days and nights of fun and frolic and getting to know one another, Liam opened a portal to Elysion then stepped aside to let the wirs, the bears, the forest rangers, and the twins pass through it before closing it behind them. Liam, Drew, Finn, and Axel would stay with their aerocraft. It was arranged that Liam would reopen the portal in two days' time and bring the other four expedition members back to rejoin their fellows. That would give the twins and rangers enough time to make introductions and to bring their friends up to date on their adventures so far. One of the garden spots of the continent, Elysion was a bowl at the edge of the Eastern Mountains measuring about eight miles across. Woodlots and sheepfolds and vineyards covered the lower slopes while the flats held the village, the manor, the pastures, fields, and gardens. It was the very picture of peace and prosperity. As the travelers crossed the stone bridge over the stream that encircled the village, the inhabitants didn't know what to make of six Snow Elves in the company of two huge white bears, but they quickly recognized the uniformed forest rangers who operated out of Elysion and especially the twins who were frequent visitors though garbed in color coded short shorts instead of sarongs. Madden Sexton told any who asked that explanations could wait until after they all paid their respects to the count up in the manor house. That brought understanding nods though no lessening of curiosity among the populace. Many of the unattached lasses and more than a few of the lads eyed the nude Snow Elves appreciatively. Two young ladies, clearly sisters, were inspired to pluck blossoms from a window box and toss them to the triplets, hoping to catch their eye. Lupo caught one and nodded his thanks. Brushing his shoulder-length ash-blond hair from his ears to reveal the pointed tip, he told them: "Sorry girls. We're elves, see. We like boys. Nothing personal, of course." To ease the disappointment Lupo took the girl's and kissed it gallantly. "If only the local boys had your courtly manners young sir." she said, pleased to have been singled out. At least that was something. While the forest rangers went by their quarters, the twins introduced the wirs and bears to the druids. Only Dahlderon and Merry were in residence. Owain was away on retreat in the Great Southern Forest, the stronghold of the druidic order. Dahl was glad to have his friends back if only for a couple of days. They had been away now for nearly three months with only a quick visit by Axel to the capital to teleport the Medkari delvers for training and to drop off Drew's latest reports for the Capital Intelligencer plus Finn's visit to procure air guns for the soldiers at the Stone Ring. So even a flying visit from the twins, Dylan, and Madden Sexton was welcome. The druids congratulated Dylan on his new gift and gave the new beast master tips on how to better manage animals under his control by calming them as they realized that another mind shared their skulls and was temporarily in charge. In particular they sharpened his ability to split his consciousness between an animal whose senses he was using and his own mind so as to maintain situational awareness in his immediate vicinity. The Kodiak bears were delighted to find in Merry a kindred spirit. Merry had spent centuries in the shape of a unicorn. Many was the time he wished for hands so he could turn the pages of a book or caress a lovely elf-boy like Dahl. After his transformation back into an elf himself, he got that chance. The druids readily accepted the suggestion that Snow Elves and the Kodiak bears take up residence in the New Forest. Their presence would help make the New Forest even more special. The druids would alert the corps of forest rangers to the arrival of the snow elves and would introduce them to their new neighbors the brontotheres. Dahl and Merry asked the bears to join with them to help the elves and themselves forge a psychic link with the New Forest. Not just an expanse of trees and the animals and plants which sheltered beneath it canopy, the forest was itself a magically sentient and self-aware entity that encompassed all the life forms within its boundaries, both animals and plants, ranging from the lowliest creepy crawlies living amidst the leaf litter on the forest floor to apex predators like bears, wolves, and tawny panthers. The snow elves we urged to take two or three months to explore the expanse of one-hundred thousand miles within the hawthorn hedge and learn the lay of the lay. Only general maps were available. The southern sector near Elysion had the best coverage thanks to the twins who had sometimes filled in as forest rangers. The maps did show the high peaks, the ranger stations, the major streams draining onto the Eastern Plains though not their upper reaches, and Elysion of course. Whatever their shortcomings the maps plus their snow elves' gift of Unerring Direction would keep them oriented. The druids said would eventually appoint the snow elves as auxiliary forest rangers. As auxiliary rangers they would not take part in regular patrols but would keep an eye out for lost travelers or persons of ill-intent. First though the snow elves would also need to learn the Commonwealth's way of doing things before they could exercise police powers. And perhaps one day over their psychic link the New Forest would help the Snow Elves enhance their abilities as it had their fellow wirs Madden Sexton and Aodh or indeed the twins and Finn. After all the Forest preferred either elves or shape shifters as forest rangers, and the Snow Elves were both. So their psychic bond with that much stronger, not to mention they were already using mind speech through their link to their protectors. As for them, who knew where the Kodiak bears' own psychic link might not lead? Thanks to their gift of projective mind speech Bjorn and Bjarni were able to join in the conversations around the dinner table. Count Klarendes hosted all the bipeds at a welcoming meal at noon the day after their arrival. In the country the main meal of the day was called dinner and was consumed at midday. Supper was taken in the evening, a lighter meal consisting of cold meats, cheese, fruit, and bread or corn muffins or the like. For city folk dinner was taken as the evening meal. It was the main meal of the day, much more substantial than the noontime meal which city slickers called lunch or even luncheon. The count's steward had a hog butchered for the bears and presented it to them cut up, which was considerably more convenient than a whole carcass. The bears had a taste for pork though it usually came in the form of wild boar. Now the wild boars of the forests were wily and tough and normally too quick for a bear to catch, but the Kodiaks did not operate alone. They could count on the wirs to herd a boar toward them or at least hold it at bay long enough for Bjorn or Bjarni to make the kill. Coordination via mind speech made them an unbeatable team. The Kodiak bears were accommodated in a disused shed which last saw service as a shelter for the dogcart used by the count's late wife. Theirs had been an arranged marriage which turned into a genuine love match and given them two fine sons, Artor and Eborn, now both young men in their twenties. Her death in a fall from a horse had left Taitos Klarendes bereft till he encountered the second great love of his life, his spouse the shape shifter and sometime minstrel and maths teacher named Aodh who hailed from the hidden land of the wirs far to the east. Standing an inch shorter than Dahl, Aodh was a boy so beautiful he took your breath away. Impossibly pretty, he was a melding of the innocent and the wanton, the epitome of a boy in the full bloom of his youth. Small, skinny, and smooth muscled, comely as an angel, with a skin like porcelain, and looking utterly fragile and vulnerable, the epicene youth was actually three times as strong as he looked as well as being a master of the martial arts. Now the count was understanding about his spouse's prior relationship with the twins and Dahl whom he had known long before the count came into the young wir's life. Klarendes knew that their love in no way threatened Aodh's bond with his spouse. And Klarendes also indulged Aodh's very occasional flings with exotic types such as his one time tryst with Finn Ragnarson, whose arrival in Elysion led to Aodh's first and only liaison with a Frost Giant. That had happened years earlier back when Finn was still a teenager, standing only six and one half feet tall. Aside for what might happen on walkabout Aodh was content in the arms of his nobleman spouse who was quite the catch in his own right. Thanks to the considerable admixture of elven blood in his ancestry Taitos Klarendes looked like a well-built young man of twenty-five though he was actually two decades older. Of medium height the handsome nobleman had the bearing and the lean physique of the gentleman farmer, hunter, and sometime soldier that he was. His light brown hair was cut short, a concession to the tropical climate. He had regular features which suggested both masculine strength and warmth of character. None of this allure was lost on the wir wolverine Gulo who hung on every word the count uttered, utterly entranced by the man. To the hitherto monogamous Klarendes, his own attraction to the cute snow elf came as a surprise, though it really should not have been. Gulo was exactly his type, being much like Aodh, though the one was human and the other elven, one was dark and the other light. Gulo was taller though still short for an elf, standing five and a half feet compared to Aodh's five feet zero. Both were skinny, pale skinned, and glabrous with vivacious personalities and a keen sense of humor. Aodh noticed and leaned over and said to his spouse sotto voce: "That elf-boy fancies you, Taitos. Anyone can see that. So go for it." "What! Oh, no Aodh I really couldn't." "You say couldn't when what you really mean is that you think you shouldn't. But why not? Expand your horizons, why don't you? Let it be my turn for a change to indulge you in a brief fling with an exotic male. Monogamy eventually leads to monotony. In a long run that is the real threat to a life bond such as ours which we hope will endure for centuries." "All right. I think I shall seek him out, if he'll have me." "Oh he'll have you all right. I can smell the desire on him, just as I am sure he can detect yours for him." "It's that obvious, eh?" "To the senses of wirs it is." "All right, Aodh, I'll do it. So which of the lovely snow elves have you picked for your own fling with exotica?" "My fellow kitty kats, of course, the wir leopards Leon and Brand." "Good choice." And it was. After a noisy and energetic night of lovemaking the three cute boys fell asleep in a tangle which resembled nothing so much as a litter of sleeping kittens. The druids stood apart knowing that they would have plenty of time later to become better acquainted with the Snow Elves. They would be working together for a very long time. For his part, Taitos Klarendes found himself in bed with a real wild one, though a wolverine under the skin not a cat. Little Gulo was enthusiastic, demanding, and insatiable. The handsome count was just his type and unlike Finn he was manageable. A Frost Giant like Finn was really too much for a little guy like Gulo, but Taitos Klarendes fit just right. And though in time Klarendes came to know all the Snow Elves really well, little Gulo always had a special place in his heart and very occasionally in his bed. Not that there was ever any idea of Gulo joining Taitos and Aodh in a menage a trois. Gulo already had a family to belong to. And that was how the Snow Elves and their protectors the white Kodiak bears, became part of the saga of the Elf-Boy Dahlderon and his friends on the planet of Haven. Author's Note This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead. 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. Point your browser to http://donate.nifty.org/donate.htm This story is one of an occasional series about the further adventures of the characters introduced in the fantasy novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends' and published by Nifty Archive. The chief protagonist of the novel, Dahlderon, elf-boy and druid, will appear in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence stands on its own, with the focus on one or a few of the original characters. 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 is posted in the Gay/Authoritarian section. The recent 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.