Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2017 17:51:52 -0400 From: George Gauthier Subject: Elf-Boy?s Friends 48 Elf-Boy's Friends 48 The Western Dividing Range by George Gauthier [The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends'] Chapter 1 A New Mission Six extraordinarily good-looking young males sat around a conference table at the headquarters of the Dread Hands of the Commonwealth. The Hands were the government's corps of elite troubleshooters empowered with plenipotentiary legal authority which could override that of any civil or military official, though the hands were answerable for the exercise of that authority to the Chief Hand and to the Governing Council. The Chief Hand himself, Baron Jarmond, sat at the head of the table. On his right sat his right hand man or rather right hand frost giant Sir Finn Ragnarson. Quite unusually for this venue, the figure on Jarmond's left was none other than the Druid Lord Dahlderon. Short and slight of build and with fine-boned features which made him look to be no more than sixteen he hardly looked like one of the most powerful magic wielders on the planet. Dahl was dressed for the occasion in full druidic regalia including his magically morphing camouflage cape. Also at the table were two human wizards, a pair of blond youths, identical twins, dressed in color coded sarongs to let others tell them apart. As always Jemsen wore green and Karel blue. At the foot of the table sat a pair of journalists, colleagues on the news-paper the Capital Intelligencer: the auburn haired reporter Drew Altair and his friend, roommate, and lover Corwin Klarendes, another stunning blond though shorter than the twins by a hand. Baron Jarmond had just told everyone that the celebrated Corps of Discovery was being reconstituted for dispatch on a new mission. Looking down the table at the blond journalist, Jarmond said: "Well, Young Klarendes, You missed out on the original mission, but here is your chance to go on a second mission as you have long hoped to. I trust all of you are willing? This mission is for volunteers only. Except for Finn who has been ordered to lead the mission though not by me but by the High Council itself." "You will be using only two autogyros this time for a smaller corps of six. Two pilots, four passengers. I understand that both your personal aerocraft have been modified to replace the pair of open wells front and back with a single enclosed cabin plus a cargo hold." "That's right sir," Finn nodded. "You are a pilot yourself so you know that an enclosed cabin gives protection from rain and also lowers wind resistance. My own aerocraft was sized for a frost giant so even in its earlier configuration the twins had plenty of room in back. And the enclosed cabin expanded the capacity of Drew's red speedster to three. So Drew will be flying Lord Dahlderon and Corwin Lord Klarendes of Dalnot, to give him his aristocratic title. We are going formal on this mission, my friends, if only to impress the locals." Corwin rolled his eyes. Though the son of a baron he almost never used his title. He thought it silly for older and wiser men to verbally subordinate themselves to a youth like himself. To his way of thinking hereditary titles didn't count for much. Those you earned were something else. "So last time we headed north. Which way are we going now?" Drew Altair wondered aloud. "You are heading West. Your mission is to explore the Western Dividing Range which separates our territories from the coastal lands beyond. As you know, since the annexation of New Varangia and the Far West including the former Despotate of Dzungaria, our writ now runs all the way to the foot of those mountains, though its borderlands are largely empty, and we have no outputs there at all. We need to learn who is who and what is what in the mountains themselves and possibly find potential trade routes through them to the coast. A later expedition will explore the coastal lands themselves. "We know practically nothing of the mountains themselves and less of the lands beyond that broad belt of mountains. Trade carried overland is non-existent which suggests even pack trains cannot get through. It is commonly believed that the mountains are so high and so rugged as to be impassible to an army. Find out if that is true or if there are mountain passes through which roads could be built. Learn the lay of the land and make a general assessment of the situation in all its aspects: geographic, ethnic, political, economics and social." "Do the peoples there speak the common tongue or do they have a language or languages of their own?" Dahl asked. Jarmond shrugged. "We really don't know. If they don't speak our common tongue, or that of one of the main races, you Lord Dahlderon will communicate with them via Mind Speech. That is one reason why we asked you to join the corps." "And the other reasons?" "Your ability to open space portals specifically and your strong magic in general. Now a small group might find themselves in trouble so they need powerful magic for protection. The corps comprises a druid, an air wizard, an earth wizard, the strongest fetcher we know of, and a magical healer cum combat medic cum wielder of ball lightning. Finally the leader of the expedition is the avatar of a thunder god. I pity any foes who pick a fight with you." "Why now?" Drew asked. "Actually it is well past time. In this era of peace we face no threats from potential foes and have no troublesome neighbors on our borders. To the East the barbarians are quiescent. Reports are that social, economic, and political changes are afoot there making their societies both less barbarous and less belligerent. That can only be to the good, though we keep an eye on them nonetheless. To the Southeast lie our new dominions in Amazonia and beyond them the lands of our friends and allies the orcs, the Amazons, and the brontotheres." "To the South the Great Inland Freshwater Sea is now a Commonwealth lake. Beyond the Inland Sea our territory extends to the Southern Ocean where we have a foothold at our naval base at Southport." "That's where Liam has been posted along with Nathan Lathrop." Corwin pointed out. Jarmond nodded. "Which is why Liam won't be piloting that large transport like the last time. The rest of the original corps have other commitments: the forest rangers to the New Forest and Axel Wilde to Sir Willet and his research at the Institute of Wizardry." "To the North, thanks in large part to Finn Ragnarson and his diplomacy during the first mission, lies the Greater North Valentia Co-prosperity Sphere, a loose group of independent but friendly states linked by communications, trade, investment, travel and tourism, and cultural exchange to our Commonwealth." "In short it is only in the West that the map is blank. It will be your job to start filling in the white space on it." The six young men went back to their quarters. Except for Dahl the other members of the Corps of Discovery shared rooms on the top floor of a three storey residential hotel which looked out over a leafy square in front and spacious grounds out back. The greenery made it attractive to the young druid who was staying there in one of the guest rooms. Theirs was an expanded suite constructed by tearing down non-load bearing walls to incorporate four suites. They had a common point of entry opening onto the hallway and out the rear a door on the outdoor balcony with a stairway leading down to the grounds out back. Nine friends and lovers occupied the dwelling: Finn himself, the twins Jemsen and Karel, the reporters Drew Altair and Corwin Klarendes, the War Mage Sir Axel Wilde, and the naval architect cum inventor Karl-Eike Thyssen. Two residents were away on assignment at Southport: the War Wizard Sir Liam and the naval officer Lieutenant Sir Nathan Lathrop. Not for the first time the resident inventive genius Karl-Eike Thyssen wondered whether he should not envy his friends for their readiness to drop everything and go off on one adventure after another. But that would have been against his nature. Slightly built, slender, and smooth muscled with blond hair the color of sweet corn, Eike looked to be no more than sixteen though he was well into his twenties. He would stay that way for centuries thanks to druidical healing magic. Far prettier than any boy rightly ought to be, Eike had a flawless complexion and fine boned features including a broad brow which hinted at his intellect, high cheekbones, a straight nose, plus subtly pointed ears and chin which gave him an elfin appearance, Large green eyes were set wide apart under finely arched brows, their lashes too long to have ever have been meant for a male. Eike had a gentle soul. He was very much a stay-at-home sort who preferred a naval shipyard or his laboratory and workshop to the great outdoors. Having spent five years as a castaway on an uninhabited island, Eike had had quite enough of the great outdoors thank you. In a city all the comforts and services were close to hand. You did not have to scrounge for food, just go to a restaurant or the dining room on the ground floor. The hotel had all the modern comforts. The builders had taken advantage of the flat terrain of the city and the prevailing south wind to cool the building. Wind catchers directed the airflow downward and through the city's underground aqueducts where the warm air gave up its heat to the cool earth and subterranean water. Natural air pressure then forced the air back up into and through the building. All this was done without machinery. Awnings blocked direct sunlight from wide window openings which were not glassed in but set with wooden lattices which afforded privacy without blocking ventilation. Pumps driven by vertical axis windmills raised water to a water tower and a set of tanks on the roof. The tower served the water closets in each suite and provided cold water for taps and showers in the apartments below. Tanks painted black provided solar-heated hot water. In short it had all the modern conveniences close to hand: hot and cold running water, flush toilets, and hot meals prepared downstairs in the restaurant. Like the rest of the common space the new rooms were comfortably but simply furnished with extra sturdy furniture to accommodate a giant who stood eight feet tall and weighed six hundred pounds. The walls were hung with watercolors or prints of selected illustrations from the many books the residents had published. Shade tolerant house plants like ferns, cycads, and bromeliads were everywhere. The staff at the hotel watered and pruned the plants as necessary. Indeed they took care of all housework. Chamber boys made the beds, cleaned the rooms, did the laundry, and ran errands. Meals in the restaurant on the ground floor were also included under the terms of their lease. In any event to Admiral Van Zant of the Navy's Bureau of Ships his protege was much too valuable to risk off the reservation. Not only was Eike an expert in building the new style ships designed for sailing the outer oceans, his value to the economy of the Commonwealth was immense. Eike had single handedly revolutionized personal transport with his wire wheels and new style bicycles then repeated the feat by inventing autogyros used these days to carry mail, passengers, and air freight as well as for air rescue and evacuation and military purposes. His air guns and magnetic cannon had had a similar impact on land warfare. Eike's inventions had made him rich beyond the dreams of avarice and had paid off handsomely for his investors as well, which included his roommates. "I sometimes wish I could go off on another adventure like my journey to the Northlands. I saw new lands and met so many interesting people, and learned so much about my chosen profession from the master shipwrights in Nordstrand." "And nearly got killed by that murderous gang of burglars." Drew pointed out. Eike shook his head. "No, Nathan and I had that situation well in hand. The odds may have been seven to two, but the miscreants had no real chance against us. A lifetime of practice has made Nathan utterly deadly with that naval cutlass of his. And with his enhanced strength, stamina, speed, and reflexes, he might well have taken his four without resorting to flinging electrum sparks to distract and disable them. As for the three I took out, I used my gift of Shaping to form the tangs of their knives into sharp blades which severed their fingers. After that they were easy to bring down even though all I had with me was my utility knife, a tool rather than a weapon." Chapter 2 Westward Ho! Over the next two days the six members of the corps readied their autogyros and their personal equipment. Finn wanted everyone except the young druid to carry an air gun slung on his shoulder. Dahl would bear just his quarterstaff and a brace of ironwood throwing knives. As he himself had put it not very long ago, he did not need a stand off weapon because he himself was one, able to immobilize or kill foes or put them to sleep with a thought. The locals in the mountains would probably still be using standoff weapons like crossbows or longbows or slings plus sword and axes and maces for close combat. Superior technology like autogyros and air guns was an impressive display of power that would keep the natives respectful without the explorers having to reveal their magical gifts, keeping them as their hole cards. The Corps was not looking for trouble, theirs would be a diplomatic approach, but misunderstandings and fear of strangers might arouse hostility. In any initial confrontation the Corps would rely on their physical gifts and skills including their magically enhanced strength and speed and reflexes to extricate themselves with minimal damage to the locals. The twins and Drew were more than twice as strong as they looked. Corwin was closer to triple strength while the druid was four times as strong as his size and musculature suggested. His reflexes were so fast that he could snatch an arrow out of the air then use it to bat a second one away. To counter a whole volley of arrows Dahl would raise his missile shield, turning the shafts of enemy arrows into dandelion seeds, a trick which deprived the arrowheads of both momentum and guidance. Finn was by far the strongest. He packed six hundred pounds of muscle and bone and sinew on his eight foot tall frame and had triple normal strength which made him by far the strongest frost giant on the planet though nowhere near the largest. Also he could draw on lightning and have it crackle all over his body and his armor making it perilous for foes in close combat. Finn was the only one who might overawe those they encountered with his obvious size and strength. The others were slightly built twinks -- pretty boys who did not look the least bit dangerous. The twins were the tallest and even they were only of middling height. The other three ranged from Drew's five foot zero to Corwin's five four. None of the five smaller guys looked liked tough customers -- just the opposite. Their slight builds and the delicate features of their pretty faces made them look like a pack of rent boys trolling for custom. They would have to work around that. Besides air guns everyone would carry a blade of some sort, usually a bent-bladed kukri. The fetcher in their group Drew Altair would also be armed with a pair of stainless steel spheres about the size of a peach plus a keen edged discus. Maneuvered telekinetically at high speed, the spheres could smash through an enemy's shield not to mention his skull or his body. The discus was originally designed by the navy to cut the rigging of enemy vessels, but it could also serve in the antipersonnel role to decapitate, amputate, or cut through the spinal cord. Other weapons included a box of double-pointed dowel nails, and darts coated with a soporific drug. Corwin Klarendes was both a magical healer and a combat medic so he brought that kit with him. Finn would bear his great war hammer Mjolnir which meant Mountain Crusher in the language of the ancient Norse, the remote ancestors of the Frost Giants on Old Urth. Like the buckler Finn favored against blades it was hung from his belt to be right at hand if need be. On the evening before jumping off Eike observed: "It's going to get lonely around this big place with only me and Axel knocking around in it. I am going to miss you guys." Corwin grinned. "In that case we had better make this last night with us a memorable one." And they did. Came the day and the Corps of Discovery went out to the military airfield where they were privileged to park their personal autogyros. It was a privilege because privately owned aerocraft were usually banned from military fields, even those aerocraft owned by persons who worked on that airfield. Private aerocraft might not be flown in or out, or parked, or undergo repairs or refurbishment. Finn himself was not in the military. As a Dread Hand he was a civilian law enforcement officer. Drew did hold a reserve commission in the forces and from time to time got called up mostly to help the civil authorities with rescue work after natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. He also got called to active duty whenever he went out as a war correspondent. The Army Air Corps had extended them basing privileges in recognition of the use of the personal autogyros for public missions including that of the first Corps of Discovery. It did not hurt that Finn and Drew were both Pioneers of Flight and famous for their many exploits. Not long before the departure of the second Corps of Discovery the officer newly placed in charge of military airfields in and around the capital had noticed Finn's and Drew's autogyros. Somewhat intemperately he inquired of the officer in charge of that airfield what two civilian speedsters were doing on an Army Air Corps base. This colonel whose name was Konnor was told that it had been done as a courtesy to their owners. The autogyro sized for a frost giant belonged to a Dread Hand. Its owner could have simply ordered airfield personnel to accommodate his steel framed personal aerocraft. Instead he had asked politely. As for the smaller speedster, its owner was not only a reserve officer and a hero in a dozen engagements but also a famous war correspondent and author. Also, not insignificantly, both were proteges of General Urqaart's. Had Colonel Konnor not considered that banning those aerocraft would surely irk Urqaart? Konnor blanched knowing that that officer was his ultimate superior, at the very top of the chain of command. Just recently Urqaart had been elevated to Commanding General of the Armies of the Commonwealth on the strength of his success as the commander of the allied forces fighting in Amazonia against the trolls. Konnor not only dropped his objections, he made a point of being on hand the day of their departure to see them off and to wish them well. Finn rolled a push cart with their gear out to the nearby airfield. Finn was in uniform though without the standard kepi which he disliked for its short bill which did little to protect the eyes from the sun or the face from the rain. Even Baron Jarmond was having second thoughts about the cap. Its crisp lines looked sharp. That worked fine in town. Out in the field a kepi was pretty much useless. Finn preferred a hat with a wide brim all around to shade the eyes and to keep the rain off his face and from running down his collar. His came with a cork and steel liner to protect his head from blows. Drew Altair was in his standard expeditionary outfit of short trews which reached past mid-thigh and a short-sleeve shirt slashed at the sides for ventilation, both made of dark green silk plus a pair of the same hobnailed sandals which the infantry wore. Corwin followed suit. Dahl wore a silk tunic and sandals leaving off his cape which would be too cumbersome in the confines of the passenger cabin. There was no going sky-clad on this trip. The twins wore silk riding trews. For a top they wore travel vests with pockets of varied dimensions holding extra ammo for their air guns, a coin pouch, pencil and paper, and a burning glass. Jemsen's vest had a pocket dimensioned for a far viewer tube. Dahl had never been out to the Commonwealth's new dominions in the West so it fell to Merry to open a portal to Flensborg in New Varangia. Druids and wizards might open portals only to places they had been to or at least could see either with the naked eye through a far-viewer. Now in more than a millennium in three incarnations Merry had been almost everywhere, one exception being the western coastlands. Porting to Flensborg would let them skip past the familiar territory of the Commonwealth proper, past the Western Mountains and the monotonous terrain of the Western Plains and halfway across New Varangia the second homeland of the Frost Giants. They might have gone farther on that first leg, but Finn wanted to visit his brother on the way west. His duties had kept them apart for quite some time. Anyway flying over New Varangia would give all of them a chance to see the progress the frost giants and the other races had made since its conquest from the centaurs. A carnivorous race which had lived solely by the hunt and were willing to kill and eat sapients, the alien centaurs had had no civilization to speak of. The twins, Drew, and Corwin were all gratified of the part they had play in making that foul race extinct. At the air field they loaded the supplies and equipment plus tools and spare parts for the flying machines. For this first leg via a portal they did not suit up or settle their weapons around their persons. They just ran a final check on their readiness and equipment and weaponry. Drew Altair didn't even suit up with the yoked armor that would let him fly on his own. Then the pilots ran one final check of their machines. There was not much that could go wrong with their autogyros, but the rotor bearings need to be oiled every other day and the wheel bearings greased. They also checked for broken spokes in the wire wheels and loose cables, screws, and fittings. Rolling the autogyros onto the field, Drew invoked his telekinetic powers and Finn his control of planetary magnetism to push themselves and their passengers through the portal to the main airfield serving Flensborg. Everyone waved to Merry and then the portal blinked out of existence. Corwin was familiar with the airfield in Flensborg. Not so very long ago he had helped his friend the fetcher cum minstrel Loren purchase a transport autogyro. Loren would use it not only as personal transportation to get from gig to gig but also to hire out as an air taxi or tramp cargo carrier. The term "tramp" was not pejorative; it simply meant a cargo vessel which carried goods to many different points rather than sailing a fixed route on a fixed schedule. After a two day visit the Corps of Discovery took off. There would be no more travel via portal. The rest of the journey would be made by flying though at the end of the mission the return trip would be via a space portal directly to the capital. The pilots impelled their aerocraft down the field for the short take off run typical of the autogyro. Those machines couldn't rise vertically or hover. The rotor of the autogyro was not powered. It turned freely, spun by the force of the wind created by the forward motion of the autogyro. Both rotor and stubby wings generated lift. Pointing their aerocraft westward the aerocraft climbed to a cruising altitude of two thousand feet, so well above local air traffic. You wouldn't think the sky could get crowded, but with tens of thousands of autogyros in use across the Commonwealth a flyer might find himself sharing the local airspace with postal autogyros, passenger carriers, cargo carriers, military flights, air taxis, ranchers, sightseers, and joy riders. They headed west not needing to rely on anyone's gift of Unerring Direction or even a compass. They simply followed one of the trunk highways which the Commonwealth had built to the Far West. To the South a double tracked iron road paralleled the highway. The towers for the parallel postal and military heliograph lines had been built considerably to the North to take advantage of the higher relief there. These days a continuous line of iron roads ran all across the Commonwealth. It started in Dalnot on the Eastern Plains and ran west through a gap in the Eastern Mountains, across the great alluvial valley of the Commonwealth proper and then, in succession, the Western Mountains, the Western Plains, and New Varangia. The western terminus was at Caerdydd, capital of the land of Cymru, now one of the Commonwealth's constituent states. The strategic east-west line connected with north south lines on the Eastern Plains and on both sides of alluvial valley of the Long River. Short hauls lines everywhere connected mines and manufactories to riverboat and barge ports. "Turn about is fair play." Karel remarked to Finn. "Last time we covered this ground we twins and Drew did it on foot, running half the distance each day. You were the lazybones of the group and rode the coach the whole way. Now we get to ride while you do all the work, propelling this aerocraft." On their first journey west the trio of runners had taken off early each day, bare-ass naked of course, and loped along the highway to the halfway point of the mail coach's daily run then rode it the rest of that day once the coach caught up with them. The purpose of that exercise regimen was to get them in shape for the rigors of their mapping and reconnaissance mission. The coachman or rather coach-boy for the seven day run of the mail coach to the western escarpment had been a promising lad of seventeen named Liam. It was during that week that he had manifested the first evidence of his wizardly powers, the so-called moon glow which let him see in the dark. "We gotta fly high like this more often!" Jemsen enthused. "From up here you can see for a hundred miles in every direction!" Jemsen himself never went so high when he used gravitational repulsion to levitate. Anyway levitation would not take you from place to place. Mostly it was up and down, a way to get safely out of the reach of enemy arrows, wild animals, a flood, or whatever. It was also a handy way to scale a cliff or a wall. The next day, four hours after take off Dahl tapped Drew on the shoulder and pointed at the approaching weather system. "Maybe we should set down for a spell and wait out the blow on the ground rather than try to fly through the gust front of that line of thunderstorms ahead. On your first trip you had a full-fledged weather wizard with you to keep you safe. That is not longer the case. We druids have some considerable control over meteorological and atmospheric phenomena but less than that of the stronger sort of weather wizard." Stormy weather was the only real threat to an autogyro in flight. The machines were inherently safe unless the pilot flew it into a mountain hidden by clouds, fog, rain, or darkness. Even if the pilot took sick and could no longer push the aerocraft forward, the rotor would nevertheless spin freely as the autogyro dropped to the ground. The column of air it passed through would spin the rotor blades just enough to slow its descent and allow a rough but not a crash landing. Drew nodded and looked for a place to set down. Meanwhile Dahl used Mind Speech to alert Finn of the change in plan. Drew sighted a hamlet a little ways north of the trunk highway which they had been using as a guide. Too small to be called a village, the hamlet was a cluster of four farmsteads set close together with their fields spreading out from the built up area. A single farmstead might have a dozen separate structures: main house, bunkhouse, barn, stable, granary, workshop, equipment shed, hen house or turkey run, rabbit hutch, etc. Clustering farmsteads was a way to counter the isolation of rural life by promoting social contact and mutual assistance among four extended families and their hired help. The two aerocraft settled next to a barn and negotiated with the farmer to use it to shelter their aerocraft from the storm. The farmer would not take payment. "Just take my family and me up for a ride after the storm passes. That is all the payment I seek for so minor a service as sheltering your marvelous machines till the storm passes." Chapter 3 Into the West The territory of New Varangia ended abruptly at an escarpment which looked out over the flatlands below. The trunk highway descended in a set of switchbacks cut into the steep face. Not so the iron road which need a gentler slope than switchbacks could provide. Instead, far back along its approach to the escarpment the iron road slanted to the Southwest to start its more gradual descent to lower elevation through a deep cut created by an earth wizard. That led to a tunnel blasted through solid rock by a war wizard wielding white fire [subatomic plasma, the stuff that stars are made of]. It was a marvel of modern engineering. Despite its name the region called the Flatlands did have its ups and downs. Relief features included the ranges of low hills which separated drainage basins and the occasional isolated granite peak or tor, places featured in local legend as the dark lair of scaly monsters. The tops of several of these prominences hosted Army heliograph stations, part of a line leading back to New Varangia and the Commonwealth. One geological feature had sparked Drew's interest on his first trip out west years earlier. It was a swarm of magmatic dikes two hundred paces wide, a hundred paces high, and nineteen miles long. Created by an ancient intrusion of lava into continental crust and since exposed by erosion which left behind parallel vertical walls of basalt. The old road ran through a narrow passage blasted a century earlier by a wizard using white fire. It was still used for local travel but the trunk highway and iron road ran through a new cut, far wider than the old. Pointing out the swarm to his passengers Dahl and Corwin, Drew told them how they had stopped for several days to practice their rock climbing technique. It was after a particularly hard climb that Drew had expressed his frustration that although he could lift the others he could not levitate himself. The telekinetic gift could not move one's own body. In a moment of inspiration Karel told him to lift his sandals. Since he was standing in them he would rise too. That had been the seed for the development of flight, the very first step. Next came Axel Wilde's idea for flying yokes for short range flight, then Nathan Lathrop's rigid wing for long range scouting, and finally Karl-Eike Thyssen's autogyro. Their course took them ever westward. They rose high enough to see the former maritime republic of Jenova on the shore of the northernmost lobe of the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. At last they reached the city of Caerdydd, capital of the state of Cymru, and landed at the military airfield which served Army headquarters. "Now Corwin, just to set you straight" Karel began. "Though the map spells Cymru with a 'u' at the end, the natives pronounce the final vowel as an 'i'. Actually 'K-I-M-R-I' would be more like it. And the name of their capital city ends in two d's though surely one would be enough." The blond shook his head as he continued: "Sadly, the orthography of names of places and persons in these benighted regions is anything but phonetic. Centuries ago great minds devised the 42 letters of the alphabet, one letter for each sound in the common tongue, to make it easy to acquire literacy, but these contrarians go and throw it all away." Jemsen sighed. "As I have often reminded Karel this world of ours has far more pressing problems than bad spelling." "It offends my sense of order, that's all I'm saying." Karel explained defensively. The four for whom this was their second trip to Caerdydd were pleased at the changes they saw all around them, the fruit of the political, social, and economic reforms midwifed by the Commonwealth which had brought genuine peace and prosperity to a region formerly torn by dynastic wars, class warfare, and revolution leading to famine, violence, and general backwardness. The underlying problem was infertile soils which forced rapacious landowners to exact and extract too much from their peasants and serfs periodically provoking famines and peasant uprisings. In the last fifteen years the warren of narrow streets had been torn down and rebuilt into a modern city. Instead of jumbled passages filled with pedestrians, animals, and wheeled vehicles all thrown together helter-skelter the new streets were wider, and they separated foot traffic from vehicles. The sidewalks even had tree boxes to provide shade. "This journey out west is a trip down memory lane, isn't it Drew?" Finn asked. "It sure is. We arrived here as the Young Soldiers Four but left as the Young Peacemakers Four. I am far prouder of our contributions to peace than of anything I have done in war." "Amen." The Headquarters of the Western Army was in a quadrangle of two storey edifices built of timber and brick. The Commonwealth flag flew in front of the main building. Jemsen showed their papers to an orderly who directed them to the duty officer who had them shown to comfortable quarters in the building next door where they dropped their kit, sent their soiled clothes to the laundry, bathed, and generally made themselves presentable. They had no real business at headquarters, no one to meet or to report to. This stop was an opportunity for a final check of their aerocraft by professional military mechanics and a chance to take stock and make final plans and preparations for their journey into the unknown. Nevertheless the next day a messenger delivered a cryptic note asking them not to leave just yet but providing no explanation. The next morning all of them except Finn woke up early and went out for a run along the cross-country course which looped out into the fields and woods beyond the installation proper. As always the youths ran in the nude, relishing the kiss of the morning sun on their bare backs and bums. After the run the youths stretched and flexed and worked on their upper body strength, doing pull-ups and climbing ropes with just their arms. To improve their agility they climbed trees and even scrambled to the roofs of the buildings till they were ordered down by a spoilsport non-commissioned officer who mistook them for newbies. They complied with his order to descend, but without the guilty looks he expected. Instead they made a game of their descent, a chance to show off their athleticism with fancy moves. When they were finally down, the boys did not line up or stand at attention but just stood easy as if they didn't have a care in the world. "Talk about raw recruits, you don't even know to line up properly, and what do you boys think you were doing up there atop that roof all bare-ass naked. And didn't you realize that this is officer country? You there, Red, what is your name and unit?" Drew rolled his eyes. To the twins he said: "History repeats itself, doesn't it." To the sergeant he simply said. "We are not recruits at all but reserve officers though currently we are not on active duty so are not assigned to a specific unit." "Oh really? You claim to be a commissioned officer, you, a bare-assed pretty boy who cannot be more than sixteen or seventeen? Those blond twins look to be maybe eighteen or nineteen so they might possibly be ensigns." "Nope, its captains all around except for little blondie who is a ranker in the militia and that dark haired elf lord at the end of the line." "Harrumph. Captains eh, and that raven haired beauty is an elf lord? Think you are being clever, do you? Well, your sergeants will soon knock the impertinence out of you, youngling." Just then Finn showed up in full uniform including the distinctive white kepi of the Dread Hands which he was willing to wear in garrison. He took in the situation quickly. After all this was their second go around with this particular comedy of errors. "You know sergeant, you could check with the charge of quarters at the unaccompanied officers' barracks to establish their bona fides. Or you could accept the assurances of a Dread Hand of the Commonwealth." With that Finn held his hand up and triggered the small magic that made it glow, the unmistakable credentials of a Dread Hand. Recognizing that these youngsters were far too confident and self-assured to be wayward recruits and that one of the Dread Hands had just vouched for them the sergeant suddenly realized how badly he had overstepped. Changing his tune he told them: "So you are officers, after all. I wish you had made that clear in the first place." "Actually, I am pretty sure we did. Isn't that the way you remember it Jemsen?" Karel remarked blandly. "Anyway thank you sergeant for your commendable but misdirected zeal. Dismissed." The sergeant took off, glad to get away with his stripes still on his sleeve. Karel shrugged and told the others. "Not his fault really, the way our enhanced longevity keep us perpetually young and looking even younger than our years. Which goes double for you 'Red' and you too `Elf Lord,' given your diminutive proportions." Drew nodded, adding: "And none of us has a feather on his body, not even at the fork of our legs, thanks to druidic magic which blocks the growth of body hair. This is an old story for me. I know that I fall far short of normal masculine standards in height, muscular development, beard, body hair, and voice register. I'll look sweet sixteen for half a millennium. But being a boy-toy does have its advantages. It sure helps my social life!" The five walked over to the outdoor showers to wash away the sweat and dust, drying their bodies in the early morning sun. The nude youths drew admiring looks from those of their barracks mates who fancied pretty boys, of whom there were more than a few. Their enhanced hearing let them overhear remarks from onlookers which included descriptors like "walking wet dreams" and "a trio of blond beauties," and "lithe, lissom, and lovely." Indeed, they were all those things. Of fully human stock Jemsen and Karel were identical twins, palomino colts whose wiry musculature and strong upper storey evidenced the high level of fitness the boys maintained from archery practice and all the running and swimming they did. The twins were blessed with fine-boned faces, their heads crowned with cornsilk blond hair. They were of medium height, blond, slender, and incredibly cute. Although young men past their twenties, the twins looked like teenage boys a decade and a half younger thanks to their parentage and to the druidical healing magic that let them live for half a millennium or more and keep them perpetually young. The smooth glabrous bodies of the scrumptious blond beauties practically glowed with vitality. The effect was incredibly sexy. As for 'Red,' Drew was an impossibly cute twink with spiky auburn hair and narrow sideburns reaching below the ear lobe plus straight eyebrows with almost no curve to them. They framed a fine-boned face with a high forehead, chiseled jawline, and a perky nose slightly turned up at the end. Drew was slight in build, standing only five foot zero and weighing but a hundred pounds, yet his tiny frame was easily twice as strong as it looked, enhanced by the same druidical magic that had lengthened his life and extended his youth. Corwin was slight of build, clean limbed, and short; he stood only four inches over five feet. He was blessed with the delicate features, high cheekbones, and green eyes which suggested the considerable admixture of elfin blood in his ancestry though his hair was blond rather than dark. As for Dahlderon, lithe, preternaturally lovely, gracile, or comely were words that hardly did justice to the raven-haired elven beauty. With his delicate features, chiseled jawline, and killer cheekbones shielding green eyes the color of growing things, his was the sort of youthful male beauty that would take your breath away. Though he stood only an inch over five feet and weighed five pounds over a hundred-weight he was nearly four times as strong as he looked thanks to druidical magic. Among those who looked at them with interest were two young officers in their early twenties, a human and an elf, who looked to have just finished target practice with air guns. They spoke softly but their words carried to the keen ears of the five nonetheless. To his lanky human friend the elf complained: "It's so unfair that those five beauties seem to have eyes only for each other." "Don't be so sure, my friend. As an elf, your exotic looks and slender physique not to mention those killer cheekbones of yours make you quite presentable. And, from the way he's been checking you out, that cute little red-head just might be as interested in you as you are in him." "Shush! He might hear you." The way Drew suddenly raised his eyebrows and smiled gave it away that he had heard what was said. So the elf's human friend called out: "Uh, no offense there, 'Red'. I was just dropping a hint to my shy pal here." That earned him an elbow to the ribs. "Striking a fellow officer? Tut, tut!" Drew could see from their easy camaraderie that the young officers were best friends. Grinning, Drew introduced himself and the others. "Two wizards, two war mages, and a druid. You boys are real heavy hitters. What are you doing out our way?" "If you think we are heavy hitters, wait till you see my boyfriend, Finn Ragnarson. Perhaps you have heard of him?" "Who hasn't? They say he is the avatar of a thunder god and is the strongest if not the largest of the Frost Giants. I heard that he stands eight feet tall and masses six hundred pounds of bone and muscle and sinew. I just hope for your sake Daniel that this Finn Ragnarson is not the jealous type." "Oh very funny!" "I am Lieutenant Clyde Stilwell and my shy friend here is Lieutenant Daniel Dayton." "We just finished target practice," Daniel explained, quite needlessly since they both carried air guns, and Daniel had a paper target with him. "Souvenir," he explained. "I shot my personal best today." "Congratulations! I see that you shoot carbines. Does that mean you are in the cavalry?" "Hardly! We are both staff officers, logisticians in fact. The carbine is less cumbersome than the long guns the infantry shoot. A carbine cannot match their range, but if I ever have to shoot for real it means the enemy has got closer than they ever rightly should. If which case, I will need to hit what I aim at." "Would you care to join us for breakfast?" Clyde Stilwell offered. "Sure." A while later, cleaned up and in uniform, all seven of them settled down to eat. Clyde started the table talk: "I don't know if you newcomers realize this but here in garrison they serve two hot meals a day, with long sitting times to accommodate everyone's schedules. That lets early risers like ourselves chose exercise or training before sitting down to breakfast. So the cooks serve for two hours in the morning and for two and a half in the evening." Drew nodded. "Thanks but we knew that already. We've been here before." "Ah, here comes my boyfriend Finn Ragnarson. Hi, Finn; this is Clyde Stilwell. The sexy elf next to him is named Daniel Dayton. He is the latest of my fervent admirers. Now I know that this is a regular part of your schtick, but can we skip the feigned jealousy just this once?" "Damn!" Finn growled with not entirely mock chagrin. "I have been forestalled." That evening alone in bed with the young elf officer Drew told him: "I've had lots of boyfriends," Drew explained to the young officer. "I crave variety in recreational sex. But my bond with Finn is about more than physical attraction and sex. Like the twins, Finn is one of my very best friends, someone I have a history with and plan to stay close to for the rest of a very long life. I trust him and the twins implicitly. Same goes for Corwin. We live together and have marched off to war together and battled deadly foes. So I know they will always have my back just as I will always have theirs." "In our leisure time, we have a lot of fun together whether playing sports, training and exercising, or just taking meals, talking and socializing. You'll soon see for yourself that the twins are lively chatterboxes, smart, funny, and insatiably inquisitive. Talking to them is both entertaining and educational. Finn is no slouch in the brains department either, make no mistake. Oh he is slower to speak, but when he does, he is definitely worth listening to." "You are one lucky fellow, Drew Altair, to have made such fine friends. Now enough talk about other lovers. Come here!" For Drew taking a new boy to bed added the thrill of discovery to the familiar joys of sex. At least that was Drew's stated excuse for being such a social butterfly. Like all elves Daniel was a really good-looking young male. His hair was dark and wavy, and he was blessed with the fine-boned features and green eyes typical of his race. Standing four fingers taller than the twins, Ian had the willowy physique more typical of the elves than the truncated version of the twins' friend the elf-boy cum druid Dahlderon. With narrow hips and shoulders he was noticeably more slender than the twins though thanks to running and swimming he was quite fit not soft and out of shape as you might expect a staff officer to be. For Daniel this little auburn-haired beauty was just his type: short and slightly built, impossibly cute, trim and fit, and with a strong streak of exhibitionism. Daniel had no use for clothes horses. Rather he liked a boy who didn't care overly much for clothing, a boy who sought any excuse to take his clothes off, or even better, not to climb into his clothes in the first place. Pretty boys really owed it to the world to share their loveliness with males who appreciated the fine lines on a young colt like Drew. In bed Daniel was a versatile lover, experienced in both roles, top or bottom, thanks to growing up in a largely human city rather than one of the secluded elven vales where he would have been expected to bottom for older males for decades at least. Drew was his first lover with the gift of telekinesis, thanks to which sexual partners could assume positions and perform actions which were otherwise physically impossible. Wow, you really felt like a bottom when your body was lifted into the air without any support at all and turned and twisted to make love in ways that defied gravity and in some cases common sense. In Daniel Drew found an enthusiastic partner whose favorite position was seated facing the other boy whose rump was in his lap. That let the young lovers gaze into each other's eyes, to kiss, and to touch the other boy in all his erogenous zones all the while with his cock slipped up the other boy's quim. To Daniel's mind, the hard body of a boy was so much sexier than the soft and yielding form of the female. Boys' bodies were all sculpted muscle and bone and sinew, making for physiques that were strong and athletic and acrobatic. A girl was all take and no give, but a boy could give as well as take and even do both at the same time as when they lay head to toe and pleasured each other's cocks. To hold his own with a boy it took another male. No none but another male could know the male body better, especially the manly parts. That was why boys were ever so much better at oral sex and manual manipulation. Boys knew what to do with a cock and what they wanted done with theirs too. That evening Daniel and Drew expressed their physical attraction for each other in an energetic, sweaty, and vocal crescendo of eroticism, raging hormones, and spunk. After three lively bouts of lovemaking the boys settled into post-coital lassitude and talked about themselves and their lives. Alas they had time for only a brief fling. Three days later it was time for the Corps of Discovery to push on. Author's Note If you have enjoyed this story and others like it, consider making a donation to the Nifty Archive. They take credit cards. Point your browser to http://donate.nifty.org/donate.htm This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead. It 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, appears in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence focuses on one or a few of the large cast of characters in the ongoing saga which now exceeds Tolstoy's War and Peace in word count, if in no other measure. 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 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.