Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2023 03:41:18 +0000
From: Leonard <leonardwriting@gmail.com>
Subject: Apprentice and King - Chapter 7a

Apprentice and King
By Leonard - leonardwriting@gmail.com

M/b, mind control, consensual (after mind control), magic, oral, anal,
more...


SYNOPSIS

A kinky take on a hero's journey as an eleven-year-old boy tries to follow
his destiny as an apprentice to a Master Wizard.  His teacher, though,
shapes him to find pleasure in much more than just casting spells.


STORY NOTES

This is the release of the first half of chapter 7. The second half will
follow in a couple of weeks.

This chapter is a bit different from the others, especially the second
half, which gets more intense emotionally. It sets up a lot of what will
come later in the story. I hope you find it interesting, even if the second
half is a bit less sexy than usual.

When you're done here, you'll find many more of my stories in a number of
places, including Nifty.  (I have around a dozen stories, several of which
are novel-length.)  Reach out at any time and I can share other stories or
add you to my update list to get notified whenever I release something new.

All of the characters in this story are fictional.

Finally, you wouldn't even know about this story if not for Nifty.  If you
can, help it out with a donation to keep this special place going.

https://donate.nifty.org/donate.html




Chapter 7: Arrivals and Departures

When Ardin woke up, everything was perfect.

It was early.  Birds chirped brightly, and the ruddy dawn sun shined
through his window.  For a few minutes, he just lay in the luxurious bed,
blinking sleepily.

Soon, he stretched his lithe body out.  Slender arms reached up, legs
stretched down, toes curled and pointed out, making the boy feel like he
was twice as long.  His bare skin slid again along those soft, soft covers.
Before, he had cuddled against his siblings; here, he loved the warmth of
the covers, and he loved that this was his room.

He was a wizard.  He'd heard about wizards, every boy had heard about
wizards, but of course he'd never actually met one.  Why would a wizard
have ever come to Raza?  Like knights, they were just in stories.

Ardin smiled as he remembered how he'd play at magic duels in the forest,
arguing with other boys about whose fake magic had been stronger.  Now,
well... he held up a finger and let out a little gust of magic, which
lightly pushed against his face.  It was real.  It was real.

What would his story be?  When papa had left home and not returned, Ardin
had made up stories in his head.  Maybe papa had gone to fight someone, to
do some great deed.  The man had never returned, and so, Ardin thought, he
must have been taken prisoner.  But now maybe Ardin the Wizard would rescue
him from... from whatever was stopping him from coming home.  Ardin would
rescue him, and they could be together again.  He'd be a hero; they'd both
be heroes.

When Ardin finally decided to get up, he jumped out of bed but then dressed
cautiously, worried he might tear his new clothes.  They still felt so
strange on his body.  In fact, every sensation was new in this place, from
the smell of the air to the feel of the polished wood under his toes.  The
boy stretched again as he came out of his room and found the rest of the
household still asleep.

Yes, everything was perfect.  Except...

Except something felt wrong.  But what?

It wasn't that Ardin was worried he wouldn't live up to Zeles' lofty
expectations.  He was worried, but that felt natural.  He was eager to try
and to train, eager to show off his magic.

It wasn't that Ardin had been attacked, that his life had been threatened.
He was scared, but he also recognized that it was part of the great
adventure.  Part of the story.

But something else felt wrong, and no matter how hard he tried to
understand what it was, it felt like those thoughts just slipped away like
morning mist.

Pushing the wrongness out of his mind, he walked down the hallway.  (The
hallway!)  The polished wooden floor creaked underneath each footstep.  He
even took his bare foot and ran it back and forth, and he didn't get a
single splinter.

When he came by the other boys' room, he saw Vides, Kesti, and Rohim all
together on the large bed, a giant heap of naked boys cuddled together with
various limbs emerging in different directions.  The pile of boys rose and
fell with their breaths.  He marveled at that casual nudity, feeling his
heart race a little bit in confusion and longing.  He'd never had friends
like these... he'd played with other boys, sure, but something felt
different with them.  He yearned for their closeness.

But somehow, that was connected to the wrongness.

Ardin kept going down the hallway; the next door was Zeles' room.  Here,
Ardin lingered and watched.  The wizard's large body lay on his side with
Adomas curled up against him, both sleeping, Zeles' arm wrapped tenderly
around the curvy boy's torso.  No doubt they'd been like that since they
finished their... play last night.

Ardin stared at the other eleven-year-old, naked and sleeping blissfully.
He could just see the tip of the boy's dick, so casually hanging out.  Man
and boy looked so content, so peaceful together.  It made Ardin imagine
what it would feel like to have the wizard's hand along his own bare skin.
To be held.  To be cared for, like Adomas was cared for, and to be loved.
It seemed... it seemed almost like having a father.

Ardin bit his lip as he continued to watch.  His longing pulled at him, but
it also confused him.  He wanted it; he didn't want it.  He couldn't quite
reach through the hole in his mind, and it was so confusing.

Somehow, that was connected to the wrongness too.

But the pull was so great that Ardin lingered.  The boy just stood in the
doorway and gazed at the two sleeping lovers.  A minute passed, and then
another.  He found himself almost wishing for them to wake up and bid him
enter.  If Zeles offered again, maybe he'd make the other choice and climb
into the bed.

Ugh, what was he doing!  They'd think him so strange if they saw him
staring.  Did he even want to play those games that Zeles had played with
Adomas?  The confusion was so bad, he almost felt himself start to cry.  He
half-ran through the dining room and then out of the house, his bare feet
padding heavily with each boyish stride.

He was happy, he told himself.  He was a wizard!  He was living a life he'd
always dreamed of, and yet something kept getting in the way.  Why did it
keep getting in the way?  He just wanted to feel normal!

The early dawn air was cool against his skin, and the sun was a pale red in
the sky as it rose over the nearby hills.  The sudden coolness calmed him.
He could see a few thatched roofs in the valley, small at this distance,
almost like toys.  There were people in there.  People like his mama?
Maybe.  But he was a long way from home.  He took a deep breath, his chest
lifting as he breathed in, and then he slowly exhaled.

He should miss his mama more.  His siblings.  But he didn't, and it made
him feel guilty.  Was that part of the wrongness?

He took another deep breath and sat down on the grass.  It didn't even
occur to him that his clothes might get dirty.

What, he wondered, was Mardo doing now?  Did his younger brother miss him?
Did he remember when Ardin made him fly?

The grass felt nice against Ardin's body.  It was a little prickly; it felt
so real.

Shouldn't Ardin be sad because he missed his family, missed mama and Mardo
and all of his siblings?  But everything felt... fine, when it should've
felt bad.  And with that, Ardin finally understood what was wrong.  He
wanted to feel bad, but he couldn't.

So what should he do?

He wanted to be a wizard.  To find papa.  To impress Zeles and be loved by
him.  And if he wanted those things, he should practice his magic.  As soon
as he thought of it, it felt right.  The wrongness dimmed.  Zeles would be
proud.

Zeles would praise him.  Zeles would like him more, and... and he didn't
know what, but that would be good.  The wrongness got dimmer still.

The young apprentice summoned some magical power and created a pillow of
magic.  He lifted himself, brows furrowing as he concentrated, two feet,
three feet, four feet, finally five feet above the ground, just floating
there, holding his lithe body there in the air.  His bare feet dangled as
he literally sat on nothing, and he curled his toes as he flexed.

No, this was too easy.  Not real practice, not worthy of a future wizard!
He knew he could do better, so he sent some more power into the pillow of
air and raised himself up to ten feet.  There was more of a breeze, and it
flowed over his whole body, cool and crisp like the morning, slipping
easily underneath delicate clothes.

It was beautiful up here.  Zeles' house was already built at the top of a
hill, and now Ardin looked out over the rolling green landscape and
treetops.  The few thatched roofs he saw before became a full,
peaceful-looking village nestled in the valley below.  He thought he could
make out some cows.

It wasn't enough; not to make Zeles proud like Ardin wanted.  The boy
wanted to fly higher but it felt risky, so instead he sent out more power
in exploratory bursts, letting it fly and feel around and sense what was
near him.  Threads of his power spread outwards, little flickering tendrils
that wound around tree branches and outlined the walls of the house.  He
could feel the power of other magic nearby.  Familiar magic.  He focused;
it was wards that Zeles had set up around his home.  Someday he'd learn how
to make them, too.

Now Ardin shaped his power, forming it into a wave that rolled across the
ground underneath.  The grass and plants twisted and shook as if in a
strong wind.  Then, wondering if he could use his power as a kind of hand,
he curled the energy into a grip.  It wrapped around a fallen tree branch,
and he floated the branch up, drawing it back to his real hand.  He smiled
as he snatched it out of the air, and then with a boyish grunt he gave it a
throw, watching it fly into the air in a long arc, longer because Ardin
himself was so far above the ground.

The branch flew up and then gained speed as it started to curve downwards.
But with a thrust of his power, Ardin grabbed it and tossed it up again,
throwing it into another, higher arc.  Again and again the stick flew
downwards and Ardin tossed it up.  After a few minutes of this game, he
used all of his magical strength to launch it as far as he could.  The boy
smiled as he watched it shrink into a small speck, twirling end over end in
its long arc into the distance.

A moment later, though, the smile vanished.  What if it landed on someone?
Or damaged a roof?  He didn't hear anything, and so he assumed everything
was OK, but he probably shouldn't have done that.  He sighed.  It was going
to take some time to get used to his power.

But this had helped.  Practicing, thinking of Zeles' praise, he felt
better.  He felt more like himself, or at least he felt like what he wanted
himself to be.

Ardin lay back, extending out his cushion of air until it supported his
back as well.  Half the sky was still red with the sunrise, tapering off to
a deep blue on the other half.  Clouds rolled along overhead, and another
cool breeze blew through the boy's thin, luxurious clothing.

The sky was beautiful, with crisp clouds gently gliding along.  Ardin
wondered if he could ever fly that high.  His mind wandered, thinking about
his new world and his powers.

Eventually, his thoughts returned once again to the other boys inside the
house.  Their pleasure with each other; the kind of... family they had.  It
was so different from anything he'd known, but they were so close, and so
joyful.  Longing filled him again, and with it, the wrongness.

If only he could just ignore the wrongness!

He thought back to the pleasure he saw Adomas and Zeles experiencing
together, and he thought about how Zeles would get hard when Ardin was
being good and how proud Ardin felt whenever Zeles got hard.  Ardin's mind
felt on fire with so many thoughts.  He remembered that bath in Crezia, and
how he'd touched himself, and how Zeles had toyed with him, the man's magic
creating such feelings...

It wasn't even a conscious action, at least Ardin didn't think so, but his
hand reached down to his pants and gently, through the fabric, he gave
himself a stroke.  Then another, and another.  What had started as a memory
of touch became little bursts of pleasure flowing through his young,
inexperienced body.

Pleasure.  That little touch, that touch on his private area.  It felt
good, and it cleared his thoughts.  The wrongness receded even more with
that feeling.  He smiled.

When he began to masturbate himself in earnest, it was a choice, a choice
to have more of that pleasure.  The eleven-year-old floated in the air,
writhing with that pleasure.  Each touch, each motion against his small but
growing boyhood brought new thoughts about the bath, about Zeles' hardness
and how wonderful it looked, about Zeles and Adomas...

His immature dick became harder, lengthening in his pants, giving an
obscene little tent to the fancy clothes.  Up and down his hand went, up
and down.  His breathing quickened; his slender body curled in the air.  It
felt so good!  It was all he wanted.

Ardin had never done this before meeting Zeles, but why not?  He couldn't
tell if there was some reason no one had ever shown him.  He couldn't think
of one, this all seemed so... natural.  So pleasant.  He resolved to ask
Zeles about it.

And so the eleven-year-old stroked himself through his nice new pants,
feeling himself throb underneath, feeling those now-familiar waves of
pleasure course through his young body with every touch, every motion as
nimble fingers pushed the silky fabric back and forth along his erect
little dick.  He wanted this, he wanted more of it!  He slid his hand into
his pants so he could touch himself right on his skin, and he shivered as
his fingers now slid right along it...

Pleasure mounted, growing and growing and growing, filling him up.  His
toes twisted and curled in the air, and his body bent with the intensity of
sensation, knees bending, elbows flailing.  The feelings crested in such
incredible sensations.  He pants, his eyes wide as he experienced this pure
pleasure.

And yet, despite the pleasure, and the feelings, and his desperate need to
keep going, he uttered a grunt of frustration and stopped just before he
might have orgasmed.  (Not that he even knew what that was, or at least,
not yet.)  In the bath in Crezia, Zeles had stopped him from touching
himself when the feeling had gotten like this, and so now Ardin stopped
too, just like he'd been taught.

On the one hand, it felt right to stop.  It felt like he was about to pee;
maybe Zeles was stopping him before that happened.  But the young boy found
himself with his hands balled in a need he didn't fully comprehend.  He
wanted to keep going.

And worse, once he stopped touching himself, he felt guilty somehow.  Was
that normal, too?

Maybe, the boy considered, he felt guilty because he wasn't practicing his
magic like he meant to?  He didn't want to practice magic, he wanted to
keep touching himself, but then he got a new idea.  He could do both!

Back in the bath, Zeles had... done something magical to him, a kind of
jolt of power.  Could Ardin do the same?

The eleven-year-old remembered that feeling so clearly.  It had been so
powerful, almost overwhelming in how it stimulated the boy.  But Ardin
remembered not just the feeling, but the magic: its resonance and timbre,
the sharp core surrounded by gentle sparking.  At the time, it had grazed
Ardin's childish dick and the boy had assumed it was a mistake.  Now he
knew better, and he wanted to replicate the experience.

So, still floating in the air, Ardin held his hand in front of him.  He let
power flow out of his fingers.  The power accumulated, gathering together
into a ball, shaping into a sphere only the boy could see.  His forehead
creased as he focused on this new task.  The edges felt too sharp; he made
the boundary more porous, fuzzier, less likely to hurt but still to
stimulate.  It became a thick, almost viscous haze of power, with writhing
peaks and valleys, deepening to a thick, gel-like core of power at its
center, an imitation of what his master had done.

The concentration required was extreme, and he felt himself start to sweat
a little bit.  The pillow of air underneath him wavered before he sent some
more power its way.  He knew he could have done this on the ground, but the
whole point was to train magically, or so he told himself.

Gently, Ardin reached down and pulled his pants down, even there while he
floated in the air.  He slid them down to his knees, and his dick, still
hard, sprung up; all three and a half inches of it.  He looked at it, and
looked to the ball of power.  His heart raced with arousal, with the sense
of danger, with the magic, with his nudity here outside.

But his expression hardened as he focused his mind.  Careful to keep the
cushion of power underneath him, he began to push on the orb, slowly moving
it towards his bare dick.  It throbbed in eagerness.  Six inches away;
five; four.  It got closer and closer, and then the outer edge of the orb
brushed against the tip.  He took deep breaths in anticipation as he
watched it make contact.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" cried Ardin, his whole body arching as it floated in the
air.  It wasn't quite like how Zeles did it; he hadn't gotten the magic
quite right, and so it hurt... but it also felt so good.  Overwhelming.
The haze of power touched his dick, a powerful electricity that sent wave
after wave after wave of sensation through his young body, and then it went
further, floating through his dick, stimulating nerves directly inside him
as it surrounded his immature sex.  His body writhed out of his control;
his hips bucked upward, stretching in the cool morning air.  The feeling
overwhelmed him; the need was all he could think about.

He was a sight to be seen; yellowish-pink light from the rising sun
suffused the edge of his partly-naked body on all sides.  From the right
angle, he was the shadow of a boy, body bending upwards in a luscious
curve, surrounded on all sides by a bright aura reflecting off of creamy
skin, with that three-and-a-half inch pole sticking right up from the peak
of his body's curve.

"Oh..." panted Ardin.  "Oh, oh... AHHHHH!"  The thicker core of his ball of
energy reached his dick and bounced off of it, but the effect was to send a
powerful, and painful, and arousing jolt of electricity through the boy.
"Ugh!" he cried as it radiated out from his dick.  His hips started to hump
into the air, seeking out that ball of energy as it floated back and he
reached out magically to call it down again.  It felt so good and so
intense, beyond human endurance.  But now he craved it.

Again the ball of pure magical energy hit his dick, and Ardin's arms shot
out and his head bent backwards.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" the boy cried out, his slender
body shaking like a floating doll as he reacted to the overwhelming touch
of raw power.  His voice echoed out as every nerve, every part of him felt
the powerful energy hit, felt it stimulate his need, his desire, his lust.
There was nothing in the world but that feeling.  Nothing.

Ardin had no idea what he'd forgotten, what he'd been made to forget.  Sex
was just a new little game to him.  He couldn't imagine what his mother
would have thought to see him there, to watch his floating little body seek
out its carnal pleasures, to watch it twist and hump the air, his little
dick out.  To see her son turned to this.

Fortunately for him, his mother was nowhere near the estate.  Instead his
audience was simply Vides, who had woken earlier and now stood at the door,
gazing up silently at the floating, masturbating boy whose half-naked form
gyrated in the air.  Vides reached down to touch himself as well, lightly.
He smiled.  Ardin looked like he was having fun.

Ardin was completely unaware of his audience.  He brought the ball of power
down again and it made contact with the tip of his dick.  His eyes were
wide as jolts ricocheted through his body, more powerful than anything
Zeles had done at that bath.  He jerked at the touch, but he needed more.
Ardin lowered it further, feeling his whole dick becoming encased,
throbbing, a power like he'd never felt.  His head rolled back, neck loose,
mind reeling.  He held it there, held that overwhelming power on his dick,
electricity flowing, flowing through him.  He humped his body into the
magic, desperate for more of that hot energy, body arching again and again,
straining, sweating, gasping.  "Oh... ahhh... ohhhhh... AHHHH!... ohhhh..."

He was drenched in sweat now, his body heavy in its sexual exertion.  The
cool breeze flowed along his skin, cooling the smooth, wet boy's skin.
Drops of sweat zig-zagged down his cheek and neck.  A bit of drool worked
its way down his chin.

And still he pushed.  The energy was everywhere, surrounding his dick,
overwhelming, necessary.  He would have cum long ago, anyone would have
except the magic itself restricted it.  Not that he understood anything
about it except the feelings and the need.  Drool ran down his chin from
the overwhelming pleasure.  He lost concentration and dropped a foot in the
air before he raised himself back up, still humping into the sphere of
magic, deeper, deeper.  It encased his dick; it stimulated every part of
him, inside and outside, and the boy's dick throbbed with need.

"Ardin!" called Vides, becoming alarmed.  "Are you ok?"

But Ardin didn't hear.  Instead he thrust up again, deeper.  His head
lolled back, wet hair hanging down towards the ground as he thrust upwards.

"Ohhh... ohhhh..."

He thrust again, feet out, toes splayed.  He thrust again with a grunt.  He
didn't understand the animalistic need, he just thrust, harder and
harder...

"Ardin!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" cried the boy as his balls,
his sensitive, tiny balls, connected with the energy.  Pleasure turned to
pain as it raced through his body, overwhelming every other sensation.  He
cried out, wordless, mindless, and then lost all concentration, and
then... he fell.

He screamed as he felt himself falling and he reached for his magic, but
he'd never be able to concentrate in time.  It was Vides who threw himself
underneath, breaking Ardin's fall with a rough, hard gasp.

"Uhhhhhhh..." cried Vides, wincing with pain.  He lay there on the ground,
extricating himself from under Ardin, and reached out a hand to lay on
Ardin's chest.  "Are you... okay?"  The boy's voice was breathy.  He was
winded, and still trying to come to his senses as he lay back on the grass.

Ardin too lay on his back, breathing but not moving.  At last he moved a
little bit.  "I lost it," he said.  "I don't know what happened."

Vides didn't really react much, except to gently run his hand down to
Ardin's belly.  "You flew," he replied.

"Then I fell."

"While you were... what were you..."

Ardin blushed.

Vides grinned.  "It's fine," he said.  "I mean, it's not a bad thing."  His
hand stroked along the other boy's belly.  "Zeles does that kind of thing
to us sometimes.  It's really fun."

"But I fell!" cried Ardin.  "I'm not good at this!"

"You can fly," exclaimed Vides, his fingers slowly caressing Ardin's belly.
"You can fly."

"I... I don't know."  Ardin looked up to the sky.  He tested his limbs,
seeing that he was bruised but otherwise unhurt.  "You really saw all of
that?"

"We do that kind of thing all the time," Vides responded.  His fingers kept
sliding across the other boy's smooth belly.  "Well, not with magic."

"That tickles!" Ardin exclaimed.  He brought up a hand and laid it on top
of Vides' hand, holding it in place.  "Stop it."

"Sorry," Vides apologized.  He held his hand still, gently pressing into
the other boy's flesh.  It felt warm, thought Ardin.  It felt good.

"Everything is changing," said the young apprentice, his voice tinged with
fear and confusion.  "I'm changing.  I've never done this stuff before."

"You're lucky," replied Vides.

"I know," said Ardin, softly.  "I'm sorry.  I know I have all this magic
and stuff.  I should just be happy!"

Vides turned his head to look at his friend.  "That's not what I meant," he
said.  "I know it's hard to train."

"Then what did you mean?"

Vides paused, then spoke in a low voice.  "Just that... not everyone who
wants to have sex is good."

"Like thieves or murderers or something?"

"Yeah," confirmed Vides.

"I don't understand."

"Master Tzell really saved me," the boy said.  "You can trust him."

Ardin stared up at the sky.  He still didn't understand what Vides was
saying, but it felt like there was truth to it.  "I know," he said.  "He's
all I have."

And the truth was that as he talked to Vides, and Vides touched him, all
the wrongness left him.  In that moment, the loneliness, the confusion, the
need to miss his family, all of it was replaced by his closeness to Vides.
Ardin sighed, enjoying the touch, enjoying the feeling, enjoying the
moment.  He was, at last, content.

The two boys lay there together, each recovering, each just enjoying their
simple closeness.

"Oh, by the Graces," cried a voice behind them.  It was Kesti, who had just
emerged from the house with Rohim trailing behind him.  They came across
the two boys, lying on the grass together, Vides' hand on Ardin's belly and
Ardin naked from the waist down.  "Did you get to suck Ardin's dick before
me?"

Ardin shot up, his head still ringing a little bit.  He suddenly realized
that when he fell to the ground, his pants had been down around his knees
and he'd been naked down there.  He also realized that he still had an
erection, and his shirt was up, and Vides' hand was on his belly.  (Why had
he let that happen?)  Despite his headache, he stood up and hurriedly
pulled his pants up.  As he stood, he still felt some pain in his balls
from that touch of his magic.  Blushing furiously, the boy finally
stuttered, "N-no!"

"Leave them alone, Kesti," said Rohim.

"But we didn't!" protested Ardin.

"First Master Zeles chooses Adomas, and now this!" said Kesti.  He put his
arm up to his forehead dramatically and threw his head back.  "There truly
is no justice in the world!"

Vides had stood up by now, and he gave Kesti a playful shove.  "If there
was justice in the world," he joked, "you'd be a virgin!"

"Well," replied the ten-year-old, "that'd be the world's loss!"

Vides shook his head.  "We were just talking, anyway," he said.

"You talk a lot with your pants off?"  Kesti was talking to Ardin now.

"That," said Vides simply, "had nothing to do with me."

Kesti just stared at Ardin, his eyes sparkling.

"Um," said Ardin, sagely.

"Boys!" said Zeles, as he emerged from the door.  Adomas trailed behind
him, now dressed, such as it was, in the same bare cloth undergarment that
the other boys wore.  All except Ardin, who was still dressed in the fine
clothes from Crezia.

"Let's get the day started," Zeles continued.  "You all have chores, and
I'm hungry for breakfast.  Ardin, let's start your training for the day."

There were murmurs of "yes, Master Tzell," and the boys scattered.  Soon,
Zeles and Ardin were ready to begin training.  Ardin breathed a sigh of
relief.

"Let's work on your concentration," Zeles said.

* * *

Zeles worked Ardin hard during training.  It was precision work.  Ardin
spent an hour just on precise flying of small objects, trying to maneuver a
coin through a small hole in a wooden plank.  Teacher and apprentice raced
two coins through the air, each trying to fly theirs faster than the other
while making it through an ad hoc obstacle course.  Zeles helped Ardin
streamline how he projected his power out, so that he would require less
effort to keep a steady flow of magical energy.

Zeles also taught Ardin about different "shades" of magical power.  Simple
physical force was the easiest, while mind control required projecting an
entirely different and much more complicated kind of magical energy.  Ardin
learned that it's possible to create self-reinforcing threads of power that
constantly rebuild themselves from surrounding magical energy, which was
how wards were built.  Ardin also learned that it's possible to shape power
to resonate and make sounds; to create projections that give the impression
of another presence; and much more.  Of course, learning to do so would
take years of study.  It was overwhelming, but also exciting to the young
boy.

They trained, and trained, and trained until the sun was bright overhead.
The boy felt simultaneously that he'd learned so much, but also that there
was infinitely more to learn.  Still, he felt accomplished and excited.
Zeles stepped up to the boy after training was done and placed a hand on
the boy's shoulder.

"You did well," he said.

Ardin smiled.  "Are you proud of me?"  He looked up at his teacher with
wide eyes.

"I am," said the wizard.

Ardin nodded, although something still felt empty.  He started to walk away
when Zeles motioned him back.

As Ardin returned, Zeles grabbed his hand, boyish in its obvious
immaturity.  Zeles held it in his much larger hand, then moved it, placing
it flat on the man's crotch.

Ardin let out a small gasp of surprise, but then he looked up at the wizard
as he felt the man's manhood grow underneath the touch.  Zeles pressed the
hand a bit tighter against the growing, hardening dick.

"You really are proud," said Ardin, looking up at the tall man again.  He
clenched his fingers, giving the slightest squeeze to the man's dick.  Just
to... feel it.

"I am," said Zeles, with a smile.  He held Ardin's hand there, a simple if
lewd gesture, warm hand against his hardening manhood.  Ardin looked up at
him with wide eyes, filled with trust and joy at Zeles' arousal.  Zeles
smiled down at him, and then finally moved the boy's hand away.

"Now let's go eat."

* * *

The boys were eating, laughing, enjoying themselves when Ardin suddenly
blurted out a question.  "D'you..." he started to ask, "um, like it when
boys don't wear many clothes?"

The other boys immediately broke out in wild laughter; Kesti, who was
bringing some food, almost dropped his plate.

"Oh, Master Tzell loves it," said Kesti.

"We never wear more than we have to," confirmed Rohim.  "It lets him see
more of us."

Vides was smiling too, which was warm and inviting, and something Ardin
realized he didn't see as much.  "It makes him happy," said the boy, "which
makes us happy."  He paused.  "Or at least me."

"All of us!" confirmed Rohim.  "He made sure of that!"  Rohim pointed at
his head with his finger and turned it in a slow circle.  Kesti and Adomas
snickered.

"Oh," added Adomas, "he had a great time watching you this morning!"

"This... morning?" said Ardin, feeling faint.

"Oh yeah, when you were jerking off and flying," said Adomas, as if it was
the most casual thing in the whole world.  "It was so cool!  I wish I could
do that.  And I was probably the only one who didn't get to see it because
when Master Tzell saw what you were doing, he made me suck his dick!"

"Did he cum hard?" asked Kesti, grinning, his eyes alight with the
curiosity of a ten-year-old.

"Oh yeah!" said Adomas.  "A lot a lot.  I think Ardin's going to be Master
Tzell's favorite!"

Ardin's mouth was agape, his brain struggling to process everything he was
hearing.  He looked from boy to boy.

"Master Tzell was watching?" he said, his voice almost shrill.  "And you
were... you were sucking his... um... his... dick... while he was..."

"You weren't exactly quiet about it," Adomas taunted, his eyes glowing and
his smile wide.  Kesti let out a bark of a laugh.

"It woke us all up!"  The boy paused a moment, then let out an
"ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" in imitation of the boy's high-pitched cries from earlier.

Ardin couldn't look at anyone else; he stared down at the table, feeling a
powerful heat in his cheeks and an embarrassment he couldn't fully
understand.

"Maybe we should stop," said Vides.  "Ardin isn't ready yet."

"Ardin will be fine," said Zeles, speaking at last.  "He can decide when he
wants to have sex.  I'll help him along, of course!"

A bit more laughter.  But Zeles understood how to change the subject, and
after that, the conversation turned to other topics as the boys began to
tell Zeles how the garden was doing.  Vides was very proud of his carrots.

But even though the topic had moved on, Ardin's heart never stopped racing
for the entire meal.

* * *

As they were finishing up their meal (a meal which Ardin still considered a
feast), Zeles got a faraway look in his eyes.  He hushed the boys, and
everyone stood, watching him.

"Someone's coming," he said.  "Two people."

There was a pause.  Everyone waited in tension, awaiting more news.  At
last Zeles let out a breath.

"It's Gurgis and Simas."

The boys all smiled.

"Oh, yay!" said Vides.

"They've been gone a long time," said Adomas.  It had only been four
months, but to a boy, that could feel like quite a while.

"Kesti," said Zeles, "you're going to have to make a feast for us tonight!"

"I have some fresh tomatoes, carrots, and squash," said the boy.  "Adomas
could get some beef from the village, and maybe I'll use that fancy spice
you brought back that Ardin likes."

Zeles was nodding as Ardin couldn't contain himself anymore.  "Who are
Gurgis and Simas?"

"Gigi," said Zeles, smiling, "was my apprentice.  And Simas is his
apprentice."






TO BE CONTINUED!

Stay tuned for the second half of Chapter 7, when Ardin makes a startling
discovery.

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