Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 12:00:37 -0400 From: George Gauthier Subject: Elf-Boy and Friends, Part 2 Elf Boy and Friends Part 2 of 10 by George Gauthier Chapter 5. Unicorn and Elf-Boy [The elf-boy Dahlderan and the unicorn Meirionnydd, Merry for short, are traveling to the Great Southern Forest where young Dahl will be trained as a druid. Joining him on his adventures are his new friends: Balandur the giant, the human twins Jemsen and Karel, and the soon-to-be introduced minstrel Aodh, a young wir-panther.] For all his frolicking with the human twins Jemsen and Karel, the elf-boy Dahl did not neglect his unicorn friend Merry, kneeling before him and swallowing his seed most evenings. The semen of the magical beast kindled Dahl's own innate elven magic, though as yet only to a very modest level. The tingling throughout his body along with the constant exercise helped him gain strength and stamina. It wasn't just his imagination that his chest was deeper and lung capacity greater. His muscle tone had never been better, he even suspected his bones were denser and stronger. Never soft, his was now truly a hard body. None of this hurt Dahl's sex drive any either. That was something the blond twins very much appreciated when it was their turn to bed the lovely elf-boy. Sometimes all three shared a bed, sometime only two of them, which happened when one of them had to work as a pleasure boy at an inn along the way to earn their keep. They never lacked for custom. Travelers and locals alike were eager for a crack at any of the three sexy boys, whose perpetual nudity kept their lissom bodies totally on display. It was a few weeks later along the trade road that Merry decided it was time for him to mount his elf-boy, to officially make him his filly. Rather than push on to the next town, the travelers made camp off the road on a sandy beach on the loop or meander of a lazy stream shaded by a gallery forest. The others gave the courting pair their privacy, letting them go off a ways upstream. Meanwhile, the twins figured that if little Dahl could attempt the impossible with the unicorn, it was high time they ventured the same with the giant who had been waiting patiently for the twins to work up the courage to lie with him. Jemsen lead his brother over to the giant and said simply: "By now you must think we are a right royal pair of cock teases. The truth is that we are just a couple of naive kids nervous about biting off more than we can chew. Can you understand that, Balan?" "Yes, boys, I do understand your hesitation. And let me assure you that you haven't misplaced your trust by offering yourselves to me tonight. I would love to take you up on your offer, but this is Dahl's big night. We'll have our own tryst soon, I promise." "We'll hold you to that, Balan" Jemsen said firmly. Their trust was well placed. Their assignation when it did come was everything the twins had feared and lusted for, leaving them utterly wrung out and satiated. For his part, the boys earned Balan's respect for how gamely they pushed past the initial pain of their joining to the sexual ecstasy he had promised them. For their part the boys could only wonder at the unflagging potency of their huge sex partner. He was the gift that kept on giving. Meanwhile Merry had located a misshapen tree, bent by the wind to the ground early on in its growth. Its trunk would support the boy's torso as he lay atop it and allowed the unicorn to mount him. For safety the equine would keep all four hooves on the ground. A small lad like Dahl could never bear his weight the way a mare supports a stallion who rears up on her. Little Dahl would suffocate and be crushed. Dahl had prepared himself of this encounter, voiding and purging himself, using a good bit of oil to lubricate his hole. Merry could see how the oil glistened around the cute pucker as the boy lay himself on the trunk of a tree, almost like a sacrificial lamb on an altar. The elf-boy was so beautiful, legs splayed apart on either side of the trunk of the tree, round buttocks jutting pertly, clenching and unclenching with lust and anticipation. The unicorn straddled the boy, engulfing his small body, rubbing and tickling the boy's back with his belly hair, letting him take in the full scent of an aroused unicorn. He laid his cock on the boy's back from tailbone to above his small waist, letting him feel how long it was, how far it would penetrate into him and fill him with the equine's masculine power. Dahl was afraid and excited, trembling with both lust and fear. Part of him wanted to run from the massive member that might tear his pucker to shreds then poke like a spear through the moist walls of his rectum into his body cavity, which would surely rupture his bowels, dooming him to an agonizing death as he bled out or took a fever from infection. Another part wanted the unicorn to penetrate all the way through his delectable body, to let him experience a complete impalement on that magnificent cock, even if it killed him. He was the black maned filly, let the white stallion ride him as he would and draw his virgin's blood; let it flow in sign of his submission and sacrifice. Merry knew that these contradictory thoughts must be warring in the boy's mind. This is what happens when an elf-boy mates with unicorn, a joining that seems physically impossible and dangerous and yet impossible to deny. The boy wanted this more than he had wanted anything in his life. He burned with lust just thinking about it. Merry must take him, mount him, impale his small body then fill him with his magical male essence. And though they were doing it in private now, Dahl knew that soon the unicorn would be on mounting him proudly in front of their friends. What a strange fate for an elf-boy to become the mate of a unicorn. Of course the boy was in no real danger. He would live through his deflowering as impossible as it seemed. Unicorns knew all about lust-crazed elf-boys and their physical limitations. So Merry penetrated the crinkly brown anal ring slowly and carefully, letting Dahl feel his girth. It was only a little more than two human cocks in diameter, something he had experienced before with his clients and brothers, so this would not tear the boy's anal ring though it stretched it out so that it was entirely smooth. The problem would be with the length. Merry's cock was longer than Dahl's forearm. Over time, under the influence of the unicorn's magical seed, the elf-boy's innards would stretch and adjust. Eventually he would be able to take the entire length of Merry's prodigious cock. For this first session Merry penetrated slowly and only partially, just past the boy's sphincter muscles, letting him get used to the diameter of the huge cock. Gods, Dahl had never felt himself stretched so far. He took in the unicorn's scent which was masculine and horsey, a heady brew for a bent over elf-boy. Dahl's head whirled; the boy was literally dizzy with lust. At the boy's nod Merry slid in a bit further, pausing as the boy moaned. "More!" the boy begged through his tears, so Merry gave him another few inches knowing that his sobs and whimpers were all part of the mind and body altering experience. In stages he went deeper. Soon he had penetrated the elf-boy as deep as any human had ever managed, yet the long equine cock was still far from entirely inside the boy. For a while the unicorn was content with pumping in and out to that depth, stretching the elf-boy's boy's bowels, straining the velvet walls to their limits. Merry shivered with the delicious sensation produced by the rubbing of the head of his cock by the inner walls of the boy's quim. Dahl too was in the throes of passion, his body racked by sensations that nearly made him swoon. He had never been so sexually excited. He did not see how anything could ever match this. Surely this is what he was born for. As the unicorn sank into him, the slick walls of the boy's bowels gripped the unicorn's cock like a glove. That is when the unicorn showed the boy just how magical a creature. His cock started twisting around inside the elf-boy's quim, the head pushing and stretching its walls, lengthening his innards to accommodate even a unicorn's cock. Soon Dahl could feel that cock poking at his belly wall nearly as far as his navel. That is when he finally did swoon. Merry patiently waited for the boy to revive. When he came to his senses, the boy realized that this was real, not a wet dream. He was now able to accept the unicorn's total penetration and ownership of his body. Still Dahl was in considerable pain and could not speak, gasping and moaning as he was, but he did nod his head and croak his wish that the unicorn continue the fuck. He wanted Merry to finish what they had started, to mate with him, to take him like a stallion takes a filly and to pump him with the transforming essence of his seed, which would start him on the road to becoming a druid. The unicorn wanted to prolong this mating. He too was overwhelmed with sensation but inevitably, however much he wanted to prolong his ride, he finally began spurting his seed into the elf-boy, flooding his innards with a warm wetness, all the while neighing his triumph. It was the most satisfying coupling of his long life as a unicorn. He and the elf-boy were now lovers and mates, stallion and filly. The elf-boy within Merry, the spirit of the elf-boy the unicorn had once been in his prior life, approved throughly. When he finally withdrew, the boy's hole did not close shut, not at first. Overstressed as it was, the anal ring stood out from his body, distended and everted, forming a shallow cone of flesh projecting from the boy's butt, open at the top, looking oddly like a miniature volcano. Over long seconds, the cone twitched and pulsated in and out, finally closing, leaving the boy's anal opening only slightly distended and loose. From it ran a discharge of semen mixed with blood, but the bleeding was not enough to really harm the boy. The unicorn's seed would energize the boy's system and help him to heal. For the return trip to the camp, short though it was, Merry let the exhausted boy lie belly down across his back. The others pulled him off the unicorn and gently laid him on the ground, making him comfortable, cleaning and tending to his bleeding orifice. The contented smile on the lad's face showed that for all his fatigue and pain, he was happy with their mating, glad that the unicorn had ridden him like a mare or a filly. When Dahl finally awoke the next morning, the world around him looked different. He was strangely energized and his senses enhanced. He could see better and smell better and hear better than ever before. The smell of the grass, the trickling sound of the brook, the feel of the wind on his face took on enhanced meaning. So it was working. Dahlderon had taken the first big step to becoming a druid. The unicorn had given purpose to his life and his new friends had enriched it. One day, when he was ready, he would confront the dark forces that threatened his world. Chapter 6. The Minstrel The districts the travelers passed through were drier than those they had crossed before. In those regions the rains were infrequent and fitful, often tapering off disappointingly soon after a brief shower. Hence the lush farms and fields, vineyards and woodlots of their early journey gave way to ranches and pastures dotted with patches of scrub and gallery forest along the streams. Finally the paved trade road came to its terminus at a turning circle in the town of Zeebring. It seemed a good place to rest up for a few days before striking out across the grasslands. The travelers engaged two rooms in one of the best inns in town. With their finances in good shape, Dahl and the twins got a break from their jobs as rent boys. They could luxuriate for two whole nights in soft beds in which to sleep and enjoy each other's sexy bodies. The whole troop (minus Merry) settled around a table in the common room, eating, quaffing moderately, talking, and watching the flames dance in the hearth. In the warmth of a summer's eve, only a single hardwood log was set to burning to let patrons watch the flickering flames. The firelight illuminated the naked bodies of the younglings, creating intriguing patterns of light and shadow that accentuated their physical charms. The youngsters were the center of interest and speculation by their other travelers and by locals who had stopped by for a drink or two. Who were these young beauties?. What were they doing traveling in the company of a giant and a unicorn? Were they for available? The near unanimous conclusion of the onlookers was that the three younglings were rent boys trolling for custom with the giant as their pimp and protector. A reasonable enough conclusion when three naked beauties put themselves on public display as they did, prancing around in a thin film of sweat and absolutely nothing else. And none of them had a feather on them anywhere on their delectable bodies, another mark of a professional rent boy. Inevitably the bolder among the onlookers tried conversational gambits to get their attention. Some tried physical advances, laying a calloused hand on the bare shoulder of one or ruffling the blond thatches of the twin or Dahl's raven locks. Without being rude or overly standoffish about it the boys firmly but politely discouraged such attentions and pointedly declined all offers of silver for sex. Balan told potential suitors that his boys were taking a few nights off. Banging his bung tapper on the counter for attention, the innkeeper introduced the evening's entertainment: music and song provided by a wandering minstrel just starting his engagement at the establishment. On cue the minstrel stepped into the lamplight, drawing appreciative murmurs from the audience. Clad only in a low-slung sarong the minstrel was a vision of youthful male pulchritude. Dark haired, short and skinny, he stood about an inch below Dahl's height, so five foot even and weighed 102 pounds (45 kg). He looked very young, like a barely legal street urchin, maybe fifteen or sixteen, an epicene gamin. His petite physique was a visual delight. Taut skin covered a hard body though the boy's musculature was smooth rather than defined. He had a good bone structure with narrow shoulders, slender torso, and sharp bladed hip bones. On his flat chest a well-defined midline separated small pectorals accented by tiny nipples. The swale of his lower back lead to a pert rump, the small tight buns jutting out just enough to provide a potential lover a good grab. The youth's complexion was very fair, with skin pale and pearly white and as smooth as any milk maid's and entirely without body hair. Large green eyes dominated the stunning face of the androgynous youth which tapered from a wide brow down a pert nose to a narrow chin. Adding to his fey look, the minstrel was sloe-eyed, his orbs shaped like almonds and slanted faintly upward above prominent cheekbones. From there the planes of his face tapered to a small mouth with pouty lips just begging to be kissed and a sharp chin. His eyebrows bent in a angle rather than a round arch. The boy wore his hair in a shaggy cut with bangs and tapering sideburns that framed a face as cute as a kitten. It wasn't only the minstrel's androgynous beauty and fine-boned features that suggested that maybe more than human blood flowed in his veins. He moved with the feline grace of jaguar or panther. For his performance he was clothed in a silk sarong wrapped low on his narrow hips, displaying his torso to advantage. As lovely as they all were, the four youths in that common room were distinctly different in looks. Each was the epitome of his type. The elf-boy Dahl was the raven maned filly of the bunch and preternaturally lovely. The human twins were a pair of palomino colts with rangy builds. Boisterous and rambunctious they exuded good health and sex appeal. As for the newcomer, with the sleek and smooth physique of a dancer and an impossibly cute face, the minstrel was the playful kitten of the bunch and the only left hander. You just wanted to reach out to pet and stroke that small lithe body and maybe undo that tuck at the side and slide that sarong off those narrow hips. The minstrel bowed to his audience and strummed a few preliminary chords on his mandolin then introduced himself as Aodh of Llangollen [Aodh is pronounced "ay" like the two vowels in "vein"]. He promised something for everyone: ballads, love lyrics, and bawdy drinking songs. He then paused and inclined his head to the four travelers, nodding respectfully to the giant, then flashed a smile and a lascivious wink to the twins and the elf-boy, who all grinned back cheerily. Who knew where this evening might lead! "That is so unfair!" complained a rough voice from the back of the room. "All four of them walking wet dreams, but they have eyes only for each other!" The crowd rumbled its assent. Another voice called out. "Only too true, but I'd be happy just to watch them get it on together. How about it you three. You're not shy are you? I mean how could you be prancing around in the rude nude like that. As for the musician, he is half naked already." "So, let's make him entirely naked,like the other kids" someone suggested. An instant later, rough hands reached toward Aodh and yanked the sarong off his hips and whisked it away. The garment disappeared into the crowd to general appropriation and thunderous applause. The innkeeper banged the tapper once again and called the raucous crowd to order. "For the benefit of the newcomers among us, know that ours is a respectable inn and drinking establishment. We provide food, drink, and lodging at reasonable prices and that is all. If you want a girl or a boy for your bed or to watch a show then visit a brothel. A list is posted by the door. And another thing, whoever snatched the boy's wrap had better restore it after his performance." He warned. Caught by surprise and already stripped bare ass, Aodh could only shake his head, recognizing the futility of demanding his sarong back from the rambunctious audience. He would just have to charm his clothes back with his musical performance. He felt terribly naughty, standing there starkers more like a houri boy on stage in a house of joy than an honest minstrel singing for his supper. Naked as he was, how many in the audience would really be listening to his music rather than ogling his buns and the deep cleavage between them, fantasizing about making love to him. No one knew better than he how distracting his comely face and supremely sexy body could be. For all that, Aodh realized that his sex appeal was a very real part of his act. He knew that many in his exclusively male audience fancied him for a shag. Sexual titillation was one of the emotions he manipulated with his songs and music and dance steps. Which was why he pranced around showing off so much of his sexy body. The close fitting sheath of the sarong did more to accent his lines than to conceal. And the simple tuck at the side was an invitation for some bold onlooker to strip the sarong off his hips with a simple tug and render him naked, as had just happened. Aodh was not the least bit body shy, nor was this the first time he found himself constrained to perform naked thanks to an overenthusiastic clientele. Anyway shape shifter that he was Aodh had no regard for nudity taboos of any sort, no more than the lovely elf-boy across the room. He had wondered about the twins, but then had spotted the tattoos that marked them as elf-friends. Obviously the blonds had been seduced into the lifestyle of their elven friends and had given up clothing for the duration. More power to them. The last thing pretty boys like them needed was clothing. Aodh launched into his program with a pair of short lyrics about young love, followed by several popular ballads, exciting tales of chivalry and derring-do. Later he lead the crowd in bawdy drinking songs, playing instrumental accompaniment when they rang in with the chorus. In short, a good time was had by all. After a final song, still without his sarong which were now in safekeeping with the innkeeper, he joined the sexy travelers at their table, seating himself on a stool at the corner between the twins. Karel and Jemsen smiled and laid their arms companionably across his shoulders and made much of him, complimenting him on how well he projected his light tenor voice to all corners of the big common room. They also had kinds words about the minstrel's skill with the mandolin. All the while, with Aodh so close to hand, the twins boldly felt him up, petting and caressing his silken skin. "You don't mind our roaming hands, do you Aodh." Karel asked as he stroked the minstrel's chest and abs and toyed with his nipples till they erected. His other hand traced the spinal bumps of the minstrel's back. "My brother has the truth of it," Jemsen added. "Please forgive us if we seem overly forward, brazenly petting you like this, but the truth is we cannot resist temptation, not with you sitting here between us, so very near, so very sexy, and so very naked." As answer, the lovely minstrel boy spread his legs to give them better access to his body, holding still even when exploring hands brushed his manly parts. Heat rushed to his belly. As his member grew longer and thicker and the glans emerged from its hood. Karel used his thumb to spread the dew that seeped from the slit over the knob. Dahl was chagrined that, sitting across the table as he was, the minstrel was out of reach. If not for the crowd, he might have slipped under the table and settled himself between the minstrel's legs to pleasure him. Instead he had to watch as, pleased by the twins' attentions, the minstrel's had erected fully. "No I don't mind what you are doing at all." Aodh said. "In fact I rather like it, as you can plainly see from my physical reaction, but the professional entertainer in me tells me never to perform in public for free. So let's take this upstairs, shall we?" "As semi-professional rent boys, the three of us could hardly disagree." Dahl quipped mischievously while Balan nodded his agreement. They adjourned and went to their rooms upstairs, the twins joining the young minstrel in his bed. After a fun-filled session with the minstrel, the twins left and the elf-boy took their place. Balan slept alone that night, content to let the youngsters have their fun. This was their time for the expression of unbridled teenage lust, sexy kids sparking off other cute guys their own age, romping, stomping, and rocking, their surging hormones rising to an explosion of eroticism and spunk. Not that Balan was immune to the minstrel's charms. The boy was devastatingly attractive even to a centuries old giant, an adventurer and lover of boys who had seen it all. What a trim and sexy body and such an exotic face this boy had, like a cat or in his case a kitten. In the morning, Balan let everyone sleep late since they were staying over for a couple of days at the inn. At mid-morning they all got together for a late breakfast with Dahl, the blond youths and even the minstrel, showing up naked. "You too?" Balan asked, eying the minstrel's nudity. What happened to your sarong?" The young minstrel shrugged and answered: "That is just a costume I wear when performing. My people are not body shy, so public nudity is quite usual for males though our women habitually do wear a sarong." A meal together was a good time to get to know each other. The twins sounded Aodh out about his background. The minstrel explained that he hailed from a secluded valley far to the east, beyond nearly impassable mountains and jungles. His was a comely people small in stature, all dark haired and sharing his fair complexion and almond eyes. An unwarlike people, they were relied for protection on their isolation and on their animal guardians. "Guardians?" Dahl asked. Merry chimed in, mind-speaking to all at once. "And who is that speaking mind to mind?" Aodh asked surprised. Whereupon Merry stuck his head thru a window opening by way of introducing himself. The minstrel nodded to acknowledge him and said: "I hope you won't let anyone else know about me and my magical nature. To outsiders we always speak of animal guardians instead of announcing that we are actually wirs. Also I prefer to keep my ability to change forms unpleasant surprise to potential enemies. Then there is the sad truth that some folks are actively hostile to wirs." The minstrel pronounced the first letter with the sound of a 'v' rather than a 'w'. "So why do you pronounce 'wir' like that instead of how we do, how everyone else does?" "Why shouldn't we? Our country has the greatest concentration of wirs in the world. Why should we let outlanders tell us what we should call ourselves?" "You know, I've always wondered", Balan began ruminatively, are wirs essentially humans who can take the shapes of animals or vice versa. "Most definitely the former." Aodh responded. "We have only legends of course, but the story goes that wizards and warlocks created us wirs by magic ages ago. Since then, we reproduce naturally, but our women always conceived and give birth in human form. That is how we know for sure that we are human first." "Make sense" Balan acknowledged. "You know, in the sunlight streaming in that window the pupils of your eyes have contracted to slits. From that and your looks and physique I'd guess that you would be a wir-cat. "A wir-panther, to be exact. I favor a black coat though many wirs prefer spots." "And you are the guardians of your people. No offense, but wouldn't wir-jaguars make better guardians?" Yes, and some few of us can transform into a jaguar, but I am far too small for that. A wir can morph only into something of the same weight or mass. That said, as a panther I am faster, more agile, and more stealthy than brother jaguar. I can take to the trees and go a good ways leaving no spoor, unlike my heavier brethren who mostly keep to the ground." [Haven jaguars were a felid species native to the planet Haven. The spots and rosettes on their tawny coats lead to their being named after the powerful feline from humanity's original planet, but the so-called jaguars on Haven were nearly the size of Terran lions.] "And remember, we keep our human intelligence in both forms, which makes us doubly dangerous." "So tell me this. If I had to escape from a real jaguar or panther shouldn't I jump into a lake or river and swim for it. I know cats don't like the water. Wouldn't that work with a wir as well?" Jemsen ventured "Your stratagem would be totally useless in either situation, my friend." Aodh replied shaking his head. "It is true enough that house cats hate getting wet but not true of the big cats like the jaguar or panther. They, I really should say we, love the water. Big cats go swimming not only cool off but to romp and to play. Jaguars and panthers also hunt and fish in the rivers and lakes." "Hunt, how?" Jemsen asked, appalled at the uselessness of his proposed tactic. With a smile at the blond's ignorance, the young wir-cat answered. "Sometimes big game like antelope or deer jump into the water to get away. Now antelope can swim after a fashion but their legs are skinny things, so they cannot propel themselves very fast. A jaguar's big paws make good paddles. So when their prey tries to swim to safety, brother jaguar just splashes in after them, catches up and climbs onto their backs, then goes for their spine or throat or even a skull bite. With big fish, the cat simply smacks it to stun it or even bats it right out of the water." "Well, that is gruesome enough but I guess it is nothing worse than what we do as hunters," Jemsen allowed. "We kill at need. Like animals, we never kill for sport." "Thanks for the charitable thought, but cats of all sizes habitually do kill for the thrill of killing. Surely you have watched housecoats play with their prey. Any cat may slay wantonly on occasion, even the most placid house cat. No, my naive friend, felines definitely have a cruel streak." "And wir-cats?" "Only in our feline forms. In either shape we retain our human intelligence and personality, but we do have to work at controlling our instinctual behavior as felines. Sometimes the best thing to do is to give free rein to our hunting instincts. It makes for a healthier partnership with our feline form. So stay clear of black panthers on the prowl at night when we are at our most nightmarish." The twinks shuddered at this frank admission. Balan had picked up on hints from the minstrel that he was looking for company and might like to join them on their journey. "Aside from the obvious sex appeal of the three twinks, why would you want to travel with us?" Balan asked shrewdly. "For one thing, I am tired of traveling alone. I weary of a solitary existence without any real friends. And then last last night, we all hit it off so well, it got me thinking. I really like the kids, and I respect you too Balandur. This morning I realized that the best way for me to carry out my own mission would be to tag along on yours and see what develops. And don't bother to deny you are on a secret mission. That much is obvious." "Are we really that transparent, Aodh?" "Please! When an elf-boy, two human youths, a giant, and a unicorn travel together thick as thieves, what else could they be up to? I mean, that is the roster for a band of heroes off on a quest in many a ballad I've sung. All you need to round out your company is a dwarf or maybe a thief. "Or maybe a minstrel. Suppose we tell you what we are doing. Can you keep our secret?" Balan asked. "Yes, and you can count on me to keep it, regardless of whether we go on together from here." Merry said, vouching for the young wir-cat. In a few sentences, the giant revealed their mission and ultimate destination. "All right. Your turn, minstrel." "I am on a long range scout for my people. Our spirit walkers sensed the growth of a dark power, doubtless the same one you seek to counter. A half dozen of us set out in as many directions to learn what that threat might be. I wound up here." "Sounds like we are all working towards a common goal. You are welcome to travel with us as an ally." Balan concluded, extending his hand." And that was how Aodh, the minstrel, became a member of their company of adventurers. Chapter 7. Across the Plains One evening as he sat around their campfire, Karel jotted down an account of the largely uneventful day in the journal he was keeping "for posterity" as he put it. Shaking his head, he grumbled for the umpteenth time: "I still don't understand how a name like a "Eh" can be spelled A-O-D-H. That is so wrong; it offends my sense of order, every time I write it down." Aodh ignored the blond twink's by-now familiar complaint. Was it his fault that the orthography of his native tongue was not phonetic? At least the young human had stopped trying to correct the young wir's use of the 'v' sound in naming his own people, the wirs. Besides, Aodh was enjoying himself just then, snuggled in Balan's lap, left side against his broad chest, as the giant stroked and petted him, running his big hands along the chevron of the boy's ribs, fingering the sharp hip bones, sliding down the smooth skin of his thighs then back up to fondle his buttocks. The cat in Aodh loved the attention and the petting. His supple body was meant to be touched and stroked. Even in human form, Aodh could purr softly when contented, as after sex or a good meal. It was one of his most endearing characteristics. In panther form, he would curl up next to the campfire, the very picture of a kitty cat at a hearth, as he listened to the conversation. Aodh and Balan were something more than casual lovers. The giant had grown attached to his new boyfriend. The wir youth was just right for him: short and slight of stature -- even petite, a physique some might call skinny but which Balan preferred to call fine-boned, svelte and sleek. With his delicate features Aodh was cute as a button, soft and cuddly but wild and wanton and loud when aroused. Like any young feline, the wir-boy was frisky, playful, and delightfully naughty. Just now he was content to suck on the finger the giant had slid between his lips, working it as if it were a teat or a cock, a promise of things to come. Balan toyed with the boy's ball sac, rolling the small spheres between his fingers squeezing suddenly as he made his point: "I've been meaning to ask you, little one. Your face and skin are even smoother than the elf-boy's, and you are even shorter than the elf-boy. There is no sign you will ever sprout a beard or body hair. Is something wrong. Aren't these spheres working properly?" Aodh winced slightly more from the question than the minor pain. Patiently he explained that his people were naturally smooth skin and that as a wir he had long since suppressed the growth of all hair in his human form except where he wanted it: on top of his head, eyebrows, and eyelashes. That was it. "And before you ask why I always smell sweet not matter how much I perspire in this heat, the answer if much the same. Humans have two kinds of sweat glands. Most exude only perspiration to cool the body. That is the only kind I have. The other kind causes body odor by excreting oils that turn rancid in a day or two. Which is the last thing a predator needs when stalking prey, a distinctive odor." Aodh and Dahl were the only two boys alive who could actually take all of the giant's virile member. You would think it would be too much for a little guy like him, and so it would be if he were human. As a wir, Aodh could morph his innards, lengthening the rectum to accept even a monster cock like Balan's. He fit himself around a cock like a velvet glove, only moist and warm. With his instinctive awareness and control of his musculature, Aodh had absolute control over his sphincters. Rings of muscles ordinarily employed to push out simply reversed their action to pull a cock inward, to squeeze and massage and milk it to climax. So Balan never had to worry about thrusting too far or too hard. This boy could take it all and ask for more. That said, Balan did have to be careful with his size and weight so as not to smother the minstrel or crush him. Very often Balan lay supine and let Aodh straddle his hips and sink onto his shaft, then rise and fall, internally stroking his lover to orgasm. Or Balan would have the boy sit in his lap, facing away,feet braced on the floor to control the action. He also liked to sit the boy facing him, lifting Aodh bodily to work his cock in and out of the boy's ass. Most of all Aodh loved to get fucked on all fours. Half quadruped that he was, he readily sank to knees and elbows and wiggled his butt at the entranced giant, the very picture of a cat in heat. And if the others watched their foreplay, well Aodh wasn't the shy sort, was he? It wasn't as if the others weren't all intimately acquainted with his body, with the exception of the unicorn, who was too much the equine to tolerate the touch of a cat. Aodh was willing enough to take his place in the rent boy rotation, but had insisted on a new deal. From now on all of them would take coin as well as room and board in recompense. As a result, the common purse Balan carried for them was bulging. Balan did set aside Aodh's earnings as a minstrel. In solidarity with the other youths in the group he now always performed in the rude nude, having retired his only garment, the sarong. "So what happens when we run into these nomads you spoke of, Merry?" Karel asked. "Very funny, Merry, but seriously." "They weren't always so accommodating. In ages past they lived by raiding as much as by their herds and flocks." "Hmmn, "Balan began. "Nomads are not vegetarians. Their diet is big on meat and dairy. Would that be a problem for you Dahl? You are pretty much a vegetarian." "Not entirely. I eat fish and eggs and cheese too. Besides, if worst comes to worst I can always boil up some of Merry's oats." "Seriously Balan, I like cheese and even that koumiss of theirs." "What's koumiss?" inquired Aodh. "Fermented mare's milk." "Ugh!" "And here I thought all kitty cats just loved milk!" Aodh gave Dahl a supercilious look by way of reply. "Would they sell us mounts or a pack animal?" Jemsen wondered. Now that we are off the trade road, we cannot put up for the night at inns or buy meals at taverns. So we will have to load up on supplies and equipment." Balan answered him indirectly. "All we need is a single pack animal to carry our supplies. No mounts though. We should all stay on foot. I am too big for a horse, Merry already has four legs, and Aodh can always switch to all fours, if need be." "Leaving the rest of us dragging behind, eating everyone's dust!" Karel complained. "Think of it as strolling down the trail we will have broken for you. Besides, none of you kids has any experience mounted. Your longbows and staves are of no use from horseback. And look how our march along the trade road has toughened you, doubling your stamina, which you need to keep up. Also a group on foot can take cover more easily and leaves much less of a trail." "I have to stay on foot, regardless." Aodh added. "Horses can't abide a wir. Even when I travel with a caravan I toss my pack into a cart and walk alongside." The country wasn't all grassy plains by any means. Scraggly trees lined the swales, brush and thorn bushes formed thickets. Patches of scrubby forest sprang up at the base of rocky outcrops to take advantage of the runoff. So there was wood for a camp fire. All the more since, on the plains, the tribes did not burn wood. They were leery of open fires, cooking the meals with solar heat on folding stoves and broilers. All the while weapons training continued under Balan's watchful tutelage. These days the kids could give a much better account of themselves, relying of speed and agility to counter the giant's unbeatable strength. They also learned simple unit tactics such as the hasty ambush, the deliberate ambush, and defense of the camp, and how to stand watch inconspicuously. One sunny afternoon they crossed the trail of one of the nomad tribes and followed it for a couple of hours. Just before the trail reached the nomad camp it led past a reedy pond where a half-dozen youths riding both bare back and bare ass were just then easing their ponies into the water up to their bellies. Sliding off their mounts, the boys scrubbed and brushed their animals, then left them to graze as the boys swam and wrestled and dunked each other, all accompanied by much laughter, loud talk, and a good deal of totally unnecessary splashing and grab ass. But then such is the way of young males. And as long as they got their chores done, the elders did not care that they made a game of it. The scene brought smiles to the faces of the travelers. The frolicking boys were completely at ease riding around buck naked, but then, that was how one bathed ponies and horses the world over, whether it was by stable boys, young cavalrymen, or apprentice teamsters. The mounts didn't wear clothes to the bath, why should the boys? Of course, for any extended riding, the boys slipped into trews to prevent chaffing. In the tropical heat, no one wore anything above the waist except for wide-brimmed straw hats. "Balan," Dahl asked, "I saw some of those boys pair off for a shag among the reeds. I take it then the nomads have no problem with same gender relationships?" "Yes and no. Youthful exploration is expected among them, but they don't encourage boys to pair off permanently. Their technology and way of living requires the labor of both males and females in a household. There is simply too much work, too many different tasks for boys alone. So most males do marry, their wives ignoring occasional outside attachments with other males." At the encampment, horse traders were happy to sell the travelers a pony to carry their packs, foodstuffs, oats for Merry, Aodh's mandolin, and even the twins' quarterstaffs so they could run unencumbered. Dahl kept his staff and the twins their bows and quivers. When they asked Aodh why he didn't carry a weapon, the wir smiled slyly, held up his left hand, and let it morph into the paw of a cat, claws fully extended. "My weapons are always to hand. I am also expert in two styles of martial arts, so I can fight effectively unarmed in human form without having to change to a panther. Also, as a lefty, I baffle most opponents with my stance and defensive moves. Don't worry, either way I can hold my own in a scrape." As for Dahl, his strength and speed had been magically doubled through his couplings with the unicorn. That would catch an opponent by surprise. And with Balan's training, his quarterstaff had become as effective a weapon as any spear, sword, knife, or axe. "Oh, oh", Jemsen said one afternoon while they were on the march. "I don't like the looks of that," he added, pointing to a bird high in the sky, a raven by the look of it, circling their position. "I think our old enemy is spying on us again." "No, not this time. More likely those dark riders the nomads mentioned." It seemed a troop of mounted soldiers had been seen crisscrossing the grasslands. Forty strong and well-armed and protected by boiled leather armor, they kept to themselves, going about their business, neither molesting the nomads nor seeking anything from them but also arrogantly refusing to pay for passage across tribal lands. The nomads avoided a confrontation giving the mysterious riders a wide berth. No tribe dared charge them for passage. The only good news was that the centaurs were also nowhere around, the climate being too hot for their bodies and alien metabolism. By the next morning it was clear that the raven had vectored the riders towards the travelers. The riders themselves had done their best to remain inconspicuous while drawing closer to their prey, but Dahl's preternaturally keen eyesight spotted their formation as it crested a ridge line a league to the west. That was fairly close for cavalry in pursuit of foes on foot. Things looked bad. Dahl and his friends had no hope of getting away. Better to find defensible ground and ambush the riders, bleeding them enough to discourage pursuit. They forged ahead looking for a place to make a stand. Balan finally picked a place for their ambush, half a league so beyond a place that looked even better. "Why didn't we set up back where the track ran through those big rocks? It looked like it was perfect for an ambush." Dahl asked. "Yes, that was the problem. It was too perfect. That sprawl of boulders had ambush written all over it. Our enemy would have approached with caution, sending flankers or kept a reaction force back from the main body. As it is, in their arrogance, they will see no threat here. They will advance in a single body, no scouts forward nor flankers to the side. So this is where we will face them. They should arrive just before sunset." Balan had chosen ground where the track wound through a patch of thorn forest. The trees were spaced enough apart to allay suspicion, but they would still restrict the mobility of cavalry. The twins were stationed beyond the trees, on either side of the track. At the right moment they would rise from concealment in the tall grass and loose their arrows at the front riders or better their mounts, bringing them down. With any luck, those cantering behind would crash into the downed horses and riders, creating a chaos of broken limbs, screams, and dead or dying horses and riders. That would bring the entire troop to a halt in a confused muddle, depriving the riders of the shock effect that a cavalry charge derives from its forward momentum. With the rest of the riders milling around, unsure of what was going on, Balan and Dahl would wade in for close combat, going for their commander, with the twins moving up with their staves in support. Merry would watch the backs of the others, using mind speech to shout warnings and to coordinate the various attacks, and would act as a reserve force ready to intervene as required. Meanwhile Aodh in his panther form would attack their baggage train, slashing water bags open, clawing the bellies of their pack animals, roaring and screeching, scattering them in panic. The big cat would then join the others in the melee, stalking soldiers in the dark. Mindful of their weapons and armor, he would pounce from concealment, slashing their eyes to blind them or clawing at their groins. A cruel way to fight, yes, even a vicious one. But as the wir-boy had said, felines have a cruel streak in them. And it was a good way to take the heart out of a foe. The ambush went even better than expected. The twins were magnificent, blond godlings standing shoulder to shoulder, blocking the way, shooting arrow after arrow into the bunched-up riders. Exhausting their quivers, the twins abandoned archery and advanced with their staves while Balan and Dahl waded in from one side. A sweep from the giant's sword took the head of the captain of the riders. Dahl downed their sergeant, first unhorsing him with his staff then scrambling the soldier's brains with a nasty whack to the head. Balan raised his war cry and laid about enthusiastically, cutting off arms and legs with gusto. Dahl saved his breath and energy, relying on his nimbleness to keep from being trampled even as he unseated riders and made horses rear up and dump their riders. At the first alarm, three of the riders, had called light. Three balls of blue-white light sprang into existence, ten feet above each of their heads. Now one light or even two would have been useful. Three was really too many, creating confusion as multiple shadows ghosted across the battleground, shifting position with every movement of their riders. Though it was one of their magical gifts, neither Balan nor Merry called light during the attack. No point giving the enemy a better look at him or at his allies fighting in the shadows. At one point the unicorn single-handedly headed off a breakout by three riders, rearing up and neighing, intimidating their horses to a stiff-legged halt. A few moments later, he made his only personal kills of the night, driving his horn into the back of a big soldier who had knocked the elf-boy onto his butt then kicking out at another soldier on foot. All told a dozen riders were killed or left dying plus several others severely wounded. The good guys did not get through unscathed. In areas not protected by his leather armor Balan added new scars to his collection. The twins and Dahl had scratches aplenty from thorns. Jemsen sported a nasty bruise on his left leg where a horse had kicked him, and Dahl had his scalp laid open by a blade while mixing it up too close with one of the soldiers. That wound required stitches courtesy of Balan and a follow-up visit to a healer with the next tribe. Aodh's wounds would have been serious for any of the others: a sword slash parted tendons in his left leg and a solid kick from a pain-maddened pack horse broke two ribs, but his innate magic came to his rescue. After consuming the haunch of a dead horse for its nutrients and energy, he healed when he magically transformed from panther to human. The bleeding stopped, his wounds closed up, and the torn flesh knit. For those reasons, Aodh was the last to reach the rally point, his belly suspiciously full, raising eyebrows. "Just horse meat," he volunteered to head off lurid speculation. "I don't eat anything with two legs that doesn't have feathers." With a mischievous smile he added: "So don't any of you take me literally if in pillow talk I say that I find you delectable!" As for the enemy. After the attack, confused, angry and frightened, their supply train run off, the dark riders were in no position to keep the heroes from escaping into the night. With nearly half their number out of action, the soldiers were suddenly vulnerable to the tribes. They had no choice but to withdraw from the grasslands. Word of the ambush spread. The grateful tribes now provided the travelers hospitality without the customary toll, glad to see the back of the dark riders of ill-fame. Karel had plenty to write about in his journal the next day. He gave due credit to the grown ups, Balan and Merry, but did not hide how very proud he was of the part played by the younger set. The twinks had come a long way since that first fight with the Trackers. As hunters, the twins were no stranger to bloodshed, though these were their first human kills. With his predatory heritage, Aodh had no trouble with his conscience. Indeed he would not have been chosen and sent out on his scout if he had not already demonstrated his willingness to take life at need. That left Dahl, a boy with a gentle soul and practically a vegetarian. What troubled Dahl was not that he had killed but that they had forced him to do it. For that he blamed the evil forces that had sent its agents against him and his friends. A few evenings later found Karel updating his journal again, this time scribbling about nothing more consequential that their unfortunate encounter with a swath of sword grass that blocked their advance. They had tried to push through, but had retreated rapidly, blood oozing from dozens of shallow cuts on chest, limbs, and even their manly parts. It was not just the shape of its blades that gave sword grass its name. The blades were sharp enough to cut human skin, their edges keen from embedded grains of sand the plants took up to discourage herbivores. Elven herb lore soon provided a salve to soothe their hurts. The next day's journal recorded a scary event. It seems the twins doubted Dahl's weather prognostication after breakfast when he had predicted rain would fall at long last on the parched plains. At mid-afternoon without a cloud in sight ahead of them, Karel turned to Dahl and said with a smirk: "So much for your vaunted elven weather sense, Dahl. Didn't you tell us that a big storm was headed our way. Well just look at that: Blue Sky!" The words were no sooner out of his mouth then: KABOOM! A terrific peal of thunder sounded from above. They all turned and looked up at the sky, horrified to see that a rain front had rolled in from the west behind them. From one horizon to another the sky was a roiling mass of black clouds punctuated with flashes of lightning. Its powerful gust front nearly knocked them off their feet. A second thunder clap was the signal for a deluge. Rain came down in sheets; in an instant they were drenched to the skin. Not much of an inconvenience really since they were buck naked anyway, but this rain was cold. Lightning bolts struck all around. They knew better than to lie down flat. Instead they crouched, keeping as low as possible while minimizing contact with the earth. Arms pressed tight, teeth chattering, shivering from fear and the cold rain, they flinched at each bolt and clap of thunder. To add to their misery, hail the size of pigeon's eggs fell on them, stinging and bruising their unprotected hides. It was Balan and Merry to the rescue. Balan threw his cloak over the twins and covered the minstrel with his buckler. Merry sheltered the minstrel with his own massive body. The two leaders steadied the boys with their calm demeanor and reassuring words. As quick as it started, the storm was over. The sun came from behind the clouds and warmed the relieved travelers. Karel spoke for them all: "Thanks, Balan and Merry. You were our saviors. Sorry friends. This was all my fault. Me and my big mouth!" He was relieved when Dahl hugged him; then both boys joined the others in nervous laughter. The next afternoon, as the company strode along, Dahl sidled up to Aodh and said. "I have been meaning to ask. Why are you so pale instead of sporting an overall tan like the rest of us naked twinks?" "I cannot really say. It's just the way we are, my people I mean, not just the wirs among us. We neither tan nor sunburn. That said, I am partial to golden boys like you and our blond friends," punctuating his remarks with a gentle kiss. "And this evening, I will show you all just how partial I am." Chapter 8. Grayling Once past the grasslands the travelers traversed a forested plateau then through a range of mountains that ended at a steep escarpment at the foot of which flowed a large river. Tributaries and dramatic waterfalls ran from the escarpment to augment its flow. A good sized town occupied the triangle of land where one of the small rivers joined the greater one. It was there in the town of Grayling, that the travelers would take passage on a riverboat heading south with the current. Until it cast off in a few days' time, they took rooms at an inn, rewarding themselves for their progress so far with several days of leisure. Balan sold their pack animal and got a good price for it. Grayling was the first town on the river below a series of rapids and cataracts that marked the head of navigation. It was at once a river port, an industrial town, a district capital, and the provider of services to the rural area around it. Much of the town was given over to residential streets of sturdy stone-built town houses and brick tenements four stories high. Shade trees lined the streets, and flowers in window boxes and planters were ubiquitous. Every so often the network of residential streets was interrupted by tracts set aside for amenities like parks, public gardens, schools, temples to the various pantheons, palestra, and athletic fields. Often situated nearby were the red brick dormitories where the town's youth dwelt. Most of Grayling's inhabitants were humans with complexions ranging from peaches-and-cream to light olive. Besides the human majority, the town had populations of elves, dwarves, and even a few giants. The dwarves has their own district, with dwellings sized to match, but the other races lived intermingled. Trolls, orcs, and goblins were not welcome, to say the least. The nearby forests sheltered small colonies of sprites, and sylphs who shunned crowds. It was the custom that, at puberty, boys exchanged the bosom of their families for communal life in youth lodges. There they lived, played, trained, and studied together until they came of an age to go courting or otherwise left the lodge, some to enlist in the professional military, others to sign onto a riverboat, or to join the city patrol or fire brigade, etc. Other boys apprenticed out to master tradesmen and craftsmen and went to live under their master's roof. While they were at the lodges, the boys got a sound practical eduction. The course of instruction emphasized useful subjects: reading, writing, and figuring but the curriculum also surveyed history, geography, the basics of technology and natural philosophy. The boys also spent much time on athletics, the martial arts, and basic training with weapons. It was a bit like military school but without ranks, regimentation, or uniforms. Especially without uniforms nor much other clothing for that matter. These people had no taboos against male nudity. Boys living at home and all the younger boys in the lodges usually ran around entirely naked. Those fifteen and older often wore a thong or a drawstring pouch cinched around the genitals. Made of silk and just capacious enough to contain their manly parts, the exiguous garments were more a sign that a youth had reached the age of consent than a gesture to modesty. Boys readily discarded thong or pouch during energetic games, athletic training, competition and swimming. A good many boys hardly ever bothered with either thong or pouch, and some never did. Now given their physical and social segregation from females and close contact with perpetually nude young males, it was only to be expected that juveniles would turn to each other for sexual relief. Same sex relations were almost universal among them, a preference a good many of them carried over into later life. Older males -- including many married men -- would visit boys at brothels staffed by youths who had quit the lodges early to seek their fortune. Many a small business got started with seed capital saved during the owner's days as a rent boy. More than a few couples left the lodges to set up households together. Adult males wore a variety of dress, progressing in coverage as they got older, from a modest loincloth to a linen kilt to sleeveless tunics or trews. All in all, their dress, or often lack thereof, was a reasonable adaptation to the tropical heat, the humidity, and perpetual perspiration. They were a handsome people, with robust physiques and smooth skins; their limbs had only the lightest of dustings of body hair. By custom most plucked or shaved the sparse tufts that grew in the usual three places. Female wore loose skirts with hems just below the knee topped by short-sleeved blouses with an open neckline. Although most women were occupied with domestic duties, many found employment in shops, offices, food stalls, or as school teachers. As citizens of the Commonwealth, they enjoyed virtually the same rights as their male counterparts. Some served as auxiliaries in the military working in administration and logistics. Eating establishments were everywhere. Especially common were the take-out counters which were a necessity of town life since apartments usually had no kitchen nor any place to set up solar stoves. Fire codes forbade open flames though some use of charcoal braziers was allowed outdoors. In the town's entertainment districts were found music halls, theaters, gambling halls, tablecloth restaurants, and houses of pleasure with offerings for all genders and tastes. Behind the docks lay most of the city's workshops and factories. The more obnoxious and noisy industries like tanneries and foundries had to operate no closer than a half league away and sited downwind. A system of cisterns, drinking fountains, horse troughs, and public latrines met the needs of the populace. Sanitation was ensured by separate drainage systems for storm runoff and sewerage. The overflow from horse troughs, fountains, and other clean sources went down the storm drains directly to the rivers. Shallow alcoves on many corners held outdoor shower stalls. One yank on a chain would bring relief from the oppressive heat or remove dried sweat and encrusted salt off the skin. Patrons shuffled their feet on the roughened flooring to clean their feet. "Now this is what I call civilization." Aodh remarked. "The folk of Grayling are literate and well mannered, hard working and healthy. The town itself is pleasant and prosperous, admirably sited, and all the streets are paved. Public baths, latrines, and sewers keep the town and its inhabitants clean, free from disease, and smelling nice. And if the heat gets to you, just step under one of those outdoor showers and yank a chain." The travelers separated to explore the town, stopping for a snack now and again rather than a full meal as they walked the pleasant streets and took in the sights, such as they were in a provincial capital. The central square, really a hexagon with a formal park in the center and along the sides an imposing government hall, a columned courts building, and an arcaded market. Mansions lined the connecting streets. Circulating through the town, their naked bodies totally on display, Dahl and Aodh fit right in among so many youthful males also going about their business in the nude or very near it. True the two of them still stood out for the physical beauty and exotic looks, but no one thought anything of their lack of clothing though many did study them attentively, clearly fancying a shag with either or both of them. In the press of the crowds, quite a few found some excuse to brush by and or touch or caress their sweet bodies. Nothing to take umbrage at. Supernally lovely boys who make of point of circulating naked in a crowded city can expect no less The boys found themselves welcomed at outdoor cafes and beer gardens, their food and drink on the house. The proprietors were only too happy to use the sexy pair to draw custom from the many townsmen who wanted a chance to get close to these two exotic beauties and chat them up. Maybe even feel them up. During their peregrinations, Aodh and Dahl heard townsfolk talk of a scenic lake outside the city. The lake was really a wide spot in the watercourse where it spread out before its final run to join the Long River. On certain nights including that very evening the full moon would rise above the escarpment, its light creating a shining path across Mirror Lake, bathing everything in a silvery effulgence. Well worth seeing the boys were told. And indeed it proved to be. The lake was lovely, its placid waters practically a mirror in the still air. The boys couldn't resist the urge to slip in for a swim. After all, they were already naked. The boys savored the moment and swam quietly, floating on their backs, arms sculling lazily, enjoying not only the scene but their comradeship. How lucky they had been to meet and get to know each other, and not just physically. They shared a real friendship, despite the gulf between a vegetarian druid-to-be and a carnivorous predator. Just at that contemplative moment, a group of nude teenagers showed up intent on a swim. For these boisterous boys the twilight hour was not quiet time but fun time after a hard day's work. Cousins all, they had just finished their shift at the sawmill their uncles owned downstream a short walk away. After a quick shower to wash the sawdust out of their hair and off their bare skin, they had headed up to the lake. The nine cousins were all strapping fellows, big boned and muscular, fine-looking red-heads with peaches and cream complexions lightly sprinkled with freckles and very little body hair, like most red-heads. "Hey, what are you guys doing at our swimming spot?" One of the red-heads challenged belligerently. "Hi, fellas, nice evening, isn't it?" Dahl said placatingly, seeing how the cousins were upset by their presence. "We were admiring the moonlight on the lake and could not resist the urge to slip into the water for a swim. Sorry we didn't know this was your spot. Here, we'll get out now. There, how's that?" "Oh, so you think you can trespass and then just walk away without consequences?" With stern faces, three cousins blocked the path of the twinks while the rest surrounded the youngsters. Aodh was worried. The cat in him saw this as testosterone driven territorial behavior. He was worried that the way things were going, the two of them might find themselves on the receiving end of a good thrashing. Aodh was actually far off the mark. The leader of the cousins was mostly play acting, trying to intimidate them into accommodating their lusts. What the red-heads really wanted was to frolic with these sexy strangers. Sure the cousins had each other, but these two boys were a welcome change of pace. Both were really cute kids, one a pretty little elf-boy, the other an exotic pale skinned beauty from some far off land. The red-heads buzzed around the diminutive physiques of the attractive strangers like bees around fragrant blossoms, enthralled by their preternatural physical beauty and lissom bodies. Their faces were impossibly pretty and so darn cute, not that the cousins were slouches in the looks department themselves. How convenient the boys had just emerged from a swim in the lake, their delectable bodies totally on display. "Once we find their clothes we'll hold them for ransom, make them do as we say." the leader of the cousins jeered. "Outlanders get so uptight about public nudity, as if there were something wrong with the human body." "Don't bother looking." Dahl told them. "Elf-boys like me never wear clothes. My friend neither." "So you are an elf-boy, eh? Everyone knows how they are always ready for a tumble. What about your cutesy friend there. Ha, dripping wet like that, he looks like a drowned kitty cat!" "That is too close to the mark for safety." Dahl warned cryptically. "Whad'ya mean?" "You better hope that you never find out." Dahl answered flatly. "Man, I can't tell which one is cuter. They are both so very sexy, but I am calling first dibs on this sassy squirt." "Fine, I've had my eye on the bedraggled kitten, anyway. Here, Kitty, Kitty," he laughed, holding his fingers out to Aodh. Well that made things clear enough. These boys weren't really hostile, just horny. And Aodh admitted why shouldn't they be? False modesty aside, wasn't their collective gaze trained on two of the most comely youths they had likely ever laid eyes on. For his part, Aodh responded strongly to the burgeoning masculinity of these hunky youths, as evidenced by a sudden erection. Shrugging his shoulders Aodh remarked to no one in particular. "When rape is inevitable, you might as well relax and enjoy it." Each of the twinks found himself the center of a cluster of a four or five strapping youths, all very handsome and virile, sporting manhoods of prodigious length, long enough to make the twinks feel inadequate. They consoled themselves with the thought that maybe their cocks did not hang halfway to their knees but that was just fine when you jogged cross country as they so often did with their your dangly bits bouncing around. The red-heads pressed against Dahl and Aodh, making the twinks lick their chests and nipples. With a good grip on Dahl's mane and Aodh's shaggy cut, the red-heads forced the the pretty faces of the strangers into their armpits. Their boy scent was intoxicating, a heady mixture of sweat, salt, sawdust, and male musk. The twinks felt hands on them everywhere, exploring, caressing, squeezing, weighing, probing orifices. Bold fingers tweaked their nipples or squeezed, kneaded, and pinched their bottoms. Fingers probed their anal whorls. With all the touching and the skin-to-skin contact and the pheromones, in no time their own cocks were throbbing and oozing pre-cum. The cousins took that for informed consent, not that it was really needed The small stature and smooth hairless bodies of the visitors put them in the category of younger subservient males who were expected to submit to the bigger boys and provide them with sexual release. Surely these two youths weren't here by accident. Outsiders though they were, they likely had heard in town about the comeliness and sexual prowess of the pack of cousins at the sawmill and had deliberately delivered themselves up here, surrendering their sweet bodies to whatever use their betters might make of them. After all, hadn't they arrived without a stitch on them? "What have you got us into this time, Dahl?", the minstrel asked his young cohort. "Hey, it's not my fault, Aodh. Look, I know it was my idea to visit the lake and take a swim, but I had no idea this would happen." "Maybe not, but I remember your asking in town about all this naked or near naked boy flesh. They couldn't all be elf-friends. The townsfolk told us about their lodges for young males. Didn't you suspect that we might encounter a group of sexually frustrated youth who would pluck us like ripe fruit?" "No, Aodh, no. I mean ... well ... perhaps I sort of fantasized or even hoped ... Oh, what can I say. I am an elf-boy." "Uh, huh. Well then, get ready to shed your virgin's blood, elf-boy. Those cocks of theirs are like spears. I can just see myself, impaled at both ends at once, a giant cock in my mouth and another up my ass, their tips practically meeting in my middle. Oh my poor little butt. And it is such a nice butt too. Everyone says so." Further conversation was cut off as the tide of naked youth carried the hapless lads to separate spots for a sex orgy, or really two at once. After a very long while, the boys were exchanged with the other group so that all would have the chance to play with both of them. The cousins were delighted with their conquests. Both were utterly scrumptious. They were slender yet hard bodied though in different ways. The boy with the mane had a wiry build and a surprising muscular upper storey, a deep chest over narrow hips. The one with the shaggy cut hair was sleek and lissom and moved like a cat. The red-heads found it intensely exciting to grapple the hard bodies of the twinks. They turned and tugged and twisted the two kids into naughty positions to provide access to their orifices. The red-heads turned the twinks onto their backs and played with their erections, bending them down a ways and letting them slap back against their bellies. All the while they laughed and pointed, amused at how puny these little fellas were in that department. Indeed the young cousins jostled and pushed in their eagerness to embrace the twinks. It was so exciting to grapple their sexy bodies tugging, pulling, twisting, their small bodies squirming and straining their skin all slick with sweat. What a marvelous contrast between their own strapping physiques and the compact bodies of these super cute kids. Neither was a virgin or shy. Their knew what they were doing all right clamping their pouty lips around thick cousin cock, tongues twirling, laving, lapping at the shafts inserted into their mouths and thrust down their throats. And their asses just begged to be fondled and squeezed or spanked and fucked. Their cheeks were so firm and shapely, muscular globes separated by a deep crevasse with a tiny whorl that gave access to their innermost depths. The cousins had never had encountered boys so talented in anal sex, with well-trained asses that knew how to squeeze massage and milk cock. The twinks might not have come looking for perverse sexual adventure, but they surely had found it. Come morning they reported their erotic experiences in much the same terms to their companions. Dahl's confession went like this: "Well there I was in their midst, entirely naked, as all the young men were too, pressing against me. Their hands were roaming all over me, touching and petting and stroking my body. I was embraced and kissed. There were boys licking the salt and sweat off my skin. With all that stimulation, I sprang wood, which they took as consent for what they wanted to do with me. They carried me to a bed of grass and held me waist high, my arms and legs splayed and held tight. One boy stood at my ass and thrust inside while another clubbed my face with his heavy rod before putting it to my lips to suck. So I did. What other choice did I have?" "It's not my fault that my body responded, nor any of my doing that I got aroused. Blame hormones or Mother Nature. Yes I was soon bucking and humping my ass at one end, sucking and slurping at the other, just doing what comes instinctually to any same gendered boy who finds himself in a gang bang. My involuntary reactions set off a frenzy among those sexually frustrated guys. I found myself being passed from cock to cock to cock, my body lifted and turned and twisted into every imaginable position to give them access to my orifices. It all happened in a blur in an atmosphere supercharged with sex. I cannot recall particulars after that." Aodh's tale was much the same, though he did add: "Before they took me aside, one of them led me around by my stiff prick, letting everyone get a good look at me, giving them a chance to run their hands over me and into my cleavage before bending me over a fallen log to be fucked at both ends at the same time. I lost count of how many times the boys took their pleasure of me. It must have been dozens, as many came back for seconds or even thirds. And I have the finger marks on my ass to prove it." "What! Maim or even kill decent hard working kids who meant us no real harm?. I don't think so! All they really wanted was to get it on with us. And they were pretty good at it too. That is why I kept my claws sheathed." Merry sighed. He was damn sure his young allies had not put up much resistance, not those two. Sexually submissive as they were, the scene they had just gone through must have turned them on unbearably. Merry shook his head much to the amusement of his old friend the giant. Meanwhile it was the turn of the twins to question Dahl and Aodh. Jemsen asked: "So where exactly is this sawmill of theirs? And when do those guys knock off work?" To which Karel added eagerly: "And do you think they'd like blonds?" That left the two grownups stunned. The twins saw the look on their faces. "What? We are of age. Dahl and Aodh had their fun with these guys last night. Why shouldn't we do the same tonight?" Karel asserted airily. "Look for us to be back before the cock crows." Merry rolled his eyes heavenward in a fruitless appeal to the gods for strength. Balan gave him a sympathetic look, shrugged, then broke them both up with a single word: "Teenagers!" They both lost it then, laughing till their sides hurt. Now it was the turn of the youngsters to shake their heads, mystified at the antics of their elders. One day the twins would realize how hard it was for teens to control their impulses, how prone they were to recklessness. Not a moral failing; they were still growing up. It wasn't just their bodies but also their brains that were not yet fully formed. Chapter 9. On the River It turned out that the cousins from the sawmill did fancy blonds, rather a lot in fact, as evidenced by the hickeys, love-bite marks, and bruises they left on the twins' hides. Come morning, these young worthies lost no time in recounting their exploits and comparing their "battle scars" with Dahl and Aodh. The next day Balan flourished two huge knives in his hands them held them out hilt first to the twins. "Forget those skinning knives you have been carrying boys. You need a real blade for hand-to-hand fighting, and this is it. It is called a kukri." "Well it is certainly big enough, Balan, it's as long as my forearm and hand put together, but why is the blade bent?." Balan explained that, because the blade bends towards the opponent, the wielder does not need to angle his wrist to stab which makes for a stabbing weapon that delivers more power than a straight blade. The heavy blade can inflict deep wounds cutting through muscle and bone. And it is long enough that it is practically a short sword. It came with a wooden scabbard wrapped in leather and leather straps, so it could be worn at the hip, behind the back, or under the arm. The twins kept theirs strapped to their packs. Around mid-morning the entire party boarded their riverboat. Balan had reserved two cabins and a stall for Merry with full board. For the time being they could all kick back, put their feet up, and relax. They would travel in style, effortlessly, and with no need for the rent boys to earn money on their backs. "So why have the crew put up sails only at the front of this ship?" Karel asked Balan. Actually this craft is more properly called a riverboat. Also, the front end is the bow and the back is called the stern, directions also known as forward and aft, respectively." "I guess I have a lot to learn about boats, Balan. Now, I'm just guessing, but I'll bet it isn't left and right either." "Correct. Port and starboard." he said pointing. He then shifted into full professorial mode filling them in on what he thought they should know about their new environment. "Boys, we are sailing on one of the greatest rivers on our planet, known simply as the Long River. It is the main artery of civilization in these parts, a watery highway for passengers, freight, information, and naval vessels and troop transports. The river keeps to a deep well-defined channel so the craft that sail her are round bottomed rather than the flat bottomed rafts you see on so many shallow rivers. Now the vessel we are sailing on, the good ship Isabel, draws about seven feet. She is one hundred paces long and her beam is nearly one sixth of that, dimensions typical for a merchant tub on the upper river." Now the Long River flows generally south, which is where we need to go. Riverboats heading that way mostly float with the current. That provides locomotion, but you still have to steer her, which you do with the rudder. But for that, water must be moving past the rudder, which it wouldn't if the Isabel just floated along with the current like a log. Boats on rivers always need to move through the flowing water, even when moving downstream. So the crew puts up sail to propel the ship through the water just fast enough that she will answer her helm, when she is said to have steerage way." "One more thing. This river makes it easy to navigate in both directions. You let the current take you south, downstream. To head north or upstream, you set full sail and let the prevailing winds from the southwest blow you back." "Enough sailor lore for one day. Anyone know what they are serving for lunch?" As they put the leagues behind them, the high escarpment bore away from the river to the southwest. The path of the river took it through a stretch of chalk and limestone downs with patches of forest in the hollows. By evening even the twinks could hardly stay awake. Their exertions with the sawmill boys had tuckered them out more than they realized. So time for bed. They adjourned to their staterooms on the upper deck. Constructed almost entirely of bamboo, the cabins on the upper deck were little more than ventilated boxes with straw mats and futons for sleeping. One's belongings went into the single storage chest or were hung from pegs on the wall. An entire side of the cabin, the one facing the river plus the door and front window were louvered, which allowed cross ventilation that keep their accommodations pleasantly cool at night. The breeze never faltered thanks to the combination of a steady wind from the south and the forward momentum of their boat. The Isabel continued sailing all night, her way light by a gibbous moon. The larger of the planet's two satellites was above the horizon, its disk spanning over a degree of sky. Just as well everyone fell asleep quickly that first night as the sounds of lovemaking would have carried right through the flimsy walls. Out of consideration for their fellow passengers, the boys decided to keep things cool for the rest of the voyage south. During the daylight hours, the twinks had little to occupy themselves except to keep up their training on weapons or listen to Balan's impromptu lectures on history, geography, and even natural philosophy -- what moderns call science. The ship did have a library of sorts, mostly trashy bodice rippers and the like plus a few tales of love between males, which inspired their jerk off sessions at night. The group kept themselves to themselves even when blatantly cruised by both men and women. One woman in particular had set her cap for Karel. What Karel didn't know at the time was that the lady in question, a handsome woman in her late twenties, actually owned their ship, which she had named after herself. A woman with healthy appetites, Lady Isabel could not help but notice all the stunning boy flesh running around her vessel stark naked, all of them in the bloom of youth. But which one to try for first? Not the elf-boy, incredibly cute though he was. His sexual orientation would be exclusively toward males. Nor the shaggy haired minstrel with the strange eyes who moved like a cat. All too obviously a wir. Much too dangerous. If he got her with child, she didn't want his whelp clawing its way out of her womb. It would have to be one of the blond twins. Yes, the one caught in his brother's shadow. Quite likely he had never been allowed to sample female companionship. Poor kid. It was up to her to remedy that situation. She owed it to womankind. This was one good looker who wasn't getting away. She felt she was acting entirely within her rights. It was her ship, wasn't it? This boy Karel was a passenger, subject to the authority of her captain who worked for Isabel. Then there was the way the shameless boy paraded around in a state of nature -- a courtship display if she ever saw one. The local boys who served aboard the Isabel wore a modesty pouch at least while on duty. As pretty as the boy was, he must know the effect he had on anyone who appreciated youthful male beauty. She would be doing him a favor, broadening his life experience, letting him see how the other half lived. Doubtless he would thank her for this. And she would thank herself too. It wasn't often that she got to take a youth's virginity. Which is why, one fine morning she cornered Karel on the middle landing of the main stairs. Karel found himself being propositioned by this particularly persistent personage of the predatory female persuasion, one who would not take no for an answer. Now Karel expected to be casually groped now and again. This woman though was much more aggressive than the others, blocking his way, backing him into a corner, pressing her bosom to his chest and her lips to his, putting her hands to his ribs and bare flanks. He yelped when her fingers closed over his manly parts, and she insisted he follow her to her stateroom. Karel reached down to free himself, but his captor merely clamped her hand down, cracking his nuts -- a warning not to try to break her hold on him. Poor Karel had little choice but to follow the tug on his gonads. Having mastered the cowed youth and not caring who might be watching, she dragged him toward the upper deck. Nearly everyone around seemed to find Karel's plight hilarious. They laughed, joked, and taunted him, or made naughty suggestions about what his mistress should do with her captive stud. One passenger on the stairs gave Karel's rump a swat. A moment later someone else behind him gave his right buttock a pinch. Karel saw looks of satisfaction on some unfriendly faces, looks that as much as said that the little cock tease was finally getting his comeuppance. Even those whose faces showed sympathy smiled at the comically pained look on the face of the distraught youth. At that moment, Balan came by. He grasped the delicate situation instantly. To save everyone face he spoke to Karel heartily as if oblivious to what was going on: "Ah there you are my boy. I've been looking all over for you. Come along now. You don't want to be late!" He then grabbed the blond twin by the upper arm and led him away. "Thanks, Balan," the badly shaken youth stammered. "She had me in her clutches, literally. I thought she'd eat me alive!" Later on, as he spoke with the others he allowed: "I don't think I could ever do it with a woman". "Too yucky." "Me neither." Dahl and Jemsen chimed in. "I like a hard body to go with a pretty face." Dahl added. "What about you, Aodh." "Well, don't hold this against me fellas, but just before I started out, I lay with three of our females and left them with child. By now I must be a father thrice over. Mind you, I had no choice. My people would not risk the loss of my bloodline without taking steps to see it continued." "Gross! You didn't enjoy it, did you?" Karel asked, clearly apprehensive. "No, not at all. I was simply doing my duty. Not to worry, Karel, we're solid. I was made for boys, and boys were made for me." "Good answer!," Karel replied, visibly relieved. Balan and Merry turned to each other with the same thought, which the unicorn got in fractionally sooner only because mind speech is faster than words: Though physically limited to his stall at the very stern of the boat, Merry was not forgotten, chatting frequently with the others through mind speech. Dahl coupled with him every second or third night. Neither was worried about discovery, isolated as they were and surrounded by stalls holding horses, mules, and even a couple of camels. Still one of Dahl's discreet trysts led to serious confrontation the time he took a short cut from the stalls at the stern through the saloon on the main deck. The saloon was crowded with men drinking and playing cards and betting on the outcome. Some of those sitting around the tables were professional gamblers, men who made their living by the turn of a card. One such, a big fellow six and a half feet tall named Gar Horgun, was studying his cards. Though a big winner earlier, his luck has turned, the pile of chips in front of him much reduced. As he studied his cards he noticed Dahl as the boy cut across the room toward the bow. Horgun grabbed his arm and pulled him to the table. "Whoa, elf-boy. Stay for a bit and bring me luck. Barkeep, a double whiskey for the lad!" "Thank you sir, but I don't have much of a head for the stuff. If you don't mind, I am for bed." "Nothing doing. I need a change of luck, and who better to bring it to me than a magical elf-boy. Now here, little one, sit with me." he said, forcing the hapless lad onto his lap. "I trust no one around the table objects. No way a naked boy could have a hole card up his sleeve, is there?" Unfortunately the elf-boy's much abused ass lips chose that particular moment to smack and sputter wetly, discharging much of the semen the unicorn had deposited earlier up his quim. Some ran down his leg. The rest soaked into the gambler's lap and trews. He stood up, shoving the boy off him roughly. Dahl crashed into the card table, scattering chips and cards everywhere. "Eeeyuu! That's cum leaking out your asshole. Gross. You've gone and ruined my trews. Just what have you been up to, elf-boy, with so much gism up your tail?" "I don't see how that it is any business of yours, mister." "The way you made a mess in my lap makes it my business, kid. Besides that, you forced a misdeal and ruined my luck, which was about to change for the better." "Don't blame your bad luck on me. A loser like you makes his own bad luck. As for your trews. I'd have held it in long enough to get to the jakes, but no, you had to conscript me as your personal good luck charm. So that mess is your fault too. "I'll not take such sass from the likes of you, bum boy! It's high time someone taught you manners." So saying he grabbed Dahl's left arm and bent it painfully behind his back. Dahl's magically enhanced strength almost got him free but a sucker punch to the kidneys pretty much took the fight out of him. The fact is that the little elf-boy was no match for his powerfully built assailant who bent him face down onto the card table. Fingering his nether hole the gambler confirmed that it already well lubricated, not out of consideration for his victim but for himself. The bouncer tried to pull him off the boy, but Hogun's elbow smash caught him right in the face and put him down for the count. Positioning himself behind the elf-boy's rump, the big gambler smacked the buttocks till they were red or "properly warmed up" as he called it. Then Horgun bent at the knees to get his pelvis low enough to hit his target. With a mighty thrust of his hips he drove his cock all the way into the boy in a sudden total impalement. As Dahl let out a startled gasp, the big man laid his arm around the boy's chest and straightened up, lifting the boy right off his feet. Dahl's slender arms flailed ineffectually, unable to find purchase enough to lift himself off the invader. A sense of utter helplessness swept over the boy which only added to the emotional storm, a whirl of lust and pain and humiliation. Horgun paraded his victim around, his entire weight supported by the cock up his bum. The movements made the cock piston in and out of the boy's ravaged hole. Dismayed and temporarily frozen into inaction by the sheer savagery of the scene being enacted right in front of them, the patrons in the saloon watched the boy writhing wordlessly, sobbing and wailing inarticulately all the while, his legs splayed out and kicking feebly at the air as he was paraded around, a pretty boy on a spit, the very image of a brutal sexual conquest. Quite against his will Dahl's boy cock had stiffened filling out with blood, the head turning an angry purple, turned on as his body was by the anal stimulation and his public humiliation. Suddenly, without touching himself, Dahl started shooting his boy spunk high into the air and halfway across the room, to watch it to splatter wetly onto the floor. He burst into tears at the shame of it all. With her bouncer out of the fight, Lady Isobel had sent for his friends who all came boiling into the saloon to rescue their young friend from his rapist. Balan wielded a cudgel while the twins had their kukris out, their wicked blades gleaming in the lamp light. It nearly broke their hearts to see Dahl's plight. How could anyone so mistreat the gentle elf-boy they all knew and loved? The friends surged forward only to be brought up short as the gambler put the point of a fist knife to the elf-boy's throat. "Back off. One step closer, and I cut his throat. I am acting within my rights. Anyone will tell you that I am the injured party here. I was only giving this miscreant the punishment he deserves." "I'll decide who deserves punishment on the Isabel, Gar Horgun!" her owner declared. "And I do not tolerate rape aboard my vessel. Better release the boy or I'll signal the barman to put a crossbow bolt into your leg. Don't think to use the boy as a shield. No way a big strapping fella such as yourself can hide behind an itsy-bitsy kid like that." "You're all ganging up on me. No fair." "Fair?" Challenged Balan. "Is that what you call a fight between a man full-grown and a tiny elf-boy? Why not try someone more your own size." "You're on," he said, discarding his knife and holding up his fists. "And don't think I'm scared of any so-called giant. I've faced half-breeds like you before and always come out on top. Guys like you are large, slow, and clumsy. As they say, the bigger they come, the harder they fall. Or, as I like to put it, it isn't the man in the fight, but the fight in the man." "Any other famous last words before I break you in half?" Balan replied evenly. "Yeah. Quality counts for more than quantity. Bring it on." The fight didn't last long. Balan had trained and practiced against the tactics that smaller opponents used against larger ones. And though Balan was large, he was neither slow nor clumsy. He actually moved faster than anyone would credit and took his opponent by surprise. Balan soon had the gambler stretched out on the floor, bruised, bloody, moaning, and clutching a broken arm." "And quantity has a quality all its own," the giant tossed back at his foe. He looked back to find Lady Isabel tending Dahl's hurts, using towels and a cloth soaked in whiskey to cleanse his bum hole of blood and cum and shit. She reported: "He's been well stretched in back but there's no fistula or lasting damage." "I am a diplomate nurse", she added by way of explanation. "Thank you, Lady Isabel, for tending Dahl and for sending for us." Karel said, speaking for all of them. She smiled: "Your welcome, pretty one. Despite first impressions, I never meant you harm. The other day on the stairs, well I just got carried away. There you were so cute and sexy. Not to mention so close to hand and so very naked. Well, what is a girl to do but give in to temptation?" As their journey down the river continued, the travelers became good platonic friends with Lady Isabel. A class act. [Continued in Part 3] Author's Note If you have enjoyed this story and others like it, consider making a donation to the Nifty Archive. It is so easy. They take credit cards. This is my first pure fantasy tale for the Nifty Archive. It is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead. The incident with the thunderstorm is autobiographical. The inspiration for the character of Aodh was a picture in the blog Loco Luke's Luscious Lads published on December 12, 2012. Link: http://locoluke.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/why-not-this-one/brianestrade_whynot/ 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 new series 'Andrew Jackson High relates the trials and tribulations of five of its gay students. For links to these and other stories, look on the list of Prolific Authors on the Archive. Comments and feedback welcome.