Elf-Boy and Friends

Elf-Boy and Friends

Part 1 of 10

by George Gauthier

Chapter 1. Elf-boy and Unicorn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

<Ho there, elf-boy!>

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

<Indeed, that would be for the best.>

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 2. Journey of Discovery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The unicorn simply nodded with a toss of its head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 3. New Friends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"And yourself?"

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

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

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

"With what weapons?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"We?" he asked looking around.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

<Do you think they are coming for us?>

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

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

"What are these Trackers?" Dahl asked.

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

"What can we do then?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Suddenly a nervous young voice shouted down at them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Then in peace we greet you."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Their uncle tried to reason with them.

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

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

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

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

Shaking a finger at his nephews the uncle added:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 4. Joining Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"That far?" Jemsen asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Almost any race?" queried Jemsen.

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

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

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

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

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

[Continued in Part 2]

Author's Note

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

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

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

Comments and feedback welcome.