Elf-Boy's Friends 17
First in Flight
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 1. Barbecue
The light of early morning streamed through the lattice over the windows of a room shared by Drew Altair and his lover Axel Wilde. The nude bodies of the two slightly built youths were almost lost in a bed sized for a Frost Giant. Which was fine when their Frost Giant friend and lover Finn Ragnarson slept over.
Drew twisted and stretched as far as his diminutive stature allowed. Poking his bed mate, he said:
"Wake up sleepyhead. Your stomach is growling something fierce. Time to get up, shower, and go down to breakfast."
Axel rolled over, rubbed his eyes, and ran his fingers through his hair. "Is it morning already? I feel like I just dropped off."
Both youths were red-heads though of different hues. Axel's locks were the color of copper while Drew was a auburn haired beauty. Another difference is that one was a morning person and the other most definitely was not.
Axel was a slug-a-bed unlike Drew who was one of those insufferably cheerful sorts who bounded right out of bed chipper, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed and eager to face the day. Axel took a whole lot longer to get going. The first part of his morning ritual was to stand under the shower head and run the cold water to wake himself up. Only then did he mix it with solar heated hot water for a proper shower.
Axel had no sooner soaped up than Drew stepped close and pressed himself against Axel's back. The erection prodding Axel's cleavage evidenced Drew's state of arousal as he ran his hands over Axel's soap-slicked body and said:
"You don't suppose we have time to fool around a bit before breakfast, do you?"
Axel grinned and asked over his shoulder:
"Didn't you get enough last night?"
"That was then. This is now."
Just then Axel's stomach growled again, louder than before. Sighing, Drew conceded,
"I guess it is not to be. Just as with the heart, the stomach wants what the stomach wants."
"Is that a new maxim you just coined, Drew? Well here is one of my own invention: A rumbling stomach is just as much a call of nature as the other kind. Even more so, when you think about it."
"How is that?"
"Simple. Stomach rumbling is audible; the other is silent." Axel concluded, quite pleased with himself for getting the better of his professional wordsmith friend in a verbal exchange.
Drew rolled his eyes heavenward in a silent appeal to whatever gods might dwell on that plane. Meanwhile Axel returned his attention to his ablutions, which in their case meant simply a shower. Neither youth needed to shave.
Drew had no beard at all thanks to the same druidical healing magic that had enhanced his vitality, prolonged his youth, and doubled his strength, and enhanced his senses and reflexes. The magic had also permanently suppressed the growth of Drew's beard and body hair. He was smooth and glabrous everywhere, even at the fork of his legs.
Axel had achieved the same smooth look with an eleven depilatory applied every three months from chin to ankles. Anyway redheads tended to have very little body hair in the first place.
The two youths shared an suite of rooms on the third floor of a residential hotel in the capital of the the Commonwealth of the Long River. Along with their third lover the journeyman war wizard Liam, each has his own room though the boys seldom slept alone. They were spared household chores since the leases on their suites included meals in the ground floor dining room as well as housekeeping and laundry services.
Over breakfast Axel told his lover:
"I am really looking forward to the barbecue tomorrow in the garden of the Klarendes' townhouse. Give me a barbecue any day over a formal sit-down dinner. I never know what to do with those fancy table settings with two knives, three forks, and four spoons. It is so much easier to eat with just one of each plus my fingers for things like corn-on-the-cob, which is one of my favorites. "
"You have a point, Axel, but I learned about table settings at my mother's knee. She liked to entertain. The trick is to start on the outside and work your way in. The first fork is the one all the way to the left, the first knife, the one all the way to the right."
"And spoons?"
"Top to bottom."
"Thanks for the tip. I won't be so self-conscious next time." Then Drew added:
"What I like most about the count's barbecues is that his cook broils the meats just right: little pink on the inside and almost burnt on the outside, and there is always a groaning board of side dishes like soups and salads and veggies and fresh fruit. It makes makes my mouth water just thinking about it all. So much so that I'm likely to indulge myself in both food and drink, probably more than I should."
"So? Is there something wrong with indulging yourself?" Axel countered "Don't they say that a guest who merely picks at his food really insults his host? So by all means show your appreciation."
"I yield to your proverbial wisdom my friend. Anyway, as good as the food is going to be, I really look forward to the cold beer. It really hits the spot on a hot day and its taste complements a meal perfectly."
"I like a frosty mug or two myself, but these days you can get cold beer at any tavern. The proprietors have all put in ice-chillers to cool the beer as it flows to the tap."
"Yes, but they mostly serve a mediocre local brew though they often hire a Frost Giant as bartender to suggest otherwise. Klarendes serves the real thing brewed by Frost Giants in Flensborg, And thanks to the low cost of water transport, it is only half-again as expensive even coming all this distance. They send it down the River Calyx by riverboat, then by sea-going vessels to the mouth of the Long River, then by riverboat again upriver here to the capital."
"It was our friends the Frost Giants who introduced both refrigeration and cold beer to the Commonwealth, so more power to them. They have an apt proverb which says that cold beer is surely proof that the gods love us and want us to be happy."
"Can't argue with that, Drew."
The next afternoon was sunny and hot, not very surprising given the tropical climate of the region. Still there was a pleasant breeze, and an awning and shade trees offered shelter from the direct rays of the sun. The guests seated themselves in comfortable rattan chairs grouped around a circular table helping themselves to the dishes spread out on a trestle table nearby.
The fire safety laws generally prohibited cooking with an open flame in multistory dwellings in the capital, but there was no problem with charcoal grills set on a flagstone patio of a garden and well away from anything inflammable. Charcoal burns with much heat but very little flame and almost no smoke. Besides all three members of the Klarendes family were firecasters who could invoke their magical gift to stop a conflagration in its tracks by telling the fire to go out.
The food and cold beer were just as good as the young lovers had expected. The flesh of the grilled fowl was practically falling off the bone, and the spicy sausages were literally bursting with flavor. The steaks and chops were brown on the outside and pink on the inside, so just right for everyone except Aodh who, for obvious reasons, preferred his meat as rare as human dentition allowed.
The count and his immediate family were all on hand: his first born son Lord Artor and the count's younger son Eborn, a young man in his early twenties though he still looked like a teenager thanks to the strong admixture of elven blood in the family tree. The older son Artor favored his father while Eborn took after their mother.
The fourth member of the family was the count's spouse Aodh, an impossibly cute twink and shapeshifter. That afternoon Aodh stayed in human form rather than morph into a sleek black panther. In that form, his dentition was up to any masticatory challenge.
Axel's boss the war wizard Sir Willet Hanford was the last arrival showing up right after the the twins Jemsen and Karel.
For the occasion the twins were dressed in what for them passed for formal wear, color coded sarongs, as always green for Jemsen and blue for Karel to let people tell them apart. Axel wore a patterned sarong plus the soft moccasins he favored in town. Drew was in his one of his trademark sleeveless white tunics which showed off and flattered the trim taut body he was so proud of, while Sir Willet and the three Klarendes wore tunics with half sleeves and sandals. The war wizard observed to his host:
"It is too bad that our good friends Lord Dahlderon and especially Finn Ragnarson aren't here with us. Finn was the inspiration for this whole refrigeration and cold beer business of yours. These days I see your firm's delivery carts everywhere on the streets. Clever idea that -- hiring Frost Giants to deliver ice with pushcarts."
Klarendes nodded.
"It's all part of a carefully cultivated image for our operation. It is why I had our legal advocate obtain a trademark for the name of our company, Frost Giant Ice, and commissioned the distinctive silhouettes of a fully-armed frost giant on the side of our carts. We use the same pushcarts the giants use in Flensborg. They are so much more maneuverable than a horse drawn cart, and they are quiet thanks to rubber tires which make for a smooth ride over the paving stones."
"The giants are so big and strong they can push a cart on flat terrain all day long and can easily lift, carry, and insert blocks of ice from the alley straight through the wall of the kitchens of our subscribers into the back of our patented ice-boxes. And unlike with animal traction, our deliveries don't leave a smelly mess behind on the streets."
"Also our chillers have cornered the market in the taverns." Artor pointed out. "But the real money lies in subscription delivery of ice to homes and taverns which yields a steady and reliable income stream."
"The firecasters I hire like the fact that this is a part-time job. They show up, freeze the surface layer of the pond, then collect their fee and go on to other profitable endeavors. The time consuming labor is in cutting the ice into chunks and getting them into the ice-house. The workers first cut a line of blocks across the pond leading to the foot of the runway. Once those blocks are removed the crew can float all the other blocks from anywhere in the pond to the runway and so into the ice-house. Pretty smart isn't it?"
"And as the auditor of the books," Aodh" confirmed, "I can report that we are operating at a healthy profit."
"Now on a tangentially related subject, we have something quite out of the ordinary for dessert: iced-cream," Eborn told the group. "That is what those small bowls and spoons are for."
"And just what in the world is iced-cream?" Karel asked. "It sounds like another import from the homeland of the Frost Giants."
"It is, Karel. Now watch how it is made."
Two of the staff demonstrated the process while Eborn kept up a running commentary on the use of the domestic iced-cream maker. It consisted of a pair of nested metal bowls, a large outer bowl and a smaller inner bowl with a mixture of salt and ice filling the space between. A hand crank turned a paddle to churn the mixture of cream, sweeteners, and flavorings in the inner bowl.
"The salt lowers the melting point of the mixture below the freezing point of fresh water. As the ice melts it absorbs heat from the creamy mixture in the inner bowl, freezing it into what we call iced-cream. Our first flavor was vanilla, but you can also flavor it with juices, berries or chopped nuts like pecans or walnuts."
"Why can't you just flash freeze the creamy mixture with magic?" Jemsen asked. Ebron shook his head.
"No, the churning aerates the mixture so it freezes slowly but does not form ice crystals as would happen if it were quick frozen. The churning and slow freezing make the iced-cream taste smooth and creamy."
"Now all you can produce at one time is a small batch of ice-cream which has to be consumed right away. You cannot store it for later since it will melt even if placed in an ice-box. Also you have to replace the ice and salt mixture to make a new batch."
"Does iced-cream have commercial potential?" Jemsen asked.
"It sure does, though not as a confection. There is simply no way to keep the product properly frozen, not without a firecaster on hand to maintain the temperature well below that of an ice-box. However, we think people will flock to buy our domestic iced-cream makers to make their own iced-cream at home."
"We are working to perfect a design that can be churned out by the thousands in a suitably tooled manufactory. Even if we cannot obtain a patent for the device we can at least get a trademark for our machines. We are calling them Frost Giant Iced-Cream Makers. As the twins have shown with their Gemini Zinger, sometimes commercial success relies more on promotion than any genuine difference from competitive offerings."
"Father has put me in charge of the new company," Eborn said proudly. "So I'll be spending more of my time here in the capital, watching over our family's local business affairs. I've been selected since, as a Dread Hand of the Commonwealth, Artor is away so often on official business and Father and Aodh spend most to their time in Elysion managing affairs there and in Dalnot."
"Anything else on your plate?" Axel asked.
Count Klarendes answered.
"The Navy had ordered ice-lockers for its ships, but there is no profit to be made there, not in a one-time deal to fit out the sixty ships of the High Seas Fleet. Nor any continuing ice business at all since their own firecasters will make the ice. Still it is the least we can do in recognition of their great naval victory last year and the on-going naval war. We consider it our contribution to the war effort."
"It's starting to seem like the troll war is over." Sir Willet noted.
Drew shook his head and answered:
"On the broad waters of the the Great Inland Freshwater Sea that is nearly true except around the Ashokan Archipelago and the coast of Amazonia. As you know, most of the trolls have retreated up the basin of the Amazon River where they are establishing a colony beyond the reach of our High Seas Fleet. We will be going after them as soon as the Navy figures out how to get at them."
"I hope that doesn't mean that Liam and Nathan are going in harm's way again any time soon. Haven't they done their share already and more?" Axel asked, anxious for his lovers.
"I cannot tell you not to worry, Axel," Sir Willet soothed, "but they won't go alone, and I am sure they'd want to be in for the kill."
"As long as they are not the ones getting killed." Axel maintained stubbornly.
Everyone could see that there was no cajoling the boy out of his very real fears for those he cared about.
Sir Willet mentioned that he had heard army officers grumble that the Navy has garnered all the glory in the war against the trolls. The Army's only notable action had been the cavalry charge at the Battle of Flensborg. Klarendes shrugged.
"The Army has its hands full showing the flag and keeping the peace in the Far West. Not everyone there is happy with the new confederation. Some states are holding back on joining and border disputes have flared up which the Army had to slap down. And there is still the threat of the Despotate of Dzungaria, though that seems more a potential threat than an actual one these days: all posturing and threats and bluster but no aggressive military moves or instigated rebellions among the downtrodden. And as always the Army has to guard the Eastern Plains against incursions by the Eastern Barbarians. Nor can we be certain have we seen the last of the trolls closer to home."
"Anyway the Army needs to revisit its tactical doctrine to better counter the trolls. Finn Ragnarson showed the way in that fight during your expedition to the Barren Lands. The trolls deploy caltrops against cavalry. And it is not only the trolls. Lots of armies use caltrops. They are simple and cheap and can be deployed quickly. Why even our own allies the Frost Giants use caltrops though theirs are attached to cords for easy retrieval. So every cavalry regiment needs a soldier gifted with control of magnetism to sweep the ground clear for their charge."
"I entirely agree Taitos. I understand you recommended just such a change to the High Command."
"And got nowhere. It is the old story: Not Invented Here."
"Tell me about it!"
The war wizard's efforts to get the Army to change its camouflage from greens to browns had been rebuffed despite all of Sir Willet's carefully documented research. And he wasn't just any war wizard. He was the continent's preeminent expert on both camouflage and magical concealment.
"What you need to do Taitos is to enlist Marshall Urqaart and Lord Zaldor to champion your proposal to the High Command." Jemsen ventured. "Even better, get them to try the new tactic themselves in the Far West first. Prove its value in battle, and the High Command will have to change their mind."
"That is a very good idea, Jemsen. I have known Urqaart for many years. We go back a long ways to when I served in the regular forces. And I got to know Zaldor on our peace mission to the Frost Giants."
"And to make sure their staffs don't winnow out your proposal and not even let it get to their desks, we three, myself, Karel, and Drew will send a cover letter. Their staffs know that the four of us who went on that mapping expedition to the Far West are considered proteges of Marshall Urqaart and Lord Zaldor."
"Good idea!" Drew enthused. "Urqaart has a reputation for innovation. His was the first regiment to adopt stirrups. No reason he cannot recruit locally for those with the gift of magnetism. His own ranks probably have a few. Then there are the allied armies plus the millions in the general population out there. The Far West will become the proving ground for the new tactic."
Count Klarendes nodded. "As Finn would say were he here today: Sounds like a plan."
Chapter 2. Flyers
Another day, another outdoor meal with many of the same participants except for the Klarendes clan who were still at work. Grouped around a picnic table under a pergola festooned with climbing vines in the patio of the residential hotel where they all lived were the twins, Axel, Drew, Liam and their guest Sir Willet. Axel and Sir Willet had run into the others just as they left the Institute of Wizardry after work. The twins and Drew and Liam had been tossing a Gemini Zinger around in a nearby park and were headed back home. One way or another everyone had worked up an appetite and since Sir Willet was at loose ends with his cook cum housekeeper away visiting her family, they invited him over for supper.
In such an informal setting it was only natural for the young athletes to remain in the nude as they had been for their game, taking just a moment to stand under the outdoor shower and wash the salt and sweat from their bodies. Even Axel threw off his sarong and moccasins, joining them in what was their natural state of undress. But then the twins had been elf-friends half the lives and all their adult lives so going skin-clad was normal to them.
As for the others, clothing was often optional for young males of the Commonwealth and almost everywhere else on the continent of Valentia save in the the original homeland of the Frost Giants which experienced a complete cycle of four seasons including winters cold enough to freeze still water. That was also true in the chthonian depths of the dwarves which were cool at best and often chilly, so the notion of going around in the nude had never caught on among the dwarves.
Only Sir Willet remained fully dressed in a loose fitting silk tunic and moccasins.
The war wizard was gratified to have both members of his official family, his aide Axel Wilde and his wizardly protege, the journeyman war wizard Liam, back in the capital. Liam had just returned from weeks in the port city of Alster, the Commonwealth's chief naval base on the the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. With a twinkle in his eye Sir Willet said:
"It is good to have you back with us Liam. I know just how much Axel missed you when you were stationed at Alster and how happy he is to have you back. That goofy grin on his face is a dead give away."
Axel beamed. He did not mind anyone knowing he was happy to have his lover back with him. Absence can make the heart grow fonder, as it had in their case.
"We are making up for lost time," Liam assured his mentor. "Can't let Drew and the twins have all the fun with my charming boy with the heart-melting dimples."
But then all of them were extraordinarily pretty each in his own way. The blond twins were rambunctious palomino colts whose tanned and toned bodies practically glowed with good health and sex appeal. Axel and Drew were a pair of cute red-heads, the one a copper-top the other an auburn haired beauty. They might be short in stature and slightly built, and Axel extremely boyish looking, but physiques like theirs were more about quality than quantity.
More like the twins in stature, Liam stood just under medium height. He was on the slender side but with a strong upper storey with the wide shoulders and muscled arms he had originally developed from handling teams of four for a living and now from hauling himself up a line into the crow's perch of the Petrel. Liam was a raven-haired pretty boy.
Though very much a ladies' man himself, Sir Willet could appreciate their extraordinary physical beauty, in an aesthetic sense at least. These were boys who turned heads of both genders, no two ways about it.
Today's treat was sweet corn-on-the-cob boiled, the ears dropped into the post straight from the garden, served piping hot, slathered with butter, and sprinkled with salt to taste.
Now in the eating of corn-on-the-cob there were two irreconcilable schools of thought, exemplified, as it happened, by the twins themselves. Jemsen preferred to chew row by row, starting at the pointy end and working his way to the blunt end, rotating the cob a bit then starting again at the point. Karel preferred the rotary lathe method, turning the cob while harvesting the kernels in a narrow band before shifting his efforts one bite's width over to the right.
Each technique had his supporters. During a meal one of the twins could be counted upon to gaze at his brother's culinary faux pas, look over to an ally for support, and shake his head or roll his eyes. With the twins this was a very old joke and a regular part of their schtick.
Imagine the twins' consternation then as they watched Sir Willet eat corn on the cob with knife and fork. Standing the cob on its flat end he sheared the kernels off with the blade. Having done so he raised the loose kernels to his mouth with his fork.
The twins shook their heads, the pained expressions of both their faces indicating that for once they were in agreement on how NOT to eat corn on the cob.
"Now boys." Sir Willet admonished. "No need to look aghast -- what you are witnessing is an example of table manners in high society."
"Sir Willet is the second son of an earl." Axel supplied helpfully.
"Actually it is my mother who insists on our eating corn this way. If my father and I had had our druthers, we'd likely just pick up the cobs with our fingers like everyone else. Still by now I am used to eating corn-on-the-cob this way."
"Actually sir," Karel ventured "when you think about it, it isn't corn-on-the-cob at all..."
"It's corn-off-the-cob!" Axel finished for him. Karel frowned then asked of no one in particular.
"Don't you just hate it when someone else jumps in with the punch line you have so carefully set up for yourself?"
Sir Willet smiled at their chatter, thinking how lucky he was to have such great kids in his life. Smart, witty, energetic, and good hearted, their company kept him from isolating himself in his work, burying himself in his magical studies, which was all too easy for wizards to do. Magic was the consuming interest in their lives, which was why Sir Willet's long neglected wife had finally divorced him.
On an afterthought he added:
"Someday I'll show you how my mother has us eat bananas at the dinner table."
"Surely you don't mean with knife and fork?" Karel asked, appalled and not daring to believe it.
"I do. She maintains it is the only civilized way and dismisses eating bananas with the fingers as the table manners of monkeys."
"Anyway could you pass the platter of cobs?" Drew asked the twins. "Somehow it has wound up all the way down at your end of the table."
"Tut tut," Karel admonished. "At the picnic table the rule is boarding house reach and every man for himself. It's not our problem if your arms are too short."
"Oh yeah?"
Invoking his gift, Drew slid the platter toward him then made a production of selecting his second cob. Satisfied, he made the platter slide back, this time to the exact center of the table. Fair was fair.
"For a fetcher nothing is ever out of reach," he remarked with a provocatively smug smile on his pretty features.
For Axel the sight of the platter carrying the cobs with it as it slid down the table triggered a thought.
"Of course! Why did't I see this before?"
"See what? What are you talking about Axel? Liam asked.
"This business with the platter. It's put an idea into my head. A way for fetchers to fly a freely as birds."
"Like birds? Tell us how!"
"Well as you know those with the fetching gift can now lift themselves by their sandals. That was a trick the twins thought up and Drew pioneered. Now that technique works well enough, and it will always be useful for impromptu surveys of terrain or to fly out of harm's way, but it takes practice and is a little risky. Lose your balance or your concentration and down you go. Most important of all, you mostly just go up and down. You cannot fly where and as you will."
"That is all very true, Axel. So what is your idea?"
"Fetchers should strap themselves to a moveable apparatus, say the wooden yoke which stable hands use to carry buckets, and lift that yoke into the sky. You can make the yoke go wherever you want: up and down, left and right, forward and back, fast and slow. And it is safe. You don't have to worry about your balance when you are securely strapped to a yoke."
Sir Willet and the others were stunned by the ingenuity of Axel's conceptual breakthrough. For centuries true flight was something men had only dreamed of.
"By the gods, Axel, you are right. This is the start of a new era in history, the Era of Flight. Just think of the potential!"
Jemsen picked up that thought:
"Aerial scouts could fly patrols ahead and to the sides of a column of troops, reconnoitering, observing converging forces or enemy reserves masked by terrain, or troops lying in ambush. They could recon terrain our scouts on the ground cannot get to easily or at all, like on the far side of a swamp, the reverse slopes of a range of hills, or maybe across a fast flowing river."
"That's right Jemsen. Not surprising that with your history as an army scout you would see that as the first application." Drew said, "but there are others".
"A scout could hang a supply of fire globes at the ends of the yoke and drop them on enemy columns or fixed positions. You would rig the globes so that they fell one at a time or all at once along with banked coals to ignite them.
"Or maybe caltrops, Axel added. "like we were talking about at the barbecue." He continued with:
"Think what would happen if aerial scouts spotted hostile cavalry maneuvering to charge our own forces. Unseen by the enemy the scouts swoop ahead and strew caltrops in front of where the cavalry will deploy from a column into a battle line for their charge."
"Just as the charge gets up to speed their mounts run onto the caltrops. Crippled horses fall taking their riders with them. Those riding behind cannot pull up in time and join the deadly pile up. Instead of the panoply of a grand cavalry charge there is nothing on the field but broken bones, screaming horses, and crushed riders. For the coup de grace, after the field is swept clear of caltrops, a counter attack by lancers wipes out the survivors. Or if they don't have a master of magnetism, then we counterattack with horse archers."
"Scouts might act also as couriers where communication by heliograph or dispatch rider is impractical and timing is critical." Karel pointed out.
"That's right." Liam agreed, adding:
"And it is not just the Army that could use flyers. Caltrops and fire globes are fine on land, but at sea you want to drop incendiary kegs on enemy ships. Caltrops and fire globes are area weapons. A keg is a precision weapon. A fetcher doesn't even have to fly over the ship or even particularly near it. Just release the keg and guide its fall to intercept the enemy vessel, all the while staying out of range of arrows or ballistas."
"This will revolutionize naval warfare! We could deploy a new sort of vessel with cabins and berths for thirty or forty flyers and lots of kegs in their holds. Aerial attack would totally neutralize the boarding tactics of the trolls."
"And I'll bet the commandant of the naval infantry General-at-Sea Sir Deane Chard would love to have flyers for a campaign in the Amazon basin. I know that he is planning to take naval infantry into that river country rowing captured longships. Some have been equipped with ballistas or catapults. Think of it, naval infantry armed with bows and blades, longships with naval armaments, war wizards and other mages plus flyers serving as aerial scouts and providing... er what shall we call it anyway."
"Why not call it `close ground attack'" Axel offered.
Sir Willet sat back in his chair, his mind churning with the possibilities.
"Anyone looking at five of you lounging in the nude would see shameless pretty boys showing off. I see young men with minds just as extraordinary as their physical beauty. Boys, let's go to my offices where Drew and Axel can write this all up. And if anyone has another idea, speak up. I'll make sure all of you get credit, with the lion's share going to Axel of course."
Sir Willet set the artificers and harness makers to work to devise a standard yoke and strap system for flyers. The team found that the familiar wooden yokes used in stables were perfectly suited to this new purpose, except that instead of a man doing the lifting it would be the yoke lifting the man.
Grooms used yokes to carry water in buckets from a well to a horse trough. It was actually easier to carry two buckets at a time using a yoke across the shoulders than it was to lug a single bucket by its handle. Two buckets balanced each other, and the yoke put the weight on the shoulders and hips and legs rather than on the muscles of arms and shoulders.
The artificers affixed hooks with quick release mechanisms at the ends of the arms for the various loads: kegs and nets of fire globes or caltrops. The strap system was based on mountaineering gear.
Then came the day for field trials. All of them were properly dressed for the occasion, Sir Willet and Axel in Army greens, Liam in naval blues, Drew in his expeditionary outfit of short trews, sleeveless shirt and sandals, and the twins in sarongs.
Drew went first. Needless to say he was eager to become the very first flyer in the history of the world. The idea was Axel's, but the doing of it would be his, just like with the twins and their earlier breakthrough about Lifting via sandals.
Sir Willet stood by, ready to break any fall, but he did not expect anything to go wrong. Flying with a yoke took just a fraction of the concentration needed with sandals. Drew strapped himself into the harness then double checked the buckles, explaining: "Safety first!"
Then Drew took off and soared into the sky. Giddy with success he zoomed and swooped and power dived at his companions only to pull up at the last minute, grinning all the while, clearly having the time of his life. After a while aloft Drew settled down, remembering he had a purpose beyond showing off and went through the agreed upon test maneuvers. He eventually came back down, setting himself gently on the ground, amid the cheers of his companions. Drew had a big grin on his face, the grin of a boy immensely proud of himself, as well he should be.
Drew's flight had been spectacular. Anyone could see the potential. The observer from the High Command proclaimed the dawn of a new age when men with the fetching gift would fly. As an army officer the colonel could appreciate the military uses the group had outlined in its report to the High Command.
Sir Willet gave Axel a thumbs up then told him to get himself ready. He and Drew would now test the tandem rig.
"The tandem rig? What is that, sir?"
"It is our little surprise, Drew's and mine. Since true flight was your idea, it is only fitting that you go up too. Just from watching Drew it looks like a lot of fun."
The tandem rig had two sets of straps for two flyers, or really one flyer and his passenger who hung just behind and a little higher than the flyer the better to see over his shoulder and talk to his pilot.
Drew had no trouble lifting both of them at once. The yoke was made of sturdy oak and easily able to bear the weight of two slightly built youths. And since Drew was powerful enough to lift a brontothere into the sky, lifting two boys was no strain at all.
For Axel it was the most thrilling ride of his life, this first flight of many he would take with his friends and lovers at the helm, so to speak. Next to go aloft were Sir Willet who flew solo and Liam who gave Jemsen and then Karel flights with the tandem rig.
At one point the passage of the wind tore Karel's sarong from his hips. It flapped and fluttered like a great blue heron. No problem. Liam turned back and swooped like a hawk on the runaway garment. Karel snatched his sarong out of the air to the cheers of the watchers below.
By the time the last of the flyers landed a crowd had gathered in the courtyard of the Institute. Amid tumultuous welcome, the intrepid explorers of the aerial realm took their bows, big grins on their faces. The flyers put Axel front and center. Flying was his idea, after all. Sir Willet beamed:
"Axel, flight is such a stupendous achievement that I am going to nominate you for both a knighthood and the same druidical healing magic that has enhanced the vitality of the others. I feel confident is telling you that you can count on approval of both. That means you can look forward to centuries of youth, strength, beauty, and good health. How does that strike you, my young friend?"
But Axel said nothing; the boy was literally struck speechless.
"His silence says it all." Drew noted with satisfaction.
Drew finished the last few sentences of the draft of his article describing how human flight had been achieved. The background paragraphs describing the origin of the technique and the equipment had already been set in type at the Capital Intelligencer. Drew rushed his final copy over to their offices and handed it to his editor, his older brother Heflin who told him:
"Great stuff, Drew. Your friend Axel is about to become famous the world over. You too."
"Oh? And here I thought that, as a renowned war correspondent and best selling author, I already was!" Drew quipped.
The Capital Intelligencer rushed the story into print, scooping the other news-papers whose reporters were still interviewing onlookers who really had little to tell them other than the bare fact that men had flown like birds. No one involved in the project would talk with Drew's rivals, giving the Intelligencer its scoop. The headline read: Men Fly Like Birds. Lots of folks bought two copies, one to read, the other for a keepsake.
Chapter 3. Axel
Within the month and in the presence of his proud parents Dexter and Hannah Wilde, Axel was granted letters patent that raised him to the knighthood. Henceforth he would be styled Sir Axel Wilde. Not bad for a youth not yet twenty.
Not long afterwards, the same two "Sisters", the healers who had helped to transform Liam, joined Dahlderon in enhancing the vitality of the newly minted knight. At their direction Axel disrobed and lay down. As the trio invoke their magic a pearly effulgence engulfed them and their subject, its color cycling from pearly white to light green and back three times then died away. Axel didn't feel any different but he mages assured him that he would stay young and cute and sexy for centuries, the same as his closest friends. Axel admitted that his greatest fear had been that of eventually losing his circle of friends as he aged while they stayed young.
Axel gave his folks a tour of their suite at the residential hotel. Besides the sitting room, bathing chamber, and water closet Axel, Drew, and Liam all had huge beds in their chambers.
"My goodness Axel, that bed of yours is large enough to sleep three at once and with room to spare." Axel's father Dexter said.
"And sometimes it does just that," Karel pointed out, making Axel blush furiously. His mother Hannah just shook here head and clucked.
"Boys will be boys." she said equably.
"The beds are sized to accommodate Finn Ragnarson when he sleeps over." Jemsen added helpfully.
You are trying to shock us, young man, aren't you?" Axel's mother admonished the twins.
"It is just a bit of good natured teasing among close friends." Jemsen answered.
"The twins can't help themselves when the mischief is upon them," Axel explained, "but they mean well. I love these boys with my whole heart."
Karel opened his mouth to add "And with his whole body" but subsided under Jemsen's glare. The older twin had intuited just what his brother was about to say.
"I am just glad our Axel has such a worthy circle of friends." Dexter Wilde said. "Your names are known to us and not only from Axel's letters. The famous twins Jemsen and Karel, the prize winning journalist and author Drew Altair whose books we ourselves have read, and the war wizard Liam, honored as a Shield of the Commonwealth. Actually, all of you are genuine war heroes. Not to mention that large friend of yours who is an avatar of a thunder god. It is quite a step up for the son of a porcelain manufacturer."
"Porcelain eh? Do you make dishes or perhaps figurines?"
"No, we make plumbing fixtures like those in your bathing chamber and water closet."
That brought smiles all around.
"Our Axel has come far despite only modest magical gifts."
"Gifts are what you make of them." Jemsen noted. "whether magical or not. Look at me and my brother. Our original magical gift was that of Unerring Direction. We put it to good use as hunters, explorers, archers, scouts, and mapmakers. Our invention of contour lines won us our knighthoods and appointments as Masters in the Honorable Guild of Cartographers."
"The twins are much too modest," Drew interjected, "so let me point out their non-magical gifts of intelligence, curiosity, and courage. And a talent for making friends and picking the right people to befriend."
"And let me add," Liam interjected," that Axel has more than a few gifts now, both magical and natural. Axel can Call Light, but his balls of illumination persist for hours. That was the basis of his successful street lighting business. Axel also has the gift of Unerring Direction which makes him the perfect guide for a certain navigationally challenged war wizard. Then Axel is blessed with a type of eidetic memory. He never forgets anything he has read or written down and retains almost total recall of the spoken word too, for long enough to transcribe what he has heard."
"And now he has the magical gift of enhanced vitality which is not a single gift but a whole collection: long life, prolonged youth, acute senses, fast reflexes, doubled strength and stamina, greater healing powers, and resistance to disease. All of us share those gifts now thanks to druidical healing magic."
"So what is next for you boys?" Hannah Wilde asked. Her son answered.
"We are part of a task force considering how best to use flight in military operations. Liam is our consultant on naval combat working with Admiral Van Zant at the Bureau of Ships.
"Sir Willet and I work on standard equipment and tactics for army flyers. For instance, from the tests it is clear that flyers go so fast they need goggles like grinders use to protect their eyes from the airstream. We need ways to signal between flyers and the ground. Should scouts go out alone or in pairs? Should flyers go up in certain kinds of weather? And what about formation flying for mass attacks. V shape like geese or line abreast or columns or what. We also need to devise standard loads of caltrops and fire globes too and gear for dispersing them upon release."
"Another question is how to counter enemy flyers if, or should I say when, we confront a foe with flyers in his armed forces. My first thought is to wield those discus shaped blades the Navy uses to cut the rigging of enemy ships."
"It sounds gruesome." Axel said.
"And for the Navy", Liam added, "I will probably recommend flying in pairs in case something goes wrong while away from the ship. The flyers should also wear cork vests for flotation. All these things and many more have to be worked out in consultation with the Army. That is why I have been assigned to work with Sir Willet and Admiral Van Zant on ships, weapons, and tactics."
"We are at the beginning of a revolution in military affairs. And none too soon, if you ask me, what with the threats from trolls, barbarians, and who knows what lies beyond the horizon."
"On that cheerful note," Drew said," let's adjourn to the patio for supper. I have ordered a special dessert: strawberry flavored iced-cream. Scrumptious is the only word to describe it."
"Sounds like a plan." Liam said in an exaggeratedly deep tone, though still only a pale imitation of Finn Ragnarson's bass rumble.
Chapter 4. Nathan
Two weeks later saw Ensign Nathan Lathrop return to the capital to train at the Institute of Wizardry and Magic. His assignment was to hone his new gift of delving under the tutelage of Sir Rikkard, a friend and colleague of Sir Willet's. The Institute's annex at Alster had trained him to sound the depth of water under the keel of a vessel, to detect hazards to navigation, and to determine the nature of the bottom: sandy, rocky, muddy, whatever. At the capital he would apply delving to what lay beneath the surface of the earth: the types of rocks and minerals, aquifers, caves and caverns, and artificial structures like cellars, mines, tunnels, aqueducts, and even water mains. He could also tell what was on the other side of a wall.
In event of a siege a delver could detect tunnels dug by the enemy to undermine the walls of a fortress or city. Sappers typically shored up the roof of their tunnels with timber as the went. When the besieging army was ready to attack, they stuffed hay or brush into the tunnels and set the kindling and the timbers on fire. The collapse of the tunnels brought down the wall above. A delver could point out where his own forces should counter-mine.
The only thing delvers could not do with magical gift, despite their name, was dig up what they sensed below. That took miners and excavating equipment or a mage gifted with earth magic.
The last time Nathan had been in the capital he had convalesced at home following his release from the Naval Hospital where he had been fitted with a prosthesis which let him walk almost normally. Only a slight limp betrayed the loss of the lower part of his left leg, severed by a troll axe just above the ankle during the Petrel's unprecedented single ship action against a flotilla of longships.
On this trip Nathan left his gear into the guest room of the suite shared by Liam, Drew, and Axel, though he slept in Liam's room and bed. Those two had much lost time to make up for. Their nightly lovemaking rose to new heights of passion as they joined their bodies in all the ways that lusty young males may do and in some ways that were only possible when one of the lovers was a fetcher, able to raise, hold, and move his lover's body in ways that defied gravity and the usual possibilities of human anatomy.
Both were versatile in bed, as ready to bottom for the other as to top or to delight each other with mutual oral service. Familiarity with each other's bodies and erogenous zones made it easy for them to arouse each other. Actually it usually took just a wink or a quirky smile to arouse them and send them off to bed. The big bed was a welcome change from the narrow berths aboard ship or even the visiting officers' quarters in Alster.
Theirs had been a torrid love affair from the moment they met, both of them struck as if by lightning with an instant overwhelming and mutual physical attraction. Liam had a thing for red-heads and in then midshipman Nathan Lathrop he found a boy from his dreams.
Only nineteen, Nathan was boyishly cute, a freckle-faced carrot-topped youngster who looked much too young to be an officer in the Navy of the Commonwealth. He stood just a shade under Liam's height with the willowy build of an elf though he was fully human. Since his convalescence Nathan had worked on his upper storey, repeatedly hauling himself up the yards again and again. Constant training with a naval cutlass also strengthened his arms and shoulders.
Liam was a bit older than Nathan, a well-set up lad with a fine healthy body standing just under medium height. He was on the slender side but with a strong upper storey. He had wide shoulders and well-muscled arms from driving four horse teams for a living. Liam was a real raven-haired beauty though pretty rather than handsome. His fine-boned features were accented by a light sprinkling of freckles, and he had the mismatched eyes common among wizards. His left eye was blue and the right one brown. His eyes shone with a moon-glow visible in dim light which gave him night vision as acute as that of a cat.
Liam was evenly tanned from all the running he did ashore and from swimming and standing watch in the nude in the crow's perch of the Petrel. Nathan's tan was more of a patchwork since as a deck officer he had to remain in uniform. Despite his handicap he was still a strong swimmer though not so fast as before.
Their relationship of the two youngsters now went beyond mere physical infatuation. Theirs was now a life bond. They were lovers, best friends, shipmates, and comrades in arms. They had implicit faith that the other would always have his back.
The circle of friends celebrated the solstice festival with a picnic which once again featured fresh sweet corn-on-the-cob. Nathan sat bemused as he watched Sir Willet and his corn-OFF-the-cob technique of consuming the tasty vegetable. Then Karel reminded the war wizard that he had never demonstrated how folks in high society ate bananas without using their fingers, the table manners of monkeys as the wizard's aristocratic mother had put it.
Sir Willet agreed it was time he provided a demonstration. Spreading a dinner napkin on his lap he addressed the banana on his plate with knife and fork. Spearing it in the center with the fork in his left hand he held it down while he cut off the tips then deftly slit the skin lengthwise. That enabled him to pop the meat out and set the skin aside. Finally, with his fork in his left and knife in his right, he sliced bite sized chunks off one at a time and brought them to his mouth.
Karel shook his head.
"Now I've seen everything!"
It wasn't long before Nathan was recruited as an informal member of the task force, helping his friends with their important work. As a recent graduate of the Naval Academy Nathan was well versed in naval doctrine and tactics, and he too was a decorated combat veteran, twice Mentioned in Dispatches and with a Navy Cross for Valor on top of that.
Nathan's participation in the task force on naval aviation bore fruit later, after he returned to the Petrel, but that is another story.
Author's Note
This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead, though admittedly the Navy of the Commonwealth bears more than a passing resemblance to the Royal Navy of Richard Bolitho and Horatio Hornblower.
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This story is one of an occasional series about the further adventures of the characters introduced in the fantasy novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends' and published by Nifty Archive. The chief protagonist of the novel, Dahlderon, elf-boy and druid, will appear in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence stands on its own, with the focus on one or just a few of the original characters.
Readers who like these stories might want to try my two series 'Daphne Boy' and 'Naked Prey' in the Gay/Historical section of the Archive. My 'Jungle Boy' series of Hollywood tales is posted in the Gay/Authoritarian section. The recent series 'Andrew Jackson High' relates the trials and tribulations of five of its gay students. For links to these and other stories, look on the list of Prolific Authors on the Archive.
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