Elf Boy's Friends

Elf-Boy's Friends 18

Air Power

by George Gauthier

[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']

Chapter 1. Sparring

"Your turn, Axel," Jemsen said, as he left off sparring with his brother Karel, waving for the young wizard's aide to walk across the grass and join him for a session.

The twins practiced regularly with their weapons: bow, kukri, and quarterstaff. The bow was their distance weapon. With strength doubled by druidic healing magic the twins could draw bows powerful enough to propel their arrows as far as three hundred yards and penetrate all but the stoutest armor and shields. And their gift of Unerring Direction meant they did not have to trade accuracy for range. But a bow was all offense and no defense.

That is where the quarterstaff came in. The six foot shaft could block swords and staffs and counter war axes with its greater reach. A strike to the elbow could disarm a foe by numbing his grip on sword or axe, or for lethal effect shatter faces, or crush skulls. Used as a walking stick or carry pole it was always to hand, ready to deploy against any sudden threat. As for their blade, the kukri was a much a tool as a close-in weapon, but it was effective in either role.

Axel also trained with three weapons though in his case his distance weapon was the sling which flung lead bullets at a shorter range than archery. Wizards' aides did not stand in the line of battle where a sling would be outranged by bows, and they lacked have the protection of either armor or shield. As for his kukri, the bent bladed knife was practically a short sword, equally adept at stabbing, slashing, and chopping. Kept in a scabbard on Axel's hip, it would always be handy in case of need.

Axel had a duty to perfect his skill with weapons. Like the twins he was a soldier -- in his case a warrant officer like all aides to war wizards. His main job in combat was to watch his mentor's back, to warn and protect Sir Willet from physical attack while he himself concentrated on wielding his magic and countering that of enemy wizards and mages. Also, as an combat medic, Axel patched up the wounded and stabilized their condition till healers could attend to them.

Besides conventional weapons Axel's magical gift of Calling Light could be used to lethal effect. Englobing the head of a foe would scramble his brains. Axel had used that trick many times against the Institute's pestiferous pigeons and once against a tawny panther about to pounce upon Sir Willet.

Like the twins Axel had had his vitality enhanced by the druids and healers which would allow him to live for five centuries or more without aging. Beside longevity and perpetual youth, druidic magic had doubled his strength, speed, stamina, and reflexes. And while his faster reflexes did not allow him to snatch an arrow out of the air as the druids could, they were a distinct advantage in a fight. Axel might stand only an inch or so over five feet, but his strength, speed, and stamina would come as a nasty surprise to any foe.

"I don't want to sound like a complainer Jemsen, but I am still sore from our last sparring session. Just look at my bruises."

Since the boys practiced in the nude, Jemsen could easily see the bruises on Axel's forearms, shins, and ribs. Nor were they all from their last session, so they displayed a range of colors from red-blue to green to yellow to golden-brown.

"How fortunate then that your enhanced vitality comes with superior healing abilities. Those bruises will clear up in a few days."

"That's true. But what about those I'll collect today?"

"No pain, no gain." Karel interjected airily. "You think you have it bad, Axel, try sparring with a giant like our mentor Sir Balandur or maybe give Finn a try."

Balandur had always been careful with the twins, though they had taken their lumps, but then Balandur knew that they were country lads, hunters and trackers, hardened to life in the rough. Though Axel had proved his courage under fire, he was still a soft-hearted city boy, unbloodied in battle and yet to take the life of a sentient foe. For his own good he needed to toughen up. He had so much more at stake now, so much more to lose: a life that might last for centuries instead of the traditional five score and ten.

"You might not have noticed it, but you have actually made a lot of progress in your training with Jemsen and me. So much that it is about time to reduce the tempo of your sparring sessions to maintenance levels and let you train with your fellow aides, to get you used to facing a variety of opponents not just the two of us, whose moves by now will be all too familiar to you."

"That sounds good, but I still don't know why we cannot spar with padding plus gauntlets to spare my knuckles." Axel grumbled. "And a helmet too."

Jemsen shook his head.

"Soldiers train as they fight and fight as they train. Wizard's aides don't wear armor or gauntlets in battle, just their army greens and sandals or moccasins in your case. Here in training there is no point in getting a uniform all sweaty and salty so we train in the nude. Besides, everyone enjoys ogling your petite physique on display in all its glory."

"Its diminutive glory." Karel corrected.

It was true that Axel was short in stature, but that never bothered him. Size did not always matter. His attitude was that physiques like his were more about quality than quantity anyway. Axel might be slight in build, but he had the toned and taut musculature of an athlete or acrobat from regular exercise. And he knew he was pretty, a boyishly cute copper-topped youngster with fine-boned features and heart-melting dimples who looked nowhere near his real age of nineteen going on twenty. So what was there not to like?

Axel's trainer for the blade was his roommate and lover Liam. Growing up among the nomads of the Western Plains, Liam had trained with a straight saber from the time he could hold one and could be trusted not stick himself with it. It was also thanks to Liam that Axel had become a good rider, better than their mutual lover Drew Altair was ever likely to be.

It was not just that Drew was a city boy. He simply didn't like horses. They smelled bad, they sweated too much, they were headstrong, they would bite or throw you, and they were all too easily startled, too likely to take the bit in their teeth and charge down the road with their hapless rider clinging to the saddle horn for dear life. At best horses were a regrettable necessity.

Drew dreamed of riding a brontothere much as the druid Dahlderon and their friend the Frost Giant Finn Ragnarson had done in the Barren Lands, charging into battle atop a ten-ton mount which could bowl over and trample their foes while Drew attacked with his telekinetic powers which he also used to clear caltrops from their path. Caltrops were about the only thing that could counter the charge of a brontothere because they used the gigantic beast's own size against him.

That evening though it was Axel himself who found himself being mounted again and again by the twins. They plowed his butt time and again sinking their shafts into the wet warmth of his quim, punctuating their enthusiasm by occasional light slaps to Axel's rump. Even better was when the twins double teamed him spitting him at both ends at once, shoving his small body back and forth with the thrust of their hips. Dizzy with lust, Axel felt like his body was on fire. Axel's submissive libido responded strongly to such assertive treatment from dominant males like the twins.

Axel also offered himself to them while lying on his back, legs spread wide for better access to his nether hole while the other twin slid his cock into Axel's mouth and down his throat. Axel's arms and legs were sprawled wide in an X, his body totally vulnerable and open to their attentions.

Whether it was one at a time or two Axel was very much a bottom boy who recognized that he was born to be fucked by lusty males who knew just what to do with a boy of his sort. That included Liam though that young man was currently preoccupied with Nathan whose time in the capital was drawing to a close.

Now with Drew things were more equal and not just because they were a match in stature though that did help them when they lay head to toe and rendered each other oral service. Their lovemaking started out slow with gentle touches to Axel's erogenous zones. Drew would stroke the chevron of his ribs or or swirl a finger in his navel or slide a hand along his sharp hip bones, bringing a flash of heat to Axel's belly.

Drew's gentle foreplay included kisses on lips and cheeks and nipples, nibbles on Axel's earlobes, snuffling at the base of his neck all the while plying the lad with soft murmurings of love. For theirs was a true love match, and who knew better than Drew Altair, with his active social calendar, the difference between mere recreational sex and passionate romantic love.

And thanks to their enhanced vitality Axel and his lovers Drew, Liam, Jemsen, Karel, and Finn would have centuries of love, laughs, accomplishment, and adventures. Axel considered himself to be the luckiest boy on the planet.

Chapter 2. Flyers

Sir Willet Hanford and his aide Sir Axel Wilde were in army greens as they settled themselves onto the small bleachers which overlooked the firing range at the Army's main proving grounds. Also in uniform were Liam, Drew Altair and and the twins Jemsen and Karel. As war wizards Sir Willet and Liam and their aide Axel were part of the active Army. The twins and Drew held reserve commissions in the armed forces, as an ensign in Drew's case while the twins held the rank of captain. Though the lowest ranking in the crowd, they were the most prominent personages there as the Pioneers of Flight, a phrase Drew had coined in his articles published in his family's news-paper the Capital Intelligencer.

Dozens of officers from both army and navy filled the bleachers. Some were generals and admirals including Admiral Van Zant from the Bureau of Ships. Another familiar face was the commandant of the naval infantry General-at-Sea Sir Deane Chard. Liam had worked with him at Alster devising new tactics combining the strengths of naval infantry and magic wielders.

Many attendees were staff officers who would need to learn to integrate air operations into their planning. The firepower demonstration would impress on them the devastating effects of air power.

A mock village had been constructed at one end of the range. It consisted of a dozen flimsily built cottages set around a large shed with a porch representing a tavern. In the middle of the range stood a company of scarecrows made of straw armed with wicker shields and sticks for spears. A dozen wagons drawn by straw horses at the far end represented an enemy supply train.

"Well Axel," Sir Willet began, "today we put aerial attack to the test. This is the culmination of our work these last two months of devising tactics and signals and equipment for our new air arm. News articles like Drew's generated excitement in the general public, but our military professionals won't be convinced until they see it with their own eyes."

Axel nodded. "It is too bad the navy is not so far along in adopting aerial tactics."

"It is not that we aren't trying, Axel," Liam countered.

"No disrespect meant to the boys in blue." Axel soothed. Liam nodded then explained.

"Army flyers can deploy on horse or by wagon or even on foot. The Navy has to convert cargo ships and troop transports to ferry flyers and the large loads of ordnance aerial tactics requires. These naval air carriers also have to accommodate a platoon of naval infantry plus their sailors. When the ship goes to general quarters almost everyone is on deck at once: the sailors controlling the ship, the crews of the ballistas and catapults, naval infantry and the flyers and their deck crew on the flight deck."

"Flight deck?" Karel asked.

"It's an large hatch cover in the well of the ship where the flyers suit up in cork flotation vests then strap themselves into their flying yokes to which the deck crew has already attached the appropriate armaments, usually kegs of incendiaries. We reinforced the hatch cover to take the greater load."

"You see the carriers are multipurpose ships. They can engage in air operations, attack with ship to ship armaments, or close with and board hostile vessels. The carriers are a new kind of naval combatant, one that has yet to be tested in battle."

A fanfare signaled the beginning of the demonstration. A captain briefed the audience noting that six flyers formed a unit called a flight with three flights comprising a squadron. In turn three squadrons formed a wing, though that was mainly an administrative formation. Each unit had about twice that many soldiers in ground crew and logistical support.

The demonstration would consist of attacks by one flight on each target followed by a caltrop drop by the entire squadron. The squadron approached from the west in three columns of six. The captain explained that in combat the squadron would preferentially attack from the direction of the sun to conceal their approach. Or if a friendly war wizard were with them, they might approach behind a Concealment.

The first flight peeled away and flew over the village. One by one flyers pulled cords which released a pair of kegs filled with an alchemical liquid. Inside the keg was a glass vial filled with a white powder. Neither substance was inflammable by itself, but on impact the glass would shatter allowing the substances to mix and ignite. Either the impact or combustion gasses would burst the keg and splash a burning liquid everywhere, one that could not be extinguished by water but only smothered by sand or earth.

The kegs sailed gracefully to the ground. None of them missed. How could they guided as they were by the flyers' magical gift of Fetching? In moments the village was an inferno of burning buildings.

Next came the attack on the company of straw men deployed in the field in battle array. The weapon of choice for troops in the open was fire globes each about the size of a fist. Made of glass and filled with an inflammable oil they would burst on impact to be ignited by glowing coals rained down by the flyers. The flyers swooped down on their mock foes, though careful never to get within bowshot. Most of the officers were impressed though some noted that enemy soldiers were not made of inflammable straw and would not burn so merrily.

The captain conceded the point but noted that their clothing and the grass and brush they stood in would indeed burn merrily and that half the fire globes were filled with the dark clinging version of the oil that would stick to skin and cloth even as it burned. That revelation drew shudders from soldiers who could imagine how horrible that would be trying to run from a fire that clung to you.

Then came the attack on the supply train. The captain admitted that in real life the wagons would scatter and take evasive action, but that tactic would be to no avail against fetchers with their unfailing accuracy.

The flyers flew away briefly and reloaded with caltrops. They flew in line abreast spreading the caltrops in a belt right in front of the observers. Caltrops had four points arranged in a tetrahedron so they always landed point up, ready to impale the hoofs of cavalry or the feet of infantry. Practically bursting with pride the young flyers landed and formed up near the reviewing stand, silver wings gleaming over their left breast pockets. They drew thunderous applause from the appreciative audience.

For the finale a cavalryman invoked his gift of control of magnetism visible to the onlookers as a grey nimbus which formed and pulsed around him. With a slash of his saber for dramatic effect he swept the caltrops from the field forming a neat pile to one side.

The captain then called on the Pioneers of Flight to step onto the stage to be introduced though the Pioneers hardly needed introductions.

The twins were famous across the continent for their unique distinction as elf-friends, dwarf-friends, and giant-friends, as well being holders of the Military Cross for Valor twice over. Drew was another holder as well as a writer famed as a journalist, war correspondent, and author of prize winning military histories. Liam sported the badge for his award of the Commonwealth's second highest honor, the Shield of the Commonwealth.

Sir Willet himself sported a Combat Mage insignia and badges indicating that he had been Mentioned in Dispatches twice. His sleeve showed no less than three wound stripes earned over the course of long career fighting the eastern barbarians. His aide Sir Axel Wilde had seen combat only briefly but had acquitted himself well enough to earn the Expeditionary Medal for their survey of the Barren Lands, as had Sir Willet himself, Drew, and the twins.

All of the Pioneers sported ribbons for the various wars they had served in: the Troll War, the First and Second Centaur Wars, or the First, Second, and Third War for the Eastern Plains. In the third war against the eastern barbarians it had been Sir Willet who had used white fire to blast open the secret tunnel through the Eastern Mountains allowing the Entrapment Army to fall upon the barbarians from behind. Caught between the Entrapment Army and the Army of the Plains, the invaders were destroyed in a battle of annihilation.

It was ironic that the pioneers whose contributions had been the greatest lacked the fetching gift themselves and could not fly. It was the twins who had had the original insight that allowed fetchers to levitate by Lifting their sandals. And it was Axel who had extended that concept to a yoke by which fetchers could fly like birds and even drop ordnance on the enemy.

In the question period Admiral Van Zant asked Sir Willet about the built-up shoulders of his boiled leather armor, his and Liam's.

"I am glad you asked, sir. It's the latest development in flight tactics which Axel and the twins thought up just last week. A short wooden yoke has been incorporated into my armor. Unlike the ones which fetchers use, this short yoke does not have attachment points for ordnance. It is solely to allow us wizards to fly at will, maybe to avoid an enemy cavalry charge or to traverse impassable terrain. A wizard's aide can go along for the ride by dropping down a pair of stirrups which he can step into. There are also straps he can slip his wrists through and hang on."

"That's quite clever, but why can't you just Lift your aide as well as yourself?"

"I could, but the stirrups make for one less task to divide my attention. If I take to the air the tactical situation might require me to fly, cast fire, hold my Missile Shield or a Concealment or both, survey the terrain and enemy dispositions, and send an infrasound dispatch all at the same time."

The admiral conceded: "I can see you have thought about this some, but I wonder if you have actually tried doing all those things at once. If there are problems juggling so many tasks at once, better find out now with practice maneuvers than on the battlefield."

"You are absolutely right. I'll start realistic trials right away."

Liam smiled and said. "Now you know why they made him an admiral and put him in charge of the Bureau of Ships."

Sir Willet claimed only a small share of the credit, mostly for his role in championing the idea of flight to the High Command. "The six of us put our heads together to figure this all out: equipment, tactics, signals, organization, formations, and so forth, but Axel's insight was the key to everything."

An Army general said: "For my part I want to commend whoever thought up that final flourish where a rider swept the caltrops off the field with his mastery of magnetism. Am I right in thinking that Count Klarendes put you up to it?"

"Who else? He thought a demonstration would reinforce the point he made in his proposal to the High Command which he later published as an article in the Army Journal. It drew much favorable comment."

"So my cavalry commanders keep reminding me. And Marshall Urqaart has already implemented the tactic to good effect in the Western Alliance. All right. I am convinced and looking around at my colleagues I can see in their faces that they are as well. We will definitely add this to our bag of tricks. And thank you. And thank the count for me, for us really."

"Who would have believed that a revolution in military affairs would start with a handful of pretty-boys at a picnic table. Out of uniform cute and sexy as they are they could be taken for a pack of high class rent boys. And I speak objectively as one who consorts exclusively with the female half of the species."

"As do I general." Sir Willet replied. "But only a blind man could fail to appreciate their physical charms at least in an aesthetic sense. As for those who do fancy pretty boys in a romantic way, there are none more worthy of being fancied than those five."

"And to answer your next question before you even ask it, yes, all five of them are lovers. Drew, Axel, and Liam share a suite of rooms in a residential hotel and the twins are their neighbors just down the hall. Which makes for a whole lot of bed hopping, as you might imagine."

"Is it any wonder?" Karel asked rhetorically. Sweeping his hands down his sides he smiled and said:

"Just think. All this and brains too!"

His twin picked up his cue. Pointing a finger skyward he added:

"Plus we are rich!"

That brought a chuckle all around.

How could anyone not respond to these personable youngsters? The candor and intelligence shown by the Pioneers made a favorable impression on the veteran officers. Everyone appreciated their contribution. Air power as they had conceived it was a powerful addition to the Commonwealth's military capabilities.

For the Army Air Corps those capabilities were scouting, reconnaissance, close air support of ground operations, interdiction of supply trains and reinforcements, and the destruction of choke points like bridges and ferries.

Air raids on naval vessels and supply convoys by the Naval Air Squadrons would profoundly alter the scope of naval warfare whereas scouting and reconnaissance were much less important. Lookouts in crow's perches served that purpose well enough, out to the horizon anyway, but it was dangerous for scouts to fly out of sight of their ship. They might become lost from disorientation or weather closing in or splash into the sea from simple fatigue. Though the Navy did need a capacity for long range scouting, flyers equipped with yokes were not the answer.

What the Navy needed was something else entirely, a way to stay aloft for hours at a time and scout far ahead of the fleet.

Chapter 3. Naval Infantry

"Good news, Ensign Lathrop." Captan-Lieutenant Dahlgren called out as he approached the Petrel moored at her pier. "I got if from the Port Admiral that your good friend Liam is back in town.

"Fantastic!" Nathan enthused. Liam's role as one of the Pioneers of Flight had kept him away from the fleet for five months.

"It will be good to have him aboard again." the captain continued.

"To a man the crew regard him as the Petrel's lucky charm. Everyone remembers what he did during our single ship action against the troll flotilla off the Scilly Isles. Between his war wizardry and Captain Dekker's leadership and seamanship and Sailing Master Crawley's mastery of magnetism we won a battle which by all rights we should have lost, indeed one we might with honor have declined altogether."

"Liam would be the first to point out how much our victory was due to the actions of the sailors in the well of the ship led by our valiant first officer whose name I won't mention lest I be thought a flatterer." Nathan added with a wink.

Dahlgren acknowledged the compliment with a nod.

"Unfortunately although Liam will occasionally sail with us, he is being assigned to the staff of General-at-Sea Sir Deane Chard, commandant of the Naval Infantry."

"Oh why is that sir?"

"I don't know, though I expect we will soon find out. Toward that end, why don't you pop over to the visiting officers quarters where Liam is settling in and chat him up. Find out what you can, without betraying confidences, of course."

"Don't worry Captain. I'll get the latest scuttlebutt from him."

"Good. Why don't you take a bit of shore leave while you are at it? We'll be careening the Petrel this afternoon to scrape her clean of barnacles and mussels so I think we can spare you for three days."

"Thanks Captain. By your leave I'll get right on it."

Nathan made his way down the pier with a jauntiness in his stride, which was saying something given that he walked with a prosthesis. A troll axe had severed his left leg just above the ankle.

The charge of quarters directed Nathan to Liam's room where he found the young war wizard stretched out atop the sheets taking a nap. Liam's nude body looked absolutely scrumptious in the light streaming through the louvers over the windows, highlighting the beads of sweat on his slender but muscular body. Nathan latched the door and climbed out of his clothes and lay down next to Liam and woke him with a kiss.

"Am I dreaming or is that really you Nathan?"

"It's me all right, Liam. You looked so tempting lying there in bed, I just had to join you. I've missed you so very much."

"And I missed you Nathan, but let me just lie here for now. I'm exhausted from my long flight from the capital. What I really need is sleep."

"You flew? All the way? It must be a thousand miles!"

"Just about. It took me three and a half days. I flew for an hour at a time four times a day with a half-hour's rest between flights. Long distance flying is exhausting."

"All right then. Go to sleep and when you do wake up, I'll give you a proper welcome."

And early the next morning Nathan did just that. Their couplings we're typically enthusiastic, boisterous, energetic, and acrobatic. Liam liked to redden Nathan's rump with a preliminary spanking, and sometimes left bruises on his buttocks where, in his passion, he squeezed the sailor boy's cheeks too tightly. Nathan was likely to return the favor leaving a hickey on Liam's throat or a bite mark on his shoulder.

Nathan sometimes found himself suspended by Liam's fetching power in otherwise physically impossible positions, like hanging head down in the air and pressed to Liam's body for mutual oral service or raised and lowered onto Liam's cock with no physical support whatsoever. Sex with a fetcher can be a whole lot of fun not to mention emotionally and psychologically vital to Nathan.

The physical reaffirmation of their love renewed the bonds strained from the long separations which were inevitable to those in the military. Liam's absence were hard on the young ensign since he had no one else, no other lovers. He was at sea so much of the time, away even from the fleshpots of the naval town where he might have found companionship or at least sexual relief, had be been so inclined. Back in the capital, Liam had the Drew, Axel, the twins, and even Finn when he was in town.

Sitting down to breakfast, Liam talked about his new assignment.

"I'll be working with the naval infantry again, Nathan. Last time it was to develop tactics combining magic with the naval infantry's standard boarding and amphibious tactics. As you know the naval infantry have always sailed on capital ships to provide protection against boarders or in company or battalion strength as landing forces carried in transports. What we are trying is something new: longships for riverine operations."

`Naval infantry will row capture longships up the many rivers feeding the the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. A vessel that could transport eighty trolls can easily accommodate a hundred humans and elves. Also the Commonwealth has recently raised three regiments of naval infantry composed entirely of Frost Giants who will go into battle aboard modified troll longships."

Liam explained that naval shipyards had rebuilt more than two hundred captured longships to accommodate Frost Giants. These vessels were open decked and clinker-built, a hundred feet in length but no more than twelve in the beam, with a shallow draft. They are propelled by both oars and a single square sail and had a steering oar to starboard. The normal complement for trolls was eighty but only about thirty for Frost Giants.

The original rowing benches had been torn out and replaced with sturdier benches spaced farther apart. Two trolls used to share a bench each pulling a single oar with both hands. On the modified longships each Frost Giant had a bench to himself rowed with a pair or oars to port and starboard. The giants were so strong that they could propel a longship considerably faster than trolls could. Their power let them tow naval long boats carrying supplies.

Their longships were not fighting platforms to engage other ships with boarding tactics. Each longship came with a crew of four human sailors to steer the vessel and operate the new style compact ballista installed at the bow. Six thousand strong, the Frost Giants were a strike force of shock troops who traveled to the battle on the water but fought on land.

"How seaworthy will these longships be with so much weight aboard?" Nathan asked.

"Now that is quite a shrewd observation, my young friend, one missed by almost everyone including the commandant of the naval infantry. Admiral Van Zant suspected as much. Sea trials in shallow waters confirmed that a longship with thirty-two Frost Giants and four humans was less seaworthy than the navy would like for long voyages. Which is why a weather wizard will always go along with the giants to tame threatening weather systems."

"So what will these regiments of naval infantry be used for?"

Liam explained that the Commonwealth intended to destroy the colony the trolls had established in the basin of the Amazon river. That mighty river and its many tributaries drained a vast area southeast of the the Great Inland Freshwater Sea. The many river channels allowed the longships with their shallow draft to penetrate everywhere in Amazonia. The trolls had annihilated more than a million of the original inhabitants and taken over their ports, towns, villages, and farms. They may have failed to plant a colony in the Barren Lands, but they had succeeded beyond expectation in Amazonia.

The first step was for the Commonwealth to eject the trolls from the Ashokan Archipelago. With its original population wiped out, the Commonwealth intended to annex the islands and use them as a permanent naval base in the southern part of the sea. Besides the garrison, Frost Giants and human colonists would be allowed to settle the abandoned towns and fertile lands of the islands left vacant by the slaughter of the islanders.

Seizing the islands would be the job of the High Seas Fleet and the naval infantry operating with their usual tactics. Then would come construction of the naval base, fortresses, roads, new districts sized for giants, etc. It would likely be two years before the Navy and the Army were ready to strike at Amazonia itself.

Army troops as well as naval infantry would row longships up the many rivers of Amazonia to seek out and engage the trolls, with the aim of wiping them out. The ships of the High Seas Fleet would be useless in such confined waters. Instead the invasion's naval support would be drawn from the three flotillas that patrolled the Long River. Expert in riverine operations, the river flotillas would be in their element in Amazonia. Even now efforts were underway to supplement the flotillas on the river to provide security when the bulk of the ships were withdrawn for the invasion.

The trolls had won their war in they oceanic archipelago against militarily weak and politicly disunited foes. On Valentia things were different. Allies all along the shores of the the Great Inland Freshwater Sea had pledged their support to the campaign in Amazonia, doubling the troops that would be committed. When it finally came, the invasion of Amazonia would be the showdown matching the Commonwealth and half the continent of Valentia against their genocidal foes the alien trolls from across the outer ocean.

The conventional military forces would be aided by magic users of all sorts including a team of druids who were taking a direct hand in the war for the first time. The aim of the trolls was to wipe out all those capable of wielding magic, but they had seriously underestimated their new enemies. The humans and elves they had expelled from their archipelago in the southern ocean had been weak in magic. The magic of the sentient races on Valentia was strong and its magic wielders numerous.

Now the trolls would reap the whirlwind as mages of all sorts concerted their powers against them. Druids, war wizards, weather wizards, water wizards, fetchers, firecasters, masters of magnetism, lightning casters, air wizards, and earth mages had rallied to the cause, accepting commissions in the reserves, pledging to throw their powers onto the balance when called upon. Healers in great numbers would accompany the allied forces which could expect heavy casualties.

Chapter 4. Wings

"So Liam how are things going with your Frost Giants?" Nathan asked his friend one evening.

"They are coming along fairly well. Since I got back to Alster three months ago, the Navy has trained two regiments recruited mostly from among Frost Giants living in the Commonwealth proper. Few had any experience with boats, but they can handle the longships pretty well now. It helps that human sailors are aboard to steer and set the sail. So much for the basics."

"So what is next?"

"Shock tactics. How to combine their strength and numbers with magical support. In my own case, I will be teaching them about the discipline necessary to work under Concealment. How to march and stand to without giving themselves away by talk or weapons clatter. Magic can do only so much to keep a formation hidden."

"Later the regiments will practice sailing in formation escorted by fighting ships like the Petrel. As you know their longships are merely transports not naval combatants."

A few weeks later, a regiment of Frost Giants put out to sea in sixty-three longships and sailed to the Scilly Isles, the southernmost territory claimed by the Commonwealth. Commodore Dekker's squadron escorted them the whole way, always keeping the weather gage on their charges so as to be able to respond to threats from any direction.

Not that anyone really thought large numbers of trolls were so close. Still it was known that the enemy was keeping an eye on the High Seas Fleet with fast scouts and spy ships posing as merchantmen. Several had been pursued and sunk. It was just possible that their commanders would try a spoiling attack, to catch a whole regiment of Frost Giants when they were most vulnerable. Hence the escort.

At the Scilly Isles the regiment practiced making amphibious landings on contested beaches and seizing forts and ports against army troops playing the role of the opposing force. These war games were preparation for the upcoming seizure of the Ashokan Archipelago which would severely curtail the ability of the trolls to operate on the waters of the Great Inland Freshwater Sea and later provide a forward base for the invasion of Amazonia.

"Since you came aboard we have had calm seas and fair winds, Warrant Officer Liam." Captain Dahrlgren said one morning. "You really are the Petrel's lucky charm."

"Or maybe our lucky charm is that pair of petrels that have been shadowing our progress all the while. Look at them soaring effortlessly to windward. Just twitching the tips of their wings now and then. When they spot schools of fish swimming just below the surface they tuck their wings in and dive into the water and snatch their prey. You know petrels stay at sea almost their whole lives returning to land only to breed."

"It's a wonder they don't tire themselves from endless flying and just fall into the sea from sheer exhaustion. I know from my flight from the capital just how tiring flying can be." Liam said

"That's because you don't have wings that let you soar." Nathan said with a smile then fell silent, lost in thought, a far away look on his face till he blurted out.

"That's it! Of course." Shaking his head he added: "It's so obvious now. Why didn't we see it sooner?"

"What are you babbling about Nathan?"

"Wings! Artificial wings. It's the next step in flight. Wings for flying long distances."

"Wings? How could that work? Humans are simply not strong enough to flap artificial wings. We don't have the flight muscles birds do nor hollow bones nor lightweight bodies. Everyone knows that. It's why those cultic depictions of men with wings growing out of their backs or flying horses are so impossibly dumb."

"No, forget about flapping a pair of wings. I meant a single rigid wing which would let a human flyer soar without engaging his fetching powers at all or very much less. He would use magic only to move forward. Don't you see, Liam? This way naval flyers can extend the range of their scouting beyond the horizon."

Nathan's inspiration came from the realization that the wings of petrels supported the birds in the air without any effort on their part. Petrels could even gain altitude by taking advantage of rising thermals or winds deflected upward by ridges and cliffs. No reason a human flyer could not do the same.

"So wings would replace the yokes we use now?"

"No, not at all. Wings are a third way to fly. Wings would allow scouts to go long distances and to loiter aloft. Flyers would still use yokes to carry ordnance for scouting and close support of ground and naval forces. And you wizards will always need those short yokes built into your armor to whisk you out of harm's way. And levitation via sandals will always be a handy way to get over or past obstacles or to take to the rooftops or the trees to get out of the way of a cavalry charge."

"So how would you build a rigid wing, Nathan?"

"That is the hard part. We are in uncharted waters here. We cannot just take a bird's wing as a model. Ours will be a single rigid wing that only supports a flyer. Birds are quite different; they have two flexible folding wings which both support and propel them. Birds flap their wings, while a rigid wing will not move save as it flexes under its load."

"Also the wingspan of a soaring bird is very long in relation to its body length, but for practical reasons the span of our wing should not be much more than say thirty feet. Otherwise it would be be unwieldy on deck or on land. The wings of soaring birds are narrow but I don't see why we cannot make ours three or four feet wide for greater lift."

"We should build a frame from bamboo and cover it with tightly woven fabric varnished or shellacked to make it stiff and impermeable to the wind."

"Not varnish, Nathan. Something non-inflammable. You don't want flyers shot down with fire arrows."

Captain Dahlgren joined in the conversation noting that his brother Haldane owned a ship chandlery in Alster which could supply the necessary materials. As for the cost, as a journeyman wizard Liam could tap the funds of the Institute of Wizardry and Magic which had an annex at Alster. When the Petrel returned to Alster Nathan and Liam got permission to drop everything and get right to work on developing a flying wing.

One of the helpers they recruited for the project was a cute blond boy named Karl-Eike Thyssen, who worked at the chandlery. Eike, as he preferred to be called, was the former castaway Nathan and the Petrel had rescued from Huckleberry Island in the Scillies. Haldane had taken him in and provided him a home and a job while Eike figured out what he wanted to do in life. He also caught up on his schooling.

"Eike is a good lad," Haldane told them. "A good worker too though I know his heart is not in the chandlery business. My two sons also work for me, so we can spare Eike for your project, Don't worry about his job; it will be here waiting for him afterwards. If he still wants it. He has talked about going to sea. Not the Navy but cargo ships engaged in coastal commerce."

Eike was happy to be able to work on something new, something more interesting than his humdrum duties in the chandlery. The assignment would let him work with his hands to build things, which was something he was good at. He only wished his magical gift would manifest itself and perhaps give him a direction in life.

The best part of the job was that he got to work with Nathan Lathrop the naval officer who had rescued him from exile then taken him under his wing, as it were.

Nathan had sheltered the young castaway from the kinds of sexual advances a boy with his looks would be expected to draw. Growing up on the island alone from age of ten to fifteen, Eike had been sexually innocent. Nathan ensured that Eike got a chance to develop at his own pace and to make his own choices.

And over the last year and a half Eike had done just that. No longer a virgin with either girls and boys he had discovered that he preferred the hard bodies of the latter. There was one youth in particular who had caught his fancy, his friend and protector Nathan Lathrop. Without coming right out with it, Eike dropped some not so subtle hints to the would-be object of his affections.

The young ensign was quick on the uptake. He just hoped that the boy wasn't flirting with him out of gratitude or mere curiosity. Then there was Liam to consider, but the young wizard was totally supportive.

"Go for it Nathan," Liam told him one night after they had made love. "Eike is a great kid and if he is sweet on you, where is the harm?"

"You wouldn't mind then, Liam?"

"Of course not. As a wise man once put it: a lover who insists on fidelity and exclusivity is just being selfish. And after all, don't I have other lovers myself: Drew, Axel, and Finn? And I am often away from the Alster and the Petrel. I think it would be a great idea for you to take up with Eike."

A couple of days later, just after supper and a couple of rounds of cheer at a local watering hole, Nathan did just that. He took Eike aside and propositioned him directly. Poor Eike blushed furiously. Unable to speak he simply nodded. When Nathan kissed the boy on the lips Eike melted into his arms. The press of their bodies left no doubt about their ardor.

Nathan led Eike back to his quarters. Touching his index finger to his lips to silence him, Nathan slowly stripped the trembling youth. Sixteen going on seventeen, Eike was slight of build and smooth muscled with a face far prettier than any boy's rightly ought to be. Blessed with a flawless complexion and fine boned features Eike had a broad brow, high cheekbones, straight nose, and a chiseled jaw line. Slightly pointed ears and a sharp chin gave him an elfin appearance and his large green eyes were set wide apart under finely arched brows, their lashes too long to have ever have been meant for a male.

Eike was still very new to male sex, the next thing to a virgin really. He blushed as Nathan removed his clothing and touched him in all his private places. Nathan kissed and stroked the lovely young body standing before him then led Eike over to the bed.

"Making love is about more than simple animal rut, as you will learn. You start with foreplay and explore each other's bodies. Find out where your lover likes to be touched and how. But be careful you don't spoil the mood. Did you know that some boys are so ticklish that it can trigger giggling at absolutely the wrong possible moment, if you take my meaning. I hope you are not one such."

"No Nathan, I am not ticklish. Your touch provokes a rush of heat to the belly, and makes me feel tingly all over. I am so very happy we are finally getting together, Nathan you and me. I have wanted you ever since I realized that I did like boys, but as my mentor I knew you would never take advantage of your protege. You gave me the chance to to explore my sexuality on my own. But now I am sure that I want you."

Encouraged Nathan resolved to give Eike the best sex of his young life so far. Nathan laid a trail of kisses from lips to nipples to chest and belly and down to his manly parts. Now Nathan was well practiced in pleasuring a boy with oral service. Eike's cock was already engorged and rigid, cantilevered over his flat belly. Nath tongued the head and the shaft and then the balls before returning his attentions to the glans. He licked the head and poked the tiny slip wit the tip of his tongue.

Nathan's oral ministrations soon had the boy at the brink of release. The trigger was when Nathan swallowed the cock to the root. Nathan nearly swooned as he felt his member engulfed in the wet warmth of Nathan's mouth and throat. Raising his head a little Nathan sucked and pumped the cock for a bit then poked a finger into Eike's nether hole to stroke his joy knot which triggered Eike's eruption. Even after Eike's cock started to soften Nathan kept it in his mouth tonguing the sweet spot and making the boy shudder with painful pleasure.

"And here you said you weren't ticklish, Eike."

"That's not the same thing, Nathan, and you know it."

After a break for Eike to catch his breath, Nathan mounted him face to face with the boy's calves thrown over his shoulders. His rhythmic thrusts quickly brought both of them to orgasm. It was often that way with boys their age, not taking long to reach climax and ready sooner than you might think for seconds and thirds.

Eike wasn't just good in bed. On the project he showed that he was as good with his hands as his boss had made him out to be. More than anyone else, it was he who built the scale models of the rigid wing conceived by Nathan. The team tried different configurations and proportions each of which Liam put to the test in the air. His fetching power not only propelled the scale models through the air, it actually let him gauge the degree of lifting power each model wing developed and its stability in flight.

After much trial and error they discovered that the best design was a cambered wing about a foot thick near the rounded front which tapered toward the trailing edge. The wind spanned thirty feet and was four feet front to back. A tail boom with horizontal winglets in back helped to keep the wing from pitching up or down.

The flyer did not simply strap himself into this contraption. Instead he sat on a saddle provided with foot rests, a control bar, and a back support. The seat was held in place by a triangle of braces, two slanting up to the wing and one to the rear boom. The rigid structure provided the flyer with a seat of the pants feel for the motion of the wing and helped greatly in controlling it. The saddle was also much more restful than simply hanging in straps which was all right for short tactical flights.

The first full-size trials showed that with only a moderate forward speed the wing developed so much lift that the fetcher flying it no longer had to hold himself aloft, just push himself along, expending only a fraction of the energy required to fly with a yoke.

Impressed by early reports Admiral Van Zant came down to Alster for the formal trials. All the Pioneers of Flight were there as official guests: Drew Altair, the twins Jemsen and Karel, Sir Axel Wilde, and Sir Willet Hanford. Drew was there in a dual capacity, on assignment for the Capital Intelligencer.

Captain Dahlgren briefed the observers on the construction of the flying wings using diagrams and a pointer. Then he outlined the maneuvers that Liam, Drew, and Sir Willet would perform to demonstrate its capabilities. He reported something that the day's trials could not show, that a flyer could stay aloft almost indefinitely. The chief restrictions on flight times were biological and weather-related not technical in nature.

The ground crew demonstrated how easy it was to take the components of a wing from storage and snap them together. The rear boom and tail attached to the main wing with two bolts. Then the saddle and its braces were latched in place. In less than two minutes a wing went from an assemblage of parts to a craft capable of flight.

Liam made the first trial, flying out over the bay at a low altitude toward the rugged peninsula that closed the bay off to the west. When the prevailing on-shore winds hit the ridge line they created a powerful updraft. Liam rode it several hundred feet then soared across the bay and back. Drew took his wing low over the water to Black Isle. Its dark volcanic sands created a thermal updraft which Drew rode to a thousand feet. He then showed how maneuverable the wing was. He could change direction aerodynamically pulling or pushing the control bar or by shifting his weight in the saddle or invoke his powers to reorient it directly.

For the finale, the trio of flyers rose to two thousand feet, tipped over into a steep dive directed straight at the onlookers only to pull out at the last second. Some of the audience actually ducked.

"All right, you have made me a believer, Admiral Van Zant admitted. "Congratulations Ensign Lathrop on your marvelous invention. Your wings will give the navy the capability it sorely needs for long range scouting. Flyers will fan out from picket ships stationed on the horizon to give the fleet a full day's warning of the approach of any hostile force."

Liam pointed out that once again it was someone without the fetching power himself who had conceived the latest breakthrough in manned flight. And much of the actual construction was due to the talents of the former castaway Karl-Eike Thyssen. On the spot Van Zant offered Eike a civilian job in the local naval shipyard. If he had the talent for it, he might eventually apprentice to the naval architects, the elite of the Navy's Bureau of Ships. Eike jumped at the chance.

In a ceremony held only ten days later Nathan was promoted to lieutenant, and like his fellow Pioneer of Flight Axel Wilde Nathan was granted a knighthood by letters patent. He could now style himself Lieutenant Sir Nathan Lathrop. It was too bad that with such short notice no one from Nathan's old Army family was on hand.

"So now everyone in our circle is a knight or a nobleman except poor Liam and Drew who, sad to say, remain a pair of untitled nobodies and a major disappointment to their families." Karel teased, shaking his head with mock regret.

"Oh yeah?" Drew challenged, Lifting the blond youth thirty feet into the air and swinging him back and forth in a dizzying arc he pointed and shouted: "That's Mister Nobody to you!"

"Drew!" Jemsen chided.

"I have a good mind to chuck Karel into the bay and let him swim back."

Picking up his cue and shaking his fist as if in anger Liam shouted: "It would be just what the miscreant deserves!"

But Drew just set Karel on the ground, none the worse for wear though a little unsteady on his feet.

In a stern voice, Liam told him:

"Let this be a lesson to you Karel. Don't provoke nobodies gifted with powerful magic." then added:

"Though, on second thought, Drew, I have to concede that Karel did have a point about you. I myself can count on a knighthood when I rise from journeyman to full wizard. Sadly, you yourself have no such prospects."

Sir Willet smiled at their banter and pointed out that Drew's prospects were actually excellent.

"With all his rescue work and the way Drew charges off to one adventure after another, a knighthood is only a matter of time." be predicted.

"Unless he gets himself killed first." Karel pointed out, getting in the last word.

One more honor was reserved for Nathan, but he was told that before the druids and healers enhanced his vitality, he had to get himself ready by adding muscle mass in both his upper storey and his legs. Though perplexed at the requirement Nathan duly increased his exercise regimen. It helped that he was still assigned to shore duty. He ran everyday for greater stamina, climbed ropes and trees to strengthen his arms and shoulders, ultimately adding about six pounds to his slender frame.

Then came the day for his transformation at the hands of the druid Dahlderon and three Healers, Sisters Maggie, Anne, and Irene who wore the traditional healer's robes of yellow silk. One was a blonde and the other two were brunettes. All were pretty, as lady Healers must be. Pleasing features were a sign of good health, and who should be healthier than Healers?

They asked the young officer to remove his prosthesis, disrobe and recline on a couch. Healing magic required hands-on contact with bare flesh. Except for having one leg shorter than the other, Nathan had a beautiful body: smooth muscled and glabrous with the willowy build of an elf though he was fully human. Still only nineteen, the boyishly cute freckle-faced carrot-topped youngster looked much too young to be an officer in the Navy of the Commonwealth.

Eike drank in the loveliness of Nathan's body, his gaze lingering significantly at the fork of Nathan's legs. He licked his lips and winked naughtily, which brought a grin to the young sailor's face.

Dahl told Nathan what to expect. To keep him still the Healers would inhibit his ability to move his limbs. He would not feel numb, for this was not true paralysis. He would be able to move his head and breathe normally. As the magic penetrated his body it would feel like he was being stuck with a thousand needles. Then would come alternating sensations of heat and cold as the magic engaged his own body's healing and generative faculties before climaxing in an intense orgasm only to subside into a dreamy euphoric state of well-being.

Linking hands, the four magic wielders invoked their powers generating a pearly effulgence which engulfed the boy as they directed their magic toward him. The glow of their healing magic pulsed from pearly white to light green and back again several times, lingering longest at his lower left leg. After it faded the healers nodded with satisfaction. All had gone well, and better than Nathan had been lead to expect. Instead of a stump his left leg ended in a fully formed ankle and foot.

Nathan sat up embarrassed at first by the copious ejaculate on his chest and belly. His folks were watching after all. He forgot all about that when he saw that he had been made whole and drew his foot toward him, feeling it with both hands. He flexed his toes and turned his foot left and right as Dahl explained.

"That's right Nathan, our healing magic had made you whole again. Now you know why we asked you to bulk up some before the procedure. We repurposed the extra bone and muscle to regrow your ankle and foot."

Nathan friends and lovers rushed forward to embrace him. The twins picked him up and put him on their shoulders and paraded him around like a conquering hero then set him down. Before he accepted his family's congratulations Nathan cleaned up with a hot towel handed him by a healer then put his uniform back on.

"You look very smart in your Navy blues, son" his father said. "I'll admit now that you made the right choice going into the Navy. You are the man I always knew you would grow up to be."

Father and son embraced warmly. Even Nathan's crusty great-uncle, retired colonel Tomas Lathrop was affable and even congenial, patting his back and telling Nathan he had made the whole family proud of him. And if any future scions of the Lathrop clan wanted a career in the Navy instead of the Army, well more power to them. In other words no more black sheep treatment. Coming from the colonel that was saying a lot.

Eike graciously conceded to Liam the right to try out the new Nathan first. Which he did that very evening. The next night it was Eike's turn to take Nathan to bed.

Everyone was happy for him. Lieutenant Sir Nathan Lathrop could now look forward to centuries of unflagging youth and vitality with a body made whole again just as it was before his injury.

Author's Note

This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead.

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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.

Comments and feedback welcome.