Elf-Boy's Friends 3
Long Life
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 1. Druids
In the heart of the continent of Valentia lay a vast rain forest called The Great Southern Forest. The woodland was not only alive it was magically self-aware, a million square miles of green sentience. A sun-dappled glade deep in the woods sheltered the stronghold of the druids of Haven, guardians of the planets's biosphere and the forest's own particular champions. Together they had turned back invasions of evildoers intent on destroying the forest and subjugating the whole world to dark powers.
On a lawn ringed by the bungalows of the druids, three nude youths played a game, tossing a toy shaped much like a pie tin back and forth. Held upside down, this Zinger, as the toy was called, could sail considerable distances borne up by the air trapped beneath its concave side.
The object of the game was for the each player in rotation to intercept the Zinger in its graceful flight and fling it on to the next. There were no points for successful catches or penalties for misses. This was a game played purely for its own sake and for the chance to run, to jump, to stretch, and yes sometimes to slip and to slide, to trip and to tumble and bounce back up again. Smiles brightened the pretty faces of the diminutive youths, accompanied by laughter, jokes, and general grab-ass rambunctiousness. In other words, it was boys having fun being boys.
Only they weren't really boys, not chronologically anyway. The youngest, the raven hair elf-boy, was in his mid-twenties though he looked a decade younger, hence sweet sixteen going on seventeen. The strawberry blond human might look no more than eighteen, but he was nearing the two century mark. The elf-boy with snow white hair had been born a unicorn till transformed by life-magic back into the elf-boy he originally had been many centuries ago in an earlier life.
The three youths, for such they really were in all essential ways save chronology, were full-fledged druids of the Exalted Order of the Druids of Haven. The raven-haired elf-boy was named Dahlderon or Dahl for short. He stood only an inch over five feet and weighed five pounds over a hundred-weight. Thanks to druidical magic, he was three times as strong as he looked.
Lithe, preternaturally beautiful, gracile, and comely were words that hardly did justice to the raven-haired elven beauty. With his delicate features, chiseled jawline, and killer cheekbones shielding lovely green eyes, his was the sort of youthful male beauty that would take your breath away, or would make even the most dedicated cenobite reconsider his commitment to celibacy.
The strawberry blond human with the blue eyes was Owain, Dahl's teacher and mentor as well as lover in a threesome with the white haired elf-boy, Merry. Owain may have looked like a cute teenager with a ready smile and an open and honest face but he was 190. Owain topped Dahl by an inch and carried a half dozen more pounds on his wiry frame. His physical strength was nearly four times normal for his size, which was the maximum enhancement that magic could achieve without radical outward changes to constitution and form.
The elf-boy with hair the color of snow was named Meirionnydd or Merry for short. Though he was an inch taller than Owain, he was more slender so only about three pounds heavier and a match for Owain in strength.
Originally an elf-boy, Meirionnydd had been reborn to a second life as a unicorn, a equine with a pure white coat, a spiral horn growing out of its brow, and a rearward bulge to its skull to accommodate its large brain. The unicorns were fully sentient and magically gifted. So much so that it was said that they didn't just employ magic, they were magic. Like druids, unicorns had the gift of Mind Speech powerful enough to cross a continent. They could Call Light, and, though they could not Cast Fire they could ignite one.
As a unicorn Merry had missed his human form most keenly when he needed to pick something up off the ground, turn the page of a book, or caress a lovely elf-boy like Dahl. They were lovers and had been even when Merry wore the shape of a unicorn. After the transformation Merry retained his unicorn powers and acquired druidical powers as well thanks to the tremendous flow of life-force over his psychic link with the wizard Rolf, his first love, who sacrificed himself by calling down his final strike on the life-leech Urloch and his millions of minions.
Merry's druidic powers gave him control of plants and animals. Druids also had earth magic and could control the elements though to a lesser extent than war wizards. But then, the magic of druids was oriented toward the living world, while that of the wizards more toward inanimate physical reality.
Finishing their game of Zinger, the trio of druids stepped under a horizontal rack made of lengths of bamboo rigged as an outdoor shower. A pull on a chain released water from a raised tank and let it flow through bamboo pipes and rain down onto a flagstone flooring. A quick scrub with sponge and soap removed sweat and salt from their sun-bronzed skins.
Then it was time for a swim or really to just float and scull around lazily rather than chalk up laps as they usually did to keep fit. The pool was an artificial structure, a stone-lined box with a sandy floor about 300 feet long. Water flowed from a nearby brook into one corner then out the exit diagonally across the rectangular enclosure. Dark stones on the bottom marked out lanes for swimmers.
Then it was time for a nap. Dahl laid himself supine on the grass. This was one of his favorite pastimes, a chance to lie back, close his eyes, and let the warm rays of the morning sun kiss his bare body as he relaxed next to his teachers and lovers. Their proximity on either side gave Owain and Merry a close look at their lover's sexy body, looking even lovelier in repose.
Dahl had one of those physiques that was more about quality than about quantity. It was slender yet muscular, tanned, taut and toned with good shoulders, a ripped torso with corrugated abdominals, a flat belly and narrow hips. He had one of those impossibly small waists you could almost put your hands around and a pert rump, with small but firm and shapely buns. No hair interrupted the flow of his faultless lines. Elves never grow body hair, even at the fork of the legs, and go beardless all their lives.
The other two druids could see that the boy was a treasure. From his tiny red nipples to a deeply indented navel, to narrow hips framing a surprisingly ample manhood for one so slight in build, he was real beauty. He carried so little body fat that his flat belly showed a tracery of downward pointing veins just under the skin. The beat of his heart was visible on the left side of his chest.
Resting didn't mean Dahl's mind was not active.
"Do you think there could be a magical threat to the Commonwealth or to the planet itself that we druids don't know about?" Dahl asked the other two.
"No, not really." Owain replied." No, I think the leaders of the Commonwealth are just being cautious. They are not letting this period of peace and progress lull them into complacency. Look what happened the last time they got complacent, when the perennial threat of raids by the eastern barbarians suddenly metamorphosed into an existential threat to the whole planet. That was less than ten years ago."
"I agree," Merry said. "And if we are to help them, we have no time to waste. The three of us must soon travel to the eastern continent to reestablish the order of the druids there. Who would have thought that a minor earthquake could trigger a landslide and create such a massive wave in that lake? Survivors reported that a wall of water nine hundred feet high obliterated the lakeside town where the druids of Karelia had sited their villa. Only one druid escaped and only because he was elsewhere at the time. Now just as we once recruited you Dahl and the others to reinforce our numbers here on Valentia we must recruit and train new druids to protect Karelia, not only from evildoers but from natural disasters and ecological imbalance."
"But the Ruling Council of the Commonwealth is not asking for more druids. What they want is more war wizards, Firecasters, and those with the gift of Fetching."
"Obviously they don't expect us druids to produce more wizards, but they want our help to slow losses from attrition. Just as elves are over-represented among the druids, most wizards are human. Their lifespans are much shorter than those of elves or druids, typically what they call their proverbial five score and ten. That makes the careers of their magic users short, rarely more than four score. Now if their lifespans matched or at least approached our own, then in time they would have five or six times as many talents as they do now."
"So when do we start for the Commonwealth's capital?"
"In two days, Dahl."
"And in the meantime?"
"This!"
Owain propped himself up on one elbow and turned his attentions to the raven-haired beauty lying so conveniently to hand. He reached out and stroked Dahl's chest and belly. The elf-boy smiled over at him. Owain bent forward and laid a series of gentle kisses on those familiar lips which lead to more fervent ones. Hands roamed eagerly over lithe bodies, rubbing and stroking and squeezing. The strawberry blond youth quivered with the lascivious feelings and sexual desires coursing through his youthful body. He pushed Dahl back to the ground, stroked his rampant cock to make it even harder, then straddled the recumbent elf-boy's hips, reaching back to help Dahl slip himself into Owain's welcoming hole. Braced on his knees, Owain lifted himself up and down on the rigid cock inside him while Dahl stimulated Owain's member with his right hand while tweaking Owain's nipples with the other.
Not to be left out of the fun, Merry took a standing position astride Dahl's head and presented himself for oral service, batting Owain's chin and cheeks with his turgid member. He let Owain kiss and lick its head and circle the rim of the glans with his tongue but did not insert it fully, teasing the panting druid. Owain pleaded with his eyes and Merry relented, letting the full length of his manhood slid into the warm wet channel of mouth and throat. With two centuries of experience Owain was an expert at sucking cock. Merry closed his eyes savoring the twirling and sucking sensations and the way the moist walls of the throat clutched at his shaft. It was not long before he reached climax, his gism spurting out of his cock and into the welcoming mouth of his lover.
The white haired youth drew back and let the last of his juices spurt onto the pretty face turned up toward him, then used the head of his cock to paint the complaisant boy's lips and cheeks and chin. Merry squeezed one last gob of gism from his cock, offering it to the kneeling boy. As a token of his submission, Owain touched his tongue to it, drawing it out in glistening string connecting his mouth to tip of the former unicorn's cock. Owain thought of how he must look, on his knees bare ass naked, impaled on a big cock up his ass, his face all slicked with another boy's gism, the very image of sexual submission. He clutched himself down there and shivered with the frisson of his own naughtiness.
Both Owain and Dahl erupted right after Merry. Dahl spurted his juices deep inside Owain's bowels, while Owain shot all over the recumbent boy's belly then laid himself onto Dahl's sticky torso savoring their closeness, listening to the beat of his heart. Merry sank down to his knees and heaved a sigh. Tired and spent, the three boys lay quietly in post coital lassitude savoring their closeness.
Chapter 2. Elysion
Taitos Klarendes, Count of the Eastern March, beckoned his visitors to seat themselves in rattan chairs on the porch, sheltered from the tropical sun. They settled at a low table across from the noble and his lover, the wir-youth Aodh. A servitor brought pitchers of cider and spring water. With a flourish of his hand, Klarendes invoked his powers as a firecaster to chill their contents, dispersing the extracted heat to the atmosphere.
"So what brings all three of you to Elysion this time, Dahl, you, and Owain, and Merry? Don't get me wrong. Even if you three didn't already have a standing invitation, I would hardly turn away three of Haven's senior druids from my door."
"We were on our way to the capital and detoured here for a trip down memory lane. It's almost ten years since we all first met. I could say that the years have been kind to you, Taitos, but we all know it is due to your strong admixture of elven blood. You look like you were in your mid-twenties. That won't change much for several centuries. And Aodh there, as a shapeshifter, a wir, never gets older except chronologically. He will be sweet sixteen indefinitely."
Of medium height though still taller than any of his guests, the handsome nobleman had the bearing and the lean build of the gentleman farmer, hunter, and former soldier that he was. His light brown hair was cut short, a concession to the tropical climate while his regular features suggested both strength and warmth of character. The count was comfortably dressed in a light tunic and sandals, his visitors in riding silks.
The nude youth with them was Klarendes' spouse, Aodh: small, skinny, and smooth muscled, comely as an angel, and with skin like porcelain that never tanned or burned. Though he seemed utterly fragile and vulnerable, the epicene youth was actually twice as strong as he looked. Large green eyes dominated the stunning face of the androgynous youth which tapered from a wide brow down a pert nose to a narrow chin. Adding to his fey look, the wir was sloe-eyed, his orbs shaped like almonds and slanted faintly upward above prominent cheekbones. Aodh's eyebrows bent in a angle rather than a round arch. From there his face tapered to a small mouth with pouty lips just begging to be kissed and a sharp chin. Dark hair worn in a shaggy cut with bangs and tapering sideburns framed a face as cute as a kitten's.
"It's just the two of us here right now. My sons are away. Eborn is courting in Dalnot. I am not sure how serious it is, but it looks like he just might provide me with that 'heir and a spare' before his older brother does. As for Artor, he is at the capital. Something hush-hush is brewing but, as a Hand of the Commonwealth, he could hardly explain what in a letter much less a heliogram that might pass through many hands. Can you tell us anything?"
"No harm in letting you and Aodh in on the secret. With my ability to sense life sign I know that no one lurks within earshot. So here goes."
"The destruction of the great military-industrial-religious nexus built by the Dark Prophet and later the life-leech Urloch ended that existential threat to civilization. And our diplomats and military seem to have the situation in the flatlands far to the west well in hand, at least in these early days of our intervention there aimed at preventing the rise of a military peer on this continent. Nevertheless, we cannot afford complacency."
"As the chief defender of civilization on Valentia, the Commonwealth of the Long River has long exercised a benign hegemony over the continent. Our position here seems secure. We have reason to be less sanguine about what is happening on the other two continents that straddle the equator of this planet of ours so aptly named Haven. So the Druidic Council is sending the three of us to the eastern continent to survey the situation there and also to reestablish the presence of druids in Karelia. A natural disaster wiped out all but one of us over there.
Before we leave for that mission in Karelia, we were asked via MindSpeech to travel to the capital as part in a project that, over time, will boost the magical defenses of the Commonwealth."
"You will remember how I was able to use alchemy and my druidic healing power to confer longevity, perpetual youthfulness, and keener senses on our friends the twins Jemsen and Karel. The treatment also gradually doubled their strength over the next two years. The Order of Druids has since improved the method that I used on the twins. Working in teams of three, we now can perform the same healing magic on several persons in the course of a day. Ours is the first trio to undertake the task."
"So who will be the beneficiaries of your treatment. How will you select them?"
"In a sense they are already self-selected by their accomplishments. Without being specific, the Council asked certain prominent persons in the capital district to recommend persons worthy of the Commonwealth's approbation for their use of the magical gifts to benefit the public, preferably from among the sentient races with shorter life spans especially humans."
"As you know, like Healers we druids have no definite span of life. Our healing magic works as an unconscious level to keep us youthful and healthy and strong indefinitely, till misadventure or foul play ends our existence. That is true for every druid, not matter what sentient race he hails from. Many are elves like Merry and me. Owain is of human stock, of course. "
"It is different with the Commonwealth's war wizards. Most are fully human. Now the lifespan of a human is proverbially said to be five score and ten, or one hundred and ten years. Quite a few chalk up another score, but that is the average span. With a war wizard, his best days are behind him at eighty or so. Manipulating the physical realm as they do is more taxing than manipulating the biosphere the way we druids work our magic. That is why there are so few war wizards available at any one time to protect the peoples of the Commonwealth. If the lifespan of every wizard were increased to five or six centuries, then in time we would have five or six times as many wizards."
"I see. Well they are all men of proven character and trustworthiness. More power to them if you can extend their lives."
"That's less than half the story, Taitos. We were asked to do the same thing for a picked handful of the most powerful among those whose magical gift are Firecasting or Fetching. For too long the state has overlooked this powerful magical resource. The government has never undertaken a census of the magically gifted, regarding their gifts as personal assets, not as state assets. Now the Commonwealth is intent on formally incorporating some of these magic users into its forces, though only in the reserves rather than the active forces. Our society needs these men and women to continue in the many civilian jobs their powers lend themselves to."
"One further development on strengthening our defenses. As you know, Taitos, the Council was impressed by the way that young Fetcher acted as a force multiplier for your son's firecasting in the battles against the centaurs. More generally the army and militia have adopted Aodh's glass globes for general use. The inflammable oils can also be ignited easily enough by flung coals or brands or fire arrows."
"Yes, I understand that the arsenals are turning out the glass globes by the tens of thousands every month. In a couple of years, we will be able to supply all of our forces both regular and militia."
"If only I got a fee of just a single copper for each globe, I would be rich! Did I sell out too cheaply, Taitos?"
"And what would you spend such wealth on anyway, my little kitten? Besides, you are already wealthy in your own right from Balandur's bequest. I should explain to you three that Aodh assigned his inventor's license to the Commonwealth in exchange for their paving the road from Elysion out to the military road that leads to Dalnot. That makes our honeymoon resort by the falls more accessible to newlyweds from all over, boosting employment among our people. It was Aodh's gift to Elysion."
"I would have expected nothing less from your spouse, Taitos, given his reputation." Owain answered.
Aodh flushed, embarrassed by the praise. What else could he have done? Elysion was his home now and the Commonwealth his new homeland.
Dahl continued:
"Artor was already a powerful firecaster but with his promotion from journeyman to the status of a full Hand of the Commonwealth, the war wizards have shared their secret of throwing white fire. The Council reversed its former policy of keeping that sort of magic as a near monopoly of the Commonwealth's war wizards. Now since Artor shares your blood he will not need our procedure. "
"You already know the young journalist Drew Altair, the young Fetcher I mentioned. Not only is he good friends with Artor, I understand the young man has interviewed you twice now for his news sheet, the Capital Intelligencer. With his powerful gift of Fetching he is a prime candidate for the procedure."
"Yes he would be an excellent choice. Drew Altair shows a lot of promise. I always read his articles in the Intelligencer whenever I am in the capital. He is a fine wordsmith and a talented sketch artist too. With his keen mind he is clever at finding ways to maximize his Fetching powers. Look what he did in New Varangia, when he joined forces with Artor. He has a whole repertoire of tactics now: shadow boxing with those steel balls of his, flinging incendiaries, throwing drugged darts, a variation of Arik's poison arrowheads, yanking eyeballs to blind an enemy, and so forth. Drew is definitely an asset for the Commonwealth. He has a good heart."
"I have to wonder though what the Commonwealth will expect from Drew and the others in return for the boon of extended youth and longevity. From the war wizards the state gains a much longer period of service. What will the Commonwealth require from the other beneficiaries of the procedure?"
"Public service when called upon. For legal reasons they will be enrolled in the ready reserve as lowly ensigns which puts them under military discipline and control during active service. Oh, and they will have to report for a month of initial training in procedures and tactics."
"That sounds quite reasonable. I cannot imagine anyone turning down that deal."
Just then Klarendes' other feline companion, the personable ginger cat Esmeralda, padded onto the porch. Instead of going to Klarendes she sniffed at the visitors. Owain she hardly knew. His visits had been few and far between. She liked Merry, who always fed her cat treats, but had long thought there was something strange about him. For some reason, an image of a white horse with a horn on its forehead always popped into her mind when he showed up.
Dahl, she knew well. On his last visit Dahl had cured her rheumatism. No, she hadn't been rejuvenated, but he had taken the stiffness and pain away. These days she ate better and her coat looked sleek and glossy. She clambered onto Dahl's lap and head butted him. Aodh smiled.
"She remembers what you did for her when you were last here."
"How could I let arthritis handicap an old friend like Esmeralda. She is otherwise in pretty good health for a cat her age. All I did was give her a few more good years free from pain and stiffness."
Stroking the cat under the chin, he added:
"Too bad I cannot, in good conscience, extend her life, but that wouldn't be ethical. Nature must take her course. Oh, and it might surprise you to learn that the Ruling Council said the same thing about themselves."
"How is that?" Klarendes asked.
"As you may know, except for a couple of elves, three humans with elven blood, a dwarf, and one of Balandur's people, the rest of the council are fully human. But they were unanimous that the council not become ossified by overly long tenure in office. Experience counts but so does a fresh persecutive from a continual renewal of new blood. Council membership is and always must be the cap of a career, not a career in itself. That is why those with long tenure retire after a time and the council co-opts replacements from prominent industrialists, natural philosophers, retired military officers, city mayors, and the like."
"To their great credit, the Council ruled out political power, social position, fame, and great wealth as factors in choosing the beneficiaries of your druidic healing magic. The Commonwealth has no shortage of politicians, plutocrats, aristocrats, or celebrated personages. What it has too few of is war wizards, who number fewer than two dozen, and sentients with powerful gifts for Firecasting or Fetching. No one knows how many there are but whatever the number, it is too many for our team of three druids to work on between other assignments.
"Besides, anything except scarcity of talent would not be acceptable to you druids. That gave the council the necessary political cover to reject requests from any other reason."
"Good for them. Good for the Commonwealth." Klarendes nodded.
The conversation then turned to less weighty matters. Aodh asked the former unicorn:
"So how is your love life these days, Merry, now that you are an elf-boy once again?"
"Just fabulous having these two for lovers. But I am gratified that on my visits here Aodh and I can also get together. In the old days, as an equine, I could not abide the touch of a feline. As an elf-boy once again, I relish it. "
"I have such a vivid memory of our very first tryst together, what was it, five years ago now? Aodh was so incredibly lovely he took my breath away, but unapproachable as he was before my change, he was an itch I longed to scratch but could not. After the change I stayed at Elysion for a spell. Klarendes saw us looking at each other, saw our longing, and practically pushed us into the sack together."
"Nonsense! I merely told Aodh that Merry had been pining away for him for years. It was about time he took him over to the lake, went for a swim, stretched out on the grass in the sun, and did what came naturally to two preternaturally comely youths who were attracted to one another. I even had a picnic basket sent over from the resort."
The nobleman indulged Aodh's liaison with the twins and Dahl, not to mention very occasional dalliances like the wir's recent tryst with the young Frost Giant Finn Ragnarson. So it was not much of a stretch to include their old friend Merry, turned into an elf-boy once again. Klarendes was wise enough to see that Aodh's love for Merry in no way diminished his bond with the count.
So on that day five years earlier, with his blessing, the two youths, the wir-panther and the elf-boy who was once a unicorn went swimming and canoeing at the lake. Then they stretched on the grass to bask in the sun. Nothing says you are naked like the kiss of the sun's rays on your bare ass. In late afternoon a serving boy from the resort came by with a picnic basket and a tatami mat, set it down without a word and left. They dug into the delicious food and drink.
After their meal they rested on the mat, digesting their meal, talking and joking heedless of the passage of time. The planet's second moon rose just after the sun set, bathing their youthful bodies in a pearly blue effulgence. In due course the two young lovers became locked in an embrace. It was hard to say who was the more beautiful or the sexiest.
Aodh was a walking wet dream. Impossibly pretty, he was a melding of the innocent and the wanton, the epitome of a boy in the full bloom of his youth. Small, skinny, and smooth muscled, comely as an angel, with a skin like porcelain, and looking utterly fragile and vulnerable.
As for Merry, the wir was two inches taller, slender, lithe, and tautly muscled, with good shoulders, narrow hips, and a ripped torso. Like Aodh his skin was like porcelain and neither tanned nor burned. Merry reached out and caressed Aodh's face, stroking his pouty lips with his thumb.
"See, no jolt of electricity." Aodh pointed out. "Well not that kind anyway," he amended.
"How lovely you are, Aodh. I have wanted to touch you for so very long."
"Sorry I can't say the same. No offense, Merry, but I never favored your horse-faced look. A real turnoff if the truth were known."
"Tsk, tsk. Joke all you want, but I know you are just stalling. You are hesitant to express your longing for me, Taitos's blessing notwithstanding."
"You're right, Merry." Aodh said, suddenly serious. "I do want you, very much. We have been friends and allies for years, and now here you are, no longer a unicorn but an elf-boy and druid. In your new form you are a walking wet dream, a vision of youthful male pulchritude."
Unfamiliar as they were with each other's bodies, at least to the touch, the lovers took things slowly. Merry laid a tentative kiss on the young wir's lips. He held the second kiss longer. He smiled shyly then shifted his lips to Aodh's nose and chin and cheeks before skipping down to the wir's tiny red nipples which he favored with both kisses and gentle nibbles. Aodh giggled and ruffled Merry's snow white hair. Merry's kisses trailed lower, down the mid-line of the chest to the navel and then to the corners of Aodh's narrow hips. A stirring of Aodh's manhood showed the kisses were having their intended effect.
Merry and Aodh, druid and wir, made love with an eagerness which was was born not only of lust and friendship but of years of longing for what had always seemed an impossible consummation. Only now it was possible.
Limbs interlocked their kisses and caresses grew more ardent, even frenzied. They rolled on their sides and pleasured each other's cock orally, hands roaming all over their rumps, touching, stroking, probing. They came quickly, tasting and swallowing each other's gism.
Their cries during their simultaneous eruption was paean to life and love, to the powers of generation, to continuity of the flesh and the great chain of being, and, supremely, to the beauty of the sexual male. The climax was a catharsis for them both.
As they had done on that day years earlier, on this day too Aodh and Merry left the others at the manor and once again disported themselves by the lake. It was indeed a trip down memory lane. After their tryst, their route back to to the manor passed the grassy area where groups of nude youths were flinging Zingers to one another. Everyone knew that Aodh and Merry were friends with the inventors, the twins Jemsen and Karel, so they asked the pair to join them, so Aodh and Merry played for an hour.
More than a few participants took a fancy to these two nude youths of surpassing beauty and wished fervently they could bed one or both of them. Regardless of sexual fantasies, everyone thought they made a stunning couple.
Later Merry and Aodh soaked their tired bodies in a hot tub. It was big enough for them to stretch out. With Merry only three inches over five foot and Aodh only oner their slender wiry physiques left plenty of room to stretch their legs for a good soak.
"Yes," Merry summed up "It was a day I will never forget! I am glad we have had a chance to relive it."
Then he raised a glass of wine in a toast to love, youth, and long life.
Chapter 3. Long Life
"Really, Lord Dahlderon? You mean I would never get any older? I, Drew Altair, journalist and bon-vivant extraordinaire, would be a kid for ages and ages? Of course I'll take that deal. Oh Boy!"
The druid's interlocutor was a cute young fellow in a sleeveless tunic of white silk that displayed and flattered the trim and taut body he had obviously just recently grown into. Drew had spiky auburn hair and narrow sideburns reaching below the ear lobe plus straight eyebrows with almost no curve to them. They framed a cute face with a high forehead, chiseled jawline, and a perky nose slightly turned up at the end.
"It's a great relief to me really. One of the reasons I have such an active love-life is that I am aware of how brief the bloom of my youth would be. My mantra was 'So many boys; so little time'. Now I will have that time. I will stay just as I am now, an irresistible boy-toy for the next five or six centuries. Bring it on!"
<Well, that was an easy sell.> Dahl mind spoke to his fellow druids, Merry and Owain.
<It's hard to see anyone turning down our offer.> Owain observed.
Merry replied. <It would be the worse kind of separation — a long goodbye as one spouse ages while the other remains young.>
"Let me guess. You guys were speaking mind to mind just now, right?"
<Yes, we were, Drew.>
"Hey, I heard that in my mind. Wait though. That's just you projecting, isn't it. I haven't suddenly developed the gift myself."
<No, you haven't. It is, as you said. We were projecting. We druids can reach just about anywhere on the continent, or in Merry's case virtually the whole planet.>
"Cool!"
"Er, now that I am about to become one of you long-lived folks, I don't mind admitting to just a teensy bit of jealousy about the twins and Aodh, and others like yourselves who could contemplate centuries without flinching."
Owain smiled ruefully. <Our young friend is being more tactful than candid. As a person of fully human stock, I once stood in his sandals. Drew was envious all right, but, being good-hearted, he reproached himself for those feelings, though they were perfectly natural.>
"Why suddenly so pensive, Drew?" Merry asked.
"I got to thinking just now about my family: my mom and dad, my brother, my uncle, and the boys in my circle, the guys I grew up with, people I will one day leave behind. Perpetual youth has a down side, doesn't it?"
"You demonstrate wisdom beyond your years, Drew."
"So when do we start?"
"Right away but the process takes three days. You have to take our potions for several days so that the necessary alchemical elements suffuse throughout your body before we druids invoke our healing magic."
At the appointed time, the young journalist returned, this time in the nude, as was his wont. When not on assignment Drew preferred to prance around the capital with nary a stitch, not even one of those genital pouches that older youths might wear. Nearly eighteen though looking a year or two younger, because of his small stature he was often taken for just another underage bare-assed kid on the streets. In a society without nudity taboos, younger boys went about habitually naked. Even when they moved into youth lodges at age fifteen, many youths and young men disdained clothing, not bothering with even the genital pouch they were entitled to wear.
The druids had the young journalist recline on a couch. Linking hands, they invoked their powers generating a pearly effulgence which engulfed the boy too as the druids directed their magic at him. The glow of their healing magic pulsed from pearly white to light green and back again several times. After it faded the druids nodded their satisfaction. All had gone perfectly.
As for the subject of their ministrations, he asked:
"Did it work? I have to say that I don't feel any different."
Dahl shook his head and smiled.
"That is the whole point my friend. You are not supposed to feel different, not today not tomorrow, not next year, not decades from now. Also you will find that your magically enhanced vitality will improve your reflexes, double your strength and stamina, increase your resistance to disease, speed healing, and stimulate your sexual potency, as if you really needed any help on that score."
Drew stepped over to the dressing mirror on the wall and examined his own reflection turning slowly to see every inch of his trim and taut physique. It was starting to sink in that the pretty boy-toy reflected in the glass would look exactly like that, exactly the same age for half a dozen lifetimes instead of aging and dying in only a single century. That realization brought tears to his eyes.
"Something wrong?" Dahl asked.
"Actually. I couldn't be happier but this transformation is sobering as well. From now on I will have to prove, if only to myself, that I am truly worthy of this opportunity, this gift of vitality and youth. Whenever the Commonwealth has need of me, I will answer the call."
"Now the journalist in me forces me to ask a question. A process like this cannot be kept secret. People will wonder whether they could qualify. I know there are just the three of you doing it now, but what of the other druids? What about Healers? I have heard that they are really druids themselves whose talents lend themselves to healing more than to general magic. Could they do what you do?"
"Well, that's several questions, Drew," Merry answered.
"Trying to keep this a secret would only make the limitations on its use seem sinister. No, we have to be candid and explain to the tens of millions of our fellow citizens that only a few hundred can benefit from this process, namely war wizards and those with powerful gifts in Firecasting or Fetching. It takes three druids working together. There are only twenty of us on Valentia and now only a single druid on the continent of Karelia, which is why we three are traveling there very soon to recruit and train new talent."
"As you know, we consider Healers to be female druids. Their healing gift is actually more powerful than our own, but their specialization limits their abilities with general magic, which is also part of the process. With time and study, we might find a way for them to take part, possibly with two female healers teamed with a male druid. But that is years in the future. Maybe decades."
"In any event, the sentient races of the planet have always lived with neighbors whose lifespans were much different from their own. In the Commonwealth, humans are just under one half of the population, with many long-lived giants and elves. Even dwarves live twice as long as humans. True many of those races live apart, the elves in their vales and the dwarves in their caverns. Even in the cities, they inhabit their own districts with dwellings and facilities suitable to their dimensions. Even so there is much friendly social intercourse among the races. That puts the news of our process in a wider context. Sooner than you might think, any false hopes the new process raises will fade and be forgotten."
"I take it you will be writing an article on this subject? Would you mind letting us take a look at it before you publish. Not that we are trying to control the news, but just for the sake of accuracy."
"Normally that sort of request would raise a red flag with a journalist, so don't tell our publisher, who not so incidentally is my father. With you druids it's a different matter. So yes, I will let you look at my copy. These days my editor, who is my older brother, gives me a free hand, so my stuff gets printed pretty much as I write it."
A frown shaped the pretty features of the young journalist.
"You are looking pensive again, my young friend," Merry said.
"Oh, I was thinking again about what I should do with my life now between periods of duty for the Commonwealth. It has got to be more than just one long romp with boys."
"Don't sell yourself short, Drew." Owain counseled. You already have made quite a mark for yourself as a journalist and war correspondent."
"Not to mention as a soldier in the recent war." Dahl pointed out.
"And you are friends with Artor Klarendes, one of the Dread Hands of the Commonwealth. Those fellows are notorious for enlisting young innocents in their schemes and dragging them off on wild adventures. They recruit their young allies for their magical gifts like Taitos's Firecasting and Arik's Fetching. I suspect that history will repeat itself. Artor's father Taitos aided Balandur. I suspect you will help Taitos' son."
"You mean I would be like a secret agent? Cool!"
The druids smiled indulgently at the naivete and optimism of youth. Everything with this kid was "cool." Where their own years or centuries of experience saw peril, youth saw action and glory. Maybe it was better that way.
"I know this calls for a celebration, but the twins are out of town just now so I am at loose ends."
"Well perhaps one of us can help fill that empty slot in your social calendar and tie up those loose ends." Dahl suggested.
"Or maybe all of us?" Merry suggested.
"Ha! Ok, I do like the idea of bedding all of you, but one at at time, please. Please remember I am practically a virgin."
"Right!" Merry snorted. "Now who goes first?"
"Oh that would be you, Merry," Dahl conceded. "Age before beauty, as they say. Oh and Drew, go easy on our Merry here. He's not getting any younger you know; just look at all that grey hair."
"Nonsense! Pay no attention to that clown." Merry retorted. My hair is not grey at all but snow-white, the same as when I wore the form of a unicorn. And as a matter of strict chronology, this elf-boy body of mine in younger than either of theirs."
As Dahl and Owain left the room, Merry threw off his druidical robe, held his hand out to the human boy, and drew Drew's nude body into a close embrace, their stiff members pressed between their bellies.
"Now I know you really want me, Drew. Nothing says hello and glad to see you quite so sincerely as a soldier standing at attention."
Their first kisses were tentative, even shy, but their hormones soon took over and they went at it with a will. Drew just loved love sex with a boy of his own sort, small and slender and preciously cute. He felt energized as they jumped onto the couch and rolled around kissing and laughing and touching. Unlike with a big guy like Finn the Frost Giant, it was easy to breathe no matter what their relative positions, since the small bodies of boyish lovers do press down so much on each other. As Drew liked to describe it:
"When I have sex with another pretty boy, we pleasure each other equally and reciprocally, trading active and passive roles or mutually sucking cock. Both of us like the taste of a boy's cum or just having it splash us in the face. That made us both feel very sexy and desired. You know you have connected with a boy when he splooges on your face and after that you kiss you, dueling tongues probing deep."
"Now I also respond to powerful males who use their size and strength to dominate me. Sex with an older male, especially one taller and powerfully built is a need and a craving. With a man I go all weak in the knees and submissive, ready to drop to my knees and worship as a supplicant. The fact is that I am a bottom boy at heart, a natural submissive. That describes what it was like between me and Finn."
"That's enough words from you, my young friend. Too many in fact. I dare say you talk as much the twins, which is really saying something, er, no puns intended."
Merry's hands and lips caressed the exquisite boy he felt privileged to finally be able to make love to. He stroked the red-head's slender legs, cupped the small buttocks, and delved into his cleavage, making love to Drew's body with his hands but touching the boy's proud cock only with lips and tongue. Merry engulfed him to the root in the wet warmth of his mouth, then bobbed his head up and down its full length sucking and slurping.
He pulled off just in time as Drew's ball sac drew up tight against the fork of his legs, its globularity contrasting with the cylindrical shape of his virile member. The helmet turned purple, its tiny lips spreading open. Abruptly, just after the boy took a deep breath, his proud cock engorged beyond its previous impressive girth and began spurting and spitting his white seed onto his belly. After several strong spurts, the gism continued to drain from the softening shaft but slower, creating a limpid pool in the hollow of his hairless belly.
"Wow! That was great! Thanks, Merry. My turn now."
Now in the amatory arts Drew was more an enthusiastic amateur than an accomplished lover. Merry had centuries of experience, while Drew was a boy who had been sexually active for just a few years. Still he acquitted himself well and Merry had no complaints. Quite the opposite. Whatever their shortcomings in technique, teenagers make up for it in enthusiasm and athleticism. The pair disported themselves for the rest of the afternoon, took a break for a shower and a light supper, then went at it again.
Poor Drew's bottom wound up sore from Merry's lovemaking, Merry's erection was large — no longer literally a horse cock, but still big, and it was repeatedly thrust into Drew's pert bottom, a stallion riding a filly. But the druid's healing power eased Drew's pains leaving only post-coital lassitude and the satisfaction of intense pleasure.
Over the next two weeks while the druids were in the capital, the red-headed teenage journalist bedded Merry and his colleagues several times. With their impending mission to the eastern continent of Karelia, they would be away and out of his reach for several years.
In their encounters Drew almost always bottomed. He loved to be treated as a boy-toy. That was why, except on business, he never wore clothing. He wanted people to see him, to admire him, and to dream of intimacy with his incredibly sexy body. Drew was a generous lad, eager to share his youth and his sexuality with the world.
And now, thanks to the druids, he had all the time in the world.
Author's Note
If you have enjoyed this story and others like it, consider making a donation to the Nifty Archive. It is so easy. They take credit cards.
This 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. This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead.
Readers who like these stories might want to try my two series 'Daphne Boy' and 'Naked Prey' in the Gay/Historical section of the Archive. My 'Jungle Boy' series of Hollywood tales 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.