Elf-Boy's Friends 39
Journeys
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 1. Around the Pool
The cute blond boy clambered out of the swimming pool then lay on his back on the grass under a shade tree to rest. Swimming laps was good exercise, but it did tire the body. With a sigh he closed his eyes and dozed, not really asleep but also not attentive to anyone around, including more than a few fellow residents of the residential hotel who gazed with longing in their hearts and loins at this sleeping beauty, a veritable vision of youthful male concupiscence, bronzed and nude. Few of the males who fancied pretty boys would have turned down an assignation with the exquisite youth.
Karl-Eike Thyssen or Eike as he was known was slightly built, slender, and smooth muscled. Though a bit past twenty he looked to be no more than sixteen and would stay that way for centuries thanks to druidical healing magic. Far prettier than any boy rightly ought to be, he had a flawless complexion and fine boned features including a broad brow that hinted at his intellect, high cheekbones, a straight nose, plus subtly pointed ears and chin which gave him an elfin appearance although his heritage was fully human. 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.
The youth looked healthy enough though Eike was definitely on the skinny side. Slender and smooth muscled he had the tawny skin of someone who habitually went about in the nude or sky-clad as they were calling it these days. But then he had been naked for nearly all his five years after his clothes had rotted away as a castaway on Blueberry Island in the Scilly Isles. Rescued at the age of fifteen by a young naval officer named Nathan Lathrop the boys had quickly become friends and in time roommates and lovers.
As Eike dozed the twins Jemsen and Karel got back from their run in a city park. The twins ran practically every day not only to build endurance and strength but also to show off the splendid physiques which nature had graced them with. Boyishly handsome, tanned and toned, and with hair the color of cornsilk their slender physiques and coloration were suggestive of a pair of palomino colts.
The twins practically exuded good health and sex appeal. Nude and as evenly tanned as Eike, their skin was just as smooth and glabrous, being totally free of body hair, even at the fork of the legs. Like many habitual runners their bodies were lean and taut, the tracery of veins on arms and legs showing how little body fat they carried on their frames.
Jogging to a halt the twins went into their usual post-run routine starting with stretching their Achilles tendons. Side by side they leaned against a wall, one leg forward with knee bent the other straight and placed farther back, a posture which they held for a slow count to fifteen then switched to the other leg then repeated once more. Next came ham-string stretches. With a foot propped up on a rail, they bent forward bringing their chins almost in contact with their shins as their tanned torsos glistened with sweat highlighting the sensuous curves of their lithe bodies.
After a quick scrub under the outdoor shower heads, the twins slipped into the casual section of the pool and let the cool water support their tired bodies in the weightless aqueous environment. They could not really float but had to scull lazily, keeping their limbs moving since physiques like theirs, all muscle and bone and sinew, made their bodies slightly denser than water. Despite the handicap of negative buoyancy, the twins were strong swimmers and very much enjoyed the water. They also liked to horse around and engage in the grab ass games of which young males were so fond.
"Ah, such is the life of the leisured class," Drew Altair indicated to Corwin Klarendes, his fellow reporter at the Capital Intelligencer. "While we two work and sweat for a living, boys such as these layabouts don't have to trouble themselves about anything so mundane as a job."
"Ah but we do have a job," Karel retorted. "Jemsen and I are professional adventurers, which is quite a strenuous line of work indeed, if only episodically. And just like you two scribblers, we are successful writers, now with a Writers' Prize of our own to prove it."
The twins were still basking in the glow of their recent Writers Prize. Theirs had been one of the rare special prizes for an entire body of work outside the regular categories, in the twins' case their successful line of field guides.
Published under their imprint Gemini Field Guides, each volume described some aspect of the natural world. So far the imprint had published guides on land navigation, tracking, landforms, tree identification, song birds, raptors (eagles, hawks, and owls), social insects, edible wild plants, and the identification and care of ferns, cycads, and bromeliads, decorative plants near and dear to their hearts.
Written and illustrated with maps and drawings by the twins, the field guides were printed on sturdy linen rag paper for durability but with soft covers and in a small format that let readers slip them into a pocket or pack.
It was true that the twins were the only members of their circle without a formal job. Nevertheless and despite their considerable wealth they had no use for idleness. Leisure, fun, and frolic were all part of a good life to be sure, but those needed to be balanced by work, intellectual pursuits, and particularly adventure. They had not exaggerated about being professionals at adventuring, witness their many expeditions, explorations, and military campaigns.
Come to think of it, maybe it was time for the Corps of Discovery to set out on another expedition. But where?
The two young journalists slipped out of the white silk tunics they favored for professional wear and took a quick shower. Riding his bicycle Corwin had worked up a sweat on the tropical heat of the capital. As a fetcher, Drew Altair had propelled his vehicle telekinetically. Still the weather was hot so he showered too.
Drew was an impossibly cute twink with spiky auburn hair and narrow sideburns reaching below the ear lobe plus straight eyebrows with almost no curve to them. They framed a fine-boned face with a high forehead, chiseled jawline, and a perky nose slightly turned up at the end. He was slight in build, standing only five foot zero and weighing but a hundred pounds, yet his tiny frame was easily twice as strong as it looked, enhanced by the same druidical healing magic that had lengthened his life and prolonged his youth.
Corwin Klarendes stood four inches taller. Short, slight of build, and clean limbed and with close cropped blond hair, he was blessed with fine-boned features that suggested a considerable admixture of elfin blood in his ancestry like all those in the Klarendes clan including his uncle Count Taitos Klarendes, Count of the Eastern March.
"Anyway, Eike, how is it you're home already?" Corwin asked. "Did you take off early?"
"Actually I did do just that and rode my bike home. In these days of peace things are slow at our naval shipyards though the yards are working steadily to refit many of our larger ships with my magnetic cannon installing them on a compact mount which I developed for naval use. Oh and our smaller craft are being armed with swivel guns, some of which can be operated by fetchers instead of masters of magnetism, of whom there are far fewer than fetchers."
"What about catapults and ballistas?" Jemsen asked.
"The catapults stay. They can lob incendiary kegs at enemy vessels whereas magnetic cannon are direct fire weapons employed in the anti-personnel role."
Jemsen nodded. "In plain language catapults set ships on fire whereas cannon blast their crews to ribbons. And ballistas?"
"The Navy is keeping about half of them. Ballistas have the advantages that anyone can operate them, and they are cheap to build, using just wood, cordage, nails, and glue, raw materials which are a lot cheaper than bronze, and their crews don't need to be someone with a magical gift."
"Talking shop at home?" A new voice interjected.
"Nathan, you're back!" Eike exclaimed. "And Liam too. I know it's been only two weeks, but it seems longer."
"We were lucky to wind up the inspection faster than the admiral thought we would." the young naval officer replied.
Lieutenant Sir Nathan "Sparky" Lathrop and the War Wizard Sir Liam were still in their blue naval silks. A little shorter than his colleague, Nathan had the willowy build of an elf though he was fully human. Nathan was boyishly cute, a freckle-faced carrot-topped youngster who looked much too young to be an officer in the Navy of the Commonwealth.
The young war wizard was a well-set up lad just under medium height and on the slender side but with a strong upper storey. He had wide shoulders and muscled arms from his former job as a teamster. Liam was blessed with good looks too, a real raven-haired beauty though more of a pretty boy rather than handsome young man.
His fine-boned features were accented by a light sprinkling of freckles. Liam had the mismatched eyes of a war wizard; his left eye was blue and the right brown. Thanks to moon-glow of his wizard's eyes, his sight was keener than normal and he could see in the dark or rather very dim light like a cat.
Thanks to the enhanced vitality and perpetual youth conferred by druidic healing magic the youths of fully human stock, namely Liam, the twins, Drew, Nathan, and Axel Wilde had stopped getting any older while still in their teens. For all intents and purposes other than birthday celebrations they were still teens and would stay that way for half a millennium or longer. Their enhanced vitality came double or triple normal strength, greater speed, faster reflexes, shaper senses, immunity to most diseases, and greater recuperative powers. Corwin's elven heritage combined with his magical Healing powers promised to prolong his youth even more.
With the arrival of the naval contingent, of the nine roommates only Axel Wilde and Finn Ragnarson were not around the swimming pool on the grounds of their residential hotel. But then Sir Finn Ragnarson was one of the Dread Hands of the Commonwealth, the government's chief troubleshooters. These days he worked closely with Baron Jarmond, the Chief Hand. The end of the war against the trolls might have lightened the workload of the armed forces, but not that of law enforcement agencies like the Hands, the city watch, and the rural constabularies.
Though Sir Axel Wilde was now a full fledged war mage able to teleport himself and things he touched, he still worked as aide to his mentor the war wizard Sir Willet Hanford at the Institute of Wizardry and Magic, which lay not far from the headquarters of the Hands. The missing pair were likely to show up together and certainly by dinner time.
The cost of meals at the restaurant on the ground floor were included in the boys' leases, so that is where they usually ate if they were not dining out at one of their favorite restaurants in Twinkle Town or as a guest at the Klarendes townhouse, when the family was all in town. Only the younger son Eborn lived and worked in the capital full-time managing the family's extensive investments in everything from street cars to refrigeration to passive investments in companies that built bicycles and autogyros.
Sure enough, a little before supper time the missing duo turned up. Axel was another redhead though his hair was the color of copper. Except for Corwin and Eike, Axel was the youngest of them and more than a hand shorter than the twins. Slightly built and boyishly cute, with fair skin, his face was dominated by large green eyes set over heart-melting dimples.
Finn was a Frost Giant who stood eight feet tall and weighed six hundred pounds of bone and muscle. Thanks to his innate magic and a constitution strengthened by the New Forest, Finn had thrice his natural strength. He was by no means the largest of the Frost Giants but far and away the strongest, which was only fitting for the avatar of Thor, thunder god of the ancient Norse, the remote ancestors of the giants.
Despite all that Finn was boyishly handsome with a face which featured a straight nose and firm chin, graced by grey eyes, all framed by a tousled thatch of dark hair.
They all dressed for dinner, even if only minimally, in the square-cut low-rise short-shorts of woven silk which the twins and their circle had made fashionable. While most of the boys wore white the identical twins' own brief garments were color-coded, as always green for Jemsen and blue for Karel. Finn dressed in shirt and trews silk.
Chapter 2. Travels
"So Corwin, by now you must be halfway through your course of study at the Healers Collegium." Finn asked.
"That's right, Finn. It takes twice as long when you attend classes part-time, as I have been doing, whereas Matt has finished his studies and is already certified to wear the green armband. He left last month to return to his sylvan vale and embark on the career he had dreamed of."
Drew nodded. "Matt's a good kid. More power to him. And to you too, Corwin. You'll get an armband of your own soon enough."
"Actually I already wear one as a combat medic. When I am certified as a Healer, I will be proud to wear both."
"Right you are!" Axel enthused. He too was a combat medic and rightfully proud of the lives he had saved.
"So Finn when do we leave for the Northlands?" Eike asked. "I'd like to get away before Admiral Van Zant changes his mind about letting me off the reservation."
"In three weeks' time." Finn told him. "Don't worry about the Admiral. This is one assignment the Navy cannot refuse you, despite their understandable reluctance to risk the well-being of their most promising naval architect not to mention the most prolific inventor in the Commonwealth."
What Eike had asked about was the trip Finn was organizing to return to the Northlands to implement the plans made during the expedition of the Corps of Discovery. On this trip less than half of its complement would be returning: Finn, Liam, and Drew plus Eike and Nathan. The twins and the forest rangers Madden Sexton and Dylan were staying put in the New Forest, and Axel had other plans.
The first phase of the new trip was to provide the Medkari with autogyros so they could inaugurate civil aviation in those parts. Their friends Raqqub and Kyle had devised a business plan satisfactory to the wily dwarf Lennart who served as the business agent for the circle of friends. Raqqub was based at the oasis of Amity in the Hot Lands while Kyle lived on the shores of the Lesser Inland Freshwater Sea.
They and their friends were fetchers who would pilot the five transport autogyros and offer scheduled flights to their destination cities and towns. Finn and Drew had purchased the military surplus autogyros at a discount. The aerocraft would constitute their investment in the new company, giving them a fifteen percent interest.
The Medkari youths had also recruited mechanics who, like the pilots, had trained in the Commonwealth. The trainees included Petr Shoskov, a former bicycle messenger from Waypoint, the headquarters for the League of Independent Towns. He and Finn had had a brief summer romance. Now it was time to get the new business off the ground. As one of the pioneers of flight Liam was their technical advisor. He would open a space portal to let the aerocraft roll through to their destinations with their pilots and mechanics stepping close behind.
Civil aviation was an important part of the Commonwealth's strategic plan for what the High Council called the Greater North Valentia Co-prosperity Sphere, a loose group of independent but friendly states linked by communications, trade, investment, travel and tourism, and cultural exchange.
Aerocraft would carry both mail and passengers among the various lands including the League of Independent Towns in the northwest all the way to a city on the northern coast called Nordstrand. The plan was for that city and its two satellite towns to become a center of manufacture of autogyros, using technology transferred by the Commonwealth in exchange for their own advanced naval technology.
It was true that both the Commonwealth and the Frost Giants in New Varangia built fine ships, but good as they were for navigating the Great Inland Freshwater Sea they fell short of what was needed for the mountainous seas of the southern ocean. The agreement provided that the Commonwealth would send a team of naval architects and shipwrights to learn how the build the ships and both naval and commercial officers to learn to sail them.
Now young as Eike was, he had earned a reputation as an innovative naval architect and inventor. He was a protege of Admiral Van Zant, Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Ships. So it was only natural that Eike be included in the delegation. Up and coming naval officers like Nathan Lathrop with long careers ahead of them had been hand picked to learn to sail the sturdy vessels which the northerners built for navigation on the tempestuous outer ocean.
"I just hope the ocean swells don't make be seasick." Nathan admitted. "And this business of ever changing tides adds an unwelcome complication to navigation, especially when berthing or navigating shallow waters close to shore. Anyway, we'll all be leaving with Finn soon. This will be my first assignment away from the capital where I won't be leaving Eike behind. And even though we will be traveling on official business, there is no reason we cannot have fun too."
"It will be like a second honeymoon!" Eike enthused. "And Liam will be with us as well to make it a threesome."
Nathan and Eike had become lovers nearly two years after Nathan and the Confederation Ship Petrel had rescued the orphaned castaway, then only fifteen, from Huckleberry Island in the Scilly Isles.
Growing up on the island alone from the age of ten to fifteen, Eike had been innocent with no understanding whatever of sexuality whether for pleasure or fecundity. Nathan had protected the naive youth from the kinds of sexual advances a cute blond boy with his looks would be expected to draw and ensured that Eike got a chance to develop at his own pace and to make his own choices, which ultimately turned out to be for Nathan himself.
By contrast to the slow buildup of Eike's relationship with Nathan, Liam and Nathan's relationship got going full blast the moment the two youngsters had met on the deck of the Petrel and been thunderstruck by an instant and overwhelming physical attraction, which soon developed into a life bond as the two comrades in arms stood side by side in mortal combat against the genocidal trolls.
You have a trip planned too, don't your Axel?" Nathan continued.
"That's right, Nathan." Axel said, "I'll be setting off for my annual visit to the new homeland of the orcs at about the same time you leave, and, though the distance is about the same, I expect that my transit time will be rather shorter."
"How droll."
Actually Axel could teleport himself instantly to any place he had once reached via a space portal or those he could see either with the naked eye or through a far-viewer. Once Axel's neural circuits invoked his gift, transit was instantaneous, which was why he liked to say that he could travel at the speed of thought.
The orcs would welcome Axel not only as the only living orc-friend but as an informal conduit to influential circles in the Commonwealth. Relations between the orcs and their former foes turned allies were cordial, and the leadership of the orcs wanted to keep it that way. If nothing else the outcome of the war with the trolls proved to the orcs that the Commonwealth was generous with its friends and allies but implacable with foes who spurned efforts to make peace and resolve differences by negotiation and compromise.
Besides, Axel was an nice kid and very easy to like, even if his human proportions look odd to the gangly orcs. It did not hurt that more than a few orcs fancied Axel for his pretty face and sexy if exotic body type. Indeed Axel had engaged in a couple of brief but torrid affairs as he traveled about, serving as a personal ambassador of good will, as he liked to think.
That left the twins and Corwin at loose ends. Jemsen spoke up and made a suggestion.
"How about the three of us, me, Karel, and you Drew start planning the next expedition for the Corps of Discovery to someplace we have not been to before."
"Like where?" Drew asked.
"Maybe to the lands on the west coast of Valentia, beyond the Western Dividing Range or maybe the far northwest of the continent, the region from which we ourselves hail and Dahl too though we knew only a very small part of that region when we grew up there."
"Isn't it early to be making grand plans?"
"It doesn't hurt to daydream, and it will be fun. Come on Corwin. You aren't working on a book these days. The one you wrote about the troll war came off the presses last year and was another best seller. It also won you another Writers Prize, your second, I believe."
Corwin nodded as Jemsen continued:
"We might have to fund this expedition ourselves, not that the cost isn't well within our means."
Indeed. Through shrewd investments the twins had multiplied the modest fortune they had inherited from Balandur many times over. Now they were not merely comfortably well-off, they were wealthy by anyone's standards. Besides his original fortune from his street lighting business Axel had built a second fortune from a shrewd investment in the manufacture of pencils. Liam had throw in with Axel so he too was very well off indeed. Indeed all of them, for one reason or another, were persons of means.
The twins and Drew had not got very far mulling plans for the next adventure of the Corps of Discovery before the day arrived for Axel to leave for the new settlements of the orcs in northeastern Amazonia.
The next week Liam opened space portals to deliver the autogyros to the Medkari and return the newly trained pilots and mechanics to their homes. Finn and Drew engaged their gifts to propel their personal aerocraft through the opening.
The plywood fuselage of Drew's autogyro was shiny red on top but blue grey below to make it harder to pick out against the sky. Its streamlined body and sleek lines showed it was built for speed.
But it was Finn's aerocraft that was really special. Custom-built and sized specially for him, the first frost giant ever to take to the air, the autogyro had a steel frame and a cockpit large enough to accommodate even Finn's eight-foot height and six hundred pounds of mass plus a passenger. The wings and rotors were longer and stronger too as well as the control surfaces at the end of the tail which controlled pitch and yaw.
Like all personal autogyros theirs were two-seaters though the separate wells for pilot and passenger had been replaced by a single cockpit with a closed canopy made of safety glass to deflect the flow of air and fend off rain and hail. The nose of Finn's autogyro was decorated with a heraldic device consisting of a shield with a hammer dexter and a lightning bolt sinister to proclaim the aerocraft as the personal transport of Finn Ragnarson, avatar of Thor Odinson, thunder god of the Norse, the remote ancestors of the Frost Giants.
Liam would pilot one of the transport aerocraft through the opening with Nathan and Eike as passengers to give Eike the chance to visit the Hot Lands and the Lesser Inland Freshwater Sea via portal and then to fly the rest of the way via autogyro. The rest of the Commonwealth contingent would travel directly to Nordstrand.
Ordinarily a war wizard would not take part in a commercial transaction, but fostering civil aviation in the Northlands was in furtherance of the Commonwealth's policy of establishing a Greater North Valentia Co-prosperity Sphere. Raqqub and Kyle's operation would connect the Commonwealth with the four Medkari zones of settlement: the Hot Lands, the ranches on the tall grass plains, the Salt Lake, and the Vale of Asshur on the shores of the Lesser Inland Freshwater Sea. It would also fly east and west to serve the League of Independent Towns.
Its northern terminus would be the rapidly expanding settlement of the Guardians at the Stone Ring. That locale would also be the southern terminus for flyers operating out of Nordstrand, though they would mainly serve routes running east and west along the coast of the Fiordland and even out to sea. The scenic Loften Islands, with its peaks just visible above the horizon were famed for their mountains, sheltered inlets, and a deep water coral reef rich in sea life.
The next day, with all parties assembled, Liam opened a portal to Nordstrand in Fiordland. First to pass through were a team of naval architects and shipwrights whose job was to learn how to build ships sturdy enough for the tempestuous outer oceans. Then came a dozen naval officers who would learn to sail ocean going ships.
The final group was comprised of skilled workers and aeronautical engineers drawn from companies which built autogyros. They would help the northerners create their own autogyro industry. The end of the war with the trolls had left their companies with few other business opportunities, since their home market was temporarily saturated with surplus autogyros originally built for the military. True they were fostering a competitor but one whose natural market was very far from the Commonwealth of the Long River. Besides, the way aviation was taking hold, it would not be long before the market for new autogyros picked up again.
Chapter 3. Fjordland
In Nordstrand, Finn met with the town's mayor Thurig Karlsefni and its three Councillors, two of them giants: Herjulf Eriksson and his father Erik Svenson who was a ship builder and Ward Barrow, a human. Finn introduced Karl-Eike Thyssen and told them that he was there in a dual capacity as both a naval architect and as the inventor of the autogyro. He reminded them that Liam and Drew were experienced pilots while Lieutenant Nathan Lathrop was one of the naval officers sent to learn to sail ocean-going ships. All of them were also Pioneers of Flight. Finn gave the officials a roster to the personnel he had brought with him.
Herjulf Erikkson explained that he had been put in charge of the establishment of an aerocraft industry in the Northlands. Capital for the new venture had been raised by selling ten-thousand shares in the new company to local investors, with a limit of one hundred shares for any single investor. That created a broad constituency for the project and also distributed the ownership of the new venture among some three hundred investors instead of letting the industry fall into the hands of a few wealthy persons, however well-intentioned.
They had created two separate companies: Northlands Aviation to build the autogyros and the Northlands Air Service to transport mail, passengers, and freight. Northlands Aviation would sell its aircraft not only to the air line but also to the coast guard for scouting, search, and rescue, to air taxi companies, and so forth. Everyone saw a bright future for aviation in a region where overland communications were utterly impractical.
At a technical meeting the next day the Commonwealth delegation met their local counterparts, skilled workers and engineers drawn from local industries, all with extensive hands-on experience.
Eike told them that while he may have been the inventor of the autogyro, they should learn from the real experts on building autogyros, the skilled workers and aeronautical engineers who ran the production lines, who could show them how it was done, not in a tinkerer's workshop, but in a suitably tooled manufactory. Eike wanted to focus his attention on naval architecture once he had explained his design philosophy to the would-be aerocraft builders.
"When I started out I designed everything on paper, first sketching my ideas and later creating formal blueprints. Later I came into my magical gift of Shaping which lets me work directly with solid materials like metal, stone, or wood and form them without tools. With my mind alone I can transform a lump of steel, lifting it into the air, flattening it, squeezing it into a rod, hollowing it out to make a cylinder or sphere or take on any shape my mind can conceive."
"What I always strive for is simplicity, economy, and ease of maintenance so I make the parts and subassemblies easy to install or remove. You want to make things easy to fix even out in the field and in the weather."
"I use standard hardware components like screws and nuts and bolts, gears, bushings, and housings. Mass production requires precision, close tolerances, standardization, and interchangeable parts. An important aspect of my gift is what I call exact dimensioning. I always know the dimensions of anything I am shaping. And I can shape things to exact measurements."
"However the job gets done, whether with a gift of with conventional techniques, keep these principles in mind."
"Shaping must be the most wondrous gift an engineer can have." One man of middle years enthused.
"That is so true, sir. As I am sure you know from your own experience, ideas are easy to come by. They just pop into your head. The hard part is turning a notion into something solid and tangible that will do the job you want it to do. With Shaping I can make anything I can think up, try it out, and make corrections, changes, and improvements, speeding up the cycle of trial and error by a factor of ten."
"Of course, shaping is just for creating prototypes and models. To turn out any great quantity of my gadgets takes a suitably tooled manufactory. That is where my colleagues come in. Their manufactories have made millions of bicycles and many hundreds of autogyros. You can rely on their proven expertise."
Eike's colleagues, all much older than he, appreciated the boy's modesty and his endorsement of the contributions they would be making to the project as production experts.
While the others in the Commonwealth delegation made do with the rather spartan accommodations provided by the locals Finn, Eike, Nathan, Liam, Drew took a suite of rooms at one of the better hotels that catered to sea captains. The furniture was sized for Frost Giants. Couples like Eike and Nathan could cuddle in an armchair built for a giant. It also left the little guys with plenty of room to disport themselves on the large beds.
Two days after the formal dinner to celebrate the start of their collaboration, Eike, Nathan, and Liam sat on the porch of their hotel to watch the stars come out in the unfamiliar skies of the northern hemisphere. Nathan picked out out the main navigational stars depicted on the star charts he had been given by local mariners. The northern sky had no prominent polar star but the pole's location could be found by interpolating between two circumpolar constellations. Even without the gift of Unerring Direction Nathan was an expert navigator.
"In three days we'll be sailing beyond the line of skerries all the way out to the scenic Loften Islands whose peaks just peek over the horizon... er, no pun intended. It's our introduction to sailing the open ocean, the real high seas. We'll be gone a couple or three days."
Nathan's voice betrayed a hint of nervousness. For all his maritime training and experience, this trip to the Northlands was Nathan's first experience at sailing upon salt water. So far he and his colleagues had stayed in the calm waters within the line of skerries just off the coast which created a sheltered inner passage which was safe for fishing boats and coastal craft. Only stout oceanic vessels ventured beyond those sheltered waters even unto the Polar Isles.
That night it was Nathan's turn to be with Eike. He led Eike back to his quarters and kissed him gently. Eike melted into Nathan's arms. The press of their bodies left no doubt about their mutual ardor.
Touching his index finger to his lips to silence him, Nathan slowly stripped the trembling youth. Still looking like sixteen going on seventeen thanks to druidical healing magic. Eike blushed as Nathan removed his clothing and touched him in all his private places. Nathan stroked the lovely young body standing before him then led Eike over to the bed.
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. Nathan 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 slit with the tip of his tongue.
Nathan's oral ministrations soon had the boy at the brink of release. The trigger was when Nathan bore down and took in 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've always denied that you were ticklish, Eike." Nathan chided facetiously
"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.
The next night it was Liam's turn with Eike. Liam's lovemaking technique capitalized on his telekinetic gift to lift, hold, maneuver, and turn his partner in ways that defied gravity, adding an extra dimension to his and Eike's couplings. With physiques enhanced by druidical healing magic, and with supercharged teenage sex drives the lovers could go at it time and time again and still come back for more.
Still they were all there to work. Eike spent a lot of time at the shipyards not only reviewing plans but also scrambling over ships under construction. He became a familiar sight to the local ship builders: a pretty boy running around in next to nothing, just a breechclout and moccasins with a tool belt hung from his hips as he climbed the framing and hauled himself up lines as agile as a monkey.
Their naval architects explained why the ships they built were so sturdy. The first reason was their frames were cross ribbed. In the Commonwealth ribs were built perpendicular to the keel. In the North, pairs of ribs criss-crossed at the keel, their ends braced against the pairs fore and aft.
The second reason was that wood from the live oak was used for key components. The tree was called that because it was an evergreen species of oak. The lumber from live oak was specifically used to make curved structural members of the hull, such as knee braces which supported the ship's deck. The lumber was cut so that the line of the grain would be perpendicular to the lines of stress, creating a structure of exceptional strength.
Live oak was not used for planking. Live oak trees were short and had low branches. Their trunks often had a curved and convoluted shape which did not lend itself to being milled into planking. Instead planks were made of red oak or white oak instead. Those trees grew straight and tall and yielded trunk sections straight enough and long enough for sawing into planks.
It wasn't all work and no play at the shipyards and autogyro manufactories or at sea for the sailors. The Commonwealth contingent had ample chances for diversion and recreation and companionship.
Besides swimming in the warm water of the fjord Eike, Nathan, Liam, Drew had brought the paddle boards they had been taught to use by the Medkari living around the Lesser Inland Freshwater Sea. Both a sport and a means to travel short distances over water, the pointed board supported a standing rider who propelled himself with a paddle. Fetchers like Drew and Liam could just push the board along telekinetically. Though they moved their boards telekinetically Drew and Liam also wielded the paddles though only for balance.
Upright posture put one's physique totally on display, making it visible from all angles and not in a static pose but in a kinetic spectacle of energy and motion. Which was why it was one of Drew's favorite aquatic diversions, shameless showoff that he was. Drew's attitude was that boys like him practically had an obligation to share the physical beauty nature had graced them with. Which is why he spent so much time out doors in the nude, running, swimming, flinging the Zinger, or just lying on the grass with a good book in his hands, enjoying the way the sun's rays warmed his shoulders and bared buns.
For all the interest they aroused paddle boards didn't catch on among the people of Nordstrand. Frost Giants were just too big to ride them. A flat wooden board large enough to float a Frost Giant had to be much bigger than a boat. A chunk of wood floats by the buoyancy derived from modest difference in density between water and wood. A boat takes advantage of the fact that the water its hull displaces is eight hundred times heavier than the air which fills it below the water line.
Another diversion they had learned from the Medkari was to hang on to a swim board while propelling it telekinetically. A fetcher could zoom across the surface of the water as fast as he could run on land leaving a wake strong enough to rock small boats. The short boards had handholds for two passengers so everyone joined in the fun with Drew and Liam, providing the propulsive power.
Even Finn stripped down and plunged in to take part, only he nailed a couple of horseshoes to his board so he could propel it magnetically. His example did get the locals interested. When fully immersed their bodies were neutrally buoyant and could float well enough. Even if there were proportionally fewer fetchers and masters of magnetism among them compared to other races, quite a few were able to join in the fun.
By partnering with a fetcher or a master of magnetism, anyone could enjoy the sensation of flying underwater by holding on to a swim board while his partner moved the board in three dimensions, diving, turning, even rolling it as they traveled underwater for as long as they could hold their breath, a feat everyone could manage for at least three minutes given their high level of fitness and or magical enhancements. The twins especially loved the way the flow of water caressed every part of their bodies at once.
Using shin fins and goggles, the boys explored the coral reef at the outlet of the fjord. Shin fins made of flexible sheet metal were strapped to the ankle. They reached from just back of the toes halfway to the knees, folding around the lower leg yet flaring out to the sides. The downstroke of the scissor or flutter kick delivered the full power of a kick from the hips instead of just from the knees as with swim fins that fit over the feet and with much less back kick and splashing. On the surface the shin fins helped keep the legs horizontal, something the slender boys appreciated since their hard bodies were too dense to float properly.
Swimming at the surface looking down at the reef through their goggles was a lot like flying over a landscape. The reef was spectacular with fish of all shapes and colors, some with false eye spots near their tails to fool predators. They swam singly or in schools,sharing the bounty of the reef amid coral shaped like the horns of a stag, a fan, or the human brain. Lobsters, eels, sponges, sea anemones and brittle stars added to the variety of bizarre life forms. When the swimmers spotted something interesting, they dove for a closer look. The waters of the fjords held no threats thanks to the vigilance of the local dolphins.
Drew was dubious about eating lobster, the local delicacy, despite the urgings of the locals who showed him how to free the meat from the tail and dip it into butter.
"I don't know. The creatures may come from the sea, but they aren't fish. Instead they look like giant bugs only with even more legs than spiders have and nasty looking claws too, plus those icky feelers they wave around just as you drop them into a pot of boiling water."
"Come on, Drew," Liam urged him. "You were just as dubious about locusts in the Hot Lands yet once you tried them you liked them well enough."
"Actually Liam, at Amity I was just being polite."
In the end the wondrous smells induced Drew to give lobster a try. He pronounced the dish absolutely scrumptious and expressed regret that it wouldn't be available back home.
"Maybe not right now," Herjulf Eriksson admitted, "but that could change in the future. There is no reason why live lobsters couldn't be shipped by air freight to the cities of the Commonwealth."
"What a great idea!" Eike enthused. "I happen to know that there is already air freight service to the naval base at Southport on the Southern Ocean. Here is a commercial opportunity we should seize. Let's have our business agent Lennart set up a company to supply lobster to the luxury market in the Commonwealth. And I know just where to introduce lobster to the public: the Sign of the Whale."
Chapter 4. Mission's End
One evening Eike went down to the docks to greet Nathan when he returned from a six-day cruise out on the ocean. They reunited couple ate dinner at one of the better seafood restaurants in town as Nathan related his experiences. Their training ship had sailed past one of the big mother ships which served as a floating base for a flotilla of catcher boats which might stay out for weeks at a time. Two refrigerator ships shuttled the catch from the mother ship to the fish market ashore. The operators of these deep sea fishing fleets were also in the market for autogyros which would let them spot schools of fish from above.
Afterwards Nathan and Eike strolled hand in hand, a pair of happy lovers, enjoying the cool night air as they strolled through the darkened streets of the town with only the light of the larger moon to guide them. Eike had just remarked that the lack of proper street lighting suggested a commercial opportunity just begging to be exploited when the couple encountered a rather odd group who did not seem to belong in that upscale district.
Too roughly dressed to be residents, the seven of them looked more like workmen except none such would still be about nearly three hours after sunset. Also they were all armed with long knives which were weapons rather than the smaller sailor's knife which Eike carried at his hip, which was really a tool not a weapon.
Out of curiosity and from a sense that something was wrong, Nathan invoked his gift to delve the cargo bins of their three large push carts. Two were loaded with what could only be the loot from the burglary of a well-appointed mansion: jewelry, a strongbox full of coins, gold and silver plate, fine china, other objects d'art, paintings cut out of their frames, and rolled up carpets and tapestries. The third held an older human male, blindfolded, gagged, and bound hand and foot. Not just a burglary then but also a kidnapping in progress.
Unfortunately the surprise on Nathan's face gave him away. At a signal from their chief, the seven of them fanned out and surrounded them, blocking their escape. All of them were big men, not full-blooded Frost Giants but definitely of mixed blood and armed with cold steel. They had the air of men who knew how to use their blades and were not particularly squeamish about spilling blood.
"I don't know how you cottoned to what we were up to kid, but it's too bad you did. Now that you've seen our faces, we cannot let you live to set the town watch on us. Nothing personal of course."
Nathan shook his head.
"Nobody has to die here tonight. That man in the box is still alive, so your lives are not forfeit for murder or even attempted murder. Not yet, anyway. Surrender and throw yourself on the mercy of the court."
"Surrender? To a pretty boy in a sailor suit and his catamite? I don't think so. The odds are even worse than seven to two since any one of us outweighs both of you little guys put together. Numbers, strength, weaponry, and reach. That is what's on our side. What's on yours, beside that naval cutlass and your boyfriend's sailor's knife?"
"On second thought, we might let you live a while longer if you throw down your pitiful weapons and surrender to us for a night of fun and frolic. Who knows, you two are so cute and sexy, we might even take you on an extended ocean cruise. What do you say, Red?"
The boys' response was to stand back-to-back, braced to defend themselves.
"Nathan, I can handle these three," Eike told him. "Watch my back and take out the other four."
The gang leader snorted derisively but then yelped as Nathan snapped handfuls of electrum sparks at him and the other three foes he faced. Balls of static electricity the size of a grape, even a single spark delivered an electric jolt and a burn which were impossible to ignore. That made the thugs vulnerable to a fighter ready to exploit the opening his sparks gave him.
Nathan came from an old Army family and had grown up with a saber in his hand, a slightly curved blade much like the naval cutlass he had wielded so effectively against humans and trolls alike. Also, thanks to druidical healing magic, he was more than twice as strong as his size suggested and had faster reflexes.
With the four thugs spread out the way they were to block him, Nathan could have taken them down one by one even without his sparks, he was that good with a blade. Before the bad guys could move closer enough to support each other, Nathan surged forward, blade flashing and slashing and stabbing into throats, belly, or groin with deadly effect.
Finished with his four, Nathan whirled to check on Eike only to see that his lover had put his own three out of action. Invoking his gift of Shaping, Eike had reshaped the handles of their knives, loosening the grips and stretching the tangs into extremely sharp blades which cut their fingers off. As they howled in pain and chagrin, Eike had relied on his enhanced agility and speed to dart forward and sever a tendon behind a knee to immobilize them, but then had darted away, too cautious to stay at close quarters to finish them off.
By this time the noise of the fight had raised the alarm. Rapid footsteps down the street signaled the approach of the town watch. Eike Shaped the lock of the box open so Nathan could free the captive, an elderly man who explained to the boys and the watchmen that his name was Evander Molson and that he was the owner of the big house at the end of the lane which lead off the square. The home invaders had killed his valet when he tried to sound the alarm then locked the other servants in the basement while they systematically stripped the mansion of valuables.
"I am a widower living in a house much too big for my current needs. Most of it is unused and closed off though the rooms are still full of the valuable collections which my late wife and I had built over a lifetime of acquisition. She was especially fond of larger cameos carved from agate and onyx and seashells which depicted not just a head but a whole scene. I live simply these days and no longer entertain so I have only a small staff. The valuables in my mansion and its isolated location made me an easy mark for this gang of cutthroats. They left a note on my bed demanding a ransom, though I supposed they would have slit my throat even if my firm did pay it."
An ambulance escorted by two watchmen took the three wounded thugs into custody and removed the bodies of the four others. Two men of the town watch inventoried the carts as evidence then returned the goods to Molson's premises and freed his servants while the proprietor himself ministered to the body of his slain valet.
Later Finn remarked: "I never knew that your gift could be used in self-defense."
"It's something Axel helped me research in the Institute library just before we left on our journey. Until today only he and Nathan knew what we found. I didn't want to bring it up because my soul cringes at the thought of graphic violence, necessary as it sometimes may be. Even though I work for the navy I myself have always been at a remove from combat. I also didn't want it to look as if I were bragging about my powers. Shaping can be useful for self-defense, but it doesn't make you a heavy hitter — not like a war wizard or a thunder god or a fetcher."
"So you turned their own blades against them. Any other tricks up your sleeve?" Liam asked.
"Yes, but some of them are rather gruesome."
"Like what?"
"Well for starters I could flatten a man's skull and crush his brains to mush. Admittedly flattening a skull is a messy way to kill a man. Blood and brain matter get squeezed out of the cracks and the nostrils and ears, and eyeballs pop out too. Still the sight would dishearten any confederates. Or I could force the bones of his eye sockets to extend over the orbits, blinding him. Another trick is to stretch a man's ankles so thin that they crack under his weight."
"I am sorry now that I asked." Liam remarked ruefully. ""Whatever happened to the gentle Eike we all know and love?"
"Oh I am still here, or at least I like to think so, but necessity and adversity are hard task masters which sometimes make us do things we would rather not. When your life is on the line, it's no time to be squeamish." he opined philosophically.
"Understand, I am not like you guys — I am no adventurer nor a born fighter. I don't sail in harm's way or go looking for trouble as a war wizard or a war correspondent or a Dread Hand of the Commonwealth might. But I won't let myself be a victim either, not if I can help it, and these days, with a better understanding of my gift, I can."
The criminal court later sentenced the three captured thugs to be weighted down with chains and tossed off a dock to drown and not fished out till they were good and dead. Later their bodies were taken beyond the line of skerries and tossed into the ocean for the sea monsters to devour. Nothing could be definitely proved against the rest of the crew of the ship the thugs had arrived on, but they and their ship were banned from ever returning to Nordstrand.
It took five months for the Nordstranders to get their companies up and running, first the autogyro manufactory Northlands Aviation and then the Northlands Air Service to transport mail, passengers, and freight. Meanwhile the Commonwealth delegation of naval architects and shipwrights had picked up the tricks of the trade from their counterparts. The same was true for the naval and commercial seafarers. It was time to return to the capital.
Liam opened a portal to the stretch of the Long River just off the docks of the naval shipyard. Through it passed the two ships purchased at Nordstrand bearing all of the Commonwealth folks except the two pilots Finn and Drew who flew in their personal autogyros. After Admiral Van Zant and the staff of the Bureau of Ships got a chance to inspect the vessels, Liam would open a portal to the new naval base at Southport which the Commonwealth had built on the shores of the Southern Ocean. The cadre aboard those two training ships were the nucleus of the Commonwealth's new ocean going navy whose mission would be exploration and discovery rather than purely military operations.
The shipwrights and naval architects left the ships at the capital docks to return to their homes and neighborhoods, their jobs and their families and friends. The plan was for future ocean going ships to be built at existing yards on the Long River and the Great Inland Freshwater Sea then sent via a portal to the coast. The small shipyard at Southport would be used for repairs only, not for new construction.
That would minimize disruption to shipyard operations, maximize the Navy's huge investment in its shipbuilding yards, and keep the workforce of naval officers and civilians contented, letting them live where they wanted to be, in the Commonwealth proper, rather than in a raw town on the faraway oceanic frontier.
The two personal autogyros passed through the portal then took off for a short flight to the military airfield where Drew and Finn kept them. Axel had long since returned from his mission to the land of the orcs which meant that all nine roommates were reunited once again in the capital. No one was interested in planning another expedition for the Corps of Discovery. With centuries of youth ahead of them, they were in no hurry. Besides, their personal histories had shown that they did need to go looking for adventure. Adventure often came looking for them, sometimes as a crisis and sometimes as a welcome change of pace from their quiet pursuits at home.
Time would tell.
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 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.