Elf-Boy's Friends 44
Snow Elves - The Wolverine
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 1. The New Forest
Deep in forested mountains the wolverine stalked its prey, a dappled antelope. It had passed on a fat bustard which it had chanced upon earlier, not wanting to bother with all the fuss and feathers of a bird. True the antelope was considerably larger than itself, but that would not present a problem.
Wolverines were among the fiercest predators on the planet. Stocky muscular carnivores with short legs, broad and rounded heads, small eyes and short rounded ears, they resembled a bear more than their relatives in the weasel family. Armed with powerful jaws, sharp claws, and a thick hide the wolverine was a solitary hunter with an outsized reputation for ferocity and strength, capable of killing prey many times larger than itself such as deer and elk. Only instead of a normal body weight of fifty pounds, this particular wolverine massed twice that.
That was because this particular specimen was a shapeshifting elf in his animal form. Among the elves shape shifters were called Snow Elves, named not for their preferred climate but for their alabaster skin, shoulder length ash-blond hair, and icy grey eyes. They generally stood an inch or so under six feet with the willowy physiques and lissome bodies and glabrous skin typical of elves. This particular snow elf, Gulo by name, was about half a foot shorter than usual.
Intent though it was on its chosen prey, the carnivore always maintained situational awareness, lest it be taken unawares. Slash bears and packs of dire wolves just might attack a solitary wolverine if only to remove a competitor from their range.
Sensing danger it flattened to the ground and crawled to cover. A hunting arrow zipped through the space it had just vacated and disappeared into the brush. Gulo ducked behind the trunk of a fallen forest giant and peered from around its root ball to assess the situation. He saw a tall raven-haired human youth dressed in greens and browns stepping forward warily with bow drawn, looking for the wolverine it had targeted.
Changing into his human form, Gulo called out
"Hello the hunt!"
Startled to hear a human voice the hunter called:
"Who is there? Stand forth and declare yourself."
"Willingly, once you stop shooting arrows my way."
"Fair enough."
With that the archer relaxed his bow and held it down to his side in only his left hand.
Gulo rose from behind the fallen tree and walked up to the hunter.
"As you can see I myself am unarmed."
"Not only unarmed and empty handed but stark naked. Where are your clothes and gear?"
"I prefer to travel light."
"Light? That's putting it mildly. You're out and about in the woods bare-assed naked and without a weapon in your hand or a pack on your back. Not that I am complaining. With those exotic looks of yours you are easily the loveliest boy I ever laid eyes on. But a little guy like you shouldn't be tramping about these woods alone and unarmed."
"Why just now I took a shot at an oversized wolverine that would have made short work of a defenseless boy like you. I thought he was stalking an antelope I had tracked, but now I have to wonder if its intended prey might have been you instead. He was practically on top of you. You popped up less than ten yards from where he disappeared."
"Thanks for your concern, but I am not as defenseless as I might look, and that wolverine was no threat to me. None at all."
"Oh? How can that be?"
"Simple. I am shapeshifter, and that wolverine you shot at just now was me in my animal form. Anyway my name is Gulo."
"Oh, right. We did forget to introduce ourselves. I'm Roland."
"I am sure glad now that my arrow missed, something which doesn't happen very often because of my gift of Unerring Direction. I can also throw electrum sparks in self-defense, as I had to do a couple of times when I hired on to guard merchant caravans. Not that I fought road agents, nothing of the sort, just thieves who snuck up at night to steal from the cargoes I guarded."
Gulo nodded
"Unerring Direction is a gift all of us snow elves have. And a couple of my brothers can throw electrum sparks as well. Their value in combat is often underrated but the jolt of the electric charge and the burn from its heat are impossible to ignore, especially if you can throw sparks by the handful. And the gift lets you help your comrades as well, distracting their foes at just the worst moment."
"Indeed. And sparks are an incendiary as well and an easy way to start a cook fire."
Gulo nodded. "Tell me about it. My own magical gift is kindling fire. I'm not a firecaster. I cannot hurl streams of flame or great clinging balls of fire or freeze water into ice, but I can set anything combustible to burning if it is nearby.
"Uh, no offense, Gulo, but here you are parading around these woods all by yourself without adult supervision. Where are your folks?"
"Far far away. As to my age, I know that I look to be only fourteen or maybe fifteen tops, but I am actually nearly nineteen, having reached my full growth a couple of years ago."
"I'm eighteen too but my own growth spurt ended quite recently. Maybe that is why I stand half a foot taller."
"I might not be as tall as a six footer like yourself, Roland, but we wirs are preternaturally strong. Our innate magic makes us easily twice as strong as we otherwise might be."
"You don't say? Knowing that you are a shape shifting elf, I can understand why you go around naked. Elf-boys typically go sky-clad anyway, and that would go double for shape shifters who would lose their clothes every time they took on their animal forms. Still if you run around fully exposed to the sun all the time, why is your skin so pale?"
Gulo explained that like all shape shifters snow elves never tanned nor burned despite nearly constant exposure to the sun's rays. Roland was right though about the inconvenience of clothing. Shape shifters spent nearly as much time in their animal forms as in their human bodies so garments were an unnecessary encumbrance.
Roland's presence in the New Forest was easily explained. He was one of a pair a wilderness guides escorting a party of natural philosophers who were surveying the the region as the lifeforms evolved under the guidance of the magically self-aware woodland.
"So Roland if you were just hunting fresh meat for the camp, why did you take a shot at a wolverine?"
The young hunter looked embarrassed and admitted:
"You are right, Gulo. I really should not have shot at the wolverine. It was unworthy of me. At first I was miffed because it was about to snatch away an antelope which I had tracked for twenty minutes. Then I realized that the wolverine was a giant more than twice the size of any wolverine ever seen. It might well be a whole new species which the natural philosophers would name after me if I `collected', that is their word for it, the type specimen."
"Collected eh, as in killed, skinned, and stuffed."
Roland nodded:
"Though taxidermists mount a skin on an armature rather than simply stuff it with straw. Anyway that is how and why I got here. What's your story, Gulo?"
"I am one of six shape shifters who live together as a family on permanent walkabout. At the invitation of the three druids who reside in Elysion we have roamed the New Forest these past three years. We are also friends and colleagues of the regular forest rangers, some of whom are shape shifters like us. This tattoo of a green leaf on my shoulder marks me as an auxiliary ranger."
"Watching over us are our two protectors. Like us they are magical creatures, namely sapient Kodiak bears the ursine equivalent of unicorns hence their white coats. Their magical powers are similar to those of unicorns including a form of mind speech which links us together. We can communicate with each other silently and over a considerable distance, up to four miles."
"But there will be plenty of time for conversation later, around your campfire. What we need to do now is finish the hunt. I figure helping you will earn me a share of supper. I don't mind admitting that I could do with some cooked food for a change. I have been eating my meat raw for a week now ever since I separated from my brothers. You see, though I do frequently hunt with them, by nature we wolverines are solitary hunters. So sometimes I just have to go off by myself and do just that."
It didn't take long for the pair working in concert to track down a deer. In his wolverine form Gulo roared at the animal and chased it toward the hunter who was waiting in ambush and took the easy shot. They dressed the carcass, leaving the guts for scavengers and making it lighter and easier to carry. Roland settled it on his shoulders but switched off every so often with Gulo. The wir might be just a little guy but his magical nature made him incredibly strong for his size.
Halfway to the campsite, with Gulo trailing behind the wilderness guide with the deer carcass slung across his shoulders he suddenly called out a warning.
"Beware Roland. We are being stalked."
"What do you mean."
"The scent of our kill masked its approach, but I am now sure that a slash bear is hunting us. Look here it comes."
Sure enough, a slash bear had emerged from the brush. He fixed his gaze on his prey and charged. Roland cursed as he saw how fast the bear was closing on them. He dropped his burden and started to nock an arrow, but by then the bear was practically on top of them. Roland knew his own gift of flinging electrum sparks would not discourage a charging bear.
It was up to Gulo though the bear must have outweighed him six or seven to one. The young wir invoked his magical gift of kindling fire to set alight the fur on the animals hindquarters. The beast roared in surprise and pain and anger, momentarily turning its head away -- a fatal mistake, as it turned out. Gulo launched himself at the bear, first attacking its eyes to blind it and then its throat, which he tore out with both fangs and claws. Even as it died he kept at it, continuing his attack on the chest and belly, venting his fury and blood lust on his enemy.
Gulo finally broke off his attack and backed away, breathing heavily. Roland watched warily as the wolverine's killing frenzy ebbed. In moments, the wolverine shook himself then transformed back into a lovely snow elf.
"Whoa! Remind me never to get you mad at me." Roland joked. "And hey, why aren't you covered in the bear's blood?"
Gulo grinned.
"One of the benefits of being a wir is that is so easy to get clean. When we transform we leave behind all the dirt and blood and sweat. See that spot on the ground where I changed back into my two-legged form. That's where I dropped all the blood and gore from my kill."
"Not that I don't enjoy luxuriating in a warm soapy bath, especially when I can share it with a pretty youth my own age."
"Is that a hint?"
"You'd better believe it."
Taking that for an invitation, Roland embraced the nude youth and kissed him long and hard. The press of their bodies left no doubt about their ardor. Unfortunately the amorous pair had to break off the pleasantries and to push on, to distance themselves from the bloody bear carcass which was bound to attract scavengers and to carry the meat which they had harvested to the camp of the natural philosophers.
Chapter 2. Natural Philosophy
"Hello the camp!" Roland called as they got close enough to smell the smoke of the campfire and the enticing aroma of kaffay.
"Here you go, Cookie. Meat on the hoof."
"Back already? You weren't out for very long."
"I had help bagging this deer. Meet my new boyfriend Gulo."
In a few sentences Roland related how they had met, hunted the deer, and fought the slash bear.
The grizzled cook smiled as he set the carcass on a stump he used as a chopping block and went to work on it with a meat cleaver. Roland introduced Gulo to the others who included Willem, the second guide, the cook who never went by his given name, and the three natural philosophers: a geologist, a zoologist, and the expedition leader, a botanist named Scolari, plus their manservant Goren.
After the introductions Roland excused himself to wash the blood off his hunting shirt and hang it up to air dry overnight, leaving himself bare to the waist, displaying his hard body and strong upper storey to advantage, none of which was lost on the young wir who threw an appreciative wink to his new friend. Willem caught their byplay and rolled his eyes.
"I don't know how you do it, Roland: finding a new boyfriend way out here in the middle of nowhere. What would that red-head of yours think, the bicycle messenger?" he asked.
"Oh, he'll keep till I get back. And little Gulo here will be my first ever shape shifter. Can't pass up this chance. Just look at him. Isn't he the most exotic youth you've ever seen: alabaster skin, totally glabrous of course like all elves. And look at that lustrous shoulder length ash blond hair, not to mention icy grey eyes and those killer cheekbones. I find him incredibly sexy. Besides, I owe him. He probably saved my life this afternoon."
Though they were friends, Willem was one of those males who consorted exclusively with the female half of the species and simply could not comprehend or appreciate a male's attraction to his own gender.
The expedition leader Professor Scolari was an older man with a kindly look about him who handed Gulo a steaming cup of kaffay.
"I should clarify that I am both a botanist and a mycologist, that is an authority on fungi."
"Oh, I always thought that mushrooms and such were plants too even if they were not green."
"That is an all-too common misapprehension, youngling, though entirely understandable and pardonable. To the layman fungi seem like plants because they don't move around; they just grow in place."
"They also don't have senses like sight and hearing." Gulo pointed out.
"They may not have sense organs like eyes and ears, but plants do have senses. I am sure you know that they can sense light and grow toward it. The sunflower actually turns its face to the sun during its daily passage across the sky. Plants also have chemical senses which are not so very dissimilar to our our chemical senses of taste, smell, hunger, and thirst. Plants may not feel pain but they can detect damage and send chemical signals to warn their neighbors about an infestation, leaf blight, or predation. Trees can share nutrients, helping neighboring trees distressed by disease, insects, fire, or storm damage."
"Anyway just like the plants and the animals the fungi are a kingdom unto themselves. Fungi are particularly important in these woods since it is mostly through their network of fungal filaments in the soil along with their intertwined roots that the fully sapient mind of the New Forest communicates with its constituent trees. Together you could consider the dual network to be the nervous system of the sentient forest. The forest also has immaterial psychic links to animals from the very largest down to the tiny critters and creepy crawlies of the forest floor."
"I hadn't realized all that, though as a wir I myself have a weak link with the mind of the forest. I am told it will get stronger with time. You really should talk with the resident druids in Elysion."
"We plan to do just that. Thanks to mutual friends, namely the famous twins Jemsen and Karel, Count Klarendes has invited us all to unwind there after we finish up and before heading back to the comforts of civilization. I am already acquainted with his spouse the shape shifter Aodh whom I met some years ago when he was on patrol as a forest ranger."
"Glad to hear that. I know both him and his spouse the count quite well and indeed they have known me, if you take my meaning. I myself am an auxiliary forest ranger as are my brothers. Hence the small green tattoo of an oak leaf on my left shoulder. It designates me as a forest-friend."
"We auxiliary rangers do not carry out regular patrols nor do we usually concern ourselves with purely criminal matters unrelated to the care of the forest. We don't chase bank robbers like Aodh once did. We pitch in to help sick, injured, or lost travelers, and report anything strange that we come across in our travels like infestations of pests or blight, or prohibited activities like mining, trapping, or charcoal production, that sort of thing. In this way we are paying the New Forest back for its hospitality."
"Your camp looks comfortable enough with easy access to a stream, a well-tended fire in a stone ring, double roofed silk tents ringed by drainage trenches for shelter from the rain, folding camp stools."
Scolari nodded then noted:
"No real beds though, just ground sheets stuffed with boughs or grass, but comfortable enough, all things considered. Armchair scholars we are not, my colleagues and I. We are willing to put up with some discomfort and to get our hands dirty since we realize that field work is where you can make the greatest contribution to the advancement of knowledge."
"Roland mentioned that you traveled without any equipment: no tools, weapons, or clothing. Now that is really roughing it."
"Not as much as you might think, sir. In this tropical climate, I certainly don't need clothing, whether for modesty, warmth, or to protect my skin from nettles or sword grass or the sting of wind-blown sand. In my four-legged form I have a full-length fur coat which is comfortable here at altitude where it is cooler than the tropical lowlands. It's why wolverines mostly live in the alpine environs of the Great Dividing Ranges, East and West."
"I do set a fire at night, if only to make predators wary of approaching my camp. With my gift I can kindle a fire with a thought."
"Most predators won't tackle a wolverine anyway, especially one more than twice normal size. A tawny panther wouldn't even consider it. Too much chance of injury even if it won. No, the only threats I might face are from a pack of dire wolves or a slash bear like just now."
"Yes. From what Roland said about your fight with the slash bear, you certainly upheld the reputation of the wolverine for ferocity all out of proportion to its size."
The compliment put a predatory grin on Gulo's pretty face.
"The intelligence from my elven side devised the strategy of setting the fur of its hindquarters on fire and attacking its eyes and then its throat. My wolverine nature handled the rest. That side of me thoroughly enjoyed the fight -- relished it in fact. Funny isn't it. When I go on two legs I am a quiet inoffensive pretty boy and something of a bookworm when I can get books. On four legs I am a killer and a carnivore, though I hasten to add that I have never killed anything that walked on two legs which didn't have feathers."
"A very good way of putting it. I should mention that we will be moving on in a couple of days. We usually camp in one spot for a while, up to ten days though usually less before moving on to a new area. Wranglers bring in supplies by pack train. The next one is due the day after tomorrow."
Meanwhile the cook had cut enough chops for the evening meal and set them to cooking while he wrapped and hung the rest of the meat high up in a tree some distance away lest their food cache attract hungry bears to their camp. Just in case, someone was always on watch at night. It helped that three of their number could create long-lasting globes of light which stayed bright for hours without further attention, much as with the street lights in the cities of the Commonwealth. The party was reasonably well-armed. All carried airguns except for Roland who preferred to hunt with the bow.
For self-defense, the company could also call on formidable magical gifts. The geologist was a fetcher strong enough to fly with a yoke, and the zoologist could throw levin bolts. Both had served with the forces in Amazonia. Roland's electrum sparks too were useful in that regard. Scolari's own gift was of no use in a fight, but it was perfect for a botanist: a Green Thumb.
Chapter 3. Good Company
After supper the company sat companionably around the fire which they had built up the better to watch the flickering flames. This was a chance to get better acquainted. One by one the natural philosophers spoke of their work and their discoveries. The zoologist was named Evander Blok. His field was herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. He reminded everyone to check their boots in the morning before putting them on.
Roland rolled his eyes. "He reminds us of that at least once a week."
"It's so you won't forget. Just turn your boots over and give them a good shake. See if anything falls out. Snakes and lizards like to curl up in a such leather caves and conserve body heat through the night. Spiders too."
"Luckily I don't have to worry about critters creeping into my boots." Gulo said smugly, wiggling his bare toes.
"Maybe not, but calf-high boots protect the feet and lower legs from snake bite. Going barefoot makes you vulnerable. Copperheads live in these woods, and they can be darn hard to spot amid the leaf litter thanks to their natural camouflage. Now their venom isn't toxic enough to kill an adult, but it will hurt a lot unless they deliver just a warning bite."
"A warning bite?"
"Generating venom is metabolically costly to the copperhead so it tries to conserve its venom for hunting or defense. If an deer or elk looks like it might accidentally step on a snake it strikes but injects just a small dose of venom to warn it off. Against smaller threats it might even resort to a dry bite as a warning."
"That is good to know, but I am pretty sure my magical constitution could shrug off even a full dose, painful though it might be for a short while till I transformed."
The geologist was named Johan Klutz. Contrary to what his surname might imply he insisted that he was a very well coordinated thank you, an accomplished rock climber who had worked as a circus acrobat in his youth. He was surveying mineral resources.
"But mining is not allowed in the New Forest, so why look for valuable minerals?" Gulo wondered.
"The rangers need to know where clandestine miners might try to set up. In time these surveys will provide map coordinates for likely spots which they should check on their patrols."
Willem explained that he had started out as a market hunter on the other side of the mountains, but had to quit in disgust at the phoniness of it all.
"What do you mean? You and Roland hunt in the New Forest. What's the difference?"
"Here we hunt for the pot. We kill and eat only what we need. In that respect we are just another kind of predator so we don't put much pressure on prey species. On the other side of the mountains, market hunters supply meat to the many resorts and lodges that welcome tourists and vacationers."
"The number of animals needed to supply that market far exceeds what could be replaced by natural increase so they ship in animals raised like livestock on game farms only to be shot in the woods at point blank range. It's animal slaughter like with beef steers or goats in an abattoir rather than hunting in any true sense of the word."
"To maintain the fiction that the meat is from wild game, resort operators sometimes have the hunters play act by staggering in to their premises with the heavy load of a carcass over their shoulders, pretending they had just bagged it and carried it for some distance. Even the butchering is part of the show. Entire families, kids and all, watch as the carcass is turned into steaks and chops."
"All part of the `wilderness experience' don't you know." he finished with disgust.
Professor Scolari went last. He turned out to be an accomplished raconteur and entertained the company with exciting stories of improbable adventures botanizing in far off lands.
But then the telling of tall tales was an accepted pastime around a camp fire. A tall tale had value in its own right as entertainment. So no one cared if the factual basis for some of his stories was thin or non-existent, or whether it was really Scolari himself who had been the protagonist of the yarns he spun.
For his part Gulo described the six snow elves who, though they were not all related by blood, considered themselves to be a family. Besides himself there was a set of identical triplets named Lobo, Lupo, and Volf who could transform into dire wolves and the cousins Leon and Brand who were wir leopards. Though all had the alabaster skin of snow elves, in their animal forms their fur coats were colored normally: dark grey for the wolves and tawny and spotted for the leopards.
Scolari wondered why a shape shifter took on the particular form he did. For instance, why was Gulo a wolverine and not, say, a tawny panther. Gulo explained that the reasons were not fully known. It certainly wasn't a matter of choice. Your new form came upon you as a surprise at puberty. Transformations were known to be related to size. Someone like Gulo, five foot six and one-hundred twenty-five pounds, would never transform into a tiger or a bear though a tawny panther was certainly with the range of possibility.
Gulo also related some of their adventures including the time they were all nearly slain out of hand by a vengeful posse which had mistaken them for mankillers. At the last minute their lives were saved by the famous Corps of Discovery.
"You and your kin have a remarkable circle of acquaintance: the druids and the Klarendes clan at Elysion and the Corps of Discovery which includes Finn Ragnarson, the avatar of Thor, the famous twins Jemsen and Karel, the journalists and war heroes Drew Altair and Corwin Klarendes, Liam, the war wizard awarded the Commonwealth's top two decorations for bravery in combat... Er whom have I left out?"
"Axel Wilde, the jumper, the forest ranger Lord Madden Sexton who is a wir wolverine like me, and the Beast Master Dylan of Reading. Oh, and Corwin Klarendes was not a member of the Corps of Discovery. At the time he was serving as both war correspondent and war mage in the final campaign in Amazonia."
When the conversation flagged off Roland and Gulo walked over and sat on the grassy verge of the stream. Roland stripped off his trews the stepped into the stream which came up only to is waist and rinsed his trews to get the sweat out of them, finally setting them to dry next to his shirt.
He beckoned Gulo into the water. As the elf-boy came within reach Roland bent forward and reached down to grab the boy's legs pulling them out from under him. Roland chortled as Gulo fell backwards with a splash and submerged. When he got his feet under him again he came up sputtering and glared at the human youth.
"Oh yeah? Dunking is a game two can play! And remember I am at least as strong as you are thanks to my magical nature. My turn."
With that he launched himself at the larger youth and grappled with him, then used a hip throw to send him crashing into the water. When his opponent came back up, Gulo asked with studied casualness:
"Didn't I mention earlier that we snow elves were all expert in unarmed combat? It's because we never know when we might have to fight in our two-legged form, and since we go about sky clad, we seldom have weapons to hand."
Roland held his hands up in mock surrender.
"I can see now that I am overmatched. My body is yours to do with what you will", Roland declared.
"That's more like it."
Gulo and Roland wrapped their arms around each other, kissed, and drew together.
Now boys have hard bodies, all muscle and bone and sinew; they're not soft and yielding like those of the female of the species. That was what made it so much more arousing to wrestle amorously with another young male, grappling his strong body, so very much like your own, and to join with him in a passionate embrace. No wonder Roland's boyfriend back home was a bicycle messenger. Same thing for runners, swimmers, dancers, and acrobats.
Then too who could know the erogenous zones of the male body better than another male? Males know what they want to do and have done to their cocks and orifices in a way no female ever could.
With Roland and Gulo, one thing led to another and what started as fun and frolic and then heavy petting soon turned into full-fledged lovemaking climaxing in an orgasm of epic proportions. And then, in diminuendo, a second and a third not quite so energetic. The other campers politely ignored the unmistakable sounds of lusty sexual congress as the pair consummated their passion.
The next morning Cookie apologized for the monotonous breakfast of fried tubers and venison strips in place of bacon. They had run out of eggs and bacon and other perishables and would have to wait for the next pack train for resupply.
"This is just fine, Cookie. You can only work with what you have at hand. It is not your fault that we ran low." Scolari assured him to assenting nods from the others. Cookie had a well-deserved reputation which was why he was very much in demand for excursions and expeditions to the New Forest.
To Roland and Gulo he remarked:
"You are looking quite chipper this morning, and I have to say that you two do make a fine looking couple."
They grinned.
"Funny the way things worked out, isn't it? When you consider that I introduced myself to my new boyfriend by trying to skewer him with an arrow."
"And only hours later he skewered me with quite a different sort of shaft!" Gulo joked.
"Shameless!" Cookies chided, shaking his head as if scandalized at the young couple's brazenness. "Of course, you two will have worked up a good appetite from your er... exertions last night, so dig in."
With that Cookie heaped extra large portions on their plates which Roland and Gulo dug into with relish. They quickly found that Cookie had outdone himself despite the limitations of his larder, using spices and greens collected locally to enhance the flavor of his simple ingredients.
"So, Roland," his fellow guide Willem teased, "How is it that with your gift of Unerring Direction, you missed your target entirely? You didn't even clip him. What is that failure going to do to your reputation as a sure shot?"
But it was Gulo who answered.
"Actually Roland didn't miss at all. That arrow went right through the space I had been occupying an instant before. Roland's aim was true, but his target moved while the arrow was in flight. I sensed the danger at the moment of release and flattened to the ground. My magically enhanced constitution confers not just doubled strength but also keener senses and faster reflexes and speed."
"Even if it had hit me, I would surely have survived my wound and emerged unscathed after transforming. It is very hard to kill a shapeshifter. You have to destroy the brain or heart, or destroy the entire body all at once, otherwise we can regenerate from any injury."
"And yanking the arrow out would not inflict further damage. As you know, thanks to its barbs an arrow can easily do more damage going out than going in. That is why soldiers wear silk, which sheathes the barbs and won't let them catch in the flesh on the way out. My healing powers would do much the same thing. Even before I got the arrow out, my system would have clamped down on severed blood vessels to limit bleeding, rerouted nerve impulses, that kind of thing.
"You don't say." Scolari said in admiration. "I understand that you wirs don't have a specific lifespan. You might live on and on without end."
"Hardly. Our lifespan may be indefinite, but it is surely finite. Sooner or later, our existence comes to an end thanks to war, misadventure, or foul play. You can tangle with a slash bear and the like only so many times before your luck runs out. Having said that, a wir can normally expect to outlive even a Frost Giant."
"Whereas I can expect only the proverbial six score and ten." Roland allowed shaking his head, but then added philosophically:
"Well, as a wise man said it's not how long you live but how well you live, what you do with the time which fate allots you. Professor Scolari and the others have inspired me to enroll as a student at the Institute for Natural Philosophy back in the capital. That is, if they'll have me. You see, I want to do something of significance during my time on this planet. Contributing to our species understanding of the natural world is surely a worthy ambition."
"Roland is already a keen observer of the natural world, all of us agree on that. Like us he would make his mark with field work rather than sedentary labors in the laboratory or herbarium." Scolari allowed. "We have pledged him our support for enrolling at the institute though admission is not entirely up to us."
Gulo shook his head.
"I wish I could say I had such well conceived ambitions, but at eighteen going on nineteen, I have formulated no such clear goals. Perhaps one day, a life of permanent walkabout will pale, and I will look for something else. Time will tell."
Scolari nodded. "You show wisdom beyond your years. Both of you."
Days later as the expedition made its way through the forest the wilderness guide Willem pointed and wondered aloud:
"Now what can all that be?"
He was pointing to wreckage at the bottom of a steep ravine.
"This is where an autogyro went down about three years ago." Gulo supplied. "It was carrying tourists but crashed when it collided with a bird."
"A bird?"
"It was a bustard, if I remember correctly, which is among the largest and the heaviest of flying birds. In full flight it crashed through the windscreen and killed the pilot outright. Broke his neck it did. Now with the loss of the pilot and the propulsion he supplies, the aerocraft was supposed to autogyro downward, its fall slowed by the whirling of the rotor induced by its descent through the air column. It would have landed safely if roughly, as they are designed to do, but the tail caught a tree branch and tipped it over, making it lose lift and drop precipitously killing several passengers."
"And you know this how?"
"I was one of the searchers, me and my whole family of Snow Elves plus our protectors the White Kodiak Bears Bjorn and Bjarni. This was not long after we took up residence in the New Forest. The Klarendes clan and the druids and the regular forest rangers were involved in the search too. Rescuers converged on the site. The kodiaks tore the fuselage open to give the medics access. Then the mage Axel Wilde teleported them to the hospital at Dalnot. It's one of the best staffed and equipped since it serves both the town and the army garrison."
"Back then I wasn't an auxiliary forest ranger, that came later, after we learned the way things got done both by the New Forest and the Commonwealth.
Chapter 4. A Good Deed
"It's nice that we can follow this game trail instead of forcing our way through the understory. Understand, running around sky-clad as I do, I don't have any protection from thorns or nettles or the like." Gulo observed to the wilderness guide Willem.
"What if you run into poison ivy or poison oak? The itching can drive you crazy."
"Not a problem for me. We wirs are among the lucky few whose skin does not react to the chemical those plants secrete to protect themselves from predation. I and all those of my kind can roll around in the stuff and never take any hurt."
"Lucky you." Willem observed sardonically. "I always keep a sharp eye out for that stuff myself. I am one of the unlucky many."
"Say Gulo, I've been wondering... " Willem ventured, "have you ever encountered a lady wolverine of an amorous disposition, and just how did you handle it? Is your four legged form just as same gendered as your two legged one? From a moral perspective would mating with a female wolverine constitute bestiality on your part or just normal sex for you in your four-legged form? What are the mating habits of wolverines anyway? Loud and noisy and rough like cats only far worse, right?"
The young shape shifter snorted. Clearly Willem's inquiry was not inspired by scientific interest. He was just trying to yank Gulo's chain. The best way to handle this was to play it straight. In his most professorial tone, dropping his voice and mimicking Scolari's professional intonation, Gulo told him:
"Among wolverines it is ever the male who initiates mating -- never the female. The male relies on olfactory cues to detect whether a female who interests them is in estrus and so might be receptive to his advances. Wolverines are known to mate for life. Males form relationships with two or three females whom they will visit from time to time. Hence most males can never find a mate and are condemned to lifelong bachelorhood."
This recital of zoological facts was a pardonable exaggeration on Gulo's part. Evander Blok, the zoologist in their company, threw him a discreet wink to indicate his silence and his support.
"The mating habits of wolverines are just fine by me. I am now and will ever remain a virgin as far as the female of any species is concerned. Besides shape shifters always mate or have sex in their two legged forms. After all, I am an elf with an alternate form as a wolverine, not a wolverine with an alternate form as a elf."
"Er... thanks for clearing that up." Willem replied lamely, disappointed in not getting a rise from the youth.
From time to time Professor Scolari would call a halt while he collected mushrooms.
"Is that specimen as yet unknown to science? Do you intend to describe it in a mycological journal?" Gulo wondered.
"Not at all. This species is well known. It is the tasty yellow chanterelle. We are having them tonight with dinner. The chanterelle It is one of the best and most easily recognizable of the mushrooms. Mind you there are poisonous species which resemble it. You need to be familiar with the chanterelle's identifying features to tell one from the other. Some mushrooms such as the false morel are poisonous if eaten raw but may be safely consumed when parboiled. Earlier today I collected specimens of the saffron milk cap. Cookie can use them tomorrow morning to make a breakfast omelet."
The trail to their final campsite led past an airfield close by a scenic outlook where tourists who had signed up for an all day aerial tour of the region via autogyro could stop to admire the view, eat a picnic lunch, and use the sanitary facilities. Indeed a group of eight were at the picnic tables when the company arrived.
Unlike a resort the site provided no overnight accommodation -- only a picnic shelter without walls -- just a roof covering a pair of rustic picnic tables and benches set on a wooden floor.
Water for drinking, cooking, and washing up splashed into a basin from a pipe made of hollowed logs which brought water from a nearby stream. Placed a strategic distance downstream from its intake were the sanitary facilities, a pair of the continuous flow latrines common in the rural areas of the Commonwealth.
A diversion from the stream fed the constant flow of water under the seats. A second flow or rather a trickle ran in a small trough behind the footrest. You did your business and wiped with a fresh-water sponge on a stick. Then you rinsed the sponge in the trough and hung it where it was exposed to the sun which dried and sanitized it for the next user. The waste was flushed by gravity into the stream lower down. The latrine had four walls, but the sloping roof covered only two thirds of the space enclosed as shelter from wind and rain and for privacy. Hence no odors and no flies.
Now running water and a water closet were the first signs of civilization the company of natural philosophers had seen since they had passed through the hawthorn hedge that delimited the New Forest. They had had to make do with a slit trench at their campsite. So all were grateful for the facilities at the picnic grounds.
Just as they concluded their business, a commotion broke out among the picnickers. It seemed a couple of children: nine year old Hans and his six year old sister Gretchen had wandered off and could not be located. Their parents were worried since a hasty search of the immediate area had turned up nothing. They were trying to stay calm, to not dwell on all the unpleasant possibilities. Unfortunately all the adults were city folks with no fieldcraft whatsoever.
The tour guide said that he and the pilot would go up in the autogyro look for the missing children, though two small kids would be hard to spot if they were under the forest canopy.
The company offered their help with a ground search and split into three teams each with a natural philosopher paired with a wilderness guide or with the wir. Gulo teamed up with Professor Scolari who unlimbered the airgun which he normally kept slung over his shoulder when they were on the march. Gulo shifted into his four legged form. It would be easier for him to find a spoor with his eyes and nose close to the ground. Scolari was a tall man so it fell to him to scan the area visually for both the lost children and potential threats.
There were no tracks to follow. The ground was hard and the kids so lightweight as to leave no impression on the ground to mark their passing. Grassy areas alternated with brush, and the land sloped away from the picnic area which was soon out of sight. That made it likely that the kids had got turned around and hadn't known which way to walk to bring them back to their family.
As luck would have it, Gulo's was the team which came upon the children. They had been treed by a hungry dire wolf on the prowl for a meal. Safe for the moment ten feet up but getting thirstier by the minute, the boy was doing his best to instill confidence in his little sister, assuring her that help would no doubt reach them soon.
Hans spotted Professor Scolari and called out to him and waved his straw hat to get the man's attention. That was when the rescuers saw the wolf at the foot of the tree. It turned to face them and snarled at the two interlopers.
"I could shoot the wolf easily enough, and I am sure he would be no match for a ferocious wolverine, but I would rather drive it off. After all, the creature is not evil, just doing what its nature drives it to do. Besides we would not want children of tender years to witness such graphic violence, would we?"
Gulo wasn't so sure about the children -- the boy at least. Nine year old males reared on tales of action and adventure and derring-do might actually want to witness a real fight -- at least from a safe distance, like up that tree. The little girl probably would not.
Unable to speak without transforming, Gulo simply nodded his agreement. Together the wolverine and the human advanced on the dire wolf, Scolari shouting and brandishing his air gun while Gulo growled and made his fur stand out to look even larger and more formidable. The dire wolf did not care for the odds, and the teaming of a human and a wolverine utterly baffled him, so he turned away and ran off. Scolari helped the kids down from the tree and let them drink from his water gourd while Gulo transformed.
"Wow! You're a shape shifter. Cool! I wondered how a wolverine and a human could possibly be working together." Hans told his rescuers.
"As well you might, young man." Gulo told the boy. "Now I expect that you kids are tired, so while the good professor carries your sister you can climb up on my shoulders, and we'll have you back with your folks in no time."
Once they got back to the picnic area, the boy slid from Gulo's shoulders and ran over to his father.
"I'm sorry Papa. It was all my fault that we got lost. Gretchen chased after butterflies, and I followed to keep an eye on her like you told me. When we headed back I somehow had got turned around and wound up headed the wrong way farther into the woods."
"And then that nasty old wolf showed up," his sister added, "but Hans boosted me up the tree and climbed up afterwards and helped me hold on. I could see that we were safe for the moment but I was still scared. And I really had to go to potty but just couldn't."
The father hugged his son and told Hans that he was proud of him, how he had kept his head and got them both to safety up that tree and waited for adults to find them and chase away the wolf.
"Actually I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't get to watch the professor shoot the wolf with his airgun or the wolverine tear it apart in a knock down fight. That would have been something!"
"Boys!" Gretchen chided in her most lady-like tones, nose in the air.
Gulo didn't say anything, but he mentally filed the incident under the label: Suspicions Confirmed and cross-filed under Boys Will Be Boys.
The children's parents expressed their gratitude to the rescuers. The father shook their hands while the mother embraced each in turn and kissed them on the cheek which provoked a joke from her husband.
"I am trying manfully not to be jealous. The last time my Caroline kissed a nude young man was back in the day when we two would go off into the woods!"
Instead of being embarrassed, his wife smiled at his joke, and reminded him that their assignations were what led to their marriage and ultimately produced their first born.
Gulo told the family that if they ever spotted two giant white Kodiak bears they should not to be frightened. They were no threat but benign magical beasts who were the ursine equivalent of unicorns.
With that the tourists climbed into their autogyro and flew away. The company decided to stay over at the camp grounds since the hour was late, and Gulo smelled rain coming. He predicted that it would rain during the night, as indeed it did and all the next day. No matter the roof kept them dry except for when they took showers standing in the rain, soaping up, and letting the falling waters rinse them clean.
"So how did you know it was going to rain so hard?" Roland asked him
"Gulo tapped the side of his nose and said with a wink: "The nose knows."
"Meaning he smelled the ozone made by lightning upwind." Scolari explained.
The following morning, the sun came out in a blue sky and the company moved on to its final campsite of their expedition. After they finished there, they would head to Elysion with Gulo peeling off at some point to rendezvous with his family. Since the Snow Elves had a standing invitation to visit Elysion the whole family just might swing by for a big get together. The Klarendes clan loved to receive and entertain visitors.
Author's Note
If you have enjoyed this story and others like it, consider making a donation to the Nifty Archive. They take credit cards. Point your browser to http://donate.nifty.org/donate.htm
This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead. It 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, appears in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence focuses on one or a few of the large cast of characters in the ongoing saga which now exceeds Tolstoy's War and Peace in word count, if in no other measure.
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 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.