Elf Boy's Friends

Elf-Boy's Friends 45

Snow Elves - the Leopards

by George Gauthier

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

Chapter 1. Poachers

"Listen kid, we three don't have to explain our presence in the New Forest to the likes of you. We go where and when the mood takes us. We certainly don't answer to a couple of bare-assed pretty boys. Why you two look more like rent boys trolling for custom than the forest rangers you claim to be."

The cousins Leon and Brand could hardly dispute that point. Snow elves who went into the trade were the elite of rent boys commanding fees even higher than those of the usual sort of Sylvan Elves. Both sorts of elves tended to be tall with lissome builds with glabrous skin, but differed in coloration. Sylvan elves were raven haired, had green eyes, and almost always a Green Thumb. Snow elves were called that for their alabaster white skin, shoulder-length ash-blond hair, and icy grey eyes. Despite their pale skin they never tanned nor burned. Hence the name.

As for their nudity, as shape shifters snow elves had even less use for clothing than their sylvan cousins. The males of both sorts preferred to go about in the nude or sky-clad, as they called. That went double for shape shifters for whom clothing when in their animal forms was an intolerable encumbrance.

"Anyway that little green tattoo of a leaf on your shoulder sure ain't no lawman's badge. No uniform, no badge, no warrant, so no search of our pack animals. There ain't nothing suspicious about pack animals bearing packs."

Actually the youths had a perfectly legitimate reason for want to check the load the three hunters had on their pack animals. A pack train was for hauling supplies into the New Forest. You weren't supposed to carry goods out: no game, no trophies, no skins or furs, and especially no gems, gold, or silver, in short nothing of commercial value. These three and their mules with full loads were definitely outward bound and very close to the hawthorn hedge which delimited the border of the magical forest. Beyond that lay the Eastern Plains with its towns, highways, and iron roads and its many ranches and farms. That was highly suspicious.

It was true that Leon and his cousin Brand were not in uniform. As shape shifters they were wir leopards and normally went about in the nude. That was why they had those tattoos: to show that they were indeed auxiliary forest rangers or forest-friends as they liked to say.

So far the three humans had not reached for weapons. All carried large hunting knives at their hips. Scabbards on the mules held air rifles though these were not quite within the men's reach.

"No way you're going to get a look at what's under those tarps, kid. No way no how,"

Meanwhile Brand had edged closer to one of the mules. Morphing just his right hand into a paw he ripped the tarp open with his claws. It happened so fast none of the three men quite saw what he did it.

"Furs and skins," Brand reported. "Contraband."

"Hey, how did the kid rip open the pack without no knife in his hand?" the leader asked the others.

"It doesn't matter how. What matters is what I found there," Brand told him flatly.

Leon nodded. "You three are under arrest. You'll be turned over to the constabulary to be held for trial. Your goods and animals are forfeit."

"The hell you say!"

The leader went for his knife while the other two who stood closer to the mules reached for air guns, but Brand unobtrusively snapped a single electrum spark at the croup of each mule startling the animals into a short stampede which put their air guns temporarily beyond the reach of the two henchmen. So they too drew their blades holding them in an underhand grip showing that they knew how to use them.

"Big mistake kids. Bad mistake. No one crosses us like that and gets away with it. Besides we can't leave any witnesses behind, now can we?"

"You don't have to do this. So far no one has gotten hurt. Keep it that way. You'll get a fair trial."

The leader shrugged.

"What good is a fair trial to the likes of us? We are guilty as hell. Caught red-handed you might say, though I am sure our hands will get much redder very soon now. Heh, heh."

"Poaching is one thing, a crime against property really. Murder is something else. It's a capital crime."

He shrugged again.

"We crossed that bridge long ago -- all of us. For what we are about to do, I can honestly say that I am sorry, kid, though only for the waste of prime boy flesh. Fact is I am going to enjoy this."

At his signal his men spread out so as to come at them from three directions at one. The leader grinned predatorily.

"Three of us against two of you and we all grown men, not kids still skinny from their growth spurt. We are armed. You alas are empty handed. Bare-ass too and barefoot. All we'd have to do is stomp on you toes to hold you in place while we gutted you. You could try to run, but we would recover our air guns before you got out of range and drop you"

"I guess that is clear enough, Brand. We gave them every chance, yet they mean to kill us. So let's not hold back or try to take them prisoner."

The leader sneered again.

"Big talk. Do your worst." he challenged.

Brand shook his head.

"It won't come to that. Our worst is what we reserve for tough opponents. You three are easy prey."

Left unsaid was that in a confrontation with truly formidable opponents both wirs would have started the fight by snapping double handfuls of electrum sparks which delivered both a burn from the heat and a jolt from the charge of static electricity. No one on the receiving end could possibly fight effectively whether on offense or on defense.

With that the wirs transformed into leopards and attacked the leader's wing men. The poachers had had no idea that the cousins were shape shifters and were dumbfounded by their transformation. With the advantage of surprise the boys pitted their claws and fangs against the men's blades. Leon and Brand each weighed about one-forty and had the advantages of faster reflexes and doubled strength thanks to their magical nature.

In their attack the cousins did not fight as the men might have expected normal leopards to do by rearing up on their hind legs to get at the chests, neck, or faces of the poachers. That tactic would only have exposed their heads, chests, and bellies to their foes' knives. Instead they came at the men on all fours keeping low to the ground, hence much lower than anything on two legs would or could. For starters Leon and Brand clawed at the fork of their legs. The intense pain from damage to their manly parts took most of the fight out of them, making it easy to finish them off.

The leader held his hands up in surrender. To his relief the cousins let him live, not so much from mercy but so he could answer questions about his middlemen and about where the poachers had set their traps. He gave his name as Otto Marin.

Leon did take a stab wound to his left shoulder, and the other man's blade laid Brand's scalp open to the bone but the boys healed their wounds when they transformed back into their two-legged form.

Leon had the leader load the bodies on the mules which were only lightly burdened by the furs and skins then tied his hands in front of him to let him walk better. Under the watchful eyes of his captors who had armed themselves with the air guns he lead them through the area where the poachers had set their traps. They were easy to find since the poachers had blazed a mark on the nearest tree. They piled the traps atop the uncharacteristically uncomplaining mules then passed through the hawthorn hedge onto the plains.

As they set forth Leon reminded Marin of what he himself had told them earlier.

"No way you can run fast enough or far enough to get out of range before we drop you. We both have the gift of Unerring Direction, so we are dead shots."

That was a pardonable exaggeration. The gift alone was not enough. Marksmanship took practice. The cousins had trained with air guns only long enough to familiarize them with the operation of the weapons. Sure shots they were not.

They marched cross-country to the the town of Three Forks, the closest county seat with a constabulary station and jail and a district court which might conduct a proper trial.

The little procession attracted notice as it passed down the street: two incredibly sexy and totally nude snow elves, their hapless prisoner, and three mules loaded with two dead bodies and a whole set of animal traps plus whatever was under the tarps. The constabulary station was clearly marked. Looping the lead for the mules around a hitching post, the boys marched inside with their prisoner.

The grizzled human sitting at the desk was clearly the duty sergeant. His nameplate said: Sergeant Waldron. He asked their names and what their business was. Telling them to wait a moment he stepped into an office marked Commanding Officer. The long-serving commander was an elf named Captain Galathil.

Galathil listened to their story and took charge of the situation. He had Marin put in a cell and the goods in the evidence locker. A constable took the mules to their own stables. Based on what the boys had told him he wrote up the charges, had the boys check the document for accuracy, then offered to put the boys up in their barracks until the conclusion of the legal proceedings. The accommodations were dormitory style so although Leon and Brand were lovers, they didn't engage in sex but simply slept together, their limbs and bodies entwined like a couple of kittens.

The trial was held three days later to give the defendant time to consult with an advocate. To maintain the dignity of the proceedings the cousins wore sarongs borrowed for the trial. They testified that it was the New Forest itself which had used its psychic link with shape shifters to draw them to the poachers. The prolonged agony which their traps had inflicted on the animals they snared alerted the forest that something very much out of the ordinary was happening. With normal predation, kills were mercifully quick.

In his testimony Otto Marin tried to turn the tables. He claimed that having been caught with the goods he and his men had dutifully surrendered, expecting to get off with a fine or maybe a term of public service in road work or the like. Instead they became the victims of an unprovoked and murderous attack born of the blood lust in the hearts of the wild beasts the shape shifters had transformed into. Only after their thirst for blood had been quenched had the forest rangers accepted his surrender, not out of any sort of mercy but only from expediency.

Unfortunately for him the judge was an empath. He rule the main's testimony to be untruthful and his claim to be a lie. That meant a new charge for perjury, itself an aggravating factor for sentencing. The law was clear that at trial a defendant did not have to testify. He could remain silent, but if he did testify, he must not lie on the stand.

The court ruled that the auxiliary forest rangers had acted within their authority when they checked the packs for contraband and then had acted in self-defense when the malefactors tried to murder them.

The judge found Marin guilty on two counts of attempted murder under aggravating circumstances namely that the intended victims were law enforcement officers attacked during the performance of their duty. Added to that were two counts of felony murder. The onus for the deaths of his accomplices was on Marin himself for enticing and involving them in his murderous conspiracy.

The Commonwealth operated no prisons, only jails for short-term confinement. Sentences for minor offenses crimes included fines and forfeiture of goods or funds, or public service. Major crimes might draw temporary or permanent exile, sometimes with the outlaw mark which made them fair game if ever again found with the country's borders. Crimes like treason and murder including felony murder drew the death penalty, usually from a firing squad armed with bows or air guns.

The next day Marin was bound to a stake with his back to a wall as a squad of five constables took aim and fired. They aimed true. All five bullets hit him squarely in his center of mass, so he died instantly and almost painlessly. No need then for a coup de grace to the head. The boys served as official witnesses. Executions in the Commonwealth were never open to the general public lest a holiday atmosphere prevail, but there had to be witnesses.

Now the poachers were the very first sapients the wir leopards had killed, and though the planet was better off for their passing, Leon and Brand had misgivings about how much the killings had appealed to their feline natures. Leon ventured to say:

"I know that killing them was a moral act. It was they who forced us to fight for our lives. They set the rules of engagement as our friends who are combat veterans would put it. Yes we might have just captured them, but the attempt would have exposed us to greater risk. We did not owe them that, and we did owe it to ourselves and to our law enforcement mission to preserve our own lives."

"Yet Otto Marin hit close to home with his point about our savagery and blood lust, at least when we are in our predatory forms. I certainly experienced those feelings during the fight."

"So did I Leon, but it wasn't blood lust that drove us to kill. It was self-defense. It was our duty to stop a trio of men who had murdered before, were trying to murder us, and undoubtedly would do so again to others in the future. Regardless of our feelings, we didn't do anything wrong, exactly the contrary."

"You are right of course, but I would also like to lay this before our protectors. I don't know any beings whose moral sense I trust more."

"Indeed."

Chapter 2. Three Forks

The next day, no longer needed as evidence, the skins and furs were destroyed in a fire rather than be sold. No one, not even the government, might benefit from such tainted goods. Two thirds of the proceeds from the sale of the mules, tack, air guns, and traps, less court costs, went to the exchequer of the forest rangers headquartered in Elysion. The judge did not levy a fine since that would simply take money from the rangers. Whatever other funds Marin might have were beyond the reach of the court.

Leon and Brand were awarded the equivalent of three golds in the smaller denomination silver coins, which were more convenient for ordinary purchases. They had never seen the Eastern Plains having bypassed them via a space portal on their journey from the Northlands to Elysion and the New Forest. So they decided to spend a few days touring the area. Their silvers would come in handy to pay for lodging, travel, and meals.

Although the shape shifters usually had little use for clothing, they did observe the proprieties by purchasing and donning skimpy breechclouts which were just a panel of white silk passed between the legs and flipped front and back over a pale leather thong tied low around the hips. Just as breechclout made of buckskin blended with tanned skin, white silk blended with their natural milky coloration.

The boys hung a sheathed knife from the leather thong. For them it was only a tool, not a weapon, not when their claws were always to hand, as it were. The boys also carried a small coin pouch on the opposite hip.

Their unusual looks certainly attracted attention. Some folks just wanted to confirm that they were the very same snow elves who had been written up in Drew Altair's best-seller about the Corps of Discovery. Others recalled news reports about how the snow elves had located the wreck of the downed autogyro and had been instrumental in the rescue of the survivors. Many of the younger males just wanted to chat with the exotic and sexy strangers and strike up an acquaintance which hopefully might lead to other things. The boys were chatty and outgoing but not really interested in a one-night stand with any of the locals.

A sign in the window of an outfitters shop caught their attention. It advertised the virtues of backpacks designed especially for shape shifters. They storekeeper allowed that they did cost a bit more but were worth every penny.The packs were roomy, lightweight, and waterproof, furnished with internal elastic loops for smaller items, and they closed with draw cords which kept their contents from spilling out no matter how they were jostled or what orientation they were in as their bearer moved or transformed. Fully adjustable straps in different sizes and configurations held them securely to any body shape ranging from the size of a wolf to a slash bear. In an emergency the packs could be dropped by tugging on a quick release.

Brand explained that their protectors the Kodiak bears were twice the size of any slash bear. They needed something larger. A nearby tack shop supplied the custom rigging for the new packs which the cousins would present to their protectors at their next rendezvous.

The boys also bought a single small pack which they would trade-off carrying whenever they went off by themselves. It would allow them to bring basic camping gear such as their new knives, a hatchet, a pan, skewers, and condiments plus a far-viewer tube. Thanks to their gift of electrum sparks the cousins had no need of tools such as a burning lens or flint and fire striker to get a fire going. With camping gear they might eat cooked food not just consume raw meat in their leopard form. Unsure whether their brothers would want packs too they held off purchasing more than the one.

Three Forks was the hub of three farm and trade roads and the railhead of a spur line of the iron road network in those parts which ran eastward to connect with the axial north-south which ran from the town of Harben south all the way to the army town of Dalnot.

The iron roads fascinated Leon and Brand. A freight train might have half a dozen wagons, passenger trains only one or two. Pair of fetchers called on their telekinetic gift to impart motion to the trains. It took a pair of powerful fetchers working in concert to overcome inertia and get a freight train going but only one to overcome rolling resistance and keep it going. On passenger trains only one fetcher was needed.

The freight trains carried lumber or whole logs, grain, and livestock or chilled meat. Grain was carried to local grain elevators by animal drawn transport and then by iron road to flour mills in the cities of the Commonwealth. Livestock on the hoof was shipped to slaughter houses situated on the plain, then the meat went by refrigerated wagons to the great cities. Timber from the north was mainly used by the populace of the largely treeless plains. The iron road also supplied the towns and garrisons of the plains. Militarily and commercially, the iron roads helped to knit that region to the Commonwealth proper situated in the alluvial valley of the Long River.

In the passenger cars seats were arranged in pairs facing forward on either side of a central aisle. Ventilators in the roof and large double hung windows provided ventilation. The accommodations on the passenger trains were not hard wooden seats or benches but were upholstered, if that is the word for it, in wicker over a wooden frame. That way the seats had some give to them yet did not absorb moisture nor stain as cloth covered cushions might and might be wiped clean after each day's run.

The boys took the train to the junction of the spur line with the main line and back again very much enjoying their excursion as the train whisked them along at the unheard of speed of twenty-five miles per hour. Prosperous ranches and commercial farms testified to the bounty which helped to feed the teeming millions in the great rift valley of the Commonwealth proper.

Back in Three Forks the boys strolled around town. They spent pleasant hours in the reading room of the public library. Much as they liked to read for pleasure and instruction, with their itinerant lifestyle books were only intermittently available. Leon and Brand and especially Gulo always took advantage of Count Klarendes library in Elysion every time they visited.

The local house cats recognized the cousins as kindred souls and were forever coming up to them, stropping their legs, and begging to be petted and stroked. The afternoon after their excursion on the iron road the boys had no sooner sat down on a bench in the public park next to the courthouse that a pair of calico cats jumped onto their laps. The one who had chosen Leon simply curled up with her face on her front paws and began to purr accepting his gentle caresses as no more than her due. Brand's cat braced her front paws on his chest and touched her pink nose to his, then rubbed the side of her face to his chin, marking him with her scent. Finally she settled down contentedly across his legs and purred, eyes little more than slits.

A dwarf of middle years smiled indulgently and told the boys:

"I know those calico cats from the neighborhood. They tend to be skittish with most folks. The way they have warmed up to you shows that you must be genuine cat persons."

"In more ways than one." Leon agreed pleasantly then explained why.

"Ah! Shape shifters. No wonder you fell under their spell."

"Spell?"

"Their charm then. You see there is a very good reason they try to make friends with sympathetic sorts who sit on these park benches. It is close to that food cart over there. From personal experience I know that the vendor sells excellent fish sandwiches. Indeed you can smell the delicious aroma from here. So can the kitties. They are hoping you will follow your nose, purchase sandwiches, and share your bounty with their own adorable selves. I have seen it happen time and again."

"Clever little minxes." Brand said.

The boys lifted the cats off their laps and set them on the ground. As they headed over to the push cart the calicos followed all aquiver with excitement and anticipation. The cousins purchased three hot sandwiches wrapped in paper and returned to the bench. Leon took the extra sandwich and broke the tender fried fish filet into chunks which he placed on the folded sandwich paper. The calicos hunkered down and began to eat, purring contentedly, from time to time pausing to gaze gratefully at their benefactors. The boys finished their sandwiches then took a knee and stroked the cats' fur enjoying the touch of the warm furry bodies and basking in the pleasure they had given to the friendly kitty cats. It was an endearing moment.

Their last day in town they headed toward the constabulary station to say goodbye to Captain Galathil, Sergeant Waldron, and the constables they had met and roomed with. As they crossed the town square they saw a party of nine riders dressed in linen dusters dismount and step into the bank, air guns held at the ready. Two of them held the horses ready for a quick getaway.

"That's gotta be bank robbery." Leon told his cousin who nodded his agreement.

A customer ran outside and shouted that the bank was being robbed only to get shot in the back. A woman who saw it happen screamed. One alert citizen ran to the watch tower and rang the bell to sound the alarm and the call to arms. A member of the town watch was the next victim of the robbers. He had tried to run off their horses and so strand the robbers on foot.

The robbers surged out of the bank with their loot and mounted up and charged across the square heading for the main street out of town only to run into a line of sixteen armed citizens which blocked their way.

Unfortunately for the townsfolk the robbers had a trio of heavy hitters with them. An air wizard sent a land spout at them which whirled the men in the middle into the air and forced the rest to scatter. Three townsmen on the far left stood their ground and shot at the air wizard with their airguns only to die a horrible death as a firecaster threw a great clinging ball of flame onto them. A mage threw lightning bolts killing two shooters who had taken cover behind a horse trough as protection from the firecaster.

The gang poured through the shattered line of defenders, air guns shooting at anyone who even looked liked he was trying to stop them.

"Too many guns and too much powerful magic, Brand. This is one fight we'd better sit out."

Suiting their actions to Leon's words, the boys took cover behind the plinth of the statue of the founder of the town. Just then the constabulary showed up. They were only four of them but they had a couple of heavy hitters in their own ranks. Captain Galathil was a powerful fetcher, and Sergeant Waldron could create ball lightning.

Leon and Brand saw a chance to help the constables. Their own powers were too weak to engage the robbers head to head, but as they rode past the statue the boys flung double handfuls of electrum sparks three times before ducking behind the plinth once more. The tiny balls of static electricity delivered a jolt from their electric charge while their intense heat inflicted painful burns. Horses struck by sparks screamed and reared and became unmanageable, especially with their human and elven riders themselves distracted by the sparks.

The lull in shooting from the robbers gave the townsfolk a time to rally to back the constables who seized the golden opportunity to take the offensive. Galathil drew his edged disc from its holster and sent it flying at the air wizard who was so distracted by the sparks that he never saw it coming. Its keen edge took his head clean off.

In retaliation the lightning caster threw a tremendous bolt at the captain which the sergeant blocked with a globe of ball lightning four feet across. It turned blue for a moment as it absorbed the bolt humming and crackling menacingly. Keeping two balls up to shield himself and the captain Sergeant Waldron used as a third globe offensively, zipping it forward to engulf the lightning caster and turning him into a crispy critter, soldier slang for a burned corpse. Powerful as lightning bolts might be, they were all offense but no defense. Ball lightning was both sword and shield.

The firecaster threw a stream of flame at the pair of lawmen, but the good sergeant blocked that too. Meanwhile Galathil had directed his edged disk to circle wide and come at the firecaster from behind. It cut into his spine and knocked him off his horse.

The remaining riders tried to shoot their way into the clear but were cut to pieces by a withering crossfire from enraged citizens armed with air guns. Some were veterans of the Troll War. They were not about to let a gang of cutthroats rob and kill their fellow townsmen. It was all over in minutes. None of the robbers survived the battle. The citizenry was in no mood for taking prisoners, not that day, no way, no how. They kept shooting till all of the robbers lay silent and still.

Healers moved among the wounded, employing natural medicine where that would be effective and magical healing when nothing else could be done. All but two of the wounded survived. The cost to the town to stop the bandits was very high: eight dead and seven wounded.

The constables recovered the loot and collected the weapons from the bodies of the slain robbers while townsfolk rounded up their horses which had scattered hither and yon. When Leon and Brand walked up close, Captain Galathil nodded and said:

"Thanks boys for the timely assist. Your sparks were a real help, distracting the robbers at just the worst possible moment for them and the best possible moment for us."

"We're glad we could do something to help instead of just cowering behind that statue."

"No one would have faulted you if you had done just that. Three of the bad guys were heavy hitters and the whole bunch had air guns. I am just thankful that you thought of a way to use your limited powers to help us out at the critical moment. This victory took all of us: town watch, constables, townsfolk, and yourselves."

The duty sergeant seconded that endorsement.

"Folks often underrate the usefulness of the minor gifts, but electrum sparks are versatile in ways my own ball lightning isn't. I saw that during the Troll War. Sparks can start a cook fire or act as an incendiary in combat either directly or when used with fire globes. They can stampede enemy mounts or act as a signal. In hand to hand combat they are a force multiplier. The hurler can help his whole unit out by snapping sparks left and right to distract and disconcert his comrades' foes making them vulnerable just at the moment of contact when steel meets steel."

"Good points" Galathil agreed.

"But your ball lightning is versatile in an important way. It serves as both shield and sword. That lightning thrower found that out to his sorrow. About all a man can do with a levin bolt is electrocute a foe or set something on fire. Though I did serve in Amazonia with a soldier who had perfected an explosive technique. As trolls passed close by a tree, he would hurl a bolt at it. Now a white hot lightning bolt can flash boil the water in a tree and make it explode, accelerating wood chips and bits of bark in all directions like a volley of lead bullets from a bunch of air guns."

"I like to think that my own gift of telekinesis is the most versatile. Today I used it to kill, but I have also rescued people from burning buildings, and once I yanked a woman out of the way of a team of runaway horses. I never have to bend down to pick up something I dropped on the ground. You might say that with telekinesis I have the ultimate in a boarding house reach. When the missus asks me to chop firewood for her cook stove, I can tell her `no sweat' and mean it literally. Splitting wood the way you do it is hard sweaty labor whereas I do the job seated on a stump smoking my pipe. I never touch the handle of axe or maul. In fact, my tools are all head with no handle. And my gift also holds the wood in place while I chop."

"Your ball lightning blocked that stream of fire all right, though with my gift I could have whisked both of us out of the line of fire, er no pun intended. With this yoke built into my service vest I can actually fly. And finally there are what I shall refer to obliquely as the romantic possibilities."

Sergeant Waldron and the boys chuckled and conceded that yes, his gift probably was the most versatile.

The next day the boys attended a memorial service for those who had fallen and to recognize the defenders, especially those who had been injured. The boys' own names would be included on the honor roll of defenders to be inscribed in bronze on a memorial to be built right there on the town square. The news report in the local weekly about the attempted robbery got picked up by the Altair New Service and was reprinted in news-papers everywhere. A brazen bank robbery carried out in broad daylight was news.

After a final night in Three Forks and a fine meal at one of the better eateries the boys headed back toward the Eastern Mountains and the New Forest.

Chapter 3. Across the Plains

Still clad in their breechclouts and carrying packs and water gourds Leon and Brand headed out cross country toward the Eastern Mountains and the New Forest. They were in no hurry so they set an easy pace.

"Let's hope for an uneventful journey back to the New Forest. No more encounters which endanger life and limb. Two such adventures in a single week are two too many."

"You got that right Leon. Still I don't regret what we did, just that we found ourselves in situations where we had to do it."

As they topped a small rise Brand stopped abruptly and exclaimed:

"Hello! What do we have here?"

Below them in a swale two young wranglers were bringing a remuda of a dozen or so ponies to a pond. Several trees provided welcome shade. Big handsome lads in their late teens the wranglers rode both bareback and bare ass utterly unselfconscious about their nudity for that was how one bathed ponies and horses the world over, the job of grooms and stable boys, young cavalrymen, or apprentice teamsters. The mounts didn't wear clothes to the bath, why should the boys?

The cousins were instantly smitten by the sexy youths. These wranglers were just their type: big lads with robust physiques which evidenced a not inconsiderable mixture of giant blood which probably explained their red hair and blue eyes. Even better they were identical twins.

Their remuda was a mix of pintos and roans and sorrels who nickered as they splashed their way into pond till the water reached their bellies. The nude wranglers had slid off their mounts and gone right to work scrubbing their charges with soap and brush. That was when they noticed the approach of the rangers.

"Good Morning, strangers." one of them called out, a cheery smile on his open and honest face. "What business takes you straight across country? Travelers in these parts usually keep to the roads so they won't get lost."

"We are forest rangers on official business." Brand explained. "Auxiliary rangers really," he added, pointing to the green tattoo of a leaf on his left shoulder.

"Forest rangers? Then you are really lost." He chuckled and pointed to the west. "The forest lies that-a-way. Its trees are what makes those mountains so green."

Brand smiled and said: "Thanks for the geography lesson. My name is Brand and my cousin here is Leon. Who might you be?"

"The names are Luke and Will Franklin. We are the youngest of four brothers. This is our ranch. Our pa Jed Franklin is up at the house if you need to talk to him."

"Actually we are just passing through. Say, could you use a hand with those horses?"

"That's fine by us. We'll take all the help we can get."

"You'll have to show us what to do. We have never been around horses before.

With a big grin on their faces the wranglers watched as the cousins dropped their packs and breechclouts and waded out to them. To anyone who appreciates a pretty youth, snow elves were walking wet dreams with their willowy physiques, alabaster skin, shoulder-length ash-blonde hair, and icy grey eyes.

The personable wranglers were quite presentable themselves with strong young bodies turned tawny by constant exposure to the sun. Hale, hearty, and handsome, and formidably endowed, they set the cousins' hearts to fluttering.

"Why are you guys so pale? Your skin is as white as ivory; it's like you two never go out in the sun."

"Actually we are very much the outdoors type, thank you. In fact we live on a permanent walkabout in the New Forest. We go around in the rude nude practically all the time, but we just don't show it the way you do, bronzed all over by the sun's rays. Like all our people we neither tan nor burn no matter how much exposure we get to the sun."

"Your people?"

"We are called Snow Elves, but for our looks, not for where we live."

"Of course, you're those shape shifter elves. Cool! What form can you take?"

"That of spotted leopards. We'd show you, but we don't want to frighten the ponies."

"Good thinking. Anyway I like you just the way you are now. In your elven form you are utterly exotic and hugely attractive, but let's save all that for later. Right now we need to get to work. Grab those spare brushes hanging from the peg on the tree and help us scrub these ponies clean. Ourselves too afterwards."

The boys set to work with a will chatting all the while as they soaped and scrubbed and brushed the ponies, finally setting them to graze. Then they scrubbed their own bodies squeaky clean.

Luke allowed that since they were ahead of schedule, they had plenty of time for fun and frolic. With that he bent down, grabbed Brand ankles and yanked his legs out from under him, sending him backwards into the water with a splash. Brand got his feet under him and surged out of the water, eyes blazing with mock fury as he grabbed Luke in a wrestling hold, which was really just his excuse to get his hands on the young wrangler's hard body. The boys grappled and splashed and wrestled and dunked each other, all accompanied by laughter, jokes, loud talk, and a good deal of grab ass horseplay.

Inspired by those two Leon and Will started their own wrestling match, which was less an athletic competition than an exercise in foreplay. Will loved all the bodily contact and eagerly pressed himself against Leon's pale body. His rigid member evidenced the state of his arousal. Leon glanced down and realized that Luke' erection put his own more modest endowment in the shade. Its helmet looked to be nearly twice the size of his own and the stalk proportionally thicker. Empurpled and engorged it throbbed with the wrangler's passion.

"I suppose that would be what's called a horse cock." Leon asked.

"Nah, more like a pony cock." Luke answered breezily. "You should see that pinto stallion over there when he gets aroused by a mare. Now that is a horse cock."

"That might be true, but I have all I can handle right here." Leon said stroking the wrangler's turgid member. "Just take it slow, Will. I am small and tight back there."

Which was actually how Leon preferred it, having a big one forced slowly into his tight quim, impaling him, filling him with his lover's masculinity. Thanks to magically enhanced control of his internal musculature, Leon could work his sphincters rhythmically, squeezing and massaging the invading member, employing muscles normally used to push out to draw in, helping a lover reach orgasm and afterwards milking his cock of the last drops of his gism.

Though natural bottoms, both cousins also liked to top. Now though he was much more slender than Will and three inches shorter, Leon's greater strength surprised the wrangler as he turned the tables on him and started to mount him. After token resistance, Will yielded and let himself be impaled and pumped. Soon he was moaning and shoving back, asking for more and more. It didn't take long for both youths to reach orgasm.

Afterwards Will told Leon:

"I cannot believe how strong you are. Here I am a hale and hearty country lad and one-eighth giant to boot with a strong body from all the hard work I do. So I just assumed I would overpower a slender pretty boy like yourself."

"We wirs are easily twice as strong as we look which makes me as a strong as a really big guy."

"Who would have thought to find such strength in a walking wet dream, but enough said. Come here. Let's get physical again."

And they did. Get physical, that is. Both couples. Kissing and petting soon gave way to a resumption of all out sexual congress, an expression of unbridled teenage lust, as sexy kids sparked off a cute guy their own age, romping, stomping, and rocking, their surging hormones rising to an explosion of eroticism and spunk.

The cousins accepted an invitation to supper and a last chance to sleep in a proper bed. So they accompanied, the wranglers when they returned the horses to their corral. Luke introduced them to their family. The father welcomed them then said:

"So you are Snow Elves, eh? Would you mind showing us the alternate form you two can take on?"

Leon nodded. "No problem now that we are standing where the horses can't see us and take fright."

The cousins set their packs down, They were still sky clad, hence ready to change into spotted leopards. The transformation was fast. Their innate magic took only seconds for their body shapes to flow and morph into spotted leopards.

The cousins ran back and forth, reared up on their hind legs and slashed the air with their claws, snarling to look fierce. Then they morphed back into their elven forms and put on their breechclouts.

"Whoa!" the onlookers exclaimed, all mightily impressed. Luke spoke for all of them when he said:

"I had no idea you could transform so fast or that the change was like you were melting from human to cat and back again. And those were impressive horizontal leaps you made a moment ago."

"Indeed, Luke. As leopards we are agile and fast indeed we can sprint more than twice as fast as a human or elf. We can jump horizontally more than 20 ft and vertically up to 10 feet, though I'll admit that tawny panthers can leap farther thanks to their proportionally longer legs."

Compared to other big cats leopards had relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull. They looked a lot like jaguars, though less powerfully built though still plenty strong enough to carry heavy carcasses into trees (to cache them for later consumption, out of the reach of scavengers like hyenas who could gang up on a solitary cat). They had spots on their heads and forequarters but most of their fur was marked with rosettes like those of the jaguar, but theirs were smaller and more densely packed, and without spots in the center.

"So if a leopard comes at me, there is no point trying to outrun it or to climb a tree. What about jumping into a river or lake and swimming to safety? Cats don't like the water, right?"

"Sorry, Luke, but you are talking about house cats. Leopards are powerful swimmers, although admittedly less inclined to swim than some other big cats, like the tiger or jaguar. They actually hunt in water deliberately driving game into a river, lake, or pond where the animals cannot defend themselves with hooves or horns. The cats just swim after them, clamber onto their backs, and clamp their jaws on the spine or the throat."

"Wicked!"

Around the dinner table, the cousins told of their origins, their family, and their recent adventures. Will was especially impressed by the description of the White Kodiaks.

"To think they weigh a full ton and stand as high at the shoulder as Pa is tall. Powerful protectors all right. And their Mind Speech lets them talk with all of you so they can relay messages between you."

"That's not how it works. They don't relay messages. They actually link all of us together so we can communicate directly with each other. You see, like all magical creatures, shape shifters have an innate psychic sense. It is what lets the New Forest communicate with us, though, unlike Mind Speech, it is not in words or even images. The best way I can describe it is that the forest's thoughts arise in us much like a realization or perhaps a memory of our own. Anyway the Mind Speech of the Kodiak can link with our own psychic sense for silent verbal but not aural communications. Out to range of four miles, which is plenty to coordinate hunting."

"Now Leon and I also hunt by ourselves, just the two of us, so we often use vocal signals like growls, snarls, meows and purrs."

"Can you roar like a lion?" Luke wondered.

"We like to think so, but some folks unkindly liken our roars to serial grunts."

"What do you tell them to set them straight?"

"Why nothing." Brand answered with a sly smile. "We just eat them!"

That brought a chuckle all around.

Luke and Will had a room of their own. That night they shared their beds with Leon and Brand, and a good time was had by all.

Chapter 4. Anaconda

The next morning, just as the cousins were taking leave of the Franklin family a signal horn at the next ranch over sounded an alarm. Not knowing what was going on, the cousins decided not to go off by themselves across country, but to wait to find out what was what. Jeb Franklin's two older sons and wife stayed at their ranch to watch over things while he and the twins armed themselves, mounted up, and trotted the short distance to their neighbor's ranch buildings. Leon and Brand had no trouble keeping up on foot.

A distraught man of middle years told the neighbors what was the matter. A eight year old boy had been taken by a huge snake and dragged into the reeds. His five year old sister had seen it happen and run back home for help.

"A snake?" Jeb Franklin asked in disbelief. "Snakes don't prey of human beings, and there aren't any really big snakes in these parts."

"There are now." another neighbor told him. "I've heard tell that some veterans of the Troll War brought back pet snakes from Amazonia. The anacondas as they are called were supposed to be good for keeping varmints down. Well some slithered off on their own and now live in our rivers and marshes."

"If that is the case we will need to contact the druids and let them deal with the problem of this invasive species. For now we need a plan for going after that killer snake and recover the boy's body."

That brought a sob from his mother, suddenly forced to face the fact that this would not be a rescue but a recovery of a corpse. Just then the father showed up and told them all that he had followed the track of the snake to the edge of the marsh but could go no further. It seemed that the back of his ranch faced a low lying area, the ground all soft and spongy from the river that ran through it.

"It isn't a proper river at all, just one of those braided rivers with many channels that twist and turn, separate and rejoin. And its waters feed a large marsh all reeds and rushes. The water is just deep enough for a big snake to swim in but not deep enough to float a boat, even if we had any to hand."

"There is no solid ground in there. Quicksand pits aside, the ground everywhere is mostly too soft to walk on. A man just sinks in past his ankles. Sure you can pull a foot out, but the moment you set it down you're stuck again. And you're likely to lose your boots in the process. No you cannot go any distance on foot in that marsh."

One excitable neighbor quavered at the thought of stepping into quicksand and getting sucked under. The rancher corrected him and told him that you couldn't get sucked under by quicksand. That was just a myth. You could extract yourself from quicksand, though it was effortful and you had to keep your head lest you exhaust yourself fruitlessly flailing around. And the rescuers could forget horses too. Even with four legs horses are too heavy to spread their weight. Indeed their hooves would press even harder into the soft ground.

Franklin nodded. "Am I right that the grass is too green to set on fire?" His interlocutor nodded.

"Isn't anyone going to do something to save my son?" the mother wailed. "Or at least bring him back for a proper funeral and burial. Don't we owe him that much?"

Leon looked over at Brand who nodded his agreement that they should lend a hand.

"Maybe we can help..." Brand started to tell the group. The father snapped at them:

"What can a couple of unarmed and nearly naked pretty boys do that I and my friends and neighbors cannot?

Leon shook his head.

"Brand and I have a set of physical and magical abilities uniquely suited to this problem. You see we are Snow Elves, that is shape shifting elves. In our alternate form as spotted leopards we can penetrate this marshy area, locate the snake, kill it, and recover the body."

"It's like this. We can distribute our hundred forty pounds on four large paws so we won't sink in. With our keen senses, powerful builds, and claws and fangs we are a match for any snake plus, thanks to our magical nature, we are easily twice as strong as our size might suggest. During our stalk we won't give our position away since we can communicate silently by signaling with the white spots on our ears and tails. Moreover Brand and I have hunted together for years so we know what to expect from each other."

"Snakes are more muscular than other animals. More of their bodies are devoted to muscle instead of to a skeleton as with four-legged animals of the same weight. So a constrictor might overwhelm a single leopard if it got his coils around him, but not two leopards. A pair of leopards can double team a snake, grab his tail and unwind it from his partner if it comes to that, or maybe bite its head off or claw its eyes out."

"Then there is our gift. Both of us can fling electrum sparks. Now that may be a minor gift, but no snake is going continue its attack once it gets hit by double handfuls of sparks which deliver intense burns and sharp jolts of electricity. Also, though usually employed as short range standoff weapon sparks can be delivered by direct contact. No snake could contract its coils around a sparkler discharging sparks directly into its body."

The father nodded. "I see now that I was wrong. You boys do know what you're doing. I'm sorry for what I said just now. Please get our son back for us."

Leon and Brand loosened the thong that held their breechclouts in place then walked naked to the edge of the swamp. Leon turned and told the others that the cousins would signal their success with a shower of sparks directed upward. After a brief discussion about tactics they transformed into their four-legged forms and entered the marsh.

One of the points Leon and Brand had talked about was that, with their bellies pressed to the ground, snakes can feel the vibrations made by footsteps. They should watch where they put their paws, preferably on grassy tussocks or sand bars as opposed to quicksand or mud from which they could extract themselves only noisily and effortfully.

Brand reminded Leon of what their protectors had taught them about snakes. Snakes like the anaconda moved by means of lateral undulation both on land and in the water. That meant their bodies flexed and bent in waves that moved from head to tail pushing against rocks, twigs or any irregularities in the soil. The speed of the wave was exactly the same as the snake's forward speed with the result that every section of the snake's body followed the path of the section ahead of it. That allowed snakes to thread their way through very dense vegetation and small openings. When swimming the waves got larger toward the tail as the snakes pushed against the water. An aquatic snake like the anaconda swam much faster than it slithered.

Finally Brand reminded Leon that the snake would be half asleep slowly digesting the prey it had swallowed. Their best tactic was to kill it quick before it could bestir itself.

The snake had not left much of a trail in the grass at the edge the marsh and almost none in the water save where its belly scraped bottom and left a mark. It took all of the cousin's tracking skills to locate. Time and again they had to cast about for a moment till they picked up the lost spoor.

Then there it was coiled up dozing though its tongue flickered in and out. The leopards crept close putting each paw down softly then with more weight on it, trying to get close without disturbing the sand of the bar the snake was sleeping on. Brand went for the head. Leon's job was to wait for the snake to uncoil and expose its tail then bite down and hold on backing away to stretch it out so it could not throw its coils around Leon. If it somehow managed to do that, Brand should attack its spine somewhere in the middle and cripple it while Leon flung sparks at it.

Leon and Brand did not really need to point with their hands (or paws) to generate sparks. Gestures were simply aids to concentration and aim, but the exercise of magic was an act of will. If they wanted to, sparklers, as those with their gift were called, could generate sparks anywhere on their bodes. Let's see any snake try to squeeze a body that sizzled everywhere with heat and electric jolts. True they themselves would take some hurt, but shape shifters could heal themselves by transforming.

Something must have alerted the snake to their approach, probably a trace it had tasted in the air with its flickering tongue. As it raised its head off its coils Brand pounced and clamped his jaws on the narrow neck just behind its head, straddled its body and dug in with his claws to hang on. The snake roused and tried to throw its coils around its tormentor, but by then Leon had his jaws around its tail and pulled back with all his might.

The cousins quickly realized that they might have bitten off more than they could chew. Their prey was a huge snake, later measured at twenty-five feet, and weighing more than either of them.

It managed to get its tail away from Leon and threw a coil around Brand, but he clawed at it, bit down on its neck, and discharged sparks from everywhere he felt the snake pressing against his body, forcing it to ease up.

Meanwhile, Leon abandoned the tail and bit hard at the top of the bulge which marked the position of the child the snake had swallowed, a spot where he thought the spine might be pressed closer to its skin. Brand bit down hard. His fangs tore again and again at the bleeding flesh. In short order he had exposed the spine, touched his paw to it, and sent a dozen sparks into it. That severed the spinal cord and crippled the snake which now had no way to resist Brand's attack on his neck. He too targeted the spine where the neck was was small enough just back of the head for him to bite clean through and decapitate the creature.

That did it. The snake was dead. Or mostly. Its tail still twitched back and forth. Snakes took a long time to die.

Both boys transformed to heal their hurts then lay back on the sand.

"That was some fight, Brand. A close one too. Without our sparks we might have lost or at least had to break off and let the snake get away."

"You're telling me! Still our chosen tactics were successful. We are alive, and the snake is dead. Let's rest up before we drag its carcass back to firm ground."

"You know Leon, our sparks were effective, but how much easier this fight would have been if we were equipped with poison claws like our friend, sometime lover, and fellow shape shifter Aodh of Elysion. Next time we go by there let's ask the druids if they and the New Forest can upgrade our powers the way they did with him. I'd also like to see in the dark like Madden Sexton who can actually perceive body heat on the darkest night."

"That's a great idea. Both of them also got strengthened constitutions so they now have tripled rather than doubled strength. We should ask for that too. Let's hope all parties go for it."

"Agreed. Oops! We mustn't forget to signal our success."

"Right."

Both cousins sent up five double handfuls of electrum sparks to signal the success of their hunt to the boy's family, friends, and neighbors. Their acute hearing caught the sound of cheers, which would normally have been heartening except that the sound was so faint it told them they would have to drag the heavy carcass really far.

If the boys were tired from the fight, after dragging the dead weight of the carcass all the way across the marsh they ended up trembling with fatigue. No threading its dead body though the underbrush. They had to drag it through the shrubbery and tough and tall grass by main force. It later weighed in at one-hundred eighty pounds.

The boy's father cut its belly open to free the corpse of his son then took it to his wife and family to prepare for a funeral to be held immediately. The corpse cleaned up pretty well all things considered. So the casket did not have to be closed for the ceremony. His mother got to look at her son one last time and say her farewells.

The father gave the eulogy for his son. He had died bravely, a hero really, protecting his sister, sending her running for home and turning back to face the snake as it caught up with them to strike it on the head with a stout stick and so delay it.

The officiant was a priest of one of the more popular pantheons whose chief deity was a sky god. He kept the ceremony short, simple, and dignified and delivered a heartfelt sermon which went as far as any mere words could to reconcile the parents to their tragic loss.

He made a good impression on everyone though the cousins found some of his homilies irksome. They were skeptics and rationalists from way back, a leaning reinforced under the tutelage of their protectors the White Kodiaks.

As Leon later grumbled to Brand.

"I couldn't agree with that priest that our presence on the scene was literally providential. If some celestial power really was benignly disposed towards mortals on this planet then why did he, she, it, or they not save that boy? How hard would it have been for a god to distract a hungry snake and keep it away from the kids? To my way of thinking drawing the two us `providentially' to the scene afterwards was a case of too little too late. All we could do for the family was recover a body not save a young life."

"That priest also assured the mother that she would someday be reunited with her son in the by and by. He spoke glibly and blithely of the `sure and certain hope of the life to come'. Well, which is it? If it is only a hope then it cannot be sure and certain. And if it really is sure and certain, then it cannot be a mere hope. That's just one of those orotund phrases which sound profound but are really nonsensical."

Brand agreed:

"Hope in some life to come is surely the ultimate in wishful thinking especially a next life which will supposedly last forever and ever."

Brand shook his head:

"So many people are in denial about life and death. They cannot or perhaps choose not to face the stark truth which is this: we are born; we live; we die. Afterwards we are no more, and the fabric of our bodies is corrupted, broken down, and recycled."

"Amen. Or is that too orotund?"

"Coming from you, I'll let it pass."

A report about the incident with the anaconda was printed in the news weekly in Three Forks. On the strength of the new story's connection with two of the heroes of the fight against the bank robbers the second story also got syndicated by the Altair News Service over the postal heliograph.

The cousins were as yet unaware of their minor degree of fame. If asked they would have been pleased less for themselves than for the favorable impact reports of their exploits might have on public attitudes toward snow elves. Lots of folks didn't quite know what to make of such exotic personages.

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.