Elf-Boy's Friends 47
Snow Elves at Elysion
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 1. Elysion
The Snow Elves and their protectors the White Kodiak bears arrived in Elysion a few days after their rendezvous in the New Forest where the different groups had come together after separate adventures.
The lupine triplets Lobo, Lupo, and Brand had help locate a headstrong teenager who had gone off alone on his very first walkabout with entirely too little preparation. They had also met up with a fellow snow elf the unicorn Derry who had become a new member of their circle if not of their family.
Gulo was reunited with his new boyfriend Roland one of two wilderness guides traveling with a party of natural philosophers. Their leader Professor Scolari was a botanist of note and an old friend of the shape shifter Aodh, the spouse of their host Count Klarendes.
Leon and Brand, the spotted leopards of the bunch, had had the most exciting walkabout. In three separate adventures they had fought a gang of murderous poachers, helped foil a brazen bank robbery in a town on the Eastern Plains, and battled an anaconda to recover the body of a young boy it had killed.
As for the White Kodiaks, at the end of a visit to the brontothere reserve at the foot of the mountains they had been shot at by trophy hunters who deliberately targeted and murdered sapient species which walked on more than two legs. Their hunting lodges boasted the heads and mounted specimens of unicorns who were universally respected and centaurs who were just as universally hated. Their chief hunter had intended to turn the Kodiaks into bear rugs.
After cowardly wounding the bears by shooting air guns down at them from autogyros orbiting over head they hunters and their guards had set down near the wounded bears ready to finish them off at close range where their airguns could do more than inflict flesh wounds. Instead Bjarni and Bjorn had turned the tables, using their sonic weapon to kill half of their party. The others ran out of range only to crumple under the charge of forty brontotheres whom Bjorn had summoned via Mind Speech.
The constabulary had helped the bears keep the secret of their sonic weapon which hitherto they had not disclosed even to their proteges the snow elves. They made a clean breast of things at the rendezvous. The snow elves were gratified by the confidence the bears showed in their discretion.
Klarendes graciously extended his hospitality to the snow elves and Kodiak bears who had arrived suddenly to take him up on his standing invitation to visit any time. With all his other guests from the expedition of the natural philosophers, the resident druids and forest rangers, the manor house was packed. Extra provisions had to be procured to feed everyone, and hogs slaughtered to feed the huge appetites of the bears. It took a day or two to get everyone settled in. On the evening of the third day Klarendes invited his guests to one of his famous flame shows.
Their guests gathered on the verandah of Klarendes' manor house -- a locale with room enough for everyone: the Kodiaks, the seven snow elves, most of Scolari's party of seven save only their cook and manservant, the Klarendes themselves father, sons, and spouse, the three druids in residence Dahlderon, Owain, and Meirionnydd plus forest rangers Lord Madden Sexton and Beast Master Dylan.
Even those who normally went sky clad had dressed in their best. Aodh wore a dark green sarong which flattered his dark hair and milky white skin. Derry wore his patterned green and white sarong while the twins wore sarongs color coded as always: green for Jemsen and blue for Karel. The druids were in full tunics and the forest rangers in their dress greens. Even the snow elves wore loose trews though the lupine triplets insisted on identical garment so no one except their family and the other shape shifters, Aodh, Sexton, and Derry could tell them apart by scent.
As the company relaxed after supper, shortly before dusk while there was still daylight to see by the handsome nobleman prepared his pipe for a post prandial smoke. Practiced hands went through the age-old ritual beloved of pipe smokers everywhere, tapping the turned down bowl to empty it of any remaining ash, filling the chamber with the count's special blend, packing the tobacco with the tamper of the well-worn pipe tool handed down by generations of counts of the Eastern March.
No need for tongs to fetch a coal from the fire which was burning in the hearth. With a flourish of his right hand, the count produced a flame at the tip of his index finger and applied it to the tobacco, kindling the pungent mixture instantly. Blowing out the flame on his finger much like a candle, the count puffed away contentedly.
Once he got his pipe burning properly the count reached out with his magic and morphed puffs of smoke into fantastic shapes: a rocky crag, a castellated tower, the head of a wolf, then that of a panther.
"I cannot achieve with smoke the level of detail that I can with flame," Klarendes explained. "Smoke is as much of earth as it is of fire."
The main event once darkness fell was to be stories told not just around a camp fire but by a campfire using fire magic and Klarendes' mastery of flame.
Professor Scolari smiled:
"I am sure you must have some great stories to tell. Just from what we heard from the snow elves and bears of their recent adventures, it seems that you and everyone in your circle is constantly going off on adventures and getting into scrapes. Their exploits make for good story telling around a campfire."
"Something you yourself are a past master at yourself, even if your listeners must sometimes wonder whether your stories are always strictly autobiographical."
"Maybe not, but around a campfire a certain latitude is allowed, isn't it. A good story has value in its own right not only as entertainment but also for the life lessons it imparts."
"Indeed. Anyway it is now time for my flame show. My staff has prepared a bonfire in that fire pit in front of us. I too have a yarn to spin but I shall not merely describe what happened in words, I shall recreate the events in flickering flames. This flame show is my favorite of the flame shows I put on every year at the spring festival. It recalls my spouse Aodh's celebrated rescue of six year old boy from the clutches of a slavering dire wolf."
Speaking to Lobo, Lupo, and Volf he added:
"Uh, no offense there boys."
"None taken." Lobo said with a grin, answering for all of them.
Klarendes nodded and went to work. With a flourish, the count set the wood aflame, the initial whoosh sending sparks high into the air. Combining alchemy with his magical gift, the count threw powders of mineral salts into the fire that turned the flames first green, then blue, then bright violet which he morphed into fantastic shapes including a castle atop a hill and a rampant lion. The best part came when the flames returned to their normal hue. That was when Klarendes really showed his mastery of fire.
Invoking his magical gift, the count morphed the flames into a pantomime depicting the boy's rescue. His characters were half-sized, rendered in three dimensions, and instantly recognizable,. First was the little lost boy himself, visibly forlorn sitting up a tree with shoulders slumped. Next the dire wolf who had waited hidden till thirst drove the boy from his perch up a tree. He stalked toward his prey lips bared and growling. Next the panther sprang between the wolf and boy and sent him running down the trail to safety. Then the two flame beasts reenacted their savage fight, pitting the massive wolf and his bone crushing jaws against the fangs and claws of his smaller opponent.
The fight ended with the wolf dead and the victorious panther prostrate from near fatal wounds. The pantomime skipped Aodh's convalescence, instead showing him and the count in a warm embrace. The couple made of flames reenacted the ceremony where the count had taken Aodh as his spouse and the celebratory dance which followed.
"Can my spouse entertain or what?" Aodh asked proudly.
Scolari allowed that Klarendes was a master storyteller himself with an absolutely unique technique.
"I intend to recreate some of the adventures of our white coated friends in new flame shows. I like to mix new stories with old favorites. I should add that I have an ulterior motive for all the work I put into these shows. The practice sharpens my perceptions and my precise control over fire, whether as flame or heat."
"Now some firecasters think only strength is important. That is one reason, besides decent pay, why they are so ready to accept part time employment in our refrigeration business, freezing the tops of ponds to make ice. But control and finesse count too. As for strength, I am already one of the strongest fire wizards on the planet and one of only a handful who can repeatedly throw a stream of white fire. [i.e. subatomic plasma]
<On a more serious note,> Bjorn send via Mind Speech, <Brand and Leon nearly had to break off from their fight with that anaconda. It was a close run thing. Brand got to wondering whether you druids would sponsor him and the others for power upgrades like those enjoyed by Aodh and Lord Sexton."
The druids nodded thoughtfully. Merry spoke for them.
"What did you have in mind, Brand. A sonic weapon like those of Aodh, Derry, and the Kodiak bears?"
"The Kodiak bears too?" Aodh interrupted. "That's the first I've heard about it."
"Oops!"
"Merry, you and your big mouth!" Owain chided gently.
Count Klarendes chuckled and tutted: "History repeats itself, Merry. Today you blurted out the secret of their sonic weapon. Years ago you signaled that the druids had mastered the technique for creating space portals but hadn't yet shared it with our war wizards."
Owain could resist getting in a little dig of his own.
"Only this time Merry blabbed the secret in plain language. At least last time the revelation came in an off hand remark. It took a keen mind like yours Taitos to jump to the correct conclusion."
Scolari raised his eyebrows. "Care to elaborate Count Klarendes.?"
"I had asked why the druids preferred to operate from here in Elysion on the fringes of the Commonwealth and not set up shop in the capital. They shuddered at the thought of living in a big city, all stone and concrete and brick instead of being close to nature and the New Forest. All very reasonable of course, though I did point out that consultations with the government would require a lengthy and time consuming journey. Merry shook his head and said that was not a problem these days with the capital only steps away. That is what gave it away."
"You would think that a mind that had existed for over a millennium and was in its third incarnation would have learned discretion by now." Dahl said with mock regret.
"Hey, give me a break. Remember in this body, I am a thoughtless and flighty teenager."
The Kodiak bears asked everyone to be discreet about their sonic weapon. Klarendes pointed out that if the news spread only by word of mouth the secret was safe. Few would ever hear of it, and even fewer those farther away. The bears would be vulnerable only if the story got into the news-papers. He said he was sure that his nephew Corwin and Drew Altair would keep the information about the sonic weapon out of the newspapers.
"The story of the attack on the bears was news all right, but it was not their story to tell. The Capital Intelligencer can just reprint the story as it comes via heliograph from their own press service. So Brand, what is your answer to Merry's question? What about a sonic weapon of your own?"
Brand shook his head.
"None of us snow elves needs a sonic weapon. We all have some kind of standoff weapon already. Aodh didn't have that in the past but Leon and I can snap electrum sparks which serves much the same purpose, that is to distract the foe so badly he cannot continue his attack or offer any real defense. Similarly the wolves can Call Light to englobe the head of a foe to scramble his brain circuits, and as Gulo has shown with the slash bear he can set clothes or fur alight."
"What Leon and I want are poison glands like Aodh's. Also increased strength and stamina plus the ability to see heat in pitch darkness the way Lord Sexton can. I wonder though why he himself did not ask for a stand off capability when he had the chance."
"Different circumstances, my friend. Although I too am a shape shifter, a wolverine like Gulo, I am not on perpetual walkabout unclothed and unarmed. As a forest ranger I spend most of my time in my human form fully clothed and armed. Between my bow, my airgun, and my throwing stars I have all the stand off weaponry I need. Besides as a wolverine I like to mix it up close and personal whether with natural weapons or with my Morningstar and as savage as I can make it. Right Gulo?"
"You said it, sir!" the youngest snow elf enthused.
"All right. Let's sleep on it. You boys need to be crystal clear in your minds about what you want us and the New Forest to do for you. Remember, we are mostly catalysts for your own transformative magic which makes the changes you envision.
Snow elves didn't carry weapons and had no real training with arms such as blades, axes, maces, or war hammers. That was why they all trained in unarmed combat in case they had to fight in their two legged forms. Most of the time though they morphed into their animal forms which were physically more formidable. They needed upgrades which would potentiate their physical abilities. Entirely separate capabilities such as telekinesis, firecasting, lightning bolts, and such, though more powerful, were anyway were not within the gift of the New Forest.
Derry of course did not need an upgrade to his powers. He already well provided with those of both a shape shifter and a unicorn including two stand off capabilities: his so-called killer neigh and Calling Light.
A few days later the druids took the six snow elves to the location of the closest of the three semi-crystalline living matrices which housed the soul of the New Forest and were the seat of its consciousness. In that locale its magic was strongest.
Already nude the snow elves lay down atop a bed of moss. The druids joined hands and invoked their magic, which manifested as a pearly white nimbus which engulfed the nude boys lying in front of them. The crystalline matrix extended a nimbus of its own, only bright green, the color of growing things, which settled over them. A wild riot of plant life grew up around the supine boys and covered them completely, wrapping shoots and runners around his limbs and even penetrating his orifices: nostrils, mouth, ears, and even those of their nether regions.
The air crackled with electricity as the nimbus of the forest merged with that of the druids, pulsating and cycling through all the colors of the visible spectrum plus some in the infrared or ultraviolet ranges which only druids could see. After ten minutes the magic faded away, the plant life withdrew from their pale bodies then withered and crumbled into dust.
In all cases their bones were stronger, now knit together with tensile fibers. Same thing for the tendons and ligaments plus their muscles were denser. Also their hearing was more acute, and they could sense body heat so as to detect a foe or a predator lurking in the dark or behind concealing shrubbery or even a thin wall. Their reflexes almost matched those of druids who could snatch arrows out of the air.
The leopards got their poison claws. The others did not want that particular enhancement. All of them were were already satisfied with their existing stand off capabilities. The lupine triplets opted for stronger and sharper claws which they could morph from standard wolf claws to something they had already experimented with themselves. Their new claws were shaped like a wolverine's claws not a cat's hooked claws. Wolves had no business climbing trees, and the triplets were not interested in arboreal adventures.
The improved claws on all four feet would still let them run as before but also let them fight like a cat if necessary, either rearing up and swiping with just the fore paws or rolling onto the back to present all four paws to a foe and maybe disembowel him from below. In a fight then the wolves could do more than just bite. However powerful their jaws or however sharp their teeth, stretching their necks out to bite put their throats, heads, and vulnerable sense organs entirely too close to their enemies' offensive capabilities.
Now that might be something natural wolves never realized consciously, but that was why they always tried to make their prey flee. An animal running for its life could not bring its horns, antlers or hooves into play in its own defense. Wolves preferred to attack the hindquarters to bleed or hamstring their prey. Another tactic was to bite the belly. There or four good bites out of a moose's or elk's belly would cause so much blood loss that it would founder.
The best tactic then for prey species was to stand their ground and not give in to panic and run. In most cases wolves will not attack an animal that stands its ground. Instead wolves will give up and go looking for easier prey.
The lupine shape shifters knew that many of their future fights would not be against natural prey which they could chase after but foes on two legs or four whom they could expect to fight it out. That was why they needed the capability to attack head on.
Gulo wanted the ability to climb trees so he got claws which could morph as needed between their familiar blunt shape for fighting and running and new style hooked claws for climbing. Next time a slash bear charged at him, he would just climb to safety. No point risking life and limb if he were alone and did not have to stand his ground for the sake of others.
Chapter 2. Idyll
To accommodate so many guests the count's staff had to open and freshen up long disused bed chambers and guest rooms. Their work was made a little easier in that their guests were perfectly happy to share chambers and beds. Gulo and Roland paired up, resuming their interrupted summer romance. Much as Taitos Klarendes was attracted to pretty little Gulo he would have to wait his turn with him. He understood that Gulo's pairing with Roland was only temporary. Roland would leave for the capital as soon as he was accepted for training at the Institute for Natural Philosophy.
The triplets were happy to share a bed, while Aodh joined his fellow felines the cousins Leon and Brand for the duration of their sojourn. Scolari's cook and his manservant Goren shared a room. The natural philosophers each had a room of his own: Scolari himself, the zoologist Evander Blok, and the geologist Johan Klutz.
Derrionydd that is Derry took up with Meirionnydd, that is Merry, the former unicorn now a druid. The difference in coloration between snow elf and sylvan elf made for a fine looking couple. Merry explained that his own snow white hair was a holdover from those days.
"You're halfway to looking like a Snow Elf anyway, so why don't you invoke your druidic powers and go all the way."
Merry snorted.
"I am much less likely to do than than to make the hair on my head grow out with the dark color nature intended for us Sylvan Elves. And I like an overall tan on my torso and limbs. It makes me look healthy and vigorous. Pasty white skin suggest that you are either a shut-in or in poor health. That may be satisfactory to you shape shifters, but I not one one of your kind."
"Please, not pasty white. We prefer our skin color to be likened to alabaster. That is much more classy, don't you think?"
"All right, yes, yours is a classy combination: alabaster skin, shoulder-length ash-blond hair, and icy grey eyes. But only a shape shifter would put up with long hair in this tropical climate. Shoulder-length hair is too hard to manage and keep clean. So I keep mine short."
"Ha! We snow elves never have a bad hair day. All we have to do is transform and leave the dirt and sweat and tangles behind. I can understand though why you keep yours cut short."
"Cut? Who said anything about needing the services of a barber? I am a druid. My hair grows out exactly as long as I want it to and then stops growing."
"Now with so many snow elves about these days, I've been thinking of making it come in dark to show that I am a sylvan elf and happy to be one. On the other had, keeping it white is a reminder of the old days. Besides I have retained some of my unicorn powers though not my killer neigh."
"That leaves you without a stand off capability." Derry pointed out.
"Hardly. We druids are all about stand off capabilities, that and force multiplication. We seldom fight hand to hand and even then only with a quarterstaff, never with steel. Like you we have four times normal strength so when we crack a foe's skull with a staff, he goes down and stays down. We do use throwing knives, but they are made of ironwood, so they are entirely organic. Dahl once killed an evil man by flinging an ironwood blade into his skull."
"As for force multiplication, ask Dahl about the time during his journeyman trials when he, as a naked teenage druid, lead the charge of a herd of brontotheres against an army of amazons. Ask Owain about the time he flash grew a stand of bamboo to kill a squad of frost giants which tried to breach the shield wall of a town militia, which would have let a force of barbarians roll up their battle line. Their big skeletons are still hanging where they died."
"Druids can flash grow vines and runners and creepers to seize the legs of an enemy force and hold them in place, easy targets for the bows or air guns of their allies. Alternatively the motile plant parts can strangle a druid's enemies. And how about the trick of sending snakes into the enemy camp at night to sow terror?"
"With our control of life magic we druids can kill a foe with a thought and from some distance. You would not believe how easy it is to induce a heart attack or to turn a foe's stomach contents into poison or an allergen. If I were really mad at a foe, I might do what Dahl once did to thwart a war wizard who was trying to kill him with white fire. He made the man's skeleton crumble into powder, causing his boneless body to collapse into a bloody and gooey mess. The sight gave witnesses nightmares for years."
Holding his hands up in surrender, Derry said:
"Remind me not to get you mad at me."
Things got even more crowded when the twins showed up, but they were more than happy to share a room with the elf-boy Dylan, as they had done so often before.
Around the breakfast table Derry asked whether the druids or the New Forest itself was not worried about the security of its three semi-crystalline living matrices. Anyone might walk up to the sites whether by accident, from curiosity, from ill-intent -- maybe a wizard who wanted to appropriate its magic.
"That cannot happen." Dahlderon assured him.
"The forest has strong defenses, and I don't just mean all the animals it can call to its aid to attack invaders. No one is going to stumble upon the matrices by accident. The forest is aware of everything that moves within its boundaries. Persons getting too close will be directed away from the locales, their own minds suddenly coming up with plausible reasons for why heading toward a matrix is not a good idea. Same thing for the merely curious."
"As for ill-intent, only a druid can work with a matrix since both use forms of life magic. The magic of wizards focusses on the inanimate world. So a wizard cannot draw on the magic of the matrix. Anyone, wizard or not, aiming to tamper with or to destroy a matrix would be struck blind and deaf or likely have his heart stopped, and if the forest were in a angry mood might swarm him with thousands of fire ants."
Left unsaid was that the forest had laid physical traps in case a malefactor was able to counter its magic with one of the rare ensorcelled amulets. The New Forest was still young. Given a century to grown stronger, the forest's magic could overwhelm and destroy the defensive magic of an amulet. The only chink in its armor was an aerial approach via flying yoke or autogyro.
The natural philosophers and their helpers took advantage of the count's hospitality to relax from the rigors of their strenuous expedition. It felt good to sleep in a soft bed between clean sheets, to wear freshly laundered clothes, to have a water closet just steps away, and to bathe or shower in solar-heated hot water. (During those rare cloudy spells where solar heating was inadequate, the fire magic of the Klarendes clan heated the water in the tanks fed by their solar array.)
Then there was the excellent food and drink. What was served at meals was not overly fussy or fancy. Haute cuisine was not one of the count's hobbies. Solid country cooking with fresh ingredients better suited the tastes of the gentleman farmer, hunter, and sometime soldier that he was. He was particular about a few things. Just as he had a special blend for his pipe, he had long settled on a particular varieties of kaffay, whether a mild brew with breakfast in the morning or a more robust variety for dinner.
In keeping with the custom in the country the midday meal was called dinner. Among country folk it was always the most substantial meal of the day. Supper was typically a light meal of cold meats, cheese, sliced bread, and dried fruits for dessert. For city folk the most substantial meal was that taken in the evening, and confusingly it too was called dinner. The lighter meal taken at midday was dubbed lunch.
Just to add to the confusion the honeymoon resort across the valley had adopted the city lingo since it drew newly married couples from far and wide, especially from the big cities. The draw was the scenic wonder of the region, a spectacular cataract. The cascade shot from a slot atop a cliff then descended in a stepped cataract to fill a deep pool at the bottom. The spray and mist of the falling waters formed what was called the Bridal Veil.
But it was its rainbows which made the site a meteorological wonderland. On sunny days the mist formed a double spray rainbow arching over the pool plus a third rainbow reflected from the lake surface. At night the spray formed a single white moon-bow. And under the right conditions, large fogbows would appear, a ghostly backdrop for the nearby henge of standing stones left by some vanished civilization.
This was the first visit of the natural philosophers so they got the grand tour from their gracious host.
Elysion was a secluded valley, a lovely green bowl about eight miles across, ringed by mountains and closed off by vertiginous cliffs on the east. The dark green of the forested slopes was broken here and there by lighter clear cuts. Sheep meadows and vineyards on the lower slopes gave way to flatlands with pastures, orchards, grain fields, kitchen gardens, and other works of man.
The valley held a single settlement in the center, a sizable village, one large enough to call a town, with a manor house hard by. The village was situated atop a knoll where a stream split in twain and flowed entirely around, then rejoined below. That was intentional harking back to the old days of invasions by the eastern barbarians. In effect the topography made the village into a fortress atop a hill on an island behind a moat.
Though the village was not built as a fortress, the houses are sturdy enough, all stone or timber and stone construction with tile roofs, hence very hard to set on fire. Behind barred doors and shuttered windows, both men and women would be armed with repeating crossbows or air guns and shoot through loopholes and embrasures. Or the militia could march out to give battle. In the old days the grown men were armed with war axes and shields. These days they bore air guns, bought cheap by Klarendes as war surplus. Klarendes was captain of the militia and of the volunteer fire brigade so was usually called "Captain" by the villagers.
Klarendes sketched the history of Elysion by way of explanation for the obvious harmony and prosperity his guests saw all around in the happy faces of children off to school, the cleanliness, vigor and robust good health of the yeoman, and the respect the locals had for the nobleman. No one shot the man a resentful look behind his back. They genuinely liked and respected him.
They learned that Klarendes ranked as a count, the latest scion in a second of two dynasties ruling these lands going back eight centuries. The first count in his own line had succeeded to the title after the last of the former dynasty were killed during the Formation Wars. His ancestors had managed to sire enough sons or daughters to keep it going, despite low fertility from the large admixture of elf-blood in their ancestry. Happily, Klarendes himself had two sons in their twenties though neither of them was in a hurry to marry and settle down.
Everything within the mountain ring was his property save the village itself and the arable lands immediately around it: fields, orchards, pastures, and hay meadow. Every farmer was a yeoman freeholder with his own acres. The other villagers were free men working in shop or smithy or tavern or were in the direct employ of the domain itself at fair wages.
It had been that way for generations. The counts no longer exacted feudal dues. Their income came from exploiting the lands they personally owned which lay beyond the farms and included the timberlands and sheepfolds in the mountains, the well-tended vineyards on the hilly slopes, a small silver mine, and the scenic waterfall, site of the popular and lucrative resort. The count also drew an income from his considerable real estate interests in nearby towns plus extremely lucrative early investments in nascent industries across the Commonwealth like iron roads, street car lines, and refrigeration.
Like everyone else the counts paid local taxes levied by a council of elders for the upkeep of roads and bridges, for the provision of public services, and the maintenance of the fortifications at the head of the gorge that lead to the outside world. The village could boast a grammar school cum lending library, an infirmary with a diplomate healer, an herbalist, and two midwives on staff, and a chapel which served those who desired to worship their gods in public or collectively rather than at household shrines. Klarendes second steward managed their day to day affairs. (His chief steward managed the count's personal domain.)
"Not that we are self-sufficient here, though we do raise practically all our own food. We still must import manufactures of all sorts, spices, exotic woods, and books, though we pay for all that not from the proceeds of the sale of crops but from ventures like the honeymoon resort at our scenic waterfall, a lucrative trade in amber, aromatic gums, and medicinal plants collected from the forests, and especially the silver work we turn out in the shape of buckles, buttons, broaches, bracelets, rings, and the like. High value, low weight, so much easier to ship than bulk cargoes like grain or fruit or ore."
That afternoon their peregrinations took them along the convoluted shore of the small lake downstream from the resort. Fed by the waterfall, the lake emptied into the white water creek that flowed down the gorge past the fortified checkpoint grandly called the "Stone Castle" and so out to the wider world.
At first sight the Stone Castle was a disappointment, a stone-built barrier twenty feet high with an archway through it barred by three gates. Actually it was far stronger than it looked at first glance. An attacker would have to force the three gates one after the other, his men bunched up under murder holes the whole time.
Even as they tried to force the gates, their follow-on forces would be subject to merciless missile fire from in front and from both sides. The fortification extended over the river. Downstream the road was flanked by galleries cut into the living rock from which slingers, shooters, and crossbowmen could rain down lead bullets and quarrels, turning the last stretch before the gate into a killing ground. The small garrison would hold long enough for the village militia to form up and dispatch reinforcements.
These days only a token force guarded the gates. Even the overwatch at the entrance to the canyon had been withdrawn. Given the outcome of the last wars for the plains and the tremendous military potential the Commonwealth had demonstrated in the Troll War, there was zero chance of another invasion or raid by the eastern barbarians. They knew better than to get on the Commonwealth's bad side.
The natural philosophers also asked questions in line with their professional interests. Johan Klutz asked about the visually striking geology while Scolari himself was interested in the unusual cultivars of domestic plants and crops growing in the fields and gardens. The zoologist Evander Blok got little from the count about his own special interest herpetology. The count knew little and cared less about snakes and reptiles.
Chapter 3. Romance
Having their own room gave Gulo and Roland the privacy they needed to fully express the passionate attraction they felt for each other. Roland felt so terribly lucky to have met such a beauty as Gulo was with his slender physique, glabrous alabaster skin, ash-blond hair hanging down to his shoulders, and icy grey eyes. Roland was tall where Gulo was short differing also in his dark hair and dark eyes and tawny skin.
Roland felt himself lucky to have become lovers with a lovely snow elf like Gulo. He and his elf-boy lover joined their bodies as lusty lads will, in a tangle of limbs and thrusting hips, hungry kisses, heavy petting, and words of love plus less articulate sounds expressive of their joint passion.
Roland always started out with extended petting, touching Gulo's delectable body everywhere to learn and memorize its contours. Gulo rolled his eyes but held still as the eager human youth ran his fingers lightly over the corrugations of the snow elf's belly, circled his navel with his index finger, and stroked the blades of his hipbones and the inside of his thighs. He had Gulo turn over onto his belly and asked him to tighten his buns then gripped the taut buns to gauge their firmness, breaking off then to sweep blade of his hand along his lover's cleavage.
Putting the elf-boy on his back again, Roland kissed his body from pectorals all the way to fork of his legs. Never displeased when homage was paid to his physical beauty, Gulo allowed these liberties, nor was he surprised at the rush of heat to his belly which made his cock plump up, lift off, and cantilever over his flat belly throbbing and leaking seminal fluid.
Gulo's arousal emboldened the human youth to cup the elf-boy's ball sac with one hand while stroking the shaft with a thumb lubricated with Gulo's own seminal fluid giving special attention to the sweet spot. It wasn't long before Gulo's member was poised on the edge of release. What took him over the top was when Roland tongued and nibbled his nipples. Gulo groaned as he orgasmed and shot his seed all over his chest and belly and face then lay back in post-coital lassitude.
That was only the beginning for those two who explored and joined the bodies in all possible ways save only those gravity defying techniques which required one or both of the lovers to be gifted with telekinesis.
And when they weren't at the manor house the young couple went for long walks everywhere within the bowl of hills. At the insistence of the young snow elf they went sky clad. Now Roland was not body shy, but for him as with most young males of the Commonwealth public nudity was mainly for either dirty sweaty work or for athletic competition, training, or recreation. Public parks, country roads, and swimming holes were the normal venues where Roland took his clothes off and went about in the nude. With Gulo it wasn't a matter of when you took your clothes off but when or whether you put any on.
So since snow elves went sky clad as a matter of course, Roland did so too. And why shouldn't he, with that fine body of his, slender yet muscular, hard bodied from his tramping the woods as a wilderness guide. Though not evenly tanned his body was nowhere pale. His face and arms were deeply tanned, his torso less so, and still less below the hips.
Gulo and Roland made a fine looking couple, the one dark where the other was light, one tall the other below middling height, their pretty faces and tight bodies making them exemplars of youthful male concupiscence.
One venue where the couple mixed with the locals was a grassy area where a group of maybe youths and younger men practiced martial arts. Most of them trained naked though a few wore thongs or pouches. Whether tall or short, slight of build or heavy boned, the young males all had lean muscular bodies, tanned bronze by the tropic sun.
Most were the sons of farmers or were hired hands so in the fields they typically worked in the nude, partly to keep from soiling their garments. Even with power looms driven by water power, cloth was still expensive and laundering was laborious, whereas dirt washed off bare skin just fine. Gulo and Roland joined them for some training sessions, matching themselves against unfamiliar opponents, something the snow elves seldom got a chance to do.
Now snow elves were especially good at martial arts. They did not carry arms and never knew when they might be challenged when in their elven forms. Gulo took on some of the bigger guys and held his own, chalking up victories, aided by his doubled strength. The local boys did not mind, since their bouts gave them the chance to grapple Gulo's luscious sexy body. Time and again one or the other of the fighters felt a surge of lust as they pressed their bodies together, grappling with them, mounting them and grinding hips to rumps.
Roland was much less practiced in unarmed combat and it showed in his results. And since the local boys occasionally played for a chance to shag their opponent, Roland twice found himself dragged into the bushes and put on all fours for a quick shag.
It wasn't just the young males who ogled Gulo and Roland, though the local lasses quickly realized that their own attraction to the sexy youths was not reciprocated. Which was a shame as more than one disappointed young lady was heard to remark aloud. One young lady allowed that it was a wonder that the various of races on Haven hadn't died out from failure to reproduce.
"So many of the best looking boys are interested only in each other. I mean what is wrong with this picture?" she grumbled.
Her friend pointed out that for a good many youths flings with those of their own gender was only a passing phase. Many did eventually settle down with a wife and start a family. So there was hope yet for the various races born of the humans of Old Urth.
The lupine triplets shared their favors widely. No doubt the canine element in their constitution energized their sex drive. They took up singly, in pairs, or in threesomes with practically anyone at the manor with an itch to scratch.
Now the trio did join in martial arts drills but that was at least as much for the chance to display their exotic and sexy physiques as to practice their moves. They also attracted attention with their wind sprints and foot races against all comers.
Here too their ulterior motive was the chance to show off. Who could fail to notice the beauty of the nude male form initially crouched on one knee at the command "ready" then rising to the "set" position with head low and rump high, then taking off at the command "go" in a dazzling display of speed, athleticism, and sex appeal.
With mischief in their hearts the twins challenged the triplets to a foot race. It was to be a battle royal between a trio of youths with alabaster skin and shoulder-length ash-blond hair versus a pair of bronzed beauties with close cropped hair the color of corn silk. The triplets had a physique
The five lined up at the starting line. They were to run out to small red shed a mile away and then run back to the finish line. At the command ready, the triplets sank to one knee and knuckles. The twins merely bent their knees.
"You call that ready?" Lobo asked.
"You run your way. We'll run ours."
"Fair enough... I think."
"He must have something up his sleeve." Lupo murmured warily, but Karel shook his head in denial.
"Nope! We are starkers. No sleeves and nothing up them," he quipped, with a big grin, thinking was this a great set up or what?
At the command "set" the trio raised their rumps, heads held low, forming an arc with their whole bodies, their limbs taut with anticipation. Karel couldn't resist temptation, not with the mischief fully upon him. He reached out and patted Lobo's scrumptious rump.
"Hey, quit that will you?" Lobo complained. "Stop trying to distract me and break my concentration."
"Just paying tribute to your irresistible sex appeal..." which was all the apology the wolf boy would be getting from Karel.
At "go" the triplets took off running full-tilt to establish an early lead after which they would drop back to their distance pace. The twins started off easy and deliberately let the wolf boys get ahead. For what the twins had in mind they needed a bit of room.
There is an old expression used to describe a really fast runner: He runs like the wind. In Karel's case that was literally true. Karel was an air wizard and could call a jet of wind at ground level to push him from behind. His enhanced strength, stamina, and fast reflexes enabled him stay on his feet as the wind carried him along.
Running before the wind was a lot like running downhill full tilt, where a runner's legs could hardly churn fast enough to keep up with the forward motion of the body and keep them under its center of gravity. It took real effort and the fast reflexes of a magically enhanced physique to keep coordinated and not let the jet bowl him over.
Now when humans ran at a fast pace, just as with horses in a gallop, they were actually airborne, if only very briefly, just after they pushed off with the rear foot and before their front foot touched the ground. It was this principle that let Karel almost literally fly along the road with six yard strides letting him reach double or triple normal speed. Best of all Jemsen could match him stride for stride with Karel providing the push for both of them. Talk about a runner's high!
The triplets glanced back and realized that the twins were running inhumanly fast. As the twins literally breezed by the triplets were brushed by the edges of Karel's air jet and realized how they had been tricked.
"Hey, no powers!" Lobo complained, but Karel just waved goodbye.
The same thought popped into all three of their heads, that they too could run inhumanly fast. The triplets transformed into their lupine forms and set off at their best four-legged gait which was about forty miles an hour. Alas, the twins could run at a pace of a mile a minute or sixty miles an hour. They reached the finish line well ahead of the wolf boys.
"You know I did call no powers." Lobo pointed out.
"Yes but not till after the race had started so it didn't count." Karel gave back airily.
"All right. Fool me once... You won't catch us with that trick again."
Karel shrugged. "Plenty more tricks where that one came from."
"Oh, like what?"
"That would be telling, but I will spot you this next trick if only to show you how terrible clever Jemsen and I can be. The next challenge would be a match race between Jemsen and any one of you. It would be a long steep uphill race. No jets of wind I promise."
"So what's the trick?" Lobo asked
"Simple. As an earth wizard Jemsen can use gravitational repulsion to decrease his weight and lighten his load. In an uphill race he would maintain just enough weight for his feet to make good contact with the ground. Tricky, no?"
The triplets shook their head, as much in admiration of the outrageous trickery of the irrepressible twins as anything else. Best then to just look on the race as an unlikely sort of foreplay.
Later the twins and the triplets did get together for fun and frolic, but the twins's attentions mostly centered on Dylan. He and the twins had been a threesome for several years. The elf-boy cum forest ranger had bonded quickly with his fellow hunters and woodsmen Jemsen and Karel. Dylan after all was an elf and the twins were elf-friends with all that implies: going around sky clad as often as possible, same gender sexual orientation, and a physical beauty beyond the norm.
It wasn't just a case of sexual attraction though that was a big part of it. Dylan and the twins were just the same sort of people. And since they could looked forward to centuries of youth, thanks to druidical healing magic in the twins' case or his inherent magical nature in Dylan's, theirs looked to be a lasting friendship.
The three youths certainly looked good together. Dylan was taller than the twins and darkly handsome with the glabrous skin, lissome build, and smooth musculature of his kind. Dark eyes twinkled over the killer cheekbones characteristic of his race. For their part the twins were utterly alluring with youthful features and lithe physiques. With their skins bronzed by the sun and topped by a head of hair the color of corn silk they were a pair of palomino colts who exuded good health and sex appeal.
One of their favorite activities in Elysion was to run over to the lakeside resort which had a splendid view of the scenic waterfall and the perpetual double rainbows its spray created overhead. Add in the reflections in the lake and you had a quadruple rainbow. You really could not stand under the cascade itself. The torrent was too powerful.
The lake water was pleasantly warm in the shallow coves and embayments along the shore, but the main part of the lake was deep and cool. A rock ledge about twelve feet above the water was their favorite spot to dive from. Indeed that was the spot where Dylan had taught the twins to dive properly. Previously they had just jumped in, boulder style, with a tremendous splash
"That's not diving!" Dylan had snorted then proceeded to demonstrate several graceful dives popular among the elves in his home vale: the swan dive, the jackknife, and the forward somersault. The twins had insisted he train them to dive as he did.
All three youths relished the chance to show off their athleticism with fancy dives. All right maybe the sport of diving owed as much to sex appeal as to athletics, but it was a hell of a lot of fun and a great way to spend time with friends or catch the eye of potential suitors.
At midday the trio went by the resort which offered the light meal called lunch in deference to the city folk who were its chief customers. Since the count owned the resort, everything was on the house.
Afterwards the three youths made love outdoors though away from the resort buildings. The gardeners had planted lawns and mossy banks and built bowers and hidden nooks for the use of the honeymooners who were its chief customers. The twins were past masters of the amatory arts, having early on worked as rent boys to pay their way across the continent of Valentia in the company of the elf-boy, now druid, Dahlderon, the shapeshifter Aodh, and their common mentor, the late Dread Hand of the Commonwealth Sir Balandur of Leinster.
Druidical healing magic had granted the twins perpetual youth and a life span of half a millennium or more, to match that of their elf-boy friend. The normal human lifespan was usually described as six score and ten though these days many humans expected to reach a full score beyond that.
All three youths were hard-bodied outdoor types: hunters, scouts, and rangers. Athletic and energetic and acrobatic, they made love with abandon, limbs entangled in all manner of positions, their slick sweaty bodies pressed together. As with the elves the twins' sweat glands cooled the skin but never exuded the oils that turned rancid and produced body odor. Hence the twins and Dylan always smelled sweet though they did taste salty.
Usually Dylan paired with the twins one at a time though sometimes they had a three way. The young elf knew that he was born for male sex. He craved the press of a male body against his own, rigid members trapped between their bellies, both boys giggling at their brazen naughtiness as they engaged in foreplay.
In between bouts of lovemaking the trio swam in the lake, dunking each other or just wrestling, and in general engaging in the rambunctious grab ass games young males were so inordinately fond of. They also competed at archery, though really that was really just for practice. The three were so evenly matched that chance rather than skill decided the outcome of those contests.
As for the snow elves Gulo and Roland were paired up, the lupine triplets were happy to share their bed with just about anyone at the manor house. The wolf boys later hooked up with the trio of the twins and the elf-boy Dylan in a constantly changing constellation of lissom bodies and thrusting hips in various permutations and combinations, double penetrations, and daisy chains. The Snow Elves showed that they were not only incomparably beautiful, they were sexually versatile and insatiable. Their couplings were athletic, acrobatic, energetic, and loud.
Meanwhile Meirionnydd and Derrionydd, former and current unicorns respectively, resumed their on again off again love affair, while Aodh frolicked with his fellow felines the cousins Leon and Brand.
After two weeks it was time for everyone to move on: the expedition and the twins went back to the capital taking a short cut through a space portal Owain opened for them, the rangers went on patrol, and the snow elves went on walkabout.
Meanwhile Dahlderon set out for the area of the Eastern Plains where Leon and Brand had battled the anaconda. Since he had never been there he wouldn't be able to simply step through a portal. Instead he would travel Aodh's Road from Elysion to Dalnot and from there via iron road to Three Forks.
Klarendes asks the druid how he planed to deal with the invasive species.
"I'll quarter the area and at each location I will psychically summon all the females of the species then kill them. Without females the infestation of anacondas will die a natural death."
As he took his leave of Elysion Professor Scolari told count Klarendes:
"We cannot thank you enough Taitos for your hospitality. After our strenuous expedition this was exactly the sojourn we needed -- a pampered idyll in a rustic setting. And next time you are in the capital, you will be dining out on us. Did you know that they were flying fresh lobster in weekly via autogyro? By lobster I mean the sort with the big claws, not the spiny sort. The delicacy is so much in demand we'll need reservations. Or if you prefer boney fish, I know a place which serves sea bream as you never tasted it."
Author's Note
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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.