Elf Boy's Friends - VIII
by George Gauthier
Chapter 15
Memorials
After the bodies of its victims were cut out of the snake's belly Mayor Kantor had the head placed inside a cage and set atop a natural stone pedestal accessible only by ladder to keep terrestrial and avian scavengers from getting to it. Over time maggots did their grisly work of consuming the flesh.
In a few weeks, with the flesh gone and the skull bleached by the sun, the dwarves had the centerpiece for their memorial. It was posed with the jaws gaping menacingly, the better to display the fake dagger teeth which the dwarves had carved from the bones of the snake and set into the jaws.
The huge carcass had been flensed manually and the skeleton exposed to the elements after which the dwarves collected the "dragon bones" and used them like ivory as the raw material for not only the dragon teeth but small items like chess sets, handles for knives, flutes, keepsakes, and anything you could think of.
Karel's blade of air had cut a deep gouge into the rock beneath the snake. That very spot was chosen as the location of a memorial the grateful dwarves planned to erect to the heroism of the Dragon Slayers, as the dwarves proclaimed the twins to be with considerable poetic license. Dragon sounded so much more dramatic than gigantic grass snake, which was what the monster really was, size notwithstanding.
The dwarves had asked a pair of visiting artists, both human, to create the memorial. The dwarves realized that only human artists would be familiar enough with human anatomy to depict it realistically and artistically enough to inspire in the viewer an appreciation of the youthful male beauty of the two young heroes.
The artists Baggio and Lorenz were lovers, youths in their very early twenties who were happy to provide their professional services, not only out of gratitude to the twins for saving them from a horrible death but also for the chance to establish themselves professionally. Once the Guild of Artists accepted the sculptures as their master pieces they would rise from journeymen to become masters or full members of the Guild. Both were of middling height, handsome rather than pretty or cute, Baggio a brunette and Lorenz a blond.
The memorial was to depict the twins in bronze in high relief and life size entirely nude, as they had been in the battle. Jemsen would be shown punching to the left, rolling a boulder at the snake while Karel's action pose would catch him as his hand chopped the air guiding his blade to decapitate the monster.
The bronzes would be cast from a clay model back at their studio. So the artists had to pose and sketch the twins right there in the caverns and not just in the chosen poses. To become familiar with the physiques of models who would not be at hand for the actual sculpting the artists would need sketches in many poses: standing, sitting, squatting, prone and supine, spreadeagled and arms akimbo, running, climbing, and so forth.
One pose the sculptors insisted their models adopt was the backwards arch, a body position also called a bridge. A acrobatic pose it required the model to lie on his back with knees bent and feet flat on the ground while he reached over his shoulders and placed his palms on the ground fingers spread and pointing to his heels. Bracing himself the model lifted his body off the ground to form an arch.
With every muscle straining, head down, chest and hips high, arms and legs spread, buttocks rigid, belly and manhood totally exposed and vulnerable, it was just about the most erotic pose in the repertoire of sculpture. Though in a committed relationship, the artists were not immune to the beauty of the youthful male form as exemplified by Karel and Jemsen who modeled for them in that order
Just as Karel was settling into his pose, Lorenz reached out naughtily to arrange the boy's dangly bits before he picked up his pad and sketched rapidly. A while later he confessed:
"I hope you don't mind my touch Karel but sculpting is not only a three dimensional art form, it is tactile as well. We shape the clay model with our hands, which is why I must touch your body everywhere to learn and memorize its contours. The sketches are really just aids to memory. Physical contact is what counts. Besides, I simply cannot resist. Your body is utterly delectable."
Karel rolled his eyes but held still as the brazen artist ran his fingers lightly over the corrugations of Karel's belly, circled his navel with his index finger, and stroked the blades of his hipbones and the inside of his thighs. He gripped Karel's taut buns the better to gauge their firmness then swept the blade of his hand along his model's cleavage which, disappointingly, were too clenched for the artist to delve deeper.
Never displeased when homage was paid to his physical beauty, Karel 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.
Karel's arousal emboldened the brash artist to cup the boy's ball sac with one hand while stroking the shaft with a thumb lubricated with Karel' own seminal fluid giving special attention to the sweet spot. It wasn't long before Karel's member was poised on the edge of release. What took him over the top was when Lorenz knelt beside Karel and tongued and nibbled his nipples. Karel groaned as he orgasmed and shot his seed all over his chest and belly and face then collapsed to the ground in post-coital lassitude.
"Wow, that awesome." Karel declared, not at all embarrassed at having been used as a sex toy.
Not to be outdone by his twin, Jemsen got his turn the very next day with Baggio.
In time the sculptors Baggio and Lorenz not only achieved the rank of Master Sculptor, they also published a book which was another memorial to the battle of the twins against the "Dragon", as the dwarves insisted on calling it. Its first section described in vivid prose and pictures the horrors of the monster's attack which they had witnessed, supplemented by interviews with the twins, dwarves, and fellow visitors.
They drew the dragon just as it had been in life, save for the addition of dagger teeth for consistency with the wishes of the dwarves. In the second section were engravings and details of the finished memorial plus the best sketches of the twins, displaying them in all their athletic and sky-clad glory.
The book went on to earn the authors a small fortune and not just from those who bought it for the nude pictures of the famous twins. Drew himself said it was quite a good job of reportage though he had reservations about calling the monster a dragon, but the twins were happy enough with their new title of Dragon Slayers. The artists sent enough signed copies for all of the members of the Corps of Discovery plus a copy for the library of the Institute of Wizardy and Magic and another for the Honorable Guild of Geographers of which the twins were members.
As a living memorial to their heroism the dwarves added a small numeral to the twins' friendship tattoos to show that Jemsen and Karel were now dwarf-friends twice over, the very first in living memory.
Naturally Karel made a joke of it.
"So what should we call ourselves now that we have four tattoos: the 'even more famous twins Jemsen and Karel?'"
A wordsmith by trade, Drew had no trouble coming up with a counter-proposal:
"How about the 'ever more famous twins Jemsen and Karel', to allow for you guys acquiring yet another tattoo, say from the orcs, or even other races beyond that, perhaps on other continents?"
"Very funny."
"I guess we'd better stick with the original formulation." Jemsen conceded.
The Corp of Discovery remained at the Cave of the Mountain River for another ten days, even staying overnight in the third great cavern farthest upstream. With a full moon that night the light streaming through the skylight reflected off bits of mica in the walls and made it seem like the field of stars in the vault of the sky. It was magical.
Then it was time to fly northwestward heading to the forest the Snow Elves were said to roam. On the way they planned a stop to see another remarkable geological formation: the Stone Ring.
In time visitors to the Cave of the Mountain River got it in their heads that powdered dragon bone had aphrodisiacal properties and could restore failing male potency. The dwarves were scrupulous in never asserting such claims themselves, but neither did they go out of their way to deny them. To anyone who asked, the dwarves would only say that yes, they too had heard claims of medicinal properties, and no, they could not confirm them of their own knowledge.
When they heard about it Madden Sexton and Dylan took the attitude that a legal trade in bogus dragon bones was innocuous. Better it were dragon bones than brontothere horns.
After expenses, the profits from this lucrative trade in dragon bone powder and dragon bone trinkets went to the families and survivors of the monster's victims. In recognition of his courage the municipality granted the dwarf who had stood his ground and flung electrum sparks a three year tax holiday.
A year later, a natural philosopher by the name of Konrad Zwiller, a zoologist who specialized in the study of reptiles, visited the caverns to examine the skull of this so-called dragon. Puzzled at first, Zwiller looked long and hard at the skull then threw back his head and laughed and laughed till tears ran down his cheeks.
Mayor Kantor found out what the man had figured out and asked him what he intended to do about it.
"Why nothing, my dear fellow. As far as I am concerned it is a fine joke on the world. Those dagger teeth are such a nice touch. And since dragons are mythical anyway the name is available as a label for a real creature like your monster here. So dragon it is."
"Besides I happen to have met the famous twins Jemsen and Karel. They attended one of my public lectures, you see. So I know that they are rather proud of their recently acquired title of Dragon Slayer. I will tell them how realistic those dagger teeth look, but don't worry: except with them, my lips are sealed."
When it was time for Zwiller to settle up he found that the proprietors of his lodgings had applied a fifty percent discount to his bill. And his name was inscribed on the monument as one of the public benefactors whose contributions had made it possible.
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
