Elf Boy's Friends - Volume XIII
by George Gauthier
Chapter 14
At Sea
Came the day and the flotilla put out to sea. The reconstituted flotilla now consisted of one fully equipped and manned aerocraft carrier, three heavy frigates, one sloop, and two auxiliary cargo ships.
Once out of sight of land, all the boys except Nathan chucked their uniforms and went about sky clad, much to the delight of those in the crew who fancied pretty boys and who practically swooned at this conspicuous display of youthful male concupiscence. There were so many lovely bodies, all of them smooth and glabrous, without a feather on them anywhere, not even at the fork of their legs. These boys were natural exhibitionists, happy to flaunt the toned and taut bodies they had grown into as teenagers and retained still thanks to healing magic or elven heritage.
In keeping with the proprieties aboard a naval vessel they did dress for meals if only in those low-rise square-cut short shorts which the twins had made fashionable back home. Drew Altair liked to pair them with narrow suspenders of a shade of red considerably brighter than his own auburn locks. The straps just kissed the outer rim of his small aureoles and framed his corrugated belly.
Liam liked to climb the rigging and sit on the crow's perch and scan the horizon, much as he had done in his early days in the Navy aboard the Petrel. Ships still posted lookouts, though these days long range scouts soared in flying wings to scout the seas beyond the horizon. Liam relished the feel of the wind in his hair and the way it touched him everywhere at once, like a lover with a hundred hands. Then there was the way the sun kissed his whole body, turning it that tawny bronze which bespoke a boy who spent much of his time outdoors not wearing a stitch.
The twins developed their upper body strength by climbing ropes, repeatedly hauling themselves high using just their arms then lowering themselves down to the deck. Upper body exercise was important now that they trained so much less with the bow.
Dahl liked to call up a pod of dolphins and dive into the ocean to ride one of the cetaceans as the pod kept pace with the ship. When his ride was over, he steered his mount close to the hull and used gravitational repulsion to lift himself onto the deck then rewarded his mount by directing a school of tasty fish into the path of the pod.
In keeping with his feline nature, Aodh was not much interested in training for cardiovascular fitness. Cats did not run their prey down as dogs and wolves do, so stamina was less important than with canids. Felines were stalk and pounce predators with a fast twitch musculature which made for burst strength rather than endurance.
So Aodh practiced climbing skills and acrobatics. A favorite routine stressed and strengthened almost every muscle in the body at once and was a visual delight to onlookers. He would reach up with hands spread and grasp a spar then repeatedly lift his body up, raise his bent legs, letting their weight swing his body back, and touch the other side of the spar with the tops of his feet. Onlookers watched entranced as the muscles of his shoulder, back, butt, abdomen, and legs bunched and flexed erotically.
Aodh also engaged in practice bouts in the martial arts disciplines facing off against Drew, Liam, and the twins. Even more than most, as a wir Aodh had little use for clothing, but shape shifters had pearly skins which neither tanned nor burned from the sun, so he might curl up on deck for a nap, but that was to take advantage of the breeze, not to sun himself.
Nathan's preferred exercise was sword practice with cutlass and buckler which developed agility, reflexes, and stamina, as well as the upper body.
Every once in a while, the flotilla hove to and gave anyone who cared to a chance to go in for a swim. No one swam very far from the ships. Nathan and the other sounders kept watch for sea monsters. Dahl's druidical magic could discourage marine predators unless they were in a feeding frenzy.
Councillors Nottmeyer and Ulliel traveled with their countrymen aboard one of the cargo auxiliaries. At each port on the Benign Coast their ship sailed alone into the harbor to assure the locals that the flotilla was friendly, and that they were the allies who had defeated the Communalists. That assured the flotilla a good reception everywhere they stopped.
The pair had started sketching a visual record of their voyage. First they sketched the ships of the flotilla and their weaponry. Next they sailed aboard each type of ship for a couple of days and made sketches of the crew working the ship, setting sail or engaged in air operations. Nothing was posed; their candid sketches were visual notes for more finished drawings done at leisure.
Now Nottmeyer and Ulliel were very much taken with the twins and Aodh and the rest of the lovely lads though as yet none of them had given any indication that the pairs' interest in them was returned. Still they had hopes. Both were youthful and good-looking. The human Gaspard Nottmeyer was a tall well-built blond in his late twenties while Ulliel had the ageless pretty-boy looks of his race. Alas, though the two chatted the boys up every chance they got, as yet they had made no progress in getting any of them into bed. For all the human's gift of empathy he could not find a way to interest the lovely visitors.
What to do? It was the elf who got the idea of drawing nude portraits of the boys. The boys had to admit that the two artists had talent, not only for sketching but for composition. With that conceded, the pair asked whether the boys would be willing to pose for full length portraits.
"No artists ever had finer models to work with. You boys must realize how terribly beautiful and sexy you all are. You really owe it to the world to make a permanent record of your exquisite physical beauty. Your images will be part of the memorial our town is planning as a remembrance of your war with the Communalists and the opening of the Benign Coast to the wider world."
"Let me guess," Drew began dryly, "you two will want us to pose in the nude like artists' models do."
"But of course. The way you guys run around naked every chance you get anyway, so you're not shy. You're a gaggle of exhibitionists if the truth were known."
"Guilty as charged. Tell you what. Give me the rights to publish your sketches in the book I intend to write about our expedition and you have a deal. My publisher can pay a modest royalty for any of your artwork that we use, much as we do with the twins who always do our terrain sketches and landscapes. We can safely predict that this book will be another best seller."
"Best-sellers are all that those two ever write," Jemsen supplied helpfully. "They churn out one best-seller after another all of which are real page turners, even to those of us who actually lived through the events they relate."
The sketches Ulliel and Gaspard Nottmeyer drew were erotic without being overly graphic. So the pose chosen for the twins had them grappling each other as wrestlers rather than as lovers. Liam and Drew were posed in a embrace but done in mid-air, lifting each other telekinetically above the deck and pressing their bodies together. Aodh posed first as a sleeping youth, looking impossibly comely, a veritable angel in repose. As a black panther, he reared up with front paws raised and claws extended as he snarled fiercely. Nathan posed on the quarterdeck in uniform though bared to the hips, cutlass held at the ready. The druid was captured as if in the midst of hurling an ironwood throwing knife, a pose which highlighted the tension in his exquisite musculature.
After looking them over Drew nodded. "Now is there anything else we boys can do for you?" he asked.
"Is there ever. You must realize that both of us are burning with desire for all of you. How could it be otherwise? All you boys are walking wet dreams. I hope I have not been presumptuous or offensive."
"How can sincere compliments ever be offensive? Professions of fervent desire are perfectly natural coming from males who fancy pretty boys like us. It's been like that all our lives. Anyway we are not cock teases. We knew from the start where this was heading. So you two are going to get your wish. For starters you Gustav and I will pair off while Ulliel takes up with his fellow elf, the druid. How does that sound?"
"Heavenly!"
And so it proved to be.
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