Elf Boy's Friends - X
by George Gauthier
Chapter 12
Along the Road
Miles later the travelers found that the road was blocked by three trees which had fallen across the right of way. Shallowly rooted, the trees had not been able to resist the force of a recent windstorm. Teamsters from a wagon train were at work chopping through the trunks. Progress was slow. These were hardwood trees, maybe not ironwood but not far short of it. Meanwhile other teamsters had unhitched their draft animals, both horses and mules and positioned them to drag the excised sections of the massive trunks to one side once they axemen finished their job.
Corwin addressed a grizzled human who was clearly the wagon master and asked if they might help. The man who gave his name as Vronski snorted and looked them up and down dismissively.
"I don't see what help a trio of bare-assed pretty boys could give in this situation. Only one of you has any muscle on him, and even that doesn't mean he knows how to swing an axe."
"Who said anything about axes? That's doing things the hard way." Axel interjected. "Now the teamsters haven't made much progress. Corwin, why don't you finish the chop job for them then I can teleport the sections out of the way?"
"Ready whenever you are, Axel."
<You really should accept my friends' offer of assistance. They are powerful mages.>
"Mind Speech eh? Only druids and unicorns are so gifted. You're no unicorn so that would make you a druid."
Derry shook his head.
<Sorry, but I am not a druid. I am actually a unicorn but only when in my alternate form.>
"A shape shifter, then. More power to you, but your friends will have to show me that their own powers are up to the job of clearing the road. My men have the usual gifts: unerring direction, calling light, and even levin bolts and electrum sparks for protection from but none of their gifts can clear a road block."
Signaling his men to step aside, the wagon master gestured grandly for the bare-assed boys to match their deeds to their words. He soon was staring open mouthed as Corwin finished the cuts in all three trunks with spheres of ball lightning which hummed and crackled menacingly then zipped through the trunks of all three downed trees. The temperature of ball lightning was so high - 45,000 degrees [25,000° C] — that the process was more akin to disintegration than combustion.
Axel then jumped to each cut out section, touched his palm to it, then teleported it and himself high into the air and to one side, letting it drop over the slope of the ridge. After he disposed of the final log, he teleported back to the wagon train and took a bow.
"I stand corrected." the wagon master offered apologetically.
"Thanks to you we can now be sure of reaching our destination before dusk. To show my appreciation, I insist that all three of you be my guests in the town up ahead. And I'll pick up the tab, or rather the company will."
The inn where they put up offered plain but serviceable quarters. To no one's surprise the three youths took but a single room. After a visit to the washroom to wash the dust and sweat and salt off their bodies, they got dressed. Derry simply wrapped his sarong around his hips, but Axel and Corwin thought their uniforms were more appropriate than their casual square-cut short shorts.
They reported to the common room and sat with the teamsters and the wagon master whose full name was Mayer Vronski. He studied the military decorations on Axel's and Corwin's uniforms. Axel's uniform sported badges for the wars he had been in: the Troll War, the Lightning War, and most recently the Last Centaur War plus his Military Cross for Valor and the Expeditionary Medal for his participation in the survey of the Barren Lands. Corwin wore badges for those three wars plus his own Military Cross for Valor, Mentioned in Dispatches, and a Wound Stripe.
"Most impressive, those decorations. I am a veteran myself. Years ago I saw combat against the trolls during the battle of Flensborg. I drove one of the wagons filled with archers who raked the landing the trolls made from the river. Skewered them good we did, though once the trolls formed their shield wall and got their own archers into play we had to withdraw. Later, from behind the shield wall of the Frost Giants, we hit the trolls with plunging fire."
"That was the battle in which Finn Ragnarson took the fight to the trolls as an avatar of Thor. He killed their general with a hammer throw then called Mjolnir back into his hand. Trolls didn't know what to make of it, but the giants sure did. Talk about a morale booster!"
"Finn is a good friend of ours." Corwin allowed without elaborating.
Vronksi commented. "Forgive me for not noticing before, young Corwin, but I see that you bear the blue tattoo which marks you as a Giant-Friend. That makes you doubly welcome among us for though we teamsters are all humans or elves, we live among and are friends with the Frost Giants of this land. Sorry Axel, but I don't recognize your tattoo."
"It marks me as an Orc-Friend." Axel told him. "I helped bring about the peace that ended the mercifully brief war between the orcs and the Commonwealth in the Eastern Mountains."
"You are quite the heroes then."
Vronski paused as realization dawned, then added excitedly:
"Wait! What were your full names again? Corwin Klarendes and Axel Wilde? Of course! You two would be those heroes of the troll war in Amazonia and more recently of that fight up north against manticores and centaurs. Right?"
"Our reputation precedes us." Corwin conceded.
The proprietor, himself a frost giant, overhead his remark and, in appreciation for what the boys had done for New Varangia, provided a special dessert: a small cup formed of dark chocolate, filled with berries, and topped with whipped cream. Axel's eyes widened in delight as a serving boy set two of them in front of him. Conversation stopped as the diners addressed the scrumptious treat with their dessert spoons.
The three youths went to bed early to leave plenty of time for actual sleep after making love. Now Axel had been patient with Corwin's exclusive preoccupation with his new love interest, but now it was time for him to assert himself. So when Derry had Corwin on all fours and was thrusting away at his rump, Axel presented himself for oral service. Corwin started to say that Axel's turn would come in good time, but the red-head took his parted lips as an invitation and sank his cock into the familiar warmth of Corwin's mouth. Plugged now at both ends, Corwin surrendered himself to the good feeling coursing through his body. It wasn't long before both tops spent themselves into their willing bottom.
Corwin then turned the tables on Axel. He pulled him onto the bed and rolled him onto his back, pulling his legs up and apart like a wishbone. That gave Derry the chance he had been waiting for, to mount Axel and show him what a real stallion could do. Caught unaware, Axel started to say that this was all very sudden, wasn't it, and maybe they could save it for another time, but Corwin took his parted lips as an invitation. Positioning Axel's head so it was hanging over the edge of the bed, he slipped his cock between Axel's pouty lips and filled his mouth. Abject bottom boy that he was, Axel did what came natural to him and started sucking.
In the end a good time was had by all, after which they sank into a refreshing sleep.
The next day, the boys got up late intending to stay over for a day and to visit the local scenic wonder: a cataract which ended in a cauldron of whirling waters that fed a stream just right for swimming. They took a box lunch and made a day of it after saying their goodbyes to the teamsters who were turning off the main road onto a primitive dirt road which lead to their destination. Before he left Vronksi cautioned them to watch out for a gang of bandits who mostly preyed on small parties like theirs. He had little concern for his own convoy. Not only could some of his teamsters throw levin bolts or snap electrum sparks, the all were armed with airguns.
The cataract might not match the Rainbow Falls at Elysion for size or scenic grandeur, but it was dramatic enough especially the intensely whirling cauldron at the bottom, though it was much too dangerous for swimming. Instead the boys found a wide spot downstream where the locals had set up a pair of picnic tables, a fire pit for outdoor cooking, a even a privy, set downstream and well away from the bank of the stream.
Under the shade of the trees lining the stream they spent a pleasant day swimming and eating and making love al fresco atop a straw mat they had borrowed from the inn. Derry also got to hear of some of Corwin's and Axel's adventures. He resolved to read not only Corwin's own books but those of Drew Altair as well the first chance he got.
"I am so glad that we joined up for this walkabout." Derry mused, adding:
"Travel and adventure are all well and good but much better when shared with friends. I never expected to be caught up in a real-life murder mystery, yet there we three were, acting as detectives. We questioned witness and potential informants then tricked the culprit into revealing himself. Finally we confronted him ourselves and put him down. And that was no ordinary murderer but a serial killer with the powers of a life leech."
"It was like we were characters in one of those lurid detective stories. You know, the kind they print on cheap pulp paper and sell for three coppers. You're an author, Corwin. What is that expression? Life Imitates Art."
Corwin smiled.
"Stick with us Derry and you'll find yourself a protagonist in all sorts of adventures: detective stories, war stories, tales of exploration and discovery, and even love stories, if you take my meaning. Adventure is what my friends and I do. And we get to help people out along the way, deserving folk like those hard working teamsters and the good people of Viborg. And we can help out with illness, accidents, and injury too. Need I remind you that Axel is a certified combat medic? Me too, but more recently I became a magical Healer as well."
"And with me along," Axel bragged, "we can jump to anywhere I can see or have been to via a space portal, which means most strategic locations in the Commonwealth. The war wizards made that possible by purposely opening portals for me to all our major cities. The only drawback to travel by teleportation is that you don't get to see the country in between, but that might be just what we need, or at least what we want, if we have to cross a swamp or a desert."
Corwin nodded and added:
"And if we need reinforcements, Axel can always teleport to the capital to recruit a powerful fetcher, a war wizard, an earth wizard, an air wizard, or the avatar of a thunder god, and that's just from among our boyfriends!"
Derry laughed. "You guys are something else."
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
