Elf-Boy's Friends 19
The Panther
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 1. Walk About
In the mountains west of Elysion, a black panther crouched up in a tree over a much-used game trail. The creature was hungry but far from starving, confident that suitable prey would come by before very long. And if not, well he could wait. Stalk and pounce predators learn to be patient. The panther had already ignored a fat bustard he might have taken earlier simply because he did not care to deal with feathers. The meat on deer and antelopes was so much easier to get at.
Sure enough less than a half-hour later three antelope trotted by, a mother and two yearlings who looked nearly full grown and about ready to strike out on their own. Alas, one of them never would. The panther sprang from the tree onto a the back of the third animal in line. Digging in with his claws to hold on, he bit through its spine, killing the creature instantly. It was a merciful killing inspired not by his animal instincts but by his human ones.
For this black panther was no mere animal. It was the animal form of a human being, the shapeshifter Sir Aodh of Llangollen, sometime minstrel and spouse of the nobleman Count Taitos Klarendes, Lord-Zamindar of Elysion and Count of the Eastern March.
All shape shifters became uneasy and irritable if they stayed too long in their human shape and ignored the call of the wild. Ten days earlier Aodh had realized that it was time for him to go on walkabout, which for a wir meant an extended hunt since all wirs were predators of one sort of another: panthers, jaguars, leopards, lions, tigers, bears, and so forth. It was better to be at the top of the food chain than a rung or two below. Still the smaller hunters had to watch out for their bigger brothers who just might hunt them. There was no professional courtesy among predators. Anything smaller was fair game — literally.
That wasn't much of a problem for Aodh. His acute senses and preternaturally quick reflexes let him avoid any creature he did not care to tangle with. And if he had to fight, his innate magic made him more than twice as strong as his size suggested. Maybe he could not overpower a larger foe but he could surprise it, get clear, and take off. Then there was his extraordinary agility. With legs proportionally the longest of the big cats even a normal tawny panther could jump forty feet (12 m) horizontally and nearly half that vertically, but Aodh could do much better than that. And over short distances he could outrun an antelope.
Then Aodh always had the option to just climb out of harm's way. With his powerful forequarters and sharp claws on all four feet he was a better climber than bigger cats. Once in the treetops he could travel considerable distances never touching the ground. Even where tree branches did not interlock he could jump to the trunk of the next forest giant and continue on his way.
Which was why he had carried his kill up into the trees to dine in peace. Much later the growling of a dire wolf woke him up from his post-prandial nap. Against a foe so much bigger and stronger discretion was the better part of valor. True he had once killed a dire wolf in single combat, but that had been to protect a six year old boy who had wandered too far into the woods. Though Aodh had won the battle, it had nearly cost him his life. The stakes were much lower now, just the half-eaten carcass of an antelope. The panther dropped the remains of his kill to the ground to occupy the dire wolf while he traveled via the forest's aerial highway to a glade some distance away where he descended to the ground.
The next day he came upon a trio of hunters out for boar. They were a team, the two sturdy blond youths in the lead were armed with boar spears, trailed by a tall raven-haired archer with a powerful recurved bow which was standard tactics in those parts. Though they moved quietly through the woods they were upwind of the panther who had caught their scent before they came into sight and approached carefully. Changing into his human form Aodh stepped behind a tree and called out:
"Hello the hunt!"
The trio spun around, the archer drawing his arrow to his ear just in case.
"Who is there?" he called. "Stand forth and declare yourself."
"Gladly, once you stop pointing that arrow my way."
Nodding the archer relaxed his bow and held it down to his side.
Aodh stepped out from behind the tree and walked up to the hunters.
"Hello there, friend. My name is Aodh. As you can see I am unarmed."
"I'm Brandon, and these are my cousins Garret and Lorn. We are hunting boar. I have to wonder though what are you doing in these parts? You are certainly no hunter, and where are your clothes and gear?"
Actually I am a hunter, though of a different sort. As for not having clothes or gear, I like to travel light."
"Light? That's putting it mildly. You're out and about in the woods bare-assed naked and without a weapon in your hand or a pack on your back. Not that I am complaining. You are easily the prettiest boy I ever laid eyes on, but a little guy like shouldn't be tramping about these woods alone and unarmed. You'd better stick with us. Wild boar are the least of your problems. Tracks we came across earlier today indicate that there is a panther in the area. So take care."
"Thanks for the warning, but that panther is no threat to me. Not at all."
"Oh? How can you be so sure?"
"Because I am shapeshifter, and I made those tracks myself.
"I see. That's quite a trick, shapeshifting. Our own magical gifts are much more modest. I can see in the dark or rather dim light like a cat; Garret has the gift of unerring direction; and Lorn can throw electrum sparks."
"Sparks, eh? Just like a friend of mine, a friend of a friend really. We call him Sparky."
"It's getting late with no real sign of a boar, so why don't we pack it in and return to camp?"
As Brandon's cousins nodded agreement he asked:
"Aodh, would you care to join us?"
"Sure. I could use the company. Besides I wouldn't be much use against a boar. They are too massive for a predator my size, they are mean-tempered, and their tusks can disembowel a foe in an instant."
"Right. Boars are hard to kill, which is why a boar spear has a cross piece to keep the animal at bay. Stick an ordinary spear in a boar and it will keep on coming, letting the spear push right through its body just so it can get at the hunter. My job with the bow is to put an arrow through its heart once my muscular friends have speared it and fixed it in place."
"You know, for cousins, you don't look very much alike."
"That is because those two are of entirely human stock while my father is an elf."
"That explains the killer cheekbones, one of the features that has always attracted me to young elves."
"You're not so bad looking yourself, Aodh." the handsome archer said with a grin and a wink.
"You and your boys!" Garret said shaking his head.
"Well I am half elf, am I not?"
"Garret and Lorn consort exclusively with the female half of the species," Brandon explained.
"You make that sound like a personal failing." Lorn grumbled good-naturedly.
"Don't mind those two. They just like to tease me about my preference for pretty boys, and you are certainly that, Aodh."
"I can see where this is heading." Garrett confided to Lorn with a nod.
Brandon and Aodh grinned then flirted shamelessly all the way to the hunters' camp which lay only a short walk away.
Instead of tents the hunters had set two rain canopies over beds made from blankets laid atop leafy boughs. Stones had been arranged in a circle for the fire and the hunters had cleared the area around it of combustibles lest a spark start a wildfire. A nearby brook furnished water and even a place to bathe. Their food cache was hung by a rope from a tree some hundred paces away, on the opposite side from the sanitary trench they trio had dug, standard practice to avoid drawing bears into the camp itself. All in all it was a simple but comfortable camp.
The cousins volunteered to handle the camp chores, which gave Aodh and Brandon the chance to get better acquainted. The pair sat with their backs to one of the forest giants and told each other something of their backgrounds. Brandon and his cousins hunted boar, deer, elk, and other game to supply wild game to the kitchens of a several of the mountain resorts scattered in scenic spots on the western slopes of the Eastern Mountains. Aodh spoke of his origins in the land of the wirs and of his idyllic life in Elysion, of his spouse and friends and something of his past adventures.
"You don't care to tangle with a boar yet you tell me that you have killed both a dire wolf and a Frost Giant in single combat. Why would an overgrown pig be any harder?"
"With a boar there is no way my claws and fangs can get at its vitals, buried as they are in a mass of bone, muscle, and gristle. And a boar is so low to the ground I cannot get at its belly."
"The fight with the dire wolf almost killed me. I lost so much blood that I was too weak to transform which would have knitted my wounds and healed me. The Healer's magic could do only so much for me; it worked best on humans. She did stop the bleeding and prevented infection and nursed me along till I was recovered enough to invoke my own magic to transform and heal."
"And the Frost Giant?" Brandon prompted.
"A bit of luck there too. The Frost Giant did not see me crouched atop the watch tower guarding Taitos. Just for a moment he looked over to the other giant who was with him, smiling because he thought they had caught him while he was intent on destroying centaurs. In that moment of inattention I launched myself across the gap so I was on the giant almost before he realized what was happening. I tore his eyes out and slashed his jugulars. He would have bled to death if Taitos, that is Count Klarendes, had not cut him in half with white fire."
"White fire, eh? This count Klarendes sounds like a bad man to cross. You sure he won't mind our having a tryst?"
"Not at all. First he is not the possessive type, and anyway, a walkabout is a time out from normal life. We wirs always say that what happens on walkabout stays on walkabout."
Though mismatched in height Brandon and Aodh made a fine-looking couple. The handsome hunter stood head and shoulders above the diminutive wir and had the smooth musculature and willowy build of an elf. A young man in his very early twenties, he had the dark hair, fine-boned features, slender build and taut musculature characteristic of elves. Deeply tanned from constant exposure to the sun, he exuded good health and sex appeal.
Looking no more than sixteen Aodh was the epitome of a boy in the bloom of youth. A melding of the innocent and the wanton, small, skinny, and smooth muscled, cute as a kitten, with skin like porcelain, and looking utterly fragile and vulnerable, though the epicene youth was easily twice as strong as he looked. A thatch of dark hair framed a face that hinted at the feline side of his nature with its pointy chin and green eyes shaped like almonds, set above a pretty fair set of cheekbones of his own.
Although in his animal form he sported a complete coat of black fur, in his human form he had no facial or body hair, not even at the fork of his legs. And like elf-boys, druids, and humans enhanced by druidic and healing magic, he had only one kind of sweat glands, the kind that produced only perspiration, not the oils that turned rancid and produced body odor, which might give him away to his prey.
The brothers Garret and Lorn moved their shelter to the other side of the fire so that once night fell Brandon and Aodh would have a modicum of privacy. Not that the sounds of lusty sexual congress would not carry all across the small clearing their camp was in, but out of sight was halfway out of mind.
Aodh was just the sort of boy who appealed to Brandon: cute as a kitten, athletic and energetic, and utterly uninhibited in bed. And for such a little guy Aodh was incredibly strong, actually a bit stronger than Brandon himself. Fortunately Aodh was very much a bottom boy, happy to have Brandon cover him like a stallion does a filly or to take him face to face which his slender legs thrown over the shoulders of the handsome hunter as he thrust into his hole. Brandon was very well endowed, so much so that some of his partners had had trouble taking him all the way. No such problem for the pretty little wir who could take everything Brandon could give him and beg for more. Good thing too, for Brandon was a stud who recouped quickly and came back for seconds and thirds.
At one point Brandon allowed Aodh to top, in a manner of speaking. Brandon stretched out on his back and had Aodh go to his knees and straddle the half-elf's recumbent form, slipping his rampant cock into Aodh's hungry hole. The pretty wir rode that cock for all he was worth while Brandon's hands roamed all over his chest and belly and toyed with his nipples and cock. He bent Aodh's stiff prick till it lay flat only to let spring back and slap his belly. Eventually all the stimulation got to the pretty little wir and he started shooting his spunk all over the elf-boy's face and belly. The contractions of his quim set Brandon off, filling the wir's innards with his gism.
Afterwards Aodh snuggled in Brandon's lap, left side against his broad chest, as the tall hunter stroked and petted him, running his strong hands along the chevron of the boy's ribs, fingering the sharp hip bones, sliding down the smooth skin of his thighs then back up to fondle his buttocks. The cat in Aodh loved the attention and the petting. His supple body was meant to be touched and stroked. And even in human form, Aodh could purr softly when contented, as after sex or a good meal. It was one of his most endearing characteristics.
The next day Aodh helped his new friends track a boar. They had good tracking skills themselves, but the panther combined the keen senses of a predator with a human intelligence. It wasn't hard to find the spoor of a boar in those woods.
Aodh's keen senses helped them detect the ambush the wily boar had laid for them when it doubled back on his trail then burst out of a thicket and charged the hunters. Aodh reared up and snarled to distract the boar just long enough for the spearmen to set themselves to receive its charge. Even after it ran onto Lorn's spear its legs kept churning, scrabbling at the ground in an effort to close with his enemy and gore him with his tusks. Garret stabbed it in the ribs from the right while Brandon put two arrows into it from the left side which finally put the boar down.
The brothers cut a sapling for a pole, slung the dressed carcass from it, and hoisted it onto their shoulders. As the hunters headed out, Aodh reminded them:
"Elision is not all that far away, so if you ever get over to our neck of the woods, all three of you, you would be welcomed as guests at the manor house."
"What about the rule that what happens on walkabout stays on walkabout?" Brandon asked.
"The rule means that our tryst last night has to be a one-time thing. Walkabout is one thing; Elysion is home."
"Fair enough. As for a visit, we shall see, kitten. We shall see."
Chapter 2. Elysion
On his return to Elysion Aodh found that old friends had come calling, the druids Dahlderon, Owain, and Meirionnydd.
The druids were the chief defenders of the biosphere of the planet of Haven, powerful magic wielders who could work many forms of magic, much like war wizards did, though the powers of the latter focussed more on the physical world. Aodh was happy to see his old friends and sometime comrades in arms, and in Dahl's case an old lover. Count Klarendes indulged Aodh's relationship with Dahl and the twins though he himself was not interested in other partners, being of a monogamous bent.
"Big changes are in the works, Aodh," Dahl told him. Taitos has turned over to us the little used east wing of the manor. The rooms will serve as our residence and local headquarters. Our order is establishing a permanent presence on Commonwealth territory.
"Here? Why not in the capital?" Aodh asked.
The druids visibly shuddered. Merry answered for them:
"A big city is the last place that a druid would care to call home. Aside from public parks and gardens, it is all stone and brick and noisy crowds. Elysion is a much more congenial environment. And these days the capital is just steps away anyway."
"Oh? How so?" Klarendes asked, shrewdly sensing a secret.
"Er, forget I said that, will you. Anyway it is not just a trio of druids and our servants who will be taking up permanent residence in the Commonwealth, but the Great Southern Forest itself. We here to help the forest do just that, to nurture and defend it while it establishes itself."
"The Forest? Here? How? Why?"
Dahl explained that the forest would occupy the eastern slopes of the mountain range, a region the Commonwealth had never really settled or exploited for timber or minerals. There was no way to get logs or ore across the mountain nor were there navigable rivers east of the mountains nor any sizable markets there for that matter.
Though somewhat in the rain shadow of the mountain range, the eastern slopes nevertheless got enough precipitation to support dense woods. Instead of exploiting the mountains directly, the Commonwealth would let the Forest safeguard the region as the watershed that fed the streams and rivers which flowed onto the Eastern Plains and provided ranchers and farmers and townsfolk with water for livestock and domestic use. Therein lay its true economic value, and even more in coming decades as the forest became powerful enough to change the weather ad increase rainfall on both the eastern slopes of the mountains and on the plains themselves.
Extending the Great Southern Forest would strengthen its magic and enhance its consciousness and influence. More than just billions of trees, the Forest was a self-aware entity, a million square miles of green sentience. This expansion was only a first step towards a global system of magical forests that would remain forever wild, preserving biological diversity, protecting watersheds, and generating life-giving oxygen for the entire animal kingdom.
Situated just west of the Eastern Plains, the new forest would eventually form a barrier to possible incursions of the eastern barbarians who seemed to be stirring once again. The eastern slopes were gentle and easy to ascend. While the western part of the range was steep and rugged, good roads lead from it to the Commonwealth proper, which lay in the great alluvial valley of the Long River. In time the brontotheres who occupied the transition zone between forest and grasslands would constitute another barrier but at present they numbered only a little over a hundred though their population was rising fast in the favorable conditions there.
The Army of the Plains was the first barrier and stronger these days with a corps of magic wielders and support from the Army Air Corps. But should it be defeated and be forced to retreat to its prepared redoubt in Elysion, the Commonwealth would be vulnerable to invasion by that route. Dahl explained why:
"Once we invade Amazonia the regular armed forces of the Commonwealth will be overstretched and will likely stay that way for several years to come. We have to maintain a field army in the Far West as the core of the army of the new confederation plus a reinforced garrison on the Western Plains and another in New Varangia while devoting a field army to the campaign in Amazonia Also, the conquest will take most of our riverine navy and virtually all of our naval infantry. And the Navy will also be busy guarding the movement of troops and supplies and in occupying the Ashokan Archipelago. Then we would have to garrison the whole area to protect the resettlement and reconstruction effort which could take decades.
"Have you brought magical seeds which your druidic magic will flash grow into a new forest?" Aodh asked.
"Not at all. The existing forest will be incorporated into the consciousness of the Great Southern Forrest. Toward that end, we druids will emplace three power foci, living crystalline matrices infused with the consciousness of the Forest. Their influence will spread over the trees and all the other plants and animals and join them to the greater unity though at first only weakly. We druids will tend the forest like gardeners during this period of awakening and initial growth, its time of maximum vulnerability, which is why we druids are establishing a second stronghold in this exclave of the Forest."
"That is incredible. How long will this all take?"
"About two months for the first phase which will knit the trees and plants and animals into a seamless whole though it will be two centuries before this new forest has anything like the power of the original, after new growth replaces the old. The quickest turnover is among the tiny scurrying critters of the forest floor which most folks don't think about much and admittedly they look very creepy-crawly, but they are part of the forest too. " Dahl told him.
"The Commonwealth has agreed to recruit a force of rangers to patrol the forest and protect it from interlopers. The consciousness of the forest is vast but its thoughts are slow. Hence the need for a force of rangers to deal with loggers, charcoal makers, prospectors or settlers looking for free land though hunters will be permitted in the outer zones of the forest. We expect that half the rangers will be humans though the Forest would prefer elves and wirs with whom it can forge a psychic link. The job comes with a handsome salary, two hundred silvers a month."
"Hmm, I recently met three professional hunters who might be interested, two humans and one half-elf. They are all sensible fellows who impressed me with their fieldcraft and camp discipline. I'll write to them and ask. Since they live on the western slopes of the mountains, it might take two weeks to get a reply."
"No problem. By all means write to them, Aodh. And how about becoming a ranger yourself?" Dahl asked.
"Me? I am not looking for a job. I certainly don't need the money. As Taitos' spouse I have no real expenses here in Elysion. And though I do not have a regular job I do work part time auditing our financial accounts. Besides, I am already wealthy in my own right."
"Ah but the Forest can make you much more formidable in combat, something you would need should you join Taitos on campaign in Amazonia."
"Oh. I thought you had not yet made up your mind about that Taitos."
"I hadn't before you went on walkabout, but I have done so now, pledging my powers to the fight against the trolls. I see it as my duty. Not only am I a powerful firecaster, I have a nearly unique ability to throw white fire repeatedly, whereas war wizards can manage it only two or three times a day. Now a black panther is not much use in a melee. To cover my back in an all out war, you need greater abilities."
"Like what?"
Merry answered for the druids.
"That is really for you to say, Aodh. You and the forest will collaborate in your transformation. You certainly can expect to be stronger and faster, maybe even fast enough to snatch arrows out of the air the way we druids can. Think what speed like that means in a fight."
"That's pretty vague, but I am for anything that makes me better able to protect Taitos." Aodh agreed.
"That is all well and good, but also something of a distraction, wasn't it? What aren't you telling us? Merry let slip something about the capital being only steps away as if it were just a matter of passing through a doorway." Klarendes asked the druids.
"I am sure we don't know what you are talking about." Owain offered blandly.
Aodh picked up the thread.
"Obviously it is something our friends don't want us to know about, Taitos, something that would put the capital only steps away... through a doorway... Now what could that be, I wonder."
The druids looked at each other nervously. Taitos and Aodh were getting entirely too close for comfort.
"I've got it, Aodh. You could call it a doorway or even a gate, but it really is a portal or star gates like those that brought us to this planet ages ago. Am I right?"
"Merry! You and your big mouth!"
"Sorry Dahl. It just slipped out. Anyway you were the one who showed off your space portal trick against Sir Janus."
"I wasn't showing off, Merry. I was trying to stay alive." Dahl pointed out.
"Maybe so, but you did it in front of witnesses."
"Now it all makes sense." Aodh as realization dawned on him.
"Liam and Nathan have told me that they have been training with those three regiments of naval infantry the Commonwealth has raised from the Frost Giants]. The longships drill constantly in a odd naval maneuver called threading the gate. A regiment lines up its longships in a rectangular formation five ships wide which makes for a dozen ranks of five. At a given signal the first rank peels off one at a time and rows as fast as it can between the buoys, the gate as they call it. As each ship moves out, the one behind moves up and takes it place. By the time the fifth ship is through the gate the next rank is ready to peel off one by one and so forth. I keep asking myself why they call it a gate."
"Because the buoys represent the gate or portal that will deliver the shock force of Frost Giants behind enemy lines."
"Damnation. You've figured it out. All right you guys have to swear to keep this secret. Even the Frost Giants don't know why they are practicing that maneuver. You see it is one thing for a druid to step through a portal the size of a door from Elysion to the capital but quite another to create a gate wide enough for the sweep of the oars of a longship and to hold it open long enough for dozens of such craft to pass through. So they practice doing it as fast as they can."
"Portals will give us unmatched strategic and tactical mobility. When the army and regular naval infantry face off against the trolls, we druids will ferry regiments of Frost Giants behind the troll lines to attack them from the rear. Taken by surprise they will be crushed hammer to anvil. Magic wielders of all types will go along in support. This tactic can reduce our casualties to a fraction of what frontal assaults would cost. And trap any trolls who seek to escape."
"Like our colleagues the war wizards, we druids prefer to act as a force multiplier for the military for jobs too big for magic alone." Owain explained.
"Ingenious and fiendish." was Klarendes judgment. "I approve wholeheartedly," which brought grins all around.
After his absence on walkabout, Aodh and Taitos were anxious to get together so they retired as early as the obligations of hospitality allowed. Already nude, Aodh watched his lover take off his comfortable silks to reveal the hard masculine body he was so familiar with, even the scars from his old war wounds which he had never allowed the healers to remove. Salutary reminders he called them.
Klarendes stood a little over medium height so he towered over the diminutive wir. He was handsome, hale, and hearty from an outdoor life as a gentleman farmer, and though he was a man with sons in their twenties he looked to be no more than that himself thanks to the generous admixture of elven blood in his heritage.
Klarendes counted himself one of the luckiest men alive. Disconsolate after the loss of his wife, his first true love, he had found a second love in Aodh. Spouses, lovers, companions, best friends, and comrades in arms, they were complementary in every way: temperamentally, intellectually, and definitely sexually, the older male the dominant partner and the younger a natural submissive.
The lovely wir-boy and sometime minstrel was a vision of youthful male pulchritude. Dark haired, short and skinny, he stood five foot zero and weighed 102 pounds (45 kg) looking like a barely legal street urchin, maybe fifteen or sixteen, an epicene gamin. His petite physique was a visual delight. Taut skin covered a hard body though the boy's musculature was smooth rather than defined. He had a good bone structure with narrow shoulders, slender torso, and sharp bladed hip bones.
The wir's complexion was very fair, with skin pale and pearly white and as smooth as any milk maid's and entirely without body hair. Large green eyes dominated the stunning face of the androgynous youth which tapered from a wide brow down a pert nose to a narrow chin. Adding to his fey look his eyes were shaped like almonds and slanted faintly upward above prominent cheekbones.
As a lover the young wir was exciting, energetic, athletic, physical, and vocal. Good thing for the thick walls of the manor house. The count relished the way his wiry boy-toy squirmed in his arms, twisting and straining that tight body of his. Slick as he was with sweat, it was hard to keep a grip on Aodh when Taitos wanted to roll the boy onto his belly or flip him onto his back. Grabbing the boy's ankles, Taitos opened the slender legs like a wishbone in preparation for an assault on his boy hole. His cock thrust into the welcoming orifice. The nobleman relished the way the boy's innards clutched and sheathed and kneaded his virile member.
One of the sexual roles they like to play was the stern disciplinarian punishing the wayward schoolboy. This time Taitos bent Aodh over his knee and spanked him for being away for so long. An old game of theirs Aodh wailed and kicked his legs ineffectually, the very picture of the naughty boy who needed to be taught a lesson.
After the spanking Aodh dropped to his knees between Taitos legs and serviced him orally. He looked so cute down there, his pouty lips pressed tight around the cock he was sucking on, his right hand working his own cock while his left reached around so he could work a couple of fingers into his hole and finger his joy spot until he ogasmed. The body of a wir is not anything if not supple.
Two months later Dahl took Aodh into the woods to the site of the closest power focus. He told the young wir to assume his panther form and to lie down and close his eyes. With the druid's help Aodh established a psychic link with the Forest's consciousness and under its guidance his own transformative magic went to work to rebuild his body, to make it stronger than ever.
Aodh woke up an hour later with a skeleton reinforced with tensile fibers and a denser musculature which raised his strength almost to the level of a druid, more than three times what his size suggested. Only the very strongest of humans or dwarfs or trolls could match him and only Frost Giants surpass him. The advantage this conferred was not so much that he could overpower his foes as surprise them with unexpected strength and the uncanny speed that came with it as he flashed his kukri. And as a master of the martial arts, Aodh would be virtually unbeatable in unarmed combat in his human form. Also his enhanced reflexes would let the wir snatch an arrow out of the air and bat away others shot at him.
Aodh had also grown poison glands in his front paws which fed ducts down the back of the claws. The glands would release poison only when he wanted it. Otherwise his paws and claws would function normally. The poison was as potent as that in the spines of the dreaded stone fish. Even a small dose could induce the worst pain a living being could endure without dropping dead from shock. A full dose would kill. Either way, one scratch and a foe was out of the fight. The poison was effective against all living creature except wirs.
Another enhancement was a stand-off weapon effective against a group of foes. It was an intolerable screech much like the sound of fingernails scraping on a slate only far worse. The sound would rupture eardrums and induce pain, temporary deafness, and dizziness, making it easy to close with and kill enemies as they staggered about with their hands over their ears. The screech was highly directional, strong in a conical zone in front but negligible to the sides or behind.
The wir did not need even to transform completely to use these new abilities, just change his hands and wrists to engage the poison claws and just his throat for the screech. So these new weapons took less than a second to bring into play. Finally he knew these changes were not locked in; he could always revert to his previous template.
With all these enhancements Aodh had become an effective if unconventional combatant who could protect himself and his spouse Taitos Klarendes in the battle. To maintain the element of surprise, only Aodh's's closest friends were told of this.
Chapter 3. Forest Rangers
A belt of hawthorn had sprung up around the edges of the forest its branches intertwined to form a hedge. It was not so much a physical barrier as a clear and unmistakable border which left openings for game trails which the rangers would follow on their patrols. The corps of forest rangers patrolled all the way from the ridge line which marked the watershed of the Long River to the transition zone to the east where the forest left off and the Eastern Plains began.
Four forest rangers operated out of a cottage in the village: Aodh, Brandon, Garret and Lorn. The rangers initially paired off with Brandon and Aodh taking a section of the forest south of the vale of Elysion while the brothers Garret and Lorn took the area to the north.
The ranger post at Elysion was one of nine such stretching the length of the new exclave of the Great Southern Forest. The rangers did not keep a fixed schedule, varying the number of days they were out on patrol and the routes they took. The only constant was that when they reached the ridge at the other side of the forest, they spent a day or two at a cabin built for them just outside the hedge, drawing supplies from a nearby mountain resort. From time to team the teams switched areas and even team members. Perhaps one day they might even switch ranger posts with their neighbors.
The rangers' uniforms covered much of the body — full trews and shirts with long sleeves that could be rolled down to protect their arms and legs from thorns, thistles, brambles, and such. Rising seven thousand feet above the lowlands to the east and west the mountains had a climate considerably cooler than their location in the tropics would suggest. Both rhododendrons and azaleas flourished there adding seasonal color highlights to the green landscape.
By contrast with army greens, the color scheme of their uniforms was inspired by Sir Willet Hanford's research on camouflage — brown with large green and black splotches and slashes. Sturdy sandals and a voluminous camouflage cloak completed their ensemble.
While shape shifters generally preferred to remain nude while in their human form, Aodh realized that while on duty and working with a partner he would have to wear the uniform that went with the job. Needless to say he looked very good in it. The lightweight silks did little to hide the lines of his trim little body.
While the human rangers were issued ordinary camouflage cloaks, Aodh's cloak was infused with druidical magic a gift of his druids friends. The shapeshifter's own transformative magic could trigger the magic of the cloak and make the cloth change its colors and patterns according to the background. Normally not employed while the rangers were on the move, the cloaks were most effective when their wearers held still, so not quite so effective as the magical Concealment a wizard could raise.
The human rangers were armed much like army scouts with bows, quarterstaffs, and kukris. Aodh was no archer and contented himself with staff, kukri, a sling, and his natural weapons, which in his case was saying something.
"You do realize that a sling does't have much range or stopping power." Brandon pointed out.
"In my hands it does." Aodh told him, loading a lead bullet and slinging it into the dead stump a hundred yards away the archers had used for target practice. The bullet penetrated the thick bark and buried itself in the heartwood next to one of their arrows.
"Now imagine that was the head or chest of an enemy or a hostile beast." Aodh told him.
"I see what you mean. Your strength is phenomenal, especially for such a little guy."
"Wirs have strong constitutions to begin with, at least twice what you might expect due to stronger bones, ligaments, tendons and a dense musculature. Thanks to the Forest, my strength is considerably greater than before. "
"Whatever the cause, you looks scrumptious in that uniform. So I have to ask, does a patrol count as a walkabout? I mean, could the two of us... "
"Sorry Brandon, but really I have to say no, much as I enjoyed our tryst that time."
"Can I ask why not me when you sometimes share your charms with that elf-boy Dahlderon. I am an elf too, half an elf anyway."
"That's different. Dahl and I were lovers before I ever met my spouse Count Klarendes. Same with the twins."
"That would be the famous twins Jemsen and Karel I have heard so much about?"
"The very same."
"All right. I know when I am out of my league. No hard feelings, Aodh."
The two rangers grasped wrists to affirm their friendship.
Although his patrol duties took Aodh away from home, it made the time he spent in Elysion that much more precious to him. One of the garden spots of the continent, Elysion was a bowl at the edge of the mountains about eight miles across. Woods and sheepfolds and vineyards covered the gentle slopes while the flats held the village, the manor, the pastures, fields, and gardens. It was the very picture of peace and prosperity.
And it was the home of the people Aodh most cared about, starting with the Klarendes family, father and sons and the villagers who had taken Aodh into their hearts since the day he rescued a six year old boy from a dire wolf, a feat which had nearly cost Aodh his life. Add to that it was now the home of three druids: Dahl, Merry, and Owain, a trio of lovers themselves though only Dahl was Aodh's lover as well. And the twins and their friends were frequent visitors.
Life was good. Even better now that Aodh once again had a proper job which made him feel useful. Patrolling the forest was the perfect job for a wir panther. Even in his human form Aodh had a psychic link with the sentient forest, a link Dahl had forged for him. As yet it was weak and would stay that way till the forest grew stronger. Even so it made Aodh feel secure knowing that the forest was watching over him and in times to come would be able to warn him of dangers or problems it wanted him to resolve.
"Let's head that way, Brandon," Aodh told his partner during a patrol. "I have a weird feeling that something is not right. I think the forest is trying to tell me something."
Sure enough, the rangers came upon five miners, big brawny men stripped to the waist, who had built a dam and sluices to harness the water of a mountain stream for hydraulic mining, High pressure hoses fed by gravity directed jets of water against the sandy banks, washing away an entire hillside. Utterly illegal and environmentally destructive in the extreme much like strip mining, it destroyed the land in a greedy search for placer gold in gravel and sandy soil. With all the top soil washed away, a site mined hydraulically would never recover on its own.
When the rangers showed themselves and demanded that the five surrender and submit themselves to the justice of the courts, the miners dropped their tools and picked up the swords and bucklers they kept handy.
"Now what are you going to do?" the leader taunted the rangers. "It's five grown men against one man and a boy. Tell you what, you there with the bow can either stand your ground and be killed or just clear out. Either way you leave the boy here for us to play with. After weeks out here in the woods we are as horny as can be. As for you kid, I hope you like it rough, because we sure do. We are going to ream you out so hard your ravaged quim will bleed. Maybe we won't kill you right away but keep you around for a while as a sex slave."
Aodh twisted his body and whipped his sling around to send a lead bullet into the man's brain. Bucklers were meant for fending off blades and offered little protection against missiles. Against arrows or bullets you needed a full-sized shield.
"I make it four to two." Aodh opined blandly. "Do we have to whittle you down some more or will you surrender?"
The miners brandished their swords and charged. Brandon's bowstring twanged twice while Aodh cut loose with two more lead bullets. That made the odds zero to two. Brandon stepped forward and used one of their discarded swords to finish off a man with an arrow in his belly and another with a bullet wound under his breast.
The rangers buried the bodies in the sediments the miners' filthy work had left as a sort of fertilizer. In time the forest would become strong enough to repair the ravages to the land the miners had made. After that the rangers destroyed the dam and burned the miners' mining equipment. Their swords were cached for pick up on the return trip and turned over to the local militia, most of who wielded axes since swords were so expensive to make. As for the miner's camp, they left their lean-to standing as an emergency shelter for hunters or travelers lost in the forest.
The miners' hoard of gold dust and nuggets would be converted into coin and deposited with the treasury to the credit of the Forest Patrol. As his prize money Brandon kept a sizable nugget for a souvenir which he hung on a cord around his neck.
In another incident they came upon a wilderness guide in the company of a a natural philosopher who was botanizing in the forest, collecting specimens for the herbarium in the capital. A lanky extroverted and garrulous man of middle years, he entertained the rangers with stories of improbable adventures botanizing in many lands. But then telling tall tales was an accepted pastime around a camp fire. No one cared if the factual basis for many of his stories was thin or even non-existent. A tall tale had value in its own right as entertainment.
Aodh had his own repertoire of adventure stories, which in his case were fact not fiction. He talked of his origins in the land of the wirs and of rides he took on friendly brontotheres, of his spy mission to the barbarian lands, and of his fights against the black riders, a dire wolf and a frost giant.
A few days later the ranger rescued a pair of teenagers, a couple of city boys who had slipped away from a mountain resort for a tryst in the "forbidden forest" and gotten themselves lost. Cute kids with coltish builds dressed only in breechclouts made from a panel of buckskin flipped over the leather thong around their hips which bared most of their scrumptious bodies, they had nothing with them but hiking poles and water gourds. Having consumed the bread and cheese they had brought with them for lunch, they had been forced to spend the night in a cold camp hungry and feeling sorry for themselves. By the time the rangers found them, the youths were looking pretty woebegone though they perked right up after a hot meal.
Even Garret and Lorn who were immune to their physical charms could see that these were nice kids, good kids on the cusp of manhood. Sure they had been careless going off like that on their own, but at their age — they were fifteen — and with their juices flowing, a certain lack of wisdom and forethought was only to be expected. The rangers escorted the youths back to their folks who were so relieved they were safe they forget to be cross with their wayward offspring.
Halfway through each patrol the four rangers rendezvoused at a cabin on the far side of the woods, which stood next to a pond forty yards across and about eight feet deep which made it just fine for swimming. Brandon and the brothers liked to float on their backs but Aodh's strong bones and dense musculature made his body slightly denser than water so he had to scull his arms and legs to stay afloat. Despite that handicap, Aodh was a strong swimmer and liked to swim and to horse around with his friends. Brandon especially was fond of their grab ass games in the water, which was the only way he was going to get his hands on the taut little body of the pretty boy toy he worked with.
Seeing them playing in the pond Garret observed.
"And here I thought kitty cats didn't like water."
"You're thinking of house cats, Garret." Aodh corrected. "Big cats: jaguars, panthers, lions, and especially tigers love the water. Cats play and even hunt in rivers and lakes."
"Hunt? How?"
"For instance. To get away from a hungry tiger an elk jumps into a river or lake and tries to swim to safety, but its skinny legs make poor paddles. A tiger plunges in after it. Its strong limbs and big paws make good paddles. It reaches the elk and clambers aboard its back then bites the spine or throat for the kill. The moral of the story is don't jump in the water to get away from a big cat."
"Right, Garret. You should climb a tree instead." Lorn advised his brother.
"Well that would help against tigers which are too large to be good climbers. Also against boars or bears or wolves which don't have hooked claws," Aodh conceded, "but jaguars and panthers are better climbers than anything that goes on two legs."
"Then what should you do against a big cat?"
"What else but fight or die? Don't try to run. Cats love to pounce from behind."
"On that encouraging note," Brandon observed wryly, "it is time for supper."
Chapter 4. The Wolverine
After the forest rangers had patrolled their assigned sectors for six months, patrol headquarters had the rangers switch with their neighbors so they could become familiar with the terrain on either side. Brandon and Aodh were sent to the patrol post south of Elysion while Garret and Lorn went north. The following year they would do it the other way around.
Their new sector ran all the way to the rift in the mountains through which a winding road ran from Bled in the Commonwealth proper to the army town of Dalnot on the Eastern Plains. That road marked the southern boundary of the New Forest.
The mountains in their new sector rose up to ten thousand feet and were fairly steep and forested all the way to the top except for a few rocky outcrops where an old wildfire had burned off not only the plants but the soil itself. The forest was aware of this scar upon the land and intended to rehabilitate it in coming years, as its powers grew.
Brandon and Aodh met their new colleagues at their patrol post, a sturdy log cabin sitting all by itself in a clearing at the foot of the mountains. A former hunting lodge for a local nobleman, its door could be double barred against marauding bears and its windows were narrow, like embrasures for firing arrows. No one wanted to wake up with a hungry bruin in the cabin with them.
Their new colleagues were an odd couple. Dylan was a young elf who had recently left the sylvan vale where he had grown up to seek adventure, though not so much adventure that he was ready to join the armed forces and march off to war. Cheery and friendly, it seemed he would make a good companion.
His partner was something else again. A ruggedly handsome human looking to be no more than thirty with brown hair and a physique like Finn Ragnarson's only scaled down to six feet, this Madden Sexton was powerfully built and massed two hundred fifty pounds of muscle and bone and sinew. Definitely a tough customer, he was a man who could clearly hold his own in a fight. He allowed that he was not native to the Commonwealth or even to the continent of Valentia, but was otherwise vague about his origins.
"An international man of mystery, then," Aodh suggested with a grin.
"Something like that, kitten." was his reply.
"Kitten?" Dylan asked.
"Our new friend here is not only a twink of surpassing loveliness he is a wir, a tawny panther I would guess from his size and feline features."
"Good guess," Aodh said, "though my animal form is that of a black panther, which is much more intimidating and stealthier at night. What is your animal form, Madden?"
"What! Now you're a wir too?, Dylan asked."
"Not just now; all my life actually." Madden joked.
"Nobody tells me anything!" the young elf complained to no one in particular.
"Care to guess what my form is, Aodh? I'll narrow it down for you. I am neither feline nor canine."
"Hmmm, you are too small for a bear and too large for a lynx or even a giant otter. And you gotta be a mammal — wirs never morph into reptiles, fish, or birds. Not much is left. Okay. I give up."
"In that case I'll show you."
Throwing off his clothes, Madden invoked his innate magic and transformed into a wolverine, a stocky muscular carnivore with short legs, a broad and rounded head, small eyes and short rounded ears all of which made it resemble a bear more than its relatives in the weasel family. Armed with powerful jaws, sharp claws, and a thick hide the wolverine was a solitary hunter with a reputation for ferocity and strength all out of proportion to its size, capable of killing prey many times larger than itself. Only instead of a body of fifty pounds, this wolverine massed five times as much.
"Whoa!" the others exclaimed.
"Remind me not to get you mad at me" Dylan asked the wir wolverine. Still in his animal form, Madden nodded.
"I'll second that," Brandon said. "I have heard that a wolverine can take down deer or elk."
Shifting back to his human form, Madden told him. "I've actually done better than that. I once killed a white bear of the polar isles in single combat, though the human in me has always regretted having to kill so magnificent a creature."
"And the wolverine in you?" Brandon prompted.
Madden answered with a predatory grin which said it all.
"So why did you two take jobs as a forest rangers, and why do you think they hired you in particular?" Brandon asked.
Dylan answered first:
"Elves make good forest rangers. As everyone knows, our woodcraft is unsurpassed. We live close to nature, typically in sylvan vales where we dwell in tree houses. Many of us who leave the vales work as hunters or trackers or hire out as scouts for the military. Most of our farms are really orchards of fruit or nut trees or mulberry groves whose leaves feed our silkworms. "
"I personally have the gift of Unerring Direction which helps not only with land navigation but also with my archery. I can pretty much put an arrow where I want it. Then there is my gift of empathy which is a big help to anyone who works in law enforcement. Even if a suspect refuses to talk he cannot help but react to questions put to him. A shrewd interrogator can ferret out the secrets of the most closed-mouth of men, and I was trained by my uncle, our local shire reeve."
Madden nodded. "Those talents are very good reason, why they appointed you as a ranger, Dylan. And as my partner you have shown that you are an easy fellow to work with. I am sure Brandon is going to like being partners with you as much as I have."
"Thanks, Madden and let me return the compliment. I have seen for myself that you too know your way around the woods, and now I know why. A wolverine. Whodda thunk it?"
"Actually it is not so unusual. There are half a dozen of us wolverines working as forest rangers in the Great Southern Forest though I am the first to work here in the forest's new exclave. Also as a long lived shapeshifter, I bring centuries of life experience to the job. You name it, I've been there and done it." Madden affirmed.
"It is only my own natural modesty that keeps me from bragging about my mighty deeds."
The others chuckled at the wolverine's twisted humor.
As for Brandon, his archery and woodcraft and elven heritage on his father's side were factors in getting hired as a ranger. He could see in very dim light, like a cat only better. For archery at night, he was your man.
Dylan announced that after supper that he was moving his things into the other sleeping chamber which he would now share with his fellow elf, Brandon. Madden could share the other chamber with his fellow wir. When Madden looked into their room later that evening, he saw that Brandon and Dylan had pushed their bunks together. He clued Aodh in with a tilt of his head then rolled his eyes. Aodh grinned.
Besides the two bed chambers the cabin had a basic kitchen, a dining area, a sitting area with comfortable chairs, and three shelves holding what was mostly Madden's collection of books which included poetry, plays, and adventure novels plus non-fiction.
"Have you read any of this fellow Drew Altair's books?" Madden asked, pointing to the shelves. "He is my favorite among the newer writers. Young though he is, he writes with authority since he was often at the center of action himself. His prose makes the scene come alive like you were right there with him. No wonder he was won three Writer's Prizes."
"Actually he just won his fourth prize in five years for a book about the Pioneers of Flight. And yes I have read all of them. It so happens that Drew and I are good friends, very good friends indeed, if you take my meaning. You'll even find some of my own adventures related in his book about the elf-boy cum Druid Dahlderon and the wars for the Eastern Plains."
"You were in that book? Wait a minute. The cute shapeshifting minstrel who journeys with the elf-boy, the unicorn, the famous twins Jemsen and Karel, and Sir Balandur, the Dread Hand of the Commonwealth. That was you?"
"The very same."
"But as I remember it he had an odd name spelled A-O-D-H which sounds nothing like your name. How do you spell "Eh" anyway?"
"A-O-D-H. Not at all phonetic, I know, but there it is."
"So, we have a celebrity among us. This calls for a celebration."
"As do so many events with you." Dylan observed wryly.
Reaching into a storage cabinet Madden produced a bottle of the potent apple schnapps for which Frost Giants were justly famous plus four small glasses. A mere sip of the golden liquid brought tears to Aodh's eyes.
"Drink up. It'll put hair on your chest, little one." Madden assured him.
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Aodh countered. "And as a wir, I do."
He managed to get it all down but passed on a refill. One small glass was enough to set his head spinning. Fortunately he woke up the next morning with a clear head and set off on the first of their regular patrols.
Chapter 5. Bandits
Though Brandon would normally be paired with Dylan and Madden with Aodh, for the first patrol they would all stay together as a foursome to familiarize themselves with the entire patrol sector. For Aodh this was all new country. He had never come this far south on walkabout. Neither had Brandon on his hunts with his cousins.
The rangers went armed much like army scouts bearing quarterstaffs, with kukris on their belts, though only two carried bows. Aodh preferred a sling as his distance weapon while Madden wore a double brace of throwing stars. Madden also carried a coil of climbing rope made of spider silk. In their line of work up in the mountains you never knew when a rope might come in handy. The rangers slung their packs from flat hooks fixed near one end of their staffs, a trick that Balandur had taught his proteges. The arrangement let them carry the pack hobo style with the staff over one shoulder and balanced by the arm and easy to ditch in an emergency.
Although the sky was overcast when they began, The rangers eventually emerged into sunlight as they climbed above the clouds. The temperature dropped to comfortable levels, which pleased Madden considerably. Wolverines, after all, were creatures of the higher latitudes, not the polar regions but they did prefer a cool temperate climate which was found only at altitude in the the Commonwealth of the Long River, situated as it was in the tropics.
"So what enhancements did the Forest confer on you, Madden?" Aodh asked as they hiked.
"Actually, to my way of thinking the Forest merely made suggestions. It was our own transformative magic that made the changes in our bodies. In my case they were straightforward enough. My bones are stronger now, knit together with tensile fibers. Same thing for the tendons and ligaments and my muscles are denser. I am nearly twice as strong as before, which makes me not all that far short of a Frost Giant in strength. Also my hearing is more acute which is why my ears in my animal form are larger than before. I have to admit the new look takes some getting used to. And I can sense body heat so I can detect a foe or a predator lurking in the dark or behind concealing shrubbery or even a thin wall."
Aodh explained that in a melee his poison claws could put a considerable number of foes hors de combat in very short order, while his killer screech could disrupt attacks with missile weapons like slings or bows. Madden agreed that these enhancements made the black panther a fearsome fighter.
The third day out from a height of two thousand feet the rangers watched a group of riders who were escorting a pair of light wagons. The column made its way along a dry creek, leaving hardly any tracks on the stones and gravel of the creek bed and those were wiped out by brush dragged by the last wagon. Men who needed to cover their trail were obviously up to no good.
When the column reached the border of the New Forest which was marked by a dense line of hawthorn several riders dismounted and dragged aside a pair of boxes with hawthorns planted in them to reveal a hidden road. The column took the road into the foothills and closed the way behind them.
"Very clever." Madden observed. "That camouflaged entrance shows careful preparation. They used live trees not just dead plants which would dry out and give away their secret. Those riders must be the gang called the Vanishing Bandits. It is thought that a wizard rides with them who can raise a concealment to let them get away clean. Concealment and camouflage and a lair in the `forbidden woods' make a formidable combination."
"Aye," Dylan remarked. "We have been briefed to be on the lookout for them. They once grabbed an army payroll from a convoy on the road from Bled to Dalnot. Bold fellows indeed."
"And murderous. They killed all the guards and teamsters save one who was sorely wounded and feigned death. Add in all their other raids, including one on a farmers' bank, those men have taken the lives of more than eighty persons, including women and kids and dragged pretty youths and maidens off to an unknown fate." Madden added.
"So what are we going to do about it?" Brandon asked. "Should we send to Dalnot for the constabulary or ride to the nearest town to raise the militia?"
"Neither. They would get here too late. No, these men are going to ground only briefly, likely just overnight, staying in their hidden lair just long enough to make sure no one followed their trail. In the morning they will divide the loot and disperse. The bandits probably work at several of the nearby ranches on the plains, to all appearances honest herders and drovers. No, we have to strike tonight."
"It would be just us four against two dozen." Brandon pointed out.
"Two dozen men, asleep and likely drunk. The dark, their muddleheadedness, and the element of surprise will count against them. Here is how I think we can bring this off."
In a few sentences, Madden outlined his plan. The others agreed that it was workable. Now all they had to do was creep close to the bandit's camp and wait till the dark before the dawn to strike. The campfire had burned down to embers, and with only the smaller moon up, the scene was dimly lit, mostly shadows and shapes but enough light to work by. The sleeping bandits were scattered about, some lying in or under the wagons, others stretched out on the ground near the embers of the cook fire, too scattered about for Aodh to attack with his killer snarl.
With the two archers among the rangers poised to give covering fire, the wirs slipped into the camp. The bandits had grown complacent with success and had not even posted a watch so no one was awake to spot a black panther creeping toward the sleeping men. Madden was in his human form, throwing stars held at the ready. At such short range, he could fling with both hands and sink them deep into their flesh.
Aodh sprang among the sleepers and slashed at their unclothed bodies with his front paws and their poison claws. In seconds seven men were thrashing around on the ground screaming in unbearable pain. Madden's hands flashed again and again as he flung throwing stars into the faces and necks and arms of the confused bandits.
With half his men out of action the bandit chief brandished his sword and rallied his men: "To me, men! Form a circle." With a dozen men now roused and armed, the odds were still twelve against four.
The chief pointed to one of the bandits and shouted: "Wizard, Blast them!"
The wizard called light to see on what and on whom he should unleash his powers. A blue-white globe of illumination popped into existence to hover twenty feet overhead. Electricity crackled on the wizard's hands and arms as he readied lightning bolts to hurl at his foes.
That was just what Dylan and Brandon had been waiting for, to identify the leader and his wizard. Bowstrings thrummed and arrows flashed across the clearing to lodge in the throat of the leader and the skull of the wizard. The globe of light winked out and both malefactors fell to the ground dead.
With darkness restored Madden closed in on the knot of bandits in the middle, still in his human form the better to wield his kukri and long knife. This was a fight where upright posture and the longer reach of his weapons counted for more than the lower center of gravity and fangs and claws of his animal form.
Madden had trained for two centuries with his blades, blocking with the long knife and chopping, slashing, or stabbing with the kukri. Madden favored the kukri because its bent blade allowed him to stab with with his arm straight, delivering the full force of his arm and shoulder and even put his back into the thrust. His heavy blade was specially forged to break or slice through sword blades or punch through armor.
A trio of bandits rushed Madden but Aodh took them out of the fight pouncing on them from behind and raking their bare legs with his poison claws. The archers gave covering fire, picking off bandits on the periphery of the melee.
In moments nearly all the bandits lay dead or dying. The wirs finished them off, letting the archers tie up the three least badly injured bandits to keep for questioning. The wirs themselves were covered with blood, fortunately mostly not their own. Invoking their transformative magic they healed their wounds handily and washed the blood off.
Dylan's shrewd interrogation got the truth out of the captives. Yes the bandits operated out of two nearby ranches. Everyone there was in on the racket, even the cooks and stable hands who joined in the fun when the bandits gang-raped a kidnapped girl or youth before killing them and burying the bodies under a manure pile. Much of the loot was hidden under the floorboards of the ranch houses along with the accounts and records of payments to their spies in town.
The rangers piled the bodies into the wagons, hitched up the draft horses, and drove to the nearest town. Close behind came Brandon and Dylan herding the bandits' twenty mounts which would be turned over to that authorities.
The next day the constabulary raided the ranches arresting everyone on site. They also uncovered most of the loot and all of the bodies. The four rangers later testified at the trial of the Vanishing Bandits held at the county seat. All the accused were sentenced to death.
To avoid the circus-like atmosphere surrounding an execution attended by the general public, only designated public witnesses were allowed to view the proceedings. Among them were the four rangers.
A squad of archers, three to each condemned man, lined up thirty paces from the posts to which the prisoners were tied. All of them were up and coming non-commissioned officers from the Army of the Plains and previously un-blooded in combat during the decade of peace since the last Plains War. Their participation was a psychological exercise to harden the soldiers and prepare them for the carnage of the battlefield. In this way, the deaths of these miscreants served two public purposes: removing moral monsters from civilized society and contributing to military preparedness.
While on leave the four rangers were lionized by local society and provided with good food and strong drink. Pretty girls offered companionship, though only Madden took any of them up on it. Dylan and Brandon had a fling with a pair of lively local lads, both freckled red-heads. As for Aodh, he was not interested in extra-curricular activities.
For Dylan and Brandon the bandits were the first people they had ever killed and the executed prisoners the first they ever watched being killed in cold blood. It took some getting used to. Surprisingly it was Madden's quiet counsel which helped the young elves accept the unfortunately necessity of taking human life in extreme circumstances.
Back once again in their cabin at the foot of the mountains, the four rangers took stock.
"We can take satisfaction in surviving our first pitched battle despite the odds against us." Dylan observed.
"And all of us acquitted ourselves well. We covered each other's backs," Brandon added.
"Indeed," Aodh agreed. "You archers killed the leader and the wizard, the single most dangerous pair, then kept the rest off us while we mixed it up close, Madden and me."
"And between your poison claws and my throwing stars and blades we tore the rest of them apart, allowing me to chalk up yet another victory, one of the mighty deeds that have contributed to my growing legend." he intoned, only half in jest.
"You know Madden," Aodh began, "you should let my friend Drew Altair interview you about those mighty deeds of yours. There might be a book in it."
"Not just one book, my young friend." Madden corrected, one finger raised. "Volumes!"
Author's Note
This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead.
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This story 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, will appear in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence stands on its own, with the focus on one or just a few of the original characters.
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