Elf-Boy's Friends 46
Snow Elves - the Wolves
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 1. The Triplets
In a clearing in the forest three lovely nude elf-boys disported themselves in a pond. One swam back and forth. The other two simply floated lazily on their backs sculling their arms and legs to keep afloat. Their hard athletic bodies were slightly denser than fresh water and would sink without a little help though salt water was dense enough to let them afloat effortlessly.
The youths were Snow Elves as the shape shifters born of elven-kind were called, not for where they lived, but because of their glabrous alabaster skin, shoulder-length ash-blond hair, and icy grey eyes. Standing an inch or so under six feet, they had the willow physiques, fine-boned features, slightly pointed ears, and killer cheekbones typical of their race.
This trio was a set of identical triplets named Lobo, Lupo, and Volf. As their names implied the triplets could transform into dire wolves which had the normal coloration of that species differing from natural dire wolves only in a much larger skull to house their brains. Shape shifters always kept their intellect when they transformed.
"Let's cook whatever we take during today's hunt and consume it in our elven forms." Lupo urged. "I am getting tired of eating raw deer or antelope day after day which we have to consume in our lupine forms because elven dentition is not up to the challenge."
"We could always go fowling." Volf suggested. "Bustards are tasty and carry a lot of meat on their bones. After all they are the very largest of the flying birds. Or we could try for pheasant which are easier to bag since they spend so much time on the ground."
"True," Lupo conceded. "Whose turn is it to pluck the feathers?"
"Yours!"
"It would be." Lupo allowed glumly.
Lupo would have to pluck the feathers by hand then form a paw with an especially long claw to gut it since they had no knives with them. Unlike natural wolves the shape shifting triplets could form their blunt claws into weapons and tools. Sharpened by morphing to give them an edge and driven by powerful muscles in a fight their claws could inflict damage much as a cat's claws might: lacerating flesh, causing hemorrhaging, and inflicting pain, distracting their prey with pain while blood loss would weaken it.
"How about a change of pace from both red meat and fowl?" Lobo ventured. "Fish cooks fast and the flesh is tasty and easy to chew."
"Fish are hard to catch without gear." Lupo pointed out. "Except for salmon, but there are no annual salmon runs up here in the Eastern Mountains so far from the ocean."
"All our fishing gear is with our protectors. We left it behind when we went off by ourselves on this long hunt. We won't see our gear again till we rendezvous with them and our feline and wolverine brethren."
"Say, how about gathering birds eggs?" Lupo proposed. To cook them we dig a pit and put the eggs in then heat rocks in a fire and roll them with sticks into the pit to get the water boiling. In a few minutes we'd have hard boiled eggs."
"That could work," Lobo allowed. "Plus we could gather other foods like starchy tubers and cook them the same way."
"Your idea for hard boiled eggs is a good one. Now if we only had salt. Can't hardly eat hard boiled eggs without salt."
"You got that right." Lobo agreed. "You could say the same for corn on the cob."
The boys would have no problem starting a cook fire. They had long since mastered the small magic to kindle a camp or cook fire. This bit of magic was quite minor compared to their brother Gulo's full-fledged gift of kindling fire at a distance. He could set fire to anything combustible within a considerable range, farther than he could throw a stone. The difference was that Gulo's gift was a weapon, the magic trick for kindling a campfire was only a tool.
Not everyone could get the hang of the magic trick, but the knack came more easily to those like the triplets who already had the magical gift of Calling Light. Wizards were still trying to figure out why. After all the blue white globes of light which those with the gift could summon were not hot. They cast light not heat.
Nevertheless the globes could be used as a weapon. Englobing a foe's head would scramble his brain circuits and kill him. That gave the triplets a stand-off weapon for self-defense. They did not have to rely solely on their physical prowess which would put themselves at risk during close combat, though as shape shifters they would survive any injury that did not kill them. All it took to mend their hurts was morphing into their alternate forms.
In any event, the two magics were the reason their nighttime camps always had a cheery fire going for cooking plus one or two globes of light hovering overhead. Together they kept them safe, letting them see what was out there in the surrounding darkness, and warning off predators. Not that three dire wolves had much to fear from the denizens of the forest. Even a slash bear would hesitate to attack a wolf pack. Dire wolves were tough so even in victory a bear might get seriously injured. No, better to pass them by and seek easier prey.
In the end, they gathered eggs and other foods and cooked them just as Lupo suggested, which got him out of the wearisome task of plucking feathers, though it would still be his turn the next time they went fowling. Supper came early that day, so it was only dusk when they finished their repast and leaned back against the trunk of a fallen forest giant and relaxed in post prandial lassitude. As full dark came upon them and the stars came out they talked animatedly, emphasizing their points with gestures and facial expressions. Despite their fully elven faces their delicate features somehow hinted at their lupine nature.
The trio were chatty and outgoing with personalities more ebullient than those of their feline counterparts, the cousins Leon and Brand. For the lupine triplets leisure was a chance for games, wrestling, horsing around, rough housing, and telling stories of adventure and derring-do. They couldn't carry books around with them but had long since memorized long narrative poems and ballads. Meter and rhyme aided memorization and recitation. Sometimes the narrator would get to his feet and pantomime the dramatic action he was describing.
As identical triplets it was hard for almost everyone to tell them apart. Their brethren and protectors had no such problem thanks to long familiarity, but others were stumped. And going around sky clad as they did meant no color coded garments to clue others in. Even their voices were unhelpfully the same.
Aside from scent about the only ways for ordinary folks to distinguish one from the other were personality and demeanor. Lobo was the oldest by just minutes and was a bit more serious than his younger siblings. Lupo was the jokester in the group, while Volf was the incurable romantic.
Chapter 2. Derry
The next morning the trio had a visitor who called:
"Hello the camp!"
"Advance and be recognized," Lobo called back.
To their very great surprise their visitor turned out to look remarkably like themselves, a nude youth with glabrous alabaster skin, shoulder-length ash-blond hair, and icy grey eyes. He differed though in stature and build, standing just over six and one half-feet tall and weighing just under three hundred pounds, so his was a much more robust build than theirs.
"Good morning to all three of you" the visitor said heartily. "My name is Derrionydd or Derry for short. I already know your names from mutual friends though of course I cannot tell you apart."
"Which mutual friends?" Lobo asked.
"Corwin Klarendes, Axel Wilde, and Aodh of Elysion. I've been there recently though now I am on walkabout hoping to run into fellow snow elves and get acquainted."
"I never heard of a snow elf with so powerful a build. Why are you so big and strong?"
"It's because I am not a full-blooded elf but a hybrid. My father is a sylvan elf, but I am half Frost Giant on my mother's side, which accounts for the size."
"That's pretty unusual, but aside from your physique you have all the hallmarks of a snow elf so you are welcome among us. I see you are carrying a pack. We usually don't do that when we go off on a hunt by ourselves, just relying on our natural or innate abilities."
"Well maybe we should start carrying a pack!" Lupo exclaimed. "For one thing we could bring our fishing gear. So what's in your pack, Derry? I'm not asking out of idle curiosity but for suggestions about what we ourselves should carry."
Derry shrugged. "Your idea about fishing gear is right on. I pack a drop line and some hooks and lures for just that purpose. Also an item of clothing: a boldly patterned green and white sarong. The colors reflect my dual heritage of sylvan elf and frost giant."
"Anything else?"
"Well a folding knife and a burning glass..." he started to add to the list but Volf interrupted:
"Save it for later. Right now I am burning with curiosity about your alternate form. Care to show us?"
"No problem."
Setting his pack down the visitor invoked his innate magic and transformed into his quadrupedal form looking like a small pony with a snow white coat and a horn more than a foot long slanting forward out of its forehead. The skull was different from the equine norm being much larger in back to accommodate a fully sapient brain."
"Whoa!" the triplets exclaimed in wonder. "A unicorn. Cool!"
"So Derry, how long have you been on walkabout?" Lobo asked.
"Since a year ago when I turned seventeen and left my folks and the vale of my birth. My family and friends are all good people but the life of a sylvan elf was not for me. I was made for roaming. I want to see what lies over the next hill, to see natural wonders like volcanoes, cataracts, canyons, and caverns. I hope to travel the world and visit different peoples and learn something of their ways of life.
"It strikes me that a name like Derrionydd is very much like that of our friend the druid and former unicorn Meirionnydd. Now your own shape shifting powers would not have manifested till your teens, so how did your parents know to give you such a distinctive and evocative name?"
"They didn't. The name they gave me is Wolfgang. Now that is a fine name for a frost giant. It suggests strength and fierceness. But for a magical being like a unicorn? No way! So I gave myself a name more fitting to my newly exalted station in life as a unicorn cum Snow Elf."
"Admittedly though I do feel more like Wolfgang than Derry whenever I have to fight or to hunt.>
"You hunt?"
<Yes I do. I can easily run down game like antelope or rabbit or such. One kick to the head and I have meat."
"But unicorns are vegetarians." Lupo objected. "And their teeth and digestion are all wrong for meat whether raw or cooked."
Unicorns, yes, but in my true form I am like you. I have hands and the teeth and the digestive system of an omnivore. So after the hunt I transform to dress the carcass and cook the meat and whatever tubers or greens I can rustle up locally or have in my pack.
"Do you usually cover ground on four legs or two?"
"For travel, I prefer my unicorn form. Four legs are better than two."
"Not necessarily, not for us anyway. We most often lope along on four legs but we can travel about equally well in either form. Our two legged form is also made for distance running. Most folks don't realize that a good distance runner, whether human or elven, can outrun a horse over very long distances."
"I knew that, but with my hooves and horn I am less vulnerable to surprise attack than as a elf."
"That makes sense. So you just trot along on all fours."
"No. I never trot."
"Isn't the trot the usual distance gait for equines of all sorts?"
Yes, it is, but I prefer to amble."
"Why? What's the difference between the gaits?"
"The trot is a two-beat gait with a lot of up and down motion. There is actually a moment between beats when all four feet are off the ground. By contrast the amble is a four-beat gait where only one foot at a time is off the ground. This make it smooth and easy for a rider, though that counts for little with me. I am no one's mount save only Corwin Klarendes. No, the amble saves the energy I would expend or rather waste in trotting with all that pointless up and down."
"Shows how much we know about equestrianism. The fact is none of us has ever been up on a horse or felt any need to. We have four legs ourselves."
"That's a very practical way of looking at it."
"I should add that for us wolves one advantage with travel on two legs is a better view of our surroundings. As elves our eyes are twice as far above ground level as when traveling as wolves on all fours."
"Speaking of travel. I understand that you guys are on walkabout yourself, so I am hoping that we could join forces. It could be a lot of fun."
"That works for us." Lobo assured him.
"I guess you'd better stay in your elven form so we can talk along the way." Lobo observed.
<That's not really necessary.> Derry sent to him via Mind Speech.
Lobo sent back over the link Derry had created. <I should have realized that Mind Speech was one of your gifts, just as with our protectors, the White Kodiaks who are the ursine equivalent of unicorns.>
With that the boys broke camp and set out through the forest, chatting all the time to get better acquainted and to learn about each other's strengths and powers. If they ran into trouble, they could fight more effectively as allies if they knew what to expect from each other. Lobo was candid about their physical prowess, their tricks with their claws, and their gift of Calling Light. For the most part the triplets used sonic speech while Derry communicated with Mind Speech.
"Do you have a standoff weapon of your own Derry?"
<I have all the powers of a shape shifter plus those of a unicorn. So yes, I do have a standoff weapon, my so-called killer neigh. It is really an intolerable screech which does not kill but startles, pains, and distracts my foes and either drives them off or makes them vulnerable to a unicorn's natural weapons: horn, hoofs, and teeth.>
<It is a simple enough power but surprisingly effective in battle for both defense and offense. Armed foes cannot not handle their own weapons effectively. They put their hands to their ears, making them easy to dispose of or to run away from. I once confronted two slash bears and chased one away from his fresh kill.>
"What about the other one."
"Now when we travel we keep at it for hours unless we stop to hunt. What about you. Do you stop frequently to graze?"
<Hardly.>
Derry explained that he had to get his nutrition from the omnivorous diet of his human form. It wasn't just that Derry had little patience with the tedium of grazing. There wasn't really that much nutrition in grass, so you had to take in a whole lot of it. That took hours, the internal processing took energy, and then their was the quantity of bodily wastes.
The real problem was that a shifter could transform his own body but not the contents of his gut. Taking on human form after grazing would leave Derry with a large mass of mostly indigestible fodder in him which his digestive system could not handle very well. If Derry had to eat in his equine form he munched on grains such as oats which offered nutrition for less bulk.
No, it was much better to rely on the omnivore diet of his bipedal form. Besides the wide range of foods which cooking made available offered meat and vegetables, fruits, nuts, sweets, and cold beer. Such foods were best taken at the evening meal giving Derry all night to digest them. In the evening Derry always stayed in his bipedal form whether to socialize or for sleep or for sex.
"For sex, eh. A promise of things to come, I hope." Lupo chirped.
<We shall see, Lupo. We shall see.>
And so they did. That evening Derry switched among all three of the triplets in a constantly changing kaleidoscope of partners and positions. The natural enthusiasm of the teenage triplets met their match in the indefatigable virility of their new lover. And though Derry did not have a proverbial horse cock, he certainly was not lacking in that department. He was twice the size and four or five times the strength of any of his lupine partners so it was Derry who topped and the triplets who bottomed and bottomed and bottomed.
Chapter 3. The Faun
A couple of days later the snow elves encountered a trio of forest rangers: the tall raven-hired half-elf Brandon and two sturdily built human youths, the blond brothers Garret and Lorn. All three were full-time professional rangers not auxiliary rangers like the trio of Snow Elves. They were on a regular patrol in their assigned sector of the New Forest.
Quickly realizing that three dire wolves in the company of a unicorn could not simply be wild animals, the rangers did not reach for their weapons. After the shape shifters transformed Brandon greeted them.
"Hi guys, whichever one of you is which. Uh, no offense, but I still cannot tell you triplets apart in either form."
Lobo smiled. "No problem, Brandon. I'm Lobo" He then pointed out Lupo and Volf and finally introduced Derry.
"So you're that shape shifting unicorn I heard about. When did you link up with my colleagues here?"
Derry explained that they had been together for only a few days. The weather had been fine and the company congenial, and he looked forward to spending much time with his new friends.
"Are you having fun with your new boyfriend?" Brandon asked the triplets
"You better believe it." Lobo told him fervently.
That reference to same gendered sex caused Garret and Lorn to roll their eyes. Good guys though they were and close friends with Brandon, they had never really understood all the romantic fuss which some males made over pretty boys. Their own sex life was utterly conventional. They consorted exclusively with the female half of the species.
Since the rangers and the snow elves were all headed in the same general direction they stayed together. To snow elves on walkabout, the destination was almost beside the point. It was the journey that mattered, the journey and what happened during.
Brandon explained that they had been told to keep an eye out for a human youngster of fourteen. The boy wasn't exactly lost so this wasn't an all out search. A couple of days earlier he had deliberately crossed the hawthorn hedge that marked the boundary of the magical forest and gone on the first walkabout of his young life. His shape shifting gift had manifested itself only weeks earlier.
This boy Stefan had slyly persuaded his folks to vacation at a resort just on the other side of the mountains. The morning after their arrival the distraught parents found a note from their headstrong son saying that he planned to slip into the New Forest and go on walkabout. His folks were worried since Stefan was really a city boy with minimal field craft, just what he picked up in two seasons at summer camp. He had taken off with only a box lunch and a water gourd. They later found his clothes and gourd at the gap in the hawthorn hedge through which he entered the forest taking nothing with him save his flute which he carried on a sling.
"Why a flute?" Lupo wondered
Garret shrugged. "The kid is musical and fancies himself to be a magical creature, a faun -- a free spirit of the woods. He must have read one too many fairy tales."
Brandon shook his head.
"The boy is more like a vulnerable fawn, F-A-W-N than a faun F-A-U-N. What makes a fool kid take off on his very first walkabout here in the New Forest so very far from his familiar haunts and without little to no field craft? He should have picked a city park for his first solo adventure. That way when he got hungry or tired or wet he could just walk home."
"He's very young." Derry reminded him. "Being foolish goes with the territory. The boy likely thought he could get by on instinct alone. Of course it does not work that way. Wild animals operate on more than instinct. Mothers of predatory species have to teach their young to hunt. Even then most hunts are unsuccessful."
"So what form does he change into anyway?" Lobo asked.
"A red wolf."
"A red wolf? They're not terribly large, are they? How big is the kid?"
"Ninety pounds."
"That puts him at the upper end of the range for red wolves which are intermediate in size between the coyote and the gray wolf and considerably smaller than dire wolves like ourselves."
Brandon nodded.
"Well it was his choice to take off. I just hope we find him, or he walks out on his own. Fourteen is way too young too die."
"We're keeping an eye and an ear peeled for him." Garret remarked.
"An ear?" Derry wondered. "Oh, you mean you are listening for the plaintive wail of that flute of his."
"Right and we are giving special scrutiny to thickets. Red wolves have a habit of concealing themselves in thickets."
"True, but does this boy know that?"
"Hmm, maybe you're right. Still it can't hurt to give extra attention to places he might lie concealed."
Derry suddenly had a thought. "You don't suppose the boy transformed into a red wolf and did know how to change back? Does that ever happen with shape shifters?"
"What an appalling though!" Lobo exclaimed.
None of them knew the answer to Derry's question, but next time they saw their protectors or the druids they would ask.
Their joint patrol turned up nothing over the next two days. On the fourth day of the boy's walkabout the acute hearing of the lupine element among them heard music, a melody that could only have come from a flute.
"A flute. So the boy must be in his human form. You need fingers and lips to play a flute." Derry noted.
Sure enough after following the sound a while the patrol emerged from the trees into a clearing where the disconsolate red-headed boy sat leaning back on a boulder, playing a sad tune, expressive of his mood. He was hungry, tired, and lost and just wanted to go home, or rather to his parents back at the resort.
Stefan started in alarm at the sight of the dire wolves who were in the lead but calmed down when the rangers came into view then sat back when the triplets transformed into Snow Elves.
"I am so glad you found me. I was at my wits end what to do."
Brandon was in charge so he started the questioning.
"Got lost did you?"
The boy nodded.
"I could tell by the sun and the stars that west lay that-away," he pointed, "but these mountains are a maze of peaks and ridges and ravines and valleys and defiles. You can't just pick a direction and maintain that heading."
"That's where the gift of Unerring Direction comes in handy for us Snow Elves." Lobo pointed out. "We always know our way back to any place we have been to."
"Are you hungry, Stefan?" Brandon asked.
"I'm starving! I did find a couple of plovers' nests. Those birds nest on the ground, so it was easy to collect them, and I didn't fall for the mothers' trick with a broken wing either. That's something I learned in summer camp. So I got the eggs, but I had to eat them raw. No way to build a fire, you see.
"Did you try to hunt and take game?" Lobo asked.
"Yes only it was harder than I expected. I thought I could count on the predatory instincts of my red wolf form, but hunting takes practice I've never had, not in that form or this."
"So you never made a kill."
"Only one. A rabbit. I caught it by the neck in my jaws and shook my head to snap its neck. Then I dropped it at my feet. Gosh, it looked so pathetic and peaceful, like it was asleep, only it was dead and I had killed it. I knew the next step was to tear it apart and eat its flesh raw, but I could not bring myself to do it. Some predator, eh? I'd hardly turned my back and walked away when a hawk swooped down and carried away my kill. He sure knew what to do with it."
"I did gather mushrooms and berries and nuts, those I recognized as safe to eat, but that is about all I've had to eat in four days. I even tried some grubs I collected from under the bark of a rotting log. Yuck!"
Garret reached into his pack and gave the boy some way bread and cheese.
"Eat it slowly or you won't be able to keep it down." he instructed.
"If only I had had fishing gear with me. I might have caught fish from a pond or stream. I've gone fishing before with no problem. Helped my dad clean the fish and cook them up in a fry pan. So I am not squeamish about fish."
"Just what I was saying myself only the other day about carrying fishing gear with us," Lupo averred.
"So aside from being tired, lost, and hungry, how was your very first walkabout?" Lobo asked.
Stefan's whole face light up.
"It was magical! In my human form I danced and played music just like a faun out of legend. As a red wolf I could run or rather lope tirelessly, the wind ruffling my fur, my nose detecting scents hitherto unknown. I chased birds just for the heck of it and later jumped off a high bank into a stream and literally dog paddled across. One night I howled at the moon. Thanks to my fur coat, I didn't have to worry about cutting myself on thorns or sword grass, and it made a good blanket at night too."
"Also my vision was different. It turns out that wolves have excellent visual discrimination and good crepuscular vision though with less overall acuity. And who knew that wolves were partly color-blind. What looks red to a boy looks yellow to a wolf. Is that ever weird? On the plus side their other senses are so much sharper both their aural and their olfactory abilities."
"Tell me about it." Lobo said dryly. "And since you are now a wolf too, you should say `our' aural and olfactory abilities."
"Oh, right."
"Where do you get your vocabulary from, Stefan?" Volf asked. "You're like a walking dictionary."
"Ha! In a sense I am exactly that. My father compiles entries for dictionaries, both general ones and the specialized sort too. I sometimes help him transcribe the exemplars onto note cards."
It was getting late so they decided to camp right there. Whatever his limitations were in fieldcraft the boy had picked a good spot to camp. That evening, the lupine triplets talked with Stefan explaining some of the tricks of the trade for walkabout. Next time, and there would be a next time, Stefan should take more than his flute. He needed a topographical map of the area plus a pack with a compass, fishing gear, knife, burning glass, signal mirror, and salt.
"That's good advice, but I don't see a pack on you guys." Stefan wondered.
"We ourselves are just getting around to that. Normally our protectors carry the pack for the whole family."
Stefan marveled at the idea of a family of eight magical creatures namely six shape shifters and two giant white Kodiak bears.
"Three wolves, two spotted leopards, and a wolverine? And a pair of Kodiak bears who are the ursine equivalent of unicorns? Wow!"
No one, not even Stefan himself, was sure about his sexual orientation, nor did anyone try to find out, not with a boy of such tender years. It was only right that the youth first take up with boys or girls his own age. Anyway with the boy in their midst, its as no night was un and frolic.
The next day the rangers headed west to guide the youngster to his folks while Derry and the triplets headed southeast for their rendezvous with their own family.
Chapter 4. Trophy Hunters
Just beyond the hawthorn hedge which marked the lower or eastern boundary of the New Forest, lay the nature reserve where giant brontotheres roamed and flourished. In this transition zone between the forested mountains and the grassy Eastern Plains the great beasts might browse as well as graze. Grassy glades alternated with copses and gallery forest. Thanks to its elevation above sea level the plains were not oppressively hot, but the climate was still tropical. The brontotheres welcomed the shade the trees provided and the chance to swim or at least bathe in the deeper pools of the streams which drained the mountains.
Taking their leave that day after their latest visit to their brontothere friends were the two White Kodiak bears Bjarni and Bjorn. Magical beings like the brontotheres only more so, the ursine brother were giants of their kind standing nearly seven feet high at the shoulder and massing a long ton. For size though nothing could match brontotheres which were taller by a foot and seven times more massive.
Brontotheres looked like armored one-horns or rhinos though their two bony horns were set side by side and grew from the forehead not the nose so they pointed forward not upward. Their thick gray skin hung on their frames in folds, serving as living armor proof against even the claws of the slash bear or the tiger.
They had no natural enemies though they were vulnerable to weapons wielded by humans and other races. Caltrops could turn their own size against them. Arrows shot from ballistas might slay them. Poachers had once killed dozens of brontotheres by offering them cabbages with leaves coated with ground glass held in place by a sticky syrup, which killed them slowly and painfully from internal bleeding.
The Mind Speech of the bears allowed them to link with the brontotheres who used their own version of telepathy which was really projected mental imagery. It had taken practice on the bears' part since their own telepathy relied on projected words not imagery.
Since then they had exchanged the wisdom of their species. The Kodiaks explained their role as the protectors of a group of Snow Elves who lived in the forest and might one day join them for a visit. Theirs was a full partnership. The bears were both teachers and protectors. The elves provided companionship to the normally solitary bears. Also their locomotion of two legs freed the hands of the elves to perform all sorts of tasks that the bears themselves could not. For instance, the elves could gather honey less messily and much less destructively than the bears could themselves. Then too, there was something to be said for food which had been cooked. It offered novel tastes hitherto unknown to the omnivorous bruins.
A pair of autogyros arrived as the bears ambled toward the hawthorn hedge. As they orbited overhead at two hundred feet a couple of air guns poked out of the leading aerocraft and took aim at the bears. The initial ranging shots missed. Once the shooters corrected for the long fall of their bullets they got hits. Though only superficial flesh wounds blood loss would eventually weaken them. The bears ducked under the cover of some trees and used mind speech to warn off the hunters.
<Stop shooting at us. We Kodiaks are not dumb animals. We are fellow sapients, the ursine equivalent of a unicorn. You wouldn't shoot a unicorn would you? Anyway this is a nature reserve where hunting is banned entirely.>
The answer they got back was chilling.
<We know perfectly well that you are sapients. That's precisely why we are hunting you. Shooting dumb animals is far too easy. Boring really. Sapients offer a real challenge. As for unicorns, we certainly would shoot them and have done so in the past. So we have already added them to our collections of heads mounted on the walls of our hunting lodges.>
<You two will make magnificent trophies. Our taxidermists will turn one of you into a rug which will have the place of honor in front of my hearth. The other one's skin will be mounted on an armature looking as you did in life. My colleague here plans to put it next to his prize centaur specimen.>
<You claim that hunting dumb animals is too easy, yet here you are taking pot shots at us from autogyros orbiting overhead. Where is the challenge in that? It is cowardly is it not?>
<Please! You're just trying to shame us, to lure us into setting down and hunting you on foot. Actually we plan to do exactly that but not just yet, not till we give ourselves an edge. These shots at long range are only to weaken you. We have to get close for our shots to penetrate all that muscle and reach your vitals. So be patient. We intend to get close and personal in due course.>
With that the trophy hunters resumed shooting. Bjorn and Bjarni scrambled toward a ravine which would give them considerable cover from overhead fire. Autogyros could not hover but must move constantly to generate lift for their rotors and stubby wings. Once the bears reached the ravine, they hunkered down under an overhang though they did still take hits when the aerocraft were at the right angle.
By the time the autogyros settled down the Kodiak had been hit five or six times each which was not enough to kill them. Their magical constitutions had strong healing powers though far less than the near miraculous powers of shape shifters. Still the bleeding from their wounds had slowed and would soon stop. The blood loss had weakened the bruins less than the hunters thought. The bears had plenty of fight left in them, plus their ace in the hole. Two aces really.
Both autogyros set down. The trophy hunters themselves were human. Their backup was comprised of seven Frost Giants armed with the larger and more powerful airguns designed for their race. The pressure in their air reservoirs was higher and the longer barrel let the outrushing air propel the bullet for a longer interval confined in a tube which gave it greater momentum and range.
The giants fanned out to either side. They were not to shoot except to save the lives of their employers. The honor of the kills would go to them.
<Any last words, my sapient friends before we kill you?> the leader teased, his air gun held at the ready.
Bjarni answered for both of them:
<Your doom is upon you, foolish mortal.>
With that the bears cut loose with their stand off weapon, a killer roar far more effective than the so-called killer neigh of the unicorn or the screech of a black panther like Aodh. The bears' sonic weapon really could kill not simply startle, pain, and distract their foes to make them vulnerable to a unicorn's or panther's sonic weapons.
The trophy hunters were caught in a cone of sonic destruction which blinded them, destroyed their hearing, and tore blood vessels in brain and heart, killing them with multiple aneurysms. They had just enough time to realize that they were dying and then fell down dead.
The Frost Giants turned and fled to their autogyros turning to shoot back to keep the bears from closing with them. The bears caught two shooters with their sonic weapon before they got out of range, but no matter. Their second ace in the hole had just been played: the brontotheres had arrived.
Formed into a broad line to cut off escape forty brontotheres trumpeted their challenge and charged the giants. The ground shook from the pounding of their feet which rumbled like thunder. Brontotheres could not gallop. They were far to heavy to get all four legs off the ground at once as horses do in the gallop. The gait of a charging brontothere was more like a fast shuffle -- a very fast shuffle indeed thanks to their long legs.
The giants cried out in dismay as the line of brontotheres swept past the parked autogyros cutting off any chance of escape. With nothing for it, the five giants stood their ground and shot as fast as they could work their charging levers and take aim. Their efforts came to naught. Their bullets could not penetrate the reinforced skulls of the brontotheres. Their shot could only inflict wounds to the front legs or face. Some of the beats did get hurt but none of the leaden bullets that came their way reached their vitals.
It was a distinctly uneven contest, five air guns against forty brontotheres whose charge was relentless and unstoppable. Their initial pass bowled the giants over or impaled them on horns. Then the brontotheres turned and stomped the prostate bodies of the wounded and dead giants, rearing up to bring the full weight of their forequarters smashing down. In a final pass, the brontotheres formed a column and charged over the dead bodies all the while bellowing their battle cry. Only then did their fury cool and they charge ground to a halt.
At Bjarni's request a dozen of the brontotheres broke off from the main body and stomped all over the four hunters slain by their bears' secret weapon. The hunters would never have been drawn into the trap the bears had set for them had they been aware of their stand off capability which the bears had not disclosed even to the snow elves.
By then the brontotheres' human caretakers had arrived to lend assistance to the injured brontotheres and bears. One of their number was the resident veterinarian who extracted bullets and flushed wounds with water and an astringent to prevent infection. The brontotheres accepted his ministrations stoically, knowing that the pain from his probing for the bullets was both well-intentioned and necessary.
"Sorry I cannot do anything about the bloodstains in your white fur." the vet apologized to the Kodiak bears.
"Indeed. As a combat medic in the Troll War I heard wounded soldiers calling their blood stained bandages their red badges of courage."
In the end the bears stayed on a few days to recuperate and also to give statements to the constabulary about the deaths of the trophy hunters and their guards. The Kodiaks did not lie to the lawmen but told the full truth about what had happened. The constabulary appreciated their candor and to spare them from having to disclose their ace in the hole in public testimony before a corner, the lawmen credited the brontotheres with all of the kills.
The case did not rest there. Investigators would backtrack the hunters and guards, confident that it would not be difficult for them to locate their trophy filled hunting lodges which were forfeit to the state along with a considerable portion of their assets including their autogyros. Investigators would want to find out who else was involved in the despicable practice.
In the fullness of time the bears rendezvoused with the proteges, the wolves and leopards plus their new friend Derry. Gulo's new friends, the natural philosophers and their party of seven which included his new boyfriend Roland had gone on ahead to Elysion.
The bears assured his proteges that despite the rusty bloodstains in their fur they were healing just fine. No infection and no complications. They praised the boys for their dedication to helping others in their various adventures during their separate walkabouts. Gulo had faced the greatest odds battling that slash bear. The triplets had not only taken part in the search for the lost "faun' they had mentored the boy and help him understand his new gift and prepare him for his next walkabout.
The leopards Leon and Brand had the most exciting stories to tell: first of their fight with the poachers, then of helping to foil the brazen bank robbery in Three Forks, and finally of a knock down and drag `em out fight with an anaconda. And yes they were not doubt right that press coverage of those incidents would promote a better image of snow elves among the general public.
They quickly arrived at a consensus to go to Elysion and meet up with the party of natural philosophers. Brand would also get a chance to ask the druids to sponsor an upgrade in they powers.
Author's Note
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This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead. It is one of an occasional series about the further adventures of the characters introduced in the fantasy novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends' and published by Nifty Archive. The chief protagonist of the novel, Dahlderon, elf-boy and druid, appears in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence focuses on one or a few of the large cast of characters in the ongoing saga which now exceeds Tolstoy's War and Peace in word count, if in no other measure.
Readers who like these stories might want to try my two series 'Daphne Boy' and 'Naked Prey' in the Gay/Historical section of the Archive. My 'Jungle Boy' series of Hollywood tales is posted in the Gay/Authoritarian section. The series 'Andrew Jackson High' relates the trials and tribulations of five of its gay students. For links to these and other stories, look on the list of Prolific Authors on the Archive.