Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 02:55:19 +0000
From: Michael Offutt <kavrik@hotmail.com>
Subject: Chapter 29 Black Dragon Rising - Gay Science Fiction

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                                    *****

                             Chapter Twenty-Nine

      Our group chews through the first mile in less than five minutes. By
then, the road begins a slow ascent, and the trail's difficult terrain is
hard on my knees. As one we dodge fallen limbs and leap over roots to find
a level foothold on otherwise uneven ground. The old highway's now
discarded wagon ruts are all but choked to death by weeds that struggle for
sunlight here in this eternal dusk.

      I wipe the sweat from my eyes; drops of it fall from the ends of my
nose or run down my arms and off the ends of my fingertips. Talen and I
aren't winded, but Palker Ray and Zorin are both flushed and gasping for
breath. Cory, though, has an easier time of it; his delicious locks matted
down in his own wetness: it's a thing I find tantalizing. I want to taste
him, and I know he thinks the same of me.

      The lust for my body in his mouth is there every time he glances in
my direction.

      At the beginning of the third mile, I whip off my shirt and tie it
about my waist. My muscles shine as if rubbed with olive oil; rivers of
sweat course down the wedge of my spine and into my trousers. Palker,
Zorin, and Cory slow so that Talen and I can take the lead. The two of us
point out every small log and hole in our path so that the others don't
sprain an ankle. During mile four, we finally catch a break and crest the
top of the hill we've been climbing. On the downward slope, Talen and I
pause a moment to let the others catch up.

      "Tethyr's teeth, you look sexy," Talen whispers.

      I don't respond but think "of course I do" and wipe more sweat from
my brow. As the others run up, I turn slightly so that my ribs and the fine
fingerling muscles below my armpit flare with every breath. I don't look at
Cory, but my peripheral vision catches him licking his lips.

      Cory stops next to me. He swallows and then looks at my face.

      "What?" I ask. "Did you see them? Have I missed something?"

      "No," he says quickly. "I was just thinking that...for a
human...you're in excellent shape."

      "Admitting that humans are physically better than elves? That had to
be tough."

      "I never said that," he says. "But YOU may be more physically fit
than any elf I've ever seen," Cory says. "Don't put words in my mouth."

      "It's not words that I want to stuff in your mouth," I say, just loud
enough for only Correldon to hear.

      Silence on Cory's part, but it does make him swallow hard.

      "Fuck," Talen says walking back to us. He'd wandered over to Zorin
and Palker to share water.

      He hands me a skin and I take a drink before asking, "What?"

      "Beyond the bend the road rises again. I hate hills."

      I step to the side of the road and press my hands against my knees to
suck in more air.  "Enough show," I think to myself. I untie my shirt and
put it on wet and now covered in wrinkles. I muse to myself that not every
man can say he got a shirt sopping wet from his own exertions.

      Talen claps me on the shoulder and signals he's going to piss.

      I feel the same "urge" but wait for the others to catch their
breath. I ask to no one in particular, "Are we going to stick to the same
plan, or have you come up with another during our jog?"

      Talen returns a minute later with face flushed, hair tousled and
unkempt, and the perspiration on his face already beginning to dry. I
return the skin of water to him now only half full.

      "The south bank," Correldon utters. "Let's move into the trees and
make our way up there to where the thorns grow thick at the base of the
white pines."

      I nod, then move into the edge of the woods. My feet, stewing within
my own juices inside these magic boots, somehow receive every imperfection
of the forest floor.

      I proceed now with much more caution than before, hunched over and
placing each boot in the shadows and carrying my weight as carefully as I
can on the balls of my feet. My skill coupled with magic allows me to walk
on delicate sticks and piles of leaves that have lain for centuries
undisturbed in this verdant henge. I leave no sign of my passage or even so
much as a rustle.

      Deeper we go, Talen never more than twenty feet from me.

      The elf tries to slip out front, but when he does he makes
noise. This visibly bothers Cory.

      I, however, can move at twice his speed without sacrificing stealth.

      Occasionally, Palker Ray whistles; it sounds much like a bird. But
his call lets me know where they are in relation to me. Collectively, we
proceed along a path that runs parallel to the road that cuts a few hundred
feet to the right. It drops steeply now into a ravine; where we tread also
begins a kind of descent. To complicate things the thickets sprouting from
the base of the trees become much denser, and their thorns claw at my
exposed skin like razor blades. It reduces us to a turtle's pace, but after
a half hour I raise my hand to signal the others to stop.

      Somewhere in front of me is something that's not a part of the
forest. It produces a low guttural snarl.

      "Do you hear that?" I mouth back at Talen.

      He replies rapidly in the cant, fingers dancing on his hands with the
dexterity of a monkey.  "Yes, what do you make of it?''

      "I'm not sure," I reply with my own fingers, "a wild animal perhaps?"

      Talen shakes his head. "I don't think so. There's more than one. If
you listen carefully, there's a deeper, almost throaty growl. It might be a
bear."

      "I'll take a look," I tell him with gestures. "I want you right
behind me in case I need help."

      Five paces in front of me grows a thicket of raspberries. The fruit
on the limbs of the bush are plump and red. I drop to all fours and scurry
forward to peer beyond the entanglement.

      I also pause to pop a few of the succulent berries into my mouth.

      There's nothing like fresh raspberries off the vine and these look so
great, I can't pass them up.

      One bite and I'm taken back in time to my first taste of raspberry
jam. Ah, so juicy.

      On the other side of the bush are three shapes. These aren't
bears. But neither are they dark elves because they're much too wide across
the shoulders than is physically possible for something that size. One of
them turns my way; the face is grotesquely stretched. The mouth's a little
too wide and teeth protrude from the lower jaw like a boar's tusks. His
hair's long and braided into dreadlocks capped by wooden beads. This
thing's wearing plate armor and grips a fearsome double-bladed axe.
Finally, there's an offensive stench that wafts outward from his body; it
reminds me of a latrine used by a hundred soldiers.

      Talen falls-in beside me and whispers in my ear. "Ekthor
orcs. Karandras described them to me last night while you slept."

      Ekthor orcs, eh? Fair enough.

      As if alerted to something, the small band turns and heads to the
south, stomping like a herd of buffalo through the forest.

      "Let's follow them," I say, pushing myself off the earth. Without
waiting for Talen's reply, I leap over the raspberry thicket, flipping once
in mid-air. Talen follows, landing next to me and with the same
athleticism. The two of us chase after the orcs, drawing our swords as we
run.

      To my surprise, a hundred feet ahead we come across Palker Ray and
Zorin Kael standing back to back with four dead orcs at their feet.

      "How did you guys get ahead of us?" I ask.

      Before they answer, a horn blasts through the trees. From all sides
of the wood, five dark elven warriors appear, two emerging from hiding
places in the earth camouflaged by leaves. At my right, beyond the kuanni,
riders on horseback head down the ravine. These aren't Karandras' men; one
is a pale bald woman with glowing lights for eyes; an eerie emanation flows
around the robes of her abdomen.

      "So much for Plan A," Talen whispers. "We'll be lucky to escape
alive."

      "We're not dead yet."

      I leap into battle, catching the first dark elf at the lip of his
burrow with the sole of my boot.  I shoot steel cleats into his chest,
shattering the bones above his heart, and knocking him back into his
hole. Fifteen feet from me, Talen whips about with his blade and catches
the edge of a kuanni longsword aimed at his abdomen. He turns it aside,
whirls, and catches his opponent on the neck to take off his head at the
shoulders. A fountain of blood erupts from the thing's neck, showering the
four of us in crimson rain.

      I tumble over to my boyfriend, moving so rapidly that the dark elf
that swung at me misses by mere micro-seconds. I hear their weapons
whistling through the air. Landing next to Talen, I snatch an arrow from
the sky headed straight for his back. The bowman reorients on me and looses
a second bullet at my chest. I dodge, catch it with a snap of my free hand,
and hurl it to the ground.

      "Impossible!" the man swears.

      Talen kills another of the dark warriors when a pounding on the
ground and the rattle of plate mail alerts me to approaching
reinforcements. With a single sideways glance, I take stock of my allies:
Palker Ray has dropped to one knee, hit square in the chest with two
arrows. But the gravelly- voiced Zorin Kael is still pressing on. As I
watch, he drives the end of a sword through a kuanni skull and kicks the
resulting corpse off his blade with the tip of his shoe.

      THAT is how real men kill. THIS is how real men die.

      The blood lust that rises in my throat means little, however, when
three huge Ekthor slam on top of Talen and I. One orc swings his double axe
about and smashes Talen in the breastplate with it. Of course, Talen
doesn't falter. And to the orc's chagrin, the axe blade shatters into
pieces as it strikes the unyielding force of Talen's magical undergarment.

      Thank Tethyr for that.

      As for me? I've got big problems.

      Two orcs tag team me. As if that weren't enough, the kuanni archer
sends two arrows at me at ALMOST the same time. How is that even possible?
Atlantean celerity grips my agile body and everything slows until I can see
a single moth flapping its wings. I step back; parry that axe blow slightly
upward by knocking the flat of the blade out like a shield. The left arrow
smashes against it, causing the orc to drop his weapon.

      At the same time, the second orc rains down on me with his weapon,
and an arrow on my right takes aim for my heart.

      Fuck.

      I continue falling back and manage to twist my torso enough to kick
the second orc's legs out from under him. With my left foot, I direct his
fall in front of that deadly incoming arrow. It skewers him through the
neck. Blood splatters my face, but my assailant falls dead.

      I hit the ground.

      Talen helps me to my feet with his free hand and slashes at the
Ekthor that dropped the axe.  The orc warrior backs into a tree, eyes wide,
and produces a knife from his belt that's dripping with black ichor.

      Poison.

      Talen dives forward with the sword and misses. The orc must have
known that Talen was protected by some kind of magical armor because he
slashes at my lover's face.

      I dive-in faster than any human can possibly move, and catch the
orc's hand with my forearm before he can so much as scratch my lover's
exposed skin. When I have him, I put him in a painful wrist lock until he
fumbles the blade.

      Without hesitation, I leap and grab his head between my thighs and
fall over into the leaves dragging him down with me, trying as hard as I
can to snap his neck. The orc proves too strong and I'm only able to
strangle him. Trying to break my hold, he grips my groin in a crushing
fist.

      The pain!

      I roll to one side, releasing him, and trying desperately to catch my
breath. A second later, blood pelts the shirt across my back, and his
headless body collapses next to me in the red mud. I look at Talen and say,
"You're too damned good with that thing."

      "Well, your approach didn't seem to be working."

      I nod, coughing and holding my balls. "He...was...too strong."

      Talen kneels next to me and asks, "Are you okay? Are...um...THEY
okay?"

      I nod. "Don't worry. They've just been treated with disrespect is
all." I manage to grin and to my surprise, Talen kisses me.

      "Thank you for saving my life," he says.

      I kiss him back. "You're welcome."

      I look over into the trees at the archer; but he's already dead,
pinned through the throat by two arrows. The fletching belongs to Correldon
of course, but the silver-haired elf is nowhere in sight.

      Grabbing my sword I pick myself up and ignore the throbbing pain
radiating from my groin.

      Talen and I walk to the clearing where Palker Ray and Zorin Kael made
a stand. Palker's condition looks terrible, and his breath wheezes between
his lips.

      "Hold on brother," I say to him.

      From out of the trees ten more dark elves emerge, their skins painted
in red and black designs. Shocks of white hair flow back over their ebony
armor, which is wreathed in web-like designs. They hold their longswords in
front of them threateningly. But what catches my eye is the thing that came
up behind them. It resembles a huge spider with the four front-most legs
ending in cleaver-like claws. Scintillating orbs of different colors
comprise the creature's eyes. As it draws nearer I realize that it's twice
my height and probably outweighs me by a thousand or more pounds.

      "Tethyr, what new horror is this?" I ask into the wind.

      The dark elf in front of the monster moves aside to let it pass.

      "Tethyr's Teeth," Talen swears. "This isn't supposed to go like this
at all."

      "It's a retriever!" Correldon shouts to us from the woods. He's
running as fast as he can to join us in battle. "It's a demonic
construct. Stay away from its gaze attack. And gentlemen, we've got more
trouble on the way. I suggest we cut our losses, now!"

      "I won't leave him!" Zorin Kael declares. "You men go and warn the
others. I'll buy you time."

      But How much time is debatable.

      In the next instant, the spider lurches forward on its eight churning
legs to attack. I engage, rolling under its first claw swipe and cutting
upward with my blade. Nothing happens, so I slice across one of its
legs. White sparks rain from the edge of my sword, and I sever the
appendage about midway to the thorax. This causes the creature to scream
horribly. It rears back, and one of its eyes flare. A bolt of lightning
strikes Talen full in the chest and hurls him off the edge of the ravine.

      "NO!"

      Enraged, I leap to my feet and jump into the nearest tree limb about
ten feet over my head.  The spider swings at my boots, misses, and smashes
its claws into the trunk. This causes the whole thing to quake loudly; the
canopy rains down leaves upon everyone in the path of the monster.  Beneath
me, the demonic construct lets loose with another of the magical rays; this
one hit Zorin Kael. Before my eyes Zorin's transformed into a statue, gray
as granite, as if he'd been there for a hundred years. Then the monster
smashes down on him with all its force, breaking the stone into a thousand
pieces of flying rubble.

      Correldon taps on rune four of his bow and the arrow he's notched
turns bright red. When it strikes the monster, it explodes in flame which
miraculously stops just shy of my dangling toes.

      The retriever, seemingly unfazed by such magic, marches forward.

      As for the dark elves, they flee into the woods.

      Seizing an opportunity, I jump onto the thing's back and rake my
blade across its eyes.  Several of them burst at my cut; it topples forward
tossing me onto the ground. Cory lets fly a second arrow and pierces the
construct through the ruin of its eyes. The fight ended, it collapses on
the ground twitching spasmodically in death. As much as I want to high five
Cory, I go instead to the ravine's edge. With some foolhardiness, I leap
out over the cliff, landing hard on the stones about midway down and then
slide the rest of the way to the road where Talen's body sprawls, still as
can be, in a puddle of rainwater.

      "Talen," I say, shaking his shoulders. "You can't leave me like
this. Talen...wake up."

      A moment later, he opens his eyes. His face has flash marks on it but
otherwise he seems fine. He reaches up and strokes my face and hair with
his fingers. I hold him protectively and then kiss him for a full minute,
rejoicing in the warm breath he pushes into my mouth and breathes out along
my chin.

      At last I ask, "Are you all right?"

      "Yeah, I think so. Did you kill the spider thing?"

      "Yes. I wounded it but Cory served the killing blow."

      "Nice," he whispers, nuzzling my neck with his nose. I close my eyes
to relish the feel of his soft tongue on my skin.

      A noise alerts me to approaching enemies.

      Pushing myself to my feet, the riders on the horses (that I'd noticed
earlier) come into view, still moving up the small ravine toward us. With
them rides the mysterious woman with glowing eyes. She's flanked by orcs as
if someone of importance. Right now, they're about two hundred feet from us
but that distance is eroding quickly.

      "Who do you think that is?" Talen asks.

      I swallow hard. "An Israfil of Zanda. But don't quote me on that."

      Though still wobbly from his fall, Talen stands at the ready, sword
in hand. At the edge of the ravine above us, Palker Ray and Cory
appear. Cory notches an arrow to his bowstring and touches rune four
again. Then he shoots his arrow at the Israfil, and it explodes directly in
front of the horses with a loud boom. A pyre of smoke erupts from the
road. The terrified horses buck their riders and black shapes dance in the
fire.

      Then the Israfil emerges unscathed and gestures at the elf, hurling
out a blast of heat which flies across the gap and smashes into
Correldon. The heat turns into an incandescent bubble of crimson flame; a
hot breeze wafts across my face and quickly grows in intensity until it
becomes a furious gale. Cory disappears, hurtling backward through the wood
atop the cliff, completely swallowed by this bubble. It propels the elven
archer at what must be a hundred miles an hour or more through limbs,
bracken, and bush until he vanishes from sight. Following shortly on its
heels is an earthshaking explosion; a column of fire rises from the forest
at the terminus of his trajectory. I reason that the sphere imprisoning
Cory has exploded.

      Talen grabs my wrist. "Come on!"

      We take off at full sprint in the opposite direction.

      A minute or so later, we emerge from the far end of the ravine and
race as fast as we can toward our allies that I hope are waiting for us.

      Just as a stitch builds in my side, Karandras' column of men rides
into view and Angelaria urges her horse forward (with Calvin only a length
or so behind her). Both Talen and I collapse into the dirt in front of
them, breathing hard because we've just sprinted two miles in four minutes.

      "What's happened?" She asks.

      "The others are dead," I say.

      "Dead?" Karandras asks. "Are you sure?"

      "I-I think so," I stammer out. "We were doing fine until they must
have detected Zorin Kael, or maybe it was Palker Ray. I'm not sure. But
they ambushed us, and we had to fight ourselves free. There's a woman back
there! I think it's an Israfil of Zanda, but I'm not sure. She hurled some
kind of spell at Cory, and...good god! He got swallowed up in red flame!
I've never seen anything like it."

      "Have you heard of this, milady?" Calvin asks Angelaria.

      "Yes," she says. "It's a Milbar's Collapsing Bubble; it's a powerful
spell. I've been studying this book you've given me, and if it's a battle
of sorcery that she wants I think I can oblige. There's more than one woman
in these woods that can bring the fire and lightning!"

      I pause, wiping the sweat from my brow. "You're not serious?"

      "Just watch me." She leans down from her horse and plants a single
kiss on my lips.  "Mmm," she declares. "I love the way you smell right
now."

      "Huh?"

      "Nevermind," she states. "Stay back here with Talen and the others."

                                    *****

      I shall post Chapter 30 next week. Thanks for reading and buying my
books.