Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2017 09:14:34 -0500
From: George Gauthier <georgegauthierdc@gmail.com>
Subject: Elf-Boy's Friends 46

				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.

<Of course.> 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."

<I got him with my horn. Impaled his heart for an instant kill>

<I should also mention that I am nearly four times stronger than I look so
though I weigh only three hundred pounds I am as strong as a draft horse
and stronger than a Frost Giant.>

"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.

<Our fur will grow out eventually. The red stains are nothing to be ashamed
of.>

"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.