…or, Among The Tree Tops

There was a babel of voices around me, but if my hearing had become sharper, the part of me that sorted out language was sluggish as hell. With half a dozen elven guys surrounding us and more on the way, sounds were coming through but the meaning was lost.

Iason said something. His voice was big and booming. He slipped off my back, and there was a sense of breaking off. I felt reduced. He put his hand on the side of my neck, and things felt better.

My brain started to catch on to the things being said, starting with Iason. He was speaking elvish,

“— you it was real,” he said. “Pay up, Petros.”

A tall, rail-thin elf with features sharp enough to count as a weapon pulled a segmented bracelet of shiny metal off his wrist and went to throw it at Iason. Another elf, shorter and less emaciated, stopped him.

“How do we know that Manblood didn’t just charm some dumb beast?” he asked.

Iason removed his hand from my mane and stroked it down my muzzle. I saw an explosion of color. I felt myself shooting backwards, collapsing in on myself, and then I was standing on two legs. The position felt precarious for a second, then I remembered that was how I had always stood. Shapeshifting was seriously disorienting.

The warm breeze on my skin reminded me what the bundle strapped to Iason’s back was. The stiffening of elf cock all around us was a pretty handy reminder, too. Half of the dozen who were now present whipped it out on the spot. Three of the others ditched their pants entirely.

Petros and his skeptical friend were among the ones who were unmoved, but I was more interested in the others, the ones who were coming towards me eagerly. Memories of misspent summer nights were stirring. They weren’t the only thing.

I took half a step forward. Iason put one hand on my shoulder. His sword was in the other one, and he moved to point it at each of the approaching men in turn.

“The first one of you who touches my mount is going home a gelding,” he said. “Now, Petros, I believe you have something of mine.”

Petros flung the bracelet wide, so that it probably would have flown past Iason into the canal below, but he moved his sword and caught the metal loop on the blade.

“Thank you for accepting defeat graciously,” Iason said. He tipped his sword upward and the bracelet slipped down to the hilt guard. He let go of me so he could undo the clasp and pocket his prize. “I had not intended to cause such a commotion, but since so many of you are here, I would like to introduce my intended, Iamos Toxotes.”

“What’s wrong, Iason? Did you not get enough human in you from your father?” Petros’s friend asked.

“Don’t be so cruel, Nikolaos,” Petros said. “Clearly Manblood wanted a lover beside whom he would not look like a hairy, overbuilt ogre.”

“True,” Nikolaos said. “Next to a face like that, Iason’s almost fuckable.”

“Three things? One, ‘Iamos’ speaks elvish,” I said to them in their own tongue. “Two, I know I’m the pretty one in the relationship. And three, I see at least ten guys who are hard for me right now. Ten and a half, if you count the one that Petros is trying to hide by hunching over.”

Petros blushed and his boyfriend turned red, taking a step towards me. His hands went to the daggers on his belt, but Iason drew his dagger and leveled both his weapons at the man.

“If you are looking for another duel, Niko, you will find me ready,” he said. “But I am tired of taking your jewelry. The wager this time will be for your treasure, instead.”

“I will not sully myself by dueling with you,” Nikolaos said, sheathing his daggers.

“Yes, I do seem to remember our previous bout leaving you in a certain state of soiledness,” Iason said. “Now, if you have nothing further you’d care to say, I will be showing my new mount the way to my quarters.”

The two turned and slinked away, though not without several ugly glances thrown back at us as they went.

There’s a saying that the elves have no word for modesty. It’s not true, but the word doesn’t get used very often, at least without a lot of irony. Several of the spectators were jerking off furiously by this point. It made a nice counterpoint to any claims about my supposed ugliness, but it was frustrating and distracting to be the center of so much attention and not be able to do anything about it.

On the other hand, if Iason wanted to show me to his room, that would give me a chance to be alone with him.

That meant I’d be able to have words with him about turning me into a deer without asking first.

“Come, Iamie,” he said, putting his arm around me and drawing me away from the canal. “Let me show you the hall.”

“Give me my clothes and belt first,” I said.

“But I’m not half done showing you off,” he said.

“I thought you were taking me to your quarters.”

“You are insatiable, you unruly little beast,” he said. “I will take you there, but we’ll go by the ’scenic route’, as the saying goes.”

“Fine, but give me my clothes,” I said.

“But there is no point in taking that route if you are not naked,” he said. “How about I keep them until we get to my room, but I take you directly there?”

“Fine,” I said. I didn’t mind being naked, in the company of elves, especially male ones. I threw one last longing glance over my shoulder at the group who’d gathered by the canal. Some of them had drifted away. Others were furiously finishing themselves off. Some of them were starting in on each other. It would have been fun to join in, but I really just wanted to get dressed before Iason used me as an excuse for a duel. It would probably be meant to impress me anyway. “Anyway, don’t you think you were getting ahead of yourself with that introduction?”

“What do you mean, Iamie?”

“You called me your ‘intended’,” I said. “I haven’t said yes to anything yet.”

“Now who is getting ahead of themselves? I haven’t even asked yet, and already you want to give me an answer,” he said. “I spoke of my intentions, not yours.”

“Well, I have no intention of getting married, even if it was an option for us,” I said. “Which it isn’t.”

He said nothing.

“Did you hear me?” I asked. “I don’t intend to marry you.”

“I heard you,” he said. “You are a very mean-spirited person, sometimes.”

We headed towards the cluster of giant trees that made up Treehome proper. One of the ones near the edge had a wooden ramp spiraling around it, and I thought that was where we were heading. Iason led me straight past it, in between the trunks. Inside the “grove”, there were buildings of stone and timber construction built around the trunks, standing two and three stories tall. Their design reminded me of pictures I’d seen of mountain settlements, where the houses had to be tall and narrow and hugged the rock face in back.

We went into one of the buildings nearest the outer ring of trees. The outer walls were short, with eaves hanging below my shoulders, but the roof over the ground floor sloped upwards and there were steps leading down into the ground before the entrance.

Inside, the lowest level was one big common room decked out like a hunting lodge. It might have gone all the way around the tree. There was a fair-haired head sticking up from above the back of a couch.

“Ah, Iason!” the elf called, though he hadn’t turned around. “Have you brought back another lovesick stray?”

“No stray,” Iason said. “Melos, I would like you to meet my mount, Iamos Toxotes. ”

Melos stood up and turned around, his eyes wide. They went wider when he saw my nude form.

“What a sight,” he said, his eyes locking onto my half-hard cock. Well, three-quarters. All the way.

“Be sure you do no more than look,” Iason warned. “Or it will be blades between us.”

“It might be worth it,” Melos said. “Fight me for him, Iason.”

“Why should I? I already have him,” Iason said.

“A wager,” he said. “Three nights with him for me against one with me for you.”

“Three to one?” Iason asked.

“I am no fool,” Melos said. “I will not duel you without odds.”

“I am no fool, either. One night with your brother and you,” Iason said. “But, later,” he said. He grabbed me by the hips from behind and pushed me towards the stairs at the back of the room, then hustled me onto them.

“You just bet my ass in a fight,” I said as we went upstairs.

“You told me you wanted other lovers,” he said.

“I want a choice,” I said. “What happens if you lose and I say no to Melos?”

“You mean, after the seas have caught fire and the stars have fallen from the sky?” Iason asked. “He knows he cannot beat me. He just desires for me to have an excuse to ravish him.”

“If you’re going to fuck around, you don’t have to rub my face in it,” I said.

“If you wish to talk about taking our relationship to another level, I am ready to listen,” he said.

“Hypothetically, if we did, would you go monogamous, too?”

“As long as we are speaking hypothetically, I would,” he said. “But if it actually happened, I wouldn’t. You have a phenomenal ass, and you take it in the mouth as if you breathe manhood, but you can hardly expect me to be satisfied by you alone.”

“But I’m supposed to be satisfied just with you.”

“Ideally, yes.”

On the second floor, the back wall was actually the exposed bark of the tree. The doors were on the other side, the outer wall. We went past three before Iason stopped and opened one. He stepped back and ushered me in ahead of him.

I stepped inside. I hadn’t had a specific image in mind for Iason’s room, but it fit. The furniture—a bed, a wardrobe, dresser, and vanity table—were all wood, elaborately carved and with green and gold highlights. It was the sort of work my mother did. There were large windows on the far wall, but the sunlight which came through them was muted and green-tinged. The other walls were covered with weapons and various antlers, horns, and tusks.

“This is my room,” Iason said, stepping in after me and closing the door. “You will stay here tonight. After your classes tomorrow, I will show you a more direct route back here than the one we took.”

“Hold on,” I said. “I haven’t agreed to sleep here tonight. What makes you think I’m coming back tomorrow?”

“You do not want to give me a key to your quarters, so you must stay here in mine,” he said. “It is called compromise, Iamie. You should look into it.”

“That is not a compromise,” I said. “That’s you giving one ultimatum after another.”

“To be perfectly strict about it, Iamie, only the last one can be an ultimatum,” he said. “What I am giving you is options, but you do not seem to be interested in anything more than being stubborn as an ass.”

“Well, maybe you should have turned me into a mule deer, then,” I said. I folded my arms across my chest and turned away. The mirror on the wall showed me somebody who looked embarrassingly like my mother. I unfolded my arms and turned some more.

“Are you actually angry about that, Iamie?” he asked. “About the incredible gift I have selflessly given to you?”

“You didn’t ask,” I said. “You didn’t give me one word of warning.”

“I told you I was going to show you something amazing,” he said.

“That isn’t exactly an instruction manual,” I said.

“Would you have put the bracelet on if I had told you everything it did before I presented you with it?” he asked.

“Hell, no,” I said. “That’s my point.”

“Would you have agreed to be transformed, had I asked?”

“No,” I said.

“Do you regret the experience?” he asked.

That was a tougher question. Being chased through the woods as a stag had been incredible. Being ridden by Iason had been even more so. Everything about it had been mind-blowing: the power in my legs, the awareness of the world, the running on water. Everything.

“Not completely,” I said.

“Would you rather it hadn’t happened?” he asked. “Would you like my assurance it will never happen again?”

“No,” I said. “I’d like your word that you won’t do it without asking again.”

“So, in essence, you would rather I had never done something while being glad that it happened,” he said. He shook his head. “Honestly, Iamie, I might as well date a woman, given the sort of logic with which you assail me regularly.”

“You might have worked up to it a little,” I said. I was fighting to keep a check on my temper. Iason had a way of turning irritation into arousal that was just plain irritating. Also, arousing. “You could have told me about the bracelet, and found out if I was interested in it, and everything that it entails.”

“Why does it have to ‘entail’ anything?”

“It’s bonded to me for life,” I said. “And it lets you turn me into a beast of burden. Can I transform myself?”

“No,” Iason said. “And you are not a beast of burden, Iamie. You are my mount.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It is my accent, it’s how your name sounds.”

“Not that,” I said. “I’m not your mount.”

“We must have very different memories of our trip through the forest, then,” he said. He reached out a hand to touch my face. I shied back.

“Shh,” he said. “I would not transform you in the middle of my room. I just want to touch you, Iamie. You like being touched, don’t you?”

“I like being able to trust you,” I said.

“You see something sinister in my gift,” he said. “I can’t see why. So long as we are together, it does give me a certain power, if that word applies, over you. But, as you so callously remind me at every opportunity, you are not committed to me on any longer or deeper basis than that of a college ‘hook-up’. If you leave me, as you frequently threaten to do, then it becomes just a pretty bit of wood with some protection magic.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you’d just let me go, when I’m wearing a bracelet you can use to track me, and transform me into an obedient animal?” I asked.

“It does not compel obedience,” he said. “It simply makes it feel good, and that only in the limited circumstance that you are transformed and being ridden. In any event, I cannot see how the presence or absence of the bracelet makes a difference. It might make things easier for me to ’stalk’ you against your will, but I will not do a thing solely because it is easy, and I have no interest in pursuing the completely unwilling.”

“Tell me about the bracelet, then,” I said. “What is it, exactly?”

“I already told you a bit,” he said.

“Tell me more than a bit,” I said. “I’ve never heard of these things. I know the stories about stag riders, but I’ve never heard about bracelets. Were all the riders using transformed humans?”

“No, not all of them,” Iason said. “It was a single order, at first, though there were later imitators, as well. There were a few hundred made, at least. Perhaps as many as a thousand. Few remain. Some were lost and others were destroyed. Frequently, the destruction came at the hands of men who did not understand what they had stumbled across, only that it was a magic item that could not be removed.”

“Well, that usually isn’t a good sign,” I said.

“It’s meant to be a benefit,” he said.

“You’d really let me just walk away from you?” I asked.

“I would fight,” he said. “I would make my case to you. But gone are the days when an elf lord can take a human child over his shoulder and flee into the woods. Gone, too, are the elf lords. I can do no more than offer you my heart, and two of the most amazing things a human can hope to experience.”

“Show me the way back to campus,” I said. “Then, if I decide I want to come over, I can come over.”

“Alright,” he said. “I will show you, first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow? Iason, I’ve got classes,” I said. “I’m probably late already.”

“Then you might as well stay,” he said, pulling me close. “You cannot want to leave me, so soon after the rather heady experience in the woods. Not after having the sight of so much elf-flesh by the canal to excite you.” He reached down and grabbed my cock. “You will embarrass yourself every time you stand up.” I groaned as he pulled on my erect dick. “You don’t want that, do you, Iamie? We are both wound up, after our ride. Let us take care of each other, and then you can get dressed and see the rest of the compound. Anything after that is your choice.”

I closed my eyes so I could think it over without Iason’s face hanging so close in front of me. It didn’t work. I could still see him. His hand on my cock didn’t help things, either. Or maybe it helped too much.

“Okay,” I said, finally.

“Wonderful,” he said. “First, we make love. Then, a survey of the grounds and perhaps a quick ride, and then—”

“My choice, remember?”

“Of course,” Iason said. “But I would be remiss in my duties as your guide and host if I didn’t offer my most sincere recommendations.”