Dungeons and Dragons universe

Thank you to Nettie Roe for creating this universe in her fic The Magnificent Quest.

ONE

It had been Vin's idea to accompany Chris, even though the warrior was glad for his company. With summer waning, it had been his plan to spend the day felling the dead growth in the forest around his dwelling, later to divide it into logs that would provide warmth for the coming winter.

Chris knew the woodlands, but the halfling elf almost seemed to blend with them as he scurried on ahead, his sharp eyes picking out the death-grey bark of both old and once-mighty trees and saplings that had barely taken root, conquered all by frost, lightning, bores and blight. Some were a sad sight to see, but even in death they would server to continue the cycle of life with the heat they would provide.

They had labored arduously, and the sun was well past its zenith. The late summer air was damp and sticky and both men were covered with the grime and sweat of their toil. Vin was still filled with the seemingly boundless energy of his youth and his elfin blood, but Chris had decided the next tree would be the last for the day. As if to mock him, the one Vin selected was a sturdy oak that together would take them until dusk to bring down.

The half elf looked upwards as his friend used a paint of ash and clay to mark the tree as his, lest it be scavenged by those with a similar purpose. High in the bare branches, he spotted a nest, probably long abandoned. Still, it was not his way to destroy it needlessly. Wordlessly, he pointed upward and Chris followed his finger.

"You think there's anything in it?" Chris asked, looking at him instead of the nest. Chris was always looking at him, which amused Vin, because he knew that Chris didn't know he'd noticed.

"I'd best make sure," he said, and grabbed a lower branch to swing himself up.

Chris caught him around the waist and stopped him and for just a brief moment, Vin was angry, but it didn't last long. He didn't like it that Chris had stopped him from going up into the tree, but the warrior's touch, his strong arms encircling his waist, was somehow . . . well, he wasn't sure what he felt, but it wasn't anger.

Chris was determined to stop Vin. The nest was dangerously high, and although Vin was slight of frame, Chris didn't trust the tree's dry, dead limbs to support even his weight.

"No you don't," he admonished sternly. "If there are animals in that nest, they will come down with the tree." He laughed, but Vin failed to see the humor in his remark.

Vin felt a twinge of disappointment that Chris would be so uncaring, but he reminded himself that the man was a warrior. A soft heart didn't serve his calling. Still, he said, "It ain't right to destroy their home."

The look of sadness in Vin's blue eyes that told Chris he wouldn't yield. "We'll find another tree, then," he said, gently touching Vin's shoulder.

Then he made the mistake of turning his back, and in one elegantly graceful move, Vin was suddenly above him, his smile as enchanting as the blue eyes that now twinkled with mischief. "Catch me if you can," he laughed.

To even try would be futile. Vin was in his element, and was much too fast. His slender body slipped easily between the branches. "Be careful!" Chris called to him.

He began to search the area to decide the best direction for dropping the tree when he noticed danger; a patch of dark purple death blossoms, their cup-like flowers brimming with nectar. Their name was not entirely exaggeration. They did not kill unless they were eaten, and in a quantity that their vile taste made unlikely, but the nectar had a numbing effect on the system, and contact with skin or hide quickly rendered both man and beast unconscious, and there was no known antidote save to thoroughly remove the offending substance. It was best that he and Vin keep their distance.

He looked skyward. Vin had almost reached the nest. Chris watched with an ache in his heart that had grown all too familiar, a longing that he feared more than any enemy, mortal or mythic, that he had ever faced.

The tracker's lean, muscular limbs moved with the fluid grace of quicksilver. The jerkin he wore was without sleeves, so his arms were bare. Doeskin breeches hugged the strong, slender thighs and the firm backside. Curls the color of rosewood cascaded down his back and fell forward to partially obscure his boyish features.

He did not know how old Vin was, and that, combined with the fear of his own instincts, had kept him from acting on the impulses that the sight of him stirred within his loins. He had no aversion to the idea of one man with another, but that did not mean Vin felt the same way, if, in fact, Vin had any experience at all with such concerns. Chris suspected it would be foolish to assume he didn't. Vin was half human, after all, and he'd seen him unclothed and knew that though he was young, he was in every way a man.

He savored moments such as this when he was able to watch Vin without the half-elf knowing he was doing it. They never lasted long enough.

Vin glanced down and saw Chris quickly turn his eyes away. The warrior had been watching him, again. The halfling was accustomed to being stared at. His most vague and distant memories included those of curious stares. While most humans regarded elves kindly, others could not make peace with the evidence that he was the product of a mixed mating, so the attention had been both kind and cruel. He'd long ago accepted it as a nuisance he would always live with, but something in the way Chris looked at him didn't make him feel awkward or strange or odd. It made him feel . . . much like the way he'd felt many turns past, when his mother would look at him and tell him how beautiful he was. He would pretend he didn't like her saying that to him, but, really, he had.

He reached the nest and peered cautiously, not wishing to incur the wrath of a mother bird or other frightened animal. "Looks like it's abandoned," he announced when he found it empty and untended.

"Come on down then and let's be done with this." Chris was ready for good meal and an a chance to rest his weary bones.

Vin was about to comply when a buzzing sound filled his ears. He thought it a mere annoyance at first, until he felt himself being pelted with tiny winged bodies. It was then he noticed the honeycombed nest tucked in the crotch of a nearby branch. Pits!!! Wasps!!

By the time he reacted, which was almost instantly, he'd been stung three times.

Chris watched as Vin, showing no sign of fatigue, began his descent, swinging down from branch to branch like a timber cat with its tail afire. Bysha, he was showing off!

"Vin, be care..." but he never finished the words. A branch grabbed without due care snapped and Vin fell several feet, his descent broken only by a second branch that yielded under his weight until he began to slide down its length. By the time he was free of it, he was close enough to the ground to escape serious injury, but that brought Chris small comfort when he saw the tracker land squarely in the patch of death blossoms.

"Pits!" he exclaimed as he hurried towards him.

Vin landed face-down with a soft thud, but quickly attempted to get to his feet, embarrassed that his arboreal acrobatics had had this unexpected result. He wasn't hurt by the fall, he didn't think, but it was hard to tell since by then he'd been stung so many times that his body was quickly becoming a flare of unfocused pain.

When he tried to stand, though, he was dimly aware of two things, the first being that the burning from the wasp stings was rapidly fading, the second being that he was standing in a patch of death blossoms. He felt his entire body going numb, and when he tried to speak, he was unable to do more than grunt.

Chris dared to hope for a moment that somehow, the halfling hadn't come into contact with any of the flowers, but that hope evaporated as Vin swayed on his feet as if stricken a blow, and then dropped back into the plants like a broken doll.

Chris had to resist the urge to run to him, knowing that he could easily end up in a similar state. Were that to happen, the two of them could possibly remain in that same spot, sleeping until lack of water and food claimed them. It was not a horrible death, but one he did not wish for nonetheless.

He reached into the pack he always carried when in the forest. His leather boots and leggins would protect him for a time, as the nectar would not immediately soak through. He had leather gloves for wielding his axe and a leather tunic in case the weather turned foul. He donned them so that he was covered in leather from neck to toe. He found Vin's pack and removed the tracker's woolen cloak.

Quickly and carefully, he made his way to his friend. He tossed the cloak over Vin's body and then lifted him without the luxury of care or caution. Once he had him away from the noxious plants, he was able to hold him more securely, but time was of the essence. He could see trails of nectar on Vin's arms, hands, face and exposed chest, and knew it was on both Vin's clothing and his own.

With strength borne of fear, he raced for home.

TWO

Chris bypassed his small hut and went directly to the stream that ran nearby. He set his burden down upon the bank near a small cascade where the water pounded into a natural indentation in the stream bed. The churning of the water there would wash the poison from their clothing while the hollow prevented it from being swept downstream.

He quickly removed Vin's outer garments, jerkin, leggins, boots... then he peeled off his own save for his gloves. With covered hands, he dragged the unconscious half-elf into the stream bed. The water was cold, but Vin offered no protest as all but his face was immersed in it.

Using his gloved hands, Chris began to scrub the nectar from the tracker's body and for the first time noticed numerous scratches and scrapes he'd collected in his fall through the branches of the tree. In several places, round welts were appearing. A wasp he found in Vin's hair explained those. A soothing unguent Nettie had prepared for such minor injuries would do the trick for everything, but Chris worried that the poison had entered Vin's blood via the damaged skin. He didn't know if that would intensify its effect, so he worked on those areas first, being as gentle as he could.

Eventually, he was satisfied that he'd done a thorough job and he lifted Vin from the water to carry him to his hut. He'd return for their clothes later.

Once home, he laid Vin on his bed. His thin undergarment was soaking wet, so he removed it, leaving the tracker completely nude.

Fire crept into his loins at the sight. Vin was beautiful, with his perfectly sculpted chest and sinewy limbs. The small triangle of hair where his legs met wasn't coarse as it was with most men, but straight and smooth as corn silk. Admittedly, he looked much like any other man, so why had other men never excited him in this way? He longed to touch those nether parts of Vin, to run his fingers through that fine, soft thatch of hair. He wanted to caress him and watch him grow rigid with desire.

He shook his head to clear those thoughts away, knowing it was not right to take advantage of the tracker's condition. He thought perhaps he should summon Nathan, but Vin appeared only to be asleep. His breathing was easy and his color was normal. His skin was cool from the water, but the stream had not been dangerously cold.

Deciding he could tend to Vin without the healer's aid, he found Nettie's soothing unguent, rich with the aromatic scent of the cocoa plant from which it was made, and sat on the bed drawing Vin's head into his lap.

He began to work the ointment over the bruises and scrapes, and though he tried, he was unable to help but be aroused by the sensation of Vin's smooth skin and firm muscles sliding beneath his fingers. His heart raced and his breath quickened, and he had to adjust his position to allow more room for the expanding evidence of his passion.

He worked his way down Vin's chest, to his flat belly, and let his fingertips brush against the fine hair below.

Vin felt his senses returning. Unlike a blow to the skull, the unconscious state caused by the death blossoms left no ill effects, and he remembered clearly falling from the tree and into the flowers, although now he had no idea where he was or how he had gotten there.

He was also aware that he was being held, that someone was ministering to his bumps and scrapes, which he knew were not serious.

He cracked an eye open just far enough to see that it was Chris whose long, strong fingers caressed his chest and stomach. A tingly warmth spread through him, and he didn't think it was the fragrant ointment Chris was using. Ripples of pleasure washed over him as Chris's hands slid across his bare skin, and intensified as Chris directed his attention to the area between his legs. He didn't completely understand what Chris was doing, and he'd never been touched by another man, down there, so it scared him a little, but he was disappointed when Chris moved his hand back up to his belly.

He reached for Chris's exploring fingers and looked up at his friend.

Chris felt blood rush to his cheeks and quickly turned away. He knew he should apologize for having touched Vin like he had, but that would make the situation awkward. Besides, he wasn't embarrassed about wanting Vin. He just wished he could let him know how enticing he was.

Vin looked down at his naked body and frowned in confusion "What... where are my clothes?"

Chris explained what had happened to them. "How do you feel?"

Vin considered the question, then replied, "Like I've had a long nap. How long was I out?"

"Less than a candlemark," Chris said, and then moved to pull his hand away from him completely.

Vin held it where it was. "It feels good when you touch me, Chris" he said softly, unable to look Chris in the eye for fear that he had misread the other man's intentions, even though he was sure he hadn't.

He knows Chris thought. Why hadn't he expected it? Of course Vin had noticed the way he looked at him, the way he watched him. How could he have been stupid enough to think otherwise? The half-elf was the most observant person he had ever met. It was the reason he was so good at what he did. It had been folly to think he'd kept his attraction to the young man hidden.

Chris swallowed hard, chagrined that he'd been so easy to read, yet at the same time relieved and excited that Vin was open to his ministrations. "You got some scratches on you when you fell," he explained, and dipped his fingers into more of the unguent. He continued to rub a small circle on Vin's lower belly, even though there were no scratches there.

Vin sighed and arched slightly. Bysha, this felt so good! His male parts began to fill and ache and the urge to touch himself was powerful, but he didn't want his own hand. He wanted Chris to touch him, and he closed his fingers over Chris's hand and coaxed it downward.

Chris looked down at the tracker. Vin's eyes were closed, but even so, the expression on his face could not be mistaken for anything but desire. He dipped his hand into the balm once again, this time massaging lower, until he was working the insides of Vin's thighs and the area around that patch of soft, dark hair. He watched Vin harden and felt his own body respond in kind.

Vin's head rested on his thigh, and with his free hand, Chris reached down and pushed damp, brown curls behind one of Vin's elfin ears. He lingered there a moment, caressing the warm, pointed tip, then tracing his finger down the gentle curve to the lobe. How he had wanted for so long to touch those ears . . . so delicate and yet so feral. On impulse, he bent forward and placed a small kiss near the small gold earring Vin wore high on his left ear, briefly running his tongue over the pale, satiny skin.

Vin moaned with pleasure, which in turn intensified Chris's longing. His oiled hand moved back up to Vin's lower belly and then gradually slid downward again, until it encircled that part of Vin that Chris almost dared not touch. Vin had already stiffened, but grew even harder as he gently fondled him.

Vin thrust slowly into his grasp, savoring the warmth that encircled him, the pressure of Chris's calloused hand on his most delicate flesh. The craving to join with another was not unfamiliar to him, but it was not something he indulged in often. He was not given to revealing himself so intimately, and had done so only on rare occasions when the need was strong and the opportunity had presented itself.

And he might never have contemplated such an act with Chris had it not been for the way the warrior looked at him. There was lust in that look, to be sure, but Vin had seen lust and even experienced it himself a time or two, and there was something more in Chris's eyes.

Vin remembered what it was like to be loved.

Chris pulled his hand away, and Vin opened his eyes in dismay.

Chris smiled at him as he readjusted their position. "This way . . .," he said, and then reached under Vin's arms and pulled him to a sitting position so that he rested against Chris's chest, between his legs. Vin could feel Chris's hard flesh pressed against his bare back. The sensation flooded him with a renewed excitement, causing a droplet of fluid to seep from him.

Chris noticed the first of Vin's seed, and used it to massage the tip of his swollen member. Vin quivered with arousal and Chris used his other hand to explore the tracker's bare chest, tweaking his nipples into hard little peaks.

Chris leaned forward and kissed the base of his jaw, licking the hollow of his neck. They quickly established a slow, tantalizing tempo, Vin thrusting upward into his hand while Chris alternately pressed himself against the small of his back. Chris would have been content to continue that way to completion, but Vin interrupted the rhythm.

He bent his legs so that his weight was on his knees instead of his backside. This raised him up off of Chris's thighs and created a position where Chris had easy access to the entrance to Vin's body. Still, the invitation was an unspoken one, and Chris had to be sure that was what Vin wanted.

He slipped his hands into the creases on either side of Vin's sac, massaging the sensitive area there, and pressed his mouth to Vin's ear. "You would be one with me, Vin?" he whispered.

Vin's body tensed with anticipation. He felt the muscles in his belly flutter as if preparing for the release that would soon come. He didn't speak, didn't move. He wanted this, but he was not at all sure if he was really ready for it. He had never had another inside of him, and though his opening throbbed with the craving to experience this new sensation, at the same time, he feared being impaled in that fashion.

Chris sensed his apprehension. "Vin, have you ever? . . . Before?"

A slight shake of the head preceded his answer. "Not with a man."

Chris don't know why that specific answer surprised him. Maybe it was because Vin appeared so young. "With a woman, then?"

Vin was slightly rankled by the question. He was well aware of how he looked, that he appeared more frail and innocent than he was. He knew also that elves were often seen by humans as beings of mischief and magic, not carnal passion. He didn't really know any elves, but half of him was human, and he had the same cravings any other man did. Probably the same ones any other male elf did. After all, he had happened somehow, and so had every other elf. So why would Chris think he was completely inexperienced?

But, his voice was gentle when he spoke, "I'm not a child, Chris."

"So you know. . . how these things are done . . . between men?"

Vin nodded. "I know."

"I won't if you don't want me to," Chris assured him, and he was prepared to go no further than the first sign that Vin was in any way uncomfortable.

Vin swallowed. "I ain't afraid," he said, although he was. He could feel Chris's size, and it was considerable. He was sure his body could not accommodate it easily.

"I don't want to hurt you," Chris said, hugging him closer.

Despite his fear, Vin felt a small twinge of panic at the thought that Chris might not continue. He wanted this . . . wanted to feel Chris inside of him as their bodies merged. His own voice surprised him, raspy with the urgency of his need. "I want you," he whispered, then added a softly, ". . . inside me."

The words pushed Chris's desire beyond passion into the realms of fully realized lust. He was hot and throbbing, waves of pleasure that signaled the ecstacy to come spreading through him with a tingling warmth from his heated loins.

He reached for the unguent, its fragrant smell adding to the pleasure intoxicating his senses. He worked the slick balm over his hardness, as he pushed his legs between Vin's so that when he spread them apart, Vin's legs were opened also.

He shifted Vin's hips slightly to position him, and bit down on his lip as he pressed against the entrance to his body. The opening was so small and so tight . . . He wasn't at all sure how he was supposed to breech it other than by brute force, which was out of the question. It was an effort to hold in check the tides of pleasure and wanting that rippled though him, to keep them from cresting before the deed was rightfully done, but he didn't want to hurt Vin.

Vin felt Chris pressing against him, trying to enter him. He didn't want to fight the intrusion, but his body had other ideas, and he didn't think Chris had done this before, either. He was not rough, but the harder Chris pushed, and the more he was stretched, the more it hurt. Chris wasn't even all the way inside when an involuntary moan escaped from Vin.

"What is it, Vin?" he asked, concerned.

"It hurts some," Vin gasped.

Chris felt a twinge of panic. If Vin wanted him to stop, of course he would, but he was so close and he wanted this so badly that his entire body was trembling. "Do you want me to stop?" he asked, although he was not sure he could.

Surprisingly, Vin wanted anything but that. The pain was somehow adding to his pleasure, the added stimulation amplifying the pulsating heat in his shaft and sac. He leaned his head back against Chris's shoulder, eyes closed, and shook his head. "No... do it . . ." He pushed down, urging Chris further inside.

Vin's body ignited as Chris slid further into him. The burning ache at the point of entry spread in all directions, up his spine, down his legs, into his belly, through his sex, but just as it reached the point of being unbearable, it became a fiery ecstacy. A small cry of pure pleasure escaped him when their joining was complete.

Chris knew he could not long endure the rapture of Vin's body engulfing him in its hot, tight bond, as much as he wanted it to last. He was already at the brink of climax.

He held Vin tightly and thrust gently a couple of times. "Can I move inside you?" he asked, not wanting this to hurt Vin any more than it already had.

"Bysha! YES!" Vin gasped. Chris could feel him shaking, only now it was not with fear. He, too, was close to release.

As he began to thrust upward, he reached around Vin's slender waist and began to pleasure him with firm, squeezing strokes as he moved inside of him.

Vin clamped down on Chris's forearms, his entire body tensed with pleasure and pain, until Chris knew that they were both just a few strokes from completion.

He forced himself to stop. Vin squirmed uncomfortably, his breathing raspy with arousal. "No, Chris . . . please . . ." he begged, wrapping his hand around Chris's so that he could stroke himself if necessary.

"Slow," Chris panted. "Make it last . . ."

Vin wanted to cry out. He was more rigid than he could ever remember, more than he would have thought possible, and the pressure of his seed was so intense that he would knew he would spurt long and hard when it finally burst free. The thought that he would also feel Chris's passion explode inside of him was almost unbearably arousing. "I can't . . . wait any longer. . ." he sobbed.

But Chris buried his face in his neck and kissed the smooth skin there and as he did, he moved himself almost all the way out and then buried himself deep again, over and over with the same agonizingly slow tempo. As he did, he gently caressed Vin entire length from base to head and down again, with a touch that was firm, but not stimulating enough to push him over the edge.

Vin was delirious with pleasure and want, moaning softly as he leaned his head back on Chris's shoulder. He could feel the muscles deep in his belly begin to contract, and the tightening in his sac, and he could not hold back his release. His breath was hot at Chris's ear. "I'm there . . ." he gasped.

Chris's own sex was turgid with need and Vin's words were his signal to relinquish his control and let the inevitable happen. He held Vin tightly, and began to thrust into him deep and forcefully as he finished him with his hand.

Vin's body shuddered in his arms and an instant later he emptied himself in powerful and copious spurts.

The wet heat of Vin's ejaculation filled Chris's hand, its warmth spreading like wildfire through him and igniting the explosive rapture as his own fountain burst forth.

They maintained the tight embrace until both of them were sated. As their climax waned, Chris allowed himself to slip free of Vin. He lay back against his pillow and maneuvered the tracker's body so that he lay in the crook of his arm, his head on Chris's shoulder.

Chris kissed the soft, brown curls and once again pushed them gently behind those beautiful ears. He looked into Vin's eyes, wondering what he was thinking. . . and then cursed himself when he saw that the pupils were glassy obsidian disks ringed with pale blue.

Bysha! He was still under the spell of the narcotic nectar!!!

Had the halfling even known what he was doing? Was he going to remember it? Had he unwittingly used this innocent and beautiful creature for his own pleasure?

Vin blinked. "Somethin' wrong, Chris?"

Chris touched a smooth cheek with his thumb. "Nothing. . . are you all right? I didn't hurt you?"

Vin yawned and snuggled closer to him. "It was a good kind of hurt."

What the pits was that supposed to mean? "You're okay, then?"

Vin nodded. He was quiet for a moment and then, without looking at Chris, said, "It's never been this way before."

"What way?"

Vin shrugged. He didn't have the words to explain what he was feeling. He'd experienced the carnal pleasure of coupling with another person, but it had ended with the physical relief that accompanied the act. It had been different with Chris. The sensations of warmth and satisfaction hadn't ended with his climax, and had gone as deep as his soul.

Chris gently rubbed a bony shoulder. He had been in other beds since his beloved Sarah had been taken from him, but not with anyone who had felt so right as the slight, warm body he now held in his arms.

He hoped Vin would not regret their time together when the effects of the nectar had worn off. He felt the tracker relax in his arms and he pulled the bed covers around both of them. As night fell, they slept.

THE END

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