This was a short story request by one of my readers. He wanted a short story to accompany the male version of the picture "A Good Bedroll" by the artist InCase. While I am a bisexual writer and I have written gay scenes before, this is my very first fully gay male story. I quite enjoyed writing this sappy tale. I hope you enjoy reading it.
*****
"You are a stubborn man Jacob." He says to me.
I lick my gritty teeth clean and spit the road dust from my mouth. The late day sun sent shallowly slanted beams of yellowish light through the wooded surroundings and across the path in front of me.
"We've still got a trail. It's gotta lead somewhere." I grunt.
"If you say so." I can hear his amusement at my obstinate refusal to quit. "Oh look, there's that old oak again...for the fifth time."
I take three more steps before coming to a stop. I bring my hands to hold my sword belt and look around the small clearing. "Fuck!" He was right. Despite the fact we had been walking in a straight line for nearly an hour we were back in the same spot once more.
"I told you we needed to be further North to avoid the Witches Wood." He says. "We're here until the next moonless night now. You humans are so impatient."
I let out a long frustrated breath and rub my dry eyes. He was right, as usual.
Antony, the name he used when not among his own people, was an Elf and my long time partner in both deeds of heroism as well as our more nefarious activities. We complimented each other well, both in ability as well as personality and temperament. Antony was fast and agile. A skilled fencer and a peerless burglar whom I met in a shared jail cell three years ago. I knew a smattering of the thiefly arts as well, though my main talent was in combat. As we traveled our party would grow and shrink. Sometimes we'd bring on board a wizard or holy warrior, but in the end it would always end up with just Antony and I alone and on the road once more.
He was my best friend. My best friend...and so much more.
I hear him walk off of the path and toss his pack to the ground. "This is a fools errand anyway. I still don't understand why we're even doing this. This whole thing is stupid, and more than a little insulting. You're hurting me with this nonsense, you know that right?"
Those last words make me wince. I truly didn't want to hurt him, that was the last thing I wanted, but it couldn't be helped. I stand collecting my thoughts before I finally turn to look at my closest companion.
Antony had short but voluminous silver hair, a rarity for his race who favored long flowing locks, and stunning amber eyes that almost seemed to glow. Those damned eyes! His long pointed ears stuck out the sides of his head, a series of hoop piercings line the bottom of them. He stood a foot shorter than me and was much more slender. His lack of armor emphasizing our difference in size and bulk all the more. He wore a billowy white cotton shirt and skin tight black breeches, which highlight the prodigious bulge he was oh so proud of, as well as calf high black leather boots. A loose belt hung with various pouches and pockets around his narrow midsection, a long elegant sword swayed from it along his right side. His slender hands ended with long black painted nails. He was lean and willowy, as was normal for his kind, but he was not soft. He carried muscle on that thin frame of his.
His face...was lovely. Smooth, flawless, and perpetually young. It was so easy to forget he was older than my grandfather. He was a stunningly beautiful man. By human standards he could pass himself off as a woman with the right clothes and makeup, a fact we had used a few times during some of our more creative schemes.
He looks at me with those eyes that tormented me so. "You're being a real asshole big guy." He says. "You hungry?"
I shake my head despite my large grumbling stomach.
I was everything Antony was not. I was thick of limb with a huge barrel chest and a belly to match. Not that I was fat, I was just...big. My shoulder length hair was a common mud brown, my eyes a rich hazelnut. My heavy set features, while symmetrical and handsome in their own way, were more brutish than beautiful. My large hands were broad and fleshy and my wide feet were a challenge to find boots for. My legs were a touch too short and my arms a touch too long. I knew his elegant body was hairless below his head where as I had a healthy layer of fur over most of me.
I sigh and run a calloused hand over my wide rugged face. I feel the stiff stubble of two days growth run across my palm.
Antony looks around through the undergrowth. "From what I know of the area we should be safe enough. Maybe some goblins, but nothing we can't handle." He crouches down and pulls a waterskin from his pack. He takes a long pull from it as I watch his soft pink lips suckle at the spout.
I close my eyes and calm my chaotic thoughts.
"It'll be weeks until the new moon." He says. "But we saw that stream a bit ago, and there is good forage here. We'll be fine Jacob. From the tales I've heard we could come out of here in any direction, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
I look up to the sky and watch the canopy of leaves sway gently back and forth against the warm dry breeze. Weeks with Antony...alone and isolated...this was exactly what I did not need right now.
"You know what? I'm glad we hit the cursed wood. This whole thing is ridiculous." He continues. His voice is soft and lilting, but there was an edge of anger to it. "I don't understand what you think this will accomplish."
My shoulders slump. I slip out of my own pack and walk over to set it on the soft carpet of cushiony grass a few feet from his. "I already explained it."
He looks up at me and I see nothing but warmth in his eyes. "Jacob...I want it and I think you want it." He settles down to his knees and lays his hands over his thighs. "I don't understand why you're fighting this."
"I told you!" I snap.
He sits and watches me. The bird song of the forest and the soft summer breeze through the leaves the only sounds as we both wrestle with our emotions.
"I can't help being an Elf Jacob. And I can't help that I love you. No magic can change that."
I shake my head and clench my fist. "You're wrong. The waters of the Allfather's spring can fix any affliction. Body, mind, or soul. The priests there...they can stop this. They can...they can break our...bond." I look at my beloved friend. "I won't let you throw away your immortality for me. I'm...I'm not worth it."
Antony gives me a sad smile. "Our love isn't an affliction Jacob. It's a blessing. I'm not immortal and, to me, you are worth it. You can be an idiot sometimes, but I love you Jacob."
"Stop saying that. Please." I plead with him, it was like a fresh razor's slash across my already wounded heart every time he said those words.
