Chapter 3

by pr_squared

- do not use without the author's permission.

Tim, a Mannish male, had never seen an Elf or a Mannish mount, either awake or in his most bone-crunching nightmare. The nannies had told him their frightening tales. His reality was more upsetting. The Elves looked as tiny as children but none could fail to see their authority over their larger, more powerful mounts. Unlike the nannies, who were always covedred head to toe, the mounts had their female parts on naked display. Their mannish faces were distorted by their bits and bridles, they looked something other than mannish.

At once, Tim remembered that he too was naked and exposed. He tried to hide himself among the others. His friends, Bil and Ric, looked equally frightened. How had they come to this place? With all the others in his year, he had presented himself to the Elders. As instructed, he stood naked before them for inspection while Lucinda, the senior of the nannies, whispered in the ear of the senior Elder. What had she said? That he was a bit different? That he was bigger and more awkward than his age mates? That perhaps he was perhaps a bit slower than the rest? He was obedient! He was a hard worker in the gardens and he never caused any trouble.

He found himself directed to the right with Bil and Ric and the majority of his age-mates and finally led here by a party of Elder warriors while those chosen to join the Elders noisily celebrated their good fortune. Here too were manlings his age from neighboring settlements.

Slowly and steadily, the Elves drove the creatures back to Glyn Aerona. Tim, Bil and Ric walked and ran to the limits of their endurance, encouraged by the Elves’ raucous shouts and bitter whips.

The distance between resting places that the Elves had traversed in just 2 hours, now took a full day. The riders and their mounts kept the boys together and moving. Catrin found the work exhausting. She felt as if she had run four times further each day than she had on the way out.

At dusk, the boys were herded into the waiting enclosures. They caught their breaths and tried to find some comfort sitting and lying on the bare ground. Urgently, each sought some elusive remnant of nonexistent privacy. In the end, all urinated and defecated in their pen in full view of the others.

The mounts ate their familiar pellets eagerly. At first, the boys hesitated to eat the alien fare. Some refused to eat at all but in time hunger overcame reluctance and soon all consumed the strange fare. The boys shared a water trough with the mounts. Each looked at the other. The boys searched desperately for any hint of acknowledgement of kinship.

At night, the boys called to the mounts, who lay loosely hobbled just outside the enclosure. They did share a common language, after all, except for long-legged Disgleirio who had been born at a stable close to the capital. The boys’ pleas were loud and pitiful. The mounts

whispered among themselves and found the boys amusing. Their bodies were definitely male. Their male paraphernalia was on public display but their flabby bodies lacked the musculature and ripped definition of the trained and conditioned boys in the stable.

The mounts looked to Tesni for guidance. Tesni was delighted to be their recognized leader and proud to belong to Emyr, the Elven leader. She had only scorn for these yammering male creatures who tried so hard to hide their nakedness and were so ignorant of her special status. She very well understood their pitiful pleas but she wished not to disappoint Emyr. She was his personally owned mount. She had been on many drives and it was always the same. Soon they would return to Glyn Aerona and the boys would disappear, just like last year and the year before.

The Elves ignored these exchanges. They readily accepted that their mannish beasts had a certain limited intelligence. After all, they might be taught their names and could be trained. All acknowledged that men had some ability to communicate with each other like other herd animals. Truthfully, primitive mannish vocalizations lacked the subtlety and complexity of Elven speech. In their deep wisdom and with long familiarity, the Elves simply denied that men had a ‘true’ language.

Eight days finally passed and all hundred boys milled about in an enclosure on the outskirts of Glyn Aerona. They would rest here a few days before continuing their journey.

“Hey, Aderyn, missed you on the trail. Much! Do you see a boy worth your effort?” Cadfael, asked. He cut a dashing figure on his long-legged Disgleiro. The elegant girl showed evidence of the difficult journey. Cadfael’s spurs and crop and marked her magnificent body. A small tear was evident at the corner of her mouth where her bit had cut her. “Breaking a girl is so much easier.” Aderyn, though a young Elfess of 60, was an experienced trainer in her father Meical’s stable.

“I know! Let me look!” Aderynsurveyed the gang of boys in the enclosure. She had extensive experience training girls and geldings. The boys were much larger than the girls she had trained but no bigger than her geldings. She really wanted to prove to everyone and to herself that she could break an intact male.

“Why in the world do you want to,”Cadfael had asked. He could be so stupid sometimes. If only he weren’t so cute, Aderyn asked herself, once again.

“Damn,”Aderyn had answered him with certainty. “I just want to.” She had helped Micael, her father, break the boy they sold to Rheinallt. He was powerful, fast, and a dream to ride if she just kept him away from the girls. Now, she was ready for her own project.

Emyr smiled at their bickering. “Well, which one, Aderyn?”

One beast attracted Aderyn’s eye. She studied him carefully. He seemed almost a head taller and larger than any of the others. His shoulders were broad and his chest was deep, promising endurance. His buttocks were strong and his hips narrow, allowing the stirrups to hang vertically and providing a comfortable seat. She looked at his ample male apparatus, thought of her gallant, Cadfael and his puffed up masculine pride, and smiled. “That one,” she pointed and asked, “How much?”

Emyr searched the bedraggled gang. Lacking the conditioning of the mounts, they had suffered much on the journey to Glyn Aerona. “Which one,” he asked? They all looked so much alike to him.

“The taller one!” she answered, wondering for an instant if Emyr were teasing her.

Tim stood amidst the other boys and tried to hide in plain sight. One by one, pairs of Elves mounted on their mannish girls. Dai and Catrin among them, cut a boy from the gang, lassoed him, and dragged him stumbling from the enclosure. Tim heard curses and shouts but he could not see their fate.

“Hey, Dai! Aderyn called. “I want that one!”

Dai waved his acknowledgement. He was tired but was glad for a challenge. His Catrin was slick with sweat and caked with dirt but always eager.

Breath burning in her chest, Catrin felt Dai take up her reins and found some untapped reservoir of strength. His spurs jabbed her flank and she started forward.

“Which one?” Dai asked. Aderyn pointed out her selection. Dai shook out his lasso and set out after his prey.

Tim felt the Elf’s eyes upon him but found nowhere to flee in the confines of the pen. Desperately, he looked to his friends, Bil and Ric, for help. He tried to keep other boys between him and his pursuer – in vain.