A First Time For Everything

His eyes wide, Veranon gaped at his brother's audacity. "This is my house! 'Tis you who should leave! The guest habist is for your use."

Thal sat up and stretched his long, muscular arms and torso. His body was hard, chiseled, etched with black tattoos and minimal hair that was concentrated around his thick cock. Veranon couldn't help but stare longingly, achingly at his brother's body. Absently, Thal scratched at the shallow cuts on his back with his slender fingers and muttered, "That bed is hard. This one is soft. Better for fucking."

"I... I had an experience with-with a maiden recently. It was bad. She made me touch her between her legs," Veranon confessed suddenly, unexpectedly. Thalizar gaped at him for a moment before rolling his eyes. "It was wet, smelled...odd. I couldn't get myself erect. She laughed at me, Thalizar. She laughed at me and said if I didn't get my cock up I would never be a true adult, even with my brands."

Thal fell back against the pillows with an irritated groan. "The point, Veranon! Get to the point!"

Flushing, Veranon fidgeted with his long, red-gold hair and said, "I, uh, think you may be correct about my, ah, sexuality. But I don't know how to know for certain without-without, um..."

"'Um?' Um-um what? 'Um-getting fucked by someone?'" Thal snapped in a mocking voice.

Veranon considered his reply carefully. He wanted Thalizar to be the one but he didn't know how to ask. The older elf was tricky, dangerous and just suggesting something like this could invite scorn or cruel laughter. "I... was thinking about it. Rennick seems interested in me... I thought, maybe, he might..."

The hand that grabbed Veranon's wrist was faster than the speed of a striking snake. It hurt. "Rennick wants to beat you senseless before he rapes your ass bloody, Veranon. That's his style of sex. If you think of going to him, he might kill you and I will not allow that to happen. Do you hear me?" Thalizar hissed through clenched teeth.

"You're hurting me..." Veranon gasped.

"This is nothing compared to the pain you'd be in if Rennick takes you. I like brutal sex, I enjoy being taken after a hard-won fight. It's a game that is not a game and it hurts and you bleed. You're phobic of both blood and pain. His way, my way, is not for you."

His wrist freed of Thalizar's strong grasp, Veranon said, "Then who would you suggest?"

Thalizar grunted and rolled over onto his stomach. "Nobody," he muttered crossly. "Heal my back, would you? The damn things itch and I want clean flesh when Rennick returns for the next round."

Biting his lip, the younger elf crawled onto the bed and looked down at Thal's naked back and buttocks, knotted with muscle and tattooed black against the pale skin. Thalizar's hair had begun to clot into the myriad cuts and bites on his body. He reached out and traced the wounds with his slender fingers, sealing them as they sent his weak healing magic into Thal's prone body. Veranon sighed with pleasure as the magic radiated from his fingers and was replaced by a heady euphoria that left him dizzy.

His cock was soon hard.

"I...I cannot experience this... Awakening... Alone, you know. I don't know who I am. I don't know if I am really attracted to men or if, somehow, I am attracted to... Nothing? I need to know! So, fine, Rennick is out of the question. Who, then? It's not as if I belong to anyone save myself. Whoever I lie with should be respectful and discreet. If it goes badly, I don't want to become the joke of the clan." By this point, the healing was done and Veranon was massaging Thal's shoulders and back absently, his hands gently kneading their way slowly down to his ass and back up to his shoulders. Thal moaned as he fought to stay awake under Veranon's ministrations. His massages were magic in their own right.

The older elf propped himself up on his elbow and peered through the curtain of his black mane at Veranon. He frowned. "You're serious about this...! What brought this whole thing on...? The girl you tried to fuck?"

Shrugging, Veranon pushed his brother back down against the plush mattress. "I'm an adult now. I have my brands. My hand should not be my only lover."

That sent Thalizar into a fit of laughter. "So you do know how to masturbate! There was a running bet among several of the elves in Valensoril's clan about your ability to please yourself. I am happy to say I've won."

"You didn't answer my question, fuck-head!" Veranon snapped. Indignant, the younger Krae drew his hand back and popped his older brother on the back of the head. Anyone else would have found himself sailing across the room but the assassin brushed it off with rare humor. Laughing, Thal rolled over onto his freshly healed back and slid his arms behind his head.

"Brother-mine, none of our clan will respect your privacy. You will be the butt of jokes, whispers behind cupped hands and before you knew it, your performance would be the newest gossip on every mouth. Why do you think I left? The fools gossip like washer-women with nothing to do!"

"Then who, gods damn it, is going to do it? I need this! I need to know where I stand!" Veranon cried as he grabbed Thal's wrists and held them tightly in his hands. Their faces were close, Thal's breath hot against his skin.

"You're trying to make me offer myself to you, aren't you? Because of what I told Rennick? I said that to protect you, you fool. Because we are brothers. No other reason." The words stung. Veranon dropped Thal's hands and pushed himself away, his head and his heart whirling. How had he misread what he thought were clear empathic signals?

"I-I see. Fine. I... I'm going to-to walk, right? Walk... I need air. I cannot breathe in here!" Staggering, Veranon found the window and launched himself through it as Thal rose from the bed, a bland expression on his face. He would have given himself to Veranon if he'd asked him to but the younger elf used women's tactics to get what he wanted and Thalizar did not play that game. It was shallow and indirect, Valensoril's effect on him after hours of useless training to strengthen Veranon's weak healing gift. It always had to be Valen's idea to stop the lessons so Veranon employed little psychological tricks to make his father think he needed a break.

The same tricks always failed on Thalizar, however. Veranon knew this yet his habits were ingrained. It was part of the reason his visits were often short but just long enough to ensure that Veranon was well and happy. He cared for his brother, perhaps more than he thought was healthy. If Veranon ever found out... The boy latched onto people like a leech, drawing the life out of them slowly. It was a fate Thal did not wish to face, especially since loving him would eventually hurt Veranon.

He sighed and looked out the window, feeling the cool breeze through his hair and listened to the sound of the night creatures all around Veranon's modest, yet wonderful, little home. The habist was away from most of the others, pleasantly isolated for a sense of privacy for Veranon's empathic peace of mind. It was as Veranon desired and it was perfect for him. Looking down, Thal saw three leather-bound books lying in the mossy earth at the base of the habist's wall. He climbed out through the window and gathered the boring tomes into his arms, wondering briefly why they were lying under the window before assuming that Veranon had been holding them while he was spying on Thalizar and Rennick. He decided to salvage them before opportunistic creatures helped themselves to the fine paper within the leather bindings.

As he pushed them through the window and started to follow them inside, he felt fear stab him through the gut like a cold knife. The sensation caused him to double over for a moment. Was Veranon projecting emotions? Someone certainly was and it felt nothing like Alainala's mind. It had to be Veranon! But why? He had left only moments ago. Then Thal thought about Rennick's mindset when he departed and how he might possibly return, eager for blood and hard sex. The thought sent a tremor of fear down Thal's spine. Rennick was jealous and angry. If he got his hands on Veranon...

The tall elf did not put his clothes on but bolted out into the forest, his long legs taking him in great strides over the across the forest floor. He could feel Veranon through his empathic bond and followed the undulating waves of terror until Thal found his younger brother, his body bent over a thick, fallen branch, his clothes shredded around him and his hands and ankles bound to one another so that he was helpless, unable to move. He was tightly gagged and Rennick was driving his finger into Veranon's virgin ass while he stroked himself into a hard erection.

The pale-haired forest elf grinned as he put a dab of lubrication, not nearly enough for a virgin male, onto the opening of Veranon's pink, puckered hole. The young elf was weeping, trying to struggle but losing against exhaustion. "Ah, you found us! He swore you would come for him. I had my doubts since you only care about yourself, Thalizar. But maybe we can do it together, hm? Give him the experience of a lifetime? I call first fuck, though...!" Rennick prepared to drive into his helpless victim but Thalizar stepped in and struck the would-be rapist hard across the face, snapping his head back and sending him sprawling.

Thalizar started to attack again but something about Veranon's head struck him as... Wrong. His hair, a brilliant golden, waist-long waterfall of sunset-reds was one of his many vanities, and his most prized. He was always doing crazy things with it, coloring it and fashioning it in different ways. Now it lay in hacked ruin, entire locks of it ripped from his oozing scalp and draped across Rennick's shoulders. The rest clung to Veranon's head in broken, blood-matted tangles or lay in glimmering strands upon the ground beneath him. Even in the moonlight, Thal could make out the bright color.

If fear had brought him to this place, rage barely kept in check prevented him from killing Rennic on the spot. A quick kill would have been too kind; Thalizar wanted him to suffer. This was his little brother. Annoying at times, perhaps, but beloved nonetheless. Nobody hurt his baby brother.

Naked, unarmed, but boiling with so much anger he tasted it in his mouth, the froth of a pending storm within him. Rennick looked down at his knife, which was lying, covered in Veranon's blood on the ground. Thalizar saw it as well and lifted his lip in a snarl.

"Did you not hear me when I said that he is mine? I claimed him! You're taking what is mine, by rights, my flesh and blood as he is my brother. I told you that I would kill you if you tried anything..." Thal growled hotly as he stood over Rennick, who was wiping his bloody nose with the back of his hand.

The peace didn't last long. Rennick lunged fast and hard at his assailant, who grabbed him, used his momentum to flip him on his back. Thal then dropped to the ground, pressed his knee into the elf's sternum and bent his arm until the stocky elf beneath him was screaming in agony. Thal might have killed him. He wanted to kill him. But this was Alainala's clan and he owed it to the peaceful mother of his brother not to kill unless ordered to. He satisfied himself by snapping the elf's arm over his leg like it was a twig, his adrenaline adding unexpected strength.

Rennick's sobbing shrieks for help soon brought others to the small clearing. They spotted Veranon first and then saw Thal with Rennick gasping and choking on blood and snot and tears as he begged for mercy, over and over until his voice was harsh. He looked far worse than he was but he would live. For now. Outside of the clan, Thal decided the elf was wasted meat, a free kill that he would take for himself. He may not always appreciate Veranon's emotional ways but nobody caused harm to his brother, much less raped him.

The other elves quickly had the quietly weeping, injured victim unbound while another peeled away his torn, bloody clothing away from from his body. Veranon whimpered with each piece of fabric removed and clung to his rescuers as Thalizar watched. Part of him laughed at his younger sibling's weakness while the other wanted to drive a blade across Rennick's throat.

Alainala, roused from her bed garbed in gossamer silks and looking as fresh as dawn, arrived with a maiden carrying her long hair, her hands clasped before her. She noted her son, who was now wrapped in a blanket, his face red and tear-streaked, shivering but quiet as someone held him tightly. Her lips were tight, eyebrows drawn and her anger was held carefully in check. Thalizar was still kneeling on Rennick's chest, refusing to allow him even a glimmer of freedom. "Rise, Thalizar Krae, that I may look into Rennick's eyes," she ordered softly. Thal rose after a momentary hesitation and stepped aside warily. He was not unscathed, his nose bloody and his upper lip fat where Rennick's impact had crushed it against his teeth. Someone offered him a cloth, which he refused.

The serene clan mistress touched her fingers to Thalizar's lips and face before kissing his cheek softly. "Thank you, my son. Thank you." She then turned her serene gaze down upon Rennick's prone body. Her expression grew hard, dark, bitter. There is a saying among the clans that within Alainala Sevinnia, there lies a warrior as fierce as any sell-sword and power as dark as the most terrifying dungeon. Rennick realized he was in danger as the tall elf-woman ordered him hauled to his feet.

Thal jumped in and helped jerk him brutally into a standing position. "You can speak, yes? Of course you can... We heard you begging for mercy all the way at my own habist. We waited once I determined Thalizar had you contained... He is frightening, is he not? Believe me when I say that when I am done with you, you will beg for the mercy of Thalizar's killing blades. I am far more terrifying."

Rennick bobbed his head several times as tears flooded his eyes anew. "Don't let him kill me! Please!"

"Kill you, child?" Alainala laughed humorlessly. "Oh no... You deserve a much different punishment. You attacked my son. MY son! My heir and my flesh and blood. This was a week of celebration for him and yet you decided to make it into a nightmare. I want to know why! I demand an answer!"

"Revenge...my lady!" Rennick gasped as the elf-woman slid her delicate fingers under his chin, forcing his eyes on hers.

"For what?"

"Thalizar...! He-he acted like Veranon was his! I was mad. Jealous. I saw Veranon and I felt... I don't know. I just needed to do something about it. I've always wanted him but this time I snapped. I took him-"

"TRIED to take him!" Thalizar interjected. "I stopped him before he could rip Veranon's ass open. I knew he was capable of it but that he would cross me after my warning... Death is too good for this piece of shit. Humans do this to one another, not our kind."

Alainala nodded slowly, her eyes locked on the would-be rapist's face. "I agree with Thalizar... You do not deserve the peace death would offer. But you must be punished accordingly... An eye for an eye would suggest that you suffer as my kitling did but I am not so cruel as that. However, I do think you should feel what it is like to be raped. You see, I have touched many, many minds and healed the terrors felt by victims such as my son's- and far worse. A mind-healer gets no reprieve from these but must continue to hold them locked deep inside until someone does something horrific enough to deserve becoming a kind of repository for all the pain of so many minds I have healed. I have never found a worthy enough candidate...

"Until you."

Rennick tried to flee but Thalizar and the other elf held him tight. Thal even kicked his legs out from under him enough to upset his balance. "Please! No! NO! I beg you! Please, spare me!" he shrieked in terror as the serene elf-lady touched her fingers to his chin. Alainala ignored his cries as she fixed her gaze onto his, sent her mind deep into his. Within it, she planted the rape memories complete with the fears, the terrors and the madness of all the victims she'd ever healed. There were many, most of them victims of humans but none of them, until tonight, from her own clan. It was a brutal, and just, punishment.

When she was done, she sagged against her helpers and raised her eyes to look at her son. Veranon seemed so small, so vulnerable as he pressed himself against the elf who was holding him to his feet. "Kitling..." She walked to him on swaying legs, her fingers outstretched to touch his face lightly. With that tender caress went away his terror, his sense of defenselessness- and his guilt. "Guilt, my love? But why? This was not your fault! Never, ever blame yourself."

"Thalizar warned me..." he murmured softly as she gathered him into her arms. "He warned me. I didn't listen. I was embarrassed, hurt by things he said and my assumptions... I shouldn't have left."

"No, Veranon. Rennick should not have attacked you. He had no right. But now he will never hurt anyone again. Will you, Rennick?"

The elf stared back at her with wide eyes full of fear and horror of all the memories and experiences of victims healed in times past. "There is one more memory you must have... Veranon's. His will affect you especially powerfully, I think, as his memories involve yourself. The perfect solution... The rapist seeing himself on the verge of being raped by himself. I could tweak that memory to complete the act in your mind, but I won't. The greatest fear comes in the moments before." After she said those words, Alainala gave him the memories that had terrified Veranon most.

She smiled cruelly and murmured, "I told you that I am far more terrifying than Thalizar. Now you know why those who manipulate the mind are the most feared magic-users among us."

Alainala backed away as if she'd touched something foul. Rennick stared at her in raw terror. "You are to be branded on your face as an exile, no longer welcome in the Earth Walker clan, after your injuries have healed, mostly. Until the day you are gone, you are to maintain your distance from my son. If you so much as try to apologize, I will pay Thalizar an assassin's bounty to strike you down! Are we understood?" Rennick nodded slowly as Thal smiled, his bloody teeth and mouth lending him an especially deadly visage.

He sagged to the ground, where Thalizar and the other elf let him go. "I broke his arm, Clan Mistress," Thalizar admitted with a smile. "And his breastbone. Maybe some ribs..."

"An accident while trying to subdue him, I assume?" she asked with a slight grin.

Thal shook his head. "Oh no. The breastbone and ribs maybe but I enjoyed breaking that bastard's arm. I wanted to kill him. He's lucky."

She hugged him tightly. "Bad boy, Thalizar. I'm so proud of you." After pulling away with moist eyes, Alainala touched his nose with her finger. "I will fetch a healer for him to mend the broken bones. Sadly, our only healer at the moment is Veranon and it will take some days for us to retrieve one for Valen's clan. I do not think my son is in the mood to bind his injuries. I will do it myself... Later. After I get some rest. I am so...tired..." She yawned and patted Thal's high cheek with her fingers. "Take care of my son. See him to his bed, would you? Be gentle."

"Rennick is from Valensoril's clan... Perhaps we could return him to them, branded? I am certain you would find plenty of willing escorts. If you want him to make it one piece, however, I do not suggest sending me... He might have an unfortunate accident," Thal suggested with a lethal grin.

That made Alainala smile as she hugged him again. Then she sagged in Thalizar's arms as a wave of exhaustion threatened to take her off her feet. Veranon rushed to her side and she held her son tightly in her arms one last time before indicating to her assistants that she was ready to return to her habist. "I like it. Tavris, Atarin, escort Rennick to a guest habist and after breaking your fasts, escort him to Valinsoril's clan. Thalizar, take good care of my son, be close to him and be gentle. Be an older brother. Be anything he needs you to be. And thank you. I will reward you appropriately."