The Greatest Gift

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.

He sighs. "Besides. According to the Allfather our love is forbidden. The priests are just as likely to cast you out as help you. Fuck, we might even have to fight another lynch mob. I'd really rather not have to do that again."

"They'll help us. They have to!" I say in desperation. "No one will hurt us there."

"I'm already hurt! Damn it, just make love to me Jacob. Let me finish the bond. This isn't your decision to make." His voice goes softer. "This is supposed to be a joyous time for us. Damn it...make love to me."

"No." I shake my head angrily. "I won't let you do it!"

"You are a stubborn man Jacob." He says in a pained whispered tone. "A stubborn, stubborn man."

***

The first year with Antony had been the most fun I had ever had in my life. The trouble we'd get into, the close calls, the rollicking death defying adventure...it was wonderful. We fought together, worked together and played together. From delving the deepest dungeons to robbing the most exquisite mansions to getting shit faced in the grungiest dives to debauching in the finest brothels, Antony and I were shoulder to shoulder every step of the way. I had never met anyone I was so completely in tune with before. There was so much laughter that first year.

We fell in love the second year, though I refused to admit it. Our adventures were just as fun but gradually became less wild and impulsive. A close friendship had formed. I cared deeply of my partner's well being, and he mine. The glorious down times spent together became longer and the jobs were less frequent and taken on more for the income than the fun.

This past year we only grew closer. Our relationship began taking on a physical aspect. Touching, hugging, even cuddling. We looked at each other differently, we laughed with each other differently, we would spend many quiet evenings just...being close. Any time apart was painfully insufferable. Our times in the brothels became more and more about seeing each other's bodies than actually being with the whores we were fucking.

We wanted each other so bad, but something held each of us back. There was a period of a few weeks where Antony became distant and aloof. I could tell something was troubling him but I gave him his privacy. And then everything changed.

Last month, after a particularly harrowing battle where for a moment I thought I had lost my best friend, we shared our first kiss...it was only then I realized the mistake I had made. When we parted from that long, tender, magical moment he gazed back into me not with his normal beautiful steel blue eyes, but with a gaze of bright warm amber. The eyes of an Elf who had begun the bond with their true love.

It shook my world.

If the match was right Elves bonded with their intimate partners in a deep and mystical way unseen in the shorter lived races. They "bonded" with their lover's soul with a powerful and unbreakable connection. Once bonded the pair would live together, age together, and die together. Such was the power of the unification. It was usually a joyous time in the life of an Elf. A once in a lifetime event, if it happened at all for them. I was normally a time for celebration and happiness that would culminate in the couple's next sexual union.

Antony, bless him, gave himself to me during that first kiss as a special surprise. He told me after that he knew what he was doing even as he did it. He was shocked by the effect it would have on me.

I knew of the bonding of course and although it was extremely rare I knew it could happen with other races, but I didn't know it could happen between men. I had always assumed it was part of the mating process of his people. The moment hit me like a lightning bolt from the blue. I pushed him away from me and have refused to touch him ever since.

When I saw those eyes it was not with happiness, but with soul wrenching pain. Of course I was delighted to discover he truly loved me, but I never doubted that. The moment I saw it I could see only death for my beloved man in those glowing yellow eyes. Even if I lived to a ripe old age, which was unlikely given my risky profession, I would live maybe seventy more years. Jacob had centuries, even a millennium, in front of him. I was furious at his foolhardy and overly romantic action. What a fool he was! He should have told me! It was madness.

I tried to leave him. I couldn't. I tried to force him away with hurtful words. He saw right through it. I begged him to stop the bonding. He told me that he didn't want to and he couldn't even if he did. He said the decision was one of the heart, not the mind.

It was torture. Being with him and his amber gaze. Knowing what it meant and knowing that he had done that for me. I loved the gods damned fool. I could not let him do this. The guilt was unbearable.

I hired a scholar to investigate only to be told the bonding was a mystery. He told me there were no recorded cases of a bond being severed once begun. To my agony he also confirmed that Human-Elf bonds lasted only as long as the Human's natural lifespan. He told me my only hope was for a miracle, and that for miracles the holy fountain of the Allfather was the only known source.

And so we began our long journey. Every day with Antony was heartbreaking so I tried to make the journey as quick as possible. In my haste I lead us into the wilds in an ill fated attempt at a short cut. I was confident in my ability to avoid the fabled Witches Wood, a confidence that ended up being unfounded.

So here we were. Stuck in the cursed forest until the next moonless night. Just him and I. I pray for strength.

***

It is later that night and we are sitting across from each other around a small campfire. As we eat our meal of dried rations and I pick the bones clean of a squirrel I had shot and cooked I feel the steady gaze of Antony looking at me. I barely look up, not trusting myself against the power of his gaze.

The sky darkens and so do the woods around us. The chirps and cheeps of crickets and katydids fill the late evening air. Ash, smoke and embers float lazily into the starry sky of the open canopy above us.

We are quiet as we sit apart. I yearned to have him in my arms, but I dared not. I stare into the fire as Antony continues looking at me even as he sharpens his sword. I try my best to put him out of my mind though I cannot help but notice how the cute toes of his bare feet wiggle to feel the soft grass beneath them.

"I love you Jacob." He finally breaks the silence between us.

"Stop it."

"You love me. I see it."

"Stop." I look across at him, tears in my rich brown eyes. "It's because I love you that we are doing this."

His smile is...perfect. His glossy lips shine in the firelight. "Even if your plan works it will just happen again. You're the one Jacob. You are my Cuislemochluine." The final word roughly meant 'beloved' or 'soulmate' in his native tongue.

"I won't do this to you. I refuse. After the miracle I'll leave you. You'll never see me again." I angrily wipe the tears from my eyes. "You are a foolish stupid man."

He laughs gently. "Of course I am, I'm in love. Jacob...I've never seen you cry before."

I look away from him and shield my eyes from him. "Shut up."

A silence descends once more as I try to calm myself and pull back the tears.

He then says. "I bought something for our first time. Let me show it to you."

I shake my head. "Stop, there will be no first time. Not as long as your eyes are like that."

He doesn't listen to me. Setting his rapier behind him he stands up. Despite myself I move my hand to look across at him. He meets my gaze and unlaces the collar of his white cotton shirt.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Undressing. I want you to make love to me."

I sigh. I ought to protest, but I instead sit quietly. I interlock my fingers and grip my hands together in white knuckled intensity. My resolve was teetering on a razor's edge. My mind screamed at me to leave him now, but my heart and my libido kept me planted to the spot.

With small smile he pulls the shirt up over his head and tosses it aside. His lean muscled torso is exposed to the warm night air. The flickering fire defining his well shaped pecs and tight abs with light and shadow. The half platinum ring piercing of his left nipple glints in the orange light, I had bought him that piercing. His skin was pale, though not sickly white. His shoulders were narrow and slender but well built. His long elegant arms showed sinewy muscle whenever he moved, but smoothed out when he rested.

"Fuck." I lean forward and look him up and down. "By the gods you are sexy."

"I'm just getting started." He unlaces his breeches. I lick my dry lips. I watch with ever increasing interest as he pulls the laces through the eyes of his fly. Hooking his thumbs into his waist he sways his hips back and forth as he pushes the tight black pants down inch by inch. I watch with naked lust as the pants push down past his large bulge and beyond.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I ask.

He doesn't say a word. We both already knew the answer to that question. His lithe beautiful body continues to undulate back and forth with a fluidity that just came naturally to him. I loved seeing his body any chance I got, and he knew it. He peels the breeches down off of his long shapely legs. As he is bent over he manages to turn in place to show me his lovely ass.

I take in a sudden breath, not realizing I had been holding it for a time. I sit mesmerized as I thirst for a taste of his lean hairless ivory smooth flesh. I yearn so badly to step across the fire, throw him to the earth, and have my way with him.

He wastes no time pulling down his underwear. His heavy uncut cock falls and sways between his legs. For his kind Antony was down right hung. Any human would have been proud to sport such fine length of meat. His small slender stature only served to exaggerate his already impressive manhood.

"Oh gods...Antony, this is torture." I hunch down and cover my face in my hands.

"It doesn't have to be." He whispers back. "Stop fighting this Jacob."

I hear him rustle around in his pack and then I hear him move and shift around. I then gets very quiet, just the steady din of the crickets and the crackle of the fire to be heard. The heady aroma of wood smoke and honeysuckle fills the air.

"Jacob." He says softly in that familiar melodic tone of his. "Jacob, look at me."

"No."

"Mmmm, I'm stroking myself Jacob." There is more movement. "I'm ready for you. Look at me Jacob. I want you to look at me."

"No."

"Jacob. Look at me my love. Please."

In spite of myself I lower my hands and look up at my beloved man. He takes my breath away. The fire was lower but more than made up for by the gentle white illumination of the nearly full moon streaming down through the break in the canopy above.

He was on his knees across from me. He wore an all black outfit, if you could even call it that, I had never seen on him before. Around his neck was a wide tight leather choker, two straps were connected at the front that lead over the top of his chest and down under his arms to meet at the back somewhere. His arms were covered by long silk gloves that ran from the top of his biceps all the way down to mid finger, allowing his long painted nails to be free. He wore a peculiar garter belt that hugged his slim waist and lead down to tight thigh hugging bands. Separate from this were calf high stockings that ran down to a point over the top of the foot at the middle toe, where it was affixed, leaving the rest of the foot bare. Around the base of his big hard cock was ribbon of silk. The darker tip of his glans peeks out the end of his foreskin like the bulb of a spring rose.

Seeing me look at him he shifts backward. Laying back he props himself against his rolled up bedroll and he lounges. He brings his long legs up...and then together. He pushes his dick through so that it ran up the underside of his legs. He bends his knees, bringing his pointing feet down. He wiggles his ass forward and his tight bald anus winks into view.

The silver of his hair shimmers in the pale white moonlight. His glossy rose colored lips are slightly parted. His flawless youthful face beckoned me to him. Those magical sultry amber eyes glow with passion.

His beauty and my love for him fells me with a single blow.

I could not fight him any longer. Not for another night and certainly not for a couple of weeks. I had wrestled ogres and lifted boulders. I had busted doors and wrenched open locked chests with my bare hands. I had brought a troll to his knees with only my great might. But I was not strong enough to resist this slender beautiful Elf.

"I love you." I say in a dry voice.

"I know." He whispers.

I stand and pull off my own shirt, throwing it to land on my neatly piled armor nearby. The night air felt good against my skin. I step around the fire...and I falter.