Dampf-Smoke and Dragon-Fire { Winter / CasualVelociraptor }

[CasualVelociraptor]

Daniel wished with his whole mind that he could figure out what it was that drew him so intensely to Vielle. At first he thought it was the thrill of the fight and the conquest of a prize, but it wasn’t that. However, he couldn’t pretend that this was all about altruism, as he was getting a lot of pleasure on his cock from this.

But perhaps he could trace it to a feeling that arose within him after he picked up the man he’d body slammed and saw his peaceful, sleeping face. Whether it was just lust, genuine sympathy, or plain jealousy was hard to tell.

All remaining thoughts left Daniel’s brain, however, as Vielle’s climax made his vagina massage Daniel’s throbbing cock.

“I- I’m sorry too...” Daniel groaned and lightly bit Vielle’s shoulder just before erupting deep inside the warm, wet womb encompassing him. “I’ll be guarding you tomorrow,” the younger man panted as his limp dick fell out, his excess cum falling out and landing on the floor, then smiled and took his leave. Soon, Vielle would find him surrounded by fellow humans whooping and cheering his successful bedroom exploits, calling about how the prisoner was “Daniel’s bitch” now, among other insults.

 

[Winter]

A hiss of breath escaped Vielle as he felt the human release inside of him, breaths coming hard against the body holding his own. For a few moments he sat still, eyes closed, but with little ceremony, the human pulled out of him, and he found himself once more on the floor, and strangely cold safe for the pool of warmth that leaked out of him.

And... That was it, then. Daniel stood, and left, and Vielle turned away, feeling his cheeks burn hot at the words that the rest of the men said. And soon enough it was quiet after that, and he had nothing else to do, and so after a while, though his mind was troubled by what had happened, he dozed off.

When he awoke, all he knew was that it was day, and... Fuck. The position he was in was, to say the least, unpleasant, and sleeping as he had had left his shoulders stiff and aching. With some difficulty, he stood, was left hissing against the discomfort of the pins and needles, but after a short time, that became awkward in its own way, and he sat once again, leaning his head against the wall.

There was a window at the top of his cell, one which let the chill and the light in, and watching the movement of the sun’s light across the wall was all he had to occupy his time in between shifting in an attempt to get comfortable.

Well, that, and dozing off more.

It was horribly boring. Better than being dead, yes, but... As he watched the sunlight on the wall, he could not keep from wondering what he was being kept here for at all.

And then, footsteps.

He knew he was the only prisoner here, at least in this cell block. But it made little sense that someone would stand guard directly outside of his— more than likely, the guard was posted outside of the front door. Was it Daniel, then? Perhaps— and he smiled at the thought— coming to bid him goodnight?

That was what the man had said he would be doing today, was it not?

But then... He heard a voice echoing down the hallway. Two of them, in fact. Neither of them was Daniel.

“You’re sure no one saw us come in here?”

“No, no— it’ll be all right.”

“I’ve heard talk around camp. They say he’s prettier’n a woman, and he’s even got a snatch...”

“Pff. Can’t say I care about that, as long as it’s not my hand.”

There was a jingling of keys as the footsteps approached the cell door, and Vielle closed his eyes. So it was to be as he thought.

The cell door swung open, and the footsteps grew closer. Perhaps, he thought, if he feigned sleep...

“So, I guess I’ll take his mouth—”

“Hells you will! That poof Daniel over in Division 7 got to him first last night— as if I’m taking his sloppy seconds. Might turn me gay...”

A laugh. “Do you think he’s gonna mind us messin’ with his girlfriend?”

“He ain’t here. He’ll never know.”

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Daniel, contrary to his father’s warnings that war would make him restless, had actually slept well. It was not, however, a peaceful rest- rather, one of blank exhaustion, with one eye open and very few dreams. Only one subconscious thought permeated his mind, and that eventually woke him up in the middle of the night.

Is Vielle alright?

Daniel didn’t really know why he thought this about the prisoner. Sure, he’d been an excellent way for Daniel to lose his virginity, but he was still an enemy. An elvish enemy at that! He’d been told all his life that elves were silver tongued tricksters, and when he’d seen the damage to Radiant from their attack, he knew he had to fight them.

None of that explained the knots in his stomach and the shortness of breath that greeted him. For now, he dismissed this as worry about someone who potentially had valuable information dying on Daniel’s watch. So he might as well make sure the prisoner was well treated, right?

He came into Vielle’s cell with whale jelly to treat any minor rashes caused by cuffs rubbing against raw flesh, and some chicken soup and water for any hunger pains or dehydration, but what he saw and heard- he couldn’t have prepared for that.

“So, how about it, Daniel? Mind if we have a turn at your butt boy, ya bloody fairy?”

“Back away from him now, sumpfur,” Daniel growled, his fists balled up after setting down the offerings for his captive neatly. That word was a corruption of the Old Caledorian word “sumpffurgehinne”- swamp for brains. A very powerful insult, especially if it was true.

“Or what?” the other interloper demanded. “You’re gonna fuck me with that tiny cock?”

“Is that an offer, Sarge?” Daniel retorted.

“Er, no! I...never mind. Just take your beating like a man, Private!”

At first, remembering the words of his first drill sergeant (“A soldier isn’t defined by how much he can kill, but how much he can take”) Daniel did, making sure to cover his face and abdomen as they wailed on him with a flurry of punches and kicks. Gradually, however, they got tired, which allowed Daniel an opening to lift them up, one in each arm, and toss them away from him. He then bashed one of them in the back of the head with a stone he’d pried loose from the floor and then curb stomped his prone friend in the back, breaking several teeth.

“If you even so much as think about going near Vielle ever again, I promise you’ll wish I hadn’t held back.”

“Threatening a superior officer is gonna get you latrine duty for the rest of the war!”

“And what are you going to say exactly? ‘Oh, I was just innocently trying to rape a POW when this private prevented me from doing just that!’ Try explaining that one.”

“Fine! But this isn’t over. You better sleep with one eye open, faggot!”

“I already do,” Daniel hissed as both of his assailants fled.

“Er...hi. Hope your morning is going better than mine,” Daniel groaned as he took off his shirt and applied whale jelly all over the bruises on his lean, toned body.

 

[Winter]

And then, a third set of footsteps. And then, something... Completely unexpected.

Vielle had watched, with dawning horror, as the exchange between the three men had taken place, progressing from mere fighting words to... Well, an actual fight. Were he not chained up, perhaps he would have gotten involved, but all he could do for now was sit there, silent and still, hoping in part that Daniel had the fighting prowess to make up for his disadvantage in number against the other two soldiers.

Somehow, he did, and they were left alone, the two of them... But not without threats that the elf was fairly certain may well be made good on.

And when at last the human turned to address him, Vielle stared.

“Why,” he started finally. “Why did you do that?”

It boggled the mind. No, certainly, he didn’t doubt that there were good humans, nor that Daniel was one of them. And nor did he doubt that there were many people, even among those at war, who would find the very idea of taking advantage of a helpless prisoner reprehensible.

However...

From what he had seen, even with the man’s friends the night before, it seemed the number of those who didn’t was far greater than those who did. Perhaps word would get around, yes, that Daniel was willing to fight anyone who would try, but... Daniel was one man, and he had other duties aside from those that required him to be here.

But he was here now, at least. And had saved him from something he would much rather not experience.

That did count for something.

“I... No, never mind what I said,” he amended himself after a moment, looking up at him, trying to smile. “Thank you for doing that. It seems you arrived right on time.”

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

“It appears I did,” Daniel joked a little, hoping to ease Vielle’s tension but only increasing his own nervous tightening of his shoulders in the process.

“It’s...it’s not a stupid question either,” Daniel continued, rubbing the back of his head. “I- I did it for a number of reasons. I wish I could say that they were all altruistic but, I must not tell lies.”

There was that damnable phrase again. Saying it recalled when his father belted his bare ass and made him say that.

“Of course it’s wrong, what they tried to do...but I was always told that elves were greedy, evil, conniving, a lot of things...so why did I intervene, if you’re not human, if you’re supposed to be this evil thing that no one should respect?”

Daniel sighed, “I’m sexually attracted to you and loved making love to you, sure, and that makes me feel like a pervert, but that isn’t the whole story, either,” getting frustrated now at his ineloquent and meandering response.

“The thing is...when I saw your eyes, and thought about what we must have taken away from you, my heart broke for you,” the young soldier sighed. “I knew you couldn’t be heartless because I saw how your body and heart were wounded. I became a soldier to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, and I couldn’t hurt someone who I knew was hurting. Who I...would like to get to know better.”

“I hope that made, like, any fucking sense,” Daniel chuckled under his breath.

 

[Winter]

Vielle listened, without speaking, as the human spoke. And his answers were, to be completely honest, something completely unexpected; he did not expect that admission of attraction, and he didn’t expect that deeper reasoning, not the admission that Daniel would... Like to get to know him better.

He turned, again, and studied the man standing before him. If he could think of him that way. The elf was aware that humans lived much shorter lives than his kind, and could die of their old age, and even that age was young to an elf, who might only have just reached adulthood at the same time.

How old was this man? Vielle couldn’t tell; it wasn’t as if he had been given a chart of human ages. He wanted to guess under... 40?

An elf of the same age would be half the man’s height, still in school.

It seemed a great pity to him, all of a sudden, that the war had pit his own kind against a race so short-lived. And doubly so, that he lost so many of his own, who had an eternity before them still by comparison.

A sad state of affairs all around.

“I see,” he said finally, and that was all he said. His adrenaline was still rushing from what had nearly happened— what might nearly happen again when Daniel was not around, but he did not want to think of that.

“It did make sense,” he said after a moment, looking down, at the floor, drawing his legs into himself in an attempt to find some manner of comfort. “If you would like to get to know me better, I certainly wouldn’t mind,” he said, tentatively. “It’s terribly lonely sitting here in the dark.”

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

“For some reason, it never did seem lonely for me,” Daniel shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe it’s because I could hear...something in there. Or someone? Multiple someones? It’s hard to explain. But I certainly can’t argue that sitting in the darkness with someone is better than with no one at all.

“I suppose that, if I’m to interrogate you about who you are, I ought to say some things about myself,” Daniel then sighed as he leaned against the post that Vielle was still chained to. “I was born on May 12th, 1871 in the small fishing town of Elthurscaldy in the far north of Caledoria. The only two jobs there, really, are whaling or the Navy. My father, Gregory, was a Navy Sergeant Major and a pilot of a first generation Goliath, who participated in the Imperial liberation of Surabamba in 1865 and rescued a Bamban woman named Asha Ghoslan from the wreckage of the Battle of Hazarilanda. They got married three years later, he took her last name and got a plum job captaining a whaling trawler for Jareth Industries, and then they had me.

“There’s actually one more thing in Elthurscaldy- Castle Abrulla de Elthurscaldy, a crumbling fort just up the hill that has stood for five hundred and ninety three years against wars, dragons, and even five hundred foot tall glaciers. At night, whenever my father would drink to excess and hit my mother, I liked to sneak onto the grounds and eavesdrop on witches and wizards at the University of Magical Studies there, pretending I was a wizard or maybe a knight sent to accompany a beautiful warlock on his heroic quest. I tried applying to be a wizard when I turned eighteen but, even with an artifact I just can’t do magic. Still, I got to join the Navy last year (since I liked sailing but never liked the idea of hunting innocent whales), ride in an airship and a Goliath for the first time, and even get to guard the castle as a Knight of Abrulla, an order reinstated by the Empress to protect the Class of 1893 and foster understanding between humans and elves in the Empire.”

Daniel paused for a moment, thinking sadly of the half-wood elf wizard named Reginald that he’d left behind, and less sadly of the death of his father.

“Anyhow, then the Sack of Radiant happened a couple months ago,” Daniel said (June 13th, 1893 to be exact- as he remembered seeing the burnt remains of the city and hearing Emperor Henry Caldwell’s declaration of war the next day all too well), “and now here I am.”

Daniel cleared his throat and said with some sheepishness, “Sorry, I’ve been talking your head off. Tell me about yourself, Vielle.”