Chapter 12: Arrival at the elven commune

Our journey up the Rea is uncomfortable. The trader’s boat is a glorified raft, relying on a large sail and huge rear oar for propulsion. The trader and a huge oarsman are the only crew. They have a rapport that suggests that they’ve made this trip together many times before. We sit among the crates and sacks that the trader is transporting. There’s nowhere to lie down and we will need to go ashore to sleep overnight. The trader estimates our journey will take three days providing the weather holds. The river current is sluggish at the moment, so it offers little hindrance to our progress. However, the trader says that the river can rise quickly in wet weather, and the current become too strong to battle against.

We halt our journey at midday for a brief rest and a light lunch. The ridge to the left towers above us, and the forest on the opposite bank is too dense to risk going far. Indeed, there are few places along the river where a boat can safely put ashore. The small riverside clearing where we stop must be a regular way-point for the trader. Fortunately neither the trader nor his oarsman have any biases against elves, so Defina35 and Defina36 are treated as equals. Given the cramped conditions on-board the raft, it would be difficult were that not so.

“You seem puzzled,” I say to the trader as he checks the stowage of his cargo before we resume our journey.

“Yes. I’ve occasionally lost goods overboard in my travels, but never have I acquired unexplained cargo mid-journey. I loaded a dozen sacks of flour at Reak, and now I have fourteen sacks.”

The mystery is soon solved. Inside two of the large sacks we find Cena42 and Asima37. They initially refuse to say how they came to be here. It is only when Defina35 and Defina36 admit to helping them stowaway on board the raft do we get to the truth. By confining the elves on-board the Fair Catch, its crew had broken their contract with their two Elf Maidens. Consequently they decided to leave. The easiest way of doing so was to join us in our travels.

The rash action of the Elf Maidens may place us in an awkward situation should we cross paths with the crew of the Fair Catch. However, there is nothing illegal in the Elf Maidens’ departure. In any case, we may never meet the crew again. From what Asima37 says, the crew will quickly find replacement Elf Maidens once they return to Thurn. The close friendship Cassandra and I enjoy with Defina35 and Defina36 was not replicated between the crew of the Fair Catch and their Elf Maidens.

After renegotiating the price of our journey with the merchant, everyone on the raft seems happy with the new travelling arrangement. The fact that Cena42 is in heat soon smooths out any lingering problems with the merchant and his oarsman. They at least control their urges until we stop for the night at a small island in the middle of the river. Once the tents are erected, the two men don’t waste any time in taking Cena42 inside. By now I am accustomed to the regular sound of men and Elf Maidens have sex. It’s hard to recall what life is like for the majority of Thurnian men and women who don’t use the advantages Elf Maidens can bring to their personal relationships.

Our journey north resumes the next morning despite the oarsman looking worn out. Cena42 looks like she is ready for more. If it wasn’t for Cassandra having a bout of morning sickness, I might have been tempted to fuck the Elf Maiden. As it is, I focus on attending to Cassandra’s needs as best I can. Because of Thurnian biology, it is common for many Thurnian women to be in the early stages of pregnancy at this time of year. Most pregnant Thurnian women suffer from morning sickness, so Cassandra’s suffering is very common. It is another of those differences between the biology of Thurnian women and Elf Maidens, who rarely suffer from the discomfort of morning sickness.

Fortunately the wind is blowing up-river, so the sail takes most of the strain. The oarsman only needs to use his oar to steer, while the merchant adjusts the sails. As anticipated, we arrive at the small Thurnian village of Fallowfield on the third day after leaving Reak. The warm reception we all receive confirms that the inhabitants regularly have dealings with elves. Now all we need to do is find our way through the wilderness to the elven community.

The trader soon completes his business in Fallowfield although he lingers for a few days while Cena42 remains in heat. He even tries to tempt her into joining him on his return journey to Reak, but Cena42 wisely declines. She won’t be welcome in Reak, and we don’t know whether the crew of the Fair Catch are still there. We wake the following morning to find that the merchant and his oarsman have departed.

We only need to wait a further two days before four adolescent elves enter the village. I didn’t see them arrive but the local villagers say the elves came from the forest rather than along the track leading to the saddle over the High Ridge. Defina36 soon establishes that the elves come from a community I didn’t visit on my previous journey six months ago. Only one of the elves has a serial number tattooed on her inner arm, signifying that she was born in a Thurnian city. The other three must be native to the wilderness. They have come to trade for flour which they intend to purchase with some of the gemstones they have mined from the huge network of caverns they call home.

The villagers have just received a delivery of flour, so meeting the request isn’t a problem. However, I can’t see how these four elves can carry even one of the heavy sacks back to their community. That doesn’t stop the villagers from selling six of the flour sacks the merchant delivered a few days ago.

The four adolescent elves are happy to meet the four Elf Maidens in our party, but they regard Cassandra and me with suspicion. While young Thurnian men periodically visit the elven communities for the plentiful sex on offer, they are usually from local villages. A male visitor from the city of Thurn, travelling with a Thurnian woman, is something none of these young elves have come across before. Fortunately, they haven’t journeyed to the village alone. A short distance from the village is a group of three more elves, waiting with six pack mules ready to transport the flour back to the eleven community. The leader of the elven group is an Elf Maiden called Akenehi. I know from my previous visit that the numbering of elven clones, that has been established practise ever since elves first arrived in Thurn, has no place among the wildness elven communities.