Chapter 1: Taken in by elves

"Get him Pete! Kick the fucking runt's head in!" I heard Melissa scream as I ran away as fast as I could.

"Yeah, go get him boys! Bring him back here and we'll teach him not to spy on us!" Sarah Carter yelled. I didn't catch what the third girl shouted; I was more concerned to make good my escape.

With yells and whoops the three boys ran after me but I had a head start and despite my small size I was pretty good at sprinting. Not daring to look back, I hurtled down the narrow woodland track that bordered the disused quarry, leaping over the rough places in a desperate attempt to get away unscathed. I probably would have done so had it not been for a patch of mud on one corner. I skidded, went over the edge and tumbled down the steep slope and through the undergrowth until, after some yards, my head hit a rock and I blacked out.

A cool hand pressing on my temple awakened me; I heard babbling speech or maybe it was singing in a language I didn't understand. "Maybe it's an angelic choir? Maybe my dreadful life on earth is finished and I can look forward to something better?" Slowly I opened my eyes. "Yes this must be heaven." Not a handbreadth's away I saw the face of the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. It lit up with pleasure and she smiled broadly at seeing me awaken and showed her great delight by lightly kissing my lips. "You're alive! Will they let me keep you? I will keep you!" The musical notes of her voice reinforced my belief that I was no longer on earth but somewhere much more pleasant; unless I was dreaming. For the moment I could only stare into her eyes, her brilliant emerald green eyes. I closed my eyelids again. "Is this a dream I am having? Am I in another world? It cannot be in the world that I have known for the past sixteen years. No girl ever kissed me, certainly not one as lovely as her. And what about her eyes? Her deep green eyes; eyes that sparkled like emeralds in flickering candlelight? Never have I seen a girl with eyes like hers. It must be a dream." Confused I started to tell myself that none of it was real and then I felt her lips on mine for the second time.

Hardly daring to open my eyes in case the sordid world I knew returned, I looked at her again and tried to move a little but my head throbbed and my body hurt all over. "That must be real life," I told myself, "Pain, humiliation. They are the things I know. Did Pete and his mates find me and give me a good kicking? While those nasty girls watched?" I couldn't remember anything after rolling down the hill through all those brambles and nettles. I didn't know if they had even seen me go over the edge. But where did this girl come from? Where was I? The place was totally unfamiliar to me and certainly very unlike any room I had been in. "Where ... am ... I?' I tried to ask but the words came out as a series of disjointed croaks.

"Lie still for a while longer. I will look after you." Again the dazzling smile; a smile I felt sure would heal any wound quicker than the strongest antibiotic. "You are badly hurt but I will make you better in no time." Her smile vanished for the moment, replaced by a look of concern. "I've put poultices on the worst places but we'll have to wait until mother comes in to make the medicine that will ease the pain." The words came out with a musical lilt and I my eyes blinked rapidly to try and clear my vision. At a guess she was twelve years old but if I as right, her breasts were well developed. Perhaps, like me, she was small for her age. Her slender figure was clothed in a green tunic and skirt that matched the colour of her eyes.

"Where am I?" I croaked again, slowly beginning to take in my surroundings.

Before she answered she left my side and returned with a cup of a juice the like of which I had not tasted before. Gently lifting my head she allowed me to sip the liquid. It eased my throat so I could speak easier but the effort to do so hurt my chest. At last she replied, "In my home. I daren't tell you where yet because I shouldn't have brought you here. Humans are not allowed in elven homes but you would have died out there and I liked the look of you. The spirits must have sent you but no doubt I will get a good spanking from daddy when he comes in but they won't send you away. Not until you're better anyway."

It took a few minutes for the word to register in my mind. "You're an elf?" I asked incredulously. "This must be a dream."

"Yes," she laughed, "And you didn't believe they still existed." Her tinkling musical voice entranced me. "I'm L'ncze."

"El'nace?" I tried several times to pronounce her name in the way she said it but it never turned out the same. She giggled at my attempts. I tried the nearest normal name that I knew. "Alice. May I call you Alice?" I asked.

"Of course. What shall I call you?"

"Henry, Henry Irving."

"Well Henry, I'm not giving you my family name because it's very long and you had enough problems with L'ncze. Now lie down and rest. I'll change the poultices again shortly and then mother should be home." To my amazement she removed her clothes and folded them on a nearby platform and then went on with her work. She acted as though it was the normal thing to do and didn't show any signs of embarrassment at being naked or me watching her. I was even more confused as to the reality or otherwise of my situation.

While she ground some leaves on a nearby stone I lay and alternately looked at her and studied the ceiling or at least what served as a ceiling. I guessed, rightly as it turned out, that I was in a low underground chamber and the fine tracery of the 'roof beams' were actually the roots of living trees. A pale glow emanated from a green moss that covered the 'walls' and 'ceiling' giving sufficient light to illuminate the chamber. "This can't be true," I said to myself many times over and yet it seemed so real. I wanted to question L'ncze but my head thumped and was too sore to move it much and she seemed occupied with preparing the herbs. Frequently she glanced in my direction, each time I was treated to a glowing smile. Half wondering if she was going to use magic or recite spells I watched L'ncze work but I didn't hear her chanting or waving a wand. "If only she could take away all my pain with just a few words or actions," I mused but it was not to be. Elves were not fairies or witches.

L'ncze returned with a leaf paste, removed and cleaned the old stuff off my head and replaced it with fresh. In doing so her young breasts came so close to my lips that I could easily have kissed them. So intrigued was I in her form, I wasn't prepared for what she did next. Carefully she turned back the blanket of leaf-covered material that kept me surprisingly warm and I felt her fingers on my bare flesh. My bare flesh? I was shocked to find that I was naked. "I am naked! She is naked!" My mind could hardly take in the implications. It didn't seem to bother L'ncze in the least and she went about cleaning my wounds and replacing the paste with the thoroughness of a professional nurse. Although I tried to remain aloof to her ministrations, the sight of her swaying breasts, and the smell of a female who had sweated recently, when she worked in my groin area, I couldn't prevent my prick becoming erect. It embarrassed me and I must have blushed the deepest red, but it seemed to please her and she exclaimed, "Oh good, that seems to be working alright." Again I wondered if I had misjudged her age because that wasn't the sort of remark one would expect from a twelve year old. "And just look at the colour you have gone." Her amusement showed in her voice.