the Wolf, the Falcon and the Dragon

Rand leaned back in his armchair and watched the smoke rise from their pipes. It was good to see Perrin again after all these months. Good to have someone near that he could rely on. Assuming he could rely on Perrin, of course. These days it was hard to be certain of anyone. He eyed his friend across the table, the brandy in the decanter between them did strange things to Perrin's eyes when you looked through it. The seemed almost as red as Ba'alzamon's. Perrin was wearing his usual rough hides and leathers with a silk coat thrown carelessly over them. A fitting uniform for the new-made Lord of the Two Rivers. Rand smiled slightly, Perrin would always be Perrin. Still, the Wheel waits for no man and there was work to be done.

"Its important that you go to Tear, Perrin. My plan requires the presense of either you or Mat with the army, and Mat's busy elsewhere." Rand was growing tired of repeating himself. Why was Perrin being so stubborn? He wanted time to rest after his journey from the Two Rivers apparantly, time to visit with Bode and the girls. But he'd had more than enough time to rest back home. Time to get married even, and move into a manor house. Rand had no time. No time at all.

Perrin scowled at him with his golden eyes. "My dream said I had to come here to help you. So I did. It said nothing about running off to Tear again and trying to command an army of Aiel and nobles." He snorted. "I suppose it was too much to hope you'd be pleased to see me. Given that I'd much rather have stayed at home. What does the Dragon Reborn care about home anymore, right?"

Rand felt a muscle in his cheek twitch. Care? Perrin felt he had abandoned the Two Rivers to Fain and the Whitecloaks. Care? He was right, but it had been necessary. CARE? "What do I care, Perrin?" he snarled, "The entire world will burn if I fail at my tasks! Everyone will die, your precious Faile included! And I can number the people who willingly and whole-heartedly aid my cause without having to pause to think! Half the world wants me dead and the other half simply wants a slice of the pie. What do I CARE?" His old friend shrank back slightly before Rand's fury, but that old Two Rivers granite held and Perrin Goldeneyes sat up straight in his chair. "Has it never occured to you that I might like to simply walk away from all this? Find a pretty wife of my own and let the Wheel weave as it wills? What do you think stops me? Fear of death!? I spit on death, and fear as well! Its only because I care that any of you ungrateful wretches have a chance of surviving this war!"

"Well I suppose we `ungrateful wretches` should be relieved that the great Dragon Reborn deigns to notice our existance, is that what your telling me?" Perrin's own fury was closer to the surface than Rand could recall having seen it in years. "Perhaps we should abandon all thoughts of our own friends and families and simply await His permission to breath! I am not your servant Rand. You friend, maybe, but not your servant."

"I never said you were. I'm asking you to help me fight the Shadow, Perrin.", Rand was confused, he had only asked Perrin to do what any good man would. The Shadow was the enemy of all life, why was Perrin being so bloody stubborn?

Perrin rose from his seat and advanced on Rand menacingly. "What of my family, my Lord Dragon?", he asked, his voice a low growl. "Do you not think they asked for help? What of all the folk back home that died on Whitecloak swords and Trolloc axes, didn't they need your help? Where was our mighty saviour then? Too busy running around with his new people to spare a thought for the ones that raised him, thats where! But then, the Two Rivers folk don't have a massive army of elite warriors to give you, do they?" Perrin put his large hands on either armrest of Rand's chair and leaned down until his golden eyes filled Rand's vision. They would probably have frightened most men, Rand thought. But he was not most men and simply glared back, though in his heart he knew Perrin was right. He would let the Two Rivers be destroyed before he would lose the Aiel, they were too vital to his plans. "For every tool a task, and we're all just tools to you now. Well find another hammer to use in Tear, I'll fight the Shadow on my own terms."

"I'm sorry about your family Perrin. You know that. I'm sorry about everyone that died. For the Light's sake, Tam was back there, remember!? He could have died just as easily. Do you think I would just risk that for no good reason? But I can't let the Forsaken or any of my enemies think they can use anyone that I care about to force me to act. When I fight them it must be at a time and place of my choosing or victory may be too hard to achieve. You've commanded in battle, just as I have. You know that some sacrifices simply must be made for the greater good." Rand struggled to keep his voice steady. It was not what Perrin wanted to hear, he knew, but he would not lie to his oldest friend. Or lose him, either. Perrin, also, was too vital.

With a vicious snarl Perrin grabbed Rand by the collar of his red coat and yanked him out of the chair, his pipe fell to the rug and cinders burst forth. "You've become just like the Aes Sedai, Rand. Heartless and manipulative. I hardly recognise you anymore." Rand took that damnation for praise. The boy he'd been would never have come as far as he had already, and certainly could not do what still needed to be done. Nonetheless... he still remembered the shepherd he'd been. And what the man before him and been as well.

Not planting his feet before the shorter man, Rand held Perrin's wrists and stared into the wolf's eyes pleadingly. "You know me, Perrin. You know me like few ever have. We've always trusted each other. When have I ever hurt you when I could help it? That time in the mountains..."

Perrin yanked Rand close to his face. "Don't mention that. We were only foolish boys."

"But did I hurt you? I tried to be gentle, gentler than Mat certainly." Perrin shook his head, confusion and vulnerability warring with the rage in his eyes.

"I've always loved you, Perrin. You and Mat are the brothers I never had. Your ma and da may be gone, but you still have us. You still have me..." Rand leaned in, closed his eyes, breathed brandied breath towards Perrin's mouth... and hugged him. For a long moment they stood there, Perrin's hands still locked around the collar of Rand's coat and Rand's arms wrapped around his friends hulking shoulders, his mouth resting beside Perrin's neck. "When I said you need me, Perrin, I meant to say that we need each other."

Perrin relaxed his grip and put his arms around Rand. "I know I need you, Rand", he rumbled. "We all need you. I just wish the price wasn't so high. For all of us. So many hurt..."

"Pain." Rand pronounced, raising his head. "I know pain well." He stared into Perrin's eyes and saw how to mend this schism. They had to go back.

The Dragon struck without hesitation. Burying one hand in Perrin's thick mop of curls and and grabbing his crotch with the other, he snaked a leg around behind the startled blacksmith and took him to the ground hard. Perrin gasped for breath and Rand wasted no time in seizing his lips with his own. He kissed his first-brother hard and ran a thumb up the length of his manhood through the thick breeches Perrin favoured. They were not thick enough to disguise his friend's immediate arousal. Perrin did not like to speak of the such things, but Rand had never doubted that he remembered them well. Abruptly, Rand realised that Perrin had not embraced him back. He broke the kiss and looked up to find Perrin staring at the gilded ceiling and holding the thick rug he lay on tightly in his hands. His nostrils were flared and his eyes almost maddened. Rand considered for a moment and then took hold of the buckle of Perrin belt.

The belt and buttons parted easily and Rand reached a branded palm inside to grasp the bulge that hid behind them. "The Light have mercy," Perrin croaked. Firmly, Rand drew Perrin's breeches and smallclothes down to his thighs, exposing his some-time lover's manhood. It was hard and thick, jutting up from a coarse thatch of dark brown curls and accompanied by a pair of large hairy balls. Rand took hold of that penis and pulled the foreskin back, exposing the already glistening tip. Perrin whimpered. And when the Dragon Reborn lowered his head and took Lord Aybara's cock in his mouth, that whimper became a fierce growl.

Perrin abandoned his flimsy shield of carpet and let his hands bury themselves in Rand's red hair. Almost roughly he urged his friend to move, up, down, up and down. Rand obliged, relishing the pulsing of the living meat in his mouth. He stiffened his tongue as best he could and ran it up the shaft one last time before leaving Perrin exposed to the cool air. It had been a long time, and he wanted to savour his first-brothers embrace as long as he could.

Rand knelt above Perrin and regarded him for a still moment with clear blue eyes. Then he attacked the buttons on his own coat. The delay gave Perrin time to think, of course, and Perrin being Perrin began to doubt. His eyes fell to Rand's crotch, where his friends obvious arousal fought for freedom from his black breeches. When Rand shrugged out of his coat and dragged his white silk shirt up over his head, exposing his chiseled but smooth chest and rippling stomach muscles, Perrin made his decision. He sat up, seised Rand by the shoudlers and bore him down. Rolling over so he rested on top, the wolfbrother ran large, calloused hands desperately over the Dragon's silken skin. He devoured his firm lips, touseled his fiery hair, breached his sweet breath.

Rand watched from below as Perrin, all but maddened by lust, ripped the silk coat from his back, then the cotton shirt beneath. From within the ruins of his garb, slabs of forge and battle hardened muscle emerged, coated with thick dark hairs. He rasied a leg and placed his foot on the crotch of Perrin's lowered drawers, pushing them lower still, then folded his hands behind his head and waited. He didn't have to wait long.

The wolf fumbled with the silver and gold buckle of his prey's belt, freed it after a frustrating few moments and tore the buttons off in his haste to part them. Seemingly indifferent, he pulled Rand's breeches down around his knees and feasted his eyes on the Dragon's cock. As thick as Perrin's but quite a bit longer, it rose imperiously from a neat triangle of bright red hair. But the wolf was not one to bow to kings or emperors.

Taking Rand's hips in a reverse grip, the wolf lifted and spun him easily, setting the Dragon on his hands and knees and exposing his taut, hairless bottom. He dug powerful fingers into those smooth cheeks and shuffled forward, his manhood, Rand saw from his upside-down vantage point, twitching up and down of its own accord. The wolf attempted to aim it at Rand's tight anus, but some remnant of the man within stopped him. Surely he won't leave now, thought Rand incredulously. Perrin was not one for teasing folk... in any way. Then he realised that his gentle friend was casting about for some manner of grease. Butter had always worked in the past. Rand did not care to wait, however, and was truly no stranger to pain.

The Dragon reached a glitteringly tatooed arm behind his back and stretched out for Perrin's engorged penis. Grasping it firmly, he guided it to the dry, barely parted hole of his ass. "Just fuck me, already, Perrin", he gasped, looking back at those burnished golden eyes. "Give me your pain, give me your anger, give me everything..." He saw the muscles of Perrin's great chest clench as he grabbed Rand's hips, saw the thick trunk of his abdomen transform into six forested hills, like the hills of home, as Perrin began to force his way into Rand. Then he gritted his teeth and lowered his forehead to the floor and say only his own quivering erection.

Perrin wriggling his cock back and forth as he fought to shove the thick head past Rand's sphincter. His grunts were beastial, Rand's quieter but no less impassioned. Finally, aided by Perrin's natural lubricant, it slipped inside. Both men moaned there disparate pleasures, and drew deep breaths. Rand could feel Perrin's eyes roving over his back, his hips, his ass, knew that he was excited not just by the eternal joy of sex but by the thrill of power. He was buggering the most powerful man the Age had ever known and even humble, gentle Perrin must be subject to that forbidden thrill. It was a covetous look that Rand had become quite familiar with in the past year.

Growling, the wolf pushed his cock further inside the Dragon's bowels, pushed until his large testicles collided with Rand's own. Then he pulled back out, all but the head, then in again, out, in. Slowly at first, until Rand's body became accustomed to the strokes, until he loosened, then faster. In and out, while Rand moaned his friends name. In and out, hard and rough, uncaring of the grunts of pain. In and out, staring into the one blue eye that looked back at him. In and out, saliva darkening his beard. In and out, faster and faster. Snarling, growling then roaring.

Rand felt a trickle of fear. He had never seen Perrin so possessed. Was this connected to the secrets he refused to share? And more, the sounds could bring the Maiden's down upon them. As much as Rand trusted and enjoyed his warrior women he had no desire to have them see him on his knees with another man's cock in his ass. Mastering his body as best he could, pushing aside the sweet pressure on his bowels and the maddening stroke of Perrin's pistoning shaft, almost touching that secret spot, almost, Rand seised saidin. The molten fury of the One Power felt almost like an orgasm of its own. Rand's mastery of himself kept him from being burned to a crisp by his own power but could not stop him from clenching his ass around Perrin and grinding back against his friend's hairy stomach. He held the Power long enough to weave a shield of air around the doorwary to his chambers. Preventing sound from leaving and unwelcome guests from entering. Then released it, crying out as he did so. So good...

Perrin looked down on Rand in wonder, perhaps thinking the noise had signified Rand's climax. Some of the rage and pain left his eyes and a white smile winked out from behind his beard. Rand saw it and winked back, even as the side of his face was ground into the expensive Taraboner rug.

"Rannnd", Perrin sighed, still riding but slower now. "I've missed you..." He bowed his head towards Rand's back and stuggled to catch some of his breath. "So tight it hurts..." A large hand ran up Rand's side and thick fingers stroked his hair. "It hurts so goood..."

The Dragon caught that hand in his and reached back to his hip for the other one. He fell forward onto his stomach, pulling the wolf down on top of him, never breaking their connection. He guided Perrin's arms around him so his hands rested on Rand's chest muscles and clenched his ass as hard as he could. Perrin gasped as the man beneath him started to ride his cock. Ever inch of him was squeezed. Dazed, he rested his head on Rand's shoulder, his soft, desperate moans singing encouragement. The wolf's fur was coarse and hot as it rubbed against the Dragon's smooth back.

"Rand, I think I'm..." Perrin announced, pleadingly. His hands stole down towards Rand's neglected manhood grasping it and the sack with it in either calloused palm. Quickly, almost desperately he jerk his hand up and down Rand's penis. Striving to bring them off together. Rand gasped lightly with each fevered stroke and knew Perrin would succeed... but Rand had other plans. Grinning into the carpet he pictured the flame in his mind and fed lust and pleasure into it. He hoped the flame was grateful. The Void embraced him like an old lover. Another one.

"I know, Perrin," Rand wheesed. He reached a hand back and ran it lightly down Perrin's jaw, giving his beard a little tug on the way. "Give it to me". From within the Void, sensation and thought were distant, but awareness was bizarely magnified. Rand could feel every drop of sweat that ran down his forehead, could count the pulsing of each vein in he and Perrin's joined bodies, map the perverse swamp of hair and skin and mingled sweat that divided him from the heavy weight of the man on his back. Every inch of callous on Perrin's hand carressed his manhood and yet did not touch him. He could see reflected in one stand mirror an image captured by the mirror on the dressing table behind them, that of Perrin's hairy backside slenching again and again as he thrust shallowly into Rand. Their breeches were still commically tangled around their respective ankles.

He knew when Perrin felt his orgasm surge forth from the way the movement of his cheeks abruptly stopped and the wolf threw back his head to howl, the muscles on his back standing out as his hands abandoned Rand's member to better support one final brutal thrust. Rand released the Void, just as the first spurt of Perrin's seed exploded into him. "Ahh, Light have mercy!" Perrin cried through gritted teeth. His cries sounded like a man being tortured as, with each spurt the strength left him, his muscles relaxed, his head dipped and finally he lay peaceful against Rand's back.

Almost, Rand thought his first-brother would dose off so, but Perrin was ever considerate of others. He rested a hand gently on Rand's back and pulled his soiled manhood out of Rand's ass. Then he rolled onto his back with an exhaused sigh, arms raised. The smell of sweat and sex, ignored due to more pressing concerns, resgistered on Rand's awareness. It was a good stink. He turned over onto his own back and scooched over beside his old friend, resting his head on one meaty bicep.

"Not quite like old times", he said breathlessly. "But there are certainly worse ways to spend an afternoon."

Perrin snorted at that, his eyelids heavy. "Yeah", he managed.

"I wish I had saved them," Rand said, almost timidly, "I wish there had been a way to..."

Perrin wrapped an arm around his friends shoulder. "I know..." Slowly, he became aware of Rand's still-hard penis, pointing up towards his firm stomach. "Did you... finish?" he asked, hesitantly.

"No." Rand replied, guilessly. "But thats okay. So long as you feel better. So long as you and I are good. I can't afford to lose you Perrin."

They lay together on the floor of the royal palace for a long moment before Perrin sighed and sat up. "I'm not the only one whose been hurt, Rand. And I'll be damned before I be the one to add to your worries. I'd hope you'd think better of me than that." So saying, the wolf breathed deep, leaned over and kissed the Dragon's mouth.

Perrin had always been fair-minded... Rand knew that well, as it was a trait they shared. Rand though, he had a bit more in common with Mat...

TO BE CONTINUED...