"Fine, I accept." Alex said, with a sigh. He didn't really have much choice. Eli could have been lying about how far off the town was, but he might not have been. "I'm Alex."
Eli shook his head. "Nope, not like that. Gotta make this official." Eli placed his hand over his chest. "I, Eli, promise to keep Alex safe while he stays with me in these woods, and bring him safely to town on my next trip there." He lifted his hand and spit into it, holding it out. "Now you promise to follow my orders until I bring you safely to town."
"Why do I have to follow your orders anyway?" Alex said, eyeing the hand held out toward him.
"Because these woods are dangerous and it's safer if you do as you are told and don't question me." Eli shrugged and made as if to pull his hand back.
"Fine! Fine!" Alex figured it was just a formality anyway. He placed his hand on his chest. "I, Alex, promise to obey Eli's orders as long as he protects me in these woods and until he brings me safely to town." Alex spit in his hand and reached out to grab Eli's. What he didn't expect was the slight electric tingle as he did so.
Eli either didn't notice or didn't care. "Good, let's head back to my home. It'll be dark soon and I'm hungry." He pointed to a bush off by another tree. "There's a couple of bags under that bush, you get to carry those, I need to be able to shoot." Alex found himself walking over to the bush to dig up the two bags as if compelled. His feet moved on their own. He tossed them over his shoulder, and moved back to Eli who must have noticed the confused expression on his face. "You made an oath in a magical forest, of course it's going to hold." Eli just shook his head as if it were the simplest thing in the world and started his trek through the trees.
Luckily the forest floor was covered in a lot of soft mosses, because Alex was quickly regretting his lack of shoes of any sort. But any questions or sounds towards Eli was quickly met with a whispered order to be quiet, and Alex found his words drying up. Eventually, after about an hour they came to a a giant tree, which seemed to have a door set into it's base, a door with no handle. Eli brushed his hand against it and it opened, and he motioned for Alex to go ahead.
Alex didn't know what to expect, something just a bit better than a cave probably, but stepping inside, the place was like a cozy, little, one-room cottage. A bed, a table with a couple of chairs, furs spread out in front of a hearth with a banked fire. Shelves held books, bottles, and various other trinkets and pouches. "Set the bags down on the table." As Alex did so, Eli set his bow and quiver up against the wall by the door, and then to Alex's shock, stripped off his kilt and boots, setting them at the foot of the bed. Eli's blond hirsuteness affected his lower half as well, but more to Alex's shock was what he had hanging between his legs. Seven inches flaccid, and thick, even Eli's balls where large and heavy. Alex couldn't help but stare, at least until he looked up and saw Eli's smirking face. "Like what you see?"
Alex blinked a few times and looked away with a blush. "Just didn't expect you to.. take off your clothes."
Eli snorted. "You've been naked since we met. And I don't know how it is where you're from, but you come to a man's house, you should expect he's gonna walk around naked. Home is where you unwind." Though Eli did then grab an apron off the wall to tie about his waist as he set to work on the two bags. One had a couple dead rabbits, the other a bunch of root veggies. "Can you stoke the fire and fill the pot with water from the barrel over there." Eli picked up a knife and gestured to first the hearth then to the barrel before he started cutting up meat and vegetables.
Alex set about his tasks as ordered, luckily having learned how to build a fire when he was a kid. "So, what do you do out here anyway?" Alex finally managed a question without being told to be quiet, figuring being safe at home had something to do with that.
"I'm a hunter." Eli said plainly. "I hunt for pelts. I also gather rare plants and mushrooms to sell. Wizards hate traipsing about the woods looking for their own magical materials, so you can make a good sum if you know what to look for." Alex got the pot filled with water and over the fire, just in time to have a corked, clay jug thrust into his hands by Eli. It wasn't very large, maybe a quarter of a gallon but it came with an order. "Here, drink up, you must be thirsty. And it'll put some hair on your chest." Eli laughed and slapped the back of one of his hands against Alex's undefined, hairless chest. "Relax." He motioned to the furs in front of the fire, "I'll finish making dinner. How'd you end up in these woods anyway? Do you really not know?"
Alex shook his head as he took a seat on the furs, they felt strange against his bare legs and ass, strange, but good. He popped the cork off the jug and took a swig. The contents tasted like.. Spring. It was slightly sweet, and floral, and refreshingly cool on the throat despite the jug being room temperature, and there was a strange undertone of flavor he couldn't quite place, strange but not unpleasant. Though even as it cooled his dry throat, a warmth seemed to spread into his muscles, relaxing them. "I'm not sure. I went to bed in my home and woke up in the woods. This has to be another world. We don't have faeries and werewolves where I'm from. Just humans."
Eli walked over tot he pot and added a bunch of meat and chopped veggies to it. "Just humans? I've heard tales of people coming here from other worlds from some of the wizards I worked with. Supposedly it happens, but it's very rare. Maybe you could find one, see if they know a way to send you back."
Alex took another swig of the wine, relaxing and savoring the taste on his tongue, as well as the slight tingle that suffused his body. "My mom and dad must be worried."
"Mom?" Eli said the word as if he had never heard it before.
"Yeah, my mom. Mother? Do people here not have mothers?" He took another swig of wine, unable to help himself. Idly he scratched at his stomach as he looked over at Eli who was cleaning up the table. Alex didn't notice that the slight belly he had was melting away, or that fuzzy brown hairs were growing out from his pubes towards his navel. "You know.. a man loves a woman and they have sex and.." He stopped as Eli laughed.
"Woman? I'm not sure what that is. Never heard of one of those." Eli took off his apron and hung it back on the hook.
"Women." Alex said. "The other gender? They have breasts..." He made a mound gesture over his chest. "And vaginas.." Alex went on trying to explain female anatomy to an ever more perplexed looking Eli.
"Sounds weird." Eli motioned to Alex. "Keep drinking." He went about taking care of a few other things around the cabin as Alex took another swig.
The tingling had turned to a slight itch across Alex's skin. And itch that strangely felt good. Beneath his skin, his muscles had started to gain some definition. Alex now had a noticeable four pack on his stomach and his pectorals actually stood out from his chest. Even his arms and legs had gained some thickness. And brown hair was now sprouting in the center of his once smooth chest. "So how do you have babies in this world then?"
Eli stared at Alex as if he had just asked.. well.. where babies came from as an adult. "Two men have sex, sometimes one gets pregnant. Don't stick it up the ass if you don't want to risk it." Grabbing a couple of bowls Eli started to fish out some stew. "C'mon, finish that up first."
Alex tipped back the jug and drained the last of the sweet wine, the tingling seeming to overwhelm him for a moment. Though he was soon distracted by the warm bowl of stew in his hands which he started to wolf down. Eli took a seat next to him on the furs, watching him closely as he ate his own bowl of stew, refilling Alex's whenever it emptied. With the sudden infusion of protein into his stomach Alex suddenly bulked up even more. Instead of a scrawny teen, he started to look like he might have participated in sports back in high school and still went to the gym on a somewhat regular basis. He was still skinny looking when compared to Eli's muscular bulk, but the twenty or so pounds of muscle suddenly packed on his scrawny frame had an definite affect on his appearance. He also looked a bit older, thanks to the light dusting of soft, brown hair in the center of his chest and the narrow treasure trail up his stomach between his four pack abdominals. Even the light hint of stubble along his jaw. Eli was grinning as he looked Alex over, and Alex finally looked at himself, eyes going wide with shock.
"What the?! What did you give me?!" Alex's voice even sounded a touch deeper, though he was running his fingertips through his chest hair in disbelief.
"My own supply, a jug of wine laced with strength potion. A sip once in a while like I have is like a good workout. Keeps you strong and fit. A whole jug on the other hand.." Eli motions at Alex's chest. "You'll pack on the muscle but there are side effects. Told you it'd put hair on your chest." Eli chuckled softly. "And stomach, and legs, and jaw.. you get the point."
"But.. why?" Alex looked up at Eli and the hunter shrugged, getting to his feet.
"Because I promised to keep you safe, and a scrawny, runt of a kid isn't going to survive very well in this forest. So, I need you to be able to hold your own, or look like you can. You'll drink another one of those tomorrow." Eli looked at Alex and sighed. "But if it bothers you that much, once we get to town I'll give you a purging potion. Resets your system, gets rid of any other potions that changed your body over the last week. Always worth keeping some on hand. But I've never known a guy to get upset over becoming stronger."
Alex was about to say something but looked down at himself again. Was this really such a bad thing? He couldn't see his own face, but he could feel the light stubble along his jaw. What would another jug of that stuff do to him? "You're right.."
Eli nodded as if he expected that outcome. "Anyway, we have an early morning. We should probably get some sleep soon." He headed over to the bed and Alex started looking around on the furs he was seated on, only to have Eli chime in. "Don't be silly, there's plenty of room in the bed for both of us, and the nights get chilly this time of year." Alex stood up and followed Eli toward the bed, a bunch of thoughts suddenly racing through his head.