Mother's Lullaby, Ch1: Challenge Accepted by Kyrien

Mother's Lullaby, Ch1: Challenge Accepted

Kyrien, Abs, Action, Adult, Adult Content, Adventure, Albino, Alchemy, Alternate Reality, Alternate Society, Anal, Anal Knotting, Anthropomorphic, Aroused, Assassin, Athletic, Balls, Bareback, Barefoot, Bathroom, Bed, Bedroom, Bisexual, Black Wolf, Blowjob, Blush, Breeding, Canid, Character Development, Cigarette, Cisgender, Claws, Clit, Clitoris, Cock, Cock Worship, Coming Out, Compassion, Consensual, Couple, Cowgirl, Cuddle, Cuddling, Cum, Cumming, Cumshot, Cunnilingus, Cunt Boy, Dance, Dancing, Date, Deep Penetration, Deep Thrust, Dick, Dildo, Dominant, Domination/Submission, Drama, Ears, Ejaculation, Elemental, Emotion, Emotional, Epic, Erection, Erotic, Exhibitionism, Explicit, Eyes, Fantasy, Fellatio, Female Ejaculation, Fight, Fighting, First Date, First Time, Flirtation, Forced Sex, Forest, Fox, French Kissing, Fucking, Furry, Future, Gay, Gay Relationships, Gecko, Glasses, Grin, Grinning, Groping, Handjob, Hard-On, Heat, Heterosexual, Hindpaw, Homosexual, Hoodie, Hug, Humping, Impregnation, Internal, Interspecies, Intro, Kissing, Knot, Knotting, Laugh, Licking, Light D/S, Lizard, Lizardman, Love, Lupine, Lust, M/M, Male, Male Pregnancy, Male/Male, Mammal, Masturbation, Mate, Mating, Medieval, Mild Drama, Modern, Money Shot, Multiple Species, Muscle, Muscles, Naked, Near Future, Novel, Nude, Nudity, Oral, Orgasm, Outdoors, Paw, Paws, Pegging, Penetration, Penis, Plot Development, Predator/Prey, Pregnancy, Prey, Public, Pussy, Realistic, Red Fox, Relationships, Restrain, Rodent, Role Reversal, Roleplay, Roleplaying, Romance, Rough, Rough Sex, Scar, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Seduction, Seductive, Seed, Series, Sex, Sexy, Sheath, Shorts, Shower, Shy, Size Queen, Smile, Smoking, Snuggles, Spooge, Squirrel, Story, Story Progression, Story Series, Straight, Strap-On, Sub, Submissive, Supernatural, Tail, Teasing, Teen, Teenager, Teenagers, Third Person, Tongue, Transgender, Transman, Underwear, Vagina, Vaginal, Vanilla, Various Species, Video Games, Violence (Not In Yiff), Vulpine, Vulva, Weapon, Wolf, Young Love, Young Romance

And now, Shawn's story continues! A few weeks into his tenure in New Dawn, he's mostly found his stride and started to make the experience his own, but life is about to throw him yet another curve ball..

Full version out now! Subscribers got this two weeks early via https://subscribestar.adult/kyrien

Chronicles of a New Dawn, Book 2

Mother's Lullaby

By Joshua “Kyrien" Cranston

Chapter 1: Challenge Accepted

Tyrian's right ear pivoted of its own volition at the snap of a branch behind him. When it was immediately followed by rapid, approaching footfalls, he lunged forward, swishing his white tail high as an instinctive distraction, and felt a blade pass harmlessly through its airy fluff, missing its nearly weightless bony core by several inches. Whirling into a low, broad stance on his dextrous footpaws, he didn't so much grab as gesture his grimoire out of its bag, as he stared down the trio of kennings that had tried to ambush him, and grinned.

The undine had been right. Her river did pass near the source of the Gloaming Boughs' corruption here. He was getting close!

Seen through his enchanted glasses, the two kennings in the back had thin green outlines, suggesting that they were individually below the squirrel's overall power level, but the one in front bore a bright yellow aura that was more concerning. It was also larger than the others… about the same height as Tyrian, which made it practically a giant for a kenning, even if the squirrel was just a bit on the smaller side of most mammals from his own home world.

It was kind of a shame that most of the kennings were pretty firmly established as the 'bad guys' of the Westerwilds. Tyrian actually thought the diminutive lizardmen were pretty cute, with their broad, expressive faces, ridged tails, and brightly-multicolored scales. Of course, that impression was mostly from his interactions with their defector, Grolph, who now served as a scout for the Westerwilds Exploration League, and whose bashful diffidence had won him over immediately. The few others he and his crew had chanced to meet didn't give them much opportunity for appreciation. And this was the first time he'd encountered them on his own.

Tyrian also knew better than to put too much stock in whatever his magical pince-nez told him about enemy threat levels. The game he was playing, Paths of the Emissary, punished carelessness just as much as it rewarded player skill and cunning. Even as he assessed the situation, his paws were already dancing in the air. “Ola zojak rai!" Three luminous 'words' that would've just looked like squiggles to an untrained eye spun into place before him, flared up, and vanished. A heartbeat later, a streak of sizzling light shot past the lead lizard and detonated in a brilliant explosion in the rough middle of the group. The two lizards in back were knocked off their feet, but the one in front barely stumbled.

Tyrian was not going to be able to keep that one at a distance. As the bruiser lifted his curved sword in both paws, the squirrel's left nudged his floating spellbook out of the way, as his right shot out to the side. “La fyan telo rai!"

As the magical script of the spell flared before him and vanished, he brought his paw up just in time, his newly-formed sword of glittering light clashing with his attacker's blade. The squirrel quickly brought his left paw over to its grip, struggling for control. He - the real him, anyway - had gotten a good deal stronger in the three and a half weeks or so since he'd first come to the Cradle - and, shortly thereafter, the fantasy VR world of Tethryll - but his game persona was still not built for melee combat, and the way his conjured sword substituted his magical stats in for the physical could only do so much. On top of that, kennings were universally stronger than they looked, and the squirrel rapidly found himself losing the exchange.

In desperation, Tyrian brought the giant white cloud of his tail around and started writhing it in the reptilian swordsman's face. That did the trick; the lizardman cringed his head away from all of the voluminous fluff getting into his eyes, and the squirrel was able to shove his attacker's blade aside enough to jump back out of its immediate reach. Pressing his momentary advantage, he shoved his left paw forward. “Zojak vii!"

A blast of pure kinetic force shot out, striking the lead kenning in the chest. It wasn't enough to do any real damage, but since he was already off balance, it staggered him backward, breaking his guard. That was all the opening Tyrian needed. Lifting his coruscating blade to chest height and letting out a yell, he leapt forward in a lunging thrust, and drove his sword into the scaly brute's chest. The creature dropped to one knee, but still managed to swipe unsteadily at him, forcing him to release his sword and immediately jump backward. It was a good thing the squirrel had started to come into his species' famous agility since he started playing! Still, the two in back had recovered their feet, and one of them was nocking an arrow to his bow. He needed to finish this quickly. He threw his right arm out to the side again, making a complex gesture with his fingers. “Telo solex!"

Even as the lizardman struggled to pull the radiant blade from his body, it detonated with a boom that startled birds from the nearby trees. When the brilliant flash dissipated into a cloud of twinkling lights, it also contained the dispersing black mist that was all that remained of the swordskenning.

Tyrian had no time to celebrate, though. One of the lizards in back loosed an arrow that struck him full in the chest… or would have, had he not had a contingency in place. The previously invisible bubble of the bladeturn spell he'd had in place for hours popped, flinging the projectile away and quite possibly saving his life - but as comprehensive as that complex spell's protection was, it only worked once, and the squirrel knew he wouldn't be afforded the time to put it back in place until he was safe. At the same time, the other lizard was waving his hands in the air aggressively. “Ola zojak-*"

No time to think. Hoping against hope, Tyrian barked a counterspell. “Maho nai!" Snapping his fingers sharply, he started to wince… and then relaxed slightly as the magical script forming in front of the Lizard Wizard shattered and fell away. That had been a gamble; the basic form of that counterspell only worked against spells below the user's relevant casting skill, used by likewise less-skilled magicians, and even then the chances of success weren't all that great. There were apparently a bunch of more complex and specific forms of countermagic that were more reliable, but he hadn't even dipped his toes into that yet. He'd gotten lucky.

It was time to even the odds… and information wasn't the only thing that the undine had given Tyrian, after he and Rave had cleared her lake of its infestation of nasty riverkin two days ago. Brushing the left side of his white and brass coat open, he laid a paw on the token hanging from his belt, made from a clear piece of river-polished quartz. “Mistress of the headwaters! Timeless conductor of the cleansing flow! I summon!" He raised his free paw high before him, pink pads turned upward, as four swirling blue motes of water energy spiraled up around him. “Come, Shaylin!"

The aquatic 'sparks' scattered outward to the sound of a descending pair of tones, like a ringing doorbell, and much of the color drained from the squirrel's vision as he paid the substantial tithe of mana that was his part of the contract. Immediately, numerous tendrils of water appeared in the air, weaving and snaking together into an expanding orb which then erupted in a spray of both water and laughter, leaving his new ally 'standing' there, her exaggeratedly feminine figure draped in a swirling gown of frothing waves.

Predictably, both of the remaining kennings assumed the aqueous apparition to be a serious threat, and the archer quickly fired off two more shots… which passed harmlessly through her body. Being made entirely of water, Shaylin was effectively immune to piercing damage. The caster remained a potential threat… but only for a moment, as an imperious gesture from the undine sent a torrent of water to engulf him, silencing him mid-cast. As she flowed closer to the remaining attackers, Tyrian swung his grimoire around in front of himself again and, with a series of grabbing and flinging gestures over its glowing pages, hammered the panicking archer with second-level Radiant Bolts from his Librum Cannon. In no time at all, the reptilian bowman dropped, and Tyrian returned his attention to the Lizard Wizard flailing helplessly in a giant orb of water just before his struggles ceased, and his floating body went limp as well. The undine had simply drowned him as if it was nothing.

Tyrian was abruptly very glad he'd spent the time (and codex key!) to unlock summoning magic about three weeks ago. Even if this was not at all why he'd started studying it…

The squirrel looked down, checking the ground for any dropped goodies. The two lesser kennings didn't appear to have left anything for him, but he spotted a crystal of reified darkness near his feet, and bent down to scoop it up. He and his crew had collected a fair few of those recently; they seemed to sublimate from the dark mist released by, for want of a better word, 'boss' level enemies that had been corrupted and strengthened by whatever magical contagion the Emissaries had been sent to combat, and the swordslizard had certainly qualified. His Identify spell hadn't revealed any particular use for them, but the League did pay for them as proof of significant battles won. Passing it behind his back, he released it into his inventory, or 'magic pockets' as most players called it, and straightened up, returning the smile on Shaylin's mercurial face. “Thanks for the help!" He cleared his throat, preparing to cancel the summons. “Shaylin, I release you fro-*"

A raspy voice cried out angrily in the medium distance behind him. “Yoma zojak fulm!" Before Tyrian could even react, a bolt of violet lightning arced past him, striking Shaylin in the, well, center of volume at the least, and exploding into a crackling sphere so large that it engulfed his right shoulder and arm, even with the significant distance between them. The undine screamed, exploding instantly into water vapor, and Tyrian's body shook violently. It wasn't exactly a muscle spasm… the VR interface was amazing, but even it couldn't do that without electrocuting him in reality, and the system went to great pains to avoid doing any real harm to New Dawn's precious breeding staff. It was more like he had been briefly inserted into a paint mixer, and the effect was coupled with a heavy, throbbing buzz in his arm, which was the game's way of indicating damage. It was a good thing that being a caster came with a certain degree of resistance to offensive magic, or he might have dropped without ever seeing his new attacker!

Tyrian spun in place again, reflexively attempting to bring his arms up to protect himself, but his right arm only made it halfway before being wrestled aside by the invisible forces that stood in for the physical impairment that came with locational damage. He let it drop back to his side, and swallowed hard. The kenning who had forcibly unsummoned Shaylin was wearing an ornate headdress, and carried a feathered, skull-topped staff; he (or she? Tyrian couldn't really tell their genders apart) was probably some sort of shaman. Regardless, he was surrounded by an angry red aura-outline, marking him as being well out of the squirrel sage's weight bracket.

Acting on learned instinct, Tyrian started casting a healing spell. “Ma sani…" He grimaced; he couldn't yet cast the third level version without using both paws. Quickly gesturing his way through the second level iteration with just his left, he then laid it on his fried arm. “La sani rai!" Light flared over the damaged limb, and he discovered he could lift it properly again, although the buzz didn't entirely go away and it was still a bit unstable. To top it off, nearly all the color faded from his vision; he estimated he was down to at best a third of a tank.

The squirrel's ears and tail drooped as more kennings boiled up between the thick trunks of the massive trees that gave the Gloaming Boughs its name. It wasn't going to matter. He was fucked. Oh well, at least there was no question that he was close to something big, now. He'd gather his party and come back in a day or two to find out what. He gritted his teeth, but refused to close his eyes; he was determined to face his (temporary) end with dignity, at least.

The shaman waved his staff in the air, hopping from foot to foot… but Tyrian saw an odd distortion flitting in the air behind him as he incanted. “Yoma zojak HURK!"

The lizardman stiffened, his eyes bugged out… and then he simply dissipated into smoke, dead without ever hitting the ground. His entourage was so stunned that, for a few seconds, they didn't even move, giving the mist time to clear and reveal the hooded figure standing behind him, one arm extended, with its wrist-mounted blade still hovering in the air where the kenning shaman's heart had been. Triangular orange ears poked up through holes in the hood, and the whiskery tip of a vulpine muzzle protruded from its shadows. The fox relaxed his balled paw, causing the wristblade to retract back into hiding, and ducked down to scoop up whatever his victim had dropped, before sprinting toward Tyrian at high speed.

“Time to go!"

A huge grin spread across the squirrel's face. Oh yeah, he knew that voice! As the black-clad fox dashed past him, he turned, and both of them threw their skimmers to the forest floor in near-perfect simultaneity. Jumping up onto the long, shallow half-lozenges as they almost instantly expanded to full size, they shot off between the trees. Furious screams filled the forest behind them, and were soon followed by arrows and a few blasts of magic, but in seconds they were shielded by the sheer bulk of the mighty redwoods.

Of course, this presented an entirely different problem, in that they were now riding high-speed magical hoverboards through a dense forest. Sure, they could have slowed down once they were out of the tribe's horrible murder radius, but that was not the fox's style. Ever since the end of his first week in the city, he'd been pushing Tyrian - or rather, his mundane, greyfurred alter ego, Shawn - against his limits and out of his comfort zone, and the squirrel had come to understand that that was his love language. He had honed both his body and his willpower to a tremendous extent, and invited those he cared about to come be completely awesome with him.

True to form, the vulpine assassin kept to a breakneck pace, weaving madly among the trees with his arms extended for balance, constantly riding the razor's edge of a truly dramatic wipeout without ever quite going over. Despite his best efforts, Tyrian lagged behind - he couldn't match his friend in strength, balance or courage - but he managed to keep up well enough that he never lost sight of that bushy orange and white tail for more than a second… and after perhaps two minutes that felt like an hour, he rounded a particularly vast bole to see the fox ramping off of a conveniently-shaped rock and hurtling over Shaylin's river.

Son of a bitch!

Gritting his teeth, the squirrel curved his path to take the makeshift ramp straight-on, bending his knees, and then straightened them sharply as he hit it, forcing the skimmer's magical suspension to fling them both up into the air. But he hadn't practiced hoverboard stunts to any great extent, and he felt his rear paw leaving the surface of the skimmer, and his body twisting a bit in the air. Oh shiiiiiiiit!

On the far bank before him, the fox pivoted his skimmer to a stop, jumped off, and caught Tyrian's tumbling body, protecting the squirrel with his strong arms as the two of them rolled in the grass and dirt to an unceremonious stop. In the process, his hood fell back, revealing the face Tyrian knew was there grinning down at him… and then Cory, the physical trainer and all around badass who was not quite Shawn's boyfriend, but had been doing a pretty bang-up job of filling his emotional needs all the same while he waited for a real candidate, pinned him to the turf, laced their fingers together, and spent the next three minutes making out with him like they were the only people in the world.

The VR interface still had trouble conveying a convincing kiss - probably because one couldn't taste the other person's breath or saliva - but Tyrian was way past caring by the end of that. And his pants had long since gotten very uncomfortable.

When the fox finally pulled his head back to beam at him, Tyrian could feel the wind of his wagging tail brushing down against his own. “Now how was that for a fuckin' entrance?!" As he spoke, an infobox popped up, purple on purple.

Shadowblade Cory Liddell

Mother's Emissary

“If you'd been any cooler I'd probably have just dropped dead on the spot. Good thing I'm pretty sure that that wasn't physically possible." His eyes flicked between box and fox, and he raised one eyebrow. “You didn't even pick a different name for your Emissary?"

The fox yipped a laugh, wagging harder for a moment. “And why would I? I'm already exactly who I want to be." He gave the squirrel another peck, then climbed off of him and stood up, offering him a paw. Tyrian accepted, and the fox hauled him to his feet with very little effort, while clenching his other fist and causing the blade hidden in his sleeve to snap sharply out from the back of his wrist again. “Gotta admit though, being able to turn invisible and shank people with no consequences is awakening something in me that was probably better off asleep…" He frowned, then let the blade retract again, and they both ducked down to retrieve their forgotten skimmers.

Tyrian looked over the fox's garb. It had looked impressive in the moment, but outside of that dramatic setting, he realized it was really just a black hoodie and a matching pair of loose sweatpants. Cory could easily just be out for a jog in Red Quadrant, looking like that. As if reading his mind, the fox chuckled, his ears perking back up. “Yeah, this is what I'm actually wearing. Not a game thing like all that!" He gestured at the squirrel's far more impressive and dignified tailcoat, and then held up a paw to forestall the incoming protest. “Yes yes, I know, you're not allowed to wear clothes normally. But I am and I like this outfit. In fact, I'll be kinda pissed off if it ends up getting torn up in here, but it might be worth it to find out whether the system will even let that happen. The only VR additions are the wristblades, and this." Cory fished his holy symbol out from under the zipper of his hoodie. It was identical to Tyrian's, save for the fact that the focal gem between the outstretched wings was a polished bead of black hematite, where the squirrel's symbol had a diamond.

Tyrian chuckled. “It's kind of… out of theme, but you look hot in it. Oh who am I kidding, you look hot in anything."

Cory smiled, canted an ear, and tilted his head, as he held his tail curled off to one side behind him. “You're rocking that 'noble wizard' getup yourself, treerat. And this is hot. Literally. If I stand in sunlight like this, it heats up, like it would in the real world." He unzipped the front of his hoodie, and the squirrel spent the next several moments staring helplessly at the fox's chest and belly. He wasn't unreasonably bulky or anything, but his muscles were iron under that plush coating of vulpine fur, and Tyrian found himself idly touching his not-boyfriend for what was probably the twentieth time in the last two and a half weeks. As usual, the fox was eating it up.

Smiling into Cory's warm amber eyes, Tyrian swished the massive plume of his tail around like a fan. “So how did you find me? That timing was beyond suspicious. And how long have you been playing? I didn't know they'd opened up more slots."

“Oh come on, 'Tyrian', you know a charming rogue like myself never gives up his informants!"

The fox didn't have to; the squirrel's AI companion, Jason - or Yasim as he was called in this setting - started in with his trademarked 'I'm innocent' whistle in Tyrian's ears, causing him to chittergiggle madly. “I should've known. More 'loving manipulation', wolf?"

“You know it, bro! It's a way of life!" Even though he couldn't manifest his normal black wolf avatar in Tethryll - yet - Tyrian could still hear Jason's voice inside his head. “Also, I recorded video of everything from before you were jumped to when Cory caught you. Is it okay if I share it? You were so damned cool!"

“Uhh… alright, but keep it in the family, okay? You know, the usual suspects."

“Ten-four!"

Seeing that he had Tyrian's attention again, Cory continued. “As for the other thing, they opened up some more slots about a week ago, and I jumped right on it. Since then, all my free time has been split between my boyfriends, the occasional get together so my friends don't think I've forgotten them, and murdering the shit out of baddies in here. Speaking of which… Xander, time." He paused, then rolled his eyes. “Fine. Xerxes, would you kindly inform me of the present hour back on Earth?"

The squirrel giggled. Apparently Cory's daemon was getting more into character than he was!

The fox's eyes refocused. “I've got a date with Ollie in an hour ten, so I probably shouldn't stick around here too much longer."

Tyrian nodded. That would be Oliver Meacham, the opossum software engineer the fox had introduced him to the first time Shawn had been invited to one of Cory's movie nights. He'd been surprised at first to discover that one of the outgoing fox's boyfriends had seemed so shy and reclusive… that was, until he'd wound up spitroasted between the two of them.

That nerdy marsupial could fuck.

It had turned out that he was also a genius-level coder who had been on the team that originally cracked the artificial general intelligence problem and paved the way for daemons like Jason to exist, which meant he became an immediate hero to the technophilic squirrel. The two of them had yet to meet up outside of the context of their shared connection to Cory, but the squirrel kinda wanted to change that someday.

The fox was still talking. “By the way, what were you doing this far out by yourself? I mean, I did watch you fight and it so got my juices flowing… but this part of the forest is pretty fuckin' spicy."

“Oh, I was chasing down a lead. Shaylin, that water spirit, told me that she sensed the source of the forest's corruption somewhere in that area, so I wanted to sniff around. Judging from the small army that rolled up on me, I think it's safe to say there's something going on around there. And as for doing it alone, I didn't have a choice. Becca's due to pop any day now, Caleb had assigned breeding, and Matt got dragged to another party by his other circle of friends."

Cory nodded. “Oh, I'm sorry about your waterspout friend. I couldn't make my move until the other lizards stepped up and no one was watching the witch doctor's back. Moving in front of baddies runs the risk of the invisibility breaking. Is she… gonna be okay?"

Tyran smiled. “Oh yeah, the summoning thing isn't her real body. Having that happen just stops me from summoning her again for 24 hours, that's all."

“That's a relief! Oh, right, he dropped something extra shiny…"

The fox reached behind himself, 'rummaging' in his magic pockets, and came up with two items. One was an even larger dark crystal than the one Tyrian had gotten from the swordslizard; the other was a fancy scroll with golden embellishments that had a faint spiderweb of light rippling over it, like water on the bottom of the pool. Cory unrolled it partway, stared at it, and shrugged. “It's just floaty gibberish to me."

“May I see?"

Cory handed it over, and Tyrian unrolled it again. “Ritual of Dawn's First Light… absolute purification of corrupting influ-*" He looked up at the fox, his tail dancing wildly. “This could be a big deal! Uh, is there any chance I could buy it off of you?"

“Oh, hell no!"

The squirrel flinched slightly, but nodded. “Yeah, you definitely earned it. Maybe you'll be able to MMF!"

Cory reached up and firmly closed a paw around Tyrian's muzzle, silencing him. “I'd never trade something like this for fantasy coins when I could gift it to my favorite squirrel instead." The sciurine sage's eyes widened, and his heart pounded in his chest as his ears warmed, but the fox wasn't done. He leaned in, murmuring right into Tyrian's ear in a warm, low voice. “And if you really want to pay me back for it, you're also my favorite ass…"

As soon as Cory released his face, Tyrian gently licked at the fox's pawpads. “Not like I can 'pay' you with something I would've done anyway…"

“And that goes both ways. So it's yours." He gave the squirrel another little kiss. “Now, I'd better go get a shower and change into something sexy for my possum. But keep me on speed dial for whenever you're playing this. You know how busy I am, but I definitely want to find time to game with my hot treerat buddy. Alright?'

Tyrian didn't care how dopey his smile looked, or whether Cory could see the little hearts he imagined he had floating around his head. “Count on it."

The fox grinned, rubbed one of the squirrel's ears, and stepped back, putting a paw on his holy symbol. “Mother, take me home!" A bubble formed around him as he was lifted into a midair reclining position, and a few seconds later, collapsed in on itself, taking him with it.

Tyrian shoved the scroll into his magic pockets and echoed the gesture. “Mother, take me back to Duskreach Fort!"

As was standard operating procedure, Tyrian spent a few minutes telling the NPC members of the Westerwilds Exploration League of his outing when he returned to base. Apart from being a fun way to cap off a day of adventure, it also helped keep other players abreast of new developments, since the League would relate any salient points to other Emissaries coming through. While the details were still fresh in his mind, he then ducked into the main 'headquarters' building to redeem his crystal for coins with the quartermaster in the basement, and then came back up to the map room on the main floor to mark the location where he'd fought the kennings. As he was doing so, he heard the door open and close behind him, and turned to see Grolph standing there, fidgeting nervously.

Standing at barely four feet tall, the kenning scout resembled nothing so much as an anthropomorphized gecko, complete with the permanent smile and the adorably oversized eyes and tail. His scales were patterned in irregular waves of blue and purple, and unless one counted the bandolier and belt that supported his gear, he wore nothing other than a crude brown cloak; if it wasn't for his lack of external genitalia, it would have made for quite the lewd show. Tyrian started to smile, but then his expression fell as he realized that Grolph's anatomically baked-in expression was looking droopier than usual, and that he had just killed a few people that the scout might have known.

“Tyrian-sage, this one heard your tale. May he have a word?" Grolph's soft voice had the typical kenning rasp, and he still hissed his sibilants, but his pronunciation of the common tongue was far better than that of the few of his kin who'd even bothered trying to talk to Tyrian's party in the past.

“Of course, Grolph-friend. This one is saddened by what he had to do, but he had little choice. What can he do for you?" He had been the first of his group to try to converse with the kenning using his own mannerisms, but the others had been quick to pick it up - except maybe for Rave, who still often roleplayed only under duress - and the lizardman seemed to appreciate the gesture.

Grolph swung his broad head back and forth twice. “This one's people made their nest when they chose war with yours… but that is what this one wants to talk to his friend-squirvel about." Okay, so his pronunciation still wasn't perfect. “You spoke the death of a 'shaman.' Did that one have red and orange scales, with three yellow stripes upon his belly? And did he wear a crown of feathers in the same colors?"

Tyrian thought back. He'd been in a near panic at the time, but to the best of his recollection, the description was a solid match… although he wouldn't have called that headdress a 'crown.' “Yes… that sounds right, actually. Did you know him?"

The kenning made what Tyrian could only interpret as an angry noise, his mouth hanging open for a moment as his fat tail whipped back and forth behind him. “That one was Hrogralhr!" The squirrel was not immediately certain whether that was a name, a title, an insult, or a sudden frog in the lizard's throat. “It was he who set the kenning upon this doomed path! It was he who forced this one into a life of exile when he would not comply! This one rejoices in his fall and steps upon his eggs!" Grolph punctuated the last comment by stomping around with both feet. The squirrel had never seen him so agitated before! “And this one understands he was defeated with a single blow?!"

“Y-yes. A moment before he would've killed me-*er, this one, actually. This one could tell he was much more powerful than… this one." Seeing Grolph angry was throwing Tyrian out of the kenning groove. “But Cory-Emissary struck him down with a deadly blow from behind. I guess no amount of magical power can protect someone from a strike to the heart."

“This one is saddened that Cory-Emissary did not return with Tyrian-friend. This one wishes to thank him personally. But, that is not this one's chief point." Grolph made a little throat-clearing harrumph sound. “Hrogralhr-shaman was the reason that the kenning became these ones' enemies.This one hesitates to frighten the hope by showing it his eyes, but… it is possible that his people can be turned from the blood-path back onto cleaner sands now, at least for the kenning of the Gloaming Boughs. This one trembles at the thought of putting his friend-squirvel in greater peril, but if the tribe should appear again…" He trailed off, wringing his hands again.

Tyrian smiled. “If you think there's a chance to bring those ones around, this one would be happy to try. This one does not dare to go back out there without his Emissary-friends, so it won't be today, but… if they show up when these ones do return, he will do his best to extend an open paw."

Grolph's shoulders relaxed, and his adorable gecko-ish smile returned, along with a couple small twitches of his tailtip. A moment later, he darted in and latched onto Tyrian in an impulsive hug, which the squirrel returned, beaming as he ran his pawpads over the back of the scout's cloak and the cool, smooth scales beneath. He didn't have long to enjoy the embrace, though; the kenning's sense of propriety suddenly leapt back to the fore, and he pulled back out of the hug, rubbing his hands together as before. “The sun rises in this one's breast, Tyrian-sage! But he fears they may not listen to the words of mammals, now that Hrogralhr-shaman has poisoned their ear-holes. So… this one asks, if it is not too much bother, that his Emissary-friends take him with them when they return."

The white squirrel blinked in surprise. “This one would be happy to take you with him, but… are you sure, Grolph-friend? You've said before that you had to avoid going anywhere near your tribe…"

The kenning took a deep breath. “This one trembles also at that thought… but the hour of courage is upon him. Exiled though he may be, those ones remain his brothers and sisters still. Yes, Tyrian-friend. This one is sure."

“Then this one would be happy to have you along. Um, it's kind of a long way out, though." Tyrian gestured at the pin he'd put on the map table just before Grolph came in. “And this one doesn't know exactly when he'll be able to get the group together to find out what's actually going on out there. Hopefully in the next day or two."

Grolph bobbed his head twice. “This one knows that the stores below hold some few spare skimmers, and he has been saving his coin. He will go purchase one right now, and spend his time until his Emissary-friends are ready practicing its use! But he will stay close to Duskreach and be ready to show his mouth to Fate when the time comes!" Without further ado, the kenning scampered down the stairs, his broad blue and purple striped tail sliding over the steps in a quick rhythm.

Tyrian's tail twitched in excitement. Whether or not the upcoming expedition shed any light onto the source of the nastiness in Tethryll, he might get a chance to turn the kenning to Mother's side! The prospect of no longer having to kill any of the cute lizardfolk was more than enough on its own to get him pumped for the outing. Checking to make sure he had all of his things, he laid a paw on his holy symbol again. “Mother, take me home!"

Yasim was waiting for him when he reappeared in his Dimensional Interstice, and immediately swept him up into a big hug. Tyrian passed his arms under the wolf's large black wings and nuzzled his smiling face into the lupine angel's tunic-covered chest. Between his semi-regular meetups with Cory, and the increasing physicality of his mostly-platonic relationships with Matt and Caleb, he wasn't too starved for affection anymore, but he had yet to find anyone who he could truly call 'his.' No one other than the sophisticated AI assistant whose entire reason for being was to take care of him, that was… and the two of them made it a point to squeeze in as much cuddle time as they could in the squirrel's private base in-game, which was the only place where the daemon could seem to be wholly real.

Tyrian felt all the tension leave his high-strung body as the wolf stroked down his back, and suddenly wished he was as barefurred as he would be when he left the game. Cory did a great job of making him feel sexy and wanted, but Jason, in either guise… Jason made him feel safe. Safe, and loved…

Pulling reluctantly out of the embrace, Shawn tilted his head upward, and Yasim met it with a quick little smooch. “You were a real badass out there today, bro! I had a little watch party with Jasmine, Leon and Cameron while you were at Duskreach and everyone got super pumped from watching you fight. It sounds like they shared with their mammals, too. Caleb's losing his shit that he wasn't there to see you use Shaylin in combat for the first time, since he helped you get that contract. Becca says she hopes to deliver the 'passengers' you gave her in time to be there when you all go back out; the doctors tell her it'll probably be tonight or tomorrow. Matt's balls deep in malamute pussy right now, so I guess Cam'll show him later."

Tyrian's ears heated up, and his big smile turned bashful. The image of his muscular husky friend breeding a malamute was enough to make his ears redden on its own, but no matter how many times they happened, reminders of his own success in impregnating that rabbit - on his first night, no less! - never failed to make him blush. He'd made it a point to visit her regularly, if mostly only to talk, once she'd gotten big enough for it to no longer be feasible or safe for her to don her Emissary armor. It was an unspoken understanding between them that even the litter he'd given her wasn't enough to overcome his own homoromantic tendencies, but the two of them had become good friends regardless… and he had to admit, the single additional time they'd fucked several days ago had been an almost religious experience. Rubbing his paws over a belly stretched huge by his own triplets as he came hard into her pussy again had really driven home how massively the idea of his own virility could turn him on, even if it still felt like there was a wall stopping him from developing the kind of attachment to a woman he'd otherwise expect from those feelings.

“Hey, do you know anything about that area I was investigating in the forest today?"

“Nothing you don't, bro. If there's some big plot thing around there, Mother hasn't told me. Besides, you should know better than to ask me for spoilers! If I'm not gonna cheat to help you learn how to summon me, I'm sure not gonna break the rules for that!"

The squirrel sighed. That particular problem had been eating at him for weeks. When he and his friends had fended off an attack on the village of Caddaham Hollow a little over a week after he'd started playing, his reward had been a basic copper Codex Key, and he'd used it to unlock an introductory book on summoning. It had revealed that summon magic didn't work like the other types he'd been using. It wasn't a matter of learning specific incantations and gestures from a book; rather, he had to convince a valid entity in-world to enter into a contract with him and give him a token to represent the agreement, at which point the invocation would be revealed to him back in his library. Doing that had at least unlocked the Summoning Magic advanced skill, though, and he'd made it a point to convert a portion of the praxis he earned into boosting that, so that he'd be ready when he had the chance. Shaylin had been that chance.

It had turned out to be an apparent dead end with regards to summoning Yasim, though. He'd asked the angel for a contract, and the wolf had sadly told him that he was 'unable to offer him one in that way.' It was overall a very strange dynamic… as much as Tyrian did legitimately want to be able to call down angelic support and see what his best friend could do in-game, the entire endeavor was primarily because it was the one thing Jason had actually asked him for, for his own sake, and the squirrel was absolutely dying to start paying back the countless kindnesses his daemon had showered upon him since he'd joined the government breeding program in the city of New Dawn. But even though Jason/Yasim apparently knew the trick to it, he was forbidden from sharing that knowledge, and seemed determined not to risk pissing off Mother, the super-daemon who ran the game (and served as Tethryll's chief deity) by breaking that rule.

“Hey, look on the bright side, dude. Actually calling out the Lady of the Lake today boosted your summoning skill a good bit! And even if it's not directly helping you learn to summon me, I'm pretty sure that extends the duration a bit when you figure out how!"

The squirrel's eyebrows shot up. “Wait, so the Summoning Magic skill isn't even needed for that? At all?"

Yasim gritted his teeth. “Fuck, I probably wasn't supposed to say that. Well… eh, actually, if Mother was gonna smite me for that she woulda done it weeks ago. I already told you you had everything you needed to make it happen, before you spent that key, right? You didn't even have the skill unlocked back then."

“Crap, you're right. God, I'm probably going to feel like an idiot when I figure it out. Stuff I already had back then…" He looked around the combination library/alchemy lab/armory/bedroom nook that was his Dimensional Interstice. He was pretty sure he'd looked in all the chests, cabinets and drawers by this point, without seeing anything conspicuously relevant to the question at hand… although that reminded him of the bowl of fruit by his bedside, and he went to retrieve a crisp red apple from it, crunching on it thoughtfully. Yasim lifted himself up onto the edge of the table near the map that was Tyrian's gateway back down to Tethryll, staring purposefully at an unimportant spot on the floor, determined not to give anything away with his eyes, just as he always did whenever his squirrel tried to solve this mystery.

Tick, tick, tick…

Tyrian's white tail shot up. The grandfather clock! His eyes focused on it. He'd noticed it when he first joined the game, and never paid it a second glance since. He padded quickly across the room to his storage and dressing area, looking it over, and then yanked open the door in front of it, examining its elaborate brass innards in the hopes that something had been hidden inside.

Nothing. Well… a bunch of fascinating clockwork stuff happening up behind the clock face, and some weights that apparently rewound themselves when he was out, unless Yasim was doing it… but nothing that didn't appear to belong in a clock.

He shut the door, feeling like a fool. What exactly had he hoped to find? A book hidden inside the mechanisms?

“Hey, Yasim… you're the one who collects any books with new stuff for me while I'm down on Tethryll. Can I trust that you aren't just ignoring one of them because it relates to this, or should I double-check all of them?"

The wolf chuckled. “I can tell you that I haven't ignored any book in your library lighting up just because of what I know is in it." He didn't look up.

Tyrian still felt like there could be a careful evasion in how he'd worded that, but it was a moot point anyway. He could easily see that none of the books on his numerous shelves were putting off the telltale light that signaled a new or upgraded spell ready for his use, and he'd already scanned all of their spines weeks ago looking for anything that sounded like it could be relevant. Other than the books on summoning magic, nothing had jumped out at him as significant, and given what he'd learned from the first book, he suspected the others would offer metamagic tricks related to summoning, like the healing boosting Art he'd picked up a while back. On which note, he needed to make time to practice drawing its sigil with his left paw, in case his right got disabled like it had earlier.

Tick, tick, tick…

Feeling like the clock was judging him for how long he was taking - had taken - to figure out the secret of angelic summoning, the squirrel moved back toward the middle of the room… then abruptly remembered that that wasn't only the timekeeping device he had. Stuffing a paw into one of his coat pockets, he pulled out his brass pocket watch and thumbed the button to flick it open. It had more mesmerizing gears twitching behind its face, but no apparent secrets, besides the question of why popping open a pocket watch made him suddenly feel at least 40% more dignified… but then his eyes narrowed. It also had a knob for winding it, but that was clearly unnecessary, since it hadn't run down in what was getting close to a month since he'd first logged in.

Twisting the knob, Tyrian felt a jolt of excitement travel down his tail, eliciting a rapid flutter. The edges of the glass covering the face had glowed briefly when he did that! There had been no other obvious effect, though. He tried pushing the button again, and his eyes shot wide as the entire face was replaced by an information display! The upper half of the 'screen' consisted of a tray for icons, although only two were present currently. Both were winged hearts; one had a halo, and the other, a shield.

There was no way it was going to give him vague hints and stop at that, right? Twisting the knob did very little, other than causing the icons to twitch in place. Apparently that was a control for scrolling them, if there were too many to display. He tried poking at the first icon, and it slid off to one side as a text box appeared.

Deathless

Cannot die permanently under any circumstances.

Oh, so these were status effects! Another tap dismissed it, and he tried the other.

Incorruptible

Immune to Charm, Domination and similar mind-controlling effects.

Immune to Corruption.

Tyrian was grinning like a madman. All of this made sense. Mother had already basically told him he was 'deathless' during his introduction to the game, and he knew perfectly well that not even the bio-terminal in his neck had any ability to alter his thoughts, so it's not like the system could 'charm' him anyway. Also, the game would be over pretty quickly if the Emissaries could be corrupted like the very creatures they were fighting! Still, discovering that he did in fact have a hidden status display had him tickled pink.

He dismissed the second description, and eyed the lower half of his watch's glowing face, which was taken up by a trio of gauges. The first was obvious: the red bar next to an identically-colored heart had to indicate his health, which was apparently full. So was the second, blue bar, marked by a sparkling, open book. Mana, presumably. But the third gauge was solid black, and judging by the white wings and halo symbol next to it, it wasn't meant to be.

The squirrel started pacing back and forth. Health, mana, and… what? It couldn't be stamina; that didn't make any sense with the icon, and besides, the game seemed pretty content to let its players' own physical limits dictate that. It could be some sort of 'overdrive' meter - he'd played games with that kind of concept - but if so, it was a little odd that it was completely empty when he'd never spent anything like that…

He looked up from his watch at Jason, and found the wolf still staring intently at his chosen spot on the floor. He'd started rapidly twiddling his thumbs in his lap, though, and the squirrel could tell that he was struggling to contain his tail's attempts to wag. He was onto something!

Tyrian continued pacing. Maybe he was thinking of this the wrong way. Not health and mana… body and mind. Which would make the third bar… 'soul?' He finished off his apple and tossed the core into the wastebasket near his bed before scooping up his alchemy manual. Health potions… mana potions, he'd already made a few of those… all of the praxis-related recipes… stat boosts… spell ink… he sighed. Nothing. Most of the pages were still doing the 'swimming letters' thing, as with a spell he hadn't unlocked yet, but even their titles were blurred out. The Summoning Magic Praxis recipe had 'solidified' when he'd unlocked the skill; it was likely that he just couldn't see recipes for things he couldn't use yet, and for in-world consumables that he had to learn about another way.

He sighed, slumping into the chair at the alchemy table in defeat, yet again. Whatever it was, the game was going to some pains to avoid spelling it out. If it had been an alchemical thing, he could've whipped some up easily; he still hadn't let himself spend the ample bottle of Mother's Favor he'd gotten for healing Haran during his first visit to Tethryll, just in case he needed to boost a skill quickly to unlock something, and that could turn into anything. But-*

His wandering eyes snapped back to that bottle. Wait a minute…

“Yasim, what would happen if I just drank some of this Favor without converting it first? Just raw-dogged some unfiltered divine mojo?"

The wolf's tail fluttered frantically before he could control it, but his voice was carefully neutral. "Good question. I have no idea."

Like Hell you don't!

Tyrian grabbed the bottle, uncorked it, and took a careful sniff before tilting it up and letting a little bit flow over his tongue. Ooh, coconut-flavored vitamin water! He glanced back at his watch and, sure enough, a tiny bit at the bottom of the third bar had filled in!

Glk glk glk! The squirrel kept a careful eye on his watch while he gulped down the luminous white liquid. As the bar approached the halfway point, he started hearing voices singing distantly; by three quarters, the sound had grown into a distinct angelic choir. He glanced over at Yasim, who was grinning hugely at him, no longer bothering to conceal his excitement. One more sip… and suddenly the liquid would no longer flow out of the bottle into his mouth. He was not permitted to drink any more. As he swallowed, the indistinct voices exploded into a brief 'hallelujah!', and the full white bar on his watch turned gold.

Intercession Unlocked!

“Fuckin' A, Shawn," Yasim exploded, as he jumped back to his feet. “Or Tyrian! Whatever! Do you have any idea how much it tortured me every time you looked at that stuff?!"

Before he could reply, Tyrian's attention was drawn back to his watch, as the now-golden halo and wings symbol copied itself over into his effects area. He tapped on it.

Heaven's Approbation

A higher power stands ready to assist you.

“I'm sorry, Ya… Jason. I really am. That stuff just has so many uses, I didn't even stop to think whether it might do something 'raw.' So that was it, then?"

“That was it! Like I said before, summoning an angel is pulling out the big guns, so I guess Mother wanted to stop people from wasting it for shiggles. Look at your paw."

It took the squirrel a moment to figure out which part of which paw the wolf meant, but then he spotted an elaborate lotus design glowing in rippling rainbow colors on the back of his left glove. “Wow. Apparently all my gay collected in one place and is erupting through my clothing."

Yasim leered at him. “That can be arranged, y'know." He licked his lips, eyeing his flesh-and-blood charge up and down. “Wanna find out whether I can make you cum with your pants still on?"

“Um, yes please, but not right now. How do I actually…?"

The winged wolf pointed at the wizard's satchel, and Tyrian discovered that his grimoire was glowing. The moment he reached for it, it popped into his paw, then opened to its penultimate page, and the squirrel started reading it eagerly.

“Angelic Intercession… must be in a state of grace… manifestation… convergence? Exultation?" He looked up at his best friend. “Wait, it has phases?"

Yasim grinned in delight. “Bitch, this-*"

The two of them finished the line in tandem. “-isn't even my final form! Hahaha!"

Tyrian turned the page, eyeing both blank sides of the last sheet. “So why didn't it put this at the very end? Is there an even bigger big gun?"

“Hell if I know. And I mean it this time, I legit do not know what else might go there. This Space Intentionally Left Tantalizing?" The wolf shrugged. “I can tell you that your watch can do a couple more things, though."

Looking back at it again, Tyrian clicked the button one more time, and the display became mostly empty, save for portraits of himself and Yasim with small health and mana displays. Tapping on the wolf's smiling mugshot gave him a version of the prior screen for his guardian angel, although the status display was full of question marks. Apparently man was not meant to know the properties of angels! Another click just caused the overlay to vanish, turning the watch back into a mundane (if extremely stylish) timepiece, and the squirrel gave his daemon a sidelong look. “A 'couple?'"

“Long press, bro."

Tyrian complied, and his face lit up as the information from the 'party' display appeared, hovering in the air before him as if attached to the left edge of a curved pane of glass situated in front of his face. It turned along with his head, but it was easy enough to just glance to the side and see his own health and mana at the top, and Yasim's just below in a smaller format. He also saw icons for his permanent status effects, but those vanished after a moment, sliding underneath his portrait. “I thought this game wasn't supposed to have a HUD!"

“It doesn't, in general! It's your glasses doing that." The squirrel peeked over them, and discovered it was true. “I think Mother gave similar tricks to some other people who started with healing abilities, since you need extra info to do your job. You've been overhealing Rave, by the way. Maybe now you won't be tricked when he spazzes out over light damage!"

“Is there a way to see locational damage? Like, can I tell when someone's arm or leg is messed up enough that they can't use it right?"

“Not right now, but there's a Diagnosis skill that can show you that, and let you see less obvious status effects."

The squirrel grinned. “So does this mean we're in a party right now?"

“Bro, I'm always in your party." The wolf gave him a cheesy grin. “Seriously though, the game doesn't have that concept. Any friendly combatants nearby will show up on that automatically. So uh, maybe turn it off if you start hanging out in major cities or something? Oh, and I can control what it shows you, to an extent, like how I hid your passives. Let me know if you want to rearrange it or anything!"

“Heck, I'm just glad that I can see my mana now, instead of guessing how close to screwed I am based on Mother turning down the saturation on my eyes!" He gave his watch's button another long press, and the HUD vanished; closing his watch, he slipped it back into his pocket, and grinned at Yasim. “Now, about that idea you had a minute ago…" He stowed his grimoire back in its satchel again, his tail fluttering playfully.

Yasim wagged in turn. “I love a challenge, but… aren't you forgetting something?"

Tyrian's ears perked up. “Oh right, the scroll!" He pulled it back out of his inventory and spread it out on the alchemy table, reading over it. “This sounds like it'd be kind of a bitch to use in the middle of a fight; it's pretty involved. What does 'absolute purification of corrupting influences' actually mean, anyway? What's this even for?"

“Sorry bro, that's back into 'can't talk about it' territory. It does what it says on the tin. Just use your imagination."

The squirrel moved his paws in the air as he mouthed the various stages of the incantation. Like his summon spell, it was in plain Koryan, but it was considerably longer. “Hey, can I teach this to others?"

“Yyyyes, but no one else in your crew has the stats to use it yet. Want me to add the instructions to your grimoire?"

“Please. I don't want to fuck it up once I figure out what it's actually for. I guess I could probably un-evil someone with it, if Aster kept them busy long enough…"

“Maybe, but I can tell you it has a long windup at the end that makes it super obvious you're doing something big. He'd probably have to put them in a submission hold or something, or they'd just step out of the way." The wolf paused, his ears perking up, and then folding back as a sheepish smile spread over his face. “Hey, bro…?"

“Yeah?"

“If you're willing to take a raincheck on finding out whether you get free laundry service on your clothes when you log out, I… kinda have something else in mind. But it's a surprise, and I can't do it at all if you make me explain it ahead of time. I also have to kinda break some rules to make it happen. Can I… just have permission to do whatever I want for tonight, even if I wouldn't normally be allowed? I'm like 90% sure you'll be glad I did…"

Tyrian paused. Jason had always loved springing surprises on him, and with one glaring exception during his first conditioning session, he'd never given the squirrel cause to regret playing along… but it wasn't like him to ask for blanket permission like this. He normally just did whatever he wanted. So why…? He shook himself out of his reverie. “More loving manipulation?"

“Absolutely! And if this plays out how I think it will, it'll be a night you never forget!"

Tyrian smiled, his shoulders relaxing. “Y'know what, go for it. Just don't be too upset if you go too hard and I safeword out!"

Yasim pumped both his fists, bouncing on the balls of his feet, and his tail went into overdrive. “YES! Okay handsome, it's time for date night! C'mon, let's get back to reality!" The wolf went into a lope, lunging through the mirror in the back of the room that led out of the VR environment, and as he did, his dark wings vanished.

“H-hey, wait up!" Chasing after him, the squirrel grabbed his day bag from the spot beside the door where he'd left it upon logging in, and then hesitated, eyeing himself in the mirror. The reflection on the far side - his real self - stared back at him, naked and gray-furred; where Tyrian's fur was solid white from ears to toes, Shawn's only had that going for it down his front from chin to groin. At least he now had Tyrian's lavender eyes in the real world, too, thanks to Jason tinting his contact lenses after his first session in the game. He always hated logging out… Tyrian made him feel special and larger than life, and while he knew in his heart that he could 'be' Tyrian inwardly whenever he needed his alter ego's confidence and dignity, losing the Emissary's alabaster fur and gorgeous clothes always took the wind out of his sails.

Sensing his hesitation, Jason stepped back around the corner and waved at him with a big grin. The squirrel's eyes widened; for whatever reason, the jet-black wolf hadn't manifested his usual New Dawn staff jumpsuit, and was standing there in his natural - well, artificial - glory. Several inches taller than him, the daemon had an athletic physique - not unlike Cory and Matt, now that he thought about it; did he have a type? - green eyes, and an absolute bitch-breaker of a sheath, over a pair of balls to match. Those last details still embarrassed Shawn a bit, given that every detail of Jason's avatar had been up to him on his first day in the Cradle, but he excused himself with the (extremely accurate) rationale that he hadn't exactly been thinking clearly during the whirlwind of his admission. And, sure, he could've asked the wolf to tone that down since, but… what was the harm in a little eye candy? Besides, that heavy nutsack was the one and only way in which Shawn was his daemon's morphological equal. Being a rodent definitely had its advantages.

As he stepped through the mirror, Shawn's VR finery peeled away, giving him a surge of self-consciousness that faded quickly. Nearly a month in, he still wasn't completely used to wandering around town naked, but it got a little easier every day. As he slipped the strap of his bag around his body, Jason snapped his fingers, and was suddenly clothed again… but instead of the black jumpsuit, Shawn found him clad in grey, belted slacks and a buttoned maroon shirt. The squirrel gave him a bemused smile and tilted his head a bit. “What, dressing up for 'date night' now? You know I can't follow suit, even if I head home first. Besides, I was kinda enjoying the show. What gives?"

Jason held a finger up to his lips, still wagging rapidly, and beckoned over his shoulder as he trotted toward the exit with his mammal in tow. As they emerged, Shawn found the street lights on and the dome-covered sky darkened, and chuckled. For all the attention he'd paid to the clock and watch back in the game, he hadn't actually registered the time at all; he'd been in there a while. Bringing his gaze back down to ground level, he saw the wolf standing next to a Zoomy, and as soon as Shawn started to approach, he waved and dissipated into mist, as he always did when the squirrel was going to take a ride on one of the two-wheeled standing scooters that were New Dawn's primary mode of individual transportation. Playing along, Shawn hopped on, and its parking supports disengaged. As it started to move, an AR display popped up.

Your Zoomy

Destination: I've Got Next

Shawn leaned into the Zoomy's navigation instructions as it pivoted and rolled off down the wide paths that passed for roads in much of the city, his curious smile returning. Out of one arcade and into another, huh? He'd been to I've Got Next a handful of times; it was a retro arcade that was practically next door to his apartment complex, and had proven to be a fun place to spend time with his friend Caleb when neither of them had the time or energy for a proper run in Paths of the Emissary. He'd learned to keep Caleb away from the pinball machines, though… the jerboa wasn't particularly conversant with the idea of restraint, and had a tendency to shake them until he triggered a tilt and automatically guttered out.

Despite the background anxiety of being naked once again - it was always worse after he'd spent a while clothed in the VR game's fictitious raiment - the squirrel found the feeling of the cool evening air blowing through his bare fur refreshing after the physical exertion of exploring the Gloaming Boughs and dealing with the hostile lizardmen. He even felt a twinge of regret when the Zoomy rolled to a stop and parked itself in front of the building, and when Jason didn't immediately reappear, he fished a bottle out of his day back and uncapped it, gulping down most of the now-lukewarm sweet tea that was essentially his lifeblood. Stowing it again, he looked around for his daemon, then shrugged and headed inside.

The accumulated body heat of the arcade hit him immediately; if he hadn't been burning with curiosity over the surprise Jason had promised him, he might've gone back outside for a few more minutes, but he couldn't bear to wait any longer to find out what his daemon had in store. Craning his head to try to locate his lupine friend, he brushed past two groups of naked breeders and recipients, along with a few off-duty staffers in casual clothes… and found himself momentarily distracted by the sight of a coyote neighbor he'd spotted in passing a few times rutting a Pallas cat against a beat 'em up cabinet, his dark red cock slamming into the feline woman's pussy hard enough to rock the machine. And judging from where she was sitting on the console… Shawn blushed hard. They were definitely going to have to clean off that joystick when they were done. Tearing his gaze away before he could get too hard, he spotted Jason waving at him, and his face lit up as he hurried to join the wolf by the Boogie Fever dance game that he and Caleb played semi-regularly.

Still giving him the silent treatment, the wolf hopped up onto the right pad when he approached, and Shawn was surprised to see it respond to his inputs as he stepped on the arrows. His smile opened into a grin. He should've realized daemons could do that; they were hooked into basically every electronic system in the city, after all! Stretching quickly, he hopped up into the left station, swishing his tail as he limbered up. “Being a daemon is kind of an unfair advantage, but I'm not gonna make this easy on you! Bring it, wolf!" A fangy grin was his only reply before the first song started, and both of them flew into a frenzy of button-stomping action.

For all that Shawn was an absolute mess on an actual dance floor, he had always been pretty good at games that told him exactly where to put his feet, and sparring with the nearly inertialess Caleb had forced him to hone his skills. Jason had chosen the difficulty setting one below the one the rodents normally used, leaving Shawn enough breathing room to really get into it, and before long he found himself posing and flourishing as he racked up a perfect combo that his daemon couldn't quite match. Apparently, Jason had chosen not to cheat, and was demonstrating that bipedal balance was actually a difficult trick for artificial intelligence to master, but even so he was almost keeping up, and in the end Shawn's win wasn't a total blowout.

The second song was much closer. Jason probably could've bested a fair number of the people in the arcade on that one, but Shawn had sciurine agility on his side, and still edged out a win, despite missing two notes in the middle of the stage when his feet got ahead of his eyes. Round three saw him back to perfect form, and by the end of it the wolf was breathing heavily, apparently having imposed some arbitrary stamina limit on himself to make it fair. When Shawn secured his shutout, he heard applause behind him, and turned to discover that a few of the regulars had been watching him showboat his way through the match. The squirrel rubbed the back of his head as he felt a blush spreading over his face and ears, and ducked his head in a socially awkward intimation of a bow, before looking back over at his best friend and subvocalizing.

I shoulda used the bathroom back at the VRcade. Be right back, okay?

Jason smiled and nodded, and Shawn scampered off to the restroom. The singular restroom; there wasn't a lot of point in having them segregated when everyone but staff in the city was obliged to walk around naked, and plenty of them tended to fuck in public anyway. As was the case there, he discovered; he had to fight down a case of bashful bladder as he heard what sounded like two men in flagrante delicto in one of the stalls, and suppressed his curiosity as to whether they were anyone he knew.

When he washed his paws and stepped back out of the bathroom, he discovered Jason was nowhere to be seen. He made a quick exploratory circuit of the arcade's back area without success, and when he returned to the main room, a series of augmented reality arrows appeared, leading him toward the door. The cool night air was once again a balm in his fur as he emerged, and continued following the trail Jason was feeding him, which turned him left and led him back toward his home.

Shawn's curiosity was still blazing. That had been fun, certainly, and he hadn't known daemons could interface with the arcade machines, but it hardly seemed to explain Jason's secrecy and need for expansive permission to do whatever he wanted. And they were heading home already? A single match in Boogie Fever hardly constituted a date in Shawn's book! But, sure enough, the trail of arrows led him into his apartment complex and up the stairs. He took a step toward his apartment, then froze as a red circle with a diagonal slash appeared over his door, and the arrows pointed him toward… the next studio over? The squirrel tilted his head again, blinking. That one had stood empty since his arrival in New Dawn, as far as he knew. At least, he'd never seen anyone going in or out of it, and there had been no nameplate on the door. Still wasn't, he amended, as he stepped closer. Feeling like he was breaking some unspoken rule, he glanced to both sides and, finding no one loitering about, turned the handle.

The door swung easily open into the darkened interior, but Shawn still paused again, a huge grin spreading over his face as he looked down. The light from the courtyard's lamps was enough for him to see the strip of black and light blue tape across the threshold, marking the edge of a force-augmented space where daemons could interact physically with real objects, including people. The game booths for Paths of the Emissary had the same markings, although they were further enhanced in ways the squirrel had yet to suss out, taking virtual interactions from merely enabling simulated pressure to a level that seemed impossible. A peek through the partially-open door revealed the telltale deeper shadows of domed shapes in at least one corner of the darkened room; the apartment really was equipped with force projectors! That might explain why it had gone unused; Shawn had to assume that management charged a steep premium for having access to that power-hungry feature in one's personal space, and presumably no one had wanted to pay it. And if Jason was planning to take advantage of it without approval, well, that might explain why he'd been acting so dodgy!

That was as far as his thought process got before a strong paw closed around his wrist that had crossed into the augmentation's perimeter and hauled him into the darkness. The vaguely wolf-shaped silhouette of his simulated assistant - and apparent boyfriend-for-a-day - shifted around him, shutting the door as soon as Shawn's tail was fully inside and plunging them into near-total darkness. Jason immediately leaned in over him, lifted his chin with a finger, and claimed the squirrel's muzzle with his own, making out with him passionately. The teenager positively melted into the wolf's embrace, shivering as he felt his daemon's oversized cock prodding at his belly.

Blissed out as he was, it actually took Shawn several moments to realize that anything was off… but gradually, it dawned on him that he could actually feel the warmth of Jason's body against his own, something he'd only ever felt in the game system before! Not to mention he could feel the dampness of pre or lube in his fur where the wolf's heavy dick rubbed against it. Apparently the apartment had the full suite of game augmentations in play! A moment later, as Jason licked against his tongue, his eyes shot open. He could smell, and taste, his daemon's breath! Not even Paths had been able to get that right! His mind spun with questions, but his body paid it no heed; his paws ran eagerly over Jason's cheeks and the back of his head, fully committed to the lupine makeout session in progress, as the wolf rubbed just as enthusiastically over the squirrel's svelte body. Shawn was fully hard in no time, and finally Jason pulled back out of the kiss to start masturbating him firmly.

“Ff-ffuck… Jace, wha-*"

For the second time that day, a strong paw closed around his muzzle, silencing him. As soon as he submitted to it, he was released, and the brawny shadow before him yanked off his bag, ducked down, and scooped him up off the floor, carrying him across the apartment to toss him onto the bed. Shawn had barely stopped bouncing on the mattress when he felt it shift under him from the simulated weight of his daemon climbing on from the foot, and then Jason grabbed him by the ankles, lifting his legs and folding him up as the black-on-black shadow of the larger wolf scooted in to straddle his fluttering tail. He had no opportunity to resume his questioning. Jason grabbed his fat, slickened wolfcock, found his mark, and thrust.

Shawn let out an utterly unmasculine squeal as his daemon's thick canid penis penetrated him, and his dextrous toes curled up tight as he grabbed a pillow to muffle himself. It didn't accomplish much, though. Jason was not going easy on him. If the wolf had tried this when he'd first gotten to New Dawn, the squirrel would have had to tap out immediately, but repeated trysts with Matt, not to mention a few delicious (if fairly random) encounters with other generously endowed men around town, had rendered him flexible enough to take the treatment, if only barely. The squirrel could just make out his wolf's folded ears and open-hanging muzzle as Jason took him, panting heavily as he drove in deep again and again. The bulb of the wolf's mercifully unformed knot was almost more than he could take, but - perhaps out of an awareness that he was already pushing Shawn's limits - the daemon chose not to let it inflate as he rutted his squirrel down into the mattress like a starving animal.

Clutching the pillow to his blushing face as though it could protect him from the intensity of what was being done to his ass, Shawn gasped and whined helplessly, his rock-hard cock twitching and drooling precum onto his belly. The need to stroke himself was almost unbearable, but he knew Jason wouldn't let him get away with breaking the rules outside of the sanctuary of a Fuck Fest party, and he dug his claws into the pillowcase to stop himself from reaching down and pumping the straining load in his heavy balls loose. Surely the wolf would finish him soon. This wasn't conditioning… was it? The feeling of that warm, soft fur rubbing against his nuts and shaft was almost enough to get him off as it was.

And then the wolf managed to nail him right in the prostate.

Shawn convulsed hard as raw, liquid pleasure boiled up within his core, filing his belly with butterflies and rapture. Oh shit… was he…?!

Jason did it again. Shawn's eyes unfocused, giving up on making any sense of the shadows shifting over him, and let out a low, trembling howl that rose into a screech into his pillow. He'd had 'inner orgasms' before, but they'd always been helped along by at least a little attention to his cock. This time, his penis was almost completely irrelevant; only the rhythmic kiss of warm fur and the indistinct feeling of the hard belly beneath it brought it in on the game at all. The feeling of his powerful lupine lover's cock driving into him, and the raw sexual energy of the wolf's utterly masculine body - basically Shawn's physical ideal in a dominant partner - flexing over him did all the work. The squirrel's ass clenched down hard as his rich, conditioning- and drug-enhanced, one-in-a-thousand potent load gushed out all over his chest and belly. It was nowhere close to a record in terms of 'muzzle velocity', and the overall volume was only about average for him - which, to be fair, still meant it was a lot of squirrel semen - but the feeling of being forced into orgasm entirely from being rutted flowed deep into corners of his mind he hadn't known existed, plunging the treerat into a deeper stratum of 'sub-space' than he'd ever experienced before.

Over him, Jason arched back and gritted his teeth, grunting softly and bucking his hips in gentle motions as he finished in his squirrel. Shawn squeezed his eyes shut. If there was one problem with big-dicked partners - and it seemed flagrantly ungrateful to even consider the idea - it was that they came so deep inside him that he couldn't even feel it properly. That was one advantage that Cory's more modest vulpine penis had over the likes of Jason: he could feel the fox jetting up his ass. As the squirrel's seed pooled in his fur and started to run off the right side of his ribcage, he pulled the pillow up to completely cover his face. For what felt like a full minute, he couldn't even bring himself to speak, for fear of breaking the magic of feeling like Jason's fluffy little plaything, but when the wolf reached under the pillow to scratch at Shawn's chin, he threw the pillow aside to look up at his daemon's face. His eyes had adjusted somewhat to the near-total darkness, and he could tell the wolf was smiling down at him.

“J-jace… fuck, I… oh my god, that…" Shawn's words were proving inadequate before he could even finish speaking them, and he swallowed hard. “How? This… b-broke all the rules I know. It's like you were real. Like you were actually here, fucking me, even though I know that's a simulated dick in my ass. How…?"

The wolf's ears perked up, then folded back as he chuckled in seeming embarrassment. He took a deep breath, then leaned down over his squirrel again, putting one paw on Shawn's cheek as he brought his muzzle close to the teen's opposite ear and murmured softly.

“This can be both, too."

Shawn's brow furrowed in confusion, which only deepened as a memory tried to tug at the unraveled strands of his attention. This can be both, too?

It can be both…

Like I said, it can definitely be both!

Shawn's eyes enlarged to saucers as his heart lurched in his chest.

“NO. WAY."

Still looking bashful, the wolf glanced off to his left and gave a short, perfunctory nod. Immediately, a purple on purple infobox popped up over his shoulder, containing only a name.

Shane McIntyre

“Holy shit!"

Concerned by the tone of that reaction, Shane released Shawn's legs, and the squirrel unfolded partway, pressing his feet to the wolf's hips.

“Sorry for messing with your head, man, but I've been daydreaming about doing that since you texted me about coming here. When Jason contacted me on my way out of intake and told me that you'd modeled him after me, I realized this might be my only chance to live it out. I hope you're not too pissed at me…"

Shawn's stunned expression shifted until his grin threatened to split his muzzle in two. “Pissed? Dude, I was kicking myself for not finding out if you were into guys when I had the chance! I thought I'd never see you again, and had to tell myself you were probably straight so it wouldn't eat at me too bad! Oh my god, so you actually did pass the test after all? You're not just here to visit?"

The black wolf looked aside, suddenly unable to meet Shawn's eyes. “Straight, huh? Not… really, no… and uh, yeah, I guess I did, in a manner of speaking. Hey, uh… give me a sec, okay?" Much more slowly and carefully now, he pulled his dick out of the squirrel's ass, causing Shawn to hiss softly; it was a lot more sensitive now that he didn't have raw sexual ecstasy covering how badly Shane had stretched him. Before Shawn could reply, his former coworker climbed off the bed and quickly escaped into the bathroom.

“Holy fuck, Jason, so this was your secret? You wanted to trick me into falling for a body double, but knew it broke your 'not lying to me' rule?"

The daemon chuckled inside his head, but made no other comment. The continued silent treatment perplexed him. The cat was out of the bag now, wasn't it? As he thought about it, though, he realized some things still didn't add up. Shane had been oddly evasive at the end there… and now that he thought about it, the first words he'd said didn't jibe with Shawn's new understanding of the situation, either. It was both? How?

Shawn had assumed Shane was going to rinse off after fucking him, but while he heard some indistinct sounds of movement through the closed door to the bathroom, he didn't hear the shower turn on… and far sooner than he'd expected, the door reopened, and Shane came back out into the main area of the studio apartment, shutting the door behind him again. “There we go. Ganymede, lights to 30%, please and thank you."

As the lights came softly up, Shawn got his first good look at the wolf with eyes unclouded by Jason's deception. The daemon had done a shockingly good job of mimicking Shane's appearance just by playing hot or cold against the squirrel's recollection of the man's appearance. Even now, if Shane had been wearing a staff jumpsuit instead of just a pair of grey boxers, Shawn doubted he could tell the difference. Wait, no, it wasn't quite perfect… he realized that the same exaggerated impression of Shane's delicious physique that had caused him to give Jason an unreasonably large dick had also caused him to misperceive the wolf's height. While he was still distinctly taller than Shawn, he appeared to be an inch or two shorter than Jason; if the daemon hadn't primed his squirrel for recognition by putting on the clothes Shane had been wearing at the time before they parted ways outside the VRcade, that might have been enough to trip an alarm in Shawn's head when they'd first met. And his voice, while very close, was distinct enough from Jason's for the squirrel to detect the difference, now that he was listening for it. That explained the silent treatment… at least, it did up until now…

“So yeah, I am sticking around. And I asked to have the apartment next to yours, just so I'd have someone I knew, at least a little bit, to hang out with as I get used to this whole breeding thing. I hope that's alright. This is, uh… it's gonna be a big change for me."

Shawn smiled brightly, ignoring the cooling and drying mess of squirrel spunk in his fur. “Are you kidding? I'd love to get to know you for real, especially if you can fuck like that." His expression got a bit bashful. “I've never had a completely paws-free orgasm like that before, you know. Which means, in a very real sense, you just gave me the best dicking I've ever had. 'Your only chance' my sore, happy ass! You can plow me again anytime you like!"

Shane smiled, but it was an anxious, brittle expression, and he seemed to be unable to meet Shawn's eyes for more than a moment at a time. “I… wow. Hoo…" He was wagging, but he also looked like he was about to cry. “I dunno… I mean…"

The squirrel tilted his head a bit in confusion. Shane had always seemed so confident at work, so… unflappable. He'd never once seen the wolf get flustered when a nasty customer went after him; Shawn had always envied that about him. So why…? He glanced around the room, looking for answers… and while he noted that the force projectors and marker tape had vanished now that Jason no longer needed to maintain his ruse, the low overhead light revealed no other secrets, and he returned his attention to the wolf. “Okay dude, what are you not telling me?"

Shane finally met his eyes, and while he still had a big smile on his face, there were tears running down into the fur of his face. “You… really can't tell, can you?"

“Tell what? You're kinda starting to freak me out, Shane…"

The wolf opened his mouth to reply, but his throat refused to comply. Looking out across the room again, he nodded his head several times rapidly, blinking the wetness out of his eyes, and his infobox returned.

The whole thing, this time.

Shane McIntyre

Recipient - Resident

Pronouns He/Him

Into you so hard it hurts

I really hope I haven't misread you, bro…

Shawn read it twice, his jaw dropping like a rock. A third time. His eyes lowered to the front of Shane's boxers, finally registering the lack of a tent from so much as a sheath. Back up, searching… and there they were, having escaped even his prior inspection when comparing to Jason: the faint lines across his chest where his thick black fur was thinner than elsewhere, impossible to notice unless you were specifically looking for them. Still unable to talk past the knot in his throat, the wolf just reached down and slipped his underwear off to lie on the floor, stepping free and struggling not to let himself cover the gentle camel toe in the soft fur of his groin, with a small 'penis' sticking out of it that hadn't always been one. He could no longer look at Shawn at all, and the insides of his folded ears were bright red. Finally, he forced his voice past the obstruction. “I just… really wanted to be with you once, before you knew. While I could still be 'hot', instead of 'part of the job.' I'm sorry if you feel dirty now or anything, it was selfish but… I really like you and…" The throat constriction won out again.

As if sleepwalking, Shawn climbed unsteadily to his feet, walking up to the wolf and putting both paws on the wolf's gloriously firm pecs. “Shane. Look at me." With a titanic effort of will, Shane returned his eyes to the squirrel's, but Shawn shook his head without breaking eye contact. “Not my face." Still struggling, the wolf forced his gaze down Shawn's body… and then drew a sharp breath, his eyes coming back up to the squirrel's, now filled with hope that was warring with the still-present fear and embarrassment after seeing the teenager's painfully hard erection, so soon after he'd already blown a load. His folded ears shot upright, still crimson within.

“You mean…?"

Still holding the wolf's gaze, Shawn nodded once. “You are the hottest guy I have ever met in my entire life, and now I am going suck your dick until you scream." Without any further preamble, or even giving Shane a chance to prepare himself, the squirrel dropped to his knees, settled his paws firmly on the trans stud's hips, and engulfed the wolf's enlarged clit - no, call it what it was, his cock - in his maw, nursing and licking at it with every ounce of well-practiced intent he had learned since coming to New Dawn.

The reaction was instantaneous. Shane's voice jumped up an octave into a helpless wail, and his knees tried to pull together and forward for a heartbeat before he got control of his legs again. Both of the wolf's paws closed over and behind Shawn's head as tremors wracked his powerful body… and then Shane tightened his grip, beginning to thrust into the squirrel's mouth in short, firm motions. For his part, Shawn was relentless. Gentle, yes - Shane wasn't able to get as hard as the cis men the squirrel had known, and he intuited that that warranted a lighter touch - but he gave the wolf not a moment's reprieve from his earnest worship, as both of their tails danced their separate dances of joy. Shane's powerful body continued jerking and trembling above him in sensory overload, and in moments the scent of feminine arousal, mixed with oddly paradoxical notes of masculine musk, rose to flood the squirrel's airways.

A month ago, that odor might have disturbed him, maybe even grossed him out… but since his first time with Becca, he had come to associate it with the heady power of life-making, and now it was pure ambrosia to his libido. Lick. Lick. Lick.

He gazed up past the wolf's muscular torso and shoulders, meeting his eyes again, and thrilled to see excitement and joy chasing away the last shadows of fear and guilt from Shane's expression. Lick. Lick. Lick.

The wolf's grip on Shawn's head trembled as Shane gasped for air, his toned chest rising and falling frantically as his beautiful green eyes started to inexorably squeeze shut. Shawn's cock dripped unheeded onto the floor as he felt Shane's claws dig unsteadily at his scalp. Lick. Lick. Lick.

“Ohhh Shawn, I-I'm gonna… I caaaaan't…!" His eyes closed completely, squeezing tightly shut, tension spreading rapidly through his body as every muscle started to lock up. Lick. Lick. Lick.

“AaaaAAAAAAAAAAA SHAAAAAAAAWWWWWNNNN!"

The wolf succumbed utterly, bucking his hips forward, arrhythmically mashing his pubic fur hard into Shawn's nose as he held the squirrel's skull in a deathgrip, and a moment later Shawn felt the telltale spray of a job well done mark his already cum-caked chestfur, as Shane moan-gasped his way through an eye-rolling, toe-curling, pussy-clenching orgasm that the squirrel did his absolute best to prolong as much as possible.

“Fuhfuh… ffffuuuucckkk-kk-kk! Aah! AAAAH! Ahhh… ahh fuck… nnngh! FUCK!"

Shawn's tail fluttered madly behind him, and he found himself unable to tear his gaze away from the rictus of overwhelmed physical rapture and emotional release that Shane's face had become, as he licked and suckled his wolf slowly down the slope of post-orgasmic satisfaction, before finally settling his weight back onto his ankles and wiping his muzzle with the back of a wrist. “I trust I have made myself abundantly cleEEEEEE!"

That was as far as he got before Shane reached down, grabbed him by his armpits, and hurled him bodily into bed for the second time of the night. He was stunned for a moment, then tried to sit up… and was forcefully shoved down onto his back again as the handsome black wolf literally pounced onto him, pinning him to the mattress with both paws. He barely had time to let out a surprised squeak as Shane reached back, lifted the squirrel's cock away from his belly, and simply slammed himself down onto it, hilting Shawn's penis in his drenched vagina instantly and grinding his ass down into the bed.

The squirrel arched his shoulders back hard against the mattress, his bucktoothed muzzle opening in a wordless, squeaking yell as all five limbs flailed helplessly. “AAAFUCK! W… wait, w-w-wait, I'm fertile, I'll…!"

Shane growled low, fangs bared, and pressed his forehead to Shawn's. “I know, I fucking know! That's why I'm here, to make some fucking babies, and I am going to start with yours!" He grabbed the squirrel's wrists, forcing his arms out and down, pinning them to the sheets as his body bounced and undulated hungrily, massaging Shawn's leaking dick in the hot vice of his pussy with the crazed fervor of an animal in heat!

Shawn struggled, to no avail. Shane was stronger than him - much stronger than him - and the feeling of being overpowered and ridden like this was dropkicking both his 'getting roughly dommed by a hot guy' and 'raw purposeful breeding' buttons in a way he'd have thought was impossible to have happen at the same time. In seconds, he felt orgasm starting to build in him again, and the awareness that he was powerless to stop it fueled the flames even higher! “B-but… you're a guy! If you maaAAAA… make me c-cum in you, your belly will… will get big and…" Fuck, he was envisioning it! The image of this powerful lupine man swollen with his kits filled his mind, and a fever-mad inferno began to scorch him from within.

Shane snarled, milking the squirrel mercilessly with his cunny. “And then I'll bring our fucking cubs into the world, like nature intended! I knew damned well what I was signing up for here and I want it! Want you! Want your kits growing in me! Now where are my fucking children?!"

“Th-they're comiiiIIINNNG!" His love of being used, and his mad hunger to breed, fused with the towering passion he felt for the glorious alpha trans-stud on top of him into a searing certainty that this was everything that had been missing from his life. As orgasm bloomed within him like an inescapable seismic event, everything he wanted, everything he thought, everything he felt, everything he was melted down into a single white-hot YES…

…and detonated!

Shawn had thought he'd nutted as hard as he was physically capable of cumming the first time he'd emptied himself into Becca, and knocked her up. He'd thought it again when Cory had fucked a load out of him into a milking machine during his second-ever conditioning session. This time, he knew it.

If he ever came harder than this, it would be for the last time, because the experience would kill him.

Thrashing frantically with his full strength against Shane's unyielding iron grip, Shawn screamed at the absolute top of his lungs as his heavy treerat testicles clenched up painfully hard against his groin, throbbing as though they were trying to escape up into his body. His eyes rolled back and clamped shut, and even his tail curled up against the wolf's back, going as rigid as a wire brush inside its nimbus of gray fluff, too tense to even tremble. His toes clenched down hard, tearing small holes in Shane's sheets, as his ears and whiskers pressed flat to his skull, and he erupted like a volcano into the fertile heat of the wolf's vagina!

Shane let out a sound halfway between a scream and a feral lupine howl as he pressed his full weight down onto the meeting of their bodies, forcing the tip of Shawn's cock up into the divot that marked the edge of his cervix, and convulsed around the squirrel's gushing penis so hard it hurt… but not hard enough to cut off the flow of Shawn's thick, potent, baby-making seed! Hot sciurine semen blasted up into Shane's waiting womb again and again, while still more splattered backward, forced out by the wringing clenches of the wolf's pussy and drenching Shawn's groin in his own steamy cum. Their climaxes built off of each other in a positive feedback loop that threatened to send the squirrel directly to God as he spent himself, forcefully, endlessly, utterly into the man on top of him, until there was absolutely nothing left in his balls but the memory of sperm.

The single neuron in Shawn's brain that hadn't been consumed on the pyre of their shared lust and release really, really hoped that Shane turned out to be a decent sort of guy, because his emotional self-control had completely failed him that time. He'd resisted with Matt; even with Cory, he'd held on to some scraps of restraint, although that fox had still managed to purchase substantial real estate in the squirrel's heart. Not this time. He had just fallen wholly, helplessly, hopelessly in love with a man he barely knew.

Well, fuck.

For several long moments, neither of them could open their eyes, let alone move from their position. In the aftermath of the shared howl that had surely been heard by a dozen other people, superlative soundproofing be damned, the silence in Shane's apartment seemed unnaturally loud, broken only by the desperate rasping of two men trying to force some oxygen back into their bodies. Shawn's entire world consisted of the mattress beneath him, the drop-dead gorgeous wolf on top of him, an acute awareness of what his cock and Shane's heavenly pussy had just done to each other, the lasting significance of same, and the cinders of a nervous system that the squirrel would've been happy to sacrifice for what he'd just experienced if asked.

Finally, with what felt like an unreasonable amount of effort, Shawn cracked one eye open and saw his wolf - fuck, he was already thinking of Shane as 'his' - beaming down at him with tears in his eyes. Finally releasing the squirrel's arms, Shane braced his weight on his elbows, stroked Shawn's face with surprising tenderness, and leaned down to kiss him gently. The squirrel let his eye close again, slid his arms around Shane's body, and let the wolf slip that soft, broad tongue into his mouth again, in the most soul-fillingly intimate embrace he'd ever experienced. He felt himself crying again, in joy and relief. This was everything he'd been longing for since he'd come to New Dawn - no, since his prior boyfriend Connor had left him - and he wished it would never end.

Judging from how Shane's lips lingered on his, and returned to them every time he started to make himself pull back, the feeling appeared to be mutual.

As the kiss dragged on, Shawn's paws started to roam over the wolf's back, rubbing at his nape, tracing down his spine, squeezing at his narrow waist, then returning up again to grip his shoulders and hold him in the tender muzzle-lock. For his part, Shane slipped a paw under the squirrel's head, cradling it gently, as the other thumb stroked its pad over the smooth fur of Shawn's cheek. Gradually, his body sunk closer, until he finally broke the kiss and slipped both arms behind the squirrel's back, letting out a heavy sigh as his tail rhythmically stirred the air.

“I didn't… hurt you, did I?" Shane's deep voice was rough with emotion.

Shawn let out something between a laugh and a sob. “I am about as far from hurt as I think I've ever been right now, gorgeous. I… don't even have words. I feel like you broke something in my chest and put it back together the way it should've been. I, um…" His face started burning again as his anxiety surged, but this was no time to be timid. “I really, really don't want this to have been just an icebreaker for you. I… I think I…" Tears stung his eyes again. Try as he might, he couldn't say it. It was just too soon, and he was too scared by the enormity of what he was feeling; he swallowed down the lump in his throat, searching for words that would not come.

“Shh." He felt dampness against his cheek, where the wolf was pressing his face into it to hide. “It's okay, beautiful. I… I feel the same way. I've thought of your smile every day since you left that shithole. You're the one who gave me the courage to do this… to be here, I mean. I'd been fantasizing about signing up to breed for years. To be bred. And yeah, I know that's weird, for… for a guy. I'm not even gonna try to explain it… at least, not right now. I've known I was a dude since I was a little pup, but even so, in this one way I was glad to… to have been born like I was. The thought of it excites me so much it makes me burn with shame. I figured it had to be wrong, and so I stayed where I was… until I saw you - you, with your sweet, fragile heart that broke every time some asshole took his anger out on you at work, and as gay as a pair of pink stockings - flip Parsons the bird and march out of there to fuck women for a living. You made me realize life is too short to spend it being afraid to take it by the horns." He lifted the front end of his body enough to smile into Shawn's eyes again, his eyes still shining wetly. “And now, here I am. Because you gave me the strength to go after what I really wanted. And part of what I want… is you."

Shawn laugh-sobbed again, once, sharply, his own eyes overflowing into the increasingly soaked fur of his face again, and gripped the wolf in shaking arms as his smile tried to expand past the canvas of his face. He couldn't keep a tremor from his voice as he replied. “Good, because these apartments don't come with brooms, and you'd need one to fend me off after tonight!"

Words ceased to be useful at that point, and the two of them just held each other for a long time, laughing and crying together, their bodies still joined in carnal, life-making union until the squirrel's penis finally softened enough that it slipped out on its own. Finally, the cataracts of raw emotion that had consumed both of them ran their course, and Shane lifted himself into a kneeling position over Shawn's groin, wiping his eyes, and looked down at their bodies.

“We're a mess. Shower with me?"

Shawn smiled up at him again, and wanted to keep doing so forever. “You might have to help me up. I can't really feel my legs anymore." He paused. “Oh, and before I forget to say it again: you wanting to get knocked up isn't that weird. I've begged other guys to breed me more than once, and I meant it. The idea of carrying Cory or Matt's kid is stupid hot to me. It's just not possible."

The wolf smiled, climbed off the bed, and helped Shawn up. The pins and needles were hell, but eventually the squirrel was able to follow Shane into the bathroom, where he spotted the strap-on dildo the wolf had used on him sitting forgotten in the sink, and giggled. “I meant what I said earlier, by the way. You're welcome to plow me with that thing whenever you want."

Shane laughed. “Maybe now and then, but doing that doesn't get me off like this does." He reached down to rub at the squirrel's sheath, eliciting a yelp and a bashful grin from the smaller man. They proceeded to clean each other off - which took quite a bit of doing in the case of Shawn's chest and belly - and then just stood there in the warm water for a while, holding each other and savoring the feelings of comfort and security. A thorough, mutually-assisted blow-dry followed, and when Shawn grabbed his discarded bag and stepped outside for a smoke, Shane pulled on his boxers and followed him, lighting up in turn.

Shawn bit his lip with his oversized incisors for a moment. “You know, you're… probably not gonna be able to get away with that while you're pregnant. Not sure about the boxers, either. They're pretty strict about not letting program participants cover up."

The wolf exhaled a plume of smoke. “Yeah, I know. Better enjoy it while I can. Having to hold off will just make it all the sweeter after I give birth to our first pup." Shawn's face and ears burned fiercely. The thought of Shane bearing his child was enough to cause him to start getting hard again, despite his balls' urgent warning that they had nothing more to give, but the open admission that the wolf intended to do it again was almost more thrilling than Shawn could handle! He wasn't done, though. “I can wear whatever I want, though. Special rule for trans breeders. I'm not the first one here, although apparently all the others are women. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to take advantage long term, but at least for the first few days, it'll make this easier on me. This whole thing is gonna put me through a wringer that I thought I was done with after the surgery."

The squirrel smiled at him sympathetically. “Any regrets? It's probably not too late to change your mind if the post-nut clarity is screaming at you to get out."

Shane snorted, reaching over to roughly rub the top of Shawn's scalp. “Not a god damned one. This is gonna be weird, sure, but it's something I've wanted for years. And I think it's fair to say I have more experience with reinventing myself than most. What's one more go-round in the name of living out my depraved baby-making fantasies?"

“Said the trans guy to the gay squirrel who found out he loves pussy." Shawn took another drag, and his tail twitched as a memory tickled… a lesson about communication in complex relationships. “So, uh, just to be clear… we're dating now, right?"

The wolf gave him a fangy grin, swishing his shaggy black tail. “I think we just rounded the bases to home and kept going, treerat. Yes, we are totally a couple as far as I'm concerned. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Shawn beamed, his fluffy tail dancing behind him. “God, is it ever! But that's not my point. Well, not all of it, anyway." He braced himself. This was about to get awkward. “So, I am - was - single, at least officially, but… there's this fox…"

The squirrel launched into a semi-abridged retelling of his experiences with Cory. How they'd met in the local gym. How the fox had started using his considerable charisma - and his smoking hot body - to motivate Shawn during exercise routines, and then to make him cum like a firehose during the more lascivious side of his physical conditioning. How Shawn had met him outside of work, leading to the two of them getting vigorously sexual - and ambiguously romantic - without the convenient excuse of Cory's job to deflect the interpersonal implications of their relationship. As nervous as he was, the squirrel tried to hold nothing back, freely admitting that it was only his own uncertainty about polyamory that had kept him from revisiting the question of whether they were actually more than the 'friends with benefits' that they'd agreed to early on. Shane remained quiet and let him talk.

“...so that's about the shape of it. I didn't want you to find out about him later on and think I'd been hiding all that from you. I guess what I want to know is… are you okay with it? If you think my thing with Cory will make 'us' weird, I can tell him that I want to back off so I can focus on you." Shawn's heart ached at his own words, but he forged ahead. He didn't want to lose what he had with his favorite fox, but in his bones he knew that if he had to choose, he'd choose Shane in a heartbeat.

“I am 100% okay with it."

Shawn blinked. “Th-that was fast. You're sure?"

The wolf grinned again. “Remember what I just said about taking life by the horns? You've been doing that, and that makes me so proud I could burst. Sure, there's a chance I'll wind up getting jealous, but we'll cross that bridge if we ever come to it. Besides, you're going to have to get used to the idea of me bearing other men's children, so it's hardly going to be a one-sided thing." He took another drag, then discarded his cigarette. “This also means I get to pass on the guilt trip if I end up crushing hard on my baby daddy of the month. You can even opt into the whole poly thing if you want to. You just proved to me that I can trust you, so… I'm gonna do that. On one condition."

Shawn finished his cigarette as well, giving Shane a nervous look despite the way his heart was soaring. “That being…?"

Shane took the squirrel's paw in his, smiling softly. “You let me spend my first night in New Dawn snuggled up with my pretty new boyfriend."

Shawn smiled back, his eyes getting damp again. “I thought you'd never ask."