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Khaesho chuckled softly as both Jackie and Simon squirmed beneath his imposing stare. If Jackie was really going to make some admittance about her past... yes, there it went. The metal box Simon had been holding was pointed down and to the side, and he glanced at her uneasily. He had a crush on her, no doubt there, and he'd built her up in his mind to almost impossibly high expectations. It looked like he didn't want to hear this almost as much as she didn't want to tell them. Her cheeks were flushed bright red beneath blue and white feathers.

"I... The first time I had sex was at a huge party for my high school graduation. I -somehow- managed to seduce three of the hottest guys in school and they gangbanged me in one of the upstairs rooms. Then... then when they were done, they came all over me. They even rubbed their seed into my feathers with their hands; it took days to get completely clean again. It felt... oh, it felt so good though."

Her last reluctant admission had Khaesho laughing, and he left his pile to wind a single curve around her, letting the entire length of his body slide along her back as he brushed past.

"Do not be... embarrassed... to attract three, healthy males for your firsssst mating? In my desssertssssssss, you would be lauded for ssssuch a feat. Then again, we are not in my desssertssss..."

She looked absolutely mortified, both at her own story and the fact that she shivered as she felt every scale with her hand as he passed. His bare scales sliding beneath her hand felt oddly intimate, in a way she couldn't explain. Her entire face had a pinkish tinge, but Simon somehow managed to look even more mortified than she did.

"Now... Leave me. I musssst return to my tasssssk."

"But wait, you said you'd lead us out!"

Khaesho disdainfully snapped his fingers. The weave of illusions mimicking the "Landslide" unraveled, and the rocks vanished. The light that seeped into the cave wasn't much, but compared to the near absolute darkness before, it was immediately noticed. Simon quickly snapped up the camera, but he'd turned it off to prevent recording Jackie's dirty confession. Khaesho was already slithering off, but his voice echoed back to them.

"Do not return to these cavesss again." He laughed, pouring as much menace into the sound as he could, and he took pride in the fact that both figures hastily got to their feet and sprinted for the exit, all too happy to put the encounter behind them.

By the time Khaesho had returned to his bedroom, Shou was not where he had left her. The wolf girl had managed to find a wall, had managed to crawl several feet along it. Slow and careful, her body throbbing in agony, she'd forced herself a good ten yards down the cave before her strength gave out. She had finally collapsed, curled up against dirt, stone, and the edges of the furs. Violent shivering wracked her form, fluffing her fur in an unconscious attempt to warm herself. Cold... she felt like she was freezing, despite her fever; her teeth were chattering and soft whines escaped her.

In her soul she huddled against Kalokin, curled into the serpent and clinging to him. Her tongue licked along his face and neck as she tried to sooth the pain, his or hers. It didn't matter at this point. She still was worried though, that Khaesho was hurt, bleeding somewhere and needing her help. Only bleary thoughts managed to flicker through her mind at this point. Khaesho. Screams. The faint scent of blood on the air.

Khaesho slithered in at a sedate pace, expecting to find Shou still comfortably huddled beneath the warm furs. He was shocked to find her halfway out of his bedroom.

"Shou, what in the red sands are you DOING?"

She was delirious, wracked with shivers and she was wasting a lot of heat, far more than she had to spare. In one motion, he scooped her up, slithering rapidly back to his bedroom to bury them both in a haphazard nest.

"Kalokin, how could you let her get this far? She might have hurt herself. Kalokin?"

Silence met his question. He sent a probing thought towards the god only to recoil in pain and fear. Kalokin was wrapped in a black cloud of suffering so thick that it was a wonder Khaesho hadn't noticed it before. Perhaps Kalokin was sharing in her pain? He'd numbed Khaesho's pain once or twice before, but the Naga didn't know if the deity actually suffered himself by the action. He couldn't do anything about it though, so he coiled around Shou's shivering body, at a loss of what to do. He knew only the most basic medicinal knowledge of Snakes; keep warm and eat well. As long as a Naga was warm and had food in the belly, they were incredibly hardy creatures, and more warmth was always better. He knew that the bipedals worked differently, especially the mammals, but he wasn't going to try and repress his instincts at a time like this. Shou still struggled, but his warm coils bound her arms to her sides and kept her feeble struggles from doing much more than tickling him. He pulled on his magic, heating them both as much as he dared, hoping that he wasn't making a mistake. He licked one feverish, cold cheek, and then buried his head in her neck, squeezing her tight.

Sound... Shou heard his voice, and then he was touching her. Gods above, he was warm, so she curled up against him when he wrapped her in his coils and buried them under the furs. She was still squirming, but she couldn't manage much. Her ears twitched slowly, lifted and fell, lifted and fell and her breathing wheezed. Sleep tugged at her, lead weights pulling at her mind and dragging her down. Lucidity was almost lost, but she managed a few clear mutterings, her voice hoarse with her whines.

"K-Khaesho..." Then his face was against her neck, and in a movement that was all exhaustion and affection, she leaned into him. Nuzzled weakly, and let her tongue brush along his scales. "...heard sssscreams... s-sssafe..?" Her 's' hissed with her shivering, and her teeth chattered almost violently. She nuzzled into his hand, licking weakly at the sluggishly bleeding palm.

"Yes my dear, you're safe. Try to get some sleep. There were some intruders, so I scared them off."

Wrapped in his warmth beneath the pile of fur, her violent shivers quieted, and then stopped altogether, a good sign. She was starting to slur her speech from fatigue, but she was warm and safe and he was going to keep her that way. He wasn't letting her out of his sight until she was well, even if the entire Kalokin damned army came marching on them.

His words calmed her, and she gave a mute little nod before she just curled up as much as she could in his coils and drifted into a restless sleep. A few shivers occasionally wracked her body, but otherwise she had finally started to go still, finally started to relax. The pain stabbed deep into her bones still, but it seemed less now that Khaesho was safely wrapped around her. She buried her face against his scales and she breathed in his scent, savored the thick, almost earthy scent. It clogged her nostrils with heavy musk, and she let it lull her into a deep, restful sleep.

In her mind, she gave Kalokin what attention she could, soothing and stroking her hands over soft scales. Murmuring soft words, and finally, she resorted to singing. Wolves were exceptional singers, and she was no slouch; they had found a talented little canine. Her voice rose and fell like the ebbing of the tide, husky and filled with a warm, soft timbre to it that she lacked when speaking. When she slipped into sleep, she took her rattlesnake with her, and they comforted each other, each singing soft lullabies in languages spoken only by the heart.

The black serpent hugged closer around her soul, blood flowing from him as if from a faucet. Rather than stain her fur though, it fell through her hide, soaking into her soul. His soul, meshing with hers... she hated that such a joy should be bought with pain, but he gave a brave smile behind white eyes, licking her playfully even though it made her wince. Beneath her soothing song, his eyelids started to droop, and whether from her lullaby, or from the pain, he was soon unconscious for the first time in four thousand years.

Later that afternoon, her fever broke. Khaesho first noticed when it no longer felt like he was wrapped around a burning log, but her temperature continued to sink until it was well below what most warm-bloods would consider healthy. It was still high above what a reptile would consider dangerously low, so he wasn't worried, but he was curious at her. The delirium had faded too, and with it, her eyes stopped flicking across her eyelids like a panicked beast. She slept soundly, peacefully, and Khaesho finally allowed himself to relax enough to join her.

Internally, every major organ she had, as well as most of the minor ones, had been altered. Streamlined, until she operated like a flawlessly tuned machine. Warm blooded creatures give off heat as waste, excess energy poorly processed by inefficient bodies, at least in Kalokin's eyes. He'd removed that inefficiency; she might now live happily for three days on sustenance that would otherwise have only lasted her one. Still... In a varied climate such as what existed in the mountains, burning energy as heat was a useful skill to have. It had taken some trial and error with different organs, but Kalokin thought that he'd managed to tie a heat trigger into most of her internal organs to cause them to start metabolizing heat if needed. It was an experiment, but one that he was confident would pan out wonderfully. In warmer conditions, her body would not waste a single calorie, but he'd amplified the "inefficiency" to let her melt through a snowstorm, so long as she consumed massive amounts of food.

Still... she was no Serpent. She wouldn't be lighting herself on fire or swimming in lava (both of which Khaesho had done, more than once) but hot summer days wouldn't even make her pant now. Kalokin was even confident he could work out a way to naturally fire-proof her pelt... given enough time to work, but time was all that they had now. The most dangerous and difficult changes were finished, and Shou was stable... he could rest now. His rested within hers, and for the first time, he was able to take in the subtle beauty of her nature. Khaesho was brash and bold, perhaps even foolish, and he'd made a good partner for a deviant deity, but Shou... she was timid... shy. Her soul was filled with soft things, with yearning only recently satisfied, and Kalokin smiled to himself at the peace that dominated her mind. Kalokin allowed himself to rest then; he had strength enough to spare now, but focus and concentration took a different toll on his mind, and he reclined within both of his Vessels with a happy smirk.

Eventually, even Shou's soul had gotten tired, and her singing had trailed off into silence as she wrapped around Kalokin's upper body and slept. It was a deep sleep, something that she needed as the changes rippled through her body, molding and changing her further. Now that her internal organs were more or less safe, she slept easier, her whole body relaxing as it hadn't had a chance to do before, her ears twitching a little bit and her breathing softened. It didn't hurt badly enough to keep even her mind awake, and she would certainly count that as a win when she did awaken. Kalokin passed his soul over her mind, ensuring that she dreamt happy dreams of warmth and scales. Her bones and muscles were primed, and this was going to hurt like a hammer to the back... best to get as much done as he could now.

Shou woke first, delightfully clear minded. She then immediately regretted that fact, because waking brought pain, and pain brought whimpers from her as she winced softly and felt her body throbbing in response. Her muscles felt tired and sore, but her bones felt as if they'd all been broken overnight. They weren't so much stretching as they were... adjusting. They got a tad denser, a tad harder, but it hurt the most where it felt like new bones were coming in. She wondered what the added weight would feel like when she tried to dance; would she be clumsy? The thought was pushed back as her mined stretched towards her other pains. She ached from the tip of her tail all the way up to the base of her skull, and her mouth was rent with agony as four new bones tried to grow in. Her normal teeth weren't about to fall out, and she counted that as a plus, but aside from that she felt about as if someone had poured molten lead into her jaw. A careful thumb felt around the roof of her mouth, and faint bulges there confirmed that fangs were beginning to grow above the gums. She tried to wag her tail, and it stung as if she'd just shifted a broken arm. That could only be explained by Kalokin giving her a more scaly tail, which she understood, but the part that confused her was that her lower jaw hurt so much.

She whined and squirmed, wracked with pain and unwilling to brave it alone. She bit her lip a moment, and then she was pushing gently at Khaesho, rubbing his belly scutes until he awoke. She spoke carefully, her voice soft as she didn't want to surprise him. Her tone was tinged just slightly with panic, but Kalokin swept in to calm her even as she spoke.

"Khaesho... Khaesho wake up... my tail hurts... and my mouth..."

It seemed like such a minor thing when she said it - but it was serious for her, things were changing and she couldn't see them, much less have any idea about what was happening.

Khaesho awoke slowly, murmuring even in his half sleep.

"Don'... don't move... bones... muscles... changing."

There was a soft whine, but she relaxed into his coils, eyes drifted closed and she buried against scales. Her ears twitched a little bit, and she hid her face against his scales. It didn't take her long to start to drift off again, though she was poking around in her head for Kalokin - to see if he was still there.

Kalokin?

Right where I'll always be, honey, but I'm exhausted, even more than you are, if that's possible. Poke Kesh again, he'll explain things to you. He's always slow to wake when he's warm.

Khaesho was indeed still waking, slowly; he had to fight to not stretch himself out. It had been several days since he'd stretched the kinks out of his back, and he'd need to do it soon if he wanted to remain flexible. He couldn't suppress a yawn though, and he rubbed Shou's back affectionately.

"Good... Good morning. I know that you're in great pain, so I'll skip the 'How are you feeling' bit. I'm no expert on this, so we'll have to wait until Kalokin rests, but does anything hurt more than you think it should?"

Her ears twitched as Khaesho woke up, and she blinked a little bit, looking at him blearily under the soft blue luminescence Kalokin had provided. Khaesho pressed his hands into her back, rubbing through her fur, and she pressed into him with a soft murmur. Her fur fluffed out a little bit, and her muscles ached so.

"My jaw... my tail... my tail hurts." There was a soft whine, as she tried to move it again, only to stop suddenly. He had said not to move it.

"Kalokin had mentioned that he wanted to change your tail... something about scales I think. Your jaw is an easy answer though, assuming that he's still making you part snake and not something else entirely. Most animals have a single hinge on the jaw, between skull and jaw bone, yes? Snakes have two, which is one of the reasons our mouths open as wide as they do. You might be growing a second hinge for your mouth, and I imagine that would hurt like hell. The other possible reason is this. Watch."

Shou was listening carefully to Khaesho, and her ears perked up a little bit as he spoke of her tail perhaps growing. It made her nose at his scales, before she nodded a little bit. That made sense, and she let out a little sigh as he explained it. That wasn't something to worry about terribly... she wouldn't mind having a long snaky tail to coil around his. She crooked her head and watched his mouth, uncertain at what would follow, eyes widening as she observed.

He reached up to cradle his face with both hands. His Left hand held the left half of his jaw shut, while his right wormed its way into his mouth. He grabbed his jaw and pulled, and Shou gasped as the right half of his jaw stretched downwards, moving independently of his left. He stretched it down and away, until half of his mouth was stretched wide as if he was mid-meal. The left half of his jaw though, remained firmly in place, held there by his hand. He let go with his hands and pulled his mouth back to normal proportions, shaking his head a bit to jostle his face back into alignment.

"Our jawbones aren't connected in the front. Now, if Kalokin's essence is pushing you towards that, then your jaw will get continually weaker until it snaps in half. If it still aches like frostbite tomorrow, then we'll talk about your options. In the meantime, the rest of your bones and muscles are being... refined. That hurts enough in and of itself, but it shouldn't last longer than two days. Try to not move until then, it'll only hurt more if you do."

Curious fingers reached up to touch her mouth; that would be interesting... she knew she had rigid bones that weren't quite as flexible as a snake body, so having a jaw like one would be odd to say the least. It brought her a thought about her tongue, which she stuck out, crossing her eyes in an attempt to see. Had it changed? Everything felt weird to her at the moment, so she couldn't tell, and then she looked up at Khaesho. Tongue half out of her mouth and blinking a little bit. He grinned, his tongue darting forwards to brush against hers, tickling that subtly spicy taste through her mouth as he did. She yipped in surprise, drawing her tongue back and smiling back at him in return.

"O-oh... well... that makes sense... but will it really take a week?" A week of not moving; she would have to work hard to get her body back into dancing shape; even a week was almost too much. Khaesho nuzzled her carefully, and rubbed a hand down her back again.

"Conservatively, I think you'll need at least two more days in bed before you're allowed to walk on your own. We'll see how you feel tomorrow, but in the meantime, I imagine you're hungry. I can leave you alone and go try to catch something edible, or I can stay with you until Kalokin has rested enough to carry a conversation. Do you think you would survive for an hour or two without me?"

A nuzzle was returned to him, and her tongue swept along his cheek. A small smile, and she curled up against his coils. She heard her stomach growl at the mention of food, surprising a soft chuckle from them both. Nodding mutely, she tried to curl up a little more.

"It's alright, you can go find food. I'll be okay on my own for a little while. I won't be getting up or moving around much."

"Alright. I should be back in an hour or two. Kalokin, are you done being lazy?"

Just a few more minutes, mom.

"Ugh, fine. Shou, bother him until he says something that isn't stupid."

He pulled himself out of the pile he'd buried them under, winding his entire length along Shou's body as he did. Shou pressed against him as he wound along her body, pressing touches and licks where she could as he went. Hunting would be a bit more difficult without Kalokin doing the hard work for him, but he realized that he looked forwards to the challenge. He didn't want to be entirely reliant on someone else for food. Though, he mused, if he was going to try and adapt to city life, he'd have to rely on Shou until he found a place to work... If such a place even existed...

"I wander if there's an acting troupe or some equivalent I could join. Between my rasp and my coloration, I could make a great villain. Besides... wouldn't that be the crown jewel of any show... the barbarian Serpent, the only of his kind to leave the desserts... heh, that alone is enough to make me famous."

Or infamous. Remember that you've been shot at multiple times before.

And whose fault is that?

Kalokin wisely didn't answer, giving Khaesho some smug satisfaction as his scales shushed softly over the rock. He arrived at the surface soon, and set about trying to hunt, using nothing but his natural hypnotism, his claws, and his fangs.

When he was gone, and she couldn't hear him anymore, she closed her eyes. Curled up as much as she could, she gingerly pulled a few of the furs over her body. A small yawn escaped her; the pain that still made her muscles ache making her tired, sapping what little strength she had. It was with this in mind that she let out a few slow breaths and let her mind sink.

It was like a self-induced trance, or meditation, sifting through her consciousness until she found the city that existed only within her mind. Her soul still rested in the center of Kalokin's coils. She blinked her eyes opened, and "woke up" in a sand filled metropolis. Kalokin was no longer coiled around her; he was slithering about the sands, and the first sight of him made her gasp in shock and horror. He looked like some half dead monstrosity, a black boned skeleton with ragged patches of flesh and muscle attached. His face was mercifully whole, but his long bod looked like someone had rubbed him harshly against a cheese grater. He was slithering around, poking scattered gobbets of flesh with his claws, and as he did, they melted and flowed back to their proper place on his body. He winced when she opened her inner eyes, turning towards her with a cheesy smile.

"Oh, hey there Shou! Fancy meeting you here. What are the odds?"Concern for the snake immediately surfaced in Shou's eyes, and he winced from the flash of fear and disgust. "Yea, yea, I know I'm not looking my best... listen, wake up for real this time, and I'll be along shortly, I just need a minute or two to pull myself together, so to speak.

"Kalokin... oh Kalokin... what will the two of you do..." Her voice softened, tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. "What will the two of you do, now that I've come to love you both so..." It had been days, mere days, and already her thoughts revolved around two Naga from the far off deserts. It was so strange, so -- and why shouldn't it be? They were so much more, and she loved them for it. "No, love, no, I will keep you company here for a while... what happened to you?"

He laughed then, and though he winced and cut it off early, the casual happiness had been genuine.

"Ha... You think this is bad? You should have *ack* should have seen the time I scared off Shelandra's favorite consort with a few... well placed effects. I wasn't much more than a pile of ashes when she got done with me. Heh... good times. I'm not trying to chase you off... I just don't like being seen wounded, if I can help it. Also, you should really avoid coming here specifically, if you can help it. What you do here could have serious ramifications on you, and while you're down here, you're absolutely dead to the rest of the world."

He paused in his labor so he could wrap his arms around her torso. He took advantage of the opportunity to tickle her stomach with his tongue. She tensed, eyes wide and trying to fight the squeal that escaped her mouth. She managed, and all that came out was a squeak.

"Still... she is a God, and your sister, and I... I did this to you... how can you ever forgive me for this... for hurting you so..?" Tears fell down her fur, and she stroked her hands lovingly along his scales.

He looked up at her, and his expression confused her. He was pissed. He pulled himself out of her embrace, drew himself high enough off the ground to tower over her, and clamped his hands down on her shoulders to look her in the eyes.

"Can you STOP with the self-sabotage already? This isn't a battle scar. This isn't a knife in the back. This isn't you attacking me with malicious intent. This is a punishment. I am being punished, because I broke the rules. Not. Your. Fault."

His burst of energy ran out there, and he collapsed. Shou stared into his face, her bottom lip trembled and her eyes were wide. She was surprised at his anger, at his violent response. Then she looked ashamed, her ears drooped and her eyes cut down and to the side, away from him for a moment. He raised himself slightly and caught her cheek with his hand so he could still look into her eyes, but the anger on his face had softened into concern.

"I got hurt because I wanted to bend a few rules and claim you as mine without making you a Vessel at first. This is me suffering to make up for that mistake. When you saw me as a Rattlesnake... I'd been given a specific list of things I shouldn't do with another's soul, mainly because it starts them on the path to becoming a Vessel. It's not something you can do halfway, and if Khaesho hadn't 'convinced' Shelandra to tell him how to help, you would have died. You really would have died, just for my greed. So, my options were either let you die, and let that fragment die with you; or, for the first time in my existence, I could fix something that I had broken. Not only is this directly my fault, there were a number of things I could have done along the way to prevent it, but then you and Khaesho wouldn't have gotten a fairy tale ending. This is my punishment, and this is my price, and I will not let you mope when I'll be perfectly fine in another hour. Hell... I've suffered worse punishment that was self-inflicted."

The top eight feet of him already looked pristine, and the rest of his flesh was crawling across the ground towards him at a decent pace. She slowly sat down with him, pulling him into her lap. Her arms wrapped around him again, and she stroked her hands along his scales tenderly as she spoke with a whisper soft voice.

"It... I don't mean it to be self-sabotage, Kalokin. I am... I do not like to see anyone hurt, especially someone I care for. Punishment or not, I feel responsible for your pain. My own life has never meant much, not once... but the lives of others, of those I impact, that matters more to me than my own self. You and Khaesho... you... both of you matter..." Her voice tightened, choked, and tears started to fall rapidly. "I wouldn't have been upset had I died; I would have been upset that you and Khaesho hurt for it... I would have been sad because I caused you pain and couldn't fix it. I feel guilty, for what you felt, not once but twice. My heart aches, and that is not something I can prevent, Kalokin. It is part of caring. I cannot change that I feel sorrow and guilt for it. I want you better. But... but I will try not to blame myself for this, I promise."

He smiled up at her, tracing a thumb along her jaw bone. "Your life does matter though, Shou. You matter to Khaesho. You matter to me. That should be enough.

She smiled through her tears, and bent over to kiss his snout. "I am known as a bleeding heart, Kalo; that is just part of who I am. I can't bear to see you hurt."

"We have a saying in the great Deserts. A Man who bears no scars is a Man who took no risks. I took a gamble, and it paid off. It hurt like hell, yes, but I'm better because of it. I'll never make the same mistake again. Pain is a great teacher like that." He moved his head from her lap only so he could pull her down to lay in the sand beside him. "There's nothing wrong with caring for others, but don't try to take the blame for something you didn't do. If you're really that put out over what happened... then you'll just have to make it up to us somehow."

"That is true, it is unlikely that you'd not learn, but... but I wish you didn't have to get hurt to learn it..." There was concern in her face - seeing him and seeing his pain. Laying down she cuddled him, nuzzling under his chin slightly as she licked along his neck. "Yes... yes, I suppose I will."

He made quite an unmanly sound at the tickling and twitched back.

"Ack! That tickles."

Shou laughed, continuing to nuzzle him and maybe lick him once or twice more. He nuzzled her back, until he twitched and froze as his eyes lost focus. Seconds later, he looked back down over his still healing tail, then back to Shou. He smiled as he spoke, and ended his sentence with a laugh.

"Khaesho has lunch."

A grin curled her face and her eyes lit up.

"Good! I'm starving!"

"I'll be more or less healed by the time he gets here, in another half hour or so. Any other private thoughts or yearnings you wanted to share before he returns?"

Shou paused and bit her lip, uncertain if she really wanted to broach the subject, but... he had asked. Her cheeks flushed as she spoke softly. "I'm afraid... I know what a relationship like this means to me... but... but I don't know what it means to you two..."

He had asked the question almost as a joke, but at Shou's hesitation, the smile fell from his lips, and he put on his best serious face.

"We do many things differently in the desert. Children are raised more by the community as a whole, parentage isn't quite as important. Granted, bloodlines are important, and purebloods keep to themselves, yadda yadda but even so, it is the duty of the entire clan to raise the child. With that in mind, it is far less important for the parents to stay together. There's a word in your language, 'marriage,' that only has a rough equivalent in ours. The closest you'd get is the word "Srhilei." It doesn't happen often, but it's basically two Naga agreeing to share the rest of their lives together. Live in the same house, share money, and all that stuff, but it doesn't even touch on romance. I've seen many Srhilei that lived very happy lives without ever fucking each other, and in my opinion, that's a good thing. Who you want to spend your life with shouldn't depend on how much you want to fuck them. It happens rarely enough that usually at least one of us will attend the binding, and we use magic to literally bond their souls. They can speak to each other; find the other in a crowd, all the kind of things you would expect from two souls being bound. It's permanent and life altering though... you can't unbind souls that have been altered like that. Only five times in four thousand years has anything catastrophic enough happened that one or both of a pair decides to break apart, and that only ends in suicide... usually an Ouroboros, just to declare their misery. Nevertheless, people are VERY careful about not soul binding to someone unless they're damn sure that they want to spend the rest of their lives together. The next closest thing to marriage doesn't even have a name. If a pair likes each other enough, one will go to live with the other, and then they're a pair. It can last as short as a few days or as long as a lifetime. Even then, casual sex with others is in no way taboo. We value emotions and happiness more than lust and sex."

"Now listen though, because I don't want to give you false cause for panic. If you asked him to, he would limit himself to just you. It's not common... no, actually, it's damn rare, but it has happened in the past for a pair to spurn the advances of all others in favor of each other. You'd both be happy, and that's what's important. Still... if ever wanted to have sex with anyone else, he would wholeheartedly go along with that, as long as he got to either join in, or have someone else to fuck in the meantime."

For several moments Shou considered what he was saying... then she spoke.

"Yes, there is marriage, but wolves are... peculiar. Growing up, in our youth, we take a partner or two, learn the ways of mates and sex... but once we find one that makes our hearts whole... Once we find one that is ours, we marry, or mate them, and never another. Our hearts belong solely to that one; to lose that partner is to invite disaster. We love so wholly that many a mate follows the other to the ends of the earth or to death if they are lost... It is instinct for us. To go against it is rare, but can be done. I have seen one mate spurn another and go to someone else, and I have watched the spurned one crumble into despair that led to death with their love destroyed. It is... all or nothing for some of us. Not all are like that... but some. It is one of the reasons wolves rarely mate outside of species." There was a shiver of fear, of worry in her voice.

"Sleeping with two males this far into my life... It is the mark of a whore, but... but I love you both. I adore you both, and I wish to stay with you..." There was worry in her face again, her ears splayed, whimpering softly. "I do not know... I don't know if I can share...Just the thought of it..! It is crushing."

She was an emotionally driven creature, it was clear. The way her eyes dimmed, and her whole body slouched as she worried about something that hadn't even come to pass, something that was only a maybe was a mere shadow of what might happen if she was left on the wayside. There was a strangled whine from her, as she curled up, and hid her face from Kalokin. "But... but just because it is the way I am... d-does not mean it is the way you are... and the idea of holding the two of you back is just as devastating."

Khaesho smiled, attempting to calm her with soft chuckles as he stroked her hair.

"Do we really count as two separate men? Actually, do I count as a man at all? I can't help you settle the issue of loving Khaesho and I at the same time, neither of us have any qualms against sharing you, but believe me when I say this. We want nothing more than to see you happy. If that means we're not allowed to pick up a random chick at a bar, then we can live with that. You're worth it. Do you remember what I said, right after Khaesho saved you? 'You will never be rid of us. You'll have to spend the rest of your life with us at your side, because that's where we belong.' I understand if you don't want us lusting after every girl we see... and he will too. He'll be a bit put out... but sex is just fun to us. As long as you can keep up with his libido, I doubt he'll have any problem with that at all."

He wrapped his arms around her, rocking her slightly in the warm sand. His tongue licked a single solitary tear from her cheek, and he held her close.

"Of course you're two separate men, you're similar, but you are certainly not the same. I told Khaesho that. And though you share a body, you certainly are different." She scrunched her nose, certain of this truth. They were the same, but not. She shook her head slowly, but with deliberation. Then she pressed into him, and curled up against his chest, her breathing soft against his scales.

"I do, I remember. I'm glad you think I'm worth it..." It was whispered softly, as she pressed a kiss to his nose, and offered a small smile. Ears perked slightly, and she rumbled a growl of delight. This was echoed by a growl from her stomach, but within her soul, the rolling gurgle manifested as a thunder strike, a rolling boom that echoed across the city. Kalokin hissed lovingly, curling and rolling the sound through his throat so that it sounded almost like a cat purring. His body was almost done healing; only the last few feet lacked flesh.

"There's no 'think' about it. You are worth it. Now, awaken, fair maiden, for your knight approaches."