The Mare Chair
He was a longtime resident of the Daytona stripping scene, and led credence to his show only as a display to all those watching and nothing more. On occasion, he, Jerris, led on a stallion or two-it was no secret that most of the gentlemanly dressed equines in their suits and tophats were among the affluent of the animalized races.
Days went by and his temptations easily loosened their wallets for the satisfying oversized tip. As time went on, he grew bolder in the manner he led them on-a suggestion here, a teasing tickle there on the erect clothed mass of a semi-hard equine member just peeking curiously from the sheath but still trapped in dark pants.
Then his luck changed...
And the only tip the plucky seductive pony boy would recieve came from the shaft of a giant horse dick.
................
The Mare Chair
Jerris sighed in relief, done with his day performing on stage. He had made a few thousand dollars and decided to splurge on a few vibrating sex toys he had seen at a nearby adult store.
He came to the alley easily, choosing to go to the rear entrance-as any stallion prefers-instead of going through the front. He was an adventurous creature-but far from confident.
His fingers wrapped around the handle when he heard a noise behind. He easily swiveled his ears and face toward the sound and was greeted to the sight of the most enormous equine beast he had ever seen-
A shire...
"Hello there, pony. I enjoyed your show, and I want to satisfy you with the most ultimate fuck you have ever had." Droned a husky powerful voice as deep as a dark abyss; the big stallion's fur as black as night and his eyes blue like the morning sky.
"I was...going to buy some toys..." Jerris remarked uncertainly.
The shire laughed easily and arrogantly. "For THAT ass? You best forget it; I know what a hungry ass craves and I have it riiiiiiight here." The horse patted his erecting tent in his pants confidently-Jerris blushing as he saw the cockhead peek over and ooze stallion juice all over the concrete street like a slimy drooling drainpipe.
Then with a gasping squal of surprise, Jerris found himself ponynapped as the great horse easily lifted him up and took him screaming and protesting over his shoulder like a sack of jumping beans.
It was soon that he arrived at the apartment of the giant equine and was easily overpowered and forced to sit in a chair-his limbs strapped down despite his fighting and protests.
"Quiet pony. I want to have my fun with you."
He cried as the stallion towered over him-grinning.
"Don't tease studs unless you want what they have."
Then the horse picked up a remote from nearby and flicked a switch on the pad-and Jerris opened his eyes in fear when he felt the chair vibrate.
An involuntary spasm zapped through his body and made his entire being shudder with every detail that came through his head. The bottom of the chair dropped out from under him, making his tush fall into the empty recess like an oversized toilet seat-the only thing keeping him from falling in were the restraints, and as he tried to make sense of what was happening-
A warm jet of water or some other liquid shot up at his helpless asshole and made him whine in protest-fighting his bonds uselessly.
"I see you felt the wash. It's perfectly safe, it's just warmed lubricant thats compatible with both gears of the machine and organic tissue so that there aren't any problems. You see, it's so hard to find the right type of lube that can be haphazardly sprayed everywhere without causing mechanical breakdown or poison the recipient like engine oil does."
The pony was about to ask what the lube was for when he felt a slightly cold wet object pressed neatly up against his hole almost as wide as a fist, but tapered to a smooth wide blunt point.
"And now by the look on your face I can tell that you've been introduced to the ultimate equine modelled dildo ever devised. It's actually a little smaller than mine, but certainly enough for a lecherous little mare such as yourself."
Jerris laid his ears flat in submission and his eyes back in terror when he heard the words and understood that the weight of his body was going to drive his asshole over the mammoth flared glans of the rubber toy.
He braced his body for the inevitable raping thrusts of the cruel machine but was mystified for a long moment when nothing happened. Jerris looked back at the shire questioningly; uncertain as to why he wasn't being pumped full of cock and savagely fucked by the whirring vibrating chair of horsecock.
Any moment, he dreaded the stabbing fiery pain of the rubber spear as it swiftly shot up out of its padded housing and impaled his tiny helpless bared hole. Instead, minutes dragged on as the shire simply smiled at him throughout the ordeal.
"Comfortable mare? We're going to be here awhile. After all, I wouldn't want to break a rare treat such as yourself before your ass accepted a member as glorius as mine."
He felt his ass make room for it, and was immediately struck dumb with incomprehension. Slowly, for some reason, his anal rings were parting around the tip of the toy.
Then the truth suddenly shot into his eyes even as the shire laughed in amusement.
"Figured it out so soon, lovely? Yes, its true; this toy of mine is very precise-it CAN spear through anal flesh as easily as a harpoon, but why wreck that pretty ass? I want to fuck you, not kill you. If we had started with my member, I wouldn't have been so patient and I'm most certain your tailhole would be unusable for a week-if you lived. Instead, my machine is going to take its time to breed you. To fit the three feet of rubber cock, it will probably take a number of hours-but I have alot of time to wait until you are satisfactoraly accomodated to fit something my size."
Jerris squirmed and yelped out in pain as he felt his twisting helpless ass bounce around all over the crowning head of the cock-his ass tortured by the sudden withdrawal and impalement on the cruel rubber.
"I wouldn't fight and wiggle so much if I were you. The machine was designed to slowly stretch an ass in a comfortable manner, but if you keep resisting, it will definitely hurt. After all, it would be like trying to struggle out of quicksand; the more you splash, the deeper you go and the worst off you are. If you relax, it will be bearable."
He panted as he relaxed his ass-the rings of his hole slowly stretching with every tiny millimeter of the cock entrusted to his ass every minute. That's what it seemed like; the cock thing was so slow that it was penetrating into his ass a minute amount at a time-the lube coating the fake organ in a slick warm oil as greasy as veterinary lubricant. With his butt slickly coated, he could offer no resistance to the anal invader.
The giant flared glans was now halfway in his tailhole; his spincter struggling to accomodate it as his flesh burned with every uncomfortable stretch and pop of his inner muscles. He rthymically grasped his anus over the smooth slippery rubber until he gasped loudly in chorus to the noise of the head loudly popping into his ass with a sudden suction of air. Jerris shuddered from the devastating sensation of the enormous tip-but only the tip of a horsecock iceberg.
His flesh clasped greedily around the head in an attempt to suck it further into his body. He couldn't resist the sensation as he panted and sweated hotly as if he had been trotting out for a dressage show.
The equine master had been watching the entire time, pleased with the reactions of his new pony pet as he left the room. Jerris put the suspicious exit out of his mind as he closed his eyes and felt his bottom pulse with his heartbeat around the rubber cock even thicker than an average arm and just as long.
In a couple minutes the draft returned, holding some type of rubber bag with an attached hose on the bottom. It looked like an enema bag, but Jerris knew there must be another reason for it.
Without warning, the big horse hung the bag up on a nearby peg in a wall and forced the end of the hose into the ponys' mouth before strapping it in place. The tube had been put down his throat so far, he couldn't spit out the liquid, but close enough to his mouth he could get a lingering taste as the liquid slid into his stomach.
The stallion unclamped the hose, feeding the pony with a sudden burst of salty viscous flavor as cold as ice water; "I thought I would bring you some refreshment, and nothing is better for slutty little mares than a nice liter or two of chilled horsecum."
Jerris immediately slumped back against the cock as he let the cool stallion juice flow into his stomach. His thirst didn't care what he was drinking, it only demanded that his water be replenished. No sooner had he finished sucking on the hose and emptying the bag than the big horse left briefly to attach a fresh one to the hose and have the pony drink even more of the bitter draft draught.
"You will make a fine mare." The big creature remarked, affectionately brushing Jerris' mane out of his eyes as he drank on mindlessly. "I will breed you with my seed and you will scream out my name as I flood your womb with my warm waves of cum."
The pony was lost in the repetition of having his ass be invaded a little at a time and the chilled drink flooding his stomach with fluid that could be considered water AND food.
"That should be enough to feed you for the whole process, pretty one." He casually nipper at Jerris' mane with light clicks of his teeth and took his time tying pink ribbons in the pony's hair to make him pretty.
He moaned loadly despite the hose locked in his mouth as the monster cock finally filled up his rectum like a missing puzzle piece-but it still continued to push on into his sigmoid bend and colon with ease.
It was snug inside him almost enough to hurt-but amazingly, his ass was widening to accomodate the slow sliding pressure of the object burrowing so neatly in him.
"You-oh god!" He screams out with every slow unwinding nudge to his coiled insides.
"My many lovers have given me a reputation as 'Ivan the terrible'." The shire mused, unhooking the tube from Jerris's mouth and watching with delight.
Jerris was worried what such a title inferred, but he had a very good guess.
"They call me that because I have a habit of impaling my 'victim' with my viciously wicked monster cock as they scream out in pleasure and beg me to fuck their tiny stretched asses harder. And I am terrible-at least when I shoot my load into a toasty inviting hole as tight as a virgin mare pussy."
He felt an urge to scratch his hole as it began to itch from all the intense stretching, but had to satisfy his discomfort by winking his ass over the smooth rubber of the toy instead.
The stallion smiled as he went behind Jerris and began to massage his shoulders and rub his nipples.
"Mmmm. Please do relax, It'll be awhile before I can introduce my throbbing cock into that dirty slut hole of yours."
Jerris sighed and felt himself melt into the chair, the dildo sliding into him and becoming one with his body even as the soft strokes continued. Deep down, he certainly had a desire to please his master. The nature of his helplessness ingrained itself into his being even as he submitted and allowed all forces around him to control his body.
It felt like the heat from his ass was melting the object as if it were ice, but he knew better-the great cock was sliding into his bottom regardless of whether he resisted or not, so he simply let it dig into him-now up to a foot in his intestines, lengthening out his internal tract and pushing aside through his organs to precariously implant itself deep inside like another body part.
With a shameful blush and an excited rush of realiziation, Jerris knew that this would feel like nothing he had ever experienced in his life and shuddered a little when he found himself asking if this would be the most pleasant thing he had endured, or a prelude to a greater hell he could only guess at.
The throbbing shire cock began to drip slime as the master equine brought the tip close to Jerris' lips and practically demanded that he suckle on the flesh like a teat full of milk. The pony had already gorged himself on stallion cum, so he didn't see the trouble in slurping down some more-perhaps the draft would be nicer to him and...
And what? It was already obvious the dominant horse wanted to make him a breeding mount for an indeterminate amount of time. What was he capitulating to? Sexual slavery?
Jerris relaxed even further and felt his body go limp every neatly over the hole. He was molding himself into the chair; becoming one with the silicone padding and the rubber thing prodding ever insistently at his tush every second.
It almost felt like a strange dream to him. He was as calm as possible and found himself drowning in the sensation of floating on nothingness-his head and body in nothingness. Only the occasional salty bitter squirt of warm precum down his throat reminded him that anything existed outside of his meditative universe of anal violation and obvious internment.
The intense pushing of his snug moist insides and the hot spongy soft glans rubbing his mouth as he licked was too much-the little pony shuddered painfully over the jarring impact of his sore asshole as his erect little horsecock shot several jets of cum all over the shire, who took one look at the random splatter of dripping silver on his chest and laughed with a great deal of mirth before tasting some of Jerris's pony flavor with a pleased look of appreciation on his stern but playful muzzle.
"My, how sweet my little pony tastes'. I'll have to milk you by hand on a regular basis to satisfy my appetite for your sugary honey cum." The shire remarks, enthralled by the unique and completely random discovery.
He took more off with his fingers and licked it with a joyous roll of his eyes, before taking a hand to the throbbing sensitive cock and squeezing out the urethra along the stem like a nearly empty tube of toothpaste-licking the sacharine pony cum right from the red and purple flared glans with a longing attachment.
"Mmmmm. Better than a sugar cube. You'll have to be my pleasure pony and be milked for my treats forever. You never appeciate how hard it is to find a pet that cums honey as smooth and creamy as any hive of bees can make."
Jerris fell back, panting hard from his body-shattering orgasm; his hole barely able to handle the torturous sensation of his prostate convulsing right against the fake cock with waves of painful rectal shockwaves as if his bowel had been punctured by a blunt spike, but he knew it was just the feeling of his most sensitive, delicate organs collapsing around an unyielding hard dildo and expecting it to jiggle with the internal contortions.
His eyes shot open as he looked at the muzzle and the heat of breath against his cockhead-a long thick tongue flickering out with a devastating lick all over his shaft and finishing at his tip with one devouring suddenly painfully pleasurable close of that hot mouth over the top portion of his member. Jerris screamed in a sharp trumpet of equine lust and surprised bliss as the tongue rubbed his glans raw in an attempt to slurp all his sweet juice.
"Pony is on tap, and I'm not going to stop until I've harvested all that your pretty little horse balls can give me." The shire confidently remarked-deepthroating the whole organ in his muzzle as if it were nothing more than a carrot; the hot tongue twirling over every inch of his fevered stallion fuckflesh in a temptuous attempt to empty his cock as greedily as a hungry calf.
"Oh gawd! Please stop!" Jerris screamed, trying to resist and squirm but knew he had been impaled like a pony kabob and had little say in the matter-even if he had already been restrained.
"But I must have your cum-I must enjoy your pony flavor and satisfy my voracious hunger for your musty male honey."
Jerris threw his head and mane back, his eyes rolling in confused waves of pleasure as his butt rolled uncomfortably all over the dildo as if he were a different rocking horse.
"Please-don't!"
He protested to unlistening ears as the shire lord enjoyed tasting out his new mare even as that giant draft cock hung halfway erect between those shiny black thighs like a cobra waiting to strike-head pointed towards the floor.
His body went limp in defeat as he realized there was no escape; this strange horse that had imprisoned him would be drinking him dry while they waited for the machine to finish its penetration with a giant wiggly flexible intruder that slowly became lodged deeper and deeper until they would joined into one and he would then be ready to be fucked by the enormous muscular horse.
The shire whinnied out with pleasure and ecstacy with every long viscous drop of sweet pre that rolled out and melted into his tongue. The amused creature attacked the flared glans with as many tongue strokes as he could to lower Jerris's defenses and make him hastily shoot another load for that eager impatient muzzle.
Jerris groaned as the second orgasm started to come on him quick; almost as sudden and breathtaking as a rollercoaster ride down a long slope. It was powerful and fast as the wind itself, but after his juice coated the draft master's throat, it was a ride that the little pony wanted to avoid for a few hours.
But the muscled master wouldn't have it. Instead, he slurped every bit of jizm out of the painfully hyper-sensitive cock head and began to assault it again almost immediately; not satisfied to wait for Jerris to recover from the devastating oral force on his tip. Instead, the unsatisfied curled around the sensitive skin and began to stroke the organ to a third launch of his candied equine essence.
"I can't handle it anymore-please stop making me cum!" Jerris squealed out, tears coming down his cheekbones as the shire finally licked his lips and looked up with recognition and sympathy.
"Your right." The stud remarked with a grin, "How can my mare enjoy the chair and then my god-like cock if she has no more juice in her balls to make her horny?"
He gave it one last teasing lick of his slick hot tongue, blew on it seductively, and then straightened himself back to his usual tall height.
Jerris' eyes widened when he realized that the toy had neatly burrowed two thirds of its way into his not so tight hole, and the shire smiled with a smug expression when the pony knew the truth. It was almost inside him, maybe two hours more of waiting-of drinking shire cum and melting into timeless nothingess before the millimeter crawling anal devastator truly made him a draft horse's fuck toy.
"It will be fun to use your ass and ride you like a...pony." The shire jokes with a haughty little giggle. "Oh, it has been awhile since I used a MALE PONY to satisfy my stud urges for a tight mare hole and grind a larger than life horsecock into."
Jerris lay back as his fevered sore bottom squirmed defiantly around the shaft-cramps surging through his ass in a an uncontrollable attempt to reject the intruder from his body, but without any success. It was inevitable, but his subconscious continued to deny passage to the mammoth faux organ.
His anal rings twitched and itched and popped with every tiny slide of rubber against his forcibly yielded flesh. Jerris ass was so terrorized, and yet, he could not ignore that the gradual mass of fullness forced up into his tush was pleasuring his delicate body in all the right ways. Soon enough, the zeta toy hilted itself in his body with a light sigh of steam, the chair turning off and leaving him impaled to 'Thor senior'; a.k.a Clyderyder with a resigned tingly shudder.
The pony looked on into the eyes of the passionate shire, the mega lance from hell erect and ready to stab into any opening positioned before it no matter how small or tight. Jerris was dully aware that the throbbing dripping black and pink skinned member was an inch or so thicker with girth-at least, as it dripped pre all over his thighs and pulsating nervous little sheathe as if to intimidate him into immediate obedience.
"Your almost ready, pet. I'll give it another twenty minutes to rest inside you and keep you nice and loose for me before we start." The giant cobra was as impatient as its master-wiggling helplessly in the cold air and anticipating the next stud conquest placed before it.
A matter of minutes-the shire cannon did not need to wait for long.
The pony stared at it, impressed by the sleek slimy length of it. The ridge around the glans made it look like the very tip of the cock was a muffin, and the sheathe was the bottom with the nice wrapping. The top slanted like it had been baked unevenly; a tip just like any other equine's but still displaying that famous and efficient mare-penetrating design. This was an organ so sharp, it could easily pierce the unlubricated tailhole of another stallion. He had to admire it after finally being confronted with the inevitable possibilty that his barely used pony hole was going to be on the receiving end of that monster.
The shire pushed another button and the pony felt the dildo painfully pull out of his hole as the vacuum left behind sucked him down further along with the retreating toy. He screamed loudly in tortured agony as the humongous shaft receded from his friction-filled hole and scraped unkindly around his insides in a manner less gentle than its initial entrance.
"Silence mare. The cock has to go in smoothly and slowly, but it has to come out rapidly so it keeps your boicunny all nice and loose for me."
Jerris opened his mouth and continued to whine and utter loud protests until the shire easily brought his member about and slapped him across his cheek with it in a firm powerful motion. "Quiet..." He reiterated with a distasteful scowl.
The pony held his tongue as the arm-sized thing slid from his aching and inflammed bowels-before he felt the wide blunt head of the huge uncomfortable flared head begin to travel down his colon, and when it was in his rectum, Jerris braced his body and was unsuccessful from keeping a sharp yelp of pain from leaving his lips as the thing popped out of his hole like a squishy firecracker, receiving another punishment cock-slap to his face.
Jerris just shuddered, barely able to move as his violated hole began to leak cum-puddles back into the hollowed orifice-like sheathe of the penetrating chair. His ass had been wrecked and now more loose than it had ever been in his life. He could feel as his swollen asslips tickled and ground against his buns like thick gobs of jelly-this wasn't goatse; it was beyond it. The pony faintly dreaded the possibility he would never tighten up ever again.
"Time to play." No sooner had the midnite creature bespoken, than his cock was hard, oozing, and more than prepared to ravage and batter it's way into any given pony.
The stud undid his restraints and went into another part of the apartment even as Jerris fell off the chair onto his face, sweaty froth covering his whole overused body.
He panted uselessly on the floor and unable to move, much less escape. His hole oozed a warm long gush of lube and anal juice as the prickly texture of the firm short carpeting bit into his skin.
A ceiling fan hummed to life and blew all the hair on his body askew, but he was grateful for the blast of coolness on his hot body. He felt like he had been worked hard like a thoroughbred at the Kentucky derby.
Returning with a grin on his face and a cock dripping little gobs of transparent sex grease all over the floor, his tail swaggered saucily like a metronome as his hooves clattered on the floor with hollow dull belltones.
"Ready?" The sexy beast rubbed the viscous anal lube slime all over his cock with slow soft caresses to ensure that he stayed hard and ready to conquer his prey.
Jerris stared at the enormity of it-it was a tool that could please an elephant if the shire were so inclined. It was easily bigger than even the entire bodies of some smaller furries.
And it was most definitely going to enter him and stretch his asshole and turn his innards into horse taffy.
"Oh...no I'm not." He shuddered, terrorized by the immediate dread of something that looked like it could smash a car windshield.
"Still so tight? All you have to do is relax and my dick will slide right in-then we can have some real fun. Mares envy this penis for a reason, I'd like to show you why...in a more personal way."
He bit his lip nervously as the stud crashed heavily to the floor on his knees and watched the cock bounce abit like an obscenely graphic stick of salami. The shire then went on all fours and began to use his wide-nosed muzzle to lift the ponies' rump forcefully into position even as he took a few deep licks and cleaned around the wide reddened inflamed goatse hole with his rabidly flickering tongue.
The heavy weight and heat of the giant body lumbered over his; a muscular chest right above his head easily showed how outmatched he was even as an omnipresent heat threatened his yiffhole. He could feel the massive draft head blasting a scouring heat all over his backside-a frightening moment of total submission made him shiver involuntarily as the cock patiently waited for the one single unifying moment.
Jerris knew it was close. He dreaded and anticipated the most intimate domination he had ever known. Curiousity took him, then, making him wonder if it would be savage and unmerciful his first time.
His ears flattened against his skull as far back as possible, his breath slowing to a crawl, his heart almost stopping as his body shuddered and muscles instinctively locked joints up in anticipation with breeding mount precision that he never knew his body had.
Juice began to flood the floor from the sopping wet warm cockhead as the spongy firm thing began to slowly burrow into him like a massive fist; his ass stretching involuntarily like the eager cunt of an estrous mare who expected a deep fucking and a giant load of filling hot spunk to flood into the womb.
The cock went slow, giving his flesh more than ample time to accept the intrusion and engulf the stallion organ with surprising ease that left Jerris drooling and moaning with shameless bliss even as every hot inch invaded so delicately for fear of breaking him.
He was lost to the ecstacy of stretching and bending forward on his face to raise his ass to give better access even as his legs stretched out and his tail seemed to raise itself to one side with the power of sexual instinct and lust beyond understanding. It was like the chair, but it was also strangely different-the chair wasn't warm, the chair did not breathe, the chair had no true inherent desire to breed; it was only a machine for a simple purpose.
But the shire-the shire was instinct-driven by one purpose, but so much more. So much more than a burrowing dinosaur-sized rod. He was hot, and he breathed, and he uttered noises from the occasional pleasurable but unexpected rub to his organ or the tickle of his balls from his 'mare's' tail.
So much...more...
Jerris shuddered as the giant head finally popped into his hole and sank in easily with a slurp like quicksand had devoured it. A blush burned across his face as he felt the long rubbery slick shaft scrape sensually along his pony asscheeks-the cock gradually going and out to spread lubricant and prepare the muscular pony passages for the next few inches or so of cocklength. He didn't know how long it would take, but even as the soreness blazed across his anus and he felt the occasional tendon pop and sting like a pinch or mosquito bite, the overall power and pleasure only tempted him to masturbate as he was bred.
Using his head to support his body, he reached his hands under himself to feel his long little pony shaft-rub it-play with his balls-sometimes taste his own equine flavor...
But he could not cum unless he felt the shire erupt into him with gallons of hot sticky stallion jelly. Where first he had been in denial and refused, now Jerris was uncertain and seemed to crave what had been impossible only hours before when he danced and thought of a draft cock as little more than a fantasy to entertain. Now, it wasn't a fantasy. It was becoming his story-his life.
And Jerris melted before the hot cock as quickly as ice-prepared for the anal battering he had never known. It was a fucking he anticipated like a dream. He was afraid-still was afraid. It was an adventure with risks and hazard, but he felt the intensity of it and began to wonder if he had been praying to the wrong god.
Every inch only seemed to confirm that he was unworthy; that his ass was too lowly to immediately take the whole mass like a good slut. It seemed that he had to work up to ultimate obedience and servitude until his lord deemed him fit to finally take the ultimate power of the slow burning horse meat.
The pony waited, tongue licking the floor madly as his hands worked furiously against his own cock for release-any release from the maddening pleasure and pressure that stabbed into his ass like a vicious knife all the way to the hilt...
Then it was in.
He closed his eyes as he felt the massive thing inside him; his ass milking the entire length with sticky hot bowel as the great horny beast erupted with a dominant trumpet from deep within his throat-the sudden pounding erratic and uncontrollable. Jerris gritted his teeth and felt his entire body rumble with sexual thunder as his hole erupted juice with wet smacking sounds with each animalistic hammering against his presented rear.
It wouldn't last long...couldn't last long. Even as he surrendered his ass and body to the ramming cock-god, deep down, his body had been tested, tried, and now knew the end was coming close.
So close, Jerris almost tasted the cum shooting up into his throat from the deep-seated organ conquering his most intimate equine orifice.
The shire whinnied out effortlessly between every building crescendo of his stallion orgasm; libido screaming in his ears to pump the mare between his legs faster. Pre dripped out like a garden hose right at the moment before his loins gave their most final most painful thrusts and he erupted cum into his mare like a tsunami; the pony shaking with ecstatic vigor with every gallon delivered into his honeyed juice-dripping asshole as his own cock shot his sugary seed all over the floor in response to being pounded and flooded into whorish equine submission.
A final tired sigh escaped his muzzle as he collapsed weakly into his own sticky puddle of juice; the cock still in his body and plugging his hole with a tight throbbing pulsating seal of juicy shiremeat.