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Time to get our two characters interacting.(Constructive) feedback always extremely valued.

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Three

While evolution gave anthromorphs the literal leg up they needed, humankind had watched in awed silence. Then, they decided to lend a hand to speed things up. They decided to use Science. With Science and evolution working hand in paw, matters had indeed sped up. Perhaps it had gone too fast. Humanity had not foreseen the possibility of its new hobby developing humanlike intelligence and behaviour. At first, this realization thrilled them, and then it shocked them. Anyone who could find themselves a soap box atop of which to preach would preach the end of the world.

In a way, this was indeed the end of the world. At least the world as it was known back then. Great changes were taking place and while some of them were not good, most of them found a way of getting themselves integrated effortlessly into everyday life. In time, anthromorphs ceased to be scientific freaks. They were adopted as exotic pets for the rich and eccentric. When this too had faded away as all fads inevitably do, they were introduced to the more humble households as the ideal pet. They were smart and caring; almost human, but not quite. In the meantime, Science had kept itself busy. After all, the devil finds work for idle paws...

Four

The teachers' lounge was almost empty by one in the afternoon. Many of them had given the last of their lessons and gone home before something else came up. At half past one, something did come up: two human students from the older classes peered through the door and were met by a sour looking gorilla anthro. They asked him something and he pointed, without saying a word, to Oreste sitting at his desk, correcting assignments.

They approached the lupine's desk. The one on the right was a pale and freckled red-haired boy of about 18 who Oreste knew by sight but did not teach. He knew him because he was to the other boy what Mercutio was to Romeo. They were always together and, more often than not, up to no good. In spite of their escapades, as always happens to the Mercutios of the world, Romeo outshone his buddy and left him in the shade. Unwillingly so, and probably without even knowing, but still... The way they would grin stupidly at each other, Oreste doubted that anything was yet wrong. In time, that would change. Perhaps it would be when Romeo wins a scholarship and Mercutio does not. Maybe Romeo will nail Juliet before Mercutio gets to her and suddenly it hits him; all his conquests seem to have a funny habit of inquiring about Romeo even after Mercutio's eaten them out and is now trying to get his dick inside them. Funny habit indeed, only Mercutio doesn't find it funny in the ha-ha way... Nope, not at all...

Could you blame the ladies though? Oreste looked at this present day Latin Romeo, one of the top students in his class. He was tall and built discreetly but solidly, with muscles developed through the school football or basketball team. Oreste couldn't remember which. What he did remember was the wit and intelligence that would keep them both engaged in deep debates during their Shakespeare class. The rest of the class would watch on, mainly siding with one or the other and talking valuable notes as the arguments unfolded before their eyes and ears.

"Good afternoon, Mr.Montano," he said, his voice warm and clever with that knowing half-smile on his lips. His dark obsidian eyes glittered as when he knew he had an argument-clincher up his sleeve. This time there was something else, but Oreste couldn't read it.

"Hey Bobby", the wolf replied, his own half-smile playing on his muzzle. "What brings you to my neck of the woods? Don't tell me you have another interpretation of the Othello and Desdemona relationship." Oreste half hoped he did. They had been in the middle of a hot debate last lesson, stuck at an impasse that was apparently unsolvable. Roberto had won half the class with his arguments and Oreste had kept the other half. Both interpretations made sense but one contradicted the other. Whereas student and teacher would usually reach a hybrid conclusion, part Oreste's and part Roberto's, this would not be the case. It was either one or the other.

Roberto looked at his teacher with the sparkle of a tiger in ambush shining in his eyes. "Actually," he said, "I'm sort of leaning towards your interpretation the more I think about it."

"Surely you're pulling my hind paws! Never would I have thought I'd live to see the day when Roberto Camero would concede something similar to his opponent."

"Isn't 'opponent' a bit too strong a word? We're more like sparring buddies!"

The big lupine laughed a jovial laugh. Sparring was a very accurate metaphor indeed, thought Oreste as he remembered the straight-to-the-heart jabs Bobby and he would throw each other. Aim to kill. Take no prisoners.

Oreste noticed a dog-eared book in Bobby's hands, the tip of a bookmark sticking out of the pages. The title was barely visible but the glimpse Oreste's eyes open wide in excitement. "Is that what I think it is?"

Bobby looked down at the book in his hands and tossed it lightly onto Oreste's desk. It was a tattered copy of the wolf's favourite play, King Lear. "We were supposed to be doing this one, but the Faculty Board felt Othello was more important," said Oreste with a barely perceptible shake of the head. "People nowadays... they have their priorities all wrong. Othello's a good play, mind you, but this is definitely-"

"- your favourite play," said Bobby, casually scratching the light stubble on his chin.

Oreste looked at him, puzzled. "How did you know that?"

"You mentioned it once in class, I think. I do pay attention you know".

Oreste smiled at his student. He didn't remember telling any of his classes about his favourite play, at least not explicitly. It was certain that he had made some references throughout his lessons, and the way he spoke about it must have clued Bobby in. The wolf was sure that the human was much more perceptive than he looked, and even that was saying a lot.

He picked up the book and leafed through it. Every now and then, important verses were highlighted in faded orange. Brief notes were scribbled in a concise script, very neat and almost scientific. It looked eerily lifeless when contrasted with the beautiful words they were commenting upon. Bobby's handwriting was more curvaceous and lively, a passionate and often hurried scribble that said a lot about him. The wolf was about to inquire who the book belonged to when he was struck by something more important he wanted to say instead.

"Love and jealousy are very important themes, but I think it's here that Shakespeare brings out the big guns: when he talks about existence."

He looked up from the book and saw Bobby staring at him, again with that enigmatic expression. For a moment, Oreste thought of the first time he had met Damian. The puma's eyes had glittered in the same knowing way, like he knew a fair share of life's secrets and perhaps some of Oreste's too. If Oreste had never been thunderstruck before, then Damian had changed that. As he would change a lot of things about Oreste and unfortunately, in most cases not for the better. This was not the place for such thoughts. He opened the book on the page that he had been looking for without even knowing it.

"There's this character, Gloucester, who has made a lot of mistakes in his life. One of them leads him to having his eyes plucked out in one of the most disturbing scenes in theatre... Ironically, it is only when he's blinded that he 'sees' because he realizes his mistakes. Here we go... Act Four, Scene One, 'I stumbled when I saw'. Truly Bobby, it takes a great man like Shakespeare to fully understand such a great irony in our lives. He really could understand people."

"Yet people rarely understand themselves. Like King Lear, who 'hath but slenderly known himself', right? Sometimes, that is even more important than why we're here. The way I see it, we're here and that's that. Now we have to find out who we are and make the best we can out of that."

Bobby looked extremely grave as he said that, graver than his teacher had ever seen him. Oreste was sure he had just been allowed to glimpse a part of Roberto Camero which few people were given the opportunity to see. The red-haired boy was obviously uncomfortable with the way the discussion was progressing. Oreste wondered why Bobby had brought him along in the first place if he knew he'd be speaking to the wolf; they always ended up in such discussions and if the redhead was so vulgar as to fidget, then tough. The lupine was glad when the boy slipped away, apparently resigned to having lost Bobby to Oreste. The wolf chuckled to himself at the idea of having 'won' Bobby... then again, throughout their debates it had been indeed like a contest as to who would conquer whom, at least on an intellectual level.

The Latino was looking at Oreste strangely. He said, "Was what I said so funny?"

Oreste put two and two together and realized he had inadvertedly offended his student. "No," he said emphatically, leaving no place for doubt where doubt would have caused a rift in their relationship. That could not happen, not now that Bobby seemed on the verge of saying something very important. 'Revealing' something important sounded more like it. "I only laughed because your friend doesn't seem so interested in our conversation. Apparently he prefers hitting on Miss Welles." Oreste gave his statement a tinge of light disgust that made it very clear to Bobby that he did not like such callousness.

"That's Rory. I couldn't shake him off. The deepest conversation Rory and I have ever had in the eight years we've known each other revolved around his greatest dilemma ever: buying salted or non-salted peanuts."

Oreste laughed a hearty laugh, which Bobby returned with a semi-sorrowful grin. It was nothing compared to the devilish grin Oreste's student usually displayed. There really was something Bobby wanted to tell his teacher and Oreste did not know how he would handle this. He took him gently by the arm and pulled him away from the small cluster of teachers eyeing Rory's clumsy attempts at impressing the new and young Physical Ed teacher.

"Bobby, you're trying to tell me something but I don't know what it is."

"You're very perceptive, Professor. This isn't the place to tell you about it though", Bobby said, looking at the simian teacher who was looking at them, apparently more interested in their secrecy than in Rory's antics.

"Look, if you're in some sort of trouble, you have to tell me so we can fix it. You're a bright kid Bobby and-"

Bobby gave a genuine laugh. "Oh hell no, Mr.Montano! It's not that kind of trouble. It's more of a... I guess 'existential issue' is what I'm aiming at." He gave a nod with his head towards the redhead. "As you can guess, my friends are not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. And the school counsellor isn't exactly trust-inspiring." Bobby's lips turned into a scowl as he thought of that ignoramus Klein in his leather armchair. "I need to speak to someone who's much more mature and who's been through certain experiences. The only person I could think of and who I know I can trust, is you."

"I understand we can't talk here. Look, can you meet me in front of my place some time this afternoon? I finish my last lecture at 3 so any time after 4 is fine."

"I have football practice till 4:30 so I can come straight over afterwards."

So it was football, not basketball, Oreste told himself. "That's great. Bobby, you really are a promising student, so if there's something which troubles you, I need to know. I do not want you losing your path like I've seen so many students do before you. This is a tough area and if you got this far I'm sure you can get much farther, Bobby".

"Mr. Montano, you really worry too much," said Bobby, giving the wolf an affectionate smile that melted him. "Let's just say that I'm like Lear: I need to improve my self-knowledge and maybe I can do that by getting to know others better."

Five

By 4:45pm, Oreste was well into the play Bobby had left him. He had read King Lear more times than he cared to count so it was not surprising. That was not to say that it had lost any of its charm or power. He could see himself in the title character more than ever as Damian's mind games had led Oreste to lose all sense of self-knowledge. The Bard may have lived a long time before anyone could have even dreamed of the anthromorph revolution yet his characters appealed even to them. They were, after all, essentially human, for better or for worse. Not for the first time Oreste felt that he had gone astray somewhere along the way. He had betrayed who he was, the person he had worked so hard to become. The wolf that had climbed his way out of the poverty into which he had been born, and built himself a life he had been proud of, was not the same as the wolf sitting in his armchair now.

The first time he had read an abridged version of King Lear he was little more than a young pup. His uncle Alfiero had been bringing Oreste and his sibling's books from the village for a few months. Rather, he had started bringing them for Oreste, the only avid reader in the family of shepherds. Uncle Alfiero had grown up in the same mountains Oreste had, but after a while he got tired of shepherding. When his sister, Oreste's mother, got married to a respectable wolf, he left the family herd in their paws. He left for the village, which was a few hours walk down the mountain. There he made his fortune in trading books from surrounding villages. He had recognized the changes that were happening in the outside world and foresaw their effects on their little village in the Turin mountains. He had also detected the intelligence in Oreste and his potential of becoming more than a shepherd. He had tried to open the same paths to Oreste's brother and sister but they had never taken to it. Luckily enough, Oreste's parents were sufficiently sensible to not neglect him this opportunity but it was to uncle Alfiero that he remained indebted. His uncle had shown him the beauty of literature and helped him discover the different layers to life.

As Oreste grew up in body and in mind, he felt an urge grow inside him as well. He wanted to travel and to see for himself the world he had only read about in his uncle's books. At the age of sixteen, Oreste was ready to take a glimpse of the wider world and his uncle Alfiero was ready to take him there. His mother, Amelia, had cried the night her eldest son told her and his father about his ambition. Yet Oreste never knew that- not even now, more than three decades later, because his parents had shown him encouragement and support even as it broke their hearts. Pierro, Oreste's father, had known a life of hard work and he wished the best for his children just like any other parent. In Oreste, he saw the opportunity for a better life and his one regret was that his other two children could not follow suite.

Two weeks later, the young lupine was ready for the change. With his few belongings tied up in a bundle slung over his shoulder, the juvenile wolf followed his uncle down the mountain and into the village of Val Sosa as a new sun had started rising. Oreste would never forget that sunrise, for it was not just the birth of a new day but for him it had been the birth of a new life. Perhaps he cried along the descent, perhaps not. The pain of leaving his family behind would not kick in until a few days later, sparked by a piece of tough bread and the nostalgia of the homemade kind he had known until that moment. He had envisioned his mother standing in the kitchen, covered in flour from head to toe, as his sister sat at the table looking positively sheepish. This memory was a few years old already, even then. His sister was no older than six years old when her mother had let her help in the making of bread. Yet Carmen's eagerness had soon led her to overturn the container of flour, covering her mother under a transparent sheet of white. In any other family, Carmen's punishment would have been certain but Amelia had taken the opportunity to tickle her daughter, sending cloudlets of flour up in the air as they struggled. When Oreste came into the house with his brother and father after a day of shepherding, they could hear Carmen's delighted giggles from outside. They opened the door to a grainy white fog, only to find mother and daughter laughing so hard tears were running down their cheeks, washing away some flour and letting their fur show through.

These trips to the past had become more frequent for the wolf lately. They often threatened to make him loose his composure, as was happening now. He wiped a premature tear from his eyes with the back of his paws and looked at the clock on the stone fireplace. Bobby would be there any minute now, so this was not the time to let himself go. However, as the wolf waited for his student's arrival, he promised himself he would visit his mother and father very soon. It had been way too long since he last saw them. Oreste did not want to be ungrateful towards them, not after all they had done for him and his siblings all those years ago.

Six

Roberto's team had won the game with next to no difficulty at all, mainly thanks to his efforts and to those of Greg Ranieri. Greg and Bobby were easily the best two players on the school football team but today was Bobby's day. He felt like a weight had lifted from his shoulders or that at least it soon would. Knowing that he had finally found someone he could talk to openly helped him play at his best and practise soon flew by.

Once Coach Saunders told the team to hit the showers, Bobby rushed to get a stall first. Practise had gone slightly over the usual time and he didn't want to keep Professor Montano waiting. As Roberto took his clothes off, throwing them carelessly into his gym bag, he thought of what he would say to the professor seeing as he had been thinking of this moment since he had realized that there was something different about him.

Bobby's friends made it seem as if their world revolved around the young, scantily-clad girls who were unattainable except through the dirty magazines to which they jacked off. Yet he himself could never feel that way. He had tried, to the point of trying to have sex with Carla. Yet it was other things which would make Bobby loose it and have him drooling like a dog in front of a juicy slab of meat. Things like Greg Ranieri stepping into the shower stall opposite him, naked and sweating until the jet of water from the nozzle he was turning hit him and drenched him in cool liquid. As the rivulets of water ran down his chest, his belly and over his groin, Roberto was painfully aware that he was growing fiercely erect and when Roberto Camero got hard, it was hard not to notice. He turned around, giving his back to Greg showering in the stall facing him, hoping he'd somehow manage to control himself. Each week was the same and it never got any easier. Greg was a friend however, and definitely straight, so there was neither a point nor hope in Bobby pursuing this particular catch.

He wondered how people like him could get together. Surely, it wouldn't be as open as with 'normal' couples... At least not in this neighbourhood. Maybe you just sensed one another, just like he had sensed Professor Montano. Even now Bobby wasn't sure just how he'd gotten that first hunch about his teacher. However it had come about, Bobby had made sure to verify it before approaching the lupine. He had followed his teacher one Saturday night after seeing him with a nicely built puma who kept giving the Professor significant looks. Professor Montano had returned some of them, but Bobby could not decipher them very clearly. When the two had stepped into a dark alley and snuck a passionate kiss, thinking themselves unseen, it was no longer possible to doubt the nature of their relationship. Having found out what he needed to know, and not wanting to intrude on his teacher's privacy any further, Bobby left.

He scrubbed under his arms and between his legs, then proceeded to soap up his semi-hard cock. He ran his hand up and down his shaft a few times, the soap's lather providing him with a smooth glide. Bobby had tried to remove Greg Ranieri from his mind and had let Professor Montano in as a replacement. It had seemed innocent enough yet now he got the image of the wolf and the puma kissing in the alley. Even before he left they had been using tongue, Bobby knew for sure. It was hard to miss since both had tongues much larger than human ones. Thinking about the two pink tongues meeting one another in ardent kisses made something stir inside of the young Latino. His imagination picked up the scene and started adding its own spicy little details. The Professor would have his paws on the puma's butt, grabbing it tightly as they lost themselves in each other's kiss. Then perhaps the puma's paw had come to rest on the bulge in Professor Montano's pants, maybe even sliding down his fly and finding its way inside...

Beneath the hot jet of water, Roberto was shivering. He thought about a few unpleasant house chores, about slimy things you speared on your hook to catch fish, about politics. It didn't do to think that way about an anthromorph, not even in this day and age and certainly not in this place. Above all, Professor Montagna was his teacher, and that was definitely one line that shouldn't be crossed... as tempting as it was. Yes, he had admitted it to himself. The image of the Professor and the puma was fighting hard to hang in there, yet he managed to make it go away. He towelled off and then wound the wet cloth hastily around his waist. Roberto Camero found his way towards the locker containing his baggy pants and his sweatshirt, got dressed and hurried out of the room, giving one last look behind his shoulders as the naked Greg rat-whipped a large, burly black guy's equally bare butt.