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Anthropology II: Field Research

Part II (of III) - Continued from Anthropology I: Synchronization ()

The alien's mating festival begins today! But what problems lie ahead for our intrepid young anthropologist?

Note: Although this story does contain some M/F sex, it is really, *really* gay, so adjust your expectations accordingly! Also, thanks again to my anonymous collaborator; <3!

U.E.S.M Department of Developing Species Observation & Research Base

Corona Borealis Beta, Planet II - Quarters of Samuel Zimmermann

Sam hadn't been sleeping very well these last few days. His mind was aflame with a heady combination of alien knowledge and experiences, alien sensations and alien lust. He was completely absorbed in his work; even when he wasn't operating his xenoclone, he spent every free waking moment briefing Dr. Americk or one of her subordinates about his experiences. Sam had been an above-average if listless student, but now he had knowledge of draconian culture far surpassing that of anyone in the field. All of the attention and praise was intoxicating, and it drove him to work even harder. Dr. Americk had to remind him that he needed to eat; he ate often while inside his alien body, and didn't feel hungry after he had returned. She brought him energy bars and coffee when she interviewed him.

Sam had a feeling it was more than just caffeine robbing him of rest, though. Even when he got a full eight hours of sleep, he woke up feeling almost as tired as when he went to bed. He was having strange, vivid, lucid dreams - one of the side effects of the synchronization process, he was told. But even when he had deep, dreamless sleep, his mind never seemed to be able to rest. He hadn't said anything to Dr. Americk about it yet, but exhaustion was starting to take a toll on him. He kept forgetting where he had put things, or had people remind him of events or meetings he couldn't quite remember. He had even been sleepwalking; something he had never done before. The first time it had happened, Sam had woken up only to find himself halfway through a cheeseburger. This morning, he woke up slouched over his desk, despite distinctly remembering falling asleep in his bed.

_Maybe I should talk to someone about this... I can't keep this up forever. _Sam thought sluggishly as he roused himself. His neck and back were killing him from the awkward position he had slept in. It didn't help that the neural implants were giving him bad headaches, too.

Still though, he was able to shove aside the pain and discomfort with his excitement. Today was the day of the mating festival, and from everything he had read and everything he had seen with his own (sort of) senses, it was going to be extraordinary. What his human body felt wasn't going to mean a thing in a few hours. He stood up and stretched, trying to right his back when something on his desk caught his eye. It looked like someone had written him a note. Oddly enough, it looked like his own scrawled handwriting. Had he wrote this?

Sam picked up the note and began to read it. It was written in rambling, broken English, intermixed with a few scraps of the draconian language...

With quickly-dawning horror, Sam realized that it had been written by his hand but not his mind; it was from his clone.

Usari knew who he was. Usari wanted to meet him.

_Oh, fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! _Sam thought, in a state of utter panic. If the aliens realized who he was and what they were doing, their whole mission would be compromised. How had the clone become sentient!? How much had he seen through Sam's eyes? How the hell had the synchronization become two-way!? What could he do?

He could go to Dr. Americk, ask her what to do... but what would she do? How would she react? What if they had to shut down the experiment? Worse, how could he get her help if his clone shared part of his mind? He couldn't possibly keep it secret from *himself*, could he?

No, he was going to somehow have to deal with this all on his own. The thought made a chill run down Sam's spine.

Sam had never broken a law in his life, a fact he reflected on with great trepidation as he snuck his way into the equipment storage room and stole a stealthsuit and translator. It was a real pain to pull the nearly skin-tight bodysuit on while trying to make sure that no one else was coming, but he was able to do it.

He had plenty of time to think of what might have happened to his clone as he hiked to the meeting point specified by the note, but he didn't know enough about the details of the OIXC program to develop any good theories. By now Sam was familiar with the alien vegetation, but it was still difficult going in his pilfered stealthsuit. A huge green and blue bird flying low thought the brush actually hit him dead-on, squawking with confusion as it stood back up and took off again. After nearly half an hour of clumsily tumbling through the thick underbrush and scaring the hell out of the wildlife with his invisibility, Sam made his way to his destination. He was gasping for breath and sweating heavily from the exertion, but his pulse was racing from more than just the exercise. What did his clone want to know? What did he want from him? Sam wondered what questions- if any- he could answer.

Usari was sitting on a plant-stump in the middle of the clearing, waiting anxiously. He wore a newly-tailored white robe that Sam remembered receiving as a gift from the tribe's elders the other day, to replace the moldering brown garment that he used to wear. The draconian's tail flickered back and forth anxiously, and his eyes strained to scan the edge of the clearing. Sam took a slow, deep breath and started to cautiously approach him from the side.

"I can smell you. Whoever you are, show yourself!" Usari said as he stood up, warily looking around as he tried in vain to spot Sam.

Sam waited until Usari was facing towards him and then took another deep breath, gathered his strength, and turned off his stealthsuit.

The draconian stopped in his tracks, a shocked look of recognition, awe, fear and uncertainty striking him all at once.

"Aaaah!" Usari gasped in surprise, stumbling backwards.

"Uh... hello!" Sam said, equally overwhelmed. The people in First Contact had decades of training and experience in order to know how to properly deal with the vast and uncertain differences between human and alien cultures, how to manage expectations and relieve the inevitable tensions that would arise. They made use of powerful pseudo-AI's that rivaled military computers and had legions of analysts and researchers at their disposal. Sam was winging it.

"My name is Sam, and it's... uh... good to meet you?" Sam continued, at a loss for further words. His hands felt sweaty and clammy.

"I-I have seen you before. I have... been you before. And you have... been me? It's true, isn't it? Please, tell me what is going on, what is wrong with me?" Usari asked, pleadingly.

Oh boy, this is going to be rough... Sam thought, wincing. He didn't have any idea what he was supposed to say in a situation like this, but he figured he could do a lot worse than the truth.

"Uh... I'll be honest with you," Sam said, averting his gaze and uncreasing the folds of his stealthsuit, "I'm an... an alien. A human. We come from a distant planet called 'Earth' (well, I don't but my great-grandparents did), and we are..."

"Aliens!? What do you want with our world? What do you intend to do? Invade us? Take our world?" Usari growled, looking angry and confused.

Sam had to suppress a laugh at the accusations. "Hell no! We're scientists, not soldiers! We wanted to study your people, not conquer you. Think about it; we have mastered interstellar travel. What could we possibly want from your planet we don't already have, or couldn't get from an uninhabited rock?"

"You wanted to study us? Why... why did you not just ask?" Usari said, looking staggered.

"We couldn't. It's an old rule that most of us advanced, uh, aliens adhere to: young species should be allowed to develop on their own, free of outside interference." Sam said, explaining. "I mean, outside of something extreme like an impending meteor strike, we are supposed to leave developing species alone. Discovering that extremely advanced aliens exist can sort of... throw society off-kilter. We have to be very careful. Which is why we... share minds. Why you were created..."

"What... what do you mean!?" Usari interrupted, looking pained and confused. "Created!? I am not... real?"

"No! You are very much real!" Sam said, retreating. "I'm just saying that you weren't born... er, hatched naturally; you're a clone. Uh... you were never supposed to get a personality of your own though."

"I wasn't!? I-I'm an accident!? My memories are not real? What of my... my name?" Usari said, looking as if he had been shot.

"It was something I thought of on the spur of the moment, I guess." Sam said, feeling horribly guilty. "Do you like it?"

"I guess I do." The draconian said in a low voice, still in shock. His tail hung off him listlessly, and his arms and legs were slack. "Thank you."

"You... aren't upset?" Sam said, cautiously relaxing.

"I... I do not suppose that I can be. I have felt your thoughts before; I know that you speak the truth. I... I guess that means that I owe you and your people for my very life." Usari mumbled, an inscrutable look of self-reflection on his muzzle. His eyes looked wet, like he was about to cry.

Sam wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, or what he could do to comfort the draconian. He could only imagine what Usari was going through, discovering that he was only alive because of a glitch in an alien experiment. Sam did the only thing that felt right to him, and gave the teary draconian a hug. Usari towered over him, but leaned heavily on him as they embraced. The draconian was crying softly, his great frame shaking with sobs as Sam awkwardly tried to hold up the much heavier creature.

"Hey now, there's no need for that..." Sam said, trying to console him. The draconian's sorrow was a palpable force; he felt his own eyes get watery. "Look, life is what you make of it. What does it matter if you were created instead of born? You're just as much a draconian as any of our... your friends!"

Usari wiped the tears from his lidless eyes and hugged Sam closer. "What... what am I going to do? What should we do?"

"You know, I'm an anthropologist. I study cultures for a living, and to be completely honest you draconians have it pretty good here. It's part of why we wanted to study your people so closely; you're remarkably advanced and happy for such a primit... I mean, young species. Your life, your friends, your people... all of it is legitimately yours. No one has to know about any of this, not your people or mine." Sam said, wiping a tear from his companion's cheek.

Usari had dozens of other questions for him, about every aspect of the experiment and his own existence. Sam was straightforward and honest in his answers, but he tried earnestly to comfort the despondent, shocked alien as he did so. The two of them settled onto the ground, the draconian holding onto the human's smaller hand like a lost child. Usari's questions became broader, less pained and more curious as he continued. He asked about Sam and his colleagues and about humanity, about Earth and the other human worlds, about other aliens and about the universe itself. It took nearly an hour before they finally stopped talking; Usari lost in quiet reflection, Sam waiting pensively to see his final reaction.

"Sam... thank you. Thank you for your honesty. I was... afraid that I had been going insane; seeing visions of things that could not be." Usari said, looking at peace. "You said that your people need one year for their research?"

"Yep. Not to pressure you too much, but if we have to leave I think my boss might kill herself."

The draconian looked lost in thought for a second, before responding. "I... I think I owe your people that much. I will help you; you may share my body for the time you need to finish your work."

"Thank you! Ah, I can't tell you how much this means to me!" Sam said, overjoyed. Sam held the draconian's head, rubbing his ear fins affectionately. Usari's head leaned down further, until suddenly both of them were surprised to find themselves in a kiss.

If anyone would have asked him why he did what he did, Sam would have been at a loss for words. Holding Usari in his hands- a body he had become intimately familiar with over the past few days- Sam felt more comfortable with the young, confused draconian than any person he had known. They shared parts of each other's DNA, bodies and experiences. He had just broken about every law regarding contact with a developing species that there was, short of selling them tacnukes and video games. What was one more broken law, one more bit of intimacy between them? It felt natural, in a strange way.

They kissed each other again, this time deeper. Sam felt a hot wave of lust wash over him, as the draconian's musk hit him. He had fantasized about his clone ever since he first synchronized with it, but he had never acted upon it- he had more than enough sexual release with other draconians when he was plugged in. But now, face to face with the real thing he found him irresistible. In a small corner in the back of Sam's mind, he wondered if the draconian DNA spliced onto his made him susceptible to their pheromones, or if it was the allure of their hard, sleek, scaled bodies. Maybe he felt an overwhelming need to show the poor, confused creature love, and words alone weren't sufficient. Whatever the reason, Sam found himself unable to stop kissing Usari, even as the rational part of his mind screamed at him for being so reckless.

Sam pulled himself back from the draconian's muzzle and wiped the excess saliva from his chin, before pulling down the top of his stealthsuit. Usari followed suit, taking off the one-piece cloaked robe that was the draconian's universal garment. Sam's naked skin pressed tight against Usari's bare scales, the spark of sexual attraction flowing through them.

"You know, I've been curious. What are these for?" Usari asked, as he pressed a clawtip gently against one of Sam's nipples. "And why do your females have such big ones?"

The touch made Sam shudder with pleasure. "Human anatomy. I'll explain later." He said, his penis almost fully erect already. It was jutting out from the tight confines of his stealthsuit's bottom like a skyscraper. Sam pressed one hand against the draconian's rigid slit, rubbing across it firmly. "Why don't we see what we have in common first..?"

Usari gave a pleasured, rumbling moan at the contact, lying down on his back and giving Sam clear access to his inviting slit. His tail snaked out from under him between his legs, thumping gently on the grassy ground with anticipation. Sam pulled the remainder of his suit off in a hurry, tossing it behind him and swearing when it suddenly disappeared from sight.

"Your clothes; they disappeared!" Usari said in astonishment.

"Yeah, actually, they are only supposed to do that when you are wearing them." Sam muttered, looking annoyed. He decided that finding them could wait, and crawled over to Usari.

Sam smiled, his mind ablaze with erotic possibilities before deciding to start at the very beginning. He licked the draconian's webbed talons, enjoying the earthy taste more than he thought he would. When they were slick with his saliva he moved on, holding the young draconian's tailtip in his hands and tasting it, too. Sam licked his way all the way up the underside of the long, smooth appendage, drawing contented moans from the prone alien as he neared his sensitive tail-hole. From all of his pre-mating festival experiences, Sam was almost more familiar with draconian anatomy that Usari himself. He knew just where to tickle him, where to lick him, where to kiss him to drive him wild. Usari was much bigger and stronger than the human, but utterly helpless against his sexual proficiency. He ran his claws through the human's hair, caressing it carefully with his webbed claws as he human teased every erogenous zone on his body. For some strange reason, he could smell a male-musk about the human that reminded him faintly of his own people.

By now, both of them were completely lost in their shared lust. Usari held himself up off the ground ever-so slightly as his hard member began to push its way out of his slit, exposing his tail-hole to Sam. It was already dripping with the clean, clear, natural lubricant that male draconians produced, and giving off the most pure and heady musk imaginable. Sam closed his eyes and pressed his nose against it, burying himself in the smell and licking up some of the slippery, salty fluid. After that, he couldn't contain himself any longer. Sam quickly straddled Usari's muscular tail and positioned himself against the tight, welcoming tail-hole, his sweaty ass cheeks resting perfectly on the tail. He quickly and roughly thrust himself in to the very hilt, the muscular passage pulling him in almost as much as his own pushing. Sam hardly needed to thrust in at all; the draconian's anal muscles did most of the work reflexively, milking his relatively small human cock for all it was worth.

The pleasure engulfing his manhood made Sam cry out, his senses briefly overwhelmed. Sam's eyes squinted closed as he continued to ride the draconian's tail, thrusting into the mighty but meek creature. The slick, tight tail-hole pulled him back in every time he pulled most of his cock out of it, and from the pleasured moans and grunts that Usari made Sam could tell he was feeling just as good as he was. Draconian males had evolved to be bred, and were ever-eager to have their tail-holes taken, both by females and other males. Sam knew from his time in the body just how good it felt to have a nice, stiff, hot cock under one's tail, and for a second wished that their positions were reversed. Luckily, it looked like he was going to have something else to occupy his time while they were making love; Usari's huge member had finally reached its full length and hardness. It throbbed in front of him, dripping with sweet-smelling precum that made his mouth water.

Sam felt his heart skip a beat when he realized that due to their difference in size, he could ride Usari's tail and suck his dick at the same time. Without a moment's hesitation, he began to do just that. The draconian's member was far, far too big for Sam's mouth to take in whole- especially given his lack of experience with male-to-male oral sex- but he did the best that he could. Sam wrapped his lips around the plump, sensitive draconic cockhead and sucked for all he was worth, drinking the spurting preseed eagerly. Sam held the towering, thick shaft with one hand while his other gripped Usari's tailbase, steadying himself as best he could as his climax started to build.

As Sam's thrusting became less even and more insistent, he could feel the tail-hole start to squeeze itself around his cock even tighter until it locked him inside. He and Usari cried out at the same time, their orgasms arriving simultaneously. Sam felt the draconian's anal passage milk every last drop of cum that he had from his nuts, the biggest load that he had ever made. It was nothing compared to Usari's orgasm, though. The draconian's member filled his mouth with seed so quickly and powerfully that Sam reflexively pulled away. It then erupted in front of him like a volcano, plastering his entire upper body with volleys of thick seed. Before Usari finished coming down from his sexual high, Sam looked like a cum snowman.

"Ahh! I am so sorry!" Usari said, feeling horribly guilty.

Sam smiled, and licked some of the sweet, goopy cum off his lips after swallowing what was already in his mouth. "No, don't worry! Its... it's okay. But, uh, any chance you could help me clean up?"

"Yes, of course!" Usari said eagerly. He pulled the smaller human into his arms and started to lick him clean of his own essence, starting from the neck. His tongue was long and broad; it tickled Sam's flush skin but felt wonderful.

"Can I ask you something?" Sam asked sheepishly, as Usari began to lick his hair clean. "You know the mating festival is today, so... what females do you like? Who should we go for?"

"That is a very difficult question." Usari responded, cracking a toothy smile. "Do you remember Ingela? Did you see her? The pilgrim from the far mountain? Blue and white scales? Cute laugh?"

"No."

"Wings?" Usari added.

"Oh. Yeah!" Sam *did* remember that part. "You like her?"

"I... I haven't had the courage to speak to her yet, but I think I do. She is so smart, so beautiful..." The draconian said dreamily, even as he turned Sam over and began to lick the cum off the nape of his neck. Sam had since become accustomed to the promiscuity and bisexuality of the aliens, but still had to suppress a short laugh at the absurdity of it all. "When are you going to... go into my mind? The festival begins this afternoon..."

"Oh, crap. Fuck! I'm going to be late if I don't get back to base soon!" Sam said, pulling himself out of the draconian's arms and hurriedly searching for his still-invisible stealthsuit on the ground. By sheer luck, he found it after only a few seconds and began to frantically pull the suit back on. "Okay! I'm going to head back now, but don't hesitate to talk to me or leave me a note in the future. I... thank you, Usari. Thank you for understanding all this business. I'll see you in a few hours!"

The human and draconian shared a quick, parting kiss. Sam felt the beginnings of an erection again stir in his loins, and suppressed it as best he could.

"I look forward to it!" Usari said. He looked happy, quite the contrast from his mood earlier. "Sam? I do have one favor to ask of you, though..."

"I'll do anything that I can for you. Well, anything within reason." Sam said, eager to do just that.

"Heh, well, um..." Usari began to say, looking embarrassed. "Could you maybe get me a 'cheeseburger' sometime?"

Back at Base...

For once, Sam thanked the frentic pace that Dr. Americk and her staff worked at. They hadn't even noticed that he was gone, nor did they notice his mussed hair. A few people commented on the 'strange smell' in the air around him, which to Sam was a nearly overpowering musk. The cum-bath that he had earlier smelt so good on him and made him so horny that he was terribly reluctant to shower, but he knew that he couldn't let anyone find out about Usari and him. Even as he let the warm jets of soapy water wash it off his skin, he masturbated to what they had done twice. Sam didn't know how much alien DNA had been spliced with his own, but he knew that the mating season had begun to affect his own mind more than a little. When Sam finally made his way to the lab and began to undergo the synchronization prep, his head was already filled with sweet fantasies. Some of them were probably going to prove true, he thought with a smile.

When Sam first heard how the aliens reproduced- that the females of the species implanted their eggs in the males, and that the males then fertilized each other- he had felt sort of sick at the thought. But after his first day inside of an alien body, their sexuality felt normal and erotic, even when he was in his own body.

As Sam stepped into the suspension tank and let the cool clear fluid envelop his body once more, he really wanted to tell Dr. Americk that apparently it was possible to synchronize with a clone without all that other equipment. There was a hell of a lot more that she probably needed to know about the OIXC program that only Sam knew at the moment, details that he couldn't possibly tell her. Government policy was pretty clear on what had to happen if the natives started to catch on to their voyeurism...

"Mr. Zimmermann? Are you okay in there? You look unfocused." Dr. Americk's voice was in his earpiece. "Today is the big day; you're going to make us proud, yes?"

(You bet, doctor! I'm ready to go!) Sam though-spoke back, his enthusiasm apparent even over the unconventional medium.

"That's what I like to hear. I should let you know that after today, we're going to have you take a little break from interfacing. There are a few... kinks... in the system that Dr. Li and I are going to need to work on, and I think that you could use the rest."

(Kinks? I haven't noticed anything strange.) He lied.

"Don't worry about it, that part of the program is my job. Your job is to pilot your meat puppet to the best of your abilities, and it is a task in which you have my every confidence."

"Okay people, let's do this. We synchronize in ten seconds!" Dr. Americk said, this time over the loudspeaker.

There was no dramatic countdown this time; by now the OIXC program had settled into a routine. Sam felt a brilliant light wash over him, and then his consciousness left him.

When Sam felt his thoughts again grow coherent, he was inside Usari's body once more. It was taking him less and less time to adjust, even though he kept having trouble trying to blink his lidless eyes. It was amazing how often you had to blink when you think about it. He noticed that he was inside the small hut shared by Sehk, Sehkran and Taim, the three draconian fishers that had been the first native aliens he had met on the world. They had invited him to stay with them for the duration of his mating pilgrimage, a generous offer but one that was not uncommon. Hosting pilgrims was considered to be both one's honor and duty in draconian society, one of the innumerable societal traditions and expectations that Sam had discovered.

"Usari? Are you okay? You looked dazed." A voice called to him from behind him, Sehkran's. Sam had become fast friends with the young draconian; it was going to be his first mating festival as well. His robe looked a few sizes too big; was it a hand-me-down from his brother?

"Er... yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little... tense." Sam said back.

Usari laughed nervously. "I know the feeling. I was about to leave for the meeting hall; did... did you want to come with me? Taim and my brother have already left."

"Yeah! I'm sure we'll both be fine once everything starts." Sam said, talking the draconian's hand into his own and giving him a quick, short kiss.

Sehkran kissed him back, and grabbed his ass playfully. "Y-yeah, you're probably right. But we better not keep them waiting any longer..."

Sam was tempted to have another quick round of sex with the other young draconian, but he knew that the mating festival had to be his first priority... and that they could easily do it later. "Let's meet up after we find a female or two; okay?"

"I'd be happy too..." Sehkran said, giving him a warm smile. They held each other's hand and walked out of the hut together.

Sam and Sehkran joined a trickle of other young draconians- male and female both- that formed the trailing edge of the procession to the meeting hall. Sam had learned that every draconian tribe had one something like it for the yearly mating festival and other community activities. For the tribe that he was implanted in, the meeting hall happened to be a huge structure carved underground, its entrance a cove near the beach. As Sam walked through the portal, a crowd of draconian too young and too old to participate showered him and the other celebrants with flower petals and sweet smelling perfumes.

Sam felt a heady combination of trepidation and excitement wash over him. He had read about alien and human fertility cults and mating festivals, but actually experiencing one firsthand was something else entirely. They ranged from abhorrent blood rites to beautiful celebrations of life, and from what Sam knew of draconian culture this would almost certainly be one of the latter.

The cavernous main chamber was not far head; already the thanking ceremony had begun. First the tribal leaders and envoys were recognized, then the people who had donated food and time for the festival, and then the pilgrims who had journeyed; Sam stood up during this point along with two dozen or so others, receiving the applause offered with embarrassed thanks.

After that, the high priestess took over, and the overtly religious part of the ceremony began. The names of gods and goddesses and spirits and mystic forces blurred together in Sam's mind, most of the meaning lost upon him. He tried to remember as much as he could, but they chanted and spoke so fast that he simply couldn't. If only he had time to sneak Usari a memory enhancing drug... or should he have taken it himself? Which brain mattered more? It was a confusing notion to contemplate. He was even more distracted by the massive feast laid out behind the priestess, which made it look as if the entire crowd was paying rapt attention to her when in fact it was the food that held most of the attention. The sight and smell of so much food made Sam salivate uncontrollably and his stomach rumble with hunger. It was no mystery why he was so hungry; his body was expending incredible amounts of energy for sex, both the act itself and making liters of thick alien seed.

When the priestess had finally finished, the whole crowd gave a mighty cheer and made a rush for the dining tables. It was a truly impressive sight; huge racks of meat slathered in tangy sauce sat next to platters stacked high with a gummy looking brown bread. Kegs full of a sweet-smelling fruit wine were scattered throughout the massive feasthall, as were decanters of stouter and stronger spirits. Sam recognized the fish that Sehk, Sehkran and Taim had caught and smoked on one of the far tables, only it had been stuffed with some sort of red peppers and seasoned with pungent spices. Sam's snout almost hurt from all of the powerful, rich smells assaulting it. Both he and Sehkran dug into the food and drink with the zeal of warriors, eating and drinking until they felt fit to burst. The two of them took a moment to rest, contentedly sipping the remainder of their wine and looking over the rest of the attractions that the huge, open hall boasted.

There were games and contests, most of them overtly sexual in nature. There was an arena near the middle of the room where oiled-up males wrestled each other, the winner being the first to anally penetrate their rival. He recognized Sehkran's older brother, Sehk in the arena. He was wrestling with a thick-scaled, stout sand-colored draconian who he had in a headlock, the two of them fighting each other fiercely yet laughing and joking the whole time. Sehk seemed to have the upper hand most of the fight, but try as he might he couldn't overturn the stocky desert draconian. Sehk made one misstep as his muscles fatigued, and was quickly overtaken and powerbombed into the soft arena floor. He struggled mightily to right himself as his legs were pried apart, but the second the other draconian's thick cock forced its way under his tail, he submitted. Both competitors stopped their fighting and began to make hot, passionate love right on the arena floor, much to the amusement of the mostly female crowd.

Sam turned to make a joke to Sehkran about the sight, but noticed that his friend had been distracted by the company of the fairer sex. He was talking to a young, short girl that looked almost more nervous that he did, the two of them awkwardly stumbling over each other's words as they shared a flask of wine. Sam felt a touch of envy for the both of them, but he felt proud of his young companion more than anything and went to find something to do himself.

It seemed that one of the greatest attractions was the storytelling. Large groups of draconian took time to sit near a raised dais in the very middle of the feasthall, to hear a revolving group of speakers tell their tales. Sam found himself drawn to it, not only for its entertainment value but for the riches of information that Dr. Americk and the other anthropologists could glean from it. You could tell an awful lot about a culture from the stories that they told themselves.

The storyteller he saw was an ancient-looking draconian with weathered grey scales. He had huge, curled horns that seemed to weigh noticeably on his head, and walked only with the assistance of a stout wood staff. Despite this, his voice was deep and powerful, practiced and fluid. When he spoke, everyone in the crowd fell silent and listened, spellbound.

The first story he told was of one of their greatest heroes, a warrior named Fedyra. She reputedly slew the last of the blade-maws and banished the frost-spirits, tamed a wild volcano drake and singlehandedly slew the terrible blood-leviathan in its own lair. The storyteller told of her sword and how it was forged, of her lovers and her battle-poetry, her tribe and her victories. But apparently Fedyra's greatest accomplishment wasn't winning a battle or slaying a monster; it was mediating a peace between the warring tribes of the great coastal plains. Without so much as a pause, the storyteller then told the myth of how the suns, moons and stars came to be, and then the story of the legendary Shaded Isles; a place of adventure, monsters and heroes forever cloaked in a perpetual lunar eclipse.

Sam was so lost in the stories that he didn't notice that someone had set next to him until he felt another tail slide against his. He turned to the side to see who it was, but before his eyes even met hers he knew she was a female from her smell. The pheromones made his head feel light and made his slit and tail-hole itch. Butterflies welled up inside his stomach when he noticed that the female in question was Ingela, the winged pilgrim!

Ingela had pale blue scales and head-fur that looked like a slightly-foggy sky. She was short and lithe, her talons were small and she was hornless like Sam. She would have looked downright dainty if it wasn't for a pair of vast and powerful wings that encircled her like a great robe. Sam had to use every bit of composure he possessed to avoid gawking at her wings. Her arms were buried inside of them somewhere, giving her the appearance of a shy girl wearing a huge coat.

"I've seen you staring at me before." She gave Sam a sly, knowing look and made her wings flutter ever-so slightly. "Let me guess; you like my wings, too?"

"N-no, er... I mean, yes! I mean, yes, but not as much as what they are attached to!" Sam said, stumbling over his words.

The winged female gave a long, cute, bemused laugh that made Sam's cheeks flush with both embarrassment and attraction. "I have to say, that is the best answer I have heard from a male since coming here. My name is Ingela," She said, offering Sam quick nuzzle which he gratefully returned, "and I am an apprentice storyteller. What is your name, my fellow pilgrim?""

"It's... pleased to- I mean, I'm pleased to meet y-you as well! My name is Usari!" Sam said, stammering. He had been eager for the mating festival to begin, but now that he was talking to a beautiful female who just might actually be interested him he found that he was just as nervous as Sehkran. "Storytelling? That sounds like..."

"Wait! I know what you're going to say, so let me head you off!" Ingela said, raising both her hands in a embarrassed gesture. "I know, everyone says that storytelling is for males! But I love it too much; I had to choose it as my path."

"I don't think so; I think it's a wonderful occupation for anyone!" Sam said back. He was still having trouble categorizing what was considered 'male' and 'female' in draconian society, as well as what those terms even meant. Very few things were absolutely forbidden to one sex or the other, but there were all sorts of strange societal hang-ups and customs that made Sam's brain hurt.

"I'm glad you think so; I wish that the priestesses felt the same way." She said, sighing. "Oh well; to hell with them. Are you going to stay and listen to another story? You could sit with me..."

"Actually... no. I wonder if... I could hear one from you?" Sam asked, eager but nervous. He hoped he wasn't being too forward; from what he had seen, the females usually took the lead when it came to romance.

She raised a quizzical eyeridge at him, hiding her muzzle underneath her wings as she did so. Did she just blush?

"Do you want to go somewhere a little bit more private first, mayhaps?" She asked, giving him an inviting smile.

Sam felt his heart flutter as he said yes, every part of his mind and body enthralled with the beautiful female. He had a feeling that Usari was going to be thanking him when he got his body back.

She led him off to the siderooms, each one covered by a thick blanket. Sam heard sounds ranging from whispered conversations to passionate lovemaking from the other such rooms nearby. Ingela turned to him and gave him a randy smile after they passed a room containing a particularly loud couple. When they finally found an empty room, she motioned Sam inside and pulled down the covering, leaving the two of them alone together inside the small room. It was covered with heavy, leathery pillows and lit only by a handful of candles; bottles of massage oils, perfumes and decanters of cool water sat on the shelving.

"So Usari, what story would you like to hear?" Ingela said to him, as she let herself sink into the mass of soft pillows.

"Uhmm... I don't know. What would you like to tell me?" Sam said. He laid himself down next to her, so that their bodies were just barely touching.

"Oh, come on; suggest something!" She said, playfully poking his stomach. "You know, my master has a saying: 'a good storyteller knows every story that exists, and can make up those that don't'. Give me a story, a subject, a legend and I will do my best."

"Well then, could you tell me the story of the mating festival itself?" Sam asked her.

She smiled at him. "I would love to; it is actually one of my favorites."

Ingela cleared her throat and let her wings relax, unfurling them behind her and sitting up straight. Her tail swished behind her in a slow and steady rhythm as she focused her thoughts, and then she began speaking. Her speaking voice wasn't coy or mischievous like her normal voice; it was resonate and passionate.

"A very long time ago, the people were broken and divided. The tribes had grown and spread, turning into great and powerful kingdoms, but they were wicked and jealous. Each fought not only against the ravages of nature but against itself and against other kingdoms. Food and other resources were zealously hoarded and stolen, blood was spilled in the name of the sacrifice-gods, religious wars were common and genetic purity was zealously guarded. It was terrible time."

"It might have persisted indefinitely, but for the great cataclysm. No one knows what caused it, but everyone suffered from it. Fire rained from the skies and the oceans boiled, animals died and plants withered. The great kingdoms were utterly ruined; where once they had dreamed of world conquest, now they hoped only for survival... and even that was far from certain. The only path for survival was unity, but the path to unity was unclear."

"The kings and queens looked upon their weakened and weary soldiers and their starving peoples, and they knew that war would doom them all. Yet, they did not know how to mix blood without spilling it. They did not know how to integrate, they only knew how to conquer and dominate. During the great meeting that had been called, they fought and feuded with one another brutally but they did not make any progress."

"It was the fifth day of talks and open war was about to break out when a young king and queen approached the assembled council. They had been the rulers of a very small kingdom, one that had been utterly devastated by the great cataclysm. They had but one subject left, an old and wizened storyteller. The king and queen said that he might have the wisdom that they all sought; that the only way to unify the people was through their stories. At this audacious assertion, the council laughed- but their laugh was uneasy. After five more days of fruitless discussion and fighting they grew desperate and they called the old storyteller back to them, and they agreed to let him try."

"And so the greatest priestesses and storytellers of the all the tribes sat down together, and for five days they prayed and wove their words. They took every god and spirit known, every creed and every belief and they attempted to discover the true story of the world. Some say that they are the ones who found out that our bloodlines all shared a common root, that all of our peoples could be fruitful with one another. Others say that they wove that story so powerfully that it became true. What all agree on is what happened when they were done. When they emerged from their storytelling, the storytellers were exhausted and starving but victorious. A great feast was called for from what provisions were left, and they shared the great story with all the peoples assembled. From that point on, seed, stories and eggs were no longer to be hoarded by the tribes, but shared far and wide. This was the beginning of the peace and harmony that we know today. Once every year, we honor the pacts that our ancestors made, and we renew the truth that we are one people."

As she finished, she leaned forward and kissed him full on the mouth, a kiss that Sam eagerly returned. "And that is why we have the mating festival."

Sam felt like he was in love. "That was... your telling of it was beautiful."

"I'm glad you thought so. I still have a very long way to go before I'll be a master myself." She said, smiling with evident pride. "Do you know any stories? I wouldn't mind hearing one from your people, Usari."

Sam's mind raced; he couldn't remember everything from the stories he had heard from others and he couldn't rely on the fragmented reports that Dr. Americk had collected. Maybe a human story would do? He thought of six or seven that might fit in with Draconian culture, but he ended up settling on the oldest of them: the Epic of Gilgamesh. He reasoned that all creatures- alien and human- have a fascination with life and death, mortality and immortality. Sam told the story to the best of his memory, trying to remember all of the details from the ancient text that he had read one summer.

When he was done, Ingela took his hand into hers. "That was a very sad story, but you told it well. Can I give you my interpretation of it?"

"Sure." Sam said back, hoping that he hadn't troubled her too much with the human story.

"His search for immortality was an impossibility. The only immortality that we have is the legacy that we leave behind, our tribe's children and the values that we teach them. It... it was a sad story, but a very good one. Do not take offense, but I am surprised that a simple fisher like yourself could tell it so well (although you do need to work on your cadence). You should consider a change in occupation, pilgrim. If you would like, I could take you under my wing."

It was a compliment that made Sam's heart soar, his tail-hole throb with need. "I... I don't know, maybe. But I think I'd like to be under your wing right now."

She gave him a genuine, loving smile and pressed her lips against his. "For now, that will be enough. I choose you if you accept, Usari. Will you accept me?"

"Yes. By all that is, yes!" Sam said. He meant every word. His penis had already begun to emerge from its home, her pheromones and words entrancing him utterly.

She tore off her robe, revealing for the first time her own soft, forming erection, her pseudo-penis even larger than his member. It looked almost absurdly big on her short frame. "Then prepare me, male. I have a gift for you..."

Sam eagerly did as he was asked, tearing his own robe off and crawling over to the sitting female. He licked her tail and her talons eagerly, leting her pseudopenis drip its lubricating juices over his face and bathe it in sweet-smelling musk. He shoved a claw into her tail-hole, making her moan out with unexpected pleasure as he began to lick her member to full hardness and length. Ingela purred appreciatively, and rubbed behind his earfins as Sam continued with his tonguework. When the member was ready, Sam watched her rise and spread her wings to their full length. Her tail was lashing behind her in an excited dance, and her smile was broad and mischievous, her proud erection throbbing between her legs. Sam instinctively knew to turn around and get on his knees, something he did with eager anticipation. His tail-hole burned with the need to be filled and pounded.

A hot, wet, hard organ started to gently push against his entrance, and Sam moaned out as his ass was roughly penetrated. She had driven her entire massive length into him with a single, smooth thrust, his insides just barely able to accommodate her. Sam felt his entire body tense up and then slowly relax, as she let him adjust to the huge girth filling his anal passage. He felt her flutter her huge wings, and then wrap them tightly around him, squeezing him even closer to her smooth chest. Every single scale on his body, every single nerve under his hide felt aflame with passion, his world comprised of nothing but their two entwined bodies.

She adjusted herself inside him ever-so slightly, moving one of her talons into a better position on the pillows beneath them. That small change was enough to make Sam cum, the first of many times that afternoon.

"Y-your first time? You h-had me fooled; you are so... mature for your age!" She said, between great and gasping breaths. Sam was too focused on their mating to respond coherently.

He heard her laugh from above him, and she brought a hand down to his throbbing, spurting penis to collect some of his seed. She licked it off her claws, enjoying the taste, and then pressed one sticky claw against Sam's muzzle, offering him a taste of himself which he gladly accepted. As he did so, she pulled her thick cock out of him almost entirely, and then slowly pushed back in. Sam immediately felt his erection return to full hardness. He had never felt sexual pleasure that was so powerful, so consuming; he never even knew that it was possible. When Ingela's member pulsed inside him, his whole body shook with pleasure. When she thrust into him, hot pleasure radiated from his ass out to his tailtip, making him mewl and cry out with utter abandon. How long they coupled together, it was impossible to say. Every intense second of agonizingly-intense pleasure felt like an eternity to Sam, and for all he knew it could have been true. He came over and over again as she rode into him, so much so that the pillows below them became sticky and slick with his spilt seed and their gushing natural lubricants. Warm sexual fluids coated the both of them, making their scales gleam in the candlelight.

When her orgasm finally came, the two of them were position facing one another, Ingela on top of him. They were sharing a deep kiss when she whispered into his finned ear that she was about to come and to prepare himself. Sam didn't have the foggiest idea of what he was supposed to do, but he felt his body start to act strangely on its own as her thrusting became more intense. Ingela began to give a low mating roar, her voice dampened as Sam kissed her again, and her pseudo-penis began to pulsate inside him uncontrollably. Sam's eyes closed as he felt something huge start to make its way through the cock inside him, his tail-hole locking down around it as it entered. He came as it happened, hot jets of cum flowing between him and Ingela as his anal passage rhythmically gripped her shaft and drew the egg- he knew that's what it had to be- into his ass. With a wet, tight squelching sound, it finally settled inside him, feeling safe and secure somewhere deep in his internal pouch. She continued to kiss him passionately, their tongues and bodies entwining as two more eggs followed the first inside him, his body feeling full and content as he was filled with the beginnings of new life. Sam never knew that it was possible to feel so good, so content, and so complete; especially in the body of a creature so alien.

When they were done, she withdrew her wings from around their sweaty, naked forms and folded them back around her, smiling. She then pulled her slowly-softening and empty pseudopenis out from inside Sam, presenting it to his muzzle again so that he could lick it clean for her; a task he did with loving affection. She then did the same for him, cleaning the thick cum from his own member before it retreated back into his slit. Ingela then offered him her hand graciously, helping him up from the wet, messy floor. Sam stumbled a bit as he did so, disoriented from the sheer intensity of the sex they had just shared.

"Okay, take it easy first timer!" She said laughing, helping support him by the arm. She offered him a glass of water, which he drank down in a handful of thirsty gulps. "How are you doing? Do you want to rest a bit before going to the breeding pool?"

Sam was about to say yes to her, that he would very much like some well-needed rest until she said the word 'breeding pool'.

Ingela led him by the arm down a slow, sloping ramp and into a steamy hot spring that ran through the underground cavern. It seemed to form a natural sort of broad, shallow, hot pool. It smelled faintly of sulfur, but strongly of male essence. The pool was completely full of males busily attending to each other, the water under them absolutely saturated with sticky, spilt seed. Sam felt his member re-harden again and his internal testes swell with fresh cum; it was mind boggling how much of it a draconian could produce in a single day. Ingela gave him a kiss goodbye and then playfully shoved him into the pool of mating males tail-first.

Sam felt himself land on a pair of muscular draconians, who seemed to be of the hosting tribe. They laughed at the interruption in their mating, before pulling Sam up from the water and lifting his tail and legs apart. Sam snarled with surprise as they both penetrated his ass simultaneously, his well-used passage barely able to contain both of their members at once. When they were done cumming into him, Sam pounced on the larger of them and took his tail-hole with the assistance of the third, loving the feeling of having a second cock to play with inside the tight anal passage of the second. It took the two of them less than a minute to come to orgasm, both of their cocks filling the tight, hot hole with spunk at the same time. Sam felt his human mind being shoved aside almost completely as the orgy continued, seeding so many asses and letting his own be taken so many times and in so many ways that he lost count. His internal pouch, heavy with eggs and cum, felt pleasantly warm as it tingled and churned.

Sam was marveling at the feeling his insides were giving him when he noticed that the grey, scaled ass he was now riding belonged to none other than Sehkran, his young friend. They laughed, a look of recognition flashing on their lust-addled muzzles and dispelling the bestial fog upon them a little. After Sam and Sehkran climaxed together, they shared a long and sloppy kiss in the slimy pool before sliding out together, finding their clothes and sharing their mating-stories. They laughed, feeling stupid for being so nervous earlier, and they bragged about how well they had pleased their females.

"Hey, um, Usari?" Sehkran asked, looking away for a second. "I was wondering if you wanted to maybe do a little sharing with me..."

"Sharing?"

"Y-y'know... sharing." The young draconian said, looking nervous. His eyes were on the ground. "It's okay if you don't want to; I won't be mad or anything, I promise."

"Er... sure?" Sam said, hoping he hadn't missed something blindingly obvious. After everything that he had already done today, it couldn't possibly be that weird, could it?

Sehkran's face lit up when Sam gave his assent. "Yay! I already got approval from the high priestess. Here, drink!"

Sehkran handed him a small glass vial full of a thick, purplish-black liquid, and then pulled a second one out of his robe and drank it himself. Sam gave it a cautious, appraising look, and drank the whole vial down. It tasted incredibly nasty- like a combination of spoiled wine and eggplant mush- but it immediately made his member harden and poke its way out of his slit. Sehkran's sheathe was plumping up again as well...

"Okay! We better get into position quickly!" Sehkran said, lying on his side near the edge of the pool and motioning for Sam to get into a sixty-nine with him.

The second that Sam wrapped his muzzle around the scaled draconian meat in front of him and felt his own cock be suckled, a curious sensation started to overcome him. It felt like he was cumming, but the sensation was duller and less focused, not to mention much, much longer. He felt a low stream of his essence flow through his pulsing member into Sehkran's waiting muzzle, and could taste the sweet seed entering his own maw, but from there on out the feeling diverged from normal sex entirely. His scales felt hot and tight, and his stomach burned like it was trying to eat itself yet the whole process felt almost unbearably pleasurable. Not long afterwards, his head began to feel sore, but it was unlike any headache he had ever experienced before. Sam felt his scales there tingle, and then felt a strange pulling sensation...

He wanted desperately to ask Sehkran what was going on between them, but couldn't possibly have taken the hot, pulsing dick out of his mouth. Every spurt of fresh seed felt better than the last, even as the pressure on his forehead became more and more intense. Finally, a painless tearing feeling came from his head and he felt something grow straight through his scales. Moaning onto the steadily cumming penis, Sam felt unbearable pleasure course through him as a small pair of horns began to emerge on his head. Sehkran was moaning out in orgasmic pleasure, too. Focusing his eyes ahead, Sam saw that the draconian's sheath was retreating from his member, and his pubic scales started to deepen into a genital slit.

They came together again, hot gushes of seed flowing into each other's mouths as their transformations finished. Now, save for the shade of their scales, they looked almost the same. It was a sight so bizarre, a feeling so erotic that Sam couldn't help but gasp with surprise.

(Hey, what is going on? Why do I feel so strange..?) A voice called out inside his head.

(Dr. Americk?) Sam responded. (Is that you?)

(No; it's me, Sam! Usari!)

(Oh... what!? How can you talk to me?)

(I don't know?) Usari said, sounding equally confused. (Is the mating festival still going on? Can I... I want to experience some of it! And, I feel really, really strange...)

Sam wanted to sigh with disappointment. He wanted to stay in the draconian's body so badly; he felt like he would never get his fill of their vibrant, wonderful sexuality. But he knew that he owed Usari his own life, and that the draconian had already been more than generous to Sam and the other humans. With a great sigh, Sam willingly relinquished his mental control, and felt his consciousness fade away...

Several Hours Later...

"Amazing. Simply amazing." Dr. Americk said, handing Sam a towel as he continued to debrief her from the (men's) locker room. She and a gaggle of other researchers were following him around, entering information into their PDA's as fast as he could provide it. "You're telling me they can undergo real-time transformations?"

"Yes doctor. Like I said, my clone now has a pair of horns, and I gave the other draconian a genital slit. I don't have any idea how it could have..."

"Biologists! Give me a differential!" She interrupted, shouting to her subordinates.

"Some form of symbiotic retrovirus?"

"Epigenetic expression of dormant but inherent traits?"

"Magic."

"Very cute, Jessica." Dr. Americk said to the third commenter, before grabbing a wet towel from nearby and throwing it over her head. "I would really like to know how we missed this little detail considering that we have their *complete genetic sequence* in the computers. Blame will be parceled out in the morning, but anyone who has a good explanation by then is absolved. Are we on the same page?"

"Yes ma'am!" The three biologists said in tandem, departing with great haste.

"Sam? Excellent work, once again. If you're tired you can go ahead and finish up your report in the morning."

He decided to do just that, walking back to his room in a happy daze. Sam drifted off to sleep easily, feeling exhausted but triumphant from the day's hardships. His mind was abuzz with all that he had seen and done, full of alien culture and experiences that would soon be published, might even make him famous. He absentmindedly scratched his sore forehead. His headaches had become much less intense since he and Usari reconciled with each other, but for some reason his scalp still felt itchy.

He didn't know that underneath his skin, small proto-scales had begun to form...