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Botanical Studies

Extracurricular

"Keep that thing away from me!" Laura screeched, stumbling over a seam in the flooring in her panic to peddle backward away from the huge animal that had just waltzed in on its own through the far door.

"He’s your bodyguard," the man beside her said as the attending members of the ship’s crew worked mentally to figure whether they should try to catch the falling woman despite the substantial intervening distance. He was her supervisor

Laura held up her arms to cover her face when the massive creature lunged in her direction with inhuman speed and she screamed again as her mind realized that she was both falling as well as being attacked by the beast. The fall failed to materialize though. Artificial gravity did its best to plant her ass on the floor, but her back hit a padded surface and strong hands caught her sides, lifting her enough for her flailing feet to achieve purchase beneath her once more.

The attack never occurred either and she slowly lowered her arms and opened her scrunched eyes to discover that the creature was gone.

"I… um… thank you," she offered to the person who caught her as they let her go carefully when she was stable.

"Much loud," a deep, voice with an odd accent answered. "No down. Good. No thing. Sash."

She spun on the voice and found that her savior had been the very creature she’d stumbled away from when she thought it was going to attack her. Her heart caught in her throat and she froze, glancing toward the two crew members, neither of which had lifted a finger to help her.

"Sash," the creature said again, touching his furred chest. If she knew anything about old Earth species, she’d think him to be a weasel. If she knew more, she’d say his fur patterns strongly resembled a pine marten. But only the super-rich lived on Earth now, and even then pine martens didn’t come in a two-meter-tall variety on Earth. That was nearly six feet seven inches tall. Not on all fours, mind you. He stood on his hind feet at the moment, his heels planted on the cold flooring of the station. A fluffy tail curled against his leg to keep it out of the way, half again as long as his hind legs held him off the ground at just over a meter from base to tip.

The big weasel dropped to his haunches so he was not looming over her, bringing his face down to her level and leaning back to try to be less intimidating. At least when he was not on all fours, he seemed more approachable. A harness crossed at the center of his chest and wrapped around his barrel with pouches of various things attached. His wrist had a multiband on it and the shimmer of a quantum comm bud was barely visible nestled in the fluff just inside one of his attentive ears. Beyond that, he wore nothing. Not that anybody could easily tell he was male with the thick fur coat only presenting a slight bulge between his legs.

His eyes were alert and aware as he studied her, but also luminescent. The effect was very subtle and easy to mistake for the normal reflective glow that many creatures with good night vision had. The glimmer in the depths of the darkness of his eyes was not a reflection from the surrounding light however.

A cough nearby brought Laura back to her senses.

"Sash is your bodyguard for this study mission," the man said again. "He’s highly skilled and adept in natural environments. He also has good medical skills and he’s well-suited for the specific environmental, interpersonal, and gear requirements of the study."

"Sounds like he knows more about the study than I do," Laura grumbled, taking a faltering step away from her bodyguard.

"He’s only been minimally briefed as well. We didn’t have time to provide deep information to either of you due to the nature of the research. The seasonal aspect was not anticipated in advance and if we miss this orbit, we’ll have to gather a whole new set of data before sending anybody out." The man smiled. "We’re sending you on this study because you’re one of our best field botanists, Laura. You’re young and fresh but you’ve already gotten accolades from nearly everywhere and everyone."

Sash lifted his nose straight up for a moment, exposing his throat. "Lore-uh, yes," he said, ending the statement with a soft chit sound. Then he dropped his gaze again. "Ah, Laura, yes?" he repeated, this time without the extra sound appended and the uptone of a question in his voice.

"Yes… Dr Laura Stambrandt," she replied, watching him warily. Well, he had caught her and kept her from falling, so he was on her side. The speed he reacted with spoke well of his skills too.

The weasel nodded. "Hear good. Talk small," he said, his ears going to the side and his whiskers pulling back against his muzzle. His shoulders slumped, which was saying something since he looked nearly like a tube from his neck to his hips. She wouldn’t be surprised if he could climb through any hole he could stick his fuzzy head into.

"He can understand complex communications just fine," her supervisor offered helpfully, "but he doesn’t have the words in common down as well. He took a crash course in the language to work with you."

Laura shook her head. "Whatever this study is, it’d better be worth the hassle of sending me out with a… with a…" She made a defiant face, unsure what species he even was.

"He’s a tzel," one of the varc crew members drolled with a chuckle. The name started with a distinct T sound before the zed. "Don’t worry. They’re only one step out."

When humans went into intergalactic society and quickly began to exert their will with interdiction systems, they were quickly made aware of the breadth and depth of various space-faring and planetbound life out there. For the most part, intergalactic society was segregated based on certain incompatible "leaps", such as environmental needs. Then "jumps" between people that were physically capable of inhabiting the same general environment but otherwise horribly dissimilar in physical form, society, or something else that made interacting with species a jump or more away a thing best done at arm’s length, so to speak. Finally, "steps" were minor differences between various species, even if they might seem major to folks who were normally only used to dealing with their own species. For the most part, sentients that were only separated by steps would intermingle freely, though in reality there was still speciesism in play in several places. Then there were species that were close enough to resembling each other that taxonomically there were no steps, just different species.

To put it into old Earth perspective, from humans, sharks were a leap away while deep ocean fish were multiple leaps. Dolphins and whales, insects, and many birds were considered a jump away from humans, while most land mammals were considered only a step or two away. Humans fit into the bipedal, land-based, sentient, sexually-dimorphic, "plug and socket" group. There were of course many other things taken into account like the gases they needed to breathe and the acceptable temperature range, nutritional requirements and tolerances, and so on. For the varc to say that Sash was one step out meant that the tzel were not too far removed from humans and varcs in general. Most likely the step was the fact that he moved on all four limbs, had a tail, and thick fur. Beyond that, chances were he ate similar food, drank water, created waste, and probably had the humans’ ‘pole’ concept definition of gender anatomy and made similar use of it.

By comparison, varc were considered no steps away. They were a different species, but looked mostly like humans did. Similar anatomy, similar skin, similar clothing. Aside from the fact that they were a pale grey in color and their blood was a dark, nearly black substance under their white skin, they could easily be mistaken for a human by anybody who didn’t know the difference. There were other differences, such as always having either stark black or colorless white hair that was length-limited on their head, similar to fur. She’d heard rumor that they also had a stripe of similar hair fur down their back and had a short stub of a tail that they kept tucked between their buttocks under their clothing. She had no interest in confirming that though. Alien plants were fine for her.

"A tzel and a human on a chartered varc courier ship," the other crew member said, tilting his head. "This should be interesting."

"Why are we chartering a varc ship?" Laura asked, her gaze narrowing. She’d heard things about varcs and she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out in person when it was only her on a ship full of varcs. She’d lived most of her life on a human planet and only dealt with the occasional alien during field studies, mostly various no-step species.

"We need to get you to the system in time and this is the second fastest ship available. The faster one is a Nara’kya crew though."

"Hmph, yeah," the other crewman said. "Doubt you’d want to deal with kittens. Anyway, the captain’s gonna get on us if we don’t get going soon."

Kittens? Laura’d never heard of anybody calling the cat-like Nara’kya people kittens. "I’ll go get packed, then," she murmured, trying to think of what she’d need to bring.

"No time," her boss said. "All the gear is already loaded on the ship. We need you to leave immediately. It’s a five day set of slips, so you won’t have much time to get caught up on the study goals or info, but we’re hoping to have you in position at the start of the seasonal event. There will be other crews following on science vessels, but they have a two week slipspace route on those ships."

"You have a rare event and you didn’t have anybody on site already?" she asked incredulously.

"We only had remote sensors monitoring nearby, so we know the target season is approaching. It may be miscalculated, but we’d rather not take chances. This project has some major backers funding it. Nara’kya in fact, which is why they were willing to provide a ship. We obviously prefer to send you with the varc ship, despite protests from the Nara’kya." He gestured in the direction of the boarding lock. "You’d best get going."

Laura looked at him, shook her head in defeat, and nodded. "Fine then. I can’t say I don’t get paid enough for this." Her boss was right, she was the star, though he knew she wasn’t really a grump. She turned on a heel and stalked past the crewmen, leaving them and Sash behind as she boarded.

* * *

"Why is everybody so dismissive of the Nara’kya?" Laura asked the varc curiously on the trip down the short hallway to her ship board quarters. This was not a large ship at all, mostly slip drive and some cargo space for speedy courier work. Captain, pilot, navigator, and three other crewmen. The mess hall was tiny, the bridge had room for the two flight positions to sit and one person to stand in the space behind them, and the smaller two sleeping areas aside from the captain’s room were shared between the five people based on whoever was not on shift at the time. The fact that they’d given her and her bodyguard this room as a private room meant they were down half the space they normally slept in. They shared a washroom and a community space that was just big enough to fit the six normal crew at a time. They obviously didn’t often deal with passengers.

"Dismissive?" the man asked curiously from behind her.

"Yeah," she said, glancing over her shoulder at him. "Your crewmates called…" she paused and squinted at the varc. "Eyes off my ass, buster." She glanced briefly at Sash, who was behind the varc, but the tzel was looking around almost too fast. His eyes didn’t seem to stop on anything for all that long. Very much like a weasel on pixie sticks.

He pulled his eyes up to her gaze. "I just find your hair interesting."

"It’s red. Yeah, I know, not too common among humans anymore. Your crewmates called them kittens and my boss said it was obvious that we wouldn’t want to send me on a Nara’kya ship."

He looked confused. "Called them kittens? What did they say exactly? Nara’kya are definitely not kittens. They’re fierce warriors and very smart." He reached past her and pushed open the narrow door to her space, leaning far too close in her opinion, so she scooted into the room. Not that there was much space in there either.

She thought back on their words. "When my boss mentioned it was a Nara’kya ship, the guy said he doubted I’d want to deal with kittens."

The varc drew his head back and sucked air in through his teeth repeatedly in his version of a laugh. "He meant you wouldn’t want to have a kitten or kittens. Your boss probably was thinking the same thing."

"They have their children on the ship?"

He paused and eyed her. "You don’t know about Nara’kya much, do you?"

She shook her head.

"Even better that they not send you on a Nara’kya ship then. Some males are fine with it, but as a female?" He made a dismissive sound.

"You’d better not be a sexist," she said warningly. "I’ll have you know I can do everything a man can do in my line of work."

He smiled and held his hands up. "No, not saying you are less than a man. I’m saying you are more. A man who is seduced by a female Nara’kya might never learn of the results if he doesn’t spend too long with her. A woman seduced by a male definitely knows that she’s got a kitten in a month or so."

She stared at him blankly, then finally lifted an eyebrow in confusion. "What?"

The varc pursed his lips. "Siffle for a scientist," he muttered under his breath, then said out loud, "Nara’kya have… well, I guess people just say they have universal genetics. They can mate with anything and anyone in the general species jump, and even things outside the jump if there’s the right stuff in their bodies. Very fertile either way. Almost every interspecies mating results in a kitten. Always a Nara’kya kitten too, no matter what the partner’s species is."

Laura’s face was a little pink, but she coughed softly and looked grumpy. "You make it sound like I’d let them… *hmph* mate with me."

He got a distant look in his eyes. "You don’t get it. They… they are sooooo good at seduction. Something about them. A few minutes alone with a Nara’kya with mating on their mind and you’re under them in no time, their cat cocks sliding deep into your..."

"Would you PLEASE stop rubbing your crotch?!" she demanded in a soft hiss.

He snapped back to alertness, jerking his hand away from his groin and laughed again. "Ah, anyway… If any males on their ship set eyes on you - and believe me, at least one would - you’d be giving birth to a Nara’kya kitten after a while. And super-protective of it. And drawn to Nara’kya males after that. It’s nearly impossible to resist their wiles even if you know ahead of time. So people know to try to avoid being alone and seducable around a Nara’kya of the other sex."

Her face was a touch more red at this point and she was not generally happy, but didn’t know quite what to say. She also wasn’t comfortable with the man hovering so close. "I see," she finally said after swallowing.

He nodded and grinned down at her breasts. "Makes much more sense to send you on a varc ship. You can’t have offspring from us."

Human eyes went wide and she almost lifted her hand to slap him, but Sash suddenly scooted between them to get into the room.

"Sorries, I in," the weasel said, catching her gaze knowingly as he interjected his body with his back to the man. He had more of a time squeezing by than she’d expect, quite well interrupting any mood the varc may be getting into by the time he was through the space.

The varc huffed. "We came in the airlock and turned right. To the left was the other crew quarters. The main hall is a U shape. This side ends here in your quarters. The middle we passed leads into the bridge to the front of the ship - stay out of that - and to the mess on the left. Captain’s room is the door at the back of that, only go there if invited."

He pointed to the room she was in. There were two berths set into the wall on the left with obvious pressure equipment around them and storage space built in the opposite wall. The far end wall was at an angle, facing the centerline of the ship.

"The berths are emergency pods, so if something goes wrong, get into one, preferably together, since I know your bodyguard has survival skills that you probably lack."

She held her tongue at that and barely managed a small smile.

"The door there leads to the common room and the san room is through that toward the back of the ship. All three quarters have doors into the common room, so don’t go into other quarters by accident."

"San room?"

"Sanit… ah, humans call it… bathroom? For waste and for washing. Are you familiar with low water omnigrav pods? No? Let one of us know when you want to use it and we’ll explain it. Or at least remember: Get centered over the marker, use the green button on the left, get comfortable, use the orange button for cleaner…" He looked thoughtful, then nodded. "Yes, our cleaners should be fine for you. Rub what you like, then close your eyes and use the blue button to rinse. Give it a few seconds to stop dripping, then push the green button to turn it off. Oh! Use the handles to move your feet back to the mark before you turn it off. You’re somewhat short."

At 1.6 meters, or about five foot three, she was not tall, but this was fine. She didn’t take offense to being called short, small, petite, or anything else. She was all of these, and also muscular and athletic with a lithe build and small breasts. It took some work to get around in plant-filled wilds after all.

She finished looking around and turned back to the varc to find his gaze settled firmly below her waist. "Anything else?" she asked tersely.

His stare lingered for a moment before he looked back up at her. "This is a live in, working ship. We’re varcs. There will be a blue light beside any door if the gravity is off in the adjacent room. This is common for power reasons. We’ll let you know in advance when we turn off gravity if you’re in there. The mess hall is the only place with gravity almost all the time. Also, if you walk in on us doing anything, it’s just a normal part of the ship. Don’t fuss." He grinned and licked his lips. "If you want to join in, that’s great too. It would be nice to be in a female and I do wonder where else on you has red hair."

Her face was nearly as red as her hair with her embarrassment and she almost considered running back off the ship and resigning. It this was the less-bad transport, she believed what they said about Nara’kya. And now she had confirmation of the rumors that varcs were incorrigible letches on their own ships as well. So much so that even all male crews found any hole to be just fine.

"Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind," she said through gritted teeth, turning her back to dismiss him.

The man grunted and headed off with a thoughtful grin and a tentpole in his pants as a result of the thoughts that created the grin.

Laura huffed and pushed the door closed, then sat on the bottom berth and put her face in her hands. It was only five days. And it wasn’t like she was a prude. She had toys to fill her needs! She’d find a good man eventually too. Not some random varc on a ship. Good… for her needs… she wondered briefly what varc dicks looked like, then pushed that thought aside.

"Sad," Sash said softly, with that odd chit sound at the end.

"Yes, it’s sad," she agreed, muffled by her hands. Then she paused. "Wait, you’re asking, right? That’s what that sound at the end means. It’s a question, like am I sad?"

"Yes, sorry. Bad word sound. Try more," he said rapidly. Then he asked with the proper inflection, "Sad?"

"No, I’m not sad, just frustrated," she admitted. His earnestness brought a small smile to her face and she took her hands away from it. He was squeezed as far into the corner by the door as he could be. She blinked at him several times. "Why are you… like… trying to squish into the corner?"

"Laura no happy Sash," he said matter of factly. "Sash no no happy Laura."

It took her several seconds to process the odd words. "You mean… you think I don’t like you and you don’t want to upset me?"

"Yes."

She huffed and smiled a little. "You’re fine, Sash. I don’t want you too close, because you’re like huge and scary with big teeth and glowy eyes, but you don’t have to squeeze into the corner."

His ears went back, but his facial expressions were nearly impossible to discern. "Sash no no happy Laura," he agreed softly. "Sash guard Laura. Sash happy Laura."

There was a set of beeps and the intercom announced their departure, the ship shifting even as the announcement was made.

Laura sighed and looked at him. "You just… be a good… tzel… and protect me, and I’ll be happy, okay?"

"Yes."

She watched him carefully as she got up and peeked in the drawers. Some science equipment and field equipment, nondescript, light clothing, and a compact datapad. Weird, didn’t look like enough clothing for more than the five days. Must be more somewhere for the destination.

Field work without a month or more of study and preparation was unheard of. Knowing the local flora and fauna, the environment, the subjects to be studied, all in good detail. That’s what she normally worked with. Five days of slip was not nearly enough to prepare properly.

Tapping the end of the rod-like device projected a physiholo datapad for her to interact with and she held the rod as the side of it. Flicking a finger at the screen, she pulled up the necessary information and started reading, tuning out everything, making mental notes as she went.

Dinner almost ended her work early. Varc food was technically okay for humans, but human stomachs didn’t care for the rations much. She worked through the growing discomfort as best as she could, but finally had to pause and put the datapad down, breathing deeply.

"Bad? What bad?" Sash asked worriedly as he returned from the restroom and found her curled up on the bottom berth.

"Just.. the food… doesn’t like me," she said, breathing deeply. "It smelled good, but oh, my tummy."

"Bite food, varc food bite in. Yes." He immediately went into one of his pouches and pulled out a small bag, taking a dried leaf out of it. "Take, bite, eat. Laura good." He pressed the leaf in her direction.

She groaned. Eating anything now was the last thing on her mind. She started to avert her head to bury her face in the mattress, but the scent of the leaf wafted to her nose and even just the smell gave her poor belly some peace.

"Bite, eat," Sash urged her again.

She gingerly took the dry leaf and sniffed it, then touched her tongue to it. It felt warming and cooling, and though she had no idea what it was, she was desperate for relief. She put it in her mouth and chewed it, turning it soft, then managed to swallow the pieces. In seconds, the ache started to fade and the unpleasant noises her stomach was making silenced themselves.

"That was, wow. Thank you," she said, sitting up and looking at him. His ears were back but they quickly perked forward again.

"Laura good?" he asked.

"Yes, thanks to a leaf," she said musingly. "And thanks to you. Huh."

"Good," he said. "Sleep time. Sash up? Down?"

She watched as he gestured to the two berths and that helped her comprehension. "I’ll be on top," she said. She wasn’t sure she could handle the idea of the massive beast being above her, looming over her, even if it was all in her head. "Go to the common room."

"Why?"

"I’m going to change. At least I know that I should only shower every other day on a ship to conserve water." She was fibbing. She just couldn’t handle the idea of showering as the only woman on a ship full of horny guys at the moment. She could revisit that idea when she was well-rested.

"Change bad?"

"I don’t want to change in front of you," she explained calmly.

"Why?" His ears wiggled all askance.

"Because it’s not right to not have clothes on in front of a m…" she said, then she stopped when she realized that he was standing there with nothing but a harness and fur. Of course her request made no sense to him. Clothing or no clothing didn’t mean anything to him. "You know what, never mind," she said with a huff, pulling her shirt off over her head.

"Laura have small?" Sash asked curiously.

She paused, blushing. "Yes, I know they’re small" she replied. Maybe this was a mistake if he was paying attention to the size of her breasts.

"No, ah, sorry, Laura have… Is… Have small human?"

"Small? Oh, you mean do I have a baby?"

"Yes."

"No, I don’t." She looked at him. "Why do you ask?" she enquired warily.

"Big," he said, pointing at her chest. "Baby eat."

"Big?!" she asked in disbelief. Small woman, petite form, and definitely small breasts, what was…?

"Oh! Your people… your females don’t have them this big unless they are nursing, right?"

"Yes," he said, fidgeting. "Laura no happy. Sorry."

She made a face and looked at him, trying to be angry but failing. "You’re fine. I just thought," she said, then she sighed. "I thought you were being like the varcs and lusting over my breasts."

He chittered, then replied, "No, no want sex. Think Laura have small, ah, baby. Happy guard baby have Laura. Good guard yes baby no."

That was the most words she’d heard him say together. "How long have you been learning common?"

"Ah, one… two. Two."

"Two what? Weeks?"

He shook his head, then walked to where the ship chronometer was on the wall and pointed to the hours indicator.

"Two hours?!"

"Yes. Sleep, talk good." He carefully removed his harness and folded it, placing it into his drawer, then turned and dropped to his haunches and watched her, waiting patiently.

She sat on the lower berth, making it creak a little, and watched as he did his own version of disrobing, though he had much less to take off. He looked somehow less intimidating without the harness full of things. More like a big animal. That thought made him look more intimidating to her, especially with his glowing eyes. Stuffed animal! Yes… that was better. Cute and fluffy. Then she started to feel watched.

"Why are you staring?" she finally asked. Easier to just be blunt about it.

"Sash sleep," he said, pointing to the lower berth. "Laura sleep." This time he pointed to the top. Then he made a motion at her of pushing to the side.

"Oh! I’m on your bed! I’m sorry." She jumped up and out of the way.

"Laura good," he said, his ears perked and his whiskers forward, then climbed absolutely silently onto the bottom berth and curled up, closing his eyes.

She picked up her legs and took off her boots and socks, then fingered the waistband of her pants before peering at him. Was he peeking at her? She didn’t think so.

The weasel lifted his head a little and yawned widely, sharp teeth showing, and then stretched backward and flopped his head upside down and facing away from her.

She shrugged. Now he definitely wasn’t peeking. Her fingers pulled her pants off and she rifled through the drawer but found no night clothes. Figured. Well, she’d showered before heading to the meeting so the bed wouldn’t get too dirty. It wasn’t like she’d been doing more than reading data about the planet they were heading to.

After tucking her clothing into the drawer, she climbed onto the top berth and felt around. No sheets? No blanket either. Just a padded surface to lay on. She climbed down and hunted through the drawers, and then checked around the room. Nothing.

"Bad?" Sash asked.

She spun on him accusingly since he must’ve been peeking, but he was still in the same position, his head upside down and away from her. "I can’t find any sheets or blankets."

"Varc ship. No," he replied. "Cold warm varc good. No no body. Varc touch sex good, no body bad."

She wilted. Despite his lack of words to explain, she recalled her studies from long, long ago. Varcs didn’t consider it to be appropriate to cover the body when sleeping, as that hid the body from a lover when in bed. If a varc was in a bed at all, they were open to sex, so covering the body was rude. They considered it giving a great compliment to engage somebody who was asleep, especially if they could avoid waking the other up. To give such a thing and not expect anything in return showed great respect for the sleeper.

In other words, she’d sleep lightly and if the door opened, she’d probably go in swinging. It didn’t help that she had very pleasant dreams either. She’d not gotten a chance to relax and have time to herself with her toys after her last study mission.

"Good morning. Sleep well?" Sash asked from his berth as she climbed down. He sounded less unsure about the language.

"Not the best," she admitted, putting her hands on the top berth and stretching backward. "Kept worrying one of the crew would come in." Then she froze and looked down her body. Sash was on his back in his berth and peering up at her, and she just realized she was still quite bare.

"They should not," Sash said, yawning and smacking his maw. "They know you are not varc, so unless they think you want that, they will not." He obviously had absolutely no interest in her bare body.

"That makes sense," she said haltingly, starting to relax more when she realized he was just where he was, not ogling up between her legs or anything.

Sash rolled over and focused intently on the back door of the small room, his ears perked. "Some are just finishing cleaning and will eat after. Wait here." He slunk off the berth and only reached up to open the door to the main hall, making her jump with a vision of it opening to varc crewmembers eyeing her nude form. But the hall was empty and he was shockingly quick, out the door and closing it in an instant.

Laura sat back onto the bottom berth, trying not to have it creak too much as she scooted into the nook. The sharp sounds were a stark contrast to the low thrum of the slip drive and put her on edge. She wasn’t sure whether she’d be better off hiding from view of the front door or the back door, but she finally decided to hide from the back door, tucking herself into the back corner of the berth with her knees up to her chest.

She jumped again when the front door opened, but it was Sash. He came in quickly on two feet, holding a tray with things that smelled okay on it.

"You want food and stay away from varcs. This will help," he said, setting the tray down on the berth pad in front of her and taking his bowl off it. Then he went to the drawer where his harness was and pulled out the pouch of leaves again. "Eat this first, it will keep the food from making your tummy mad," he said, offering her the dried leaf.

"Thank you," she said softly, taking the leaf and putting it in her mouth to chew and swallow. "You’re talking much better." She wouldn’t say it directly, but this seemed unusual to her.

"I never tried to learn common before. I can learn languages fast. Not best yet. Still learn. I listen to talk, get meaning, sort in sleep."

"Oh? I didn’t know it worked that way," she said, starting to eat the mash from the bowl.

"Does for me." He ate a leaf too, which she didn’t expect, but it made sense. Varc food was odd. "I will learn study mission today, you tomorrow."

"Learn me?" she asked, her head snapping up.

"For medical. I need to know your body to help if you get hurt."

She had mixed feelings. His better speech made him seem more like a person, but that in turn made her more leary about being naked around him.

"You smelled happy this morning, stressed now. Some bad?" he asked, glancing over from where he was eating.

"I smell…?" she looked at him again. He could tell she was starting to fret?

"Yes. Nice. Tzel have good nose. You smell happy still. I think maybe leftover from sleep. Now you smell more stress."

Her face was turning pink. "I’m okay," she said curtly, turning her side to him.

"Oh," he said softly, and then no more. She glanced at him briefly. He was focused on his food and his ears were to the sides.

As they ate in silence, Sash began to twist his ears about again, focusing first on one door, then the other. Finally he looked at the human. "The clean varcs gone. Room empty. You clean today. Think you not happy near varcs, tell you they gone."

She peered at him. "You’re not speaking as well as you were just a moment ago," she told him warily.

His ears went down to the sides and he ducked his head slightly. "Stress make words hard. Stress is protect. Fight or run. No word. I good. You go clean. Chirp if need Sash."

She stared a moment longer. He looked fully alert and aware despite his failing speech patterns. He wasn’t as bad as the day before, but after hearing him speak so much better, it was unusual. She set the empty mash bowl aside and got her clothes from the prior day out, putting on just the pants and shirt, as well as grabbing a clean set of clothing. She found ship slippers, meant for walking on the ship. The rest of the clothing was nothing but three pairs of stretch shorts and three short tops. No underwear? Only three sets for a five day trip? Maybe there was a cleaning system on the ship.

After a peek out the back door of her quarters informed her that the area was empty, albeit musky smelling, she dashed across the room with her bundle of clothing and through the washroom door. There was a waste collector that she needed to make quick use of, not pleased that it was a zero-G system so got tucked in close and personal. She put it back into its sanitizing holder once she was done and examined the pair of slightly-gunky-looking, translucent tubes with a sliding door that was open on each. Human ships tended to have low water showers, so this was new to her.

With a huff, she eyed the door to the common room one last time and tucked her clean clothing aside on a counter, then stripped out of her clothing and stepped into the tube, sliding the door closed.

The button to turn it on also turned her stomach a bit as gravity realigned itself in the tube, pulling in every direction evenly with a sensor that kept track of her position and adjusted properly to keep her centered. Her feet didn’t stay on the floor though, since she was a bit shorter than the normal crew members.

The cleaning button reversed the gravity to a force pushing her away from every wall at about half a G and after a moment, a spout deposited a dollop of wet, slippery goo on her belly. Gah! That was cold. And slimy. Sheesh. It smelled mostly okay and seemed to be effective for cleaning. They hadn’t mentioned the smaller button beside it, but she discovered it created a fine mist of cold water for as long as she pushed it. The gravity inversion made the mist fall onto her. Then once the air was clear of the mist, the gravity reverted briefly to cause any excess drops to fly out to the wall of the tube and be sucked in. She rubbed herself down with the slippery soap goo and made occasional use of the mist thing, though the gravity changes made her queasy.

"Lovely view, very nice, yes," a varc drawled as she was bent over double washing her feet and ankles.

"WHAT?!" She straightened up suddenly, nearly hitting her head on the outside of the tube, and ended up spinning slowly until she caught a handle and stabilized herself. A quick tug on the handle repositioned her to see through the tube.

The varc was just outside the tube and was finishing taking his own shirt off, already bare below the waist. When he set it aside and glanced back, he noted she had her arms folded in front of her and her legs clamped closed. "Oh, not an invite in?"

"Definitely not!" she snapped. Then she huffed, trying to be more respectful to her hosts. "I’m just trying to clean up. Look, I know you guys are kind of open about everything here on the ship," she said, her glance dropping to his half-mast groin and then immediately leaving it as her face shaded reddish. "I’m not really interested in that kind of stuff though. So you can put your clothes back on and leave and I’ll just finish washing and be out of here."

"Oh, I came in here to wash too," he said. "Just finished cooking for everybody who washed before the meal. Pity that you don’t wanna do anything. My shipmates feel great, but ah, the touch of the inside of a female, sliding so nicely around my…"

"Don’t need details, thanks!" she sputtered.

"No problem. You know where to find us if you want a nice time," he said, walking over to the other tube.

*Bleep!* "Disabling shipwide gravity. Exiting slip in thirty ticks."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"We left on time to hit a heavy gas planet’s orbit jus’ right. We’ll be able to scoop a full load of good stuff and cut our time with a long slip. We’ll arrive tomorrow afternoon ship time this way." He stepped into the tube. "Oh, don’t worry, gravity stays on in the cleaners. It’s localized."

A subtle thrum flowed through the hull and then a strange silence. It wasn’t really any less-noisy, just gravity gave the sensation of sound on a ship as parts moved subtly. This was quite annoying. Definitely not her day. She fussed and got frazzled and rushed to finish washing, ignoring the varc in the adjacent tube.

"I wouldn’t mind if you bent over to wash your ankles again," the varc mentioned. "I know, not an invite, but the view sure was nice."

She looked over her shoulder and immediately regretted it. He’d soaped himself up and was using that to wank as he watched her wash. "Do you have to do that?" she sputtered. Then she reeled slightly as the ship dropped from slipspace and into real space.

"Nah, but no good reason not to since I got stuck with cooking duty."

She grimaced, trying to tear her eyes away from the sight. "Could you stop soon then?" She wasn’t a prude. She had no problem with a nice rub of her own or a good view of a male body. She just liked it to be in her own space and on her terms.

"Give a good view again and it’ll be quicker," he pointed out with a grin. "Or if ya want to come over here and rub it, even faster. Even better if you rub it inside you. Real good for both of us. Might take a while if you keep snappin’ at me though."

"Oh for fuck’s sake," she muttered to herself. He wanted a view? Fine! She turned her back on him and bent over double, focusing on washing her lower legs and trying to ignore him, hoping that he’d be done soon enough with this ‘help’.

"Aw, yah…" he murmured. "Could take those cute lil’ hips and get a good grip on them and sink in nice an’ deep… balls to belly and set ya up with a good load… Nnnnngh! Dayamn! Hit the tube even with the gravity inversion."

She squeezed her eyes shut. She did NOT need that play by play description, nor the images it conjured up. Worse, her mildly-needy mind decided to be turned on by it, which didn’t help anything. Gritting her teeth, she straightened up. "You’re welcome," she said with clipped tones before punching the rinse button.

"SUFRADICKINSALUMFAH!" she exclaimed, unable to form a coherent phrase or even word as gravity changed to pull toward the outside of the tube and she was quickly assaulted with cold water. She twisted and tucked herself in tight as the water sprayed her all over.

"What? Oh, yeah, I heard humans don’t care for cold as much as varcs. Ah, you’ll want to make sure you let it rinse you completely. The system tracks all the cleaner that went out and it won’t stop rinsing until it’s all back in for reprocessing. Means ya can’t keep yer arms over parts. Just shield yer face to breathe and make sure ya rinse all the cleaner off."

She steeled herself and uncovered her bare front, gasping at the cold spray but quickly rubbing and furiously trying to make sure the soap was gone. Her hair was rinsed. Her front was rinsed. Under her arms was rinsed. Why wasn’t the water turning off? It… oh.

With a small whimper, she pulled her knees up, floating in the tube, and spread her legs. She squeaked at the spray of cold water in sensitive spots, but soon enough the rinsing was done and she was left with her knees up and legs spread, spinning slowly as water dripped away from her in every direction.

"Damn," the varc muttered quietly. "You sure you aren’t wanting me to come in there and mate you? Hell of a view."

"I’m abso..." she started to say, but her words were cut off by the woosh of air that left her even colder as it blew the water from her skin and dried her. The air stopped just in time for her to hear the varc grunt again and start panting.

"Yeah, that woulda been so great if it was in ya."

Defeated, she reached out to jab the off button.

Without gravity even in the pod now, she slid the door open. Her teeth chattered as she pulled herself out by available handholds and looked for her pile of clothing… which was nowhere to be found.

"Where’s my clothes?!" she demanded of the varc.

"What, the pile you left on the counter? Prolly floated off without gravity here. That’s why there’s net bins. You sound cold. Sure ya don’t want some of us ta warm you up? Two strong bodies pressed against ya, deep inside, guaranteed ta take away the chills."

"NO! No…" she felt she was too harsh with her first decree. They were just being varcs on a varc ship. She softened her tone. "Really, you’re varcs, I’m just a human. We have different society and different people are different. There are probably plenty of humans who’d jump at a chance to have a romp with varcs on a long trip, I’m just not into that. I’m a scientist and it’s not my thing. Okay? You’re all probably very fun and nice, it’s just not something I want to do."

"Aww, don’t feel bad. I’m sure eventually you’ll be fine," he said, pausing in his own washing. "I heard humans are all a really wide set of ideas about stuff. Can’t say there’s a culture norm for ya guys. Still makes me wonda how you did space stuff so well. Nobody could ever know what a human was thinking. Anyway, check around. They prolly floated off in a straight line."

She looked around the whole washroom and finally out the open door into the common room to spot the loose clothing drifting slowly toward the far door. A quick push off as she tried to remember her zero G training and she managed to snag the clothing before reaching the wall beside the door and stopping herself to cling to it. Now just back to her door.

The door she was near opened.

"We’re scooping for ninety!" the varc beyond it yelled back to the washroom. Then gravity reasserted itself as the ship made a shallow pull up from the planet, dumping the human unceremoniously to the floor with her legs askew. It was only maybe a quarter of normal, but still surprised her. "Oh, hey, it is red down there too!" the varc exclaimed excitedly. "Less hair on a human though. Huh."

She snapped her legs together and scrambled to her feet, snatching up her clothing. "Yes, it’s red. No mating with me on this trip!" A dash brought her to and through her own door before she slammed it shut, leaning against it and huffing and shivering with cold.

Sash looked up from where he was reading something on the projected display of his multiband. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You smell like you took a lot of your own scent off, and a lot happier, but also stressed much more. You are shaking too." He tapped the display to disable it and jumped over protectively, looking her over as she curled up against the door.

"C-cold," she said. "The water was cold and the air is cold and I’m really cold and all the things happened and…" Just to make things more complicated, the scoop maneuver ended and she started to float away from the cold surface of the ship.

Her bodyguard chittered something rapidly in his own language and snagged her arm gently, tugging her to the bottom berth. Before she knew it, her curled up form was surrounded by toasty warm weasel, his body completely wrapped around her. She froze in surprise, not knowing at all what to make of this as Sash wriggled and curled as tightly against her as he could.

One tiny part of her wanted to panic and flail. Maybe he was somehow like a snake and would squeeze her to death! But the warm weasel was quickly pulling the chills out of her and helping her to stop shaking. She closed her eyes and pushed the panic from her mind, focusing on how nice and warm she was now and how soft Sash’s fur was. She’d not touched it before. Sure, she’d fallen against his chest, but she had clothing on then and was very distracted by the thought that he was going to kill her. His fur was more like mink, at least what she thought mink might be like.

Soon enough she was no longer shaking from the cold and was very much enjoying being wrapped in weasel. Her poor, overloaded mind worked on sorting through all the most recent happenings and she was calming down, left only with the naughty thoughts about the inadvertent show she’d provided the varc in the washroom.

"Less stress smell, more happy smell," Sash mentioned. "You are better? Happy is good, not a happy I recognize. Just a positive smell."

Her face turned red as his voice brought her back from her imagination running wild about a varc orgy. "I, uh, yeah, happy smell. I’m good. I’m warm now."

The lights dimmed to nearly nothing and there was the subtle shift and wrench as the ship went back into slip.

*Bleep!* "Low power slip, 28 hours," somebody announced over the intercom.

"Wait, what? Where’s gravity? Not much light either."

"I will find out," Sash announced, unwrapping from her and pulling himself with all four limbs to the door and through it.

Laura stayed curled defensively in the chill air and put a hand up to the top of the berth to keep her bum against the padding. She fidgeted and waited. It seemed like forever before the door opened and Sash came back in.

"Sorry. I had to wait for them to do mating things. They say they got a special scoop and we will get to system in one slip. Much faster. Need power to get to next gas scoop after, so low power in slip. Gravity off. Lights low. Will get cold. Less heat made." He made a grumbly noise. "Not enough time. Should be two days. Your boss get mad. Do best. Read read read. Examine you tonight. Sleep on info. Examine and read tomorrow. Then land early. Not time."

"No gravity? How cold?"

"Cold, ah…" He pulled up his multiband display rapidly and ran through it like the technologically-advanced weasel he was, then pointed at the screen indicating 283 Kelvin.

Quick mental math put that just below 10C or 50F. Not horrible, but definitely not comfortable.

"That’s very chilly. I really need to see if I can find more substantial clothing."

"Only three days cover. Two days no cover. Be ready for no cover on mission. Not two days left. Start foot protect now." He rushed out the back door.

"Wait, what?" she asked belatedly well after he was gone. No cover? Did he mean no clothing? He couldn’t mean a mission with no clothing. He must mean himself. Like, maybe not having his harness.

He returned after a few minutes with a container of something.

"What do you mean by no cover?" she asked warily.

"Cover," he said, grabbing a floating shirt and holding it up as an example. "Study place no tech, no cover. Dangerous with cover. All only us. Foot protect made of plant, not tech." He snagged all the remaining clothing and stuffed it away, then returned to her on the berth. "Be ready for no cover, no cover two days. Be normal then."

"Wait, I have to spend two days on the ship naked and the whole study mission naked?"

"Should be two days, not enough time now," he said. "Much read, much learn. Feets!" He gestured to her, getting her to extend her feet, then painted some liquid goo on them that was chilly but not too bad. It was almost like a thicker liquid latex. "Keep up for dry." He retrieved her data system and handed it to her, then started going over info on his own wrist multiband.

She sighed. From what she understood, he was learning on the fly here too, so the datapad was the best bet.

Sash left to get them food for the second time later as she was just finishing with the information on the planet environment. She’d found out that one of the major reasons she was being sent was because of her excellent memory for botanical detail. They would have a cache of tech supplies when they landed, but other than the landing area, they had to leave all tech behind due to its presence putting them into mortal danger. She’d have no recording equipment at all. Not even any way to take notes. She had four layers of the latex-like stuff on each foot now and it was mostly dry. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it definitely felt odd.

"WHAT?! How did this plant even?" she muttered as Sash returned.

"Something bad?"

"This is just very surprising and almost sounds like a bad joke. I’m being sent to study a plant that has an odd way of propagating seeds. Huh. Likely genetic memory. Possible airborne communication. Extremely motile. Early studies find that it has a simple and focused but highly-advanced awareness. It runs by a set of base rules that make it seem intelligent, but it appears to be only following the guidelines that it’s learned over time and generations." She shook her head. "I need to read this more. This seems weird."

Her bodyguard brought the slightly squishy ration that was made to not crumble or get anything in odd places of the ship in zero gravity, and also managed to fish two of the dried leaves out of the pouch without sending any flying. He also had two pouches of water with suction valves.

"Yes, some in my read also. Plants move well, adjust hot cold, no tech allowed. They kill people with tech. Plants happy with nice dumb animals, not tech people. Not know why. Hurt plant and die. Have fake thing and die. Hurt nice animal near plant and die. Be nice and not die." He nommed his leaf and then started quickly eating his ration. "Eat now, then I learn you some. Learn you more tomorrow after sleep and read. Then we do mission."

"Learn me?" She hugged her legs closer and ate the leaf and then the ration, her goosebumps apparent over her skin. The room was staying warmer from their body heat in the small space, but they were trying to maintain temperature against the cold of slipspace and slowly losing.

"Medical study. If hurt, must fix," he explained.

"Oh, okay." She finished her food quickly and rubbed her arms. "It’s getting colder."

"Planet is warmer," he said. "I keep you warm to sleep." He took the wrappers from their meal and set them away properly, then scooted over and sniffed at her inquisitively, snuffling all along her arm.

"Oh, I’ll be okay," she said, blushing. She didn’t need her bodyguard hitting on her too.

"Good then. If you get cold, let me know. Fur is warm. I have no bad from water freeze. Stretch out please. I check everything."

She took a deep breath and uncurled, getting a much worse feel of the colder air when she was not protecting herself. She worked to not shiver too much as he sniffed along her body, his whiskers tickling lightly. She tried not to giggle. He was very thorough, sniffing along each arm and beneath them, making her wary when he sniffed along her chest, and then eliciting a muffled squeak when his whiskers tickled her tummy.

"Is bad?" he asked, pausing and looking up at her.

"It just tickles," she replied, shivering lightly.

"Oh? Tickle makes you react? Ah. I be careful." He returned to his sniffing where he left off, and quickly reached her crotch, making her squeak again and blush further. "Sorry tickle," he said. "Happy smell was this. Know now. Ah, humans not heat and some mate for fun. Okay." He moved on without lingering on that as she said nothing in her embarrassment.

When he’d sniff-inspected all of her, he had her think of scary things and worrisome things and think of being hungry and other things. Apparently he picked up unique scents from her for all of those emotions. He also had her brace against the pad and push on him with various joints. She was afraid she’d hurt him at first, but it turned out he was substantially stronger than her.

By the time everything was done she was shivering most of the time, the only moments of warmth coming when she was in contact with him.

"Okay, is late, sleep now. Please stay warm. Read that humans need to stay warm and do not warm well." He moved out of the way to let her get into her berth above.

She nodded, feeling a little sad, and pulled herself up to the upper berth. She was even colder up here.

"Hey, Sash?"

"Yes?"

"I, um… Have you tried to flirt with me at all?"

"No. Should I? Tzel females say when mate, even for fun. I not know other species, so I stay that way. Female say when mate. You no say mate and chase away varcs. Confusing, because smell happy like want to mate. But you smell with varcs and say no, so I know smell is not say."

She pursed her lips and pulled herself over the edge and back down to his berth. "Keep me warm, please," she said in a small voice. A tiny part of her had the thrill that if he reacted like a varc, he’d be trying to hump her quite quickly, and she might not object to that. But more of her had the idea that if she was understanding right, he wouldn’t.

"I keep you warm," he said, tugging her against his side and curling sideways and partially around her in a spiral. "I tell you, sleep males get…" he paused. He hadn’t heard a right word for it from anybody. "Excited body? Is sleep. Not mean want to mate. Maybe sleep mind want to mate, but is sleep anyway. I keep front away so you not upset."

She was so lost in the comfort and warmth of his soft fur and body that she almost didn’t register what he said. When she finally figured out that he was saying he got morning wood like most males did and would try to keep it away for her comfort, she had a small twinge of disappointment. "Oh, thank you," she murmured sleepily.

She woke to the same dim light and the same exquisite warmth that she fell asleep to. Her eyes flicked open and she saw that it was shortly before the time she’d normally wake. The night’s sleep was super-restful and comfortable and she felt surprisingly safe, a shocking change from two days before.

"Good morning," Sash said softly.

"Oh, you’re awake?" she asked, yawning.

"Yes, I’ve been awake for a few minutes. I didn’t want to wake you. You can go use the waste room and I’ll get us food when my body relaxes. It’s much colder this morning. I’ll be fast so you don’t get too cold."

"You’re talking much better today again," she said after a brief pause to process that this was the same fuzzy person she knew from the day before.

"I learn very quickly," he pointed out again, carefully uncurling from her.

She felt the immediate chill of the air, but after being so very cozy and warm it wasn’t too bad. She’d be quick though. She didn’t want to start shivering again. Her eye caught a flash of something as Sash moved to the side so she had room to move and she swung her gaze around to see his legs tucked tight and together despite the fact that he was stretching the rest of his body slinkily.

"Why do you have your legs pulled up like that? Are you okay?"

"I’m okay. I just have sleep excitement, like I told you last night. You were upset when the varcs were aroused, so I didn’t want to upset you."

Overwhelming curiosity tugged at her. "You’re fine," she said with a smile, though her focus was not on his face. "You can stretch and be comfortable, I don’t mind right now when it’s you."

"Oh, okay," he responded. Then it wasn’t even like he was shy or showing off, he just extended his legs out and stretched.

Where had he hid that thing? It wasn’t like he was going to win any size contest with other species, and she had toys that were bigger - admittedly ones she didn’t use - but with the fluff that was there all the time before she’d expected much less. What he had looked satisfying in size. Wait… Did she seriously just think that?

"There, see?" she asked, turning away to hide her blush and pulling herself out of the berth. "I’ll be back. You’re right, it’s chilly."

"Be quick," he advised. "One is on the bridge, one is heating food, and the others are sleeping. They will wake soon from time and do their morning things too."

She gave a shiver in the cold and nodded. "Thanks."

Her trip to relieve herself for the morning was swift and uneventful, but definitely cold. Returning to find Sash missing brought an odd sense of regret for her but she quickly dismissed it and gathered her data pad, curling up in the lower berth to continue reading.

Shivers were already threatening when Sash returned and she perked up when she saw him. He grabbed the pouch of leaves and curled up around her quickly. "You smell happy this morning," he observed as he offered her a leaf and ration and water pouch.

"You don’t need to point that out every time," she said with a small grumble. "I don’t need to know you know I was thinking sexy things."

"I mean happy, not aroused," he said. "Before I didn’t know the difference. That’s part of why I studied you last night. And now you smell embarrassed. Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you." His ears went to the side in shame.

"Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t understand," she murmured, taking her turn to feel ashamed. "Your ears move a lot. Do they mean stuff like my smell does? I think you’re embarrassed right now."

"Yes," he agreed. "Your smell tells a lot. Tzel have fewer smells, but our ears tell things. It’s like your face moves and changes color with blood."

"That makes sense," she murmured.

She was grateful for his warmth as she studied her work to come and on his advice, they both skipped second meal on the ship so they wouldn’t have unhappy tummies. Sooner than she liked, they left slipspace and gravity was returned for landing. She wasn’t keen on the idea of going planetside without anything to protect her at all except her wits and Sash.

"There is a landing base here," Sash told her as the ship lifted off into the late morning sky of the planet. She was stark naked aside from the coating to protect her feet. At least she didn’t have to worry about the crew anymore. This was much more comfortable now.

"Where?" she asked, looking around. The sun here was a red star, so at least she wouldn’t have to worry about too much high energy light burning her skin.

He looked around, his ears swivelling, then went to what looked like a nearby rock face and pushed, then pushed a different way. The rock slid aside to reveal a tiny nook with some emergency medical supplies, slipcomm unit, and some recording systems and data systems. There was barely enough space for three people to squeeze in. At least an automated system put up a shield around the immediate vicinity as well.

"That’s a base?!" she asked in disbelief. "I’ve had field tents bigger than that."

"It has a comm unit and slipcomm and some emergency supplies. The plants you are here to study make it dangerous to take anything with us. The next ship with researchers will arrive here later, but too late for the part you are to study."

"Fauna migration," she said. "Large numbers of animals who gravitate to the plant around this time of year. I’m to remember the animals and their behaviors for comparison with behaviors elsewhere based on other observations. There are indications that the animals here are generally more intelligent than many places, though we haven’t seen evidence of sentience."

"I see. I will protect you if any attack," Sash told her, taking off his wrist band and plucking his comm dot out of his ear, setting both into the nook for safe keeping. "My info said there are several of the plants on the way to the one you need to study and people dropped markers from the air to find a safe route. The plants gather the markers and clear out the area they can reach, so places where there are markers are out of reach of the plants."

Laura nodded. The dried stuff on her feet kept them comfortable enough in the rocky spot they were on. "If I observe any interactions with plants on the way, I’m to remember and record them, but they really want me to watch the main plant mass and the animals that visit it."

"About half an hour that way," he agreed, pointing after he got his bearings. "Some climb to get to a shelf out of reach of the plant. There are a lot of edible plants that are safe for us, and I know them. That will be our food for this trip. We will come back here when we need to record and receive messages, and at least every second day."

He closed the rock face and the shield went down, allowing them out. "I have only been told that if a plant grabs either of us, do not fight or damage the plant. If we are kind, it will not hurt us. If we hurt it, or hurt anything it has caught, it will kill us." He dropped to all fours and led the way along the proper path.

"That’s what my instructions say too. I’m to receive more info in a few days, but they want my initial, uninformed impression first. They also have several lab animals in stasis nearby with automated systems. Some may be released at times for the plant to access."

They were silent for the rest of the walk, following a meandering path with small purple tokens along it. The foliage was thick enough that she didn’t see any places that lacked markers, but she was sure they existed. Sash was sniffing along, so she assumed he was finding a good route.

Soon enough they reached a rocky ridge stretching to either side with markings indicating that it had to be climbed. Sash gave her a boost to get up onto the first ledge, then she pulled him up by a hand, finding him shockingly light in weight. That explained why the berth didn’t creak when he was on it in the ship. It wasn’t a long climb, only about twelve feet before they reached a crack in the stone face. It was a dark trip through the narrow space before they came out into light on the other side again.

They were on a ledge that was set into the cliff on this side so it wasn’t accessible from above. Below them by about ten feet was a wide mass of smooth vines that ranged in diameter from tiny tendrils to stems as thick as her wrist. There was a natural gully here, though the area was mostly exposed rock and sand. Poor for growing anything. The plant took up a large area in a nook in the center where a stream ran by. She quickly estimated the plant to be about 18 meters across, and it was low lying, most of the vines staying under a meter in height. Natural paths wound through the vines, looking like easy travel and the vines climbed up the wall of the cliff they were perched in by about six feet, but the opposite cliff face was bare of them.

"Plants always try to find ways to get their seeds to a good place to grow. From what I understand, the seeds of this plant are not like normal seeds. They are very fast at taking root, like within minutes once they are on the ground. The small plants are very sensitive. They either like where they are, or they die and fall apart in seconds. Tamper with them when they’re small and they immediately die. They only don’t die when they are big enough to defend themselves, and then you can’t dig them up."

She waved a finger around in the air. "Some plants use wind to spread their seeds, and some make fruit to be eaten by animals so the seeds are deposited elsewhere. Others make prickly seeds that stick to fur and annoy the animal until it gets the seed off itself somewhere else. The limited information I’ve been provided on this plant so far is that it uses animals to carry its seed-like little pods, and the pods are very small, so it can work with anything above about half a kilo. But it is very direct about getting the animal to carry the seeds, and has sufficient development of a neural-system-like behavior to have tuned this well in a manner to encourage creatures to carry the seeds."

"Direct how?" Sash asked.

"It didn’t say," she admitted. "That was part of the redacted information to get a fresh view. The plant has a complex electrosensory surface, so it can pick up nerves firing in animals. It also has a large number of other sensory parts."

She sat down crosslegged, thankful for the smooth and generally clean rock surface, and peered out across the plant. "It can pick up chemicals in the air, so I think that’s like smell in this case. It also has light level sensory cells and can detect pressure and temperature and vibrations and such, all connected and interlinked with a massive bulb underground."

"There’s tech over there," Sash said, pointing to a nook in the far wall where a shield was apparent.

"That should be where the stasis units are. It looks about fifteen feet from the closest plant, but I don’t see any ground route out of there that wouldn’t pass close to the plant. I’m gonna start looking and seeing what I see. Can we camp on this ledge tonight? In two days we need to check in at the base." She made a face. It was a closet more than a base.

"My info said it should be safe," Sash advised her. He was looking around thoroughly. "I don’t see any way for anything to get up here to you without going through the plant. I will scout outside and look for food." His whiskers twitched. "It smells like many, many creatures here, and something odd about it so scouting is important."

"Okay. Don’t be gone long please."

"No more than an hour," he assured her as he headed back into the dark crack behind them.

He’d been gone for no more than five minutes before she saw the first animal interaction with the plant, and it was educational to say the least. A commotion upstream in the ravine pulled her attention to a creature that was squeaking rapidly and furiously as it ran for its life. The thing being chased was perhaps ten to twelve kilos and the pursuer looked feline-like with huge ears, but young and inexperienced by its halting travel.

The prey ran up and skidded to a halt at the edge of the plant and the predator leaped at it, claws out. But the smaller creature doubled back under the larger predator and let the thing barrel into the plant, claws digging into some vines.

The reaction from the plant was swift and decisive. Vines whipped around the hapless creature and more were brought from the surrounding area. The hunter let out a blood curdling yowl of agony as a larger vine squeezed it like its body was nothing more than a soft snacky cake. The curl of the vine crushed the life out of the hunter in a moment and its cry didn’t repeat as vines pulled its head off in short order, further limbs following in similar detachment.

Laura watched in numb horror as the furred hunter was ripped and squeezed apart, the cracking of bones and squishy sounds apparent even from where she was. The vines drew the remains to the center mass and out of sight as vines in the area the creature had been crushed in began to writhe over bloodied areas of sand. The vines near the blood looked wet and dug through the sand, making it wet as well, and soon enough there was no blood and not even a drop of gore to be seen.

The whole event unfolded so quickly. One moment the young predator was hoping to get dinner, and within half a minute there was no sign of the ex-hunter, not even a smear on the ground. Even the vines in that area had calmed down and were laying quiescent again.

Had she not just seen that with her own eyes, there would be no way of even saying it’d just happened. She felt queasy after that. She knew the plants could be dangerous, but that was a level of violence and a ruthless efficiency that she’d not anticipated in the slightest. That made sense from the plant’s standpoint if the plant was a carnivore. Dead bodies were good nutrition for plants. But that didn’t get seeds out anywhere.

It was another fifteen minutes before she observed the second interaction. A hooved creature about the size of a deer bounded up and drew to a halt at the edge of the plant. It picked its way cautiously along a clear path, the vines nearby quivering as it did so, then nosed at a nearby vine.

Numerous vines immediately converged on the creature, touching at it gently from all sides. One poked it around its face and it pulled away, not wanting its eyes touched, but the vines shied away from its face after that. After several probing touches, numerous vines wrapped around the animal and lifted it off the ground. They were definitely strong. The vines tugged at its legs and it let the vines move them carefully, folding them slightly.

Laura had a hard time making out what was going on. Most of the movement was around the creature’s hindquarters but they were facing away from her. As she watched, the animal began to breathe heavily and snorted, then after a few minutes, its body shuddered and it made all kinds of odd faces. Most of the vines departed after that, with only a few remaining to carry the creature to the edge of the plant and set it safely on its feet in a clear space on the side it had come from. The creature nosed at the vines again and they parted along a straight path to the opposite side, allowing the animal to walk through and closing the way back to normal behind it.

"Didn’t hurt it at all, and the animal didn’t seem distressed, I don’t think," she muttered to herself. "I work with plants, not animals, so I can only guess. No good idea what that was all about though."

She didn’t have long to wait for a much better example.

A large creature that looked like a dog-sized hippo in shape trotted up from downstream. It turned its side to the plant and just flopped into the vines. The plant was not hurt by the weight, apparently, as it investigated and then curled around the animal, lifting it just slightly.

This time she had an excellent view though. The animal was female and the vine wasted no time in pushing a slick tendril into both holes at the tail end. The one in the anal hole was relatively small and stayed stationary, while numerous small and medium vines probed into the creature’s vaginal cavity, moving quite a lot from what she could see.

The animal lifted her head and huffed with low sounds as the plant treated her, and soon let out a loud, low rumble of a noise. At that, the plant pulled the tendril out of the creature’s ass and then the other tendrils in the vagina were extracted as well before the plant pushed the creature upright and freed it.

Even as that one was wandering away, another of the deer animals passed her and nosed at the vines on the edge. Vines surrounded it and drew it in, doing the probing and swiftly lifting it and folding its legs. With a view slightly behind and to the side, Laura could see that this one was male. Just like with the female round creature, a vine probed into this animals ass. This time it was joined by a few others in turn that came out clutching feces which was spirited away to the central mass of the plant while a new tendril probed into the cavity. At the same time, other vines were moving around its balls and in short order she could see its penis exposed, vines curled around it and rubbing it. The male was obviously enjoying this greatly.

A motion on the other side of the vines caught her attention. A more mature version of the cat-like predator that had been ripped to shreds before had been snagged by the vines and was being carried by them over to the deer thing. The predator didn’t seem to mind at all as it… she… was set down beside the deer and the vines curled around her waist to lift it to a better angle. Then the plant moved the male deer thing over her back, lined things up, and carefully inserted the male’s penis into the proper spot under the female’s tail.

Both animals were well-held by the vines and didn’t object to this treatment at all, though the male snorted and huffed, possibly because of the fact that he was being mated to a creature that would normally try to eat him. The female let out a chirp and her tail gave a wild shudder, then she huffed and started panting, prompting the plant to remove the male from her and start using vines on his anatomy again while other vines deposited the satisfied feline away from the plant.

The show wasn’t even over. Laura was so shocked by the goings on that she only noticed the raccoon-like creature when the vines pushed him against the rump of the deer thing. This was not a predator, and with his cock being stroked by the vines and the much smaller male humping his ass under the mandate of the plant, the deer soon made the same kind of facial expressions Laura saw on the other one, his cock bucking and his seed spraying onto the vines below. The raccoon followed suit swiftly, chittering and finally relaxing before the vines left his anus and pulled him off the deer. Both animals were deposited on the sides they’d approached from and went on their merry way, quite satisfied.

"What in the frozen void did I just see?" Laura whispered to herself. "Good god, some rich Japanese people would go nuts over this thing." She swallowed and gave a shimmy shake. It didn’t help that the whole scene was even a little arousing to her. "Right… science. Okay, if I had to guess, I think the plant is depositing one or more seeds into the creature’s anus. That would make sense. It would come out with feces somewhere else, possibly well away from here. Hmmm… but why not just deposit and release? Why the complex mating?"

She chewed on her lip a bit and considered, then blinked as she noted the female big-eared cat watching her from beyond the reach of the plant below. Then she realized: The first deer thing nosed the plant and the round creature just flopped into it. All these animals knew exactly what they were doing and what to expect. They were repeat visitors! She worked to set the features of the creatures in her mind so she could try to confirm this going forward. Hopefully see the same animals visit again.

If the animal didn’t like the results, it would avoid the plant afterward. These kept coming back for more, and probably taking seeds away with them each time. The plant trained them with positive rewards. It even somehow knew when they were satisfied. That would be possible from the bioreceptors.

Before Sash returned, she witnessed another few animals and then even a large group of medium-sized canine-like creatures that ended up in a very happy-sounding and happy-looking tentacle plant orgy with each other and a monkey-like male in the mix as well. From her observation, the plant was adept at identifying male and female, and preferred to put males in females when it could, and in males if not, and use vines if no holes were available. She even spotted one of the males in the big group who looked discomfited from just the vine slipping in under his tail. Despite one other male being attended by vines in the front, the plant didn’t try to put any males in him, though it did put him in a female when her hole was free. So the plant knew pain and comfort responses from the creatures too.

During a lull in the activity, a big weasel bounded up from upstream and looked around, staying well clear of the reach of the plant. Then it stood and waved at her and she realized it was Sash as he bounded back up the canyon. A few minutes later he came in from the other direction, waved again, and headed off. Then the female feline that had been there before took another happy go with the plant and sat aside to groom herself just before Sash came back in through the crack in the wall behind Laura.

"I have fruits for food for you," he said. "I ate as I went so everything I brought back is for you. Did not bring back things that are not tasty. This ravine is short, but it’s easier to see from up here. Safe and quick to go around if we need to though." He had two fruits in his hands, one that looked like a peach the size of a melon, and the other a multi-part blackberry-like thing the size of an apple.

He looked down the ravine and noted the feline. "I saw several of those. They didn’t make aggressive actions. The smell that I worry about is the smell of animals mating. Many animals are very territorial when mating and I don’t want them to decide to hunt for us to chase us out."

Laura stood up and stretched before accepting the fruit. "Thank you Sash," she said cheerily. "I know why it smells like that and I don’t think any territorial animals will chase us out." Then she noticed the wet spot on the rock where she’d been sitting and her face turned pink.

"You smell…" Sash started to say, then he followed her gaze. "Oh. You are. Is the scent affecting you? None of the notes on medical work on humans mentioned they were affected by other species’ pheromones. I might be able to find a plant that will help it not do that to you."

She dropped her head and sighed with a smile. "It’s not the smell, Sash. Ideas make humans do this too."

"Ideas?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, think about a female tzel flirting with you. Like she’s all happy about you, and smells aroused, and takes you to a nice place, and starts to rub your tummy… I don’t know the details of what tzel do, but it definitely involves your dick deep inside her and a lot of fine feelings for both of you. And see? That was just an idea in your head and you’ve got something peeking between your legs." She grinned triumphantly at the fact that she could have an effect on him like that. It made him much more relatable.

"Oh, ah, I see what you mean then. Yes. What was…?"

"How does it hide so well? I mean, you have fur, but not that much," she said, interrupting him.

"Er, what?"

"Your penis. Most of the time there’s no view of it at all."

"Oh. I have a sheath, like many animals and other species around do."

She opened her mouth and closed it again. Duh. Somehow with the past day, he’d been seeming more like just another person, and just another human. The revelation of a sheath left her brain smacking itself at such an obvious answer. "That makes sense," she said with a smile and a small blush, then took a big bite of the fruit so she could avoid saying more.

Sash sat on the side and looked thoughtful and slightly confused, poor cute tzel. Laura was halfway done with her fruit and already getting full when the next ‘victim’ of the plant headed in. It made her giggle inside to think of them a victims, but also made her sad. Helper. She’d call them helpers.

"You might get to see what I meant here soon," she said softly, setting the remaining fruit down and crawling to the edge on hands and knees to peek over it, sitting back on her heels and bent-back elbows to stay low as she watched.

The first animal was at a bad angle and she frumped, but soon enough more animals started to show up as the sun moved lower in the sky. It wasn’t long at all before about five species were represented and plant-assisted mating was going on amongst a dozen and a half participants. Several were set aside and quickly pushed back into the plant’s grip to get some more.

Laura spent a little time wondering why in the world this turned her on. She didn’t go looking for vids of animals mating or anything after all. She finally decided it was just because they all looked like they were having so much fun with it. She saw animals that were obviously predators and obvious prey as well but they were not fighting or hunting. She even noticed that some were mating on their own, outside the encouragement of the plant. What really floored her though was that these extracurricular activities were taking place with no regard for species, and often for gender, with males presenting to males of other species even and being taken up on the offer. One large herbivore tried to get too forward with a little thing that was far too small for him, but the smaller female just scooted out of the way with a chirp and the male went on to more accepting holes.

For several hours, creatures showed up and departed randomly, the mix of species changing with the time of day as well. Laura couldn’t keep track of all the details of what did what and when and where. It would be difficult to determine even with multiple vids of it. But she stayed and watched, enthralled, for the duration, nibbling on the nearby fruit when it was time to eat. It was also interesting that numerous animals noticed their presence, and some querying calls and strutting were presented in their direction. The curious creatures had their interest taken elsewhere eventually and in the end, it was twilight and the vine laid still with all the animals having departed, happy.

"I see what you mean about the thoughts, now," Sash murmured from beside her.

"Yeah. Um… I’m going to go find a place to do my thing," she said. That took some blushing explanation before he understood that she wanted to go to the toilet. Sash helped her down from the ledge on the outer wall and showed her a deep crack in the rock that other people had used. There was even a roll of toilet paper and a nearby trickle of running water that she could use, which made things much better. She assured him that she could get back up the ledge herself and she’d scream loudly if anything went wrong and sent him on his way with a promise that she’d be back soon. The work was indeed quite fast, much more than even on the ship, and her approach startled the tzel as he had his back to the entry to their perch.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, yes. Was just going to take care of my arousal while you were gone."

"Take care of it? Why hide from me?"

"Rub," he said. "You didn’t like the varcs doing things about mating. Not want sad." He was worried enough that he was losing words.

"Ooooh," she said, then she walked up behind him and hugged him. "You don’t have to hide that from me. You’re not trying to get it in me or thinking of me as just a great hole to be in like they were. Trust me, I know how you feel too. I was almost dripping watching all that."

"Not sad? Want happy…" He took a deep breath and concentrated. "I don’t want to upset you. Are you sure?"

She rubbed her face against the soft fur on the back of his neck and had a daring thought. "You’re not the only one who’s aroused, silly. I’m sure. I’ll even rub myself to help myself, to prove that it’s okay. Go ahead, turn around, get comfortable and get the edge off."

She backed away and headed to the corner, sitting and leaning back against the wall as he slowly turned around. By the time he was brave enough to look, she was relaxed with her finger in her slit and her eyes half closed as she wished for a toy to help.

His ears laid to the side at first, but then they perked forward and he turned his lower half around as well, reaching down with both paws to rub himself as he watched her, making sure she didn’t get upset. Finally he was confident enough and bent over to take his flesh in his maw, finishing himself off swiftly with a happy little sound.

His actions had her attention the whole time. He was being so courteous and worried for her despite his raging erection and obvious needs. When he bent double, her eyes widened and she plunged her fingers into her depths, muffling a moan and then barely squelching a squeak as his pleased sounds and her fingers brought the human her own relief.

"You’re very flexible," she murmured.

"It’s, ah, better than making a slippery spot on the rock," he said, his ears going into embarrassed places.

She giggled merrily. "Yeah, I guess so. I’m lucky that my stuff is inside," she said, blushing in the dim light. "Let’s get some sleep. The sun is up earlier than we normally are and there’s nothing I can see in the dark." She was silent for a moment, then, "Would you keep me warm please?"

The rock was not comfortable to sleep on and in the end she ended up curled into a ball on top of him curled into a ball with his tail over her. It was not too cold, so this made everything work well.

"I’ve counted seventeen unique animal species so far," she said the next evening. They had quickly checked in at the base around noon and she got more information. "There are a wide variety of individuals, and I’m not good at recognizing specifics, but I do know there’s a number of regulars. The plant is definitely depositing a part of something in their anuses. It always finds the holes with one set of tendrils and then has a small, different one that it pushes in there. Looked like it had a small bulb on the end going in, but not when it’s withdrawn." She was reciting her things so she’d have them down in memory. "They didn’t tell me until today that they used lab animals to confirm it’s a seed pod that is inert while it’s inside and then becomes active when it’s expelled. No damage to the animals at all unless they reacted poorly."

There’d been one more violent incident when a fezzert was released from stasis. The rodent-like creature objected to the prodding and grabby plant and bit it. The results were just as messy and quick as the first time she’d seen it happen, and they agreed not to think about that too much.

"You can see the opening in the rock over there. The female and also at least two males of the big-eared creatures appear to live there," Sash had pointed out. The males came back with hunted food several times early in the day. She was intrigued to note that the catches didn’t appear to be any of the species of animals that she’d seen with the vines.

Even with dusk approaching, another hooved herbivore visited the vines and one of the male felines joined in to help out doing her. Laura kept her voice quiet as she spoke her notes, but the cats still paid more attention to them up on the ledge throughout the day and called in their direction several times.

The tzel licked his fingers to clean off the juice of the fruit he’d just eaten and perked his ears. "You have a good eye for details," he said, scooting over to his side and bending to take his still-hard flesh in his mouth.

"Hey, stop that," she exclaimed, distracted by the sight. She snapped at him worse than she intended, and he immediately went sad-eared and wilted, making her feel awful about it. The notes weren’t that important. She’d remember.

"Come over here," she said softly, patting the ground beside her. "Lay on your back."

He dropped to all fours and padded over, his ears and whiskers still worried. He rolled onto his back, watching her, unsure what she was up to.

Before she could change her mind, she reached out and gently grabbed his cock. It was slick and very warm and soft. He jumped in surprise and opened his mouth, but didn’t get a word out as she bent down and took the tip in her mouth, then slipped it further in.

It tasted interesting, just a little salty and slightly sweet, not bad. It had little frills down half an inch from the tapered tip that she caught behind with her lips, swirling her tongue around as she rubbed the rest with her curled fingers. The squeak and moan of surprise that she got from him was utterly adorable.

Her fingers curled into the fur on his tummy and she slipped that hand across and down to rub around the base where his skin vanished into his sheath. Sure enough she found two warm lumps just below the area, so she rubbed them gently as she suckled on him, listening to his cute noises.

He was pawing gently at her head and soon with more urgency before she realized he was uttering short phrases in his own language.

She let go of his tip and gave a tight rub with her fingers as she lifted her head to peek at him and ask, "What?" At that instant, she felt the lumps under one hand shift in a quick motion toward the base of his cock and his shaft twitched and pulsed in the other hand and he let out a relieved chirp as he let loose spurts of his warm, thick cum, splashing onto his belly fur.

He chittered a few more things in his language and then huffed. "I was trying to warn you that I was going to do that," he said softly. "Not sure if you’d want that in your mouth."

She was feeling all happy with her success and peered at him with a huge grin. "You’re so considerate!" she exclaimed gleefully, then pouted. "I’m sorry I got it on your clean fur. But isn’t that so much better than just taking care of yourself?"

"It was, yes." He took a breath. "Thank you, that was very nice." His ears twisted about and then laid to the sides. "Would you like me to help rub you in return?" he asked, holding a hand up and wiggling his fuzzy fingers.

She pursed her lips and caught his hand, hugging it to her chest. "I’m okay," she lied. "I was so busy paying attention to details today that I didn’t get very aroused." She was actually not keen on the idea of his claws near sensitive spots, now that she could feel them pricking her skin.

"Oh, well, you smell like you did, so I thought it would be nice to offer," he explained with his whiskers laid back. "My fur is fine. I’ll take care of it." He sat himself up and curled over to lick the goo off his belly, then groom his fur and slightly-messy flesh before it hid back down in his sheath.

"I probably still smell like that from yesterday. I can’t wash here," she observed. "Some animals were showing up in the early dawn yesterday before we woke up. It seems to clear out before dark and start just as the sky is getting light. Let’s go drop our waste and sleep so we can be up easily." That was the term they’d decided was best for her to not feel odd saying it.

That night, she curled her fingers into his fur and laid very still but still awake. He was here to protect her, and thankfully nothing seemed to be very dangerous so far. He’d guided her and foraged and done well regardless. He was very thoughtful and smart, and he was definitely much better than the varcs. Without her toys, her mind was wandering more than she liked and her focus was drifting from the work. She had some ideas about things, but a promise to herself that her first time had to be with a good man even if it wasn’t the guy she might eventually settle with. So she drifted to sleep finally with waves of thoughts and ideas and desires and promises all battering her in different directions. The vivid dreams about all the creatures enjoying themselves didn’t help either.

The third and fourth days brought new sets of animals to the vines. Three species that she hadn’t seen before, two in groups and one type that came in solo. By her count, there were twice as many animals overall in the day. Many didn’t even do anything in the vines, and some only went into the vines once or twice to be carried to the other side once they were done. There was a lot of mating going on in the open space around the plant, with a few individuals sticking to their own species, but most of the creatures mingling freely as sizes and body types allowed. The hippo-like creatures stuck to the vines exclusively and only stopped after they’d been paired with one of their own species. Laura mused that maybe they were no longer able to mate on their own with their odd body shapes.

They also headed back to the base the fourth day and she spent half an hour studying the next section of data while he gathered food for them to eat. If he noticed the introspective change in her demeanor as they returned to the observation ledge, he didn’t give any sign.

"How do tzel mate?" Laura asked curiously as she ate her fruit.

"Like… any others? The male puts his penis in…"

"I mean like what positions? Face to face? Hanging upside down? I mean, if a female wanted to get your attention and say she wanted to mate, what would she do? Push you on your back and climb onto your lap to slide it in?"

Sash gave a chirp of a surprised laugh. "Oh, well, we do many positions, like a lot of races do. Sometimes licking, sometimes face to face. I don’t have much of a lap though," he pointed out candidly.

She took a bite of fruit as her loins demanded she ask and her mind was incredulous at the idea of doing so, but finally she swallowed and tilted her head. "Well, what would a tzel do physically for like a ‘mate me now’ thing? Like something that would get a male tzel to do it a heartbeat?"

"That would be legs back and spread with hips up," he said. "It’s the only thing that position means, no matter who gets in it. Males, females, show off like that with your tail to the side and they’ll get mated really quick, even many times. Something about that position strikes a chord with male tzel."

"Males do it too?" she asked, surprised.

"Many do," he agreed, eating the last bite of his fruit. He chewed and swallowed quickly. "It’s not for kits of course. Just for fun," he qualified.

She giggled. "That’s obvious. Males can’t have kits."

"Oh, neither do females in that position," he clarified. "It moves her insides in a way that blocks and expels the semen. Back in early learning, they taught us that it came from the old days. Females always had the say over males. Show off like that to tire out an unsuitable male and enjoy it anyway. He’s satisfied, she’s satisfied, and when he sleeps, she can lay on her back for the male she wants kits from. And that male might show himself to other males while he mates the female. Then he would get twice the fun and also keep the other males satisfied so they wouldn’t try to take his place and have his kits though she chose him."

"Wow," she murmured. "I take it that doesn’t happen as much anymore?"

"Only for fun now. Sometimes a prank," he admitted, his ears going embarrassed. "The sight makes it so hard to resist, maybe impossible, so fake rears are a popular gag item as long as you can set them up from the front of them and not get drawn in yourself. But that’s also why only female tzel are in politics. Could you imagine somebody doing that position to a male tzel during an important meeting? The only thing that can override that is being protective. Which is why we males are such good bodyguards. We are so protective that even rumpups can’t keep us from protecting."

"Even more wow," she said, astonished. She’d never learned so much about other species before. She took her own last bite and chewed slowly, thinking, then probed. "Amazing the power of a tail to the side. Tails must be wonderful things."

"It’s not the tail itself, just having the tail out of the way and showing off the nice place to be," he corrected.

"And the right position," she pointed out.

"Well, yes, the right position too."

"There’re no other male tzel here, so show me," she said happily.

"What? Why?"

"Why not?"

His ears twitched in thought but he couldn’t argue with that. So he turned around on all fours, then stretched his legs out backwards, resting on his stifles - his knees with the leg shape he had - and lifting his hips up as he settled his front half on his chest.

"Tail too," she said cheekily. His ears went to the side for a moment, but then they perked and he obliged. She wasn’t a male tzel, but she had to admit that it did look kind of sexy. "I can see why that would work," she murmured. "Such a fluffy rump and sooooo doable." She reached out with her hands and squeezed into the plush, soft fur on his bottom.

His reaction was instant and surprising. His rear lifted more rigidly and he chirped and said something in his own tongue at the same time as his front relaxed and much more than his tip quickly slipped from his sheath.

"Oh, you like this!" she exclaimed, squeezing and kneading at the fur. She couldn’t tell if he was praising or cursing her in his language until he finally crossed his arms over his face and gave a little whine. So she stopped.

It took a few seconds before he finally started to relax, panting. He peered over his shoulder at her, his ears unsure which way to be. "Yes. So attention to the rear in that position is also a very exciting thing to any tzel. An odd twist for us to be sure." He finally got his composure enough to pull his legs up and stand on all fours again.

"I’m sorry," she said sullenly, sitting back. "I didn’t mean to upset you."

He padded around and nuzzled her, then pulled her into a hug. "You didn’t upset me. You just really, really aroused me. The position is a mate me now offer, and when it’s taken up, it’s really a strong need to continue." He gave her cheek a lick, leaving it slightly damp. "It was just really surprising and got my attention, not bad," he reassured her.

"Got their attention too," she pointed out, gesturing down at where the two males and female of the big-eared cats were sitting at the very edge of the vine’s space and calling up at them again. When the cats noticed the attention, they started pacing as well. "They’ve been paying more attention to us today than yesterday. We should be quieter to not interrupt the natural way things work here."

She backed them away from the edge and got him to lay on his tummy, and soon enough the felines stopped calling. She gave it more time before crawling to the edge on her tummy and peeking. The cats were once again frolicking with various other animals.

A quiet day of watching and remembering and squirming slowly transformed the letter ‘n’ into ‘le’ in Laura’s mind. She was quiet as she ate dinner with him and his ears were following her every move. She was pretty sure he knew she had something on her mind.

Her last bite was before his and she licked the fruit juices off her fingers, then peeked at him coyly in the fading light, building up her courage. "I was thinking about rubbing you again today, because you really enjoyed it yesterday," she said. "But yeah, I’m also pretty pent up today too."

"I can still rub you too if you like," he said softly.

"I thought about that, but I realized that’d make a mess on your fur again. I felt sad about messing up your beautiful fur."

"It didn’t mess it up. It’s okay," he reassured her before popping the last piece of his fruit into his maw.

"Yeah, well, like I said the first day, I’m all inside, so I kind of have an advantage. So I figured why bother with hands? If you’re inside too, you share the advantage."

He gulped down his bite of fruit in surprise and his ears shot forward, vibrating rapidly. "Inside? You mean, you?" One of his ears tilted halfway to the side and she could see him having doubts despite the fact that his shaft gave an excited twitch both when his ears perked and when he stated the idea out loud. "Are you sure?" he asked, voice quivering with anticipation.

"Very sure," she said softly, shooting him a tiny smile before dropping her gaze and taking a deep breath. It was now or never, she thought.

"Very, very sure," she reiterated, shifting to face the side of the ledge and turning over to lay on her belly with her feet toward him. Even without seeing, she knew his eyes were locked on her as she spread her legs and rocked slightly to move her knees forward just enough. There was a rush of adrenaline, and then she committed, lifting her rear and tilting her hips up just like he’d done.

Once again she had no idea what he was saying or how he was saying it in his language, but he moved quick as a darting weasel and in an instant his feet were tucked beneath her thighs and his shanks supported her hips, lifting them to a better angle. They were a warm contrast to the cold stone against her front.

She was just starting to be delightfully distracted by the sudden press of his warm, soft tzel against her back when his hands caught her waist, just at her hips. He said something in an urgent and happy chitter just beside her ear, and then his actions were utterly true to his word from before.

Without an iota of will to resist, his hunched hips let him find his mark. His tip slid between her soft folds and he made an excited sound as he nuzzled under her hair at the back of her neck, then chirrrrred and pressed rapidly and needily into her depths. He stopped only when his silky fur was pressed tightly against her own red hair down below.

Her eyes went wide. He was warm when he was curled against her, but deliciously hot inside. Nuzzles turned to rapid, soft licks as he rocked back and then drove himself home again, the fringes on his shaft just as exciting in use as they looked from afar. With his shanks under her thighs and his firm grip on her hips, she was able to relax, her attention pulled away from the chill of the rock to focus on the fire he ignited in her belly.

There was almost a disconnect between the caring grooming and warm body atop her, and the frantic thrusting of his haunches to drive him into her. He was finally starting to get some common words intermixed with his own language and between chirps and trills, she heard little phrases like "not fair" and "good". It brought her a tiny gleeful feeling that she was able to get his attention so well and that even though he might consider her cheating and using his instinct against him, he was very much enjoying himself too.

It was a wild, delightful ride and she was so close when his hands clenched and he pushed himself fully into her. A squeak and a groan escaped his muzzle as he hooked his chin over her shoulder and his flesh suddenly throbbed in her velvety passage as he showed how much he enjoyed spending this moment with her. Her promise of keeping the mess inside was fulfilled, though with how wet she was he wouldn’t escape with clean fur anyway.

Laura bit her lip and ground her hips against him as he bucked and twitched in her depths. So close. This was okay though, she did kind of pull the nuclear option on him. She drew in a deep breath as he rubbed his cheek against hers and moved his head to her other shoulder. Then he just started thrusting frantically again. Half out at first before he was back to full length, still uttering absolutely adorable sounds and small phrases in his language.

The renewed action drove her building tension and she clenched her eyes shut, seeing sparks and flashes behind her eyelids that paled before the explosive sensation below. He was warmer, softer, and so much better than any toy. The rush of feeling that radiated from her belly through her whole being was astoundingly powerful. So was her pulsing squeeze, catching Sash by surprise and making him coo and pull her fully against him again to join her with his own second peak.

Even that was not done for him though and within seconds he was thrusting into her depths again. Her promise of keeping the mess inside was swiftly shifting to a lie with all the activity but she was not concerned. After such a rush, she wasn’t coming down too much from the high point, quickly making little squeaky noises similar to her lover’s as his flesh assaulted her sensitive body.

His fourth go brought her to another mind-shattering orgasm and he joined her once more in that, chirping and voicing little whines. She was absolutely thrilled with her decision and loving every moment of the motion from her notion. While he didn’t take as long to finish, he was happy to keep going and she was always pretty close to pop on his second go. Even better, each second time was quicker to pull him over the edge. Her squeezes made it impossible for him to hold back.

Then he started up again with a whimper and she had the realization that he meant it literally when he’d said it drives male tzel to mate until exhausted. She was already exhausted herself and he was doing most of the work. Unlike a toy, he didn’t have an off button and she didn’t want either of them uncomfortable. Finally she figured that he said it was the position. She gathered her willpower and pulled her hips down, tilting them away until he slipped out.

Without the right angle, he finally broke out of his frenzy, his hands leaving her hips and sliding around her waist. Then he tugged and rolled toward the back wall of the ledge, pulling her onto himself and panting rapidly as he moved to cling to her atop his front. She was tingly all over and sweating despite the chill evening air, but it was quite worth it to her.

After a moment, he carefully set her off himself and got up, retreating to the far side of the ledge with his back to her. It was difficult to see in the dark but his ears looked completely flat and he was muttering quietly and rapidly in his language, both of which worried her. Finally he took a deep breath.

"I’m sorry," he murmured. She was surprised that even with the verbal communication differences, she was able to catch the undertone and body language with its deeper meaning. He was not just sorry for what he felt was an infraction towards her, he was also expressing that he felt an abuse of trust from her.

"I apologize," she said. "You don’t have anything to apologize for. I took advantage of your instincts and made you do the thing. You didn’t hurt me, and all of this was my fault completely." She took a deep breath. "I absolutely loved all of it and the only thing I regret is that I upset you. It was wrong of me to do that to you, to use you like that. I was so hoping it would be something we both liked and had fun with." Then in a small voice, "It was my first time with another person and I messed it all up. You’re so wonderful. You don’t deserve to have your body dragged about like a toy."

Sash was silent for a long moment and his ears were working overtime with their movements. "I was," he said, nearly inaudibly, then he swallowed and spoke more loudly. "I was fighting with myself over how to apologize. I felt sad that I was forced to do it, but I thought it happened because you didn’t believe me about the reaction, or maybe you were going to berate me or tease me. I worried I’d hurt you, or anger you, or be dismissed as a lesser person for my natural inability to resist."

He turned around, front end leading before his back end followed him over to her, and he sat up on his haunches, bent over to be down at her seated face level. "Your words reassured me. You weren’t doing it to be mean. You did it because you really wanted to, even if you maybe didn’t truly realize the result." He wrung his paws together as he spoke. "That was my first time with a female too. You liked it?" he asked hopefully.

She was brightening as she gained understanding through his words and she threw her arms around him and hugged his barrel so tightly he squeaked in surprise. "I absolutely loved it," she murmured, burying her face in his fur. "I mean, I’m still sorry if you were waiting for a proper female to stay with and have kits with. I obviously can’t have kits, and I know we have to go our separate ways when this is over, so it’s probably not very long term."

His fuzzy paws patted at her bare back. "This is fine," he assured her. "Males impress females to accept them for kits by having a lot of experience and stamina. Males don’t usually present unless they intend to humiliate their target. Most feel it would be silly to give somebody else practice for catching the eye of a mate. I’m always too shy and kind to ask other species to help, especially since i have so little experience. I don’t even regret helping some of my younger time friends. I had fun even though they never helped me in return."

He nuzzled the back of her neck. "If you’re happy, I’m happy," he murmured. "You will do your thing, I will do mine, and we know we had this wonderful moment together. If we have more, it will be more fun for us, and if we don’t, that’s okay, right?"

Laura mmmm-hmmmed into his fur. "I promised myself long ago that my first time had to be with a perfect male, and then I would be ready for whatever else I did." The word ‘man’ was gone from her memory of the promise and good riddance. "I’m so glad I found one. We’ll both get plenty more practice too," she said, pulling her face away from him and looking thoughtful.

"Oh?" he asked curiously. She could tell without seeing that his ears perked in anticipation.

"Yup. Besides the fact that I really, reeeeally want to do that more with you," she purred, rubbing his back just above his tail and making him chirr in response, "my new instructions were unlocked today. We’re to manually test the vines here ourselves and see how the other animals respond to us as well. It’s going to be a very involved study for the rest of our time here."

She pushed him gently onto his side and climbed on top of him with a yawn as he digested the new information and by the time it all managed to filter into his stunned mind, she was sleeping adorably from her delighted exhaustion. She’d hear his response in the morning, and now that she’d had her perfect male, she was ready and anticipating the next stage of the study.

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