The Photographers Apprentice - Chapter one: The Big Day.
#1 of Photographers Apprentice.
_ Prologue: This is the first chapter in a series that I am starting to write called the Photographers Apprentice. The series is based partially on real life events that have happened to me in the last few days, but I'll leave it up to your imagination as to which parts are fictional. Without further interruption, I hope you enjoy the first chapter, the second will be posted up within the next 48 hours._
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Chapter One: The Big Day
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I looked up at the handsome Blue eyed figure standing above me, and then back down at the glistening cock tip that was now just inches from my muzzle. The sweet aroma of our entangled scents filled up the tiny storage room that we had crammed ourselves into. Gingerly, I poked my tongue out, eagerly hoping that his cock tasted at least half as good as it looked. Closer, and closer he edged. I wrapped my paw around him and clasped his soft butt cheek as I pulled him closer to my muzzle until - "...overcast with a moderate chance of rain in the South West, with Sunny Spells starting to appear just after Lunchti-"
"Arrrrghhhh!!!" I moaned sleepily, slamming my paw down upon the snooze button of my alarm as I squeezed my eyelids open to greet the daylight streaming in through the window in my roof. "It always goes off just when I'm getting to the good part!" I said to myself as I rolled over in bed, my brain quickly kick-starting into gear as I realized what today was. Today was the day I would get the grades back for my end of term project - the second biggest project in the whole duration of my photography course. It was a very important day indeed.
Springing out of bed, I hurried into the bathroom and jumped into the shower, soaking my White fur with warm water. Like most teenagers, the shower was a place that I could reflect on life; a place that I could think clearly and put things into perspective. Of course there were other things that I would do in the shower most mornings, but I'm sure you don't want to hear about my stress relief methods!
After 15 minutes of "thinking", I stepped out of the shower and shook myself off, spraying water droplets all over the bathroom and full length mirror. I loved to shake myself off like a wild animal, it made me feel, well - wild! After all, I was a Wolf. I have to let the wild side of me come out sometimes, or it just drives me crazy. Plus I loved looking at myself in the mirror; I'm pretty vain when it comes to my personal appearance.
I stared at my reflection; I was in decent shape, not the most athletic but I still had a nice flat stomach. I wasn't scrawny for someone who spends most of their time in the darkroom and working hard, and I never really participated much in sports. I guess I was partially nocturnal to say the least, sure I did like the sunlight, but I just felt at home in a darkroom most days, it's where my passion lies.
I watched as my White fur glistened in the sunlight streaming through the skylight window in the ceiling of my bathroom whilst into the deep Blue eyes of my reflection. Moving closer I pushed myself up against the glass mirror and imagined that it was another Wolf. I let out a shudder as my sheath slipped over the surface of the cold glass, but quickly turned my back on myself before I became too aroused. In all honestly - I longed for a mate, it had been quite some time since I had split up with my previous partner; a female Jackal, and hence come out as Gay. But I had been wrapped up in studying to really have the time to look for a mate.
Grabbing a towel I dried off the rest of my fur and started to get dressed. I decided I would dress pretty smartly today, considering people would actually be seeing me, as opposed to being stuck in a dark and dingy darkroom all day with those putrid smelling chemicals. Pulling some beige shorts on, I then buttoned up a light blue short sleeved shirt which I had been told "compliments my eyes" by one of the guys in the other groups.
Having just enough time to grab an apple on my way out of the door I proceeded to walk out of my house and down the road, stopping just two houses later to call at my friends' door, who conveniently lived in the same estate as me, where the majority of the students lived - as it was only a short walk away from Campus.
Hearing the thumping sound of feet thundering down the stairs, the door opened to an out of breath Otter. Panting, she gasped the words, "Morning, Arthur!" to me as she shut the door behind her and hurried me along the path.
"Whoa! Calm down Sara!" Looking at my watch, it was evident we was going to be a little bit late. "Th-the results! It's today! Remember!? They're handing them to us at 10:00 AM!" She said loudly to me as she took long strides across the pavement, her brown tail waving from side to side madly, not even turning her head to look at me with a look of sheer determination in her eyes.
"Well it's only 9:45, we still have fifteen minutes before we need to get there. "So, what's new with you?" I asked the strong-minded Otter, "Don't talk, just walk!" she screeched, yanking my paw as she pulled me across the dew laden grass whilst we hurried across the field, our University just starting to appear over the hill in the horizon.
On our arrival at the University we were each greeted with a large brown envelope, which simply said our name across the front, 'Arthur Arugal' mine read. I watched students around me tearing their envelopes open in anticipation. Some burst out crying, be it for joy or out of disappointment. Some jumped in the air, pumping their fists up in celebration. Some simply walked away silently. There was even a Red-Tailed Hawk, acting like a maniac, doing a Moonwalk backwards along the length of the foyer.
Feeling a lump start to form in my stomach as heavy as a lead weight, I turned the envelope over and slid my claw into one end, pulling it along I heard a faint ripping sound as I tore the envelope open.
"YEAH!!!! WOOHOOO!!!!" I heard Sara shout in triumph behind me - obviously very pleased with her grade. This only added to the anticipation. Gulping, I nervously whispered "Here it goes then..." to myself as I slid the piece of paper out and unfolded it, my eyes skipping the briefing part and focussing into the most important bit - my grade.
To my surprise, I had passed. With flying colours actually! I had got a rather decent grade, and was very satisfied. All those hours spent in the dark processing films had finally paid off! Modestly I simply smiled, looked over at Sara and nodded as we both walked off to the Student Union Bar a few hundred yards away from campus.
The bar was full up for the time of day that it was, and we struggled to find a place to sit after we had gotten our drinks. I had gone for my usual celebratory number, a Blue Lagoon cocktail with a mini umbrella sticking out the top and various fruits of different colours skewered around the stirrer and glass rim.
"It's a good job people know you're gay now, Arthur. I'm not sure walking around with that thing in a place like this would exactly get you the right sort of attention!"Sara said, indicating to the glass which looked as if it had just come straight from Hawaii, I laughed as I took a sip of my elaborate drink. It did feel good to be out of the closet now, for a start - I could drink Blue Lagoon cocktails in Public and not have people stare at me! I'm usually not the kind of flamboyant gay, but gosh I did like my Blue Lagoons!
We sat down at a small booth literally behind the door and begun to discuss the previous two years, the good times and bad times, to feeling sorry for all the people who had failed and now had to re-sit the entire unit in just a month. It didn't seem like we was a minority, the bar was equally packed with furs celebrating and furs drowning their sorrows.
Looking around I spotted one fur in particular, a Racoon named Todd. It was odd to see him in the bar looking so depressed, considering he was in stage two of the course and us furs who had our grades back today were in the final stage. "What do you think he's doing in here?" I asked Sara, motioning over at Todd who was slumped on a bar stool looking rather miserable with a drink in his paw, clearly oblivious to the commotion that was going on around him.
"Hmmm, I'm not sure, isn't he in stage two?" She replied, "Yeah he is, strange, very strange indeed." I pondered, scratching my chin. I had a little crush on him in all honesty. He was very attractive, although a little smaller than me - obviously, being a Racoon - in pretty good shape and with a very fashionable dress sense. He also had the most charming smile, and a butt to die for!
On top of that he was actually a really nice guy, very hard working and he always seemed to brighten my day up by some of the things he would say to me some days. In fact he was the fur who had commented on my shirt and said that it "complimented my eyes". I felt quite sorry for the little guy, sitting there all on his lonesome.
"I'm going to go and see what's up with him; he always cheered me up in the past when I had been having bad days, guess it's my turn now." I said as I stood up, "Ok but don't leave me here alone for too long! I get bored easily!" she said, "All females do!" I called back, giving her a sarcastic look.
Luckily as I approached the bar, the bar stool next to Todd became unoccupied, so I pulled it out and sat down. Not noticing me he continued to stare into space with a blank look on his face. "Need a drinking buddy?" I tapped him on the shoulder and smiled. He turned around and attempted to muster up a smile, but still his depression got the better of him as it turned into a sigh. "Oh, hey Arthur. You've caught me at a bad time really... Um, I'm guessing your grades were good am I right?" "Yeah I'm happy with them, but what's gotten you so upset? You've not got your grades back today, so what's the matter?" I asked him, as I took my paw off his shoulder and waited for his response.
Sighing again, he drearily replied "Well, we have 5 weeks left until the end of semester, and the end of a 15 week project you see. Today I went to some botanical gardens just out of town to take some shots, to finalize everything and then planned to spend the next 5 weeks processing all my film."
"Go on" I said as he took a long sip of his drink, and continued "Well, on the bus home I must have left my bag open because when I stood up to get off the bus, literally all of my work fell on the floor. Most of my finished film roll cartridges spilled out onto the floor, which completely fucked them from being exposed to sunlight, as you probably know." Wow, that was pretty heavy actually; he had good reason to be pissed off.
"Holy crap, that really sucks..." I tried to calm him by putting a comforting paw on his shoulder again. "I know, and to top it off, my camera fell on the floor too and completely busted, which also had the film that I took from the botanical gardens in it, which also got fucked!" He put an angry emphasis on the word "fucked" as he slammed his bottle down on the bar, causing some furs to turn their heads in our direction. It looked like he was trying to bite back some tears, the poor thing.
"Oh gosh... That's not good." It wasn't any consolation, but I honestly couldn't think of anything to say that would possibly comfort him, if anything I felt guilty for having received such good results, and there was him after putting all his hard work in, with literally nothing to show for it. "Look, I really don't mean to be rude to you Arthur but I just want to be on my own tonight, I'm a little too angry to hold decent and rational conversations. No offence." He said bluntly, staring into blank space in front of him.
Gently squeezing his shoulder I said, "Ok, I understand. We're just over there though if you change your mind." I motioned back over at Sara, who was waving franticly and mouthing the words "Hurry up!" to me. Todd was non-responsive; I figured I should just leave him to it.
Sitting back down at the booth with Sara I told her all about what Todd had been through today, and she seemed sympathetic, but as always wanted to go out to party and celebrate; I didn't blame her really. Deciding to go to a local nightclub we headed out of the bar. I glimpsed back and saw Todd, still slumped on his barstool with his head in his paws, many of the furs around him not really seeming to care too much about his obvious disdain. I did feel so sorry for him, try as I may I couldn't help but feel guilty about going out and having fun.
"You know what; I think I'm going to skip this nightclub, Sara. I've got a little bit of a headache from all the commotion." I lied. "Aww, ok then hun. Well, um...I guess I can catch up with Louisa and the rest of the gals! You go and get some rest and we'll celebrate some other time, ok?" She reassured me. Smiling, I said "Ok, don't party too hard, because I don't want to have to be round your house at 1:00 am holding your hair back whilst you puke down the toilet, again!" We both laughed as I turned around and walked off into the night, briefly looking back in at Todd as I passed by the entrance to the bar again.
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