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Lichen longed. What for eluded him--he did not know what else to describe the fleeting feeling. The tug in his chest to turn away, to leave. To look out over the trees to the westward mountains and imagine what existed behind them. The spotted hyena did not understand it. Sometimes, on slow days when chores were few and his busy-body sisters took to them, he retreated up into the trees of his home. His legs dangling from the branches. He watched the sun set around the three peaks in the distance arranged like a row of teeth. Three lone mountains the gods plumbed out of the earth. Not a range like the mountains farther east, out of sight of Lichen's family's farm. They just existed, and something called inside Lichen.

He never understood it. He never told his sisters or mother or father about the longing, either. Lichen held it like a cherished secret. Something that made him different. Wild fantasies that made him feel like he meant something in this world.

The mountains were called World's Wound. They were considered cursed. He did not know what by or by who. But in the nearby settlement their farm fed, it was widely believed people only traveled to the Wound to die. That it led to the afterlife.

Lichen wondered sometimes if what he wanted was to die. From the trees at the edge of the farm was the family graveyard: six mounds tucked all in a row. His uncle, his aunt, two cousins, and of course his older twin brothers.

That was just the way the Earth worked. Old as memory: sometimes it lashed out and took others. If they disturbed the land too much with their farm the Earth retaliated. Either by lashing out psychically (how Lichen's uncle died, dropping dead in the field, eyes bleeding) or sending a swarm of humming-hornets down on their farm (how Lichen's brothers died, screaming and chased down while Lichen watched from inside their locked farmhouse).

Lichen also knew not to mention his longing because it likely would send his parents into a panicking spiral. It was likely the Earth stirring this feeling in his chest. Everyone felt its psychic presence--its maelstroms of anger and grief for some wrong done to it that no one remembered. Most times, for most people, it existed as a low hum in the back of their skull. Sometimes, people who described the feeling Lichen had would wander off at night and never be seen from again. Lichen also knew not to mention his longing because it likely would send his parents into the settlement to buy a restraint collar to keep their son from leaving their farm.

Their farm was a set of small, shallow ponds of pearl-colored water they seeded with squirrel-shaped fish, bushy tail curled like a shrimp's when they were harvested and killed. They called them bush shrimp. It was Lichen's whole world. All they did was make food for themselves and others. Others who traveled to ruined cities in caravans, others ran churches and temples, others who were mercenary killers, gearheads, techies, supposed psychics--all sorts of things. They all depended on Lichen's family to live, but no one wanted to live like Lichen's family. Lichen did not want to live like this, either.

The World Wound called to him. He watched it every sunset, telling no one of the calling--knowing one day it would not be a call but siren song. That this stirring in him would take the young hyena.

***

In this frail world things came sudden and unfair. When raiders attacked their farm, Lichen had been up in the trees at the other end of the property. He saw his eldest sister shot dead in the middle of the field--her body falling backwards into one of small pools where the bush shrimp spawned. A band of human-only raiders spilled into the field. They all heard stories of these supremacists, and Lichen knew his family dead.

Something broke in the boy. The hyena leapt out of the trees and sprinted west. He headed that way because it was the opposite direction of the raiders, but even after Lichen no longer heard the crack of guns splitting the air, he still moved. With nothing, he caved to the longing. To the feeling in his chest that told him to seek the Wound. The low hum of their planet became an encroaching psychic urging. An inability to turn away or rest.

Lichen walked for four days without rest or water. All pain or weakness dulled in his body. Like the slender hyena knew to cannibalize every part of itself to carry this mass of flesh and fur westward. When he reached the foot of the mountain he finally collapsed. Lichen did not even remember dying--he simply knew his body finally failed him.

A long, slumbering darkness. Then a sense--a scent. Fur and tree bark. It reminded Lichen of his only rendezvous with a boy in the forest: teeth that nibbled his neck, bark rubbing against his back. Next came that longing now--crystalized to a tenderness. A thought sprung forth, perhaps Lichen better dead. This cold tenderness twisting around him as a procession of groping hands. Kissing, licking his flesh. He buzzed with pleasure--even if he felt no body, had no idea how he buzzed.

When Lichen woke, he lay on a small bed of green hyacinths. The petals a deep, dark green compared to the stems. He did not understand--but he felt at peace. When the young, spotted hyena sat up, he realized he looked out on the world. He was on the mountain, sitting on a wide bluff. To the east he knew his once-home existed.

Lichen felt stiff but not sore. Hungry but not starving. He did not understand.

"Oh, you are awake already," a deep, gentle voice said.

He had just come around a bend in the trail. He was a tall, gangly jackal. Slender muzzle almost too small for how big his ears were. He wore no clothes. Along his chest grew a gash, his fur cut off by what looked like a root growing through him. Lichen saw instead of a sheath and balls, the jackal had a vagina. A little parting of fur between his sandy thighs gave it away.

"Who--" Lichen's voice dry, he cleared his throat and tried again, "Who are you?"

"I am Sable, and you are Lichen."

Lichen felt strange but not alarmed. Something in him, something where the longing once stirred, soothed him--told him to be at peace. "You are Sable," Lichen said, testing the shape of the word in his muzzle. The hyena studied the smiling jackal a moment longer before he said, "I know you."

"You do."

"But I have never met you."

"But you have known me all your life."

Lichen had. And he recognized Sable, the sight of him, was why for the first time he did not feel the longing anymore.

"Did you call me here?" Lichen asked.

Sable shook his head. "Earth did that, my blossom."

"Earth did?"

The jackal approached Lichen and sat cross-legged at the edge of the hyacinth bed. He was very tall, Lichen realized. At least a foot taller than Lichen. And that root in his chest... it did not seem to cause Sable any pain; it rose and fell with the jackal's breathing. Lichen breathed. Sable smelled of fur and tree bark.

"What are you?" Lichen asked.

"Hehe, the same as you."

Lichen looked down at his chest expecting a root snaked between his spots. But no, he noticed no growths. Lichen touched his chest--felt pawpads press down his fur and rub his flesh. It was him. He looked up at Sable. "What am I?"

"You are Bonded."

"Bonded?"

"We share a bond, with her," Sable pat the ground. "She sustains us, gives us new life, gives us peace, and we honor and protect her."

Lichen felt it. Not a low hum in the back of his head, but a melody. A gentle lullaby. Soothing him. Lichen realized it was the reason he had not panicked yet.

"I died," Lichen said.

Sable nodded.

Lichen said, more slowly, "And then Earth, it--_she_revived me?"

"You are reborn, Lichen."

Sable gently reached down and plucked one of the hyacinths. Lichen flinched, felt it like someone yanking out a hair. Then he noticed this bed of hyacinths arranged oddly, going down only around his body like a cape. He touched the back of his head. They grew out of him. Waves of stems like hair down his scalp, the back of his neck, like long locks of blooming hair.

Sable saw Lichen put it together and said, "Every Bonded is reborn with something new given to them by Earth."

"I..." Lichen sat on his knees and pulled the thick weaves of hyacinths behind him. He said, "Why is mine so different from yours?"

Sable shrugged. "No one is certain but all Bonded are different. I do know one thing, though."

"Hmm?"

Sable scooted forward. Suddenly Lichen was face to face with the jackal--the smell of fur and tree bark stronger. Comforting. Dusty and a bit musky. Sable said, "I have waited a very long time for you, Lichen." He caressed the young hyena's cheek. Lichen shuddered as his body warmed to Sable's touch. "You are my bondmate, and I am yours... you are more beautiful than I ever imagined."

And Lichen knew, in that moment, his longing was not for a place or a time or a state of being, it was for Sable.

The jackal leaned in shyly, but Lichen grabbed his head and led the older male down into a kiss. His lips were sweet like morning dew. He huffed and kissed Lichen back. Both their mouths opened, heads tilting one left the other right, so they might exchange their tongues more readily. Sable's tongue was thinner. It pushed against Lichen's before his oral muscle overwhelmed it and filled Sable's mouth. Lichen pushed a paw against Sable's chest. He touched the root--it was smooth and warm and it pulsed. Sable's paws combed down Lichen's back, pulling the boy closer. Their bodies touched, and Lichen sensed his own warmth. His life. He thrived. Lived differently but lived none the less. His creamy chest fur pushed into Sable's sandier fur. Two bodies with one life in that moment.

Sable broke the kiss and hugged the smaller hyena to his chest. He nuzzled into Lichen's ear, whispering, "I want you inside me."

Lichen felt his sheath stir. He wanted inside Sable, too. Wanted to bring this jackal, this stranger, this person he somehow knew all his life, he wanted to bring his bondmate pleasure.

Lichen leaned forward, gently leading Sable to lie on his back. Hyacinths fell around them both, soft and fragrant. The hyena nuzzled into Sable's throat, took a deep breath. It was a mossy tree bark smell. It was fur warm in winter. Those scents teased at Lichen's senses. He whined and nipped Sable's collarbone. The jackal arced up into his touch. Lichen kissed down his front. He dragged his tongue over the root and found it very tender. Sable shivered and moaned. Lichen giggled a little at the reaction. He glanced up and found Sable panting, watching him. His eyes were a bright brown that caught the afternoon light, and Lichen gawked a moment at the jackal's beauty. It hit him like a bullet. Sable, this beautiful person, was Lichen's partner. And he knew in that moment the jackal looked at him the same way.

Giddy, the boy kissed down Sable's belly. He smelled the jackal's arousal, a cinnamon and spiced thing. It made Lichen's sheath hot. The hyena nuzzled Sable's thigh, dragging his tongue along sandy fur. Then he touched the quivering sex. The digits of a single paw spread Sable's lips. His vent was a sticky peach color. It fluttered as Lichen stared. The boy buried his nose into the crest of Sable's cunt. The jackal moaned as the cold nose rubbed his clit. Lichen took another deep breath Sable's need. Panting, his dark black cock spilling from his sheath, Lichen dragged his tongue across the labia.

Those lips dripped arousal, bitter and musky. Lichen's toes curled. He lapped his broad muscle up and down that dripping quim. His mouth became sticky with Sable's taste, palette washed in his bondmate's need. Sable hooked his legs over Lichen's shoulders and humped up into the boy's face. Lichen eagerly kissed Sable's throbbing cunt. His tongue split the jackal open. Wet walls clamped down and spilled juices against Lichen's teeth. Sable held the boy's head down to his cunt. His mound ground up and down the hyena's eager lips. Lichen's chin and face soon smeared with arousal. All he smelled, tasted, was Sable's need. The hyena's body growing hotter and hotter till he could not wait any longer.

Lichen sat up, spreading Sable's legs quickly. The jackal reached down and spread his pussy. The hyena's dark, tapered cock dripped precum down its throbbing shaft. It made the flesh almost glossy. Sable stared at the tool, whining a moment before he begged, "Lichen please..."

The hyena growled and leaned down. He positioned himself and used a paw to line up his dick with Sable's cunt. That pussy squeezed on nothing when the black taper teased its entrance. Sable wrapped his paws around Lichen, fingers weaving through hyacinth blooms and stems. Lichen plunged inside. Wet heat flooded around his cock. They both moaned.

The hyena's body buzzed with pleasure he knew not entirely his, but what he shared with Sable. The jackal's hips and belly warm and numbing. Sable's head had craned backwards, a dazed look in the older male. Happily dazed. His hips humped dumbly up into Lichen's. The hyena's tapered tip squished against Sable's cervix. Lichen felt it, a tight pressure in his stomach at the touch. And all that warm boiling inside him.

And he felt his own cock getting squeezed and milked. Felt those walls tight against him as his shaft jerked and a jet of precum emptied inside Sable. Huffing, arms shaking a little just from the effort of holding himself up, Lichen began to roll his hips. His cock mashed in and out of that sticky, peach sex. Hot fluids ran into the cream fur of Lichen's sheath and balls. All that slickness just made it easier. Lichen went from stirring up Sable's cunny to pumping the fat, dark cock in and out.

The virile teenager grit his teeth. He felt his knot expanding. The bulb filling with blood and caving in Sable's cunt and tugging at those lips. It slowed Lichen's thrust. They became, slower, harder. Sable's body rocked on each one. A loud, gasping moan from the jackal. Each thrust possibly Lichen's last. His claws dug into the grass around them, the hyacinths spilling around them shuddering. He felt something happening to his body, but all he could focus on was Sable's heat. The boiling in their stomachs that they shared. That the hyena's dark, stabbing cock stoked and stoked. Sable's cervix battered and rammed by the taper. A tip demanding its entry to Sable's womb. Lichen realized he waited his whole life for this. This jackal.

The hyena leaned in and closed his fangs around Sable's throat. The jackal howled as teeth ground against but did not quite shred open his flesh. Lichen thrust one last time, and when his knot pounded inside Sable it was with a certainty it would not come out. And the hyacinths on Lichen's back suddenly bloomed orange and gold. Like the boy's new cape of hair was a sunset. At the same time, Lichen's balls clenched. His cock flexed inside those tense, clenching walls. Both of them came. Riotous waves of pleasure that left both bondmates speechless. Lichen panted through his nose as spunk spilled and flooded into Sable's womb. Virile seed. His sperm alive as the rest of him. Seeking to breed Sable as his balls filled that egg chamber with cum. Lichen's release was dizzying, and made greater because he felt Sable's ecstasy as well. The rolling release of tension in belly and thighs, the explosion of pleasure up and down the jackal's body: from bite to cunt to navel to hips. A swelling and spreading numbness of pleasure as the two joined together. The hyacinths added a fragrant, heady bloom that filled both their senses with the scent of sated rut.

When Lichen came to in the afterglow, Sable hugged the hyena close. His bondmate hummed, and Lichen recognized it as the same melody Earth sang inside his mind. Comforting and sweet, Lichen shuddered against the jackal.

Lichen whispered, "I can't believe this is real. That I'd actually find the thing I wanted all my life."

Sable scratched affectionately behind Lichen's ear. "It's real, my blossom. You are here, and we are together. There is so much to show you, so much of the world and our people. I want to be with you every moment so I can share in your joy."

Lichen swallowed the lump in his throat. It felt impossibly strange to say it to a stranger, but also the thought of not saying it made Lichen feel incomplete: "I love you, Sable."

"And I love you, Lichen. My bondmate, my blossom."