FSE

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"Alright, so we've got snacks," Baron stood back from the bed of his truck, the tall bull eyeing the coolers and bags he had tossed into it in turn. "We've got drinks, we've got extra sweaters, blankets..."

"Think you've got everything," Tobias, a rabbit over a foot shorter than his companion, chuckled as he set one final bag into the bed of the truck. "We're only going to be out there for a few hours, hon. No need to bring the entire house with us."

"It never hurts to be prepared!" The bull exclaimed, quickly running through his list of supplies in his head as he pointed to each bag and box for the third time.

"You'll learn to live a little one of these days," Tobias gave a playful punch to the bulls arm, forgetting for the umpteenth time that it was like hitting a brick wall. "Maybe we can start this evening?"

That got Baron's attention, and forced a furious blush to colour his short beige fur into a pleasant shade of pink.

"But this evening we'll be in the field!" He said, stepping aside as the rabbit closed the back gate of the truck. "Watching movies! There's not going to be anywhere to... well, you know... do it."

"Fuck, babe," Tobias chuckled, leaning against the truck's bumper with a grin while his fingers deftly opened the front of his shorts to reveal the jockstrap he wore underneath. "What we do is 'fuck', and these are gonna make it easier to do while we're out there."

He accentuated his words by pulling one of the leg straps away from his body and letting it snap back into place after releasing it.

Baron's head couldn't have moved back and forth fast enough as he looked around to make sure no one was around to see his boyfriend's lewd display. It seemed to happen every time the two were outside, and while some part of the bull was enticed and even a little excited about it, his more reserved side always won out in the end. Tobias was simply more extroverted than him, especially when it came to intimate things that the bull wished to keep in the bedroom.

"Do your pants up before a neighbour sees!" He said, looking everywhere but the rabbit's package.

Tobias huffed, but did as he was instructed and covered himself again.

It had taken him the better part of four months just to get into the bull's pants after they had first met, and while the sex was fantastic, Baron's lack of interest in taking risks was well and truly wearing on him.

Four months to conquer the baseball bat of a cock, and still he couldn't get a rise out of the bull outside of his home. It seemed such a waste, too. The jealousy and longing other couples threw their way whenever they went out on a date night was delicious to the voyeuristic rabbit, but the more reserved attitude of his bovine partner dulled that enjoyment immensely.

Still, Tobias didn't want to stop trying.

Four months to get into the bull's pants, another four to make sex more regular, perhaps just a little longer to open him up a bit more...

Checking his watch, Baron walked to the driver's side door, gesturing for Tobias to jump in.

"Alright, an hour to get there," He buckled his seat belt and looked over to his partner. "You good to go? We should be pretty well on time to meet everyone."

* *

Sure enough, an hour later, almost to the minute, the pair rolled into the parking lot of a brightly lit gas station and restaurant, far from the suburb they had come from.

The city lights illuminated the horizon far to the west, but beyond the off-ramp rest area, there was only darkness and a clear sky full of stars.

Crisp autumn air sent a chill down Baron's spine as he exited the truck with a huff, his mood having been somewhat dampened by not one, but three separate attempts by Tobias to give him road head on the drive. The rabbit knew, he knew, that the bull wouldn't let him distract him like that, least of all on a busy highway, even as the traffic surrounding them slowly died down to only a half dozen cars within sight. Baron didn't get as far as he had in life by risking his safety just for sex.

Luckily, the sight of his friends standing by their own vehicles laughing and chatting buoyed his spirits swiftly, and he closed the door and started making his way over to greet them.

Tobias was quick to follow, his mood just as, if not more, sour until he spotted two of his best friends amongst the other group. His long brown ears perked straight up, and his tail twitched as he jogged up to them with a grin.

Marcus, a tall lean dalmatian, spotted the rabbit first, and he threw open his arms with a smile as he approached while Thomas, a somewhat shorter but more thickly built doberman just grinned.

"Glad you two could make it out for this!" Marcus hugged the rabbit tightly, his hands giving a somewhat 'extra' squeeze to Tobias's sides before letting him go.

"Surprised you two even would make it out at all." Thomas added with a chuckle, slapping the rabbit's backside while the others in their group greeted Baron.

"Yeah it's hard to get him to do anything," Tobias sighed. "But the dick is definitely worth it."

Baron and the others, a dozen or so friends from both of their lives and beyond, chatted and laughed loud enough that Tobias didn't feel any worry that he might be overheard.

"Honestly I'm more surprised to see you two here!" He eyed the two canines up and down with a mischievous grin. "Didn't think watching movies in a corn field would appeal to you."

"Oh come on," Marcus laughed. "Even we have to take a break from cruising around downtown now and then!"

"Besides," Thomas added in a quieter tone. "Can't leave a bunny out here without some kind of backup."

"Well I hope I won't be needing any 'backup'," Tobias chuckled, adding air quotes to the word. "Maybe tonight'll be the night!"

"Girl, you've been knocking on that particular door for months now," Thomas chuckled. "It ain't happening."

Before Tobias could retort, a cheerful lion jumped into the bed of his truck and called out to everyone, silencing the ongoing conversations and drawing all eyes to him.

"Alright, alright! Calm down everyone!" He said, waving his hands. "Now, we all know the movies we've got in store for tonight, all provided by you lovely nutters. One thing we do need to go over really quick is the ground rules of this whole thing!"

A dozen playful groans of boredom assailed the chuckling feline.

"Now now, Mister Greggors was kind enough to let us do this, so it's only polite that we take a moment to go over what's expected of us while we use his land." The lion held up his index finger. "Rule number one! No littering! Bags, bottles, cans, food containers, wrappers, anything and everything that we bring in with us, we then bring out when we leave!"

"Rule number two! No messing with the electronics! If myself or Doug are away from the laptop and projector setup, don't take it upon yourselves to start mucking about with them! They're bloody expensive!"

He raised a third finger.

"Rule number three! This is the last one, people, rest easy! If there is a medical emergency, let myself, Doug, or James over there know right away! We're all qualified first aid, and we'll do what we can at the party site, or cart whoever gets hurt out until paramedics arrive!"

"Christ, never had this many rules when we had bush parties back in high school..." Thomas muttered with a short laugh.

"Hey, no rule against orgies," Marcus nudged him with a grin. "At least that hasn't changed!"

"Oh!" The lion shouted once more. "Bathrooms are the bushes up there, might want to get anything more intense done and over with here and now!"

From that point on, after the lion jumped down from his truck and the conversations picked back up, a fresh energy of excitement coursed through the assembled furs. Everyone had been looking forward to this night for weeks, and now it was just a short drive away from finally happening.

Tobias bid his friends farewell, earning himself another hug from Marcus, and a more than friendly grope from Thomas, and rejoined Baron back in his truck. The two left the parking lot, following along behind the lion's truck as they turned down the dirt road that ran away from the highway and the brightly lit rest area.

To Baron, driving down the old barely paved road brought back a flood of memories of his childhood growing up in the country, when his father took him out for late night drives just for the chance to run across the wildlife that thrived in the night. Tobias, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less, focused as he was on thinking how he could get Baron to fuck him while everyone else was watching the movies.

Ten minutes of bumpy roads and gravel clanking off the bottom of the truck was all it took for the party to reach their final destination; a large overgrown clearing surrounded on three sides by thick forest, and a vast corn field on the fourth. A large swathe of the open space had been manicured enough that smaller vehicles wouldn't be lost in the long grass, and at its center sat a large rock-lined fire pit, already packed with wood and kindling.

A large white screen had been set up along the edge of the corn field, with two more furs double-checking cables and running tests on the projector system set up in the back of a parked jeep.

Baron backed his truck into a space before hopping out and letting his excitement wash over him.

"This is gonna be great!" He said, looking less like the big buff bull he was and more like a calf waking up on Christmas Day. "Wait until you see 'Trick Or Treat'! It's a great little horror anthology!"

Tobias wasn't entirely sure what 'anthology' meant, but he played along with the bull's excitement as he helped unpack the back of the truck. Most of the rabbit's attention, however, was focused on the far end of the clearing, well away from the gathered vehicles and furs, squatting in the darkness and ignored by everyone.

A classic ramshackle barn loomed at the treeline; a skeleton of a building that looked like a stiff breeze would see it collapse in on itself. The mortar of its stone base was crumbling away, and the walls were pockmarked with large gaps where entire sections of wooden planks had fallen away, but the most striking feature of it was the gaping maw of its large entrance. What little light reached the decrepit building was only able to illuminate its frame, utterly failing to penetrate into the solid blackness of its interior.

The sight gave Tobias a chill, but only a momentary one as he realized henowhad another option to get into Baron's pants outside of his house.Perhaps the privacy of the barn would make the bull more amenable to some playfulness...

It didn't take long before the last of the vehicles were turned off, their headlights going dark and leaving everyone in the chill abyss of an autumn night. There were a few playful screams, the cracking of caps from bottles and the opening of cans as drinks were poured. The darkness around them would have been oppressive had it not been for the occasional flash of a phone camera, and of the endless ocean of bright stars visible above them.

Baron wondered at the sight after settling onto the old mattress they had kept on hand for just this occasion, wedged firmly into the bed of the truck. A normally attentive partner, the bull barely registered the weight of Tobias as the rabbit crawled up against his side and pressed his body against the side of the bovine's larger frame; the faint streak of the Milky Way galaxy so far above them arresting his attention so utterly that he didn't realize his pants were open until after the rabbit's hand gave his sheath a squeeze.

"T-Toby!" Baron jumped, shaken out of his quiet reverence of the cosmos by his boyfriends questing fingers. "Not here!"

"Aww," The rabbit pouted, pulling up one of the several quilts they had brought along with them. "But no one will notice! We've got all these blankets and everyone else will be watching the movie!"

"Toby,no." The bull pulled Tobias's hand away from his groin, zipping himself back up just in time for the assembled furs to let out a loud cheer.

The fire pit in the middle of the clearing flashed orange as the kindling was lit, the fire quickly spreading to engulf the dry fuel greedily. Flickering oranges and reds lit the clearing, casting mad shadows against the thick backdrop of the pine trees surrounding them as it grew. Scrabbling dark arms skittered around behind the bare branches of maple trees, their limbs having become more akin to skeletons this late in the season; their discarded leaves a sinister whisper as they drifted across the ground on a light breeze.

Some of the assembled watchers opted to sit as close to the firepit as possible, already readying sticks with marshmallows and hot dogs skewered on the tips. Their feet crunched among the leaves as quilts were laid out and chairs were unfolded; the entire scene at odds with the manic shadows and chilly air about the group.

Baron felt his annoyance fade instantly at the sight, memories flooding back once again of bush parties with his old friends and the fun that had been had.

"You can keep your hands to yourself for a few hours, honey," He lifted a meaty arm, draping it over Tobias's shoulders and squeezing him close. "Let's just enjoy the movies and the fire."

" __Fucking hell..." Tobias thought to himself, not wanting to risk doing anything more than giving a slight huff and a nod. "What good is dating a damn bull if you can't get wrecked by him constantly?"

Oblivious to the rabbit's inner monologue, Baron simply shifted in place to maximize his comfort, holding his boyfriend close as the large screen beyond the fire flickered to life, and the projector began playing the first movie.

Tobias knew just how far he could push the large bovine, and he kept toeing that line during the entire movie. He nuzzled into Baron's neck, cuddled up tightly against his larger frame and ensured his bulge was pressed against the bull's thicker thigh. His hand constantly tried to slip beneath his boyfriend's pants, only to be pulled away the moment his fingers slipped under the fabric of the bull's shirt.

To say the rabbit was getting frustrated would have been a severe understatement.

To say his frustration matched that of Baron would an even greater one.

"Look, Tobias," The bovine used the rabbits full name, like a parent; never a good sign. "I came here to try and enjoy an evening of movies and snacks with friends and my boyfriend. I'm not in the mood for sex out here. I'm never in the mood for sex in public!"

He tried his best to keep his voice low and calm, not wanting to antagonize the lapine into causing a scene as he had been known to do in the past.

"I'm going for a walk," The rabbit rolled his eyes, climbing out from under the blanket and hopping over the side of the truck bed. "You always say that relationships are about give and take, so maybe spend some time thinking about that, Baron."

Tobias had used the move before.

He knew the bull wouldn't be able to keep from thinking himself in a circle before convincing himself that the rabbit was in the right. It was simple enough to pull off, even if he knew that he was the one that took more often than not. Even if tonight turned out to be a bust, Tobias would keep his bovine prize and the clout that came from dating such a stud.

The people he bragged to didn't need to know the bull was beyond vanilla.

As the sounds of pleasant conversation at the small camp began to fade, replaced by the crunching and rustling of the blanket of dead leaves beneath his feet, Tobias found himself standing before the crumbling facade of the old barn. A hundred yards away, he could barely hear the others, even with his ears. Now, beyond the leaves, he could pick out the gentle rustling of gnarled branches tapping against the dark grey wood panels of the crumbling building, a faint whistle as the occasional breeze filtered in through gaps in the walls and roof.

His tall ears twitched each time a fresh leaf fell onto the sea of oranges, browns, and reds beneath his feet.

It almost felt calming, he thought to himself, before realizing he was still stuck out in the countryside for at least another three hours, possibly longer. The rabbit pulled his phone from his pocket, checking for messages in spite of the total lack of a connection. He grumbled as he slid it back into his shorts and looked back to the barn.

"Boo!"

A form leapt out into the gaping maw of the old barn, drawing a startled yelp from the rabbit as he fell back into the leaves, landing hard on his backside.

Thomas laughed where he stood, utterly unconcerned with the way his exposed package bobbed in the open between his legs.

"I'm a werewolf savage," He said, baring his teeth and grinning almost drunkenly. "And I smell a fine piece of ass to ravage!"

"Fucking hell Tom!" Tobias braced a hand on his chest, trying to still his racing heart. "I nearly had a heart attack!"

"Gotta get that blood pumpin' Toby," The doberman chuckled, relaxing his stance and hefting his glistening canine cock with a hand. "We've been here over an hour and we haven't had a bunny come to check on us yet."

"Jesus just text me," Tobias grunted as he stood up, brushing autumn detritus from his clothes. "When did you guys sneak back here?"

"About halfway through the movie," Marcus poked his head out from the side of the barn's wide doorway, a grin on his muzzle as he revealed himself only enough to show off his own cock bobbing between his legs. "We figured you'd peel out and rub one out somewhere private, so we beat you here."

"Was gonna wait for you to come inside the jump you," Marcus admitted as Tobias closed the distance between them, casting an unconcerned glance back towards the camp as another movie started up. "But this seemed more fun."

"Should've just jumped me," The rabbit said as he joined the two larger canines in the barn proper. "Least I wouldn't have fallen on my ass that way."

"Eh," Marcus shrugged, immediately pressing himself up against the smaller male. "Your ass was gonna end up sore and throbbing either way."

The doberman had hooked his shorts under his beefy sack, as per usual going commando, but now he unbuttoned the garment completely and let them fall to his feet. He slipped his hands under the snug waistband of the rabbits shorts, pushing them with some force to get them past his toned thighs so he could slide his cock between them comfortably.

"Don't get your doggy juices in my fur, damnit." The rabbit moaned, reaching a hand down between his legs to toy with the shaft.

"Baron won't be sleeping with you tonight," Thomas stepped up in front of him, poking the lapine's slim stomach with his own cock. "You're good. Just shower when you get home and you'll be fine."

"Not gonna do much good when I'm stinking of dog jizz," Tobias slid down to his knees, leaving his shorts around his knees as he took in the familiar sight of the two throbbing canine cocks bobbing in front of his muzzle. "So keep it all in me this time."

He took the briefest of moments to savour the sight of both shining shafts, illuminated by what little moonlight filtered in through the gaps in the roof, and soft orange glow of the distant bonfire beyond the large doorway.

"That'll depend entirely on you." Thomas chuckled, his hands gripping the rabbit's ears and yanking his muzzle down onto his shaft. "Ah, there we go..."

Tobias gagged at the sudden intrusion, his thoughts scattered into disarray as the meaty canine shaft plunged to the back of his throat and further. He gagged for the briefest of moments, only briefly made aware of the distinct taste of the canine and the barest hint of his partner's saliva.

Clearly the two had been enjoying each other for some time.

Tobias could smell Marcus's saliva well before his nose was pressed firmly into the already damp fur surrounding Thomas's sheath. He reached up with one hand to fondle the dog's sack, finding the orbs likewise damp with his partner's spit, but not letting it prevent him from rolling them in his nimble fingers. With his free hand, he took a firm hold of Marcus's own shaft, stroking the thicker shaft and smearing his precum over the tapered tip with his thumb.

The moment Thomas let go of his ears, Tobias popped off of his shaft, swiftly switching over to give the doberman similar attention. He drove himself down nearly to the knot-swollen sheath.

"Must've been a few days since Baron gave him some attention, eh?" The doberman mentioned to his partner.

"Hard to say," Thomas replied, running his fingers through the rabbit's mop of hair. "He's always starving for cock."

"Think we should bring him over next weekend?" The two carried on conversationally, each pressing themselves into the rabbit's bobbing head to get as deep into his mouth as possible.

"Maybe we can pick up a horse," The other replied with a chuckle, momentarily taking a double-fisted hold of Tobias's ears once more to begin roughly face-fucking the gagging lapine. "Get him... Unf... a nice big cock... to get his mind off of that limp dicked... bull..."

Screams drifted on the night air, carried to the trio by the breeze.

"We got time for anal, I think," The other canine mumbled as Tobias felt the first surges of cum begin to travel down the fat shaft spreading his jaw wide. "Movie has everyone all worked up."

"Sorry Toby," The dog holding his ears kept his face impaled on his cock, giving continuous humps and grinds as he rode out his orgasm. "He needs to knot a tight ass, and you're it."

There was a heavy gust of wind just as Tobias felt his cheeks get spread apart, the hands squeezing his cheeks disappearing from his lush fur in an instant of frustrated lust. The grip on his ears tightened suddenly, severely, more painfully than he had come to expect from either of his friends even at the height of their roughest passion.

Tobias pulled back, finding the grip of the canine before him firmly set, and somehow only getting tighter.

He began yanking backwards, coughing and tapping at the canine's thigh. The rabbits eyes were watering, tears flowing freely down his cheeks more from pain now than from the shaft lodged in his throat. In the darkness of the dead barn, he couldn't make out which of the two of his friends was holding him, but he didn't care. He was_hurting_.

Putting all of his strength into his arms, he pushed hard against the thighs before him, only barely able to finally push away enough to free his muzzle. He ducked down to the dirt floor, yanking his ears painfully from the solid grip.

"Wh-what the fuck?!" He snarled, rubbing his head and coughing convulsively. "The hell is wrong with you?!"

He spat a glob of spit and cum onto the soil, taking long moments to steady his breathing and rest his aching throat.

"I don't know what the fuck that was," He growled, finally pushing himself to his feet and pulling his shorts back up. "But that was_not_ fucking o-"

When the rabbit turned to fully face whichever of his friends had taken things so far, he froze.

Thomas stood before him, eyes rolled back into his skull and jaw hanging slack. The startling expression made Tobias do a double take, but even with his eyes cleared of his tears, nothing changed on the canine's face. Nothing, except for a mass of straw and twigs was slowly pouring out from his open muzzle, glistening wetly with saliva, and in spite of the low light within the barn, Tobias could just pick out the faint red tint to thicker globs of the fluid.

The dalmatian's entire body was limp, his arms hanging slack before him and his feet not even making full contact with the floor. He was being propped up by nothing Tobias could see as he stumbled backward in silent horror.

"G-guys..." The rabbits trembling voice was barely above a whisper, barely able to form that single word.

"T-this isn't... funny..." He backed away from the slack-jawed canine, sobbing quietly to himself as the mostly white fur of Thomas's chest and stomach gradually became streaked with darkness, dripping from the still growing mass of straw protruding from his mouth.

Slowly, agonizingly so, the canine's arms began to lift out to his sides. Occasional spasms accompanied popping noises that made Tobias wince and cower in on himself as the limbs stretched, becoming longer, even more so than they normally could. More dark streaks beginning running over the white of Thomas's fur, joining his black spots together with rivulets of what Tobias's nose began to register as blood.

He could see pinpoints of, something, protruding from the canine's arms, becoming more and more numerous closer towards his limp fingers. They glistened in the muted moonlight, peeling out from Thomas's arms as if they were branches growing from a tree limb.

Tobias shuffled backwards, his blood frozen. His vocal chords petrified. His eyes both watering in terror and stinging dry from his inability to blink.

His head bumped lightly against something behind him. Something warm.

Something wet...

Horrified to tear his gaze away from the macabre dalmatian standing stiffly before him, the rabbit turned his head slowly.

Up against one of the mouldering pillars of ancient wood supporting the barn roof, Marcus's body was splayed spread eagle. The doberman's limbs were pulled backwards by lengths of rope that disappeared into the darkness of the barn's loft, wrapped around his wrists and ankles. His head hung limp between his shoulders, the edges of his head and pointed ears highlighted by the soft moonlight above.

There was a faint gurgling whisper coming from the restrained canine, and in spite of his terror, Tobias took a trembling step closer.

A word was whispered, drawing the reluctant rabbit closer still.

"H-help..." Marcus managed to gasp.

Adrenaline overtook Tobias, the rabbit rushing to close the distance between him and the doberman. He reached out to check the canine, but paused when his hands connected not with the short fur of Marcus's chest, but of a slick sticky surface of... something else.

He could feel thin lengths of metal set in amongst the soft pliable wetness, but he couldn't make heads or tails of what he was touching.

"It's, it's okay Marcus..." Tobias wept as his violently trembling hands moved to his pockets, fumbling for his phone. "I-I'll get you... I'll get you out of here..."

His wet fingers found his phone, but when he managed to pull it free of his pocket, he found it difficult to keep a grip on its smooth case. The rabbit breathed heavily, sobbing and sniffling as his eyes slowly adjusted to the temporarily blinding brightness of the screen before navigating his way to the flashlight app.

The moment he opened it he let out a piercing scream and fell back once more, his phone falling from his hands to the dirt below.

Marcus was illuminated from below in a horrifying white light.

His limbs restrained, his head hanging limp down over his chest...

His chest...

Flayed of his pelt and skin, the glistening bare muscles of his entire torso shined wetly in the light. Where his ribs should have been, now the gleaming prongs of pitchforks rested, keeping his chest otherwise intact.

It was only then that Tobias realized that the canine's lower jaw was missing; his throat hollowed out along with it. His eyes vacant and dead.

Turning in the dirt and scrambling away from the hanging corpse, Tobias desperately threw himself forward, keeping well away from the scarecrow-like body of Thomas, the straw and twigs continuing to grow and split his flesh.

The gaping maw of the barn door loomed mere feet away, the soft comforting glow of the distant bonfire drawing the rabbit's attention and filling him with a desperate energy. Even as he tripped over his own feet in the dirt, his limbs propelled him toward the exit.

He failed to feel the breaking of his well-manicured claws as his fingers scrabbled on the ground, but even when they became bloody with his struggles, he could think to do nothing more than scream for help.

The cool breeze in the night air outside of the barn washed over the frantic rabbit as he stumbled into the thick bed of leaves before the wide entrance. Stars overhead glinted uncaringly as Tobias screamed at the top of his lungs towards the fire pit, desperate to capture someone's attention.

But no calls of alarm reached his ears.

No one rushed to the rabbit's side to pull him away from the accursed barn, comforting him and calming him.

His chest heaving with energy spent, Tobias managed to lift his head and open his tear-filled eyes towards the movie-watching furs.

No one sat around the bonfire.

There was no trace of the vehicles everyone had arrived in, nor even of the dirt road that had led them to the clearing beside the corn field.

Confusion began to override the rabbit's terror. The horrific sights of Thomas and Marcus within the barn faded swiftly in the face of the trembling male realizing he was just as alone out here than he was within the dilapidated building. The bonfire that had been over a hundred yards away was now no less than a dozen feet from him, the cornfield beyond so close it almost seemed that the flickering tongues of flame would catch on the stalks.

Tobias's attention was arrested in an instant as a dark mass rose up from between the gently swaying stalks, blacker than pitch, towering over the field as it seemed to reach its full height. A wide-brimmed hat kept whatever might be its face shrouded in darkness, a heavy coat obscuring its body.

It stood silently, the rabbit having no allusions that its gaze, if it even possessed eyes, was locked firmly on his trembling form.

A shift tilted the tall things body, followed by a thump that travelled through the ground and up through the rabbit's aching urine soaked legs.

Stalks of corn bent aside as a tall limb ponderously stepped out into the small clearing; firelight catching on the knotted and warped curves and edges of one long thin log, then another.

Tobias screamed.

**

"Have you seen Tobias?" Baron asked Gerald as the lion approached him and his truck. "He wandered off after the first movie and I haven't seen him since."

"I was actually just about to ask you if you had seen Mark and Tom," The lion looked confused, the two sharing a quiet moment as the dozen other furs around them packed up their vehicles. "I had meant to ask them about next month's event, but I haven't seen them anywhere. Even their car is gone."

"I mean..." Baron's head dipped slightly, a feeling of guilt swelling within him. "Toby and I had a bit of an argument before he walked off, and he knows those two..."

"Think..." The lion cocked an eyebrow, setting a hand on the bull's shoulder. "Think he convinced them to take him home?"

"Maybe," Baron sighed, earning a comforting pat from his friend. "I didn't think he'd go so far as to just abandoning this whole night."

"You two might need some space tonight," Gerald offered, hating the sight of the bovine looking so despondent. "Tell you what. Rick and I are bringing a couple of the others back to our place for an after party. Nothing insane, just some board games and maybe another movie or two.You can crash in our spare room for the night."

The lion pulled his larger friend into a brief hug.

"We don't want tonight ending on a sour note, but take a bit. We'll be stopping at the gas station again on the way back, so you can think about it during the drive there."

"Alright." Baron nodded, shoving his tailgate closed. "I'll follow along and let you know."

Gerald offered the bull a soft smile, patting him on the shoulder again before retreating to his car to fill his husband in on the situation.

Bailing on an event like this without a word of warning was a new low for Tobias, Baron thought. The idea that the rabbit could continuously try to convince him to do something he clearly didn't want to do time after time after time and still have the gall to throw this kind of tantrum made him feel genuinely angry, which was no small feat for anyone.

The bull knew Gerald had the right idea, though.

There was no way he wanted to return home tonight, not if Tobias was there waiting to pounce on him with another guilt trip, or some misplaced sense of victimization.

He could give the rabbit a piece of his mind tomorrow, when the wounds were at least not so fresh.

And so, the bull joined the line of cars carefully backing through the long grass of the wide clearing, his vehicle bouncing on the uneven ground before catching the loose gravel on what little actual road existed between the creaking trees. The trunks and limb-like branches illuminated brightly by various headlights, only to flash into a morbid red as the vehicles passed, leaving the clearing in a suffocating silence.

Thick smoke still lingered where the fire pit sat, the ashes and ground soaked with buckets of water. It coiled in thick strands, and evencarried as it was into the trees by the softlymoaning wind, its ghostly tendrils avoided the yawning chasm of the rotting barns open door.