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We had sex like everything was normal, like he didn't reek of blood and carcass. King was stoic, as he always was, and I found myself losing my mind's thoughts to the sensations his body provided me, for the time being. He was escape, that's all sex had ever been for us. I wanted it so badly to be more than what it was, but by this point I was beginning to understand what it was to us, a means to forget about the world around us for a while we spit-kissed and explored eachother's bodies. I couldn't find my pleasure in sniffing on him, like I usually did, because of how much he smelled like fresh death. He made no requests of his own, rather letting himself be a reciprocal through which I found some sort of release.

"Why do you remain so still when we have sex?" I'd ask.

"What am I supposed to do?" he'd reply.

"You know by now. Get into it. Thrust, moan, move around and make noise. Make me feel like you're interested. I've said it a thousand times."

"I can't help that I'm not an expressive person."

"You are, though," I protested, "you were very expressive when I was putting things up your ass."

"Hush about that" he'd cut me off. He was on his back, staring at the ceiling, as he'd always done since we moved into the cabin. When we used to do it out in the woods, he'd at least look at me, but after we got the bed, he'd just stared at the ceiling for the most part. I was riding him to the best of my ability, as I always did.

"Am I boring to you, or something?" I asked.

"Maybe. I don't know. Maybe it's just strange to me that you're a fellow male."

"Now you're telling me that," I'd say. He was halfway inside me as he said that, and I found myself about to lift off him as his hands found my hips.

"It's fine, just enjoy yourself" he'd say, pushing me down a bit, trying to goad me to ride.

"I can't enjoy myself," I pulled at him, tugging myself until he fell free from my backside, "if I know my boyfriend isn't enjoying himself. What am I doing wrong?"

"I don't know. It just feels so pointless, without procreation. Why would I sleep with you when I could just pleasure myself? Neither of them result in children." he asked, my face scrunching up in a wounded offense. The worst part was that he still wasn't looking at me. He just stared at the ceiling.

"Well," I climbed off him, bow-legged as he arced a foot over his large body, stepping off the bed onto the floor before looking back to him, "if that's how you feel, I'll go for another walk". I was heading for the door when he insisted "no, you won't."

"Or what?" I'd ask. "What happens if I go anyway?"

"There you go, acting childish again."

"Childish?" I asked, turning to look at him, "we've been having sex just fine for months now and all of the sudden you've changed your mind and decided you could just, quote, 'pleasure yourself'. How am I being childish by not wanting to have sex after that?"

"Because you're going out, putting yourself in danger again. Come, let's finish our session, or at least sleep in bed together" King said, patting the bed next to me. I stood there, looking sorrowful at the empty spot on the bed, where he'd scooted to the side and made room for me.

"You don't even care if I'm there or not", I spoke weakly.

"I do. You just have to understand, this...sodomy you enjoy so much is difficult for me. Sometimes I feel...wrong...doing it."

"You feel wrong? How're we supposed to be married if you sometimes feel 'wrong' sleeping with me?"

"Don't say it like that. You'll come around. We'll have children eventually, and it will make sexual encounters feel more special for both of us."

I eventually made my way back to bed, lying on my side, King spooning me. His body was big, securing, even if I was upset. He was so large and warm, it was hard not to feel comfortable in his arms, especially with the covers over top of us.

"Would you like me to finish satisfying you?" he asked.

"...I guess, if you don't mind", I answered.

King would penetrate me on my side, stimulating my prostate until climax. It felt good, at least, to have him put in the effort. He never climaxed himself, though, and after my afterglow had subsided I asked him what he wanted in return.

"Nothing tonight, Nico," he said, squeezing me in a hug from behind. "You can make up for it with our experiments tomorrow."

Everything was transactional with King. If he did something nice for you, you were supposed to do something nice back. I knew this. I knew, any time I asked for something like sex, that I was going to be expected to hunt for lunch the next day, or help with his experiments. On the contrary, though, I also knew that I could ask for intimacy after King demanded I help with things like experiments. As stressful as they were for me, it meant that I could leverage it for the closeness I desired so much. I'd learned to accept it as worthwhile in return for some semblance of normalcy.

"I want more, so badly," I whispered to King, who asked "more what?"

"Just...more of you." I said. "I want you to keep touching me and playing with me. I wanna feel smothered in your love and smells and sensations. I wish it didn't have to stop."

"I have a plan for a big experiment tomorrow, something new. If you promise you'll help me with that..." King paused, almost like he wasn't sure he wanted to offer himself to me. "I'll let you play with my backside a bit tonight."

I smiled, squeezing one of his hands in mine, an excitedly whispered "okay, promise. Bend over the bed."

He did so, presenting himself to me once more, and I indulged. I indulged because indulgence was all I had. I'd become deeply attached to the weird, dysfunctional sex we had because it was the closest we got to any semblance of something normal. I knew it, I felt it. Every time he'd let me between his legs, I felt like everything was how it was supposed to, that I'd rise from that and our relationship would be normal, healthy. I could forget the demands, the experiments, the arguments, all the stress of the world for a moment and just lose myself to the pleasure of someone else's warm body against me, telling myself "he loves me, he loves me so much". I felt so stupid, but I would push that concern out of my head and succumb to his smells, his tastes. My face was covered in that sooty black mold from his backside, though I was unaware in the dark of the night, in our little cabin together.

King would occasionally grunt, tense his legs, fidget a bit as I salivated under his tail. I no longer was spitting out the moldy taste in my mouth, rather I swallowed it. Rather, I would press my tongue firmly against his backside with the intent of collecting it on my tongue. I wanted it to consume me, to perhaps live inside me like I wished so desperately he could. I licked and sniffed voraciously at his backside, the sour musk of body odor, and the much more powerful earthy musk of that mold, all on my face, in my sinuses and throat. I didn't care. King seemed to endure it the best he could, despite the occasional invading fingers, the occasional stretching of his hole to allow my tongue to really penetrate him. I got something along the line's of "for god's sake Nico, compose yourself" at one point, but I didn't consider it, not for a second. This was all I had.

I didn't know it at the time, but my face was stained black. It was from my forehead down my jaw, my entire face and hands were. I could smell it, but I couldn't see it, and I dug so voraciously into his backside with the hopes of just being able to get off. He was so warm inside, so soft, it was the warmest and most intimate part of him. I'd licked him until my jaw ached, loosened him, and I mounted as I'd done before, though this time it wasn't in the throes of King's climax. As I wet my dick with spit and stepped to him, though, his body would lurch up and forward, tugging away a bit.

"What're you doing now?" he'd ask.

"Was gonna stick it in, is that alright?" I'd return.

"Why haven't you done the thing with your fingers, yet?"

"Did...did you want me to do that first?"

"Well, it takes buildup, yes? It's not going to feel as good if you stick it right in me."

I was impatient, eager, but I couldn't argue with his logic. I agreed, and returned to my knees, fingering him and stimulating him, minutes before I would feel him starting to clench up, starting to squirm, his body tensing in waves. He was close, and he'd give me a breathy "okay, now you may".

I stood, and wasted no time. I was inside him quickly, and it was less than a minute before I could feel I'd pushed him into a climax. It took every part of me not to lose myself right then and there, but I endured, focused on stimulating him as far as I could take him. It was the most vibrant I ever saw him, when he was getting his prostate milked. He'd grip bedsheets, his breathing would rise to where it was loud, groaning, and he'd tell me he loved me. I'd accidentally trained him to tell me he loves me when he was climaxing, and it was when I heard it most. I told myself he really meant it, too, not just that he was saying it as a sign he was cumming. I knew he was cumming, I could hear it hitting the floor, I could feel the way his body jerked a bit and would grip onto me. He didn't have to give me a vocal cue anymore, but he did anyway.

I rode it out, though, his large body effortlessly taking the vigor I threw into it, all in the name of pleasing him. I was sweating, as was he, and as he rode out a second climax, eventually a third, I felt myself running out of stamina, out of the ability to hold off. Suddenly, though, he'd stammer out "p-pull it out".

"What?" I asked, dangerously close, brimming right on the precipice of seeding him.

"Pull it out. I-I'm fatigued."

I reluctantly did so, stepping back, my needy member wagging between my legs as I whined "King, I'm so close though..."

"You've already ejaculated once tonight. Hold it, until tomorrow. I want you to be full of libido when we explore my plans. It will be very exciting." King said, all very breathlessly. He'd clearly gotten worn out, evident not only by his hard breathing but the pool of semen drying on the floor. I, however, was highly frustrated, lust-brained and frazzled.

"Fine, I'll just jerk off," I huffed, King interrupting with an almost manic sounding "NO, no. Hold it. Hold it off."

I whined a bit more, begged, but eventually agreed. He obviously had some sort of plan for us tomorrow, and while I was aching with the desire to release that night, the thought of him WANTING to engage with me the next day was all the more exciting. I didn't bathe afterward, like I had the last time we played with his backside. I just went to bed, and he was surprisingly affectionate with me, squeezing me and pulling me in very close.

"You smell even better tonight than you normally do. I've always loved your smell, but I rather like it covered in mine as well." he'd say. I felt my face get hot with excitement, a smile crept up my muzzle.

"I love smelling like you, King. I love you."

"I love you too, Nico."

---

I was covered in the stuff, way more than I'd expected. My face, my hands, my crotch and thighs, all covered in that black mold. The sun was shining through the window and I looked like I'd tried to have sex with a chimney. I rather liked the look, though, especially as I wiped some of it off my face and rubbed it on my chest, my torso, my thighs. I felt a bit silly doing so, but there was a more primitive part of me excited I was covered in what looked like war paint. I stood out in the yard with him as he paced about, explaining his plans to me today.

"I have experimented many times with ferals, the consumption of their limbs, the regrowth of muscle and skin. We have found what we can and can't do, to a point. I am sure there is more, but I wonder...how does it feel? I wonder if some sort of communication would guide me more than the wails of a feral animal. That is why," King explained, pausing, turning to me. I dreaded what came next.

"I want to test something on you." he'd say. I'd suspected as much.

"You want to...eat...part of me?" I asked, knowing that was what he meant, hoping desperately that I misunderstood.

"Yes. Not the bone, I don't want to get too experimental. But, we know it can regrow muscle and skin. I want to know how that feels, though. Perhaps there is, I don't know, a sensation or trigger in the brain that can better tell us where the regeneration begins."

I knew the regeneration worked, I'd seen it on the ferals and he'd used some of it on me, every time he'd fed off my blood. Still, this was so much more intense, and I was sure it was going to hurt. Even if it didn't, the thought, the sight and sound of having a part of my body ripped open. He'd already done it months ago, with my stomach, retrieving the serpent, but nothing had been lost in that. He'd simply opened me and closed me. This was different, this was loss and regrowth, and it was scary.

"I...really don't want to do this." I admitted.

"I suspected as much, despite how much I've done for you lately," King said, "but this time I really do insist you try it. It's necessary. I need this from you."

"You don't, though. You just want it." I protested. He would step over to me, taking my hand in his. My hands were pitch black.

"I do, I need it. I need you to help me. I give so much to you, we do anything and everything you want. If you are going to marry me, you must be more obedient. I cannot settle down with someone who will not commit to me."

"This was...never mentioned when we started dating, all those months ago, though. It was just the neck biting. It was so much simpler."

"Yes, but relationships grow, they change. I didn't think I'd need to tell you, when we started dating, that I would have expectations of you. I suspected you were mature and intelligent enough to know that sacrifices and cooperation are necessary to a partnership."

"I knew that, which is why I...it's why I let you bite me, and I killed the deer, and ate the serpent, and the raspberries, and..."

"Those were all kind and wonderful, but they only go so far, Nico."

King really spoke as if I'd done very little for him, and as he broke it down, everything he'd done for me against everything I'd done for him, I did feel guilty. I'd made a few big moves, but so had he. He'd killed for me, he had strange sex for me, he'd left his forest for me, and what had I done? Kill a deer? Let him bite me once a week or so?

"...can I make a request, if I cooperate?" I asked.

"You can have any sexual indulgence you want tonight, I promise." he replied.

"No, no not that," I began, cracking a soft smile as I told him, "though that'd be nice too."

"What, then?"

"Can you propose to me? If I help you with all this, can we get married, very soon? Like, within the month?"

It was November, somewhere toward the end of the first week. It gave him a few weeks to prepare, in case he had any major plans for the wedding. I didn't want to rush him.

"...Yes. Yes, I promise we will be married within the month, and it will be extravagent. We will have a beautiful ceremony, I will prepare it in the forest's heart, and we will return home and consummate. Intimacy will change drastically, after that. The forest will grant us children, I am sure of it."

I agreed. He began preparations right away, having me dredge up some of the mold from deep within his stomach. I could feel things in there, things I didn't normally feel. He'd eaten something, early in the morning, before I'd rose to join him outside. I pulled my forearm out of his throat, sooty mold up to the shoulder now, blood dripping from my hands, bits of fur and skin stuck to it. I flicked my fingers and wiped it off, feeling a bit queasy, but I would stick my other arm down his throat as well, just for good measure, covering that arm in the black substance as well. I'd grown rather attached to it, wanting it all over me, especially after the excitement of the previous night.

"King?" I asked, walking with him to the water's edge, where the sun was most generous.

"Yes?"

"After we marry, we'll be together forever, right? Just you and me? I know your species is different, but you're monogamous, right?"

"Yes. We mate for life. I will never mate or love anyone but you, ever again. It's already how it is, though. You are mine, forever."

I felt so warm, even in the chilling air, to hear that. It was all I wanted.

"I have never felt a female's body, though," King would ponder out loud, "have you?"

"No", I replied. King would look up and off somewhere, thinking.

"I'm sure it's nothing special. Nonetheless, let us begin. Sit with me." King said. I did, and he'd begin to explain things to me.

"I am going to feed off your forearm and strip it of some of it's muscle. It should numb immediately, as your neck always has, and I will ask you how you feel. I need you to be present. Your kind can go into states of shock, and I can't have that. You must communicate with me, the entire time, so I can understand more."

I nodded, understanding. I presented my forearm to him, my right arm, my dominant arm. King held it in his hands for a moment, inspecting it, the black of the sooty mold all over it. He would look at it, then to me, finally saying "here we go".

King would then engulf my entire forearm into his maw, the heat of his muzzle surrounding it for a moment as his front teeth found the crook of my inner arm. It felt as it usually did, when I reached into him to collect samples. I could feel his uvula in the palm of my hand, though only for a second before his jaws would clamp down entirely on my arm. I could feel his upper and lower incisors connect between the two bones of my forearm, his canines digging into the muscles as he yanked his head back and skinned my forearm entirely of meat. My body immediately rejected the experience, and my vision went entirely white. My hearing became flooded, suddenly, with the sound of water, the immediate sloppy sounds of my muscles being sucked off my arm and gnawed was a faraway distorted ambience. Though I could no longer hear or see, King would hear himself snort and suck, peeling apart my muscles with his teeth like cooked chicken, bloody spit pooling in his maw and spilling out his mouth like Pavlov's dog surrounded by a thousand bells. He moaned in gluttonous ecstasy, though it sounded as far away and unrelated to me as the birdsong in the trees across the creek. My head leaned up slightly, and my blinded vision was pointed somewhere up toward the treetops.

I remained in this state for what felt like only a second, though I would come my senses to King snapping a finger at me, yelling "NICO. PAY ATTENTION. FOCUS."

My senses returned, blood returning to my face, and I would look down to bear witness to the horror of it all. Almost all the skin and muscle from just below my elbow down to my wrist, almost all of it was gone. I wasn't bleeding, he'd stopped that, but there was blood all over the ground, all over my legs, my hand, which hung limp and lifeless with no muscle to give it life. My eyes dilated and I began to hyperventilate, and King would speak over my rapid breathing, barking "no. NO. NO! TELL ME WHAT YOU FEEL".

"AFRAID"

"WHERE?!"

"ALL OVER. MY--MY--MY HEART IS BEATING."

"YES. I know. Do you feel your arm?"

"NO" I cried, a sudden frenzied wailing overtaking me at the sight of my bone, the inner workings of my body I was never meant to see.

"HUSH. hush. I'm applying the fungus. TELL ME where the feeling begins."

He did so, slathering a paste of it over the bones. I couldn't feel it, and that only scared me more, but as he applied the paste over the bones I could feel a sensation in my guts. It felt, quite honestly, like vomiting, like the release of excrement, a sudden emptiness in the stomach and organs, though not a pleasant emptiness. There was a release of pressure, but the pressure was a sensation I wasn't previously aware was present inside me. It felt like something between my lungs suddenly deflated, and though I was largely screaming and wailing, I explained that the best I could to King as I saw strands of muscle beginning to grow on my arm, connecting to my wrist.

"There is a life energy in the core of your body that is activating. Something related to the heart. It activates when under life or death duress, a sort of superheated fight response. I believe it's being pulled to your limb. Something about the fungus activates something in the body that tells it to push itself harder than it ever has before."

Just as I'd seen on the fox, the muscle regrew. I couldn't feel anything below the elbow, but it did, followed by skin, followed by fur, bare red fur. I had a spot between my upper arm and wrist where the mold was gone, the darker red of my wrist markings present instead. My heart was pounding and, as my arm was fully intact once more, I felt that post-adrenaline surge hitting my body. I'd been angry, I'd been in fights, and after the adrenaline leaves, the body dumps all those hormones to calm you. I could feel it. I was abruptly very hot, very tired, very nauseous. Unsurprisingly, I vomited shortly after, and would end up lying on my side in the fetal position near the creek while King pet me slowly, like a feral.

"You dissociated for a moment, but after you came to focus, you did tremendously. It makes more sense, now." He praised me, leaning down to rub his bare skull against my cheek.

"Does it?" I asked, tired.

"Yes. The fungus, I think, serves more as an alert for the body. It tells where to put all it's energy."

I laid there, staring at the creek flowing from the bottom of my vision to the top, horizontal on the cold earth as I tried to think about anything other than what I had seen, what my arm had looked like, mangled like that. Those poor ferals. I'd already hurt for them, seeing what he did to them, but now I knew the true terror they must've felt. There's nothing comforting about seeing your limb regrow before your eyes, your brain doesn't even have the pathways to recognize that as positive. It just dumps more fear signals.

"King?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"What's going to happen when the police find that shepherd's car? And they find his campsite? And his fur, and my fur, and your fur, and--"

"They won't find his campsite. I burned all his belongings, dismantled any semblance of his camping entirely. I carried the wood and stone to the water, scattered it. Another rain will come in the next few days and wash any remaining footprints away, and bury fur. They will not be looking for him for some time anyway, I'm sure. He was alone, no one knew he was in our woods."

"What about his vehicle? What if it's got personal information in it?"

King sat quiet for a moment before telling me "I will handle that as well, if it will make you feel better."

"Should you?" I asked, "or should I have to deal with the consequences of my actions?"

"You were stupid to wander off like that, yes. None of this would've happened had you not put yourself in that danger. But, I value you, and I do not wish trouble to ever come to the woods, so I'll handle it. I should do that now, while it is still daylight out. I need to find his car."

With that, King abruptly hoisted me up, into his arms, bridal style, and carried me back to the house. He laid me in bed, patting me, and told me "take a nap. Sleep off the fatigue, then make yourself lunch. I may be gone a few days, if I cannot easily find it. Do not worry about me."

"Is there a point at which I should start worrying?" I asked.

"No. I cannot die, and I am thoroughly fed. I should be back within three days, but I cannot be sure. Be safe, and do not wander while I'm gone."

We exchanged affection, and King was gone. The woods were quiet. I was laying on my back, probably around noon, in the ambience of the forest. I hoped he'd be back the same day, but I tried not to think about it too much. I did indeed try to rest a bit more, and would drift off from the cortisol fatigue not too long after his departure. I slept until nightfall, waking with extreme hunger. I should've eaten before he left, I thought, because it was now dark out once more, and I was alone. I had to either hunt in the dark, or try to go back to bed. With the November sun setting earlier, it was probably only about six PM at the time, but it may as well have been midnight. As I laid there contemplating my options, though, I swore I heard noise. I wondered if he was home.

"King?" I asked. No response. I was sure I heard footsteps, though. I peeked out the window, expecting to see him wandering around with some carcass in the yard, but saw nothing. Rustling, though, I continued hearing rustling. Someone was out there, but it wasn't King. Other than the shepherd, though, I'd never seen anyone in the woods besides King. I quickly stepped out of bed and scampered, low to the ground, to my backpack, rummaging in it for grandpa's knife, unsheathing it and stuffing the sheath back in the bag. I locked the door and the windows, for what little good the locks would do, and scurried upstairs to the loft to look out the loft window. If anyone was coming to the door, I'd likely see them approach.

I saw nothing, though. I was sure I heard something, but nothing ever arrived. My only thought was that they were right up against the house, aware I was inside, having heard my footsteps, and they were waiting to break in. I knew, whoever it was, that it wasn't King. Whoever it was, they wanted to kill me, and I had to be brave and accept that. The woods weren't going to shelter me, I couldn't just hide in the loft all night. I had to strike first, and I had to be aggressive about it.

I unlocked the front door as quietly as I could, victim to the creaking of old floorboards and the rickety opening of the cabin door, but I stepped out bold, nude, knife in hand. My vision scanned the perimeter best it could in the darkness and saw nothing. I heard nothing but the woods, no footsteps. Still, I prowled the perimeter of the house, keeping my ears alert for the sound of someone tailing me, or any sort of other sounds of movement, continuing to hear nothing. After a good half hour or so of that empty chase, I resigned to accepting that I must've been hearing things, and found myself back in the house, locking the door once more, checking the entirety of the cabin in case they'd snuck in behind me.

I never ate that evening. I tucked the knife between the bedframe and the head of the mattress, easily retrievable but hidden away, in case King came home by surprise. I must've eventually fallen back asleep at some point, because I found myself waking to daylight again, hurriedly rushing out into the field and gathering fish for breakfast. I ate it frantically, starving, devoid of nutrients from that horrific experiment the day before. After that, though, my day was empty. My week was empty, really, all waiting on King.

He'd never gotten me off yesterday, like he'd told me he would. He'd also told me, though, to wait until he did, and in my boredom out in the woods I found myself particularly struggling with that. It was getting too cold to bathe in the creek, I'd already eaten, and I'd explored the woods a bit, walked around to clear some time. After all that, though, I had nothing but time. I studied the tome a bit more, making no progress, and made lunch a few hours later. Despite the rising urge, I didn't pleasure myself.

I repeated these motions for five days.

On the sixth day, I finally found myself feeling restless enough to wander farther away from the house. I knew I wasn't supposed to go far, but I figured a walk would do me some good to quell not only my general restlessness, but my sexual restlessness as well. I wanted King. The more I tried to wander, though, the more I thought about him. What if he came home and found me gone? He'd have no idea where I went. I returned home and returned to the tome, sitting outside trying to study it the best I could. It was on that day, the sixth day without King, that I made a breakthrough.

One of the pages had a photo, a photo of a deer with no eyes. The photo had a caption below it, eleven characters. I stared at it for a moment before grabbing my phone, checking the note I'd made. "CROIBHRISTE". Eleven characters. I had no pencil to write down the characters, but as I scanned the page I tried to find where they could be applied. Another word near the photo, four letters, seemed to be "DEER", and another word seemed to be "EYES", if i made guesses about the missing symbols. I felt like I was onto something, but I found myself eventually hitting a wall, with no way to write down the characters I was translating. It became too frustrating, but I dog-eared the page and made note of it as I set out to find some sort of charcoal or something, something with which I could write.

While I was out in the yard, I heard footsteps again. This time, though, they had a face attached to them. It was King, and I ran to him and threw myself into a hug, a wordless hug, squeezing him tight and rubbing my face around in his fur.

"I figured you'd be excited, but I didn't expect to be greeted before I'd even gotten to the door." he said, returning the hug.

"I missed you so much!! I missed you so--" I continued, tears forming in my eyes, sniffling, wetting his fur as he remarked "you cry so much" with a tone that seemed more charmed than upset with me. We eventually parted from the hug and I smiled up to him, his face looking down at me as he pat me on the head, telling me "between the crying and that smile, it is hard not to see you as a child sometimes. You are such a strange creature."

"How was it?" I asked. "How did you handle it?"

"Well, it took me a few days to find it. He'd parked in a parking lot near the entrance to a trail. I had to wait until nightfall, alone. I'd hunted a nearby black bear, smashed his car and covered it in bear footprints. I ate most of the contents of his car, and--"

"You ate it? Like, papers and stuff?"

"Yes. Best way to hide the evidence. I wanted to wait until I got home to regurgitate it, where we could burn it all."

"So it's...in your stomach right now?" I asked. He nodded.

"His car looks as if a bear ransacked it during the night. I need to purge what's in my stomach, though, the trek back has left it not settling well in my stomach at all."

King made his way past me, down to where he'd burned a lot of the belongings from before, and proceeded to vomit, large amounts of wadded up wet paper with objects amidst it. I went to rub his back, watching as he heaved up two more loads of garbage. He'd not only eaten important things, it seemed, but just trash. Plastic, brown paper bags, some articles of clothing, all chewed up and covered in bile, useless and indiscernible for the most part. He was trembling a bit, and I could tell it must've been uncomfortable to purge such strangely shaped objects. Sure, much of it had been chewed, but it had not been digested, rather it just sat in his stomach waiting.

"King, say...how'd you...handle...the guy's body after you ate him, anyway?"

"After the aching subsided and my body had crushed some of it, I dug several holes and purged parts of it in different spots. It will decompose far before a body would have without assistance. My stomach fluids may not digest on their own, but they're acidic nonetheless..." he said, wiping his skull with his wrist as he cleared his throat.

"We let this dry for a bit, then we burn it. After that, I would say all our worries are done. How have you been?" he asked.

"Restless. Horny, admittedly. You never got me off last week!" I said, grinning to him.

"I'm sure you did fine on your own while I was gone" King would say, but I shook my head.

"I waited, like you told me to."

"You did?" he asked, a genuine rising surprise in his voice, like he was impressed with me. "Well i'll have to really spoil you tonight. You've been so well behaved lately. It's delightful."

"What're you going to do for the rest of the day?" I asked.

"I am going to the Forest's Heart, to speak with an old friend. He will give me guidance about our children. You can come with me, if you'd like. It will be much less stressful to enter now that you have proven yourself."

I agreed, very much wanting to be close to King after having been separated for so long. In fact, every time he stood still, I found myself clinging to him, holding his hand, holding him by the tail. I just wanted to be near him. We made our way together down to the old cave, down the hill to the stone circle. It was still light out this time, though, and that was when I saw it. Amidst the fallen leaves that covered most of the ground on the stone circle, there was a bunch of burned earth, like residue left over after a planned fire. It was in a shape, though, there were straight lines, and as King and I stood together I'd kick the leaves around and ask him what it was.

"I'm not sure. It's been here for as long as I can remember. I assume it's some sort of magic seal, for the Heart itself. I can't be certain, though."

The ritual for entering the Forest's Heart was much less intense this second time around. We held hands, and we were both very quiet. I felt the reverse pressure, the pull of energy outward, but it didn't hurt like it did the first time. I certainly didn't feel like i was going to die, the second time around. My vision would fade, though, momentarily blind, and I found it blurring into view once more, in the daylight, in that iridescent world of spirals and constant movement of the Heart. It was daytime, the air was saturated once more, and King took me and slung me up onto his shoulders, carrying me with my arms around his neck, my legs in his neck. It felt so magical. As stressful as the experiment had been, King had been so loving after that, so generous with praise, so kind.

"We must think of names for our children, Nico. I cannot wait to make a family with you." he said as he carried me. We chatted for a while, and I suggested names to him. He, of course, had no suggestions as his kind did not have names, but he wanted to name our children as I had named him. Our conversations stayed positive like that, around family, around children, around our lives together, and I felt like it was maybe starting to take a turn for something healthier. He'd finally made breakthroughs in his experiments, and I had proven myself again and again to be faithful and committed. Maybe, I thought, we were going to be okay.

We walked for a while, down hills, through moist air, dense foliage, into thicker and thicker tree coverage until we came to a clearing, a scenic clearing. The trees all stopped in what seemed to be a perfect circle, and in that circle was a lush, beautiful field with one lone tree in the middle. It looked old, a very thick trunk that branched out upwards into lush greenery that seemed like something digitally generated for a film. It was simply too beautiful to truly exist, and as King let me off his back he'd say "please, stay here. He is not social if strangers are around. Lay back, have a rest in the grass."

With that, he head towards the large tree, and I could see clearly that he stopped in front of it, placing a hand on it. He was speaking to it, though I could not hear what he was saying, and the tree made no movements or signs of life. I assumed it to be some strange thing King could see as a forest spirit, and I followed his directions and laid back in the grass. It wasn't at all itchy, like grass could be. It was soft, dewy, warm. I felt like the entire world around us was a greenhouse, and breathing felt pleasant in my lungs. I'd lay there breathing slowly, falling into a relaxed state for what felt like forever. The sun always seemed to shine there, so it was hard to tell how long I was in that spot. I didn't want to be nosy, sitting there watching King, so I kept my gaze toward the sun, basking in the light.

Eventually, he returned, his hand on my body as he said "rise, Nico, we are going home." I followed, of course, and he lifted me onto his shoulders as I asked him "how'd it go?"

"We talked quite a bit. He knew of our relationship, and was surprised I would plan to marry a mortal from outside the woods."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Not necessarily bad, but certainly not in our culture."

I paused before asking "who...was that, anyway?"

"Athair Nagcrann, the Father of the Forest. He is who we speak of when we refer to this as the Forest's Heart. It is his heart to which we are referring."

"Athair Nagcrann. Is this...forest his home?"

"It is his body. He has existed for milennia. All plantlife of the woods, they are born from him. He is to them as what you call 'God' is to man."

"Interesting. Why do you come to him for advice, if you're not a plant?" I asked. King paused, his ears perking up as if he was surprised I asked that question.

"It is...a long story, admittedly. One that I don't know entirely myself. As I said in your 'truck', as you called it, I don't recall much of my youth. I have no memory of parents, or of family. I recall my kind, and I recall being an adult. Our species is largely solitary, as there is only one of us usually needed to guard a forest. When we socialize, it is because the woods have communed together, and they have desired to grow larger. When forests desire to expand and connect, we meet and connect. That is typically when we marry, when our forests merge."

"And you were the king of THIS forest? or of your species as a whole?" I asked.

"I'm surprised you remember I told you that", he said as we walked.

"It's the whole reason I named you King."

"I suppose that's true. Why would you forget?" King began. "I am the king of these woods, specifically. I may have...inflated my worth a bit, early on, as I hoped to impress you."

"Being the guardian and king of a whole forest is still a huge deal, i'm still as impressed as I was." I said.

"That's good to know. But, yes, Athair is the father of all plant life, though...I have grown rather lonely, with my forest having never expanded to have found a mate. I took to visiting the Heart, which my kind usually only does for guidance, because I wanted companionship. He is my friend, and, before you, was my only conversation. My forest's stillness is why I never married, and my foolish killing of the Forest God's bride resulted in a curse that ensured I'd more or less never marry, until you, at least."

"Why can't Athair help you? Talk to the Forest God, reverse the curse? You made a mistake."

"Athair and the Wild do not that work that way. One cannot ask for forgiveness for our sins. We must live with them, even if they are mistakes. Sometimes the worst things that happen to us are simply a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is The Wild."

I nodded, accepting what he was saying. We were close to the exit now, the circle where we returned home.

"What did he say about us having kids? Did he have a solution?" I asked. King didn't answer, rather he continued walking.

"King?" I'd ask again.

"...He said he will be thinking on it."

"Oh. So...it's not guaranteed?" I asked.

"No." King replied. A long pause as I found myself unsure of what to say, King finally speaking, saying "he asked for what day I planned to marry you, to ensure it did not rain."

"He can prevent that?"

"No, but he knows when the rain is coming. He gave me a day. It is Saturday night, right now. We will marry on Monday."

"What!? The day after tomorrow."

"Rain is coming, a terrible rain after Monday. It will rain through the next week. Monday will be perfect, and it will be warm. We will marry then."

"That's..." I began, struggling to find my words. I was excited, so excited, and all I could say was "that's amazing."

"Yes. But, for now, we must get home. I want to make you dinner, and I owe you spoiling."

---

We had fish for dinner, as usual, but it felt all the more special knowing it was being made by the man who was about to be my husband. We sat around the fire, the fire that was burning all the remnants of the shepherd's belongings, and had a delicious meal. Our conversation was light, pleasant, talking about our future and the things we wanted to do together, the places far out in the woods he wanted to take me, the places in town I wanted to take him. Marriage made it all feel so much more real. We could go anywhere, we could do anything, we'd be married. I was enthralled.

"And when Athair figures out how we can have children, we can--" I began. King interrupted me.

"Ah, yes. About that." he spoke. I stopped speaking, mouth open, words hanging in the air as I turned to him, curious.

"I...was not entirely honesty with you, when I said he would be thinking on it. I just wanted to wait until we got home."

My mouth closed slowly, my heart feeling as if it was hanging by a thread above the chasm of my body. King had never lied to me, not even a little white lie.

"...Why did you not just tell me the truth right then and there?" I'd ask.

"I felt you'd jump off my back and run to him to bother him about it. His answer was actually sudden and certain." he said.

I felt a lump in my throat that I had to struggle to swallow, my tongue drying in my mouth as I asked "...well what'd he say, then?"

"We can't have children. He almost laughed at me that I'd even asked. I was embarrassed by how ridiculous he thought it was I presented the question, with both of us being male. But, he told me he will find a female of similar situation to mind and allow us to mate, even if our forests do not grow together. It is apparently not all that uncommon for woods close together to not eventually converge. I am not alone."

I heard it. I heard every word of it, crystal clear, but I was so incredulous that all I could summon from the bottomless pit of my body, the blackness into which my heart was plummeting, was "what?"

"We cannot have children together, but I will be given a mate with whom I can procreate. He said he is sure there will be little issue with us raising it ourselves, though. There may be some protest from the mother, of course, but being the male, I should get priority in--"

"What?"

Instead of speaking again, King would turn to me and put a hand on my shoulder as he asked "is something wrong, Nico? Are you having trouble hearing?"

"No, I heard you well and clear, all of it. But...what? That's...not at all what we agreed upon."

"What do you mean?" he'd ask.

"You just said we'd be married and faithful to eachother, that it would be just you and I. You said that explicitly, that you mate monogamously for life, and that there would be no one else."

"Nico, that was when I thought there was some chance of us having children toge--"

"No. No, that shouldn't matter. You're marrying me, you said it was just us. I don't--I don't want you to just get to fuck and have a child with someone else!"

"That is how procreation works, Nico, you're being ridi--"

"No, NO." I rose up, pointing at him. "Don't you dare start name-calling me. This was never brought up to me this whole relationship. You're not just getting to fuck someone else, which is hard enough, you're having a CHILD with them. How's that work with your supposed 'mating for life', King?"

"I would mate with her and we would have a child that YOU and I would raise. I would probably have to spend the first year or so with her so he can receive maternal care, but you could come with--"

"No! No, no no FUCK no, King! No! This was never mentioned as potential to me before you asked to marry me! I'm not doing that! I'm not being the cuckold to a husband that is not only sleeping with someone else but LIVING with them and RAISING A CHILD. No! Absolutely not! It's off!"

"What's off?" he'd ask.

"This--" I paused, almost unable to say the next works, "this whole thing! All of it! It's too far! I--I-I cannot take another second of it! Every time I think something--something's finally going right, some crazy shit comes up like this! I won't marry you!" I had risen from the seat at this point, walking back toward the cabin. At that point, I had full intention of getting my keys, my phone, my belongings, and leaving. I was actively impulsively, but I was devastated. King, however, followed behind me, grabbing me suddenly by the wrist, barking a loud and pointed "NO" at me, one so grisly by comparsion to his usual frustration that I did indeed pause and turn to face him.

"You will not. I told Athair we are marrying. I have already dealt with the embarrassment of having to confess my sodomic lifestyle to him, I will not have the secondary shame of being stood up right before my wedding. We will marry, we will consummate, and life will go on."

"I'm NOT, King, and let go of my fucking HAND," I began to yell as I yanked uselessly at his grip on my wrist. He was substantially stronger than me, and it was only serving to hurt me as I tried to free myself.

"Why? Why are you doing this, Nico?" he'd bark at me, as if he didn't understand.

"Because nothing ever goes right! Everything I do is never good enough, every sacrifice I make!" I yelled back. "It's all for fuckin' nothing! I finally get told marriage is happening and it's punctuated by being told my husband gets to have a woman AND kid on the side! Y-you--you talk about how embarrassed you were! THAT'S fucking embarrassing!"

I still continued to struggle, but King's pull would only get more aggressive. He yanked me back suddenly, his grip moving from wrist to forearm as he shook it, causing fear to crawl over my expression.

"You would really humiliate me and abandon me after all the hard work I've done for you? All the time and effort i've put into this? I just covered up a death YOU directly caused, and you're ending that day by running away?"

"I won't--I WILL NOT tolerate you having children with someone else. I was promised monogamy, I will get it." I insisted. King yelled back at me, and as he did, his tone was gravely, snarling, frothy spit in the corners of his mouth.

"Selfish!! All you are is selfish! Your kind are always this way! Self-serving, spoiled, indulgent, childish, incapable of seeing the greater picture in favor of your own stupid, STUPID needs. You're STUPID. It's in my culture to have children, and you take that right away from me for your own disgusting needs!"

"Well it's in my culture that when someone says they'll be faithful to you that they MEAN it, and--"

"Do they wander off in the FUCKING woods with a stranger and nearly get themselves killed!?" he barked. I'd never heard him swear before.

"I--"

"Do they, Nico? Do they constantly try to pull their partner out of his home and comfort to drag him around to eat fucking grease-pit food and befriend their ex lover in hopes of salvaging some sort of connection with him?"

"Ki--"

"Are they all as SPOILED and NARCISSISTIC as you?" he'd bellow at me, shaking me by the arm before shoving me away, stepping forward as I fell into the dirt. He loomed over me, leaning down to where his head was in my face, spitting angry.

"I have made EVERY attempt I can to make you happy. I feed you. I hunt for you. I have DEPRAVED sex with you. I hold you and caress you and tell you I love you every time you ask me to do so. I have killed for you, I have covered that killing for you. I have left my only home and driven into the terrors of civilization for you, and yet EVERY time I need you to rise to the occasion, you whimper and whine and protest and tell me how unfair I am being. You are SPOON-FED a life of indulgence through me and yet you never fail to act in your own interests. I WANT children, Nico, and I WANT to marry you."

"Why me? Why not just marry the woman you're going to mate?" I asked.

"Because you are mine. You are my partner. You have been my partner. I do not want to marry someone else. I want to marry you."

I was so angry, so unbelievably angry, and tears welled up in my eyes as they always did. Today had been such a wonderful day, too, so peaceful. I had been elated before we went to the Forest's Heart. But, now...I just felt sick. My heart had landed in my stomach and was sloshing around in boiling anger, all sitting in the pit of my body wanting so desperately to burst forth, but I had no reason to do so. It was all for nought.

"I will marry you, but...you will not mate with anyone but me. I won't have it."

King rose away from me, no longer looming menacingly close to my face. He'd scoff and turn away, making his way to the fire as he began to kick dirt onto the flames, eventually making his way past me to the cabin door, pushing it open and remarking as he passed through the door frame.

"So be it. You can spoil yourself tonight, then. That's all you ever do, anyway."