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Chapter 10 - A bit of fun and relaxation for the boys before they continue their journey- and a secret visit from a very mysterious being.

Note that this is a somewhat less NSFW version that omits a lewd scene. The full version is available on both InkBunny and SoFurry. This version is for sharing via other means, or for those that want to skip the porny bits. All you need to know about what's left out is:

1. Lykou is indeed attracted to Kuna (in case that wasn't already obvious), enough to fantasize about him while doing you-know-what.

2. Lykou and his friend Naira have a fairly casual friends-with-benefits type relationship back home, though they only do "hand and mouth" stuff because neither wants to risk pregnancy, especially Naira

3. Lykou is wary of suggesting such a concept to Kuna, even if he'd like to, for fear of it interfering with their still fairly new friendship, especially given how inexperienced Kuna is.

Otherwise, the rest of the chapter is pretty much there. Enjoy!

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For once, Kuna was the second to wake up. He was somewhat surprised and momentarily worried when he noticed that Lykou wasn't next to him. Fortunately, the canid's blanket was still draped over him, which kept certain anxieties at bay.

After he got up and left the sleeping area, he blushed a bit when he noticed familiar looking clothing hanging from a nearby tree branch. A sound down near the base of the waterfall got his attention. When he turned to look, he saw the konuul swimming in the large pool of water at the fall's base. Apparently, the water was a lot deeper than it looked, at least in some areas, seeing as how most of the canid's body was submerged and he was clearly actively swimming rather than standing. He hesitated for a minute, then walked down to the water's edge. "'morning Lykou."

"Oh, good morning Kuna!" Lykou cheerfully greeted him as he swam over to meet him. "You should join me. The water's great, perfect way to wake up."

Kuna looked at the falls thoughtfully, trying to avoid looking directly at the canid. "Hmm... maybe."

"Come on, don't make me come grab you," the canid teased. When the sereva continued to hesitate, Lykou's smile faded slightly. "Everything alright?"

"Hmm? Yeah, fine," Kuna assured him, blushing again with an awkward smile as he glanced back to the konuul. "Just... sorry. Could... could you look away first?"

Lykou gave him a level, slightly incredulous look. "Kuna. You were strutting around naked for most of the first two days I knew you. And until yesterday you were still pantsless."

"I know, I know," Kuna groaned, planting his face into his hand. "Just... I don't know, I can't explain it, just... being naked is one thing, but getting naked feels different, somehow."

Lykou rolled his eyes, but smirked and turned away anyway. "Alright, if you say so."

After a minute or two, he finally heard the sereva splash into the water behind him. That was quickly followed by a slight yelp.

"Eesh, its chilly!" Kuna complained as he swam into Lykou's field of vision, then shot the canid a playfully accusatory glare, smiling nonetheless. "I thought you said it was nice."

Lykou laughed and lightly splashed the sereva. "You'll get used to it quick."

"Hey!" Kuna replied, then splashed the canid back. The two laughed and goofed around a bit before settling down and just enjoying the water. "You were right, this is nice."

"Told you."

Kuna sighed. "We probably shouldn't take too long though. We should be setting out again soon."

"Nah," Lykou replied, shaking his head slightly. "I say we take it easy today, Kuna. We'll visit the salt cave later, but otherwise I think it's a good day to just relax a bit." He swam a bit closer and rubbed the sereva's head lightly. "You especially need it."

Kuna's ears folded down and he again blushed a bit, but smiled. "If you're sure. I know you must be getting homesick."

Lykou frowned for a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, a bit. I do miss everyone," he confirmed. "But there's no telling when we'll get back, or how far we are, so I figure the best way to look at it is that the longer it takes, the more stories we'll have to tell when we get there."

Kuna stared at him thoughtfully, then suddenly wrapped an arm around the canid- he would have gone for a full embrace, but given that they were swimming to keep afloat, that would have been a bit more awkward. "Somehow we've got to figure that out though. I know you're good at being optimistic and all, but everyone has limits," he said with a small sympathetic smile. "I know I've kind of been the designated headcase here, but you know I'm here for you too, if you need to talk about anything."

The konuul took a slow breath, then nodded a little, returning the hug appreciatively. His smile slowly returned. "Thanks Kuna, I appreciate it." He looked up at the waterfall for a moment, then continued, "I imagine we should start seeing that mountain the echo-guy mentioned soon, once we do get on the move again. All the rough ground and stuff. Hopefully, if nothing else, we'll be able to get a good look at the surrounding area from the top."

"Makes sense to me. Heh, maybe that's what the whole 'enlightenment' or whatever he was trying to say was about," Kuna suggested thoughtfully as they drifted back apart some.

"Sounds reasonable to me," the canid said with a shrug. He started to say something else, but stopped and his eyes widened a bit. "...Kuna. Did your foot just touch mine?"

Kuna immediately got nervous. "Uh, n-no?"

They exchanged a glance and were silent for a moment as they felt a large presence move through the water underneath them.

"H-how deep is this water?" Kuna nervously asked, slowly swimming back towards the shore.

"No idea, I haven't done any diving or anything," Lykou responded, following suit.

Then they both frantically bolted for the shore as their mystery guest suddenly swam up and breached the surface nearby. Neither of them knew they could swim so fast, and the next thing they knew they were panting and trying to calm their racing hearts on a damp rock near the edge of the water.

Luckily, the threat seemed to be a false alarm, as they stared across and saw the creature lazily climb onto the shore on the other side. It was some kind of large, web-footed lizard-looking thing. It had six limbs and a large, broad tail. Fortunately, it seemed completely indifferent to them as it waddled awkwardly over to a sunny spot and began basking.

"W-what is-" Kuna nervously began to ask aloud, his eye twitching.

"Not a freaking clue," Lykou answered before the sereva could finished, sharing a similar facial expression.

"It... bothers me how c-close it got before we n-noticed," Kuna commented.

Lykou nodded slightly. "Y-yeah, we should probably be a bit more careful from now on," he said, then paused to take a deep breath, gradually calming down. "Looks harmless though. It could have hurt us at any time if it wanted to."

"That's... really not very reassuring," Kuna replied flatly, as he glanced sidelong at the konuul.

"Fair. But the point is I don't think we have to worry about it. It probably eats fish, and neither of us have gills or fins, so I think we're safe," Lykou pointed out with a smirk.

"Still, all the same, I think I've had enough swimming."

"Yeah, same," the konuul agreed, watching the creature. "Swimming hole is all his now, as far as I'm concerned."

For its part, the creature seemed quite content lazing around in the little patch of sunshine that it'd found. If it looked at them at all, it was with a seeming idle disinterest.

"But hey. We're both good and awake now, yeah?" Lykou pointed out with a grin.

Kuna stared at him blankly for a moment, then sighed and rolled his eyes, smirking faintly as well. "Can't argue with that I guess."

Lykou stretched a bit, then found a sunny spot of his own to recline back in. "I think it's got the right idea, actually. Kind of a relaxing way to dry off."

Kuna found himself staring at the konuul before realizing he'd said something. "Wh- oh, uh, yeah," he agreed, as he quickly looked away, blushing a bit.

"Er, you alright?" the Lykou asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kuna answered dismissively with a faint smirk. No fair being so damn sexy, he bemusedly thought to himself.

"Er, okay..."

After a moment, Kuna stood up and stretched. "Well, you sunbathe all you want, I'm going to go dry off by the fire," he said as he started climbing back up the hill and around the corner to their campsite.

"Yeah I'll come join you in a bit," Lykou said, unable to stop his eyes from drifting towards the sereva's backside as he left. When he realized what he was doing, he blushed and quickly looked away before Kuna could glance back and notice. "I'll, uh, just be relaxing down here a bit longer."

Kuna briefly paused and turned back, glancing over at the creature on the far side. "Just, you know... be careful around that thing. It might be harmless, but better to not risk letting it get too close."

"I know, I know," Lykou responded waving him off. "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on it. Doesn't look like he's in the mood for moving much now though anyway."

As the sereva left, Lykou's eyes inevitably ended up drifting back towards his backside until he was out of sight. Then he sighed and glanced around the immediate area, including checking to make sure the lizard thing hadn't moved. If anything, the creature looked almost asleep as it lounged on the warm, sunny rock.

*****

After Lykou and Kuna dried off and ate, the two packed up their things and headed out. Even though they planned to come back- the supposed mountain was in a different direction, after all- they didn't want to risk the lizard thing, or any other wild animal, getting into their bags while they were gone. And again, Lykou insisted Kuna bring some kind of walking stick that he could protect himself with, just in case.

Meanwhile, back at the waterfall, the basking creature stirred. There was a strange charge in the air. Its simple brain wasn't sophisticated enough to contemplate such things to any great deal, but deep inside, something stirred in its instincts. The presence of certain kinds of energies cut to the core of even the most simplistic creatures.

As it turned to look, a pair of glowing indigo eyes appeared within the falls. They started to move forward, and a portion of the flower waters came with them, taking on a vaguely anthropomorphic shape as they did so. Whoever, or whatever they were, they stepped out over the swimming hole, hovering in thin air.

The lizard lacked the capacity for complex thought, and wasn't well suited to facial expressions. Nonetheless, it took significant interest in the clearly supernatural entity, and its eyes registered a rare level of concern. Enough to stand up, turn to face them completely, and back away slightly.

The glowing eyes until that point had remained faced forward, looking out in the direction that Lykou and Kuna had gone. Its hand stretched out to its side, and suddenly a fish bolted out of the water, directly into its grasp. At that point, its eyes briefly looked down at the struggling fish as its other hand came around to meet it.

"Sorry little one," a somewhat eerie, androgynous voice resonated from the flowing waters comprising the figure's mostly featureless form. "Your time in this world is over now."

The entity waved its other hand over the fish, and pulled some sort of ethereal-looking form out of it that resembled the basic shape of a fish. Immediately, the body went lifeless. With a simple hand wave, the entity shooed away the ethereal form, which swam away into the air and vanished. After that, the entity looked down at the lizard, whose eyes were significantly more alert and concerned than before.

"Well done chasing the boys out of there," the entity said, then tossed the dead fish over to the lizard, who gladly snapped it out of the air and munched it down. "You might not mind their presence, but..."

The figure slowly turned to look down at the dark core of the swimming hole. Suddenly, another, much larger eye lazily opened down in the depths. One that anyone without some kind of special sight would have easily missed. "...I suspect your mother might have gotten a bit impatient with them, eventually."

Slowly the figure's gaze returned to the forest. "Be more careful, you two," the entity said. "You never know what's lurking in the dark." With a dull boom, the eyes vanished and the water collapsed, joining the rest in the swimming hole, while an echoing, cackling laughter erupted and faded away.

The lizard decided it had had more than enough basking for the time being, and quickly retreated back to its aquatic den.

*****

After a modest hike, Lykou and Kuna arrived at the salt cave. It was a somewhat small and shallow one, but it had more than enough of the tasty, useful mineral embedded in its walls. Kuna's eyes lit up and he eagerly hurried past Lykou. As soon as he got inside, he started inspecting the walls.

"Wait, you're not actually-" Lykou began to ask, then stopped himself when he saw his friend start literally licking the cave wall. For a moment, he was dumbfounded, then he burst out laughing. "Really??"

Kuna blushed a bit. "Whaaaat?" he responded with a sheepish grin. "You can collect some from the other side, just let me have this."

The canid just shook his head and snickered some more. "Just don't overdo it. My waterskin's about half full and I don't want to have to drag your dried up butt all the way back to the stream."

"I woooon't," Kuna assured him, then immediately went back to licking the cave wall.

"You're really something else, Kuna," Lykou said as he bent down to start collecting what he could. Occasionally he picked up a nearby mostly salt-free rock and used it to break bits off the wall. After a little while, he finally managed to convince Kuna to step away from the wall and begin helping him to fill the small special bag he'd made specifically for salt.

Kuna suddenly froze up as he was reaching down for a solid chunk in a darker corner. He let out a frightened yelp and shrank back, causing Lykou to look over with concern. A blur of action followed. The sereva scrambled backward as an enormous centipede scurried out of the shadows at him. It was as almost as long as he was tall, and thicker around than his arm. Lykou jumped up and smacked it to the side with his spear, causing it to let out an angry hissing sound and turn its attention on him.

"Out of the cave, quick!"

Kuna needed no persuading, and bolted the moment he got to his feet, terrified. "Be careful!" he managed to blurt out, scared as much for Lykou as himself.

Lykou and the creature stared eachother down in the cave's entryway for a moment. Using one hand to keep his spear in front of him, he reached down with his other and pulled his knife out. The oversized bug took that moment to lash out at him. He used the spear to try and swat it away again, but this time it wrapped itself around the weapon and began making its way onto his arm. Just as its dripping fangs were about to pierce his flesh, he jammed his knife in its face, forcing it back.

Somehow, this only angered the creature, and it let out more angry, pained hissing sounds as it scrambled backwards. In its panic, its legs loosened their grip slightly, which allowed the konuul to grab its tail end, whip it around in a large arc, and slam its head into the cave wall. Dazed but not dead, the centipede scrambled around his leg, dizzily making a few failed attempts at biting him. He reached down and grabbed it right behind its head and the two wrestled around for a moment before he finally managed to jam his knife into its side just past his grip and sever its head in one lightning-fast movement.

The whole thing happened so fast, Kuna could hardly tell what was going on. On several occasions, he'd tried picking up his stick and going to swing it, only to pull back at the last moment for fear of hitting Lykou. Once the creature was finally dead, he hurried over to check on the konuul.

"Oh fuck, Lykou! Are you okay?!" he asked, his eyes tearing up. "Please tell me it didn't get you..."

Lykou took a moment to catch his breath, then tossed the faintly twitching body aside with a smirk. "Not a nibble," he assured the sereva, then turned to look at the severed head and spat on it. "S'what you get for ruining a nice day, bastard." He kicked it out of the cave and into the brush for good measure. Then he turned back to the sereva and smiled. "All good, Kuna. I told you you're safe with me," he said with a wink.

Kuna took a slow, deep breath to calm his nerves, then frowned and looked down at the corpse. "....aaand I was a useless coward again," he mumbled, rubbing his arm.

"Hey! None of that!" Lykou said and quickly embraced the sereva. "Come on, don't go back to that. We've been over this."

"I know, I know," Kuna said with a sigh. "I just... wish I could've been more help. I hate feeling so useless. Something attacks and all I can think about is getting away as quick as possible."

"Kuna, you're not useless. You're just not a fighter," the canid told him, rubbing his back softly. "Your talents just aren't related to violence. That's perfectly fine."

Kuna's ears folded down. "If you say so. Still feels bad, though."

Lykou sighed and gave the sereva a gentle squeeze. "I wish I could help you with that," he said softly. "Hey, the salt bag's pretty much full." He looked over at the wall for a moment, then spotted something. "Hang on just a second."

He grabbed a rock and chipped away at something midway down the wall, then returned to Kuna holding another decent-sized crystalline chunk of solid salt. "Here. Let's head back to camp. We can cuddle by the fire and you can enjoy that."

Kuna still looked a bit down, but he did perk up some at the idea. "Yeah, that sounds good."

*****

Once they returned to the camp, they restarted the fire and spent most of the rest of the day just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. As promised, there was plenty of cuddling. Kuna's mood gradually improved as a result, much to Lykou's relief.

The sun slowly dipped below the horizon and Kuna sighed contentedly in the canid's arms. "I'm glad we took a bit of a break today," he said, staring idly at the fire. "It was nice. Well, minus that damn bug." He shuddered at the thought. "I didn't know they could get that big."

"Yeah, kind of crazy to think about," Lykou replied, wincing briefly at the memory. "Then again, considering some of the other things we've seen, I guess we shouldn't be too surprised. And seeing weird new creatures is part of the adventure."

"If you say so," Kuna said, rubbing Lykou's arm softly. "I just hope they're aren't too many more... hostile ones."

The konuul grinned, resting his head on top of the sereva's. "Don't worry, I'm here to keep us safe."

"All the same, the less panic attacks I have to endure, the better. And I don't want_you_ getting hurt, either," Kuna continued, but then smiled as he leaned into his friend's embrace. "But I do definitely feel safer with you around than I have in a long time."

Lykou squeezed him gently, blushing slightly as he smiled. "Good." After a moment, he yawned. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired."

As if on queue, the sereva yawned as well. "Yeah, we should get some rest. We're heading out tomorrow, right?"

The canid nodded. "Seems a shame to leave such a nice camping spot, but we can't stay here forever," he said as he leaned back and stretched. "Would be nice if it turned out to be closer to home, but I doubt it."

Kuna reluctantly took the opportunity to climb out of the konuul's lap and stand up, stretching a bit as well. "Yeah. Hopefully we'll find similar places further towards the mountain."

They both entered their sleeping area and made sure to put their bags close by. Their makeshift sleeping mat was still in tact, fortunately, and Lykou was checking it over for any unwelcome guests, when Kuna noticed something odd. The lighting from the moon and stars wasn't great, despite how pretty its effect was through the flowing water. But along the back wall, he spotted a small, odd, clearly artificial symbol etched into the stone. It looked like a tall arch with a triangle underneath it, with a series of small lines surrounding the whole thing in a circular shape.

"Hey Lykou, come look at this," he said as he inspected the marking.

Lykou stood back up and came over. He looked at the symbol that Kuna was going over with a finger and raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"I don't know. I don't remember it being here before, but I guess it would've been easy to overlook," he commented. "I wonder who made it, and why?"

"Good question," the canid responded, looking around for any sign of tools he might not have noticed before on the nearby ground. Not spotting any, he turned back to look at the symbol. "It looks smooth though. And there's no way they could've made it with just whatever's laying around here."

"Strange," Kuna commented, finally lowering his hand away from the carving. "I wonder what it's supposed to be?"

Lykou looked at it for another moment, then shrugged, turning back towards their bed. "Who knows? I'm too tired to think about it now, though. And whoever made it's nowhere in sight. We probably just overlooked it before."

Kuna was less convinced and stared at it a moment longer, but eventually joined the canid as he took out the blanket. "I guess you're right," he eventually said as he laid down next to Lykou. "Still can't help wondering about it, though."

"If we meet anyone that, you know, actually wants to talk to us at some point, we can ask around. Maybe it's some kind of tribal emblem," Lykou suggested. "But if this was someone's territory, I'm sure we would have seen them by now."

"True, I guess," Kuna said, shrugging. "Well, goodnight Lykou."

"Goodnight, Kuna."

The sereva waited a moment before grinning and pushing himself up between the konuul's arms. Lykou just grinned in return and cuddled his buddy as they both dozed off together.

As they slept, around midnight, the symbol on the wall began glowing with a pale blue light. Moments later, part of the stone wall next to it warped and twisted, until a shimmering portal of light and strange imagery appeared where it'd been. After a few moments, the portal closed, leaving the natural stone back where it'd been, and the glow faded from the symbol.