{"sf1_id":1983188,"sf2_id":"Wel37k1x","title":"Forbidden Love - Chapter Four - WritingGroupChallenge -","author":"Cederwyn Whitefurr","words":708,"posted_at":"2023-05-06T09:00:00.000Z","tags":["Anthro","Anthropomorphic","Buck","Cervid","Cervine","Chapter","Character Development","Compassion","Deer","Doe","Fantasy","Female","Fiction","Heterosexual","Male","Plot Development","Red deer","Sentient feral","Short","Stag","Story","Story Progression","Story Series","Whitetail","confusion"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1983188-forbidden-love-chapter-four-writinggroupchallenge","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Wel37k1x","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/dd/b3/ddb37653-9dac-4f80-bd05-26f74deab312","description":"#13 of WritingGroupChallenge\n\nEthan begins to heal, under this strange, enigmatic Doe's attentions - yet her insistence on forcing him to drink the medicine makes him worry...","content":"Forbidden Love\n\nChapter Four\n\n© Cederwyn Whitefurr\n\n2ndMay 2023\n\nAll Rights Reserved.\n\nThis Week's Writing Challenge: The hills held a deep, dark secret.\n\nAt least 1000 words, don't worry if you go over.\n\nTag all prompts with: WritingGroupChallenge.\n\nAdd all prompts to a separate folder.\n\nPut the prompt description at the beginning of your story.\n\nEthan trembled, he couldn't help it, gazing into the wide, dark eyes of Eilidh, before she laughed and licked his forehead.\n\n\"Silly Buck!\" Eilidh snickered. \"You should see your muzzle, adorable!\"\n\nLetting out a low, whimpering moan, Ethan shuddered. \"That wasn't a very nice joke to play on me...\"\n\nHer expression flashed away in a blink;\u0026nbsp;before she frowned and her gaze turned more predatory.\n\n\"Buck is lucky you pleased me - last stag who did not...\"\n\nPointedly, she looked to the bubbling cauldron, then back at Ethan, raising an eyebrow slowly, her point made accurately, which sent a tremble rippling through his body.\n\n_I thought animals could sense us - what we are and would flee from us! How... does Eilidh know something, some - way - to mask,\u0026nbsp;that what we are? How much knowledge of our kind, does she know, that my people do not? I could..._\n\nHe squealed as she tweaked his ear painfully, snapping him out of his mental thoughts.\n\n\"Deer attention here and now - _please_ - \"\n\nEthan sensed the_please_ was an afterthought from her, and he shivered and nodded gently. \"Of course, I apologize - \"\n\n\"Is polite Deer,\" Eilidh spoke quietly. \"I _like_ polite Deer - I like Deer that know how to please Doe...more.\"\n\nEthan smiled nervously, turning on all his Whitetail charm and talent, as his lips quivered.\n\n\"Whilst Deer is not...\" Eilidh raised an eyebrow.\n\n\"That's not my fault - \" Ethan shuddered and felt inadequate. \"It's a species thing, I'm sorry I don't...\"\n\nEilidh snorted;\u0026nbsp;as if bored with the conversation. \"One more drink for Deer I think, Deer is healing well - more drink, more food, and more rest. Now...\"\n\nAs Eilidh began stirring the stew and preparing whatever _that_ medicine was, that bombed him, Ethan experimentally flexed his leg - it still hurt, a _lot_, but he knew his Therian body well - it'd heal a lot faster;\u0026nbsp;than a normal human's injury would.\n\nTurning back, she held the bowl with the stew.\n\n\"Deer will drink this, Deer knows the alternative...\"\n\nTaking it from her, nodding his head in thanks, he looked down at the soft, moist chunks of venison and swallowed, trying his best _not_ to think about what said Stag and Eilidh had done - _before_ - he displeased her...and was turned into this...\n\nEilidh stared at him;\u0026nbsp;until Ethan drank down the stew and handed back the empty bowl.\n\n\"Thank you - \" He murmured, truly, grateful for her kindness in feeding him - even if, instinctively, he realized just what a fine, fine line he walked with her.\n\n_Are all Therian Reds like her? So quick to change their mind and turn a friend into a hot meal? My own kind is nothing like this - we're warm, gentle and..._\n\n\"Ware Buck, thoughts stray - \" Eilidh spoke quietly, as the pungent scent of the medicine filled his nostrils.\n\nFearfully, he snapped out of his mental landscape and timidly took the bowl back, his nostrils starting to wrinkle at the scent of it.\n\n\"Drink it...\" Eilidh spoke, her voice growing impatient.\n\nEthan shuddered and in five quick swallows, drank down the bitter liquid, his body rocking back and forth before he collapsed bonelessly onto the pallet bed, unconscious.\n\n\"Eilidh needs to be apart,\" Eilidh told him, stroking his ears tenderly. \"Too much time with Buck is dangerous - for both. Must return to the herd, to Matriarch, before suspicion falls on me. Sleep Buck, Eilidh will return soon - sleep and heal...\"\n\nEthan heard nothing and sensed even less, his breathing slow and regular, even his inner Therian slept - whatever this medicine was, finally, gave both of them the much-needed respite they craved.\n\n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;TO BE CONTINUED...\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"WritingGroupChallenge","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1983183-forbidden-love-chapter-five-writinggroupchallenge.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1983477-forbidden-love-chapter-six-finale-writinggroupchallenge.json"}}