Feathery Reprieve

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A worn out leader douses the heat of his many worries in the company of his beloved gryphon companion.


Description: A worn out leader douses the heat of his many worries in the company of his beloved gryphon companion.

Story written by me , avatar?user=322896&character=0&clevel=2 Siranor

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*Feathery Reprieve (M/M anthro wolf x feral gryphon focus) *

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In one of the few green parts of a sprawling desert, inside a shelter made up of leathers and stones, a fierce debate that could shape the entire future of the StormFang alliance took place. Seated around crystalized sand shaped in the form of a round boulder by the shamans, several of the leaders of the coalition argued fiercely. They were wolves, felines, ursines, cervines, and more, representing an army of both quadrupeds and bipedal creatures that formed a nigh unbreakable alliance seeking to rise above the shadow of the human empire that had enslaved their race for centuries.

The current debate focused on tomorrow's siege. Namely, on how to best overcome the defenses of ShardVeth, the jewel of the Eastern Human Dominion, aptly named for the bounty of exotic goods passing through its gates from faraway lands and the wealth such goods made for their merchants.

"Hrrrr, we should run our shieldguards in a line, at the front, as we've always done!" Falruk, the polar bear shaman of Winter's Reach, grunted with a wisdom reflected by his stature. He was wise as he was powerful, serving as the chieftain of the frost tribes for almost a century.

He moved his burly paw over the tiny carvings that represented his shieldwall on the command table, and with a rush of cold air summoned by one of the three spirits wearing the guise of animals that spun around him, the scattered little pieces rearranged themselves in a perfect line. "Who would the archers on the wall hit, were they to find our front line solid as a mountain? What target will they single out, if what they see is an unbreakable wall of black iron?"

"The shamans at the back make for an obvious target," the master of the forest intervened. The stoic stag leaned over the tactics table next, pondering his next words carefully. Going by the name of Anranmuar, the keenest archers in the entire realm flocked under his banner. Made up of herbivore species as deadly as any predator, these prolific hunters put fear into the hearts of those who would trespass into his virgin forests. "I propose we split our forces into specialized squads." He motioned to one of the shamans to rearrange the formations into arrow shaped formations. "Each shaman will be flanked by four shieldguards that provide ample protection from piercing projectiles. Spread in such ways, we shall have an easier way to obliterate whatever rocks or burning oil their catapults throw at us."

"And their mages? How do you propose we obliterate those?" Someone else said.

"Let that task fall to the stalkers, witch!" a male voice thundered. Hraeth's temper had a way of fizzling out of control, especially around Draena. She was a spindly coyote wearing what Hraeth named 'the vestments of a mage' solely because she studied their forbidden arts. In truth, she was no different than any other leathers gathered at the table, but the grizzled lion detested magic ever since he had to wear a patch instead of an eye. "After the third volley is shot, my ravagers will cut through their perfumed robes before they can even utter the name of their pathetic gods."

"Ngrrhhhh, you speak as if the perfumed robes hide nothing but the blubbery shapes of their overgrown merchants." A heavy fist fell on the table. All pieces scattered, only a few surviving the wrath of Bolrad. The armored bull of the brotherhood of iron never took loss easy. He made quite the name for himself for picking conflicts he could win without any losses, for his brotherhood contained not only apt fighters, but shieldsmiths, blade forgers, and many other crafters that fought with the very tools they created. "Hraeth. Mind what I say." The black bull turned his calculated eyes to the still snarling lion. "If a single one of them mages catches your stalkers outside our totems' sphere of protection, you'll smell nothing but the ashes of their broken bodies, hear naught but their last breath as they beg the spirits to take them."

"You presume to know how to lead my stalkers?" the lion's muzzle creases only widened as his dripping fangs exposed themselves further. "I fought my battles while you happily hammered the very manacles they used to subjugate us!"

"A trade I would always take, if it ensures the safety of my people."

"Arguing will get us nowhere!"

All eyes turned upon the gray wolf dressed in the mismatched outfit of a common human soldier.

"And who are you, to illuminate us with a way out of the bind we find ourselves in?"

Haldryn answered the lion not with words, but with deeds. He grabbed the heavy two handed sword from his back and placed it on the round table where the war council conferred their strategies, between the divide that separated the human army from theirs. "We need to decide upon one single choice today. Besiege their city? Or coax them outside the protection of their walls, where we shall have an easier time gauging their strength?"

"A hard conundrum..." The polar bear grunted, spurring his winter spirits to cool off the seething air of the tent a bit further. "yet as the leader of the largest war-pack, shouldn't you side with the choice that inspires confidence in our ability to overcome the defenses of the humans? Waiting for them in the field, exposed, gives their dragons ample time to scout our flank and prepare a counter offense that will see us undone."

"Not if our coalition of fliers tears them from the embrace of the skies first!" The lion packleader growled. "Our wyverns are more than a match for their dragons' clumsy maneuvers. With human weight strapped upon their backs, they're slow and cumbersome, an easy prey for even the gryphons to rend."

"A mage. That's how the weight is called," the coyote female interjected. "And not just any initiate that learned how to pour wine into their goblets with but a flicker of thought. With less than a few hundred dragons scattered between their cities, who do you think will protect these noble beasts from our fliers?"

"There's nothing noble in shackling yourself to the whims of your masters. Be they old or young, skilled in the deep arcane or just a novice, mages are still men. They feel the same fear, have the same doubts, make the same errant decision as any soldier on the field of battle...In the heat of it, you don't think, you don't act. You either find a way to survive...or die."

"Once again you mistake mages for priests, Hraeth." Draena spoke calmly. "How many times must I tell you that robes know the heat of just as many battles as your breastplate?"

"They're weight!" The lion once again raised his voice. "A weight beaten so fiercely by the high winds that nothing but screams will come out of their mouths once they find themselves in the clutch of our fliers."

The argument between the two only led to further concerns.

"Such wasted effort, to think only of mages and dragons. We should focus on the siege, not the-"

"Not the better tactic for our survival?"

"How can we even hold the city if our ranks are reduced to hundreds? Haldryn is right. We need to look towards other options besides a front assault on their walls!"

It was at that point where Haldryn wished he would've never asked a question led to a whole host of new problems. The debate raged on like the fiercest of battles, yet ultimately, it all led...nowhere.

With the meeting reaching its breaking point, the council scattered. Haldryn, breaker of chains, savior of the people, and Draena, a reclusive seeker of the forbidden arts, were the only ones that lingered behind.

"Such a shame," the wolf said as he glanced over the pieces scattered on the war table. "We almost looked as if we had a chance."

"We do...if we get past the divide that keeps pulling us apart." It took a single flick of her hand for the army figures to dissolve back into sand, same as the table that supported them. "Allowing all of the leaders to agree on one common goal begins to make me doubt we'll achieve anything besides an endless talk that is sure to bore our enemies to death."

"Need I fetch more of their books? Perhaps you can uncover some secrets we can use to obliterate their entire force with one single breath." The wolf laughed.

"And indebt myself to you with more favors? Need I remind you of the last one I owe you?"

Haldryn almost believed she was joking until Draena elbowed him hard enough in the ribs to draw a yelp out of him even through the hardened leather vest he wore.

"Sure, but...now is probably the poorest time to collect."

"Not if we both die tomorrow." She flashed him a coy smirk before she led the way out of the oppressively warm tent. "Come now, I yearn for a breath of fresh air."

They both walked out of the tent at the same time, the claws of their bare paws clicking softly on the stone steps leading towards the central path of their little settlement. "I know you'll be sour company until the frenzy of tomorrow's battle leaves your head, so I shall seek refuge within the feathers of my gryphon. Heavily advise you to do the same."

"Wait."

She turned around with the same sly smile, grabbing onto the warm hand that propped itself upon her shoulder. "You have somewhere more... secluded in mind?"

"No. The siege still darkens my thoughts. Unfortunately." He tried to return the same cute smile, but all he managed was a strange snarl located somewhere between sadness and concern.

"We can talk later if-"

"No, we'll talk now. Given your expertise in matters of spellcraft, how likely are we to eliminate their mages before they conjure up their deadliest spells?"

"As likely as we are to convince the entire council ShardVeth is not worth our blood." She turned to leave. "Fare you well, Haldryn. I hope I will get the chance to see you again before the battle."

"You shall. I promise."

She paced a few steps back, leaning towards him. A whisper reached his ear before the wind of her departure left him alone.

Yet something remained behind. A small patch of wetness along the side of his cheek that made him realize how fragile life could be. In every eve of a battle she adopted the same care-free attitude to ease him into believing the siege would end just like the other times. With absolute victory.

Only... things could turn out different. For the very first time it would not be a hamlet they razed or the frightful army of a rich lord they'd fight. No. They would break themselves against the walls of the most well manned city of the eastern empire. A city filled with weathered warriors, guarded by probably a dozen large dragons, and safeguarded by a retinue of mages that put the chill of death in most of their shamans. No. They'd either throw themselves at the walls and win, or...

I will figure something out. I have to. Later, perhaps, Haldryn calmed himself by touching the moistened cheek fur where the coyote's tongue had licked him, thinking of Draena's positive nature as he put foot to better purpose.

He threaded upon the dusty paths of the settlement they constructed overnight with the help of their shamans, brushing past fellow warriors that saluted him with absent minded nods and grunts of approval aimed to stifle the one singular question that was on everyone's lips.

Would the siege truly begin on the eve of the next day?

In a camp made up of a diverse mixture of species ranging from herbivore crafters, harvesters, and craftsmen to an assortment of warriors that included all the sentient carnivores one could find outside the human dominion's borders, no plan truly remained a secret. You could count on a pair of keen ears to steal it right from the commander's tent and within minutes, it would spread through the entire camp like wildfire.

It happened with every serious battle the Stormfang alliance fought up to this moment...and it would continue to happen still, should their ragged group of sentient beings labeled as beasts by the humans -no matter the number of legs they walked on- succeeded in breaching the walls of ShardVeth, the jewel of the Eastern Human Dominion.

Yet the cost of such victory weighted heavily on Haldryn's mind. The tattered cape that flowed behind him in the gentle wind of the coming night carried such cost in the punctures it carried. Each of them had been a sword, a spear, or an arrow that sought to take his life. A story told in blood, loss, and glory, etched in the chaffs of his leather vest, or in the blade marks in his arm bracers. The tools of the humans, worn by him not to boast in the sweet taste of his many victories, but to keep him anchored in the true cost of war. Trinkets, really; adornments no true warrior really needed...paid for in blood.

Perhaps there was a way to avoid a looming massacre...but how? How could a single wolf, even one praised by the army as their war champion, liberator of people, breaker of chains and forger of destinies convince an entire group of justice-fueled warmongers to talk peace with the humans? Peace, when all humanity offered them were shackles, hunger, and pain?

"Haldryn!" the sound of an all too familiar voice got the wolf out of the storm of worries he sunk into.

"Erenya," he vocalized her name, more to make sure she wasn't just a figment of his weary mind. The cheetah was one of the most well known figures around the camp, and certainly the most pestering pest one could stumble upon. "What business have you? Sharpening your daggers for tomorrow?"

"A dagger or a cock. What is the difference?" The huntress was known to liberate males off their pent up passions before a battle as quickly as she pinched off their earnings.

"The thought crossed my mind, until the guiding winds pointed me in the direction of a more worthy company." She propped her chin on one of his chaffed blackleather shoulderpads, her breath making his ear twitch a few times "How about we slink into a silent, shady corner where you can tell me the story behind the cloud that darkens these most resplendent of emeralds?"

"Maybe another time." He said...

But she was never one to give up without a fight. "None is better than the present, love."

Haldryn shuddered as her tongue climbed its way along his cheek. Closing his eyes, his lips rose to expose his fangs with only a slight amount of the irritation brewing beneath his jet black fur. He couldn't display hostility towards a fellow warrior so close to battle. Discord within his own ranks was one of the worst omens, and the last thing he wished was for his own people to start questioning their leader's integrity.

So he spoke calmly...as calmly as one could given the situation. "Erenya, now is a really poor time to use your...other talents. We need our focus to be strong as iron if we are to make the right decisions."

"Rrrr, but so few things fit together like love and war!" she pulled back only so she could slink around him, coming out on his other side. "If the rumors are correct, we might all meet our end tomorrow as we crash down upon the walls of those pampered, perfume drenched humans. Inside...or outside. But I'd rather do it inside!" She giggled, rubbing the tip of her ringed tail over his back. "As for my payment..." she grabbed onto his lightly covered fuzzy nuts before he could even growl out. "The juice of these ripe fruits more than makes up for any amount of coin I'd ask for."

"Ssssstop." Haldryn hissed.

"Hrrrrr, so says a leader's mind," she pumped her hand around his package, trying to get him hard even as his own arms latched onto hers. "There's no need to thread around the tip of the spear with me, darling." She tried to slink her way out of his grip without much success. "I've been following you since the beginning. You know as well as I that many a male who bury their daggers inside a lover's crease on the eve of a battle fight with the fierceness of the blizzard itself. Cold. Calculated. Exactly how a smart leader like you would wish them to be, rather than a pack of pups dripping with unspent desire...."

When her wicked ways failed to coax out the reaction she wanted, she resorted to love. With her free hand, she grabbed him by the throat, forcing his mouth to open so that her raspy tongue washed along his fangs like a veil of silk before it rolled alongside his own. Their maws met. Fangs clinked together in the perverted semblance of a passionate kiss.

Yet as he stood there, stunned by her outlandish audacity, lost in the enthralling feelings created by her expertly trained tongue, he conjured the image of his gryphon standing before him, parting his beak in the same loving way for his own tongue to slink into the depths of his throat. He sunk his hands into the lush feathers of his neck, stroking him passionately while his passionate whines mixed in with his enthralling chirps...his tongue showing but a fraction of the love that burned within him.

"Mraaawwwrrrr," the cheetah pulled back, blinking away the starry look in her eyes. "You kiss as well as you fight, and I'm not saying that only because wolfy tongues are my favorite to nibble on." She leaned in for another round, but this time, Haldryn saw her for what she truly was. A former huntress that gave up everything that made her beautiful in order to bargain with her body, just like human females did within their dens of depravity.

"Cease...this...nonsense!" He barred his fangs at her, yet avoided shoving her outright with so many other of his kin walking about. This decision proved to have catastrophic consequence...to him, at least.

With the speed of a feral cheetah reaching full sprint, she moistened her fingers within the crease of her exposed gender, not to pleasure herself, but to smear that sickening slime that stank of her pungent need over her own commander's snarling lips.

"Now you'll carry me wherever you go...you impotent runt. If you're not male enough to fuck me, then I'll find another one who can!" She hissed in his face before she dashed off to trap her next victim.

*

The indecision of the war council regarding tomorrow's siege felt as stifling inside the wolf's mind as the dry air of the desert upon the black surface of his worn leather armor. He had to get out. Had to escape the tight fetters of his responsibilities as a pack leader...

if only for an hour or two.

The tattered cape punctured by too many arrows flowed in the wake of his quickening footsteps, paws black as the night taking him into the muddier parts of the oasis. Soon enough, the air started to become damper. The ground, softer. Buzzing insects formed small swarms around the flowers that bloomed in this swampy part of their settlement. Some even took interest in the exposed areas on his body, yet they were quick to swerve away when they found nothing but jet black fur to feed on.

The wilderness of the central oasis felt so relieving after hours of talk and debates. Nothing but wetness and vegetation as far as the eyes could see. Haldryn breathed out a long sigh of relief once he found himself alone in the middle of this vast wilderness. He already felt better connected to his old self in this beautiful, natural place.

"Alright...now where would I be, were I a pesky featherhead in need of some distractions?"

He shadowed his gaze with an arm to stop the golden light of the setting sun from blinding him, red, just like his previous temper had been. It hurt him profoundly to find out how deep the ways of the humans sunk into the heart of his followers. Cheetahs like Erenya started to use their bodies as means to extract food, favors, coin, all the things she used to earn the right way. They forgot not only who they fought against, but the very reason of their struggle against the human greed. Why wage war against them, only to BE like them?

Shaking his head off the pestering worries, Haldryn advanced further into the humid bog. The heat of the day dwindled considerably once his paws sunk into the soft, squishier mud of the wetlands. After a hundred or so more steps towards the lake that stood at the heart of the oasis, he picked up the squelching sound of another inhabitant of this verdant grove...along with more than a handful of frustrated avian noises. Ears flicking in the direction of the noise, Haldryn slumped his way through the tall grasses until he found his auburn gryphon covered in healthy layers of mud, pouncing about in search for more...

"Dragonflies," he leaned into a pouncing bow, tufted ears turning this way and that to follow one of the several small fliers that taunted him.

"They're...very...QUICK!" he pounced just as the words flew out of his beak, excitement quickly replaced by a frustrated chirp once he failed to catch his quarry. "Pesky things. Their wings are like wax, sliding out of every trap I conjure."

"Then how about you set your sights on something worthy of your stature?" the wolf smiled broadly once the gryphon's eyes, a green akin to the fronds that sheltered them, slightly lighter than the color of his own eyes, settled on him. He advanced proudly, his front talons leaving deep claw marks stomped upon by the much softer pads of his feline-like hindpaws. Squelch after squelch brought his majestic visage closer to the wolf's glistening eyes, until the gryphon paused, his black striped feathered crest flaring with curiosity.

"I told you to rid yourself of such rags. If you feel the need to cover your tragically good looking form behind a veil, a simple covering wrapped around your loins will do...although I never understood why your two-legged kin feels the need to cover their orbs...or creases."

"It's a matter of restraint, a concept your feathered head might probably never understand."

"Why? Because I like to be free?" the gryphon tilted his head. "Unencumbered by restrictive clothing? Tell me if there's anything wrong with my fine features!" The gryphon spread his wings, turning this way and that.

Haldryn was happy to admire the gryphon's mud streaked visage. His tail looked like a mace, his sides, striped with dashes of brown. Yet nothing could be more ridiculous than his spiky belly once the gryphon happily dropped on his back to present himself to the wolf's amused gaze.

"Where's my partner and what have you done with him, you mud caked impostor?" Haldryn leaned down for a few belly rubs, forcing a few squawks out of the gryphon.

"Impostor? I still smell the same!" The gryphon said. He rolled back on his feet, now trying to sniff his own wing feathers like a wolf would, with quick, determined whiffs.

"Mostly the same." Haldryn chuckled and beckoned him closer.

The avian slowly lowered his head towards his waiting hand. He waited for something. But before giving him what he asked for, the wolf took a step back and spread his arms wide to the sides. "Alright, come here, I will wound your pride later with my clever words. For now, there's no need to pretend like a bit of mud can ever contain the striking beauty that you are."

The gryphon bounded to him instantly. He rubbed his blessedly dry cheek alongside his face, chirping gleefully under the vigorous strokes he got all over his feathered neck. Haldryn was very careful while he stroked over the feathered part of his upper neck, the memory of his punishment for displacing a single feather still too clear in his mind.

"if you're pondering on that one time mistake, I promise I forgot all about it." The gryphon chirped

"You...did?"

"If you can't tell, does it make any difference?"

"Hrrrrr...perhaps you're right. This time."

One of these days, Haldryn promised to find a better place to tease. Until that time came however, they enjoyed the mutual rubbing long enough for his arms to become stiff with effort. Yet even then the gryphon pulled him hard into his feathered chest with one muddy forepaw, clearly eager for more scratchy affection.

"Rrrhhhh, you're going to...break my back if you squeeze any tighter."

"What are you, a gentle human?" he pressed and pressed, until suddenly, his whole strength faltered.

The majestic bird chirped sweetly in his ears. Haldryn knew exactly where to scratch to coax out the best in his winged partner. Between his ears...along the sides of his neck, and right there, under his cute clacking beak.

"Raaak, pesky fingers...always finding my weakest of places..." closed eyes and chirring satisfaction answered the wolf. "why can't you go for my haunches? Or my tail. Or perhaps..."

"What lays below?"

The gryphon turned his gaze away, clearly flustered. "I meant to say the hindpaws..."

"And listen to your serenades as I tickle you to death? No, I can think of many...other... better places that stir your feathers in similar ways." Haldryn continued with his scratching along the rest of his neck. "You've been scouting today alongside your brother, have you not? How is this fabled city of Shardveth looking from above?"

"Crowded like a crow's nest, and just as stinky." The gryphon paused for a moment. He looked in the wolf's eyes, then brought his beak closer to his muzzle, turning his head to the side after a few whiffs. "Not quite like the sweetness you bear upon your lips. Are you finally settling down with a female? As is proper for your kin?"

"Do I look taken with someone else other than you?" the wolf shot back to hide the embarrassing episode he suffered on the way here, when the whore Erenya oiled his muzzle with her slickest of juices as a final act of revenge for his rejection.

"This scent...is clearly female. Feline too...probably..."

"Pretending to splinter scents down to their roots is so unlike you," Haldryn smiled as the gryphon brushed his beak along his muzzle, coaxing a chuckle out of him with his ridiculous words. "But please, keep going, I'm eager to see where this investigation ends in."

"With Erenya...maybe?"

"Close, but not quite the truth. And for your knowledge, it's our kin. You roost with females too, and since you asked, I'd rather lay with you than even think of how a night with Erenya the purse stealer would look like."

"Awk...truly?" the gryphon trilled, feathercrest perking with interest at such lovely notion. "Entangled in each other? As...mates?"

"As friends." Haldryn laughed. "You sorely need something cold to douse these heated fantasies with. Go. Go!" He quickly pushed his squawking friend towards the waterhole to wash out the unclean thoughts from his muddy feathers.

He remained on the shore while the gryphon played with himself in the waters. It uplifted his spirits, to see him soak his feathers in the crystalline waters or try to swim with his head above the water line. As if the waters were deep enough to swallow him whole...

But it only took a look towards the mountains in the distance, beyond which the walls of ShardVeth stretched, for his worries to creep back into his thoughts. He imagined the burly shieldguards drawing out the fire of the archers with their neatly formed lines while the stalkers scaled or sneaked through the cracks in the walls. While they were distracted with the main force of their army, fliers would pass through the gaps where archers depleted their arrows to drop down more warriors right into the midst of the panicking humans.

It all looked like a grand plan, if viewed through the eyes of the victor...for the loser would be long dead before he even stepped foot inside the city. Ballistae would pick off their gryphons one by one while flaming oil reduced the mighty bulls and bears dressed in the heaviest suits of armor to screaming corpses.

"Nrrfff..." he shuddered when the gryphon pushed his cold, soaked head against his chest. He barely realized when his feathered friend came ashore. "You want me join your silly bird games? Then let's see how good of a swimmer you truly are!"

Haldryn quickly divested himself of the tattered armor he wore and joined the gryphon inside the cool, tranquil waters. The two wrestled inside the shallow reaches of the shore until their contest yielded more ties than actual victories.

"We both win," the wolf shook himself vigorously before he crashed down on the shore, crawling on his fours through the bushes and reeds until he found a nice grassy spot to lay in.

"Kraawk! That's my nest! If you wish to lay in it, I'll have nowhere else to sit...except on top of you!"

"I see no problem with that arrrruuuuuuhhhh!"

How annoying, to have a mass of soaked fur and feathers drop down on top of you with barely a warning! The gryphon Kaelrak could be such a pestering tease, yet once he found a comfortable position, he remained stuck in it for ages. This time, it happened to be his leftside, which perfectly served Haldryn's needs. Crawling within his clawed embrace after a bit of time that hardly allowed the water to leave the creature's spiky belly fur, the wolf enjoyed the warmth radiating from his partner's soaked body, his warm chirps, his gentle scents, his...everything. With his head laying comfily underneath his gray eagle-like beak, he found it difficult to focus on nothing but the steady beats of the creature's heart, as calm as the gentle words that came out of his beak. He listened to the gryphon's scouting journey for what seemed like hours until his time came to answer a couple of questions.

"Was the council's decision so worrisome, to steal you even when we are together?" Kaelrak shifted a bit to let his crumpled right wing stretch a little over the grass. His other shadowed most of the black wolf's body in a blanket of moistened warmth, allowing only his head to peek out into the coldness of the encroaching night.

"No, it all went as expected." Haldryn caressed the gryphon gently wherever he could. On his forelegs, along his wing, even on the inside of his meaty flank with his soft, bare footpads. "Coercion instead of cooperation. More land, more rights, more everything, When will it all end?" the wolf let out a long sigh. "We thrive on fighting for what we believe is just, but we've been fighting so long, that's all we seem to know. Fortune blessed us with many victories, but all it takes is one loss to see our unity undone. The alliance will scatter into hundreds of pieces, all hunted down by the humans we so foolishly started to call prey."

"They are, in many ways." Kaelrak clamped down his beak like he enjoyed a treat. "Any who raises his sword in your direction will be my next meal!"

As brave as his words were, Haldryn couldn't help but feel a cold tingle race along his wet, black fur. "So we delude ourselves into thinking, dear bird. Beneath their lassitude lays the same thirst for dominance that kept us chained for centuries. A dormant beast that needs but a flesh wound to set it into a bloody rampage, and Shardveth...that's a wound sorely felt by the empire's purse. The heart of the oasis settlements. Can we even hold it, should we succeed in tomorrow's siege?"

"I know not what will transpire. Perhaps we should look to my flock for guidance." The gryphon said. He shoved his head into the wolf's hand, demanding more rubs on the underside of his neck as payment for his wisdom. "Whenever we wish to settle a dispute through a contest of skill, we agree upon a compromise, should none gain an edge over the other."

"You mean, we should try to...reason with the leaders of Shardveth? As emissaries?" Haldryn idly tickled the underside of his beak.

"Not just us." Kaelrak chirped gleefully. "We need a sturdy group to defend ourselves with, should their intentions turn towards treachery."

"Who would you have by our side?"

"My brother, of course!" His squawk came out a bit louder than he intended. "And the scrawny witch he calls a partner. After that, your picks are as good as any."

As if she had been eavesdropping on their plans, Draena's gryphon -a tawny creature as pale as the sands that surrounded their verdant oasis- swooped in from the high reaches of the darkening skies. His rider leaped down from his back from a much higher distance than any wingless creature should, yet landed effortlessly on her two feet.

"Speaking about me?" she instantly evaporated the muddy water that sprang all around her impressive descent in a cloud of steam.

"Yes, Actually...you were at the center of our current discussion. Kael, please allow me." Haldryn told the gryphon before he clambered out of the feathered shelter, his fur rising on end at the chill tickling his heated body. He must have looked truly deplorable once he stood up on his two feet, for Draena's vaporization spell instantly replaced the coldness of the stale water drenching his fur with a pleasant heat and a much better coat of perfectly dry fur.

"Gratitude." He grunted a bit when he noticed Kaelrak got a similar treatment. "Yet our needs were not so dire to afford such comforts. This careless expenditure of arcane energies on the eve of our most decisive battle is...concerning."

"That's just a drop in the bucket, love," the lithe coyote female walked over to him and brushed alongside his larger body, the exotic scent of foreign vegetation trapped by her fur as pleasant as the touch of her gentle fingers trailing along his arm. They lingered on Haldryn's neck, fueling the inescapable whine that surfaced from the depths of his satisfied throat. "Now, what is this whisper of a parlay I dropped on?"

Her amethyst eyes glimmered with interest. Whether it was for the actual tactics or something else, Haldryn could not yet say. "Perhaps it's better if we find a comfortable place for that kind of talk." He tried to look away from his jealous gryphon without much success.

He was the place he referred to before his own brother stole him into the skies. While the two young males chased and grappled each other in a frenzy of squawks and happiness, their canid partners reinforced their peaceful strategies with ideas none of the council members would even wish to hear without baring their fangs with rage at such outlandish notions.

"Shaking hands with the leaders of those who enslaved our kin for centuries surely puts a strange taste on my tongue. But...it is the right way." The coyote noted with a solemn bow of her tawny head.

"Odd, is it not? To carve our way to their very doorstep, wielding peace as our final weapon."

As soon as she opened her mouth to talk, Haldryn pulled her closer in his embrace. "Let me worry. Devising clever strategies is more your thing."

"Mrr, dry fur suits you."

Haldryn chuckled at how light her voice sounded even on the eve of battle. She felt like an anchor, sturdy and sure in nest of dried grasses she erected on a small patch of equally dry ground, keeping him from floating to all sorts of disheartening outcomes.

"Empires cannot be built solely on strife, pack-brother." She began speaking again. "We've made them fully aware of what we are capable of when our goals are sharpened into a thorn of common desires. Now it's up to them to listen, as it is up to you to bury your worries away until the next sunrise. You cannot be the keen leader we need you to be if sleep eludes you this night."

"How can it not, when the thousands we liberated depend on me? They look up to me, call me a leader...when I feel anything but."

"Shhhh..." her smaller head slinked under his tender vulpine jaw. "You may no longer be the brave wolf that stood up to our masters and freed his entire village. Perhaps not even the conqueror that toppled down the slave markets all across the western kingdom. That wolf is gone. What remains is something wiser. Something stronger. Something...better. No matter what happens tomorrow, we shall face it together...as we always had."

He had no words to speak...nor did he have to. Once she pulled him against her, he was hers to lick and grab however she liked. A warm rush flowed down from his ear. It gently traversed the length of his muzzle, leaving a trail of buzzing heat up until it reached his nose. That part too found itself besieged by her warm, engulfing tongue. Haldryn hardly kept himself from answering in kind. He felt all the things she called him and more as their tongues sloppily met. The two sighed with happy relief and began licking along each other's muzzles, their canid tongues cascading along whiskers in concert with the whines of passion that burned within each other's throats. Even if she studied the forbidden arts taught by the human mages, even if she had many vile names thrown her way by those who knew little of the kind heart that hid behind the intimidating veil of her well earned reputation, he never ceased to see her as the scrawny, fearful pup that put him on this path with but a few simple questions. What could we do, should we be free? Where would we go?

Who...could we be?

She was his first and foremost ally. Possibly the only real friend he had besides his winged partner.

Kaelrak's muddy descent reached his ears quickly... but it was his unkind trot right into their midst that broke the magical moment he shared with the smirking sorceress.

"Krawk, can your muzzles get any wetter? You strange, slobbering creatures. Try preening next time!"

"It seems someone wishes to have you all for himself," Draena got up with a quick farewell lick on the side of the black wolf's flustered face.

"I'm sorry. We'll find that secluded place you mentioned next time."

"I shall count on that." She walked towards her gryphon and almost mounted him, were it not for that sly, knowing look she threw the wolf that followed her up to her mount. While he was there, he fluffed up her gryphon's lush cheeks, kissing him sweetly on his brow with one long slobbery stroke of tongue.

"Yes, I know, my dear, I forgot to properly greet you this time. I'll make up for this lapse when we next find each other. Deal?"

The coyote's tawny gryphon answered with a heart-warming trill and pushed his beak into the wolf's arms to enjoy a few more scratches before his rider beckoned his attention.

"Fare you well, Haldryn. And you too, Kaelrak," she said, leading her gryphon away from the two warriors "Perhaps late in the night, we can have another talk in my hut," she whispered before mud and water splattered in the wake of her gryphon's strides. With but a leap, he threw himself into the skies, flapping his wings into the magical violet hues of the encroaching night.

"What did she mean by that?" the gryphon idly preened around Haldryn's ear after she departed. "She seems to believe you and her can be..."

"Possibly." Haldryn turned his head to look into the gryphon's beady emerald eyes. "How about you, Kaelrak? Have you... bonded with anyone besides me? Excluding your brother. I know what you have with him is different-"

"No. You know some things, not the true extent of it. He and I...we bonded...in a tighter way."

"The sort that makes you screech like your pads are pinched?"

"In a way. It's like what you did with her, only...better."

Haldryn's blood started to heat up with embarrassment once the gryphon went over the extra things he did, for he spared none of the raunchy details of what a thorough gryphon on gryphon coupling entailed.

"Alright, you can stop squawking about this matter, you bloody bird. I have too many things to think for tomorrow's negotiations and your brother's shuddering beak grabbing onto the back of your neck is not part of the package."

Kaelrak seemed a bit hurt by such a dismissive answer. However, he hardly showed it in his eagerness to cuddle back again with the wolf, this time, in a drier place. Near the sandy barrier that split the oasis from the unforgivable desert beyond, the two rested, thought, and seethed with the warmth of pleasant possibilities. Much as he tried to subdue some of the erotic dreams he had that involved his gryphon, Haldryn's willpower hardly managed to make a dent against the rising heat of his instinctual needs. All the things Kaelrak said about his brother made him wonder just how would he react if he were to couple with his gryphon in all those lively, bestial sort of ways?

He thought, and throbbed, and thirsted to say something to his partner, until a sharp discharge slamming against the texture of his newly worn leggings painted a wet spot between his legs...a wet spot of shame that quickly had the wolf fumble for a way from the gryphon's restrictive embrace.

"I heard it." Kaelrak's forepaws quickly grabbed him back in that accursedly nice nest of living feathers and fur, denying his flight.

"Hrrr...heard what?"

"That," his keen beak pointed at the patch of wetness that started to expand outwards from the wolf's crotch. "So instead of forming excuses like a bumbling pup caught with his nose in the wrong bush, how about we do something about this tension that's slowly ripping you apart?"

"Alright, alright! Blasted bird," Haldryn muttered under his breath. "I may not escape the situation you put us in...but if we are to do it tonight, we'll do it my way!"

Kaelrak dipped his head with understanding. He seemed to know what the wolf's way implied once he splayed himself on his back with a few trepid squawks, sucking in the air through his half opened beak quicker than one should in his situation. He was clearly nervous about something...

Something that Haldryn's keen smell picked on a while back, when they lay together. However, he kept his discovery for himself as he started working on easing out the tension in the gryphon's body with suave movements of his trained hands. He started with the front, giving him ample time to ease into the heated waves of this arousing situation. Compliments surely helped. He was such a striking hunter, after all, colored like the auburn leaves of the autumn forests, with a belly as warm as the desert's sands.

"How's this?" he asked as he gently worked his way down along the gryphon's main groups of muscles.

"Awk...very...aaaaak, tranquilizing..."

It should have been, yet the way he tried to hide the excitement brewing beneath his feathers said otherwise. Pushing his head into his plumage, Haldryn started to lick his way down the feathered hunter's body, claiming that he had an easier time feeling where the gryphon's tension spots hid beneath his fur and feathers, when in truth, he merely protected himself from the enthralling scent of his entrancing masculinity. Little by little, he approached the creature's tail side, his heart thrumming quicker in his chest once he found his nose hovering above his partner's naked cock... so close he could feel its radiating heat right on the tip of his cold, twitching nose.

"Raak, no need to...massage there..." he muttered, beak saying one thing, big, needy eyes, another.

Only a quick sniff, Haldryn promised himself...

But once he drew in the fertile aroma residing around the gryphon's bare penis, his composure all but unraveled. With a long whine of fulfillment, he took another breath, huffing shortly after. His eyelids shuddered and his mouth started watering for more of that delightful scent.

"You silly dog. Must you...really sniff so thoroughly?"

Yes. Very much so. With hungry sniffs, Haldryn moved his muzzle around the gryphon's moist erection so that he covered every angle, stirring whines and throbs alike from his friend's naked spire as the puffs of warm air expelled by his huffing nostrils tickled his already sensitive member with a curtain of stimulating air. Haldryn lusted so much over the idea of tasting his friend, his tongue tip started lapping at the air surrounding the gryphon's pink, barbed member, his body straining to put a taste to the arousing smell his nostrils fed on, until a spurt of clear fluids shot along the gryphon's tawny belly. The fluids soaked into his fur just briefly...yet the wolf's tongue immediately passed over the wet patch in an attempt to clean it.

An instinctual need that pushed him to do something far more than just groom his friend.

From the moment his tongue made contact with the sweetness of the gryphon's intimate needs, he knew he needed more...and the only way to get what his instincts craved was to slather his most intimate of places with the most lascivious kiss ever.

"Raaaaawwwk," Kaelrak spread his legs and looked with nothing but love and lust at the wolf that dragged his tongue tip slowly along his rising spire, brushing every barb on the way to the tip, the sensation of his smooth canine tongue so intense that the gryphon dropped his head back down on the ground and shrieked.

He shrieked...while on the other end of his body, the wolf's jaws clattered against each other, dazed by the concoction of aromas his slobbering tongue just brought back inside his mouth. So many of the gryphon's unspoken needs revealed themselves to him in that moment, none more pressing than his desire to release his yearnings inside someone of worth.

Inside...a partner. A mate.

Inside...him!

The revelation worked the wolf's blood into a frenzy. Dashing a few more licks over the gryphon's erogenous tip to feast on the fresh drops of lubrication that gathered there, he moved lower, nudging and sniffing like a starved hound into the gryphon's round testicles. Though they bore no particular scents of their own, the perky feel of his orbs swollen with days worth of unspent seed only served to arouse the wolf further.

More. He needed...more. And there was only a single place that could sate his needs. His assault returned upon the gryphon's exposed spire with short, quick jabs that made him shudder from every inch of his body. He kept on kicking, kept on begging not there, not there...

Yet against his pleas, the wolf slowly lowered his muzzle over the gryphon's erection, entrapping it further and further until nothing but his fuzzy sack remained exposed to the cold air of the coming night.

"Kraaaaaaaa! I can't hold it in...I'll...I'll..." he whined and thrust his tensing hips into the air with short, shuddering gasps.

He let the bird's wet member slide out of his jaws to give him a moment of reprieve...only so he could kiss him right there instead. Alternating between licks and gentle suckling along the top half of his spire, where he was at his most sensitive, Haldryn knew there was only one way this could end. His instincts demanded it. The gryphon's needy erection wanted it...

Yet they still found a sliver of strength to look into each other's eyes to know there was no going back from their current positions. The gryphon, spread eagled, a panting mess of needy squawks, and him, trapped between his lower legs with a combination of gryphon fluids and his own saliva trickling down the tip of his own panting tongue.

"Inside...I want to...inside," the gryphon pleaded.

Haldryn closed his eyes. As soon as his jaws entrapped that hard, needy spire yet again in their tight, suckling embrace, Kaelrak released his final cry. He lasted maybe three throbs inside the suckling mess of flesh and saliva that urged his balls to surrender their seed before his essence sprang out of him like a geyser trapped too long underneath the hard crust of the earth. He screeched so loud, tensed so hard, the ecstasy of his first drawn-out spurt of seed paralyzing him from beak to tail for a long, blissful moment.

At the same time, the immensely satisfying gulp of his gryphon's first spurt of delicious semen filled Haldryn' senses with delirious pleasure. He continued to suckle onto Kaelrak's throbbing spire throughout the entire duration of the gryphon's intense orgasm, the scents of all the cum trickling down the sides of his imperfectly sealed jaws only motivating him to feast further on that delicious pent-up bird semen. He could only wonder from the sound of those hoarse, desperate cries how much his partner truly enjoyed himself. He never saw Kaelrak attempt to orally pleasure himself. Beaks were unwieldy. Dangerous even. So the thought of providing something so unique to his partner with the help of his gentle jaws, to feel him shudder and spurt against his tongue through the hard throbs that ejaculated spurt after spurt of creamy cum down his gullet filled Haldryn with a deep satisfaction evident in the soaked patch darkening the middle of his pants. He hardly paid attention to it, focused so much on the gryphon's sole pleasure until his partner's frenzy dimmed to a trembling mess of relieved chirps.

"Haldryn...Haldryn..."

Messy suckles and licks answered his calls, the wolf's tongue and mind focused solely on lapping up the mess surrounding the gryphon's privates.

"Partner!"

The wolf allowed the gryphon's spent member to flop out of his messy mouth. He licked his dreamy lips quickly off all the remnants of seed that still hung onto his whiskers, still lost in the euphoria of swallowing such a hefty amount of his gryphon's life giving essence until a timely paw to the chest finally got the wolf's attention back on other meaningful parts of the gryphon's body...particularly his cute, worried head.

"Your pants..."

"Arrhhh," Haldryn whined once he tried to make any attempt at taking off the damn things without hurting his own generously aroused member.

"How far are you to the peak?"

"Pretty close..." he growled as he tried to adjust his pants. "Only a nudge or so away from...nrrrhhhh, popping the knothhhhhrrrr."

"Let me," Kaelrak tried to provide the same pleasure the wolf just did, with his paw instead of his beak, but the wolf had none of it.

"It will be gone in a moment. Just...let me wait it out."

He did so, cuddling carefully in the warm embrace of his partner to avoid rubbing his fur on his still peeking tip. A partner whose scent still filled him with the sweetest of fur-raising tingles.

"You know...I had dreams about this." the wolf started.

"The good sort?"

"The moist sort. There are a few variants I could pick apart but in the most common one, you hug me, just like this...and try to...show me how deep your affection runs, in the same way you showed your brother...or was it the other way around?"

"Both. It was both." The gryphon trilled, seeking refuge in the wolf's fuzzy neck with his beak. "Am I successful in these attempts?"

"Too much so, my dear gryphon." Haldryn tickled the underside of his beak, loving the adorable noises that got out of the lustful creature. "If tomorrow is to be our last day in this realm, I believe there is nothing more fitting than to spend the time we have left probing the depths of such dreams..."

"Truly? You would have me...mate with you?"

"Mrrrhmmm." The wolf rumbled gently in the depths of his satisfied throat. "If you would like to have me, of course. I know I can never taste the freedom of the skies like you can. I'm also quite smaller and not nearly as impressive of a hunter as you are-"

"Raawk! Cease with such nonsense!" The gryphon screeched in his face. "Even without wings, you can do so many things I'm not capable of."

"Like this?"

The tickles along his neck made the feathered hunter screech with a joyful noise. "You've no idea how good that feels...the things you do with your handpaws, and with your mouth...aaawrrk, I dream of no other to share in such delights besides you... and I'm not saying that solely because your lips still dribble with the weight of my freshly spilled essence."

Haldryn continued to scratch the gryphon's neck, to kiss him. To... love him! In between these sounds of utter adoration he coaxed out of his feathered throat, he lusted and yearned for a deeper tie, blood heating up at the notion of being mounted by his most loyal, most precious of friends.

Once they both nodded their readiness for the main event, Haldryn settled himself on his side, just as he did in his dreams, allowing the gryphon's talons to embrace him in that delightfully tight feathery embrace he grew to love. He felt protected inside that sanctuary of talons and feathers. Cared for. Loved.

Though this time around, Kaelrak paused from his usually jovial japes. He seemed to bide his time. To make sure he knew who he was getting into, but a quick lick under his beak and a cute string of chirps later, Haldryn could feel the gryphon's fully hardened spire poke for the rim of his tail gate.

"Let...let me...help you a little." He grabbed onto the base of his tail and pushed it out of the way as best he could within the crammed space he had. Entangled in the gryphon's limbs like a fly trapped in a spider's web, the only way he could move was forward. He encouraged his partner to keep on going with soft words of affection and many sweet licks along his beak.

Kaelrak made such cute noises. He reciprocated the affection with nuzzles and short kisses in between panting thrusts, trying hard to find his mark, squeezing his wolf tighter and tighter against his chest with each failed cock kiss that met fur instead of flesh, until, with a resounding cry, he pushed himself deeper into a crease of wanting muscles than he ever dreamed of.

"Skraaaaaaaaakkk!" he trembled hard, his throbs picking up almost as if he was ready to shoot from his very first plunge.

"Shhhhh...take...take your time..." Haldryn nosed along his strained neck, closing his eyes in the encroaching darkness of the gryphon's tightening wing. "Keep it there. Stay within me for a while until you adjust...think of nothing but my tongue upon your beak, my fur against your chest, my insides...squeezing you as tightly as you want me..."

"You feel so warm..." Kaelrak chirped and squawked out his intense pleasure, jerking gently whenever a potent throb spat out new reserves of honey-like lubrication into the wolf's squeezing rear. "I want you, partner. Raawk, hard to speak...but.... will you let me...finish inside?" he spoke with strain through the ripples of bliss traversing his body.

He burned so strongly with the yearning to fulfill their union down to the creamy ending...and once his eyes found the wolf's warm, loving gaze, he got the answer he needed. Not by talking, nor by even vocalizing other noises. Just looking at each other with that mutual desire to see their bond tied in permanence wiped away all of their concerns.

But just to make sure, Haldryn slid his tongue along the underside of the gryphon's beak. He trailed upwards, until he was welcomed within the gooey insides of that loving, clattering beak. That's all Kaelrak needed. A loving kiss to assure his silly mind he was just as wanted by his partner.

He eagerly started to rock his body back and forth in rhythm with his adorable kisses, showering his partner with all the love a gryphon could.

Haldryn huffed and whined in concert with the gryphon's gentle thrusts. He found his focus split between the sloppy kisses that happened at the front of his body and that hot, blooming feeling that expanded along his crotch with every pass of the gryphon's barbed cock along his rear end. Kaelrak worked himself through his passage as smoothly as the pleasure he produced.

Haldryn whined in approval. The amazing feeling of the gryphon's tapered cock gently stretching his rim apart with each insertion down to his very balls made him hunger for more. The tickling of his barbs pulling at his nerve-packed tunnel made his own cock leak its juices. The primal satisfaction to feel him throb so needily inside him...all of these stimuli worked the wolf up towards the highest peaks his pleasure ever climbed.

Yet just as the gryphon's features stimulated him, so did his constant contractions bring Kaelrak ever closer to his finish. It took five, maybe eight passes at most for his talons to hug him tighter than he'd ever been squeezed against the gryphon's feathered chest. With their kiss broken by a resounding squawk, Haldryn closed his eyes in preparation for the explosive heat that would undoubtedly fill him to the brim. The gryphon throbbed, harder and harder, each pulsation of hot blood along his cock accompanied by sharp, determined thrusts that made the well defined muscles of his haunches bulge up with tension. Composure almost unraveled by the bliss of their union, Kaelrak's fuzzy balls slammed hard against the wolf's tail base, cream fur matted by the copious amount of pre leaking out of the ass he's been mating.

Gritting his teeth, Haldryn grabbed a tight hold of his gryphon. His claws sunk into his feathery neck and his toes curled up in anticipation, the shudders of elation sent by the gryphon's increasingly desperate thrusts dispersing into his furred, bloated sheath like jolts of lightning.

Kaelrak noticed the increased musk permeating the air around them. He dug his head underneath his chest to see, feel, to smell his partner's looming orgasm. The wolf's swelled knot slowly slipped out of his overly stretched sheath, its ruddy form arousing the gryphon to no end. Thrust by thrust, throb by throb, things slowly approached their inevitable end, until...

"Skraaaaaawwwwwwk!" the gryphon's cry came, sharp, raw, beautiful beyond what any word could describe.

Once the gryphon's member flared with the onrush of hot orgasm, Haldryn could no longer hang on to his wits. His passionate howl joined the gryphon's scream just as one last intense throb pushed his knot fully out in the open, the sensation so great, so overpowering, that his member excreted the heaviest splatter of seed it ever mustered.

"Rrrrrraaaawooooooo!"

The wolf's passion manifested not just verbally, but also in the many more strings of seed that sunk into his gryphon's coat for the first few spurts following thrums of bliss created by the gryphon's intense release. The heat of Kaelrak's seed blazed its way along his rear like a tide, pairing so infuriatingly well with the intense throbs that flared out the blunt tipped nubs along the length of the gryphon's felid, cone-shaped penis.

Kaelrak positioned himself in such way the pulses of his release caused the greatest amount of pleasure for his partner, the wolf's prostate assaulted by a vicious stream of stimuli that made him release sharp, drawn out lines of his purest seed into the grasses below his tightly embraced form. He had no need of hands to grab himself with, for the gryphon did all the work for him. Each of his anal contractions milked the gryphon tighter and harder, forcing his balls to jerk up towards his twitching tail from the intense muscle spasms that flushed out his cum until this magnificent creature, this predator of the skies, spent his creamy essence down to his last.

They both spent their last moments lost in a world of nothing but heat, love, and seed. Kaelrak with his drooling beak flopped on the grass, dazed by the thrumming weight of sexual fulfillment. Haldryn, with a scrunched muzzle as tight as the feeling lashing the outline of his knot with wave after wave of seemingly unending pleasure.

"You're still leaking...awrk..."

After a few minutes of intense copulation, Kaelrak picked his dreamy head up to look behind at his feline-like hindpaws, trying hard to fit the soft pads of his trembling foot against the wolf's constantly throbbing erection. "krawk...almost...there..." he let out a long caw of relief once Haldryn gave him the help he needed to secure his erection between the gryphon's warm padded toes. It may not have been as moist of a shelter as a partner's fleshy insides, but to him, the tight, loving grasp of his partner's constantly kneading grasp felt just as fulfilling.

"Should I squeeze tighter? Faster?"

"No...the pace you set is perfect...just like you."

Beaming under those loving words, the gryphon moved in for another kiss. One that Haldryn fully gave himself to. They remained there for a while, painting the silence with their mutual love. Who cared if he was a wolf, mating with his gryphon? Love was love, no matter in what shape or form it came.

"I think I'm done."

Hearing his words, the gryphon gently flared out his toes and pulled his soaked paw back into a more relaxed position, clacking his beak approvingly at the pearlescent fluids that formed a puddle under the wolf's retreating erection. "You held...quite a lot in you."

"So did you." Haldryn chuckled. "My tail feels like a soaked mess and my muzzle definitely needs some deeper cleaning than what my tongue can manage."

"We'll bathe...a little bit later. For now, I wish to hold on to you for a bit more." The gryphon said, squeezing the wolf tight, his privates still pressed against his bottom even if both were fully spent for now.

As the moon started to ascend in the starry sky, the two remained in the same position, stroking each other with muzzles or beaks, talons or hands...not wishing to depart that serene place for any reason in the world.

"Looks like another of your wishes came true." Haldryn smiled. "We finally sleep under the starlit sky."

"If only tomorrow's battle ends quickly so we can cross a third off our list."

"Ours, is it?"

"If we mate again, certainly." The gryphon turned his head away from the resplendent moon to stare right into his partner's curious eyes. "Perhaps next time...you can be the mount, and I the rider?"

"We shall see, my dear gryphon...we shall see..." Haldryn pulled him into a long, loving hug. Tomorrow could wait. All he cared for now was the warmth of his gryphon's embrace and the sweet, calming chirps that slowly lulled him to a long and satisfying slumber.

***The End***

Dear friends and followers, a few unexpected bills crept up on me and I need around 800$ by 31 of the month to make ends meet. Full story here https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10721026

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