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>In a walk of shame and supreme cowardice, I squeeze by a couple of the villagers before breaking into a jog towards the nearby tree line

>I have no idea where exactly I'm headed and frankly I don't care

>I just want to get away from the smoldering bonfire, away from the villagers and their judging eyes, away from Nella and whatever wrath she was surely cooking up for me

>So I run

>Across trickling streams and between towering trees, through muddy bogs and empty clearings

>When my lungs burn for air and muscles threaten to fail I finally stop and lean against a tree

>I take off my bear mask and look at it in the dimming light, wondering what to do with it

>"Boo!" Shouts a hidden voice, causing me to flinch and drop the mask

>The head of an equine beast folk suddenly appears from behind a bush

>Tired and caught off guard, I stumble backwards and onto my ass

>Only then do I recognize her face

>The young taur girl reveals the rest of her equine body as she emerges from behind the bush, a look of smug self-satisfaction plastered on her face

>"Heh-heh-heh, gave you quite a fright, didn't I?"

>"Freia, what the hell are you doing out here?" I angrily spit back

>"I could ask you the same thing Malik! You and Nella are supposed to be completing the ceremony for our yearly blessings. You know, the whole reason mother slathered me in all this red crap this morning." She says, waving her arms across her body

>She's covered in red swirly designs like the other villagers, but with the lower half of a young horse she's got quite a lot more area to cover compared to the others

>I sigh and rub my temples

>"Ya, about that…"

>"Well where the heck are my blessings Malik? I don't feel any different compared to this morning. And to answer your question, mother sent me out into the forest to pick berries while the ceremony was going on, something about the ritual not being suitable for young equines such as myself to view."

>"Your mother made the right call, that's for sure." I reply with a halfhearted chuckle

>She crosses her arms

>"Quit laughing, I answered your question, now answer mine. Why are you out here? And to add to that, where are our blessings?"

>"I, uhhh, I kinda fucked up the ceremony."

>"And then you ran away?"

>"…Yes." I reply with a dejected shrug, there's no point lying to her

>Freia huffs, then stamps a hoof on the ground

>"Well go back to the village and do it again! Do it right!"

>"I don't believe that's possible, I'm pretty sure Nella wants my head on a pike with how much I managed to embarrass both of us in front of the entire village." I shake my head and look at the ground, a familiar sense of impending dread filling my chest. “Gods, I think I'm done here Freia. There's no way Nella will still accept me as her apprentice after what I did back there. I'll have to acquire my horse, assuming I can even find her, and make the journey back home. I came here a failure, and I guess I'll be leaving as one as well."

>"Nonsense! Nella can be stern, stubborn, even a little devious, but she's also one of the most patient and kindest people I've ever known. I'm not sure exactly what happened back at the village, and at this point I'm a little scared to ask, but I'm sure Nella doesn't hate you half as much as you think she does. Hell, I owe my very existence to her limitless patience! If she was as quick to give up on people as you think she is then that's news to me."

>"What are you talking about?"

>"You know my mother? Two-legged mare with a jet-black coat like mine, has a splotch of gray on the left side of muzzle?"

>"Yes, I've seen her around the village."

>"Well my dad was a centaur, hence my horsey lower half. As you can imagine my mother had great difficulty during her pregnancy with me, her body not being made to carry a foal as big as I was. She sought out the services of Nella when my birth came near, and after much consultation, screaming, instruction, more screaming, and more than a little magical assistance I was born. My mother sometimes tells me stories of that day, how Nella kept death at bay while talking mom through the process and assisting in every way she could. It took more than a full day of labor before I left her womb and took my first breath, a full day! There's no doubt in my mind that without Nella's unwavering assistance my mother, and I as well, would have died during my birth. So don't think you're down and out just yet Malik. If Nella decided she wanted to teach you as her apprentice by the gods she's going to do it, screwed up rituals and questionable magical ability be damned!"

>I sigh and rub my forehead, weighing my options

>On one hand, I could return to Nella and beg for forgiveness, hoping that she'll take me back under her wing and continue my apprenticeship

>On the other hand, if she's not so forgiving she may seek out retribution and curse me with some manner of dark magic or foul hex, it's certainly within her capabilities

>Then there's the option of running away, simple, cowardly, but then I would have gained nothing from this whole endeavor

>"I don't know Freia, are you sure she's the forgiving type? Not one to hold a grudge? Because if you're wrong, then the first thing she'll do upon seeing me is send me to the afterlife."

>I look up towards Freia to see her ears perked up and eyes staring at something off in the distance

>I turn around and my heart sinks

>Nella is standing a few dozen yards away, silently staring at us through her mask

>Looks like it'll be option one or two then

>"Filly, leave us." She booms, her tone cold and commanding

>Freia walks towards me before turning around

>"I think you two can make up, but if you don't, it was nice knowing you." She whispers

>The young taur then gallops away into the depths of the forest

>Nella slowly approaches and I stand tall by a tree, steeling my nerves for whatever horrors these next few moments might have in store for me

>The bear finally stops a few feet away, crossing her arms

>My mouth goes dry as I wait for her to speak, yet she says nothing, just burning an angry hole into me with her unflinching gaze

>A tense silence fills the air between us, and I eventually muster the courage to speak

>"Nella I just want to say-“

>"Pick up your mask." She orders, cutting me off. “One of the villager's craftsmen spent days carving it. Don't disrespect his work by letting it touch the dirty ground any longer."

>I give a quick nod and lean down, picking it up by the strap

>Nella then takes her own mask off

>Her lips are curled into a slight frown and behind her eyes I detect a strong sense of disapproval

>On the bright side she's at least not baring her teeth or growling at me, indicating that if she is filled with righteous fury she's doing an excellent job of hiding it

>She marches up to me and her frown deepens into a scowl

>"Lying to me when you first arrive."

>She pokes me in the shoulder with a claw

>"Failing to conduct yourself properly during one of the village's most important ceremonies."

>She pokes me in the shoulder again, harder this time

>"Running away like some kind of gutless coward when it all went wrong."

>She pokes me again, breaking the skin and leaving a scratch

>Nella puts a paw up to her chin, as if in thought

>"Hmmm, and what was that last thing? Oh yeah, blowing your load in me in front of the entire village!"

>She raises a paw high in air and brings it down in a mighty slap

>She hits me square in the cheek and I go tumbling to the ground from the force of the blow

>Dazed, I raise a hand to my stinging cheek to discover that she managed to keep her claws from cutting me

>And I'm glad she did, with claws of her size I might have not had much of a face left if she weren't so merciful

>Nella steps forward, a mass of angry fur towering over me, and I raise a hand up defensively

>"Nella, please, I'm really sorry about what happened back there."

>"You better be sorry! The village will be spreading nasty rumors and wild stories about what happened for the next couple of decades. All because someone couldn't keep their primal urges in check."

>"I tried to control myself, I really did, but in the end it was all hopeless. With your magic, and your body, and all those little movements you did you sent me over the edge. Trying to not cum with all that going on was like trying to breathe water, I just can't do it."

>"You expect me to believe any of that bullshit?" She simmers back, putting her paws on her hips. “Admit it Malik, you're just a little pervert that gets off on embarrassing those above him. A real menace to your superiors, I'm beginning to see why the mage's college didn't like you."

>"No Nella I-“

>"Don't try to deny it! Human mating season is still several months away so don't try and use your own bodily hormones as an excuse. There aren't any human females around so don't try to act like a furless woman in estrus is what's setting you off either, you little deviant.

>"W-what?" I stammer back. “Humans don't have a mating season."

>Nella pauses

>"Yes, you do." She confidently states

>"No, we don't. Humans are 'in season' all year. We can breed anytime we want." I meekly respond, careful to not anger her further

>"No, you can't." She says, this time quieter as she begins to lose her self confidence

>"Yes, I can. I've been jacking off by the hot spring every day for the past several weeks just to keep myself under control. I can't stop my body from acting on its natural instincts."

>"So…this isn't some kind of trick? You don't have mating seasons like beast folk?"

>I slowly shake my head side to side

>She begins to say something but stops, putting a finger up

>"That actually explains a lot of things I've been noticing lately."

>"Right, so during the ritual when you made my cock hard and got on top of me my blood turned red hot and my body just kind of, you know, did what came naturally."

>Nella takes a paw and rakes it down her cheek

>"Gah, I guess technically I'm the reason the ceremony failed, trying to do those joined positions of Gaia without you losing control was a fool's errand. Then there were all those signs that something was up with you, yet I never put two and two together. The faint lusty pheromones that I picked up every now and then, those puddles of emissions I would randomly find in my garden, that strange sense of want I would detect on you every now and then. And that time we did that demonstration for the deer couple, it wasn't my magic keeping you hard, was it?"

>"No, definitely not." I say with a nervous chuckle

>"Gods, I'm sorry about all this Malik, now that I think about it I've been teasing you ever since you arrived. It's just that, I knew a monkey girl like forty or fifty years ago and she mentioned being in estrus so I just kind of thought that humans had mating seasons like everyone else around here. As you can probably guess I don't get a lot of visitors out here so the mating habits of humans are basically unknown to me."

>"And beast folk are exotic to me, coming to this village was the first real encounter I've had with them. I've seen a few in the capital but they were quite rare."

>"Guess that makes ignoramuses out of both of us. Here, get up."

>She reaches a paw down and I take it, the bear easily lifting me back to my feet.

>"Thanks Nella, now that all that's behind us-oh shit!" I exclaim, slapping a hand against my forehead

>"What?" Nella asks

>"I can't believe I didn't think of this before, but, Nella?"

>"Yes?" She replies, a curious eyebrow raised

>"I know that your fields are fertile, so if my seed ends up taking hold and growing into a beautiful vegetable, which I guess we won't know for a while, but if it does grow into a vegetable, and I don't care if it takes after the seed or the fields, and by vegetable you know I actually mean child, I'm not trying to call our baby that may or may not exist a mongoloid, but if this vegetable did exist then then I'm willing to care for it, and water it, and keep it pest free with you for however long it needs until-“

>"Malik, you can drop the obtuse analogy. What are you trying to say?"

>I take a much needed breath and reform my thoughts

>"What I'm saying is that if you're pregnant then I would like to stay with you to help raise the baby. Or cub. Whatever it ends up being. Assuming you are pregnant in the first place."

>She smirks

>"Fertile fields huh? Why don't you take another look."

>She takes my wrist and puts my hand to her belly

>I dig my fingers into her fur and close my eyes, assessing her fertility as I did so many weeks ago

>When I find the answer I gasp

>"What? How could this be? Your cub making organs are dormant."

>She gives a hearty laugh

>"Hundreds of years spent on this Earth, complete mastery over nature, a specialization in fertility magic in particular, and you thought I wouldn't learn a trick or two on preventing unwanted pregnancies? I can render my womb barren if I wish, for a time, anyway."

>I wipe my brow of sweat

>"Whew, that takes a load off my mind."

>"Believe me, you're far from the first person to come to me regarding a potential pregnancy. The young women of the village sometimes sneak into my garden in the dead of night, worried that a recent one-night fling born of raging hormones could lead to their ruin. I'm more than happy to render them some discrete assistance, within reason, of course."

>"They should consider themselves lucky to have a druid such as you so close by."

>"True, not every village has someone like me around to help with blessings and other such matters. But don't think I'm insulting your pedigree by any of this. You would make a fine stud for any woman. It's just that for a lady of my age and position, starting a family with someone as young and immature as you would be seen as…uncouth. Not to mention the obvious conflict of interest if I were to keep you as my apprentice."

>"Right, right. But if you don't mind me saying, for a woman of two hundred and-“ She puts a finger up to my mouth. Getting the idea, I continue. “For a woman of your considerable worldly experience you've aged like a fine wine. Believe me, the head mage of the college isn't far off from you and he already looks like a dried up sack of bones!"

>Nella smiles, then breaks into a chuckle

>"Like I said Malik, it's the fresh air. Helps keep me young."

>"It does more than just that…" I respond, casually running eyes up and down her body

>Feeling that the tension that once hung in the air now dissipated, and my loins tingling at the sight of her barely clothed body, I rub the back of my neck and decide to take a chance, no matter how stupid it may be

>"So Nella, I understand you wouldn't want to be in a serious relationship with me, but would it be against your morals to maybe, I don't know, have a single night of hormone fueled unbridled passion? The kind of fling those young girls you help out sometimes get themselves into?"

>She crosses her arms and squints her eyes at me, my faint glimmer of hope at getting her to make up for all those weeks of teasing quickly dying

>That is until her lips curl upwards ever so slightly, in a grin not dissimilar to the one on her mask

>"Tell you what Malik. I might let my better judgement fail me tonight and let you partake in your wildest fantasies, but there are some conditions you would have to satisfy."

>I straighten my back and lean in closer, rapt with anticipation

>"And they are?"

>"Number one, you and I are going back to the village in a few days to do the ritual all over again. The villagers count on me, and I'm giving them their blessings one way or another. And just to make sure it goes smoothly we'll be doing our positions of Gaia separately next time."

>I rapidly shake my head in an affirmative

>"Of course! Good idea! What else?"

>"Number two. You'll never mention what happened back at the ritual to anyone, or about the fact that I didn't know that humans don't have mating seasons. Looking back at it all the evidence was all over the place, I feel so stupid for not piecing it all together sooner."

>"My lips are sealed! Is that it?"

>She puts a paw to her chin and looks upward in thought

>"Hmmm, one last thing. We'll be doing this in my garden and what happens in the garden, stays in the garden. Got it? We've already caused enough rumors today; I don't want to give the villagers ammunition for even more."

>"Understood."

>"Excellent." She replies with a smile, putting her right paw out. “Let's shake on it."

>I grip her paw and shake her hand

>Yet as I do so my right hand feels…oddly warm

>As she releases her grip on me I look at my palm, the cut she made on it at the ceremony healing before my very eyes

>The large slash grows smaller as my skin seals the wound, not even a scar remaining when it finishes

>"Whoa…" I whisper

>A paw pats me on my back. “Told you I would heal it. Now let's go to the hot springs first, we'll want to wash off our body paint before giving in to our lusty passions. No point being dirty before getting dirty."

>I look downward at my own body, the delicate swirls and designs Nella painted on this morning have long since been smudged beyond recognition or become mixed with my own sweat and run down in long red streaks

>She begins walking into the forest and I follow by her side, giddy at the thought of finally getting some much needed catharsis after all those weeks of teasing