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Perhaps the most important lesson that I have learned in all of my journeys is to appreciate the friendships that you make along the way. There are many I have come to know as lovers, yet even our most intimate relationships paled in comparison to the ones I have made with those I consider friends. And while many of the friendships I have come to cherish over my long life have ended one way or another, I shall never forget them, for they are the most true of any relationships I have had.

-The Author

Tik Tik lay in the cart. The kobold aches from the burns sustained from a rogue fire elemental she tried to tame, yet the quick work of her new companions made sure that she survived. Around her sits Gimmegee, the studious gnome, Kera, the pious, yet short-tempered feline, and Cynwrig, heroic bug man. Tik Tik herself is bandaged from head to toe, snugly fitting in her new situation, but annoyed at her lack of movement.

"Something's bothering you, Kera," Cynwrig says, buzzing as the cart bumps along the road. "You've been getting more and more agitated the closer we get to this convent. Why is that?"

"Wouldn't you not be upset by a place you're not welcome to anymore?"

"But, why aren't you welcome there? It's a place of healing and respect, isn't it? I thought everyone was welcome to rest at such places."

"Respect, maybe, for the people who don't betray their covenant."

"What," Gimmegee begins, "In all that is holy, are you even on about? I figured you'd be a little different, now that the Lily Nymph's control over you has faltered, but you're not even a recognizable person. So angry, so modest. All of it is just, it's not the Kera I knew when we were among the Flowers."

"It's what I'm supposed to be," Kera says, gripping onto the tattered and muddy habit, her whiskers jittering as she grits her teeth. "I'm supposed to be a good and devoted wife to Klaudus."

"The deity of feline kind? Oh, I see, yeah, you're of that order. Those crazy pusses who think they're part of his harem or something."

"It is not a harem!" Kera hisses. There is a moment of silence before she sits back, closing her eyes. "I'm... I'm sorry. It's just that all that I've been raised to know leads me down a road of excommunication. If I don't have my divine husband, I have nothing else."

"There are plenty of gods in the heavens," Gimmegee says. "And plenty of creeds that don't even deal with the divine themselves. If you really want to be someone's slave so badly, why don't you just go crawling back to the Nymph?"

"I will never be someone's slave! I made a choice upon reaching my first rite of adulthood, when my body became able to be a mother."

"You mean," Cynwrig says, "When you were just a kid with her first period?"

"How crass," Gimmegee says. "But yes, you catfolk become breeders pretty early in life, don't you? Your body may have been mature, but what about your mind?"

"What do you know of how my kind behaves," Kera huffs.

"I've heard tales of feline perversity that made your Flower days seem like the norm of your kind. Guess you and your ilk are a bunch of prudes. Who knew?"

She shrugs. "Perhaps what you need," Gimmegee continues, "is to tell us lowly heathens exactly what your problem is."

"That," Kera says, "That would be a long story."

"We're on a long ride," Gimmegee says. "And, who knows." She flips a page and winks at Tik Tik, "maybe it will make for good material for Tik TIk's book?"

Tik Tik, having listened this entire time feels a flutter as she looks over towards the gnome.

Kera coughs and sits up straight, her tail curling around to her lap, where she gently strokes it. "My story," she says, "is a private affair. I would thank you not to pry into matters that do not concern you."

Cynwrig pipes up. "But, we've battled together. We've survived trials together! I'll tell you my past, if that makes it easier to tell yours. I have nothing to be afraid of, though it may be a stain upon my honor.

Gimmegee turns to yet another page and scribbles something down. "Well, as long as we're airing out some dirty laundry, I got some of my own that might be interesting. "

Unlike Tik Tik, my education in the science of magic came from the prestigious Delarious Academy. The library there was so massive, that it became the home of a sort of communue for many of the students learning there. We studied in those halls, we ate under the shelves, and we even slept in the dark corners when the midnight oil was not enough for our endless quest for knowledge.

But, despite being a prodigious student in magic, I am also a woman, and like any other woman, I have my own needs. Knowing I couldn't very well decide to go out of the library and risk losing precious time hitting the dating scene, I decided that I would relieve my concerns among the precious books that I so loved. So, I found myself a particularly thrilling encyclopedia of human anatomy and turned my attention to the description of the male. The way those words sung to me, detailing about how the blood rushed to the member, how their heads flare up to the perfect shape for most wombs they kiss, it was enough to get me heated rather quickly. I imagined myself taking in one of those strong human dicks, how they could spread apart a little gnome like myself, and I lifted the hems of my dress and laid back in my seat, brushing two fingers up between the legs of my stylish undergarments.

Oh, how I so brazenly exposed my legs that day, but really. No one would ever go there. Who, in the largest collection of magical knowledge in the world, would ever think to check on a collection of books about mundane biology? So, I was quite confident that I would not be disturbed. So bold was I that I unbuttoned my dress, imagining a strong human man reaching inside, fondling at my breast.

But I imagined it so vividly that it took me an actual moment to realize that, indeed, some man was fondling my breast. I hopped up from my seat and launched a spell at him, sending the pervert against the bookcase. But, to my horror, to my utter despair, it was not some random assaulting curr, but the Dean of m]Magical Studies himself, Professor Ambrose Donovan."

When he stared at me with those piercing blue eyes, I just had to lower my spell. He dusted off the collar of his open jacket, tugging at the loose collar, which showed the curling silver locks of his barrel chest. "Oh, of course..." I said to him. "A man of your stature must study both magic and physical aptitude to maintain that physique."

He chuckled and stepped up to me, and the force at which he pulled the dress from my shoulders and lifted me up, pressing me to the wall, it was like magic in its own right. I was under his sway, well, not totally. As his salt-flecked goatee brushed over my neck, his lips finding their way to my skin, I muttered to him "No, professor. This is improper. We can't do this."

But he continued, undoing my corset with his strong and commanding presence. The rush of air made my core heat up with need, and I knew he would be the one to give me what I wanted.

As he lowered his trousers and produced his massive tower. Oh, how large it was as it spread my womanhood with no regards to my well being. Ooh, how I cried out, yet no one would come to my aid, and the most horrible, terrible thing of it all, is that deep down, I enjoyed it.

"And that," Gimmegee says, "is my deepest shame."

"That Fiend!" Cynwrig says, his fists shaking. "To take advantage of a lady like that. Who does he think he is?"

"Eh?" Gimmegee blinks.

"You... you're greatest shame is being raped?" Kera gasps, aghast

"What? No! I wasn't. He didn't, I..."

"This injustice certainly shall not be unpunished!" Cynwrig says. "Point me in the direction of this academy, and I shall defeat him soundly."

"That's not what..." Gimmegee groans

"But wait..." Kera says. "Why were you wearing lacy undergarments and a corset if you were studying at your school? You weren't wearing anything like that when the Lily Nymph took you. Your underthings were rather drab."

"Well, that's because..." Gimmegee says, coughing into her hand, stalling for time.

"He stole your underwear as well!? The monster! I'll fly there post haste!" He opens his wings, buzzing and ready to fly right now.

"No, numbskull!" Kera says, grabbing one of his antennae. The little bug gasps and falls to his knees, two of his hands going between his knees, biting at his lower lip, his mandibles clacking in overdrive. Kera leans in and says to him. "It's because Gimmegee was embellishing things. That's not something that really happened isn't it?"

Gimmegee sighs and shrugs. "Yes, you found me out. He wasn't so forceful on me. He was a perfect gentleman." She folds her arms over her chest and huffs, staring off towards the road behind them. "I was just trying to spice things up in my retelling of the story. Everyone gets so picky whenever someone talks about a man taking what they want..."

Kera lets go of Cynwrig's antenna and plops down next to Tik Tik again.

"I'm surprised you caught onto my little ruse, though," Gimmegee says. "You nun types are supposed to be not-so-well versed in the desires of the flesh."

Tik Tik grunts, straining to poke Kera with her toe, but with her whole body immobilized, she can hardly rock herself.

Distracted by the kobold's actions, Kera smiles down to the kobold with a sad sort of look. "I suppose, perhaps, being among the depraved has weighed heavily upon my heart. Even if you did embellish your tale, you did tell it from the heart. Very well, I shall tell my story, but not until I hear what Cynwrig has. Are we in agreement?"

"Perhaps just a taste to wet the appetite," Gimmegee says.

Kera shakes her head. "Very well. I shall answer to you one question before you start your own tale, but choose your question wisely, as that will be all you're getting out of me until you tell me your story, and I deem them interesting enough to share my own."

"No fair!" Gimmegee complains.

Cynwrig hops up onto his seat. "But... but you said yourself that you are among the depraved. Why hide from us something that would embarrass you in front of others unless our story is sufficient for you?"

Kera smirks at that, a shiver visible upon her body as she flutters her eyes at the beetle. "Because, my dear friend, it is a sort of perverse joy I get in teasing the two of you. Now then, shall you begin?"

Gimmegee shoots a glare at Cynwrig, saying "Good job, bug boy. Now, hurry up and tell your story, before we make it to the convent and she gets away with telling us nothing."

The little beetle stands up "Very well..." he says. "I shall tell you an embarrassing story of my own to diffuse the tension in this conversation. But, where, then, shall I begin? At the very beginning of my quest? To my childhood, or at the start of this most intriguing encounter?"

Gimmegee writes down some notes, leaving Tik Tik to be the only one to notice Kera's tail as it slides out from her hand and goes behind herself. Tik Tik can then feel it upon her bandaged leg, and though she is injured, the tender skin picks up the feeling a thousandfold. She fights back the urge to say anything or to yelp in the sensation. Despite being not in control, despite not asking for it, the kobold is infinitely curious as to what this shame-speaking catfolk had planned for her.

"I suppose," Cynwrig says," It could start with my friend, Aarok. You see, he's something you'd probably call a spidertaur."

In the insectile lands, there are many creatures like me. Bugfolk, I suppose is the term that you use for them. To the people of the world outside, I am an anomaly, I know this, but inside, there are so many beings of so many shapes and sizes and kinds that we don't really notice. How strange would it be to see the kind that is Aarok, who has the bulbous, carapaced body of an arachnid, but an upper body of a young humanoid man. His jet hair washes down his back like a waterfall, and his skin kissed by the sun is a lighter brown that mixes with his blacker carapace in such a harmonious way. The two of us were great friends for the longest time, and even vowed to go on our first quest together when we decided to leave the home.

And, what adventures we had together, vanquishing foes and collecting gold. People wondered at our exotic appearance, and Aarok grew to have a mighty appreciation for the curious women of the outside lands. From what I could gather, they were enamored by his boyish charm with a mix of wonder at his, to them, unique anatomy.

"Don't worry, ladies. There's plenty of Aarok to go around," he'd say. Oh, yes, he enjoyed tieing them up in his webs and giving them exactly what they desired."

I, meanwhile, would often sit on the sidelines, left to hear the sounds of the ruting through makeshift shelters, or even just over a few bushes. Sure, I should have been at guard duty, but after a few wenches were bedded, I decided to actually listen in. That curiosity spread as I felt more desire to know. So one time, I crawled under the brush to see the ritual on display. There, a woman, stripped of all her garments, her entire front body pressed against the ground as his legs and arms pin her down. He leaned over her, breathing heavily upon her ear as he slipped inside of her, his grunts of pleasure and control, the blush on her cheek. All of those things made something stir within me. Have you ever seen something you think you shouldn't, but couldn't turn yourself away? That was me on that day, and I admit to you ladies today that was when I first started to enjoy the sight of others in the act."

"You're a peeping Tom!?" Gimmegee says, recoiling back from him.

"Wh... no. Just... just with Aarok and his lovers! Never with someone who didn't know!"

"So, Aarok knew?" Kera asks, her tail flickering between the kobold's legs.

Tik Tik shudders under her bandages.

"Well, I mean... not then, he didn't..." he says, trailing off, only to quickly add, "But there was a time he did find out!"

We've traveled to many cities since that first night, and I had become rather skilled at hiding myself. So one day, when he took an eager human woman off to do his thing, I was already waiting, hidden underneath a bush, with my back up against a nice rock. When her dress fell to the side, I rubbed my right antenna--it's my most sensitive one, and rubbed down over my body, getting to the, well, you know, to my maleness. It wasn't the feeling I felt of getting touched that provoked me, but just that way the woman went down in complete submission. I would never be a man like that. I could never treat a lady like that. They are too precious to make into such tools of lust. But Aarok... he did it so easily. He must have loved being the alpha male. That is what I thought at the time, at least.

He left the girl a groaning mess when he shot his sperm deep into her, leaving her to roll over and stare up blankly in the sky, filled by his lust and spent. I myself waited until that moment to go into full drive. But when he turned his eyes right toward me, I had to stop, frozen, caught cock-handed as he clicked over towards my hiding spot. That's when his voice boomed out, commanding and authoritative. "Did I tell you to stop, Cynwrig?"

Something new came over me at that point. I rubbed at both of my antennae with much more attention, my eyes squeezed shut as I couldn't bare to know that he was looking at me. Yet, at the same time, my other hands were working at my shaft, eager to please him.

Though I chose not to look, I knew that Aarok was watching me, scrutinizing my every action, seeing the power he had over me just from his words.

"Come," he said. That powerful word was enough to make me release, firing off and landing on my own body.

I lay there, soiled and satisfied, panting as I stared up at my friend and traveling companion, who looked down to me with a superior sort of grin.

We didn't talk the rest of that day. He had delivered his partner back to her home, still out of it from their excursion. For a moment, I thought maybe she'd react to the little show, but Aarok must have done wonders to her. That left me there, standing before him, a tiny creature compared to his massive frame. He didn't face me at first, but soon turned his head and said, "Cynwrig. I'm no longer satisfied."

At that point, my breath got caught. When he fully faced me, his shoulders back, his stature tall and proud, I felt myself falling to my knees before him.

"I need your help."

"Anything!" I said, falling onto my hands. My antennate twitched, excited to please him, no matter the cost.

He placed his hand upon my head, rubbing gently as he spoke his deepest desires to me. "I tire of this emptiness from these girls I need something more. Nature calls to me, and it calls me to seek out a mate, a real one. I want you to come with me, to lands beyond our home, to where we can find a suitable mate for me, with whom I can sire children. The spider-taurs back home do not interest me, and the humans cannot satisfy me. I know it is selfish and that it'll be a dangerous quest, but I want you to be there to help me complete it."

Without thinking, I immediately told him "anywhere for you, my dear, dear friend..."

"I thought you were going to tell us about something that deeply ashamed you," Gimmegee says. "I mean, I suppose Tik Tik doesn't mind the story she's hearing, does she?" Gimmegee looks over to the bandaged kobold, expecting a response.

"Mmmm mmmm!" is all Tik Tik can say, trying to indicate her excitement for learning more about these spider-taurs. She can imagine what it feels like to be wrapped up in a web created by them. Perhaps, she should try to find one in the future? That would certainly be delightful.

"Very well," Cynwrig says, straightening himself up. "As for my shame. Don't worry, Gimmegee... that's coming up quite soon. Don't you worry about that."

Aarok and I went on many more quests on our way to seek him a mate. We had gone far from home in our journeys, and Aarok's frustration only grew as we had no news of another spider-taur anywhere nearby. He would try to vent his frustration on more women, and I would vent my own by watching the act. But, when we weren't busy with the excitement of such things, I kept my antennae out to sense anything nearby that could lead us to another bugfolk..

It took a long time, and many one-night-stands. We had traveled far to arrive in the Wildlands, but it was there that we discovered the first signs of a mate for my dear, dear friend.

The villagers who normally greeted us with curiosity disappeared behind their doors as we approached. It took plenty of coaxing to talk to the scared villagers about what it was they so feared from us.

There was a witch, they said, that lived in the forest. Once a goodly healer, a dark force had fallen upon her. In exchange for magical power, the force had taken the witch's body and beauty, transforming her into an insectile horror. They feared that we were such creatures, but once we helped them with an ogre problem, they came around.

We made preparations, and Aarok was excited, but the closer we came to the witch's hut, the more nervous he seemed.

"Cynwrig," he spoke, carrying me on his back. "If the mating rituals here are anything like they are back home, I'm going to need your help."

My heart swelled with pride to know that I could help my friend. I told him that I would do anything. So, we made a plan that would respect the traditions of the spider-taur and make sure that the two of us made it out safely.

So, on the evening when the time was right, I approached the witch's hut, which had been overrun with the spider's web. Though I attempted to knock on the door, I didn't realize the skills of a spider like her. The floor fell beneath my feet, a trap set aside by the witch.

Long, warm hands wrapped around my body, pulling me in close until my face squished up against two large and soft breasts. I pressed my hands against the supple form that held me, until I could finally free my face from that chest prison, only to see the body and face of my captor. Her skin was a smooth midnight, and her hair raven to match. When she looked into me with her pupiless eyes, I saw a creature very similar, yet alien from my close friend.

She licked her lips as she looked down to me, crawling out from her trapdoor and letting the sun shine the both of us together. "My, my, what a cute little treat I've found," she said, as hands, covered in silken gloves, brushed over my shell.

Her voice was like a warm bath and her upper body so entirely soft, yet strong. I found myself going limp in her grasp.

"What brings a cute boy like you over to my lair?" She asked. "Are you seeking power? Are you wanting to vanquish the monster of the forest?"

Fingers trailed along my body, finding my weakness, poking out and pressing to her skin. "Oooh, my, what's this? Such a naughty boy you are. I'm trying to be your friend, and you only have one goal in mind. Well," she says, opening her mouth and showing off her sharp teeth. "I'm sure we can have plenty of fun with you."

As she lifted me up and lowered her head, that's when I saw Aarok crawling up from the roof of the shack. I gasp as her lips kissed my stomach, but she didn't seem to notice him until he hopped right onto her.

With a snarl, she dropped me, and gasped when Aarok's hands wrapped around her body, groping her chest.

"Aah, what's this!? A trick!? Hahah, have your fun while you can, male!" she says, her face contorted in a sinister grin. Her eyes glowed as she spoke, and soon magical energy wrapped around Aarok's throat. But in his eyes, I saw a mania I had never seen before. His pure lust as he rutted against her was unlike him.

I brought myself up to my legs, reaching out for him, but one of her legs pushed me away. "I don't need you anymore," she said. "I already have my snack!" she snickered, leaning back and arching her abdomen, allowing my friend, possessed by his lust, to continue. She groaned, closing her eyes and proclaiming to the sky, "Little spiderlings and a delicious morsel of a male. Yes.... This is what it's like to be a spider, isn't it, mistress!?"

I couldn't let him be eaten. I had to do something, but as I ran forward toward her once more, she swiped her powerful leg, sending me flying and hitting my head up against a tree. With a sick crack, I felt my world going black around me...

"And when I awoke," Cynwrig says, rubbing the back of his head. "There was no more sign of my friend or that beautiful, deadly woman..."

"And why, exactly, are you so ashamed of your actions," Gimmegee asks. "It's not like you could control what Aarok wanted. When you men want to stick your dicks in something, you're going to focus on it, no matter the consequences. It's his fault for not having the fortitude to face against-"

"Enough!" Kera shouts, standing and looming tall over the gnome. "What do you know about the desires people have in their hearts? Have you faced an uncontrollable urge that you can't fight back? Have you succumbed to it? Yes, Cynwrig, she is right that losing your friend isn't your fault, but no, Gimmegee, it's not something that plagues men and their issues. It's something that we all have to face. Something... I've been facing my entire life..."

The gnome shrugs and flips over to an unused page. "Well, then, are you ready to tell us what you've been dealing with?"

Kera slowly lowers herself back down, her tail brushing up along Tik Tik's outer thigh this time, petting her sensitive body, yet not reaching to any particularly tantalizing bits. Is she trying to comfort herself more than Tik Tik now?

"Yes, I suppose it's only fair. After all, we are about to head into the convent. You might as well know what you're dealing with and why I'm so..." She shudders. "Let's just get this over with.

The church of Klaudus was founded by my people, the Felines. Klaudus created our race, lifting us up from lowly animals, like so many other gods have done for their people. He only asked for one thing from us when he brought us up. That was the undying love of select individuals, chosen first by the community and then by the deity himself, to be his wives. For that purpose, girls are selected and raised to be members of the convents, where we learn to live good, chaste lives, but with the promise that we will have an eternity with Klaudus as our husband, when the time is right.

When I was but a kitten, I saw how happy the sisters of the order were, doing their charity work and even healing the sick in the name of Klaudus. I thought that there was no cause greater than serving the one who gave us the minds and bodies to appreciate life as we had it. I learned all the stories from the worship classes. I followed the local nuns around as they went about their day-to-day activities, and I learned to thank Klaudus for every experience that he granted onto us.

I wasn't the only one in my village who wanted to love Klaudus. There was another girl my age, Valki. Before we were old enough to know the shame of it, we would play together, wrestling along the ground to sharpen our hunter's instincts. We'd also groomed one another after getting our fur entangled after long sessions of play. There was no feeling I enjoyed more than the brush of her tongue over my body. Sometimes, I'd make sure to play extra rough, matting ourselves up good so we could each spend longer grooming each other. At first, she didn't mind, but after awhile, she asked us to stop playing like that. That was a very sad day for me.

As we grew older, our time to be chosen was at hand. The older fiancees of our god picked from among the litter only two of us, and it was Valki and I. And we learned much together in the convent about being free from the temptations of this world and readying ourselves for Klaudus's service in the world beyond. Yet, there was something that always bothered me. At first, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. The first time I saw Valki in her habit, my heart went all aflutter. I thought, at the time, it was my swelling with pride for her. But, as the nights went on, laying alone in my cell, that's when that demon entered my heart.

She would come into my dreams, draped in the form of my best friend, straddling over my paralyzed body. Though fear would first fill my heart, I soon welcomed the sight after a long time. She went from being a terrifying vision to a welcome warmth in my bed, and soon, she took on forms strange, yet familiar.

Whenever she appeared, she would make my nethers inflame with passion. One of our tenants is to not lay a paw upon our sex, for that is only for Klaudus to grasp. That's why when the warmth fell over me, I would learn to use my tail. At first, I would firmly grasp it, inserting the tip into myself. How strange it was, at first, to feel the part of me enter into another part of my body. After a few times, though, I became more proficient at it, even to the point where I would find myself using only my tail to please myself.

I begged with Klaudus. I told him that I was preparing myself for him. I asked for his forgiveness all the while. I spoke to him, telling him that I believed that he made me this way, and that I was only performing for him as was laid out by our scriptures.

At night, I would please myself, and during the day, I would hear the scriptures read to me. I would hear about the burning within each and every one of us, telling us that we are ready to bear our own kittens. But we are beyond simple mothers and wives: our bodies were to be kept pure, and our minds were to overcome that animal instinct. After all, Klaudus brought us up from animals. Why should we fall back into being such base creatures?

When that visitor came into my room, I would tell her to go away, but she would not heed me. No, she wouldn't leave--she couldn't, because there was something that I realized. This was no mere demon. This was something from deep within me, a corruption that sought to escape. The animal instinct that my kind left a long time ago...

She would crawl up upon my bed, making her form much more visible, and revealing to me her all those things I sought to hide from myself. For the feline that crawled upon me was my own self, smiling down at me, leaning in, and whispering dark promises. "Come on, this is just a dream. You are sleeping. Klaudus won't judge you for the dreams he provides."

I believed her and eventually gave in. The rough tongue of the feline pressed up against the fur of my cheek, slipping up to my ear, passing over my whiskers in a tantalizing motion. Her hands knew exactly where to go to part my night-dress, until the cool night air kissed my breasts. Soon, her own lips followed, her eyes not leaving mine, her tail making its way up along my leg as she licked over the pink nub of flesh poking out among the forest of fur. Before I knew what I was doing, I was arching my back, letting out a purr that told her, that told me, to keep going.

She would oblige, sliding that tail up and penetrate, just like I would do, but with her doing it, it was a whole different level of delight, something that I knew I would never be able to live without. Soon, her tail left, leaving me unsatisfied, rolling, stretching, crying for more. I found myself on my stomach, and she found herself on top of me, sliding hands down along my body, one squeezing at my breast, holding me close, the other going down between my legs, fingers penetrating deep. To be so filled by someone else's hand--I called out to Klaudus for forgiveness, but she took her hand from my breast and tilted my cheek, leaning over my shoulder and pressing her mouth to mine. I knew she was shutting me up, to keep me from reaching my god, but I didn't care. When her tail reached down, brushing at mine, I coiled around hers.

When I finally awoke from my slumber, my fur was drenched in a cold sweat, and my night dress was open, exposing my fur to the outside. I shuddered at what I thought about doing, but I slipped myself free, balled up the cloth, and tossed it aside onto the floor.

That night was the first night I lay in my bed, nude, the sheets kissing my body. I tossed and turned under them, feeling the cool fabric brush against me in ways that were forbidden. And when I wrapped myself around, outlining my body in a cocoon of fabric, I felt deep in my mind that I was doing something wrong, something forbidden, yet I enjoyed every moment of it.

Eventually, I knew that I couldn't continue like that. I couldn't live to see my wonderful friend, Valki, like I was. Each time we passed each other, the burning desire deep within my body only grew. It drove me mad thinking about it. My nightly visitor would change from being me to being her to being me again. I couldn't pray clearly. I couldn't think of my divine husband. I couldn't think of anything but the desire to please the monster that was growing deep inside of me.

So, that's when I decided to leave the convent. To escape from my duties alone was enough to brand me an apostate, yet I knew in my heart that I wished to be a good and devoted wife. I needed to find something, anything that could cure the beast within me.

On my way through the forests surrounding the convent, I soon had a run-in with her, with Slusk. At first, the reptile was a scary thing, covered in mud and uncovered in most other ways. She pointed her spear at me, barking about my trespassing in the lover's domain. But when she saw the look in my eyes and heard my broken breaths, she lowered her weapon, and extended her hand to me in friendship.

Without me having to ask, she told me that there was someone who could help me with my affliction. And she told me her own story about how she was without purpose, but with a yearning for love deep within her. How that yearning turned into a burning desire, and how the lover gave her everything she ever needed. The more she spoke about the Nymph, the more I was hoping that this 'lover' would give me exactly what I needed. I became more and more excited to meet this Lily Nymph as we made our way through the forest.

Together, Slusk and I would become companions in travel and in conversation. Little did I know that she intended to betray me and turn me into some horrid thing. That revelation would come all too soon, when we finally met the Lily Nymph herself.

She was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid my eyes upon. Sitting there on her petals, she commanded me to remove my sacred garments, and my mask of purity. These things I did readily for her.

Standing nude before the Lily Nymph, I felt myself reborn before she even touched me, but it was with that touch that I was sent over the edge. Never had my own sessions ended with such explosive climax. Never was I so validated that the feelings I had to the other women of the convent, for Valki, so powerful, so true, so real.

And for a time that blurred so much, I had served the Lily Nymph as a slave and a slut, but there was one encounter I had that changed my life forever. It wasn't long before You came into my life, Tik Tik, when I spied a girl who ran into the forest, holding herself, crying and alone. I slinked up behind her using my stealthy skills, and without even asking her what was wrong, I wrapped my arms around her body and undid her dress.

She was a plain girl, perhaps running away from one of the farms, but I didn't ask her, and I didn't care. I loved to taste the sweat off of her freckles and the gasps that came from her mouth as my fingers delved deep between her legs. When she rocked her hips to meet my fingers, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. It was only when my paws were soaked with her sex and when she eagerly licked it up from between my fingers that I asked about what was wrong with her.

What she told me almost jolted me out of the Lily Nymph's control then and there.

"I've been visited by a demon," she said, "claiming to be a distant relative. She promises me such nice things, but to shed my humanity to do so. I feel the heat growing inside me, the need that drives me forward. Please, miss. You have saved me this night. I need to be satiated, or the demon will escape from me!"

I stared into her eyes, seeing that desperation, that fear. And in those eyes, I saw myself. I may not have had a literal demon within me, but I knew that what she needed, Klaudus would provide. We were only a few days' journey from the convent. It would have been so easy to take her there, to get her the help she deserved, to prevent a demon from awakening in our world.

But, instead, I offered her my hand, and I led her away from the safety of Klaudus's arms. I led her back to the Lily Nymph, who took one look at her, and brought her close, who brushed fingers over her skin, who kissed her lips. All those things were what the LIly Nymph did to me, but now, she just looked at me as she pleased the girl's body, giving her the rewards I so sought.

And even as the Nymph retreated into her flower and I was left unsatisfied, I could feel the voice of my god coming back to me, and almost see the face of my beloved Valki. But Slusk wrapped her arms around me, and she growled into my ear, whispering her sweet tenderness. "Come, Kera. Let me sssatisfy you for being sssuch a good ssservant."

"None of it was real. I had become the Lily Nymph's slave. You two know it. I was insatiable. I never could receive that same explosive climax as I had that first time with the Lily Nymph, and I became such a... such a slut! There's no better word for it!"

There's a silence among the other passengers of the cart as she shakes her head and leans back.

"My god will no longer take me in, and now we're heading right back to where I left, to the life I gave up. It's been years since I left. Everyone would have moved on. They would have forgotten me. And if they didn't forget me, they would surely hate me."

Tik Tik rolls back and forth in her wrapped up state, mumbling with a fury and zeal that turns everyone's attentions towards her. Cynwrig hops off of his seat and pulls down the bandages from her mouth.

She shouts. "Tik Tik doesn't believe that! No one will like you? That's wrong! You and Valki friends! Valki will like you still. Just like how Adaeze will like Tik Tik. Just like how Tybalt... just like Prakibak. Everyone will remember you. If real friend, they won't care!"

"Tik Tik's right," Cynwrig says. "If this Valki is a friend worth keeping, then she will accept you for who you are. All you need to do is present your best self forward to her."

"I... I can't..." Kera says, covering her face. "I threw away my mask. No one is supposed to see my face outside of the convent. If they know I have gone so uncovered, then they will surely disown me the moment they lay eyes upon this form."

"Pack, Pack!" Tik Tik shouts.

Gimmegee pulls out Tik Tik's little pack and pulls out the mask from within it. "Well, what do you know?" she says. "Looks like your current friends have you covered."

"My... current friends?" Kera says. "But you, you were just someone tricked by the Lily Nymph, like me. Did we really know each other?"

"We knew each other at our worst," Gimmegee says. "Besides, it's not like the nymph changed who we were deep down. You just have a lot of stuff to deal with."

"A lot of repugnant, evil things within me," Kera says.

"No!" Tik Tik says. "Klaudus make you who you are." The kobold wiggles, trying to break herself free, but she cannot. The burning tingles throughout her as the burning runs through her soul. "If old friends no like Kera who she is, she need new friends who understand! Tik Tik from tribe where sexy things no good. Work all day, breed only for egg. But Tik Tik discover new way. Tik Tik and old friends enjoy new way. Because new way not bad way, see?

"I... I think I might see, if only a little," Kera admits. She swipes the mask away from her and brushes her paw over it once more. "I suppose, it is worth a shot to see them once more, as... who they want me to be."

Tik Tik growls from beneath the feline and shakes her head to the best of her ability. "No, no. Be you, Kera. Be friend to Tik Tik. Be girl who talk about her feelings and be woman who sneak tail over Tik Tik's body when talk to others!"

"Say what?" Cynwrig gasps.

"Ooh, now isn't that spicy," says Gimmegee with a giggle.

Kera slides the mask over her face, facing away from the kobold. "T-that's very rude of you, making such accusations. I am... I am weak-willed. Harmed by the demons within me, and you say such things about me, why?"

"Because they true! You touched Tik Tik while Cynwrig talked about his time!"

"M... me!?" Cynwrig says, scooting away from the feline. "W... which part was it you found to be to your liking, Miss Kera? Me watching my friend? The spider woman?""Look, my tail just does things, sometimes. After so long in the woods with the Lily Nymph, it has a mind of its own. You saw me back there, how little control I had on myself. How I needed Slusk to keep me from constantly getting off. Gimmegee..." she says, her hands on her head, looking up to the gnome for confirmation.

"The way I see it," Gimmegee says, "There's nothing the Lily Nymph didn't force me to do that I didn't like on some level. Then again, I don't have as many hang-ups about sex as you do. I mean, really, if anything, she made me more of a prude by seeking only her. It's more the real me that wants to read this fascinating book than it was me as a Flower."

Kera sits in silence, and Tik Tik waits for her to say something before she adds anything herself. It's important that she makes her own discoveries, but someone else speaks up in the interim.

"You know, you ladies have been talking so much, you fail to realize that you're at your destination."

The cart stops and the driver peeks his head back into them with a quick nod. "Begging your pardon, but there isn't much for a driver to do but listen to the sounds around him."

Kera groans and rushes her way out of the cart, leaving Tik Tik behind with the two smaller companions.

"Oh bother..." Gimmegee says, sighing and stuffing the book in Tik Tik's traveling pack. "We might be needing more help, good sir, as we're quite tiny ourselves."

"Don't bother me none. Just add the extra distance to my fare, and we'll be fine."

Gimmegee flips a coin and helps Tik TIk up from her seat. The driver aids her and the beetle boy, and soon, they are out of the cart and into the twilight open.

Tik Tik gasps at the sight before her: a building unlike anything she had seen before, constructed out of stone with spiraling towers, elegant archways, and statues of a strapping feline figure throughout the masonry. Grand stairs lead up from the road to the entrance, where there stands three figures dressed in wholly cleaner versions of Kera's habit. Kera herself, however, sits on her knees in front of the building, not even touching the stairs.

The figure in the front holds her hands out to the travelers and proclaims. "I am the favored wife of this temple," she begins. "Please, inform me of all of your woes, and the wives of Klaudus will tend to your injuries and ills.

The seated Kera turns her masked face upwards, her entire form trembling as she stares up at the favored one. She raises a hand, the paw shaking as she reaches out without touching, a gasp coming out from the back of her throat. When she finally speaks up, it is of one word-quick and uncertain, yet filled with all the horror, all the anxiety, all the regret that she has welling up deep within her. "V... Valki...?"

The favored wife looks to one of her attendants and says. "Please, help them carry the injured girl in."

The attendants nod and approach, taking Tik Tik in their arms and assuring the kobold that they would take the best care of her.

"What about Kera?" Tik Tik asks.

"Don't worry about her," the favored wife says. "She has done her part in helping you out. Surely, she would wish your association with her will be brief while she makes her atonement."

Kera turns toward Tik Tik and nods to her. "Don't worry about us, Tik Tik. Just... get better."

Gimmegee walks up to the steps and lays the book down before the wives of Klaudus. "Here. She'll be wanting this for sure."

Tik Tik smiles as she glances down at the book and says, "Thank you. Tik Tik hope to see you all again soon!"

Sometimes, all it takes to really get to know someone is a good talking-to, but other times, the mysteries of their heart are quite an enigma indeed. Be careful with who you choose as your companion and as your friend, as the choices you make today become the troubles and trials of tomorrow. The pursuit of sexual enlightenment sometimes means sacrificing the opportunity at having a stronger relationship. Sometimes, then, it is best to keep one's relationship with certain individuals within the realm of friendship, and sometimes to keep those we explore as merely outlets for our lusts.

A great wizard knows when to keep their companions close and also when to shun the advances of lovers. A greater wizard understands that the two realms cannot always be kept seperate. Just remember, reader, that if you find yourself somewhere between the realms of someone you can trust and someone you wish to share a magical evening with, do not let one judgement cloud the other. Always go with the most calculated approach: Is this person worth more to you as an ally or as a curiosity? Make sure you weigh all your options before you go with your final decision, for traveling to another realm in your relationship can prove to be not only difficult, but also disastrous.

-The Author