FSE

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_ Exploration II _

When next Shadow opened his eyes it was still dark and a steady, rhymic rasping sound came quietly to his ears. The darkness was not so complete as it had been earlier; there was a light on somewhere nearby, but not direct enough to blind his sleep bleary eyes. He blinked a couple of times, staring at the curtains covering the window nearby.

No light leaked beneath them revealing that it was still dark outside.

The steady rasping sound did not alarm him as he was quite familiar with it; the sound of a brush running through fur. Slowly rolling over he closed one eye and mostly the other, carefully peering toward the bathroom nook where he could see Crevan's back. The fox's long, lush golden tail stood out behind him and swayed in time with the slow strokes of his brush. Turning onto his side Shadow had to simply admire the fox; in the light of the bathroom his lush fur shone like burnished gold. The underside of his tail, from its midpoint to his shapely ass, was wheat gold, as was the cleft of his ass and inner thighs.

As if sensing he was being watched Crevan paused in his fastidious brushing and leaned back slightly to turn his brilliant green gaze back into the room. Seeing Shadow admiring him the fox smiled warmly, almost coquettishly, and turned to strike a jaunty pose. As with his tail a swath of pale gold spread outward across his breast and tapered smoothly down his stomach to the dense ruff of his very neatly trimmed groin fur amidst which stood the slender, long ridge of his vulpine sheath.

From his vantage point, judging from the young fox's frame, that sheath was notably longer than the skunk's own, but much more slender. Beneath it, almost lost in the pale golden nest of crotch fur, his balls were but a mysterious hint of shorter velvet against the similarly pale fur of his inner thighs. "You like what you see?" the fox purred softly as he set down the brush with a quiet click.

Shadow stretched and smiled with a slow nod, "Oh, yes, very much so." He replied with a throaty churr, his voice rough with sleep. "It's not often us old timers get to smile admiringly on such handsome young creatures as you."

Crevan scoffed with a soft chuckle and padded languidly across the room, leaving only the bathroom light on to illuminate the room. "Don't sell yourself short, Shadow. You're very handsome yourself." He murred as he looked the skunk up and down slowly. Shadow had cast aside the covers at some point during the night, or the fox had drawn them down, so that only his lower legs and paws were covered leaving the rest of him open to the fox's sultry gaze. Green eyes hovered as they took in his sheath, which the fox had only experienced by touch and smell, and taste, late the previous night. Leaning over from the edge of the bed the fox reached down and traced the line of Shadow's ventral stripe, a pale white that tended toward silver at its center. "Gray suits you spectacularly." Unabashedly the fox's fingers traced across the skunk's plump sheath. "Good morning."

"Mmhh, yes, good morning to you, Goldy." Shadow husked with a self-conscious backing of his ears, his sheath reflexively tightening into the white nest of his groin fur at the delicate touch. "What time is it, anyway?"

Climbing up onto the bed with his knees, not moving his hand away from the warm sheath upon which his fingers rested, Crevan smiled. "Just shy of seven."

Shadow chuffed softly and nodded, leaning back into the plush pillow at his back as the fox leaned close over him, striking green eyes meeting his gaze with soft warmth. "Not sure if anything's open yet for breakfast. Room service?"

Crevan's teeth gleamed and he laughed softly, "Service, yes." He chuffed and boldly leaned down to brush the side of his muzzle down one side of Shadow's sheath and up the other before the cool pad of his nose brushed the softly furred tip. "No need to rush right out." His words came in a soft, rolling growl as the cool touch was replaced with a warmer caress as his tongue stroked lazily down the front of Shadow's sheath to slide warmly across the skunk's balls.

Shadow hissed a chuckling breath through his nose and dropped one hand to caress the soft lushness of the fox's cheekruff, admiring with growing arousal the narrow taper of the fox's muzzle, recalling with crystal clarity how perfectly it fit upon his length in the darkness not so very long ago. "Oh, no, no need." The skunk chuffed and writhed a bit at the soft caress of the fox's warm tongue across his balls.

Turning his head to smile up at him with one brilliant eye the fox's tongue drew back up and once more brushed against the tip of his sheath, pressing down slightly to push the loose fur-covered flesh back until it's gentle pressure brushed across naked, sensitive flesh. Shadow let out a deep, gasping chirp and his hips twitched at the zing of that delightful touch sent fire coursing through his loins. "It is morning, after all." The fox's lips brushed against his sheath as the fox spoke, his body bent over smoothly to bury his muzzle in the skunk's dense fur. Pressing softly downward he coaxed the skunk's sheath back just a little further, his lips kissing and brushing the exposed tip of the skunk's cock.

Remembering the fox's earlier comment as they drifted off to sleep Shadow laughed and slipped his hand upward to the nape of the fox's neck, sliding his fingers deep into the well groomed golden fur. "It is, isn't it." He crooned as Crevan's lips teased his tip, tasting him with delicate swirls of his tongue. "Hungry, fox?"

With a flash of brilliant white teeth Crevan's whiskers folded back along his muzzle and he pressed downward with a smooth plunge of his head, taking the entirety of Shadow's nascent erection with a single deep moan. Shadow's hips bucked upward, completing the union of his awakening arousal with that wonderfully hot muzzle. After suckling hungrily on him for a few seconds Crevan drew his head upward until only his lips teased Shadow's tip. "Starving!" he growled with a huff of breath.

Stretching out on the bed Crevan lowered his body and took half of the swiftly thickening cock into his muzzle again and suckled upon it softly, almost lazily, a vibrating churr rolling within his throat. Shadow's fingers clutched at the fur of his nape, eager to just push the young fox's muzzle back down fully upon him but not wanting to press too far, too swiftly. As much as the fox seemed to lust after his smooth canine length he didn't want to become so rough that he frightened the poor young fellow. He dropped his head back against the headboard and simply gazed down at the spectacular view of that narrow muzzle opened against his sheath. Of his cock he could see nothing; gold fur pressed warmly against white as the muscles of the fox's jaw undulated with the rippling motion of his suckling tongue.

Letting out a slow sigh of pleasure Shadow spread his legs slightly, hitching himself a little to one side so that the fox could stretch himself out fully on the bed. "It's... I'm all yours, Goldy." The skunk murred softly as watched the fox's muzzle slip further and further downward, pushing his sheath ever so slowly back to take more of his throbbing, awakening arousal into the heat of his maw. His fingers gently rubbed at the fox's neck through the thick, well groomed ruff of his nape and he half closed his eyes.

The slow, sensual, fully relaxed morning blowjob was masterful in it delivery and almost too much for the skunk to withstand at such an early hour. Within seconds his slender baculum had become a fully engorged thickness that pressed lightly against the restraining bracket of the fox's teeth, against which the heat of his rippling tongue curved to protect him from their sharp edges. It pulsed and twitched in time with the slow, firm rippling caresses of the fox's tongue, spurting swift jets of thin pre deep into the accepting muzzle. With each gulping swallow the root of the fox's tongue would press upward firmly against Shadow's sensitive tip, then ripple downward toward his thickening knot before the entire tongue would press up and rasp backward only to repeat the motion.

"Oh, gods, Crevan my handsome golden god of foxes... you are beyond wonderful." At his words Crevan could only sway his upraised tail slowly in pleasure as he pushed downward deeper, almost taking the skunk's bulging knot but for the limiting narrowness between his canine fangs. Shadow let his eyes drift almost closed and simply watched with quickening breath as his loins began to tighten all too swiftly. It had been years since he received such a delightful wake up, from anyone male or female. And the fox was simply perfect; relaxed and slow rather than energetically swift. The rapid rise and fall of a plunging muzzle, while somewhat arousing to watch on porn, Shadow had always found terribly uncomfortable. Yes, it deadened the sensation enough to make him last many minutes longer than he would otherwise, but at the same time the near violence of such oral eagerness left him unable to reach the fullness of pleasure.

What the fox was doing was perfection in the skunk's mind, and his body was awash in the pure eros of it. His toes splayed under the rumpled heap of the coverlet covering them and his tail lashed between his spread legs. Crevan lifted his head slightly, drawing Shadow's cock upward as the fox braced his hands to either side of the skunk's hips and slowly turned his head, rotating the slow rippling of his tongue around the throbbing erection within his maw. Shadow caught a glimps, then, of his own dark flesh between dangerously sharp teeth upon the rolling nest of the fox's more pale pink tongue. Crevan smiled up at him with one eye, as if that display was his entire intention, opening his muzzle wide and pressing downward.

He did take the whole knot, then, opening his muzzle wide enough to accept the throbbing bulk, pressing Shadow's thick tip deep into the confines between the root of his tongue and soft palette. And, much to Shadow's surprise, he did not gag in the slightest, even when the skunk's cock gave a powerful spasm and fountained a jet of pre deep into the fox's confined throat. Shadow stifled a gasp of pleasure and pressed his hips down against the plush mattress, then thrust upward as Crevan drew his muzzle up. "A feast is ... coming to you very, very soon." He groaned as his body tensed, the tips of his carefully blunted claws rasping the fox's flesh beneath his fur.

"Mmmmhhhm!" Crevan actually managed to nod, his eyes almost closed as he drew his head up, sealing his lips once more around Shadow's girth, and laid his head down upon Shadow's stomach. One hand snaked up to grasp his knot gently, massaging just behind it where the majority of canid sensitivity was found, driving Shadow into a writhing fit as the skunk's balls drew taut between his thighs. For a few long moments Shadow hovered there, on the edge, sensitive flesh teased and then neglected with each caress of the fox's paw and warm stroke of his tongue, raising him closer and then letting him fade back.

But it was a delicate balance, not one that could even remotely be sustained, and within minutes Shadow was reduced to a needy, writhing form under the fox's attentions. He grasped at the thick fur of Crevan's nape and threw his head back against the headboard as he felt his orgasm so, so close and then drifting away for a mere moment before climbing toward its peak again.

And then, wonderfully, over that peak.

With a snarling, gasping cry he released the fox's ruff, his hand sliding down between his shoulders. Crevan abruptly raised his head, until only a couple of inches rested upon his tongue, and opened his eyes to gaze down at the tight drawn white balls and dark, iron hard flesh standing proud from the tucked back sheath to disappear beneath his nose. He let out a soft chuff of breath through his nose when Shadow's cock gave an almighty spasm and showered a hot gyser of salty cum across his tongue. He did not swallow, his fingers massaging the skunk's throbbing knot as he felt another climactic release surging through the slender root and coursing up his length. When it exploded across his tongue Crevan let out a deep, gurgling moan, letting the taste of Shadow's pleasure wash with hot surges across the entirety of his sensitive tongue.

The night previous Shadow had orgasmed while fully buried in the fox's muzzle, denying him much of the skunk's flavor as it poured directly into the fox's throat. With little more than his tip embraced the fullness of that rich, salty potency was savored as it filled the fox's muzzle before the last fading twitches of climax ebbed. Shadow's hips slumped and his body sagged, utterly spent, before the fox finally swallowed the thick white gift he was given.

Not a drop escaped.

As Shadow's climax faded the fox once more let his head settle downward until his lips rested against the pulsing knot, letting the skunk's erection fade in its own time, nursing it delicately to the dregs before it slipped back into the soft whiteness of his sheath. All the while Shadow's shaking hand slowly stroked the fur of his neck and shoulders. Once Shadow's length disappeared once more into his sheath Crevan raised his head and smiled, making a show of licking his long whiskers though nothing of the skunk's orgasm clung to them. "Thank you, Shadow, again." He murred softly with a sweeping twitch of his tail.

Shadow, panting and blinking with a stupid, beatific smile, could only nod idiotically for a few moments at the golden, green eyed visage smiling up at him. "Unnnhh... no, oh no, don't thank me." He huffed breathlessly, dipping his hand under the fox's chin and drawing him up, "I should thank you, it's been far too long since anyone was so inclined to offer a blowjob like that, and in all my years, none have been nearly so skilled in that offering." He leaned forward a bit to touch a light kiss upon the fox's short-furred lips, the fingers of his hand brushing the fox's dampened whiskers back. Crevan smiled at the kiss, and then returned it with gentle, eager heat. Shadow quailed for a moment; true, deep kissing had never settled well on him, for some reason.

But with the fox, it did, and he accepted the returned kiss after a swift heartbeat of hesitation, tasting the musky, saline potency of his release on the tongue that slipped past his lips and wove into the confines of his shorter, angular muzzle. For several moments he enjoyed the warm closeness of the fox's body pressing against him, the press of that slender muzzle to his own, and the taste of his tongue, redolent of his orgasm, dancing about within his muzzle. His fingers brushed lightly along that muzzle before he dropped both hands to the fox's shoulders and pulled upward.

With an inquiring mhurf Crevan tensed slightly before allowing himself to be drawn up. Shadow's hands shifted from his shoulders to his waist and pulled again, drawing the fox upward and across him. Crevan grasped at the headboard with one hand and hastily shifted his legs until he sat astride the skunk's stomach. Shadow leaned his head back and smiled up at the confused fox as his hands dropped from his waist to his hips and pulled once more. Crevan sidled up closer, his legs spreading wide across the bredth of Shadow's chest as his pale golden balls brushed against the white of Shadow's stomach, then sternum.

"You've had your breakfast..." Shadow rumbled throatily as he nuzzled into the fur of Crevan's chest, then stomach, pulling him closer and nuzzling lower until the subtle musk of the fox's loins filled his nose. The fox's sheath was right there, just before his nose, and it's scent was delightfully subtle, but amazingly rich; deep and earthy with a warm spiciness that made Shadow's head swim. His lips brushed against the fox's long, slender ridge, plucking at the nearly white tuft of fur tipping it. "Crevan?" He asked as he dipped his head to brush his nose downward, gentle hands pulling the fox upward further and closer still, until the soft headiness of the fox's musk came much more directly from the balls that brushed the pad of the skunk's nose.

"Yes, Shadow?" the fox squeaked, clutching desperately at the top of the headboard as he strove not to collapse fully onto the skunk awkwardly half-seated before him.

"Can I touch?" the skunk asked playfully, his nose lifting and rolling the small golden sac of satin soft velvet, inhaling the richness of his clean masculine scent.

"Please." Crevan growled eagerly, pressing forward to grind the ridge of his sheath along the bridge of Shadow's angular muzzle and between his blue eyes. Resting his head back Shadow lipped upward along that sheath, letting Crevan settle back a little on his knees.

"Can I do more than touch?" he asked softly, feeling the twitching length of awakening arousal within the fox's sheath. He lipped softly at the tip, tasting the warmth of clean fur and the tingle of saline sweetness and subtly bitter wetness of his inner sheath.

"Yes, Shadow." Cravan growled with a throaty moan, his head dropped down, chin to chest, to gaze at the gray head pressed close against his stomach at the apex of his twitching sheath. "Touch, taste, explore... all of me."

Shadow needed no further coaxing, smiling wide as he pressed his lips downward against the tip of the fox's sheath. Almost instantly the intensity of the fox's flavor exploded across his tongue as he let that tip press past his lips and brush over his short, broad tongue. His hands dropped down to the fox's rump, grasping the warm curves beneath the fox's upraised tail and pulling him forward. With a gasp Crevan's body shuddered and his hips bucked forward, driving his eager cock against the roof of Shadow's muzzle and sliding it's slender length smoothly across his tongue.

As the fox had Shadow took him, entire, with a single lusty swallow, growling in delight himself as the fox's cock buried itself fully. The fox's small, swiftly awakening knot slipped past his lips and, even with that added length, the fox's nascent erection did not press unpleasantly against the back of his throat. Crevan's length was almost perfectly suited to the skunk's shorter, broader muzzle and Shadow partook of its momentary bitterness lustfully. His lips sealed tightly around it as his hands let the fox settle back, drawing out of his muzzle but for the tip.

With a pulsing twitch it thickened and jetted a hot stream of thin, saline sweetness across Shadow's tongue. Closing his eyes Shadow's hands tightened and pulled gently against the fox's rump, urging his hips to thrust forward again, burying his thickening length deep in the skunk's muzzle. He pressed upward with his tongue, aroused beyond sensibility by the taste of hardening flesh swiftly filling his muzzle, the scent of arousal filling his nose with every breath. He could not see the fox's head thrown back or the gaping muzzle gasping for air as the fox's eyes rolled back. His hips dropped back again as Shadow's hands relaxed upon his rump, then thrust forward once more at the gentle pull.

Shadow slowly urged the fox to thrust, to find his pace, pulling and taking the fox fully into his muzzle but for the mass of his engorged knot, then letting him settle back. It did not take very long at all for Crevan's passion to find a rhythm, drawing back but never fully from the warmth of Shadow's muzzle before striving forward again in a shaking, needy thrust. The skunk slowly relaxed the pull and release of his hands as the fox began to settle into the steady, hot rhythms of desire eagerly accepted. When the fox's thrusts became too swift, too forceful, Shadow merely slid his hands up to press his thumbs lightly against the front of the fox's pelvis. Immediately he slowed but did not stop, his body arched back as his hips strove forward, pressing himself deep into the heat of Shadow's muzzle and then swiftly jerking back.

"Shadow..." Crevan gasped with a ragged, choked breath as his hips drove forward, pressing his knot firmly against the skunk's lips and holding there as his cock twitched with rapid pulses of thin, vulpine pre. Shadow eagerly swallowed every offering, his tongue sliding smoothly against the tight flesh of Crevan's smaller, shorter erection. Shadow hat do admit, he was large by comparable standards of his kind, but he was in no way huge in the least. Just perfect, so far as the skunk was concerned, but every so often in the past it had proven almost uncomfortable for some of his paramours. His first girlfriend, the raccoon, had never been able to fully take him without choking. The skunk lady he had known could not even take half, and told him that being fully tied had sometimes left her aching for days.

A pleasant ache, she assured, but... too much, sometimes.

But, compared to many canines, or even equines, he was puny. He found it rather laughable that the lady skunk had hooked up with a rather famous pony out in Hollywood. That fellow most certainly had to be considerably thicker, and longer, than Shadow was.

But the fox's muzzle accepted him, even his knot despite being deeply lodged in his throat, without the slightest difficulty. And the fox, in turn, was perfect for Shadow's muzzle. He eagerly accepted each thrust, even the occasional shudderingly rough jerk that shoved his head back against the headboard. He opened his muzzle and let the fox's knot press against his tongue, careful to keep it between tooth and flesh, and still the fox's tip only nudged his throat.

Some males he had known in the past could near suffocate him before he had even half of their length. But then, throughout his life, male companionship had been fleeting; often one-night flings. He enjoyed those liaisons, but never had contemplated more than those brief, transitory trysts. Perhaps the fox would be another such in a long line of trysts, but while the fox was with him he was beyond eager to satiate the handsome golden creature's every desire.

He could feel that desire with every thrust, every shudder of the body pressed close above him, the lash and twitch of the fox's long tail brushing his thighs. His hands supported the perfect curves of the young fox's ass and, as he felt the brush of balls against his chin and the jerky twitching of his arousal growing ever closer to culmination, he let his fingers drift upward along the cleft of that shapely ass.

When his fingers brushed the hot, naked muscular flesh beneath Crevan's tail the fox let out a sharp, loud groan and shoved his hips back against it, his cock spasming powerfully with a rush of pre. His hips shuddered and jerked forward, burying himself within the tight seal of Shadow's lips, cock twitching ever more rapidly as the skunk's fingers delicate rubbed the heat of his rear entry with light, circular pressure. "Oh... oh, Shadow, that... yes... please!" Crevan rasped and moaned, sounding almost at the verge of tears.

When Shadow gently pressed the blunt tip of a claw into the center of that ring Crevan yowled and jerked back, only to slam his hips desperately forward. His ring clenched and twitched against the warm pressure of Shadow's fingerpad as it followed that gentle claw, easing into him a little deeper with each body shaking, jerky thrust. As the second knuckle of his finger slipped past that hot, tight clench the fox's yowl became a choked howl.

Dropping his weight forward fully against Shadow's face, his cock buried knot deep in the skunk's muzzle, Crevan's orgasm struck with breathtaking force. The gush of heat that poured into Shadow's muzzle was unexpectedly copious, nearly making him choke as it surged into his throat and swiftly filled his muzzle. The salty richness of it exploded through Shadow's senses like a tsunami and he gulped rapidly in a valiant attempt just to keep up. He never imagined that the young fox's balls could contain so much. One hand grasped at the fox's rump as he buried his finger fully under the fox's upraised, lashing tail, feeling the rhythmic clenching as the fox's cock jerked, relaxed, jerked again rapidly, filling his muzzle each time with the hot richness of his release.

If anything the fox's orgasm outlasted Shadow's own by a measure of seconds. What he offered up as a gift for the Skunk's ministrations far outstripped what the skunk could produce even in the virility of his own youth. It was a flood; nay, it was more than a flood... it was a cataract of rich, slick heat that could scarcely be contained even by the thirsty muzzle embracing the spastic jerkings of Crevan's release.

At length, however, measured by tens of seconds if not nearly a minute, Crevan's release slowly tapered away to desultory pulsing twitches allowing Shadow to catch up with the clinging thickness filling his muzzle. He clutched eagerly at the fox's rump as his body bucked and swayed with the intensity of his orgasm, letting his weight slump forward as he finally shuddered still and sagged forward, pressing his cock deep as the last desultory dollops of warm, thick potency dribbled down the back of Shadow's throat. He swallowed as gently as he could, all too aware just how almost painfully sensitive the fox's length would be.

After a few panting minutes Crevan shuddered and slowly drew himself back, his cock slipping from Shadow's mouth with a wet slurp to thump lightly into the damn nest of his belly fur, quickly slimming and disappearing into the pale wheat gold of his sheath. The fox's weight dropped back until he was sitting quite firmly on Shadow's own slowly fading erection. With a beatific smile, his tongue hanging from the end of his muzzle, its tip curling up slightly with each panting breath, Crevan shifted and rocked his rump against the skunk's thick sheath, doing nothing to ease his arousal back to manageable levels.

"And you said I was good..." the fox gasped breathlessly, dipping his head and lightly stroking his long, slender tongue across one side of Shadow's muzzle, cleaning his whiskers and the trickle of cum that had leaked onto the skunk's chin before licking upward along the opposite side to clean those whiskers as well. "That was positively mind-altering."

"And your muzzle wasn't?" Shadow scoffed in a rough growl, grinning stupidly into the fox's wide-pupiled emerald gaze. "Just the mere thought of your tongue upon me makes the old poker wake up and beg." He joked, his hands slowly stroking along the small of Crevan's back, down the length of his tail before sliding back up to squeeze his rump. "Now that the tastiest part of the morning has arrived and cum, let's see about a more mundane repast, yes? My treat."

Crevan tapped the tip of Shadow's nose with one claw, "Not before I give you a proper grooming, you scruffy old greymuzzle." Rising and slipping off the bed on shaky legs he staggered over to Shadow's luggage and scooped up the grooming kit secreted in its mesh pocket.

The grooming was delightful, almost as much as the fox's ever so talented muzzle, for the skunk had never been nearly so fastidious in his grooming. Once he was done, and not without a lot of teasing banter and bold caresses that almost led to another steamy exchange of loving muzzles, Shadow's gray and white fur shone like satin and felt like pure silk. He was not jesting when he admitted to keeping his course outer coat trimmed back to expose the softer undercoat, and the fox's ministrations brought that out to its fullest.

Groomed, fully relaxed yet energized almost to hyper glee, they dressed with many admiring comments about particular anatomies being secreted away, and ambled from the skunk's sequestered, quiet hotel suite. With no particular haste they cruised the hallways and actually used the stairwells which were open and broad, owing to the fact that the hotel was only three floors and quite sprawling, passing others with smiling greetings.

Opening ceremonies, to which Shadow had been invited but only as an attendee and not Guest of Honor like Sizzle, Lady Avalon, and other popular creative sorts were. Shadow did not attend cons under his writing nom-de-plume, allowing him complete freedom and market anonymity amongst the throngs. Several of his fellow writers, some friends and others staunch rivals, did attend under their names and suffered the same level of fanfare as the artists did.

They ate at the hotel's laughably overpriced resturaunt, willing to suffer the costs to enjoy the admitted quality of the place, sharing a light morning feast with a white rabbit that had happened to wander in at the same time they had. The snowshoe hare's fur had been cut almost militarily short to make the balmy summer heat more bearable. His name was Ffilli, which he claimed was a long ago and quite accidental publisher's misspelling of his intended writing name, but the rabbit had grown to identify himself by it since he also considered his popularity just as much an accident. They chatted amiably over their meal about writing and publishing, sharing notes on new publishers and the rabbit's recent foray into the contemporary houses. It was sore difficult for anyone in their fandom to break out of it to the wider audience but Ffilli had, surprisingly well.

Shadow had yet to do so, but did not admit to the two titles that he currently had in the late editing phases at a couple contemporary publishing houses. Ffilli, knowing Shadow's penchant for being a shadow, did not speak of the skunk's writing in the company of the fox, whom he did not know.

Once they had finished they ambled up to the mezzanine level where the dealers' gallery had just opened. Due to the relatively small size of the con, with an attendance that rarely broke twelve-hundred including dealers, they were able to simply walk right in. Unlike the much more popular conventions, with attendance numbers recently breaking five digits, there was almost no queue and getting to the most popular artists was no more difficult than simply walking up to their table.

Sizzle, seated next to the arctic wolf Lady Avalon as was their norm, only had three people awaiting commission submissions. Lady Avalon had no less than seven, oohing and awing over her most recent title. Sizzle had one of her own, but it was not going to be formally released until the second day of the con so as to not compete with other new releases terribly much.

Of course, both of them had signed, numbered copies for Shadow awaiting. He had not actually seen Sizzles, but for the teaser art on her web site, and had not contributed beyond a little editing assistance and a proof of the initial, extremely salacious, manuscript. Sizzle was a very capable writer in her own right, and having the art to lend it visible appeal left the artistically inept Shadow incredibly envious.

"Morning Sizzle, m'lady." Shadow smiled as they worked their way to the front of the queue, bowing to the white wolf regally. After a moment of hesitation Crevan mirrored his bow to the Lady Avalon. Sizzle was much more down-to-earth; the tawdry peasant to Avalon's aristocracy. "How's business treating you this fine morning?"

"Busy." The rust-colored hybrid of northern gray wolf and eastern red wolf smiled back as she dug out her huge art pad. "Seventeen requests this morning alone, for completion this weekend, and three larger works to complete later. And only an hour into the opening day." Thumbing the pad open a couple of pages she laid it upon the table and turned it to face the skunk.

"Oh, spectacular!" Shadow gushed at the image; of a collie female and a human male tangled in a moment of relaxed intimacy. The collie was actually intended to be of the Scottish breed; orange and gold and white, but the pencil rough only hinted at the complexity of her color. Sizzle had done two earlier works of the pair so she knew them well already. "Go with this, dear, I love it." The complex background was nothing more than hints of lines but Shadow prized it out with a momentary glance; it would fit perfectly with his latest work.

"That's lovely." Crevan nodded with an awed sigh at the huge work. "I... really did not have any idea what I would want. I just love your art, regardless of the scene." He smiled at the rust wolf, once more self-conscious at the speaking to someone whose work he idolized; whose work helped him come to understand himself well enough to begin finding comfort in it.

Comfort enough to bury his muzzle in a near-stranger's crotch and consume the gift offered with lustful eagerness. He glanced down at the hands clutched at his stomach and then looked up, his glance shifting from Sizzle to Avalon and back. "And... as last night; if you, both of you, wish to enjoy such entertainment again, I would be honored to offer it again."

Sizzle's brows crept up and the Lady Avalon glanced aside to her, then at the fox and skunk, without breaking her banter with the human now standing before her table discussing, at pedantic length, what she wanted while the white wolfess took notes. "I'm going to be quite frightfully busy, Crevan." The fox blushed furiously under his fur, whiskers and ears backing, at the use of his name from the wolf, "But I really enjoyed your generous gift last night. I would be glad to take you up on it again, if the Lady wishes to as well."

Beside them the human paused and looked at all four of them, trying to read beneath the enigmatic, circular conversation. No doubt making all of the utmost incorrect assumptions. Accepting the woman's money and contact information the Lady Avalon smiled in that distant, aloofly cool way, and nodded concurrence with Sizzle's agreement to the offer. Sizzle smiled warmly, "Can I have your contact info, then? E-mail, or phone if you can text?"

"I can text!" Crevan chirped in amazed glee, quickly taking up one of the submission slips on the table and jotting it all down. Sizzle folded the paper into the pocket of her comfortable looking flannel shirt with a smile.

"It's a date, then."

Shadow chuckled warmly and gave the flustered fox's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "It's a date! At your convenience, of course."

"Interesting." A laconic male voice commented behind them. Shadow turned his head to cast a glance over his shoulder and Crevan let out a soft yelp and groan, turning swiftly as his tail jerked downward to curl between his legs. Behind them stood a rather striking couple; a stout border collie that stood an inch or so taller than Shadow and a regal, stunning afghan hound that stood considerably taller still. The collie's expression was one of curious interest while the afghan's was one of haughty superiority. "Begging for scraps at the table of your betters, fox?" the voice, belonging to the afghan, drawled with the smooth tenor of a singer.

"Excuse me?" Shadow chuffed, stepping forward to interpose himself slightly in front of the fox and glower dangerously up at the hound. His tail did not tuck; it had not been tucked in fear for nearly two decades; not since the shelling of Malkont. The gray expanse of soft fur drew up close behind him and bushed almost twice its normal thickness.

"And who is this, little sunshine?" the hound let on not the least concern that he was being braced by a skunk easily a foot shorter than he was. "Your stinkbomb in shining drabness?"

"Who the hell are you?" Shadow growled.

The collie's ears twitched and he cast a glance to his taller companion, then offered a hand. "I'm Baxter Lennox." He offered with a slightly strained smile before the afghan could speak. Shadow ignored the extended black and white furred hand, barely taking his eyes from the hound enough to acknowledge the collie. "This is Vicktor Elankhof, the Third." As if the name was supposed to convey something it was completely lost on Shadow.

"Third time isn't the charm, certainly." Shadow chuffed irritably. Around them the crowd had become still and a small expanse of space had opened, and was continuing to open, with many fearful voices muttering.

"I'll have you know I'm-" the afghan hound uttered darkly, only to be interrupted by the skunk.

"That you're irritating the locals, and getting in my way, gutter snipe."

Vicktor drew himself up imperiously and took a breath at the same moment Baxter's hand seized his elbow. "Skunk." The collie cautioned.

"If you could raise your lot out of the gutter to cast aspersions, troll, you would know -"

"That you belong there moreso than I." Shadow interrupted again, his tail lashing agitatedly, thumping against the fox standing slightly behind him.

"Dude!" Baxter hissed, dragging at the irritated hound's slender, heavily furred arm. " Skunk!"

"Don't piss off the skunk!" A voice, low and severely irritated, growled from behind Shadow; Sizzle at her table. She knew that Shadow could not spray, but that was not the source of her anger. Another quiet, but no less dangerous, growl harmonized with the rust wolf's; likely from a coldly furious white wolf.

"Madamme Sizzle, you hardly need fear this lowlife scum." Vicktor intoned without taking his eyes from the shorter gray creature challenging him. "He would not dare-"

"He's a skunk, you insolent cur!" a sharp snap belted from behind Shadow, "And you're a spoiled child itching for a fight you simply have not a hope to emerge from whole!" That from, altogether unexpected, the Lady Avalon who had stood to her full height, almost matching the hound, behind her table. "You are interfering, also, with our work and the business of the entire gallery! Begone with you."

Vicktor raised a placating hand toward the irritated wolves, "Ladies, I beg your indulgence. Once this bland gray annoyance has departed I would bid your services, as others have and hope to shortly."

Shadow raised an eyebrow and cocked his head slightly, sensing another presence drifting closer to his open side. Stocky, broad shouldered, monochrome black and white and with a sharp, acrid musk that simply could not be missed at such proximity, the red-shirted convention security officer crossed his arms and glowered up at the hound. "Two skunks, now, kid. Beat it!" the skunk churred dangerously.

"But-" Vicktor lost some of is imperious mein at being challenged by a con official.

"Our services are not at your hire." The Lady Avalon intoned levelly, "Do as the gentlefur suggests and vacate yourself to a less problematic location. Hell would be preferred, sir."

"Madam-" Viktor deflated slightly, surprised at being the focus of banishment rather than the one to mete it out.

"You heard the Lady, kid. Piss the fuck off!" Sizzle's bark retorted with surprising volume in the stilled quietude of the gallery. Beside him, mortified to the point of nearly cowering, Baxter dragged at his companion's arm, casting a miserably apologetic glance at Shadow, then Crevan.

"Yeah!" snapped a portly human from across the aisle from his chaotically arrayed collection of costume accessories. "You're pissing everyone off, and two of them are skunks!"

"Three!" from the stall next to him, a female skunk, who leaned almost all the way across her table and sharply snapped a riding crop across the end of the hound's lush tail. Vicktor jerked in surprise and half turned to find the woman glaring up at him, her monochromatic tail abush as if prepared to use the weapon at its root.

Swaying, caught between his pride and the challenge of so many irritated patrons, Viktor staggered a step under Baxter's desperate hauling, then capitulated and withdrew, his assaulted tail held low at the back of his legs. Behind Shadow a sharp, shuddering gasp finally escaped Crevan's lungs.

"Your ex-roomshare, I take it?" Shadow asked over his shoulder as he let his fur settle. The skunk in security ops red gave Shadow a glower as if daring him to cause another such scene, and stalked off with his tail snapping irritably from side to side.

"Vicktor, yeah." Crevan muttered, "I... I'm sorry. I've only known him online, and he was never such an ass, ever!"

"People are wholly, frighteningly different face to face, Crev." Shadow admonished, giving the fox's shoulder a squeeze and turning to face the two artists who had resumed their seats. "I'm sorry, ladies. That was wholly uncalled for."

Sizzle beamed at him with a brilliant flash of deadly white teath, "That was hilarious! Stupid kid." The arctic wolf beside her had once again settled into her mein of aloof coolness. "I would've paid good money to see you shred his spoiled ass."

"Better yet; bend his lovely ass over yon table and show everyone just how much a bitch he is." The Lady Avalon growled with such an aristocratically level monotone it made Shadow snort in mirth. "Such a handsome tail, when lifted with proper decorum to his betters, would look altogether more... appealing."

"Your mirth is as cold as your heart, Milady." Shadow grinned and bowed to her. As they moved off into the milling crowd, receiving many approbations for besting the hound, Shadow slipped an arm around Crevan's waist and let the shaken fox lean against him. "Don't tell me... online you were his... what, slave?"

Crevan nodded and let out a shaky sigh, "Pet... bottom, always. Yeah." His weight leaned warmly against Shadow's side as they 'window' shopped along a few more tables. "But now I'm ever-so-glad Baxter showed up and I lost that room. You're, in person, all that I thought he was, online. Gentle, dashing, and so brave!"

"Crev, I've been through war... twice, when you were still at your mother's breast." Shadow admonished, but gently. "I know what fear is, and from him... not a quiver."

"Oh." Crevan muttered softly, almost as a condolence for the admission of likely unpleasant memories. "You're so much better than he is, I see now." Turning his head and smiling, "And you share, rather than take. I like that."

Shadow chuckled and tapped the fox's nose with one finger, "I enjoy the hell out of sharing, believe me."

"Oh... I do..."