FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Seduction of Seleste

from the world of the mating season

Full Moon

Chapter 13

". . . little Prince Eleu distracted his mother while I got rid of the body. Then I reported to Finivive, told her I would take you to the sacred burial grounds of the shemales. I took you and never looked back . . ."

Keme's head rocked back and forth against the pillows. He could hear Aiyana's voice as if she was there, sitting beside him, telling him the story of his rescue from execution. It had been her favorite bedtime story. Heh.

". . . it was a full moon the night I stole you, and he was such a sweet boy, that Eleu. He had become friends with Avi, had sworn to help her smuggle you out of pygmy custody. I'm sure Avi thought the plan failed. It was sloppily done - no one was supposed to die. I was just supposed to knock him out . . ."

"Mmm . . ." Keme moaned and frowned as he came awake. No, it wasn't like last time. This time it had simply been a dream, a memory. He could feel a searing pain in his gut, could feel the dried blood in his fur, could hear someone chanting over him . . . He took a deep breath and his nostrils flared. He wasn't in Talisa's hut, but there was a female presiding over him. She smelled sweet and musky, like honey mixed in herbal tea. And there was another wolf there . . . a young girl?

Keme's eyes opened. He was somewhere strange, in some hut he'd never been. It was a small room with an even smaller fire, he was on a narrow bed, and a nearby window opened on the sea and the full moon it reflected. The room was so hot he was sweating, and the strong scent of medicine choked him. He coughed and his eyes drifted at last to the female who sat in a chair at his beside.

Keme blinked. She was blue. Her fur was a brilliant blue, as cool and luminous in color as the full moon. Her mane was long and silvery and straight and fell beyond her shoulders to the small of her back. She was sweating profusely as she chanted over him, and a small instrument was in her paw as she shook it over his belly. It was a stick with a hollowed-out gourd on the end, and inside the gourd were small seeds that jangled against each other in rhythm. Feathers were tied to the gourd, and as the female shook the instrument, the feathers touched him, and he could feel his wound . . . healing!

Keme looked down at his bloody stomach in amazement, and he realized for the first time that he had been stabbed in it with his own spear. Oh god. Where was Seleste? Where was Talisa! He looked frantically at the blue wolf, and when he twisted to reach out to her, the wound in his gut tore. He winced and fell back on the pillows, and as he lay there burning with pain, the blue wolf let loose a stream of angry curses in a language he didn't recognize. Somewhere behind her, a girl giggled.

The blue wolf put down her instrument and frowned over her shoulder. "Ara, I told you you could watch if you were quiet - and you!" She turned back to Keme and tisked at him. "You just ruined an hour's work! Honestly! I'm half tempted to use _real_magic to heal you, and to hell with it."

"Real magic?" Keme wondered hoarsely. He lay still on the pillows and watched quietly as the blue female took a washcloth from a basin of water and started dabbing the new blood away. She was lovely, and at least a decade his senior. Her big breasts knocked with her slightest movement, her long silvery mane glowed in the firelight, and her sable eyes searched his wound with hard determination. It became apparent to him at once that she was a shaman. She was everything Aiyana had once described in a shaman. She even had the feathered bracelets on her wrists - and the faint tracings of the mark upon her forehead.

"Real magic," the blue wolf repeated impatiently, "as in sorcery?" Her sable eyes studied him curiously. "They weren't kidding when they said you weren't from around here. Or anywhere, really."

Looking at her amused expression, it suddenly dawned on Keme who was presiding over him. "You're High Shaman," he whispered weakly. He felt dazed, as if any number of drugs was coursing through his body. He blinked and he saw two of her.

"Yes," she answered, "and you're lucky to be alive. My name is Yuri. I believe you've met my father."

". . . Zaldon?"

"Yes."

"But . . . where is Seleste?" Keme's brows pressed together. "And where is Talisa!" He thought he'd explode if someone didn't tell him soon.

The female looked at him sadly, but instead of answering him, she looked over her shoulder again and gestured to the other wolf. The young girl started but hurried forward. Keme looked at her. She was a very pretty. Feathers were woven in a braid at the forefront of her otherwise loose mane. Her fur and mane were dark gray, and her slanted eyes were even darker. A dimple took shape in her cheek when she smiled shyly at Keme. She had tiny little breasts that were only beginning to ripen and thin hips that were only beginning to round. She stood with her paws behind her back, her tail low, as she answered dutifully, "Yes, Mother?" but her grinning eyes remained fixed on Keme.

"Pay attention if you're going to help me," the High Shaman told her daughter irritably, "and here . . ." She lifted the basin of water from the bedside table and turned to the child.

The young girl fumbled to take the heavy basin. It was so big her face was half hidden behind it.

"Dump that out," Yuri told her, "and hurry back with fresh water!" she called as the girl stumbled out.

"Yes, Mother!" came the cheerful refrain.

Yuri turned wearily back to Keme. "Our daughter, Ara," she explained. "I'm married to your cousin, by the way. Enya carried her. So that makes Ara your cousin too."

Keme stared at the empty doorway through which the girl had just disappeared. He'd just met another family member.

"She's fourteen years old now," Yuri said wearily and dabbed another washcloth to her sweaty brow.

Keme lifted his eyebrows. "Ay yi yi."

Yuri smiled. "They said you were a comedian. As for Talisa and your friend . . ." Yuri's face became somber. She didn't look at him, and he felt a cold feeling of dread. Please don't let her say they were dead!

"They were taken," Yuri said wretchedly at last.

"Taken? By who?!" Keme scowled. He didn't really care who so long as he got to snap their necks.

"Some members of patrol," Yuri answered, lifting her head. "They were tired of Talisa making them look bad on the job. What she did the other day in saving you? She does that all the time - runs off alone to save the day!" She tossed her paws, and in that moment, she looked as exasperated as Zaldon. She looked at Keme. "She makes the other guards look lazy and incompetent."

"Well, aren't they?" Keme demanded.

Yuri smiled sadly. "Yes. That's why they hate Talisa. The fool." She smiled fondly as she thought of Talisa, but a tear gathered in the corner of her eye.

"But what did they do to her? And why drag Seleste and I into it?!"

Yuri shrugged. "Because you were there? Because they're rotten bastards? Because they could?"

"Tell me what happened? Please!"

Yuri sighed. She fiddled unhappily with her fingers, and when she looked down, her mane swept forward to hide her expression. It reminded Keme of Seleste and he watched her, feeling tense and miserable.

"Well, obviously, they tried to kill you. Failed at that." Yuri raised her head and smiled at Keme. "Though from what I've heard, it'll take a lot more than a spear in the gut to kill the likes of you. It was Kel who found you. Said Talisa's hut was torn apart. There was evidence of sexual assault. We think the girls were raped before they were taken . . ."

Keme's face darkened. Typical.

"Then they were sold off to merchants down at the village docks. We think they were taken by moon wolves."

"That means across the sea. . . ." Keme stared wretchedly at his bloody gut. Looking back at Yuri, he suddenly realized she was a moon wolf: the foreign accent, the blue fur. He felt so stupid for not realizing before. How many stories had Aiyana told him of moon wolves? He had even met moon wolf merchants and traded with them in the past few weeks!

"Kel was able to track the bastards down. He killed them. Killed them all." Yuri shook her head, as if she was still in awe.

Keme was in awe too. That old wolf had killed a bunch of young, hardened warriors . . . on his own?

"He tracked them by their scent, followed it to the hut they had gathered in the night before. After selling off Talisa and Seleste, they spent the money on ale and went and got drunk." Yuri shook her head darkly. "They were sleeping it off when Kel burst in on them. They fought him, even wounded him, but he killed them all. Must've been seven or eight of them. He kept the leader alive long enough to interrogate him. Then he killed him too. I don't even want to think what did to the male to get the information." Yuri shuddered. "But by the time he made it to the docks, the ship bearing Seleste and Talisa had gone. The fishers and sailors hanging about supported the story of the guard, though: they had seen Seleste and Talisa being marched onboard a ship, gagged and bound and covered in cum." Yuri's face crinkled in disgust.

"I have to save them!" Keme sat up and growled when his stomach ripped again. He clutched the wound and blood seeped between his fingers. Determined, he tried to get up anyway, but Yuri pressed his chest with her small paws. When he struggled against her, she cursed at him in moon wolf and told him calm down. "You're crazy as Kel, what, is it in the blood? Lie down before you hurt yourself!"

"No!" Keme roared. He kept trying to get up. God, she was stronger than she looked! But he suddenly realized it was because he was drugged and weak from loss of blood. But he kept trying. Eventually, Yuri got so fed up that she grabbed her gourd instrument and bopped him on the head with it. He blinked in surprise as he saw two of her, then he collapsed back on the pillows.

"Goodness," Yuri cried breathlessly. "As crazy as Kel, I swear! You know he wanted to go after them too? Took a dagger to his side and was still trying to run off playing hero. It took Zaldon and Julyan combined to make him stay in bed. Thank sweet air you're on these medicines or you might have knocked me over and gone gallivanting off to get yourself killed!" She waved the instrument as she spoke, her big breasts heaving.

Keme lay there feeling stupid and wretched. Yuri was right. Of course he couldn't go off in this condition.

"Mother?"

Keme's eyes went to the doorway. Ara was standing there with the basin of water. She looked frightened and hesitant, and Keme knew she had just witnessed him struggling against her mother only to get bopped on the head with a gourd.

"Bring it, Aralyla," Yuri said breathlessly. "Your cousin and I were just . . ." She sighed and pinched the flesh between her eyes. She reminded him of Zaldon so much in that moment that he smiled.

Still hesitant, Ara brought the basin and gave it to Yuri, who thanked her, set it on the bedside table, and began to dab Keme's wound clean of blood.

"Now I have to start all over," Yuri scolded. "I hope you're happy!"

Keme's eyes slid to their corners and he watched her miserably. "Yuri," he said, "I have to go after them -- I know I can't go like this!" he added before Yuri could protest. "But I have to do something. I can't just lay here bleeding when I could be out there finding them! Please, I need you to work faster."

Yuri sighed. "I hope you're not asking me what I think you're asking me."

Keme looked at her steadily. "I am."

Yuri looked back at him, and seeing the determination in his eyes, something in her relented. She shook her head and threw the washcloth in the basin. "I must be out of my mind to agree to this," she said, "it must be the damn full moon. Fine, fine! I'm going to get an earful from Zaldon for it, but I'll help you. I see that determined look in your eye. It's Enya's look. And there was never any stopping Enya." She turned to Ara, who was hovering nearby and looking anxious. "Ara? Go fetch mommy's staff."