Aurecht--surrogate host
Galliard the wolf rubbed his thigh, where a long wicked scratch across his leg brought back fuzzy, indistinct memories. The scratch hurt, his head hurt, his shoulder hurt. He reached around and felt along his shoulder blade, and along his neck. Wincing, he found the cause of the pain in his shoulder and head, and possibly the cause of his memory lapse; there was a bite back there, a bite made by long fangs. Fangs with venom, he remembered...where were his clothes? Whose bed was this?
'Ah, you're up!' The speaker was a fox, big for his size but not as large as Galli. While the larger wolf was darker colored, the fox was a typical rusty red except for the white jaw and paws. 'He's not used to using that much venom, he was sure you would wake up eventually, but I thought I would watch you anyway.'
'Who...' Galliard started to ask, but he rubbed his head instead. It was an effort to move, he felt wobbly and his leg still hurt.
'He calls himself Aurecht. You'll meet him shortly. I'm Danon, and you're...?' The fox looked at him expectantly.
'I'm Galliard. I was on my way to...somewhere, I don't remember what happened. Where is this?' Looking around for the first time, the wolf could see nothing remarkable. Dirt floor, stone walls; it was as if they were in a cave. There was a small amount of artificial light, coming from his own flashlight. The fox must have gone through his things while he was out. 'I was walking on my way to the next town, and--what day is it? Have I missed the connection in Port town?'
Danon smiled and brought over a bowl of something that smelled decent. Galliard noticed that the fox waddled as he walked, as though overweight. He had quite a gut, which would be extraordinary for someone who lived in a cave in the middle of nowhere. The fox put the bowl down and said 'You don't need to worry about where or how or why for quite a while. Things will be very simple for you. He walked away, and fumbled with what Galliard slowly realized was a door...a cage! He shut the door behind himself as he walked away.
'No, don't!' Galliard tried to get up but his head spun, and his leg protested immediately. He sank back into the bed he had slept in for however long, and moaned quietly.
He dozed off again. When he woke, he noticed the food was still there. Cold, but still good, he ate it. It was a mix of some sort of venison, he guessed, and common vegetables. The fox was a decent hunter, which made his big gut more perplexing. He wasn't very agile, from what Galliard could see.
Mulling over the mystery of how chubby, awkward Danon could procure such fare, the wolf finished his meal. As Galliard came closer to finishing, his movements slowed instinctively; realized he was being watched. It was large and looming, but in shadows; it didn't seem to be trying too hard to remain hidden, yet it had for a significant amount of time. The profile of the shadow sparked a memory in Galli's head. The shape hopped towards him and hissed.
Galliard jumped backwards, hitting his head against the wall of the cage. Cursing, he stumbled to get up but the thing had gotten into the cage, and closed the distance from the door to the makeshift bed the wolf was using. Claws and wings encircled him, a serpentine tail wrapping around his leg. One of the claws of the beast raked its way across his leg, reopening the wound there...this was his original attacker. The jaws of the scaled thing rested on his shoulder, even mimicking the same bite spot. This was a creature of habit, running through some programmed attack.
The fangs sunk into the pre-made holes, and Galliard felt dizzy again. However, he retained consciousness this time. The only symptom of the venom seemed to be a weakness, a failing of coordination and an inability to concentrate hard.
'Be still,' a hissed voice came in his ear. The thing's tail worked its way around his leg, moving up his thigh. Having no clothes on, the wolf was able to feel the scaled appendage combing across his fur, wedging itself between his own tail and leg. Then came another insult, a violation; he felt a probing, prodding organ, seeking its way under his tail with all of the mobility of a finger; it found his asshole and started working its way inside.
'Take it easy!' the fox barked. Galliard looked around, but couldn't see Danon, who continued 'I keep telling you, that hurts. Hold on.'
Galliard couldn't move his head to look at what was going on, but he felt Danon spreading something over his hole and across the member of the winged reptile. It kept quiet while the fox worked.
'There,' Danon said. 'Go ahead.' The intrusion began anew, but at least this time the way was dampened and slick. The organ was very thin, and went deep, deeper than Galliard thought was possible.
'Is it the venom?' he thought to himself. Some sort of misinterpretation of what he was feeling? But it seemed real, as though the organ was reaching several feet along his intestine, winding its way through as it went deeper and deeper.
The reptile squealed something, panting and breathing hard. There was a sudden increase in pressure at Galliard's hole, as though someone else were pressing against the ring with a large blunt object, but the creature's organ was already there. The fox knelt before Galliard and arranged himself so that the paralyzed wolf could see him clearly. 'Just relax,' the fox said. 'Aurecht's ovipositor is inside you. We needed another host to take over a little bit for me. Normally this is my job, but I've carried so many lately that we needed to give my body a break. Just relax.'
As the fox talked the pressure became greater, as though the ovipositor was growing, swelling to larger size. The reptile, Aurecht, panted some more, and made another low squeal. It became more and more uncomfortable for Galliard, feeling himself being stretched. He resisted the feeling, pushing back, but felt with every second that he was losing ground.
Finally, there was a point where he couldn't push any more. He held his breath for a few seconds, trying to hang on, and exhaled with a whimper as he gave up. Aurecht grunted almost in unison with the wolf, and Galliard felt something move past his ring all the way inside him, carried along by Aurecht's ovipositor.
Galliard whimpered but the fox had gone. Aurecht answered him instead. 'I'm saddling you with some eggs to give the fox a rest. Be still, or I'll bite you again.' He grunted, tensing, and Galliard felt another push at his butt, another egg on its way inside. Just as the first one was, the egg was a tight fit. Not so much because he wanted to, but because of the painfulness of the necessary stretch required by the wolf's butthole, Galliard resisted the intrusion. Tears welled up in his eyes as he continually sucked in breath, holding it inside as he pushed back.
Aurecht didn't seem to have it easy either; he would sometimes make that squeaking sound, or pant as he gripped the wolf close, sometimes humping him out of frustration. Finally, the egg made it past its widest point; with a gasp from the wolf and a satisfied grunt from the scaly beast, it slipped inside and began winding its way up inside Galliard. Aurecht continued panting and sometimes humping the wolf, groaning from time to time.
There was a new sensation that suddenly appeared, almost in the center of Galliard's belly: a cold spot that began as a pinprick and then grew, reminding him of when a hand or foot falls asleep. It was localized to a spot on his abdomen, and he whined a little.
'Shush,' Aurecht said. 'I've planted the first one. It will incubate, feed on your blood and grow...'
'Grow..' croaked Galliard. 'How much bigger?
The reptile hissed and then grunted a little, starting to work a third egg inside of the wolf. 'Depends on...how much you eat...and how fast,' he gasped and said hurriedly between breaths.
The wolf gritted his teeth and tried to relax, but the size of the incoming eggs was just too much to relax through. The thought of these things growing to even larger size made him look forward to the prospect of expelling them...laying them... with dread. They barely fit now, how must it feel to have to push them back out?
However...there were other feelings, too. Perhaps brought on by the venom, or by some secret desire deep inside the wolf's mind--the thought that this was somehow something that made him complete, somehow letting him fulfill a special role that he had wanted but never thought he could play. 'How...how many will there be?' he asked softly.
Aurecht grunted as he worked to get the third egg past the wolf's sphincter. He didn't answer; this was hard on both of them, Galliard thought. Maybe it was even harder on Aurecht than on himself, trying to push the eggs inside of a host, along the winding internal passages, until the creature found a good spot to attach it somehow.
The wolf waited a while, then said softly 'I had five siblings...that's a usual size for a she-wolf.
'Aahhh,' Danon said from out of view. 'It seems we have another convert, Aurecht. Go ahead and give him five, if you've got 'em inside you.' The fox leaned in, close to the wolf's face, and said 'But don't forget, Galliard! I saw him first.'