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The Wyrmvault Twins: After the Job By Green

Thassius groaned as he came to consciousness, letting the spinning sensation in his aching head pass before he opened his eyes. Actually, he pretty much ached everywhere; the Baron's men had given him a pretty thorough beating after he'd surrendered. He remembered seeing Venara through the window, and then... well, then it was just fists and feet until he passed out. Taking it slow, he felt around in his mouth with his tongue, and was pleasantly surprised to not find any teeth broken or missing. Baron Norton had knocked him out with a kick to the head, but now he wondered if the man had ordered his guards to avoid the face, and if so, why on earth he would do that. Finally seeing no reason to further put it off, the fox gingerly opened his eyes, and saw, as expected, that he appeared to be in a cell, sturdy iron bars surrounding him on all sides. What he hadn't been expecting was that the room was lit by torches, not magic, and that the walls were made of deep brown stones. "...Fuck," he breathed to himself. Since moving to New Parsonus, he'd made a point of checking out most of the local police lockups and the biggest prison in the area, just on the off chance that he or his sister ever had to escape from one of them. This room looked absolutely nothing like any of them. So if the Baron's men hadn't taken him somewhere official, where the hell had they taken him? His tail slapped into the stone under him in his frustration, and the tiny amount of wind the movement created tickled the fur on his back, which lead him to a second discovery. He was completely naked, unless one counted the bindings around his wrists, stuck behind his back. Today just keeps getting better, he thought to himself with a sigh. Perhaps they'd found the lockpicks he'd woven into his sleeves, or maybe they just didn't want to take any chances with a master thief. Hell, it was also entirely possible that they just wanted to humiliate him. So he just lay there for a while, pondering whether or not he should roll over and look at the other side of the room. On the one hand, it would gain him more information about his current whereabouts, and that was always useful, but on the other, it would also no doubt hurt like hell, thanks to his bruised and aching body, not to mention the vague fear he had that the powers that be of wherever he was were just waiting for him to wake up so they could start torturing him. Then again, he considered, if he just stayed there, eventually they would get fed up and come get him, and then he would be in a bad place without the luxury of even knowing the immediate layout of his prison. Thassius tried to take a deep breath, then lapsed into a coughing fit, his bruised ribs protesting the extra movement. Trying again, he managed to take a decent breath, then, bracing himself and gritting his teeth, he rolled over onto his other side. Managing not to groan out loud, he let out a shuddery exhalation, his body trembling with random pains as he forced his eyes to stay open and looked around.

He wasn't terribly impressed with what he saw, realizing that he wasn't in a cell, he was in a cage, whose bars formed a ceiling about four feet above where he was lying. He found himself wondering if it was meant to be inhabited by children, and what nefariousness that might indicate, because otherwise he got the impression he was meant to stay on all fours in here, and that wasn't a very appealing prospect. The cage itself was off in one corner of a very large room with no windows in it. It was lit by torches, and he guessed, based solely on the stone stairs in the corner going up to a solid-looking door, that the room was underground. There was a single guard standing by the base of the stairs, arms crossed, head covered by a black hood, in the style of an executioner... or a master torturer. In the torchlight, Thassius couldn't make out the man's eyes (or perhaps they were hidden behind some kind of lenses), giving him an unsettling presence, especially given the way he was standing so still. There were other cages here and there, all empty, and another heavy door to the far side of the room, but for the most part, the floor was clear and bare. It was then that Thassius noticed a detail which he really didn't like. Sitting inside the cage with him, not that far from where he was lying, actually, was... a bowl of water. Specifically, it was the kind of bowl one would commonly buy for a pet feral to eat or drink out of. There was always the chance that it was just there to demean him, but the thief couldn't shake the ominous feeling that the bowl instilled in him. After a few moments, Thassius sighed and forced his protesting body into an upright position, relieved that at least his feet weren't tied together. Pushing with his feet, the fox scootched along the floor on his furry butt until he was pressing his back against the bars of the cage. It wasn't comfortable, but he felt a bit less helpless than when he was just lying naked on the floor. At this greater movement in the cage, the guard's head swivelled over to the fox, before he moved to a panel on the wall, where he gave a rather prominent knob a twist and leaned in. "The prisoner is awake, sir," he said, with all the interest and enthusiasm one might use for commenting on the weather. As the guard let go of the knob and returned to his post with no reply from the odd device, Thassius sighed. "Looks like it was option B, then," he muttered, "Should have stayed on the floor." He couldn't help but fear what was to come, but found himself oddly distracted by the panel. He'd seen similar devices for magical communication across a distance, but all the ones he'd ever seen simply had a flat panel that the user had to touch their hand against, and he wondered why one would design a more complex particular variation. It was the kind of detail that would stick out to him if he were casing a joint. That being done, he began testing his bindings, and was put off to discover just how well his wrists were tied, it was no random length of rope that held him, but thick, well-constructed cords, going as far as to have them bound to a pair of reinforced cuffs with a soft inner lining, as if they were trying to avoid giving his wrists friction burns. It contributed to his frustration and sense of worry rather dramatically. Though not as much, he had to admit, as when the door at the top of the stairs loudly unlocked and swung open, and Baron J. Norton casually sauntered into the room.

The Baron, a muscular, taller-than-average black jaguar, was already chuckling to himself as he walked down the stairs, his gait calm and relaxed, as if he hadn't a care in the world. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to wake up at all," he said, almost cheerily, "I thought perhaps the boys had been a bit overzealous in, ah, restraining you. I'm glad you woke up, though, I would have ended up putting their leader in your spot as punishment, and it's just not the same when you're going to work on the help." For the moment, Thassius said nothing, merely sat there glaring at the man. He really didn't like the fact that Norton was wearing what appeared to be a silk nightrobe and soft, comfortable slippers, practically mocking the captive with their relaxed, informal nature alone. As the door closed at the top of the stairs, perhaps pulled to by another guard up there, the jaguar reached the floor and walked up to his prisoner's cage, arms behind his back, an irritatingly triumphant grin on his face. "To answer the question that's surely running through your devious little mind, it's only been an hour and a half," he said, staring at the fox, "Honestly, even staying out that long had me wondering if you had permanent brain damage. A cliché, I know, but it's so hard to find good help these days." If the hooded guard, who had returned to the exact same position he'd been in before he sent the message, was put off by this comment, he did an amazing job of hiding it. "Come to think of it," the Baron was saying, "What's the matter? Feral got your tongue? Or was I premature in thinking you'd escaped with your wits intact?" Letting his ears lower, finally letting his sheer contempt for the man show plainly on his face, Thassius narrowed his eyes and sneered at his captor. "You don't really strike me as the 'casual Friday' type, Norton," he said, "And this isn't the kind of stone you used to build your wretched prison. We're still in your keep, aren't we?" The Baron chuckled at this, clapping sarcastically. "Bravo, sir, your deductive powers are inspiring," he said, grinning that predatory grin, "Care to wager a guess as to what happens now?" Thassius tilted his head and sent an unimpressed look the jaguar's way. "Oh, you're no doubt bursting at the seams waiting to give me your villain speech, I wouldn't take that away from you," he deadpanned, "By all means, let's hear it." Norton actually snickered at that, shaking his head, though Thassius noted that the feline's tail stopped flicking back and forth for a moment, betraying that the Baron's casual entertainment had been nothing but a front for a moment there. "I like that," he muttered, "You call me the villain. You, who break into peoples' homes and steal away the things they worked hard to earn, just because you don't think it's fair that they were born into a better family than you were." He laughed once, and his tail began to move again. "You thieving scum are all the same, thinking that you deserve the same luxuries we've earned through hard work and determination. Your lot actually buy into that 'all men are created equal' garbage the priesthood like to spill, don't you? Pathetic." The Seven Gods made their presence known in rather direct ways from time to time, so there were no true non-believers in Rilodell, though there were, of course, those who weren't impressed with anything that didn't help further their own personal goals, the Divine included.

Turning away from the cage, the jaguar paced across the room to the door set into the wall, and peeked through the viewing window, a smirk on his face. "In any event, I considered having you tortured until you gave up the name and/or location of your partner," he said, "Seems the most prudent thing to do." Thassius let out a single bark of a laugh. "Partner? Please. Other people just get in my way," he said, confidently, "You just don't want to admit that one man made you look like an ass in front of your guests." The Baron looked back over his shoulder, a rather tired look on his face as he sighed. "Oh, please," he said, "spare me the empty bravado. It's nice of you to try and cover for your partner, but every noble in New Parsonus knows about the 'Twin Foxes' who are supposed to go around, robbing the less admirable members of the upper class." Thassius hid a smirk; he'd always found it amusing that they were given that name when the public had no idea he and Venara really were twins, if they even believed the vulpine pair existed in the first place. The Baron wasn't done yet. "Besides, in the scant minutes between the party and your profoundly idiotic escape attempt, I'd hardly forgotten my introduction to 'Thassius and Venara Wyrmvault.' I'm going to run those names through my contacts in the morning, incidentally; if you were stupid enough to give me the aliases you bought your hideout under, we'll have you two reunited soon enough. Honestly, I was suspicious of you two from the start, I couldn't believe you were gauche enough to call me a panther instead of a jaguar. Of course, at the time, I just assumed you were new money, less educated than your wealth would suggest." Walking back to the middle of the room, Norton gestured to the guard. "Open the cage," he demanded, in a loud, firm voice, "Get him for me." Without any kind of acknowledgement at all, the guard began striding forward, turning crisply on the spot when he reached the cage in a manner so controlled that Thassius instantly wondered if this man had military training in his past. He just sat there passively as the guard unlocked the side of the cage and swung it open, then reached inside and grabbed Thassius by the arms, roughly pulling him out of the cage and onto his feet with a shocking amount of brute strength. He waited until the guard turned to face his employer, looking for direction, and suddenly, the fox braced his feet against the ground and drove the back of his head against the guard's face as hard as he could. In his head, he'd already been planning the follow-up moves, how to take down the Baron with his hands bound like this, but those impromptu plans were interrupted by the staggering amount of pain suddenly bursting through his skull. The bastard must have been wearing a helmet under that hood! Through the stars in his eyes and the groan he couldn't keep inside, Thassius was dimly aware of the Baron laughing delightedly. He wondered, distantly, why the guard hadn't reacted to punish him, as the other lowlifes he'd seen on Norton's payroll would no doubt have enjoyed. The guard remained stock still, as if nothing had happened, continuing to keep a deathgrip on Thassius' upper arms. When his eyes re-focused, he looked up and saw the Baron standing before him, that irritating grin on his face. "Oh dear, I bet you didn't enjoy that at all!" he said, his tone a cruel mockery of sympathy, "I might have warned you if I'd realized you planned to be an idiot..." The jaguar casually reached forward and grabbed the hood on his goon's head and yanked it off in one smooth motion - and Thassius closed his eyes again and groaned. There was no helmet beneath that hood. There was no face beneath that hood. The guard's 'head' was a solid casting of stone with two glowing orbs set into it at about the spots a Humanoid's eyes would go, with a piece of wood embedded in the 'forehead' with an intricately-carved magical rune on it. This was no guard at all, this was an enchanted golem! This unliving thing, this automaton, would no doubt be superHumanly strong, unquestioningly loyal to its master, and impervious to emotional trickery or pain, as stone, wood, and metal don't feel. Thassius hated the things, as did most people in his line of work. At the least, it explained the communication panel; a golem couldn't use a normal one because it wasn't alive; the panel wouldn't recognize its touch as a user who wanted to talk to someone. So the Baron had stuck a knob on it instead, since all it needed to do was contact another one wherever the Baron had been waiting for an update. "Honestly, my boy," the Baron continued, as if he was chastising a naughty schoolboy, "do you really think I would be stupid enough to use hired muscle in my own personal dungeon? This part of the keep isn't on any charts, officially it doesn't exist, so I'm free to do whatever I like to my prisoners. I'm not about to let some flea-ridden mercenary blackmail me just because he had the good fortune to be standing around here! Besides, you'll find that while their purchase and construction are extraordinarily expensive compared to hiring living guards, these golems make up for it by being extraordinarily good at what they do. Honestly, the only reason I put these hoods on them in the first place is because the way they stare at you with these dead eyes is enormously unsettling." Norton began to laugh again, and for the first time, Thassius began to feel genuine fear deep inside him.

Looking up again, the thief steeled himself and glared at his captor as he cheerfully tugged the hood back into place on his monster's head. "Alright then," Thassius said, resentment dripping from his every word, "that didn't work, so let's just move on. What are you planning to do to me? Don't pretend you won't enjoy telling me, scumbags like you who use torture always do." The Baron clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "Please, thief, give me more credit than that," he chided, "sure, I could torture you for the whereabouts of your partner, and I would probably enjoy it very much, but I've got much more exciting plans for you. You should be honoured, less than one in a hundred of the criminal filth I encounter are given this treatment. Or at the very least you could be relieved, I suppose. After all, why subject you to agony when I could subject you to pleasure?" Thassius swallowed, narrowing his eyes, his ears lowering in open hostility. He really didn't like the sound of that. Turning around, the Baron retrieved a key from his robe's pocket and unlocked the door in the wall, making a beckoning gesture over his shoulder. "Bring him in here," he said, somewhat forcefully, "You have to keep the commands relatively simple when dealing with golems, but I've yet to meet one that would ever question an order or talk back. Wonderful things..." He opened the door and stepped inside into another room about the same size as the previous one, though much darker. Without a word of response, the golem holding Thassius began walking forward, and the thief got the distinct impression that if he hadn't started walking, the golem would have been more than happy (and more than capable) of dragging him. He had an unpleasant suspicion that the thing wouldn't care about stepping on his trailing feet, though, so he reluctantly went along with it. He felt a strong tension in the pit of his stomach as he was forcefully pushed into that dark room, his pulse speeding up, his mouth drying out, and then - and then he heard Norton whisper a word in a language he didn't recognize, and six small flames suddenly came into existence in the air in the centre of the room, before shooting out to the walls at high speed and lighting the torches placed in strategic positions. As they lit up the room with warm yellow light and the darkness was banished, Thassius actually gasped out loud, horrified by what he saw. He'd assumed Norton was just lying, and had been expecting monstrous implements of torture, old blades stained with dried blood, sharp spikes and chains and hot irons and all the things reasonable people fervently wish they'll never, ever find themselves on the business end of. What he saw instead were a variety of soft, padded surfaces on wheeled bases, in different shapes and configurations, all accompanied by chains and manacles, some bound to the floor, some hanging from the ceiling. To the side, a row of various whips and riding crops, and some articles of skimpy clothing Thassius could tell at a single glance were comprised entirely of leather. Opposite that, next to another golem that Thassius was surprised to realize just stood here in the dark when the room wasn't being used, was a very large set of shelves, laden with what were unmistakably a vast collection of dildos in all shapes and sizes, as well as a variety of other things Thassius couldn't even identify, but whose shapes gave him just as distinct an impression of being sex toys. The Baron himself stood in the middle of the room, grinning that predatory grin from ear to ear and putting the fire charm back in his pocket as he leaned against a barrel that the fox realized was full almost to the brim with a lubricant of some kind. Thassius found his eyes darting from thing to thing, each discovery making that feeling of impending doom grow and grow. Close to open panic, he struggled against the golem only to find its grip impervious to his efforts, as unmoving as if someone had constructed a statue with its hands around his arms. "Seven Sentinels," he breathed, horrified, "you can't - you don't - but... oh, gods above, no, no!" The Baron threw back his head and laughed, no hollow show for his guest but a pure, genuine guffaw fueled by equal parts delight and cruelty. "Oh yes," Norton sneered, opening his robe and slipping it off his shoulders, revealing that beneath it, the jaguar was totally nude, "Oh, yes."

Thassius swallowed a whimper at this revelation, his mind racing in horror. He knew that panicking would rob him of his chances of thinking of a way out, but of all the fates he'd considered, this had not been one of them, and being confronted with the idea of rape in his immediate future had unsettled him in a way that cut straight to his heart. The Baron turned and pointed to the golem by the side wall, who was wearing a tighter outfit that indicated that it had been carved in the shaped of an extremely muscular male. It also had no sleeves, and Thassius could clearly see that its arms were constructed of anything but flesh. If the one holding on to him had been dressed the same way, he could have avoided this headache that wasn't making things any easier... "You!" said the Baron, moving his finger to point at the golem holding Thassius, "take the prisoner from him!" The new golem stepped away from the wall, collapsing a fair amount of cobwebs in the process, and walked up in front of the thief. Thassius put up a fair struggle, but apparently they'd been through this process before, and had it down to a science. The sleeveless automaton crossed its arms into an X and grabbed Thassius' arms before the other one let go of him. Then the newcover slowly uncrossed its arms so that Thassius was forced to turn around, facing the opposite way, so that he was in the same position he'd been in relative to the second golem that he'd been in with the first one. "Good. Now turn around." As the golem did so, returning the room and all of its frightening implements to Thassius' view, the Baron pointed to the one that had accompanied them into this... pleasure dungeon. "Now, you!" he ordered, "Take my robe and hang it carefully back in the kennel, then return to your post." The captive hadn't noticed any place for one to hang up a piece of clothing, but then he had far more important things to worry about. His tail floating back and forth, clearly displaying his enjoyment of the situation, the Baron walked up to his captive after he'd handed off the robe. "Now then..." he murmured, "Where do I begin?" Thassius growled at him. "You - you're bluffing," he said, trying to keep his voice steady, "You're just trying to scare me so I'll tell you what you want to know." The jaguar chuckled softly to himself as the golem closed the door behind itself with a heavy thud. "Mmmm, trying to scare you? Perhaps I am, but I'm afraid I'm quite serious, my boy..." Norton said, reaching forward and placing his hand on Thassius' chest. The thief grimaced at this gentle, though firm touch, and thrashed about in the golem's grip, unable to move his arms the slightest bit, completely helpless to stop the feline from running his fingers through his captive's fur. "You see, 'Thassius', or whatever your name is, the truth of the matter is that I find your form quite pleasing to the eye," he said, his tone almost seductive, in a sadistic way, as he openly leered at the fox's nude form, "Those silver eyes, this beautiful pelt of yours, and that ass, my gods!" the Baron sighed exaggeratedly. "A real shame it was wasted on gutter trash like you... but then I suppose if you'd been a law-abiding citizen I'd never have had the opportunity to have you all to myself, would I? My word, so soft..." "No! I don't believe you!" Thassius managed, desperate for this not to be happening, "You're notorious for fucking every woman who catches your eye, the papers are always writing about it!" Once again, the jaguar laughed softly, his hand beginning to make an unmistakable movement south. "Oh please, tell me a man smart enough to sneak into my home doesn't believe everything he reads in the paper!" he chuckled, "I own those newspapers! Not under my own name, admittedly, but that just makes it easier to quietly insert whatever I wish into the gossip column. Having that kind of a reputation is exactly what I need to keep my actual, ah, predilections, out of the public eye." Thassius growled as the hand felt up his well toned abdominal muscles. "You - you're lying!" he said; it made no sense of course, but he wished more than anything in the world to believe this was all a bluff, that the Baron wasn't really going to... he didn't even want to think the words. "Wh-what about that girl on your arm at the party?" he asked, "What about all the girls you're seen with? Do you just send them on their merry way? The rumour mill would have jumped all over that!" The jaguar chuckled again, teasing his fingertips over Thassius' nipples. "I have a wizard friend that makes a special brew for me," Norton said, calmly, "Slowly turns their heads to fog over the course of the night and makes them smile at everything. Come the next morning, they remember whatever I tell them. After all, what middle class girl would argue with the idea of spending a night of passion with a nobleman as classy as I?" He chuckled again, shaking his head in amusement. "Every once in a while, I find myself a virgin, and make myself out to be a gentleman who insisted things remain chaste. Hiding my true nature in plain sight, you might call it." For a moment, his expression darkened, and his hand paused in its movements. "I have to admit, not all of the nobility are as... evolved as I am," the Baron said, a sour tone having crept into his voice, "A lot of the old guard would prefer that only Humans be allowed to own land in the kingdom at all, and most of those that are sympathetic to us, even most of the beast-kin who have fought their way to positions of privilege, think that no man who prefers to lie with other men should be allowed any measure of wealth. It does not escape me, thief, that the vermin on your social level are more accepting of this type of thing than the people on mine, if only because your kind tends to embrace whatever kinds of debauchery they can find. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd had a drunken encounter with a feral, or fucked your own kin." He sniffed haughtily, and for the first time, the Baron's words actually stung, as Thassius' thoughts briefly turned to his twin sister, the love of his life.

The moment quickly passed, however, and the Baron's eyes re-focused on his prisoner, the sneer returning to his face. "But enough about that," he said, his hand beginning to move again, "We're not here to listen to me complaining, after all..." Finally giving up the pretense, his hand slid down until he was gripping Thassius' package, and the fox began to squirm, growling even as his cheeks reddened, ashamed beyond words to feel his body reacting to the fingers kneading and squeezing him. "Mmmm, yes," Norton muttered to himself, "that's very nice indeed... you won't be putting it to much use while you're here, mind you, but I'm sure you won't mind the role I have planned for you." "B-bastard!" Thassius snapped, disgusted by the position he was in, "I'll have you know that I've never laid with a man in my life, and even if I did it every night, my standards would be too high for scum like you to reach!" Despite himself, the thief yelped as the muscular noble casually backhanded him with his free hand, his eyes remaining on Thassius' man parts, as if he was a doctor performing an examination. "Oh please," the jaguar scoffed, "I've heard all the stories they say about you foxes, I'm surprised you didn't offer to let me under your tail if I would let you out of the cage! Hells, I'm surprised there are enough of your kind willing to lay with a woman in order to breed!" Thassius thrashed angrily in the golem's grip, trying to attack the Baron, trying to dislodge that blasted hand from his dick, trying to do anything other than just stand there while Norton fondled him, but to no avail. "Are y-you as stupid as you are ugly, Black Baron?" he spat, "You met my partner, didn't you? You've read the reports of the Twin Foxes? I'm a fair deal straighter than you are, I must say!" Thassius was suddenly compelled to cry out in pain as Norton gave his testicles a rather firm squeeze, though if the glare was anything to go by, the fox still had an awful lot of fight left in him. "I remember meeting a fox in a dress, peasant," Norton said, "At no time did I get a look under 'Venara's' skirt. In fact, with hands like that, I'm all but convinced your partner is just a very talented crossdresser. I've heard those rumours too. If it's any consolation, he really is quite good." Norton finally let go of Thassius' genitals and stepped away, and though he'd been deliberately avoiding looking there, the fox couldn't help but notice as the man turned back to face him again that the Baron was now fully erect himself, which made that ominous feeling spread even further through the thief's heart. He focused on the insult that had just been delivered to the woman he loved, focused on the anger, tried to let it burn through the fear and disgust at what Norton planned. "...We were planning to humiliate you, Norton," he said, his voice trembling with rage, "Leave you looking like an ass in front of the whole city, but I've changed my mind. No way we leave you alive now. I'm not usually one for killing, but I think I'm really going to enjoy breaking your spine." If the Baron was intimidated, he hid it well, grinning and gesturing to the golem still holding onto Thassius' arms. "I dare say I expect our mutual friend here would break yours long before you had the chance," he taunted, "Now! Enough foreplay! Bring him over here and let's get started!"

The golem dragged the struggling fox to the middle of the room while their host stroked his chin, looking over all the equipment on display. "Where to start, where to start," he muttered, "I think we'll save the toys for a special occasion, but that still leaves positioning..." Thassius snorted, hoping to sound more confident than he felt. "Ha! You may want everyone to think you wear the pants all the time," he said, "but I saw that toy in your bedroom cupboard! Something tells me all those dicks on the shelves are for you!" This time it was no casual backhand, the Baron suddenly whirled with a snarl, claws extended, and raked them across Thassius' chest; it hurt like hell, but the wounds barely bled, which of course was the point. The tod grit his teeth to keep from crying out as Norton grabbed him by the chin, looking directly into his eyes. "There's nothing I enjoy more than forcing a parasite like you to learn his place," he practically spat, "But your false bluster is really starting to get on my nerves. Enough! You reek of fear, and your hollow words fail to impress." Letting go, he walked over to the shelves and began to look for something. "But if you really must know, yes, I make use of many of the toys myself, mainly because I have yet to meet any man worthy of being allowed entrance into my body. Trust me, boy, you're so far from that ideal that it's laughable. Ah, here we are..." He turned around, bearing one of the least remarkable toys from the collection, looking downright natural, no ribbing or prongs or anything to distract from what was otherwise a rather ordinary looking artificial phallus with a set of balls attached to serve as a base. "This one is molded after my own member," the Baron laughed to himself, "Who better to scratch that itch than myself? As for you, hmmm, do I bend you over the table first? Do I put you up in the hammock so you can watch me take you? No, I think simplicity is best for the first of our many encounters, don't you?" Thassius said nothing, merely glared at him, and Norton quickly turned to the golem. "Chain his hands to the ceiling and his feet to the floor," he ordered the thing, which moved to comply, "we'll do this standing up, nice and simple..." The Baron stepped away as the golem moved to bind the prisoner, and Thassius lost sight of him in the struggle to try and defy the stone man, but no matter how much he struggled, no matter how much he kicked his feet to try and keep them out of the thing's hands, it was like trying to stop the tide from coming in, he'd never encountered anything that strong before. It removed the bindings from the thief's wrists and attached hard metal manacles in their place, which Thassius realized also had a soft padded inner lining, the purpose of which was becoming woefully clear; the Baron didn't want his new toy damaging itself. Strangely, when he was chained in place and the golem stepped away, he almost missed it; at least when it was holding him, the bulk of the creature had prevented the Baron from stepping behind him. On that note, he heard Norton's voice from somewhere to the right, letting out a pleasured sigh, and Thassius felt even less comfortable when he realized the man was putting his replica dildo in place. He expected Norton to walk out in front of him, but instead gasped when something unexpectedly closed around his neck from behind with a click. His cheeks burned in shame as he realized that he was now wearing a collar. "There we go, very nice," came the mocking voice of the Baron. A hand closed around Thassius' tail, which had been held straight down since he'd been pulled to a standing position, and despite the thief's efforts, was easily tugged up, revealing his backside to the room. There must have been another loop on the back of the collar, as Thassius suddenly found his tail locked in place, unable to even hide his shame. He began to tremble with fear, swallowing a panicked whimper as the jaguar's hands began to run up and down his body from behind. "You p-piece of shit..." the tod whispered, closing his eyes and grimacing. So close to his ear, the Baron's chuckles made the hair on the fox's hackles stand up in revulsion. "Such a nice accessory, you should thank me, really," the monster laughed, "You'll wear this for as long as you continue to entertain me, and in a few years or so, when the novelty of ravishing you every night begins to fade, I suppose I'll kill you and sell your body to a homeless shelter for meat, or maybe I'll be taken with a generous mood and just sell you into foreign slavery so you can keep being useful as a dick-warmer for the rest of your life."

Thassius inhaled sharply as his enemy's hand finally drifted down to his rump, giving his captive's buttocks a good squeeze instead of immediately seeking out their ultimate destination; it had become abundantly clear to the thief by now that the Baron really got off on all this anticipation and mockery, as if he'd needed more reasons to hate the man. "So, at least one of the stories about foxes is true," Norton chuckled, "It's like you've got a pair of pillows down here, this is going to be the most comfortable fuck I've had in months." Without warning, one of those fingers pressed against Thassius' anus and began to push inside somewhat roughly. Dismayed, the fox arched his back and gasped, unable to escape the probing digit, his mouth opening to cry out, though the only word he managed was 'No!' "Easy now," the Baron taunted, "My word, you really are tight as a virgin, aren't you?" Thassius whimpered as that finger wriggled around inside him, cursing himself for showing his fear even as the violation forced him to face the reality of what was about to happen. Ignoring the sound, the Baron chuckled again. "You must have been the top," he said, "Though I'd say that one was fairly obvious already, no? Well! I may be a rapist, but I'm not completely without mercy. I'll just go get some lube to ease things along as I break you in. You'll thank me later." He laughed to himself again as he extracted his finger. "I'll see to that." As the jaguar walked over to the barrel of lube and dipped his hand inside, he pointed to the golem. "You! Go stand outside the door and wait for further orders," he said. When the thing started moving, Norton looked over at Thassius and smiled, as if they were friends sharing a private joke. "No matter how often I use them, and even with those hoods over their faces," he said, "It's still unsettling to have them just stand around watching." As he walked back over, disappearing behind Thassius, the fox shuddered in disgust at the feeling of his enemy's slicked-up fingers pressing under his tail, and resisted the urge to beg for mercy; he knew this man had none to offer, and would only enjoy such a display. As he continued working his fingers into his victim's backside, Norton leaned forward, reaching around to take hold of the fox's penis, which had gone almost completely flaccid again. Then came that voice again, whispering in his ear in a low, sultry tone, a mockery of the way one might address a lover. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you, Thassius Wyrmvault, more than you can imagine; when we find your partner, and we will, I assure you, maybe we'll let him join you here, so you can both be my pretty little pets," he said, pausing to chuckle to himself, "Even if you were telling the truth, perhaps the novelty of having a woman in my dungeon will let me overcome my disinterest in her form. Even females have asses, after all..." One last, sudden burst of rage had Thassius thrashing against the chains, to no avail. Suddenly there was nothing false about his confidence, nothing hollow about his words; the fury that burned through his veins was unlike any he had ever felt. "If you ever lay a hand on her, Norton, I'll rip your chest open and slit your throat with one of your own ribs!" he snarled, trying to bite at the arm extended around him to grip his cock. To his dismay, though, the Baron just laughed. "Bold words from a man in your position. And yet, there's the fire I've been looking for, I love it when they still have some fight left in them!" he said, sounding genuinely delighted, "It seems if nothing else, the woman will inspire a certain passion in you. Maybe I'll just leave her in a cage so she can watch me break you down into a quiet little fuck-toy. Gods above, there's nothing I find more satisfying!" His hand gave Thassius' slowly fattening penis a squeeze before he continued. "Every male who's gone through puberty knows that it's possible, even easy, to get a man hard when he's not turned on," he whispered, "But did you know that if I keep this up, it'll get you off as surely as if I'd been that flouncy partner of yours, even against your will? I've never seen anything drain the defiance out of a man's eyes like draining the come out of his balls, it's really something." Thassius said nothing, but felt his heart sink even more, something he hadn't thought possible at this point; it was horrific enough that he was to be raped, but to be forced to spill his seed for this monster? It was unthinkable.

Finally, the fingers were gone, and before he could even take a breath, the fox felt what could only be the head of the Baron's penis against his entrance. Thassius clenched his eyes shut, tears forming in their corners, and tried to keep Venara in his mind. He made a silent plea for mercy to the Seven Gods, but they frowned on theft, albeit not as much as they frowned on what the Baron did, so he suspected he was on his own. "Mmmm... I can't wait any longer," Norton hissed, "The time for words is over, I've got to have you..." Thassius felt the jaguar beginning to exert pressure, a lot of pressure, against his backside, and knew it was just a matter of time before all was lost, but he still put up as valiant a resistance as he could manage, fighting to the very bitter end, trying to keep that stubborn ring of muscle clenched tightly. All too soon though, he felt himself tiring, not used to 'exercising' that particular part of his body, and the thought occurred to him that he wished he'd let Vena ride his rump with a dildo the way she'd joked about; at least then this wouldn't be his first time. And then, without warning... there came an incredibly loud CRASH from the kennel room, and the Baron's erection pulled away, to the sound of the door swinging open. "What in the nine hells?!" Norton bellowed, obviously enraged to be interrupted at such a moment, "Wait, no!" Feeling just as exposed as a naked man with his tail flagged high should, Thassius leaned from side to side, but was unable to move far enough to see anything behind him. There wasn't anything wrong with his ears, though, and he heard a click, a thunk, and a strangled cry, followed by something not entirely unlike the sound of someone dropping a bag of flour off the roof of a mill. Then, an achingly silent moment, followed by... Venara Wyrmvault, tears in her eyes, hurrying around her brother's restrained form, reaching up to touch his orange-furred face. "Th-Thassius!" she cried, as if unsure it was him, "Blue G-Goddess, I thought I'd really lost you this time! Sentinels above, brother, are - are you okay? Did he - did he..." Feeling tears of his own coming more freely now, Thassius shook his head. "No, no, sister, you arrived just in the nick of time..." he said, as she leaned forward to press her forehead against his, a vulpine show of closeness, "Green God, my love, you've saved my life before, but I think this is the first time you've literally saved my ass." Despite the circumstances, they snickered at that, and then Thassius shook his arms, making the chains rattle. "Not that I don't appreciate the rescue, Vena," he said, "but I'd really like to be free now. I think the golems should have the keys, Norton didn't exactly have any pockets." He sighed, frowning. "Sounded like your crossbow. Deadly and quick. I just wish I'd gotten to do it, or that he'd suffered a little more." Vena stepped back and nodded to the side, where he couldn't see, and Thassius suddenly became aware of a low wheezing sound. "Actually," Venara said, "I didn't quite hit his heart, I'd say he's suffering plenty." A few moments passed, and then the sound fell away and stopped entirely. "Okay," she said, nodding, "now he's not suffering anymore." The twins shared a devilish grin, and despite the situation, they laughed softly to themselves, endlessly relieved to be reunited. They shared a quick kiss, and then Vena disappeared again, out to find the keys to her brother's freedom.

Shortly thereafter, the manacles that bound Thassius' wrists and ankles fell away, and he let out a sigh of the most genuine relief as he stood free, turning to let Venara pick the smaller lock on the collar, which, as far as they could tell, was never meant to be removed at all. As he turned, Thassius looked down at Norton's body and scowled at it. A crossbow bolt jutted out of his chest and one of his hands was still wrapped around it. The other, lying limply at his side, still glistened with the lubricant he'd been applying to Thassius' rear. The jaguar's face held a shocked, unhappy expression, as if he was horrified to discover that anyone in the world would even try to end his life. His superiority complex had followed him all the way to the grave. As the collar dropped away and his tail fell back into place, it occurred to Thassius that he never had found out what the J stood for, even now he didn't know the man's first name. He decided then that he would make a point of ignoring this knowledge for as long as possible, that Norton didn't deserve to be remembered as anything other than the title he'd been given by the thieves he'd victimized. "...The Black Baron, dead at last," he murmured, looking down at the corpse, "And not a moment too soon." The solemnity of the moment was somewhat spoiled when Thassius suddenly snarled furiously and began lashing out at the body with his bare foot, kicking the carcass again and again. He spat on the jaguar's unmoving, unfeeling face, and bellowed his defiance at the corpse. "To the Black God with the Black Baron!" he cried, not letting up the kicking for a moment, "I hope there's a special Hell reserved just for you, where the darklings will fuck you bloody for all eternity! I hope you burn, you -" He stopped as he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Thassius," whispered Venara, looking deeply concerned, "It's over. He's dead." She stepped forward and moved to embrace him, but stopped, looking dismayed at the scratches on his chest. She looked up again and held his gaze until the snarl fell away from his features. "He's dead, brother," she repeated, "We won." After a moment, Thassius nodded, taking deep breaths as he stepped away from the body. He turned to his sister to suggest they get out as quickly as possible, but was cut off when she suddenly hugged him with great force, scratches be damned, letting out a sound about halfway between a whimper and a sob as she did so. "Oh, gods above, I'm so s-sorry, brother!" she gasped, squeezing him tightly, "I - I had no idea that Norton was a tail lifter, I thought he would just throw you in a cell to rot, I didn't think he'd even have time to do anything tonight, I -" He stopped her, placing one finger on the end of her nose. "It's alright, Vena," he whispered, "Neither of us knew. We had no way of knowing, he was boasting of the ridiculous lengths he went to in order to hide the truth." She sniffed and buried her face in her lover's chest. "I thought I'd lost you, Thassius," she said, "It was the worst feeling in the world..." Thassius briefly wondered how it was that he was comforting her, and came to the conclusion that he must be in shock. Best to get them moving again before it began to wear off, then. "Venara, I might not have known that he would try and give me a dicking," he said, "but I knew this was a risky plan, and I still agreed to play my part. Now, tell me I didn't nearly lose my virginity for nothing. How'd you manage with your end?" The vixen leaned back and cleared her throat, trying to get a hold of herself, and then stepped back, a small smile on her lips. "It... it went swimmingly, brother," she said, "Exactly like we planned. Everyone was so busy chasing after you that my side of the keep was abandoned, and nobody even noticed the paintings going missing." Her brother smiled and leaned up on his toes to kiss her on the forehead. "That's my girl. Gets the job done and comes to the rescue," he said, "Next time, though, you be the bait. Better yet, next time, let's just hire some stiff to be the bait for us."

As they broke off the embrace, Venara stepped through the door back to the kennels first, knife in hand, then gestured for her brother to follow her. Before the nude fox left the room behind forever, he paused long enough to glance over his shoulder at the body of the Baron. "You know, it helps me feel a bit better that he's going to be found down here in a kinky bondage dungeon," he said, "with a big old dildo up his ass. Shame we couldn't have staged it as some kind of creepy sex thing gone wrong, I've never heard of anyone getting off to being shot in the chest." As he turned to leave, stepping over the unmoving form of one of the golems, he raised an eyebrow and glanced across the room; the other creature stood exactly where it had been when he first saw it, but its head was turned to look up the stairs, and there was a crossbow bolt sticking out of its forehead, exactly at the spot where the command word would be carved into the wooden block. Directing his attention to his twin, who was loading a new bolt into her weapon, he gestured to the fallen forms. "Vena, how did you know how to take one of these things down in the first place?" he asked. His sister shrugged and smirked. "Maybe it was dumb luck," she said, "maybe I learned a thing or two about golemancy from Hugh's textbooks when we were dating. You want to put that robe there on, or were you planning on showing off for anyone who happens to see us? I mean, I don't mind, but it's kind of cold out." He glanced to the side and frowned. "I'd rather go naked than wear some of his clothes, sister," he said, "Let's just go, maybe we'll find a guard in my size. Actually, wait..." He walked over to the fine silk robe hanging off the wall and picked it up - and then proceeded to vigorously wipe his rump on it. "Thassius! What the hell are you doing?" Venara asked, a touch of embarrassment in her voice. Thassius blushed and shrugged. "Ah, the Baron left my ass all lubed up, and it was really starting to bother me..." Returning his blush, the other thief just nodded and averted her eyes while he tried to clean up a bit, before carefully hanging the lube-stained robe back up where he found it, smiling thinly as he took in the sight of one of Norton's own robes with sexual lubricant all over the fabric beneath the hole for the feline's tail. He had chosen that spot very carefully to help paint a picture for whoever found the body. Then he followed Venara up the stairs, eager to put this place behind him.

When they emerged at the top of the stairs, they found themselves in a plain room that could have been anywhere in the keep. Perhaps sensing the question in his mind, Venara glanced back and whispered "We're at the base of the north tower now." Thassius nodded and glanced to the side, where he was surprised to find a golem wearing a helmet, sitting on the floor and just staring at them, unable to murder them due to the fact that its arms and legs were scattered across the floor. "...Vena?" he asked, "How in the world...?" The vixen just giggled and gave him a wink. "You'd be amazed what I can accomplish when I'm fighting for you, Thass." Falling back into the careful stance of thieves, they left the room, the golem's eyes following them the whole way, and entered a long hallway lined with doors. The one at the opposite end was still open. Venara lowered her crossbow and held her free hand behind her, signing in the silent language the two of them had adopted and modified for their own use in situations where there might be unfriendly ears to hear them. We'll move to the east tower and climb up from there, she 'said', It's closest to where I stashed the paintings. Something tells me Norton gave orders not to be disturbed, so we probably have a while before anyone finds out what I did and raises the alarm. As they walked, they passed an alcove set into the wall, and Thassius was surprised to see a full-sized chest there, untouched, and reached forward to grab Venara's tail and get her attention. Nodding towards it, he raised an eyebrow, not needing words; she would have to have seen it if this was the route she took to save him, so it was less a matter of directing her attention to it and more a matter of asking why she hadn't opened it already. She smiled slightly and began to sign again. I was just about done with the paintings when I heard a couple of the guards talking about how the Baron had made them drop you off with his golems, they were... they were gossiping about what they thought he did down there. I'd say it was about equally horrible to the truth in an entirely different direction, so I kind of panicked and hurried the whole way there, didn't want to stop for the chest. He nodded, signing back. Thanks for that, by the way. I'd take a look myself, but I kinda don't have any tools... Her eyes dropped rather unsubtly to his penis and her smile widened, but she spared him the pun that was no doubt going through her mind. Heading over to the chest, she paused a moment to carefully examine the exterior, making sure there were no traps (at least no mechanical traps, they ran the risk that it was enchanted somehow) before getting her picks out and going to work on the lock, which put up a decent struggle before succumbing and popping open. Prying the lid open, the siblings were presented with a cornucopia of random things, knives and bits of clothing and little odds and ends, and right at the top were the clothes and gear Thassius had had on him when he allowed himself to get caught by Norton's goons. Well! That's much better than letting my balls flop around in the cold! He signed, reaching forward and gratefully retrieving his things. While he got dressed, Venara curiously poked through the other things in the chest, taking out a large leather-bound book that had been hidden by Thassius' sleeveless chest armour, flipping through it as he pulled his socks on; since they'd come into wealth, Thassius had discovered the 'luxury' of wearing socks under his boots, and now insisted on it, though he was a bit self-conscious about it. Of course, his sister was wearing a pair herself, so she didn't tease him about it. He would have asked her what she was reading if his hands hadn't been pre-occupied, but soon Vena made a face and freed a hand to tell him herself. Raver's blade, this is a journal, Norton kept notes about all the men he put in that horrible place downstairs! It's all gloating about what he did to them and... oh my, all of these things belonged to them, it's like a - a souvenir chest! She closed the book with a look of disgust on her face, but to Thassius' surprise, she put it away in her pack instead of discarding it back into the box. He raised an eyebrow, but all she said was Trust me on this, so he shrugged and finished getting ready.

Soon, they'd closed the chest and headed off down the hall, and Thassius had to admit to himself that he felt much better now that he'd covered his shame. Following Venara's lead with the crossbow, he left his jewelled dagger on his belt and crept along after her with a throwing knife in hand, ready to be flung towards anyone unlucky enough to happen across them. But their travels were fairly uneventful, the closest thing to a problem they encountered was ducking into an alcove behind a marble statue of Norton while a guard wandered past, clearly not looking for or expecting trouble, as his weapon was sheathed and he was picking his nose. Before long at all, they'd made it up to the top of the east tower, and Venara opened a window and gestured at it with a smile to her partner. "After you, dear brother." He nodded graciously and casually stepped out onto the side of the building, easily climbing the nooks and crannies between the slabs of stone and hopping onto the flat-topped roof. He knelt to offer her a hand up, and then they turned together to face the roof of the keep, where Thassius lightly clapped his hands, grinning with appreciation at his lover, who faux-curtsied. "I'm impressed, Vena," he whispered, "are there any paintings left inside the keep?" She smiled at him and slung her pack off, reaching inside and pulling out a somewhat peculiar-looking crossbow bolt, regarding it with more than a little hesitation. "Are you sure this thing is going to work, brother?" she asked, as she carefully disengaged the regular bolt from her weapon and went to work locking the new one into place. Thassius chuckled and shook his head. "What's that, sister?" he asked, playfully, "Your partner is asking you to use an extremely unfamiliar piece of kit, and you're not sure you're comfortable with it?" When she looked up to give him a Look, she saw that he was handling the trigger stone he'd used to ignite the explosive rune that had destroyed the coatroom, a false distraction for his distraction for her looting of the paintings. He was tossing the now harmless rock up a short ways and catching it as it fell back down. She snickered at that and shrugged. "Okay, so maybe it's a little hypocritical," Vena admitted, "but people have known how magic works for centuries, it's just scary because you don't know anything about it. These contraptions you get from your tinkerer buddies are all brand-new, some of them haven't even been tested yet." The tod sighed and crossed his arms. "This isn't one of them, the thieves of the western kingdoms use stuff like this all the time. It'll be fine, I promise," he said, "And if it isn't, well, aim for that pond over there."

Venara gave her brother a dirty look as she stood up, and after quickly double-checking with him to make sure the special bolt was loaded correctly, she strode to the edge of the roof and raised the weapon, aiming down low, just above the thick walls that surrounded the keep, though weren't nearly as high as the impenetrable outer layer of the average castle. There was a thin walkway for guards to patrol, and a series of crenellations ran along the outermost edge, facing the street beyond. These were mostly there for show, as it was unlikely that any invading force significant enough to justify such fortifications would ever appear in the middle of New Parsonus. "Here goes nothing..." she muttered, then squeezed the trigger. The bolt launched and flew straight and true, just like all the others the vixen had let fly that night, but this one left part of itself behind in the crossbow and deployed a long, long line of thin, though incredibly sturdy cord behind itself, trailing along like a visual aid as the bolt sailed through the air, slamming into part of the outer wall that jutted higher than the rest, as the city had built a public lantern on the other side to light the streets, and it was easier to just make a stone extension of the crenellation that was already there than to build a pole just for the light. Removing the back end of the bolt from the bow, Venara retrieved a very large cloth sack from inside her pack and held the bolt piece out towards her brother as she focused on unfolding the sack. "Here, put the anchor in the wall while I pack up, okay Thass?" There was no reply, and the item remained in her hand. "Thass?" She looked up and frowned; her brother was standing there, arms still crossed, and his eyes were very far away, looking troubled. The vixen let the bag fall to the roof next to her and stood up, reaching out to touch her lover, who started slightly. "Oh! Uh, sorry, Vena," he muttered, blushing hard, "Kinda spaced out there for a second..." He reached to take the anchor from her, hoping to move past this, but she closed her other hand over his wrist. "Thassius... what almost happened to you was horrible," she whispered, "Are you sure you're okay?" He cringed at the reminder and averted his eyes, taking a deep breath. "I'm... We're almost through this," he said, "I can hold it together until the end." Taking the anchor from her, he walked over to the wall behind them, the outside of the highest level in the building, and gave the little object a twist, deploying a very sharp hooked blade, which he stabbed into the wall as hard as he could. Giving the cord a little tug, he nodded appreciatively. "I kinda didn't think it would go in that well," he muttered to himself, "I guess I owe Donald a beer." He turned to face his sister, who was gathering up all the paintings into her sack, and went to help her. Soon they had their haul properly loaded and tied off, and all that was left was to actually perform their insane getaway. "Okay," Thassius said, "I'll go first. With the night I've had, I'm out of bad luck already." Retrieving an item out of his own pack, basically just a V-shaped pair of handles, which he slung upside down onto the cord, he took a deep breath, looked to his sister and gave a quick nod. "Here goes..." he muttered. Venara paused in her task, attaching a similar device to the tied-off neck of the sack, and bit her lip, her ears lowering in tension. She never was very good at hiding her emotions when they came to her brother. "Good luck, my love," she whispered, and he gave her a smile that was much more confident than he actually felt. Then, bracing himself, he gripped the handles firmly and stepped off the roof.

As he practically flew down that cable, Thassius was distantly aware of a clock tower ringing out the hour, and hoped that their ride hadn't nodded off while waiting for that signal. He had to admit; in a weird, terrifying way, this was actually really exhilarating. Just as he closed in on the end of the cord, he raised his feet and kicked forward hard, pressing his boots against the wall and slowing his approach so that he didn't harm his handsome face by running it straight into solid stone. Letting out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, the thief sighed in relief and stepped down, removing the handle as he did so, and looked around, hand on his throwing knives. There were no guards scheduled to walk the walls for another hour or so, but it never hurt to be careful. He turned and waved the all-clear to his sister, who waved back, looking almost as relieved as he felt, then loaded the properly accessorized bag onto the cord and gave it a nice push. It wasn't quite as tense for Thassius, given that it wasn't his body flying along a rope above a hard-packed courtyard floor, but if the bag fell, the paintings would be ruined, and all their planning - and everything he'd been through - would be for naught. Fortunately, the handle was secured properly, and soon enough it arrived at his end of the zipline, where he caught it with as much care as he could, removing it from the line and setting it aside. At that point, the fox heard the sound of a horse-drawn carriage approaching in the distance, and grinned to himself. Looking back up, he gave a thumbs-up to his sister and made a beckoning motion. Venara nodded, and even from all the way across the courtyard, he could tell she was nervous about it. The ears were a dead giveaway. After slinging the crossbow onto her back, she placed the zipline handle over the cord and looked down, shaking her head. Thassius assumed she was asking herself how she ever agreed to this, but it wasn't long before the vixen gathered her courage and followed her partner and the loot down the cable. Thassius noted, distantly, that a part of him felt more nervous than during his own run, as he watched his better half sailing through the air on the dangerous contraption, knowing that he'd be helpless to intervene should anything go wrong. It went just as smoothly as the first two runs, though, and soon enough Thassius stepped to the side to let his sister reach the end in the same manner he did, having to actively resist the instinct to stand in her way and try to catch her, knowing that the wall would support the impact a lot better than his body would. There was nothing to stop him from gathering her in his arms for a quick hug and a peck on the cheek afterwards, though, so he did just that.

As a familiar carriage came around the bend and into view, the thieves re-adjusted their hoods, which had fallen back in their windy descent, and prepared to make their escape. When the carriage drew a little closer, Venara leaned over and waved to the driver, whose thick, bushy moustache was distinctive even from a distance. In response, he politely raised his hat, and called for the feral horses pulling the vehicle to a gentle stop just next to the twins' position, putting the top of the carriage just beneath their height on the wall. Thassius stepped up and nimbly leapt across just as a guard in the far distance shouted 'Hey!', though this didn't especially bother either of the vulpine thieves. Glancing towards the front of the vehicle, Thassius sighed in relief. "You have no idea how good it is to see you, Clint, none at all," he said. The Human gave a snorting little chuckle and grinned back at him. "Only too happy to help, 'milord." The tod smirked; Clint only called them by such titles when they were in front of other nobility or when he was in a particularly good mood. They were suddenly on a tight schedule, though, so he quickly turned back to his sister, who tossed the bag full of gain twice ill-gotten into his waiting arms. He set it onto the roof of the vehicle beside him, and then, this time, he did invite Venara to jump into his open arms, an invitation she was only too happy to take him up on. Without even stepping away from her lover, she looked ahead to their driver and smiled politely. "Evening, Clint," she said, calmly, as though this were a normal situation. "Lady Wyrmvault," he replied, in exactly the same tone of voice. "Take us home, with all good speed. We're of a mind to retire for the night," Venara politely requested, as Thassius climbed down into the cab, taking the bag in through the door with him to make sure it was more safely stowed than sitting on the roof of a carriage. "Ma'am," their driver replied, nodding as he turned back to the road ahead and urged the horses on to get them out of there. Venara stayed on the roof a moment, turning to face the wall as they sped away, quite enjoying the angry, frustrated looks on the faces of the guards as they belatedly reached the spot where the foxes had been. One of them examined the cable in obvious confusion, and the other just shook his fist towards the departing carriage in impotent rage. Laughing, Venara exaggeratedly blew them a kiss and waved goodbye as they ducked down a wide alley to make a shortcut to a much busier road. Those guards shouldn't have been around for another half an hour at the earliest, but she couldn't bring herself to be too upset about it given that they'd been unable to interfere with the well-crafted escape in the slightest. Casually following her brother down into the cabin and closing the door behind her, as their cart would probably stick out in peoples' memories with a hooded fox woman on top of it, Vena let her crossbow and gear pack slide to the floor as she leaned back and sighed with relief, closing her eyes and putting her booted feet up on the opposite cushion. "Ahhh..." she said, "I do love a clean getaway. Not as exciting as actually carrying a plan out, but there's something to be said for being comfortably sure you've gotten away with it." She laughed to herself as she pulled her hood down. "Oh, brother, you should have seen their faces," the vixen giggled, "The fat one was so angry, and he didn't even know who we were or what we'd been doing. Gotta hand it to Clint, he's always on time. I dare say he's due for a nice bonus. One might call it a bribe to keep his mouth shut, but then one would be a cynic, right love?" There came no response, and she opened her eyes curiously. "Thassius?" Again there was no response, but it wasn't hard to see why. Thassius sat there, wringing his hands together and looking out the window. His hood was down, as were his ears, and he was trembling. It looked like he wasn't looking at anything in particular outside, his eyes a hundred miles away, lost in his memories. Getting up and skirting around the bag, she sat down next to him, and he started when she put her arm around him. "Thassius?" she asked again, more quietly. He whimpered, a show of weakness that was somewhat out of character for a man who'd been raised on the streets, and looked at her, shame and confusion in his eyes. "I - I'm sorry, Vena, I just - things have finally calmed down, and... and I can't stop thinking about it. I mean I know that, uh, that he's dead and all, and that I should probably b-be okay, but I j-just can't stop thinking about..." he trailed off, and tears began to appear in his eyes. Without saying a word, Venara leaned in close and held him tight, and he gratefully returned her embrace as he began to cry into her shoulder, hardly the triumphant escape he'd been hoping for as the carriage carried them through the quiet night back to their home.

* * *

A few days later, with the city looking quite different under the light of a cheery noonday sun, Thassius could be found standing on the balcony of the twins' home, gazing over New Parsonus with a thoughtful look on his face. His ear twitched as he heard footsteps approaching, though he did not otherwise react, recognizing them as his sister's from years and years spent around her. She walked up beside him and reached over, putting both her hands on his shoulders and leaning her head down to rest on the nearer of them. They just stood like that for a moment, watching the city go about its day, and then Venara spoke up. "It's good to see you out and about," she whispered, her voice slightly tense, like she'd chosen her words carefully, "You look a lot better than - well, you look a lot better." He said nothing at first, but reached up and put a hand over hers, giving it a squeeze. Despite it being the middle of the day, he wore his nightclothes and a robe, a thick, plush number that was one of the first things he'd purchased after they moved into their new (read: first) home with what he called their 'stolen dragon plunder'. His fur was unkempt, and tufts poked out every which way. If he were Human, he'd be dreadfully unshaven. But his eyes were clear, and his hands didn't shake. He took a deep breath and tilted his own head down so that his cheek touched the top of his sister's head. "I feel a lot better," he said, simply. The two foxes just stood there for a moment, looking over the city and holding each other, and then Thassius stepped back, turning to face his sister, who mirrored the movement. As her hands slipped off of his shoulders, the tod took them in his own and smiled. "Venara... thank you," he said, his silver eyes looking deep into hers, "For being here for me when I was weak. I... there aren't a lot of people in this world that I would let myself cry in front of... Well, let's be honest, it's really just you. Clint was an unfortunate bystander." She reached up to touch his cheek and regarded him with a soft look. "Thassius, it isn't weak to admit you're suffering, what you went through was horrible," she whispered, "No one is invincible; you got traumatized and you needed time to find yourself again. There's no shame in that." He closed his eyes and sighed, and for a moment, Vena's ears lowered, as if worried she'd pushed a little too hard. But he opened them again and smiled convincingly, if not exactly dazzlingly, and gave her hand a squeeze. "I'm glad I haven't lost face in your eyes, I don't know what I would do then," he murmured, "I just... I dread to think how much worse it would have been if you had been any later." He glanced into the attached bedroom; his ruby-hilted dagger was where it always was when they were home, sitting in its sheath, itself in a special display holder, just next to the bed, in easy reaching distance should uninvited guests show up. Old habits die hard, after all. He gazed at the dagger for a moment before looking back to his twin. "Say, Vena..." he said, "Do you remember when we were eight, and... and that man showed up, wanting to add you to his line-up at the brothel?" A dark look briefly flickered across Venara's features, but it was quickly replaced by calm curiosity. "Of course, it's not like I could ever forget," she replied, before a look of inspiration popped into her eyes. "And you held me that night when I cried, and told me that everything was going to be okay. Is that what you -" "And then the next night," the tod interrupted, "I went out, took a piece of a broken lamppost, and stabbed him in the fucking heart with it." Venara was taken aback by this, but only a little bit. When she'd learned what had happened to the lowlife, it hadn't exactly been hard to figure out who'd done him in, especially as that was the night Thassius suddenly obtained his jewelled dagger out of nowhere. But that statement, just now, was the first time Thassius had ever actually acknowledged to her that he was the one who killed the predator. She nodded slowly, and didn't act surprised, as it had been an unspoken truth between them for years and years anyway. "...Yes," she finally said, calmly and neutrally, waiting for him to continue. When he finally looked back, the cold anger that had briefly surfaced from his memories had evaporated completely, and he seemed quietly happy again, the way he had when she first walked onto the balcony. "Well," he said, quietly, "now I guess we're even."

For a moment, Venara just stood there, as if she was processing what he'd said, and then she shook her head and snickered to herself. She stepped forward and gave him a big hug, and he eagerly returned it. "Actually," said Thassius, thoughtfully, "there is one difference between those, I don't know, rescues." She looked up to him and was pleased to see a familiar warmth behind his eyes. "I did it without telling you, so you had no idea I was going out to kill that scumbag," he continued, "But even though we didn't anticipate the Baron having a secret rape dungeon, from the moment I woke up in that damned cage, I was absolutely certain that you were going to find me and get me out of there, and that one way or the other, we would make Norton pay." He averted his eyes for a moment, and his ears swivelled back slightly. "I just didn't think you were going to show up in time..." The smile faded from Venara's face as she hugged her twin a little tighter. "I'm sorry, brother," she whispered, "As soon as I found out where the Baron had you moved, I ran down there as fast as I could. I would have put a bolt into the eye of every man on his staff if they'd been between me and you, I swear!" The tod leaned back a little and put his finger under her chin, tilting her face up to his again. Vena was only slightly shorter than her twin, but she sometimes slouched just because she liked looking up to him. "No, no, my love" he breathed, once again losing himself in her eyes, "I wasn't complaining, you did a marvellous job rescuing me. I just meant I didn't think it would be possible to find out where I was before - but never mind that now. I'm glad you found me, I'm glad the Baron is dead, hells, I'm even glad that I was in shock long enough for us to escape without a hitch. And I don't know that I would be feeling this much better by now if I didn't have you to lean on. But what happened back at the keep, and what happened in the last few days, right now, I... I just want to forget. I just want to be with you, and be happy." With that, he leaned in and kissed his sister, gently, warmly, an uncomplicated moment shared between them. When he broke it off, he brought his hand up to the back of her head and ran his fingers through her long, red hair. "I love you, Vena," he whispered with a smile, "What do you say we give the bed a much cheerier use today, hmm?" Without waiting for an answer, he leaned in and trailed kisses across the vixen's sensitive neck, and she began to giggle from the attention. "Ohhh yes..." she breathed, bunching up the fabric of her brother's robe in her hands as she trembled in pleasure, "I think that sounds like a wonderful idea, my love..."

Chuckling to himself in pleasure and anticipation, Thassius let go of Venara just long enough to lean back and then suddenly reach in and sweep his sister off her feet, into his arms, and she shrieked with delight as he picked her up and carried her to the bed. By the time they'd re-entered the house and crossed the short distance to the bed, he was already kissing her roughly, and one of her hands had slipped down to tease at his groin through his pyjama pants. Thassius lay his twin down on the bed gently, almost reverently, and was about to reach forward and begin to undress her when she unceremoniously grabbed his pants by the waist and gave a sharp tug floorward, exposing his bits to the air, and leaned in to take her brother's penis, already at half-mast, into her mouth. "Aaaahhh..." Thassius moaned, "D-dammit, sis, no fair, you're wearing more than me..." Ignoring him, Venara lovingly ran her tongue along the sensitive underside of her lover's shaft, and churred happily as he twitched and jumped, growing longer and fatter in the hot, wet confines of his sister's muzzle. He stood there, hands kneading the air, before he whimpered and stepped away, much to Vena's dismay. His prick, nearly fully hard now, slipped out of her mouth and wobbled in the cool air, glistening with her saliva. "At least let me get on the bed first, love, Green hermit..." he muttered with a grin, shaking his head at her eagerness. She winked up at him and patted the bed next to her. "By all means, have yourself a lie down," she said, actually licking her lips as she looked back down at his cock. Thassius couldn't help but chuckle at her eagerness, and shrugged off his robe, stepping out of his pants as he climbed onto the bed. When the vixen immediately moved to recapture his penis, he moved with sudden swiftness, grabbing her by the back of the shirt and pulling her forward, squealing with amusement, to lie across his legs, where he began to go to work unfastening and discarding her clothes. In moments, he had her boots off and pants open, and was tugging the latter down her shapely legs, a process somewhat impeded by the way he kept pausing to feel up said legs. Venara began to squirm appreciatively as her brother's hands teased along her furry thighs, but, finding the situation moving altogether too slowly for her liking, she began to unbutton her own shirt, shrugging out of it just after her pants finally slipped all the way off, and getting up on all fours in just her underwear, tail flicking back and forth with excitement. "Alright, there, I'm much nakeder now," she said, grinning, "Are you gonna let me suck you off now or am I gonna have to beg?" Laughing, Thassius leaned back and gestured invitingly to his still-erect length. "Funny, normally I'm the one asking that question when I get a blowjob," he said, as Vena happily settled herself down on her side with her head in his lap. The tod groaned as she took his shaft back into her muzzle, but rather than just sit there and enjoy it, he placed his hand on his lover's side, just under her ribs, and trailed his fingers through her fur until he reached her underwear, not even waiting for acknowledgement, much less permission, before he slid his hand into his sister's panties, cupping her mound and giving it a nice squeeze. Venara moaned around his prick as he lingered for a moment to enjoy the warmth her arousal was generating, and he could see her toes curling up when he pushed two fingers between her labia, finding her already slick with need. As her inner walls clenched down on his fingers, Thassius realized that he wasn't the only one who'd needed this.

The next short while passed without conversation, not counting the occasional words of praise Thassius whispered in between gasps and grunts. As Venara continued to lick and suck and pleasure his straining erection, the tod didn't lose focus on his own work, rubbing and stroking along her outer lips with the fingers that weren't confidently exploring her wet depths, tracing along her inner walls and massaging her more sensitive zones, all while he used his thumb and the heel of his hand to tease at her achingly stiff clitoris, deeply enjoying the way he could feel the sensitive little nub throbbing against his skin. Finally, though, he moved his other hand to his sister's face, brushing her red locks out of her eyes and slouching down to get her attention. "V-Vena..." he breathed, almost sounding embarrassed, "it's been a few d-days, and I'm... I'm kinda backed up... I'm, uh, I'm..." Allowing his penis to slide out of her mouth for the first time since she'd reclaimed it - and even now she gripped it with a free hand to keep the stimulation going - Venara smiled understandingly. "Getting close to shooting already, brother? It's alright, I don't mind," she cooed, leaning in and planting a chaste kiss just under the crown of his prick, "Don't you worry about it, just close your eyes and let me take care of you, little brother." Thassius grinned even wider, but raised an eyebrow as he did so. "Little brother?" he asked, clearly amused, "Vena, we're twins. And 'mom' barely stayed around long enough to name us before she dumped us at the orphanage, how would you know which of us was born first?" In response, the vixen opened her hand and dragged her wide, flat tongue from the base of his cock to the tip, his body responding with a sharp inhalation of breath as his penis throbbed, a bead of shining pre-come emerging. Vena looked her lover dead in the eye as she snapped out her tongue again and licked that pearl drop up. "Mmmm..." she practically moaned, before smirking at him, "Let me answer your question with a question, Thass; Which one of us is giving the other a blowjob right now?" Without batting an eye, Thassius smiled back. "You take such good care of me, big sister."

With that, Venara returned to her task with a fervor that revealed her enjoyment; the simple truth was that the twins loved pleasuring each other just as much as they enjoyed being pleasured themselves. Thassius was no longer whispering to his lover, he was just sitting there, eyes closed, and trembling with the strength of the pleasure building up inside him. Despite this, his fingers didn't stop their dalliance in his sister's nether regions, though he could be forgiven if his performance was a bit distracted. Finally, he began to hunch over, his breath getting harder and faster, and he brought his free hand to the back of Vena's head as if the vixen might try to leave him balanced precariously on the edge. Instead of roughly holding her in place, though, his hand gently cradled the back of her head, once again running his fingers through her silky hair. "Oh fuck... oh fuck..." he finally said, his muscles beginning to tense up. Venara churred around his prick, but remained diligently at her work, licking at his straining shaft and just barely teasing her teeth along the crown of Thassius' penis as it began to turn a dark purple within her mouth's loving embrace. Soon enough, he could take no more. "B-Blue Goddess!" he cried, arching his back, "Venara, I'm coming!" Gasping with pleasure, the fox trembled and twitched as his prick began to throb against his lover's tongue, Venara letting out a groan of her own as her mouth began to flood with spurt after thick, flavourful spurt of her brother's seed. Taking the hand that wasn't surreptitiously groping her chest through her brassiere, the vixen took hold of the tod's scrotum and began to squeeze and massage the orbs within even as she continued to lick and suckle at the pulsing shaft just above them. Thassius' hand had instinctively clenched up as pleasure seemed to surge from the base of his penis to spread through his entire body, and he was gripping his sister's pussy, within and without, in a way that seemed almost possessive, which no doubt turned the shapely female on even more. But every time his prick pulsed, his hand gave a twitch that was very noticeable to the girl it was partially buried in, and so it was that the twins shared in the experience of the tod's orgasm.

All too soon, Thassius' climax had burned itself out, and he slumped down to the bed with a groan, one hand still buried in his sister's panties. Vena lifted her head from his lap, careful not to spill a drop, and swallowed loudly, shivering against him, before manoeuvring herself up next to her brother, spooned against his arm. "My word..." she breathed, "You really were backed up, weren't you? I thought I was going to drown for a moment there..." She giggled and then licked his cheek playfully as he panted, grinning at her. "So," the vixen continued, "how was it, my love?" She shivered again as her brother's fingers teased against her clitoris. "Gods above," Thassius sighed happily, "I really needed that... Thank you, Vena. From the bottom of my heart." She batted her eyes at him and licked his nose. "It was my pleasure, brother," she said, sounding deeply proud of herself, "Well, not as much as it was your pleasure, clearly, but I enjoyed it too." She leaned in at that and the twins kissed, eagerly, hungrily, Thassius continuing to tweak his lover's body to keep her arousal climbing, and she responded by clamping her thighs shut around his arm, keeping that hand trapped against her heated vulva. When they finally broke off the kiss, she tilted an ear and looked at him curiously. "Brother, I was wondering," Venara asked, "Why did you call out to the Blue Goddess when you came? I've heard you, ah, praise the Orange Goddess of beauty and the Green God of love while we're together, but the Griever of Souls isn't exactly the most romantic of the Seven Sentinels..." Thassius laughed at that, a tired, but extremely genuine sound that made the vixen smile even though she didn't understand. "It was a random thought that popped into my head right before I lost it," Thass explained with a grin, "I almost felt disappointed that I was going to come, because there are few things in this life I enjoy more than your muzzle around my dick." He winked at her lewdly and lifted his deflating cock, letting it fall back to his belly with a muffled slap. "I was mourning the fact that it would soon be over," he said, as Venara began to laugh too, giving his shoulder a gentle slap for the terrible joke. He began to laugh again, joining her, and for a few moments, they shared in this simple, uncomplicated happiness, pressed against the person they loved the most in the world while delight tickled their hearts and made them smile.

Neither of them spoke as they cuddled, at least not until Thassius began moving his fingers with their former enthusiasm again. Venara let out a quiet groan, and reluctantly placed her hand over his, through the material of her underwear. "Wait, brother," she said, "I'm not one to turn down a good come, but I'd rather not ruin these panties_completely_, if it's all the same to you." With that, she gently, though firmly, pulled her lover's hand out of herself and back into the warm air of the room, pausing a moment to take the fingers which still glistened with her juices into her mouth, running her tongue over them and sampling her own flavour while making bedroom eyes at the tod, who watched with rapt attention. When she had finished teasing her brother (for the moment), she reached down and slipped her sodden panties down and off, kicking them to the floor as she moved on to her bra, while Thassius took the moment to discard his own nightshirt, leaving the twins delightfully naked and free to embrace each other once again. Venara had Thassius lie down on his back while she threw a leg over him, leaning in to kiss him again. Just as he reached up to cup the back of her head, she pulled away and turned around with a giggle, flagging her tail up high to give him a very intimate look at the goods as she moved to position herself above her lover's face. "As much as I'd love to just kiss you all day, brother," she breathed, her arousal plain in her voice, "I'm afraid your nimble fingers have gotten me so horny I can't stand it, so you're just going to have to make do with my other lips." As she began to lower herself towards his face, Thassius laughed softly and reached up, laying his arms along her thighs and leaving his hands resting against her buttocks for the time being. "Ah well," he said, sounding remarkably disingenuous, "I'll just have to tough it out somehow, I guess..." He chuckled again as Vena finally eased herself into a comfortable position, pressing her wet slit against her brother's eagerly awaiting mouth.

The first thing Thassius did was shudder, inhaling deeply through his nose and letting the scent of his twin's arousal fill his lungs, then, wasting no time, he closed his eyes (as all he could see was the underside of her tail anyway) and got to work, chastely kissing Venara's labia as if he planned to take her offer literally before burying his tongue between her folds and into the slick, tight channel beyond. There was a comfortable familiarity between them by now as his tongue played along the vixen's inner walls; Thassius felt quite at home in his sister's vagina, as strange as it sounded. But that familiarity had done nothing to rob their interactions of their pleasure; if anything, it excited the tod more now that he had a better knowledge of the layout of Venara's sensitive regions and likes. Squeezing her perfect ass in his hands, he began to lick and tease at the walls of her pussy, enjoying her sighs and gasps above almost as much as he enjoyed the way she was already pushing back against his muzzle, already needing more of that wonderful tongue. "Gods above, Thassius..." she whimpered, trailing off into nothing, clearly more interested in focusing on the pleasure he was bringing her than on gathering her thoughts long enough to form a coherent sentence. With a moan, the shapely vixen bent down and began licking frantically at her brother's genitals. Thassius knew he was doing well now; he'd seen this before, Venara would sometimes get so worked up by the pleasure that she'd get antsy from just sitting there while he worshipped her, and find something, anything, to try and focus on so she didn't go crazy. With his muzzle fairly coated by her lust by now, Thassius was recovering from his earlier orgasm, but it wasn't fast enough for Vena's liking, as his prick stubbornly refused to react to her tongue. So she moved down to his scrotum instead, licking at her brother's balls in wide, quick laps, as if she were a feral cat cleaning a littermate. She paused only long enough to whimper again and whisper to her lover. "D-don't stop, Thassius, p-please..." she moaned, "Green God, eat me, brother, I - I need to come so bad..." The tod realized that he'd been so focused on how his twin was reacting to his ministrations that he'd slowed down those same tender lickings without meaning to. Getting his head back in the game (and his tongue back in her tight channel), Thassius redoubled his efforts, and Venara groaned appreciatively. "Oh, fuck, yes, yes!" she groaned, almost to herself, "Eat my pussy, Thass, eat your sister's pussy..." As she began to whimper even as she went back to licking, Thassius let out a sigh of contentment through his nose, which made the femme fatale tense up momentarily, since the unexpected breath tickled across her anus and the fur at the sensitive base of her tail. He rather liked it when Vena talked dirty like that. It didn't turn him on in and of itself the way it did for some men, but it was always a sign that his sister was really into whatever he was doing, so he always welcomed it. It occurred to a small corner of his brain that wasn't thinking about sex that the other nobles of New Parsonus would no doubt be horrified to hear such things, and most of them wouldn't be so blatantly crass, even in bed. Not caring about such niceties was just one of the many benefits that growing up as street orphans had granted to the twins.

Soon enough, Venara was moaning and squirming atop her lover, grinding her mound against his face as he sought out and teased each of her most sensitive zones, his hands now having gotten into the act, fingertips stroking along her lips, exploring the pink flesh beneath her labia, or rubbing and massaging her sensitive clitoris. Vena had continued to occupy herself with her brother's parts, and while his penis had finally given in and gotten stiff again, she continued to focus on his testicles, Thassius assumed because she wanted him to last as long as possible when they began to actually make love. At the moment, she'd taken one of his balls into her mouth, something she'd never done before, which had given him pause, at least until she pushed back against him with urgent need, and he'd gotten back to gathering nectar from her inner walls. While he brought her ever closer to the edge, she twitched and trembled and whimpered, gently suckling on his testicle and running her tongue over the wrinkled sac that surrounded it. Every once in a while, she would switch which orb she was venerating this way, and the tod realized he was actually quite enjoying it. He didn't think he could actually get off from just this, and was a bit more confident about that than he had been about the foot-rubbing bet he'd lost against his lover a few days earlier, but the way she was focusing so much of her attention onto his boys, the way she'd so energetically thrown herself into what she was doing, reminded him of just how much Venara loved him. He didn't think most of the other women he'd bedded in his time would do this if he asked, and even the others would only do it begrudgingly, half-heartedly, in an effort to please him. This had been Vena's idea from the start, and that alone made it delightful for him. He was pulled out of his reverie as the vixen let his ball drop out of her mouth and threw back her head with a primal whine of burning desire. "B-by the Spectrum, brother, I - I'm so - so fucking close," she whimpered, trembling, "P-please, Thassius, I'll love you forever if you'll just please let me come!" Counter-intuitively, at this, the tod pulled his mouth away from his sister's slit, letting his fingers continue to work her as he nipped playfully at her thigh and replied, unable to keep the joy out of his voice. "Well then," he said, "if that's what it takes to win your heart for all time, then we'll do this all night to make sure." With that, he moved back into position, closing his lips around Venara's clitoris and gently suckling on it, licking and lashing the tip inside his mouth. At the same time, he plunged two of his fingers into her slick channel, suddenly giving her a very energetic fingering, seeking out the same sensitive spots he'd earlier been teasing with his tongue and rubbing them mercilessly with his fingertips. His twin arched her back with a sharp gasp, stiffening and crying out a shocking profanity that would have made any sailor proud. Then, tensing up, she pushed back against her brother's mouth, whimpering and moaning the word 'yes' over and over again as pleasure exploded through her system, her clit throbbing against Thassius' tongue as she twitched and trembled above him, and a rush of her juices spilled over the tod's nose and the top of his muzzle while her vagina went through the wonderfully familiar rhythmic spasms, clenching down on his fingers so hard he wondered if he'd ever get them out again.

When the vixen's climax had run its course, she slumped down limply on Thassius' body, panting hard. It amused the tod somewhat to watch her adjust her position so that her head was lying on his thigh, and as she recovered from what seemed like an awesome orgasm, she tiredly extended her tongue, giving his penis a lick now and then in a way that seemed oddly possessive and rather endearing. Of course, this shift in position also raised her butt into the air, so Thassius gave his sister's vulva a few more good licks of his own, causing the tired vixen to whimper and shiver as she was treated to a few aftershocks. Finally, she pulled her pussy away from her brother's tender mercies, and re-arranged herself again, lying on the bed next to her lover, who took her into his arms without a word. After a minute or two of warm, silent togetherness, Venara looked up and kissed her brother on the cheek. "Thank you, Thassius," she whispered. After a moment, she added "I love you, brother." Smiling back at her, he carefully moved a lock of crimson hair out of her eyes and then playfully licked her nose. "I love you too, sister. You really are my better half." They leaned in to kiss, but Venara immediately broke it off, giggling. "Damn, Thass, that tasted more like my pussy than your mouth," she laughed, "Your muzzle is soaked!" He laughed at that and moved a hand from her back down to her butt, giving a cheek a mischievous squeeze. "What can I say," he chuckled, "if there's one thing I'm better at than picking locks..." She giggled at that too, and then they kissed more successfully, Thassius quite enjoying the shiver he felt run through his lover's body as she once again sampled her own unique flavour.

After a few minutes of cuddles and kisses, teasing and titillation, both twins were clearly ready for more, and a silent look into each other's eyes confirmed it. Without a word, they broke off their embrace and got up to change their position. Thassius expected Venara to lie down and pull him in with just the expression on her face, something she was terribly good at, but instead she got up on her knees, turned around, and dropped down to all fours. Then, raising her tail, she rather self-consciously reached back, took hold of a pert buttock, and spread it widely, blatantly displaying her femininity to the confused tod's eyes. This was hardly like her, even at her most needy. "Venara?" She was blushing, her ears slowly lowering towards her hair as she looked up at him. "W-well," she started, sounding a little nervous, "I guess it's finally time to make good on that promise. The Seven know you've earned it..." Thassius couldn't deny that the view was appealing, but he was (surprisingly) more interested in finding out why she was acting like this. "What promise?" he asked, feeling a little embarrassed himself, perhaps for her sake. "You know!" she said, her ears flattening out completely with her embarrassment, "Back at the keep! Before we started the job, you asked if I wanted to fool around, and I said... I said..." Thassius took a deep breath, nodding, as the memory came to him. "You said that because I was taking such a dangerous role, I could take you under the tail the way I'd been badgering you about," he filled in for her. She wasn't giving him a better look at her slit, she was giving him a better view of the tight rosebud just north of it, near the base of her anxiously twitching tail. Prior to the job at Norton's keep, Thassius had been trying unsuccessfully to talk Venara into letting him take her anally for several weeks, getting fixated on the idea because it was one of the few 'mainstream' sex acts neither of them had ever done before, and he wanted to do it not so much because he wanted to fuck the vixen's ass, and more to make up for the twins missing all of the other 'virginities' with each other before they realized they didn't just love each other as brother and sister.

As he stared at Venara's anus, contemplating the situation, the smile fell from his face. Instantly picking up on this, she whimpered with worry, letting go of her butt and leaning back up onto her knees, turning around to face him. "Oh - oh Thassius, I'm so sorry, I didn't even think about - about what almost happened to you," she said, wringing her hands, her tail peeking forward from between her legs with shame, "After what Norton almost... and then I go and talk about..." She swallowed, looking miserable, and the tod reached forward, placing both of his hands on her shoulders, looking her in the eye, his gaze relaxed and steady, to try and calm her. "It's alright, Vena, that's not it. It might have been different if the Black Baron had had his way with me," he admitted, "but as it is..." the tod shrugged. "Lots of people are into buggery, my love, he hasn't ruined the entire concept for me. Truth be told, when I thought it was about to happen, I found myself wishing I'd taken you up on your teasing, let you take me under the tail with one of your toys, so that my first would have been yours, and not his." Shuffling forward on his knees, he leaned in and kissed the vixen on the cheek as her ears slowly began to raise up again. "But after that, after he almost forced me to do that for his pleasure, I realized something," he continued, "You don't really want me to take your rump, do you?" Venara bit her lip nervously, as if worried this was a trick, but it was a rhetorical question and he continued before she replied. "You just want to let me take you that way because you know it'll make me happy. I don't know, maybe it is because it's this act in particular, maybe I've just softened up a bit, but..." He gathered the girl up in his arms and held her tight, both of them silently aware of his long neglected, achingly erect penis pressed between their bellies. "I love you, Venara, more than I can put into words," he breathed, "And this is what I've decided: If you don't want me up your backside, then I don't want to be there. I only want to take you that way if and when you decide that you want to do it, not when you're willing to do it because I want it." The vixen was blushing again, and beaming up at him. "Oh, Thassius..." she whispered, nuzzling against him, "I love it when you get all romantic like that..." after a moment, she cocked an ear and averted her eyes. "Is - is it strange that that little speech actually does make me want it, just a little bit?" She swallowed and quickly looked back up with an embarrassed grin. "B-but not enough to actually, uh, jump in, you know? M-maybe we can just, uh, take it slow?" He laughed softly and gave her a squeeze. "I think I'd like that very much, dear sister."

With that, the two foxes fell down to the bed in each other's arms, kissing and nuzzling, their hands wandering each other's bodies. Before too long, they had rolled over, once again, so that Thassius was on his back, with Venara astride him. When they finally broke off the kiss, Thassius instantly missed his lover's gentle tongue and soft, soft lips, but he had a sneaking suspicion that the experience to come would be more than enough to take their place. Smiling warmly down at the tod, Venara got up on her knees again and moved herself into position, kneeling over her twin's pelvis, where she hesitated. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather be on top, Thass?" she asked, "We did just spend a lot of time with you underneath." Winking at her, he reached forward and placed his hands on her hips, rubbing his thumbs across her fur as he held her lightly. "I promise, Vena, there's nowhere else in Rilodell I'd rather be right now," he said, eyes running unsubtly up and down her body. Satisfied, Vena reached down and took hold of his shaft, which throbbed the instant she touched it, a small amount of pre emerging from the tip (and amusing Thassius as it made him think of a single tear of gratitude at finally getting some attention from the lovely female) and sticking there as she gently tilted it to the right angle, positioning it just under her slit, which was practically dripping with her renewed desire. With another glance up to her lover's face, Venara lowered herself onto his manhood, letting out a long, shuddery sigh as her labia spread wide for their visitor, and her inner walls made room, rubbing against hot, rigid flesh as the vixen slowly took her brother's prick within her tight, welcoming channel. "Fuck..." she moaned, shuddering as she took a moment to just savour the sensations. There wasn't much more Thassius could do than sit there, but he felt a little tremble of his own as he felt Venara invisibly tense up her feminine muscles, as the walls of his sister's pussy squeezed and rubbed against his length. When she opened her eyes again, Vena bent forward, making herself comfortable lying directly on top of her twin once again. Instead of immediately getting started, she just lay there, tail wagging lazily behind her, resting her chin on his shoulder and nuzzling against his cheek as she whispered in his ear. "Mmmm... I think I'm beginning to understand your little prayer to the Blue Goddess, brother," she sighed, "If you ever pull that cock out, it'll be too soon. Nnngh, so full..." This last bit came out as a groan, and may have been intended as just internal dialogue, it was hard to tell when Vena got especially horny. Soon enough, though, she pushed her upper body up with her arms and began using her leg muscles to get things moving, pushing off of Thassius' cock until only the head remained inside, then letting herself sink back down as he buried himself in her wetness once again. "Gods above, sister," Thassius found himself moaning, "You're so fucking hot inside... are you sure you don't have a heat cycle?" She giggled at that and flicked her head, letting her crimson tresses dance about her head before she peered down upon her lover. "Why?" she asked, playfully, as she pushed a few locks out of her eyes, "Don't you want this to lead to kits?" Not believing she was quite ready to settle down and give up thieving even for a second, Thass snickered, letting one of his hands trail up to her chest and taking hold of one of her breasts, giving the oh-so-soft flesh a gentle squeeze as he licked her nose. "While it might be fun to have an apprentice of some sort," he said, "I'd rather give all my love to you for the time being." No doubt having expected some kind of pithy one-liner, as was his usual style, Venara seemed surprised, and laughed softly to herself. "Awww, that's so sweet, Thass," she said, beaming at him. She leaned in to kiss him, and they shared a tender moment. One that was shortly interrupted as the hand Thassius handn't moved up to her chest, which had moved down to grope the vixen's shapely rear, repositioned itself so that one of its extended fingers rested directly against Venara's anus.

The vixen gasped out loud and instinctively tried to move away, but Thassius' hand was firmly gripping her ass, so this did nothing to improve her situation. Besides that, there was only so far she could move before her lover's dick threatened to slip out of her, so she looked into the tod's eyes, blushing up a storm, ears lowering in embarrassment, and whimpering softly. "Th-Thassius, what are you d-doing?" she asked, meekly, "I thought you didn't want to - that you wanted to wait until I wanted to..." "Shhhh..." he whispered, mercifully, as he took the hand that had been busying itself by tweaking her nipples and moved it up to her head, stroking through her long hair soothingly. "Relax, my love. I meant every word," he said, kissing her forehead, "But I was inspired when you suggested we 'take it slow'. I thought, maybe if I just used a finger or two while we did this the usual way, it would help you get more comfortable with the idea." Venara looked back at her own rump, as if she wanted to confirm what she could feel, and let out a deep breath, looking unsure. "Well..." she started, looking down at Thassius' chest fur and smoothing it down to give her hands something to do. The tod said nothing, merely held her close, willing to give his sister as much time as she needed to make the decision for herself. It helped that either way, his penis was still being lovingly embraced by her slick inner walls. Finally she looked up with a shy grin. "Okay, brother," she said, softly, "Let's give this a try. Just... be gentle, eh? I've never played with that part of myself before, and I'm afraid putting anything in might hurt..." Leaning in to give her a nuzzle, Thassius' smile widened just a little. "I promise I'll take it slow," he whispered, "and we can always stop if you really don't like it. Now then... I believe you were reminding me why I'm the luckiest fox-kin in all of Rilodell..."

Still grinning shyly, Venara began to move again, rocking back and forth atop her brother so that his erection slid in and out of her depths. Soon, the pleasure she was receiving helped to distract her from the embarrassment she'd felt, and her ears began to stand up again as the vixen grew more and more relaxed. It was only when she really got into the rhythm that Thassius began to do anything more with his finger, beginning to rub and tease at his lover's back door. She slowed down once he started to move, but took a deep breath and kept going, wrapping her arms around her brother's neck to hold her head still so she could kiss him even as her lower body kept up the sensual movements they both so enjoyed. After a few quiet, intimate moments of this, Thassius felt his cock throb deep inside his lover, and broke off the kiss to swear. "Balls! I forgot," he muttered, tilting his head to the side, "Ah, zuk-ureym!" A small, unassuming thing sitting on a shelf across the room, which looked at first glance like a sculpture of nothing in particular, a bit of abstract art, began to glow mildly at the command word given to it, shifting through several colours in succession. It had cost them quite a bit, as this particular device, a Heximus Charm, as named after the unusually fertile wizardess who invented it, was in high demand; it projected a contraception field about the room, making it impossible for this particular tryst to result in a pregnancy, something the foxes found very appealing indeed. "Much better," the tod chuckled, returning to kissing his sister. As they continued making love, Thassius began to apply more pressure against the vixen's other opening, and as Venara let out a muted whimper, his fingertip pushed past the tight muscle and into her rear. She broke off the kiss, eyes tightly shut, blushing again. "Oh - oh, b-brother..." she stammered, trembling against him. He craned his neck, pressing his forehead against hers for a moment, to help calm her. "Shhhh, it's okay, my love..." he whispered, "just relax..." Vena swallowed and moved one of her hands to take his own off of her chest, sliding it down her body and pushing it between them. "Oh-okay, but if you're going to play with my butt, I want you to play with my butt_on_, too." She still refused to open her eyes, but she was smirking, which Thassius took as a good sign. "Deal." She sighed again as he slowly pushed his flattened hand between their bodies until it neared the point of their joining, where he began to tease and rub her clitoris. There wasn't much he could do in such tight confines, but she was doing a lot all by herself, grinding against his hand as she rode his rigid prick, and to be fair, you don't have to do a whole lot with an organ as sensitive as this one.

Soon, both vulpines were breathing harder, shuddering against each other as arousal grew and grew within them. It hadn't taken long for Vena to relax, so Thassius began to work his finger deeper under her tail. As he did this, his twin began to move a little faster, sheathing her brother's dick within her again and again, as deeply as she could, her inner walls gripping him so tightly that it was a wonder she didn't pull his butt off the bed with her. Fortunately, she was so worked up at this point that he could feel her nectar flowing down his shaft to soak into the short fur of his pelvis and practically dripping off his balls. On the other hand, with the tightness his finger was experiencing in his lover's virgin backside, the tod was beginning to appreciate some much less sentimental reasons to take a woman that way than he had started with. He began to feel around, noting to his significant relief that it didn't feel... unpleasant inside, and began to rub his finger along her walls out of pure curiosity, just experiencing the different texture. Vena spoke up for the first time in minutes as she shuddered against him, clenching down with both of her openings with a whimper. "Seven Gods, that feels so weird..." She moaned. For a moment, her rear was so tight that Thassius actually couldn't move his finger, would have had to use a little muscle to free it. He filed that away as a mental note not to make any jokes at Venara's expense mid-coitus if they eventually decided to go further. And yet, the fox couldn't resist being a little playful. "Oh?" he asked, beginning to slowly pump his finger in and out of her rear, "What about now?" Vena stiffened again, crying out wordlessly, her tail lashing at the air above her, and the tod couldn't help but chuckle. "Y-you're terrible," she muttered, without much strength behind it, "I let you d-do these things, and you're laughing at me... Ah!" She gasped as Thass leaned in and nipped at her shoulder playfully. "Mmmm... I'm laughing because I'm so happy, dear," he murmured, pausing briefly to trail kisses from her shoulder blade to her cheek, "and because you love me enough to let me play with your gorgeous body..." As she slipped down again, engulfing his shaft entirely, he throbbed within her again and he let out a cry of his own. "Gods above," he gasped, "Venara, when the Griever takes us to the next life, we're spending eternity in bed!" Whether it was his kind words or his silly joke, Vena giggled, and nipped her brother right back, running her teeth along his ear. "I like this plan," she laughed, "b-but unless you're planning on us fucking each other to death, let's focus on the p-present first, alright? Aaahh, fuck..."

They continued like this for some time, kissing and nipping and licking at each other as desperate need burned through their systems. Venara kept riding her brother's dick with all of her not-inconsiderable skill, and Thassius continued to rub and tweak her throbbing clit with one hand and gently finger her rump with the other. No words were spoken, but when Vena finally opened her eyes, a single glance was all it took to exchange the message. They were both desperately close to the point of no return, and were eager to cross that line together. Thassius worked the vixen's love button as frantically as he could, sending ripples of pleasure throughout her body that he could feel as she shuddered. With a moan, Vena bent forward and roughly captured her brother's mouth with her own, moving her hands from simply interlocking behind his neck to running along his head, scruffing up his fur and scratching behind his ears. To Thassius' surprise, he could feel his lover starting to tense up against him, closer to the release she needed so badly than her brother was. "Oh - oh Thassius, this is - this is so good... so hot..." she moaned, "I'm g-gonna cooooome..." She was panting too hard to keep her mouth closed to kiss him, so she held the tod tight against her, squishing her breasts between them as she pressed her cheek against her lover's and whimpered. For his part, Thassius worked his fingers as fast and as hard as he could, wanting it to feel amazing for the girl he loved even as his own release began to build inside him. "Seven Gods..." the vixen gasped, "Ohh, Thassius... oh, Thassius... ohhh, b-brother!" Crying out his most intimate title, Venara shoved herself down one last time, sheathing her twin's steel-hard cock inside herself one last time as pleasure exploded out from her pelvis to fill her body with warmth and love. As she whimpered and barked like a feral vulpine, trembling in her lover's arms, her vagina clamped down hard on Thass' penis, the rhythmic motions of her inner walls rubbing and squeezing along the sensitive flesh gave him just what he needed to tumble over the precipice himself. With his length already buried in his sister to the hilt, and Venara actually grinding herself against him as her juices gushed out by this point, he couldn't do much to contribute to the main event, so as the first burst of ecstasy spilled out of him, he forced his finger to the knuckle into his lover's tight backside so it could enjoy some involuntary clenching of its own. At that, Thassius arched his back, eyes forced closed from the strength of the orgasm that now engulfed him, the pleasure too strong to even gasp his lover's name, so that he instead cried out wordlessly, his legs and feet writhing against the sheets as he emptied his balls, each pulse of his cock releasing thick gouts of hot vulpine semen into Venara's tight embrace, painting the walls of his own twin sister's vagina with come, so productive that the tiny portion of his mind that still functioned was thankful for the magical intervention protecting them from becoming parents just yet.

After riding out their climaxes together, the twins collapsed into a sweaty heap, panting and twitching and just savouring the moment, the heat of the body pressed against them, the smell of lust in the air, the sensation of their mingled juices leaking away... the Wyrmvaults loved afterglow cuddles almost as much as they loved having sex in the first place. Tugging his hand out from between them, figuring Vena's clitoris deserved mercy by now, Thassius limply laid his arm across her back, holding her against him, as if he worried she'd suddenly bolt. He rather enjoyed the kinky situation of his other hand, though, so he left it right where it was, his finger occasionally making slight movements to remind the girl that it was there. Her tail gave a twitch whenever he did this, but she made no indication that she was uncomfortable or particularly bothered by having his finger remain in her rump. Finally, she lifted her head a little and gave him a tired smile, an expression he was mirroring right back. With her head positioned above his like that, she had an appealing halo of red hair cascading around her face, and he reached up to trail his fingers across it. "That was great, Thassius," Venara whispered, "If we were cat-kin, I'd be purring right now." Beaming up at her, the tod moved his hand to gently caress her cheek. "Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought so," he casually replied, unable to tear his gaze away from those beautiful silver eyes. After a moment, he took a deep breath, and found himself perfectly content for the first time in days. "I love you, sister," he breathed, wishing he had a poet's soul, that he could truly put the strength of his feelings into words, knowing at the same time that it was wholly unnecessary. "I love you too, brother," she responded, the strength of the emotion behind those few words belying the quiet way she said it. She bent down to kiss him, and for a few moments, nothing in the entire world mattered except each other. If the Seven Gods who protected creation wandered into their bedroom at that moment and began playing cards, the twins might not even notice.

When they broke it off, they remained right where they were, grinning lazily at each other. After a moment, Thassius glanced at her tail and forced his voice to remain deadpan. "You know," he said, conversationally, "there's still a finger in your ass." Venara scoffed at that, amused, and clenched the muscles in her rear to acknowledge the intruding digit. "Yeah?" she asked, a bit belligerently, though not genuinely so, "There's still a dick in my cunt, too, and we're not in a hurry to do anything about that, either." Her brother actually chuckled at that, glad that their newly lavish lifestyle hadn't taken that 'street' edge out of the woman he so adored. "Such language from a lady of your station! Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" he teased, wiggling his finger. She responded by leaning forward and playfully nipping her teeth on his lower lip, before giving him that crooked smirk that always told him she was in a good mood. "Kiss my mother?" she asked, facetiously, "Pffft, I suck my brother's cock with this mouth, who the fuck cares what language I use?" They had a quiet laugh together at that, really more than the bad joke deserved, but they were both feeling fantastic, so it can be excused. Finally, though, Thassius raised his eyebrows, looking sincere. "Seriously, though..." he whispered, "Does... does this mean you liked it? The finger, I mean." Blushing slightly, Venara grinned embarrassedly and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess..." the vixen admitted, "it was really weird at first, and I was crazy uncomfortable, but the longer it went on, the more I started to enjoy myself." He asked the obvious question with his eyes and she sighed exaggeratedly. "Alright, fine, yes, I'd be interested in at least trying that again, and maybe - maybe! - trying out more stuff under my tail..." she muttered, "But if we're gonna do that, I wanna mess around with your butt too. Uhh, if that's okay I mean..." She averted her eyes, perhaps worried that she'd ruined the mood by reminding him of dark memories, but he turned her chin so that she was facing him again and winked. "Fair's fair, sis," he whispered, "After you were so kind as to let me try, I owe you the same favour, eh?" She grinned at that, and for a moment, he thought she was going to make another joke, but instead she just leaned in and kissed him again. Through with words for the moment, the twins settled in for another few minutes of warm, quiet snuggling.

Or, at least they would have, if someone hadn't cleared his throat all of five feet from where they lay.

Both foxes tensed up, eyes flying open as they both tried to gasp into each other's mouths, thanks to the kiss they were currently sharing. Thassius yanked his finger out of his sister's rump, feeling like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and Venara jumped up to a kneeling position - lifting off of Thass' flaccid penis as she did so - and turned to see who'd caught them before she remembered that she was naked, and was thus doing an admirable job of showing off her well-formed breasts. Yelping with embarrassment, she threw herself back down to the bed, curling up a little and burying her blushing face against her brother's chest, her arms crossed over her bust, tail pressed tightly between her legs to hide her recently-used treasures from view. In the short time it took her to do this, Thassius had reached to the bedside table and, with a practiced speed, retrieved his dagger from the display, instinctively placing one arm over his lover's back even as the other pointed the blade directly at... their butler Clint, who was trying and failing to hide a grin as he stood there, silently observing. "Red God, Clint!" Thassius cried, "What the holy fuck are you doing here?!" After briefly toying with the idea of skewering their manservant, he lowered the dagger and self-consciously tugged the blanket over the twins' naked forms, putting the knife down on the bed next to himself and wrapping both arms around Venara, who trembled with humiliation. She turned her head enough to glare in the Human's general direction, ears flat with aggression. "How long have you been here?!" she asked, "Did you - have you been watching us fucking this whole time?!" Smiling benignly, Clint bowed slightly. "I assure you, Master Wyrmvault, I have been keeping my eyes averted from anything important," he said, calmly, casually, as if someone had asked him the time. Thassius had been pretty sure the Human's eyes had darted to Venara's breasts, but there were more important questions at hand. "And fear not, Lady Wyrmvault, I have only just arrived." Raising his eyebrows, Thassius sent an exasperated look to their servant, silently demanding he keep explaining. "Forgive me for intruding, sir and madame," Clint said, holding up a wrapped bundle that had been tucked under his arm, "but the lady requested I bring her a copy of the afternoon edition of today's paper the very instant it was delivered." While the twins glared at him in disbelief, the Human dropped the bundle at the foot of their bed and cleared his throat again. "And now I see that you will both be somewhat severely dehydrated," he said, not a hint of a laugh in his voice, "so if you'll excuse me, I'll go prepare some nice refreshing beverages downstairs, perhaps some fresh juice." While the twins watched in disbelief, the butler walked over the door, unlocked it, and walked out, closing it quietly behind himself.

The Wyrmvaults lay there in each others' arms, staring at the door as if Clint was trying to trick them, waiting in the hallway to burst in again when they relaxed to try and get a glimpse of something risqué. After a couple of silent minutes, nothing had happened, so Thassius just shook his head. "And he got in without even unlocking the door," he sighed, "This is what we get for insisting on a house with secret passages." He didn't know for sure that there was a passage that lead to the master bedroom, but Clint was a lot cleverer than the moustache made him look, and sometimes the tod wondered if their friend had once been in a similar line of work to their own. For her part, Venara just let out a quiet whine, looking up, still terribly embarrassed. "Thassius..." she whimpered, "the butler saw my tits! I - oh, Orange's chariot, you were still inside me, and fingering my ass, no less! How am I going to look him in the eye now?!" She bit her lip, shaking her head with worry, and looked up into her lover's eyes. "Let's kill him," she said, eyes darting back and forth as if looking for eavesdroppers, "We can hide the body in the swamp down the road from the south entrance to town, and no one else has to know that I let you play under my tail." Thassius laughed, knowing she wouldn't really recommend 'disappearing' a friend, and kissed her on the forehead. "Sorry, babe, I don't think murder is an option here," he said, as she removed her arms from her chest and wrapped them around him, nuzzling her cheek against the small tuft of fur on his chest, in the same spot where one very much like it peeked out from her cleavage. Thassius continued as he ran his hand down her back, petting her fur with a soft touch. "Don't worry, sis, we hired him to be discreet, remember? I don't doubt he enjoyed the view, but nobody else will know what he may or may not have seen," he said, before winking down at her with a smirk. "Besides, of all the things he's going to see while working for us, your tits are the least of our worries." The vixen grinned at that and hugged him even tighter, closing her eyes in relaxation. "Mmmm... so reassuring...." she murmured, churring quietly, "You take such good care of me, big brother." Even as he smiled at that, he snickered. "So now I'm the older one?" he asked, "What's changed since the blowjob?" Opening one eye and peering up at him, Vena's grin widened a little. "Which one of us is holding the other in their arms all nurturing and protective?" Laughing and shaking his head, Thassius kissed the top of his lover's head. "Well," he said, playfully, "I always want what's best for my little sister."

After they shared another brief kiss, Thassius tilted his ears in curiosity and angled his head towards the bundle their voyeur had left behind. "By the way, love," he asked, "why did you want the newspaper so badly anyway?" Starting slightly, Vena sat up, turning around as if she'd forgotten that it was there in the first place. She reached for it, then eyed the door warily and grabbed her shirt off the corner of the bed where it had fallen when her brother had taken it off of her, slipping into it and buttoning it up before she stepped out of the bed, the long material hiding her nudity from potential visitors while still leaving her shapely legs available for Thassius to run his approving eyes over. For his part, the tod just tugged the sheet up to his waist and sat there, watching as his lover unrolled the bundle and slipped out the paper. "The mail should have gone through by now," she said, playfully, "Since I sent those packages right after we got back, when you were sleeping it off the first night." Thassius was about to ask the obvious questions, what these packages were and to whom they were addressed, but became distracted when Vena shifted her posture slightly, bringing her leg into a beam of light from the afternoon sun coming in from the balcony, which highlighted a small trickle of her brother's semen glistening as it ran down her inner thigh. Thassius swallowed, his mouth dry, his questions forgotten, and he distantly noted that his very well-sated prick gave a twitch beneath the sheets. It seemed he liked making a mess of his sister's nether regions even more than he'd realized. Venara, unaware of the leak, laughed once in triumph as she turned another page. "Aha!" she cried, "Here it is!" She turned to face her brother, mercifully hiding the vulgar show from his leering eyes and allowing him to focus on what she was trying to tell him instead. Putting on a faux-serious, haughty tone, she began to read one story out loud. "Scandal has erupted throughout every level of society in the city of New Parsonus,'" she read, "'as it came to light today that the late Baron J-" "Wait!" Thassius interrupted, surprising her, "...Don't read me his full name. I don't want to know what his first name was, ever. I... I..." he trailed off, struggling for words that would sound reasonable, but Venara seemed to need no explanation, and just nodded silently. "...As it came to light today that the late Black Baron," she ad-libbed, "'was involved in a number of deeds less savoury than those committed by the criminals who dwelled within the prison the Baron was known for operating. In addition to the salacious nature of the hidden room where his body was located, a personal journal was mailed to this publication by an anonymous source that seems to depict the Baron in a whole new light.'" The vixen paused here to wink at her lover, tail swishing in delight. "Experts contacted by the Gazette say that the journal seems to be written in the Black Baron's own handwriting, though it will be voluntarily shared with the constabulary to aid in their on-going investigations, and they will no doubt wish to make a more definitive statement of their own. If the book is genuine, it implicates the Baron in the kidnapping, rape, and unlawful captivity of more than a dozen men, mostly from the lowest ranks of society, all of whom had been declared missing by the city guard. Additionally, reports have been coming in from other cities that works of art declared stolen or lost years ago have been arriving in the mail at the museums and galleries from which they disappeared, again anonymously, save for a small note reading only 'from the personal collection of the Black Baron.'" Glancing up at her lover, who was grinning from ear to ear and applauding, Vena giggled, giving a little curtsey with the hem of her shirt. "I didn't send all of them back," she admitted, "I thought some of them might look nice around here... and I had a special home in mind for one of them in particular." Without explaining that, she looked back into the paper. "Let's see... it goes on from there to talk about the good things the Baron did, unsubstantiated rumours about him, trying to find more concrete evidence, blah blah blah... You've got the important bits. Not only is the bastard dead, but we've murdered his reputation, his, what do kings always call it in stories, his legacy."

She came and sat down at the foot of the bed, resting her hand on his foot through the sheets and smiling happily at him as he regarded her with something akin to wonder in his eyes. "Hermit's cave, sister, you're amazing, you know that? It's no wonder I love you so much," he said, his tail flicking about in the small gap between his back and the headboard of the bed, "I pity anyone who crosses you and survives. I'm almost surprised they printed that story, honestly, Norton said he owned that paper, had them print those stories about his scandals with women so that no one would suspect he was queer." Folding up the paper and leaving it lying on the bed, Venara shrugged, untroubled. "Well, he's dead," she said, simply, "They might have accepted his payoffs to invent stories, but the newspapers are even more unscrupulous than pirates, they'd betray their own mothers for 'a good story', much less a former owner who couldn't even punish them for it." Sighing happily, looking completely content with life, Venara stood up and walked over to the window, gazing out into the city streets for a moment before she turned to face her brother, who had stood up, slipping his robe back on. Grinning, she clasped her hands together and tilted one ear playfully. "All this done and it's not even dark out," she said, "What do you want to do with the rest of the day, brother?" Thassius walked around behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, which he began to rub and massage through the thin material of her shirt. Venara closed her eyes and sighed in appreciation. "Well, my love," he murmured in her ear, his tone low and seductive, "my fur is all matted and sweaty after the week I've had, so I think I'm long overdue for a nice, warm bath. Care to join me?" Before she could answer, he pulled one of his hands away from her shoulder and swung it under her shirt, giving her bare buttock a playful smack and earning him a pleasing gasp of surprise. Then, without pausing for longer than a heartbeat, Thassius pushed that hand lower, between her legs and forward, and rubbed his fingers lovingly along his sister's vulva, his smile widening as she moaned quietly and pressed against his hand. He didn't linger long, though, holding his hand up in front of her to show her the warm, sticky mixture of their fluids he'd gathered. "After all, seems you could do with a nice wash yourself, dear," he finished, chuckling playfully. She turned around, taking his wrist in her hand, and began to lick it clean, running her tongue along his fingers, looking him straight in the eye as she did so, both of them recognizing the first sparks of arousal she was rekindling in the tod's heart. She finally spoke up only when she was done, letting his hand drop down - and following it with her own, pushing it forward into the loose robe and gripping his cock, squeezing it possessively as he twitched and grew against those soft fingers. "I think that's a wonderful idea, dear brother. We'll share a nice bath, and then we'll get clean." The separation there, not even pretending those would be the same action, made Thassius smile.

"And then after that, I think we'll have worked up an appetite, so we should get downstairs and have a late lunch," she continued, speaking casually, as if she wasn't kneading her lover's dick while she spoke, "That fresh juice Clint mentioned sounds like just the thing to follow a bath." At that, Venara leaned in and kissed him, and he throbbed in her hand, her thumb taking the drop of pre she'd earned and smearing it into the skin of the head of his prick like some kind of lotion, before she finally let go and stepped away, rolling her hips as she walked in a way that told her twin she was well aware of his eyes watching her ass. "I'll go start the water," she said, "get it nice and warm before we start. You're better dressed, you go find Clint and have him get started on something nice for lunch." Nodding, appreciating her own gaze lingering on the bulge in his robe as she glanced back to speak to him, Thassius smiled. "Good idea," he replied, "I'll make a point of telling him to wait for us to come to him this time." Vena smiled a little wider and then disappeared out the door; her footsteps were silent, but she hummed to herself the way she often did when she was in a good mood, and for a moment, Thassius just stood there listening to the hum fading as his sister, his wife, headed down the hall. When things were quiet, he adjusted his robe to make his erection less obvious and took a step towards the door, before pausing and turning around. He walked over to the shelf and retrieved the Heximus Charm, which had shut itself off at the culmination of the twins' lovemaking, and dropped it in a pocket. One the one hand, Thassius found it mildly off-putting that the device could somehow detect when they reached climax, but given how terribly useful it was, he felt he could live with that. Right now, for example, it was going to be just as important to their bath as the soap and the water... As Thassius tied the cloth belt hanging from the back of the robe around himself, protecting his nudity, and headed out the door, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself, at nothing in particular. There were popular tales and stories about legendary thieves, despite the people who protested that it glamorized an illegal lifestyle. Such stories mainly focused on the intricate planning that went into history's most spectacular thefts, and the exciting, occasionally ridiculous ways that these convoluted heists actually played out. The tales generally ended at the moment of greatest triumph, as the thieves make their successful escape with the treasure they sought. But as he walked down the stairs, nodding to their butler, who was juicing some exotic fruit in a bowl specially shaped for just that purpose, Thassius grinned, thinking to himself that while all the excitement in a theft may come from designing and then carrying out a heist, as an actual thief, his favourite part - and he suspected Venara felt the same way - was in celebrating their success at a safe place with the people he cared about. The excitement of the moment could never compare to the satisfaction, the happiness, the love, that came after the job.

* * *

Meanwhile, many miles away in the city of Wellworth, in a small, modest pottery shop in the main commercial district, a Dwarf quietly swept the floors. Where most Dwarves were jolly folk who seemed perpetually self-entertained, and would probably hum or even sing to themselves to pass the time, this one seemed to have a perpetual frown on his bearded face, and very rarely said anything at all these days, unless directly spoken to by one of the customers. His name was Mikael Rockpusher, the son of a Dwarven stonemason who was even more humble than the store his son found himself working in. But once upon a time, as difficult as it was to believe from looking at him now, he had lead a much more exciting life as one of the most infamous thieves and cutpurses in the city; owing to the metal instrument jutting out of his left wrist to replace a hand lost in a plan gone tits-up, as he'd put it, he had been known by the much more exciting sobriquet "Mickey the Hook". All that had changed after he'd been arrested and imprisoned for crimes he'd committed in the city of New Parsonus, where he quickly learned what happened to art thieves who found themselves at the mercy of Baron Norton, the warden of the local prison. It was said that he hadn't smiled since his 'interviews' with the jaguar, not even once. A broken, pitiful shadow of the boisterous man he'd once been, Mickey had served out his sentence and quietly left New Parsonus, returning to his home city of Wellworth, where, to the horror of his former colleagues, he got a legitimate job doing simple maintenance tasks at this pottery shop, where he'd remained ever since. Tucking the broom handle under his arm, as the hook wasn't terribly good at holding things, Mickey wiped his forehead with a hairy forearm and pushed open the back door, brushing the dust into the street, where it immediately washed away in a small stream of water left over from the rain earlier in the day. With a sigh, he dragged the broom back over to the supply closet and locked it in before returning to the front room, where he avoided eye contact with a pair of customers who ignored him entirely. Daring to look up at the sheep-kin behind the counter, Mickey cleared his throat. "The floors are all swept, sir," he said, quietly, "I'm gonna head home." Glancing over the top of his ledger, the sheep nodded and smiled very slightly. "Alright," he said, congenially, "Have a good weekend, Mikeal." The Dwarf made a vague grunt and walked out the front door, keeping his eyes on the ground. As he walked the short distance between the store and the tiny apartment he called home, Mickey passed a group of harlots standing by a lamppost, reading a newspaper and gossiping. One of them, a rather scruffy looking dog-kin mutt, raised a cigarette to her lips and shook her head. "I still can't believe Baron Norton was a tail-lifter," she said, completely oblivious to the way the small man in the street froze in place, "I sawr him once at a big fancy benefit for, uh, I don't know, one noble or another, and he could barely keep his paws off the Human girl he'd come with." The one on her right, an equally scruffy-looking hare, scoffed, shaking her head. "And what exactly were you doing at a fancy benefit, Grish?" The first one laughed, making a lewd gesture. "The guardsmen, what else? They hired a bunch of girls to entertain the men so that they wouldn't be hittin' on the guests if they got into the wine." A third hooker, a Human of rather questionable womanhood, peered over the article while scratching at stubble. "Says here that they found him dead in some kind of sex dungeon, and that he raped his fair share o' men." The hare laughed at that, playfully swatting at her companion's thick arm. "Sounds like you'd be safe, then, Allison, no?" she teased, before leaning in conspiratorially, "I 'eard from my cousin Jenny in New Parsonus that the guards found Norton with a sex toy shoved right up 'is arse, and that 'e was covered in as much come as blood." The mutt looked back and started questioning where her cousin would have come across such information, but by then the nervous Dwarf had already left, hurrying on down the street. It was interesting to learn that the rumours of what happened to the most handsome prisoners after they disappeared into 'solitary confinement' were true, but hearing anything about Norton just reminded Mickey of the blades, and the hot pokers, and the laughter, Seven Gods, the laughter...

Whimpering to himself in a most un-Dwarvenly manner, the former thief practically ran the rest of the way home as if Norton's ghost might show up to torment him further. As he hurried through the front entry, the tall, lanky Human sitting at the counter and reading a blatantly pornographic novel bent over the counter and called out to the Dwarf just before he disappeared into the stairwell. "Hey! Mickey!" he called, causing the Dwarf to cringe before he turned around and walked up to the counter. "I told you, I don't like to be called that anymore," he mumbled, "Is this about the rent? I paid it at the beginning of the month, put it right into your hand..." The Human waved dismissively with one hand as he traced the first finger of the other across the heaving breasts of the crudely-drawn woman on the cover of his book. "Nah, you're good until next month, you got a package today, mate," he said, before bending to the side and retrieving a large, flat, rectangular bundle from behind the counter and holding it out to the Dwarf. Mickey frowned, looking distrustful. "I didn't order anything..." The Human shrugged and pushed the bundle forward a bit more insistently. "Well, it's directly addressed to you, mate, so I guess one of your friends got you a surprise." The ex-thief was about to protest that he'd cut off all ties with the people he thought of as his friends, but decided to leave it and sighed, reaching out to take the package, gripping with his hand while trying to balance it on top of his hooked arm. It was a little awkward, but he managed to make it upstairs and to his apartment with little difficulty, pulling the box in after him. There wasn't much space in the little room, so he tugged his only chair from the small table he ate his meals off of over to his bed, which had more surface area, and laid the package on top of it. Pausing a moment, he shrugged and slit the box open with his hook, the scowl of worry disappearing for a few moments as he was reminded of the good old days. Then he proceeded to open the package more carefully, finding something wrapped in thick cloth with an envelope resting on top, reading simply 'Mickey' in a fine script. Opening the envelope, he removed a letter, which was really more of a note.

To our old friend Mickey the Hook; You misplaced this. We found it for you. Venerate it. -XOXO The Dwarf frowned at that, (very) gently scratching at his scalp with the tip of his hook, before turning to the bundle. He lifted the cloth away from the bundle - and stared, open-mouthed. Sitting on his bed was a painting, a very old painting, depicting a centaur kneeling in the middle of a meadow before a beautiful Human woman wearing an intricately-woven green robe, who held his hand with a beatific smile. Mickey's lips moved silently, mouthing the name of the painting without actually saying anything, as he did not realize in his shock that he was holding his breath. It was The Canonization of Bragus, a painting by one of the old masters depicting one of the most famous druids of all time on the day he appeared to a priestess of the Green God, seeking a different life than his brutal, somewhat murderous brethren aspired to. And it was this very painting that Mickey the Hook had considered his greatest prize ever, snatching it out of the personal art gallery of a corrupt businessman in New Parsonus. However, while he'd stolen it to sell for the no doubt ridiculous amount of money he could get for it on the black market, the thief had been surprised to discover just how beautiful the painting was once he'd actually gotten his hands (so to speak) on it. The Canonization had been his downfall, he hadn't been able to bear parting with it, and so when he was jailed in New Parsonus for that and other crimes, and the art-loving Black Baron had learned that the Dwarf had hidden the painting where the law could not find it, poor Mickey had found himself in one of Norton's torture rooms, forced to give up the piece's location. As his senses finally began to return to him, something happened for the first time in a very long time. Mickey grinned. Then he beamed from ear to ear. And then, putting his hand and hook on his hips, the Dwarf threw back his head and let out an impressive belly laugh. For the first time in two years, Mickey was happy again. He looked at the note again when he was done laughing and noticed it this time. There was more ink on two of the letters in the closing than on any of the others in the short message.

_ V enera t e it._

It didn't take the clever Dwarf long to realize the significance of the emphasis, and he smirked to himself. Turning the note over, he saw another small missive, the words 'From old friends now on the other side', which seemed to confirm his theory. Well, those two didn't need him to send them any rewards, judging by the rumours he'd been unable to avoid while sticking his head in the sand and trying to ignore anything related to the old days, but he just might have to send them a nice letter, perhaps include the addresses of some of his best contacts in the city of New Parsonus, so they could make some new friends. Leaving the painting lying on his bed for the moment, wondering if he could get away with hanging it right on his wall by saying it was a reproduction, Mikael walked over to his stove and set a pot of water to boil while he began to prepare his dinner, just as he did every night. This time, though, instead of frowning wearily in silence while he worked, Mickey the Hook was smiling like he didn't have a care in the world, and quietly singing an old Dwarven song of celebration to himself. Things were looking up.