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Elle and the remainder of the crew escape from one ship, only to find that things do not go so smoothly once they are away. You can find the previous entries in this series here and here if you need to get caught up. There is much less sex in this shorter installment, more of an interlude then anything, but with a reveal at the end that will get explained soon enough. ^^

Please, comments and votes keep my enthusiasm up for this project, so if you like it, let me know! Hell, if you don't like it, let me know. ;)

---

The sun pounded down on a small, black-wood skiff as it bobbed listlessly in the water. No breeze stirred the air at all; only the sea's currents drove the craft and its four occupants. A small shelter of canvas, made from their useless sail shielded one end of the boat, where they took turns getting out of the sunlight as much as they could.

Ellesten adjusted the makeshift clothing they made out of the few supplies in the skiff, which was obviously not meant for long voyages. Each of her travelling companions sacrificed some of their own spare canvas clothing in an effort to give her some level of modesty, but days of drifting around in a windless, sun-pounded sea eroded her modesty. It seemed it eroded their interest as well, as they barely spared her more than the usual glances as she shifted under the canvas cover. She curled her tail around her, and just did her best not to move overly much.

She remembered their frenzied flight from the Illemen. T_hey called themselves the _Dracraenen where one in particular, a woman named Tala almost seduced Ellesten into joining them and returning to their homeland. The three members of the ship she originally stowed away on rescued her, bundled her into one of the escape skiffs in the middle of the night, and they'd quickly sailed away.

At their initial escape, it seemed that all of the luck was with them. The Dracraenen ship was slow to react to their escape, and despite the bigger ship's apparent speed they were unable to find or catch up to the smaller skiff in the dark night, especially once they caught the wind and sped away.

That was almost a week earlier, and the favorable winds stayed with them for two days, until they were in the middle of the ocean, with no other ships in view, and no land in sight. Then the weather gods decided to show their capricious nature and the winds stilled completely, so the only method they had was a single pair of oars shipped in the skiff. The captain, a large tiger named Natago quickly decided that they didn't need to travel during the hot days though, especially without any navigation aids other then the sun.

"We will travel at night, instead. I know the stars like my own personal map," he'd said reassuringly when Elle questioned him; "we don't want to row during the heat of the day, we'll make better progress in the right direction at night. It's also safer; we can keep the sail down during the day so there's less chance anyone chasing us will see us."

So for four days they'd rested during the day, and rowed during the night, with everyone taking turns. Natago and Carter, the huge bull first mate both took their turns alone, while Elle and Hathen, the Owl navigator they'd rescued, worked together.

For Elle, that meant she spent her days just trying to ease sore muscles, to stay out of the heat, and to ignore the near-constant hunger that grumbled due to inconsistent rations from their improvised fishing tools. She also did her best to forget the memories of the pleasures she'd experienced on the Dracraenen ship under Tala's fingers, tongue, and the strong males that served as her guards. The 'enhancer' they'd given her wore off after just a couple of days escaping from the ship, but she still occasionally shuddered as a particularly strong memory of the intense feelings caught her unaware, and her body shivered with an aftereffect of the ache the drug provoked from her body.

*

Natago looked across the boat at the squirrel girl as she curled up under the cover of the canvas awning. Unlike the others, the heat did not bother him in the slightest, as he grew up in parts of the world much hotter than anything he'd felt at sea, no matter where he went. It also meant that while the others tried to hide away, he could observe them and take their measure as they tried to avoid sun-glare off the sea.

He contemplated her, even as he tried his best not to react to the almost palpable aura and scent she projected. After their rescue, it became apparent those filthy creatures drugged her with something that made her crave their touch, or the touch of any male. He'd had to restrain both Carter and Hathen after her rescue, because her scent was so strong and she was giving off all the signs that she wasn't going to refuse any of their approaches, no matter how drug fueled her urges were. It was even a test of his own restraint, especially when her scent tickled his senses, and her youthful body gave such invitation that any male would have little chance to resist.

Even after those first couple of days, she occasionally had...moments where it seemed the drug returned full force. It became obvious, because the squirrel couldn't hide her scent any more then she could hide the way she squirmed in her place underneath the canvas. These 'aftershocks' seemed less intense, and both Carter and Hathen seemed like they missed the signs, but Natago's apparently stronger senses made the young squirrel quite the distraction at those times.

He licked his lips, tried to ignore the urge, and the scent that provoked another kind of awning in his breeches. Instead, he concentrated on another aspect of the whole affair that didn't sit well with him. Their escape proved much easier then he'd expected. Even with all his bravado, on the ship he thought it would be difficult for them all to get away from the larger ship. It was faster, had more oars, and the crew would have plenty of opportunity to keep their gaze peeled for the smaller skiff, especially since they had to know they'd head back east, to try and get back to the regular shipping lanes and relative safety.

Instead, they'd gotten away with nearly no pursuit. Even the larger ship's arrows and ranged projectiles stopped relatively quickly once they'd escaped. It puzzled him; they should have been able to keep sight of them much longer, even at night. He had to wonder if it was someone or something on the ship that prevented pursuit, or something about the skiff, or the people on it. Which meant Elle, since she was the only one not of his crew he'd sailed with for years. That _Illemen_woman certainly took special interest in the squirrel as well, which meant that he felt he should as well...though why certainly mattered a great deal, especially since there was just _something_about her that Natago could not place that made him want to protect her.

It was a mystery, one he needed to solve...

*

"Land...yes yes! LAND HO!! LAND HO!!"

Elle groggily opened her eyes, as she realized she'd fallen asleep sometime in the heat of the day. She licked her dried, parched lips. Another two days on the sea had seen the end of their meager water rations, and they'd all resorted to various techniques for getting at least a little pure water from the sea around them. Evaporation and 'solar stills' they'd called the technique, which supplied a little, but barely enough to keep them all from dehydrating.

She levered herself up onto her shoulder and squinted as she looked out of the canvas, where Hathen practically cavorted on deck, and gestured to starboard wildly. Carter and Natago stood next to him and stared out over the water, though with less excited looks.

"W...what's going on?" Elle said, as she swallowed hard to get some kind of volume out of her voice as she crawled out and sat on the planks next to the three.

Natago glanced over, "Hathen claims to have seen land," he looked over to the owl, "are you sure though? I know we're off the map, but I don't think there's anything out here, and we don't want to risk changing course for a mirage, or some near-surface reef."

"No no, it's definitely land...don't you trust ol' Hathen's eyes?" Hathen practically squawked at the idea of someone doubting his vision, and gave a consternated look that competed against Natago's tired one. "It's a big land, a big island...I can see a mountain. It's what I saw first...yes yes, but I waited to tell until I was sure." The owl's beak clacked together as he opened and closed it in an agitated fashion, which matched the ruffled appearance of his feathers as he flared them up.

Elle looked out over the side of the ship and squinted her eyes tightly. She thought she could see the slightest smudge of...something on the otherwise flat plain of the featureless ocean. She glanced over at Natago and Carter, who both were looking over the side, with their gazes similarly squinted, though she guessed from the questioning looks, they couldn't see it quite as well.

"I...I see something." Elle volunteered, and when they looked at her, she pointed out, "out there...it's just a smudge...or a shadow, but there's something."

Carter shrugged and looked over to Natago, "Cap'n, it's not like we got much else ta go on...'n mebee there's some water, or some such, we won' last long as we're goin' now."

Natago looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded. "All right, we'll chance it and change course. At this point, getting ashore_somewhere_ at least for a time can't hurt. If those filthy creatures haven't caught onto us by now, I don't suspect a delay will make them find us any more easily." He stepped over to the rudder and unlocked it, and then gestured to Hathen and Elle, "Since you two are the ones so convinced its land though, you two get first shift in getting us there."

Elle groaned at the concept of even more sore muscles, and more rowing, but nodded as she walked over and unshipped her oar, while she grimaced and nodded to Hathen as he took the place beside her.

*

After much, much too long time rowing, eventually all four crewmates saw the growing shadow of land as the skiff approached. With a sight like that inspiring them, they made good progress on the oars. It even seemed like the gods of the ocean took pity on them and gave them a bit of good fortune as well, as a breeze even picked up and they were able to raise the sail to make better time.

As the shape in the distance grew, it became obvious that it was not a small island. A great, towering ridge of mountains speared up through the ocean and rose high in the air, surrounded by an irregularly shaped series of forest and jungle covered mid and lowlands. As they grew even closer, it looked like cut blocks of stone thrust out of the ocean and rose up above the surface to form the island. From their approach, they couldn't see any beaches or sandy shoals, but sheer rock faces that towered dozens of feet above the ocean.

After several more hours of sailing, they finally approached the great sheer faces of the island's coast and they finally got a closer look as they attempted to find some place to gain landfall.

"We'll have to be careful," Natago commented as they approached with his hand on the tiller, the breeze enough now that they'd shipped the oars and merely watched as they approached the island, "that's a ship killer coastline if I've ever seen one. I bet there are tons of reefs right near the surface."

Carter nodded and grabbed some of the extra rope carried by almost all boats and ships. He quickly tied a heavy monkey-fist ball knot in the heavy rope and tossed it over the side. "I'll keep an eye out cap'n on the depth."

Natago nodded as well as he turned the rudder and they shifted their course alongside the island. The water sloshed beneath them as the water grew rougher as it crested, broke, and washed back against the rock faces, as though trying to drag the whole island back into the sea.

"It would just be our luck," Natago muttered, "to die of thirst not more than a hundred yards from land, but if we can't find anywhere to put ashore," he continued. His eyes scanned the upcoming coast in the distance, as he tried finding some cove or any other way of getting past the impenetrable wall of the barrier cliffs.

They sailed around, when they finally turned a blind corner on an outthrust rock escarpment that extended out several hundred feet from the rest of the island. The high rocks blocked out the sun, and shadowed them as a welcome sight finally met his gaze. Cut down into the sheer rock face, a sandy beach managed to form in cut in between two great segments of cliffs. Natago couldn't see a path up to the top of the escarpment in his first glances, but a rough channel cut back into the rock, from which stemmed a stream of water that poured out to the ocean seemed a path into the island. Just as Natago shifted the tiller to take them closer, Carter shouted out,

"We're shoal'n cap'n! Depth is four fathoms and rising fast."

Natago cursed, "We have to try and make it to that beach, and I don't think we have time to find another way in." He turned to Elle and Hathen; "you two get on the oars and get ready to..." a shout of alarm came from Carter, which cut Natago off as the mate's rope yanked down hard, and nearly pitched the bull off the side of the skiff. At the same time a loud crunch sounded from the bow, and it pitched up and then slammed down hard into the ocean with the sound of cracking wood.

"We hit sumthin' cap'n!" Carter shouted, "Felt like a reef, but it grabbed m'rope!"

Natago stumbled as another heavy crack and shudder passed through the skiff, and pitched everyone to the side. Natago immediately saw water in the bottom of the skiff, and several cracks appeared in the tough looking black wood.

"We're shipping water! Elle, Hathen, get on the oars, we have to get to that beach fast!" Natago shouted, while he scanned the water around him. Due to the rough water and currents, he couldn't see anything beneath the surface but impenetrable blackness and foam; he couldn't see anything that would knock their skiff so hard.

Elle and Hathen responded quickly, much to his appreciation and got on the oars. They immediately rowed hard towards the coast, while Carter jumped down into the bottom of the ship and did his best at bailing out the water, using a scoop improvised from their scrap canvas.

Natago steered towards shore, when he suddenly felt something else slam into the back of the skiff, and the tiller jumped out of his hands. "That's no reef...pull damnit!" He shouted to Elle and Hathen, when he grabbed the sword he'd stolen during their escape, spun back, and looked over the ships' side.

Beneath, he thought he could see something scaled, but rough and ridged wrapped around the skiff's rudder. It flexed, and nearly pitched Natago overboard as the skiff jumped again, the wood cracked and groaned under some immense strain. He grabbed the edge of the ship and thrust downwards into the dark ocean. He felt the blade hit something and sink in, and the scaled 'thing' thrashed beneath the ship. The movement tossed the skiff up and forwards at least a foot before it slammed back into the ocean. Behind him, he could hear curses, and Elle's squeak of fear.

"Get to shore!" He growled as he looked over the side, looking for some additional sign of the thing's approach.

"We're almost there!" Elle shouted, and Natago risked a glance back, sure enough, the beach was nearly there, surely, they were out of the thing's reach as they hit shallow water...

No more than he had the thought then the water behind the ship boiled, and three tentacle things burst forth from the water. Natago had a brief moment to think they looked like squid tentacles, but with scales instead of flesh, and each tentacle was tipped with some vicious looking serrated spine, as long as the sword he carried. He stumbled back, thrust his sword out just as one of the tentacles dived at him and caught it, piercing it through. The thing writhed and jerked back, which yanked the sword out of his hand.

"Abandon ship! Swim to shore!" He shouted back as he scrambled up and ran to the front of the skiff. The other three were already in the water and frantically swam to shore. He didn't even spare a glance back as he dived hard from the bow of the skiff and plunged into the icy cold water.

He felt the water as it boiled around him as whatever-it-was thrashed against the skiff, but he tried to ignore that as he swam powerfully through the water. He jerked as he felt something glance briefly against his thigh, coil and almost grab, but a kick and a twist pulled him free and he quickly propelled himself up.

He didn't look back until he felt the sand scrape his knees beneath him and he pulled himself out of the water, helped by three pairs of hands pulling him frantically out of the water. He collapsed back onto the sand, and only then looked back.

More and more of the tentacles wrapped around their tiny seeming skiff, for a moment he was surprised that any of them made it away at all, as the tentacles gave an almost casual seeming twist, and with the sounds of groaning and snapping wood, ripped the skiff into pieces. Individual tentacles grabbed pieces of the ripped apart ship and dragged them under the dark foaming water, while Natago gasped and pushed himself back further up the beach. All four of them caught their breath as the chill, salty water soaked through their fur, until finally, Hathen's beak clacked a couple of times and he spoke up,

"Well...at least we don't have to worry about them finding us because of the ship...no no."

*

Elle looked up and down the short sandy cove the four of them found themselves on, and then out to the still roiling seawater where the debris from their skiff slowly bobbed around in the currents and the wash. She licked her lips as she shook a little of the wetness from her fur and looked to Natago, whom had a rather fierce look at the loss of their skiff.

"What are we going to do now?" She asked quietly, then gave a shiver as her spray soaked fur caught a little of the breeze off the water.

"What we were going to do anyway, I suppose," Natago finally said with exhausted tones, "find fresh water, find food. We just have to add 'find another ship' in there somewhere or we're going to be out here for a very long time."

Elle nodded again and looked up the beach. She slowly got to her feet and brushed off some of the sand, before she walked over to the stream that came down between the rock faces. "This is why we tried landing here, right?" She carefully took a handful of the water and sniffed it slightly, then licked her palm. "It's not salty," she said helpfully as the three males came over to her.

"I didn't think it would be," Natago continued as he dipped his hands in and took a long drink from the water, he sighed, "Yeah, it's fresh...that's all sandstone, and it's like a filter to the water...we should be able to take care of at least one of our three needs here."

Elle nodded, and with no less eager expression then the rest, she ducked her hands and slaked her thirst on the clean, fresh water. She didn't realize how parched her throat was until she felt the cold liquid fill her belly. She gasped, "Ohhhh, that's nice..." She said, and though the males all had various expressions of amusement on their faces, they nodded in agreement as they each drunk their fill.

Natago, meanwhile, looked up over the sandstone walls and up to the cut where the stream seemed to feed back into the rock, "This has to start somewhere, so we could probably follow it inland, but that presents the real problem of us getting up these cliffs."

Elle glanced over the rocks and thought for a moment, "I...could probably climb this." She said with a hesitant tone.

"What do you mean," the captain asked sharply as he looked her over. She blushed at his gaze, and gestured to the walls.

"I spent most of my childhood climbing things; this doesn't look like it would be very hard." She gestured helpfully to the walls,

"Oy', tha' helps you then," Carter spoke up, "But I'm na' exactly made fer' climbing ya know. The three o' ya have got claws and talons and such, but these don't hold too well." He gestured at his hoofs, a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"I'm sure we could haul your ass up there...if...damnit, all the rope was on the skiff." Natago said with a little sigh.

"Umm, not all of it," Elle said shyly, and started unwrapping a length of rope from her waist that until then acted as an impromptu belt for her clothes, "I have...this much, but," she blushed heavily, "I don't think I can wear anything if we use this for him." She gestured to Carter.

Surprised she could blush at anything, after what she'd been through; Natago nodded slightly, and hid a small smile. "Only if you're willing...of course Lady. I don't want to make you do anything, improper." He said, and Elle suddenly realized that when not on a ship, the tiger probably felt almost as out of place as she was _on_his ship.

She nodded quickly, "I...umm, yeah...that's ok." She said, even though she didn't understand why she felt so embarrassed, since they'd already seen her quite nude, and in quite the 'unclean' state already.

"I'll take the rope up with me and toss it down for you. Then you can all climb up, and help Carter climb up."

At Natago's nod, Elle quickly turned her blushing face and looked over the rock face. It didn't take long before she found her route, and with a confidence only someone who spent their whole life climbing, she quickly scampered up the rocks. The other three watched with various expressions of incredulity, amusement, and shock as she darted up the cliff-face as if it was merely a ladder or rope of some kind. Elle instinctively knew which handholds were good, which ones were bad, and the best route for her next stop.

Before she knew it, she'd climbed the fifty feet or so up the cliff face and scrambled to the top. From the skiff, she'd known there were trees and greenery on the tops of the coastal cliffs, but she could barely contain her surprise. Not more than a dozen feet from the cliff face was a veritable wall of jungle forestry. Vines and creepers covered tall, broad-leafed trees, bushes and flowers of all types, sizes, colors assaulted her senses with their scents, and she could hear the buzzing and hiss of insects of all kinds. How just so close to the sea such things could grow, and how they couldn't tell from the beach amazed her.

She shook off her curious desire to touch, and smell, everything to find something to eat as she remembered the other three below. It didn't take long before she found a suitably sturdy tree and she undid the rope and tied it around the tree. Without the rope, she found she could barely hold her impromptu clothes on with one hand, and she blushed furiously as she walked to the edge of the cliff.

"Rope's coming down!" She called out, and then tossed the rope down over the side of the cliff, before she quickly scrambled over and hid behind the tree she tied the rope to. She made sure she covered her more delicate assets as she heard the scrabbling as first one, then a second fur climbed up over the cliff face.

"Lady?" The captain's concerned questioning tone came from the cliff face, and Elle ducked her head around the tree and looked to him.

"I...I'm here, just umm, not exactly decent. I would really, really appreciate it if you brought up Carter, so I could get my rope back."

She watched as Natago did his best and hid a smile, though he didn't do it very well, before he clasped Hathen on the shoulder, "All right Hathen, let's give the Lady her courtesy while we haul that big slab of meat up from the beach."

Hathen cocked his head to the side and nodded jerkily, "Yes yes captain. He'll get annoyed if we leave him there...yes yes."

Elle sighed, shook her head, and watched as the two of them turned back to the rope, shouting down to Carter below. She turned and rested her back against the tree. She clutched her clothes and sank down to the soft sandy soil below while they found some way to get a bull bigger then all three of them up the cliff.

*

Night, like in most tropical locations, descended quickly, and the four of them soon found that they could barely see through the dense jungle flora and the swirling, swarming insects. Luckily, none seemed to be biters or blood feeders, so the four of them were able to follow the stream relatively easily, and without hassle as they walked deeper into the jungle. They all kept their eyes out, and plucked various fruits and plants from the greenery that the captain recognized as safe to eat.

Once darkness descended, the four of them found a spot off to the side of the stream, where it poured into a small pool with a waterfall before it continued on its way. Natago refused to let Elle stop right at the poolside,

"A pool like that is perfect for night-time predators looking for a drink, or for easy prey looking for a drink. So we don't camp there. We can use it for water, but don't go there without someone with you."

At the time, Elle readily agreed, but now that the four of them sat around a fire made out of half-rotted greenery, and wood scavenged around their campsite, she had more doubts at the water being so far out of sight. She sighed and bit into a reddish fruit, letting the sweet, but tart flesh of the item slide down her throat and help fill her stomach.

"We're using the stream as a guide, right? So why are we so far away from it? What if we lose it?" Elle asked plaintively as the other three lounged in various states of post-food relaxation. Somewhat fondly, Elle remembered the delicious tidbits from Tala's table. A moment later, the aftereffect of the food crossed her mind, and she frowned and shook her head.

Natago looked over to her and threw the rind of another fruit off into the forest, where Elle watched an almost solid cloud of insects follow it into the darkness to get at the sugary treat.

"Simple...we won't lose it," he raised a finger, "be quiet and listen, do you hear that?" He asked curiously.

Elle blinked and closed her eyes, and then focused on the sounds around her, she could hear the fire crackling near them, and the incessant buzzing of the insects which she brushed away with her tail, and then in the distance she heard a low, coughing call of some animal, which caused her to open her eyes in surprise,

"Not that...whatever it is, that's pretty far away anyway. Beneath that, do you hear that rushing sound?"

Elle closed her eyes, and then after a moment, nodded her head.

"Sound travels well over water, and the sound of water travels even better. As long as we can still hear that, we can find the stream again, and well, the light of a fire travels even further. Though bugs love it, almost every animal in this area is probably going to steer well clear of the strange light in the middle of their jungle." He smirked, "So I wouldn't worry too much about losing track of our little stream."

Elle nodded, but then hmmed, "Oh...umm, well, then can you show me which way to go? I think I need to take care of some things, and I need the water."

Natago raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side, "You heard what I said earlier, are you asking me to escort you to the water?"

She gave an exasperated nod, "Yes...please, if you have to escort me. I want to go visit the stream and the waterfall."

Natago chuckled again and reached over. He grabbed a burning brand from the fire, and a couple other pieces of kindling from the fire and nodded. "All right then m'lady, let's go." He looked over to Hathen and Carter, "You two will be fine until we get back?"

Hathen's big eyes blinked and he looked over to Carter. The owl's beak clacked a couple of times, and the bull looked a little uncomfortable to Elle's gaze before the owl looked back, "Oh yes yes, we'll be good good, take your time, yes yes."

Elle looked from one to the other curiously, but shrugged slightly and as Natago got to his feet, she did the same. She spared them a glance back, though she couldn't really read the owl's expression as the two of them disappeared as she and Natago travelled into the forest.

The walk to the stream took longer than she thought, though the two of them didn't speak as she wondered just what she did to deserve being marooned on some tropical island with such strange companions, considering all she did was try to visit her brother. She sighed,

I guess the fates have their own plans for each of us...but do why do their plans for me have to be so troublesome?

A cough from Natago brought her gaze up, and with a start she realized they'd broken out of the brush cover and found the clearing once again. She glanced around as the firelight reflected off the waterfall, the pool and the descending stream.

"Here we are Lady Elle, your own private tropical island oasis." He said with a smirk,

She clenched her hands at a sudden fit of pique, especially as she was confused as he seemed to alternate back and forth from casual to more formal, almost as if he was insulting her and she didn't know why, or how. Instead she frowned and nodded,

"Thank you...captain. I think this will do well." She sighed and gestured to the side, "I know you probably won't leave, but can you at least try to keep your back to the pool while I take care of my personal needs?"

Natago nodded and chuckled, while he set the burning brand down and built a smaller version of the fire at their main campsite. When satisfied that he wasn't looking, she carefully undid her clothes and slipped into the refreshingly cold, clean water.

*

Natago kept his gaze focused on keeping the fire the right size, controlled, but enough to provide light, while he ignored the sounds of Elle as she splashed around in the water behind him. He found he was confused about his own feelings towards her. Sometimes she touched on all his nerves as she showed her entitled ignorance of how the world works, and other times she tripped his protective instincts and he wanted to do everything he could so she wouldn't end up hurt by anything at all.

"What...what did Hathen mean when we were leaving, to take our time?" her voice drifted up from behind him, muffled somewhat by the sounds of the splashing water from the waterfall that fed the pool.

"Oh that...hmmm," he debated how much to tell her, and then shrugged and grinned, "Well, Hathen is a little unusual, when he goes through a lot of stress, and he needs time to recover. He finds that he needs a certain amount of companionship to get back in his right mind."

"What kind of companionship...and what does that have to do with Carter," her voice paused behind him, and he couldn't help but smile even more widely as he could almost see the gears clicking in her head, "you mean he's...he likes?"

"Men?" Natago nodded and chuckled. He glanced back over his shoulder, where he could barely see Elle's head shoulders and head above the water, "Yes...Hathen's gay."

"A...and you let him on your crew? I mean...I don't think Carter is like that...I mean," he could practically hear her blush.

"Carter likes anyone that can handle his erm, size...and Hathen is remarkably...flexible." He chuckled again, "And as I said to you on my ship, anything that doesn't disrupt the functioning of my ship is nothing I care about."

"Oh...yeah...I guess that makes sense." She said hesitantly.

He simply smiled and went back to tending the fire, while he idly tracked her movements behind him with his swiveling ears. She was quiet for some time, and he heard her move through the water, and then the steady splashing from the waterfall changed, as no doubt, she stepped beneath it.

He let his mind drift a bit, and just absorbed the heat of the fire, the smell of burning wood, and the various sounds of water, crackling fire, and the jungle around him. He could feel the tension seep out of him as he sought his internal balance. He almost drifted, half-asleep, when he suddenly heard a cry of shock behind him.

He was up in a moment and turned, his gaze seeking out the form of Elle in the darkness. He spotted her in a moment underneath the waterfall, and he didn't hesitate. He leapt from the shore into the pool. It was deeper than first impression, and he found himself pushing through chest-high water as he raced over to her under the waterfall. He scrambled up to a ledge where he found her arms wrapped around her chest.

"What? What's wrong...did something bite you?"

Elle shook her head, and before he could react, he found her body pressed against his. With a shock, he realized she wasn't wearing any of her makeshift clothes, so he could feel her small curves pressing against him.

"If nothing bit you...what's wrong?"

"I...I...I need you," she practically whimpered.

"What?"

"It happens...now and again...they gave me something on the boat. It makes me so horny...and makes me ache so much..." She practically moaned against him. "You telling me about Hathen made me think about it...and on the ship, Tala...she she said the only cure was a male...I need, I need a male."

She was practically panting against him. He looked down to her while his arms instinctively went around her shoulders. He couldn't scent her, but the water could certainly be covering that. She shivered against him, and before he realized it, her hands had slipped down his chest and fumbled to the ties of his breeches.

"Wait...wait, I can't...I can't, that would be like raping you, and I can't be like those creatures."

She shook her head, while one of her hands finally found the gap in his breaches and clumsily reached in and slid around his sheathed length.

"No...no, please, I need it, I need the relief. Maybe if you...if you fuck me, it will cure me for good. Please...please." She licked her lips and looked up.

The firelight on the shore flickered in her eyes and he could see the need in them, drug induced or not. His resistance crumbled in that moment, especially when he felt her hand give his sheath a squeeze. Unlike his crew, he didn't indulge while ashore, he couldn't let that kind of image follow him around, which meant it'd been years since the last time he'd been with a woman, that, coupled with the begging, trembling body against him made up his mind at last.

He felt her stiffen as he slid a fingertip up underneath her chin, a stiffness that vanished when he dropped his muzzle down and met hers in a gentle kiss. She let out a deep-throated moan and practically melted against him as his tongue teased against hers and their breath mixed. Her body against his was the only source of warmth underneath the chill waterfall, but he ignored that and focused instead on the modest, but soft curves as she pressed against him. He growllpurred as her hands stroked with heated need at his sheath and coaxed his maleness out to the open air, even as her nipples pebbled up and turned rock hard against his chest.

The thigh-high water teased him as it swirled around his sac, and before he could stop her, she slid down his body and her muzzle sought out his rapidly growing length. He groaned as her muzzle engulfed the tip and her tongue swirled around his lightly barbed tip. She didn't waste any time as she bobbed her head up and down along his length and he slid his hands around to her shoulders and tried to tug her up to him.

"You...you don't have to..." he started, but she drew back and shook her head while she continued stroking his length. The water splashed over her hand and slickened her strokes a bit with the chill water, which countered the heat of her hand.

"No...please, I have to have some...please, the scent, the taste, it makes me feel so much better."

He nodded mutely in agreement, as she ducked her head down again. She showed a skill that he didn't think she could possibly have as she caressed down and captured his sac beneath her bobbing head, and he even felt her head drop all the way down and his cock press into the squeezing tightness at the back of her throat. He groaned again as she remarkably, sunk her head all the way down to his crotch and sucked her muzzle all the way back along his length.

The water covered almost all of their noises, both the slurping sounds of her muzzle bobbing on his cock, and his heavy panting breaths. Only his low growling moans of pleasure escaped the wash of the waterfall as she lavished his length with attention. Just when he would get used to one type of sensation she would switch up, going from long sucking strokes to just drawing his tip into her muzzle and swirling her tongue around the tip. She had her eyes closed against the water's splashing, but she looked to him like she had an expression of lust and desperation on her face. He might have stopped, but she was doing more than enough to get him to his peak, and he quickly felt the climax boiling up from his sac. It'd been so long since he'd been with a woman that it hit him with very little warning, enough that he could only choke out a quick warning, which just saw her nodding and drawing her head back all the way to his tip while she stroked his shaft rapidly.

His climax was a sharp pleasure spike that shocked him through his whole body and gave him a light-headed feeling when his body tried to fight between the chill water and the heat he wanted to produce through the energy of his climax. He swore he must have shot gallons of his cum into Elle's waiting muzzle, as his cock pulsed and jerked in her hand and her muzzle. The squirrel took it gamely and he could see the muscles in her throat work as she sucked down every drop of his peak. She continued sucking him though, and he had to let out a sound of protest when his climax finally eased, and her tongue teased over the super-sensitive flesh of his tip.

"S...stop," he growled breathily, "you're not going to get any more like that," he said in a half-amused, half-lustful voice.

Elle nodded and let go of his shaft before she got to her feet and pressed up against him once again. Her hands slid over his chest and she shuddered and closed her eyes.

"Are you all right?" He asked with a slightly suspicious tone, though his hands instinctively went down to her thighs and hips, caressing over her under the water and giving her modest curves a squeeze.

She nodded quickly, and then looked up and opened her eyes, "Y...yes, but I need more. I feel a little better, but it still aches, I need you to fuck me, please...please."

"I already said I would," he replied with a low chucklepurr, "but it might take me a little while to get ready to go again."

He looked around for a moment, and in the firelight caught sight of what he wanted. He grabbed Elle's hips and hoisted her up out of the water, eliciting a squeak from the squirrel before he carried her over to a raised set of rocks over by the edge of the waterfall. Their positioning, and the wearing of water left them with a relatively flat surface and a curve that was practically perfect as he set her down on the edge and leaned over her. He coaxed her down to the rock with another hot, heated kiss, which she met passionately and wrapped her arms around his neck, while he slid one hand down between her thighs.

She was wet, incredibly so, the furnace of her pussy met his fingers and completely overwhelmed the cold of the water surrounding them as he pressed two fingers deep inside her. The movement provoked a load moan and an arched back from Elle, while she grasped him even closer and tried to kiss him even more hungrily.

He found that she was incredibly tight, and her pussy tried to trap his fingers every time he moved them back and forth inside her. Even those small movements produced quite the reaction though; she tensed and moved against him, squirmed and cried out as his fingers explored her inner flesh, curling this way and that as he pressed his fingertips up against the spots he remembered were sensitive in a woman's flesh. The reward was even more wetness, and a squirrel that could barely remain still as he stroked her as the time continued, kept time by her ragged breathing. When he added the occasional caress of his thumb over her clit she arched her back up and let loose a keening moan, and almost impossibly, he felt another flood of wetness over his fingers.

He didn't stop there though as he continued to stroke his fingers in and out, especially when she seemed to give no indication that she had any problems with being too sensitive. He watched with fascination, as it seemed like she was lost in the throes of a whole body climax that just went on and on as he continued to stimulate her. He even wondered how long she could keep it up, especially as it seemed his hand was just getting more and more covered with her wetness, before she suddenly shuddered and clenched her hands on his back. She jerked him down and pulled her body to his before she kissed him in a frenzied fashion. He had to withdraw his fingers from her sex just so he could brace himself on the rock beneath her to counter the pull, even as she drew back a little.

"Please...can you fuck me now?"

Her eyes glistened in the night, and he found that he had regained his arousal even while her heated body writhed against him. He nodded wordlessly to her, and she opened her thighs to him and wrapped them around his hips. She pulled him towards her, and he had a moment to wonder at how forward she was, especially when she wrapped a hand around his shaft and guided him to her slick entrance.

Then she pulled him forward, and he could think of very little else other then the tight, slick heat that spread around his tip and down over the length of his shaft. The two of them groaned together at the wonderful feeling, if anything it was even tighter then when he used his fingers on her, so tight he had to take a couple of breaths to prevent himself from climaxing almost immediately at the feeling.

He slipped his hands around underneath her shoulders and drew her up close for another heated kiss, and as his tongue played with hers; he started a slow, rolling thrust of his hips as she squeezed him close with her thighs. It wasn't enough to get more than a couple of inches of movement, but even that stimulation seemed almost too much for the two of them. They groaned together, they panted, they kissed and left words behind as they moved together, his hips moved in slow strokes, which jerked her body a little as he hilted in her fully on each stroke.

He didn't know how long they moved like that, it could have been hours, or mere minutes, but eventually he started to feel the coils of that growing climax curl up the base of his spine. This time he knew he had a lot more warning, and more control, so he looked down and licked his lips,

"I'm...going to cum soon..."

She opened her eyes wide and nodded quickly to him, but just clamped her legs harder around his hips and pulled him in closer. At the same time, her hand roved down and stroked quickly over her clit. He could feel the effect through his shaft as he stroked, her pussy clenched down on him, squeezed harder and tried to draw him in. In response, he thrust a bit faster, and a bit longer, or as long as she would let him move. The spray from the waterfall over his back sent a chill through him though it couldn't compare to the shiver that built in him as his climax grew within his body. Compared to the first one, this one had time to build in intensity, and he knew it would be a big one.

He felt her hands slide down his back, her claw tips dig into and then slide up from the base of his tail, up either side of his spine, and that was it, it was enough to send him falling over his peak into his climax. He groaned and jerked forward against her, giving short, sharp little thrusts as he felt his cock twitch inside her with each strong jet of his cum. After the intense, sharp climax of the blowjob earlier, this one felt like it involved his whole body, and beneath him he felt her clench down around him and draw him deeper, almost to get as much of his seed in her as possible. She mewled and clenched him close, fingers rapidly stroking over her own clit. He didn't know if she climaxed, but the gush of their mixed wetness around his shaft and thighs gave him some sense of how intense their coupling was, though the water spraying down on top of them quickly washed it away.

After a few more moments, Elle shuddered and lay back limply on the rock, and though he curled down on top of her, he could not help his shrinking cock slipping free from her heat as it withdrew back into his sheath. The two of them lay together, panting against each other as they just savored each other's heat countering the chill water spraying and swirling around them.

"T...thank you," Elle whimpered quietly against him as she slowly withdrew herself and slid back into the water beneath the waterfall, "I think...I think I'm ok now." She said, as she lowered her eyes and her tail swayed slowly behind her, looking rather wan soaked with water.

Natago nodded and coughed, as he fished his breeches up, and tied them to his waist. Of all things, he thought he was actually blushing as he tried not to meet her gaze.

"I'm glad...Lady, that I could umm, help you with your needs."

By gods, was he actually being shy with her? He'd never had this sort of reaction with any other woman he'd slept with, and Elle wasn't exactly the most delicate flower, especially given the fucking they'd just experienced, but somehow he just couldn't bring himself to do more then try to give a reassuring smile, which came off somewhat forced. She returned the smile as well, but he thought she looked just as embarrassed. With a little shake of his head, he turned and waded back towards the side of the pool.

"I'll...I'll just stand to the side here, while you get your clothes again." He commented with another cough, as he sloshed his way up out of the water and stood over the fire, which was burning considerably low, showing how long their tryst lasted.

"Y...yes, thank you." Elle replied from behind him, and against the sounds of running water, he heard her move to the side of the pool and climb up out of the water.

He heard some rustling, while he focused on the crackling fire, and tried to block out the thoughts of the nude Elle behind him, and how he'd satisfied her apparent 'need' left behind by the Dracraenen. He blanked everything out, which is why he wasn't paying attention to the rustling in the bushes, and the lack of sounds from the local insects, and any other sound. In fact, he completely missed any signs, until he heard the shriek of alarm from behind him, and a sudden low coughing growl that could be no more than a few feet away.

He whipped around and time seemed to move down into slow motion. A long, sleek predator leapt from the foliage around the stream. It looked something like a primal version of his feline form, but tiny scales covered it and showed iridescence in the firelight. It also had the massive teeth and rending claws of an apex predator. He couldn't move, couldn't react as it flew through the air towards Elle, and the squirrel girl fell backwards against the rocks surrounding the shores, nowhere to go, no weapons to fight back with...

Then...something remarkable happened. As he watched she flung her hand out and closed her eyes in a vain attempt at some kind of deflection, and the darkness...moved around her. That was the only way he could explain it, the shadows gathered and coiled around her body, which obscured her half in darkness, and then spread outwards from her hand. Tendrils of darkness lashed out and struck the creature full in the chest in mid-leap. Even though the tendrils were made of pure shadow, they hit the creature with the force of a club. They knocked it to the side and away, it landed on its side in the brush and its face struck one of the rocks at the side of the stream. With a twist and a yelp, the predator twisted on the ground and rapidly got to its feet. Startled, and its charge spoiled, it quickly darted back into the forest, and Natago could hear the rapid rush of the brush as it sped away from the clearing.

Time snapped back into place and Natago grabbed a burning brand and stumbled over to Elle, whose eyes opened and who was looking around with a confused and startled look on her face at the retreat of the predator.

Natago stood over her and looked down at this girl, this troublesome creature that so far had filled his life with complications, and this was the biggest complication of them all.

"Y...you're a shadow weaver!"

At her confused look at him, he looked down at her, and just wondered how much stranger things were going to get. It certainly looked like the fates were not done with him, or the young squirrel he somehow found under his charge.