Refuge, Part 1
#1 of Refuge
Refuge, Part 1
Copyright Lobito (2003).
Written as a commission for Draco
Elya and Theodus are intellectual property of Draco
I'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieIgottagofasterOhGoddesspleaseI'mgonna die...
Theodus flew. Tears streamed from his eyes, blown out behind him by the sharp, icy wind. The jagged pulsations firing up the nerves from his right wing pierced his brain with every flap. Each desperate, gasping breath he drew only served to worsen the jabbing stitch of pain in his side and to make him feel even more exhausted. But still, Theodus flew.
PleasepleasepleaseCan'tgoonIgottagofasterI'mgonnadie...
The eagle screeched, and he could tell it was getting closer, inching up behind him. There was a note of triumph in its call, as if it knew how near to giving up its prey was. They had raced far beyond the borders of the forest; the only green now visible below the injured drouse was that of a flat, lonely plain with a highway running through it.
No place to hide...
How could he have been so stupid? Letting himself get so preoccupied he didn't even hear the rustle of feathers and leaves as the deadly bird descended? He had been lucky, very lucky that one of those foxes had screamed, distracting the eagle from its hunt for just an instant, a single moment in which Theo could wrench himself free of its talons and begin this insane pursuit that had somehow managed to compress a full eternity into a handful of minutes.
But it couldn't last much longer. The drouse could feel his reserves of strength giving way. It took incredible amounts of effort to keep his damaged wing in motion, and all his muscles were screaming in agony at the sudden, unexpected and violent exertion they were undertaking. He needed shelter, and he needed it soon. Theo angled to his left, going into a quick dive to try to gain some scarce amount of momentum to keep him ahead, keep him alive. The highway was his last hope; he followed it.
Miraculously, a city appeared on the horizon almost immediately, the metal-and-stone buildings stretching up from the ground like the skeletons of trees. Theo tried not to think about the risk he was running as the edifices drew ever closer and larger. Taking his chances with the giants was probably just as foolish as wandering into the forest alone, but at this point, the drouse had no other choice. He flew faster.
"I just finished eating dinner, Kail," Elya laughed into the phone, idly using her fork to poke at the leftover bits of rice on her plate. "Anyway, I need some down time. Work was hell today."
"Everybody rushing about, getting ready for the launch next week?" responded the low, purring voice of the leopard on the other end of the line.
The skunkess rolled her eyes and shoved her dishes back so she could kick her feet up onto the table, letting her toes enjoy their freedom after a day of being stuck in a pair of amazingly painful heels. "Yes. And quality control has gone completely blind. Today one of the coders noticed some really glaring errors that could've wreaked havoc on people's systems if we hadn't caught and fixed the buggers."
Kail groaned sympathetically, but she could still hear the smile in his voice when he asked, "So you're sure on dinner? You don't want to just come along with us and grab a drink?"
Elya grinned. "Yeah, I'm sure, Kail. Thanks, though."
"Not even if we get ice cream afterward?"
"You know me too well," the skunkess laughed as she stood and walked leisurely toward the base unit for her cordless phone.
"So you'll come?"
"Not tonight, Kail. I really appreciate it, but I need some dim lights, soothing music, maybe a movie, but nothing more exciting than that. Next time, okay?"
"Alright. Take care of yourself, Elya."
"You too, Kail. Have a good time." The phone made a soft boop as she placed it back on the hook, ending the call and letting it charge. It was nice of Kail to call, she thought as she strode back toward the dining room table to clear away her place. Any other night and she would've loved to go out; her leopard friend was always good for interesting conversation, and Thom and Fae were going to be there, and they were usually a blast. But... she just wasn't up for it tonight, the skunkess reaffirmed to herself, stretching her arms out behind her back before placing her silverware on her plate and grabbing her empty glass. Tonight, she just needed to relax.
The eagle let out another shriek as they entered the city limits, an angry one this time. Perhaps it knew what Theodus was planning, knew that its prey was trying to make an escape.
Or maybe it's afraid of the giants, too, thought the drouse.
He cast his eyes about desperately as he flew, scanning the gargantuan buildings for some place where he could find a haven. There was no denying the fact that his wing was giving out; each flap was a battle of wills, and the small furre could feel the muscles along its span stiffening and tightening. Bit by bit, he could feel himself slowing, could hear the trailing eagle closing in.
And then he saw it. They were flying by a large building that stood out above the surrounding edificesâ€"not the tallest in the city, by far, but to Theo's tiny stature, it was incalculably vast. As they raced past the colossal structure, Theo's keen eyes caught a slight bump in the smooth walls that plunged below him, a tiny, sharp edge of metal that stood out from the flat stone. An open window.
It was now or never. He couldn't fly anymore; his body was at the breaking point. Refusing to let himself consider the sheer insanity of what he was doing, the drouse tilted downward and dropped, gaining speed at a heart-stopping rate as he fell. The whistle of the raptor's pursuit was dangerously near. Steeling his nerves and struggling to keep his eyes open as he rushed downward, Theo spread his wings for one last, urgent flap.
Agony burst anew through him as his already-mangled wing clipped the unforgiving frame of the glass window. The drouse spun wildly and his vision exploded into light as his head slammed solidly into something rough and hard. His rapid velocity carried him further, back into the air before another painful impact with the ground that bashed the air from his lungs... and then, thankfully, it was over.
Theo lay still for a moment, gasping for air and crying silently into the thick fibers of what must have been a giant's carpet. The excruciating throbbing in his wing was almost enough to make him scream, but there was a fact that, despite his suffering, caused him to laugh. He was alive.
Or, at least, he was for now, the drouse amended as he noted for the first time the slight vibrations that traveled through the ground, growing steadily more powerful. He struggled hurriedly to sit up, but a wave of pain from the movement sent him collapsing back onto the carpet. Weakly, Theo opened his eyes, just in time to witness the sight of a large, black foot blotting out the light and careening down toward him.
The sudden screech and thump as something large and black slammed into her kitchen window nearly caused Elya to drop her handful of dishes.
Goddess, thought the skunkess as she tried to get her heart started again after the blurred form of a large bird scratched angrily at the glass, then flew off. What was that about? ...crazy birds.
What a wonderful start to her relaxing evening, Elya thought bitterly as she began walking toward the sink again, doing her best to shake off the strange buzzing effect caused by the sudden burst of adrenaline to her system; it made her feel very jittery, on edge. She didn't like it.
But, she would admit to herself later, if it wasn't for the unexpected and frightening appearance of the bird at her window, if her body hadn't already been on full alert, she probably never would have caught the small, pitiful noise that came from just under her foot moments later, sending her leaping backwards and nearly causing her to spill her dishware a second time.
Though it meant no less than a certain and undoubtedly uncomfortable end, Theo couldn't help but stare, mesmerized, as the giant paw descended toward him in a sort of slow-motion. The short distance between its impressive mass and the drouse's comparatively miniscule body seemed to take an eternity to traverse, giving him ample time to wonder at the power of its size. Senses enhanced, perhaps, by the nearness of his own demise, the small creature found himself noticing the tiniest details about the appendage, from the bits of dried and chapped flesh on its pads to the flecks of white hair interspersed throughout the shiny black fur that covered the remainder of its expanses. It was beautiful, in its own frightening, fatal way.
He didn't even realize he was making a noise until it had escaped him, some primal and instinctual survival mechanism; a tiny cry for help. The reaction was immediateâ€"the colossal foot reared back, jerking high into the air before slamming down onto the ground only inches away, causing the floor to shudder alarmingly under the drouse's body. A sound from above him, a great intake of breath with just the slightest bit of vocalization, drew Theodus' eyes upward, passing over endless stretches of blue denim and shiny white fabric, up into the shocked faced of the giant that had stumbled across him. A shock of pain coming from his wing made Theo realize he was unconsciously scooting back along the carpet, away from the being. But it was too late; it had certainly seen him. Helplessly, the drouse raised his right hand toward the creature, while placing his left on the ground for supportâ€"his body was growing weaker by the second.
"I-I'm really sorry!" he called nervously, speaking as loudly as he could without yelling. "I just... there was this bird, and it was trying to eat me, and I needed to hide..."
He trailed offâ€"the giant was leaning down slightly, shifting the large items it carried in its hands as it stared at him.
"You're hurt," it said, and itsâ€"herâ€"voice was soft, gentle, like a caress.
Theo looked down at himself, and saw that blood had matted down the fur on much of his right side, as well as marked a small portion of the giant's floor.
"Oh, I-I'm sorry, I... Your carpet..." he began, but was cut off by a quiet shushing noise from the woman. Wordlessly, she bent toward the drouse, who couldn't help but cringe back, afraid; he'd heard stories of what the giants did to smaller creatures, the arrays of traps and devices they used to torture and experiment on them. But before he knew it, her large, warm hands had gently surrounded him, careful not to touch his wing. His eyes shut despite him, to weary now to remain open. And then his world turned black.
"Poor thing," Elya muttered to herself as she finished gently securing the last toothpick with a piece of string. It had taken awhile to figure out how to make a splint for such a little guy, but eventually she'd managed to carefully smooth out the tips of these picks, left from the moving-in party a year ago, with some sandpaper she'd had lying about. She was actually pretty proud of herself for how it turned out, considering she'd only seen splints on TV before.
Quietly, the skunkess looked down at the small, strange creature, wondering at his tiny body. He was unlike anything she'd ever seen; on the whole, he generally resembled a mouse in the shape of his brown furry body, which was about five-and-a-half inches tall. But he certainly wasn't any ordinary mouse. Most obviously out of place were the wings, which were green and leathery, somewhat resembling a bat's. If they weren't so injured, they could probably stretch out to a good five or six inch span, total. Also, there was the series of hard green scales that ran down his chest, belly, and between his legs to coat the bottom edge of his tail, which was thicker than a normal rodent's and ended in a small, flat triangle. Finally were the tiny horns that stuck out of his head, just inside his big round ears. They were hardly long enough to be considered menacingâ€"in fact, Elya thought they gave him a cute, playful look, sort of like a faun. Unfortunately, this effect was somewhat marred by the too-relaxed expression on his unconscious face. He was still alive; she could just make out the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed shallowly. But he had been under for nearly a half-hour now, and the skunk was starting to worry that he had lost too much blood. After checking the impromptu chest bandages she'd made from tissues and tape, Elya used her eyedropper of water to wash a bit of the dried blood from his fur and dampened his mouth just slightly. She hoped he didn't die after all the trouble he went through to get here.
Luckily, she didn't have to wait too long to find out. About five minutes after the woman had ceased trying to do anything useful and just resigned herself to staring worriedly at him, the tiny creature woke up with a cute little yawn that was followed by a startled look around as he realized where he was. She saw his wings flex instinctivelyâ€"the left one began to spread itself out, but the right merely strained for a moment against its wooden brace.
"Careful," she warned with a friendly smile on her face. "You wouldn't want to break that after all the trouble I went through to make it."
With a puzzled look on his face, the mouse-creature did his best to look over his shoulder, studying the wooden sticks that held his crippled wing outstretched. He touched it gingerly with his left paw, then looked up at Elya.
"They're toothpicks," she said conversationally, hoping that maybe she could prod him into saying something, himself. "I was going to use matchsticks, but they bent too easily, I wanted something that would keep your wing in place."
The little furre was obviously very, very nervousâ€"all she had to do was stare into his small but entrancing brown eyes to see that. Finally, he seemed to gather the courage to speak in his high, but not shrill, voice.
"I-I... I thank you, m'lady, for your kindness." Elya couldn't help but smile a little at the polite formality of his speech. Seemingly heartened by her response, the mouse-like creature continued. "I-I'm quite sorry for intruding upon your home like this, I justâ€""
"You don't need to apologize," Elya cut him off. "It's obvious that you were in trouble. What was that thing that was after you?"
"An eagle," he answered with a shiver. "It was my fault, I shouldn't have gotten so caught up..." Suddenly, the creature looked up at her with a blanched, embarrassed expression, and stopped talking.
"Caught up in what?" the skunk asked curiously.
Her companion looked down at the table shyly. "There were... in the woods, these two foxes..." he began, his voice so low she had to bend her head quite close to him to catch what he was saying. "I heard something, peeked through the bushes, and they were..." He glanced up and caught her eyes, giving a startled jump back at her nearness. The mortified, humiliated look in his face told Elya that he wasn't going to continue speaking, but also divulged exactly what he had seen those two foxes doing that distracted him so. The skunkess grinned and leaned back.
"Ah, I see," she said, quite proud of herself for stifling a giggleâ€"what a curious little creature this one was! Not that she blamed him, of course; she was sure those foxes were putting on quite a show.
Deciding to spare him any further embarrassment for the moment, Elya changed the subject by extending her pinky finger toward her companion and introducing herself. "I'm Elya."
"Theodus, but I go by Theo," the creature responded, relief quite evident in his voice. Gingerly, he reached his hand out and grasped her finger as best he could, giving it an awkward little shake. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Glad to meet you, too, Theo." Elya smiled and leaned slightly toward Theo again, studying his horns with renewed interest. He looked up at her uncertainly, obviously uncomfortable with her scrutiny. Finally, she decided to just get it over with and ask the question that was nagging at her.
"Um, excuse me if this is a... little rude, but... what are you, exactly?" she asked softly. Even she was a little surprised at the light note of awe in her voice, but she recognized the truth in it; his form, while unfamiliar, was really quite aesthetic, a pleasing mesh of soft fur with hard scales, of cute with menacing. Of course, Theo wasn't threatening-looking in the leastâ€"the innocent playfulness of his eyes belied the possible fearsomeness of his horns and wingsâ€"but it added up to an attractive contrast of features.
The furre straightened up slightly and smiled broadly, obviously quite proud of his answer. "A drouse," he answered, his trepidation evidently forgotten for the moment. "My father was a dragon, and my mother, a mouse."
Elya didn't blame him for the large grin that crossed his face at her reaction; no doubt her look of confusion was quite amusing. "How, uh..." she worded slowly, "how does... did that work?"
Theo winked. "Magic," he replied. "My father could shift size."
The skunkess laughed and shook her head. "This has certainly been a far more interesting evening than I expected," she stated bemusedly.
A frown crossed the drouse's face. "I, uh..." he stammered, the fear and hesitancy returning to his voice en force, "I'm really sorry, again, about intruding like this. Thank you for your help, I really don't know how I can repayâ€""
Elya cut off the end of his sentence with a wave of her hand. "It's fine, Theodus," she replied flippantly. "I can hardly blame you for not wanting to be someone's dinner. As for repayment, that's easy; you can stay here until you're better." Her voice sounded quite a bit more confident than she felt, asking a strange creature, even if it was a small and quite polite one, to stay in her house so suddenly and unexpectedly. But she knew that it was right, and, besides, she wanted to learn more about this little drouse.
Now it was her turn to grin at his reaction; Theo's face carried an expression of pure, unadulterated shock. It took him a long moment to even regain enough control of his jaw to swallow and choke out a, "What? Y-You're inviting me...?"
"Well, you can hardly fly like that, can you?" the skunk asked, standing and flashing him another friendly smile. "C'mon, I have plenty of food. There's no danger of anyone getting eaten, alright?"
"B-but... I mean, thank you, but... well, why? I mean, the giants, they don't get along with us, with furres my size..." Elya couldn't help but laugh softly at his terminologyâ€"standing at a mere 5'6", she had certainly never thought of herself as a giant before. Relativity was everything.
With what she hoped was an air of finality, she winked at the drouse. "Well, I'm not like other giants," she replied, placing her hand flat on the table in front of him, palm up. "Now climb on board and we'll find you a more comfortable place to sit. Do you like movies?"
Theodus couldn't believe how his luck had changed. From a near-certain death to an even-more-certain death, and then, unexpectedly, to an evening of relaxation and a home for as long as he needed to recover! This certainly wasn't what he had been expecting when he went out berry-hunting early that afternoon...
Elya had set up a throw-pillow on the couch next to her so he could lie on his stomach and watch the flickering images on the large (well, to him, anyway) television in her living room. The movie was enjoyable enough, but he had to admit to himself that he certainly didn't watch much of it; the drouse had spent most of the two hours stealing glances at his new acquaintance. She was quite prettyâ€"he could tell that even from his less-than-ideal viewpoint. Her face was round and artistic, its black fur broken only by the white that accentuated her lower jaw and continued down her neck, underneath her collar, and in a double-stripe that began just below her hairline and no doubt trailed all down her back as was typical for her species. The smiles that quite often graced her features were warm and genuine, causing her strikingly golden eyes to sparkle with laughter. The rest of her body was similarly lovely, as Theo discovered when he finally decided she was absorbed enough in the movie to allow his eyes to wander. Though much of it was concealed by her shirt and jeans, the curves that pressed against her clothing in various places hinted at a form that was full, soft, and shapely. An image of the two foxes pressed against one another flashed through the drouse's brain, and he had to quickly shift his attention back to the movie, lest he embarrass himself.
His companion was extremely attentive and careful around him, much to Theo's pleasant surprise. He had feared that, as a giant, she would forget his presence and accidentally lie down on him or otherwise squash him (though he had to shyly admit to himself that such close contact didn't sound all that bad). Much to the contrary, however, she turned and smiled at him several times during the movie, and even brought him a portion of a cookie and a thimbleful of juice (it was the size of a small bucket to him), saying that he needed to replenish some of his lost blood. But it was after the movie had ended and the skunkess had turned down the volume of the television to let one of the mindless nighttime comedies play in the background that the most unforgettable portion of evening occurred.
She had placed her bare footpaw up on the coffee table while chatting idly with the drouse about her work (engineering for some sort of software companyâ€"he didn't have much experience with giants' electronics and didn't understand a lot of her explanation). She had been examining it with a critical eye, a small (to her) nail file in her hand, taken from a pocket of her jeans. She had just begun to lean forward to begin work, when Theo sprang to his feet, ignoring the stabs of pain from his wing and the other, smaller wounds along his chest.
"I'll do it!" he cried out, surprising even himself with the excitement in his voice... but something deep inside him was burning, begging for this, and had entirely bypassed his brain in its haste.
Elya paused and glanced over at him, a tiny smile on her face, some mixture of bemused disbelief and a hint of shyness. For the first time since he had met her, the drouse could see that she was quite visibly caught off-guard.
"Whaâ€"... Are you sure?" she asked, leaning back to look at him with an unreadable expression. Theo gave a violent nod. She seemed to consider it for a moment, then shook her headâ€"a tiny movement that sent the small furre's heart plummeting with an inexplicable disappointment.
"That's very sweet, Theo," she said quietly, "but you don't have to do anything like that. Just because I'm giving you a place to stay doesn't mean you have to be my slave or anything." The following laughter sounded a little hollow, forced. Theodus couldn't help but notice that she wasn't quite looking him directly in the eye. Shaking her head again, as if to reinforce the answer to herself, the woman made another move toward her paw, but the drouse stepped forward, a hand raised in supplication.
"Please?" he pleaded. "I'd... really like to. Honestly."
Another moment of silent contemplation on her part. Her eyes caught with his for a split-second, and Theo put every ounce of his being into that look, that silent entreaty to be granted this task for which he longed with all of him being. A faltering smile on her part, and she held the file toward him.
"Well... if you really don't mind..."
Theodus grabbed the fileâ€"a ridged piece of metal that was about half his height, but thankfully didn't weigh very muchâ€"and sprang across the gap from couch to table, not giving her even a second to reconsider. This was it! The drouse could feel the blood pulse throughout his body with each violent and loud beat of his heart. He turned, and faced what had to be one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.
Her foot rested on the table just inches away from him in its towering glory, nearly twice as tall as he. Moving closer, Theo allowed his eyes to roam its bottom, exploring every bit of it, memorizing it. Those details to which he had earlier been treated such a tantalizingly brief glance now stood before him, this time without inconvenient threat of death keeping him from appreciating their exquisiteness.
The majority of her paw was dominated by the five pads typical of her species; a large central one, vaguely ovoid in shape, and four smaller ones, one on each toe. Their tough brown skin was slightly chapped and marked with use, but Theo found this more attractive than some false flawlessness. These paws were functional, they were used. They were real.
Black fur, dotted with occasional white, surrounded the pads and covered the rest of the paw's bottom, looking soft, thick, and luxurious. The otherwise consistent black-with-speckles pattern was broken at her third toe, whose expanse of stark white made it stand out among its companions. Even this visually distracting change in motif, however, could only distract for a moment from the claws which topped each of her four digits.
They were longâ€"the drouse estimated that each could easily come halfway up to his knee if he stood at its base. And, though their daily scrapes and collisions with footwear had dulled them slightly, he could see that they still had an edge to them, deliciously sharp like those of her non-anthropomorphic relatives. Untainted by polishes or paints, they stood white and wicked in the dim light of the television. Their dangerous allure perfectly captured the essence of the marvel of her paw, the entrancing combination of art and power. Power. That was what it came down toâ€"this paw, this foot from which he was now less than an arm's reach... was powerful. It was huge, beautiful, and could steal his life away in but an instant... it nearly had. And Theo was utterly captivated by it.
This close, now, he could make out the smell of it, the slightly damp, slightly bitter odor of sweat, mixed with something else, some intangible extra scent, deep, musky and fragrant. It swept in his nose and overtook his body, filling him, setting nerves tingling. Much to his embarrassment, the drouse could feel the smell taking its effect on his most intimate areas, could feel that familiar, anxious excitement below his abdomen as blood flowed strongly and his shaft began to harden, just peeking out of its slit amongst his scaled groin, the bright pink head betraying his deep and irrepressible need.
It was then, of course, that the skunkess started to move her foot to look at him. "Is everything alright?" she asked, again that tone of shyness unexpectedly tinging her voice. "The smell hasn't knocked you out or anything, has it?" Even as distracted as he was, Theo could hear the self-consciousness in her laugh.
"I'm fine!" he squeaked hurriedly, cursing the way his fright caused his voice to jump up an octave. "Just lower your foot a little so I can reach your nails!" And don't move it to the side, he added silently, praying his ignoble erection would die away soon. The paw scooted away slightly, and then tilted forward, and all the drouse's thoughts died away as he was left face-to-face with the skunk's magnificent claws.
Oh, Goddess, let him still be there when I get back, please...
Elya drove. It was only lunch time, but she knew that she wasn't going back to work that afternoon. She just couldn't do it today. She needed to get home, and she needed to get there now. Zipping her sleek red car around a pickup that was moving far too slow for her liking (only the speed limit, when something was this urgent?), the skunkess tried to force her mind on the task of driving, to little avail. All she could think about was getting home, seeing, in her mind's eye, a tiny note left on the coffee table, a quick thank you and a goodbye, nothing more. She prayed it wouldn't be so, but she couldn't shake the image. It would be so like him to think that he was a nuisance and to try to slip away so as not to bother her with the awkwardness of leaving... but he just couldn't. Not until she got to talk to him, tell him what she felt.
It had seemed so innocent in the beginning, that first night, when he had offered to clean her nails. He had done an impeccable job, better than any of the few pedicures she'd gotten in her life; by the end, her claws were perfectly smoothed and hid not the tiniest speck of dirt upon them. And then he had started the massage... oh, the massage. One of Elya's exes had tried to give them a couple times, but it was all wrongâ€"she was too ticklish, kept involuntarily jerking her feet away. But Theo... something about the feeling of his small paws pressing firmly against her, caressing every bit of her foot with a deep, tender touch, caused her to just melt into the couch, making soft, whimpered moans of pleasure. It was heavenly. It had been years since anyone had touched her with such meticulous care, such absolute attention. By the time he had started her left foot, she had become quite noticeably damp underneath the jeans into which she'd changed after work. There had been something incredibly sensual about it all, about his touch, about the fact that she had this small, handsome creature devoting all his energy into such a simple act, just to please her. The skunkess had begun to feel an eager ache in her groin long before the drouse had finished, but it wasn't until later that night, once he had been gently tucked into his makeshift bed (folded linen scraps in a box from a modem she'd ordered) that she had finally been able to tend to that need. When she, at last, had shut the door to her room, shed her clothes, and begun to run her hands down to the hungry moistness between her thighs, the skunkess had to concentrate to keep her mind on the dark, formless images of bodies writhing together in lust, to not imagine what magic those tiny hands might work on the rest of her body...
But as Theo continued to recuperate in her house, Elya couldn't help but grow closer to him. Not only was he excellent company and provided her with foot massages and nail care nightly, but he was just so endearingly polite. Sweet, even. She would come home from a day at the office to find that the papers and bills that had been scattered all over the dining room table were stacked into neat piles, organized by size. Or that the bookshelves in the living room had been dusted. Or, one evening, that her favorite CD began playing on the stereo just as she walked in the door. The amount of work the drouse had to put into these seemingly trivial tasks astounded herâ€"a sheet of paper was twice his size, a CD just a little shorter than him, and she had no idea how he managed to climb on top of her bookshelves. But no matter how much she chided him to rest so that he could heal faster, he always had something done for her by the time she came home... and, as much as she hated to admit it, she had really gotten to like the feeling of having a little surprise waiting for her every evening. More than that, though, she looked forward to him every day: to their long talks about their lives, about nature, about his cute misconceptions about ‘giants;' to his warm little body curled up against her arm as they watched movies; and to those massages that often sent her retiring to bed more early than usual. She had really gotten to care about Theo. She wouldn't call it love, not yet, but it was something good, something she didn't want to lose.
But this morning, exactly three weeks from the day he had appeared so unexpectedly in her kitchen, was the day they had decided to take off his splint and see if his wing had yet fully healed. They had removed his chest bandages about two weeks ago to happily find that no trace of the attack remained, but it had been obvious to them both that the severe damage to his wing needed more time.
Elya had tried to appear excited when Theo flapped his wings experimentally and, grinning, reported that it didn't hurt a bit. She'd smiled and congratulated him, but, inside, she felt cold and lonely. His wing had been the last wound keeping him grounded, keeping him with her. Now that it was healed, he could leave at any time. Indeed, when she had offered to let him stay, it was solely for the purpose of letting his wing heal; now that it was, would he think his time was up, that he had to leave? The skunkess had claimed she was late and dashed off with only a "See you tonight!" as she slammed the door. In fact, she had arrived at work nearly twenty minutes early. She just... couldn't stay. She didn't want to have to ask if he was going to leave.
Then, not long after work began, the thought occurred to her that when she got home that night, he might not be there at all... and she hadn't even said a proper goodbye. She didn't get any work done at all. Indeed, it was all she could do to keep from bursting into tears in her cubicle at the thought. So, when lunch-break came along, she claimed a painfully sick stomach and took the rest of the day off (she almost never took sick days, so the boss wouldn't chide her for this exception). And now she found herself cursing all those on the interstate, particularly the police cars that kept her within a reasonable amount of the speed limit. Pulling off at her exit, only 5 miles from home, she tried not to think about the stupid but painful idea that she might never get another of the drouse's foot massages, ever again.
Elya drove faster.
Theo stood by the open window, staring down at the city streets far below, at the cars that sped to their varied destinationsâ€"at this height, they looked too small even for him. He wasn't quite sure what was next. Should he just leave? At first, he had thought he wouldâ€"that's why he had spent nearly half an hour straining to force the large handle for the window to rotate, opening it enough for him and his newly-healed wings to slip through. But... it seemed to so rude to just disappear like that, without even saying thank you. Maybe he should stay, at least for that.
The drouse shook his head. No, that wasn't it. That wasn't what was keeping him here, and he damn well knew it. If it was purely a matter of thank yous... well, he had left her a note. He had wanted to make this quick, wanted to leave without having to say a real goodbye, because he had no idea what words, feelings, or tears might come out if he tried. It would hurt too much. And that was the root of it; he didn't want to leave. That was what was keeping him here, standing at the window's edge for hours, torn between the fresh air and the place he'd like to think of as home. These past few weeks with Elya had been... wonderful. And he just didn't want them to end. She was a beautiful, fun, sweet woman, and she let him indulge himself nightly in caring for her absolutely gorgeous paws, a task that always left him extremely aroused, if a bit anxious, as well. This attraction with feet had always been there for him, he could see that now. Memories, flashes of fantasies and strangely erotic thoughts from throughout his life came back to him, full of new meaning: the childhood day he spent all afternoon staring, entranced, at a giant's shoe catalogue that he'd found strewn on the forest floor; his inexplicable urges to fly under boardwalks in giant cities and watch the furres walking overhead; the strange fact that a pubescent recurring dream of being an ant crushed on a sidewalk caused him to awake in sheets that were dampened and sticky. It had always been there. It just wasn't until that day three weeks ago, when one nearly trampled him to nothing, that he realized the true extent of his awe and attraction to feet. But what did that mean for him now...?
The slam of the front door startled Theo, causing him to jump back from the window ledge. Elya never came home this earlyâ€"she always got her lunch at the cafeteria at work. What was going on?
"Theo?" Her voice wafted to him from the other end of the house. The drouse cast a worried glance out the window; if he was going to try to make it easier on both of them, this was his last chance.
"Theo?" she called again, her voice closer this time, probably in the living room... she'd see his note any moment now. He edged closer to the exit. Now or never. The drouse swallowed, biting back tears, and prepared to leap.
Oh, Goddess, it was just as she'd pictured it all day. The empty house, no answer to her desperate calls of his name, and the message left on a little piece of paper on the coffee table, scratched out with a stray piece of mechanical pencil lead:
Dear Elya, thank you very, very much for your hospitality and kindness. Since my wing's healed, I figured it would be best to get going as soon as possibleâ€"I've taken up enough of your time already. I appreciate all you've done for me. I just thought it would be less awkward this way. Sincerely, Theodus.
"...oh, Theo," she whispered, sinking onto the couch limply. She shouldn't have left in such a hurry that morning, she should've told him what she felt... she should have said something to him, to let him know that she wanted him around. The skunkess buried her face in her hands... she'd waited too long.
"Elya?" a tiny voice peeped from the floor, causing her to jerk up and blink until her tear-blurred vision focused on a small, brown creature with two now-intact dragon-wings.
"Theo!" she all but screamed in her delight and surprise. Impulsively, the skunkess swooped down, wrapping her hands gently around the startled drouse and pulling him up to her, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of his head.
"A-Are you alright?" Theodus asked, his face betraying the intense shyness her actions must have brought. "I was about to leave, but, I heard you, and..."
The skunk grinned. Any other time, Elya would have felt embarrassed at a random display of unreciprocated affection such as the one she just made, but right now, caught up in the joy of her second chance, she couldn't care less what a fool she might make of herself.
"I'm fine now," she replied, beaming at Theo, who stood uncertainly on her hands, which she had flattened out and raised so they were staring face-to-face. At this vantage, she was able to re-appreciate how handsome his unique body was, a thought which only made her smile wider.
"What... what was wrong?" the drouse queried, uncertainly. He couldn't seem to quite make eye contact with her.
Elya sighed softly, gathering up her courage to blurt out all the things she'd been repeating, over and over, in her head all morning.
"I... I really like you, Theo," she said, her eyes shyly wandering away from the small furre to trace the flight of a dust mote through the air. "A lot. And... I thought you'd gone." With another forced bit of willpower, the skunkess forced her eyes to turn back to the drouse, matching themselves firmly with his own. "I don't want you to leave." In the moment of silence that followedâ€"a moment that seemed like eternityâ€"she berated herself for how stupid and childish that came out; it wasn't as though she hadn't had lovers before! Why was this so difficult?
But then the drouse burst into a smile of his own, and a wave of relief washed over her. "You mean that, Elya?" he asked breathlessly. Feeling herself grin again, the skunkess nodded. Theodus ran to the edge of her hand and stretched across the small gap between them to give her muzzle an affectionate hug. "I like you, too," he whispered, his small voice nearly inaudible. "I... I didn't want to leave without saying goodbye, but I didn't want to start crying or anything, either, so, I just thought it'd be easierâ€""
The skunkess cut him off with another soft kiss, one which no doubt covered most of his face. "Well, now," she whispered back, "you know how I feel, so you're not going to go anywhere, right?" A grin with a hint of fangs carried across the playful menace in the question, and the drouse giggled and shook his head in response.
"Good," Elya whispered, feeling even further emboldened by this victory, this redemption. It took her only a split second to make up her mind on the tempting thoughts that she had been trying not to think for several days. It was time.
"Now, c'mon... I want to show you my room."
Theo stared around, mesmerized, at the skunkess' room as she carried him in; it was the one part of her apartment he had not yet seen, since his sense of propriety had kept him from snooping whenever she wasn't home. It was efficiently but prettily decorated, with a few pieces of art, including a couple of artistic nude paintings of males of various species, hung on the walls. Her dressers held an array of books, movies, and assorted trinkets. A new-looking computer was on a desk in the corner, humming softly but with its screen blank.
Her bed, at the center of the far wall, was seemingly the destination Elya was carrying him to. It was unmade, with its sky-blue covers crumpled on one edge and a matching comforter on the floor. Theo grinned, glad to know he wasn't the only one who didn't bother to straighten his bed in the mornings.
The woman sat on the edge of the bed, and Theo expected her to place him next to her, like they sat while they watched movies, but, instead, she held him up so that he could once again stare into her wide, fetching gold eyes. The look they held was much different now, a serious, almost predatory sort of expression, her eyelids lowered just slightly. He shiveredâ€"her expression sent inexplicable waves of excitement through him. There was only a short pause before she spoke, her voice lower than usual.
"I want to kiss you," she stated quietly. Theo felt himself flush with embarrassment.
"I'd... I'd like that, too, but... how can we...?" he let the question trail off, gesturing helplessly at his body. He cursed the tiny stature of which he was generally quite proud.
The skunkess eyed him for a moment. "Do you trust me?" she asked quietly.
What a strange question! Hesitantly, Theo nodded. A tiny smile curled at the edge of Elya's lips.
"Good," she said. "Then hold your breath."
This was crazy, her mind screamed, but the achings in both Elya's heart and her more intimate regions overruled by majority. Closing her eyes and taking in a soft breath (she hoped he couldn't feel how she was shivering slightly in nervousness), the skunk raised her hand to her mouth, spreading her lips and tilting her wrist, feeling the small drouse slide unstrugglingly down. She spread her jaw further, tenderly moving her tongue to catch the furry body as it passed between her teeth, goading it slowly in, headfirst, making sure that his wings didn't get caught. It was a strange and incredible feeling, that warm, heavy body moving into her mouth. It tasted vaguely of salt and sweat, but it wasn't an unpleasant taste in the least. Her tongue explored him gently, feeling the contours of his scales and the soft coarseness of his fur. She could feel him move around slightly, moving with her tongue, against it, caressing itâ€"she'd recognize the gentle touch of his paws anywhere. And as it roved down his chest again, cherishing the cool smoothness of his scaly plating, her tongue came across something that she should have expected but had yet to think about, a soft, burningly hot stiffness resting just below his stomach. It had a different taste than the rest of him, darker, more raw and bodily. She arched her tongue, rubbing it against him, against his small, eager shaft in a lingering caress. The feeling of his body twitching inside her mouth was extremely arousing, a very hot sense of power. A flurry of naughty but enticing ideas filled her brain.
Theo vainly tried not to moan as he twisted to press himself against the warm, wet softness of her tongue. His entire body was buzzing with excitement, and he could feel his hard member slipping out of its sheath as he writhed against the living, licking, teasing floor he was laying against. It roamed over his body, prodding and moistening all of him as he pressed his hands against it lovingly, even licking it with his own tongue in some attempt to reciprocate the feelings he was receiving as he was enveloped in heat. It stroked down his chest, sending shivers through him, and then a deep, choking gasp escaped the drouse as the large, muscular organ brushed his erection. Then, without warning, it covered it, pressing up between his legs, against his member, surrounding it in water and fire all at once. All of his essence, all of his nerves were centered in his groin, picking up the feeling of every single tiny bump as it pressed against him, slid over him, stroked him. Involuntarily, he pushed himself harder against the tongue, humping it, driven by instincts far deeper than his self-control. Elya's tongue responding by pushing upward, driving the drouse against the roof of her mouth, trapping him as it tortured him with pleasure, rubbing up and down firmly over his swollen shaft. And then, suddenly, there was light, and he was being softly pushed away by the tongue's arching, dropped with one last, loving lick into the skunkess' waiting hand. Gasping for breath, the drouse stared up at her as she moved her head back to look intently at him, lust dominating her gaze.
"I liked that," she whispered, her own voice sounding a little strained for air.
"Me too," Theo replied shyly, trying to shift positions, nervous and self-conscious about the pink hardness bobbing between his legs.
"Shhh, don't be embarrassed," the skunkess smiled, her other hand reaching down to trace its index finger softly down his chest, stopping just above his erection. "I like it." With that statement, she moved her finger down, pressing it against him, grinding it ever-so-gently against his body, causing the drouse to shut his eyes tightly and moan as her movement sent waves of pleasure up his body from his stiff member.
"Now," she smiled as she moved her finger away, drawing a slight whimper from Theo, "what would you like to do?"
The drouse flushed again, staring up at the skunk's playful, sexy smile, feeling her voice pierce through all his layers of fear and shyness, straight to the very core, the very truth of him that he felt he had to share.
"I... I really like your feet... a lot, Elya," he whispered, barely even able to hear himself the way his voice cracked. The skunkess brought him closer, studying him.
"Oh?" she asked, her smile never wavering. "Well, I like having you touch my feet, Theo. I've never had massages quite like yours."
"Really?" the drouse asked, perking up and looking hopefully into her giant gold eyes.
"Really," she grinned. Theo felt his footing tremble precariously for a moment as she kicked off her shoes and scooted back on the bed, and then he found himself deposited on the blue sheets, right next to her feet. Elya winked at him. "So why don't you get to work?" She laid back, and Theo, more aroused than he had ever been in his life, pressed himself ecstatically against the damp, musky fur of her paw.
This time, Elya didn't bother to keep her moans quiet as the drouse's magical touch kneaded the tight muscles of her feet, pressing against all of her tensest spots, causing the stiffness to simply melt away under his knowing attentions. His paws wandered up, kneading the sensitive flesh between her toes. She stretched them apart, urging him to continue. Oh, he was so good at this... The skunkess' heat, already moist and ready from the sensual kiss they had shared, now begged for attention, its aching need pulsing through her body in frustrated waves.
After several more moments of that delicious massaging, each of which made her that much more hungry and ardent, she began sliding her hands down her stomach, toward the source of her craving. As she began to unbutton the dark slacks she had worn to work that day, she hesitatedâ€"was this his first time with a woman? Was she moving too fast? But the drouse never stopped his diligent workings, and the lust burning inside her was becoming too strong to ignore. Shoving her fears aside, Elya pressed her hand down, underneath the clingy black fabric of the thong she'd worn to work that day, letting her fingers slip familiarly between the slick wetness of her outer lips to the hard, sensitive nub hiding beneath. A breathy gasp flew out of her as the caress of her fingers sent a shockwave through her, causing her body to stiffen and thrash slightly. She felt Theo pause in his work.
"N-no," she whimpered, fingers still moving of their own accord, rubbing greedily against her clit. "Please don't stop, Theo, it feels so wonderful..."
Thankfully, he returned to her feet, the sensual pressure of his paws entwining and melding in her nerves with the fiery bliss building inside her groin. The skunkess' hips bucked in the air against her own hand, pressing her greedy cunt against the pressure of her fingers as the sensations began to blend together, filling her body with heat and light. A low, deep growl emanated from her as her muscles tightened, tensing to a breaking point even as the drouse continued to work the ones in her feet like clay, bending and molding them. Then, with the last, desperate twitches of her fingers against her jewel, her essence, the energy inside her exploded into a high yelp of a scream as all her muscles clenched and released as one, her body stretching and curling and stretching again in a spasm of pure infernal desire.
It took her several moments of lying, gasping, on the bed to regain her breath and her senses. When she had, she realized that she could no longer feel the movement of Theo's hands upon her paws. Struggling to sit up, she saw that the drouse was caught, breathing heavily, under one of her feet, trapped there during her climactic writhings. She could feel his small body expand and contract under her toes, could feel the small, pointy hardness pressing against the pad in the center of her paw. The skunkess grinned. One more evil idea lodged itself in her brain.
Though his erection was throbbing, begging for attention, Theo didn't dare take his hands away from their frenzied workings at Elya's huge, gorgeous foot. He could hear her labored breathing and moaning and sneaked a glance around her paw for a moment to watch the outline of her hand in her slacks, moving quickly and furiously. The sight only furthered the drouse's arousal. Other than stolen glimpses, like those foxes in the woods, he had never before seen a woman in the throes of passion, and it was almost entrancing to watch, knowing that those movements, hidden beneath the tight fabric of her slacks, were causing the pleasure that her throaty groans were so obviously voicing. Swallowing, the drouse continued massaging, pressing himself closer against her foot, letting the head of his yearning member brush against her fur as he worked, shivering and closing his eyes, a tiny whimper of his own echoing the louder noises coming from the skunkess. His nostrils were filled with the musky scent of her that swarmed his senses and dulled his brain, filling him with lust and need. He massaged around the central pad, feeling the knots in her muscles collapse and disappear under his touch even though her foot was twitching chaotically due to her own hand's work. Looking up, he could see the toes of her foot spread and stretch, her nails gleaming in the light.
And then, suddenly, her body rocked and snapped, causing the drouse to jump backward slightly in fright. Elya made a loud, growling shriek of a noise and her body thrashed, causing the bed beneath Theo's feet to shake. Without warning, her foot kicked high into the air, and before the drouse could even think to move, it came slamming back down, pressing him into the thankfully forgiving softness of the mattress. His breath came in short, frightened, aroused gasps. His body was completely confined by the immovable weight of her foot, his head sticking out just above her toes, barely more than a breath away from her shiny, sharp claws. His erection pulsed against the scratchy thickness of her footpad. Theo closed his eyes, awash in the desire that spread through him, enveloping and devouring his fear, all his blood and adrenaline pulsing down into his groin, into his needy stiffness.
The skunkess shifted, and when he opened his eyes, he saw her sitting up, looking down at him with a wicked glint in her eyes. Wordlessly, she grinned, and then the drouse made a spasm of his own as he felt her foot push down harder, grinding into him. Helpless, imprisoned by her achingly perfect paw, he moaned and squeezed his eyes shut. Her scent surrounded him, pressing in on his skin and permeating him. Fur and pad rasped over his body, pinning all of him, her toes moving up to envelope his face in fur. He licked at her foot eagerly, desperate to experience all of it, every delicious second of this agonizing moment of perfection, where there was nothing but the object of his years of hidden lusts, crushing and releasing him. Its every movement brought him closer to the edge, but the pleasure was so all-encompassing he barely noticed how his member strained and grew even further, filling with blood in anticipation of its final pulsations. There was nothing but her paw, nothing but this, nothing but the dark, damp muskiness that ground and trampled him into the mattress with absolute tenderness.
When the drouse felt his body reach its limit, he almost cried with the thought that this would end. But even before the feelings could register, the skunkess' foot gave one last, hard shove against him, sliding upward, her pad pressing firmly down against his shaft, which seemed to draw inward for a moment before blasting back outward, firing out a torrent of his seed as he howled and buried himself against her fur, his hips thrusting up against her foot, the last of his juices flowing out onto her calloused brown pad. When, moments later, her foot lifted, Theo gasped deep, burning gulps of air, his body shaking and shuddering with the aftershocks of the most powerful orgasm he had ever experienced. Blinking groggily, he stared up at this woman who had brought out his true nature, given him his first taste of pure, unadulterated passion. He mustered a shaky smile as his heart pounded furiously, attempting to recover from the system shock that was his climax. Elya smiled back, a soft, tender smile that still contained a tiny bit of that same mischievousness. She glanced down at her foot. The drouse followed her gaze, and cringed, embarrassed, at the sight of his white, sticky fluids clinging to her fur and pad.
"S-sorry," he mumbled worriedly, looking back up at her face, searching fearfully for signs of anger or upsetness. Instead, he found only that same devious menace that it had held before that amazing kiss.
Grinning wryly, the skunkess made a soft tutting sound and shook her head, reaching a hand down to pull the drouse to his feet. "That won't do at all," she whispered in a dark, husky voice. "First, you're going to need to clean all that up..." The wink and the lusty glint in her eyes left no doubt in Theo's mind about how she meant for him to clean it. "...and then," she continued, her finger tracing a claw lightly down the drouse's chest, "we're going to see what sort of massages you give to places other than my feet."