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There was a chimera in the boxcar he jumped into.

He'd thrown his pack ahead of him, its thump completely muffled over the scream of the rails. The train had started to really pick up speed, and with his legs aching from the day behind him there was a second when he'd thought he'd miss, lose all his stuff, or worse: trip and get crushed under the tracks.

His feet had pounded on the scrubland dirt, almost matching the train, and at the last second he pulled ahead just enough to catch the boxcar handle and haul himself in. He landed face-down on the dusty, rattling floor. The vibration rung through his bones, and for a long moment he considered staying there, soaking in the motion and letting it rattle him loose.

He rolled over, and only saw the chimera as it launched itself at him. He screamed, legs kicking up automatically and bracing against its chest, his push only sliding him across the floor, pinning him in a corner.

The boxcar was almost empty: a pile of pallets were lashed across the wall to the front, rattling even over the rest of the train; between them was a narrow cubby the chimera had been curled up in.

"Don't eat me!" was what came out of his mouth, as automatic as the kick. The chimera slavered at him. It was big, huge and rank, with sharp teeth bared, dripping thick drool onto his chest.

"Who are you?!" it said, in a low roar, and despite the inhuman timbre its enunciation was clipped; bizarrely, incongruently formal.

"Nobody! Come on, I'm not who you're after!" he said, still kicking back, trying to get himself as far away from the looming shape over him. It seemed to realize, after a second, and shifted back fractionally, just enough that he couldn't feel its hot breath over his throat. "I was just catching a train; I don't know anyone was here!"

"Where's this train headed?!"

"St. Aquinas! Overnight, to the south. Across the desert." The chimera kept staring at him, way too close, eyes unblinking, and at some point Ama consciously decided to keep talking: "It's... another big city, close to the border. By the mountains. Uh. I'd be obliged if you'd get me go?" He hadn't even realized, at first, it had been holding him, claws torn through his undershirt.

But some part of that seemed to be the right thing to say; it shifted backward, releasing him. Its claws pulled from his shirt, leaving it hanging open across his chest, more rip than fabric at this point.

He glanced out the boxcar door: they were already in the wasteland of signals and rail switches on the industrial outskirts, with nothing but rusty shanties beside the tracks. They were moving too fast to bail out without breaking something.

"Uh," he said, getting his first real good look at the chimera as it slipped back, shuffling through the dingy twilight cast from outside.

It was huge, stoop-shouldered, and shuffling around almost on all fours -- fours that were strange hand-hooves; three huge, gnarled fingers and a stocky thumb, and each finger tipped with a hooflike claw, black and straight and slowly tapering to a tiny tip: not sharp, but its muscles said it would have no problem stabbing through flesh with them, not if it wanted to. It had a roll of dingy canvas wrapped around it like a cloak, and it was hard to tell where the canvas ended and it begun. It was wooly all over, the exact same dirt-stained off-white as the canvas, save for patches of hairless hide on its palms and face, dark grey. Its head was nearly human and nearly animal and nothing like either of them. Like a ram's head: huge yellow eyes with rectangular pupils, and set above it a crown of tightly-curled horns, ridged and yellow. Its nose was stretched out into a squat muzzle, but he'd seen firsthand that under its lips was a jaw full of sharp wolf's teeth.

In short, it wasn't the kind of thing he was gonna like sitting beside for the night.

"I'm-- Ama," he said, and it came out sounding like a question. "Is my name, I mean." He said it while shuffling away from the thing, pulling his pack close to his chest, until he was back against the opposite wall as the chimera. He did have a knife in there, for all that it would help if the thing wanted to hurt him. Nobody knew what would kill a chimera, since as far as he knew no one ever had.

The chimera snorted, the expression uncannily animal-like. "Don't care."

"Okay. Okay! That's fine." Ama looked over at the boxcar door again. Scrubland for as far as the eye could see, with farms or copses of trees like cockeyed darts haphazardly stuck to the horizon. The straightaway, from Trestre to St. Aquinas; no reason to break for hours. Still, it might be worth it to bail out. There weren't tracks on the other side of the train; he could jump off and land rolling, probably just break an arm instead of having to share space with a rogue chimera. "You on the run, right?" It was kind of an obvious question -- why would a chimera on official business be seen anywhere?

"Maybe you should mind your own business," it said, snapping at him; Ama flinched back and hit his head against the back of the cabin.

"Okay! Sure, you don't have to say anything." He made sure to keep his hands in its view, palms up. Like it was closer to a wild animal than a person -- which, for all he knew, it was.

It sat back and settled down, silent and glowering. Ama just stared at it for long minutes, his heart hammering in his throat and only slowly calming.

"Stop staring," it said, and Ama flinched back, averting his eyes.

"Sorry," he said, automatic. After a moment, the chimera snorted.

"Are all humans this scared?"

"I ain't afraid to say you scare the shit out of me." Ama looked over at it. "But I figure you're on edge enough already from whatever you're running from, without me adding worry."

The chimera snarled, baring its teeth: shining like daggers in the dying light. "Don't reckon you know anything about me."

"Know you're a chimera," Ama said, half-certain it was a misstep, that he should just shut up. "Tells me a lot."

"Oh, I know all about chimera," it said. Its eyes were gigantic in its face, solid bronze circles reflecting the sunset. "Soulless monsters. Bogeymen." Its voice dropped, from deep-and-rough to a scraping grate that -- well, that sounded like some kind of monster trying to mimic a human voice, a gnashing howl bitten off below each word. "That to see one's as good as death."

Ama nodded jerkily. "Yeah." His tongue stuck to his teeth; his mouth was dry. "But I'm prayin' you're not that bad." And then, since he'd just noticed it: "You're not wearing a uniform, after all."

The chimera let out a hacking laugh, closer to a baying hound than anything else. "You think they'd let us?!" It paused, looking at him with a different tilt to its head. "What do they say about chimera?"

"Uh," Ama started. "You come after unruly citizens and drag them screaming off into the night. The power of your devil himself, soulless demon-golems created with the power of modern thaumaturgy." Ama looked at the chimera, thumbing his mouth. "They say you can't talk, can't think, but we all figured that was a lie anyways. There was--" he started, and then cut himself off, talking slower. "There are rumors of rogue chimera sometimes, you know. Figures any soul would wanna get out from under the crownguard's thumb."

That made the chimera perk up. "Rumors?"

"It's not much. Just, everyone's heard from their friend's brother's cousin, in another city -- that someone spotted a chimera on the run. But no one's ever come forward."

"So they kill us before word gets out."

"Not to be brash about it, but you seem pretty fucking out right now, if y' don't mind me saying. Maybe everyone else got caught before now."

"Or maybe they'll keep looking until they find me, no matter what."

"Could be. Maybe just getting this far was lucky as hell, but you're on rails, and it's storm season down south, right round the first frost. You got forged iron, and water, and people -- you couldn't get a more perfect way to hide your trail if you planned it. Maybe your luck'll hold." For the first time he thought of the lines of tension in the chimera's body not as it ready to pounce, but it ready to run: to leap from the boxcar; or maybe just it'd been running long enough it didn't know what it was, to not run anymore. Its rolling eyes, spittle-flecked muzzle, heaving flanks -- like a terrified farm animal more than a predator. Not sure what to do outside its pen.

They sat like that for who knew how long, enough time for the sky to turn from purple to black. The heat of the day burnt away, leaving the boxcar bitterly cold. It was a new moon, and this far from the city the sky was burning with stars, in streaky patches across the entire sky. The landscape around them was uniformly black, just silhouettes against the horizon.

He had a blanket in his pack, but the cold kept him in a kind of trance, chill desert air bracing against his bare skin. Shivering was what finally got him to move, muffling his chattering teeth with his tongue as he unclasped his pack and pulled out the ragged blanket. Even through it, he was painfully aware of the chimera's eyes on him: no longer luminous in the near-total darkness, but somehow its gaze had a painful weight.

The temperature dropped fast, and the open boxcar doors kept a crosscurrent going, scouring across the floorboards and gusting under his blanket, cutting away what little warmth he managed to keep. His teeth kept chattering, jaw aching, and his fingers went numb, knotted up in the blanket and creaking when he tried to flex them.

There was a rattle of exhaled breath, the sound shaking Ama out of his half-asleep stupor, and then awareness shot through him like a bullet: it had been the chimera, and now in the darkness it was moving, its body just swimming planes of grey-black.

"Come here," it said, voice clear over the ringing of the rails.

"Um," he said, and the sound came out muddy through stiff lips. "You sure?" Adrenaline had him warming up, pins and needles running over his skin. Maybe it wasn't going to rip him apart, but the thought of sitting next to it, in the reach of its monstrous hands...

"You want to freeze to death?"

Ama could hear it smile, wet flesh peeling away from its teeth. He imagined he could see their gleam, even in the dark. "I guess."

The moment stretched out, until he levered himself up, dragging his pack behind him as he felt his way towards the chimera. There was rough wood under his fingers, then loose leather straps, and then too-close to him something shifted and he was touching rough canvas sheets, the heat of its body almost burning against the chill. The chimera reached out, knobbly fingers curling over his shoulder. He settled down next to it, surrounded by a snarl of canvas and fleecey fur. It was like a furnace, heat rippling off it in waves and soaking into his chilled bones.

"Thanks," he said, face pressed up against rough sackcloth and something fleecy. Smelled like dirt and farm. It was probably the chimera's fleece, which wasn't the most pleasant thought. "See, you're not so bad." Still, it was't what he'd call comfortable, sitting next to a killing machine.

The chimera snorted again, and its rank breath billowed across the back of Ama's neck, steaming. Even that was welcome against the ever-colder air.

Ama pulled his legs under the canvas shroud, leaning forward, the line of heat across his thigh where their bodies touched burning like a fresh wound, hot and overwhelmingly present. "Look, maybe we should start over. Pleasure to meet you, I'm Ama, and you're...?"

"I still don't care," it said, and then after a pause. "Don't have one, anyway."

"Oh?" Ama said, and then "Oh. Did you have... a serial--" and then shut up when the chimera's entire body vibrated in a growl. "Right, nevermind, awfully rude of me."

There was another long silence. Even with the darkness and the warmth and the lulling rattle of the carriage there was no way Ama was going to sleep. Everything was sharp at the center and fuzzy at the edges, adrenaline spiking and ebbing with every shift of the chimera's body. Its hide creaked with every breath.

"Why are you here?" the chimera said, voice sudden in the silence.

"On the run from the crownguard," he said, immediately, and it was the truth too. Obviously, not what he'd usually open with, but: usually he didn't find himself cuddled up next to a rogue chimera. "They busted up my gang and we all that got out split. Figured I might as well head back to the highlands." He drew a slow breath, exhaled.

It'd been a long day. It must've been around nine now, maybe ten, which meant fourteen hours ago he'd woken up in their hideout, in the attic room, cream-colored and cedar-smelling, the buzz of conversation below and the smell of frying fish wafting up. And now... well, maybe thinking about the chimera was better than thinking about how he'd ended up here.

"Wasn't expecting more excitement," he said. His muscles still ached from the final run to the trainyard. He'd been at his job -- the legal one -- at the foundry, barefoot and in his undershirt, tamping down runny clay around huge metal forms with his feet, making molds. His calves were streaked with clay, pale tan and blotchy, with the larger clumps still damp. They itched. He hadn't gotten much warning that the crownguard was on the move, just Aschoff -- a friend of his, in the gang -- running in panting, bleeding from a stray bullet that grazed his side. Ama didn't have any of his stuff; he'd had only the time to grab a pack and steal some stuff -- a blanket, some worker clothes, and...

"That reminds me, though--" he continued, digging into his pack under the canvas and pulling out a still-unbroken bottle of wine with a triumphant cry. "Figured I'd need some fortification, and this seems as good a time as any."

He bit the cork out with a pop, a wet slosh of wine pouring out after and soaking his forearm. He took a swig, shuddered at the acid burn, swallowed decisively, then shoved it against the chimera's chest. Its claws clacked against the glass as it took hold of it. It was so huge; Ama's open hand nearly fit entirely inside its palm. It shifted; lips closing wetly around the bottle and then taking a big swallow, before pressing it back against Ama's chest. On his next swig Ama could taste the chimera's spit, slick on the bottle's neck. "So what about you, huh?"

"What do you think?"

Ama rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but a man's gotta have details."

The chimera grabbed the bottle from him and took another swig, gulping. "What're the highlands?" it said, completely ignoring Ama.

"Oh, you know," Ama said, before realizing that the chimera might not, at all. "Uh. Under the Teeth -- that's the mountain range down south, at the border; St. Aquinas is right up against the only pass between the peaks in a thousand miles either way. There's a bunch of farmland on the foothills, just scrub crops, hardly even any real villages. I'm from there, before I," Ama huffed a humorless little laugh, "went to Trestre to make my fortune. It's nowhere, and big, and empty; figured it'd be a good place to hide out."

Ama took another swallow from the bottle, which had somehow found its way back to his hands. "Actually, when I saw you -- as recent the watch's been cracking down. Today they sent a squad of fucking thaumaturges after us -- fuck, I thought they'd really gone all-out, sending a chimera to mop us up."

"What'd you do?"

"You know, the usual. Drug running. Nothing glamorous." He shrugged. "Gotta make ends meet somehow, and we look out for each other. Looked." he added, after a beat, and then exhaled, slow. "Now most everyone else is prob'ly in custody or dead." Ama shoved the bottle against the chimera's chest again, waiting until it took another heavy swig, leaving the bottle almost empty. "I think I'm done with the big city."

Ama took the bottle back, drank the dregs, tongue rough with acid, and chucked it toward the boxcar door. It fell out, exiting the scene, any shatter soundless under the ring of the rails. On the horizon lightning flashed, any thunder inaudible.

"Cuddled up next to a chimera and I'm probably safest out of all of them. Hope like hell they got out, but..." He shrugged. "I'm never gonna know."

The chimera breathed above him, a slow, wet rasp. "You want to know what happened?" Its claws flexed against Ama's sides. "They put me together from magic and butchered corpses. Kept me around to kill off other experiments they'd gotten tired of. Sometimes they let me out to kill dissidents like you. They got sloppy, got stupid. Two weeks ago their binding slipped and I broke out; tried to kill as many of them as I could on my way out."

Ama laughed, humorless and more than a little hysterically. "What a fucking pair we make, huh?"

After that they were mostly quiet, but it was -- somehow -- a more companionable silence. He was pressed up all along the chimera's side, feeling like leather and wool under him. He was flushed with wine, limbs heavy and blood hot.

In the dark, it was almost like sleeping curled up in the animal pen when he was a kid, heaped in a pile with the goats. The slow, wet huff of the chimera's breath joined with the ever-present rattle of the boxcar, and Ama found himself... not quite asleep, but fading into a haze, mind drifting off, even as he was dimly aware of him pressed to the chimera's front. Its talons dragged over his bare skin, not sharp, just lines of flat pressure, like dry branches, and he mumbled something and shifted, body pressing against the chimera's fuzzy front, its loosely-lying hand following him, trailing over his hip and up his side, claws reaching almost to his armpit.

The physical contact was oddly intimate. One of the chimera's huge hands was splayed loosely across his back; it moved slightly, the slow motions of a sleeping body, and the pressure of contact sung through Ama's veins. Heat billowed up from its body, and this close it was rich with the chimera's scent: nothing bad, just fresh dirt, person smell and animal smell all mixed together, sweat and skin, powdery like wool in the winter.

His body was responding, he realized, in his half-dream. His cock was flushed, not hard but ever-so-slowly thickening, heavy skewed up across his stomach, pushing against his ratty trousers. It pressed into the chimera's stomach, its fleece a thick barrier between them, and dazed Ama drew back. The chimera was... it seemed barely conversational; sure as hell not up for a quick fuck. Still, its hands spread across his back, over his hip, and Ama found himself flushed, pangs of pleasure rushing down his body with every movement of their bodies.

Its touch slid higher, its fingers -- long and furred, with huge knobbly knuckles -- dragging up his sides, damp and catching so slightly with sweat. Its claws dragged over his back and chest alike, the span of the chimera's hands plus his claws making the motion not unlike clutching a doll. It pulled him closer, tucked up under its chin. The line of a claw dragged across his left nipple, and he let out a shaking breath, hips rolling forward, slow, rubbing his cock against the chimera's stomach. Under him, with a thrill of want and horror all at once, he felt the chimera's cock -- he assumed -- shift, iron hard and burning hot pulsing up from the chimera's crotch. His breath hitched again, coming out as a shuddering moan into the ruff of fur around its neck.

The chimera started and shoved him, dragging him out of his doze and into a disoriented stumble, all his limbs moving too-slow. He slurred out something, a low mumbling whine that rose to a question.

"...Sorry," the chimera said, drawing back, like it was trying to completely remove every point of contact: its hand still on his hip; its calves folded under Ama's feet.

"No, what, keep going." He had no clue what time it was -- if he'd slept truly. It was still dark out, and bitterly cold where air slunk into the cocoon of blankets. His eyes were crusted in the corners. "I mean, unless, uh, you don't want to..."

"You--" the chimera said, cutting off like it was going to keep going, and it was a long while before Ama realized it wasn't going to say anything else.

"Look, if you wanna blow off some steam, and so do I, no reason we can't give each other a hand." It wasn't the first time he'd used that line, but the chimera was definitely the most interesting... person he'd said it to. He reached for the bulk of the chimera's body, palm flat against its chest, slowly sinking into its matted fur. He moved up, blindly groping, identifying the swell of its chest, the tight lines of its neck, the muscled blocks of its shoulder. Its fur was fleecy, matted into tiny dreadlocks across its chest, and tangled in huge tufts across its shoulders. Ama settled on its lap again, legs folded beneath, ignoring the still-swelling tent of its cock under his calves. With both hands he reached up, feeling across its jaw and cheeks, around the crests of its eyes, touching the roots of its horns, fingers splayed across its muzzle. Its mouth opened, thick hide shifting under Ama's thumbs, and he shifted forward, its heavy lips pressing against his temple, sliding wet and rough down his cheek, until they were sharing breath. The chimera was achingly hot under him, matched by the trapped curve of his cock in his pants, bunched into a painful bulge.

"So, can I...?" He punctuated with a hand on its cock, greasy pre seeping through the layers of canvas between them.

Its hands reached for him, curving around his waist, talons criss-crossing up his back as it crushed him tight against its chest. He was like a child compared to its size, sitting on its lap, its hands spanning his back.

Its mouth lolled open, tongue whipping out and crashing against his lips, squirming and folding over itself as it lapped across his face. Ama opened his mouth and it pushed inside -- less like a kiss and more like it was trying to taste his tonsils. Its breath was fast and harsh, drool spilling from its mouth and coating Ama's lips, dripping down his chin. Its teeth pressed against his lips, its muzzle yawning wide, like it was about to try and bite him.

Ama jerked back, gasping for breath, his body flushed all over. "Like this," he said, leaning back in closer. He pressed his lips against the chimera's slavering maw, trailing back along its muzzle, parting his lips slowly, tongue flitting out to swipe over the leathery flesh of its mouth, coaxing it to open. Its chest was heaving under him, breath puffing in his face. Its fingers dug into his back, claws clacking. Ama licked into its mouth, maw yawning wide, animal drool spilling past its sharp teeth and drawing out in filaments between them when he pulled back.

"Just, can we..." His fingers slid lower, down the chimera's bulky body, to the burning heat of its cock, still hidden from his touch by layers of fabric.

The chimera groaned, head tipped back until its horns hit the boxcar wall with a thunk. Its cock pulsed under Ama's hand, a hot humidity soaking through the fabric, tacky-slick on his hand as he pressed against the huge swell. The chimera pulled him forward, its cock dragging slow against his, and he groaned.

Under the canvas the chimera was wearing ragged trousers: soaked through with greasy slime oozing out from its cock. Ama tugged their laces, snapping the already worn cords, and with a sluggish roll its cock rose, slapping to the side and splattering his forearm in rank fluid.

It was nothing at all like a human cock, and only minimally like an animal's. Ama stroked it, hands curling around its strange angles. It was gristly, spongy and strange, and every touch squelched, leaving his hands dripping with thick fluid. Its cock narrowed to a point and then flared again, with a blobby cup-shaped twist at the very tip. At the base, it emerged from a fuzzy sheath, folds of heavy skin wrapped around the base, soaked already with its precome. It drooled hot, musky-smelling pre; he squeezed its sheath and thick ooze bubbled out, pre gone thick after stewing inside it, stiff blobs smearing across the back of his hand.

The chimera yowled. Its cock slapped to the side, still unsheathing itself. It was terrifyingly huge. Each shudder pushed another slimy inch through Ama's hands, and each time he thought that had to be the last of it, only to be shown wrong with the next pulse. His hand fit unevenly around the animal shaft, a fat chamber on either side with a gristly flange running down the entire length, and in the divots between them ran a sludgy mess of precome. He pumped it with both hands, ooze squelching between his fingers.

It unsheathed slowly, twitching muscles sending it swinging left and then right, until Ama pressed himself against the chimera's chest, its cock sandwiched between them. Its cockhead was nearly level with his head. He arched up, thighs trembling, its sheath swollen between his calves, to press his mouth against the chimera's, and breaking the kiss he pressed his lips against the tip of its cock, barely having to move. It spurted, rank animal slime dashing across his face, like having a bucket of water upended over him, leaving him dripping, after even after that it didn't show any signs of slowing: constantly spurting and gushing, streaking down its shaft with runny lines of what was probably just pre.

"Oh, fuck," he groaned, spluttering from the mess drooling down his face, over his lips. The sharp, acrid musk on his tongue blotted out all other sensation, a metallic burn lingering in the back of his mouth when he swallowed. Hot fluid slapped his face in jolts, making him gasp from the shock of it, spitting lines of it back across its shaft. Stringy blobs slowly drooled down his cheeks, clotting over his eyelashes, over his lips, pouring in globby waves down his chest, soaking his torn shirt to his skin.

His thighs worked, rutting his entire body against its monstrous cock. His own cock was skewed in his trousers, wetly greasy with its pre. One of its hands slipped down, knobbled fingers cupping his ass, thumb dragging from under his balls up, the single digit near the same size as his cock. It stroked him through the fabric, the base of its claw back and forth over the underside of his cockhead, and Ama found himself whining, rocking up into its touch, mouth open and mumbling pleading words into the hollow of its neck. He was already close, prickling heat curling inside his stomach as he rolled his hips against the chimera's finger: he groaned, cheek pressed against its cockhead, and came. His entire body shuddered, cock spurting into his sodden trousers, already stuck to his thighs with its pre.

He went limp across the chimera's bulk, dazed and loose-limbed. Its cock was a pulsing line from his crotch to his neck, his flushed lips spread around the flange of its shaft, dragging a sloppy kiss up to the very tip. He caught bursts of sludge across his cheeks, forming flabby lines hanging down his jaw, slapping against each other and conjoining as they dripped down to his chest, before he spread his lips around its bloated cocktip. His cheeks immediately puffed out, a single pulse filling his mouth to overflowing with rank ooze. He swallowed, thickly, coughing and sputtering as the chimera's pre stuck to the walls of his throat.

Between his spread legs, the chimera's cock swelled, its flesh audibly creaking and slurping. By touch, the fat tube of its sheath was folding back, ooze all but squirting out around its shaft. The flesh under Ama's fingertips was feverishly hot, taut and burning, and slowly bloating even more as he stroked the chimera off, swollen lips kissing its cocktip and dragging across its cockhead. His lips were puffy, swollen as he mouthed across its grimy flesh, opening wide to suckle against the knobbled tip -- it was simply too big to fit any part of it in his mouth.

The chimera groaned, wet huffing breaths. The tremors running through its body rocked through Ama like an earthquake, almost dislodging him from his perch, and as he slipped back the chimera surged forward. Its fingers dug into his hips and it pushed him back against the pile of pallets, fucking its cock all across Ama's body. Its heaving breaths got faster in time with the creaking stretch of the base of its cock, both chambers swelling between Ama's thighs and calves, behind his half-folded knees. It was lumpy and covered in huge, finger-thick veins, and stuck under him, bashing against the curve of his ass when the chimera rutted forward. Ama flexed his legs, wrapped tighter and looser around the medicine ball-sized swell, squeezing it methodically.

Its rattling groans turned into a terrifying bellow, like a bleat. It came with its teeth grazing across Ama's face, lips pulled back. Its cock sprayed out near-solid gum, tar-thick slime that hosed up the lashed pallets and stuck there, another shot clinging sharply to Ama's jaw, all the way up to his stubbly hair, all mixed in with a constant burble of watery ooze, spurting in messy arcs across Ama's chest and dripping down into the sodden canvas around them.

The chimera snarled and growled, cock throbbing across Ama's body, its knot pulsing around his thighs, just on and on for what had to be minutes, until he was soaked, fingertips pruny from the slime. The chimera's heaving breath slowed, and Ama thought it might've fallen asleep on him -- somehow -- before it eventually shoved him off, almost out of the cocoon of sodden canvas. The cold hit him like a punch, soaked skin prickling up in goosebumps instantly. He hit the floorboards with a thump, feet still resting on its thighs, bracketing the nightmarish swell of its knot. The thing was close to the width of his hips; he couldn't imagine that fitting in anyone or anything, even something as big as the chimera.

"Uh," Ama said, wiping some of the worst of the mess off his face, leaving his forearm covered in thick sludge. There was watery come trickling down his back. "You okay?"

The chimera's cock was still pumping, slowing now, with watery splashes hitting Ama's side, spilling to the floorboards below. It breathed a few times, hard; it swiped a clawed hand up its cock, squeezing out the last few spurts in a sloppy dollop that splattered across Ama, pudding-thick and coated in something runnier. Even without touching it directly, Ama could feel the feverish heat of its knot ebb minutely, its cock slowly, slowly flagging.

"Yes," it said, eventually, and held out a hand.

Ama took it, settling back into their now-soaking nest, pulling a face. His trousers were even more a mess, a layer of cooling ooze trapped in every fold, inside and out. Its softening cock was retracting, its half-flared knot pulling against its sheath, and the floppy, turgid length of its cock was dripping pre, smearing all over him. The chimera's fur was soaking wet, tufts spiking out in all directions; pressing his face into the ruff across its neck just smeared him with a fresh layer of cum. The chimera's heat was already baking the water out, dusty crusts of dried come flaking across its hands. Which was all good for it, but Ama was covered in a layer of rapidly cooling slime. He flicked his hand, casting slashing lines of come across the boxcar floor. "That was some show," he said, trying to scrape its jizz off his skin. "You always shoot like that?"

The chimera shrugged, silently. Ama squirmed out of his trousers, peeling them down his thighs, and then had to repeat the same thing with his underwear, casting them out onto the floor where they landed with a wet thump. It was impossible for him to tell which of the globby, slippery clots of stuff on his calves were old clay and which were the chimera's coagulated load. He pulled the hem of his shirt over his head, but the ragged fabric just tore, and he had to peel off individual shreds of fabric from his skin, like peeling off soaked bandages.

Underneath him, the chimera's pants were in the same state, soaked through and squelching as its cock retracted into its sheath, a huge gummy well of slime oozing out around the lip. Its fur was more the problem, but at least they could do something about the trousers.

"Hey, come on," Ama said, tugging at its waistband, and it obligingly lifted its lips, letting him peel them off. Its legs were goatlike, vaguely, three massive platter-like toes that ended in upturned talons, stiff and straight and kind of a hassle to maneuver the fabric around. Its balls, hidden before, were... exactly as huge as his cock suggested, lumpy and misshapen, bent like a kidney bean, hanging in a low, loose sac between its folded legs. It was a little too early for round two, but still, when his hand dragged over the fleecy fur of its inner thigh, the slow roll of its fat balls churning -- that sent a hot spark of desire through his stomach, yeah.

Stripped naked, pressed against the chimera's damp, crusty front, it was actually pretty comfortable. He could just imagine the air around them steaming, baking what remained of the mess down to itchy crusts. "We should do that again, absolutely," he mumbled into the chimera's neck fur, getting a rumble of acknowledgment and the chimera's hands wrapping more tightly around his sides, tugging him close as he slipped into a slightly deeper sleep.

He woke a few times -- once, the chimera got up to piss, Ama softly mumbling something, half in a bizarre dream. It stood by the door with one arm braced against the supports, body just a black silhouette against the night sky. It filled the door from top to bottom. He fell back asleep after it crawled back inside, curled up around him. Later he did the same thing, crawling out naked into the dead-of-the-night chill, cock burning from his jizz drying inside it, warming his clammy fingers afterwards by shoving them into the chimera's fuzzy armpits.

At one point the chimera woke him; it was snarling in its sleep, snapping its teeth at the air over Ama's shoulder, its entire body one tense surface under him. Ama was still wrapped tight, buried in the ruff of fur around its neck, and half-asleep he wondered if he should wake it up, and how he might do that without losing a limb or two.

He could tell when it woke itself, a snarl turning into a snort, the tension leeching from its body until it was lax beneath him. Its hands curled around him again, the pads of its fingers dragging down his back before cupping his ass, pressing them together. Ama rocked against its front, crackling with dried jizz, and a snarl with an entirely different meaning burst from its lips. Ama was half-hard, cock dragging through the chimera's matted fur. Its sheath alone was bigger than his cock, his cock slotting between the squishy, bloated tube and the chimera's thigh.

It squeezed his ass, one hand pressing lower, its huge talons clacking between his thighs as its fingertips dug dry against his asshole. Ama clenched, the pressure increasing before the chimera eased back, just circling the pucker of his asshole with the pad of one immense finger. Against his belly its sheath throbbed, oozing fresher pre. Slime squelched between them when it pressed him against its chest, legs spread and ass up. Ama's face was buried in its rank fur, musk and dried jizz saturating his senses as it rubbed against his ass, claws poking behind his balls. Even sharper-smelling pre oozed across his chest, in stringy globs, practically spurting out. The chimera wasn't even getting hard, just slowly unsheathing, rubbery and soft as its cock pushed out from its sheath, cloaked in a fresh layer of gummy slime. Its claw scraped a long line over the cheek of his ass as it ground its fingerpad hard against his asshole, bearing down with enough force to send his nerves singing, a weird pressure reaching up all the way inside him.

"Are we really gonna-- ah!" Ama gasped, sharp, as the chimera dragged its fingers away for a half-second and brought them back dripping slime, hot and thick as it smeared it all down the crack of his ass. It crackled when the chimera slid its fingers back. "Ohhhh, fuck," he groaned, spreading his legs and hiking his ass higher, spreading his asshole open.

There was no fucking way it could fit a finger into him, not topped with those foot-long knives of claws, so it worked back and forth, fingerpads sliding sloppy around the ring of his ass, feeding huge globs of pre into his spread asshole, until Ama was whining, hole fluttering open around the flat of its finger, its claws a broad, smooth surface, slick and slippery compared to the sodden, furry drag of its fingers.

Its cock radiated out pungent musk, a hot wind billowing up from its body, so rich he could taste it, rancid and metallic in the back of his throat. Unsheathed and limp, splayed up its chest even with Ama shuddering and fucking against it, hips snapping forward to thrust his cock along its sloppy length and then pulling back to increasingly desperately try and fuck himself against the chimera's fingers.

Its fingers swooped around his asshole, scooping up a drooling layer of its pre and then withdrawing, leaving Ama whining at the loss of contact. Then it pressed forward again, bristly fur scraping across his asshole, heavy hanks of fur grinding against his asshole, something broad and knobbled pressing against his asshole. His ass was flushed and open, but even so, whatever it was was thick, pressing harder and harder until it popped in with a squelch. Ama's entire body shuddered, ass clenching around the fat intrusion, tension concentrated down his spine. It was a knuckle, one of the chimera's long fingers curled up: a single huge, knobbled knuckle, fatter than a cock in his ass. The chimera shifted, knuckle twisting and catching around his asshole, and then the rest of its fingers were there again, smearing layers of slime over his skin, working it into his flushed and swollen flesh.

Ama groaned raggedly, thighs tense as he rocked back, all but sitting on the chimera's hand, ass already overstuffed with a single folded finger. Its knuckle sunk inside him, crackling and squelching as they moved against each other, his thighs trembling as he lifted himself a fraction higher, sloppy pre already drooling from his ass as its fingers fed more into his hole. His feet curled around the chimera's hips, clutching at its fur as he sunk himself again, straining his asshole open. He bottomed out, breath scorching out in a slow, controlled exhale when the fat knuckles of its palm pressed against his asshole. Its thumb moved along his cock, its huge claw pressing a sharp line from his bellybutton down.

It moved its hand, claws scraping tantalizingly over the curve of his ass, until a second sharp pressure pushed against his flushed ring: a second finger, curled up, its third crooked just beyond that. Ama buried his face in the chimera's ruff, mouth open and panting, sharp whining, gasping noises ripping their way up his throat as the chimera buried a second finger in his ass. Just that was close to a fist shoved inside him, two huge knuckles popping back and forth over the rim of his ass until he was flushed and gaping. It scissored them apart, cords of pre slicking down between them as it jammed them hard into his ass, ramming against his prostate with enough force to make him shudder, bellowing out a muffled moan into its fur. Its cock was hot and drooling, spurting into the hollow of Ama's neck, and the chimera caught the sludge oozing down its shaft, clotted and stringy with loose hairs, feeding it into Ama's ass and then plugging him with a third curled finger, his asshole stretched tight, reflexively clenching, feeling spread impossibly wide around the chimera's fingers.

It fucked him with three fingers, goopy strings spurting from his ass and fed right back in, its knuckles popping out one two three, leaving him spread and oozing before it pushed them all back in at once. Its hairy knuckles rubbed coarse over the delicate skin of his asshole, making it flushed and swollen, red and bruised. The painful ache soaked into him, fading into a bruised, flushed heat, pulsing along the rim of his ass and sparking hotter when it stretched him, wider than he thought he could take.

Ama's cock was slick, achingly hard as the chimera played with his ass. He shuddered and groaned, voice cracking lower when it bashed its fingers against his prostate and held them there, a prickling, dizzy heat sweeping through his entire body as it ground its knuckles into him, like it was ironing out his insides. It pushed deeper, until he could feel the spars of its claws on one side of his asshole, and the massive, knobbly swell of its knuckles on the other. It rolled him back and forth, knuckles scouring across the inside of his ass, its shaggy fur scrubbing on his insides. It seemed almost accidental that he came, dizzy heat rushing through him, peaking higher with each slow roll of its wrist, until Ama was flushed and sobbing, mouth open and drooling into its fur, pleading. It crested inside him, everything focusing on his cock as he came with a bellow, spurting into the chimera's tangled fur, again and again and again, each twitch of the chimera's knuckles dragging out another spurt, until each one hurt, and it kept going, through it; its slow, almost monotonous pace not changing a bit as it fucked his load right out of him.

Ama slumped forward, and with him lax and pliant the chimera sunk the first joint of its curled thumb alongside its other three fingers, its claw slick and smooth running over his aching, swollen asshole. Ama lay there, asshole gaping around the chimera's massive paw, squelching and slurping as it pressed through the slick mess it'd smeared across his ass, prodding back and forth like it was trying to map out the inside of his body. Its knuckles knocked against bone; even if it wanted to shove its entire fist inside him -- and Ama got the feeling that yeah, it did -- it wouldn't fit; it'd have to break his hips.

It pulled out with an almost sad slurp, and the sudden lack of pressure sent new waves of tingling heat through him, a phantom-sensation of its hand still stuffed up his ass. His asshole was gaping, swollen and unfurled between his cheeks; when he clenched down it pulled closed slowly, the ring of bruised flesh sinking back inside him with difficulty. The chimera was fully unsheathed, cock nightmarishly gigantic, but somehow still rubbery and soft. Ama hadn't been touching it; he slid his fingers down its flesh and the entire thing shuddered, twitching and stiffening only until he let it slap back against the chimera's chest.

"You wanna--" he said, fingers wrapping around the fat tip, squeezing out an eruption of pre, webbing across the chimera's muzzle and dripping with heavy slaps onto Ama's cheeks. It was huge, yeah, but tapered, and thin -- comparatively -- besides. Compared to half the thing's hand, he could fit the tip. Hell, he could fit most of the shaft; it wasn't the thickness that was the issue. He clenched, asshole squelching again as it puckered, hot flesh dragging against itself. "Just the tip, or... definitely, starting with just the tip."

The chimera groaned, a lowing, animal noise. It picked him up, effortlessly, with a single hand spread across his ass, its fingers sodden and slimy. His gaping asshole fluttered against its palm, smearing thicker slime as it shifted him back, dragging the spar of its cock down until he was perched almost on its knees, its cock a long, low line skewing from its body, rubbery and bent downwards. Its tip slid across him, pressing across his stomach and thighs, popping between his legs to send a hosing squirt against the canvas behind him, and then they both guided it into place, Ama's hands around the shaft and its huge paws around his, until the bloated tip was pressed flush against his asshole, spurting and drooling in huge runny streaks. Ama bit his lip, ass clenching one last time before spreading, taking in the tip with a shlop.

It was nothing like having its crooked fingers inside him. It was slick, so smooth, without the wet drag of its hair. It bent ever-so-slightly inside him, like thick rubber, as he sunk down on it. His thighs spasmed, aching from the effort of keeping himself steady on the spike of its cock, and in an instant its hands wrapped around his legs and the chimera rolled forward. The darkness around him whirled as he found himself on his back, legs in the air, the chimera's huge weight in front of him.

Its cock pulsed, a single shot inside him overflowing, slippery ooze squirting in ribbons around its cock and flooding up the crack of his ass, slobbering between the boxcar bed and his lower back. Its hands wrapped around his feet and it thrust forward, minutely, and then back, dragging the flared knob of its cock through the channel of his ass, again and again, until it had a steady motion, slowly sliding through the mess it was making of his ass and pulling back, leaving him gaping and oozing, slobbery strings of slime bubbling out of his wrecked ass around the flange of its cockhead.

It was almost getting fucked by some other guy -- bigger, maybe, but not that big. The chimera's cock was achingly thick, grinding through the bloated, bruised ring of his asshole, but not inhumanly so, not at the tip. Hot drool splattered down onto Ama's chest, splashing in uneven streams as the chimera groaned and growled. A splatter of spit dashed up his face, trickling slow across one squinted-shut eye.

The chimera's hide creaked as it bent down, the barnyard musk intensifying until it was crouched over him, drooling onto his face, its rank breath spilling across him in hot, wet pants. Its cock squelched inside him, pushing deeper, and when it paused he was nowhere near the end; the slick, inhuman shape of its shaft spread his cheeks and seemed to stretch out from there, more than would ever fit between them. A wet, slimy thing slapped across Ama's face, coiling in wet folds across his neck, flipping over to slide across his shoulders -- its tongue, he realized, spilling from its mouth, maw open right over him. The flats of its teeth pressed against the side of his head, thick drool spattering his face and spilling into his ear, making sound go swimmy.

They were both surprised when the chimera pushed deeper. Its cock pounded at the core of him, jamming again and again against the rear wall of his ass and skidding up, and then it thrust again and pushed through, a tight opening inside him bowing open. A plume of heat shot inside him, so scorching for a second Ama thought it had ripped right through him, and the chimera froze, perhaps thinking the same thing too. A second passed, its cock still spitting glugs of thick slime inside him, and the roar of pain Ama'd been half-expecting didn't come. He exhaled, shakily, squirming around its cock.

He reached up, hand knocking instantly against the chimera's face, feeling across its lips and jaw before he could spread his fingers across the meat of its neck. "It's good," he said, "Come on."

The chimera slid deeper, almost inquisitively, cock sliding with a dizzying shock through what felt like a second asshole, tight and high inside him and now pinned wide open, clenching around the chimera's cock. It was fucking up into his guts, its pre spilling higher and higher, until he could only feel it as a hot, heavy pressure, liquid slopping inside him. The chimera panted against his face, tongue limp across his chest, just streaking down drool as it rutted against him, hands splayed wide across his hips as it pushed deeper, thrusting shallowly. Ama felt stretched taut around its cock, like his entire body was just a wrapping around the monstrous, inhuman shaft, and still somehow there was still a path open inside him, a slick passage already lubed by its constantly-spurting slime, slippery and squirming all the way up inside him. Its shaft got fatter and fatter further down, and already what was buried in him was thicker than he'd ever thought about taking.

Its cock knocked against something else, a barrier that forced Ama's breath out in a wheeze, and as he exhaled the chimera's cock sunk inside him, like it was filling the space his breath left. There was a knock inside him, some catch pressing against the monstrous cockhead, and then loops of his guts shifted, dragging with an unsettling lurch until he was a straight tunnel, from ass to the underside of his ribs. The chimera's cockhead beat like a second heart, knocking against the inside of his ribs.

He was stuffed through, the chimera's cock pulsing and throbbing inside him, his guts clenching and shuddering around its shaft. Ama gasped -- each breath now squeezing against its cock -- as the chimera moved above him, barely thrusting, just... shifting, back, and forth, its breath catching as Ama squirmed around it. The chimera was curled around him, closer with most of its cock buried inside him, muzzle pressed against his back, haunches spread over his hips. Even with its cockhead digging into his chest cavity there was still a huge span of unsheathed cock between them, Ama's knees loosely pressed against its hips, with the fat, pulsing length of its cock hanging heavy between them, a foot of it pressed against the underside of his thighs, his skin scummy and slimy with pre bubbling from his ass.

More thick sludge was trapped inside him, gurgling and squelching in his guts, the wet weight all but sloshing. More and more built up, globules streaking down the length of the chimera's cock, webs of slime squirting out of him around the chimera's cock with each thrust, until the sheer weight of it broke the leaking seal, asshole gaping as a flood of sloppy pre burst from him with a disgusting squelch. Wet heat splattered against the backs of his thighs, winding lines slowly drooling over the curves of his hips. Frothy bubbles blurbled at his sides, where it was oozing through the slats of the boxcar, down onto the rails below.

They froze like that, Ama breathing fast, the chimera clutching him tight to its chest. The rattle of the boxcar jounced Ama on its cock, his wrecked body clenching and spasming with every minute drag of its monstrous cock, lodged deep inside him.

It pulsed inside him, and the pulses were indistinguishable from the shudders of the boxcar, jolting through them both. His mouth hung open, drooling heavily -- even the act of swallowing made him ache, its cock fighting for every inch of space. The only reason it hadn't simply cut through him like a knife was that it was so huge, a club shoved up his ass. They were unmoving, locked together, the chimera's claws pressing across his back, its tongue lolling out over his shoulder, fetid drool spilling over his skin. Its hips just twitched, and that was enough to shift the massive pillar of its cock, knocking the breath from his lungs and sending squirts of rank precome erupting from his wrecked asshole.

The chimera's uneven breath got sharper, louder; its chest was heaving under Ama's fingertips, the inhuman shape of its ribs hard under its skin for a half-second between exhale and inhale. Its grimy shaft swelled between Ama's thighs, audibly, a watery-sounding crackle of skin straining. Its knot was gnarled, with struts of gristle -- or maybe they were each single veins, immense and hard -- straining out from the irregular lump, two fat hemispheres on either side of its monstrous cock swelling bigger and bigger. Ama curled his legs around it, filling the space between their bodies and clenching hard. The chimera's entire body shuddered, claws scoring a sharp line across his hip. It groaned, inhuman lowing sounds, cock squelching and slurping as it feigned tying. Ama couldn't imagine anything could survive that, the bone-breakingly wide spread of its knot, nearly as wide as his hips, like a stuffed cushion against his ass.

The chimera erupted, the thick drool of its cock suddenly lancing out with the force of a punch, scalding-hot jizz spraying deep, deep in his ass. It was thick, gummy, clinging to the walls of his guts even as thinner, watery slime squirted out around the chimera's knot, a hard swell of come building and building deep inside him. It was burning inside him, entire body sweating, sweat prickling across his sides and across his forehead as its cock spat huge, tarry masses of jizz into his guts.

The baying noise it made was cracked, broken, snarling and whining, cutting off into sharp yowls when Ama tensed his legs, pressing its knot tighter. It throbbed, the gnarled flesh bulging and straining, veins popping to the surface in fat, hand-thick spans. Ama fucked himself deeper, arching his hips up to let its cock sink minutely deeper, his head spinning, lungs struggling to expand against its pulsing cockhead. Its knot was pinned against his ass, bigger than a bar stool, his spread legs pressing thin bands across its impossible size.

The chimera shuddered, a snarl ripping from its lips, and it strained against him, the full flare of its knot pressing against him. The heavy, solid gum spraying inside him died, replaced with something that gurgled and sloshed, wet fluid crashing against itself as it erupted into his guts. Ama groaned, one hand feeling across his stomach, his steaming skin drawn taut, muscles straining as it dumped its load inside him. It was a heavy pressure, high inside him, and as it built it strained against the flesh of its cock, building up until it reached some internal pressure and erupted down his guts, bloating his ravaged guts around its shaft as what had to be liters of hosed down, streaming lower inside him until it finally erupted from his ass with a disgusting slurp, cracking, gurgling snaps as slimy ropes of fluid webbed between their meshed bodies, coating the top of its knot with ooze, only slowly trickling across the vast swell, squelching under his calves. Hot vapor billowed up across his stomach, steaming jizz erupting from his overfilled ass in messy bursts, forming a jiggling, frothy mess between their bodies, thick pearls of slime trickling across his hips.

The chimera strained, bearing down on Ama like it had any hope of its knot fitting into his ass. Slick and sopping wet, it was like a boulder against his ass. The slightest portion of it -- a tiny flange at the joint where its knot first bulged out, a grimy ridge of flesh, or maybe a single swollen vein -- dug between his cheeks, the angle just right for it to slop inside the rim of his wrecked asshole and just as quickly pop back out with a deluge of jizz, and the chimera rutted and growled, cock giving a quick double-time pulse that hit Ama with the force of a punch, wheezing for breath. With his legs locked around its knot, and its hands squeezing his ankles back against his ass, they were tied as solidly as could be.

Ama couldn't tell how long it lasted, an unending stream of watery, rank jizz pumping inside him and then erupting out, all of it -- the chimera's wet drool spraying across his front, its body curled around his bloated gut, the strain and ache of its unending load, the rattle and jostle of the train itself -- combining into a delirious, timeless span where he dozed, half-asleep, half-waking with gasping mewls when the chimera's cock throbbed stronger inside him.

It could've been minutes or hours; all he knew was at some point the flood of animal jizz inside him slowed, matched by the burning heat of the chimera's knot cooling, the rock-hard core of its cock softening to a rubbery weight. The chimera stirred, cock twitching, and then it withdrew, its turgid shaft pulling from his ass to his lungs, nearly dragging his guts with it as it slid out, slow and heavy. The shaft was coated to dripping with its sloppy load, ooze spurting out and drooling down his soaked thighs, more and more as what had to be feet of its cock pulled out from inside him. It felt like it left a hollow imprint inside him, guts molded out of shape. It finally popped out from between his bent legs with a squelch, the flare of its cockhead catching with a rubbery thump against the wrecked ring of his ass.

He was sodden with jizz, the canvas saturated around him, practically leaving him swimming in it. The chimera lifted him up, bodily pulling him off its cock with a disgusting gulp. His ass was wrecked, cratered, and a ragged waterfall of cum simply poured out, wet glugs high up in his guts as its load bubbled out of him. A sharp pain shot up his spine when he tried to clench closed, and he whined, reaching to feel with his hands. His asshole was swollen, ravaged, his flesh bloated into a fat, puffy disk, sensitive to the touch, and more than a little torn, stinging lines in furrows around the broken rim. Cum burbled over his fingers, a thick sludge of it painted across his skin.

The chimera all but dragged him back, casting off the ruined canvas before wrapping a fresh hank around them, scratchy but dry, or at least until the mess drooling from Ama's ass soaked through it again. He squirmed in the chimera's grasp, trying to wipe the worst of the mess from the rest of his body, but it pulled him closer, enveloping him in its burning heat. Presently, he slept.

---

Morning came too early, Ama waking with a mouthful of rank fur. The chimera was asleep too, chuffing snores coming from its muzzle. The dawn sunlight shone onto the floor, brightly illuminating the rest of the boxcar. In the morning light -- well, they'd left more than enough evidence of their nighttime activities. There was a huge greasy splotch across the center of the boxcar, with the ruined canvas and their clothes in a tangled heap, still visibly wet. Congealed puddles of jizz tracked back against the wall, to where they were sitting, and the hems of their fresh bolt of canvas were dark with moisture.

And as for himself -- Ama shifted and immediately regretted it. He'd felt clear and alert right up until he tried to sit up, and then the aches of his body burst to life, concentrating on the throb of his asshole, the aching line of his guts, all the way up inside him. It was still swollen, distending from between his cheeks in a messy furl, and as he sat it bulged and deformed from the simple pressure of the movement, spreading open and leaking jizz -- still! -- below, into the sloppy mess he'd been sleeping in. He was coated in shed fur from his chest down, huge mats plastered to his skin. He picked at some, absently, leaving behind crusted white patterns.

It was the first time he'd seen the chimera in full light, too. Maybe he should've thought it looked peaceful in sleep, but no: its muzzle was slightly open, shining dagger teeth on display, and its huge black claws were loosely curled around Ama's stomach, lacing between each other. It was immense and terrifying.

Less terrifying now than it'd been last night, however.

The train jolted again, and the chimera awoke with a snort, eyes snapping open and rolling wildly in its skull before it seemed to get its bearings. The brakes came on with a squeal, the force rocking Ama back against the chimera, and he realized that was what'd woken him up, not the light: the train was almost to St. Aquinas, hitting the first switches outside the city.

"Morning," he said, voice scratchy and rough. The inside of his mouth tasted awful, like the end of a week-long drunk. There was greasy sludge piled between his lips and gums; he licked between them and spat.

They rolled apart with a thump, the morning air still chill. Ama reached for his trousers, only damp instead of completely soaked, and pulled them on, making hisses of pain the whole time. They caught on his calves and thighs, and then stuck solidly to the still-wet mess of his ass, the thin fabric practically outlining his asshole. Ama got to his feet, pushing off the chimera's bulk, gasping again when he finally got his feet under him.

He moved over to the open door, and when he could finally see out he whooped, forgetting his aches for a second. "Holy shit, man! You wanted to get lucky? You sure as hell got lucky!"

The train was pointed straight at St. Aquinas, the engine far ahead a groping finger, with a black streak of smoke billowing up and streaking out above them, whipping to the side in the higher air. The city was set on the foothills of the mountains, in the trench between two ranges, and dead in the center of the pass were black storm clouds, lightning flashing at intervals. Already there were dark tendrils streaming down, looking to drench the city in sleet before midday.

"Storm coming," he said. "It'll wash away any trace we were here." And then, looking at the mess of the boxcar: "Well, any magical trace." The chimera looked nonplussed, eyes focused on him but not really seeing. "If we get to the foothills before it breaks we can be anywhere by the time the search gets here. If there's even a search coming here in the first place."

"You keep saying we," the chimera said, slowly.

"Yeah, well-- you broke it, you bought it. After last night I'm gonna be pretty fucking hopeless at running from the guards for a while, so you better fucking tag along. Besides, like I said, I know the land. There's all sorts of homesteads up in the mountains that'll give scraps to one of their boys hiding from the guard." He looked over at the chimera, its dinner-plate hooves sticking out from the canvas swath. "Ain't gonna do that for some scary-ass chimera."

The chimera grumbled, but got up, and -- it was tall, horns nearly scraping the top of the boxcar, he hadn't quite fully realized, in the night. It swayed, tail lashing behind it, wobbling against the shifting speed of the slowing train. "Fine." Then it looked over: "How do we get off?"

"Jump." And Ama wasn't looking forward to that, not in the least. Boxcar jumping was dangerous no matter what, and with him in his current state... "They're breaking 'cause we're almost to the the switches. We're pretty far back, so we should be good to make a break for it without anyone seeing us if we get off soon." He looked over, and then up, at the chimera. "Not gonna lie, you're gonna have to carry me afterwards. Worst case scenario, I break an arm or some shit landing; that ain't gonna be pretty." He took some wobbling steps back and forth across the boxcar, trying to get his still-aching legs cooperating, trying to work the ache from his knees to his back down into something manageable. He could do this.

"When?" The chimera was brooding in the boxcar door, on all fours, fingers curled over the entryway.

"Whenever. You go first, then me -- me hitting you is gonna be a lot better than you hitting me. Ready?"

"Sure."

The rails shrieked again, the cabin ahead hitting a switch and starting the long curve to whatever warehouse. The links between the other cars locked, and Ama bowed back from the change in speed. The chimera was breathing fast.

Ama kissed its horns, just above the slope of its skull. "See you on the other side. Go!" And it leapt, suddenly gone from the car, canvas streaming out behind it like a comet's tail. Ama didn't watch: he took a few steps back, breathed twice, and dashed for the door. His foot hit the sill perfectly, launching himself out and clear of the train, and then he was in the air.

The morning sun was a gleaming penny, drawn into a brilliant streaky line that burned green-black afterimages behind his eyelids. The wind was whistling sharp in his ears, and he opened his eyes: yellow scrubland and blue sky spinning around him, the chimera a dark streak nearby. He landed.