FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Warning, incoming missiles. Deploying curtain fire." the slightly mechanical, yet undeniably female voice of the vehicle's VI piped up for what felt like the hundredth time, momentarily muting the frenzied thumping of the fast-paced, aggressive techno music which had thus far filled the small cockpit.

"Oh for fuck's sake, really?" Onyeka cursed as she briskly pulled the twin control sticks towards her, sending the small, almost triangular aircraft into a steep ascent that culminated in a complete loop, placing her behind the enemy fighter jet that had been tailing her while the automated vulcan cannons effortlessly picked its projectiles out of the sky.

"Missiles neutralized, ammo consumption within tolerance."

"I'm ripping this goddamn voice interface out the moment I land...now come here you bliksem!" she growled, briefly falling back into her native Afrikaans, grinning slightly as she positioned herself behind the other aircraft, keeping it in her targeting reticle at all times despite the enemy pilot's desperate attempts to shake her off, demonstrating the impressive agility of her strange vehicle.

Being one of the best pilots in the entire armed forces of the Helix Industries mega-corporation, even before she became an active member of their unit of genetically enhanced super-soldiers, the CHIMERAs, Onyeka Tichaona was frequently charged with the field testing of the weapons department's newest toys, a duty which she immensely enjoyed. This time, the 27 year-old hyena was piloting the aerial division's project 0913-delta, codename "Hoplite" as a reference to its spearhead-like shape, a prototype fighter craft which remained airborne entirely through cutting-edge antigrav-generators instead of wings, giving it an incredible amount of maneuverability.

In addition to Onyeka's excellent reputation, however, another reason why her superiors had chosen her for this mission instead of one of the many other available pilots lay in the particular nature of this field test, which did not take place in a controlled airspace with friendly aircrafts and dummy projectiles, but over an actual battlefield in a real war zone, where Helix Industries' paramilitary forces, including the CHIMERAs, had been hired to aid government troops in finally bringing an end to a bloody civil war which had been sweeping the area for months.

"Target locked" the body-less copilot announced as the targeting reticle blinked rapidly, causing Onyeka to grin toothily as her left thumb pressed down heartily.

"Missile engaged." the VI commented as emotionless as ever, seconds before the enemy aircraft went down in a ball of flames, "Target neutralized."

"Why thank you, Captain Obvious - I would never have guessed!", Onyeka sneered, letting out a cackle that only a hyena could produce as she pulled the fighter to the right to avoid the rain of debris when suddenly, a trilling sound in her ears signaled an incoming radio message.

"Onyeka, do you copy?" the deep, gruff voice of Patrick Scherer, the commander of the CHIMERA unit, who was currently leading the ground offensive, barked through the radio, the sounds of gunfire and explosions ringing in the background.

"Yes sir!" she answered, casually avoiding fire from an anti-aircraft turret while simultaneously flagging its position for bombardment by their artillery.

"Government infantry ran into some trouble with some enemy tanks on the left flank and their own armor is not in range yet - think you can take care of that? That thing has heavy weaponry, right?" he barked before another explosion blasted through the radio, distorted by static.

Onyeka's eyes lit up at the prospect of testing the Hoplite's most destructive piece of armament and she could feel her nethers tingle with anticipation as she growled an enthusiastic "Copy that, sir - just tell me where to go!" into the radio.

"Sending the coordinates now - take care, Onyeka! Don't get too exited, this is still a real battlefield, remember?", came the gruff reply, though she could almost feel the Doberman's grin through the radio, her fondness for heavy weaponry being widely known throughout the unit and beyond.

"Me? Never!" the hyena shot back before breaking into cackling laughter once again as she pulled her aircraft through a breakneck turning maneuver and headed for the received coordinates at full throttle.

When she arrived at her destination less than two minutes later, the situation for the government troops was indeed looking quite nasty, an entire company of infantrymen was under heavy fire from five tanks, having retreated into the smoking ruins of some ancient-looking building from where they desperately tried to return fire, though they seemed to lack any weaponry heavy enough to make a dent in the heavy vehicles.

"Looks like I'm just in time..." Onyeka muttered to herself as she shot over the tanks before flying a loop to prepare for the actual attack, her ice blue eyes flashing as she growled, "Now let's see what you can do..."

"Powering up main weapon systems. 50%...60%", the VI announced and Onyeka adjusted her course slightly in a way that three of the five tanks were aligned in her sights, sweating slightly as she could feel her pants grow tighter.

"80%...90%...100% Railguns fully powered."

An electric buzz seemed to fill the air inside the small cockpit, causing the hyena's fur to stand on end as she let her thumb hover above the trigger for a heartbeat before finally pressing down empathetically.

There was no muzzle flash as the twin projectiles were sent on their destructive journey at several times the speed of sound by hundreds of powerful electromagnets, ripping through all three enemy tanks like a knife through butter before the heavy vehicles went up in a ball of flames after a moment of eerie silence.

"Oh FUCK YEAH!", Onyeka roared in pure, unadulterated bliss, blushing under her helmet as she suddenly felt a warm wetness in her crotch and with a deep moan, realized that she had just orgasmed. She cackled madly, high on adrenaline and endorphins as she pulled around for a second attack, taking the remaining two tanks into her sights while she powered up the devastating weapons a second time. The approach was more difficult this time around, however, the sudden destruction of three of their fellow vehicles having alerted the remaining tanks to her presence, causing them to mercilessly pelt her with machine gun fire. Onyeka was an exceptionally skilled pilot, though, and by the time the mechanical voice announced the renewed operational readiness of her main guns, the hyena had both enemy vehicles properly lined up and ready for a repetition of her first attack.

"Goeienag fuckers!", she bellowed as she pulled the trigger, gasping in rapture as the tanks went up in flames, causing a second orgasm to rip through her body, further staining the crotch of her uniform.

Panting slightly, she pulled her fighter into a steep ascent before opening a radio channel to her commanding officer.

"Commander Scherer, do you copy?" she asked with a grin on her lips, her voice slightly shaky.

"This is Scherer - Onyeka, what's the situation?" the Doberman's voice barked through the speakers, still slightly distorted by static.

"Enemy armor has been de-fucking-stroyed, Sir - went up like a bunch of firecrackers!" the hyena answered, unable to stifle a cackle.

For a moment, the other end of the line was silent save for the sound of gunfire, but when the Doberman did answer, Onyeka could almost feel him roll his eyes as he spoke, "Copy that...so I take it you like your new toy?"

"Like it, Sir?" she asked, fighting back another bout of laughter, "I fucking came twice and I'm still rock hard - 'like it' doesn't even come fucking close!"

Now for most people, such a statement, especially when said in the voice of a - admittedly rather tomboyish, but still definitely female - woman, would have sounded rather weird, but those who knew Onyeka were well aware of the anatomical peculiarities of female spotted hyenas, namely their fused labia and greatly elongated clitoris, which gave them the appearance of possessing male genitals, so Patrick Scherer was only dumbstruck for a short moment before he shook his head and answered in a bemused tone.

"I'm not sure if that information is going into the official report, but I'll see that you can keep it after the mission." he smirked and cleared his throat before continuing in a more serious voice, "In all seriousness though, how is the vehicle performing under stress?"

"Sorry, Sir - the "Hoplite" is performing admirably. All systems are in the green except for the main thrusters, which are running a little hot - although I did just put it through a five-mile climb at peak thrust, so that's not surprising...", Onyeka reported, blushing furiously under her helmet as she was reminded that all friendship and lightheartedness apart, Patrick was still her commanding officer, when a fast-moving dot on her radar suddenly caught her attention.

"Sir, I'll have to continue my report later." she said abruptly, seconds before another enemy fighter whooshed past her, causing her to curse under her breath as her aircraft was shaken by the sudden blast of air.

"Son of a..." she swore, baring her teeth as she engaged her thrusters and shot after her enemy, "So you want to play catch, huh?"

It took her less than half a minute to catch up, but the enemy pilot turned out to be quite skilled, evading her targeting reticle time and time again through quick turns and rolls until she finally managed to lock on, grinning triumphantly as her thumb hovered over the trigger.

"Not good enough - now say goodb-"

She never got to finish the sentence as a sudden explosion rocked her fighter, causing the interface to light up in a blinking mess of warning signs, alarm signals ringing in her ears.

"Warning! Temperature overload! Main thrusters offline!", the VI's mechanical voice announced nonchalantly as the "Hoplite" began to buck like a wild stallion, flames and smoke breaking out of its rear as the small aircraft began to lose altitude.

Onyeka let loose a stream of bi-lingual curses that would have put every sailor to shame while her fingers flew feverishly across buttons and levers in a frantic attempt to return the fighter to her control, but as more and more systems were fried beyond repair, she soon realized that the "Hoplite" was a goner.

"Fucking piece of goddamn..." she swore, her hand already hovering above the button that would blow off the canopy and launch her to safety when she suddenly realized that the enemy fighter she had been pursuing was still locked in the targeting reticle.

"Bastard, at least you're going down with me!" she roared triumphantly as she sent two last missiles his way before she bailed out, clenching her teeth as the g-force of the sudden upwards acceleration hit her like a well-placed kick to the stomach. As her parachute opened, Onyeka shot one last glance at her fighter, which went up in a ball of flames far below her when another explosion, this time above and before her, caused her head to snap upwards.

What happened next couldn't have taken longer than a few seconds, though to the hyena it seemed like an eternity - one that she would relive countless times as it burned itself into her memory.

The huge, red and orange fireball above her confirmed that her missiles had found their target, bringing a malicious grin to the hyena's lips as the enemy fighter was reduced to scrap metal. Her grin froze instantly, however, when she realized that one particularly large piece of debris, most likely part of a wing or its tail unit, was coming directly at her like a giant saw blade from a contraption devised by the villain of an 80s super agent movie. Time slowed down so far that Onyeka was actually able to read the letters painted on the now charred, metal surface, unable to do anything to get herself out of harm's way but desperately throw her weight to one side.

She already knew that it was not enough a split second before the sharp metal tore through the fabric of her uniform's right arm, going through skin, muscle, sinew and bone like a hot knife through butter as it severed her arm inches below her shoulder. At first - and much to her surprise - she felt no pain, only bewilderment as she watched the appendage that had one second ago still been firmly attached to her body plummet to the surface, wagging in what appeared as a terrible imitation of a wave as it shrank into a small dot before vanishing completely from her field of vision.

She stared blankly at the spot where she had last seen her arm for several more seconds as she hung from her parachute until finally her mind caught up with what had happened and she let out a blood curdling scream as her entire world faded into an explosion of white-hot agony.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When she finally came to, Onyeka found herself sitting bolt upright in her bed, body shaking like a leaf in the wind as she gasped for air, her fur glistening with cold sweat. It took her several moments to gather her bearings enough to realize that it had been her own scream that had woken her from her nightmare.

"A nightmare..." she muttered flatly, hesitantly reaching for her right shoulder with her left paw in a moment of foolish hope, though her fingers found nothing but a stump where her arm had been, just like all the other times she had woken up like this.

"...if only..." she sighed, choking back a sob. At least she had gotten the damned crying under control, if only recently. Less than three weeks ago she would have burst into tears at this point, sobbing uncontrollably until her eyes stung and her lungs burned from the exhaustion. Fortunately for her, she had gotten past that phase of post-traumatic stress and even though her eyes were still watery, her vision was clear enough for her to be able to read the glowing red numbers on her alarm clock.

3.39 AM

"Fucking ridiculous..." Onyeka growled, blinking away the last hint of a tear as she got out of bed, knowing full well that sleep was out of the question for now, lest she wanted to risk another trip down memory lane, which was something she could damn well go without.

It had been almost four months since that fateful day, but her memory of it was still crystal clear with her reliving it again and again every night, though never past the part where the debris had hit her.

She had lost consciousness soon after she had lost sight of her severed arm, only to regain it shortly after she had touched down rather roughly among the smoldering remains of a recently bombed village. Any ordinary mortal would have probably bled to death before reaching the ground, but Onyeka's genetically enhanced body had kicked its production of new blood into overdrive, enabling the hyena to somehow not only untangle herself from her parachute, but to drag herself almost a mile through the sweltering sun before she was finally found and rescued by the troops led by Commander Scherer.

They had raced her back to HQ and stuck her into an accelerated healing tank, a technical marvel whose existence Helix Industries had yet to share with the general public lest they wanted to collectively put trauma surgeons around the world out of business, which had healed her physical wounds in no more than five days.

Unfortunately, while the tank's ingenious combination of proteins, growth factors, stimulants and nanomachines were able to mend tissue and heal broken bones in record time, the regenerating of entire limbs was still beyond the machine's capability, much to Onyeka's dismay when she woke from her induced coma-like sleep five days later with nothing but a stump where her right arm had been.

Shaking her head to banish the unpleasant thoughts that kept creeping back into her mind the hyena reached for a half-filled bottle of water (the kind with a "sports cap" one can open without having to screw it off first) on her nightstand and emptied it in three gulps before throwing it into the trash with a clatter.

"Well" she thought aloud, stretching her back with a satisfying series of pops and cracks, "If the night's over already I might as well do something useful with my time..."

She pulled a thin exercise mat from a peg on the wall and threw it deftly onto the ground next to her bed, not bothering to put on any clothes as she laid down with her back on its cool surface and launched herself into a long series of stretches and abdominal exercises, her heavy breathing and rhythmic grunting the only sound to break the silence of the room.

By the time she had finished her routine, the air in Onyeka's bedroom was so thick with the heavy, earthy smell of wet fur and sweaty hyena that the windows had begun to fog over, obscuring her view of the slowly waking city. The glowing numbers on her alarm clock revealed that it was almost 5 AM when the now panting hyena decided that she had tormented her body enough for now and started heading for her shower, stopping dead in her tracks for a moment when she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirrored closet doors.

Even when ignoring the obvious absence of her right arm, the figure that stared back at her from inside the mirror was definitively not something you saw every day. Though she was unmistakably female, Onyeka possessed a physique that put most professional male athletes to shame. Thick, corded muscles moved like snakes under the skin and fur of her legs and remaining arm as she adjusted her stance slightly and her midriff sported a set of six-pack abs that wouldn't have looked out of place on a male underwear model. Her breasts were a generous c-cup, held firm and perky even without a bra by the powerful pectoral muscles beneath. The last thing to round off the picture, which always made her stand out in the crowd was the cascade of dark brown dreadlocks which fell over her back like a wild tangle of tree roots, coming down almost to her rump and giving her a certain air of fierce, untamed wildness that was rather befitting of her nature.

She stared at herself for a few seconds, tentatively flexing her good arm, letting out a deep sigh as her eyes lingered on what remained of its counterpart before she managed to break herself away from the mirror with an angry snarl and stomp into her bathroom.

Onyeka took her time showering, greatly savoring the feeling of the hot water cascading over her body. During her childhood in Africa, clean, running water alone had been a scarce commodity, making something as simple as a shower an extremely rare luxury, which was why, to this day, the hyena always felt a sense of inner peace and deep satisfaction whenever she stood under the steamy torrent.

By the time she had finished, her mood had risen noticeably and she even managed a small chuckle as she struggled vainly to restrain her wild tangle of dreadlocks into something resembling a ponytail with the help of an elastic hair band.

"Oh fine..." she muttered after minutes of fruitless struggle and grudgingly decided to concede defeat in favor of breakfast, which she ate sitting at her open living room window, naked as the day she was born as she watched the sun rise. Onyeka didn't really consider herself a nudist - never would she think about going out in public uncovered, but within the privacy of her own apartment she seldom wore clothes, favoring the soft caress of cool air on her bare fur to the confining touch of fabric.

By the time she had been drained her cup of its contents for the second time, the sun was already well above the horizon and Onyeka decided with a yawn that it was time for her to start her day proper. The hyena's gaze wandered to something on her living-room table as she set her cup down and stood, stretching her back briefly before she trotted over to said table, letting out a brief snort as she regarded the object disdainfully.

Soberly assessed, the prosthesis was a technical masterpiece, a marvel of engineering consisting of dozens of motors, servos and tiny hydraulics that granted a level of movement and dexterity that was almost on par with a real arm, controlled via induction through the electric impulses generated by the action potentials of the wearer's remaining nerves and all encased in a titanium alloy that was as light as it was durable.

But to Onyeka it felt like little more than a shiny, 8 million dollar crutch, as well as a constant reminder of what she had lost. The metal arm sprang to life with a series of soft beeps as the hyena pulled the padded cuff that formed its top end over her stump with her left paw before slipping into the straps that held the prosthesis in place. The artificial appendage twitched a few times as it synchronized its servos to her nerve signals one after the other while Onyeka forced herself to hold as still as possible. By now, she had grown at least somewhat accustomed to the procedure and while it didn't freak her out nearly as much as it had the first time, the sensation was still beyond weird.

Fortunately, it was also over in less than a minute, a quartet of merry beeps signaling the prosthesis' successful calibration. Onyeka let out the breath she had subconsciously holding and flexed the metal arm tentatively, opening and closing her fingers several times to make sure everything behaved properly.

When she had convinced herself that everything was in order the hyena returned to her bathroom and, now that she once again had two hands at her disposal, made short work of her rebellious hair, grinning toothily as she shot her mirror image a triumphant look, chuckling "Gotcha!" before proceeding to get dressed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Despite having entered and exited the building more times than she cared to count, Helix Industries' Headquarters never ceased to leave Onyeka staring in awe. Made entirely from glass and steel (alongside several other, more durable metals), the gleaming spire's curious, rhomboid form dwarfed every other building in its vicinity with its 600-something meters of height, looming over them like a predator preparing to pounce. Above ground level, over 100 floors housed countless offices and research facilities for the company's countless divisions, as well as residence floors for its employees from smaller apartments for lower-level staff to the luxurious, story-spanning domiciles of the top executives.

Much more interesting - and completely unknown to the general public - were the 20 subterranean floors, which were could only be accessed by staff members with special clearance. These floors housed most of the facilities for Helix Industries' more delicate research, mostly in the field of military technology (which was already years ahead of anything government troops had at their disposal), novel energy sources and, of course, Dr Anton Askari's department of fringe science - the freak show, as some people had come to call it.

The brilliant jackal scientist's research had provided some of the world's most significant breakthroughs of recent years, the most prestigious being the EVE-olve therapy, which had enabled countless cross-species couples across the world to not only have children, but also granted that those children were capable of reproduction themselves. This biomedical marvel had not only secured Dr Askari a place in science history, but also caused the company's power and influence to skyrocket, enabling it to branch out further and further until it had become one of the major players in worldwide economy. The doctor's genius had also brought forth the genetically enhanced CHIMERAs, to which Onyeka also belonged.

The soft impact of some suit-wearing fox's briefcase bumping against her thigh as its owner jostled past her, followed by the vulpine's brief, over-the-shoulder apology brought Onyeka back from her little daydream. She gave a quick nod, grinning cordially in acceptance of the fox's apology, but the vulpine was in such a hurry that he never saw it, having already disappeared into the crowd.

"Pencil pushers..." Onyeka muttered under her breath, shaking her head, but nevertheless did she decide to follow his example and entered the building's expansive foyer. In here, the crowd of furs quickly dispersed, heading for one or the other of the various, elevators or stairs giving the hyena some room to breathe as she made a beeline for a security checkpoint at the back of the hall.

"Hola señora Onyeka!", the porter, a young, stout and perpetually grinning Dachshund by the illustrious name of Vicente Luiz Escarrá, called out as soon as he saw her, tipping the hat of his dark blue uniform as he winked at her, "How is my favorite Amazon princess doing this fine morning?"

Onyeka rolled her eyes theatrically, though she couldn't help but smile at the small dog's comment. Despite being only an inch above five feet tall, the bubbly canine seemed to possess sheer endless amounts of confidence and was notorious for flirting with anyone and anything with a pair of tits regardless of size, species or position within the company - something that would have gotten him into trouble several times already were it not for his uncanny ability to have people not be mad at him for longer than a few seconds at a time.

"Fine I guess - morning, Vic, how's it hanging?" the hyena replied with a grin as she stepped onto the platform of the full-body scanner next to the Dachshund's desk and waited for clearance,

"Hehe, ricura- you know for you it never is!" the short canine chuckled, shooting her a flirtatious grin as he activated the scanner, which softly hummed to life under Onyeka's feet.

"Oh, I'm sure of that..." she retorted, making a face, though once again she couldn't stop herself from smiling a little.

"Wha~at, you don't believe Vicente?", the Dachshund gasped, feigning outrage as he dramatically placed his stubby paws on his chest in emphasis, "How about we go out for dinner tonight and I show you afterwards, eh?"

"I'm flattered - really, I am" Onyeka replied, flashing him the most sincere grin she could muster, "But I'll have to decline. I...err...already have plans for tonight."

"Ah, I see...", the wiener dog sighed, hanging his head in defeat for a moment, tough he "recovered" almost instantly, "No love for old Vicente - but I forgive you, don't worry, guapa." At that very moment, the scanner gave a soft beep, signaling the completions of the procedure and prompting Vicente to add in a more professional tone, "Everything seems in order - see you around, Onyeka."

"Sure, see ya." the hyena answered, briefly waving back at him as she headed on towards one of the elevators. Despite all the nicknames and shameless flirting, Onyeka had come to hold the exuberant little canine in high regards for one simple fact: He had never - not even once - mentioned her prosthetic arm which, though currently hidden from the passing eye inside the sleeve of a black leather jacket and matching glove, was bound to show up on Vicente's monitor every time she passed the scanner.

"Good morning", the pleasant, female voice of HILDA ( H elix I ndustries L ocal D ata A ssistant) the building's VI greeted her as soon as she stepped into the elevator, "Please specify your destination."

"B 15, CHIMERA Headquarters.", Onyeka answered, swallowing the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat as the cool, emotionless voice reminded her slightly of the "Hoplite's" VI, though she quickly banished the thought, not wanting to trigger her memories of the crash again.

"Affirmative", came the automated answer as a panel opened in the back wall of the elevator, revealing a small, round, lens-like object, "Please prepare for retinal scan."

The hyena complied, forcing her eyes wide open as a green beam of light swept over them, blinding her momentarily.

"Access granted. Welcome, Operative Tichaona.", the VI chimed and the elevator began its descent, which took only a few seconds before the VI announced "B 15, CHIMERA Headquarters, have a pleasant day."

Besides containing a mission briefing room, medical bay and training facilities, the CHIMERA floor had been specifically created to meet as many of the special unit's members' needs as possible and featured a lounge area, sleeping quarters, mess hall, fitness rooms and recreational areas, enabling the operatives to take up prolonged residence within the company building during times of high demand or whenever they felt like it. Onyeka had made use of this opportunity several times in the past, though she preferred the privacy of her own apartment in the long run, as did most of her fellow CHIMERAs.

When she exited the elevator and stepped into the lounge area, she found it all but deserted save for a single fur, a short, wiry, male Siamese in a black T-shirt, who was wearing his equally black headfur in a prominent, loosely tied topknot and was currently absorbed in the small, paperback book he was reading.

"Onyeka-chan!" the feline exclaimed as soon as his eyes, which were almost identical to Onyeka's, caught sight of the hyena and, after hurriedly putting his book down, vaulted over the backrest of the couch he was sitting on with the grace and effortlessness of a professional acrobat to run over and greet her.

"Welcome back, sister!" the slightly effusive feline purred as he wrapped his arms around her in a brief but warm - and surprisingly powerful - bear hug, "I didn't think you'd visit us again so soon - aren't you still officially on leave?"

"Hey Kaito..." she replied, quietly enduring the embrace while awkwardly returning it with her left arm, subconsciously holding her prosthesis at her side. Out in the field, the slinky Siamese was one of the most ruthless, determined and skilled killers Onyeka had ever seen, but a childhood full of abandonment and loneliness had left deep scars in the feline's psyche, causing him to become extremely attached to his fellow CHIMERAs, regarding them more as family than team members.

"You're right, though" she continued, breaking the embrace, "Officially I'm on leave indefinitely, but I'm bored as hell at home and since the Doc wants to check on me on a regular basis anyway, I figured I'd come by for a visit. Where is everybody, by the way?"

"Ah, not really a homely person, are you Onyeka-chan?" Kaito said, grinning as he took two steps backwards and placed two fingers against the side of his chin in thought, a little quirk of his which the hyena had always found rather amusing, though she managed to stifle her giggle as he went on, "Hmm, the others...let's see...Commander Scherer is on leave, don't know where, the twins have been bashing their heads in with telekinesis in the training room since 5.30, James is in the gym, Zhenya is up in weapons dev., testing some new toy and the big bear hasn't come out of his room yet. It's been a slow week, you see?"

Smiling at Kaito's enthusiasm, Onyeka decided that now was a good moment to take her leave lest the bubbly feline had a chance to envelope her in a - typically rather lengthy - conversation. Not that she didn't like Kaito, but the simple fact that they just didn't have much in common, paired with the Siamese's considerable need for communication made being around him a rather tiring experience for the hyena, even more so now that she still didn't quite feel herself since her accident.

"Sounds like it" she said, still smiling, though it seemed a little more forced by now, "But that probably means the Doctor is free at the moment, right?"

"Could be" Kaito replied with a shrug, "Haven't seen him since two days ago, but I guess he's down in his lab - I wouldn't be surprised if he sleeps there sometimes, too."

"Thanks Kaito, I'll have a look. See you around!", she said with a nod, giving him another brief, friendly hug with her left arm, again holding her prosthetic right arm outwards at an angle subconsciously before breaking the embrace and heading towards another elevator across the lounge area.

"Sure!" the Siamese replied, still grinning as he paused for a moment before calling after her, "You can use both arms, you know? I don't mind at all."

His words sent a wave of cold down Onyeka's spine, causing her to stop dead in her tracks for a second, water shooting into her eyes before she managed to blink away the tears and resume her pace, not daring to look back as she felt her cheeks blush furiously under her fur.

She knew Kaito hadn't meant anything by it, but his words had felt like a punch in the gut to the hyena, who hadn't even noticed that she was keeping her mechanical arm away from him until now and while equally large parts of her wanted nothing more than to either punch the grin from the wiry feline's face or curl up in a corner and cry, reason won out over emotions and she simply kept walking, pretending he wasn't there.

'What the hell is wrong with you, girl?' she thought to herself angrily, blinking the last trace of a tear away as she stomped towards the elevator, almost bumping into the wall of muscles and sweaty fabric that seemed to have appeared before her out of thin air.

"Whoa, sorry Onyeka, didn't mean to run you over! Wasn't really looking where I was going there."

The deep, pleasant voice with the impossible-to-hide British accent belonged to lieutenant commander James Mardling, the CHIMERA unit's second in command.

"What? Nah, that was all my fault." Onyeka replied a little too quickly, forcing an apologetic grin across her muzzle, "How's it going, LC? Still not enough muscles on ya?"

The German Shepherd rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, blushing slightly at the comment. It was widely known across the unit that the large canine was a hopeless perfectionist when it came to his body and was always on the verge of pushing himself way too hard for some reason - malicious tongues claiming it had something to do with some sort of weird canine, alpha/beta-dominance thing he had going on with commander Scherer.

"You're one to speak...doesn't look like you've been sitting on your arse at home, either, eh?" the Shepherd retorted with a smirk and a nod towards the hyena, whose stature was indeed quite comparable to his, though not quite as bulky.

"Pfft, as if!" Onyeka snorted, her forced grin having turned into a more genuine one. "It's already boring enough at home - I'd probably go insane if I'd be sitting around all day." she added with a cackle, "Speaking of insane - I was just on my way to the Doc - Kaito said he'd be in his lab, is that right?"

James shook his head and clicked his tongue chidingly, though he still wore a smirk on his handsome muzzle, "You shouldn't denigrate the good doctor like that - who knows where any of us would be if it weren't for him. But yeah, I suppose he's still down there. Haven't seen him in a while, though."

"Okay, okay - I'm, sorry!" the hyena replied dramatically, clasping her hands together in mock remorse, her slight wince barely noticeable as she felt the hard surface of her metal hand through the leather of her gloves, "I'll go pay him a visit then - later, James."

"Later!" the Shepherd said cheerfully, wiping his sweaty brow as Onyeka pushed past him and disappeared into the elevator before heading for the showers himself.

The elevator that led her further down into Dr Askari's laboratory was an identical copy of the one from before and once again the hyena found herself blinking away the momentary blindness caused by the retinal scanner's dazzling beam of light just as the door opened and the VI chimed, „B 17-2, Askari laboratory", informing her of her arrival.

To Onyeka, the lab itself was like something taken directly out of a science fiction movie, filled to the brim with a multitude of blinking devices, more than half of which she had no or only a vague idea what they were supposed to be, let alone what purpose they served.

The lights were dimmed throughout most of the room, save for a small area at the far side which Onyeka knew housed Dr Askari's main desk, so she began carefully weaving her way through the gloom, deliberately stepping around shelves containing everything from chemicals to tattered books that looked ancient and over cable bundles as thick as her arm which supplied power to some of the larger pieces of equipment.

As she drew closer to the lonely island of light, the sound of - surprisingly two - voices engaged in what appeared to be a heated conversation caused the hyena to stop dead in her tracks, straining her ears while trying to make as little noise as possible herself.

"...we've been through this - he's not ready to know yet!"

"You don't understand, he is about to go through some drastic changes in both body and mind - you should come clear now before he finds out for himself!"

"What do you mean 'changes'? I thought you stopped that from happening?"

"It looks like I underestimated the consequences - it's not like I had any reference to go by!"

Onyeka felt her heart pounding inside her chest as she held her breath, a feeling of guilt creeping up her spine. The first, unmistakably aggravated, voice belonged to Dr Askari without a doubt, but the second, clearly female one she didn't recognize, though she felt herself inexplicably drawn towards its melodic, mysterious timbre, like a moth towards the light.

It was only when her prosthetic arm bumped against the corner of a shelf with a resounding, metallic clank that doubtlessly informed everyone in the room of her presence when she noticed that she had taken several more steps in the direction of the voices.

"Who's there?" Dr Askari called out, half in shock and half in anger, the speed with which his head snapped around sending his graying ponytail flying.

"It's me, Onyeka..." the hyena replied sheepishly, blushing furiously as she stepped around the corner and into the light, mentally cursing herself in every language she knew as she did so, "Sorry doc, I didn't mean to eavesdrop on..." she stopped in mid-sentence, blinking her eyes in surprise.

For a split second after going around the corner, Onyeka could have sworn that she had caught a glimpse of black and silver fur, but now the elder jackal was, without a doubt, the only person in the room, scanning her from behind his wire-rimmed glasses with one eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"I...um..." she stammered, inwardly cursing herself some more as she struggled for words - from the look on the doctor's sharp features he was less than happy about her intrusion, "I know it hasn't been a full week since my last check-up, but I thought one day early wouldn't be that much of a problem...and maybe you'd be a little less swamped if I came in Monday morning...I'm sorry."

'Great job, Onyeka - and now you're blabbering like an idiot...' she thought angrily, though it did nothing to stop the next sentence to spill from her like a waterfall.

"Who were you just talking to?"

For several, terrible heartbeats, the doctor's expression darkened, wavering somewhere between surprised and downright furious, but he quickly regained his composure, even managing to force a smile across his slender muzzle as he replied: "Good morning, Onyeka. Don't worry, I'm not angry - you just startled me is all. If you must know, I was on the phone to a college of mine."

"Oh..." Onyeka replied, trying to avoid the jackal's golden eyes by looking down at the floor, "I just thought I saw someone just now, but..."

"Well, you must have been mistaken." Dr Askari cut her off sharply, his expression hardening considerably, though he never fully lost his smile, "I should really turn up the lights in here, I know - now why was it you're here?"

The jackal's last sentence had a certain undertone to it that told Onyeka that it was definitely time to drop the subject, which she gladly did, clearing her throat nervously before she dared look him in the eyes again.

"My weekly check-up" she repeated carefully, "You said you wanted to check my specs once a week after...the accident, remember? I know it hasn't been a full week, but I figured you might have a little less work on your paws today than you would tomorrow."

She shifted her weight from one leg to the other, blushing as she added sheepishly, "And honestly, when I'm at home I feel like the walls are closing in on me...I'm so used to the company of the others by now that I guess I've become really bad at being alone."

Dr Askari's golden eyes remained on hers, unmoving for several moments during which the hyena felt even more transparent than when she had been standing in Vicente's full-body scanner, a rather uneasy feeling that caused her heart to quicken its pace noticeably.

Split seconds before Onyeka's discomfort forced her to break eye contact, the jackal scientist's muzzle split into a broad smile - a genuine one this time - and when he began to speak, his voice had completely lost its edge.

"Oh dear, I didn't realize that it would be that hard for you - you know you could have told me earlier and I wouldn't have sent you home for that long, right? But never mind, it's good to hear you've bonded so well with the others."

Under her fur, Onyeka blushed again, though she didn't let it show.

"As for the check-up" Dr Askari continued while he stood up from his desk, stretching his back with an audible pop, "I guess we can do that now, yes - I wasn't working on anything groundbreaking at this moment anyway. HILDA, lights please!"

"Yes, Dr Askari" the VI chimed happily, moments before every neon tube in the room sprang to life, bathing the entire lab in white, sterile light.

"I didn't know HILDA could respond to unspecific voice commands like that." Onyeka remarked, visibly impressed as she followed the doctor into another part of the lab, where a large contraption that somewhat resembled a futuristic dentist's chair stood, hooked up to a computer console.

"Heh" the jackal smirked, an almost playful sparkle in his eyes, "HILDA is much more sophisticated than we usually let on, though most of her functions are deactivated in the majority of the building to save computing power for those areas where we need it - this lab being one of those areas, of course. When unshackled like this, she almost counts as a fully developed artificial intelligence and can provide tremendous help with our research."

"Wow..." Onyeka murmured reverently, "Isn't such an advanced system kinda dangerous though? I mean it has access to the entire Helix Industries database, right?"

The jackal snickered again before shaking his head dismissively "No more dangerous than imbuing soldiers with powers and abilities far beyond the limits of normal mortals I'd say." He made a distinctive pause before continuing with a reassuring nod "Don't worry, we're being careful. We certainly don't want to breed our own, personal SKYNET in here."

"Mhm...point taken, I guess" the hyena muttered, not really convinced by the doctor's words as she automatically began removing first her jacket and gloves, followed by the white tank top she wore underneath and finally her jeans so that she was standing before him in nothing but a black sports bra and a matching pair of panties.

Having gone through the procedure several times by now, she needed no further instructions as she took a seat on the dentist's chair-like contraption and helped Dr Askari attach a multitude of sensor patches to various parts of her body.

"There we go...almost done" the elder jackal mumbled, more to himself than to anyone else as he inserted three pin jacks into the hidden data readout ports of Onyeka's prosthetic arm before briskly walking over to the console and starting the scanning procedure with a quick series of input commands.

"You know the drill by now" he continued as the apparatus sprang to life with a soft buzz "Scanning will take about ten minutes, so why don't we chat a little more?"

"Sure, I'd like that." Onyeka replied absent-mindedly, trying her best to ignore the fact that her nose had begun itching something awful.

"Excellent" the doctor said with a grin, leaning forward against the console while he adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses with two fingers - a small quirk of his that showed itself whenever he was truly interested in something "Now, we already saw in the last few examinations that your body has recovered from the trauma exceptionally well - some of your values are even better than they used to be - and I don't expect anything radically different this time. Something I'm really curious about, though, is how your prosthetic is working out - Dr Lloyd from engineering was so proud of that new interface he came up with that he would probably have sent you back to active duty the moment you first put it on just to see it in action."

"Excuse me doctor...umm, about that?" the hyena piped up, a slight blush creeping into her cheeks as she laid the words out in her mind "That's also something I wanted to talk to you about...I don't think that's going to happen."

"Excuse me?" Dr Askari said, a bewildered expression replacing the grin on his face as at the same moment, the medical scanner took notice of an increase in Onyeka's heart rate "But weren't you just saying a few minutes ago that you didn't want to be away from the others for long?"

"Well, yes..." Onyeka paused, nervously chewing on her lower lip before she managed to swallow the uncomfortable lump that seemed to have formed in her throat "But that's kind of just the point you see...Ever since my crash and even with this...thing attached to me...", she nodded towards her prosthesis slightly in emphasis, "I feel like I'm just not the same person anymore."

"What do you mean, Onyeka?" the elder jackal asked, furrowing his brow in honest concern "Is the prosthesis not performing as expected? According to your neural kinetics the interface is working just fine..."

"No, well, I mean not really - its hard to explain, Doc..." the hyena replied, forcing herself not to shake her head too much as to not interrupt the machine's scanning "In theory, the arm is working incredibly well - I mean damn, this thing is a fucking miracle of engineering, don't get me wrong. The problem is that without my real arm, I just don't feel like...like me, you know?"

She half expected some kind of reply from the doctor, but he just kept looking at her from behind his wire-rimmed glasses with a concerned, but pleasantly warm, almost fatherly expression in his amber eyes, silently waiting for her to go on.

"The problem is not even the dexterity or precision, I think, but the lack of feedback. I don't know if you've ever piloted an aircraft yourself, but it's not enough to just move the control stick around, you have to feel the response from the plane, too - I'd say that's actually the most important part. But with this thing attached to me, that won't be happening."

"Hmm, I see..." Dr Askari muttered, the slight twitch of his nostrils signaling that behind his brow, his mind was working at full speed "So you think that you've lost your abilities as a pilot?"

"Well, not entirely" Onyeka replied with a slight shrug after a moment of thinking "Don't get me wrong, I'm still good - probably still one of the best, actually - but I'll never be as good as I was before. And I...I..."

She couldn't stop a tear from forming in the corner of her eye as she swallowed again, failing to meet the jackal's eyes any longer "And I'm afraid that's just not good enough for the CHIMERAs."

The silence that followed seemed to drag on for an eternity, only broken by the nigh-inaudible beeping of the scanning device as it dutifully recorded Onyeka's slightly accelerated heart rate as well as the increase of stress hormones in her blood.

It was Dr Askari who finally broke the silence by placing one of his slender, impossibly long-fingered hands on the hyena's shoulder in a gentle, soothing, almost fatherly manner, though Onyeka couldn't help but wince slightly at the touch.

"Onyeka..." he started, his voice full of compassion "I'm not going to pretend that I can truly know what you're going through right now, but what I do know is that I still have full confidence in your importance for the team - and so should you."

She could feel the sincerity in the doctor's voice as she looked into his amber eyes, blinking away the bothersome tears that kept forming in the corners of her own.

"And besides, even if you should truly feel that your piloting abilities have been stunted so far as that you do not feel up to the task, your prowess in engineering and your combat skills would still make you an absolutely irreplaceable part of CHIMERA - that's an indisputable fact."

Onyeka continued to stare at the elder jackal for several seconds after he had finished, somewhat taken aback by the edge in those last few words, but there was no denying that the doctor's faith in her felt truly reassuring.

"Wow..." she muttered, a thankful smile creeping onto her muzzle "Thanks, doc, I think I needed that." And with a sheepish grin she added "Okay, I'll do my best - promise."

"I'm sure you will, agent Tichaona." Dr Askari replied with a wink, just as a series of melodic beeps announced the end of the scanning routine.

"There we go - all done. I'll have a closer look at these data later, but from what I can see right now everything seems to be in order - just as expected."

"Thank you." the hyena said with a nod as she began the process of unplugging herself from the machine, growling softly in annoyance as some of the pads refused to come off without taking a cluster of brown fur with them "You'd think they'd be able to make these things so that you don't feel like you're molting."

"I'll go and talk to the med-dev department about it." the jackal said with a grin, causing Onyeka to blush slightly as she got dressed "Now, I should probably get back to my other work - see you again, Onyeka."

"Yeah, sure...until next time, Dr Askari." she replied with a nod, slightly irritated at the older male's abrupt dismissal, though she had gotten somewhat used to it by now - in spite of his honest concern for the wellbeing of her and her teammates, the doctor was still a rather busy man, and him working on several different things simultaneously was common practice.

By the time she had finished getting dressed, he had already retreated to his desk at the far side of the lab, where he was typing something into the controls of his computer, his brow in deep furrows.

"B-15, CHIMERA headquarters. Have a pleasant day!" HILDA's mechanical voice announced for the second time that day, and as she stepped out of the elevator and back into the lounge area, Onyeka found herself wondering about the true extent of the VI's capabilities and the implications of granting such an advanced system access to Helix Industries' central database. She was, in fact, so absorbed in thought that she didn't see the flash of white fur and blue hair zip around the corner to her left until it was too late and the two of them barreled straight into each other, sending her to stagger and the other, much smaller and thus lighter fur to land hard on her ass.

"What the ACTUAL FUCK do you think you're doing, bitch?" the 154 centimeters of anger and attitude that were Febe Matikainen, one of the two rat twins that formed the CHIMERA unit's telekinetic strike team yelled as she jumped back to her feet and quickly closed the distance between her and the hyena "How about you watch where the FUCK you're going, one-arm?"

"Sorry Febe..." Onyeka replied, raising her left hand in apology "I didn't mean to..."

"You didn't mean fucking what?" the seething rat yelled, cutting her off as she stabbed the larger female's muscular abdomen with a bony finger. Wincing slightly from the jab, Onyeka realized just then that Febe was sporting a bloody lip, as well as what appeared to be the early stage of a rather nasty bruise on her right cheek.

"You didn't mean to bowl me over like the fucking bull dyke you are?"

"Look, I really didn't..." the hyena started again, but Febe left her no chance to have her say.

"You know what I should do? You wanna FUCKING know you one-armed bitch?" she yelled, pink eyes glowing and fur bristling "How about I tear your other fucking arm off as well and beat you into a bloody carpet stain with it? Wouldn't that be hilarious? Don't think I couldn't - you see this shit?"

She turned her head to the side and pointed to a small, furless patch behind her left ear before continuing with her tirade.

"You see that? No fucking psy-blocker. You know what that means, huh, you fucking dickgirl? I'll tell ya - it means you couldn't stop me even if you still had both arms you useless piece of shit! So GET OUTTA MY FUCKING WAY!"

"Febe! Calm the fuck down already!"

This new voice belonged to Akseli, Febe's twin brother and the other half of the telekinetic strike duo, who must have come around the corner some time during his sister's rant and was now pointing towards her with equally glowing eyes.

For several moments, both rats stared each other down, the tension in the air almost palpable between them, but in the end it was Febe who broke eye contact.

"Fine, fuck you too, asshole - I'm outta here!" she grumbled, angrily pushing past Onyeka and storming off towards the accommodations.

"Are you okay, Onyeka?" Akseli asked carefully once she was out of sight, his expression changing from concerned to apologetic when the large hyena simply nodded, still somewhat shaken "I kicked her ass pretty bad during training - I'm terribly sorry she took it out on you..."

"No no, it's okay." Onyeka replied a little more meekly than she would have liked, the knowledge that, technically speaking, the scrawny rodent was very well capable of carrying out every but of the threat she had made sending icy shivers down her spine, though she forced a smile onto her muzzle before continuing "I guess Febe's just...being Febe - we should all be used to that by now, eh? But still...thanks for talking her down, though - she seemed extra pissed today, even for her standards."

"You can say that out loud...I'm really, really sorry." Akseli sighed, whiskers and ears drooping as he looked at the ground before him "She was actually in a really good mood for the past week and a half, believe it or not, but now it looks like I fucked that up royally...Maybe I should have let her win...I don't think she would have gone through with what she said, though..."

"Hey" Onyeka said warmly as she placed her left hand on the much smaller rodent's slender shoulder reassuringly, the unexpected touch causing him to flinch visibly. It had always been astounding to the large hyena just how much the twins were polar opposites of each other - whereas Febe was loud, foul-mouthed and aggressive to the point of insanity, Akseli was timid, introverted and always the first to take the blame for any trouble caused, whether he was involved or not.

'Heck, if you bashed their heads together long enough you might even just get one, almost normal person!' Commander Scherer had once said, pretty much capturing what the rest of the team thought in a nutshell.

"Don't beat yourself up over it, okay?" she continued reassuringly, her toothy grin coming across a lot more believable than before "We all know Febe has her mood swings, but the only person to be held responsible for that is Febe herself. Besides, nothing happened, right? And as far as I'm concerned, I think it takes a little more than a few swears and a death threat to bring me down."

"I...I guess you're right." Akseli replied, his expression lightening noticeably "Thanks Onyeka - I guess I should still check up on her...you know, damage control. See you around!"

"Yeah...see ya." Onyeka said with a wave of her hand, more to his back than anything else as the short rodent hurried after his sister, his whip-like tail wagging in an almost perfectly sinusoidal motion behind him.

"You're a pretty lousy actress, you know?"

The hyena flinched visibly as the gruff, baritone voice spoke up somewhere behind her and she spun on her heel in search of its origin, which ultimately presented itself as the throat of the hulking mountain of fur and muscle that was Keith Anawak, the heavy weapons specialist of the CHIMERAs. Even sitting down in a way that could have hardly been any more relaxed, hunched slightly over an enormous, steaming mug of coffee, the 7' 3'' grizzly bear was an imposing sight, his sheer bulk making the chair he was sitting on appear almost comically small.

"Come again?" Onyeka shot in the ursine's direction, making no effort to sugar-coat the annoyance in her voice.

Keith didn't reply for several moments, instead taking a long, drawn-out sip of his coffee while the slightly slitted pupils of his ice blue eyes - the same as all the CHIMERAs' eyes save for the rat twins' - never moved from the hyena's own.

"I said you're a pretty lousy actress." he finally said matter-of-factly, his deep voice giving no hint of emotion.

"I heard what you said, yes..." the hyena growled through slightly clenched teeth, involuntarily balling her hands into fists as she spoke "But what exactly do you mean?"

"I thought I was being pretty obvious." Keith continued just as monotonously, downing the rest of his coffee before finally setting the mug down with a soft clink "You pretend that you're totally fine, that nothing could ever bother you when it's pretty darn obvious that that's not true. Hell, you even dish out sage advice to others when you're clearly not in the position to do so."

"Is that so?" Onyeka snarled, teeth bared and fur bristling as she closed the distance between herself and her teammate with a few brisk strides and slammed both her natural and her mechanical hand down on the table, causing the now empty coffee mug to clatter alarmingly "And how exactly is any of that your fucking business all of a sudden, huh?"

Her eyes flashed menacingly as she glared at the much larger ursine, who met her fiery gaze with a look of calm, unwavering patience, much to her annoyance. The worst thing about it was that Onyeka couldn't even pinpoint just why Keith's words, or his entire demeanor for one, were pissing her off this badly - it had never done so before. Come to think of it, she couldn't even remember talking to the huge ursine very often at all during their entire time together as members of CHIMERA - heck, even Febe and her had exchanged more words, at least when the borderline crazy rat wasn't having one of her "I'll kill you all with my mind and piss on your graves for shits and giggles"-episodes.

Apart from the fact that every single word he had said had been painfully true.

"Easy now, there's no need to break my favorite breakfast mug." the grizzly stated matter-of-factly, never even close to losing his calm even in the face of the raging hyena before him "You are right of course, your problems are none of my business. I am, however, as a member of this bunch of freaks we call a team, concerned about the efficiency of said team - and as far as I'm concerned, the well-being of each member is absolutely crucial for his or her performance. And you, Onyeka Tichaona, are a complete mental wreck right now."

For several more seconds, she kept up her death stare, every fiber of her body screaming at her to punch the insolent ursine in his big face, but somewhere deep inside her, his word struck a chord that kept her from doing so, instead prompting her to renounce her aggressive stance and take a step back from the table with arms crossed in front of her chest, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of cold metal against her fur.

"How very considerate of you, Keith." she stated dryly, her voice still dripping with sarcasm, but having lost much of its animosity "But pray tell - when did you get promoted to the position of our team shrink? And what the hell makes you think you know what I'm going through right now?"

Keith let out a humorless chuckle and straightened his back with relish, causing his massive shoulders to pop audibly while showing off a glimpse of his true size before he spoke.

"You can bag your sarcasm, plains-walker, I don't need a Ph. D in psychology to see what's going on with you, but I do think I can help you."

"Oh?" Onyeka said with a snort, raising an eyebrow at the nickname, although she couldn't deny that part of her was interested in what he was going to say.

"Hmm" he grumbled in a rather bear-like fashion while nodding his massive head once "My family comes from a long line of spiritual leaders of our tribe. My father was a shaman, as was his father, his father's father and all the fathers before him to the times where we still hunted deer in the forests of my homeland. And before I became a soldier, I, too, was trained as a shaman."

"Okay, I think I've heard enough." the hyena interjected with a disparaging huff as she felt herself becoming angry again for falling for the ursine's obvious bullshit "So what are you going to do? Brew me some kind of potion from moss, frog liver and caribou shit to make my problems go away? Why don't you grow my arm back with a little rain-dance while you're at it, huh?"

"Enough!"

Onyeka could hardly suppress a surprised yelp as Keith suddenly stood before her, dwarfing her with his full, intimidating size after having risen to his feet with an amount of speed and dexterity that seemed impossible for someone of his proportions.

"Don't you dare compare the shamans of my people to some bushman charlatan!" he growled, baring his impressive teeth at her in a way that she had to admit was quite intimidating, though he quickly regained his composure "We have provided spiritual guidance to our people for hundreds of years, not through unholy rituals and senseless, sacrificial offerings but through a deep understanding of the mind and the soul." And with a pejorative snort he added "We also don't cut off pieces of young females under the guise of some kind of barbaric tradition."

"Okay...I didn't...sorry" Onyeka stammered, seriously taken aback by the grizzly's sudden outburst and finding herself unable to add anything else. 'What a rotten day this has turned out to be...'

Fortunately, her pathetic apology seemed to be enough for Keith, who gave a curt nod before reaching for his abandoned coffee mug on the table.

"No reason for bad blood, plains-walker - I want to help you."

"And how are you planning to do that?"

"I will be taking leave for a week and a half this weekend and I plan on returning to my homeland in order to re-forge my connection to myself and the world around me. I do so once a year and it really helps me regain my balance. I suggest that you accompany me and maybe I can help you find yours, too."

For several moments she stared at him in disbelief, ice blue eyes searching his for even the most subtle hint that he was playing some kind of elaborate prank on her, but she found only sincerity.

"You...want me to go on a camping trip with you?" she asked carefully, her rounded ears twitching irritably. Should all of this really turn out to be a joke, she swore that she would feed him his damned coffee mug.

"It's not a simple camping trip" the grizzly stated bluntly, his large face the very embodiment of sincerity "It's a chance for self-discovery and an opportunity to mend the wounds inflicted on your soul."

"Keith..." she began, still far from convinced, but something in the way he spoke had sparked her interest deep inside her "I...appreciate your concern, but I'm not sure this is something I want to do, so..."

He shrugged his shoulders with another very bear-like, grumble before slowly turning around and heading in the direction of the accommodations "There's no hurry, you still have almost five days to make up your mind. Just call me in case you're interested - I'll be here."

And with that, he lumbered off without as much as a word of goodbye, leaving a rather dumbfounded hyena behind in the now empty common room.

'What the actual fuck just happened right now?' Onyeka thought as she stood there motionless for another full minute before she finally made her way back to the elevator 'No seriously, what.the.fuck?'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I still can't believe you talked me into this!" the hyena half-grumbled-half-chuckled as she hopped down from the driver's cab of the old semi-truck they had been riding on for the past few hours, turning around just in time to catch the huge hiker's backpack that came flying after her with a grunt.

"You sure about that? 'cause the way I remember it, you didn't need that much talking into at all - didn't even wait until Friday to accept like I thought you would." came the deep voiced reply as Keith shoved his bulk through the passenger door and hopped down onto the gravel road with a crunch.

"Pfft, whatever" Onyeka huffed, awkwardly shouldering her backpack with both her prosthetic and her good arm "I figured that even if I still don't buy your whole 'getting in touch with your inner self'-bullshit, the worst I'd be getting out of this is a nice vacation."

"Well, that's fair I guess" the huge ursine replied, shrugging as he shouldered his own backpack, which looked a lot smaller on his massive back than it did on Onyeka's and knocked twice on the cabin door "Alright Bob, I think we got everything - thanks again for the lift, man."

Bob was the name of the 50-something year old coyote trucker who had been kind enough to let the odd pair hitch a ride on his passenger seat without too many questions since Keith had refused to rent a car at the airport, claiming it was "as useless as tits on a snail" since they'd have nowhere to park it anyway once they arrived.

"No problem, dun' git lost in them woods you two. See ya!" came the thickly-accented reply from inside the cab, followed by a brief honk of the truck's horn as the large vehicle resumed its journey.

"Pretty nice guy" Onyeka remarked as the semi disappeared around a bend in the road "Though I swear if I hear one more country song I can guarantee for nothing."

"Yeah, well I can assure you that there will be none of that for the next couple of days. This way." the grizzly said with a chuckle, pointing towards a barely visible gap in the underbrush across the road that led to a narrow, beaten path that looked like it hadn't been used in quite some time.

The hyena followed him wordlessly for about ten minutes, listening to the ever fading sounds of the road behind them while silently wondering just what she had gotten herself into until Keith suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, causing her to almost run into his backpack.

"Hey, what's the hold-up?" she asked in surprise, taking a few steps backwards to give herself some room "I thought you were in better shape, big bear!"

"That has nothing to do with it, plains-walker." the large ursine replied with a snort, as he took off his backpack and placed it against the stump of a tree at the wayside before unceremoniously taking off his boots, followed by his jacket and his shirt "I just want to slip into something a little more comfortable now that we've left the shackles of civilization behind."

Onyeka watched him strip down to his pair of cargo shorts with one eyebrow raised suspiciously, a little unsure of what to make of the whole situation, though she felt somewhat relieved that the grizzly stopped there.

"You might also want to consider shedding a few layers - we've at least got a four hour hike ahead of us and even if you wouldn't believe it now, it can get pretty darn hot and stuffy under these trees this time of the year." Keith stated matter-of-factly after having stuffed his recently discarded clothes into his backpack and swung the now bulging fabric back over his shoulders, straightening his back to once again rise to his full height. Seeing him with his shirt off for the first time, Onyeka realized just how big the grizzly bear actually was. Two huge pectorals rested atop his broad ribcage like massive slabs of beef, the shaggy brown fur around the right nipple circled by the dark lines of a tribal fur tattoo, as were the bowling ball thick bulges of his biceps. His midsection was equally broad and stocky, but even through his thick fur each line of his abs was clearly visible, showing that most of his mass was indeed muscle and not fat.

A few seconds were all it took for Onyeka to realize that she had been staring and quickly tear her eyes away from the impressive display before her, but even though he didn't let it show, the hyena was sure that Keith had noticed, which made her blush slightly under her fur.

"Shackles of civilization, eh?" she remarked somewhat warily, though she did agree with him about the rising temperature as she began taking off her leather jacket, revealing a black tank top underneath "I hope you don't want me to leave my toiletries behind as well?"

"Oh please!" Keith shot back, rolling his eyes histrionically before he continued with a toothy grin "What kind of savage do you take me for, Onyeka? We live in the 21stcentury - even the most backwater tribes have access to running water and diesel generators. And besides, I'd only be doing myself harm - you scavenger types tend to smell if you don't wash yourselves on a regular basis."

It took the hyena a few seconds to fully process the last sentence and even then she wasn't entirely sure she had heard right.

"What the fucking hell, Anawak?" she snarled, teeth bared as she angrily balled her hands into fists, the shiny metal of her prosthetic arm gleaming in the sunlight that seeped through the leaves above "What's with the racism, man? You take that back right now or I swear to god I'll..."

She was cut off mid sentence by something she wouldn't have expected in the least, a sound that should have made her even angrier, but somehow refused to do so:

Laughter.

Resounding, heart-felt laughter.

She had no words as peals of laughter cascaded from the huge ursine's mouth for several moments before slowly fading to a small trickle of steady chuckles, which again kept coming for several more moments before Keith was finally able to speak again.

"Oh god, that was priceless!" he snickered, wiping a tear from his eye with a thick finger "You should have seen your face, plains-walker. But seriously, I'm just pulling your leg - you don't even want to know what a bear smells like if he doesn't shower for a week. Now stop pretending to be mad at me - we're here to help you find your inner balance, so consider this your first lesson: Learn to take a joke and don't get angry over stupid stuff. Now let's get going - I want to be at my place before sundown."

She stood there dumbfounded for quite a while as the grizzly trotted off along the narrow path before she hastily stuffed her jacket into her backpack and hurried after him, feeling strangely torn between being mad, embarrassed and amused.

'I just don't get this guy...' she thought to herself as she finally decided to not think about it any longer and enjoy the scenery instead. Being used to the vast steppes of her South African homeland, the dense spruce and polar forest made for an interesting change and before long she found herself eagerly taking in the scents and sounds around her.

The sun was just beginning to disappear behind the treetops when Keith announced that they were almost at their destination, which Onyeka acknowledged with an approving grunt. The large ursine had not been lying about it getting hot and stuffy in the underwood and even though their genetically enhanced physique would have allowed them to easily handle a hike of several times the distance, both of them had worked up quite a sweat.

As they finally broke through the underbrush and reached a small clearing, the hyena couldn't stifle a surprised "Oh" when she laid eyes on the small log cabin that stood in its middle, looking like something taken directly from a travel advertisement.

"I'll take that as a sign of your approval, I guess?" Keith asked with a grin while wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his huge paw.

"Sure" Onyeka replied, matching his grin "You know, for a while I thought you'd have us sleeping under the open sky or something. I sure didn't expect an actual roof over my head."

"Pfft" the grizzly snorted in response, rolling his eyes at her while he rummaged the pockets of his backpack for something "I told you we'd have running water and electricity - how did you think I'd have that in the middle of the forest without a wall to put a frigging faucet or power outlet?"

"Oh yeah...right." she answered, blushing slightly as she scratched her head, grinning sheepishly "I guess I hadn't really thought about that."

"Heh, no worries - ya can't always be the smart one." he chuckled, grunting approvingly as he finally found what he had been searching for and pulled an old fashioned key from one of the pockets.

"Well then, welcome to my humble abode, Miss Tichaona!" he said with a goofy grin as he deftly turned the key in its lock and pushed against the door, the old hinges protesting noisily "I hope the accommodations are to your satisfaction."

"Idiot." Onyeka muttered, though she was unable to suppress a chuckle as she walked past the big ursine and stuck her head through the door, the musty smell of stale air and wood wafting into her nostrils.

The cabin's single, square room was dimly lit by the evening sun, but it was enough for the hyena to see as she cast a sweeping throughout the interior: One corner housed a rudimentary cooking area, complete with a sink, an ancient charcoal stove and a wooden counter top with a few kitchen cupboards underneath while the opposite was home to an old bunk bed and closet, both cut from the same, rough lumber. A small table with two wooden chairs, a couch that had clearly seen better days and an open fireplace in the middle completed the rather Spartan furnishing.

"Well..." she remarked flatly, silently wondering where the aforementioned bathroom was "It's certainly...something."

"What? Surely you didn't expect five star lodging?" Keith shot back, quirking an eyebrow in amusement and as if he had read her mind, he added "Toilet's outside, at the other side of the clearing. The shower's at the back of the cabin."

"It's outside?"

"Yup, just a simple showerhead on the cabin wall. Don't look that shocked, there's no one out here 'cept for us - and I'm pretty sure there's nothing to see that either of us hasn't seen before."

'I wouldn't be so sure about that...' Onyeka thought to herself, suddenly feeling very aware of her species' unique anatomy. Back home in South Africa, a large part of the population had been hyena, which meant that the peculiarity of their females' genitalia were quite commonplace, but in these latitudes their numbers were pretty scarce and their uniqueness hardly known. The fear of being shunned as something unnatural - or even deformed - had even gone so far as that no small percentage of young, female hyena immigrants decided to undergo plastic surgery in order to "look normal down there", even at the considerable risk of losing the majority of their ability to feel sexual pleasure. What made things worse was the fact that, since these young females often lacked the funds for visiting a renowned surgeon, a large number of these operations were unfortunately carried out by shady backyard practitioners, resulting in a considerable number of cases of botched operations.

Onyeka herself was one of the few "unaltered" hyena females, a fact that had led to a few rather awkward and unpleasant surprises while dating members of the lesser informed male population, but she had never really let it get to her - partly because her muscular physique and aggressive demeanor already made her stand out in the crowd in the first place, considerably limiting her choice of dating partners to the more adventurous of males right from the get-go.

Yet, despite all this, the thought of showering completely in the open, with the only other person within several miles of wilderness being someone with whom she had never before spoken as much as she had during the last few hours made her feel rather uneasy.

Keith seemed to sense her discomfort, raising an eyebrow as he asked with a good-natured, mocking grin on his face "What's the matter, plains-walker? Afraid I'm gonna play peeping Tom? Don't worry, I promise I'll ask first."

"No no, it's not that...at least not really..." Onyeka muttered, pausing as she visibly struggled for the right words "Keith, look - in all seriousness - let me ask you a question."

'Okay...here goes...'

"Do you know about the...unique feature females of my species possess?"

The large ursine regarded her with a puzzled look for a moment before realization suddenly washed over his broad face.

"Aaaah, now I get what you're on about!" he exclaimed, crossing his tree trunk arms in front of his bare chest, shaggy fur still slightly matted with sweat "That fake dick and balls-thing you have going on. What about it?"

'So he knows - that's good.'

"So you know about that." the hyena said, visibly relieved. His wording bothered her a little, but the feeling paled in comparison to the load it took off her mind - at least she wouldn't have to go through the awkward 'hyena anatomy 101' with him.

"And...it doesn't bother you?"

"Why would that bother me? It's not like I've never seen a real dick on another guy before - What makes you think I care for a fake dick on a chick?" the grizzly replied with a shrug before adding with a smirk "I mean, you are a girl, right?"

"Jerk!" Onyeka growled and playfully punched the larger ursine in the stomach, grinning in satisfaction as he winced slightly, though more in surprise than actual pain "I just wanted to spare you the awkwardness in case you did decide to spy on me."

"Your concern for my wellbeing warms my heart, Onyeka." Keith grumbled, grinning broadly "Now that that's settled, how about I get us something to eat? Don't know about you, but I'm starving."

The hyena returned his grin and nodded her head in agreement. She hadn't really noticed up to then, but now that he had mentioned it, she realized that her stomach was also feeling pretty empty.

"Sounds good, but speaking of food: What exactly are we supposed to eat out here anyway? You said I didn't have to bring any supplies, so I didn't."

"Ah, I forgot to mention that, sorry." came the slightly sheepish reply as the grizzly took a few steps towards the cabin's far wall and pointed at a large metal ring on the floor boards she hadn't noticed before.

"Lo and behold, the storehouse." he said dramatically as he deftly pulled the ring upwards, the thick wooden hatch creaking as it opened.

Onyeka trotted toward him and peered down the hole in the floor, through which a simple ladder led surprisingly far down into what appeared to be a primitive earth cellar.

"After you." the grizzly said, grinning and gesturing down, to which she complied after a moment's hesitation.

The crude ladder creaked alarmingly as she began her descent into the cool darkness, even more so when Keith added his considerable weight as he climbed after her, but it held fast. Nevertheless, Onyeka felt a certain relief when her feet finally touched the soft, earthen floor and she waited patiently for the grizzly to follow her while squinting her eyes in a vain attempt to pierce the darkness.

"Don't you have any lights down here?" she grumbled, but she had hardly finished her sentence when Keith flicked on a flashlight he must have pulled from his backpack. He let the pale cone of light wander throughout the small room, revealing crude, wooden shelves filled to the top with dozens of cans and jars filled with all kinds of food, several gas cans and propane bottles, as well as what appeared to be a large, metal cistern which presumably belonged to a well deep under the cabin.

"Geez, Keith - what on earth are you bunkering all this food here for?" the hyena asked in honest awe after picking up her lower jaw from the floor.

"Funny story that - you see, my grandfather bought this little piece of land and built this cabin as a sort of place to retreat to and relax. Back then there was no electricity or anything and this cellar didn't exist yet, but when the threat of nuclear war became a thing in the sixties and seventies, my pa got kind of paranoid and started carting all sorts of supplies and stuff up here to have a safe haven in case the commies invaded. He kept doing that when I was little and we used to come up here pretty much every month or so. Then suddenly the cold war was over, but we figured we'd keep the cabin stocked 'cause it was kind of nice coming here with stuff already in place - and I guess I just kept that tradition. Heh, sounds kinda stupid when I talk about it like that."

"Nah, not at all." Onyeka replied with a smirk, interrupted suddenly by an audible grumble of her stomach "So, what do you feel like having?"

Keith shrugged, his own stomach joining the hyena's in its protest, which elicited a chuckle from him "I dunno...uh...beef stew with beans and peppers sound good?"

"Heh, classy - but sure why not?" she replied with a shrug of her own. Truth be told, she was hungry enough to eat pretty much anything, but beef stew with beans and peppers did sound pretty tasty.

"Okay, just lemme turn on the water and fire up the boiler for later...got it. After you, plains-walker." Keith said, gesturing towards the ladder "Let's get this show on the road."

Twenty minutes later, the air in the small cabin was heavy with the smell of food, which they both wolfed down in a matter of minutes while outside, the sun had disappeared almost entirely, the dusk wrapping the forest in crimson.

"That was surprisingly good, actually." Onyeka remarked in acknowledgement, patting her chiseled stomach as she leaned back in her chair "So, how long until the water's warm? I'd like to take a shower as long as I can still see my paw in front of my own eyes."

"Oh right, err ...should be warm enough by now, so feel free." Keith replied in mid-yawn, taking a moment to scratch the back of his head before adding with a smirk "I promise I won't look, too."

She rolled her eyes at the last part, but didn't say anything as she got up and trotted over to her backpack to search its depths for her toiletries bag.

"Oh yeah, one more thing!" he suddenly piped up, turning the hyena's head "Top bed or bottom bed?"

"Hmm..." Onyeka replied, standing upright as she thought for a moment "I'd prefer top if you don't mind - I'd hate to be buried under 300 pounds of bear should the bed give in."

"Nah, that's quality woodwork right there." the large ursine shot back with a dismissive wave of his hand "That bed survived both my grandfather, my parents and possibly also my conception - that thing is sturdy. But sure, you can have the top bed, no problem."

"Too much information, but thanks." she said with a grin, trying her best not to imagine the grizzly's parents rutting in the bed she was going to spend her next nights in as she began peeling off her sweat stained tank top and baggy shorts.

At the other side of the room, Keith was provisionally rinsing off their plates in the sink while doing his very best to not sneak an occasional glance in the direction of the stripping hyena. In spite of his earlier teasing, he found that the earthy, slightly musky-sweet scent that emanated from her - without a question - incredible body was anything but unpleasant and, much to his embarrassment, had caused his pants to become a bit tighter than usual more than once during the last few hours.

"Umm, Keith?" Onyeka suddenly said from across the room, interrupting his idle train of thoughts and prompting him to turn his head without really thinking beforehand.

"Yeah, what is it Onye..." he replied, breaking off in mid-sentence when he realized that he was now pretty much gaping at her - almost nude - form, causing him to blush furiously under his fur.

In the soft light of the fading sun behind her, the hyena's body almost seemed to glow, the harsh reflections on her shiny metal arm standing in stark contrast to the more diffuse shadows that played across her fur, softening the sharp lines of her muscular body. By now she had rid herself of her shorts and tank top, the only pieces of clothing remaining to cover her more delicate areas being a black sports bra and...

"A jockstrap?" Keith blurted out, blatantly staring at the untypical choice of underwear for a moment before quickly averting his eyes, blushing even harder as he mumbled an apology.

"What - did you expect me to wear frilly panties or a fucking G-string or something?" Onyeka replied, a lopsided smile playing across her muzzle "Nothing beats a jockstrap in terms of wearing comfort, period. And besides..." she added with a sly grin that showed her pearly white canines before bursting into a fit of cackling laughter "...I fill these things better than Kaito ever could!"

"Can't object to that I guess...poor lil guy - it ain't his fault he was born a kitty." the grizzly chuckled before he joined her in her laughter, eternally grateful that the hyena had either not noticed, or chosen to ignore both his blatant staring as well as the still rather obvious bulge in his shorts.

"Hoo boy..." the large ursine finally managed to say as they both came down from their laughing fit, clearing his throat audibly before continuing to speak "Umm, I think you were about to ask me something just then?"

"What? Oh yeah" Onyeka replied after a moment before turning around and looking back over her shoulder "I wanted to ask you whether you could help me with one of the damned straps on my prosthetic arm. I think the one in the middle is stuck and I can't see what I'm doing behind my back..."

"Oh, okay...sure. No problem." Keith said with a nod and swiftly closed the distance between them with a few steps, bending forward slightly to examine the clasp in question while trying his best to ignore the substantial increase in potency of the hyena's scent now that he was this close to her "Ah, I see can see the problem. Just let me...hmm, could you arch your back a little...yes, like that...almost got it...goddammit"

After a few seconds of fumbling and cursing, the rebellious buckle finally yielded to the ursine's grasp, causing a triumphant grin to spread across his wide muzzle before he took a few steps backwards and crossed his arms in front of his massive chest in satisfaction.

"There you go - should come off easily now."

"Thanks Keith." Onyeka replied with a sigh of relief before quickly proceeding to undo the rest of the straps until she was able to remove the entire prosthesis with a yank of her left hand, the metal appendage giving a final twitch before it shut down with a soft whirring sound "You'd think that the people who designed the damn thing would be capable of adding something as simple as a buckle that works, but hey - nobody's perfect, right?"

"Uh-huh" Keith said absent-mindedly, having returned to doing the dishes, mainly because it gave him an excuse to turn his back on the hyena and conveniently hide his still rather prominent erection, which adamantly refused to go down after having been in such close proximity to her.

No matter how hard he tried not to, the grizzly found himself imagining her supple breasts swaying gently in the soft light of the setting sun as soon as he heard the shuffling sound of the hyena taking off her last two pieces of clothing, once again causing her scent to become ever so slightly more potent.

"Alright - gonna go shower now." Onyeka called across the room as she padded towards the door before adding jokingly "I'll try to leave some warm water for you, but I can't guarantee anything."

"Why thank you - you are too kind." Keith shot back sarcastically, though he came to the silent conclusion that, judging by the situation in his pants, a cold shower might not be such a bad idea.

'What the hell is wrong with you, dammit - fucking control yourself already, this isn't what this trip is supposed to be about!' he thought to himself angrily, exhaling deeply with his eyes closed as he heard the shower head spring to life outside.

Onyeka let out a blissful sigh as she let the hot water cascade over her body for a while before she reached for her shampoo and began working the suds deep into her fur - a task that, while taking her a little longer than it had a few months ago when she had still had both her arms, still felt rather satisfying. When she had finished rinsing herself she took a moment to let her gaze wander, taking in the dark silhouettes of the trees around the clearing against the last rays of sunlight.

'Peaceful...' she thought to herself, turning off the water with a smile before she started - somewhat clumsily - drying herself with her towel 'Still not sure about the whole self-discovery/soul-mending thing, but it is a rather nice spot.'

When she finally returned inside with her towel wrapped clumsily around her body to cover herself, the hyena found Keith in the middle of hefting his impressive bulk back up through the hatch in the floor holding a pair of brown bottles in one of his huge hands.

"Oh hey, yer back." the grizzly remarked, stating the obvious as he climbed through the trap door fully and set the bottles down on the table with a soft clink "Shower was okay? I thought you might be in the mood for a little drink - ya know, to bring the day to a close and such. Um, you do drink beer, right?"

Onyeka regarded the hulking ursine for a moment, her left eyebrow raised slightly as she held on to her towel "Oh, I get it - so this is that self-discovery thing you were talking about, right?"

"Pah, nonsense!" Keith growled, albeit playfully, feigning outrage "That part begins tomorrow. I was just trying to show some hospitality towards my guest, but if you don't want it, nobody's forcing ya."

"Okay okay, I'm sorry! I meant no offense, shaman." the hyena replied, failing miserably at keeping her tone sincere "Honestly, though - I wouldn't say no to a beer right now, thanks."

Keith only harrumphed in response, managing to keep up the facade of indignation for a few more moments before he deftly cracked one bottle open using the other and handed it to her with a grin.

"That's the spirit!" he chuckled as he casually flicked the cap off his own bottle with the claw of his thumb, sending the small piece of metal careening somewhere under the table "Cheers!"

"Cheers." Onyeka echoed as they clinked bottles before taking a swig of her beer, which was surprisingly cool despite the cabin's lack of a refrigerator "Wow, this is actually pretty good."

"Yep" Keith said with a knowing grin, having downed almost half the bottle with a single gulp "Imported straight outta a small brewery in southern Germany. No matter how much of a patriot you are, you have to admit that when it comes to beer, nobody on this damn continent can hold a candle to those guys."

"I had no idea you were such a classy gentleman, Keith." the hyena chuckled before taking another swig.

"You don't know a lot of things about me, my dear." the large ursine stated matter-of-factly and downed the rest of his beer in another mighty gulp "Speaking of classy - I oughta take a shower as well before the sun's completely gone - considering I've got a lady visitor with me this time."

"Heh, though I've heard she's one of those scavenger types, so don't get too carried away" Onyeka shot back, sticking her tongue out at him mischievously.

"That must have really upset you - touché, plains-walker." Keith chuckled, theatrically raising his huge paws in defeat at her successful retort "I'll be back."

When he stepped outside into the - meanwhile near total - darkness and started fumbling for the shower knob, the grizzly couldn't help but smile to himself. No matter how skeptical the hyena was of this whole trip, he could already sense her loosening up a bit and what was more, he was beginning to feel a connection forming between them, which was something he had hoped for for quite some time.

By the time he got back inside, Onyeka had swapped her towel for a pair of - clearly male - shorts and a loose-fitting t-shirt emblazoned with the faded logo of some band he didn't recognize and was just in the middle of finishing her beer while staring absent-mindedly into the darkness outside the window.

"You okay?" Keith asked carefully after locking the cabin door behind himself, smirking slightly as the hyena turned her head towards him, her gaze sweeping over his titanic form for a moment before coming to rest on his face.

"Yeah, sure..." she replied, quickly gulping down the last of her drink "I was just...thinking, you know?"

"Thinkin' about what?" he asked before joining her at the table, the towel around his waist that was the only thing covering his privates straining around his tree trunk like thighs as he sat with a grin "Thinkin' about how the hell you're supposed to spend an entire week out here with ol' me out here in the middle of nowhere?"

Onyeka made a face at him before flashing him a toothy, mischievous grin.

"Well, I was gonna say thinking about whether to get myself another one of these fancy imported beers, but now that you mention it...yeah, how am I supposed to spend an entire week with you? It's gonna be un-BEAR-able!"

"You know - just for that I should force you to sleep outside tonight." the towering groaned at her extremely lame joke, but when she broke into a fit of cackling laughter he still couldn't help but join in.

At the end of the day they ended up having not one, but three more beers each, as well as a good two hours of casual conversation before Keith announced that if there was any spiritual enlightenment to be had the next day, they should better get some shuteye, to which Onyeka agreed after a moment of hesitation.

They climbed into their respective beds soon after, but while Keith was snoring moments after having switched off the lights, the hyena lay awake, staring into the darkness with wide open eyes. Truth be told, sleep - or more precisely, her recurring nightmares - had been the one thing that had almost caused her to decline the grizzly's invitation, though in the end her curiosity had won out and she had accepted. She was starting to regret her decision as she felt herself slowly losing the battle against the soft, warm arms of sleep, the prospect of living through every little detail of her crash yet again looming over her like a shadow as the repercussion of an entire day of hiking in the fresh air was beginning to have an effect on even her advanced body.

Onyeka didn't know when exactly she had lost her battle against the arms of Morpheus, but sure enough, as soon as she did fall asleep she found herself back in the small cockpit of the aircraft that had claimed her arm.

"Warning, incoming missiles. Deploying curtain fire."

The events played out exactly as they had done countless times before, from the exhilarating feeling of shooting down several, utterly inferior, enemy fighters and the adrenaline rush of her breakneck dive in which she took out three enemy tanks at once to her surprise and anger over the Hoplite's systems overheating, forcing her to bail out and finally, the infernal cocktail of white-hot agony and utter helplessness as she watched her severed arm disappear into nothingness below her.

She woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in her bed so fast that, had she been any taller, she would have hit her head on the cabin's ceiling, and - by some kind of divine intervention - managed to somehow clamp her left hand over her own muzzle fast enough to hold back the scream that had formed in her throat. Onyeka sat in the darkness like that for several minutes, sweating and shaking as she pressed down on her muzzle hard enough to bring tears to her eyes, not daring to let go until she was completely sure that she would not start screaming.

She had no idea what time it was, but judging by the complete lack of light from outside she guessed that it was still quite a ways until dawn. After waiting some more minutes just to be absolutely sure she had calmed down enough, the hyena finally released her aching jaw from the death grip of her own paw, groaning softly as she worked the joints until they gave a satisfying 'pop'.

For a moment she considered waking Keith, who had, by some miracle, slept through the entire ordeal without so much as speeding up the rhythm of his snoring, but she quickly brushed the idea aside.

'Sure Onyeka, wake him up and ask him whether he'll let you sleep in his bed for the rest of the night because you had a nightmare like a fucking little girl...now there's a great idea.' the hyena thought to herself, angrily blinking away the single tear that had formed in the corner of her eye 'Dawn can't be too far off by now - might as well just sit this out...'

She spent the rest of the night in a strange sort of half-asleep, half-awake state that left her at least a little rested when Keith finally stirred in the bed beneath her, approximately an hour after the first rays of the sun had begun creeping through the coarse wooden shutters.

"Morning" the large ursine said, following with a mighty yawn that would have left smaller furs trembling in fear of being swallowed whole "How was your first night in the forest, plains walker?"

"It was alright I guess - once I got over your snoring!" she lied, hopping down from her bunk bed and immediately dropping into a quick set of push-ups.

Keith watched the hyena in silence for a while before letting out an audible sigh.

"Remember what I told you a week ago? At HQ, after your little encounter with Febe?"

Onyeka froze in mid-push-up, staring blankly at the floor before her face as she felt as if somebody had dumped a bucket of ice cold water over her head.

"You're still a lousy actress, plains-walker."

When she finally turned her head to face him, half-expecting the grizzly to wear a mocking grin on his large face, Onyeka was surprised to instead find nothing but a look of honest concern and sincerity in the ursine's features.

"You've been having nightmares, haven't you?" Keith asked calmly, his deep voice bar of any ridicule and when she nodded affirmatively he added "Figures - I'm guessing it's always the same one, right?"

The hyena nodded again as she finally got up from the floor, swallowing the uncomfortable lump that had formed in her throat before she replied with a voice so thin that she barely recognized it herself

"Yes...It's always the same...it has been since the first night after my...after the crash. I relive the whole damn thing every single fucking night - and in perfect detail, too. Can you imagine that? It's fucking torture you know... Fuck, why am I even telling you all this dammit? Hope you get a good laugh out of it or whatever..."

Onyeka balled her fist at her side as she felt tears welling up in her eyes yet again, looking to the floor as she angrily tried blinking them away. She felt like a complete idiot, furiously cursing herself mentally for both agreeing to come out here and for embarrassing herself in front of her teammate like this by crying like a little girl.

She was so employed in her self-loathing that she didn't even notice Keith reaching out and placing one of his impossibly huge hands on her shoulder, causing her to wince and jerk her head upwards to meet his gaze, which was as sincere as ever.

"Hey now - this is no laughing matter and to be frank, it insults me that you'd think I'd get a laugh out of any of this." the grizzly said firmly "I told you I'd do my best to help you and I still stand by it - and I promise you that, in time, we'll fix you right up - nightmares and all. Do you trust me?"

She stared back the huge ursine's face for several moments as his gaze pierced into her eyes and for the first time since she had hear him say it, the word 'shaman' seemed somewhat fitting - there was definitely something spiritual, something dignified in his eyes that she had never seen before.

"Okay" she heard herself say, sounding strangely distant, but still she nodded affirmatively "I trust you - and I apologize, I didn't mean to insult you."

"Good" Keith replied with a smile and a reassuring pat on her shoulder that was hefty enough to make her slump slightly "Now that that's settled - breakfast?"

"Breakfast." she echoed, realizing just now how hungry she was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I know this is going to trigger a déjà vu, but how exactly did I let you talk me into this?" Onyeka grumbled as she deftly stepped over the thick root of a tree that had seemingly decided that the best place to grow was the middle of the beaten path she and Keith were currently walking.

"Talk you into what exactly?" the grizzly asked with a smirk as he looked back at her over his shoulder "Accompanying me on my way to the most serene place in this forest, coming with me in general or leaving that hunk of metal at the cabin?"

"Well...all of those, actually - but mostly leaving my arm at the cabin." she replied, cursing under her breath as she almost lost her balance on another, more slippery root "I feel...really weird without the damn thing - my backpack keeps slipping and my balance is all off...and would you kindly stop grinning you big oaf?"

"Sorry, I'll try." Keith said in the most sincere voice he could muster, though his still present smirk betrayed his resolve. Truth be told, he was still rather surprised that he had been able to convince the hyena to forgo her prosthetic limb and despite her protests he was certain it would ultimately be for the better - he was trying to get her to feel comfortable in her own body again, after all.

"If it puts your mind at ease, we're almost there - You can already hear the water if you listen carefully."

Stopping for a moment, Onyeka perked up her round ears and found that he was telling the truth, a new sound had appeared underneath the ever-present rustling of leaves.

"Well I do hope you weren't planning on having me go for a swim." she said, suddenly feeling a little anxious.

"Not really, no." Keith replied with another look over his shoulder, quirking an eyebrow "Unless you really wanted to, of course."

"I think I'll pass" the hyena said with a grimace "I never was a good swimmer - I mean I wouldn't drown, but that's pretty much it. Especially with only one arm. I guess swimming lessons just aren't that big of a thing where I come from."

"Huh, I never really thought about it, but I guess that makes sense." the grizzly stated absent-mindedly as he pushed a few sturdy branches out of the way with one mighty arm, beckoning Onyeka closer with the other "We're here by the way - what do you say? Did I promise too much?"

The hyena's eyes went wide with wonder as she peered past the large ursine, and for several moments she could do nothing but stare with her mouth agape, completely at a loss for words. Beyond the branches lay a small clearing with a rocky cliff at its far side, from which a magnificent waterfall fed a little pond filled with the clearest water Onyeka had ever seen. In its very middle, a small rock, maybe two and a half feet in diameter, rose from the water and on top of its flat surface, a young tree had somehow gained a foothold, its roots digging into every crack they could find.

It was like something out of a cheesy, yet still wonderful fairy tale.

"Wow..." was all she managed to say as she drank in every little detail, having never before seen anything this serene outside of pictures in travel catalogues - and those were fake or at least touched-up heavily most of the time.

"I'll take that as a 'no' then" Keith stated with a chuckle as he took a few steps past the still gawking hyena before slowly turning 360 degrees with his arms outstretched "Welcome to my little sanctuary, plains-walker."

"Oh my god Keith" Onyeka finally managed to say after a few more moments of staring "This place is incredible! How on earth did you find it?"

"My dad used to take me here when I was still a cub, just like my grandfather had taken him here before...and so on" he explained casually while setting down his backpack, letting it lean against one of the larger rocks at the shore of the pond "I guess you could call it an old shamans insider's tip - and I plan to keep it that way, if you don't mind."

The hyena nodded in agreement while she followed his example, cursing slightly under her breath as she awkwardly wiggled her stump of an arm out of her backpack's shoulder strap, letting the bulky thing hit the ground with a dull thud.

"So what happens now?" she asked in the grizzly's direction, tilting her head to the side expectantly.

"Now..." Keith began with an almost surprisingly dignified note to his baritone voice "Now I will show you how to immerse yourself in a state of meditation and relaxation, which will enable you to battle your inner demons and become yourself once again."

"So basically, we're going to sit by the water and meditate for a while." Onyeka stated flatly, not even trying to hide her apparent lack of enthusiasm about the prospect. Truth be told, until now she had actually enjoyed their trip quite a bit, if mostly for the - admittedly very beautiful - nature and scenery, but the whole idea of meditation and self-reflection still didn't seem all that appealing to her.

The great ursine gave a slow nod of his massive head, his expression making it clear that he would not let himself be talked out of his plans and so the next half-hour was spent on him giving her a crash course in correct sitting posture and breathing technique which had Onyeka muttering curses and other vulgarities more than once until he was satisfied. After finally giving her a smile and a nod of approval, Keith sat cross-legged on a large, flat rock a few feet in front of the hyena and closed his eyes, commanding her to do the same before beginning to chant quietly in a language she did not understand.

Onyeka's ears perked at the unexpected sound and at first she had to fight to resist the urge to chuckle, the words sounding alien and somewhat ridiculous to her, but as she forced herself to concentrate on her breathing, the grizzly's deep, baritone singsong slowly began to have an effect on her, causing her to relax notably.

Several minutes passed like this, during which Onyeka found it easier and easier to control her breathing, to the point where she didn't have to concentrate on it at all, enabling her to let her thoughts wander freely and she inadvertently found herself recapping the past two days, from their flight to the hours of horrible country music in Bob's truck to their hike to Keith's cabin and the drinks they had shared in the evening.

As she let this happen, however, one image always lingered before her inner eye a little longer than the others, and much to her surprise and shock, that image was the sight of Keith with his shirt off.

'What the...?' she thought to herself, momentarily messing up the rhythm of her breathing before she quickly it again, banishing the image of the shirtless hunk of a bear from her mind. Before long, however, he was back with a vengeance, his huge pecs straining against the straps of his backpack as he stood before her inner eye, chuckling that low, rumbling chuckle as he had done so many times since they had arrived.

'What the fuck is going on?' Onyeka thought to herself, finding it harder and harder to keep up her concentration as she suddenly became very aware of Keith's sitting mere feet next to her, her nose picking up the masculine, slightly earthy scent his body was.

'Stop goddammit, stop it! He's not even my type - and actually kind of a jerk, too!'

She mentally screamed at herself as her body began reacting to the presence of a virile male in such close proximity, the behavioral patterns ingrained so deeply into her mind that even thousands of years of evolution and civilization could not remove them.

In hyena society, the one thing that had always counted more than anything else was strength - pure, raw, physical potency was the very foundation of their culture, and it determined everything else: Who got to rule and who had to serve, who was allowed to live and who was left to die.

Who got to breed and whose inheritance were removed from the gene pool in order to let the species prosper.

And right now, Onyeka's body was deeming Keith Anawak, the shirtless behemoth of a grizzly who was chanting rhythmically on a rock mere feet next to her to be the worthiest goddamn male in the entire forest, causing the hyena to whimper and squirm as she felt her jockstrap become uncomfortably tight as her unique genitals started filling with blood.

For a while, Keith remained oblivious to the hyena's plight, being too absorbed in his own meditation and his chanting to notice her growing discomfort, but it did not take long for his sensitive ursine nose to catch a scent that, while somewhat different in its nuances from the scent of a female of his own kind, was still inherently the same for every species on earth, and was immediately and unmistakably identifiable as the scent of a female in heat.

Surprised by the suddenness of its appearance and the sheer potency of the smell, the large ursine carefully opened one eye in order to sneak a glance at its origin and immediately felt the heat of a blush creeping into his cheeks as he saw Onyeka squirming uncomfortably next to him, biting her lower lip slightly in frustration, a rather obvious bulge making itself apparent in her shorts.

"Umm, are you alright?" he asked cautiously, clearing his throat inadvertently as he, too, shifted his position slightly, the overwhelming barrage of the hyena's scent beginning to take effect on his body as well "You look kinda...uncomfortable over there, Onyeka."

The hyena's eyes shot open upon hearing him speak and her muzzle twisted into a snarl as she quickly un-crossed her legs and closed them in front of her instead.

"I...fuck...I don't...I don't fucking know" she half-stammered-half-growled at him with blazing cheeks, her voice husky and on the verge of cracking as she fought back the tears of shame that formed in her eyes "Look I...I didn't mean to...I mean this is not what it looks like...I mean...I'm sorry Keith I didn't...JUST LOOK AT THIS GODDAMMIT...Fuck!"

Keith cleared his throat again as he struggled for words, more than a little taken aback by the heaviness of her reaction, the fact that his own pants were beginning to grow rather tight as well not helping in the least.

"Hey...don't worry about it..." he started, earning himself another death-stare from the enraged hyena, yet he decided to press on "I mean c'mon, we're both adults, stuff like this can happen, no need to get all worked up. We guys get wood all the time when we doze off and wake up again...I suppose it happens to female hyenas just the same, eh? A-and when you think about it, meditation is kinda similar to dozing off, so it's no wonder that...I'm not really making it any better, am I?"

"Not.Really." Onyeka growled through gritted teeth, but her expression did soften a little as she cleared her throat before continuing somewhat huskily "I'm really sorry, Keith - I...I didn't mean to offend you like that - especially not in a sacred place like this. It's just...I let my mind wander like you told me to and I sorta relived the last few days and then my body just kinda...goddammit I feel like a fucking teenager again. You probably think I'm some kind of perverted weirdo right now."

"Not at all, actually." Keith replied with a lopsided grin while changing his position yet again in an effort to conceal the still growing bulge in his pants "All things considered, if I'm what's causing...well that, I guess I should feel flattered. But it does seem like you're quite...err...pent up, right?"

Right at that moment, the hyena felt immensely grateful that he hadn't used the opportunity to make a crude joke, but the ursine's last sentence set her cheeks ablaze yet again, leaving her unable to do anything else than look down at the ground to avoid his gaze.

"Now please don't get mad at me for asking" the grizzly said, pausing for a moment as though he was unsure whether he should continue "When was the last time you...you know...let off some steam - alone or with somebody else?"

Onyeka hadn't thought that her cheeks could take on yet a darker shade of red, but her body proved otherwise as she bit her lower lip, waiting several moments before finally answering meekly: "Four months and two days to be exact. Haven't really been 'in the mood' ever since...you know..."

Keith pursed his lips and let out an audible grunt as realization about the actual scope of the hyena's frustration overcame him, and he weighed each word carefully before speaking after a moment of silence.

"I see...no wonder you haven't been yourself lately. I know what too much abstinence can do to your state of mind - that coupled with all the other shit you've been going through, it's a miracle you haven't gone mental yet. Now don't get me wrong - this is completely your choice, so if you say so I'll shut up and we'll never speak of it again - but I think the first thing we need to do if we want to get you back on track is to provide you some...relief."

It took her a few moments to process what the grizzly had just proposed, but realization overcame her soon enough, causing her to stare at him in disbelief.

"Are...are you asking me to have sex with you?"

"Well..." Keith replied sheepishly, spreading his massive thighs slightly in order to reveal to her the - rather apparent - tent that had formed in his shorts "It's not like my body is any more immune to the scent of arousal than yours is. But as I said - I'm not forcing you to do anything, merely suggesting."

Onyeka couldn't suppress a growl as the impressive ursine before her, though still clothed, practically presented himself to her, causing a new wave of his scent to assault her nostrils, her body reacting almost instantly as she felt a dampness between her legs.

For a fleeting moment part of her mind fought against her body's natural reaction, telling her that this was not only a male of a different species, but also a near total stranger, whom she had only known more than just professionally for less than three days, but when she saw his the bulge in his pants give a visible throb, enabling her to catch the outline of his package, a more primal part decided to throw caution into the wind.

Up until this very moment, she hadn't been aware of just how much she needed this.

"Okay" was all she managed to say, her voice so husky that it was barely more than a whisper, but it was all the permission Keith needed.

"Alright" he growled, rising to his feet to show his full height before quickly closing the distance between the two of them with two strides and holding out a meaty paw in invitation "Then how about you get down from your rock and make yourself comfortable."

The hyena nodded in agreement, letting herself be pulled to her feet by his mighty paw, shivering slightly at his strength "Where do you want me?"

"Just lay on your back on the ground here." came the rumbling answer, in a tone that was both encouraging and commanding "That's it, now relax and let me take care of the rest."

Onyeka felt her heart beat hard against her chest as she did as she was told, gasping slightly at the sensation of the soft grass against her fur as she propped herself up on her arm. Keith quickly followed her down, lowering his bulk onto the ground next to her while gently running a claw up her abdomen, making her shiver by tracing the hard muscles beneath her tank top.

"I think you should get a little more comfortable." he growled with a toothy grin, playfully tugging at her top until she sat up and raised her arm, enabling him to pull the garment up over her head, revealing her black sports bra.

"And while we're already at it..." the grizzly said with another growl before roughly yanking the bra off as well, causing Onyeka to gasp audibly as her supple breasts bounced free, her dark nipples perking slightly at the touch of the cool air.

A moan escaped the hyena's throat as Keith wasted no time, instantly attacking her newly exposed flesh with his tongue, lapping against the tender skin, which hardened further under his ministrations. Onyeka's back arched involuntarily as one of his huge paws found her neglected other breast and started gently kneading the supple orb while a single claw teased her nipple.

"Ahhhh...goddamn" she panted heatedly, the grizzly's - obviously experienced - touch leaving her writhing and arching her spine on the forest floor, rock hard and dripping into her underwear.

"I'm gonna take that for a compliment" the ursine remarked with a toothy grin, removing his lips from her tortured breast for now, however not without a soft bite to her tender nipple that elicited a delightful, surprised yelp, which turned to a sharp gasp as his free paw zeroed in on her crotch, applying pressure to the turgid flesh beneath.

Keith could feel her body tense up at his touch and, without warning, gave her bulge a tentative squeeze, a devilish grin spreading across his muzzle as her vocalizations grew louder and her powerful hips bucked sharply against his paw each time he tightened his digits around the distinct shape of her unique anatomy through the fabric.

"My oh my" he rumbled teasingly, removing his hand from her crotch, only to find his leathery pads moist with her juices, which were flowing in such quantities that they had easily soaked through two layers of fabric "Just look at how wet you are - seems like someone needs it really _really_bad!"

"B-bastard!" was all she could muster in retaliation, her voice high-pitched and cracking as she shot him a glowing, pleading glare "S-stop teasing and g-get on with aAH!"

Onyeka never got to finish her sentence as Keith gently but firmly placed one meaty paw on her shoulder, pushing her upper back fully against the ground while his free paw slid under the small of her back and lifted her rump up, enabling him to slide her shorts down over her sculpted thighs. With her shorts out of the way, the only thing left to cover the hyena's most intimate area was her black and hopelessly soaked jockstrap, the small pouch of fabric struggling to contain her swollen pseudo-penis.

Keith paused his actions for a moment just to take a long, curious glance at her barely concealed crotch and for a second he hesitated. Both his body and mind knew that Onyeka was a woman, her scent, though somewhat different from females of any species he had been intimately involved before, was unmistakable, her body, even as buff and muscular as it was, was also undeniably female, but still, a small part of the grizzly's mind still refused to believe that the impressive bulge in her underwear was being caused by anything but a dick and a pair of balls.

His short moment of hesitation did not go unnoticed by the hyena, whose breathing quickened noticeably, body tensing up as her eyes took on a scared, almost pleading expression as if she were silently begging him not to stop.

Catching her look, Keith banished the small sliver of doubt from his mind and gave her a reassuring smile before he slid his fingers under the waistband of her jockstrap, carefully removing the atypical piece of clothing to finally uncover her fully to the world, allowing her to lower her rump onto the ground again.

"It's okay, I'm not gonna back out on you." the grizzly rumbled softly "Just relax, Onyeka."

She stared at him warily for a moment, but quickly forced herself to relax and spread her legs a little more, exposing herself fully to the huge ursine's probing digits, which he slid gingerly through the soft fur on her thighs, slowly working his way upwards to her most private area until at last his fingers brushed across the light, peach fuzz covered mounds of her fused labia.

Onyeka took in a sharp breath that caught in her throat, her entire body tensing at the sensation of being touched after so long. Keith kept sliding his digits along her labia for a moment, curiously exploring the unique texture of the area, which not only resembled a male's scrotum, but also felt quite similar, although softer and more pliant to the touch. Emboldened by the sounds she made, he soon decided to take the next step forward and, after a final, brief moment of hesitation, placed his fingers lightly around her swollen clitoris, eliciting the highest yelp yet from the hyena as her body went taut as a bowstring.

"Does that feel good, Onyeka? How about this?" he asked carefully as he gingerly slid his fingers along the entire length of her clit, marveling at how it felt in his paw, almost as hard as an erect penis, but yet somehow more...fleshy, for the lack of a better word, as well as its sheer size, which he guessed to be a good six and a half inches, making it larger than what a lot of guys were packing.

"Oh fffuuuuck, aah!" Onyeka cursed through gritted teeth, her eyes screwed shut as her body convulsed under his first, almost timid touch to her pleasure center and she almost came right then and there when he started moving his huge paw up and down her length, pleasuring her as he would himself or another male.

Further spurred on by her, increasingly unintelligible vocalizations and the way she squirmed at every little motion of his hand, Keith began to masturbate her in earnest, the steady flow of her juices that oozed profusely from the blunt tip of her clitoris providing more than enough lubrication.

He cries soon deteriorated into short, frenzied yips and moans as he increased the speed and pressure of his strokes, pushing her closer and closer to her inevitable climax, her body convulsing violently under his relentless onslaught, claws digging deep furrows into the soft forest floor.

"Stop fighting it, just let it happen. C'mon, let go!" the grizzly rumbled encouragingly, urging her on as she hurtled towards her peak like a runaway train, by turns screaming and cursing in every language she knew until he suddenly leaned forward and resumed his assault on her breasts, lapping and biting at her left nipple.

The added stimulation was more than enough to finally send her over the edge and her body suddenly twisted violently under him, mashing her crotch against his frantically stroking paw. She would have cried out, but the sound caught in her throat, her claws tore a large chunk from the ground before they found Keith's back, digging through fur and skin with enough force to draw blood. He hardly felt it, being too caught up in her display of primal, unadulterated ecstasy, trying to prolong her pleasure as she rode the waves of her earth-shaking climax, coating both his hand and most of her lower body in her juices. The grizzly had never seen anything quite like it.

It took Onyeka several moments to come down from her release, her body falling back to the forest floor limply, her chest heaving as she fought for breath, and several more before she was able to collect her senses enough for her to speak.

"That was...oh god...it's been so long...I" she panted, shaking her head as if she were trying to throw off vertigo "Thank you."

Keith could barely keep himself from beaming, instead making a show of wiping his completely drenched paw on the soft fur of her thigh as he whispered "You're very welcome - could have told me about the waterfall though."

"Heh, jerk." she muttered, playfully sticking out her tongue at him before reaching up to wipe the sweat from her brow, when she suddenly noticed her claws were glistening red.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to hurt you..." she said sheepishly, propping herself up on her elbow while looking at him anxiously.

"Don't worry, I hardly felt anything. It takes more than a few scratches to kill a bear like me." the large ursine replied with a grin "And besides, with our healing speed, I'd be surprised if they weren't gone by tomorrow morning."

"Alright, good." Onyeka said with a sigh of relief, seconds before a mischievous grin crept across her muzzle "Would you like some more then?"

"Say wha-oof!" Keith began, but before he could finish his sentence he was pounced on by the naked hyena, the impact knocking the wind from him before he suddenly found himself laying on his back, pinned down by the muscular female.

"I said, would you like some more?" she growled lustily as she straddled his broad chest with her powerful thighs, the wetness of her juices seeping into the thick fur, the scent making the grizzly's head swim and his cock strain against his shorts.

"Geez Onyeka, what's gotten into you?" the pinned ursine asked, trying, if halfheartedly, to wiggle free from the vise-like grip she maintained on his ribcage "You're almost like a different person all of a sudden."

"You were right, you know?" the hyena above him growled, leaning forward so that her face was mere inches from his as she flashed her pearly white teeth at him "I really, really needed that - I had almost forgotten what I was missing all this time. But once just isn't enough, my blood is up now and you better believe I'm gonna get what I want."

Keith was at a loss for words, the sudden change in Onyeka's behavior having caught him completely off guard. But that was not to say he wasn't turned on as fuck by her newfound aggressiveness, as was evident by the way his dick was currently threatening to rip a hole in his pants if they weren't removed ASAP.

"I hear no objections? Good - I wouldn't have believed you anyway." Onyeka snarled, giving the grizzly's right ear a playful bite before finally climbing off his prone form, allowing him to breathe freely again.

"Now how about you lose the pants, big bear?" she commanded, reaching out to give Keith's raging erection a rough squeeze through the fabric "I'm dying to see what you've got for me in there. Don't be shy now, you got to see mine, now I get to see yours."

"Yes ma'am." Keith quickly replied as if he was running on autopilot while still trying to wrap his head around what exactly was happening and just how much it was turning him on. He got to his feet in the blink of an eye popped open the button of his cargo shorts in another, carelessly kicking the piece of clothing aside as he stood before her in nothing but his obscenely tented and pre-stained boxer shorts.

"Mmh, looks like someone's just as eager as I am." the hyena cooed, licking her lips as the musky scent of Keith's arousal tickled her nostrils, causing her swollen clitoris to twitch in anticipation.

She closed the distance between the two of them with a pounce that had an almost feline grace to it and dropped to her knees in front of the towering ursine, a feral growl rumbling in her chest as she hooked three fingers of her remaining paw under the elastic waistband of his shorts and near ripped them off.

A relieved growl escaped Keith's throat as his painfully hard erection was finally freed, bobbing in front of his body in time with his heartbeat as it already stood at full mast, almost nine inches long and as thick as a beer can.

"Nice" Onyeka stated with an approving nod, licking her lips as her mouth watered at the sight and smell of the grizzly's endowment. His scent was earthy and masculine, not that much unlike a male hyena would smell but still distinctly different. She decided that she liked it, shuddering slightly as she buried her blunt snout between the ursine's orange-sized balls and took a deep breath, letting his musk fill her nose before running her tongue along the underside of his impressive length, making him gasp and tremble slightly.

Grinning inwardly at his response to her ministrations, the hyena began eagerly lapping at his cock, tracing each vein with her tongue as she covered every inch of the thick shaft in her saliva before deciding that simple licking was no longer enough. She gave one last, lavish lick along the underside of his pole, flicking her tongue briefly across the wide, mushroom shaped tip to catch the glistening drop of pre that had collected there, reveling in its salty-sweet taste for a moment before proceeding to wrap her lips around his fat tip. Keith had to resist the urge to buck his hips as, after a few moments of struggling with his girth, she engulfed the first few inches of his cock in her hot mouth, lashing at the sensitive tip with her tongue to catch more of his tangy pre.

Onyeka growled lustily around the thick member as she worked it deeper into her greedy muzzle, and even though, as a hyena, she was - fortunately for her - able to open her maw quite far, the grizzly's sheer girth proved to be quite a challenge. Once she gagged slightly, cursing inwardly when she went a little too fast, causing the ursine's fat, flared tip to bump against the back of her throat, its girth effectively plugging up her gullet.

"W-whoa, girl...n-not so fast!" Keith gasped as he felt her muscles convulse around him as she gagged, involuntarily stimulating him almost to the point of pain, but when he reached down a massive paw to ease her off his dick in order to let her recover, a fierce growl and painful squeeze of the hyena's vise-like paw to his balls made it rather clear that he currently had no say in what was happening whatsoever.

"O-okay...g-got it!" he yelped, putting his hands up in a gesture of defeat before placing them behind his back, opting to ride out whatever plans she had for him lest he risk her wrath, especially when she had her mighty jaws around his most sensitive parts.

Having asserted her dominance over the larger male, Onyeka began to attack his dick with renewed vigor, forcing herself deeper and deeper onto his impressive shaft. Tears welled up in her eyes as she battled her own body's resistance in a lust-filled haze, hell bent on taking every last inch of his glorious manhood into her maw no matter the cost. She had taken males of his length before, though they had all been either hyenas, canines, felines or cervines, all of which had more or less tapered cocks, making them easier to handle than the grizzly's blunt, wide tip, but after several unsuccessful tries, she finally managed to relax her throat muscles enough and the ursine's entire length slipped down her throat with a lewd, squelching sound.

"Hooly shit!" Keith groaned hotly as he felt himself hilt his maleness in the hyena's throat, her powerful muscles massaging every inch of his shaft as she simply held herself there for a moment, her cold nose bumping against the fur of his crotch.

Onyeka growled in triumph around his dick, sending vibrations through his shaft as her nostrils were flooded with the grizzly's masculine scent, causing her head to swim. She lapped at the underside of his maleness as best as she could for a moment before she slowly pulled back, shivering as she felt the fat dick retreat from her throat and muzzle until only the tip remained, and immediately lunged forward again, continuing to deep throat him with steady, drawn out strokes.

Keith was seeing stars, his mind reeling with pleasure as the hyena sucked and slurped away, her grunts and moans and the wet sounds of her lips around his manhood echoing throughout the otherwise quiet glade arousing him endlessly, so it was no surprise he found himself quickly approaching his climax, causing him to buck his hips slightly despite his best efforts to remain still.

His nearing release did not go unnoticed by Onyeka, either, however the hyena clearly had other plans for him, abruptly letting his twitching, aching dick slide from the confines of her muzzle and instead clamping her paw around his base just hard enough to cause discomfort, and although her fingers didn't quite make it around his entire girth, her grip still had its desired effect, effectively preventing the ursine's impending orgasm.

"AH, what the hell OW?" Keith cried in frustration, yelping in discomfort as the dominant female further tightened her grip on his dick, baring her teeth at him half-mocking-half menacingly while licking the wetness of her saliva and his pre from her chops.

"Shut up you big oaf!" she snarled as she got to her feet, still holding his aching dick in her vise-like grip "You don't get to cum yet - not before you've stuck that fat prick in me where it counts! Are we clear?"

Her tone left little room for argument and even though the one armed hyena was considerably smaller and, while a force to be reckoned with, definitely not as strong as Keith, the grizzly hastily nodded his head in agreement, seriously taken aback by the air of dominance she asserted.

"Good." Onyeka almost purred - a rather peculiar sound at least when coming from her mouth - and finally let go of Keith's dick, which had turned a deeper shade of red than it's usual color from her prolonged grip, but had apparently lost none of its enthusiasm as it stood proud as ever, bobbing heavily before its owner while dripping pre profusely.

She returned to the large, flat rock she had been sitting on during her long-forgotten attempt at meditation, sultrily swishing her hips with every step, her short, bushy tail flagged high into the air, giving Keith an unobstructed view of her sculpted, shapely hindquarters before ultimately laying on her back on its warm surface, hypnotizing the gawking ursine closer with her eyes.

"Now get over here, big boy. I want you to fuck me like I'm the last goddamn female on this planet!" she commanded, beckoning him to her with a swish of her head as her engorged clit stood hard against her washboard abs, still dripping with both the fluids of her past orgasm and her renewed arousal.

Now bears are not commonly known as the most energetic or dynamic creatures, but no sooner than the last word had left her lips, Keith all but pounced upon her prone form, mashing his strong, ursine lips against her own in a violent, primal kiss that had their teeth clacking against each other as their tongues wrestled between them. Fueled by her sounds, her scent, her sheer presence, as well as the pent up tension from how she had denied him his release earlier, the hulking grizzly was more than willing and ready to comply with her wishes and give this hyena the ride of her life.

He broke their kiss with a growl and moved towards her supple breasts instead, licking and sucking and groping and biting her firm, round mounds until she gasped and moaned and all the while his raging erection plowed through the soft fur of her belly, mashing against her equally hard clit.

When suddenly, a thought crossed the horny ursine's mind, a small but essential bit of oversight that made him stop dead in his tracks.

He wanted to fuck her, to screw her senseless until she begged for mercy, oh yes he wanted it more than anything else in the entire world right now - he just had no idea how exactly he was supposed to do that.

"What's wrong? Why the fuck are you stopping?" Onyeka snarled, her lust-hazed eyes glowing dangerously at his sudden lack of movement as she shot him a look that was so full of sexual frustration and need it was almost palpable.

"Umm...Onyeka?" the grizzly started, blushing under his fur as he looked at her helplessly "How do I...what exactly do I do?"

She continued to bore into him with her death stare for a second before realization suddenly hit her, causing her features to soften notably, taking on an almost apologetic look as she too blushed slightly.

"Ah, sorry" she said almost sheepishly, her aggression gone almost completely for a moment "I got so caught up I forgot I'm your first hyena. Let me help you with that."

She gently pushed against his broad chest with her paw until he got off her, taking a small step backwards, a puzzled look on his large face.

Onyeka closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, her body relaxing visibly as she continued taking deep breaths, and Keith watched with rapt attention, eyes wide with amazement as her enlarged clitoris not only went completely flaccid, but also began retracting into her body, the glistening flesh bunching slightly at its base until only about an inch remained visible, looking more like a fleshy sheath than an actual penis.

"That's...wow" he exclaimed when the intriguing spectacle ended and the hyena flashed him a toothy grin in return.

"It's nothing special really" she stated coyly, trailing two fingers around the rim of her entrance "Every female hyena can do that. A male can't have sex with us unless we allow them to - it's how we control our population."

They looked at each other in silence for several long seconds, during which Onyeka looked almost vulnerable to Keith, making him realize just how much she was trusting him by opening herself up like that, making him feel a sense of warmth in his chest that he had not expected to feel. The moment passed quickly, however, and in a blink of an eye, the hyena's dominant nature was back full force as she lunged forward and grabbed the thick fur of his chest, pulling him back towards her with a snarl.

"Now fuck me, Keith - get on with it and GIVE IT TO ME, HARD!" she barked, reaching down between his legs to grab his thick maleness and guide it to her sopping wet opening.

He gasped at the feeling of her slick flesh against his aching erection, growling deeply as he adjusted his position slightly "As you wish, here it comes! RRRGH"

Onyeka let out a startled yelp as the hulking ursine flexed his powerful muscles, driving his hips forward sharply and burying his entire length in her body, causing her to see stars as her tight passage struggled to accommodate his impressive girth.

The sensation on Keith's end was just as overwhelming as he felt the hyena's now flaccid clit stretch around his cock, bunching up at his base as he truly entered her body, her hot inner walls clutching at every inch of his length in an explosive embrace of pure pleasure. He had to fight the urge to simply hammer away at her incredible tightness after the initial penetration, yet he somehow managed to force himself to remain still in order to let her get accustomed to his size.

"FuuuUUuuuck" she cursed through gritted teeth, panting and squirming underneath the huge bear's bulk as she was stretched to her limit, every twitch of her passage sending a jolt of both pain and pleasure through her body "It's been too fucking long since I...damn you are one thick son of a bitch...Aaagh goddamn!"

"Heh" Keith grunted with a smirk, panting just as much as she was from the incredible amount of stimulation her twitching body was giving him "It's she bear, not bitch - I'm no canine you know."

"S-smart ass!" she replied with a snarl, deliberately clenching her muscles around his girth hard enough to make both of them yelp "Now shut up and FUCK me! And don't you DARE hold back - I can take anything you can dish out!"

"Y-you sure about that? Looks like you're having a bit of trouble handling the bear...rRRGH!" he grunted above her, baring his teeth as he pulled back his hips slightly, only to jerk them forward again instantly, his heavy balls slapping against the drenched skin of her labia with a resounding smack, drawing another yip from the hyena.

"Just...Fucking...do...it." she snarled in return, eyes watering as she violently ground her crotch against his to emphasize every word "DO IT!"

Encouraged by her aggressiveness and determination, Keith finally decided to throw caution to the wind and give in to her wishes, withdrawing his hips until his cock left her twitching canal, though, much to his surprise and pleasure, the smooth skin of her clitoris remained around his length, preventing him from ever truly leaving her body even if he pulled back like this and with a roar of carnal lust, thrust back in hard enough to shove her entire body forward a couple of inches.

Onyeka cried in pure ecstasy as the huge ursine began fucking her in earnest, quickly grabbing hold of her hips in order to prevent her from sliding along the surface of the rock from the force of his thrusts, which came hard and rhythmic and with almost enough force to bruise. After such a long period of abstinence, the grizzly's beer can-thick member was nearly too much for her to handle, but at this point she simply didn't care, her lust overriding any sense of reason as she pushed back into is thrusts with reckless abandon, yelping, moaning and shrieking each time that delicious piece of bear meat sparked an explosion of pleasure with every resounding smack of their hips.

Keith's claws dug into her hips as he threw himself fully into their rutting, seeing stars as he once more felt his inevitable climax draw nearer with every thrust and, judging by her high-pitched yips and moans, Onyeka wasn't far from hers, either. Suddenly determined to send her over the edge before himself, the grizzly once again focused some of his attention on the hyena's bouncing breasts, hungrily nipping and lapping at her dark fleshed nubs.

The additional stimulation of her sensitive nipples once again did not fail to have its effect and with a choked scream, Onyeka came for the second time, her back arching sharply as her loins rhythmically gripped his shaft like a vise while her claws found his back once again and made good on her promise, adding new scratches to the ones from before.

The effects of the hyena's violent release proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for Keith, sending him hurtling over the edge of his own orgasm. Slamming his hips forward one final time with such force that a less robust female would have probably suffered a fractured pelvis, he roared his release into the silence of the forest loud enough to startle the wildlife in half a mile's radius. He stopped thrusting altogether, simply holding himself as deep inside her physically possible as his balls tightened, pumping jet after jet of hot bear cum into her grasping sex.

Onyeka was just coming down from her own orgasm when the grizzly hit his peak and she moaned softly as she felt each spurt of his essence fill her womb with a pleasant warmth, the sheer volume of his output soon exceeding her capacities as she felt it oozing back out around his thick shaft, dribbling lewdly between the cheeks of her rump.

Keith's orgasm lasted for near a full minute before the impressive flow of semen finally died down, a final twitch of Onyeka's swollen clit milking the last drops from his spent balls, and with a deep sigh the huge ursine allowed himself to collapse onto the hyena's prone form, propping himself up on his elbows so he wouldn't crush her with his bulk as they both fought for breath, the exhilaration of their mutual release slowly fading into a soothing afterglow.

"That...that sure was something." the grizzly panted after several minutes, being the first to catch his breath as he added with a goofy grin "Best sex I've ever had, period."

"Flatterer" Onyeka managed to breathe in return, blushing slightly as she felt a particularly large spurt of their combined fluids leak from her battered snatch with an obscene squelch "Whoa, damn Keith - when was the last time you came, man? There's so much of it..."

"Heh, sorry 'bout that. Wasn't even that long ago, actually." he replied with a coy smirk, withdrawing his hips slightly until his softening cock slipped free from her fleshy sleeve with a wet sound, followed by a veritable torrent of semen "I take it I'm your first bear then, eh? Or you'd know that when we come, we make it count."

"Hooly shit!" she gasped as she felt the warm wetness coat the entire underside of her tail, as well as a large part of her inner thighs as it burst from her spent clit in slowly ebbing spurts "I can definitely see that - lemme get up for a second."

Keith was quick to comply and got off her with a grunt, allowing the hyena to sit up, the change in position resulting in yet another cascade of fluids, which had begun to dribble down the side of the rock.

"Geez, you definitely win in the volume department, that's for sure." Onyeka said with a chuckle, staring in disbelief at the thankfully ebbing flow for a moment before looking back at Keith, a devilish grin playing across her blunt muzzle "But what about frequency, eh big boy?"

"Uh, come again?" the large ursine asked, eyes widening in disbelief.

"Exactly! Soo...how long does it take you to recharge?" she got up from her rock as she spoke, pressing her body up against his while her paw found his sac, eliciting a gasp from him as she not-so-gently fondles his spent orbs.

"Errr...I dunno, probably like 10...15 minutes I guess..." Keith replied, reluctantly, wincing at her touch as she rolled his still sensitive balls around in her paw.

"Yess, that'll do nicely - yay for CHIMERA upgrades, huh? Now how about we...get comfortable until you're ready again?" she crooned, moving her groping paw from his balls to his semi-hard dick, eliciting another gasp from the shocked ursine.

"Wait...you want to go again?" he gasped in disbelief, shuddering at the touch of her rough paw pads to his oversensitive flesh, though he already felt himself hardening slightly.

"You've still got to learn a lot about hyenas, big bear. We are far, far from done!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun had long begun its descent when Onyeka finally climbed off a sweating, panting and thoroughly spent Keith, flopping on her back on the forest floor next to him, basking in the afterglow of her eighth orgasm.

"I...I surrender...No more" the grizzly wheezed, fighting to catch his breath as he stared at the sky through the leaf canopy.

"That---that's okay" came the husky response as Onyeka wiped the sweat from her brow before "I'm pretty spent, too."

Keith let out a relieved groan, closing his eyes for a moment before saying "Oh thank the gods...Don't get me wrong - that was absolutely incredible. I don't think I've ever had sex like that, but damn woman, you are a frickin' beast!"

"Heh, sorry, I should have warned you." the hyena replied, a sheepish little smile playing across her muzzle as she snuggled up against his body, curling her fingers into the thick fur of his heaving chest "I tend to sometimes get a little...carried away, especially when I've gone without sex for this long. You kept up pretty well though - most males would have probably thrown in their towel hours ago."

"Your idea of 'a little carried away' frightens me." the large ursine chuckled, rolling his eyes "And I guess I should be really thankful for the accelerated healing thing - I'd probably need stitches otherwise..."

They mutually chuckled at that for a moment before both stopping to catch their breath again, basking in their ebbing afterglow in silence together for a while.

It was Onyeka who broke the silence, propping herself up on her elbow to look down into the grizzly's blue eyes "I had no idea how much I needed this, Keith. Thank you."

"Sure thing - I told you this trip would make you feel better."

"I need to know one thing though, and I want you to be honest with me here. Please tell me this whole trip wasn't just an elaborate set-up to get me to have sex with you."

He looked back into her eyes in silence for a long moment before solemnly shaking his large head slightly, his face as solemn as ever "No, it wasn't. I wanted to help you regain your confidence, above all things."

"However..." he added, his muzzle breaking into a sly grin "I'd be lying if I said that the possibility didn't cross my mind at all...I mean hey - I'm still just a guy, right?"

Onyeka playfully nipped at his right ear in retaliation, eliciting a surprised yip from the large ursine before replying with a smirk "That's so typical...but I do appreciate the honesty - and it's not like I had any objections, now did I?"

"That's gotta be the understatement of the year, plains-walker." Keith chuckled heartily, wincing slightly as the movement sent a lance of pain through his mangled back.

They laid on the forest floor in silence for a while, watching the play of the slowly setting sun's light through the leafy canopy, the only sounds being the gentle murmur of the water and their own, steady breathing before it was again Onyeka who broke the silence.

"Soo, about that meditation thing...Should we give it another go before the sun sets?"

Keith thought about it for a moment, but eventually shook his head lazily in negation.

"Nah, there's gonna be enough time for that tomorrow." he said with a yawn, his stomach suddenly giving an audible rumble "And besides - all of that sex has made me pretty hungry. I say we go back to cabin and call it a day - does that sound okay to you?"

It was just then that the hyena realized how hungry she was herself, so she nodded her head in approval as her stomach gave a rumble of its own.

"That sounds pretty good, actually. Let's get moving."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"B-15, CHIMERA headquarters. Have a pleasant day!"

'Home sweet home...' Onyeka thought to herself with a chuckle as she stepped out of the elevator and into the spacious lounge area, a bounce to her step that she wouldn't have thought possible ten days ago. She had slept exceptionally well despite the late arrival of the plane that had brought both her and Keith back from their vacation and the hyena felt as fresh and energetic like she hadn't been in a long time.

The two of them had returned to the serene forest pond every day after their initial (and definitely not last) roll in the hay (or leaves, more like) and after a while, she had gotten quite good at the whole meditation thing, which, under the shaman's guidance, had worked wonders on her psyche, up to the point where she was able to sleep without nightmares for the first time since her accident. Her confidence had skyrocketed after that and by the time they had packed their things and embarked on the long hike back to civilization, she felt completely like her old self again, a far cry from the emotional wreck the crash had reduced her to.

"Yo, Robodyke!" a shrill voice suddenly called out to her, causing the hyena to stop dead in her tracks and turn her head towards the source.

"Wait up for a second, I wanna talk to you." Febe said, pushing herself deftly off the wall she had been leaning on before briskly walking towards Onyeka.

"What is it, Febe? Wanna rip my limbs off with your mind again?" the hyena asked coldly, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she waited impatiently for the smaller female to close the distance.

"What's with the hostility, bitch? I just fucking wanted to talk." the short rat replied, placing her hands on her scrawny hips in defiance as her pink eyes narrowed slightly "Believe it or not I actually wanted to...ya know...apologize for that shit. You know how I get sometimes - especially after getting my ass kicked by my limp-dicked brother...Destroyed _his_faggot ass good in his room afterwards, though."

Onyeka decided to ignore the last part as she almost couldn't believe her ears - any even remotely kind words from Febe Matikainen were already a rare treat, but an actual apology was pretty much the equivalent of winning the lottery while getting struck by lightning.

"Come again?" she asked with a smirk, deciding to savor the moment a little longer as she placed her mechanical hand at her right ear like she had trouble understanding "I'm afraid I misheard - what was that?"

"Fuck you!" Febe spat, fuming and for a moment it looked as though she was going to snap, but she quickly calmed herself again "I said I apologize for those things I said to you - I was pissed off and took it out on you and I'm sorry for that. There, are you happy now? We good again, Robodyke?"

"Eh, okay, why not...Apology accepted, short-stuff." the hyena replied with a toothy grin, which grew even wider as she raised her voice slightly "Oh HILDA, could you send me an audio-log of the last two minutes to my private email address? Authorization: Tichaona, Onyeka, CHIMERA special operative."

"Authorization accepted - very well, operative Tichaona." came the mechanical voice's disembodied response, causing Febe's eyes to go wide as saucepans in shock, her jaw dropping.

"Well, I better get going." Onyeka said nonchalantly and turned on her heel "Dr Askari wanted to see me in the cybernetics department - See you around, short-stuff!"

Febe's mouth opened and closed wordlessly several times as the hyena wandered off, cackling maniacally as only a hyena could before finally snapping out of her paralysis, eyes blazing with anger.

"WHAT...THE...FUCK ONYEKA?" the seething rodent yelled, her voice cracking hopelessly "GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT BEFORE I..."

"Sorry, gotta run - catch me later in the training room if you're still mad!"

She smiled to herself as the doors of the elevator closed behind her, abruptly cutting off Febe's stream of obscenities.

'She'll calm down after a while, always does. Ahh, damn it feels good to be back!'