Chapter 5: The Device Revealed
#5 of The Law
In hindsight, I should have posted this story in one big piece. It isn't really episodic, and it mostly only works as a unit. That said, this is the conclusion of the story; hope you enjoyed it. Comments always appreciated. -Lemnbunny For several moments Jay lay motionless in his little pool, staring up at the polar bear plush now sitting on his stomach, grinning pleasantly at him. "How about a snuggle, foxy?", she inquired in a gentle, friendly voice. Jay smiled and hugged the bear, and she sighed happily. Had he not recently been involved in even stranger things than walking, talking plush polar bears, he may have hesitated. But it seemed a reasonable enough proposition now, in this place. Her fur was incredibly soft, but she was far more solid than an ordinary plush. He stroked her side and back with his left paw while holding her closely with his right. "You are the loveliest plush I've ever met. And certainly the most talkative..." Jay remarked. "Why thank you Mr. Fox!", she replied. "You can call me Jay... what's your name?" "My name is Cindy. If you ever need snuggles, that's what I'm here for, just for you! I was made by an acquaintance of Twinkles, Lord Veish. He specializes in plush creatures, and trades them with magic practitioners from all over the universe for whatever he needs, because his creations are the best of their kind to be found anywhere!", she beamed with pride. Jay found it hard to argue. She was beautiful to begin with, and her voice and personality seemed as soft as her fur. "So are you... alive?", Jay asked. "In a way, " she replied, "I am what you might think of as a... golem perhaps, only fluffier. I am here to serve you, but when not needed you can set me aside and I'll sleep. I could sleep for a minute or a thousand years; it makes no difference to me. You need only pick me up and hug me and I'll wake up and hug you right back! And don't worry abou... oh, hello there!" Apparently Jay was starting to come unsheathed, and was beginning to poke at Cindy's backside. "Ah hehe, sorry about that..." Jay mumbled, a bit embarrassed. "No no, it's quite alright. I was going to say, don't worry about getting me a little dirty. I can keep myself quite clean, even if we engage in slightly more... intimate... snuggles," she said, rubbing herself gently against Jay's growing erection. While Jay generally preferred guys, this activity was a bit more than he could resist. Her plush sex was brushing against his tip, and he wondered what it would be like if... At that moment, Cindy pushed herself back against his shaft, causing him to slide just a bit inside of her. He gasped; she was so smooth, wet, and incredibly warm inside, almost hot. Jay could not resist; he thrust himself deep inside the bear, the pleasure of her warm sex gripping him radiating warmth throughout his body as he caressed her soft white flanks. The bear moaned softly as he rutted gently into her. Jay just wasn't the rough or aggressive type, and he held Cindy closely as he continued. It wasn't long before his knot slid into her and he stopped, abandoning himself to the moment, flooding the white bear as his knot swelled further, holding him deep inside her. He leaned forward to nuzzle her soft neck while she pet his head and sides with both of her forepaws. He woke up about 30 minutes later, his head resting on the edge of the pool, not realizing he'd fallen asleep. Cindy smiled down at him. "Lets go inside and dry off, shall we?" Jay asked. "Anything you want, Jay," she murred. They both shook off a bit before toweling off further inside. Jay had no idea what time it was, but it sure seemed like it was sleepy time. He curled up in bed with Cindy in his arms and pulled a blanket over them both, and kissed her gently between her ears. She murred contentedly in reply. Meanwhile in the other trailer, Twinkles giggled to himself. "Jay would have found things a bit more challenging," he thought, "had he noticed the other first..." The zebra had been hoping to watch that event unfold, but he enjoyed leaving things in the hands of fate, and so Jay had instead pulled out Lord Veish's "Deluxe Polar Bearess Pro 3000 GTX" first. Twinkles was busy making preparations, eager for the arrival of the gem. All the components were ready, and so he spent some time assembling what he could without having the gem in place. He tried to focus on the tasks at hand, but the question, irrelevant now as it was, kept nagging him: How could Jay have missed that huge plush Giraffe? * * * Till sat nervously in front of the computer. Whoever this zebra was, wherever he was from, he was a creature of much greater power than Till, and so he found himself in the unfamiliar position of being slightly intimidated. He typed in a simple email to the effect that he had obtained the gem, as specified, and sent it. No sooner had TIll pressed the "send" button in his message to the zebra mage, gem in hand, than he felt the world around him become grey and featureless. He tumbled backwards, the chair no longer beneath him, and bumped his head on something hard that moved as he made contact with it. For a moment Till lay there on the ground puzzled; were his eyes not focusing, or was there really nothing to focus on? He rolled over in the other direction and saw four small dark hooves which, looking up, he realized were connected to a wooly sheep. Further into the distance he saw two airstream trailers. The zebra mage was walking into to the smaller of the two, and beckoned Till to come closer before he entered. The sheep bleated at him plaintively. Perhaps this was some kind of joke based on his lineage, but he simply couldn't resist herding the little wooly creature forward with him towards the trailers. As he neared the trailers and almost tripped over a wading pool, Twinkles walked out with Jay behind him. Till was relieved to see that Jay looked fine. "Till!" the fox shouted, and ran over to the big shepherd dog, careful not to spook the sheep meandering nearby. "Jayyyy!" Till murred happily, hugging the fox tightly with one arm, lifting him off the ground a few inches. With his other arm, he offered the gem to the zebra, who'd quietly walked up to them. "Ahh, it's perfect. It's hard to believe a mortal was able to cut such a thing so precisely...." He stared briefly into its facets, until the strange sensation in his head reminded him of what he was dealing with. He then pocketed the gem and turned to face Till. "You have upheld our arrangement, and I can send you two back immediately if that is your choice. I can understand if you are upset; perhaps I let my impatience and frustration get the better of me. But also... perhaps you'd like to see what all the fuss for this gem is over?" Till was indeed curious. He now knew all about how powerful gems really were. "I'd like it if we could see it, Till," Jay said, "Twinkles has been very nice to me, and summoned up a whole cargo container full of stuff for me to play with so I wouldn't get bored!" "Twinkles, eh?" Till replied. The Zebra bowed, "I am indeed Twinkles, master of confusion, illustrator of yiff comics too numerous to mention. And I'm quite impatient to install the gem in the device I've made... so are you staying or going?" "I think we'd like to stay and see it," Till conceded. "Good good, " Twinkles replied, "Please follow me..." "Wait," Till interjected, "what about this sheep?" Till had his instincts, and was not about to leave a sheep unattended all alone in this strange world. "Ah yes, I'd almost forgotten I'd grabbed Dorothy along with you..." "Dorothy?!" Till asked. Twinkles walked over to face the sheep, muttered some strange sounds, and lifted her by her two front legs. Her hind legs stretched and stretched, while thickening as well, and her forelegs stretched into slender arms. She walked hesitantly forward on her new limbs, blinked several times, looked about nervously, and then said simply, "gr... grass?" Twinkles nodded and patted her wooly side. "Yes Dorothy, I have some nice grass for you inside. Best you've ever had I promise!" Dorothy smiled and nodded, her lovely almond-colored eyes now sparkling with a little bit of joy. Twinkles led the way into the trailer followed closely by Dorothy, and then by Till and Jay. The room just inside the door was set up like an old fashioned parlor, with several couches and chairs arranged around a coffee table, which was filled with various books, magazines, and comics of considerable variety. "It's down in the basement here..." Twinkles stated matter-of-factly, and led the way down a spiral flight of shiny aluminum stairs. Till giggled to himself; more travel trailers, he thought, should come equipped with basements... They emerged from the staircase into the edge of a large round chamber, perhaps 30 meters in diameter, apparently hollowed out from the squishy white substance the ground here was made out of. Wide bands of polished aluminum spiraled around the walls and ceiling, reflecting the dim light cast by the numerous yellow glowing orbs implanted in the walls. In the middle of the room was a table with some sort of device sitting on it, and against one part of the wall was a small, elevated booth and numerous computers. Twinkles walked directly to the table in the middle and placed the gem into the device, closing a small clear hatch behind it. He then lifted it over his head and pressed it into a recess in the ceiling, where it seemed to snap into place. Twinkles closed his eyes and concentrated. Suddenly another creature appeared, a slender, shirtless bunny who smiled at Twinkles, and looked curiously at the dog, the fox, and the sheep in turn. He had the look of someone who was just born cool, and simply radiated likability. "Grass?" Dorothy inquired of the new arrival. The bunny grinned, "jeez Twinkles, I never know what the hell I'm gonna find when you invite me over. Quite a crew you got down here today..." Twinkles nodded, "yes, today we have visitors Till and Jay; Till was nice enough to bring the gem along with him for the device. And of course Dorothy, who'll be getting her grass quite soon enough." Dorothy nodded shyly and grinned. "Till, Jay, Dorothy, meet Trey. He'll be helping us test the device presently." "Nice to meet you all, " Trey smiled at them, turned back to face Twinkles. "Can't wait to get this stuff shaken out, Twink. Lets do it!" Twinkles nodded, and Trey ran over to the booth and hopped in. He plugged a small rectangular box into one of the computers, shook the mouse to wake it up, then started throwing switches. New sets of lights previously unseen flickered on and off, fog billowed silently out from a hole in the ceiling, and laser beams of many colors began to arc through the fog. Twinkles handed Dorothy a small canvas bag of cut grass mixed with a few leafy weeds, and she smiled and nibbled from it happily while continuing to keep an eye on things. "We gonna test it, we gonna test it right!" Trey shouted over to them, looked at the screen, and clicked around a bit. Then the music started; a nice intricate 130 bpm electronica track. "OK," Twinkles shouted out to Trey, "Lets do it!" Trey nodded, dancing casually while working the controls. He flipped up the cover on a switch, and pushed a big button. A distinct but not overwhelming subsonic shudder filled the room as light began to radiate from Twinkles' device in the ceiling, in all directions. Strange runic patterns in all colors began to rotate around the room, in unison with the turret the gem had been placed in. The strange shapes and patterns cast by the device were the most beautiful colors Till and Jay had ever seen. Every shape and every color seemed to draw them to emotion; the gold circles, like seeing the sun rise on a cool morning; the blue runes, like clouds filled with moisture hanging heavily in the skies just before a storm. Till looked over and saw Jay smiling back at him and dancing. "Hey, why not?" Till thought, and started dancing with Jay. It may be a strange dimension they were in, but he had to admit Twinkles had put together an incredible dance floor. Twinkles was dancing himself, in bliss at the realization of his vision. He knew all his friends would want to come over to dance at his place. Naturally, Dorothy followed along and began dancing lightly herself, smiling timidly at Twinkles. Trey proceeded to knock out a pretty nice 45 minute set of mid-tempo industrial tracks, just for him and the four on the dance floor. He ended with a slow, hot, bass heavy track that had Jay grinding back against Till, and Dorothy dancing closely with Twinkles as he subtly groped her wooly hips. "All right, " Twinkles announced, "looks like everything's working, so we should probably wrap this up. Till, Jay, I'll be throwing a party quite soon, and you're invited of course. Reply to my email if you'd like to attend. But for now I'm sure you both wish to go back to your own world and do some... catching up..." Twinkles grinned and continued. "Before I send you both back, Jay, is there anything you wish to keep that I've let you play with here?" "The, uh, polar bear perhaps?" Jay asked without hesitation. "Of course... I had a feeling. I will send it along with you. It cost me dearly, but... you've been a good sport about all this, so I think you deserve it." Jay pondered whether he should tell Till about Cindy the polar bear, and her unusual features. Maybe he'd just keep that a little secret for now... "See you later, perhaps..." Twinkles said, and with a wave of his hand, they were back on Earth, standing in Till's bedroom, exactly where Till had blinked out of after sending the email. Cindy was sitting on the carpet next to the bed, looking in all regards like a very nice but otherwise unremarkable plush polar bear. Till smiled at Jay, hugged him tightly, and laid him on the bed before slowly laying down on top of him. Now, thought Till, is the time. The warmth of Till's embrace, his closeness, his firm weight pressing down, was simply intoxicating for Jay as they kissed, deeply, for the first time... * * *
This story is dedicated to law enforcement officers, K-9 and otherwise, whose job it is to put themselves in tactically disadvantageous situations on a daily basis, protecting the public from themselves, forced to walk an increasingly thin line between enforcing the law and avoiding frivolous lawsuits. I value them, even the ones that are jerks, for what they do for us. In a country with so little common civility left, particularly in the cities, they stand between us and a violent abyss.