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ELEVEN

Solierre backed between two small buildings, watching the black curve of Turick's serpent tail disappearing up the street past a wooden-sided corner. He was just grateful the leopard wasn't paying much attention to him for once.

The rabbit nearly jumped out of his fur when a cool, smooth hand gripped his upper arm, mouth opening in a silent gasp. It was just Marcel, though, the green lizard leaning past the bunny to stare furtively toward the street past that little alley. "Sol! You have to get out of here." The reptile's voice was a hissed whisper in Solierre's long ear, low and urgent. "Almost everyone is evacuating the village. Head back and skirt around the buildings, take the road east. You should be able to catch up with everybody else."

That was the best idea Solierre had heard all day. Only... He glanced back toward the street, hearing a pair of shouts as Turick confronted Bjorn and Ellis. Turick was outnumbered, but Solierre worried about the others' chances against the monstrous leopard. And if they couldn't stop him, what would Turick do next?

Solierre turned back toward Marcel and shook his head, pointing toward the mage's study, where Colem had fled to.

"I know," Marcel assured him. "I'll get Colem, and we'll both be right behind you, I promise."

The rabbit shook his head again, frustrated that he couldn't tell his friend what he was thinking. Colem wasn't going to leave and flee with the others. The retriever still thought he could beat Turick somehow. Moreover, Yatchel was already well on his way into the leopard's balls, and Solierre knew the goat wouldn't survive long in there. They couldn't run. If they didn't stop Turick, he would only keep killing people. The rabbit was resigned to that, now, but he didn't have the first idea of how to even slow the leopard down.

But Colem did.

"We don't have much time, Sol," Marcel was whispering. "Get moving!"

The bunny did exactly that, but not in the direction Marcel had told him to go. Solierre ran right back onto the village road that ran down the middle of Belleton, glancing briefly at the fight going on between Turick and the three apprentices, then turning toward Colem's study. Ellis and Bjorn had Turick between them, but the leopard didn't have any blind spots anymore, not with a sentient snake for a tail. It was all the two apprentices could do to distract the big feline while Jerard kept peppering him with arrows.

Turick couldn't have seen Solierre with his back turned, but that serpent tail surely did. It ignored him for now, though, and the rabbit dashed away from the standoff toward the mage's study, darting through the broken doorway and panting in the building's gloom, looking around frantically for Colem. He could hear thumping and shuffling coming from the back room, paired with an occasional angry mutter.

The rabbit rushed past the burgundy curtain, sending it fluttering behind him, and Colem barely glanced back at him from where the dog was kneeling in front of a heavy looking chest on the floor. The golden retriever hadn't even bothered getting dressed, rummaging through the chest nude from nose to toes.

Solierre's ears stood straight up as he skidded to a halt behind the canine, his eyes drawn of their own accord to Colem's tawny yellow rump and legs, and the full, sandy colored sack wobbling between those slender thighs. A blush filled the rabbit's ears when he noticed the bulge in his trousers had just grown an inch. Then he realized that bulge had been present for some time now, ever since Turick had tugged him out of that study a scant few minutes ago. What was wrong with him?

"If you're done gawping, make yourself useful," Colem snapped irritably without even looking up. "See the incense on that shelf over there?" He pointed to the little room's side wall, to a row of jars full of different kinds of incense cones. "Find the jasmine and bring it to the table." He cursed as he shuffled things around even more inside the chest, leaving Solierre to peruse the incense shelves.

The rabbit had to pull a stool out from under the table in the middle of the little room, climbing up onto the rickety thing and holding onto the shelf to steady himself. The stool's legs weren't all the same length. Fortunately, all the jars were clearly labeled, and he didn't take long to find the jasmine. Hopping back down with the jar in both paws, he turned around and set it on the table beside the two broken pieces of Colem's staff just as the canine let out an exasperated, "Finally," and stood up with a small box in his paw, sheath wobbling above his thighs.

"Sol?" The dog put the box down next to the incense, and his canine sheath bounced slightly even with that small movement. "Sol!"

With a silent, mortified gasp, the rabbit snapped his eyes back up to Colem's face, finding the dog frowning at him inquisitively. "I said lavender, not sugar," was all the canine said, and Solierre blinked down at the jar on the table. It was clearly marked "Lavender" on the front, but something definitely did smell sweet in the little room.

Colem followed his glance, then looked back at the rabbit and tilted his head. "Ah. You were working in the bakery, weren't you."

Solierre nodded. He'd been making cookies. That must have been it. But Colem was still frowning at him as if seeing him for the first time, only looking away when Marcel's worried voice came from the shop's front door, past the back room's curtain. "Whatever you two are doing in there, you'd better make it quick!" More quietly, Solierre could hear the lizard murmur, "Gods, he's fast," then call out again, "He's caught Ellis with those things on his back, and...blazes! Jerard, too. He let Turick get too close..."

"Right." Colem turned his frown to the broken staff, and Solierre stepped back, trying his very best to watch the table instead of the retriever's backside. "I can fix this." The rabbit had a feeling Colem wasn't just talking about the staff. Opening the lid of the box he'd retrieved, the dog drew out a long length of animal sinew and began wrapping it around the staff's broken middle, binding the two halves together as best he could. "It would take too long to attune the frost shard to something else," he explained distractedly, "and I'm not about to gamble on another element."

From the front room, they could hear Marcel moan, "Oh gods, he's got Bjorn, now. He's actually... Gods! How can he stretch like that?"

Solierre couldn't say anything, of course, and Colem seemed to take the rabbit's silence as a sign to go on. "It's the fey serpent, you see. I never anticipated this, but there was always a chance that I might lose control of the thing and have to banish it myself. So I made certain to summon something with an elemental weakness; in this case, a weakness to cold. And now that they've bonded, I knew it was likely their elemental affinities had merged, as well." He finished tying a tight knot in the two ends of the sinewy string, then swiftly drew out another to resume his binding.

"Colem..." Marcel called out. "He's not going to let the others go. I think he means to...to consume them all. If he actually--"

The retriever glowered up toward the room's curtain. "Spare us the play by play, Marcel! Just tell me if he starts coming back this way." He shook his head toward Marcel's voice, muttering, "That fool could be wielding a staff of his own if he weren't so stubborn stupid."

"But the others..."

"Will be fine!" Colem snapped, then murmured more quietly, "We won't be too late."

Not even too late for Yatchel? Solierre thought, but of course he couldn't say that out loud. If Turick was already moving on to Bjorn--and he could only imagine how in the world that would work--it meant Yatchel was fully inside the leopard's sack by now. How long would it take for him to melt down beyond recovery? The thought made a knot form in Solierre's belly. It made the modest little bulge in his pants twitch, too, to his guilty horror.

"He is vulnerable to frost now," Colem was muttering to himself, plucking a dull crystal shard from the tabletop. It must have been the same one he'd used before, salvaged from the road outside, but Solierre hadn't noticed it on the table until then, as close to transparent as it was. It looked like glass, with the slightest blue tint around the smooth edges. "If I can shoot him with a strong enough gout of cold, for long enough, it should incapacitate him, and then..." He set his jaw, but there was a feverish edge to the retriever's voice, making him sound just a little desperate. "Ellis had a sword. We'll get them all free, one way or another."

The canine held the crystal shard between two fingers, his other paw scooping out a handful of incense cones and placing them in a symmetrical oval around the horned end of the staff. They somehow lit themselves, their rich jasmine scent soon competing with the sweet aroma coming off of Solierre. The thin tendrils of smoke from those cones began to spiral around each other as Colem lowered the tiny crystal between the inward-curving horn fingers, and when he let it go, it fell an inch before slowing to a stop and hovering above the table's surface. The dog let out a breath, sounding relieved. "Quiet, now," was all he murmured before leaning over the staff and closing his eyes.

Solierre held his breath, leaning in, as well. He could hear Bjorn outside, shouting at Turick to stop, and the big bull's voice was growing more panicked with each bellow. How could Colem concentrate with that going on? How could Solierre just stand there?

Whatever the golden retriever was doing, it was taking too long. Solierre let out his breath with a quiet huff, his lungs aching from their abuse earlier that day. Colem hadn't moved an inch, and aside from the levitating shard and unnaturally curling smoke, the rabbit couldn't tell whether or not anything was actually happening with the staff.

Making as little noise as he could, he padded his way around the table and slipped underneath the back room's curtain. Marcel was standing in the broken doorway, gray apprentice's smock fluttering in the breeze, with his scaled paw covering his snout. The lizard didn't so much as blink, and Solierre wasn't sure he really wanted to join Marcel. Whatever Turick was doing, it wasn't something the rabbit needed to see.

And yet, he found himself creeping up to the doorway, peeking underneath Marcel's arm and around the side of the mage's study.

"Sol," the priest's apprentice whispered, "You shouldn't..."

But it was too late. Solierre saw, and it made him freeze in morbid fascination. Turick's back was turned to the shop with Ellis and Jerard tangled up in his tentacles, thrashing fitfully but making no headway in escaping with their arms and legs snared so tightly. Turick's tail was tormenting both of them, hovering up next to Ellis now and flicking its tongue over the hawk's groin. Like many anthro avians and reptiles, Ellis had a mammal's external ballsack, and the serpent pressed its snout right up against its tawny plumage, drawing a wince from Ellis at the unwanted intimate contact. Jerard could only watch from where he was held in the air next to the hawk, the lynx's fluffy privates being teased just as much by the end of the tentacle wrapped around his arms and torso.

But it was Bjorn who had Solierre's astounded and mortified attention. The bull was up to his chest in the leopard's obscenely stretched shaft, that pink member bulging nearly as wide as it was long. Turick stood at such an angle that the rabbit could see the bovine smithy's apprentice thrashing to get free, but the monstrous cat literally had the bull by the horns, pushing down as his cock strained its way up Bjorn's broad abdomen, the bull's arms pinned at his sides. Solierre could see Turick's bulging sack between the leopard's widely braced legs, the shape of Yatchel's body squirming in one nut while the other stretched dramatically around Bjorn's legs as they were forced to tuck up within the leopard's expansive teste.

If ever there was a time to run, this was it. Solierre couldn't figure out how Turick was still standing, supporting all that weight, and he couldn't begin to imagine the leopard moving around while carrying all four of his victims with him. But the rabbit couldn't bring himself to move, unable to do anything but stand there and watch the macabre sight with Marcel just as paralyzed by shock beside him.

Bjorn slipped down to his shoulders, glaring up at Turick fiercely. He had stopped cursing and shouting, but he let out another wordless bellow when the leopard's arms flexed, muscles bulging, and his paws twisted at the horns in his grip. Behind the leopard, Jerard and Ellis gasped, their eyes going wide as Turick's tentacles clenched along with the rest of his body.

There was a moment's strain, and then the horns both snapped near their bases with twin, resounding _crack_s, audible even above Bjorn's scream. "I am sorry about that," Turick groaned, tossing the broken horns to either side. "But Yatchel's were bad enough." Then he tucked an arm under the belly of his taut shaft and planted his other palm against the middle of Bjorn's forehead. The bull couldn't get a word out, tears in his eyes from the pain. He didn't even seem to notice when the leopard's cumslit sealed snugly around his neck. "You shouldn't have interfered," Turick murmured, leaning in close and pushing with his palm against the bovine's head. Bjorn disappeared from sight, but every chiseled shape of his upper arms and chest were still visible within the dark pink flesh encasing him, only sinking down half a foot with Turick's next clench.

The tentacles holding Jerard swung around the leopard's side, tossed the lynx upside down, and without any delay whatsoever, stuffed the small feline's head inside of Turick's cock directly above Bjorn's. Jerard's tail bristled wide, and his pinned limbs started bucking, but he was soon inside the leopard's shaft up to his shoulders. Every inch that swallowed Bjorn into Turick's right nut gulped Ellis in right after the bull, even as the fur of that testicle brushed down over the dirt road.

Solierre gave himself a mental shake, then a mental throttle, shouting silently at himself to stop standing there and do something. He darted back into the study and past the back room's curtain, but found Colem in nearly the exact same position he'd left the dog in, only now the canine was hunched over slightly more, his forehead scrunched up in concentration with a snarl pulling at the corners of his muzzle. "Do not...distract me," Colem growled. "Not now. I'm close."

The tiger-striped rabbit stood on the other side of the table, fists curling and uncurling at his sides, feeling useless. He looked around frantically, but there wasn't anything in the little room that he could use as a weapon, even if he had the gall to try to fight Turick. Besides, this was a magic shop; the rabbit didn't dare touch anything, unsure if he might get cursed from the contact.

"Colem?" Marcel called out slowly. When Solierre peeked underneath the curtain again, the lizard was slowly backing up out of sight outside the open doorframe. "Colem, hurry it up!"

Solierre hesitated, glancing at the golden retriever, but darted back outside a moment later, joining Marcel as the priest's apprentice kept creeping backward down the dusty road. Turick was facing them, now, ponderously shuffling closer. A pair of feathered legs were sticking out of his erection along with Ellis's long tailfeathers, but as Solierre watched, those limbs were slurped down rapidly, the taloned feed soon disappearing. As loose as Bjorn had made it, the leopard's cock devoured Ellis easily. Both of Turick's testicles were brushing the ground now, Bjorn's form bulging out one by himself while the other three apprentices were all tumbled together when Ellis slid down to join Jerard and Yatchel. The leopard's immense shaft flopped forward now that it wasn't wrapped around anyone, drooling a thick web of pre over the front of Turick's enormous balls. The penis wobbled from side to side with his slow steps, taking its time tightening and firming back up.

The leopard groaned, gradually picking up his pace. He walked with his bulging sack in front of his legs, his knees pushing each nut forward with each step, making the testes rub forward and back against each other. He would have fallen forward right on top of his scrotum had his serpent tail not been stretched out behind him to counterbalance the weight, his tentacles following suit. Turick caught Marcel and Solierre staring at him, and let out a self-conscious chuckle. "I look ridiculous, don't I?" His eyes narrowed to slits, and he added, "But it feels amazing."

Solierre looked back toward the mage's study and mouthed Colem's name, and Marcel gave voice to the silent shout. "Colem! We're out of time!"

As Turick reached the corner of the mage's study, Colem finally stepped back outside, mended staff in hand and aimed straight at the leopard. "So is he," the retriever growled, his sandy yellow fur seeming to shine under the sun.

Turick hesitated, but only for a moment, then he was plodding his way forward again, grinning. "You need a second lesson already?"

Colem didn't say anything, but no wave of magical ice burst forth from the damaged staff, either. The canine waited until Turick was nearly on top of him, then he rushed forward and jabbed the palely glowing end of his staff into the leopard's nutsack. The feline monster hissed and stumbled backward, but his tentacles snapped in at the same time, and Colem only barely dove out of the way, rolling back to his feet a safe distance away.

"What are you doing?" Marcel shouted. He and Solierre were at the study's far corner, and the rabbit didn't know about Marcel, but he was just about ready to bolt. "Don't let him get so close!"

Turick tilted his head at the golden retriever, eyes narrowed, and his serpent tail moved up beside his face and hissed. They shared a look, leopard and snake, and Turick abruptly snorted a laugh. "He has to," the leopard rumbled, a grin creeping over his muzzle. "He didn't finish fixing that twig. It won't shoot anything now." He started moving ponderously in Colem's direction, his tentacles splaying out around him, just waiting for the dog to dart in again and get himself caught. "Do you really think you can do anything more than slow me down like that, Colem? You have to actually touch me, and it barely even hurts."

The retriever held his staff in both paws before him, crossed diagonally in front of his naked chest. "If that's so, why are you being so careful?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow. They circled, mage and monster, and Solierre found himself fidgeting his paws in front of his belly, his anxiety making him feel dizzy.

Turick was the first to strike this time, rushing in with impossible speed and lunging all four tentacles at the canine, only to snap them back behind him when the dog's staff twirled through the air, its frost-imbued tip batting at each tentacle that came near him. Colem pressed his advantage, stabbing his staff at Turick's bulging sack again and setting off a renewed bout of squirming from the three captives in the leopard's left nut, the cold chilling them, as well. Turick's serpent tail flung itself at Colem from the side, striking like a scorpion, but the naked dog was ready, and the snake whipped back with a hissing shriek as the staff dug into its scales right next to its eye, snowflakes billowing out from the contact.

A tentacle was already lashing in from the other side, though, and it caught Colem by the ankle, tugging the dog's feet out from under him. He still managed to bring his staff up and freeze the scaled tendril, and it just as quickly released his leg and retreated.

Colem rolled back to his feet, but he wasn't ready for Turick's sudden reckless charge. The leopard crashed into him, a stampede unto himself, and when Colem dug his staff into the feline's lower belly, Turick roared in pain, but didn't fall back. His arms caught Colem in a bear hug, lifting the dog off the ground and squeezing him against the leopard's broad chest, Turick's dick jutting out right next to the canine's hip.

Colem adjusted his grip around his staff and was just about to stab the icy end of it into Turick's sheath, but the snake was there again, lashing in like a black bolt of lightning and closing its jaws around the canine's forearm. The serpent had no teeth that Solierre could see, but it still clenched down powerfully, and Colem was forced to let go of the staff with that arm.

All four tentacles curled around the dog's other arm, the sinuous lengths flinching away from the staff's touch, but still gripping tight and squeezing around the canine's wrist and elbow. Colem growled and writhed in the creature's grasp, but he couldn't hope to match Turick strength for strength.

The damaged staff fell to the ground, and the glow at its end flickered out.

Slowly, with an ominous growl rising from deep in his chest, Turick grabbed Colem by the shoulders and held the canine out at arm's length. The leopard's four tentacles crept around each of the dog's limbs, pinning his arms to his sides and binding his ankles together. Colem squirmed as much as he could, snarling back at Turick and trying to match the larger male's growl. The dog's wasn't nearly as intimidating.

The leopard turned his eyes away from Colem's face to match gazes with his scaled tail, the serpent hovering up next to the bound dog and staring at Turick. They both held there while Colem squirmed, until Turick gave his serpent tail a slow nod, then looked once more at the dog in his clutches. "You're done, Colem," was all he said.

Then, very, very slowly, the serpent lifted its head up above the dog, curling to look down and waiting until Colem dared to glance up at it. Then it opened its mouth, just as slowly, letting a strand of saliva dribble out and sway right above the dog's ears.

Colem started writhing with a vengeance, his snarls growing more frantic, but the tentacles around him didn't budge, merely squeezing tighter around his nude body. He shot one more glare at Turick's face, then looked up again at the cavernous, pink maw descending over his head.

His last snarl ended with a whimper, then a squelch. The snake's face bloated with the shape of the dog's head, toothless, scaly lips spread wide, then closing around Colem's neck.

Next to the mage's study, a hand shook Solierre's shoulder, making him jump and let out another of his silent, startled gasps. "We need to get away from here," Marcel whispered urgently, leaning down close enough that the rabbit could feel the lizard's breath against his ear. The lizard gave a tug at the bunny's arm. "Sol, come on. Run!"

But Solierre shook his arm free of the priest apprentice's grip, shaking his head and turning back to Turick and Colem. The serpent had the dog's shoulders in its mouth, now, its elastic scales stretching to their limits. It was hard for Solierre to get his brain to work, seeing that, but he made himself look down at the ground, and caught sight of Colem's staff lying there, right next to where the leopard's right testicle rested against the road.

"Sol, don't...!" Marcel began, but the rabbit was already running toward the predatory monster, making no effort to hide what he was doing. There was no way to keep Turick from seeing him coming.

He ran all the way to the discarded staff and plucked it off the ground, hefting it in front of himself and aiming it at Turick's leg. The leopard didn't try to stop him. Turick just looked down at him while his tail continued to devour Colem, and calmly, firmly said, "Sol. Don't." Turick's tone was very different from Marcel's when he said that, full of confidence and command, so much so that Solierre nearly obeyed and dropped the staff by instinct alone. Somehow, though, it stayed in his wavering paws.

The rabbit gulped, caught in Turick's intent gaze with his ears laying back along his head and neck. Then he jabbed the staff against the leopard's thigh.

Nothing happened. When he blinked down at it, he realized that the end of the staff wasn't even glowing.

With a sigh, Turick let go of Colem with his paws and reached down toward Solierre. The rabbit tried to duck away, but one of the leopard's black tentacles unraveled from around the poor dog, as well, and looped instead around the bunny's middle, curling in a tight circle around his belly. The leopard's paw closed around Solierre's ears, tugging them upright, and together with the scaled tendril lifted the rabbit into the air.

The three tentacles still holding Colem lifted the dog up and over Turick's shoulder, letting the serpent tail continue its meal behind the leopard while Turick's free paw swatted the staff out of Solierre's hands. It clunked back down to the dirt road, every bit as useless as the bunny. "You're not a mage, Sol," Turick murmured, tucking a finger under the rabbit's chin to tilt his muzzle up and meet the leopard's hungry eyes. "That's just a broken stick to you." He easily hefted the bunny in front of his face, the feline's warm breath wafting through Solierre's whiskers. A wet, sloppy squelch came from behind the leopard's torso, while a more subtle gurgle rose up from the struggling shapes in his sack.

The rabbit squirmed against the twinge in his aching ears, trying to look back over his shoulder, to find Marcel, though whether he wanted to cry out for help or shout at the lizard to get away, Solierre wasn't sure. He could do neither, of course, his short muzzle opening and merely letting out a gust of breath. And besides that...

"He's gone, Sol," Turick rumbled out, turning the rabbit and letting him see the empty road where Marcel had stood a moment ago. "It's over. I have you and Colem, and that's all I came for. Even if I'm leaving with a little extra luggage." He nudged the back of his scrotum with a foot, then braced himself, the muscles under his sleek pelt growing solid as he began walking toward the other side of the road and between two straw-thatched houses. He was headed for the forest.

The leopard's free hand brushed up and down Solierre's side, then hooked underneath the waistband of his trousers. The rabbit's arms were free, but he didn't bother trying to stop the feline as those broad fingers eased his pants down over the swell of his bottom. His trousers fell off his dangling feet and rolled over the shape of a bull wriggling inside Turick's sack to lie forgotten on the grass between the buildings. The leopard grabbed the bunny by the ankles, then, letting go of Solierre's long ears and unwinding that single tentacle from around the rabbit's belly while upending the little male. "From now on, I'm not letting you near another piece of clothing," he murmured while gently easing the rabbit's arms down below his upside-down head and slipping Solierre's shirt and tunic free.

Solierre was swaying while Turick walked, and he kept getting glimpses of the serpent tail behind the leopard, its first few feet gulping snugly around Colem's upper body while the dog's legs and tail flailed helplessly past the snake's jaws. "Don't worry," Turick told the rabbit, turning him right-side-up and holding him under his armpits. "The snake thinks you would be delicious, but I won't let that happen to you." Solierre glanced down past his dangling toes, at where Turick's balls kept wobbling in front of him. "As to that," Turick murmured, hesitating. "I can keep myself from doing that to you, too," he finally said. "As long as I can find other prey to melt down. The snake's explained it all to me, Sol. I just need to stop fighting myself and give in to the pleasure. And there is so much pleasure. You wouldn't believe how good they feel squirming around in there."

The leopard looked into Solierre's wide, silently pleading eyes. "But you...You get to help me bring them out, once they're all melted down. And I won't do to you what I did to Lev." He gave the rabbit a smile that would have been charming in any other situation. "Not now that I know what you're capable of. Oh, gods Sol, I'm going to breed you for hours on end. I just..." He shuddered, his paws squeezing at the bunny's chest and making Solierre squirm uncomfortably. "N...not here." They were in the woods now, but not very far from the village. "I don't want to be interrupted."

As he walked onward, his gurgling scrotum pushing a trail through the underbrush, Turick's tentacles curled forward and surrounded Solierre, hugging the rabbit up against the leopard's chest while thick paws explored the bunny's curves. After a couple minutes, the black serpent swept forward, as well, leering at the rabbit with a Colem-shaped swell still squirming behind its head. It moved closer from time to time, flicking its tongue out next to Solierre's face and grinning, a cruel, tight-lipped smile.

The rabbit shied away from the snake every time it came close, but when he looked up at Turick's face, he found something similar to the serpent's expression in the leopard's affectionate smile.

Both snake and cat somehow looked both satisfied and ravenous at the same time.