From The Ashes: Part 10- The Trip Home
#5 of From the Ashes
Okay, readers, sorry for the wait, but sometimes I need a break from writing one story. That break was my last short story. And judging from reader response, it sucked. Sometimes I think these ideas come to me is because no other writer is stupid enough to write them. But, I guess it's for the best so I don't use any of that bad writing in my good stories(this). Well, contratulations on all who recognized the last edition's cliffhanger for what it was. For those of you who don't remember, Steven is Jared's cousin that told Jared's family about Jared being a furry. But enough recap, I fear that I must warn readers that this will be the last edition for a while, as real life issues have taken me away from writing. But enough of that, on with the story!
(PS: as always, the useless 'don't sue me' disclaimer)
(PPS: comments still mandatory!)
From the Ashes
Part 10- The Trip Home
Far away from Jared and Steven, the sun glares overhead a strange rock formation atop a barren landscape. Two cockroaches walked silently up the walkway to the large rock palace. The Palace of Drakas was mostly underground, so Akras and Rael disappeared as the walkway led them beneath the crust of the Swarm home planet: Drakas, the namesake of its ruler.
They followed the winding corridors until they came to a vast cavern. It was a perfect half-circle, not a seam on its smooth floors. The floor was, however, covered with little scuttling creatures resembling aphids. The vast swarm parted, forming a walkway up to a large chair: the Throne of King Drakas. The throne itself was a spiky outcropping of pure obsidian. The person sitting on the obsidian was a large black dragonfly. Evolution had made him look very humanoid. He had two legs, but four arms. His two pairs of wings hung loosely, giving the semblance of an elegant cape. His large tail draped down between his legs. His two large, compound eyes swept everything in the room into his gaze.
Akras and Rael continued along the cleared path, all too aware of the shadow-jumping guards that had taken their flank. "You ssssssssummoned, majesssssssty?" the two brothers said in unison. "Why have you betrayed me, roaches?" "We did no sssssssuch tttttthing."
"You are guilty of treason and desertion. You left your posts and allowed your superiors to get killed, as well as let the hairs escape!"
"Majessssssty, tttthere was nottttttthing we could do. Ttttttthey would have killed usssss and gotten away anyway."
"So be it, you should have sacrificed yourself instead of coming back in shame!"
"But, majessssty..."
"SILENCE!"
Akras and Rael were stunned. The King had never been in any way or form benevolent, but this was not right. The shadowjumpers had always been his favorite corps. Their King was in the habit of randomly killing at a whim, but Akras and Rael didn't think that the King would take a shadowjumper life for forfeit. It didn't matter that the King would kill even one of his royal guards without a thought, but Akras and Rael weren't going down like that.
However, the King was mad at the hair's escape, and there were no survivors except for Akras and Rael. The King needed someone to blame.
But Akras and Rael were having none of this. They had served the King loyally for years, their own brother had given his life for the King. And here was the Dragonfly, blaming them for everything that happened on Remose. No.
"Your sentence is death. Execution to be carried out at dawn." "NO!" Akras yelled as he melded into the shadows, narrowly avoiding the shadow-covered guards that had materialized to bind them with a Swarm version of handcuffs. Rael did likewise, not wanting to be left bound while his brother fought.
Both brothers rematerialized outside the swarm of guards that had materialized to try to take them into custody. Akras appeared holding his weapon: a long pole with a scythe head at the top and a sharpened spear tip at the other end. Rael also held a weapon: a long pole with a spear tip at the top, an axe head on one side, and a sharp hook on the other side. The brothers always had their weapons lying in wait in the shadows, and they blamed the cramped corridors on Remose that made them unable to reach their large weapons for their failure. However, here in the Throne Room, there was no such restriction.
The brothers reacted faster than the guards. They ran at the cluster of insects and started massacring them. They jumped up, landing spear-tip down on two locusts, only to have Rael sweep his hook around to send another flying into Akras' waiting scytheblade.
A quick flick of the wrist, and Rael's axe blade had decapitated yet another guard. One guard got in a lucky shot with his trident-the standard weapon for royal guards- sending Akras onto his back.
A flood of guards came bursting into the throne room. 'Brother, it seems that we are outnumbered.' Rael hive-minded his sibling. 'Indeed, Brother. It would be wise to retreat.' Still on his back, Akras twirled his scythe end around his head, tripping and slicing the legs of the guards that had come through the door. Using their weapons as vaults, they jumped out the door into the corridor.
"Amusing. But I grow tired of this." Said King Drakas, who had been sitting in his throne all the time. "You have not sssssssseen the lasssssst of ussssss!" Rael bellowed as the brothers melded into the shadows, vanishing from the Palace of Drakas.
*****
"Jared, man, something wrong?" Steven asked. Upon first glance, Steven looked exactly like Jared, however, Steven had a small scar over his eyebrow, and his eyes were green, not brown. "Steven, if there weren't cops here, I would strangle you." Jared seethed, causing the policemen to finger their pistols and Veronica to look startlingly at Jared. It wasn't like him to be violent. Unless he was very upset...
"Oh, I get it. You're still miffed about me telling the fam about your bestiality bullshit. I had no idea you would run away man; it just kinda...scared me. It was weird, dude, you telling me you liked animals. What do you expect me to do?" Steven said, causing Jared to tighten his fists, his nails digging into the scars in his palm.
Veronica rushed to her lover's aide, drawing him into a half-hug and petting his hair, "Calm down, love. Calm down." Jared took a deep breath, Veronica's presence doing a lot to ease his anger. "So, Steven, why do you plan to have me arrested?"
Steven looked confused for a second, and then as if noticing the police for the first time, he smiled, "Oh, the uniforms? Well, Jared, you've been on the missing person's list for some time. I came down here for a vacation, you know, just graduating my sophomore year in college, and lo and behold my missing cousin. I didn't want to be mistaken, so I told the officers here, and they looked up your record on the missing list, and he approached you." Steven took a breath, not having taken one in his explanation.
"I would say that I wish you hadn't left, but if you're staying in a place like this with a girl like that," Steven said with a nod toward the hotel common room and then Veronica, "I'd say that I'm almost glad you left. You seem to be doin' a lot better, and you seem to have really grown up."
"So, what do you intend for me to do now?" "Whatdya mean? I 'intend' for you to come back and at least visit the fam for a while. Your mom's been all beat up about it and your dad's missin' ya to. The family got real upset when you didn't come back. They called the police and the police swept the woods with dogs. The dogs found some peculiar scorch marks on the trees, but even the dogs couldn't find you. And your mom sits there cryin' that she chased you off and that God was punishin' her for disowning her son. She said she never really meant it, she was just upset."
Jared sat down as he listened, images of his family flashing in his mind. The same family that cared for him. The same family that took care of him. The same family that told him that they'd always love him. The same family that disowned him and cast him to the winds when he said how he truly felt. However, it was the same family that if they hadn't cast him out, he would have never found Veronica, and the Confederation would have remained in eternal sleep.
"Veronica?" Jared said. "Yes, love?" the blue-furred feline replied. "Is it okay to go to my house? It's one state away, but I think we have enough time. The...erm...others wouldn't mind us being gone an extra day or two." "Its fine with me, love." The pair looked at Fuse and her mate, Zach. "If it's all the same, I think we'll take this detour. You two can go back should you choose."
Fuse and Zach held a whispered conversation and replied, "We'll stick with you." Fuse wanted to stay on Earth a little more and Zach wasn't quite ready to leave his home planet, even though he said he would follow Fuse wherever she went.
So, the group resigned to stay. All the technical paperwork for the police was made easy by Auldron, who had been hacking into the computer files and establishing false records of Jared's location and job the whole time the group was talking. Jared was glad that Auldron was such a fast worker.
Jared used his envelope to rent a small van, to save the uncomfortable silence that would have settled over the group if they had all rode in Steve's car. So, Jared drove the three-hour drive to his former house, and to his family. A journey that would have been much easier if the girls hadn't had three mugs of hot chocolate and coffee for breakfast.
Jared spent the whole time fighting the battle of trying to watch the road and trying to ignore the pair of hands roaming his thigh and shoulder and side, the tongue that would occasionally drag across his cheek, and the pressure in his crotch as Veronica teased it to life.
Judging by the commotion in the back seat, Zach wasn't faring much better. Jared almost felt sorry for him as he was at the complete mercy of Fuse, as he did not have the excuse of having to drive that Jared did.
Looking in the rearview mirror, Jared saw that Fuse had unbuckled to lie in Zach's lap, and was mercilessly teasing him as he tried (unsuccessfully) to bat her away. God the girls could be frisky, especially when they had nothing else to do (and of course, the caffeine and sugar didn't help one bit).
Auldron, who had taken up the middle seat, was reading the owner's manual for the vehicle, intrigued by the science of it.
Jared pulled into a rest stop that Steven had signaled them to pull over at. "Okay, Jared. I have something so say." Steven said as he got out of his car. "What?" Jared said, doing likewise. "Well, since the fam isn't expecting you, I think it would be better for you guys to find a motel or something while I go on ahead. I don't think your mom is ready for her missing son to come walking in her front door."
Jared hadn't thought of that. "You're right. Me and the gang will shack up in that motel along the outskirts of town." "Yeah. That sounds good. Take my cell. I'll call you tomorrow when the fam is prepared."
"Okay. See ya then."
"Yeah."
"And Jared?"
"Yeah?"
"It was really good seeing you again."
"Yeah, you too."
Jared and Steven parted ways and drove off. Jared pulled into the familiar motel as he rented three rooms. Auldron took his keys and the laptop into one room, and the two couples retired into their respective rooms.
"What's wrong?" Veronica asked as she closed the door to see her mate slouched onto the bed. "Just the prospect of seeing everyone again. I knew that I would one day have to do it again, but now that it's actually happening..."
With a grin, Veronica sank to her knees in front of him. "I know what you need to do." "What?" Jared asked playfully. "Relax." Veronica said as she unzipped his zipper to let his length hang loose. It stood half-erect from the teasing earlier. "Oh? And how would I go about doing that?" Jared asked, knowing full well the answer. "Let me show you." Veronica said as she stroked his member back to life before taking the length into her mouth.
"God, V, I swear. You get better at that each time." Jared said, watching her please him. A muffled moan answered him, as Veronica's tongue was preoccupied. Jared let out a pleasured moan as her slick, bumpy tongue caressed his length, each bump a tease, a flick in the right place. Jared leaned back, putting his hand on the back of her head, which made Veronica smile at Jared's obvious pleasure. She felt his member getting hotter, and knew what it meant. She looked into Jared's eyes as he said, "Love, fair warning: I'm about to go." She continued looking into his eyes as she wrapped her tongue around his base. She pressed it against the roof of her mouth and pulled back, the ribbed roof coaxing Jared to orgasm. She opened her mouth into a wide grin and turned her head, knowing full well that Jared loved that view as she looked into his eyes. She then closed her eyes to enjoy the taste of her lover.
Jared lied back, to be joined by his mate. He was half-asleep in his afterglow when he noticed the abnormally warm body and heavy breathing of his lover. "It seems that I have been a little selfish." He said as his hand dropped to her waist. "You don't have to." Veronica said. "But I want to." Jared replied as his hand caressed down to her wet lips. He ran his fingers down her entrance, eliciting moans of pleasure and begs for more from Veronica. He inserted his middle finger and ran it along both walls, causing another groan to escape his feline mate. His palm pressed firmly yet gently against her as his finger made little circles inside of her. He went faster and her moans grew in volume.
Jared felt a rush of wetness as Veronica nearly screamed her orgasm. Jared thought he heard something else along with Veronica's orgasm. He guessed it was the occupants of the next room as he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. The two lovers lay there, drifting off to peaceful sleep as their relaxed minds though of one thing: each other.
*****
Fuse and Zach were locked in a kiss as they hit the bed in the adjacent room from Jared and Veronica. Fuse ran her fingers through her mate's hair. "Zach, I know that you are a gentle lover, but can I ask something?" "Of course." "Forget all that and mate me." Zach had to admit that Fuse's request took him a little off guard, but he couldn't help being extremely turned on as he said, "You got it." They kissed with a fiery passion as they nearly ripped each other's clothes off. Zach turned his love around, and with an arm around her wait and his other hand on her pack, he pushed her into all fours. He positioned himself at Fuse's entrance, teasing her clit with his tip. "You want it?" he teased. "Yes." Fuse panted. "Well, what are you going to do about it, then?" he said, wanting to tease her more. Fuse looked at Zach over her shoulder, and with a defiant grin said "This." as she pushed herself onto him and hilted him inside herself.
"Ahh!" Zach gave a little scream as the warm tightness enveloped his length as Fuse's sudden push sent shivers of pleasure through Zach. "You always have to get what you want, don't you?" he said. "Yep!" Fuse said as she started rocking back and forth, stimulating Zach repeatedly.
Zach then decided to take control as Fuse asked. With a firm pressure with his palm, he caused Fuse to sink form her arms to her chest, leaving her butt nicely in the air. He gave a few experimental thrusts, and then proceeded to mate his love hard and fast. He watched as she moaned in the pleasure of being ravaged. He moved his hand from her back to her head. He pet her head before taking one of her perked ears and pulled gently at first. With a moan of approval from Fuse, he pulled harder. He watched as her eyes were clamed shut as she reveled in the building orgasm.
Fuse gave a small scream as her orgasm sent warm fluid washing over her lover that was still buried inside her. As she was orgasming, Zach pulled out and jetted on his lover's back, who arched at the rush of warmth adding new pleasure.
Zach collapsed on the bed. "That was fun!" Fuse said, giving her lover a satisfied grin as she crawled over to lay on him. Zach merely smiled. "I do say I need a shower though." Fuse said, running her fingers through her sticky fur. "Come on, I could use some company." She said as she pulled a groggy Zach up from the bed. "Why me?" Zach said playfully. "Because someone has to clean up the mess you made!" Fuse teased back.
So, the two turned up the hot water and wound down the night with a hot steamy shower.
To be continued...