Jahaliya: A Little Magic and Understanding

Story by Varzen on SoFurry

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#10 of Jahaliya

Jungle Lord Ruk Blackstar and his wife Nell, heads of the Blackstar Manor Thrallship, are vigorous and content in their marriage. But when tigress Nell wants to take the next logical step, her wonderful mountain lion mate suddenly gets cold paws.

On the brink of domestic dispute, a magical disturbance calls them to investigate.

The kitten conversation, however, is far from over!

Commission by kchishol1970, written by yours truly.


The leaves in the trees rustled, no longer accompanied by the sounds of creaking planks and passionate rumblings. Ruk and Nell lounged in their new forward tree supply platform, having just tested its sturdiness with a vigorous fuck. Upon a grand cushion large enough for at least two couples, the jungle's one mountain lion lounged languorous and sated in the lap of his mate, his shoulders seated between her spread striped thighs, his head beneath her buxom breasts, the back of his neck near her wet, velvety nethers.

She stroked his shoulders and neck, her bare breasts covering his ears, her breaths slowing from a feverish, panting high, her fingers and toes still tingling from his voluminous virility.

"Ruk so happy," Ruk murmured, paws folded over his hard abdomen, rising and falling with his diaphragm.

Nell chuckled and leaned forward, pressing as much of her chest, torso, and legs around him, cradling his chin. "When I came here, but a naughty schoolgirl bursting out of her clothes, starving to sample all walks of cock, I couldn't fathom myself in married life. Life is so short when you're a teenager; I couldn't stand one moment to settle down. After all, that was what boring adults from Earth did, such as the ones that put me in Miss Sylvia's boarding school!"

Ruk reached over, lazily, and stroked her ankle. "Wife talk much."

Nell blushed. She didn't know whether to playfully slap him in the chest or suckle him into another round of sexual frenzy. "I've a lot on my mind!"

The mountain lion grinned, reaching up to fondle her breasts, rolling them over his forehead. "Ruk have lot on mind too."

The tigress giggled, and then controlled herself. "You marvelous man," she sighed. "I'm happily married. That's all."

"Not hard to say, is it? If day is rainy, Ruk no start with 'frog on lily pad.' Ruk start with rain."

Nell laughed again, pulling him back up with her as she relaxed on the cushion. He was frisky, all right, and in a fantastic mood: he was not worrying about the jungle, or about Blackstar Manor, or yet another one of Sylvia's letters that essentially said, "Jahaliya misses you, but enjoy yourself. But Jahaliya misses you."

"Nag, nag, nag," Nell would hear from him as he would stuff the letter into one of their treehouse's newly designed torch placings. In that regard, even Ruk appreciated the renovations and reinforcements that the Queen insisted on having professionally done as her wedding gift.

The tigress's mood fell. She looked about the tree platform one more time, at the leaves that rustled in the wind, her nose scenting the air of the cool, verdant forest. Now was a good a time as any for what she had to say.

"Ruk, I'm so happily married."

"Nell said that already."

She let out a long breath, then quietly took in another one, closing her eyes. "We are a mateship. And as such, I'd like to take the next logical step," she said, nearly tripping over the last few words.

"Grow old and die together?"

Nell grit her teeth, feeling the wind through her fur, unsure of whether he was being sarcastic or outright avoiding the issue. He was often inscrutable, but his eyes sometimes betrayed his boundless heart.

The eyes that her breasts currently blocked from her view. "That would be great, in time, but before that, much before that ..." she ventured.

He remained silent, but she felt his body stiffen.

In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought, as she took the plunge.

"We should have a cub." Or few.

His paw rested on her ankle. It didn't move, it didn't squeeze; it existed. She could feel his pulse race through the back of his neck, against her pelvic region. It was the only sign, aside from his warmth, he was alive.

Nell's hackles spiked and her chest went cold; this was just the response she was dreading. "Ruk, love, husband," she said.

He didn't correct her redundancies. She was in free-fall.

"I know it's a frightful process," she said, "the wedding itself was scary at one time. But, if you'll listen, I've dreamed of being a mother now that I've realized the depth of my love for you. And for life in general: I'd give up my stripes for you. I've been enraptured, Ruk, as the wife of a strong warrior and the excellent heir of a noble legacy. I'd like to continue that line. Why stop where we are?"

Ruk's head sank heavily against her sternum. His wet, pink nose stuck up towards her, eyes covered by her breasts. "Kitten. Big job. When and how?" he asked.

She may as well have declared to conquer the Poacher Queen herself. The tigress fretted, feeling the weight of his muscular body falling against her. "Perhaps next year! I've thought plenty about this. Really, you've no additional responsibilities; you do it all already. You sustain a house and keep it safe, as do you the entire Thanelship. As far as classic male roles go, you're Alpha several times over."

"Kittens are fragile."

Nell's paws splayed out from his chin. "But safe within the manor walls! I'll have to stay with the kitten, until he, she's a toddler. Maybe past that. That's my problem, not yours."

"Problem?"

"My blessing, actually. I want to raise and nurture a child the same way you want to protect and secure this Thrallship."

"Thrallship easy. Mother hard," he said. Nell's mind throbbed a little; translating his halting speech was becoming more difficult. Part of it, possibly, was that his speech was made worse by anxiety. She could feel the agitation in his chest. His arms seemed permanently flexed along the insides of her thighs, not to budge an inch. A few hot tears escaped from the tigress, and she curled her lips to restrain a sudden burst of frustrated rage.

"Yes, and 'father easy.' If you baby your kitten the same way you're babying me--" she started.

Like intercepting a savage falcon from the air, Ruk ably held up a paw with his forefinger raised. He knew exactly where she was going.

"Lifeform inside body," he said, and then raised another finger. "Dedicated to birth, good." Three fingers. "Post in Thrallship, Manor only small part." Four. "Same above. Nell have husband, never see."

Nell's face contorted. These were his reasons? Not only was he dropping articles, as always, but he was dropping entire coherent arguments. He had to be, right? Nell lowered her paw as it clutched into a fist, suppressing a shiver as hopefully, he would make sense.

Five. "Jungle lost before in service, once again." Six, "Father ... never practice ... Ruk lost."

He folded his arms on his chest and innocently drummed his fingers, as if the conversation had properly been concluded and all was right.

What?! Nell wanted to scream. She bit down on her lip, wanting to punch him somewhere, anywhere, but that would be an argument even more incoherent than what he'd just spat out.

"Ruk," she said slowly, carefully. "I don't think that's fair. Restrictive," she said, emulating his speech pattern.

Ruk's paw rose, pointing out at the tree canopy, going over it a few times as if not quite understanding her assertion. "Restrict? As much as Ruk. Everywhere I go, so you."

"Yes, we guard the jungle together, it's wonderful."

"As is our life."

"It's not, though!" Nell argued, "You're dictating what I do!"

"You want go left next time? I go right now on."

"Goddess bless me, Ruk; you're not getting it!"

"Ruk get all presented. Nell have confusion?"

"The kitten, Ruk!"

"Ruk and Nell discussed kitten."

In a surge of anger and motion, Nell slipped out from under Ruk and off the cushion. Her mate's body fell down into the plush folds and he struggled to get back up, startled that suddenly, his gorgeous, nude, agile mate was now angrily pacing on the railing of the balcony, away from her. "And I'm not happy with your answer!"

Ruk frowned. "Happy or not, suicide is suicide."

"Suicide?!" she exclaimed. She stopped herself with a paw. Now Ruk was getting nonsensical. "Ruk, I want this, and I'm confident of it. I don't ..." know what you are saying "I don't ..."

Ruk was on his hands and knees, tail up. His head was cocked, and his eyes had a queer sparkle. He himself looked like a kitten, oblivious to everything. Another spike of rage shocked Nell.

"You're the man of the house, but you won't let me be the woman!" she snarled.

She may as well have slapped him in the face. Ruk flipped sideways off the wide cushion and stood tall, his chest out and his paws closed at his sides, hackles raised.

"As man of house, Ruk has duty and you, woman ... "

A loud blast of thunder and lightning in a bright blue sky interrupted Nell's inevitable reply.

Reacting immediately, Ruk leapt out of the supply platform, bounding down on a series of branches before catching a vine and swinging into the dense forest towards the sound.

"Hey!" Nell shouted after him, "You're not getting away from me that easily! If I'm also a ranger, I'm coming too!"

Nell sprinted through the undergrowth, much more confident on the ground than in the canopy. She ducked and dodged through several colorful plants, some carnivorous, some venomous, some rife with brambles, with practiced ease. Her eyes darted and tracked the vines in the treetops that hung swinging, and she followed the tracks he left.

The tigress came upon a clearing and Ruk tackled her into the bushes. Finding herself under the muscular male, Nell was briefly caught in a lusty fantasy. Then, remembering that his recent stubborness, she hissed and slid out from under him.

"Voice down," he whispered, then pointed through the brush at a secluded valley below. There was a stone tower in the center, standing straight with no visible doors or windows until the top few floors. It reminded her of fairy tales from her old world, yet here it was.

"Tower of spooks," he whispered, indicating his whiskers which seemed to tremble. "Dark magic energy."

As soon as Nell peeled her attention off her bull-headed husband, she felt it.

"Well, that's where the lighting-blast came from," she whispered, then dipped her head. "Good job, love."

"Best job," he said, flexing his thick arm as his paw closed into a fist.

"Is it a threat?" she asked.

Again, Ruk pointed. "Guards." Wooden, lacquered golems, shiny and new. Then he pointed again, up along the tower's facade. Among its stone bricks, glowing with power, there grew ivy. A wise wizard would have chopped those down.

"I remember reading about this tower, just an old ruin, a sort of experimental Blackstar project for perfect privacy."

"Bad idea. Spiral stairs, many injuries. Condemned," Ruk said.

"Well, who's in it now?"

One of Ruk's whiskers popped and caught fire at the end. The mountain lion pinched the tip and extinguished it. "Good question. Get answer."

The duo moved in full knowledge of the other, one running distraction as the other slipped on by. Nell, with her bright orange pelt, took most of the distraction tasks, and then Ruk would slip behind them and sweep the legs out of the golems poised to compromise them.

As Nell tossed one over her shoulders, using its momentum against it, she narrowly dodged a smooth wooden implement swinging wildly between its legs.

A large, veiny bastard nearly clocked her in the muzzle, but she had to admire the craftsmanship of the wood golem's polished, carved cock as she heaved the animated statue into the bushes.

"My stars, business and pleasure. Charming efficiency."

All of these golems, really, were of excellent handiwork. Their myriad components were all united; there was not a splinter nor gap to be seen. Nell felt bad, almost horrible, as Ruk broke one's leg off and used it to smash the head off another, sending a wooden head with triangle wolf ears sailing into the forest.

"Are you going to beat your wood all day?! Let's get inside!" she called out.

Ruk guffawed as he smashed the faces of two golems together, then escaped from the impending pile-up as several more dove at him. They caught the ivy growing over the decrepit dower and ascended paw-over-paw.

A golem grabbed Nell's tail, but its grip was too smooth, and her tail popped right out. "Someone overdid it on the lacquer" Nell mused as she climbed out of reach.

"You'd think these mannequins were stolen from an orc fashion regalia, considering their size," she continued, speeding ahead of Ruk. Her husband seemed contemplative, looking down at the golems falling over each other as they tried to scramble up its edifice.

"Size, but not craftsmanship. Not built to climb, either," he said. "Big oversight. Magic power high to animate ... magic wisdom low."

Nell shrugged, climbing the ivy as easily as if it were a ladder. "It could be a very unhinged individual at the top. We should be careful."

"True. Wisdom not needed when can throw lightning."

"We don't know whether or not that's a problem!"

"Wife talk much."

"Stay focused or I will kick you off this building, Ruk; I swear on Goddess."

"Not wise to swear on Goddess."

Nell pressed her head to the stones, hanging a hundred feet in the air with the wind howling through her fur. Ruk was a jerk, but he was also right.

Ruk passed her on his way up, so Nell picked up the pace.

When they arrived near the top and found a low window, Ruk and Nell found the air to be deathly still. Birds did not fly in the space around them, and not a single fur on their glistening, nude bodies stirred. Nell looked at Ruk with large, sharp eyes, and the mountain lion confirmed her worry with a shrug.

Yes. Weird. He seemed to say.

They crowded around this window and looked inside. Nell gasped, but her voice was drowned out by a blast of noise spewing from the window like a rocket's fire.

In the center was a young raccoon girl, trapped in stasis by levitating gold manacles binding her wrists and ankles. Her body was ragged, her fur matted and spindly with patches of dirt and dried blood dappling her emaciated form. Unconscious, she limply hung before an elderly sorceress who paced the room, her tattered robes blowing around her body from the turbulence of the stasis field.

The sorceress's voice came clearly through, like a thought. "You won't see it my way," she said, "But you will thank me, eventually."

Her robes clung to a body withered and tawny. It was only by the tufts of her ears that Nell could tell she was a bobcat, but ...

"Ruk, where's the nearest bobcat?" she asked.

"There?" he asked, pointing inside.

"I mean naturally!"

"Come from far."

"That's what I thought," Nell said, backing away from the window and its burst of power. "We have to stop her, and send her back if she won't cooperate!"

"Presumptuous," Ruk said, hanging from the ivy by only one arm. "She join Jahaliya."

"Where did you learn a word like that?!" Nell asked, then batted away the question. "Raccoon hurt, bobcat bad. We fix?"

"Ruk learn from tutor," he said, "Nell should speak correct."

"Correctly. Let's go."

The two leapt through the narrow window, turning their bodies sideways and landing in tandem to the other side.

"Begone from my home!" screeched the bobcat, the situation immediately falling to blows. The two warriors attempted an advance and the sorceress countered with blasts of lightning from her paws, one after another in laggy jolts that consistently and clumsily missed them. Even so, she was accurate enough to discourage a straight-on assault.

Nell tripped over a burned divot the sorceress's blast had left. The sorceress took aim. With a rolling dodge, Ruk picked her up and threw her across the room, flinging her to a clutter of bookcases the tigress kicked off of, knocking them over, and finally took cover behind a distant pillar as lighting blasts cracked and hammered the area around her.

Nell caught her breath, breasts heaving as the lightning subsided around her, and a distant male guffaw trickled out. Ruk was on full alert, provoking the sorceress, distracting her, dodging her deadly bolts with predicted precision.

Ruk could dodge a lightning blast with the same alacrity he could dodge a pointed question. That beautiful bastard.

The mountain lion let out a yowl and Nell stopped herself from yelping. A blast hit close, skinning his bicep and punching a hole in the wall behind him.

Nell's hackles spiked and she went on high-alert. He was doing well, but the law of probability stated that his foe was going to eventually connect.

The tireless tigress saw, in the eaves of the musty room, a few rays of daylight filtering in from above. The holes were irregular, and she could smell mildew radiating. Wooden beams desperately held up a few jagged stones.

Perfect.

Against the wall Nell found a ringlet of gold with right-angle etchings around its halo. About 3/4 the diameter of her shoulders, Nell took a wide stance and hurled it like a discus, sending it skyward to clang with a dissonant ring that sent the sorceress's power sideways, delaying all action as pebbles trickled down from above.

The sorceress had just a split-second to dodge the largest bricks and rafters as they came tumbling down, but a few struck her robe, pinning it, sending her withered, dry fur husk stumbling across the room as it tore completely open.

In a sudden act of conscience, Nell caught her as to prevent her face from bashing against the stone floor. The nude, frail bobcat sprang back, erecting a crystalline barrier before the suspended raccoon, dividing the room in two.

Nell ran to Ruk who was standing firm, ignoring the smoldering wound in his arm and the parcel of tears welling up in his eyes. The tigress retrieved the ringlet, faintly recognizing it as some sort of neck ornament, and brandished the makeshift weapon at the hovering bobcat.

"Game's up, sorceress. What are you doing to that girl?"

The bobcat's eyes glowed, the long fur of her crown bristling around her like tentacles. "I'm saving her from the clutches of death, and I need her. An acceptable exchange."

"She didn't consent to any of this!" Nell snarled.

"No one consents to their death, nor can properly refuse. I took the initiative."

"And I'll finish it!" Nell hissed, lunging forward.

Ruk lay his arm across Nell's collar, stopping her. "Rephrase?" he asked. Nell cooled down.

Nell sucked in a breath, lowering her voice. "All right. Why do you need her?"

The sorceress' head drifted down. Compared to the raccoon girl, the withered bobcat looked approximately healthy. "For my power and vitality. I'm a few centuries old. My account on life is far overdrawn, but I have learned too many things to give it up, to 'give up the ghost,' as your people, your old-world people, Nell of St. Vivian's Boarding School for Young Ladies, would say."

Nell recoiled, and Ruk stepped forth.

"You, vampire. Steal life. Evil."

"Wait, wait," Nell objected, pushing in front of Ruk. "You know who I am?"

"Who you were and are, yes," the sorceress responded, "Over the years I'd seen so many young, virile men and women sauntering about Jahaliya brandishing new, raw spirits that I could not consolidate their variety within my mind. Nobody seemed 'from here,' but then from where did they come? Turning my curiosity to this I found, over scores of years of research, what I call the Jahaliya Divide. You're not from here. Many people are not. Jahaliya thrives from this constant transfusion of new, diverse spirits."

Nell had to smile, had to smirk, at this witch pinpointing little particulars of Jahaliya that she, herself, had taken for granted.

"Look, that's all well and good, but you talk too much. What's with the prisoner?" she asked.

Ruk patted her on the back.

The sorceress shrugged. "I tried the lightest sin I could. This girl," she said, light extending from the sorceress' hand to highlight the girl's mangy patches and bald spots, ribs which seemed to suck in the fur between them, the muzzle with broken teeth and a dead molar, was stricken. A survivor losing at her own game. There was enough life left inside that, trapped in this stasis field, trapped in a comatose state, free to dream for eternity, she would survive, and I would, too, off of a pinprick of her virgin blood just once a week."

"One drop," she continued, grinning wistfully, "and forever she dreams of happy rolling meadows, of feral dogs that run alongside her, of puffy clouds and toddlers she never had tugging at a yellow sun-dress she could never afford."

Nell stepped forward, her fur briefly feeling the proximity of Ruk's paw before he drew it away. "Jahaliya has better real joys than any illusions you can offer ," she growled. "How do we know you're pulling your end of the bargain? Maybe she's just braindead."

The bobcat splayed her paws, lowering her face toward the barrier. Her eyes lost their light, returning to normal. "I swear by Goddess, I have told the truth."

Nell frowned. "Look at me," she growled.

The sorceress did, raising her withered face. Nell walked up to her, despite Ruk's protestations, and stared deep inside, watching her until she looked away.

"If you've lied to us, I swear you'll regret it." she said, turning back to her mountain lion mate. Ruk stood poised, tossing a bone knife between his paws.

"From where did you come? Was it across the Divide?" Nell asked, pacing the room, stepping over tomes with fresh pawprints imprinted upon their musty dust.

"No, no," the bobcat replied, straightening her shreds of clothing into something approaching dignity, her eyes darting occasionally to the barrier, "It is from this realm, albeit a few hundred leagues."

"Jahaliyans have only recently traveled that far. What brings you to us?"

"This peninsula; it's quite attractive for its potential," the sorceress chuckled, righting her robes as a ragged flap exposed her breast. "I ran, had to bolt farther than magic could reach. My apprentice betrayed me in a magic ritual in which we were to reclaim a feral hippogriff for our land and use it as a guardian for our sacred rites."

Ruk joined Nell, his knife at his side. "Enslave animal?" he asked.

"I suppose. It was the same type of spell; implant perfect dreams in its head, let it live a medicated lie until its death."

"Continue," he said, scowling.

"She implanted nightmares in its head instead, and sent it after me. I barely escaped, so perilous was the fight, fleeing into a small encampment at night. The settlers stirred, so I tossed a small sleep spell over them. That's when I found, next to their guttering campfire, the Harrowed Edicts of Jahaliya, widely published when your kingdom crowned the wolf Prince Miscon. I tore it open to the map section and slit my wrist upon the pages, whereupon I transported myself to the most recent appendix entry: The Peninsula Annexation, so here I am. Funny, I expected to land with the Myscindryans and I landed in this wilderness instead, but you've been busy since then, haven't you?"

"Those Edicts revise themselves, yes."

"Brilliant books," the sorceress laughed, "I should catch myself up on their long history."

"Welcome to Jahaliya," Ruk said.

"Oddly polite; it fits within the canon," the sorceress mused. "I'd even tried to return after I gathered my strength, but my apprentice had blocked the link. Had a seal regarding 'R.I.;' or some sort."

"Regina Imperium.The Poacher Queen is known to use that," Nell translated.

"Oh, Goddess damn her! She's been an obnoxious sort."

"If genocide is considered obnoxious, yes," Nell sighed, popping her knuckles.

"Where the girl from?" Ruk asked.

"One of many damnable worlds; there's several in decay."

"Jahaliya save them all," Nell sighed, then noticed Ruk's agitation. "Sorceress, this is our home. Why have you established yourselves in our ruins, and conjured all these wood golems to guard it, and to keep it standing?"

The sorceress relaxed, seeing that this tigress had become more curious than aggressive: she had hooked her thumb about her dagger belt to support her arm as her gaze idly wandered about the place.

"My name is Caentla, by the way," the bobcat said, "the girl, then, as I'm sure you're concerned: I found this urchin on the verge of dying, trying to sell tinder during the worst winter her province had seen. Of course, anyone who could afford tinder had plenty, and everyone else had nothing to give her. This little tinder girl wandered off to a lonely alley where she used all her tinder to keep warm, no fuel to sustain her. The poor, pathetic wretch: I stayed her hand as her fur froze, the tinder dying out, and whisked her away to here, where ..." the bobcat paused, sighing, turning about to the magical barrier where she beat her fists against it.

"Don't tell me this is an improvement for her," Nell opposed.

"Than freezing in the streets?" Caentla barked, books and furniture rattling about her as her claws flashed from her paws. Calming down with moral certainty, the bobcat continued. "She was a hard fighter nonetheless, and like a drowning victim struggling against its lifeguard, she beat against me, and thus had to be pacified."

"You put her in that coma," Nell said.

"That was necessary!" Caentla argued, "Then I helped her from there."

"Yours to drain," Ruk said, "how long?"

The bobcat pressed a thumb to her forehead, reconciling events long since passed, pacing the room with the barrier humming and shimmering, slinking past Nell who had to restrain herself from one good punch. She finally returned to the front, tugging again at her ragged robe so that her body would be properly framed, her withered tits out in the open.

"I intended to instruct her as a new apprentice," she said, "but that was being optimistic, but the best I have, save for ... well, look at me. Nothing else."

Nell and Ruk noticed, that when the bobcat shrugged, she let her robe fall to its respective pieces.

"We peep. Not bad," Ruk said.

Nell balked at him, surprised, but saw him stand there firmly, like a warrior.

Caentla paused, then considered the compliment. She blushed, hoping this was some sort of suggestion. "The other way for my needs, if at all possible, would be from a virile male by way of an honest, passionate fuck."

The tigress growled, repulsed by the way the bobcat now looked at her husband. She kicked a dusty tome aside before demanding, "Sure, keep him in stasis, and it will only be one drop. Correct?"

Ruk's head snapped to her with a sharp "Hey!", and he pawed at her before she escaped.

"No, no; it's just the earnest action I need," Caentla said, "It's the male intent and the male essence. Virgin blood is just a catch-all for magic spells; a mild panacea, but there's better stuff out there. That, and, it was much easier to capture a virgin than to court a male--expediency of the moment, if you will. I tried once! I brought him food, kissed his cheek, and showed him my tits."

"You're not going to get an earnest fuck that way," Nell said.

"One-and-done," Ruk agreed.

Nell snickered, then looked at the raccoon again and got serious. "I, hey. If keeping you young is just a good fuck away, I can talk to my husband. We in Jahaliya don't mind a clean deal," she said, and then moved forward, wrapping her paw around a dagger on her belt. "But you'd best swear to us that this won't harm him!"

Ruk followed behind her, his gaze bouncing between the two women. Caentla seemed straight-up, and Nell seemed to be digging through minutiae.

"No! Why would it?" Caentla asked in surprise, nearly stumbling from the question. "I promise, upon my being and my existence under Goddess, that no harm will befall your husband, Lord Blackstar."

Nell frowned. "You're really plumbing our depths, here. Best keep your magic to yourself."

The bobcat backed off. "Sorry! It was the name that was upon his mind."

Nell turned to Ruk and grinned. "How noble of you," she chuckled, then turned back to Caentla. "So a few teaspoons of male love. How often?" she growled.

The bobcat stumbled, pulling her robes up to cover her body, seemingly wilting before them. "Only once every few months, maybe more."

The tigress sighed, rolling her eyes, her claws kneading the fur on her hips as she strutted about the room. "Fine, and fine," she said, "As long as eventually you're out of my hair. And the girl comes with us. We'll care for her after you revive her."

"Agreed. But first thing's first," the bobcat grinned, shrugging off her robe.

The tigress lifted her head to the shabby ceiling, seeing the wilted beams, random magic blasts radiating from the raccoon girl's barrier, folding her arms under her tits and reminding herself of the Goddess' ever-permeating altruism. She sighed. "Ruk," she asked, wandering into her husband and bumping her head against his shoulder, "Would you give this woman a proper climax?"

"For you and Jahaliya," he said, kissing her cheek.

The mountain lion padded up to the sorceress and tore her robes from her shoulders, grinning as she leaned up against him. "Ruk fuck?" he asked.

The sorceress needed no more. She pushed him back against a pile of dusty pillows and had him recline, whereupon she knelt between his opened legs and nibbled at his sheath until his cock sprang from it, lapping upon its barbed head with her velcro tongue, the coarse ends bristling.

"Here's a little technique I know you'll like." Caentla breathed.

With a wave of her paw, a potion jumped to it, and she popped the cork with her claw and took a sip. From the fizz Nell heard she could guess it was mildly acidic, and the old bobcat suckled on his cock using its special tingle. She had it in her mouth for only a few pulls before the mountain lion grabbed her by the shoulders and changed places, pushing her down into the cushions as he tore the rest of her robes from her body and angled his cock against her pussy, pushing it in with a deep growl and receiving from her a special mewl of her own.

"Oh Goddess, It's been so long!"

Watching, Nell felt her bad mood melt away as her husband pleasured the older woman with surprising enthusiasm. She felt a pang of guilt at being his pimp, but all was on good terms and soon the two before her were rewarded with a powerful mutual orgasm, the thrust of his hips meeting her own body bucking against him.

In a flash, Nell saw the bobcat turn young, soon her own age and then a bit younger, her tits and hips swelling to a muscular, buxom proportion to which Jahaliya had blessed all its denizens.

Light and sound crackled all about the decrepit room. Nell shielded her face as a particularly powerful burst strengthened barrier keeping the raccoon girl and shook all the books from their shelves.

Ruk himself went wide-eyed, the rapture of orgasm met with a startling epiphany that made him look about the place and then up, contemplating some strange awareness that, when Nell saw the sorceress, realized that she shared it as well.

The tigress ignored the strong arousal buzzing between her own hips as the two parted, folding her arms beneath a pair of breasts with painfully erect nipples.

"It is done," Caentla whispered, stumbling upright, cum dribbling between her supple thighs. As the bobcat regained her balance, she had more to sort out. She opened her mouth, but then smiled inscrutably as if inspired. She beckoned to Nell.

Curious, the tigress drew close, and with a sudden lurch the bobcat's paws shot out around her hip and head and drew her in, wrapping her in a deep, passionate kiss with a hungry paw groping her rump.

Against her angry and rebellious compunctions, Nell complied, folding into the passion and sensation of the moment as the bobcat's tongue worked with her own, the barbs tugging at each other as a paw worked under her tail.

"Wife fuck now," Ruk said, having crept up to the group, licking his chops as Nell's paw went down to tease the sorceress's lion-fucked folds.

Caentla moaned into Nell's mouth, then put both paws atop the tigress's head and pushed her down, down between her breasts and lower, pushing her pussy forward to Nell's muzzle.

Ruk growled in appreciation, and as Caentla humped against Nell's rough tongue, she pushed Nell forward, whispering a quiet incantation the mountain lion picked up as, simply, lay down.

Nell did, rolling backwards and lying supine, all the while staying attached between the sorceress's hips, licking her labia, sucking the cum from inside.

Ruk stalked around them, and when the sorceress had Nell pinned to the floor he came from behind, spreading his wife's legs and sliding his cock against her neglected nethers.

A moan issued from Nell right into Caentla's crotch, sending the bobcat up a few notches with its vibrations.

"Mmm, marriage does have its good points." Caentla purred

Ruk followed through and penetrated the tigress, growling deep as her tight slit enveloped him. His hips slid up against her buttocks as his cock slid inside, she wrapping her legs around his waist so the fucking could start proper.

Trapped under a musky, lusty sorceress and pounded vigorously by her husband, Nell could only writhe, groaning in wonder as the two pleasured themselves on her, she in return wet at both ends.

As she slurped the juices from Caenta's cunny and as Ruk drove his cock inside her, the barbed head scraping her innards, teasing them, Nell gasped as images shot into her head.

She peered upwards, suckling on Caentla's clit, driving her tongue inside her pussy, watching Ruk fondle the bobcat's breasts and pull at her teats as he whispered something in her ear.

"We fuck you from both ends, use sweet nectar on tailhole to make you anal slut. See how many cocks you fit in mouth, too." Nell heard, clear as day despite being trapped between spotted, squeezing thighs.

"You Flirt!" The bobcat giggled deliriously, rewarding Ruk's wife with a squirt of juices, knocking her down to the floor.

That conversation alone was fantastic, Nell mused, bucking her hips in rhythm with Ruk's relentless cock, but there was another one right under it, one she remembered clear as day even though it never happened.

"I'm afraid of a child, Nell; I want to keep us safe in the jungle and between the dangers to you and the precious life you bring to it, I don't think I can handle the emotional strain should something happen!" Nell heard in Ruk's voice. It was improbable, both from the vulnerability and the eloquence. He'd never say that.

Excited physically and intrigued mentally, Nell had to keep driving on. The tigress locked her legs above Ruk's tail, trapping herself against him. He was more than happy to thrust deeper into her, sliding her body against the smooth, stone floor. Nell gripped the sorceress's hips and pulled her down, using her fingers to spread the bobcat wide so she could slide her tongue deep.

More of Ruk's thoughts rushed into her head. At the same time, Nell was sure her own were rushing out. She ate out the sorceress with a passion both intellectual and horny, humping back against Ruk and his huge, impassioned cock for the same reasons.

Finally, all three burst. Nell's eyes rolled back into her head as her cunny walls contracted, squeezing at the beast inside until that, too, went off like a hose, spurting cum inside her until it leaked out around his balls, streaming down over her anus and tail base.

The sorceress's second orgasm locked Nell's tongue inside her for a brief instant, soaking the tigress's muzzle in fem-cum as her knees quaked on either side of her head, nearly pinning her ears.

Thousands of thoughts flooded Nell's head, each one as vibrant and distinct as Ruk's articulate confession. Caentla dismounted Nell's face and went around her, cradling the back of her head, lifting it to face her husband, who seemed to be having the same problems with overflow.

"I was wrong, Ruk; I'm sorry!" Nell gasped, leaning upright, grasping at him.

"Ruk over-protect. Nell strong!" he returned, looping his paws underneath her and pulling her up against him. The tigress let out a guttural grunt as his cock slid out of her, juices pouring out underneath.

They laughed it off through tears and kissed. "Ruk, I know you want to run the forest, establishing a perfect life for all, but we can't rest on our laurels! Let's take the next step."

"Ruk give you ten kittens. Fifty kittens. Brood. Army of proud mountain-tigers."

"Ah!" Nell giggled, licking his nose, then kissing him, pulling her claws through his face-fur, her breasts smushing against his chest. "Let's start with one and see how that is. I don't have teats for a whole litter."

"There's a spell for that," Caentla interjected.

"No, just one!" Nell reiterated.

The bobcat smirked. "Sometimes, the keys to a healthy relationship is a round of sex and some perspective," she quipped. When the two lovebirds looked at her, silently inquiring about the sudden memory dump, Caentla shrugged. "Well, yes. Sorry to invade your privacy like that, but while the magic was fresh, I thought I could help."

Nell chuckled, wobbling as she and Ruk got to their feet, the mountain lion cleaning her pussy-wet face with his tongue. "Do that with the wrong couple and it could've ended in a blood bath."

Caentla shrugged. "Congratulations on the cub. I wish you the best in your marriage and, should you allow me to stay, I'll do anything in my power to preserve your union. First, how about an early baby shower gift?" she said, walking through the ruins of her keep, stepping over bookcases knocked over from their fight.

She knelt before the rubble that fell from the ceiling and retrieved the circlet, briefly comparing it with the scraps of her robes that lay strewn about the place.

"This is a weapon from my homeworld, also a fashionable piece of jewelry," she said, tossing the balanced gold band in her paw. "When it does not detect a neck within its ring, it is sharp around the edges, and perfectly balanced for flight."

The bobcat held it out to Nell, who gingerly took it by its rear clasp, careful of its edge. "I'm not sure if I'll do any fighting after the child's born," Nell said.

"Nonsense," Caentla countered. "Between the Goddess' Blessing, which ought mitigate most any 'degradation' childbirth will cause your body, and this fine weapon, I will say you'll see a boon to your combat edge. With a little concentration, it can ricochet, hitting many enemies at once, and with a little heart, such as you hold for your protective Jungle Lord husband, it will easily return to you."

The tigress smiled, opening it to put it around her neck. "My greatest thanks, then, Caentla," she said, and then turned to the conspicuous crystal still hovering and crackling in the middle of the room. "So then, issue two. The girl?"

"Must come with. Meigs at Jahaliya capital will fix her."

The bobcat relented, her face crumpling as she tried to form some counterargument, but then shrugged. She sat down heavily in a chair next to a ragged banner which still crackled from one of her lightning spells.

"I'm out of bargaining chips," she sighed, "but I suppose I deserve this. Maybe I ought to fade away, let age catch up with me. I ... I won't throw myself on your pity ... but if the fuck was good, I could certainly hope your husband wouldn't mind a bit of charity?"

"Charity for cock," Ruk grinned, beaming. Nell shot him a dirty look, and he deflected it with his paws. "Second best in recent memory. Best casual fuck," he said, then moved his paw back and forth between himself and Caentla. "Male essence for male pleasure: fair trade?"

Finding herself as Ruk's pimp again, Nell sighed, fingering the gold circlet about her neck. "For now. But I get to watch if I'm available."

"You join!"

"Only until the kitten comes, but ..." Nell frowned. "Call me selfish for wanting a modicum of exclusivity, but we have many males in Blackstar Manor with hair-trigger cocks. They're deeply inexperienced; I bumped into a servant the other day and he made a little mess right there on the carpet. You teach them, and you'll get your essence."

Caentla beamed, her smile lighting up as her tongue drifted across her teeth. "With that much virility available, I'll be as fresh as a spring daisy."

"Great, I'm pimp of our entire servant's quarters," Nell chuckled.

`

"Great negotiator," Ruk said.

"Now you're just pandering. Go make yourself useful and slay some orcs!"

"For one blowjob."

"Goddess' sake, Ruk!" Nell cackled, blushing.

The mountain lion grinned. "Fair trade," he said, and then turned back to Caentla, thrusting out his forefinger with unyielding finality. "Girl."

With a little bit of a slump, the bobcat sighed, nodded, then headed back to the crackling crystal where the skinny raccoon remained in stasis. She picked up a broken curtain rod from the floor, stabbed it into one of her many tomes, and then when it sparkled with energy she brought the magic sledgehammer against the sheer shining sides.

A crack and a visceral thump shook the entire room, and then the crystal shattered, spraying shards that turned into daffodil petals. The girl floated down in a limp pile and Caentla discarded her hammer, the pieces returning to their normal form.

"She weighs as much as a book of matches," the sorceress shrugged, "you'll have little trouble. The door is just behind the portal. The tower's staircase is in good condition; you will not stumble."

Ruk nodded and moved past the sorceress, coyly tweaking her nipple as he passed. She jumped with a lusty yowl, and Ruk only winked at her. He gently scooped the girl into his arms, and as promised, she was as frighteningly light as a satchel of sticks.

Ruk looked down at the unconscious young whelp and spoke, his voice barely a whisper, "Meigs fix you good. Meigs be ... very busy with you."

The mountain lion's gaze fell to a look of helplessness as he turned back to Caentla. "This not ... could not have been only way."

Caentla shrugged, her paws spreading empty without answers. "Both she and I were in desperate straits. I acted for the moment, but by Goddess' wisdom it was ultimately a flawed victory. I concede that."

Ruk nodded and then looked to Nell, whose muzzle pulled into a bare line as she nodded back. "Many flawed in eyes of Goddess."

Caentla smiled, startled by his blessing.

"He has his eloquent moments," Nell chuckled.

"Agreed," Caentla purred, then clapped her paws as she faced Ruk, her supple body bouncing as she went up on the balls of her feet. "Lord Blackstar, if I may imbue one more blessing?"

The mountain lion grinned, licking his chops. "Ruk not machine."

"Oh, not that!" the bobcat laughed, then coughed as she saw his cock go up again. "Goddess Bless me... ahem. It's for the girl. A protection spell."

"Yes, now," Ruk said, carefully tracking over the rubble to her, gliding over books and broken rafters. From his two strong arms he held out the raccoon, his biceps hardly flexed. His mind could not believe he was holding a girl and not a funeral shroud.

The bobcat rubbed her paws together, sparks blasting between them until the tiny bolts converged into a harmonious hum, whereupon she lay paws on the girl. The waif's emaciated body glowed for a brief moment, and Ruk felt at least twenty more pounds weigh down his arms, even though not a blob of fat or muscle came under the fur.

"Consider it an ethereal cushion, an alchemical shock-absorber. The girl will not feel one unpleasant jolt, and ... hold on, I just had an epiphany."

Having interrupted herself mid-speech, Caentla snatched a book off the floor--the one she'd speared--and flipped to the middle, reading around the gaping hole. "Blast, I could have used that Disputing the Goodness of Goddess tome I had laying around, what a horrible read. Bunch of whingeing negators moaning as they piss in their own mouths. I digress. Wait, hold on!" she called out.

Ruk and Nell had left the keep entirely, thanking the sorceress as she rambled on. They had the girl and her heart was beating: it was time to take her away.

"Oh, you're an impatient pair!" she shouted, a yowl in her voice, "The spell, it ..." she bent down to pick up a ragged slip. "The transdimensional spell I used to get here, yes: it lingers for a score; I've been here for sixteen ... the shock and transdim spell will interact and, with her increase in vitality, the fortifying effect shall strengthen exponentially."

Caentla found an old scroll, a supplemental tract for Disputing, and resisted the urge to spit on it as she summoned a pen to her paw. "Yes, yes, if these cantrip factorials and solstice asymptotes are correct, she'll ..." she grinned, scribbling feverishly.

"Oh, let them figure it out!" she laughed in the empty tower, dropping the scroll and pen as she marched to a mirror to explore her young, spry body.

***

They made a quick stop at the tree forward platform, Ruk monitoring the girl's condition with his ear as they took a break to rest up. "We no good to girl if attacked exhausted," he'd insisted, dragging his wife up with him.

Nell relented, uncorking a jug of Jahaliyan spring water and drinking greedily from it, splashing some over her tits just to tease Ruk, who pretended to stand straight, but she saw the desire in the rising and falling of his chest.

"How you?" he asked his wife, taking the jug and draining a good amount down his gullet. He lay the girl down and attempted to paw some into her mouth, squeezing just droplets at a time as not to drown her.

"I'm well, love. Thank you," she answered. "But ... I still feel soiled to have used your sexuality as currency."

Ruk laughed, batting a paw. "Renewable resource, easy bartering!" he joked, "Ruk enjoy much ... can do again?"

Nell frowned. "Why?"

Ruk leapt to his footpaws, beating his broad chest. "Manly fun! Evil sorceress, now beg on knees, whimpering for cock!"

The tiger bellowed with laughter. "You're incorrigible. Very well, but don't enjoy it too much; we'll have a baby on the way."

"Yes, right, baby," Ruk coughed. "Diapers, bottles, reading, writing, rectum-tude of Goddess' true love."

Nell could not help but simultaneously grin and cringe at his malaprop. Ruk knelt down to give the girl more water.

"'Rectitude,' is the word," Nell said, "but if I told Sylvia she'd have you spanked with a ruler and then we're in the same fuck-boat."

Ruk stopped her with a paw. "Not with baby on way. You and her to manor. You and her stay," he said, and when the mountain lion stood erect, he cleared his throat. There was a tear in his eye. "Ruk protect you, and whole jungle. That Ruk job. Nell job care," he said, pointing at her.

Nell paused, catching her breath and the moment. "Yes, that would be prudent," she said, finding a lump in her throat. "We can have the baby in a few months, whenever you're ready to start ... I'll care for the girl first, once Meigs stabilizes her. We could consider this a trial run for me being homebound, and you playing soldier."

Ruk stepped around the body and lifted Nell into a hug, licking at her muzzle before kissing her lips. "Hardly be first time a soldier away while protecting King's land for wife."

Nell started with a giggle, but it broke into a sob as she thrust herself into his arms. "Yes, love, yes!" she choked out, her fur bristling as her body glowed with warmth, the tigress pushing her face into his chest. "Together, a family. Not just the Blackstar lineage, but our lineage. Our future!"

Ruk grinned, kissing her passionately when her head came back up. "For Jahaliya and us," he said.

He put one arm over his wife's shoulders and pulled the raccoon girl up over his opposite shoulder. They scarpered like this, through the forest, their tracks free and easy as not to jostle the spell-protected girl, finally scaling up the wooden ladders of their treehouse to reach the supply balcony.

Ruk gingerly handed the frail body to Nell, who took it with care. She was beaming with ideas, rattling off rehabilitation plans for the waif as she went off her own memories, her own introduction to this magical land after exploding through the Jahaliyan Divide.

"Of course I wouldn't dare introduce her to the world in the same way I fell into it," she said, "I just hope I can deliver the girl with much more grace."

"Nell talk much," Ruk said, although his tone seemed more downtrodden than before.

The mountain lion spun and went back to a glimmering pole on a box that had a binder of schedules and manifestos.

"I wonder when next supply ship? I know Ruk grammar tutor on board," he said to himself, flipping through the magic pages. Ruk froze on the current day. "Ship coming now?!" he started, "Must read times more closely in future. As it is, we nearly miss arrival."

As they faced the docking gantry, the buzz of propellers sawed the silence in half. A small airship, carrying cargo and a female husky whose fur had been shorn down for the hot jungle air, docked.

Ruk gave one farewell kiss to Nell, insisting she be on her way. "Ruk be fine, you be mother," he laughed, his tone overstressed in its good humor.

Nell smiled, knowing better, and licked his nose. "You be brave, lusty soldier, dear," she said, then stopped the thin-fur husky who passed.

"I'll be gone for a while, and my husband needs the company."

Seeing her meaning, the shapely intellectual whispered with quiet excitement,, "I'll do my best."

Nell took her seat in the airship and braced herself as it disengaged.

Nell looked to the ground about far below as her vessel broke away from the canopy. She smiled at the bright sky above, seeing it slowly turn into a blazing copper among cold steel mountains. She tweaked her ear back once or twice as, having left him behind, she heard her husband throw his tutor to the balcony floor and fuck her until the boards creaked, yowling in frustration and lonely sorrow as the husky lustily howled.

The tigress felt a tear slip down her cheek and fall on the raccoon's feeble body. "Goddess enliven you, Ruk."