Balance
_Standard advisories apply -- if you don't particularly want to see animal sex or are a minor, please read no farther. Assorted tidbits snatched from various universes, but the characters are mine. ^^ Mine mine mine.
Enjoy!
--_
Balance
The heat of summer draped over the area like a woolen blanket -- an especially thick, scratchy and annoying woolen blanket that could not be tossed aside at will. Everyone's activity had slowed; the farmers in the fields took frequent breaks from their plowing to rest themselves and their horses, the merchants' stands opened earlier and closed later, and even at the temple of Helm, the clerics were not as busy in the community. Outside the town at the inn, locals sat on the porch and chatted lazily about this and that. Summer flies, both those that bit and those that merely annoyed, seemed to be the only creatures not affected by the late wave of heat.
As the rays of the midafternoon sun baked the already-roasting inn and the browning grass that surrounded it, a lone figure made its way up the road -- her way, actually, based on how the robe of russet and green hung on her body. Even in the heat, the hood of the robe had been pulled up to shadow her face as she walked briskly up the compacted dirt of the road past the inn. A particularly sharp eye could spot the dark, wet patches where sweat had caused the cloth to adhere to her skin, but otherwise no sign of fatigue showed in her gait. Slowly, the locals' conversation died away as she turned briskly and walked up the flagstones towards the inn's porch.
"'Afternoon, traveler!" Corbec called out good-naturedly from the porch as she approached the steps. "Welcome to town. Going to be staying here tonight?"
She nodded, the motion tugging slightly at her cloak. "Yes. I am here for the local Guilds meeting. I daresay that the innkeeper can vouch for me..." Her voice, a pleasant but slightly unnerving alto, seemed to fit with her appearance and the slate-blue eyes that peered out from underneath the hood.
Corbec held up his hands. "'Ey, you're not on trial here. We're just a bunch of lazy old me. Mighty curious, we are." That garnered some laughs, including a chuckle from the traveler. "The meetin's got a bunch of the rooms tied up, but I'm sure old Dharis can find somethin'. 'e's just inside the common room, I think."
Silently, the woman nodded her thanks and swept up the porch with footsteps that barely seemed to touch the wooden planks.
Garris stared after her, licking his lips. "I wonder wha's under that robe o' hers," he mumbled speculatively. "Maybe she'll be on the lookout for some-- ow!"
Corbec withdrew his foot. "Garris, you idiot. You'd ogle a tigress if you thought it'd let you mount." That drew some rough laughs from the assembled men. With lowered voice and a flicker of his eyes to the side, Corbec continued. "Really, though... did you see that robe? She smells o' druid, and no mistake. Ten crowns to a copper that she's here to give the Guilds a piece of her mind about what they're plannin' to do with that tract o' theirs. I wouldn' go trying to do too much if I was you."
"Druid? Hah!" Garris threw back his head and laughed scornfully. "I hear they're even more available... the girls go into heat like bitches. Closer to nature 'n all..."
And so the jokes and speculation continued, though some of it had been closer than the dirty old men on the porch had realized.
--
Dharis Avenson gave a broad grin and put down his pipe. "Well, well! It's been a while since you've passed this way, Iellara. What brings you to our desolate little corner of the world?"
Almost in spite of herself, Iellara felt a smile come to her face as she pushed her hood down, letting her nearly-white hair spill out of the hood and down her back. By the Treefather, but it felt good to have her head exposed again... the heat had been getting to her more than she wished to let on. She slipped bonelessly into a chair across from the innkeeper, letting her weight sag down into the rough-hewn oak. For a moment, she entertained wiping the sweat from her eyes, then realized that the sleeve of her robe was probably no drier.
"Guilds," she replied, her voice holding a hint of a growl. "Again. One would think that 'No more into the woods than one hundred paces' would be clear enough for these businessmen to understand, but once again they are seeking to build, develop and log what is not theirs." Gritting her teeth for a moment in silent frustration, she clasped her hands under the table. "Sometimes, I wonder why they even bother signing pieces of parchment if they are going to disregard them anyhow."
The fatherly man chuckled and shook his head slowly. "Truth is that I have wondered the same thing myself. Still, the folks around here are not going to be too happy to hear you. This new trade crossroads would bring a lot of new business to the town--"
"I know," Iellara grated, fighting the urge to scratch the underside of the table with her bare fingernails. "Some of them already suspect. I received more than a few impolite looks and gestures as I came through the middle of town."
Dharis gave her a concerned look, pulling a bit at his beard. "Are you well, Iellara? You seem to be..." He paused, clearly uncertain what to say.
"Frustrated? Angry? Ready to lay about me like some halfspawn of a demon?" Iellara gave a tiny, fierce grin. "Yes. All of those things and more. This heat... I appreciate all of the seasons, but in my grove summer is pleasantly warm. This... and the humidity... It's just a lot of little things, and they're all building up."
Iellara stopped herself from going further, but she could tell that the old innkeeper knew the rest. For a druid, balance was the essential key. Nature held life and death, storm and calm, predator and prey, anger and contentment. To be a druid was to walk the path between extremes, in an effort to come close to nature's perfect balance. All of these little frustrations were building and nipping away at her peace of mind, and she was secretly afraid that they would begin to filter into her actions.
It had been all she could do not to take her staff and clobber that old, lecherous one on the porch until his skull was jelly, then call a murder of crows to rip away at his flesh and leave him as a silent warning to these stupid guildsmen. That wasn't like her. The heat and humidity and frustration of her assignment were all affecting her balance and her connection to the land that she was trying to protect.
"The meeting doesn't begin until tomorrow," Dharis spoke at length, studying her carefully. "It might do you some good to get a little rest--"
Iellara shook her head. "Not here. The heat inside here is even more stifling than it is outside. I will find no rest indoors."
"--out in the woods, in back," continued the innkeeper with a knowing glint in his eye. "You know the area. I am sure that you can find someplace to relieve your frustration and anger. Lest you start preying on my guests, and I would not appreciate that very much, hmm?"
In spite of herself, Iellara gave a genuine smile and rose from her seat. "Your suggestion has merit, good innkeeper. Set something aside for me -- I will probably be back by dark. Do not worry if I am not, however. These forests know me, and will let me come to no harm."
As she turned and strode away from her seat, Iellara counted out enough gold for two nights' lodging as well as food, setting the coins on the edge of the counter before she strode towards the inn's back door. Part of her wondered why she had not thought of spending some time in nature, and she shook her head. It was yet more proof that her thoughts had become clouded and her judgment made unreliable. Some time in the forest, although it was not hers, would doubtless help her heal and prepare for the verbal skirmish with the guilds tomorrow.
It was less than fifty paces from the back of the inn to the first of the trees, and Iellara traveled it quickly, wishing to come to the shade of the trees. Once again, sweat began to form on her brow, trickling down the dried layer already present. Before her robes had even had a chance to dry a little the sweat began to dampen them again. Iellara closed her eyes as the shade of the trees fell on her, blocking the sunlight, though they did nothing for the humidity. Eyes half-closed, the female druid strode between the trees and through the underbrush with practiced ease. A few brambles caught in her hair, but considering how far it trailed down her back, Iellara had surprisingly few troubles getting it tangled. This was, in part, because she had grown her hair out in order to serve as a reminder to move carefully through the woods. Each briar that she ignored would take some of her hair as a painful reminder that she should have watched her path better, or nettles would get caught in it and require delicate and time-consuming work to pick free. It had worked very well, and now choosing the best path was second nature to Iellara.
Would that the path to stopping these guilds was so easy, she thought, the unoccupied portion of her mind free to wander. Already, most of the townsfolk are set against me. I would rather not war on them -- such a conflict would benefit only the scavengers, leaving many good beasts and humans to rot in the sun. In a single fluid motion, she leaped cleanly over a fallen log without fully realizing that it was there. How can I persuade them? They are so set on the path to making gold that they do not realize what they will be losing for every copper gained. Perhaps she could find a way to increase trade by other means, but she doubted that there was a better site within the boundaries of where the guilds had been allowed to expand. Bending their charter seemed to be the only way to locate a trade center so close to town.
Iellara realized that she was breathing heavily, her muscles tense, adrenaline seeping into her blood in the ancient fight-or-flight reaction. She came to a stop in the middle of a stand of poplars, trying to control her breathing. It was difficult. Somehow, she felt the urge to confront the guildsmen far more strongly than she should.
Out of balance, she thought with a frustrated snarl. Death and fighting weigh too strongly in my thoughts. I would wish to take some time and meditate in the woods, but the meeting cannot wait... but how am I expected to find a solution when my instincts tell me the only one is to fight?
She fought down the urge to snarl... then looked around and realized that she was a good half-mile into the woods. No one else would be around, none of the filthy domesticated townsfolk with their beady rodent eyes to judge her. Iellara drew in a breath and screamed, a predatory noise that flayed at her throat and echoed among the trees, more feline than human. Again she screamed, and again, finally falling silent after the third, her chest heaving with quickened breaths. All around her, the woods were silent -- the nearby animals ceasing their sounds, chilled and afraid of the predator that walked in their midst.
Iellara felt better... but not good. She was gratifying her predatory nature, but nothing else. No, crying out and stalking and killing would do no good. She needed... something else.
In the silence left by the wake of her cries, she heard for the first time a distant roar. A waterfall...? Iellara closed her eyes and tried to quiet her soul, letting the feeling of the nearby creatures and plants seep into her. Yes. Nearby water. Flashes of spray in the sunlight, a quiet pool underneath, droplets plunging thirty feet and more. She remembered running across the river lower down, but this was the first time that she had wandered far enough north to hear the waterfall.
As she became conscious of the robe sticking to her skin and the heat that seemed to be fogging her head, an idea began to form. How wonderful it would be to stand under the cooling water... have a bath... wash the grime of travel out of her hair and off of her skin. Yes, she decided with a smile. It would be renewing to bathe even in a river that did not know the taste of her body. Perhaps it would restore some measure of clarity to her tattered soul. Wasting no time, Iellara began walking briskly, then trotting, towards the sound of the water.
A minute later, she emerged from the trees, her feet treading on smooth stones instead of the leafy forest floor. Surely enough, as she had seen, the river -- barely meriting the title, at this point in its course -- plunged nearly thirty feet over a rocky precipice into a pool at the bottom. Iellara stepped closer, looking more carefully. Such sites were often used as ritual or holy locations by her order, but there seemed to be none of the inscribed stones that would warn strangers away. Oh, how cool and wonderful it would be to stand under the spray...
Eagerly, Iellara slid her arms out of the robe and pulled it off over her head. The cloth adhered to her skin for a moment before it came free, and she tossed the robe off to the side with little care for where it landed. She now stood naked on the edge of the lake, stretching and luxuriating at the sudden cooling from evaporation of the sweat that the air had previously been unable to touch. Her skin was lightly tanned from her neck to her feet, a contrast to the white hair that hung against her back. Scars and scrapes marred -- or one might say, decorated -- her body at irregular intervals, testament to a life often lived in the briars and thorns of the wild without the protection of leather or heavy cloth. Studying her reflection in the water for a moment, Iellara trailed fingers from her neck down her breasts and across her stomach, smiling slightly at the firm muscle and compacted stores of fat that were a testament to both her physical fitness and skill at providing her own food. Ah, how surprised a domesticated man might be when she demonstrated her strength--
Pushing away the more violent train of thoughts yet again, Iellara trotted up onto a rock that overlooked a deeper part of the pool. It was indeed difficult to tell, for the water was clear enough that the bottom was visible, but she had been gauging the depth of water in nature for years. Sparing only a moment's hesitation at the likely chill of the water, she leaped from the rock, cutting through air and water both in a dive that left only a few ripples behind her.
The cold hit Iellara hard, a blow to her entire body at once, which stole her breath in a great eruption of bubbles. Her nipples instantly hardened and the sweaty heat of hours on the trail disappeared almost at once. She broke the surface, treading water and gasping, a silly smile stretched across her face. Yes, this was just what she needed. Taking another deep breath, Iellara plunged back into the water and stroked lazily out towards the waterfall at the northern end of the pool. Her only regret was that she had no one to share this beauty with her... no one to snuggle tightly against her renewed body, tangle in her limbs...
She broke the surface gasping again and looked up at the rocky heights from which the water plunged down. It was slightly odd to find such sharp changes in elevation in these parts, but she was glad of it indeed. Taking another breath, she swam under the falling water and closed her eyes, letting the torrential force of the freezing water pour down on her body. It felt almost as though her worries were all being swept away, stripped from her by the powerful force of the water to trickle downstream.
How long she stayed under the falling water, she could not tell, but a warm touch at the back of her neck broke her out of her reverie. Spinning around, she saw only the white sheet of water cascading off the rock -- took a breath of the water by accident, and fell backwards with a splash, choking and sputtering. A moment later, the source of the touch appeared, padding insolently from behind the waterfall -- a great black panther, golden eyes gleaming as he inspected her.
"Aliir!" she sputtered, standing up in the shallower water and leaving great droplets to cling to her neck and breasts. "When did you get here? I do not remember summoning you..."
The druid's companion seated himself on the rocky shore just to the left of the falls, studying her with a vague air of amusement. ~Just now, mistress. You were wishing for one to share in the beauty of this setting.~ He gave a careful look around. ~And I can see why... aaaahhh, yessss, and this spray feels very good... the astral plane is not the most scenic of locations, and there is nothing to tease the whiskers and nose.~
Laughing, Iellara shook her head and slipped back into the water, doing a couple of languid strokes to bring her close to the edge of the pool and the falls again. By now, the cold had stopped being so sharp, and the water actually felt very comfortable. "Well, whisker-friend, unless you intend to gape at my nudity like some male of sixteen winters, come and join me!"
Before she could flick any water out of the lake at him, the panther coiled and sprang, doing a four-pawed bellyflop into the water next to her. Sputtering at the sudden splash in her face, she swam after him as he lazily outdistanced her, moving towards the falls...
Iellara pursued him in an informal, undeclared game of Predator and Prey for the next several minutes, feeling whole and content for the first time since she had set out on the road this morning. Perhaps it had been wrong to keep him unsummoned, but she did not wish to give the villagers the wrong impression -- Aliir interrupted her thoughts, springing out of the water to tackle her and bear her underneath. Wet fur pressed against her skin as they spun and wrestled under the water -- Iellara broke free and gave his tail a sharp tug, rewarded by a yowl as he came after her again. This time, he mounted her from the rear, belly pressed against her back. Briefly, the female felt something warm and lacking fur trail across her labia, a touch that caused passion and arousal to flare inside her before she slipped out of his grasp and gave him a hard kick in his vulnerable belly. Aliir lost his breath and came to the surface, coughing and wheezing, as Iellara made her way to the side of the pool and climbed out.
Water trailed in her wake, and the evaporation hit her almost instantly. She clutched her arms across her breasts, her entire body shivering and cold, her nipples so hard and compacted that they almost hurt. With a grin for the irony, she sat on the rock in the sunshine. Now, the oppressive heat and lash of the sun felt pleasant against her chilled skin. Iellara let out her breath in a sigh and sprawled across the rock, her limbs splayed out and stomach facing the air. "Aaaahhhh... by the Earthmother, that was good..."
Iellara felt rather than heard the footsteps of her panther companion as he curled up beside her, tail brushing against her thigh. ~Mhmmm. That it was. It almost makes me wish that this plane was my permanent home.~
"Almost?"
~Weeeeell, eternal life has its compensations and all of that. I hear that getting one's bones picked clean by vultures is not pleasant.~
The image tugged Iellara back to the mental images of the crows feasting on the bodies of the guildsmen... She sighed and placed her dripping hand on the damp fur of Aliir's head. "Whisker-friend, you have come at a good time indeed. I fear that this assignment is pulling me out of balance... even in the beauty of these surroundings, I can think only of death."
The panther's wet, warm nose pressed into the side of Leilira's neck, and he gave the sensitive skin just above her shoulder blades a lingering lick. In spite of herself, Iellara shivered at the rough texture and gentle application of his tongue. ~You haven't asked me for my opinion...~
"I haven't asked anyone." Iellara closed her eyes. "It is a very... personal thing, and I fear spreading the news too far. Now, more than any other time, I do not wish to have the--" She gritted her teeth and clutched a handful of Aliir's fur "--meddlesome, irritating brats of the Conclave questioning my connection to nature. It seems that some of them already have their doubts, or they would not have assigned me to this impossible task!"
Iellara realized that her voice had risen, and her last words echoed around the clearing. Once again, there was silence, broken by the roaring of the nearby waterfall.
Aliir nudged her in the shoulder with his head. ~That doesn't track, mistress. Why would they send you on something so difficult and tricky if they did not have faith in you?~
"...you make a true strike with your words," Iellara admitted, shifting on the rock to scratch an itch on her back. She was now comfortably warm and almost completely dry, except for her hair, which hung down from her head and dripped onto the ground. "Still, I cannot help but feel that something is amiss..."
~You are right.~ Iellara could feel the golden-eyed gaze of her companion burning into the side of her head. ~May I speak my mind, mistress?~
The woman grinned and looked over to the panther. "When have you done otherwise?"
~You need to get mounted.~
Blink. Blinkblink.
"Come again?"
Aliir gave her a look that she had seen him give other particularly stupid or dense humans. ~Mated. Ridden. Fucked. Choose your word in whatever language, but the act that leads to the creation of life is one that counterbalances acts that lead to the taking of it.~
She opened her mouth to protest that the idea was stupid, absurd, untrue... and paused. There was logic in her companion's words. "You..." She licked her lips. "You think so?"
~Yes.~ His nose ran down her upper arm, leaving a slightly dampened trail behind it. Iellara shivered at its touch. ~You have many nights used the smooth rocks to pleasure yourself, but your body craves more. You are of an age to be mating, Iellara, and your instincts know it to be true.~
"I already have." Iellara closed her eyes. "At the conclave--"
~No.~ Aliir shook his head firmly, a human mannerism that he had picked up. ~You took no pleasure from being with Eradrim. He compelled you, and did not treat you well. I can sense your craving for an equal, not a superior.~
Iellara blew out a sigh. The more she thought about it... "All right. I cannot deny that it has... considerable attraction." Such considerable attraction, in fact, that she could feel the warmth beginning to spark between her legs -- warmth that had nothing to do with the sun. "But-- the meeting is soon..." She snorted. "And I can hardly command them to delay it so that I can go out and find a partner."
For a long moment, Aliir was silent. Then, very slowly and deliberately, he rose and laid his head gently across her left breast. ~Am I not your friend and equal?~
The druid stared. She had certainly heard of others who had mated with animals -- had, in fact, been tempted many times to shed her shape and rut with one of the beasts of the wild. But... "Aliir... I don't know..." Vividly, though, she could recall the times after her initiation that she had sobbed out her worries on his flank. She could remember one snowy day being caught away from shelter, covering them both with her cloak and lying belly-to-belly naked with him. How many times had he seen her, and how many times had he observed her discharge her passion with finger and polished stone?
~You may command me as you wish...~ Aliir communicated at last, not moving a muscle. ~If at any time you wish for me to stop, all you must do is ask.~ With that, he planted his forepaws on the rock and leaned over to lap gently at her right nipple.
Iellara gasped, opening her mouth... and then closing it. No, she realized, she did not want him to stop. None of the nights alone had truly fulfilled the part of her soul that desired an intimate companion. After all, was it not natural to lust after such things? Was she not putting herself in jeopardy by denying the urges in favor of hunting and killing? And oh, how good his tongue felt -- rasping like sandpaper, but still warm and wet and moist. A drop of saliva trickled down her side as his tongue worked her breast masterfully. She moaned freely, glad of the privacy afforded by three-quarters of a mile of wilderness, and stroked the hair of his head. Yes, she wanted this -- wanted it badly, wanted it so badly that she could feel the burning desire run from her neck to her groin.
Aliir knew her well, knew her more intimately than most husbands knew their wives. His tongue lingered on her most sensitive spots, his whiskers brushing like silky strands across skin that had been rendered so soft and sensitive by his attention. She felt like butter under his paws, her body sinking down onto the rock as her legs opened. Gradually, he worked his way down, lingering for several minutes at the base of her breasts before moving to the flat expanse of her stomach. Here, he switched to long, trailing licks from bottom to top, starting nearly at the base of her scant pubic hair and trailing all the way up to her cleavage. The feeling was too much. Iellara groaned and squirmed on the rock, now reaching up to fondle her own breasts. Silver spots danced in front of her eyes, and her breaths came short and fast. It was too much... too much...
And then she felt his nose touch her labia, and her world exploded into white. Iellara's mouth gaped soundlessly open as she came, a spurt of liquid splashing over Aliir's muzzle and causing his whiskers to glisten in the sunlight. As the orgasm subsided and left her trembling on the rock, her senses returned enough for her to feel the panther's glorious tongue lapping up the juice of her body with eagerness.
With shaking arms she lifted herself up to a sitting position, finding Aliir between her legs and having his way with her glistening lips. She spread her legs further, involuntarily thrusting into his face. "More," she gasped. "More."
~As my mistress commands,~ Aliir replied with a trace of smugness. With characteristic delicacy, he began playing with her sex, using only his nose but applying it with masterful skill and knowledge. Again and again he teased her button, not quite touching it but coming close enough to keep the druid's pussy dripping liquid onto the rock and his muzzle. Iellara steadied herself with a handful of his fur, and then another, grasping him just behind the shoulders. Grinning with sudden inspiration, she began to massage the familiar muscles, glorying in the feel of his velvety fur around her fingers. Aliir gave voice to his contentment with a purr, the vibrations carrying up into her body and nearly bringing her to the edge of a second orgasm. Her heart pounded and her blood sang with the exultation of his questing nose, but she wanted more. Needed more. Her animal instincts were demanding nothing less than his seed inside her body.
"Aliir," she gasped. "Mount me. Mount me and take me..." Her thoughts and musings on whether the union of two different species violated the laws of nature had been cast aside with the robe that lay at the edge of the lake. Passion burned inside her and demanded release, even if it was at the point of another creature.
Roaring his assent, Aliir pounced on top of her, the three hundred pounds of his astral flesh driving the breath from her lungs as his legs straddled hers. His fur had almost completely dried, and how it tickled and teased her body! She would have giggled with glee, but her instincts demanded release, and immediately. Without hesitation or thought of what he might feel like, she thrust upwards with her pelvis, and they united.
Iellara was so wet that his conical penis almost instantly parted her lips and buried itself in her flesh. She screamed, uncaring of whether it carried all the way back to the inn, and thrust harder against the panther. He was nearly as long as the most well-endowed human males she had seen, and his girth at the end was more than enough to stretch her farther than she had stretched before, brushing at her clitoris and sending a wave of muscle contractions through her body as she clamped tightly around him. What she wouldn't have given to have him take her virginity -- and that thought was gone, along with all others, and there was only the mating. His powerful jaws, strong enough to snap her spine and tear off her head, clamped firmly around her shoulder as his teeth marked her. Iellara replied with a bite into his skin and fur at the base of his throat, worrying it like a rabid dog as the animal sounds coming from the throat that was hers escalated in volume and pitch. Driven farther over the edge than she had ever been before, she spasmed underneath his powerful bulk, her nearly virginal pussy holding him firmly as he discharged his feline seed into the depths of her body. For a moment, Iellara felt as though she was falling through an infinitely long, dark space with the feeling of warmth and intimacy throughout her entire body.
The outside reality returned with a snap of booted feet on twigs. People -- nearby -- shit. Rationality told her that if she was found under her panther, naked and dripping with a fresh orgasm, her authority as a negotiator would be shafted rather thoroughly. Without thought, she concentrated on a familiar form. Flesh stretched, bones twisted and reformed, and a moment later a wide-eyed Aliir found himself astride a snow leopard with grey-blue eyes.
"...told you, I heard a scream out here--" Garris pushed aside a tree branch and looked out across the wide space to the rock. "Oh."
Right behind him, Dharis stepped into the clearing with an axe in hand. He took in the panther and his oddly-colored mate, both of them nuzzling and licking each other. "Aah. That explains it. Well, we had best be back, Garris."
"Why?" The old man's face took on a wrinkled grin. "T'is looks like fun--"
"Take my word on this," Dharis muttered in his ear. "The wildcats in these parts are mighty jealous of others getting in on the action."
As though to reinforce his words, Aliir looked over and showed Garris many, many sharp white teeth. A tiny growl echoed from the panther's mighty throat.
"...eeerrr, yeah, sorry to have troubled you." In his haste to get away, Garris tripped and stumbled into a thorny bush. "Ow! Sonnava-- ow! OW! DAMMIT!"
Dharis' eyes caught on a russet-and-green robe sprawled near the lake's shore -- a knowing grin came to his face, and he gave a tiny bow to the rutting felines before following Garris at a more sedate pace.
~Good thinking, mistress.~ Aliir gave her face, now endowed with luxuriant fur, a long and tender lick. ~Now... where were we?~
With a grin fixed on her leopard muzzle, Iellara wriggled out from underneath him and tumbled to land belly-first on the ground. Her tail swished in invitation as she looked over her shoulder at the panther. she asked him gently.
Aliir shivered and walked up behind her. ~Too long. Years. Maybe decades. You would... willingly...?~
Iellara rubbed her belly in the dirt and gravel, giving a long and aroused purr.
With a triumphant growl, Aliir straddled her prone form. Iellara shivered at the feeling of their fur together -- so like her bare skin pressed against his coat, but different -- more luxuriant -- richer. Claws sprang from the ends of her paws and she anchored herself in the ground, raising her buttocks slightly.
Aliir needed no further invitation. He drove into her again, an entirely new and different feeling for both of them. Instinctively he grabbed the scruff of her neck in his jaws, now able to freely express his passion without breaking her skin or tearing off a vulnerable human limb. Iellara gave as good as she got, twisting to snap at his ears and the side of his head, even as she bucked back against him vigorously. It was not nearly so painful now that she was the proper size and species to accept him -- it was unfortunate, though, that a leopard's senses were not nearly as finely developed as a human's. She remembered the feeling of his tongue on her naked skin, yowling and crying out in feline voice as he drove fully in and stayed there, their hips grinding together. Still aroused from their previous coupling, senses heightened with the dampness in her pussy that had not abated with her shapechange and mind alive with the mingled sensations of human and feline mating, Iellara came to the verge of her third orgasm and stopped, almost over the edge but not quite. It was torture there on the precipice, and she snarled at him to continue -- Aliir withdrew, and drove in again, and again, making soft squelching noises and driving out some of their mingled juice from earlier to flow down and drip into the ground underneath. Iellara thrashed and rubbed against the ground, the pebbles and pine needles a marked contrast to the fur of Aliir's velvety underbelly.
Finally, with one last stroke, the panther hilted her and gave voice to a rending scream, filling her with spurt after spurt of hot seed. It pushed her over the brink at last, and Iellara found her voice scaling up to match his. Although she was unsure of whether her body was capable of feeling an orgasm in the same way, her mind was the same and the result was similar, too. The leopard's furry limbs tingled -- her entire body tingled, for that matter, as though she had placed a paw between two rods of a wizards' lightning apparatus -- and the warmth and dampness from the other cat's semen pleased both the leopard's feral mind and her own. How different it was from shedding blood... how glorious... not superior, but an equal part of nature's cycle, to which she now felt as intimately tied as she was to her companion and partner.
Aliir withdrew and moved away a few paces to collapse belly-first on the stones. ~I haven't felt like that in... I can't remember how long.~ His eyes closed and his breathing became slow and regular. ~Thank you, Mistress -- GAAH!~
Iellara withdrew her paw from the sharp cuff that she had delivered to the back of his head. she chuckled.
~But I like calling you Mistress,~ Aliir wheedled.
Iellara relented, padding over to the edge of the lake.
~Double negative...~
Iellara closed her eyes and let her shape flow back into the one into which she had been born. Her human frailty nearly betrayed her as she finished the shift, and it was all she could do to keep from collapsing on the rocks in the same manner that Aliir had. Instead, she turned carefully to look at him, noting with a grin the renewed interest that her naked body aroused in his eyes and the tiny sniff of his nose towards the nectar of their joining. "Care to join me?"
Aliir waved his paw dismissively. ~Too lazy. I think I shall lie here and gape at your nudity like some boy of sixteen winters, to steal the words from your muzzle.~
The druid grinned as she waded into the icy water, barely feeling the chill next to the warmth that radiated out from her core. Her harmony with the woods and the world had never been stronger, for now she knew the other side of the coin whose head was the hunting and killing of things that lived. Perhaps she would be able to voice it well enough that the guildsmen would reconsider their position... just perhaps.
And even if not, she knew that the evenings in her glade would no longer be quite so lonely and cold...