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Beefy's story: Part 3

By: Beefy the Bull

A new life, a new friend.

In this chapter, we spin off in to fiction and find a better place for Beefy the Bull.

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It was a long haul, hopping free rides on trains to Texas. I would sit in empty boxcars until the train slowed or stopped, or passed some sort of signage that indicated where I might be at. I had a not so accurate map of the United States that I had found at a gas station, it only had pictures of tourist traps, and lines demarking highways and state lines, and not much else. It allowed me to figure my location by major cities. I missed my stop a few times but after some back-tracking I finally made it to a rail yard near Drayton. I had to walk the last few miles, and I did so at night as not to cause a fuss. I learned that my presence caused some people to point and stare, and other forms of commotion that I would much rather avoid.

It was about nine in the morning when I finally made it to the dock side of Drayton. It was a small town with not much more than an old freight district and a three light main street. But I didn't care about the town...the ocean was as beautiful as in the pictures I had seen, never mind the rusting freighters and ugly corrugated metal warehouses that lined the water ways. I had never seen such an amazing sight as an endless ocean. Walking down the deserted sea-side freight road, I found a pier and started looking for the address. Soon I walked down a concrete pier labeled "C" and nervously hoped it was the right place. I had a sneaking dread in me, perhaps this was a bad thing I thought. As I approached a long and rusting corrugated steel warehouse built on the end of the pier, I saw the sign : "Davis and Co. Shipping + Procurement." I moved over to the personnel door under the sign, and stood outside the door for a moment and gathered myself.

My heart was pounding as I reached for the misshapen corrugated door, and just as I was about to grab the knob, the door threw open wide and a terrified man ran out, bumping in to me, the man looked up, screamed then ran in fear down the pier. I looked after him then turned back to the still open door.

I wasn't liking this a bit, and was about to leave when a second man, probably going to close the door, saw me and smiling, walked up to me.

"Welcome friend! Welcome!" the man heartily called to me in a heavy eastern European accent. He was an older man dressed in a blue jump suit covered with dust and grease spots from working. Taking my hand and shaking it over and over, he lead me in to the building excitedly.

"Thanks." was all I could summon up to say as my heart prepared to explode in my chest. What if this didn't work? The room we entered looked like a small shipping and receiving office, dusty, quiet, and boring. The man asked me to sit and waved at a wooden crate padded with some scraps of cardboard next to one of the desks.

"I be back! I get the boss!" he said smiling as he exited the room. I took a seat on the crate, and wondered how he knew I wouldn't be able to use any regular human chairs. So far most humans failed to recognize that I weighed significantly more than them.

But the under tow of my negative thoughts continued to tug at my mind. What if I was wrong? Maybe I should have just given up right now- I could leave before the old man came back. But before I could debate it any further, he came back -still smiling, happy as can be- with him was another man maybe forty-five or so, a slightly balding spot on top of his head, though his hair was still a light brown, with no sign of turning gray. The man was of light frame, and healthy looking despite the slight gut he had. He too was smiling, and he welcomed me with a firm shake of the hand. The man introduced himself as Davis, he must have been the owner, I thought he looked the part, slacks and a casual collared shirt.

"Come with me, I'll show you what we do here." Davis smiled and lead the way through another door and in to the main warehouse.

The main room was centered around a large indoor dock, the dock sides were stacked with maintenance and welding equipment, a tanker truck was backed in on the other side of the dock and an over head gantry crane had a steel plate hanging from it. Oddly enough the dock currently had what looked like a rusty submarine tied up to it. Two men welded something on the deck and one or two more were bringing crates and supplies in to the vessel down a gangplank. But what caught my eyes was something I never thought I would see in my whole life- overseeing the two men welding on deck was a bull, just like me! The other bull was taller, bigger, white, and had large out-and-up curved horns, that made mine look small- I was in awe.

"HEY, HEY MAGNUM! MAGNUM, Come here!" Davis yelled over the din of the work on deck. When Davis called his name the big bull turned and walked over, and upon seeing me, he smiled. The big bull was shirtless and wearing dirty blue jeans, his white fur had some black grease on his arms from working, and he looked quite impressive.

"So, I want you to meet Magnum, he's in charge around here right now." Davis started the introductions and Magnum shook my hand. His grip was rock solid, but not crushing, though I could feel it to be quite capable. I was staring at Magnum, looking him over again and again, he was a sight to behold.

"Magnum I would like you to meet... Huh. Didn't get your name yet..." Davis started.

"I'm...I'm Beefy." I finally said nervously. Both Magnum and Davis raised their eyebrows. My smile faded, and I started to feel embarrassed, my name was stupid and insulting, so I tried to fix the situation:

"Beefy the Bull they call me..." I said quietly. Magnum caught on- breaking the silence he said:

"It's a good name, for a good bull I'm sure." and clapped me on the back.

"Well, how'd you find us? You see the ad in the paper, or talk to Sylvia?" Davis asked, changing the subject.

"Huh? Ohh... I Found..." I reached in to my pocket and pulled out the paper "-This." I said holding it out to him.

"Well good to know at least one person responded to that one." Davis said taking the paper from me, and looking at it for a moment. Magnum told Davis he would give me the 'grand tour'.

"Yah, go for it , I'll be in the office when you're done." then turning to me: "And you can let me know if you want the job." he smiled and handed me my well worn and folded page of newspaper.

"Okay." I said quietly, still not sure what I was getting in to.

"Follow me buddy!" Magnum nodded toward the sub as he walked towards the gangplank. I looked again at the submarine, I knew what it was, but I had never seen one before, not in real life. It looked old, and was black, except where rust stained the hull brown. It had a red star painted on the front of the conning tower, and some strange script in red trailing off behind it on either side.

"So as the advertisement said we're in to 'resource redistribution'-" Magnum looked at me to see if I was following along. Seeing the slack jaw and gaze of wonder, Magnum changed subjects with a smile.

"It's a Foxtrot class attack sub." he said with pride "Mr. Davis bought it from the Russians a few years ago, they can't afford to keep up the old subs, and so they sell them to anyone with the money." We walked down the gangplank and on to the narrow but long deck. As we walked the length of the hull towards the front of the conning tower Magnum explained:

"We've done extensive modifications, most important of them being widening the hatches." he smiled as we approached the forward hatch. The circular hatch on the deck in front of him was now about four feet wide. It was obvious from the fresh welds where the work had been done.

"All the hatches were about this big around when got the sub-" Magnum held his hands about two and a half feet apart.

"But now you can see, we can squeeze in here." and carefully the bull climbed down the ladder under the open hatch. He filled the enlarged hatch and hardly fit through, his horns almost touching the sides of the hatch. From the bottom he looked up and called:

"Come on down. The ladder has flat rungs so you and I won't slip." Magnum's reassurance wasn't necessary. I started my descent, this was amazing! I was going to be inside a submarine! From below, unbeknownst to me, Magnum watched with satisfaction as I descended, once inside he continued.

"This was the forward torpedo room, but we don't need torpedoes, because this boat's been converted to a cargo ship, so it's a cargo hold now." He said with the wave of a hand, and gave me a second to look around. The room was dark and close, but surprisingly more open and larger than I thought the inside of a sub would be. The long thin room had racks for equipment and supplies on the walls and numerous tie downs for yet even more on the floor.

"Come on." Magnum motioned me to follow and he squeezed through another hatch, this time it was on the far wall instead of the floor. I watched how, with skill, Magnum grabbed a bar over the hatch, put his hooves through first and sat on the lower ledge of the hatch, then twisted around as he lowered his body and pulled himself through, so when he stood on the other side he was facing the hatch. Now it was my turn. All eyes were on me, I had to try the same thing, and was not feeling confident at all. I tried to do the same thing but my head was too high up when I tried to pull it through the hatch, and one of my horns caught the ledge and I lost my balance, Magnum caught me, keeping me from falling, and pushed my head down so my horns would clear at the widest point of the hatch. Once through I stood facing Magnum.

"Uh... thanks." I was feeling a bit nervous, the room we stood in was extremely small both our shoulders rubbed the walls and Magnum's head was rubbing on the ceiling, but that wasn't what made me nervous. It was a large sweaty bull standing in front of me. My snout was about two inches from Magnums, and I was literally inhaling the other bulls breath- It was uncomfortably close for me.

"No problem, it takes some getting used to." After a few awkward seconds of silently looking at me, Magnum slowly and carefully turned around in the tight hallway. His voice was somewhat muffled by his large frame blocking the hall but he continued none the less.

"Well the only reason we can fit in here is because they widened the hall and lowered the floor some." I looked up and saw the ceiling was curved, and was covered in pipes, wires, and small vents. In a few places Magnum and I had to crouch or lower our heads to pass some pipes that protruded in to the hall.

"This is where the humans sleep, and the captains room..." Magnum indicated the cramped tiny rooms on both sides of the hall, a human could hardly stand in any of them, they were so small. Most were just bunk beds and hardly one or two feet of standing space. The curved wall/ceiling of the outer hull showed that space was at a premium. Finally it opened up and we were in a still tiny space the walls were covered in pipes, valves, and gauges. Electrical panels covered in knobs that had Russian writing denoting their functions, some had small pieces of tape with English next to them.

"This is the control room." Magnum said and he wrapped his arm around the periscope. "Wanna take a look?" he asked a smile starting across his face.

"Sure!" I answered excitedly, I had seen an old war movie about submarines and now I could look through a periscope just like the real captains did! I grasped the two handles and placed my forehead against the pad, and assumed a slouch as I had seen in the movie. I saw a view of inside the building, the workers on deck and as I turned, I saw something shocking! I was looking at a naked bull's crotch! I jerked my head back from the periscope, and Magnum started to laugh. I remained quiet and blushed, as I felt a bit shy about such things. Magnum saw my reaction, and calmed himself.

"Sorry it's a bad joke, I know, it's just a picture pinned to one of the rafters, that old sea cow Rijec got real drunk and horny one night, and passed out on the dock, and we got some photographic evidence of it, hehe." I was still a bit shy about the topic, but what Magnum said sparked my interest- another bull?

"Magnum... are there ...others, like us?" I asked with curiosity, I had never seen one of my kind before now, and it sounded like there were more.

"Yah little buddy, there's quite a few of us," his smile faded. "I use to wonder the same thing.." he looked off in thought for a moment. Then, as quickly as it had disappeared, his smile returned.

"You can meet the others when they come back this afternoon, if you choose to stick around." then he turned and left the control room and led on to the next part of the sub. Through another hatch we were in another tight hall, with small rooms on both sides. Ones that Magnum pointed out to me were a kitchen, a radio room, more bunks and what not. The next compartment was the main engine room where three massive diesel engines filled the giant room. This room was the diameter of the entire hull and pipes for the massive engines covered the walls and ceiling. We walked between two of the engines and Magnum explained that the diesel engines could only run on the surface, because they needed so much air, and when they dive, the sub uses electric motors to propel itself. I tried to apply the things I had read in books about diesel engines and looked around the room, and visually followed what must have been the air ducts to the intake manifold.

"Come on." Magnum started on to the next room. We left the engine room and went in to the electric motor room, where three giant boxes filled the room, the motors and controls.

"And finally the best room of all-" Magnum lead in to the last compartment "-the bull's living quarters."

The large room had a padded mat on the floor, and a small toilet covered in a plywood enclosure, some wooden lockers and cabinets, but not a whole lot else.

"This use to be the stern torpedo room, but once again we don't need torpedoes, WE, however need a place to live, and I don't know about you but I can't fit in any of the rooms up front." Magnum said with a smile. "Give it a try." Magnum pointed to the bed-mat. I went over to the large mat on the floor and sat on it and leaned back , resting my head on my arms.

"So this is where I would sleep if I get the job?" I asked.

"Yep" Magnum said smiling, he was thinking about something else at the moment...a particularly cute and vulnerable bull.

"So... why do you need a submarine?" I asked quizzically. Magnum's pleasant expression flattened out,

his pleasant thoughts disappeared.

"Well... uh ... like I said we're in to resource re-distribution... and.. uhh." he wasn't sure how to say what he wanted; he sighed.

"We're pirates." Magnum said it flatly and with no real emotion. "We are un-likely to be stopped and searched in a sub."

My expression must have told all- disbelief.

"You mean like... smugglers?" I asked uncertainly. I was starting to get uncomfortable, what if these people weren't as nice as I thought?

"No... Like pirates. We board ships and uh..." he didn't think I was liking what I was hearing, so Magnum tried to soften it- "... Redistribute ...the resources..." He offered up carefully. I sat up, and I didn't much like what I was hearing. I was about to say something when Magnum cut me off.

"Tell me, what did this world do to you?"

I was put back by those words.

"I can already see it on your face, as you remember." Magnum continued. His tone was angry his brow furrowed. "So tell me what did this world do to you? When did it show you compassion, or concern for your well being? When did it ever care about what the hell you did? How you were? Tell me when it showed you a true or good set of morals!" He stood huffing for a moment looking at me sternly, his convictions were strong on the matter.

I knew exactly what he was talking about, it was true- this world, this society gave me nothing. It took what it wanted and gave me nothing.

Unfortunately the unpleasant memories returned, all the things that had been taken from me- like Mama. I tried to maintain my composure, but my eyes failed me. I set my face in my hands and tried to make all the bad things go away.

Magnum stood back looking like he was regretting his harsh tone, and foolish words, he didn't know what things the young bull in front of him had lived through, but it was almost universal in Magnum's experience that their race got the worst end of the stick. Magnum moved over and sat next to me, facing towards me, and gave me a hug. It was a great surprise to me, no one ever touched me before, much less hugged me. I liked it, but also found it distressing, I wasn't sure what to do, so I held very still. Magnum broke after a few seconds, and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Look, our kind have no real place in this world. You know that any place we go, we won't be accepted. Well right here, in this tin can we are. And right here we can live free, do whatever we want, whenever we want. Out in that world up there, they don't understand us, or our needs- they don't even care. Here, they -WE- do." He sat next to me in silence for a minute.

"We can talk about it later, ok? You don't have to decide right now." Magnum waited for me to look up and nod.

"Ok then let's go on deck and meet everyone else." Magnum said, and so he stood up and reached his hand down to me. I smiled and took it.

"So, Magnum, do we have to squeeze back through all those hatches?" I asked, as he helped me up. I was feeling genuinely happy- for the first time in my life someone had truly shown caring towards me.

"Nope" Magnum just smiled, and pointed up to a circular hatch on the ceiling.

Up on deck, Magnum introduced me to two of the human crew, Walter and Maksimilian, the two were from Ukraine, and two others, an American named Paxton and his friend Corbin, both were from Los Angeles. I was informed that he had already met the Serbian Radomir in the front office, and that Alex, the only female member of the crew wasn't in at the moment, that she was out with the captain, and the two other bulls on the crew, Augustine and Rijec, were still out from a night on the town. No sooner than the words were spoken and a loud roar came from outside, the sound of an old muscle car revving and screaming down the dock. Magnum rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Never mind, Augustine's here." Magnum said as he turned and walked over to the large sliding door that Radomir was opening, and watched as a old and not-so-great-of-shape red 70's mustang rumbled in to the building. Radomir shut the huge door as Augustine killed the engine, and stepped out, the car lifted up considerably after the removal of so much weight. Augustine was short for a bull, and he was a bright rusty brownish-red that made him stand out.

"What's every one looking at?" He asked almost angrily, his attitude was like his pelt, fiery. Then he saw me.

"Oh, who's the new guy?" he asked with a little more interest.

"Beefy, I'd like you to meet Augustine- Augustine, Beefy." As Magnum made introductions, the two just looked at each other.

"Where's Rijec?" Magnum asked breaking the cold, and rather empty introduction.

"Ah, that old cow's in the car- " and Augustine jerked his thumb over his shoulder, towards the parked car, that was leaning terribly to the passenger side. Radomir opened the passenger door and laying on the fully reclined seat was a passed out old bull, presumably Rijec. On his bare gray furred chest was an almost empty bottle of cheap vodka.

"Can you please get him out of there?" Magnum asked in a strained voice with his hand over his face.

"Well I jus' figured we leave him there till he wakes up" Augustine shrugged. "You have no idea how hard it was to get his heavy ass in there."

"Well if we don't move him he's going to wake up with a hangover, AND a crick in his back. So at least get him out of the car..." Magnum was negotiating at this point. Augustine was about to say more-

"Really, do you want to hear him bitch and complain about it all day?" A woman spoke, and every one turned to see Alex walking in, the tall thin woman, with long black hair, and dressed commando- crisp black BDU pants, knee high combat boots, and a black tank top, she looked beautiful, but not one to mess with.

"Well hi there, cutie", she greeted me with a smile she walked up to me and gave me a small side hug, then pulling back she asked:

"So what's your name honey?" she asked.

"I'm ..Beefy.." was my shy response.

"That's a dumb name." Augustine offered without a care. I just looked at the floor, and Magnum glared at Augustine fiercely with an expression that warned him to mind his mouth.

"Well, it's nice to meet you honey," she giggled. "So where are you from?"

"I don't know." I answered quietly. Where was I from? It wasn't an easy question for me.

"Well, where do you call home?" She tried again, still smiling. She looked at me waiting for a answer. waiting for an answer that never came.

Where was my home? I didn't have a place to call home. The trailer wasn't a home, it was a hell. I wasn't in the school any more. I would have answered the farm, but the farm was sold, and Mama was dead. There was nothing there for me. I didn't have a home.

The room was quiet as all eyes watched me. I was a bit confused, with all the new information and wasn't really ready to answer her. Bad memories came flooding back to me, all the things I wanted to forget. I was still taking things in, and when I realized I needed to respond now, in order to not be strangely out of place. I panicked and my mind rushed. I was just unable to pull myself out of the self-created panic, a panicked circle of thought, and it got worse after every second that passed. With every second I just wanted to withdraw more from reality, and just to kick me when I was down, my memories reminded me of every time something like this ever happened. I wished I was in any place but here and now. I even thought of the line at the slaughter house as more welcoming... blood, blades, death.

"You ok there little buddy?" Magnum's worried voice didn't help, it just reminded me reality was still there.

Now I was just covering my face and backing away. Magnum carefully and slowly walked up to me and put his hands on my shoulders.

"Hey, let's you and me go walk over here by ourselves, okay?" Magnum tried to keep a calm and soothing

voice. The others watched for a moment then went about some other business.

Magnum walked me away from the crowd, and the next time I paid any attention to the surroundings I was inside the sub, and Magnum was closing the hatch behind him. Inside, I sat on the bed pad and stared at my hooves. Magnum looked at me for a moment then sat next to me.

"Are you ok?" he asked in a serious, and concerned tone, one that demanded an answer. After a moment, I responded.

"I don't know." was all that I could muster.

"It's just you and me down here, there's no one else on the whole boat." Magnum told me reassuringly.

"I was just confused.. ok.." then my worries made me say more "I'm not dumb or anything.. I .. just panicked."

"It's ok, you and I both have a lot of stress and... problems, that comes with the horns. Do you not know where you came from? Where your home is?" Magnum asked.

"I do, but it's not a home. I don't have any place to go any more." I told him. "The farm was home, but they sold it, and moved away...and they... Mama... There's nothing there for me anymore. The places I've been since are even worse. I have no home." I spilled my thoughts to a bull I hardly knew, but already liked.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Magnum said after a minute. "Take the job." he looked right in to my eyes. "Take the job, and stay with us."

"I don't want to impose myself on you..."

"You won't, and part of the pay is room and board."

"I don't even know what to do, or how to do it!" I retorted.

"I will teach you everything you need to know." Magnum said calmly, He paused a moment then continued.

"It doesn't sound like you have plans, or any other place to go, do you?"

"I was going to... take the train." I used a simple metaphor.

"Where to?" he asked.

"Hell." I replied quietly.

Magnum looked at me again for a moment silently.

"I won't tell you what to do, but I will give you some advice: Join the crew, stay with us. Let this be your home. Let us be your family. You can leave any time you want, should you decide so." Magnum said coolly, after a pause he continued:

"You won't regret it. I promise." he said as he stood. "So what will it be? Will I walk you to the door and we part ways, or would you like to stay and try this out?"

After a moment of thought I stood up. " I'll try this out. I have nothing to lose." I said as I looked up at him.

"And much to gain. Let's go talk to Mr. Davis." Magnum nodded to the hatch that lead to the deck.

Once out of the sub, we headed to the warehouse office, and met with Mr. Davis. His office was small and modest, and slightly cluttered with paperwork and such. We sat on crates next to the desk, and Magnum spoke first.

"We have a new crewmember."

"Excellent! Welcome aboard!" Mr. Davis said heartily, and withdrew a file from the filing cabinet.

"I'll take care of that later." Magnum said and waved off the papers Davis was going to hand me.

He shrugged and dropped them on the desk.

"First I would like to let him relax some, eat and rest." Magnum said as we stood.

"Sounds good, we won't be putting out for some time." Davis said with a smile.

We went back down in to the sub and Radomir brought some really good stew from the kitchen and I ate as Magnum watched. Afterwards he told me to get some rest, and he would wake me in time for breakfast. So I lay down on the soft mat, and wrapped in the warm blanket and quickly fell asleep, it had been too many hours since I had last slept.

I awoke startled to the blanket being ripped away from me, and my tired eyes lay first on Augustine standing over me.

"I'm sorry, am I in your way?" I said groggily, getting ready to move out of his way.

"No, your right were I want you." he said as he moved closer, I was wide awake now. He kneeled over me and ran one hand down my arm, stroking it lightly, and pulling at the waistline of my pants.

"Take them off." he ordered as he tugged them down.

"No!" I shouted as I tried to pull them back up.

"Shut up!" Augustine ordered angrily.

The round hatch to the electric motor room suddenly swung open and slammed against its stop, Magnum jumped through and rushed Augustine.

"Don't you touch him!" he bellowed in his rumbling deep voice, as he grabbed Augustine, and threw him to the ground, and stood over him huffing.

"What the fuck!" Augustine shouted angrily.

"We have a deal! Don't touch him!" Magnum shouted.

"What? You just want him to be your little bitch!" Augustine retorted sorely as he got up."See if I care." He said as he retreated up the ladder and on to deck, and slammed the hatch shut.

Magnum watched him go then turned back to me. "Are you ok?"

"I don't know." I stammered, stunned by the experience.

"Did he do anything to you?" Magnum asked, crouching next to me.

"He touched me... and tried to pull my pants off."

"Did he try to mark you?"

"What?" I asked, and Magnum just studied me at me for a moment.

"I think we need to talk." he said taking a seat next to me. After sitting quietly for a minute, he asked in serious tone:

"Have you ever had sex before?" When I didn't answer him, he sighed and tried again:

"Look, this is important, and there's nothing to be ashamed about, I need to know this, ok?" His arm moved to my shoulder. Magnum waited, looking at me.

"Ok." was the most I could offer.

"Good. Now, have you ever had sex with anyone?" he asked.

"No." I kept looking at my hooves.

"Not at all?" Magnums voice hinted disbelief. "Not any sort of sexual act?"

" ..." I started to open my mouth, but said nothing. Magnum gauged there was something to this.

"Maybe you ...touched yourself?" Magnum asked. Looking at me for some sort of answer.

I nodded my head slowly, refusing to look at my questioner.

"But nothing else?" Magnum pried.

I shook my head. Magnum sighed, and looked at the wall in front of him for a moment, lost in thought. This wasn't going as he had hoped.

"Do you know about sex? Did anyone ever teach you about that?"

A slow nod from me.

"Do you know about sex between two males?" Magnum asked, still in a serious tone. After a few moments of silence I responded:

"They said ....that's wrong, and you can't."

"Who? Who told you that?" Magnum asked, holding in his dissatisfaction.

"The teacher....."

"What teacher." Magnum said curtly, he was trying very hard to contain his anger.

" ...The man... the teacher at the school. He said... that it was not possible for .... and he said it was wrong."

"Well he is wrong." Magnum couldn't help but to let his anger out on that one. He huffed for a few seconds, regaining his composure, then continued:

"You said a man told you that.. but you and me aren't humans, we're bulls." he stopped and thought for a moment. "Did you know any other bulls growing up?"

"No. Until today.... I thought I was....the only one." I was much calmer after the subject change, though still quiet and downcast. Magnum leaned over and gave me a hug.

"No... no, you're not alone, little buddy." Magnum said his snout in my shoulder. He pulled back and took a moment to get himself together and back to the task at hand.

"What did the human teach you about sex?" he asked empathetically, knowing how hard this was on me. After a moment and a few attempts at starting to say something, I finally said:

"He taught us about how humans... h...have.. sex... and...babies... an..." I paused for a few seconds- "and... that males can't... " -he made some small gesture with his hands- "each other, -and that I can't ... touch... be with... humans...like that. And-"

"WHAT!?" Magnum yelled with pure anger. What had they done to this bull?! He completely lost control of himself.

"What did that piece of crap tell you?!" Magnum demanded, he was furious, he wished whatever human had told Beefy this was in front of him now, so he could tear him limb from limb.

Magnum's angry reaction frightened and confused me, and though I tried not to, I couldn't help but to cry. I knew he had no reason to, I just couldn't handle the anger anymore. Usually when someone got angry like that they hit me. Magnum again had to regain his composure, and after a few seconds he consoled me, reminding me it wasn't my fault, and that he wasn't mad at me.

"Did they tell you that you couldn't have sex with humans?" Magnum asked, trying not to let his anger pour out.

I nodded.

"Tell me more about what he said." Magnum said curtly.

"He said it was wrong for me to tou- touch any humans like that... an that I could only... with cows and..."

Magnum clenched his fists so hard that his nails broke his own skin, His expression was one of attempting to contain pure hatred. I continued:

"...only if.... he said it was ok, and was there to... make sure it was.. ok." I nervously managed to say.

Magnum grew more angry with every word he heard. He stood and paced, taking a few moments to calm himself. What had they done to him? He started to pace in the small room. No wonder the kid was a mess, who knew what else they had told him? Magnum wasn't sure how to fix this, and still he had to... take care of other ...matters.

"What they told you... that was wrong." Magnum said as he knelt in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders. "It's ok for you to be with humans, to have sex with them, okay? That's not wrong. And you don't need any one else's permission to have sex." then after a moment's consideration he amended:

"Unless that person doesn't want to." Magnum sighed, realizing there was no way to undo whatever they had done to me over night.

"How long did you go to school?" Magnum asked changing the subject.

"Four years." I said relieved, calming down, and glad again to change the subject. Magnum was about to ask me something but he stopped, and instead he sat down against the bulkhead, and looked vacantly across the room.

"It's true, we are different in many ways from the humans, but in some ways we're alike."

He thought quietly for a moment, still looking at some unseen point.

"Our people live differently than humans. Our culture has to be different than theirs. It's because our kind don't... reproduce the way humans do." After a moment he continued:

"We- Humans and Bulls- we are dependent on each other." he turned to me with an analytical look, gauging me.

"Did you know that there are no female minotaurs?" He asked.

"What?" I asked uncertainly.

"We- our people- are all males."

"Then...?" I asked naively not following.

"Human females." he dropped the words like heavy weights.

"What does... oh..." I suddenly understood what he was saying, though I still didn't think it all the way through, mostly I felt the heat of embarrassment.

"You think sex with humans is bad? Well our race depends on it for life." He let that sink in.

"Did the same person also tell you that homosexuality is wrong too?" he continued smoothly.

"Yah." I said quietly.

"Have you considered that they may have lied about that too?"

I had no answer for him.

"I have yet to meet a bull that wasn't at least bisexual." he said. When I looked up at him, and he was smiling now, and watching me.

"What does that mean?" I asked him, not fully grasping the situation.

He answered me by leaning in and kissing me on the lips.