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Their National Secrets

Black. Everything was black for Rick, who had just felt a blanket of warm flesh pass over his eyes and suck on his snout. His hands were wrapped around and resting on the thickly scaled, well-muscled thighs of Prince Vaulix, who had in turn been sitting on his rump on the war room's table. Princess Talba was behind him, gently urging him forward with a caress down his spine starting at his neck and working is way down to the base of his tail. She wanted him to dive in and didn't hold back.

So Rick leaned in to feel the Prince's well-lubricated walls slide over his snout, squeezing him in place while he nuzzled and bobbed his head in order to simulate a gentle thrust of a cock.

This lasted for only a few seconds before Rick pulled himself out and took in a deep gasping breath. His passionate thrusts had been nice, but he wasn't yet ready to give himself to Vaulix's womb. Instead, he licked his lips clean of the fluids that had soaked him and glanced back to Talba. "Are you sure this is going to work?" He asked, unconvinced of the promises he'd been given.

She cooed and trilled at him with a smile. "Why wouldn't it?" She countered, still caressing the fur down his spine and around his fin. She was much larger than he was - in fact, both she and Vaulix were nearly twice Rick's height, which was the only reason that he was able to fit inside one or either of them. Rick had already spent a night in Talba's womb, which was the best night's sleep he could remember. However, as relaxing as it may have been to curl up in a hippogryph, he wasn't so sure that the same process could infuse memories into him, as promised.

Vaulix had quite the checkered past, and as a mercenary and new aide to the royal family, Rick was curious to see and hear more about this enigmatic leader. Vaulix was happy to share, but only if he could do so in a way that kept the memories and truths locked in Rick's mind, as there was apparently a lot in his past that he didn't want going beyond the inner circle of allies he'd cultivated around him.

The solution was apparently unbirth. By taking Rick inside his womb - Vaulix was both male and female but chose to uphold the image of a male to maintain his role as prince - the prince could share those memories so that Rick would know the truth, but only deep inside his mind without the overt knowledge that would give him the ability to write about it with any clarity. This method was also something Vaulix had expressed interest in with Rick and Talba in the past but rarely got to indulge.

In the end, Rick had woken up form his night inside Talba to be greeted by a horny and vaguely feminine Vaulix who had been harboring desire for flesh within him, which resulted in the three of them locking the doors to the war room with Vaulix on the table with his legs spread and slit exposed to Rick's face. Talba was urging Rick forward, Vaulix was begging for Rick's body, and Rick was excited but also a touch apprehensive as he knew that the prince's cock could also emerge from that very slit.

"I guess you're right." Rick conceded, responding to Talba's prior question. "I just felt we were going a little fast at first. Don't mind me." He then gulped heavily and buried his snout between the scaled lips before him, using his muzzle to part the lips and reveal the ruby red flesh inside. The thick and bulbous tip of his cock was there before him, barely exposed between the anterior convergence of the scaled lips exactly where a clit should have been effectively turning his male genitals into its female equivalent. This made Rick curious, so he gave it a squeeze and a rub.

Vaulix tensed up and clenched his walls tight in pleasure to show that his cock tip was indeed acting as a clitoris. This was wonderful for Rick, as he greatly preferred female companionship and was now sandwiched between a sensual female hippogryph princess and what was effectively a strong and masculine female cockatrice prince. He couldn't imagine a much better place to be.

Most importantly, he saw Vaulix had a look of aggressive desire on his face like he was hungry to be filled and wasn't going to play nice much longer. The Prince was a member of the royal family, after all, and while Rick knew the drake to be kind and caring to a fault, that look mixed with their size difference made Rick commit to offering himself. There seemed to be a risk involved in withholding.

"Sorry, my Prince." Rick said with a grin as he pulled his snout out one last time. "I'll be sure to not make you wait any longer. I know how needy females can get." He offered a wink and brought his hands up to pry at the cockatrice's scaled slit, spreading Vaulix open and revealing the gently shifting flesh of his vaginal canal. Was it a vagina if he was reptilian? Was it a cloaca? Did he even have a womb for Rick to curl up in? Rick couldn't know without exploration, so he pulled at the scaled lips and buried his snout inside once more, this time only touching the ruby red walls and never rubbing against the scales with his snout.

He was admittedly shocked at just how stretchy Vaulix had grown in the few minutes between his first muzzle penetration and this; it was almost like he was aroused and his body was adapting!

With another nuzzle and thrust, Rick was able to gradually widen the Prince's passage with his snout until he felt the shockingly supple scaled lips squeeze at his cheeks and slide past his jowls. He expected those scales to be relatively firm and rigid compared to the flesh inside, but both were equally soft and the scales actually seemed slicker compared to the supple friction that was felt within.

The gentle bobbing of his muzzle was going quite well for him, as Vaulix's passage was getting a bit more malleable with every thrust and his walls were growing increasingly wet, thus minimizing the friction. He couldn't help but smile as he leaned in closer and wrapped his arms around each of the prince's thighs, to pull himself in just a little bit more.

All was going well until he felt the power of Talba's hand on the back of his head forcing his entire skull into her mate with ease, which resulted in Vaulix's scaled lips wrapped around Talba's wrist and Rick's neck all at once. All paused for a moment to adjust, with Rick kindly nuzzling and focusing on the gurgling and faint sounds of blood pumping through the walls that constricted him and held his head in place. Soon thereafter, Talba began sliding her hands from side to side between the tight confines of his Vaulix's walls and Rick's head before pulling out in a slimy squelch.

He felt the air passing in and out to accompany each of Vaulix's deep breaths, which was oddly hypnotic and therapeutic to him. This almost put him to sleep even as he was barely inside the Prince at this point. Despite that, he still had the mental fortitude to rock back and forth so that the bulge of his head could loosen Vaulix up. Once again, he used his snout to penetrate and pleasure the larger bloke before pulling out and gasping to take in a large breath of air, as he had not tried breathing inside.

Talba cradled him as he pulled out and gaped open his maw. "You know, you can just keep going once you're in. You could breathe inside me, and as such, you can also breath inside him." She stroked Vaulix's inner thigh and gave him a gentle nibble with her beak. "So go ahead, don't hesitate. I don't know how long we have in here before the guards will be knocking at the door. Princess or not, we're not the rulers of the kingdom yet."

Rick nodded enthusiastically, acknowledging that Talba was in fact correct. "Yeah, sorry about that. I just really like going slow." He pressed his palm to the tender, partially gaped opening of Vaulix's slit. "But if you want me to go a bit faster, I can do that, too."

"You don't have to, but I'd really appreciate it," Vaulix said with a smile. "I definitely feel like someone your size will fit with ease, so please don't delay. I've been eager to feel someone like you inside me ever since Talba started teasing a few months back."

"Wait, have you never done this before?" Rick asked for clarification. "Is this safe?"

Talba laughed a bit and slid her hand up into Vaulix's depths, rubbing the lips and walls with ease. "He has, but it's been a long time. He's the one who helped me to learn how to keep folks inside me like what I did with you. We have an old friend from a lifetime ago that could swallow folks whole and keep them alive inside her, and Vaulix helped to adopt that same biological system to my sexuality. That's how I'm able to keep you inside overnight without you suffocating. It's magic but biological."

After a brief moment pondering that, Rick nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense I suppose. Magic can do a lot, can't it?" He didn't wait for an answer before slipping his hand in next to Talba's to part the lips before them. This made Vaulix roll onto his back and chirp gently on the war room table. His talons were curled around the side of the table for grip while his hands were resting on his belly as he glanced over both of them to watch and see what Rick did next.

"Alright, alright." Rick conceded with a half-cocked smirk. "If that's what you want, I won't make you wait. I was going slow to make you happy, but if faster is what you want, I can do that too!" He nodded one last time and adjusted his stance so that he was leaning into Vaulix between the legs, one hand inside the Prince's pussy alongside Talba's while his other was squeezing against the soft scales of his inner thigh. He was in a birthing position and the process was about to be reversed.

Talba slowly pulled her hand out of Vaulix's pussy to rub the sloppy mess of natural lubricants up both of Rick's arms, cradling him from behind while easing the hybrid into Vaulix. "Well, if you're gonna go dive right in, then why not do so literally?" She suggested while using her fingertips to gingerly ease Rick's second hand into Vaulix's slit, then trail up his bicep to let him have a taste of the Prince's flavours as he sucked it from her digit. "And when I say 'literally', I mean it."

"Oh, I know." Rick agreed. "Just enjoying myself a bit more before I do so." Both of his members were fully erect and drooling, but nowhere near the level that Vaulix's sex was leaking arousal all over the war room table and the black stone floor below. He leaned in, relishing the sounds and sensations of having both fists sink deep into the cockatrice slit The deeper he went, the more he wondered if Vaulix even had a cervix, for the flesh was snug and pleasant but didn't get tighter deeper.

By the time Rick had submerged himself into flesh past the elbows, he found that his upper arms were parting the scaled lips with ease. He was about to lean in and give the bulbous cock tip of a clit a lick and supple, gentle suck, but at that exact moment Talba pressed her fluffy chest to the back of his head and forced his snout back into Vaulix a second time, which in turn made his hands slide even deeper and the Prince's flesh to widen and swallow him by wrapping around his shoulders and upper body all at once. There was a bit of air between him and the walls, but it was quickly forced out when Vaulix clenched and constricted him.

Instincts told Rick to panic, but he knew that both the Prince and Princess just wanted to have fun with him and were growing impatient, so he happily wagged his long, shark-like tail behind him as he rocked and shifted inside. He was smothered on all sides by the soft yet taut flesh around him, which intermittently pulsed and squeezed in waves to suck on him.

It was clear that the opening of Vaulix's slit was clenched in a seal around Rick's upper body, so he did his best to lift his legs and let gravity tug on the Prince's sex while he wriggled, hoping his movement and weight were enough to better stimulate and arouse him. As expected, the pussy walls clenched and tugged on him as the pelvic muscles tensed up and inner thighs closed in on him from either side. At the same time, he felt a swell in the roof of the vaginal canal as the g-spot engorged.

He was about to put his feet down and push up as hard as he could despite knowing that he had no more leverage to offer when Talba grabbed Rick by both his thighs and lifted him up so that his body was at Vaulix's level, where she used her hips to grind against the hybrid in an effort to ease him in. This worked well, as Rick quickly felt his body sliding through the tight passage and deeper into the cockatrice's body, taking note all the while that he never once felt the tightness of a cervix pass him.

Despite that, he did quickly feel the end of the passage curl his fingers and hands ahead of him as the flesh loosened and churned him into place. Behind his rump, he felt Princess Talba pushing on the base of his tail and at his thighs to force him deeper with every motion, which he happily aided with by squirming and twisting to get the best angle. In one quick lurch, he felt his entire body twirl in place so he was laying belly up with both cocks pointed towards the ceiling, tail and legs still hanging out of the Prince as his wrists crossed above his head.

Rick struggled a bit to get comfortable once more, as the walls of the passage were still quite tight around him and he found that trying to pull his arms down so that they were over his chest forced his elbows out in such a way that Vaulix's pussy walls refused to allow. After a few vain attempts at finding the right angle and position, he came to realize that his movements - and especially the pressure of his elbows grinding against tender flesh - were further arousing the Prince, which was making things quite a bit more difficult for him. This forced him to devise a solution.

In the wake of his struggles and movements, he was finding that he was getting exhausted due to the fact that he was holding his breath. All around him, though, the stretchy and malleable flesh seemed to be secreting fluids in such volume that it was filling the canal around him, ensuring there was no trace of air or negative space between his fur and the cockatrice's flesh. This made the walls so slick that any movements against them almost felt like passing his hand through a sheet in water.

With this in mind, he took in a deep breath to pass the fluid into his lungs, which gave him a tightness in his chest that made his entire body tense up. This tension, in turn, seemed to stiffen his body in such a way that further brought pleasure to Vaulix, an orgasm that constricted the vaginal passage against his torso. In the immediate wake of the throbbing clench of orgasmic delight, Rick aggressively pulled his arms down over his head to cross them over his chest, where they were immediately hugged to his torso by the clenching walls.

All was going well and both of his cocks - still throbbing and oozing arousal out their tips just beyond the confines of Vaulix's scaled opening - finally were pressed up against the crook of flesh between the smooth scales and silken flesh surrounding the bulbous knob that was both clit and cock tip. Talba seemed to see and acknowledge this, because she grabbed both members in one hand, gave them each a passionate lick for good luck, then angled them just right in order to force them into Vaulix, pressed tight between his vaginal walls and Rick's belly.

His hips and groin proved to be the final barrier between Rick and complete vaginal encasement within the Prince's passage. His cocks both rubbed up against the anterior wall of the silken pussy as Talba grabbed at both of his knees and forced him in with one powerful lurch that forced him to curl and do a roll within his depths. His members slid past every bit of flesh while his legs and tail were all constricted tight together, the cockatrice's scaled lips swallowing and gulping him every few seconds.

Inside, Rick found himself curling in on himself in the wake of the entry of his limbs. The act was quite disorienting and he wasn't sure what direction was up by the time he was done and his tail was curled up around his belly and over his chest due to the fact that the soft walls were exerting the same pressure on all sides and all angles. In addition to that, he seemed to be partially suspended by a reservoir of water that buoyed him, ensuring that, while his fur was touching womb flesh, he still felt like he was floating in nothingness.

In spite of all of this, he still didn't feel a cervix. Vaulix must not have had one, given the fact that he was both avian and reptilian. It made sense that he didn't possess an organ that was usually reserved for mammals. However, that meant that Rick had a hard time discerning the exact nature of the confines that held him.

Upon originally sliding his hands in, he had noticed that the passage was uniformly tight beyond the transfer of flesh from scales to vaginal walls. From there, he made it about halfway before the passage had become much less tight, and that's where he had just barely been able to shift his body and curl up in the fetal position. There, he got comfortable while also finding that he had absolutely no idea where the entrance was. Had he curled around so that it was on his back? Was it by his rump?

No hints came even as he patted the walls and ran his fingers through the pillows of flesh that encapsulated him. As the womb sealed off, he found his distraction was drawing him into a state of semi-lucidity wherein he was losing all touch with reality. In his mind, he couldn't decipher his position, his angle, where he was, or whether that churning and gurgling nearby was Vaulix's gut or the distant rumble of an angry dragon encroaching on the kingdom.

He was lost until he felt a hand slip in through the fleshy confines to pat at his inner thighs and squeeze up against his belly. The hand - which was Talba's, as she had fisted her mate and was making sure Rick was comfortable - grabbed both members and slid a finger between them to caress and stroke him. Though he normally would have resisted and squirmed and thrust into the sensual embrace of the digits in an effort to please whoever was sharing this physicality with him, his semi-conscious state had managed to revert him to a near-feral state, thus sapping him of his self-control.

Mere seconds passed before he felt the telltale tingle of his loins tensing and twitching against the hand that was caressing him. He grunted inside and released some bubbles into the fluid that had enveloped him while at the same time squirting two unique strands of his seed into that same fluid.

He wanted to reach down and grab that hand, to hold it between his cocks and thank it for the pleasure it had given him, but post-orgasm bliss was kicking in and he was finding himself giving in to fatigue pretty quick. As her hand slid out through the sealed up valve entrance between his legs, he couldn't help but drift off into a deep slumber as an assault of images flashed through his mind's eye,

=====--=--=====

War. A battlefield. Equines and avians in every direction with a sky full of dragons raining down fire. There were regiments of lizards and other scaled beasties forming lines with shields up and spears drawn. This was a fight between Untheria and Arrenthen, and Rick was plopped into the middle of it.

Well, he wasn't there, it was Vaulix. He was in Vaulix's place, observing the events from the Prince's point of view during a cease-fire that brought he and the emperor to the battlefield to discuss terms of surrender with King Aurelia and General Ilorek. This was odd, for Rick, as he didn't know any general Ilorek and had never heard of one in all of Arrenthen in his time in or around the nation.

Of course, the nature of the dreamlike images were mixing and matching themes and elements, so he was having a very hard time deciphering what was linked to what else. The dragons were flying the skies with breath of fire despite the scene appearing to be set in a moment of peace. Of course, this meant that the dream or memory was mixing elements of the battle with the pre-battle discussions.

Scenes went to and from that location, showing bits of Vaulix pleading with the emperor to put an end to the war, but the emperor decided to keep fighting followed by more battles. Vaulix led his armies into the bloodiest of fights, where thousands could be lost over the course of an afternoon while he watched. He knew how to fight and was often seen behind a shield and spear next to his men, but all of this disappeared as more and more Untherian saurossins were forced to go into battle and die for their emperor. An emperor that didn't seem to care about lives, but only care about winning.

Vaulix begged and pleaded some more, demanding and using his political clout to sway the tide of war towards peace, but the emperor kept repeating the same warmongering desires. He wanted to put an end to the enemy, he wanted to take over Arrenthen for the crime of not conceding the resources in the mountain that separated their nations.

With rage in his heart and fury in his eyes, Vaulix did as he was commanded, only instead of staying back in the next battle, he rode in the front lines alongside the warriors and cavalry. He focused his magic and stole the souls of the nearest fifty enemy soldiers in one sweep, degrading their bodies to the point their bones splintered and their flesh rotted away, leaving them a wheezing husk of death. His magics were able to reverse the healing spells, thus bringing ruin to all within a fifty-meter range.

Vaulix sobbed and cried to himself under his helmet as he destroyed one after another, disgusted by his actions despite knowing that, as a general, he answered to the emperor and he had no choice.

His rage and sorrow blended together to form a sense of cold nihilism in his heart, an uncaring beast of fury and sadness that destroyed everyone, not just his enemies. In his anger, he had been using his magic to suck the very life out of anyone who came near, be they avian or equine or dragon or feline or canine. Before long, he was left on the battlefield alone, with no warriors from either side brave enough to get near him. He was ankle deep in mud, his armour plates covered in shit and viscera.

It wasn't until this point that Rick was able to realize that this battle was not happening in the midst of a thunderstorm or in the rain. The skies were clear and it was the middle of the day. The dirt had turned to mud, not from rainwater or humidity, but by the sheer volume of blood spilled and bodily fluids drained of the bodies around him.

The smell was luckily shielded from Rick, as he was only experiencing it as a memory, but the response from Vaulix told a tale of repugnant aromas filling the battlefield like a fog.

After the fighting had ended and Vaulix had returned to a frightened camp full of allies, he told the emperor that if he asked him to kill another person, that person would be the emperor himself. This was deemed a threat, and the dozen guardsmen and full-sized dragons turned on him, warning him not to make a move. Vaulix insisted that the war be stopped, for he wished to never harm another, but when the Emperor let his paranoia get the better of him by ordering the guards to end the general's life after assuming Vaulix planned a coup or an assassination, the emperor's life ended at Vaulix's hands.

There, in the military camp surrounded by thousands of saurossins of all shapes and sizes and colours, Vaulix killed the emperor and all his guards without remorse. He was especially cruel to them, too. Rather than destroying them quickly, he was sure to take from them in such a carefully controlled manner that they felt every boil and scab form, they felt their bones dissolve, and they felt as their flesh melted off their frame as if it had been drenched in acid. They wanted pain and misery, so they got it.

However, Vaulix then needed to escape. After assassinating the emperor and leaving his corpse in a literal pile of itself, he had to escape without being seen or apprehended. This would have been easy had the fight with the guards not drawn the attention of other high ranking officials.

Captains and Lieutenants and soldiers came to see what was going on and were standing outside the cave after Vaulix exited, wondering what had happened. They asked, and Vaulix tried to not answer due to his rank - which was now the highest on the battlefield - the problem was, the emperor had gained quite a loyal following amongst his people and ascension to the throne was not something that was considered to be a viable way to rule. Only blood would succeed the throne.

Rick was not able to make out exactly what was said between Vaulix and the assorted high ranking officials who had come to investigate, but it was clear that Vaulix was pleading with them to just let him go and not raise a fuss, but they weren't allowing it. He warned them plainly that if they attacked him, they would die at his hands, but he wasn't able to convince them to stand down. Vaulix wanted peace and knew that the only way to do so while also escaping with his life was to end the emperor once and for all, but that also made him the prime target for the armies of Untheria.

As expected, the regiment of soldiers surrounded him on all sides, demanding he let them take him into custody to pay for his crimes, but he refused and was able to fight his way out by using that same magic he used on the battlefield, virtually melting each and every one of those who tried to stop him before he was able to spread his wings and disappear to the northern mountains.

Up to this point, Rick's observations were incomplete and much of what happened seemed to go completely over his head, as the characters in these memories were mostly generic aside from a few key figures. Vaulix was an important figure and so was King Aurelia, but the emperor and high ranking officials in the Untherian Army were all folks that Rick had never seen before. The emperor was not one that had ruled in Rick's lifetime, which was something he was forced to know as a mercenary.

It wasn't until he scanned through his own memories to cross reference the things he saw and felt in Vaulix's past that he realized that the emperor that Vaulix had liquefied was none other than the Emperor of Fury known as Torbin Cathe. He was one of the first emperors of Untheria, killed in 0021 AG. That's the 21st year after the gods rebuilt the world.

If this was true and not a manufactured memory, that would put Vaulix at over 600 years old in a world where few outlived 50.

That didn't make sense to Rick, but there was more story to be had after Vaulix had brutally massacred all those who stood before him. After that escape, he flew to an island off the eastern shores of Untheria, where he remained for weeks, drowning in sorrow as he tried to starve himself to death. As it turned out, however, the energy that he'd siphoned off his enemies and allies was keeping him alive and alert for weeks on end without so much as a slumber to take him away from his thoughts.

He physically couldn't fall asleep, had no desire for food, and hardly needed to drink to survive.

Until he was apprehended by two hippogryphs who offered him a chance at becoming more than he could ever be in the army. Two hippogryphs named Talba and Ilorek. One was the general in the enemy's army, and the other was the beautiful princess of that same nation. They offered Vaulix immortality and endless power to make the world a better place, an offer he happily accepted.

From there, the memories grew hazy but seemed to go through cycles, reliving the life of a general who falls in love with Princess Talba before moving on and pretending to die. Again and again, he lived a life, died, and was reborn to keep Untheria, Tehgol, and Arrenthen in a never-ending state of war and conflict so that history could repeat itself.

Finally, after dozens of cycles, they ended up back here, where Vaulix was courting Talba for the countless repeat in their cyclical lives. He was escaping the horrors of war to be with her, never wanting to hurt another soul. Were they just destined to be together, or was this a manufactured fairy tale? Was this deliberate or accidental? Did he know he was eternal or was that a fantasy?

What was made clear from his time spent in Vaulix's memory was that, despite having the ability to decimate entire armies at his fingertip, he never did kill another person. Sure, he weakened his enemies to the point they could no longer fight, but he always healed them after the battle and then offered his own remedies to enemies and allies alike. This was why he gained the reputation he had as a kind-hearted soul despite being a ruthless general.

And it all started with him letting his spell get out of control and spending his next dozen lives rectifying it. That didn't explain what Ilorek and Talba were doing or how that influenced him, but it was certainly enough to make Rick understand the sincerity of motive that Vaulix held within him.

Rick now knew for a certainty that Vaulix was not only the sort of person he wanted to offer his loyalty to but also was the sort of character that he didn't want as an enemy.

And that made Rick happy to offer himself to the Cockatrice Prince; at least until he woke.

=====--=--=====

He shook himself free of the fatigue that had encapsulated him only to realize that he was, in fact, still smothered by the soft flesh of Vaulix's reproductive tract. He could feel the tender pillows of silken skin rubbing against his cheek and cradling every inch of his body as well as tiny bits of what seemed to be hard shell forming where his fur touched the walls, but one significant thing had changed: the birthing fluids had all drained, leaving him with only flesh and air around him.

Well, not entirely drained. He was still resting in a pool of the fluid that soaked his rear and the base of his tail, but it was slowly seeping out. From the valve beneath him.

Rick felt around to get a better understanding of the womb that held him, but when he touched near where the fluids were escaping, the passage that linked him to Vaulix's birth canal dilated wide, practically sucking on Rick's rump before all the walls around him contracted and squeezed against his form from all angles. The flesh he felt constricting him was hard in parts, but mostly soft and tender, which seemed incidental when considering the way he was being churned and flipped about inside.

Moments later, Talba's hand slid in through the dilated opening to touch and test him, squeezing and patting him in different areas in order to get a better understanding of his position. Once she had deciphered his angle and where his head was, she grabbed at his shoulder and forced him to spin around so that his muzzle was guided into that dilated passage, waiting for her hand to leave so he could follow it.

His arms were still crossed over his chest and pinned to his torso by the constricting walls of Vaulix's flesh, but he was still able to squirm in such a way that allowed him to get comfortable in his position before another contraction forced him to slide facefirst through the cockatrice's passage. A powerful lurch had his shoulders burst through as the walls squeezed him tight, but that didn't keep him from smiling, as the snugness of it all felt wonderful and he could see a light ahead of him!

That light expanded and broadened as two hands pried at the vaginal opening, gaping Vaulix open from slit to Rick's face. The sound of speaking could be heard, but it was muddled and unclear since the vaginal walls were still closely hugging rick's ears, resulting in him mostly just hearing the throbbing of a heartbeat, the churn of a nearby belly, and the slick sounds of flesh on flesh.

Beyond the opening, he could see Talba with her glowing emerald eyes staring up the chasm at him, and behind her a series of slick black tiles on the floor and wall. Best he could tell, they were in the restroom attached to Talba and Vaulix's chambers.

His thoughts were once again interrupted as another contraction forced his snout to slide closer to the exit, which urged Talba to slip her hand back in and cradle Rick's cheek to aid him in his rebirth.

"You're doing good." She said, though her voice was muddled to Rick thanks to him still having a whole head's length between his snout and the scaled lips ahead of him. "One more and he should-"

She was cut off mid-sentence as a grunt could be heard followed by another, more powerful clenching of all the walls and a pressing down of the end by his knees and tail tip. It wasn't long at all before Rick's body lurched forth and his head poked out, fur soaked and dripping birthing fluid onto the ground before him. Rick's entire body was held tight by the vaginal walls around him, so tight in fact that even his attempts to wriggle and shift himself so that he was belly up were stymied.

Though he was unable to press out or slip his hands out at first, he could faintly hear Talba and Vaulix both assuring one another while Vaulix relaxed, pelvic muscles relaxing enough to allow Rick to slide one hand upward and out of the fleshy tube that had held him. He could still feel the fluid in his lungs so he was unable to speak, but he could look up at Talba with a smile.

"Vaulix, darling, you did it again." She said as she reached down to caress his ventral scales with one hand while plucking bits of white from Rick's ear and forehead. "You could have encased him in an egg if you left him in overnight!" It took a few blinks to clear his eyes and get a better view for Rick to see that, indeed, the little white flecks and chips were indeed bits of shell. Vaulix's body must have been slowly building an egg around him, had he not been brought out!

Regardless of that revelation, Rick still squirmed and writhed in place to slowly ease his way out with the aid of the rippling contractions of vaginal flesh around him. The passage had formed a tight seal around his midsection, thus trapping the last of the fluids inside without properly aiding in the lubrication of his form. Luckily, he was part shark and had the exact musculature needed to 'swim' his way out of the womb that held him.

His spine and body snaked its way out, pressing out against either of Vaulix's scaled lips before the last of him lurched through the passage in one fluid motion followed by a deluge of lubricating slime. He curled up on the floor as a wave of fluid passed over him and his sense of hearing slowly returned amidst the dull throbbing of ears full of fluid.

"You alright?" Talba asked as she squatted next to Rick. She was fully nude, and his vantage compared to her ensured that he could clearly see the peachy pink of her vulva before him, but he didn't wish to let that distract him too much.

"Y-yeah. I think I'm fi-" A fit of coughing cut him off as he expelled the fluid from his lungs. This lasted only a moment before he finished his sentence. "Fine. I'm fine. Great, even! I saw some things that I really need some context for, but overall I'm very good." He twisted his neck to stretch the muscles as he got to his feet, careful to not slip on the lubricant that coated the black tile. From there, he could see Vaulix leaning against the wall with his knees up and legs spread.

Vaulix smiled at him, locking eyes with Rick with a knowing grin. "So, what do you know, or think you know?" He asked for clarification.

Rick shrugged. "It's hard to say." He wiped himself clean of some of the mess that had accumulated on him, brushing aside the eggshells and specks of birthing fluid. "But I now know you're at least six hundred and fifty years old. Talba, too."

Talba stepped up behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders, showing once again that she was near twice his height. "And we learned that you are as loyal as you claim."

"Wait, what?" He pulled away to turn and look at her. "What do you mean? What did you do?"

The princess offered a soft smile. "You didn't think that the link of your minds went only one way, did you? While you were inside Vaulix, we scanned your mind and siphoned your intentions from your thoughts to make sure that we could trust you with the very information we were bestowing upon you. We're sorry we had to dig around in your mind, but if we were going to share secrets with you, well, I'm sure you understand the importance of trust and loyalty. Now we know you can be trusted and we don't have to keep you encased in an egg until your rebirth. Now, we can have you around the castle without any need for security flanking you."

Vaulix rolled to his feet and turned the hot water on, once again cleaning himself of the gooey mess that his body had created. "We don't trust just anyone with this secret, you know. When you're alive for more than half a century, you really have to be careful with who you trust. In the entire world, there are maybe a few dozen beyond the twelve of us that know of our secrets, and we add only a few per generation. You are now one of the few who knows our secret." He turned and continued cleaning himself, back to Rick. "You and Arnika and Chiryn and Vvilfred and Mikhail and a few others around the castle. Those are the ones you can speak with about this, no others. I'd ask if we can trust you, but I know we can. Don't let us down or prove us wrong."

"Of course not." Rick laughed with a faux salute. "Now that I've experienced your memories, I know what you can do to those who oppose you. I have no intention of being on the receiving end of that if I can at all avoid it. Didn't seem pleasant for anyone involved."

"No, not at all. I've done all I can to avoid that for many years and I'd rather not have to execute anyone ever again. That said, I wouldn't degrade your flesh, I'd just cut your head off." He joked. "Far more efficient and less painful. You're my friend, after all, I don't wish to harm you."

Not much of a joke, but Rick did understand the importance of discretion and now that he had shared the experiences and hardship that Vaulix had gone through, he truly felt the sincerity in the Prince's words. As such, he bowed and nodded. "Yes of course. I wouldn't dare betray you, and not just because I fear what you could do to me. No, you and your wife have both been kind to me since my capture and my life has never been better. I do miss the mercenary work, but this is a nice departure."

Talba walked past him and gently tugged on him to have Rick join both she and Vaulix in the showers. "We understand that, and we appreciate your candid nature. However, now that we can be casual about what we are, who we are, and what we can do, I think it might be time to promote you one more time. Vaulix and I discussed it while you were curled up inside him, and we know what you want, so how about we get you out in the field again, and you're not the only one."

"What do you mean?" Rick asked while reluctantly getting under the shower head; he didn't want to clean himself of the distinct scent that coated him, but he was in the presence of royalty so he knew it would be rude to refuse. "What exactly do you have planned for me? What do you mean?"

Vaulix finished rinsing himself off before turning to Rick. "Well, we found one of your old mercenary buddies that we released the day after the treaty was signed. He was sticking around town, trying to get work in a nation that now has complete peace and very little need for his kind. The people may not need an agent of force, but the crown might." He grabbed a towel as he spoke. "And when you were inside and we linked minds, I could feel how much you desired to return to that kind of work."

Rick shrugged, accepting that Vaulix was right. "Peace has been grand, and it's been nice to not have to dodge arrows or blades, but you're right. I'd love to get back out there to liberate people or get my hands dirty. It's just more exciting, and the pay is great!"

"Exactly. You're fit for the job - especially amphibian assaults on the Tehgolian outposts - and you want to do it. So what do you say? Want to assemble a team and be a part of the Arrenthen Royal Assault Force? Good pay, great benefits, and you'll get a home of your own on the edge of the castle." Talba offered as she shut her water off and grabbed a towel.

There was a lot to consider for Rick, as a part of him was loving the peaceful life and he was prepared to settle down in the Capital. Sure, a part of him certainly longed for an exciting life again, but after being caught and imprisoned, he was reconsidering his future. Despite his reservations, the leap his heart did in his chest at the very mention of being hired as an elite force to do covert ops told him all he needed to know about his desires. "I want to do it, I really do, but I have a lot to think about before I make a decision. I'm sure you understand."

Vaulix nodded in solidarity. "I understand completely. After what you just went through and what you experienced, I don't blame you one bit. Go to your chambers, sleep on it, mingle with the others, whatever. You have a month to make up your mind. In the meantime, however, Talba and I are going to head to bed. It's late and we've had a very busy day." He disappeared through the door that led from the bathroom to their chambers with Talba in tow. She waved politely as Rick waved back.

He finished up his shower and scanned the bathroom to see if he could find any clothes, but when he found none he poked his head out into their chambers, where they were both about to curl up in bed. "Excuse me, did you bring me any clothes?"

"Dresser," Talba said, pointing to the furniture at the foot of their bed. She was ready to sleep.

Rick could see that his clothes were in fact folded up nicely at the foot of their bed, so he crept out and put them on before heading to the door. "Thanks." He said, tiptoeing away while all the glowing gems in the room dimmed. Just as he reached for the door, he turned to ask one last question. "You said you had approached an old ally of mine. Who was it?"

"Cocamo. Big guy. Our size." Vaulix mumbled. "Friend of yours."

"Right. Makes sense. Thanks." Rick gave one final bow and salute before slipping out and returning to his chambers. He truly did have a lot to think about spanning various topics, and he'd need the night to mull over his options. No matter what he decided, he was happy to know that Prince Vaulix and Princess Talba both seemed to trust him enough to not end him, which made him very special.