FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

By the time Esa walked out of the forest and into town, he had lost all feeling in his cheeks, the blood long ago fleeing his extremities. The cold air felt like fire in his lungs, triggering violent, painful coughs between breaths. The tiger cursed the forces that brought him here, days from home, and over the mountain that had blanketed him in shadow since childhood. Smoke puffed invitingly from a longhouse off in the distance, past the rows of snow-capped cottages.

The gods are like people in many ways. Some are spiteful and persnickety, yet others are forgiving and patient. Some gods will commune with anybody, while some are far more particular.

Esa's grandmother always told him that, usually in a scolding voice, when he didn't want to go to the temple during the solstice. It made sense that the kind of goddess who would rescind her blessing of their village would also be the kind of goddess to send him on a three-day journey to get it back.

The warm air inside the longhouse stung his skin. He set himself down on a bench by the fire pit, pulled down the hood of his jacket, and unwrapped the scarves around his head. He blinked his eyes, teary and stinging from the snow blindness. It appeared a great many people in the longhouse were eating breakfast--and all of them were staring at him. He wasn't from around here, and he probably looked like he had fallen out of a tree. Some people sat wide-eyed, half-eaten sandwiches of rye bread and smoked salmon resting on their laps as they examined him from worn wooden benches scattered throughout the building. The air smelled like roasting seal meat and berries.

The feeling slowly returned to his extremities, and he pulled off his gloves, testing the circulation in his fingers and looking for any signs of serious frostbite. He turned to a woman sitting across from him on the bench. She was focused on her breakfast, but Esa could tell she was watching him from the corner of her eye. "I came to see a high-priest."

The longhouses that dotted the nation spoke a universal language: Free food, a place to gather, and a roof over one's head during the long and miserable winters. Operated either by temples or by municipalities, their appeal transcended class and occupation.

"It must be a rare kind of priest to send you over the mountains, all the way to Toma." The snow leopardess said.

"How'd you guess?" He asked although he could guess what her answer would be.

She smiled. "The only other villages are about an hour away on foot. You look like you've been outside for a lot longer than that."

Esa nodded. "Simo. It's a small village, just over the mountains. The priests in my village sent me here to see a Sa-Resi priestess. We don't have one."

The woman stopped what she was doing, a bit of gravlax hanging from her mouth. She cleared her throat and swallowed.

"The Sa-Resi? If you came to commune with the goddess of fertility, you have a long day ahead of you." She smirked in a way that made him feel slightly uneasy. "The sun won't be up for another hour. I suggest you rest your feet, then I can show you. The temple isn't far from here."

***

Considering the wretched weather, Esa was more than happy to sit in a quiet corner of the longhouse, resting his legs and wolfing down the slices of caribou belly given to him by the sympathetic longhouse attendants. He had eaten nothing but suet and jerky for three days, and a warm meal felt like a blessing. The longhouse had no windows, and by the time the woman returned an hour and a half later, the sun was still lazily creeping over the mountains.

Toma seemed to stretch out like a river, streets weaving through trees like narrow tributaries, people rushing through like water, without disturbing the forest. Most cottages were built into the earth itself, patches of grass growing on their roofs and smoke puffing from their chimneys. Fir trees sprouted in the middle of streets, their mossy branches undisturbed by the morning foot traffic. He wanted to stop and take in the scenery, but his impromptu tour guide wove through the dirt roads with such speed that he worried he might lose her. After a painful hike up a winding stone-and-wood path, they stopped at a stone temple nestled in a grove of ferns. It was easily twice the size of the cottages at the bottom of the hill--although those hardly looked roomy. She stopped on the steps, hands buried in her pockets as she waited for him to catch up, then she saw him off with a pat on the back, and a sarcastic don't die on the way back. He wanted to ask her where he was, but by the time he got a word out, she was lost in the winding path that curved back into town. Anxious to get out of the cold, he tried to open the door, but in his haste, he slammed his shoulder into the locked door. A second later, he heard the sound of clicking metal, and the door opened. He rushed inside, quickly bowing to whoever was on the other side.

The amur leopard who opened the door was about his age, with long brown hair that fell over his loose-fitting sheepskin robes. He was lithe and reed-like, with an ethereal air befitting someone who lived in a temple. A few inches shorter than Esa, he looked up at the tiger with an expression of vacant curiosity.

"You're not from here, are you?" He said, closing the door and locking the sliding metal latch.

"I--how did you know?" Esa said.

"When I was young, my brothers would trap wild minks and set them loose in the house as a joke. You look like one of those minks." The man said, the corners of his mouth curled into a slight smile.

The inside of the temple--Esa was sure it was a temple--looked like a bathhouse turned into an apothecary. A variety of drying tree branches and herbs hung from the rafters, making the room smell overwhelmingly of tree sap. Potted plants were pushed up against the walls, with some of the planters nailed into the exposed studs. The small hallway was otherwise empty, save for the winding entryways and stairwells that lead to other parts of the building.

The man started to walk down one of the hallways, beckoning for Esa to follow.

"The name's Flynn, by the way. I take it you're here to see me?" He said.

"I'm not sure who you are," Esa said. The whole building was markedly warm, and Esa started to unbutton his sealskin coat.

"I share the building with the town apothecary. She's a nice woman, but she takes up most of the space, as I'm sure you noticed. If you were here to see here, you probably would have taken an interest in the plants, but you didn't. If you were just lost and hoping to ask for directions, you wouldn't be following me down a dark hallway. So, you're here to see me."

"You're a Sa-Resi priest?"

Flynn sighed. "You sound surprised."

The hallway turned a sharp corner and opened into a small wood-paneled bathhouse. Hot air and the faint scent of something herbal filled Esa's lungs, and a copper barrel of murky water steamed invitingly in the corner.

Esa blinked, his short ears tilted to the side. "Am I ritually unclean or something?" He said, injecting a chuckle in at the end in case the question was nonsense.

Flynn leaned against the wall, "Where did you say you were from?"

"Simo," Esa said. Something about the young leopard's demeanor made him nervous. "It's about--"

"Three days over the mountain, yah. I've passed it before. Small village. That wide-eyed look says you've never left it before, either."

"I was going to head out and travel when I turned eighteen last year, but well, life happened."

"You really have no idea what happens at these temples, do you?"

"Well," he shrugged defensively, "of course I heard stories when I was young. The goddess of fertility and all--ritual sex, spirit magic that turned men into women, all that. I just assumed it was schoolyard talk."

Flynn gave him a condescending look that said, are you sure about that?

Esa's eyes bulged. "You can't be serious."

Flynn chuckled and sat down on one of the wood benches built into the wall. His paws started to untie the leather string holding the front of his sheepskin robes together. "We seemed to have passed into myth in some parts of the country. If one of your temples sent you here, I assume your needs are sound. Think of it this way: it's a tradition for both of us to bathe beforehand. You're free to back out any time, and you get a free bath out of it anyway, which you haven't had in--and I'm just guessing--more than three days."

"Beforehand?"

There was that look again, head tilted down, eyebrows raised. "The goddess speaks to us through intimacy," Flynn said as he tied up his hair, so casual about the whole thing that Esa wondered if he had misheard him.

The facts of the matter hit Esa like a splash of cold water. He stood dumbfounded in the middle of the steam room, something in his chest tightening. "I've never been with anyone before." The words came out of him with all the elegance of a drunk spilling a flagon of ale.

Flynn pulled off his robes, leaving only a loincloth and thick strip of linen wrapped around his chest. He put the robes up on a shelf and stood up, the tip of his tail flicking playfully. "A handsome tiger like you? I find that hard to believe. Either way, bagging a Sa-Resi priest on your first go--some people your age would sell the shirt off their backs for that. Assuming, of course, you wanted to go through with it."

"Yeah, I mean--" he stuttered, "I don't see why not."

Flynn pulled Esa's jacket off his shoulders. "I have that effect on people, it seems." He threw the coat aside and started to unbutton the first of many layers of shirts Esa had underneath. Esa wasn't sure if he should help, so he found himself awkwardly standing with his arms at his side as the priest peeled him down to his flax undershirt. He felt Flynn's touch, light and gentle, through the fabric as he wordlessly pulled the shirt up by the bottom hem and lifted it over Esa's bare chest. Esa raised his arms and let him pull the shirt over his head before tossing it aside with the rest. He had never been touched by another person like that before.

"What happened to your chest?" Esa said, motioning at the linen wrap.

"Nothing, or quite a lot, depending on how I feel about it," he said, a slight edge to his voice.

Flynn tugged on the row of caribou-bone buttons holding the tiger's trousers up. Esa made a barely-audible groan as he felt himself stiffen under his clothes. "What's happening in Simo to bring you here anyway?" Flynn asked.

Esa stepped out of the heavy seal fur trousers as the leopard pulled them down to his ankles. There was a noticeable bungle in his cotton underwear. "Our town had three miscarriages in as many days--a lot of a village of our size. After the third, a priestess summoned me. She said the gods told her that I had to seek out a temple in Toma. She didn't say why me."

Flynn pulled the underwear down past Esa's hips, letting it fall the rest of the way down on its own. Esa was standing at half-mast, and he awkwardly stumbled out of underwear as Flynn took him by his hand and lead him towards the back of the steam room, by the barrel of water. The herbal smell got stronger. "Yeah, us priests can be so annoying like that sometimes. We tend to tell people only what they need to hear and not a lot more."

After Esa took a seat on one of the benches, Flynn pulled down the loincloth. The line of dark stomach hair that ran from above his belly button to the neatly-trimmed pubic hair between his legs ended in the pink nub of a clitoris. The soft button of flesh peeked between the light orange fur on his labia.

Esa said nothing, but Flynn could read the expression on his face. "The term Sa-Resi comes from old nomad language. It had nothing to do with the fertility goddess. It just meant twice-born, a word for those they believed were born twice, first as one gender, then later as another. It wasn't until much later that they discovered only we could talk to the goddess of fertility--and so our names soon became linked with the name of the goddess herself." He reached his arms behind his back and unraveled the linen wrap, balling it up into his hand. His breasts were small, and they probably wouldn't have been noticeable if he were wearing anything bulkier than his ceremonial robes.

"Oh, well, I learned something new," Esa said. He had seen twice-born people growing up--merchants, travelers, fir traders--but the details had usually been left to his imagination. He had no idea what else to say, or what was even polite to say, and he was desperately trying to distract himself in the hopes that it would soften his growing erection. It wasn't working. Flynn, as different as he was, projected an aura of unambiguous maleness. The toned muscles of his stomach, the flexing bulges in his biceps as he moved, the way he held himself, it all made Esa's blood run hot.

Flynn sat behind him on the bench and dunked a pail into the barrel of water. He poured it over Esa's back, eliciting the kind of groan he usually only made when he was pleasuring himself in bed at night. The water, kept warm by fires under the bronze floor, was just the right temperature, and it smelled strongly of pine tar and oakmoss.

"You look like you want to say something," Flynn said as he massaged the water under Esa's arms.

Esa's erection, now touching his belly button, ached. "I never got the second-born thing. I didn't think the gods would," he stopped to search for the most polite wording, "Create someone that had to change themselves."

Flynn poured another pail of water over his head and let out a sigh. "It's not odd at all. The gods give us barley, but not ale. A prayer might secure the quarry of a hunter, but without a knife to carve the flesh and a fire to cook, the hunter won't eat."

"That...makes sense."

Flynn wrapped an arm around Esa's chest, and a second later, he poured another pail of water over his front, then the second hand joined in, rubbing the water into the fur of his chest. The leopard's agile fingers met the slender muscles under his coat before he moved down between the tiger's legs. Esa gasped as the first hand cupped under his balls, the second rubbing the perfumed water from his erection. He thrust his hips despite himself.

"Well, no first-time performance anxiety for you, I see," Flynn said.

Esa hadn't tended to his needs since he left home, and by his calendar, three days felt like a lifetime.

Flynn filled up the pail again and motioned for Esa to wash his back. The priest rumbled approvingly as Esa ran his paws down the leopard's back, pressing the water out from his dense fur. Flynn's legs were spread, and the tiger had a view of everything on display, and the casual atmosphere of the bath gave him no reasons to look away. It wasn't until Flynn let out a little chuckle that he realized his erection was pressing into the small of the leopard's back. Esa pushed himself away, worried he was coming off as rude.

After the bath, the two toweled themselves off, and Flynn handed him a towel before he draped his own over his shoulders, the priest mostly naked as he folded up their clothes and put them under his arm. Esa struggled to cover himself with his erection, and he ended up awkwardly pressing his penis to his stomach so he could wrap the wool fabric over his waist. Flynn led him out of the steam room and through a different hallway that went up a narrow staircase. The towel around the leopard's shoulders only made it to the small of his back, and it afforded quite the view as they ascended the stairs.

"Are you the only one here, or are you just sort of...expected to be undressed?"

"Yes," Flynn said with a playful smile.

The top of the stairs opened into what was unmistakably a ceremonial room. It reminded Esa of the temples he had at home--the scent of incense, large windows looking into the forest, the feeling of something very sacred that made him hang his head--but instead of a shrine, there was a bed in the center of the room. It was twice the size of any bed he had slept in before, the pillows were made from lambskin, and the sheets looked softer than any linen he had at home. The reality of what he was about to do became very immediate, and his erection surged under his towel.

Flynn put down his towel and walked over to the headboard of the bed, where a shelf held a large bowl and a variety of glass jars and copper pots. He reached into one of the pots and grabbed a pinch of little resin beads, pouring them into the bowl along with a tab of charcoal. He lit the incense with a flint. The scent made a shiver run down Esa's back.

"You can take your towel off and lie down if you like," Flynn said. He dipped his hand into another jar, his fingers returning coated in red ink. Esa watched as he drew a symbol on the space under his belly button. He said a prayer under his breath and then turned to Esa, who was naked and sitting up on his elbows.

The high-priest smiled. "There's no need to be nervous."

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

He used his towel to rub the ink off his fingers and then dipped his hand in one of the larger jars. It was some kind of oil, which Flynn carefully held in his cupped hand as he walked over to the bed and straddled himself between Esa's hips. The tiger squirmed, pre beading from his penis and rolling down the toned muscles of his stomach.

"I can tell you want to touch me. It's fine." Flynn said. "As utilitarian as this might be, it's still sex, and you should enjoy it." The leopard reached behind himself and pressed the oily hand under his tail. He made a sound somewhere between a purr and a moan.

Esa, taking his advice, put his hands on Flynn's thighs, running them up to his stomach and then between his legs where his fingers ran through the wiry forest of pubic hair. He found the leopard's clitoris, hard and throbbing, between his index and middle finger.

The leopard rumbled as he pushed two of his fingers inside his rear, lubing up for what was to come.

"Oh, are we doing that?" Esa asked.

"Yeah. More comfortable for me. Your hands are more than fine where they are, though." He pulled his fingers out and rubbed the rest of the oil on Esa's penis. The tiger returned the gesture in kind, pressing his fingers into Flynn's erection.

"For someone so inexperienced, you seem to know what to do with your hands," Flynn said, rubbing the rest of the oil off on his thigh.

"Our solstice festivals are as rowdy as anywhere. By the time the sun goes down, some people don't really bother with privacy."

Flynn smiled. "Guess people have to learn somehow."

"This might sound stupid, but, uh, how are we doing this?" Esa asked, his paws resting idly between Flynn's legs. The tiger had never been as close to another person or as vulnerable. As much as he was pining for relief, he could have just laid there all morning, feeling another person's bare fur on his fingers, admiring their body while no barriers stood between them. It felt so entirely right.

"Just do what feels good," Flynn said. "For both our sake, start out slow. I'll try and pace you a little bit--I assume you're familiar with your own paw, so you know what feels good, and don't be afraid to tell me if you need me to do anything. As far as the ritual, it'll be over when I finish."

The leopard reached behind himself and took Esa's penis in his hands, holding it up as he lowered himself down. Esa, his heart pounding, put his hands on Flynn's hips and impatiently thrust himself upward. He felt the head of his penis press into the ring of the leopard's undertail, and he pushed his hands down, egging the leopard on. After a second of resistance, he slipped inside. Flynn wasted no time as he sank down until he had taken the tiger's entire length inside him.

He was warm--so wonderfully warm around Esa's manhood. It was like nothing he had ever felt, a sensation unlike anything he had managed with his paws. The ring of the leopard's entrance was tight around the base of his penis, and it took every bit of self-restraint he had to ignore the animal part of his brain that told him to fuck like his four-legged ancestors. Flynn leaned back, a vacant smile on his face as he started to gyrate his hips, riding the tiger with slow, controlled motions.

"How's that feel?" Flynn said in a low whisper, his hands on his ankles as he rolled his hips, his whole body gyrating in a way that reminded Esa of a dance.

"Yeah." Esa struggled to put words together. "Really. Really good." All of the sensations taken together were entirely overwhelming: the feeling of Flynn clenching down around his manhood, the warmth every time he bottomed out inside the leopard, the sight of his toned stomach undulating with the thrusts, Esa's penis glistening with oil as it disappeared between Flynn's thighs. It was better than anything in his fantasies.

Flynn smiled, rumbling as he rolled his head back. Esa couldn't tell if he was basking in pleasure, or doing whatever kind of mediation a priest like that did. Esa was teetering on the edge of orgasm within minutes, the tiger squirming as he tried to hold himself back. Flynn picked up on his partner's state, and instead of pulling himself up, he stayed pressed into Esa's groin, slowly grinding into his partner.

"Hey. Flynn?" Esa said, panting heavily between words.

"Hhmm?" He said, his voice a soft coo.

"Can we change positions?" He felt perilously close to climax. "I'd like to, uh, get a better view."

Flynn smiled and pulled himself off the tiger. He rolled onto his side, holding his leg up to his chest and reaching a hand behind to spread himself, his tail lifted. Esa climbed on top of him, taking his time in the hopes he would shirk away from his climax ever so slightly. He took the leopard's cheek in his hand, spreading his partner open to see his glistening undertail. It was a completely new sight, and he was utterly mesmerized, giddy at the idea of emptying himself into another person. Flynn was rubbing himself, eyes closed, lost in the moment. Esa lined his penis up, savoring the sight as he pushed himself inside, that tight, wonderfully warm ring opening to accept him. Flynn groaned.

"Don't worry about finishing too fast," Flynn said. "It's your first time. There's no pressure to last. I'm good at working myself up pretty quickly."

Esa started to thrust again, the motions of his hips slow and gentle, his eyes fixed on their two bodies coupling. "Did you want me to pull out?"

"Up to you." The leopard said. Esa could tell that Flynn was approaching his own climax; the leopard's voice shuddered, his hips pushing eagerly into his paws.

Esa couldn't decide if he wanted to keep it slow or let his instincts go and rut in earnest. His body made up his mind for him, and after a few more languid, idle thrusts, the tiger stumbled right past the point of no return, his orgasm surging through him, three days of pent-up energy releasing like a flood into the leopard. Esa snarled, his claws digging into the sheets as he started to make quick, ecstatic thrusts into Flynn, his balls emptying into the squirming feline. He pulled out early, the last two spurts, no less prodigious, landing under Flynn's tail. The leopard purred agreeably as Esa pushed him over onto his stomach, spreading his cheeks so he could see his product drip down his partner's body.

Esa's next decision was utterly impulsive, it was something he had fantasized about for years, and in a split second, he realized he had the opportunity right in front of him. He dove his muzzle between the leopard's cheeks, nuzzling right up under Flynn's tailhole until his lips found his entrance, coated with his own sticky seed. After a moment of hesitation, he started to lick, first with just the tip of his tongue and then with every inch he could run across the leopard's rear. He tasted like musk, oil, cum, and the pine tar from the bath. Taken together, it was utterly divine.

Flynn, his jaw agape and his back arched, let out a guttural, rapturous moan. He cursed under his breath, his body shuddering as he rubbed his fingers urgently between his legs, the tiger's intimate tongue bath driving him towards his orgasm. Esa felt the leopard's ring twitch under his tongue as Flynn finally climaxed, and the feeling of bringing someone else such pleasure made him swell with pride. Even if he hadn't lasted long, the other feline's unsubtle orgasm suggested he had done well.

Esa pulled his head away, sitting up on his knees and wiping his lips on his arm. Flynn rumbled, eyes closed and his tail thumping happily against the bed. "Did that, uh, work?"

Flynn, taking deep and slow breaths, nodded as he pulled himself up into a sitting position. "Yeah, just...gimme a few." With his eyes still closed, his lips pulled into a smile. "I wasn't expecting the tongue. You might be new at this, but eagerness counts for a lot."

Esa opened his mouth to say something, but Flynn interrupted.

"Yes, that was a compliment."

Esa once again became very aware of how naked he was and just what he had done. He lost his virginity to a male priest in a ritual that sounded like something out of a campfire story. If becoming an adult was like crossing a river, he had pole-vaulted over the river entirely.

Flynn, leaning back on a pile of pillows, started to laugh.

"What?" Esa said, suddenly rather nervous.

"The women," Flynn said, arms over his stomach, "In your village. There were no miscarriages. They were never pregnant." He broke into a toothy smile.

"What?"

"One of them--" He spoke between bouts of laughter. "--is the wife of one of your farmers. The other two are his lovers. They--they found out about it, gods know how. They decided to do a little--a little scared straight prank. They told him that they had gotten pregnant and miscarried because his infidelity angered the gods. Complete nonsense, obviously, but the nerve of them I can respect."

The blood drained from Esa's face. "I came all this way for nothing?"

Flynn sat up cross-legged and straightened his composure. He leaned forward slightly, hands on his knees. Esa thought the pose made him look awfully cute. "Well, I did pop your cherry, so I wouldn't say it was for nothing."

Esa blushed, his lips tilting into an uncontrollably crooked smile. "Yeah, well...that was nice. I just meant, you know, the whole trip."

"Really, that's not why you came here at all," Flynn said.

Esa tilted his head, ears retreating down. "I'm not sure I understand."

"The gods wouldn't have sent you here on a prank. I think the stars aligned a bit." Flynn smiled, the expression was warm, and it made Esa feel as though he was being stripped naked all over again. "You belong here, Esa. In the temple."

The tiger tilted his head, confused. His ears receded, and his brow lowered. "I thought the temple priests had to be...you know," he motioned politely at Flynn.

Flynn leaned forward and patted Esa on the cheek. He was so close he could have kissed the tiger on the lips. "You and I have a lot of exploring to do, tiger."