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Star was smiling at him, so Enichi just nodded at Star, took her wing, and followed her out of the room at the end of the hall, out to meet the others. Twi and Ki just looked at each other got to their feet, and followed the new pair. They stopped about halfway down the hall, where the door to the kitchen was on their left and the door to the guest room, where Enichi had slept the night before, was on their right. Star turned around.

"I'd better go tell the others you're here and want to meet them. You know, so they don't go crazy," she said, a gigantic grin on her face. She disappeared into the living room for a second, during which time Enichi turned around and shrugged at Ki, who shrugged at Twi, who shrugged at Enichi. They heard a frantic excited squawking coming through the door. Star reappeared a half minute or so later and beamed,

"Step into the living room, where your new life awaits you!"

So Enichi did--to find a group of exhausted-looking half-muddy pokemon strewn about over furniture and the floor. Blushing shyly, he looked at Star.

She looked right back at him. "Well, introduce yourself," she smiled.

Enichi stepped forward like he was giving a class presentation and looked down bashfully. From the side, Star was waving her wings at him, and neither Twi nor Ki was doing anything to help. Of the rest of the pokemon, some were looking at him, some were continuing to rub the mud off.

The Nidoking was scratching lazily at his crotch where a mosquito must have bitten him.

The Sandshrew was lying on his lap with her eyes closed, asleep even though it was the middle of the day and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

The Tangela and the Noctowl were sitting against the couch to Enichi's right with their eyes closed and smiles on their faces, looking contented.

The Umbreon was lying on a rug under the dining room table and an open window to Enichi's left, and the Charmeleon was sitting up with his back against the Fox pokemon. Both were looking at Enichi and smiling, looking expectant.

"I'm um... EnIchi," the Zangoose said meekly, his voice cracking. "Twilight and Ki captured me yesterday... some of you might have heard," he added awkwardly.

"Aw, c'mon, Star," said the Noctowl, getting to her feet and crossing the room, "can't you see he's not comfortable doing that?"

The Noctowl turned to Enichi and smiled right at him, standing at just his height, putting her wing on his shoulder and hooting in greeting and acceptance: "Enichi, you said, friend?"

"Yeah... that's right," he said, still looking down shyly.

"My name's Artemis," the Noctowl said, lifting up his chin gently with her wing. "And we aren't scary. Look at that lot," she said, motioning around the room with her other wing. "You mean to tell me you're afraid of them? Bah. I ain't never heard anything more ridiculous in my life."

Enichi giggled. Everyone around here seemed to be very distinctive. He didn't want to admit it, but he was warming up to this place. No, that wasn't quite true. It was more like he had never felt out of place here to begin with. Not the night before, not now. Though understandably a little upset from having been captured (and a little woozy from the pokeball) he hadn't felt in danger at all last night, nor had he felt the dismay of being subjugated to a trainer.

"I'm not afraid of them, Artemis," he said, keeping his gaze on her as she took her wing away. "I'm just not very good at... well, speaking."

"Aww, hun," she said, "that's no crime. Tell me now, would you feel more comfortable if you could sit down there on that couch and have us all come around to meet you?"

"Yeah." Enichi smiled. "Yeah, I would."

Artemis smiled back at Enichi and turned to the Farfetch'd. "Star, take him over there, silly Bird," Artemis told her.

"Sure thing, Cap'n," Star giggled, saluting with her right wing, and she took Enichi's paw and lead him over to the couch the Nidoking and Sandshrew were on. Twi and Ki followed him and sat down on the floor against the couch on either side of the Tangela, who leaned over against Ki with her eyes still closed.

And Enichi sat down on the right end. For a second, no one spoke. Artemis, Ki, Twi, and Star just kind of stood there, the Nidoking and the Sandshrew seemed to be sleeping--(the Nidoking now was blowing a bubble in his nose with his head laid back and his eyes shut)--and the pair in the opposite corner, the Umbreon and the Charmeleon, were looking at each other. Enichi was watching the Sandshrew sleep as if entranced. Then, as if realizing, he randomly looked up at the Nidoking and said, "she's cute." The Nidoking went on sleeping.

"He didn't hear you," Star whispered in the Zangoose's ear.

"Yes, thank you, Star," Enichi said, "I know."

"So aren't you gonna wake him up?"

"Well... no," Enichi admitted.

"C'mon!" beamed Star, "you just gotta--" She jumped up on the couch and fluttered her wings in his face, which got her a nice mess as the Nidoking sneezed on her. She stomped off to the kitchen to clean herself off with a frown on her face. Artemis rolled about on the ground laughing her feathers off.

The Nidoking looked around to see who had woken him up, blinking a few times, and finally focused on Enichi. "Oh, hi, you're new here, right?" he asked, smiling. "My name's Takashi. What's yours?" (He didn't seem tired at all.)

"Enichi. I think your Sandshrew is very cute."

"My Sandshrew?" He looked around confused for a second until he looked down at the Sandshrew sleeping on his lap. "Oh, you mean Burr. She's not my Sandshrew; she's my friend."

"Oh. Just looks like you're taking care of her, that's all," said Enichi.

Takashi blushed, as if it was a big secret. "Yeah," he said, suddenly noticably lowering his voice, "and she's very sleepy right now, so... shhh, okay?"

But the big oaf didn't mean to be mean; he still had a big smile on his face because he was greeting a newcomer.

Enichi giggled. "Yeah, okay. I'll go over there." He stood on the couch and reached up to pat the big Nidoking on the head, and Takashi bent down his head to receive it, chuckling.

"He's cute," he said to Twi as soon as the Zangoose had crossed to the other side of the room, where he was talking with the two males, the Umbreon and the Charmeleon, who were trying to tackle him instead. They soon sensed that Enichi wasn't gay, but they played around for the next few minutes anyway.

"How was the hunt, Tangie?" Ki asked the Tangela.

Tangerine cuddled up closer to the Espeon, sounding like she was very close to sleep. "Mmmm, okay. Long walk there, long walk back, about an hour catching frogs in between. Really, really fun day."

"And how much sleep did you get last night?"

"Not enough."

"Me, neither. Wanna go take a nap?" Ki giggled a little, suggesting it even though she, Twi, and Star were fully rested now.

Tangerine smiled mellowly. "Ya, sure. Anyone else coming?"

"I wouldn't mind," said Twi, giving a little yawn to underline the point, giggling underneath it.

"I'll come," said Takashi from above. And looking down, he chuckled, "and Burr will, too."

"Where'd you put the frogs, Takashi?"

"Kitchen, Twi."

"Mm, okay, good."

Star returned from cleaning the gobs of snot out of her plumage not so bright and cheery as before. "Thanks, Takashi."

The big Nidoking just laughed in reply, and Burr on his belly yawned and looked up and around. Artemis, who had since sat down on the couch, bent down and tickled the Sandshrew lightly under her chin with her wing. "We're all gonna go take a nap, hun. Would you like to go with us?"

Burr nodded at the Owl with her eyes half open.

Twilight looked at Ki. "It's been a very sleepy day, hasn't it?" she said.

"Ya, one nap after another," Ki grinned. "I don't think we've got anything else to do until tonight, right?"

"Nope, nothing," said Twi.

"Do you think Enichi will be sleepy? He probably got enough."

"I have no way of knowing. Artemis? Will you go and get him?"

"Ya, sure thing, Twi," the Noctowl said, getting up off the couch and walking over.

"Looks like he's getting along well with Ge and Flame," said Tangerine, referring to Ge, the Umbreon, and Flametail, the Charmeleon.

Ki grinned knowingly. "You think they'll finally get their threesome?"

"Dunno," said Tangie. "We'll have to wait and see that."

"He does seem pretty effeminite, doesn't he?" said Twi.

"Ya," said Ki. "It's weird. Yesterday, when you two were facing off, he was so tough. Now he's so shy and everything. You sure he didn't switch out with someone else while you weren't looking?"

Twi chuckled. "Don't think there's much chance of that, with his coat." (Which was completely white.)

"He really is beautiful, isn't he?" said Ki.

Twi nodded, and Tangerine said, "He surely is."

Fifteen minutes later found them all on purple pillows and blankets on the kitchen floor, piled on top of one another. Enichi was there too, because he said he hadn't gotten very much sleep the night before. Though one might suspect from the smile that ran his face from ear to ear that he had just wanted to curl up with everyone.

The kitchen was perfect for napping. The hot water pipes ran along beneath the floor, so the floor would keep warm well into the late morning from the shower Twi took every day. Ki's and Ge's bed was in here anyway, but it was just a shallow and wide wicker basket lined with a comforter. You needed the whole floor of the smallish kitchen if you wanted to fit in a Yoshi, an Espeon, an Umbreon, a Farfetch'd, a Noctowl, a Charmeleon, a Tangela, a Nidoking, a Sandshrew, and a Zangoose.

Ki, the female Espeon and Ge, the male Umbreon, her mate, were along one of the walls of cabinets under the open window high up on the wall that was letting all the warm spring breezes blow in. Twi was slumped down against the wall of cabinets next to it with Flametail, the male Charmeleon, on her lap. (They were both breathing pretty heavily like napping wasn't really what they wanted to be doing.)

Then Tangerine, the female Tangela whom Enichi had seen holding Flame's hand on the way back, was leaning up against them both, kind of wheezing lightly in a high pitch. Takashi, the Nidoking, was lying on his back in the middle of the room, snoring, and Burr, the little girl Sandshrew, was curled up on his rising and falling stomach for its warmth.

Starla, the female Farfetch'd, was leaning up against Twi's and Flame's other side. Her eyes were closed, but she was clearly too excited to sleep. She probably still wanted to show Enichi around and everything. Artemis, the female Noctowl, was peacefully asleep in the far corner of the room with Enichi, the new male Zangoose, on her lap. They were just the same height, she and he, and they looked very peaceful.

Soon, the only sound left in the whole valley were the birds chirping, the stream flowing, and Takashi snoring from the cottage in the middle of it--as several hours passed them by.

They had all gone to sleep at 6-1/2, but it turned out to be a long nap, partially because no one wanted to get up and have to leave the warm room even after they were all awake. They all ended up getting up at 12, just as the first sun was starting to set, after the day was mostly gone, when the long twilight was just beginning. The second sun wouldn't finish setting until 16, and the first wouldn't rise again until after 28. (There was no 0, though there was a midnight at 22 and a midday at 8. So the last hour of the day was 28, and the first was 1.)

"Well," said Twi as everyone was finally getting up and stretching, yawning, and scratching, "there's still a couple hours till we can start the roast, but that doesn't mean we can't start setting up, right?"

"Right," said Ge, and it was only then that Twi noticed she and he were the only ones left in the room. The rest were putting the blankets away back in the closet or lazing about outside, watching the first sun set and enjoying the cool breezes.

"Where'd everyone go?" said Twi.

"Well, let's see," said Ge. "The ones with hands are folding the blankets and putting them and the pillows away like you asked them to, or they were. Flame and Tangie said they were gonna go fuck after that. Ki's outside on the west deck with Star and Arts, and I don't know what became of Takashi and Burr. They seem to be doing their own thing more often these days. Oh, and I don't know what happened to Enichi, either."

"You think they're in love yet?"

"Takashi and Burr? Nah. Burr's still too young for that. And you know Takashi. He's smart, but he's also a big dope."

Twi smiled. "Ya. You can say that again."

"He's smart, but he's also a big dope," said Ge.

"Aw, shut up," said Twi, still smiling. "You wanna help me prepare the frogs?"

"Okay," said Ge. "I wouldn't mind praying with you, too."

Twi nodded. "Ya. Course, we can't let them out of the bag, so... I'll just put it in the middle of the floor?"

"Okay," said Ge.

And when Twi had, she and the Umbreon closed their eyes and, out loud, asked the Heavens (Naai, in their language) that none of the frogs may go to waste and that they be honored in their next lives for being food for the hungry in this one. They also asked that the Heavens not frown on their celebration that evening, for they would remember to celebrate the lives of those that gave them life.

They continued the prayer after that by hanging their heads and silently asking the frogs for their forgiveness. Then Twi took out a sharp knife from a drawer, a clean wood cutting board, and a large ceramic bowl. Ge took one frog at a time out of the bag with his mouth and gave it to Twi, who put it in the sink and shoved the point of the knife into its head, spurting its blood upward in a fountain and killing it instantly.

Then Twi ran the water for a second to clean some of the blood from the outside, and put the frog in the bowl. She would have to quarter them all later so they could be roasted. They would eat all of each frog; that had been the promise the frogs had traded their lives for.

Enichi had been wandering around the house, exploring to the bright twilight and wonderful breezes streaming in through the many open windows. The house was one story, of course, and was longer and less wide than he would have imagined. The place was pretty well designed and got the most of its space, he thought.

One entered through the front door into the living and dining room he had been in earlier. The living-dining area was on the south side, and it included a small writing desk under a window on the west wall (through which he could see the setting sun); the couch that he'd been sitting on earlier with Takashi and Burr; a couple very, very comfortable armchairs next to that on the side of the area nearest the center of the room; and a fireplace opposite the couch.

The dining area was on the east side of the room, which was a large, beautiful table--made of dark oak just like everything else seemed to be around here, what for the abundance of the tree. Twelve chairs that were just as beautiful went around the table. And above the table was another open window. The room was pleasantly cool, and it was as wide as the house was and maybe a quarter of the length.

Across the room from the front door, which stood on the south end of the room in between the two areas, was the hallway. It was a decent width, and it ran down for a ways and then turned sharp right. The first door on that hallway was on the right, the east side. That was the kitchen door, and it was a swinging one that was just two half-wide doors on seperate hinges. You could also access the kitchen from the dining room via the same kind of swinging door. There was enough of a crack through the middle of both doors that you could spy on the goings-on inside, but Enichi didn't bother.

Opposite the kitchen door on the hallway and a little bit down, on the west side, was the guest room where he had stayed the night before. He knew it was a guest room now cuz he had found Twi's bedroom had been at the end of the hall. There was another fireplace in that room on the outside wall, so he thought there must be at least two chimneys on the roof of this house. He also noticed another door on the west side between the guest room and the front room, but when he opened it, he was only rewarded with a linen closet.

Continuing on his intrusive mission without being too shy, he got to the where the hall ended before going off east, and there were two doors. The one facing out at the end of the hall was Twi's bedroom; he knew that. Opening the other one, on the west wall, revealed a small study with another bookshelf like the one in the guest room; a couple of small, decorative tables; and another desk like the one in the living room but with a high-backed wooden chair in front of it.

He shrugged that room off and continued to follow the hallway off west. It ended rather abruptly, but there were three more doors. The one at the very end was another linen closet, and the one to his right (next to the kitchen, if one were to think about it that way), was a bathroom. There was a toilet, a couple of small closets, and a bathtub.

---

The bathtub was long and marble, and it had a shower head at each end. "That must be very nice for everyone in the house," Enichi thought, blushing. His heart started pounding now that he was thinking of them all taking a shower together, scrubbing each other--in their naughty places. As if on cue, a loud, prolonged moan of ecstacy and panting came from the room at his back. He was so lost for a second that he whipped his paws over his mouth, thinking he must have made the noise without thinking.

But he relaxed, and his shoulders untensed, as he realized it was a female's voice. Suddenly, he was panting as well. He jumped into the bathroom and slammed the door shut out of incredible embarrassment. He could feel the full length of his member bouncing against his belly and his thin precum shoot a couple times up into its fur.

"Shit," he said, and then again under his breath. He looked up; there was no lock on the door. No normal pokemon would have cared, but his face was red as a beet, even through his fur. He closed his eyes frantically and tried to relax, but the moaning was starting up again, and he could still hear it with the door closed.

His member was throbbing, bouncing, five inches long and thick and curved slightly back towards the tip. He looked down and stared at it for a second, fascinated in his newfound anatomy. It was thick near the base where it came out of his fur, and there were little sharp ridges around there. As he felt them, slowly running a couple of fingers around the base of his meat, he got a little pricked.

The Cat-and-Ferret-mixed-breed pokemon blinked as he realized these ridges were little spikes and that they were fluttering up and down as his cock pulsed. They were a little like porcupine quills, he thought: sharp and nasty when they were drawn and erect; soft, smooth, and virtually harmless when they were down flush with the skin.

The thought of his tool having spines, even the idea of sticking up inside a female's hole with them, gave him an unexpected rush of fascination and excitement. The wave was so great that, panting, he gripped the rest of his meat in his right paw and felt it, holding the long, red spear out straight and feeling up and down the top with his thumb.

The meat was smooth and hard. It got thinner as it went towards the top, tapering from about two inches around to one. He felt a sudden rush of pride. It was, he almost said out loud, a very nicely-sized cock. He didn't have anything to compare it to, he admitted to himself, but it surely felt good holding the weight of it in his hand. It was so hard and so heavy, he was sure there must have been a bone inside.

Up and down it bounced, stiffening and relaxing, dripping precum from the end every so often. He slid down against the door, lowering his eyes and panting, too embarrassed to paw his first night in his new home, where everyone had been so nice to him. Star had said she'd had sex, but Enichi didn't have anyone to do that with. He just closed his eyes and tried to take deep breaths and to focus on one thing. But that one thing was invariably the image of his throbbing meat, and each time he looked down to see if it was gone, it was still there.

It was as if his mind was shutting everything else out. Even the moaning from the next room seemed much quieter. His balls, drawn up and covered in white fur down below his cock, felt tense and tight, and he moved his left paw down to rub them to try and relieve some of the tension as his right paw held his throbbing member, but that only made it worse. He closed his eyes again, and then a thought washed its way into his head in a sudden, raging torrent of feeling that felt like a vise in his chest.

"Twi..." he said out loud, unable to help himself, as, his eyes closed, images of that beautiful sleekly-scaled, smooth body rushed into his head. Her hips were wide, her legs fat and strong. The way her tight stomach curved down between her legs to her tail was incredible. And between it was her soft hole, her little cunt. He imagined it must feel wonderful to rub under that tail, to rub her wet pussy lips.

Back in the kitchen, Twi and Ge were just finishing up with their work. Twi was washing her hands, having decided to save the rest of the cutting for a little later, and Ge was putting the bag back in the corner so he could go join the females outside.

"Need anything else, Twi?" he asked her on his way out.

"No, thanks, Ge," she said. "Go ahead and watch the first sunset with Ki and them. I think I'll have a bath before the roast tonight."

A few moments later, Enichi, who had foolishly decided to walk about to try to get himself to calm down, looked up in horror and froze to his spot in the middle of the room as the doorknob to the bathroom door turned. There was instant of slow-motion panic as he looked around. He desperately thought he might run and jump in the bathtub, but there wasn't enough time. He just stared, fully engorged member pounding hard against him belly, as the door opened.

Twi, who had already started the motion of walking in, stopped awkwardly there in the doorframe when she saw him and looked at the Zangoose. And then down at his throbbing meat. A blush rose to her red face that made it almost purple. But that was just out of surprise, not out of embarrassment.

"Hi, Enichi!" she said happily after a second. "Doing some exploring?"

Enichi stared at her for a good five seconds, mouth agape. "Wh-what?" he finally stammered out.

Twilight giggled as she walked to him from the doorframe, shutting the door behind her, grinning a little. She stepped up to him and looked him in the eye and smiled. Then she knelt, wrapped her left arm around his waist, pressed her body against him--into his plush, white fur--and cradled his still very hard member in her right hand.

"That's quite a beautiful piece you have there, my Zangoose friend," she said, trying (on a hunch) to sound a little more like an older woman than a girl for him.

Enichi couldn't even respond. Here was his new trainer--who had only captured him yesterday--his new gorgeous trainer touching a part of him he didn't even know he had until the day before. And just now he'd been daydreaming about her, too. It was like he'd called her to him.

"You like me, don't you?" the Yoshi said to the Zangoose, who blushed and stuttered his reply as immediately as he could.

"Yes. Yes I do, Twi, a lot."

"What do you want to do to me, Enichi?"

The Zangoose couldn't believe this. His mind was exploding. "Gods... I want to fuck you, Twi."

"I'd love that," Twi whispered in his ear, which happily perked up to the sound.

Enichi growled as a grin rose to his face and his member shot out precum onto hir stomach. "Get on your hands and knees, Twi. Lift up your tail," the Zangoose told her.

Twi did as she was told, getting down on the tile floor. She faced away from him and lifted up her tail, revealing her glistening red pussy lips, vivid on her cream underbelly. Her tail bobbed up and down sensually, fanning the scent that was wafting out from between her legs to him. Enichi's desires were going wild. He didn't care how this had happened or why it had. All he wanted was that pussy.

He rushed forward, bent down, and buried his nose in it, taking a good, long sniff. He was so horny and so unable to restrain his cubbish desires that his meat stiffened up and shot another glob of thick precum right inbetween her pussy lips as he shivered and shook. The thin liquid ran down between her lips, being absorbed into the flesh and disappearing. Then Twi looked back at him with a shy, pleading expression on her face and it was all he could take.

Not really thinking about what would most pleasurable for her, he grabbed her hips hard and shoved his throbbing meat right into her. The speed made her crane her head upwards and moan long and loudly. She pressed down on him, dropping her rear just a little bit. He didn't waste even one second. He was the perfect height to pound her.

He started ramming her frantically, as fast as he could, amazed at how tight and hot it was inside her. It felt like, just like his whole front half was being squeezed in a vise. It felt like what another girl had felt like inside so long ago, when she'd begged him to but his furry little fingers up inside her. Lost in his own little world, he moaned louldy as images of her, gone for so long, came suddenly flowing back into his mind like the dam had just given way.

"Ohhh ALISON!" he yelled, completely unaware of what he was doing, and Twi, who had just been taking the pounding before, suddenly got very interested. The very first thought that went through her head was, "so he has had a trainer before." Alison was a name used almost exclusively by humans. It just didn't make sense in furry or pokemon dialects.

Promising herself she'd follow up on it later, Twi let her head fall back down and panted. Though he certainly wasn't very good at it, she was really starting to get carried away on the speed Enichi was pounding her cunt with, and she was really starting to get wet inside with the combination of her own juices and the precum the Zangoose was shooting copiously inside her. His member didn't reach nearly to the back of her seven-inch tunnel, but it rubbed up against every wall in her with how much it was wiggling and bobbing around. He was consantly thrusting away in different directions, constantly teasing her.

Twilight huddled on the ground, shaking in a mixture of pleasure and ticklishness. Her back end was up in the air, but just enough for the Zangoose to stay in her, and her tail was raised and pressing against his stomach. She was panting fast, unable to catch her breath, as the cock kept firing into her only to slip right out the instant after. She gave an elongated moan as if begging him to stay inside her, to stop teasing her like this. His furry paws tightened on her hips.

Enichi's senses were going wild, the feeling of being gripped in this incredibly hot Yoshi girl's tight cunt driving him crazy. He kept looking at her tail, plush and cream, and at her wonderful, fat, muscular thighs. And down at where he was pounding her. "Ohhh," he moaned again, a shiver running all the way through his body, up and down. He gave a final thrust, rammed himself as far back as he could get, and let his eyes roll back and his tongue loll out as he blew his wad in her. Then, without ceremony, he pulled out of her, stood there stunned for a second, looking down and watching his cock shrink back into his sheath, and walked around front of Twi and licked her on the cheek.

"That was my first time, ya know, Twi," he said.

"I know," she said and smiled, still panting, tail still up in the air, pussy still dripping.

"...Thank you, Twi," he said, not picking up on it.

She licked him on the cheek. "Go out and help the girls set up the fire now, kay?"

"Yeah," he said, grinned, and scampered out of the room.

Twi groaned lustily and stood up, dripping and panting. She followed him and watched him from the end of the hall until he got out the front door. Then she turned, ran frantically into her room, leaving a trail of hir juices behind in a line along the wood floor. She slammed the door shut behind her, grabbed the Drake dildo from her nightstand drawer, and dropped to her hands and knees right there on the floor.

****

Outside, the girls were no longer sitting against the west wall of the house and watching the sunset. Now that Ge had joined them, they had made him 'it' in a game of tail tag. And with his huge, fluffy tail, one either dodged it easily or was buffeted and knocked over. Giggling and laughing, they'd all formed a circle around him, and any time he decided to chase one of them, everyone else would just back up, and he was left in the same position he was before. He was just trying to figure out a way to get at them when a high male voice came from the west deck.

"Hi, everyone!" Enichi called as he ran into the open field.

They all stopped and turned to him and smiled, forgetting about their game for a second, and they all called back variants of "hey, Enichi!" They gathered around him as he reached the field.

"Twi wants us to set up the campfire," he said.

"I'll go grab the wood from the shed!" Star piped up so immediately that one wondered what else she had in mind. But she ran off before anyone could question her.

They turned back to Enichi, who was just about to ask to join in their game till Star came back when he suddenly looked up at the darkening sky as if realizing something.

"Hey... where... am I?" he asked the general crowd.

Ki giggled. "You're in the same valley we captured you in."

Enichi blinked. "I don't recognize anything at all."

"Well you're on the southwest end now," said Ge. "You must be looking at it the other way around."

"Oh," said Enichi, and he blinked again. He looked around for a second as Artemis smiled at him.

"Maybe we should take a little walk around," she suggested to him.

"Yeah!" Enichi turned to her and smiled wide. "That'd be a lot of fun."

"So you can at least get your bearings before it gets dark," she continued.

"Okay," he said, nodding.

"Wanna go, then?" she offered, holding out her wing.

"Yeah," he said again and took her wing. Artemis turned back to Ki and Ge as she and Enichi were walking towards the path by the stream and mouthed the word "straight."

Ge looked disappointed.

About a half an hour later, Twi, Flame, and Tangie walked out of the house all smelling very much of sex. Twi was also carrying the bag of frogs and the knife to quarter them with. Flame was carrying the same cutting board Twi had been using earlier. And Tangie was carrying a largish metal pail. Star, Ki, and Ge were setting up the fire in the pit right in front of the house they always used.

Enichi felt very comfortable with Artemis around. That was the first thing he noticed while walking with her--rather than any of the scenery. There was something about her that just felt very motherly to him, but she didn't feel distant in that same way that mothers tended to. It was like she was his protector but also one of his age. He liked that feeling. She was like a big sister, perhaps.

She was always smiling no matter what happened, and that was very comforting. He hadn't even been aware he was worried about anything until he'd started walking with her, but as soon as the two left the group, he realized his shoulders had been drawn and tensed. After he'd let the tension out of them, he wondered what it was he'd been worried about.

The second thing he noticed was the smell of the valley. Not the smell of any one thing, but the scent coming from all around him, fresh and bright and fragrant. From all the flowers in bloom, maybe, or the trees or the stream. It was something, he realized, he'd barely noticed back at home with his Zangoose family in the forest.

His parents did all the hunting and the real work, and he and his friends did nothing but play in the grass all day. And it was a good life, but there was something strange about the whole experience. Something he hadn't been able to put his finger on. But now he realized it was that, back there, he'd never stop doing things, that he'd never stop going from one place to another. He'd always have someplace he was going to and some place he was coming from. He never took time to just walk by himself or to notice things.

He and Artemis walked without speaking. For some reason, she hadn't let go of his paw, and he hadn't bothered to let go of her wing. It just felt natural like that. Artemis seemed to be getting lost in the sky, gazing up. Maybe she was daydreaming of flying, Enichi thought.

The stream ran by them, gurgling along. There was hardly any bank before one got to the water. The grass grew right up to the shore. Looking up and following the stream with his eyes, he could see it run almost straight off into the distant north mountains. The path seemed to run all the way to the mountains, too, but it also split off to the right a bit ahead of them and continued on that way over the east hills.

The land around here was mostly flat, grassy plains. The grass was very tall most places, coming up to his knees or his hips, but there was hardly any on the well-trodden path. There were a few patches of madrone trees strewn around, four or five to a clump, but no really big forests until farther out. He guessed he must have lived somewhere around the northwest of the valley with his Zangoose family.

The bottom of second sun was just touching the tip tips of the western hills when the two decided to head back. They'd been walking for a long time, and it had been good for them. Artemis said she was getting anxious to join the others back at the house for the frog roast. There was no one around to hear, but she whispered in Enichi's ear for the effect anyway. She told him she'd be getting some from Twi tonight, and Enichi blushed beet red immediately, suddenly realizing that Twi was fucking all of her pokemon. She must have been bi, and she must have had a thing for non-anthros.

Artemis grinned over at him as they continued walking. "What, that wasn't your perception of her?" she teased him.

"Well, no," Enichi admitted, not bothering to ask her how she knew what he'd been thinking.

"So I guess she must have gotten to you early, huh?" Artemis giggled. "I'll tell you a secret. We were all supposed to save you for tonight. You're kinda... fresh meat to us."

Enichi looked down shyly at the path as they walked along. "I'm... fresh meat?"

"Yea. Don't take it the wrong way. We just were excited we'd have someone new to play along with."

Enichi chuckled despite himself. He couldn't help it. She was so open about it. "So they all wanna mate me?" he said.

"Not mate. Fuck. There's a difference."

"Really?"

Artemis giggled. "Not in what you do. In what you feel while you're doing it."

The little Zangoose looked at her awkwardly. "What do you mean?"

"Mating with someone means it's special. It's slow and romantic and... it's like you're sharing yourself. You know what I mean?"

"Yes," said Enichi to the Owl's suprise.

Artemis smiled, though. "And fucking is something that friends do. Though mates can do it, too, if they feel like it. But it's something you do for the pleasure of it more than anything else. It's about what everyone gets out of it. You're sharing the act not yourself. Get it?"

Enichi nodded happily, his blush fading.

"You're smart, kid," she said. "You must have had some life so far."

"Believe me," said Enichi, showing a sudden, strange flash of maturity. "Believe me, I have."