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The Golden Age

Chapter 5: Fighting a battle, meeting new friends

As we walked to the barracks after the assembly we all assumed that the next few days, perhaps weeks, would be quiet as we waited for the Aeolians to invade. Aristides' however had other ideas. The next morning we were told to get ready to march the following day. We were perplexed but Heracles would only tell us that we were marching for the Aeolian border, simply increasing our confusion.

What followed was a week of some of the strangest campaigning any of us were ever to experience. We marched close to the border with Aeolia and waited for them to advance. Once they entered our territory we deployed as if to engage them in battle. When they did likewise we simply fell back, our movements screened by light troops. By the time the Aeolians had realised that we were not going to fight them the day was almost over and they fell back to a safe position to encamp. The next day they advanced again, slightly deeper into our territory than before. Again we deployed, and then when they had formed for battle we left the field.

For the next four days we followed this pattern. It was quickly obvious that we were simply delaying them, buying time for the Misselians to join us, but no matter how hard the Aeolians tried they could not force us into battle. Then, shortly after dawn on the seventh day of the campaign we received word that the Misselians had arrived. We had been badly outnumbered by the Aeolians, who had bolstered their force with mercenaries, but now we equalled them in numbers.

By this point we had fallen back to a plain only just over an hour's march from Likopolis. The Misselians formed up on our left flank and the ends of our line were protected by rough hills to our right and a river to our left. The day was as hot as the day of the assembly and the dry plain was covered by a pall of dust kicked up by the tramping of paws as the two armies faced each other. My most enduring impressions of the battle were the glint of bronze armour and steel blades, the warm comforting scent of sweat and weapon oil, the press of bodies around me, and the bitter, dry taste of dust in my mouth.

In a phalanx the most experienced troops form the front rank, with the next most experienced at the back to ensure the unit keeps going forwards. As the youngest and least experienced the five of us were right in the middle, so all we could see were the backs of the men in front of us. I looked to Antenor, who stood to my left, and looking at him I could feel my confidence increasing. He grinned at me, his blue eyes and his sharp incisors visible in the dark inside his helmet, and I could see his bushy red tail bristling with excitement. To my right Nicander was whispering something to Myron. A trumpet blast rang out from Aristides' position on the right wing and was taken up by trumpets down the line. Both sides were eager to get to grips after days of cat and mouse manoeuvring, and the Aeolians pressed forward quickly.

Once we were engaged we had no idea what was going on with the rest of the battle. All we could do was fight, jabbing with our spears and defending ourselves and those next to us from the sharp blades of the spears thrust back at us. We were so far back in the phalanx I have no idea whether I hit anyone of not. My shield protected Antenor as Nicander's protected me, but the darting spear points came dangerously close, and one might have killed Antenor had I not spotted its silver flash in time and moved my shield. Even so it slid off and struck him hard in the chest, and I heard him let out a yelp of pain and saw a dent appear in his bronze breastplate.

After what felt like hours but was in fact only minutes three short trumpet blast came from the right. It was not one of our battle signals so I assumed it was one of the Aeolians'. Either way there was nothing we could do except continue fighting. A burning pain began to grow in my right arm from the exertion and sweat was pouring from me.

Then something strange started to happen. Faintly over the sound of the battle I could hear cheering. Again, I couldn't tell which side it was, but it was rapidly drawing nearer, until suddenly the spears before us were lifted. The enemy were surrendering. As the initial shock wore off we gladly took up the cheer and I turned to Antenor and embraced him. We had no idea what had happened, but we had won.

I found out later that our delaying tactics had served more than one purpose. As well as buying time for the Misselians to arrive it had also made the Aeolians impatient. When we finally gave battle they were so eager to fight they did not bother to carry out proper reconnaissance and missed a handpicked force of two hundred men hidden in the dry gully of a tributary of the river. The three trumpet blasts had been their signal to attack and once they assaulted the rear of the enemy phalanx the Aeolians quickly realised that they were trapped. Normally the losing side would rout and suffer massive casualties, but Aristides immediately offered generous terms of surrender and a bloodbath was avoided. Demarchus was later to accuse him of having accepted a bribe from the Aeolians in exchange for such magnanimity, but no one believed such an obvious lie, and the wisdom of his policy is clear, as we have not fought the Aeolians since.

For the next few hours the whole army was busy rounding up the Aeolian hoplites and collecting the dead to be carried back to Likopolis, although there were mercifully few of those. By the time we had finished the sun was low on the horizon, our shadows thrown like gaunt black giants across the parched earth. Heracles dismissed us, ordering us to make camp ready to march to Aeolia in the morning to accept their formal surrender.

We went to the river to fetch plenty of water and then searched for a suitable place to spend the night. Eventually Demetrius found a large hollow away from the rest of the army. The hollow was screened by trees which provided plenty of fallen branches for the fire. When the sun finally set it was a moonless night and although above us stars filled the sky the darkness pressed in close around us except for our little patch of firelight.

By this point the excitement of the battle had given way to a deep weariness and we were happy to strip off our armour and stretch our sore bodies. I had to help Antenor take off his breastplate as it had been bent out of shape. Once he was naked except for a white neckerchief he was wearing I carefully checked that his ribs were not broken and found that on his right side a livid purple welt had formed under his soft white fur. As I brought my muzzle close to his chest to inspect the bruise I took a deep sniff of his musky, sweaty odour and taking advantage of the dim light to hide my actions I gave his exposed sheath a fondle, running my claws through his damp fur.

Not long after we had settled down to cooking some food and mending our kit four figures loomed out of the darkness. The lead figure, a black shape with red eyes came forward and I slid my hand under the tunic lying next to me to reach for my dagger when he spoke "Hi, I'm Zearoth" The figure stepped into the light and I could see he was a grey wolf, with black fur around his neck, shoulders and under his muzzle "would you mind if we camped here tonight?"

"Um, sure" I replied as the other three entered the light. "I'm Aristarchus. This is Antenor, Nicander, Demetrius and Myron." One of the newcomers, a skunk, took off his helmet, shaking out long white hair, dirty from the heat and dust of the battle. He lifted a paw in greeting "I'm Hein". "Kokarca" said the other skunk, his fur a deep brown. The last of the group, a coyote, came forward. "Everyone calls me Wetcoyote."

We all chuckled and Antenor said "That's an odd nickname. What did you do, fall into a stream or something?" Now it was the newcomers' turn to laugh, we presumed at some humorous mishap that had befallen the coyote in the past. "Something like that" he replied, smiling and with an odd, amused expression in his blue eyes.

We made space for them by the fire and they quickly took off their armour and stripped down to their fur, only Hein keeping on his short tunic. They got out their rations and Nicander, who was doing the cooking, added these to the cooking pot he was tending. As we waited we started chatting and resumed repairing our armour. I was wiping the grime from my shield when Kokarca spotted the deep gash across it. My shield bore the stag's head that was the symbol of the wolves of Likopolis and the spear had gouged a deep mark across the left eye right to the edge of the shield.

"That's a nasty scratch on your shield" he said, pointing it out to the others "you'll have to take that to an armourer to get that repaired."

"Yes" I replied, "there's no way I can just buff that out." I replied, running a claw down the groove.

At this Antenor, who had been cleaning and oiling the leather straps of his breastplate looked up. "No, I don't think you should. You saved my life, I'd like it if you kept that as a reminder." I leant over to him saying "Anything for you" and nuzzled him in his soft sensitive ear, my whiskers and warm breath tickling him and making him laugh.

"So you two are lovers are you? And you saved his life?" asked Hein. "Yes and yes" I replied. "Although you didn't get off unscathed did you?" I said to Antenor. "No, I got this, but it could have been a lot worse." With that he ran his paws through the fur of his chest moving it so everyone could see the bruise on the skin beneath. I think he quite enjoyed showing off the token from his first battle.

When the food was ready we put our kit over to one side and hungrily wolfed down our meal, washed down with a lot of wine. With the Misselians joining us we felt reinvigorated, helped by the wine we were drinking, and we talked late into the night. They told us about the island of Misselia, which sounded beautiful and I decided that I would try to visit it. We agreed that before they left we would show them around Likopolis as they were our guests and had come to our city's aid in its time of need.

We were all feeling full of good cheer by the time we had finished eating and the Misselians were great fun to talk to. Antenor was lying with his head resting against my chest, one large ear against my body to hear my heart beating. Myron, Nicander and Demetrius lay to my right against one slope of the hollow and Zearoth, Wetcoyote, Hein and Kokarca were to my right completing the circle. My bladder was full but it was so comfortable there with my fox pressed against me and talking to good friends that I didn't want to break the peace of that moment.

The conversation began to die down and Nicander had almost fallen asleep when Myron got up. We had all had a lot to drink to quench the thirst that had built up during the day but he was the first to break. He was quite drunk and we watched him as he climbed up the low slope to the lip of the hollow. He could have gone further into the tree line but the wine had addled his senses and instead he just grasped his cock and aimed it at the nearest tree in full view of all of us, his bushy tail held high, clearly exposing his cute backside, not unlike my own fox's.

Obviously we Likopolitans are used to seeing this sort of thing and I admired him going, feeling Antenor's head turn against my chest so he could watch as well. I was little worried what our new friends might think but I guessed that as a bunch of guys who had served together they had no doubt seen a guy taking a pee before. What none of us realised, least of all Myron, was that where he was going the hot liquid would soon flowed down the slope to where Nicander was dozing. The hot piss flowing around him woke him fully and he sat up, sniffed and realised what it was that was soaking into his fur. Then he did something I never expected to see.

There in front of everyone, Nicander stood up, took his cock in his hand and sent a powerful stream of piss arcing through the air onto Myron's back, who whipped round in surprise, still urinating, and sprayed several of us by accident as he did so. Then when he realised that it was Nicander who was pissing onto him he returned fire, his steaming piss hitting the black rat square in the chest. I looked around in shock, worried what the Misselians would think, and saw that far from being disgusted they looked delighted.

As I turned back Myron lost his footing on the wet ground and slid down the slope on his bottom, covering the white fur of his ass in mud. Nicander pressed home his advantage, now pissing directly onto Myron's muzzle. Myron held up a paw to protect his face and his sharp ears flicked back to stop them being filled with the hot yellow liquid. Demetrius joined the attack, laughing at Myron's shocked spluttering, and Antenor leapt to aid his friend, sending an impressive spray of piss over the two assailants.

This was all the excuse I needed. I loved soaking Antenor and he had left himself wide open. Taking my cock in my hand I carefully aimed it and then said "Antenor." As he turned I caught him square in the middle of his white chest. I breathed in the musk of my strong piss as it soaked through his fur turning it yellow. The wet fur clung to his skin, clearly showing his sculpted muscles beneath, and I moved my stream down over his stomach to his pointed red cock and up to his muzzle a couple of times to make sure he was completely covered.

I breathed in the rich smell of my urine as it steamed, and then scented another's piss, similar but slightly stronger smelling. Zearoth stepped up beside me, aiming a jet of piss more powerful than any I had ever seen at Antenor. Antenor was both surprised and pleased by this turn of events. After sending his last reserve of pee over my cock, staining the white fur of my crotch, he settled onto his knees, his muzzle open and his broad flat tongue eagerly lapping up our combined lupine piss.

I looked over at everyone else and saw an amazing sight. Myron had managed to get to his feet, his paws, tail and ass covered in mud, and was sending a stream of piss over Nicander. The tall black rat had his back to me and I could see it roll down the muscled contours of his back over his glossy fur, over his pert butt and down the length of his tail, which whipped back and forth sending a golden spray across to either side.

Further over Hein and Wetcoyote had launched an assault on Demetrius, but had themselves come under a barrage from Kokarca. He had taken his fellow skunk by surprise and his piss flowed through Hein's long white hair and down his back to his big fluffy tail. The darker skunk had lifted the coloured hem of his tunic to expose his cock, but now he pulled the linen garment over his black fur to expose his nude body and I could see Kokarca's piss turning the white stripes yellow before dripping through onto the ground.

As I watched Wetcoyote noticed that Hein was being thoroughly soaked, shrugged and dropped his knees in front of Demetrius. I caught his eye across the hollow and he winked at me. In that moment I realised the significance of his nickname and laughed, sending my slackening stream spraying side to side, some of it hitting Nicander's back. Zearoth turned to me and said "So you like pissing too? It's always good to meet others who are into this."

"It's how we met" I replied, nodding to Antenor, who was still gulping down my pee as Zearoth's flowed over his torso. "I'm amazed your whole group is into it."

"Yep, it's something of a bonding thing we do. I ought to go and see to them actually." With that he wandered over to where Hein and Wetcoyote knelt before Demetrius and Kokarca. He put one paw on Kokarca's shoulder as he aimed his seemingly inexhaustible supply at his other two comrades.

I was rapidly running out and I moved closer to Antenor until I was right in front of him. While the others were occupied he stuck out his tongue, happily licking the last few drops from my tip. He looked up and me and smiled, licking the piss from his lips, and then stood up. I pulled his soaking body against mine, relishing the feel of his firm muscles and wet fur against me, drinking in the scent of my piss and Zearoth's, with under that the strong scent of Antenor's sweaty body.

Everyone had started to run low and I heard the conversation resume. Turning I saw that Myron and Nicander had joined the others and Kokarca was obviously telling them all some story as they stood there dripping and steaming. He gestured to Hein, who looked slightly abashed as everyone laughed, but he got his revenge by flicking his big fluffy tail, spraying Kokarca with his own piss to yet more chuckling and a pat on the back from Demetrius.

Antenor and I started to cross the hollow, through a shallow pool of piss which flowed between our toes, when a familiar voice boomed "What the hell is going on here?" My ears shot up so quickly I felt like they might fly off and I whipped my head round to see three figures standing at the edge of the hollow, not far from where Myron had started this chain of events. Two of the men standing there were familiar, Aristides and his brother Heracles, their fur the colour of beaten copper in the firelight. The other was a powerfully built bear with brown fur that I guessed must be the Misselians' commander.

A lion's sense of smell might not be as acute as that of a wolf or a fox, but even so it must have been clear to them what was going on. I don't think I have ever been so terrified in my life, even in battle. My bowels felt like they had turned to water and my tail instinctively curled between my legs. Beside me I heard Antenor let out a faint, almost inaudible whine of fear. The bear, stockier than Aristides but obviously immensely powerful, looked across to the others and then let out a low sigh when he saw who was there "I might have known." He leant across to Aristides and whispered something in his ear, at which the lion smiled, showing his teeth.

"Telemechus tells me this isn't the first time this has happened. He thinks we should go easy on you, but I think we should punish you, especially you, Aristarchus and Antenor. You really ought to know better. What do you think Heracles?"

Heracles looked at us thoughtfully. I held my breath, feeling the sword of Damocles hanging over me. Then he winked. "Oh yes" he said, "they should definitely be punished."

"Do you agree?" Aristides asked Telemechus. "I suppose a punishment would be...fitting." He replied. He took a deep sniff. "Yes, very fitting." He was wearing a short tunic of fine wool under his polished breastplate, and he lifted this up to show his medium sized dick was semi-hard. Aristides and Heracles did the same and the three of them started to piss on Antenor and me.

It was a weird sensation at first. I had only ever pissed on Antenor before now, I had never been on the receiving end of more than an accidental spray. That was nothing like this, the three men standing above us pouring out a torrent. The liquid felt far hotter than I expected as it sank through my fur and flowed across my skin. As a wolf to me the world is normally a tapestry of scents but my entire sense of smell was overwhelmed by a single indescribably rich, intense odour, with three distinct notes within it, like the blending of voices in song or the myriad shades within a blue sea. I looked across to see Antenor standing there, his eyes closed with bliss, his mouth slightly open and his tongue curled to collect the liquid, so I held out my own tongue, relishing the bitter tang as it flowed into my muzzle. I reached across and took Antenor paw in mine and closed my eyes.

"Well, what are you lot standing there for?" I heard Telemechus say and then a few moment later several more streams hit us, just as the ones from above petered out. Soon these were spent and I opened my eyes and looked into Antenor's, which shone like two deep blue pools. I pulled him against me and kissed him, my tongue pushing into his muzzle, tangling with his, the taste of piss still strong as we explored each other's mouths. We only broke our kiss when Telemechus said "Well, I suppose they've learnt their lesson."

Aristides let out a deep chuckle "I suppose they have. As for the rest of you, your punishment is that you're not allowed to get washed until the morning. That should give you time to appreciate what you've done." He smiled down at us "And when we return to Likopolis I want you to come to my next symposium." With that the three commanders turned and walked into the shadows to continue their inspection of the army, Aristides' fastidiously licking the last traces of piss from his paw.

We were all soaked, head to foot, steam rising from us, filling the air with our mingling scents. Our fur was slicked down against our bodies and piss dripped from our paws and tails and flowed down our legs. Laughing and talking we all sat around the fire to dry. Antenor rested his head against my chest, and my white fur and the soft white fur of his belly were a beautiful matching shade of yellow.

One by one the others fell asleep beside the fire, until only Antenor and I were still awake. Very quietly so as not to disturb anyone I whispered to him "Darling, would you like me to suck you off?"

"Yes please" he answered, shifting to allow me to change position. I trailed light kisses down his chest and stomach, careful to be particularly gentle over his bruise, until I brought my head down to his pungent crotch. I wrapped my tongue around his shaft, tasting the saltiness of sweat and precum and the delicious tang of piss, my nose pressed deep into his soaking fur. I couldn't get enough of it and my broad tongue explored every part of that cock, alternating between wrapping it round his knot, running it up from the base to his pointed tip and plunging my whole muzzle around it, taking it into my throat and rippling my tongue over his entire length. Every so often I would let it fall from my mouth to take one of the damp yellow balls into my mouth to suck on and roll lovingly on my tongue. I could feel Antenor edging closer to his climax and at the right moment I gave two of my fingers a thorough licking and slid it into his tight hole. That was too much and he came in my mouth, spurt after spurt of salty cum on my tongue, which I curled around his cock, catching every last drop.

When he had finished cumming I pulled away from his cock and wriggled up to kiss him, letting him taste himself. I could feel his tongue lovingly explore my cum filled mouth and we shared his beautiful tasting seed until we had gulped it almost all down. When we pulled away a thin trail of it connected our muzzles, and I looked in wonder into his blue eyes shimmering with reflected fire light. Then without a word he bent down to start sucking my cock in return as I lay back and gazed at the stars which wheeled above us in the heavens.

When I awoke the next morning I had sobered up completely. My first feeling was a deep dread that the others would we disgusted with what we had done last night. It had been so wonderful, and I feared the beauty of what we had all shared would be ruined. However, when I opened my eyes I saw Nicander, Myron, Demetrius and Zearoth chatting over by the fire. I could tell from the smell that they were cooking breakfast, but I could also tell that they had not bothered to wash. Their fur was matted and I could smell the piss dried into it even from some distance away. I breathed in with relief, taking in a great lungful of the scent of the beautiful urine soaked fox curled up in my arms, sleeping peacefully.

I decided that there was no great rush to get up, so I pushed my nose deeper into his fur and watched the trio by the fire. I could just make out snippets of their conversation. Demetrius was talking about Antenor's sister, whom he was courting, and Zearoth mentioned Maugrim, his lover, a handsome husky serving with the Misselian navy. With their backs to me I couldn't make out what Nicander or Myron were saying, but I began to notice little things. The way Nicander and Myron sat so close, the way they touched each other, and how every so often they looked into each other's eyes. That's when I realised that having been so swept up in my love for Antenor I had not noticed that my best friend, always somewhat reserved, had been quietly falling in love. Suddenly Nicander's uncharacteristic action last night had an explanation beyond just excess wine, and I hugged Antenor closer to myself with happiness.

After a while we had all woken up, and it seemed no one was anxious to get washed. We sat together eating breakfast and discussed the battle the previous day, and what we thought the future would hold. It was wonderfully peaceful sitting there with friends, some old, some new, with the sun rising overhead and a cooling zephyr ruffling our fur.

Eventually we had to pack our equipment and get ready to go and get washed at the nearby river before we joined our respective armies for the march to Aeolia. Wetcoyote finished packing first and casually pissed on the last dying embers of the fire to put it out, a cloud of pungent steam rising up with a hiss. Once we were ready we stood there, shaking each other's paws and Zearoth said "So, shall we camp together tonight as well?" Nicander, who was standing there with his arm around Myron's waist, said "I don't know about anyone else but I'm definitely up for a repeat performance."

"Me too" said Kokarca. The skunk looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing "It's a shame we don't have anything to commemorate last night."

"But we do" replied Antenor. With that he unknotted the white scarf around his neck, now a pale yellow colour and slightly stiff. He drew his sword and carefully cut a narrow strip from it. Turning to me he tied the strong smelling band around my brow as if I were a victor in some athletic games. Turning to Hein he cut another strip and did the same. He did this for each of us, his movements filled with solemnity but his smile full of pure joy. Just one strip remained, hanging stiffly from his paw, and I look this from him, placing it on his brow and gently caressing his soft ears as I did so, before kissing him and sliding a paw down his muscular back to feel his firm ass. As I drew away I whispered so that only he could here "You really are wonderful". With that our ceremony was complete. We put on our armour so our condition would be less obvious to anyone who saw us, Nicander started singing a marching song, and we headed off towards the river.