Shifting Consequences--Chapter 36: Resounding Calmness

Story by zmeydros on SoFurry

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

#37 of Shifting Consequences

Happy New Year! Thanks for reading my stories and hope you have a great year ahead of you.


Zack and Bella get to know each other a bit better.

Shifting Consequences--Chapter 36: Resounding Calmness By Zmeydros (Lucien Quinn)

Zack pulls out of Bella with a soft moan. His cock is quickly retracting into his sheath. He smirks at the fact that he has big balls in this mostly feminine form. He reaches down to grope his own package and marvels at how good it feels in his hand. A nice handful of maleness...

"Admiring yourself again?" Bella giggles.

"Yeah, this is so much fun!" Zack hugs her and kisses her. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Bella blushes at the sudden gratitude. "You're welcome."

"You need to say it two more times." Zack nuzzles her cheek.

Bella laughs before saying, "You're welcome, you're welcome."

After wiggling in the hug to rub their breasts together a bit, Zack lets go of Bella. "Let's get cleaned up."

Moans from Vale and Glenn cause Zack and Bella to laugh. Bella says, "Lucky for them, I know where the soap is." She dashes over to the car and rummages through a black bag. She pulls out the soap and hooks her arm with Zack's before leading him toward the bath and shower complex. Bella draws a bit of magic so she can see the border of her spell. As she approaches the simple concrete bath building, she smiles. "Looks like we don't have to transform."

"Your spell reached all the way past that building?" Zack grins in excitement.

"Yep!" Bella bounces making her breasts flail.

A blush colors Zack's cheeks. "Also, it's good because we forgot to put on clothes."

"Oh! We are a bad influence on each other."

"Or a good influence." Zack gropes Bella's ass with his tail.

Bella chuckles.

They both stop when they have to choose between entering the men's or women's door. Zack shrugs, "I think we look more like women... Well, you do and I would if I wore a towel around my waist."

Dragging Zack through the door marked "Women," Bella says, "It doesn't really matter because of my spell, but you have a point."

"That's part of the problem." Zack thrusts his hips suggestively.

Bella giggles as she brings Zack to one of the concrete-walled shower stalls. A young woman with red curly hair sees them, and looks them over before blushing and walking out.

"Did she see us?" Zack asks.

"Sort of. People can get turned on and such if they like what they see, but they don't feel curious about what they're seeing. It's like your reaction to a sexy naked body part in a photo. You sometimes have no idea who it belongs to or what is sexy about it, but it turns you on anyway. My spell can stop us from leaving a lasting impression, but it can't stop instinct. If one of us tried to hit someone, they would still try to dodge the blow." Bella turns on the water.

"Oh, that makes sense... So, it would take a really powerful spell to make it so people wouldn't see you as a threat even if you tried to hurt them?" Zack tilts his head.

Bella nods. "Yeah, deadening people's base instincts is extremely hard to do. It's actually easier to enhance base instincts than deaden them."

"Like my sex drive?" Zack says as he gets some soap onto his hands.

"Your pheromones enhance the sex drive of anyone exposed to them. I thought we'd be able to have more sex if we both got in the mood easier." Bella blushes.

"I think it's a good idea, but I hope people don't misuse that power."

"The spell I crafted to transform you was only meant to enhance people's natural attraction toward each other, not to get two people that would be sexually incompatible to go after each other. If you ended up not attracted to me, I would have had to accept it. I never want to craft spells that make people go against their nature."

"Oh, wow, you're rather thoughtful." Zack soaps up his breasts and stomach.

"For someone who made a spell that would turn you into a herm dragon without asking you, yeah." Bella looks at the floor.

Zack soaps up Bella's front. "Well, I feel a lot better about my abilities now. Two people that hate each other wouldn't do something they regret because of me."

"You think people that hate each other are also not sexually compatible? You need to read more diaries and fan fiction. Sex can be the only thing that draws two people together." Bella giggles. "I think it's hot."

Zack rinses himself and Bella off. "I never really thought about it, but I think you're right. My mom once told me she had a boyfriend who had nothing in common with her. When I asked her why she stayed with him for almost a year, she told me that they had one very important thing in common. I tried to get her to tell me what it was, but she told me that I wouldn't understand until I was older or something like that."

"Did she ever spell it out for you?" Bella asks as Zack soaps up her back.

"No, I got an awkward feeling from her whenever I brought that guy up..." Zack thinks for a moment. "She didn't seem to regret that relationship, but she struggled to find stories about him--I think she was leaving out a lot of details on purpose."

"She probably fucked him all over the place and was leaving out details for your benefit." Bella washes Zack's back.###

"Eew!"

She laughs.

Zack and Bella get each other clean within the next several minutes and walk out of the shower together. Their walk back to the camping area is quiet because they are too busy looking up at the crescent moon and the stars that are just becoming visible as the sun passes below the horizon.

When they get back, they see Glenn and Vale lying in each other's arms on a tarp. Zack says, "Bella's spell goes all the way past the showers." Zack hands Glenn the soap. "May as well get cleaned up before we go to bed."

"Oh, thanks." Glenn looks at the soap and then down and the tarp. "Could one of you follow me so I can hand you the tarp after I rinse it off? We should hang it from a tree to dry."

Bella shrugs. "Sure, I'll come along."

"I'll get the sleeping bags read--we only have two sleeping bags, don't we?" Zack furrows his brow.

Glenn puts his hand to his chin. "There's not much room in that tent, so we may as well double up. If worse comes to worse, Vale and I have fur, so we could probably sleep on top of a blanket or something."

Vale smiles showing his broad-herbivore teeth. "Or we could sleep under the stars on top of a blanket."

"We could do that..." One of Glenn's ears folds down a bit as he thinks. "If we dried the tarp with some of the non-spoogy dirty clothes, we could put that under us to stop moisture from the ground from seeping into our blankets during the night."

"Oooh! I can't wait! I love star gazing!" Vale gets off of the tarp and stands up. He offers his hand to Glenn and helps Glenn to his feet. "Let's hit the showers!"

Glenn grabs the tarp and Bella follows her two furry friends over to the shower area. Zack pulls out the sleeping bags and finds they actually have three, there's one with Bella's stuff. Did she go camping when she was staying with those aliens? He's going to have to ask her more about her parallel universe anger management retreat. There is so much he doesn't know about her, but what he knows so far, he likes very much. He smiles as he thinks about playing cards or some time-wasting game with her. Maybe he'll actually be able to relax for a bit and get to know his band of anthro friends better over the next couple days.

Zack puts the sleeping bags in the tent before rummaging through the packs to find some not-so-dirty clothes. A couple shirts and a pair of jeans should do the trick. When he turns around to look toward the bathrooms, he sees Bella on her way back with the tarp. "I suppose we could have just used your magic to clean it."

"Yeah... Using magic for everything can get really exhausting, though." Bella spreads out the tarp.

Zack kneels on the edge of it and starts drying it with the clothes he found.

Bella kneels down next to him and puts a black-and-white arm over his shoulders. "I just realized that we're not going to need any clothes for a bit."

The side of Bella's left breast is pressing against Zack's arm. He glances at Bella's cleavage before saying, "I'm going to be horny all the time if your naked body is constantly on display."

Bella laughs. "I'm not sure I'll notice the difference."

As Zack reaches across the tarp to get the last bit of water, he frowns. "I'd like to think that I'm not like that normally."

"Are you kidding? I've never had a lover like you. I've never met anyone who could keep up with me." Bella gives Zack a squeeze.

Zack's frown softens. "So, the fact that I'm getting turned on by you just putting your arm around me isn't bad?"

"Nope. Do you want to have me inside you? I could go again if you want." Bella nuzzles Zack.

Zack blushes as his pussy twitches. "I-I think I'd like to see if we can cuddle without fucking for the rest of the night. My body wants another round, but my mind is in the mood for cuddles."

Bella grabs Zack's free hand and guides it down to her emerging shaft. "My body agrees with yours."

A deep moan passes Zack's lips, but he takes his hand away. "Let's see if we can cuddle."

"We will be calmer if we just get it out of our systems before we cuddle." Bella gropes Zack's breasts.

Zack moves away from Bella. "You don't get it. I don't think my body will ever stop wanting it. I think I've gained stamina over the past few days. I'm assuming Mal wanted my body to be able to transform whole lines of people. I have a feeling that if I want to have sex, my body will make itself ready even if I should be exhausted."

"Oh, that sounds like something Mal would do..." Bella crosses her arms. "I'd be a little jealous if I had to wait in line for a turn."

Seeing Bella's troubled face, Zack puts a hand on her cheek. "I'm not upset about it, I just feel like we're missing out on the other things that couples do. If we're going to have a relationship, I want it to be a meaningful one."

"Our sex isn't meaningful?"

"Oh, it is! But, I'd rather have multiple layers of meaning than a single plane of meaning." Zack holds his hands out to his sides offering a hug.

Bella scooches over and hugs him. "I'm not that experienced with the non-sexual parts of relationships."

"Oh?"

"My parents were schizophrenic about me having romantic relationships. They kept changing the rules, so I resorted to hiding my romantic life from them. So, whenever I got together with a lover, we always knew we had limited time and sex was usually our top priority." Bella sighs. "When I was seventeen, they lightened up a bit, but I'd already formed a habit."

"Well, I'm not an expert on relationships either. That's why you got mad at me and started this whole adventure." Zack gives her a squeeze. "Let's figure it out together."

Bella kisses Zack's cheek. "You're sweet."

"Aww, thanks." Zack licks across Bella's chin.

They hold each other until Glenn and Vale come back.

Glenn says, "You two are adorable."

Bella smiles up a Glenn. "Just keeping the tarp warm for you guys."

Vale kneels down and gives Zack and Bella a big hug. He nuzzles Bella and says, "Thanks for casting so many awesome spells." Then he nuzzles Zack. "And thank you for not dying."

Zack laughs. "You're welcome?"

Glenn and Vale chuckle before Vale lets them go and stands up. "So where are the blankets?"

"Oh! Zack got the blanket dirty... I only brought one." Glenn shakes his head.

Both Zack and Vale start talking at the same time and then they look at each other and laugh. Vale speaks up first. "I have a blanket in my bike. I'm not sure it's big enough to go under us and over us."

"There's actually three sleeping bags and I think Bella's magic cleaned the blanket along with the rest of the mess." Zack stands up and pulls Bella up with him as he maintains their embrace.

"Yay! I can take a break from casting." Bella hops in Zack's arms.

"Too much magic in one day?" Vale lowers an ear in interest.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a bit burnt out," Bella says.

"I can only imagine," Vale says as he reaches up to scratch behind his ear.

Glenn goes into the tent and grabs a sleeping bag. He unzips it and lays it out on the tarp. "Can we use your blanket? I want to limit the wear and tear on mine."

"Sure, I think mine's more sturdy anyway." Vale goes to his bike and pulls out a Mexican-diamond-patterned blanket. The designs are intricate and the blanket has a rather nice thick weave.

"Are you sure that's not a rug?" Glenn says.

"It's softer than a rug," Vale says as he walks back to the tarp.

As Vale walks back, everyone stares at Vale's large equine balls as they sway back and forth between his heavily toned legs. Vale starts laughing. "Like what you see?"

Glenn nods. "I think I speak for all of us when I say, 'Nice package.'"

"Now, that's an understatement," Zack says.

Vale lays the blanket on top of the sleeping bag while he concentrates on changing his gender a bit. He makes sure to bend over more than necessary and lift his tail out of the way so they can see his pussy forming. "How about the treasure underneath? Anyone feel like plundering it?"

Zack licks his lips and feels warmth rush to his crotch, but he gets himself to look away.

Bella does the same, but Glenn smacks Vale's ass and says, "They're still a couple orgasms ahead of us."

Vale laughs. "I thought you were less into pussies."

"When one's attached to a body like that, I can make exceptions." Glenn smiles.

Vale runs over to a tree about ten feet from the tent. "I want you to do me against this tree. See? It rhymes."

Glenn murrs and follows Vale.

Zack and Bella look at each other and then at Glenn and Vale. Zack says, "Tomorrow, I'm thinking foursome."

"Exactly what I was thinking." Bella licks Zack's neck.

Zack moans and then pokes Bella in the side. "Let's find the cards and a lantern before we end up joining them."

Bella lets go of Zack and walks over to the camping supplies. The first bag she look in, she finds an LED lantern. She looks through a couple more bags and finds a deck of cards. She turns to Zack, who is still looking, and says, "I win."

"What do you win at?"

"The finding the lantern and the deck of cards game."

Zack giggles. "I'll just have to beat you at 'Go Fish' to knock the wind out of your sails."

"Orcas don't fish, they just chase stuff down and chomp." Bella chomps to emphasize her point.

"Well, I'll just have to tame you and train you how to be a civilized orca."

Bella frowns. "Sorry, that got me thinking about some of the documentaries I've seen about cetaceans in captivity."

Zack hugs her. "No problem." He leads her to the tent.

They spread out the sleeping bags and lie on top of them before opening the deck of cards. Zack shuffles them until Bella takes the deck away and does a flashy bridge shuffle.

Zack lets out a puff of air. "Why do I feel like I'm going to get creamed at 'Go Fish?'"

Bella chitters. "I've only played it like twice. If we were about to play Texas Hold'em or Hearts, your fear would be justified."

"I'll have to remember that. I don't even know the rules for them." Zack watches as she deals out the cards.

They play cards until Zack loses three times in a row. "Guess you're the queen of the cards."

Bella puts the cards back in the pack. "We've probably played enough for now."

"I want to win at least twice in a row. Can we play a bit more?" Zack makes the most adorable face he can muster.

Bella looks into his big pleading eyes and slight pout and frowns. "I think I'm carded out."

"See? You think I'll start winning if we play more." Zack grins.

"No! I just--" Bella sighs. "Sorry."

Zack puts an arm around Bella. "What's wrong? I wasn't being that serious."

"My mom and her sister would compete with each other until one of them started yelling. When I tried to avoid playing cards with them, my mom would give me little talks about me being antisocial." Bella looks out the mesh door of the tent.

"Did that aunt come over a lot?"

"She lived with us for seven fricking months when I was in ninth grade."

"Why?"

"She got separated from her husband and she let him stay in the house."

"Sounds like she was overly nice to him."

"She probably did it so that he wouldn't press charges. She broke his nose the day before they separated."

"She broke his nose?" Zack's eyes go wide.

"Yeah, she threw a stick of butter at him."

Zack laughs despite himself. "A stick of butter?"

Bella laughs. "Yeah... It was frozen."

"Oh, that makes a lot more sense."

"I probably should have said it was frozen in the first place."

"Nah, it was even funnier that way." Zack wraps his tail around Bella's waist. "Did they get back together?"

Bella relaxes as she feels her torso get wrapped by Zack's scales. "She went to therapy for her anger issues and they went to couples counseling. They're doing better than ever now, according to my mom."

"Did her competitiveness with your mom get better too?"

"I think my mom gets along with her now, but by the time she moved out, I hated her so much that I wouldn't even eat at the same table. We brought out the worst in each other."

"Oh, that sucks." Zack looks outside. "Relationships with family can be so volatile."

"I think we might have a chance now that I've gotten some help with my anger issues, but who knows if I will ever see her again." Bella runs her finger along the metal zipper of the sleeping bag.

"I'm never giving up hope that I will see my family again someday."

Bella shrugs. "Don't hold your breath. I've pretty much given up."

Zack takes a deep breath and holds it.

"Hey!"

Zack looks into her eyes trying not to laugh.

Bella pulls on his cheeks. "You are incorrigible."

He nods.

"Fine, hold your breath." Bella pokes his chin.

He keeps holding his breath.

"Okay! I won't give up hope." She bumps shoulders with him. "Now start breathing."

His breath comes out in one long burst. "Anger runs in your family and stubbornness runs in mine."

"Both of them are best in moderation."

"Yeah, I really didn't like doctors when I was young. I once got poison oak and my mom couldn't get me to go until my eyelids started swelling shut."

"Oh wow!"

"It turns out that I was having an allergic reaction to the cream my mom bought to deal with the poison oak rash."

She laughs. "I bet your mom felt bad."

"Yeah, she brought home my favorite foods for like an entire week."

"What was your favorite food back then?"

"Fried chicken from Ming's, ribs from Scotty's, pistachio ice cream from the place next to the high school--"

"Oh! I love that place!" Bella tilts her head. "I can't remember the name either."

"Something Creamery?"

Glenn's voice calls out. "Connie's Creamery."

"Thanks Glenn!" Zack says.

"No prob... Sorry about overhearing. I'm still getting used to these ears." Glenn says.

Zack says, "It's fine. I've been hearing bits and pieces of what you two are saying too."

"Oh NO!" Vale says in a very sarcastic voice.

Bella says, "Yep, we're going to have a bedtime brawl."

Vale laughs really hard. When he calms down, he says, "What popped into my head was professional wrestling with stuffed animals instead of beefy guys."

Glenn and Zack laugh while Bella chuckles.

Bella says, "I'd pay to see that."

"Me too!" Vale says.

"Me three." Zack and Glenn say at the same time. They laugh at each other.

Glenn says, "Oh! I forgot. We have a couple travel pillows and some laundry we could put under our heads. Anyone want one of the pillows?"

Vale says, "I'd like one."

Zack says, "Me too."

Glenn walks over to a bag and Zack hears him rummaging around. When he comes back, he unzips the tent before handing Zack a travel pillow and a small pile of t-shirts.

Bella grabs the t-shirts from Zack. "Thank you."

"Yeah, thanks." Zack says.

"No problem. Sleep well." Glenn zips up the tent.

"You too." Zack says.

Bella looks at Zack. "What were we talking about?"

"Haven't a clue." Zack shrugs.

"Oh well." Bella hugs Zack and then pulls him over so they are snuggling on top of the sleeping bags.

After a couple minutes of holding Zack in her arms, Bella says, "I don't think we need the sleeping bags. It's still pretty warm."

"Yeah, I think it's all the humidity." Zack says as he wiggles and moves his legs so that almost all of his body is pressed against Bella.

"You want to see the sky?" Bella asks.

"Sure."

Bella makes circles using the fingers and thumb of each hand and slowly moves her hands toward each other to pantomime binoculars as she says. "Shrel dac giren spon pirrel cirrel spences." Circles of every color in the rainbow flit in and out of existence around her hands until her hands meet and a white flash in the shape of a cone expands rapidly hitting the ceiling of the tent.

"Oh wow!" Zack looks up at the stars through the now-transparent top half of the tent.

"Let's just stay like this for a while." Bella says.

"Or all night." Zack gives her hand a squeeze.

* * * * *

When Glenn and Vale get back from washing up again, they lie on top of the sleeping bag and start holding hands without saying a word. Glenn's shoulders and back relax feeling Vale's palm against his. As he looks up at the stars, his eyes tear. He hasn't had a moment like this for a long time. Maybe Vale feels something special about him too.

Vale lets go of Glenn's hand a few minutes later. "Whoa, we totally just held hands."

"I liked it."

"I did too." Vale glances at Glenn. "Is it weird that I feel a bit awkward about that show of intimacy even though we've had sex multiple times already?"

"No, I think I know exactly how you feel. I was getting butterflies in my stomach." Glenn rolls onto his side so he can look at Vale more easily.

Vale looks at him and then turns away. "Grope my balls."

"What?" Glenn raises an eyebrow.

"It'll distract me from this lovey-dovey vibe."

"What's wrong with a lovey-dovey vibe?"

"I'm just not used to it and need a distraction."

Glenn frowns. "I like it."

"Well, I don't." Vale reaches down and starts fondling his sheath.

Glenn grabs Vale's hand and stops him. "What's wrong?"

"Let go." Vale feels warmth rush to his crotch as he rubs his sheath and gets the head of his cock to poke out.

Glenn's stomach becomes filled with butterflies as he lets go and lies on his back. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, I'm just... I..." Vale sighs and stops stimulating himself. "Fucking people is something I'm used to. Romantic love scares me."

"What about it scares you?"

"I used to be a bit less picky about who I shared a bed with--I didn't care if someone was using me to cheat as long as their cock was hard and they were willing to use protection. This made me lots of enemies in high school. The boys that fucked me used the rumors about me being a slut to blame me for coercing them into sex. Their girlfriends started blaming me too and by the beginning of my senior year, I was being teased so much that the principal threatened suspension to anyone that teased me."

"Oh wow, what did you do when all this was going on?"

"I kept having sex. Mostly anal. A few weeks after the principal made his announcement, I was being teased less. Things were pretty good. Until the football coach caught me giving oral and anal to half of his team. I got suspended from school, but I was lucky because the school never released the official reason. They didn't want to make the football team look bad."

"Not sure how this applies to you being afraid of romance."

"You'll see." Vale pats Glenn's thigh.

"While I was suspended, my parents grounded me. The second day of my week-long suspension, the kicker's girlfriend showed up at my house with a bouquet of calla lilies--I didn't know who she was at the time--and told me she was sorry to hear I was suspended and wanted to cheer me up. I let her in and started talking to her. Eventually, she asked for some water and I went into the kitchen to get some. As I opened the refrigerator, I heard someone behind me and turned around as she grabbed a knife off of the counter and jabbed it at me."

"WHAT?!" Glenn's ears fold back.

"She caught me in the arm and cut me from my wrist to my elbow. Most of the cut was really deep and I got an adrenaline rush that practically turned me into the Hulk. I grabbed her arm, kneed her in the wrist so that she dropped the knife and then I pulled her to the ground and pinned her down. She started yelling at me as I bled on her, telling me that her boyfriend had lost his virginity to me and that they were saving themselves for marriage and that I had ruined their relationship. She told me how much she loved him and that she couldn't be with him now because he was unclean."

"Was she insane?"

"Well, she had a history of being unstable, and I never saw her again after the police picked her up." Vale shakes his head. "While I was in the hospital getting I-don't-even-know-how-many stitches, I thought how I'd been treated by people in romantic relationships. I was so mad and frustrated that I vowed to never have a close romantic relationship because I didn't want to ever be capable of making an eleven-inch gash in someone's arm."

"So, when you feel romantic, it brings back all that stuff?"

"Yeah..."

"I know that they say love drives people insane, but I don't think they mean that literally."

"But, what if I'm like her? What if I'm like all the people who teased me when I'm in love?"

"Do you believe in monogamy?"

"No."

"Then, even if you fall in love and go a little crazy, you're not going to cut some slut that wiles me away to their sex dungeon. I doubt you'd even call anyone a slut."

Vale blows out a puff of air and relaxes his shoulders. "I guess not. It's just--I feel a bit of disgust when I think about romance. I saw so many fucked up relationships where people weren't getting what they needed and their closeness only made it so they could hurt each other more."

"But, your perspective makes you more likely to have a good relationship. You won't sweat the small stuff. I'm like that too."

"So we'd be a good couple? Is that what you're trying to say?" Vale turns his head to look in Glenn's eyes.

Something about Vale's stare tells Glenn that Vale is a bit angry. "No-no-I... That's something we can figure out later. If you decide that all you want is physical intimacy with me, I'll accept it."

"Really?"

"I'd be miserable knowing that I forced you into a romantic relationship."

Vale smiles. "You're so sweet."

"Yeah, but I'm not soft. I'm not going to let you run away from giving romantic relationships a lot more thought. I wouldn't be a good friend if I did."

"Fair enough." Vale grabs Glenn's hand. "Exposure therapy."

Glenn chuckles and gives Vale's hand a squeeze. "My uncle told me to make sure I always had friends that challenged me to face my fears."

"Good advice." Vale rolls onto his side and presses against Glenn. "My mom had some good advice for me, but only when I changed 'never' to 'always.'"

"Oh? Like what?"

"The best one is 'Always have sex on the first date.'" Vale smirks.

Glenn chuckles and then folds down an ear and tilts his head. "Is that really good advice?"

"If the guy I was with wasn't willing to have sex on the first date, I knew there was no way he'd have enough libido to keep up with me."

"I didn't expect your answer to make that much sense."

"Heh, when I was a teenager, it was clear to me that my family was miserable living under their own rules. Breaking those rules became my mission and--"

Glenn calls out, "Connie's Creamery."

* * * * *

After Glenn distributes the pillows, he snuggles up next to Vale and they fall asleep looking at the stars.