by Prax Venter
Embracing that concept did the trick, and Ahnix's normally half-lidded eyes rolled into the back of her head slightly. He heard a muffled, "Mmmph," as she bit down on her lower lip.
Golden, glowing rings appeared around her wrists and ankles, then shrunk down until they touched her furry skin, and Mark felt a portion of his energy leave him and enter her.
After the transfer was complete, Mark hefted the iron pipe like he was holding a rifle and ran out into the sun-baked, abandoned plaza. The creature was close by, standing in the foundation of a large, destroyed building.
Mark waved the pole over his head and shouted, "Come get me you disgusting bitch!" and then he ran as fast as his little legs would carry him down one of the sandy streets of the ruined outpost.
He made it about thirty yards when he heard the creature catching up to him.
A hiss, followed by an insect screech from behind signaled him to stop and turn around.
The wasp creature was only a few feet away, but it had spun around and was now facing Ahnix. Mark could see a massive, oozing gash on its back from her claws. The giant insect woman before him had two arms and four legs all intent on ending the life of his cat-girl. Ahnix was trying to find an opening to strike, but could only find time to evade.
Mark screamed a battle cry, ran up to the bulbous wasp abdomen and brought the rusty pipe down on it as hard he could. It made a loud hollow thunk, and the ancient pipe broke in two, leaving a two-foot pole in his hand. The attack didn't seem to do much damage, and it didn’t draw the giant monster's attention like he had hoped it would.
Even with the enhancement, Ahnix was having a hard time dealing with all the attacks coming at her. She dodged and back flipped away, but the creature was solely intent on killing her.
Inspiration struck as Mark looked down at the jagged edge of the rusty iron pipe piece he was still holding. He used every ounce of strength he had and jammed the pole into its pulsating, black abdomen. It pierced its hard carapace and sunk deep as he drove it down.
The massive creature tilted its head back and screeched up into the sky. In a blur of motion, it spun and caught Mark in the chest with one of its hard, armored arms. He felt a few ribs break as he sailed through the air and landed in a heap of pain a few yards away.
The distraction was all Ahnix needed. She leaped up onto its insect face and tore into its head with her razor-sharp claws. The creature dropped to the ground. Even in his blinding pain, Mark felt a substantial rush of essence enter his body.
Now that the creature was dead and the threat was over he didn’t hesitate to end his suffering with a quick heal on himself. He could feel his bones snap back in place and was exceedingly grateful that the intense pain was replaced with a slight tingling pleasure.
He took a deep breath and looked around. Ahnix had walked over to him and knelt on one knee in the sand by his side. It was amazing how she always seemed to be looking down on him as if she was a queen and he, a lowly peasant, daring to appear in her line of sight.
She reached out a soft furry hand to him. He took it, and she stepped back, pulling him to his feet.
They stood there holding hands, just looking into each other's eyes, and it felt eerily similar to his many mornings with Sasha when she pulled him out of bed.
Back then, he had the instinct to hug her because he felt that's what she wanted. He got the sense that if he embraced Ahnix now, it would seem desperate and confusing. The act would put an uncomfortable wedge between them.
A thought occurred to Mark that maybe these instincts he received about the right moves with his Enthralled were attributed to his Lover Class. Maybe he was just that good with women. Although, if he was honest with himself, traditionally, that wasn't the case. Either way, he just knew that he'd be better off listening to these instincts.
"Nice work," Ahnix said, squeezing his hand firmly before letting go and dropping her arm back to her side. "Let's continue to search this place and find some shade to rest in before the sun gets too high." She turned from him and pulled at another loose bandage around her ankle and tossed it aside before moving back out into the ruined outpost.
They searched the outpost thoroughly, and the sun was becoming unbearable. Walking in sand with boots on was seriously working out his legs. During their search, they found an ancient well that still had cool, crisp water in its deep underground reservoir. They both drank heavily from the bucket, and Ahnix was very pleased to wash off some of the foul bug gut residue on her hands.
Mark was able to see how her claws worked as she unsheathed them while he poured out the water. Her hands looked like regular human hands aside from the fact that they were covered in sleek golden fur. If she clenched the right muscles, sharp black claws like curved daggers emerged out of the tops of her fingers.
With the entire place deemed free of further bug-people, they returned to the corrupted section in the center of the town. Mark had no idea what he needed to do in order to fix this. The flickering space before him jumped from static to swirling insanity and back to static. It oozed a vibe of wrongness.
The most logical course of action would be to hold out his ring and channel pleasant thoughts at the huge cloud of glitchy mess in front of him. It seemed to work for everything else. But, nothing seemed to happen when he tried though.
Ahnix had her arms crossed and leaned against a nearby broken wall, patient yet skeptical, waiting for the miracle he promised he could perform.
Mark's next real option was to stick his hand in there. Part of him wanted to just walk away and give up. Did he really need to do this? All he needed to do was defeat Sasha, and to do that, he needed to build up his team. Why bother with this tear in the world?
Despite this desperate line of logic, his instincts were telling him that he needed to listen to that damned helper fairy and heal these tears when he found them, or he would regret it later.
After taking a deep breath, he slowly pushed his hand past the boundary of the corruption.
Pain came quickly- like he stuck his hand in a blender. He gasped and tried to pull it out but he could not. After a few heartbeats of panic, he calmed his mind and just tried to will the tear closed and the swirling static of corruption inches from his face instantly vanished. He looked at his outstretched hand and was glad to see everything was fine there, all five fingers wiggled on command. That was easier than he thought.
He couldn’t tell what was more surprising; The massive amount of essence that rushed into him sending waves of pleasure through his body, or that what stood in its place was a fully intact building with no signs of decay.
He felt Ahnix walk up next to him and stare at the result of his handiwork. Not only was this building intact, but everywhere the cloud of corruption had been was replaced with relatively clean walls. It appeared the stuff that had been there before might just be suspended in limbo, and when he healed a tear, reality reverted to what was there before.
Ahnix pointed a furry, golden finger at the ground off to his left, and he looked over to find a severed pair of legs wearing billowy white pants, laying just inside the restored area. Blood was leaking out onto the hot sand. Near to the lost legs was a single severed foot, wearing a sandal.
"Looks like not everyone made it out in one piece," Mark said, looking over at Ahnix.
She studied him again like seeing him for the first time.
"In my feral state, over the past countless years, I have a vague memory of a sundering. A tearing of the land. That wrong feeling these places and creatures had sent me scurrying away into the shadows. And here you have come to do this." She gestured to the restored building in front of them. "I believe you, Mark. I believe the things you say."
She just told him that she fully trusted him, and yet she still had that small frown and almost disinterested look on her exotic face. He wondered if he would ever see her truly smile or even laugh.
Mark wasn't done with her yet and saw he had his work cut out for him. He flashed her a hug
e grin and shielded his eyes from the almost noon-day sun.
“Let's get out of this heat, what do you say?"
She nodded, her straight, black hair swinging forward and back. They walked through the door and entered the building he had just restored.
It felt great to be under some shade. Inside, they discovered the building was a two level, multi-family home. No one was alive inside, and Mark wondered if they would find people alive after healing other tears.
They instantly went to the kitchen and quickly munched on some root vegetables stored in baskets. He thought they had a mildly unpleasant texture and a taste like salty carrots, but Mark choked them down anyway as it felt like he hadn’t eaten in days.
He asked Ahnix if she was strictly a carnivore, and she assured him that she ate what she pleased. She sunk her tiny fangs into the not-carrots but didn’t seem to enjoy them any more than he did.
After they put something in their bellies, they pulled a few mattresses down to the largest room on the ground floor and set up a soft nest to wait out the heat of the day.
Mark sat on one of the mattresses and expected Ahnix to join him on hers, but she remained standing a few feet away. She wordlessly began to untangle herself from the ancient and dirty cloth strips that covered her body.
At first, he thought that he should leave her to her privacy, but he told himself that if she wanted privacy, she wouldn’t be shy about telling him to leave, or simply going somewhere else in the building where he wasn’t able to see. So he just sat back and wondered how much of the dusty cloth she was going to remove.
She took her time, slowly unraveling the long strips and rolling them up. Once the strip had been unwound from her body, she would take a finished roll of cloth and place it on the wooden table nearby. Her long, black tail hung limply behind her with only an occasional flick of its tip.
She started to unwrap her arms, then moved to her legs, and more and more of her toned and sleek-muscled body became revealed to him. She was down to what looked like only a few more long strips wrapped around her small breasts and her crotch.
He thought she was going to stop there, but she didn't.
This whole time she hadn’t cast a single glance in Mark's direction until she started to unwrap her chest. Ahnix looked him right in the eye, judging his reaction with her beautiful, regal face.
She got to the end of the cloth, and he saw his cat-girl topless. Ahnix wasn't flat-chested but definitely had an athletic build. She had pink nipples that pointed upwards, and the short, sleek, golden, fur that covered her torso went right up to her areolas.
Not finding a reason to stop after scrutinizing Mark's reaction to her exposed chest, she reached a hand down between her toned thighs and started to unwrap the last of her dirty cloth bandages. Even though she was dressed like one, Mark was very grateful Ahnix was not a traditional mummy. When she had finally finished, she began to roll up the last bandage, not taking her half-lidded eyes off of Mark. He noticed for the first time that her upper eyelids were covered in the same fine, black fur that colored her forearms and calves. Combined with the Egyptian style eyeliner markings, she had a really interesting pattern to her coat.
His eyes wandered across her perky tits, past her firm and tightly muscled stomach and down to the golden fur by her vagina. Her tight pussy lips were covered in the same golden fur, but he could see a slightly protruding, pink clitoris near the top. He also expected to see a black triangle or a strip, or something patterned into where her pubic hair would be, but the short, golden fur made it look like she had a shaved pussy.
She finished rolling up the last strip of gauzy cloth and padded her tiny feet over to the other mattress, her black tail trailing like a streamer behind her. She got on her knees, put her hands on the mattress and walked her body forward until she was laying flat on her stomach. She was watching him the whole time. He couldn't help himself and let his eyes wander over to her exceptionally muscled ass laid out in front of him. Her black furred tail switched back and forth, and he got the sense she was irritated by something.
His mind raced trying to not blow this by making the wrong move. An option rose to the surface, and it felt right, so he acted on it.
He took off his silk vest and folded it up and placed it on the floor next to his mattress. Even though they were in the shade, it was still pretty hot. He gave the cat-girl some time to gaze at his tanned and toned chest. Then, he pulled off his silk pants exposing his fully erect and rock hard cock.
Her firm, toned body begged to be touched, and he was looking forward to seeing how that sleek fur felt against his skin. Also, it felt like he had absorbed a massive amount of essence. He thought that if he didn’t empty it soon, any more he gained would go to waste.
He folded up his pants and sat with his arm on his knee, looking at Ahnix. He was sitting in such a way that she had full view of his throbbing cock, and her attention was fixed on it.
Another thought hit him, and he felt like he just knew what she wanted him to do next.
He spoke quietly, "Ahnix, do I have permission to touch you?"
Her half-lidded eyes shot from his cock up to his eyes when he spoke, and she took a moment before responding.
She turned her head away from him and put her chin forward on her folded arms.
"You may," she replied.
He smiled, got on his knees and joined her on her mattress. He continued to follow the subconscious messages he was receiving from her. It almost felt like he was reading her mind- it felt like cheating.
He got on his knees, straddled her thick legs, and started to rub her tightly muscled back with his palms. He could tell she was surprised by this because she lifted her head off of her arms and tensed slightly. He continued to rub her firm back and worked his way up to her shoulders. She began to melt under his strong hands kneading her stiff muscles and let her head drop limply back onto her crossed arms.
The fur that covered her body was sleeker than he expected. It was very fine and soft, and none of it seemed to come off in his hands.
Getting cat fur everywhere would surely be a turn-off.
He continued to work her back, neck, and shoulders for a while, and he started to hear a subtle purring noise coming from her chest. He moved his way down to her toned thighs and calves, intentionally skipping over her firm ass cheeks. He got down to her feet and gently started to rub the ball of his thumb over the arch of her foot, giving attention to the soft black pads.
He had never really been good at giving massages, but it seemed all he had to do was listen to what a woman's body was telling him.
He knew exactly where to place his thumbs and used both of them to smooth them across the bottom of her foot, starting in the middle and working his way out.
After massaging her feet slowly for a while, he worked his way up her calves and the backs of her thighs again, this time getting dangerously close to her thickly muscled ass cheeks. Taking his time, he eventually crossed that threshold and began to knead her tight ass with his palms. He would press against her toned buttocks with his hands and continue that pressure as he slid up her back and reached her neck, careful not to touch her tail. Something told him he was better off leaving her tail alone. He did this over and over until he felt that she was like melted butter.
Slowly and gradually he moved down to her inner thighs, and she spread her legs apart eagerly, to allow him access.
He eventually started to graze her pussy lips with his hands, and she rocked her hips back to allow him even further access. Mark took two fingers and gently massaged her pussy lips and inner thighs. The short fur on her vagina felt smooth and silky. He took the two fingers and slid them down over her clitoris then back up over her pussy lips, and she let out a small moan, rocking her ass back further encouraging him to continue exploring her soft, supple vagina. He slid his fingers up and down her slit until he started to feel a wetness cover his fingers.
His cock was so rock hard now he really only had one
course of action. He pulled his wet fingers away from her pussy and grabbed onto her soft, furry shoulders.
He leaned in close to one of her ears on the top of her head and whispered, "Ahnix, do I have permission to fuck you?"
"Yes..." she moaned, her face pressed into the mattress.
He tightened his firm grip on her shoulders and pressed his cock against her exposed, wet pussy. He didn't find the right spot on the first try and slid his swollen head down over her clit. She didn't seem to mind. He pulled up a little, found the right spot and inserted his hot, throbbing cock slowly into her tight, furry pussy. Her sopping, wet lips ate it up, and he pressed down until his groin was touching her firm ass.
She let out a low moan and rotated her hips up even further as to keep her tail out of the way.
He slid his dick in and out, slowly at first and then built up speed. She had her face buried in the mattress, but he could hear her moan every time he thrust into her. He continued to massage her muscular shoulders as he pumped in and out of her.
She lifted her head and started letting out longer and longer, "Mmmm,” noises with sharp inhaled breaths in-between. Sooner than he expected, her moans caught in her throat, and she held her breath, tightening every muscle in her body. She was right on the edge. He firmly pumped her full of his rock-hard cock a few more times, and she let out the breath she had been holding in one long gasp.
Mark felt the essence within him transfer into her as her body spasmed, and her hot, wet pussy made a fist on his dick. He knew she was cumming and slowed his thrusting down, but didn’t stop.
He continued to slowly slide his hard cock in and out as aftershocks rocked her body, and she sporadically clenched her pussy muscles around his dick. Her moans lowered an octave, and he took this as a sign to ramp up his thrusting.
She got up on her elbows, lifting her face off the mattress and she started panting heavily as he continued to ram her from behind, pushing right through her first orgasm.