by Matthew Lang
In a few moments, the warriors would grasp their spears or bows and charge at him, and Adam darted instead for the only open space he could see—the area on the far side of the fire pit, where the two largest longhouses stood. Arms still bound, he bolted underneath the first house, finding the taller kanak had left him ample headroom. The uneven ground on the other side of the longhouse nearly threw him, and he grimaced as he jarred his ankle in a pothole. Then a hand closed around his arm, and he struggled weakly, barely mustering the energy to scream. Then the hand was steadying him and urging him onward, and a welcome voice growled in his ear.
“Run,” Duin said, and Adam gasped at the reprieve, finding a burst of energy as they dodged around the totem. Duin helped steady him as they ran out into the forest beyond the village perimeter. The first sounds of pursuit picked up behind them, and Adam forced himself onward, his lungs burning, even as a crashing off to the side indicated he and his improbable rescuer were being flanked. He veered away, pushing into Duin’s fur as he did, but their pursuers moved much faster than he and Duin could go, and Adam suspected someone had been lying in wait for them. And as a great six-limbed form plunged out of the foliage, with yellow-green eyes and a maw full of sharp teeth, Adam realized just how true that belief had been.
“Zoul!” he exclaimed, gasping with relief.
“Did you really think I’d have made it back without him?” Duin asked, plucking a knife from the saddle and cutting swiftly through the rope that still bound Adam’s hands.
“Right now, I’m not really thinking,” Adam said tersely, as Zoul raised his crest and chirruped happily at them, long forked tongue flickering out.
Duin sprang into the saddle. “Fair point,” he said. “Well, don’t just stand there,” he added, holding out a hand. “Get on!”
Taking the proffered hand, Adam swung himself back into the familiar position and helped clip Duin into the saddle.
“Hold on tight,” Duin said, urging Zoul into a fast run.
“Always,” Adam rasped, his throat raw with exhaustion as Zoul zipped easily through the trees and headed toward a different cliff, down into a lower valley, rather than upward as they had tried before. This time they were able to vanish quickly into the canopy of the forest below, and the roars of the kanak faded behind them as Zoul headed off into the trees, and Adam found himself wiping his forehead in relief as well as a result of the thick humidity at the bottom of the valley.
“Thanks, Zoul,” Adam said, reaching forward and patting his lizard on the midshoulder. “And thank you,” he added, hugging Duin tightly and kissing the man’s furry cheek. “Thank you so much.”
Duin smiled. “You are welcome,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to repay this debt.”
“What?”
“Well, if you had not intervened back at Aergon, I might not be here. You saved my life.”
Adam hugged him again. “Consider us even,” he said.
“Oh, and you might want this back,” Duin said, handing Adam his watch, which he must have grabbed from the chieftain on his rush through the village.
“Oh, Duin, I love you, love you, love you, love you,” Adam said, securing it back on his wrist. “I feel almost m-myself again.”
“You should put a shirt on,” Duin said as Zoul slowed to a walk.
“Do we have to?” Adam murmured, pressing his face into Duin’s warm fur and rubbing suggestively at Duin’s belly. “You r-run around naked all the time.”
“I have fur to keep me warm,” Duin said.
“I have you to k-keep me warm,” Adam said with a giggle.
“Adam, are you all right?”
“Of c-course I am,” Adam said, a little bewildered by the chattering of his teeth. “W-why wouldn’t I be?”
“When did you last eat? Or drink?”
Adam shrugged. “The d-day before we r-ran?” he said.
Duin grunted. “All right, you can play with my fur later, if you promise to rest and eat something first,” Duin said.
“All r-right,” Adam said, snuggling deep into Duin’s shoulder. “I do feel v-very tired.”
Chapter 10
ADAM WAS only dimly aware of being held tightly as Zoul shifted from horizontal to vertical to horizontal again, and then being lifted onto a soft bed. Later, he felt the bed shift, and a warm, only slightly hairy body slipped in next to him and a blanket was drawn over them both. When he woke some time later, he was alone in the bed, which turned out to be made of dried grasses and a bracken-like fern. His head was still pounding, and all the aches and pains from his ordeal were clamoring to make themselves known. Almost before he could look around, Duin was there, handing him an opened coconut, and Adam gratefully drank the sweet liquid inside, his stomach clenching almost painfully at the first nourishment it had had in far too long.
“Not too fast,” Duin said, placing a restraining hand on Adam’s wrist when Adam would have taken another large gulp. “You won’t keep it down if you take too much.”
“Sorry,” Adam said. “I’m just starving and….”
“I know,” Duin said, squatting next to him and placing a damp cloth on Adam’s forehead. “I know, but you need to take it slow.”
Adam winced. “How bad is it?”
“Nothing too serious,” Duin said. “You wrenched your ankle, pulled some muscles in your neck and chest, and you got pricked by a dart, but the sleeping poison should be out of your system by now.”
“Sleeping poison?”
“From the root of the Lapen grass,” Duin said. “It’s the kanak’s primary hunting strategy, when they want to bring down prey they can eat later. In small doses it’s harmless.”
“I don’t recall any darts being used in the battle I was in when I first arrived,” Adam said, his brow wrinkling under the cool cloth.
“Well, blowguns are fairly unwieldy,” Duin said. “They are normally used in ambush and abandoned in favor of attacking with spears. After all, a kanak can usually overpower a person in close quarters much more efficiently than by slowly aiming a hollow piece of wood at a moving target.”
“Then why did they use them on us?”
Duin grinned. “Because we were escaping.”
“Ah, right. Good point,” Adam said drowsily. “Wait, did you put that root stuff in the coconut?”
Duin’s sly chuckle was both comforting and frustrating. “Of course I did,” he said soothingly. “Rest, Adam. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
THE NEXT time Adam woke, the last of the jungle rain was dripping down into the ground below from a much more substantial roof of banana leaves and palm fronds—or at least, the plants he had started thinking of as banana plants and palm trees—and Duin was sitting by him neatly eating a flitterfish.
“Welcome back, Adam,” Duin said.
“Thanks,” Adam rasped. “Sorry,” he said, and made a weak gesture at his throat.
“I know,” Duin said, lifting a coconut and slicing the top off with a few whacks of a saber. “You have slept through two rains.”
Adam drank, the cool liquid easing the dryness of his throat, and he sighed happily. “Sorry you’ve had to sit here for so long.”
“It’s no trouble,” Duin said. “And I have kept myself busy.”
“So I can see,” Adam said, looking around the much more substantial walls of the tree house. “This almost looks like you’re building a permanent structure.”
Duin shrugged. “We are out of sight from the ground and hidden by leaves,” he said. “There are no threats nearby, and you are going to need time to get well.”
“Actually, I really need to go,” Adam said.
“Need to go? Go… ah, right. We will have to take a ride down on Zoul for that.”
A quick trip to ground level to the toilet trench and a wash in the jungle rain later, Adam was feeling much better, especially after Duin rubbed his injured leg with some of Xavier’s medicinal oil that they still carried. Unfortunately, circumstances didn’t lead to a repea
t of their first session. Duin’s hands were tender, true, but they were also swift and clinical.
“Duin,” Adam asked as the man went to plug the bottle. “Have I done something wrong?”
“Of course not,” Duin said. “It’s at least as much my fault as yours that we blundered into the middle of that kanak village. I too was expecting to find our traveling companions up ahead.”
“No, I meant with us,” Adam said, gesturing at the distance between them. “Back at the cave, I thought we connected and… well….” His voice trailed off uncertainly. Perhaps airing relationship issues with the guide wasn’t the smartest of ideas.
“I promised to aid the Princess Esmeralda on her quest,” Duin said, averting his eyes.
“What does she have to do with anything?”
“I thought you and she… I mean….” Even in the dim light, Adam could see Duin was blushing.
“Me and…. What makes you think I have any interest in Esmeralda?”
“She’s beautiful, powerful, nice… and she’s a princess.”
“She’s also a woman,” Adam said. “I’m not interested in women.”
“You… truly?”
Adam shook his head. “I like men. And right now, I really like you.”
“Oh.”
“Unless… of course… well… if you don’t, I mean….”
Duin reached out and gently took Adam’s hand in his own. “I do. I just never thought… I mean, really, look at me.”
“I do that every day,” Adam said. “I mean, all the time.”
“Adam… I’m a monster.”
“Look at yourself now,” Adam said. “No, really, right now.”
Duin did, and perhaps for the first time, saw what Adam was seeing. The structure he had built was walled on one side by the tree trunk, and on another two by a wall of bamboo, leaving the last wall partially open to allow them to access the platform outside. Shielded as they were by the tree’s branches, only a small amount of light filtered in from the doorway—certainly enough to see by, but inside the shelter Duin resembled nothing more than a fairly hirsute man. His arms and torso were dusted with a smattering of chestnut hair, which Adam would forever think of as fur, but his face still looked as human as Adam’s, with only a soft accumulation of downy hair on his cheeks and chin. His hard muscles rippled visibly as he moved and inspected himself, and Adam felt himself harden with desire as Duin ran his hands over his own form.
“Not a monster,” Adam said softly, reaching out to draw Duin toward him.
Slowly, carefully, Duin lowered himself to the makeshift bed, his body pressing up against Adam’s. His fingers traced Adam’s stubble-lined jaw, and then his lips met Adam’s with a desperation and relief so sweet Adam thought he could taste it. Moaning into his lover’s mouth, Adam brought his hands up to clasp Duin’s head, and was surprised to find his thumbs encountering wetness on Duin’s cheeks.
“Duin? You’re crying.”
Duin wrapped his arms around Adam and pulled him close. “I am not a monster,” he whispered against Adam’s mouth. “I’m not a monster.”
Adam smiled. “No, you’re not a monster,” he said. “Never have been and never will be.”
With trembling fingers, Duin helped Adam to remove his underpants, which was all he had worn since returning to their treetop abode. Adam gasped as Duin kissed the hollow of his neck and paused to lick and bite at his chest, while his hands returned to play with Adam’s straining cock. They stroked him tenderly, and Adam arched into Duin’s grip as Duin’s mouth trailed over his abdomen and down one leg to his right thigh, ignoring Adam’s leaking cockhead. Adam felt his lover alternatively kiss and bite at the tender flesh that joined his leg to his groin, and he moaned as a hot tongue reached out and swiped a pearl of precum from the very tip of him.
“I-I thought you said you hadn’t done this before,” he said as he ran his hands over Duin’s head and stroked the back of his neck encouragingly.
“I haven’t really,” Duin said. “But I worked in the baths. I know what’s meant to happen.”
“You do? Oh, you do….” Adam gasped as Duin’s mouth enveloped him, one hand tugging the foreskin back from Adam’s cockhead and allowing Duin’s lips and tongue to tease the sensitive ridge of his glans. Then the hot, delightful wetness was sliding lower and lower, and then… Duin was pulling off him, coughing and spluttering.
“I don’t think that was supposed to happen,” he said when he had regained his composure.
Adam laughed. “It’s not unheard of,” he said. “Gag reflex.”
Duin groaned and rubbed his head against Adam’s thigh. “I wanted to be good at that.”
Adam smiled and rolled them over. “Practice, my impatient friend, practice.”
Shifting Duin back up onto the mattress, Adam licked and nibbled his way down Duin’s body, using just the very tips of his fingers to brush over his skin, tugging teasingly at Duin’s body hair as he drifted his hands over Duin’s hard cock, allowing Duin to feel the heat of his hand but not his touch. Then he moved his fingers lower, teasing the heavy sack of Duin’s testicles before slowly rubbing lower and lower, his fingers already slick with the sweat from Duin’s body. Pushing up at the base of Duin’s cock, Adam lowered his head to his lover’s cock, tasting the salty-sweet flavor he remembered from their first encounter and using his tongue to seek out more of the clear fluid. This time it was his turn to nearly gag as Duin groaned and thrust into Adam’s mouth, and Adam was forced to use his free hand to hold his hips in place.
“Oh yes….” Duin groaned. “Adam, that feels so good.”
Adam pulled off Duin’s cock with a smack. “It tastes really good too.”
Diving back down, Adam held Duin firmly by the root and swallowed, feeling Duin’s thickness invade his throat before pulling back to the ever growing symphony of Duin’s whimpering. Smiling, he reached up with his right hand and inserted three fingers into Duin’s mouth. Duin responded like a starved beast, sucking eagerly and coating Adam’s fingers with saliva, which Adam transferred to the tight opening of Duin’s ass.
“Adam… are you going to…?”
“Just relax,” Adam whispered softly as one digit slowly entered the hot, tight space.
“How can I relax when you’re—oh Selune, that feels good.”
“Just enjoy it,” Adam said, before sliding his lips back down over Duin’s hefty prick, using his tongue to tease its head.
Withdrawing slowly, Adam soon had two fingers worked into his lover, and crooked his fingers to rub at the sensitive spot inside that always made him go wild.
Duin writhed on the makeshift bed, and only the fact that Adam was waiting for this exact response allowed him to ride the wave of Duin’s reaction as Duin arched up, trying to press into Adam’s mouth and back against his fingers at the same time, his hands clutching at Adam’s hair.
“What—what was that?” he asked.
“This?” Adam asked, rubbing at Duin’s prostate again, getting another drool of cock-honey as a reward.
“Mmmmm-hmmm….” Duin almost purred, one hand reaching back to spread his asscheeks wider for Adam’s fingers.
“The part that makes it feel really good when another man is in you,” Adam replied, his own cock hardening as he pictured that very act.
“Gods, I wish I had done this sooner.” Duin sighed. “I didn’t know it would feel so….” He shuddered as Adam pumped his cock slowly in time with the slow circling of his fingers inside. “So… so good. Adam, will you… please… enter me?”
Adam paused. “Duin, I’d really like to, but… we don’t know that it’s safe.”
“Safe?”
“We could… catch something.”
Duin’s bark of laughter was short and sharp. “Adam, my condition is not something you can catch. I know there’s stories of people being bit and—”
“No,” Adam interrupted. “I meant there are diseases that you can catch sexually if you’re not protected.”
“You didn’t worry about this last time,” Duin accused.
Adam leaned up and kissed Duin softly on the lips. “What we did wasn’t that risky,” he said. “But me in you, or you in me, is potentially dangerous.”
“You won’t catch anything, then,” Duin said impatiently. “You’ll be the first person who… I’ve ever… you know what I mean.”
Adam kissed him again. “I know, lover, but how do you know I don’t have something?”
Duin growled and hauled Adam’s face down. “If my choices are trusting you and having you inside me or not having you at all, I will take my chances.”
“And how do you think I’d feel if I gave you something?”
Duin snorted. “Do you have anything that I don’t want to get?”
“I don’t know,” Adam said. “I don’t think so, but you can never be completely sure. If we were back home, I could… wait….”
“What?”
“Don’t go anywhere,” Adam said, gently withdrawing his hands and heading back over to his battered but still intact gym bag. He fished into the side pockets and pulled out part of his stash from the free condom packs he picked up at just about every gay festival he attended, thoughtfully individually ziplocked with a small packet of water-based lube.
“Back home we have these,” Adam said triumphantly, showing Duin the clear packet.
“Shiny squares?” Duin asked quizzically.
“Protection,” Adam said, lying back down next to Duin and kissing his lover passionately. “And more importantly, it means that yes, I can and will make sweet, sweet love to you, my furry lover.”
Duin moaned into Adam’s mouth and whimpered as Adam slid into position between his legs, watching with slightly unfocused eyes as Adam ripped open the foil packet with his teeth and rolled the latex condom down over his shaft, before tearing open the lube and applying it liberally to both his cock and Duin’s opening.
