Crystal Catalyst
Ft. Nadia Aximand & Fuzzy Moordock

"It was just a harmless prank!" 

In the shining, beautiful city of Whitewall stands the college of Engineering and Application. While the practices and experiments of the college may seem strange to newcomers into Whitewall, it's undeniable the progress they've made in every avenue of life for the bustling city. Previously equine-pulled carriages now have their own clockwork-esque inner workings that transport people around free of physical labour, and the piano builders almost went out of business once the self-tuning pianos were invented. Of course, there still had to be people who maintained the machines when they inevitably failed, and all of those engineers come from the college of Whitewall.

In this college, many students of any sort of different backgrounds have found their true calling, and often go on to change the face of the world as we know it with their innovation, creativity, and out-of-the-box-thinking…

In a dark, cramped office in one corner of the sun-basked college campus, a meek, innocent-looking bunny sat across from an older, much more serious looking panda.
"...However, I fail to see how replacing a member of faculty's lubricant with a phosphorus compound is helpful or progressive." The stern red panda readjusted his glasses and stared at the bunny across from him. "As head of faculty student relations, it falls to me to ask you why you thought this was a good idea." 

"It was just--" Before the bunny before him could repeat himself, the panda once again held up a paw. "... Permit me to remind you, Nadia, that three students were blinded in her botched demonstration." he said, sternly. 

"Only temporarily!" The rabbit protested. The red panda's flat expression didn't change. 

"Regardless," he said, once again re-adjusting his thin rectangular glasses and sorting through a few papers on his overcrowded desk, "I think we can both agree that you went too far. You're allowed a chance to defend yourself, of course..." 

The bunny's ears perked up at the idea of being able to defend his actions, but soon dropped under the stern green eyes of the panda opposite. "...Do keep in mind, Mr. Aximand, that I would see no excuse you could possibly come up with that would get you out of punishment entirely. What do you have to say for yourself?" 

A moment of silence fell between the two. Since it was an engineering college, however, the silence was quickly punctuated by the sounds of metal being welded, motors being overworked, and of course, the occasional scream. Aximand cleared his throat. 

"S-so... Mister, uh..." The rabbit meekly peeked over a cutter of electrical components to spy a long-forgotten name plate. "...Fazuku, you might know that Mrs. Arma was setting up a demonstration for the possibility of frictionless gears for the class--" 

"A demonstration that you sabotaged, yes, I am aware." The panda interrupted. After a careful moment of pause and reconsideration, the rabbit gave a sidelong grin at at the authority figure, who didn't grin back. Instead, the panda looked over his glasses skeptically at the rabbit, as if he knew what was being planned. 

"...F'yari--" 

"Mr. Fazuku."

"Uh, right. Mr. Fazuku, would you say that claims of scientific import should be tested?" 

The panda raised an eyebrow. "Of course. That's the very foundation of science." 

"Exactly!" The bunny said happily. Fuzuku didn't seem to follow. "S-so, when Mrs. Arma made what seemed, to ME at least, to be a remarkable claim of great scientific importance, I figured she wouldn't mind, as such, if I were to..."

"...Test her methods?" Fuzuku chimed in, seemingly knowing where this was going. 

"Right! If the gears were absolutely frictionless, then nothing would have happened!" 

"You blinded three students, and--"

"Temporarily! Uh... sir." 

"...You temporarily blinded three students, and destroyed Mrs. Arma's demonstration device."

"Like I said, if it had worked as she had claimed--" 

"I think that's quite enough already." The panda said, scribbling something down on a slip of scrap paper and handing it over the desk to the rabbit. "Bring this to Mrs. Arma. Have her check it to make sure it's accurate, and formally apologise for what you did." 

The rabbit stood up quickly and took the scrap of paper, looking over it briefly. "What is it, sir?" 

"A list of parts required for her to rebuild her device. You're going to fetch them for her." The panda said flatly as he settled back into his well-worn seat. 

"B-but sir, some of these parts... Like, the nigde tree oil, sir, we get it fresh from the lizardians when we need it!" 

The panda’s face told the story of a hundred smart-ass students and appropriately weak excuses told to it every year for thirty years, with the current boy under his stern gaze doing nothing but meet those expectations. Fuzuku looked up at the still waffling rabbit. How he wished the little runt would just get lost somewhere... 

"Yes." He said, as plainly as ever. "That should keep you out of trouble for a few days, at least. Get out of here, Aximand, before I decide I need speciality parts from portsmouth!" 

Grumbling and feeling dejected, Nadia Aximand stepped out of the small, cramped office and into the bleached white hallways of his university. This is ridiculous, he told himself as his eyes once again scanned over the list. What even -is- 'lightning glass'? Whatever it was, it meant a five-day journey across to the lizardian tribe he'd never so much as seen, let alone visited. 

He sighed, and rested his back against the cool, stone wall. Sometimes, he thought, he wished life could be a little more interesting. 

Behind one of the doors lining the hallway, something exploded. 
Nadia shrugged, and made his way to the 'temporarily' blind teacher's quarters. 

"Looks like I'm in for a fetch quest." He muttered to himself. With that, he turned tail down the hall, and walked past the black smoke that had started to seep out from one of the doors. The windows glistened with the memory of long-past rain, and the sun caught his eye for just a moment as he began to descend down the transparent stairwell. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the sun beginning to lower across the horizon, setting fire to the canopies in the distance and casting long, spindly shadows into the darkness of twilight.

--

Dust billowed. The wind-etched rocks protruding from the sandy surface would soon be buried by the billowing shawls of sand. Amongst the fine fragments in the night air, a spark was birthed, shining blue and briefly in the otherwise dark and dusty landscape. It lost its light and its life almost as soon as it had been born. Then, another spark flashed to life, and another. Soon, the dusty, windy desert was lit up by blue lightning, dancing amongst specks of dust in the air as they twirled to and fro. 

In the dead of the night, in the middle of the billowing dusty mists, a creature crawled free. A creature of pain and blood and misery. 

It screamed, and night in the desolate wastes became as day. 

--

Nadia was a funny bunny. He thought so, and he was fairly sure other people thought so too. What he didn’t do so well was the whole ‘apologising’ thing. For what it was worth, he had found the demonstration highly informative - a sentiment most of the other students apparently didn’t share. After he’d read the list out loud to Mrs. Arma, who didn’t seem to much appreciate his doing so, he had gotten a subtle feeling as if she hadn’t forgiven him for testing her device. 

“I still haven’t forgiven you.” She’d said angrily, looking somewhere close to where the bunny stood. “Until I have my sight back, my machine fixed and your ass out of this university, I don’t think I will.” 

“That seems a little harsh,” Nadia had said softly, trying his best to give her a reassuring look before realising the futility of such a gesture. “The nurse said it’ll only last a few days! Besides, if your device had worked like you said it did--” 

That was when she threw, with surprising accuracy for a blind woman, a pair of calipers at Nadia’s head. 

As he walked down the white stone steps of the university and into the stubbornly fading sunlight, he could still feel the bruise that the steely tool had given him. He tried to stop rubbing it, and concentrated on the task at hand. 

“Okay, let’s see…” He had the list in paw, though he didn’t need it much since Mrs. Arma made very sure he wouldn’t forget what she needed. Nadia thought that if she’d had her sight still, she might have carved it into his chest just to make sure. He double-checked the strap around his chest that supported his rucksack; a days supply of food, extra water, some padded footwear for the rocky bits and a small selection of his more useful concoctions. Not really enough for an expedition to unknown lands, but he had plenty of supplies back home. This college never seemed grateful for his alchemical skills. He wondered why, briefly, before shrugging it off. 

On his way through the main entrance gates (after stumbling past some feline emergency medical technicians that were exiting the building for some reason), he spotted a small flash in the distance. “Hm. Lightning storm, I guess.” It didn’t appear to be too far away from his destination, so he made a mental note to pick up some fire retardant and insulation potions on the way there. 

As the sun set across the glistening, far-away canopies of the eastern Frogleg forest, Nadia Aximand sighed softly to himself. Maybe someday, he thought to himself, he’d actually enjoy travel. It’s just a shame he was so good at getting into scrapes. Some part of him, perhaps a deeper, more truthful part of him, knew he was a screw up sometimes. As his mother had once said to him, “Your heart’s in the right place, but please stop poisoning the other party guests.”

About half way home, Nadia’s mind began to process the trek that lay ahead of him. He’d need fire retardant, for sure, and some anti-conductivity gel for those bright flashes he’d been seeing. Gods, he’d need some kind of all-round anti-inflammatory medication, too, and he only had so much bonding agent to go around. Again, he sighed; this was going to be more resource-heavy than he’d anticipated. Maybe he should have fought for some community service in the sewers. 

Trotting down the thick cobblestone path towards his street, his eyes were once again drawn to the horizon. His view was blocked by the endless signs the mercantile of the town had constructed to allure passers by, but he could still see those occasional flashes at the back of his mind. He didn’t get along well with electricity. Sometimes it was required, in the construction and deconstruction of his various potions and experiments, but he tended to keep as far away from it as he could during its use. This had led to a few… incidents of over-caution. 

He turned onto his street, and was once again confronted with the reality of his homestead. No more than four paces towards his one-story shack, adorned with all sorts of wind marks and scorched pieces of wood, was the crater. It wasn’t more than two feet across - he had hopped over it plenty of times before with general ease, but it was yet another reminder that sometimes, even with something as seemingly simple as botany, things can go wrong. Once more, the bunny took a speedy skip over the deep, dark hole. If something like this could happen in his front pathway, who’s to say what could happen in the Frogleg forest? 

He should have had that hole filled in, but nobody tended to accept jobs like that for him anymore. Something about ‘dangerous work’, or something. 

Nadia shrugged, and stepped inside his home. If what the head of department had said was to be believed, he wouldn’t be seeing the inside of his shack for a while. He’d have to pack only the essentials for this likely life-endangering task.

After all, he could die. 

--

A thunderous pounding shook Nadia from his restless sleep. Blurry eyed, he quickly spun around on his chair - and promptly fell off of it. He hit the ground with a thud loud enough to stop the person outside from seemingly trying to take the door off of its hinges. 

“Ow! U-uugh… o-one second!” He groaned from the floor. He put a palm to his face and realised there was something there - a sheet of paper, or three (his eyes couldn’t quite seem to agree) was stuck to the side of his face. He must have fallen asleep, he figured. Stumbling over himself and the sideways chair, he slowly hobbled his way over to the door and flung it open. 

“What’s the big deal, you-- ...oh, my.” 

Nadia’s eyes had expected someone about his own height, since he was roughly of average height with the population of the city, but instead he looked up at who was knocking. Then he looked up some more. 

“...Mr. Aximound, I assume.” 

The beast looming over Nadia blotted out the light like a huge, furry blanket with a piece of paper held uncertainly in one gigantic, untamed claw. All other light and sound in the world darted away as the gruff, basic speech pattern of the wolf forced its way into the rabbit’s ears. Primal instinct took over, even fear wasn’t capable of forming in Nadia’s mind. He had to say something. Anything, to avoid being eaten. With barely a moment to lose, he somehow contorted his tongue into forming what may be the last words he’d ever speak.

“...Actually, it’s Aximand.” He said calmly, as he mentally prepared himself to be eaten alive. 

Rather than masticating on the inwardly terrified rabbit’s skull between his powerful jaws, the gigantic wolf shifted to one side slightly, checked the scrap of paper in front of him, and grunted. What seemed like three men’s worth of muscles twisted as he shrugged, and turned to one side of the path. “Whatever. You ready?” The wolf asked plainly.

“R-ready?” Nadia repeated, trying his best not to sound small and delicious. Despite his very strong desire not to be seasoned, he inquired further. “Ready for uh… what?” 

The wolf huffed, and a swamps worth of hot, wet, dog breath washed over Nadia. It felt strong enough to push him over, though that may have been the lack of sleep. “Your trip? You’re meant to go… fetch something, or something.” The beast said, uncertainly. “Listen, can we hurry this up? I’ve got like six other people to see today.” 

Nadia shook himself internally to stop himself shaking externally. “Uh… right! Oh, right! The trip!” 
Shit. Nadia thought to himself, thinking back to the previous night. He glanced over his shoulder; his small backpack lay on his bed, unpacked and empty, with all manner of potions brewing from one desk to another, notes strewn about and flasks dripping over their respective basins. Looking back to the bored-looking wolf, he braved a smile. 

“I’m about ready, yes!” He said, feeling his ears instinctively flattened against the top of his head. “I, uh… just need to pack a little more, then I’ll be on my way!” 

For one terrifying moment, Nadia thought the brutish wolf may actually force him to set off immediately, thrusting him helplessly into the wild jungle with naught to protect himself but his wits and his barely clothed body. To his utter relief, the beast merely shrugged again, stuffed the scrap of paper into his shoddy blue workman’s trousers and made his way down the bespeckled path back to town. 

“By the way,” The wolf’s words came just as Nadia’s heart was starting to calm down, “You might wanna put on some pants.” With that, and a swish of his large tail, the wolf walked quickly around the deep hole and began to finally leave. 

A moment after he’d reached the end of the path, however, he stopped, and began back. Nadia froze again; oh gods, he thought to himself, he really is going to eat me. 

“I almost forgot!” The wolf yelled, pausing as he got to the other side of the crater. “Your lizardian escort!” 

“W-what about them?” Nadia called back from the safety of his doorway. 

“They’re in this hole!” The wolf called nonchalantly. 

“W-what?!” 

“The hole.” The wolf answered flatly. “They’re in the hole. You should really fill that in.” 

With another swish of his long tail and shake of his head, the wolf finally left. Nadia watched him in stunned silence as he grew… not smaller, as such, but certainly less massive, as he walked out into the world. 

Once he was gone, Nadia deftly cleared his throat, and meekly approached his unfilled, aesthetically unkempt crater. He stopped short of actually looking straight down it, for fear of what the wolf may have left for him. 

“H-... Hello?” He called, daring the darkness to answer. 

He almost jumped out of his fluffy dark skin when it did. In a voice much lighter and more positively charged than he’d have thought a dark hole capable of, it responded. “Hello, Nadia! Nice to meet you!” 

Nadia pressed his fingers together, somewhat uncertain as to how to proceed from there. “Are you… okay?” 

He heard the darkness shrug. “Can’t complain, really! I mean, I’ve been an escort for lots of places. This place seems…” The darkness paused. Nadia felt a hint of judgement coming from the depths. “...Nice.”

“That… that’s not really my home.” He said, cautiously stepping closer to the hole. He still couldn’t quite see to the bottom, but there was a hint of a green hand clinging firmly to the charred stone side of it. “That was just an accident that--” 

“Oh, it’s okay!” The perky voice interrupted. “I don’t judge! It’s certainly cozy.” 

Nadia found himself rubbing his temples. “How about we get you out of there… uh… what’s your name again?” He peered over the edge, and was greeted with a bald, green, happily smiling but mildly strained face looking back up at him. “I’m sure I was told at some point, it just slipped my mind.” He added, trying to lighten the situation a little. 

“Xiactes Mjartio!” What Nadia assumed was a frog person responded. Her eyes sparkled with an unnatural purple sheen.

Nadia tried not to look taken aback. “You look a little… uh…” 

“Young, to be an escort?” The darkness offered, followed by the sound of rock slipping and a curse word Nadia couldn’t make out. “Y-yeah, I get that all of the time. Don’t worry, I’m very old enough to travel.”

“...I was going to say ‘stuck’, but whatever works for you.” The rabbit responded as a grin crept over his face. “Need a hand?”

--

The inside of Nadia’s house was, he expected, very similar to any alchemist’s house; a simple, resilient yet easily-rebuilt-as-required structure with vertical panes on the outside for blocking wind, and a warm, earth-shaded material lining the inside for warmth. In his case, it was earth. If it once had windows, they’d long since been blotted out by the various stains and scorch marks that plastered the otherwise musty walls. Whatever hadn’t been covered by failed experiments or stains just too tough to remove had been covered by alchemical equipment, tools, books, loose papers and, strangely enough, small strips of leather that had seemingly been cut at random. Nadia coughed gently, subtly letting his new companion know they had been staring. She quickly snapped back to attention as steaming mug was nervously thrust towards her. 

“Uh, tea?” The bunny asked, trying to block as much of the reptile’s field of view as possible from the rest of the room. Considering she was stood almost in the middle of his elliptical home, it was quite the task. 

The unidentifiable lizard took the mug with a smooth smile and a gracious nod. “Thank you.” she muttered. After taking a small sip and giving a small, but pleased nod, her eyes resumed their roaming. It’s almost as if she had practiced the nuance of hospitality. Then again, Nadia thought to himself, she probably had.

“So, what is it you… do here, exactly?” She pondered, clasping the steaming mug close to her chest as her gaze ventured around the overcrowded room. 

Nadia, panicking slightly, hopped down onto his bed; really, more of a mattress that had managed to avoid the worst of the chemical spills. “Oh, uh… I uh… sleep here? This is my home.” he reminded her, thinking back to the whole hole incident. “I live here, mostly.”

She returned her gaze to his eyes and met him with the kind of flat look that only a lizard could give. “Yes, you told me that. Several times, while you were helping me out of that ...hole.” 

“Listen, that wasn’t… my fault.” Nadia protested. The lizard raised what would have been an eyebrow, if she had any sort of hair. The bunny decided to not even try. 

“S-so, uh… you’re my escort!” He tried instead.

“Sorry, bunny, but that kind escorting will cost considerably more!” The lizard laughed throatily. It died down quickly when she saw him staring at her blankly, with a slight sense of unease. “It’s… it was a sex joke, be calm.” 

“...I was just wondering your name.” Nadia tried again, seeming to fumble his way through what should have been a relatively easy conversation to have. “It would be a lot easier for me to not have to refer to you as ‘that frog’ in my head all the time, and I can’t really… remember your full name. Don’t you have a nickname or something?” 

That frog looked at him with an expression he wasn’t quite sure he’d ever seen before. Regardless of the meaning, she took a low bow, holding one arm out carefully to the side as the other held the mug of tea upright. “My name is Xiactes Mjartio, but for your tongue you can call me… Acts.”

“Acts?” Nadia repeated as he watched the green girl right herself.

“Yes.” Acts said, tilting her head as if rolling the idea over in her mouth. “Acts... Yes, I like that.” Taking another sip of the steaming mug, she smiled a cute smile at Nadia and leaned against one stained desk. A calcinator wobbled, which made the bunny twitch. 

“M-maybe we should uh… “ 

“Get going?” Acts piped up, quickly setting down her mug and ceasing her leaning. She looked so spry and ready, it almost took Nadia off guard. Regardless, he pressed on.

“Uh, I was actually thinking more about getting to know one another a bit first. I mean, we’re meant to trek through god knows how many miles, and I only just found out what to call you!” He stood up and looked down at the young-looking Acts. She was at least a head and a half shorter than him, and he wasn’t exactly the tallest person in the town considering the various species that lived together in Whitewall. In fact, that wolf was probably a contender for that title.

“Shouldn’t we y’know… talk about the trip, or something? Do I need to prepare anything specific?” He finished lamely, resorting to hand gestures and a strained facial expression. Neither seemed to have the desired effect. “I haven’t really had a chance to pack.”

Acts shrugged. “Take whatever you want, I think.” She said, before treating him to another cute smile. 

“...That’s not exactly helpful.” Nadia grumbled, grabbing a couple of noteworthy papers from his overcrowded desk and stuffing them willy-nilly into his travel bag.

“Yes? Well, my excuse lucky foot, but I travel far, and often. I don’t need to know every…” Acts gestured up and down Nadia’s body like a fine art critic seeing a bare wall at an exhibit. “...Horse thing that I happen to escort to a place. Many don’t even speak! Can you imagine that?” Her words had become a little more pointed, and her expression had gently melted into one of mild annoyance. Nadia tried harder to think of things to pack, if only so he didn’t have to think about Acts directly behind him seeming to get more and more irritated with him after each word. Two books on foreign plants, a set of spare vials, hydrophobic gel… 

“Can you imagine, lucky foot?” She repeated, her eyes burning a hole in the back of his head. After a soft gulp, the rabbit turned to face her - Nadia’s nose was almost touching her smooth green face, and despite not wanting to budge an inch, he didn’t exactly know where to look. He settled for her frighteningly stark purple eyes. The bunny’s ears thumped flat against his skull fast enough to make a noise.

A moment of tense silence slid between the two, thicker than the one Nadia had experienced between the angry panda and himself in the university. He could bottle this atmosphere and saturate it for a year without making a dent in the density. Eventually and through much fighting against his base urges, he cleared his throat. He did so very, very gently. 

“Maybe I should… continue to pack. Er. Quickly.” He muttered, backing down a little. He quickly turned around to his messy bed, and breathed a sigh of relief as he started sorting through the various mixed papers and bits of custom blown glasswork. 

“Quickly.” Acts repeated, crossing her arms behind him. He could feel her eyes on him as he worked; while he’d packed almost everything he needed the night before, something compelled him to make a show of packing a little more than what he actually needed into his backpack. A little more oxindust, a few more sheets of paper, a few resistance remedies…

“I’ll need some leech seed essence…” he muttered to himself, his eyes and hands darting to and fro as he began to pick up the pace on packing. Visions of what his adventure may throw at him flashed across his eyes, and fairly soon his pouch had almost filled with equipment and emergency supplies. Nadia began to get so wrapped up in what he was doing, he’d almost forgotten Acts was even in the room with him.

“What is this?” Muttered a voice behind him, making him jump. As he turned around to explain the function of an alembic or a mortar and pestle, his heart almost dropped out of his chest. Acts was casually holding up a couple of sketch pages that had been sloppily sewn together into a kind of three-page spread. 

While Nadia couldn’t see what was on the other side, in this case he didn’t need to; by her puzzled expression, he already knew. The bunny dropped the calcium deposit he was considering adding to his pack and lunged at the frog. 

Unfortunately for Acts, she wasn’t expecting to be accosted by the rabbit. Unfortunately for Nadia, he hadn’t expected there to be a stool in between himself and the frog. As soon as he made contact with the lightweight frame of the girl, all hope was lost for a good end to this first introduction. They both went tumbling onto the floor, the pages she’d been looking at flew across the room, and several crunches and bruises later, they both finally came to a stop near the open door of his home, tangled in one another’s limbs, and with pain. Lots of pain.

“Uugh…” Acts groaned, smacking the rabbit on the nose. “You really did not… have to tackle me like that…” 

Nadia grunted as he lifted his head, and immediately regretted it. Pain shot through his skull, down his spine, and into every other part of him. He’d definitely be needing that bruise salve… “You didn’t have to go snooping.” he moaned as the two started to untangle themselves from one another. He received another light tap on the nose, making him pull his head back and blink reflexively. “Hey!” 

“That is for tripping me up!” Acts said, rising to her feet and dusting herself off. 

Nadia, still laying on the floor, glared at her. “I thought the other tap was for that!”

“No,” she replied with a small grin. “That was for the porno, you leafy rabbit.”

Nadia began to protest and get up, but Acts’ boot promptly forced his chest back to the floor again. As he looked up at her to shoot another glare, something made him stop short. Maybe it was the way her eyes were knowingly tracing across his face, or the coy smile she’d adopted. Then again, maybe it was the boot currently pressing down on his ribcage.

At least from this angle, Nadia had a chance to really take a look at the girl. Prior to this moment, she’d just been a slightly energetic, misspeaking green head at about chest height, but now… well, she was still that, but he could see she’d actually dressed to adventure. She was wearing long, sleek-looking trousers, not really the kind he’d have associated with long-distance trekking. Her upper half wasn’t really covered at all - her light denim jacket was open under a brown, versatile-looking vest. The boots, one of which he was especially aware of, were thick-soled and heavy duty, clearly specifically made for her species. They also seemed to have something somewhat unfitting on the bottom of them - a kind of sheet of stubbled metal held on by two clasps along the side…

“They are priests.” Acts noted, the coy smile still present as Nadia’s attention was ripped back into the present. He was only just aware that he’d been staring at her body, but considering her expression, she hadn’t seemed to mind. 

“Uh… Priests?” Nadia muttered, trying to fight through the blush. “What do you mean?” 

Acts shifted her weight a little, making Nadia wince as the boot on top of him scuffed up his chest fur. “The boot augs.” She said, her grin seemingly glued to her face. “The metal? They are called priests.” She pulled her heavy boot off of him and extended a hand down to him to help him up. “I got them in the far south, very far.”  

“Well…” The subjugated bunny sought for something to say as the girl hoisted him upright once more.. “...I’ll be sure not to sin near you, I guess.” 

This got more of a laugh out of the frog than he expected; she punched his arm playfully, and Nadia found himself giggling a little along with her. “You’re funny!” She said, smiling up at him. “It is a shame you are so into the naked lizards.” 

Nadia stopped grinning. Ears flat, he went into full defence mode. “N-nono! It was… that picture is just for education!” He protested. Acts nodded, unconvinced. 

“Mm, I am most sure it was… educational.” she said, crossing her arms once again. Nadia could feel his cheeks beginning to burn again as he held up his paws defensively and back away a little. 

“No, for real! I was l-looking into fire resistance and b-burn uh… burn healing! 

“And I suppose your study subject had to have no clothes on, yes?” Acts destroyed his defence as easily as a feather falls, taking a few steps forwards as he did back, keeping him on the retreat. 

“They’re dragons!” Nadia said weakly, knowing he’s losing the battle for his innocence. “T-they don’t wear--” 

“I have known dragons.” Acts interrupted him before he could even finish. Nadia’s mind began to rush, but it turned off entirely when the back of his knees felt the edge of his bed - before he knew it, he was falling backwards onto it with a bouncy thud, barely missing his sachel of important items. Acts giggled down at the disturbed rabbit. 

“Uuugh… why are you doing this to me?” Nadia looked up at Acts’ happy green face with a defeated expression. “Aren’t you meant to be showing me what I need to pack?” 

With movement as smooth and practiced as her introduction to the concept of tea, Acts slowly leant down, placed her webbed hands on either of the bunny’s shoulders, and slowly pressed him down into the bedding until she was stood over him. “Perhaps I am.” She said. 

“Uh… what?” 

“Perhaps I am, lucky foot.” She repeated, her stark purple eyes glistening in the low light of the alchemical hut. 

“...No, what?” Nadia repeated back, still confused. Acts stopped her half-closed eye-gazing and stood up, allowing Nadia to sit up and stare at her face to face.

“You know, like…” Acts began to move her hands back and forth as if trying to summon more words from the thin air. “Like… packing? I am showing you what to pack?” 

Nadia slowly shook his head. “I don’t, uh… no, sorry, still not quite getting it.” 

Acts clenched her hands in frustration and looked angrily at the ceiling for a moment, before regaining her posture and once again plonking both of her hands down on Nadia’s shoulders. “Packing, like, contain, yes?” 

“Yes.” Nadia nodded. “With you so far.” 

“I am going to show you…” she said slowly, nodding as if to try and help the rabbit understand. 

“Ahuh?” 

“...What to contain inside me…?” She continued, still with her simplistic body language and slow speech. 

“What to con-- O-Oh! Oh. oh.” 

Nadia’s eyes widened. 
Acts’ eyes narrowed.
His ears folded over themselves, and her grin spread quickly over her face. 

Slowly, as she leant her face closer to his, he felt her knees slowly slide onto the bed either side of his legs. “So, lucky foot…” She whispered, her lips barely a wisp of hair away from his. “...would you like me to show you what to pack?” 

“T-this is all kinda sudden…” Nadia muttered frantically. “I-I kinda thought you were angry with me-- ow! Hey!” 

Acts purple eyes sparkled into his as she let go of his cheek fur from between her teeth. “Yes. You are a bad bunny.” She said with a grin. Without warning, she thrust her backside onto his lap and pulled her webbed hands roughly down his chest to rest on his belly. “...I meet many people, but I like the bad ones.” She muttered, smiling down at him. 

A mixture of excitement, fear, and anxiety washed over Nadia. He wasn’t quite sure what his face was doing; likely a mixture of grinning like an idiot and looking like a scared kit. Regardless, the look that this adorable, incredibly confident frog was giving him was fairly undeniable. 

“W-what about the trip?” He muttered, regretting the words as soon as they’d left his mouth. Acts rolled her eyes, and promptly dismounted him. 

“Fine!” She said, confidently pacing over to the door and kicking it open. She turned around and gave him what he’d consider a half-glare of contempt. “Out we go, lucky foot! To the beyond!” Without waiting for a response from the stunned rabbit, she promptly turned around and walked out of the front door, leaving Nadia on his bed, as confused as he’d ever been. 

“W-wait!” He yelled, scampering to get out of the door. He tripped over himself, and the previously offending stool to do so, but he eventually caught up with her just outside his home. 

“Ready already?” She muttered, her words pointed. 

“N-no! I just… I’m sorry for mentioning the trip, can we go back and uh… y’know?” Nadia trailed off helplessly. He felt criminally underdressed for the outside; all he really had on was a pair of loose jeans and his foot wraps.

“No.” Acts stated. Nadia’s ears fell. “Do not make questions. Hurry up!” she continued, clapping her hands together to try and get him to move, before turning to glance at the descending sun. “We will miss the sunset!” 

Nadia took in a slow breath, and quickly thought over his options. Her semi-detached language may have given him the wrong idea a couple of times, but what had happened on the bed… there was little mistaking that situation. It wasn’t like it’d have been his first time, though admittedly it certainly would have been for such an exotic species like Acts, but it had been such a long time… all of the studies he’d been doing, and his lonesome alchemical work hardly lent itself to impressing the engineering types at the university. 

He decided to take actions. It may not be the best course of action, but he felt he had to do something. Acts couldn’t go away thinking this was all he was. So, with his breath held tightly in his chest, Nadia Aximand straightened himself up, locked his shoulders in place, firmly grabbed the frog’s far arm and pulled her in for a rough, unannounced kiss. 

To his surprise, he didn’t get punched in the gut. He had very much expected a punch in the gut, to the point where he almost flinched for the fact that it didn’t come. When he opened his eyes, he saw Acts staring at him, unblinkingly, in shock. His eyes were as wide with shock as her own, but she didn’t struggle against his firm grasp. In fact, after a few moments had passed with his lips firmly planted against hers, she practically melted into him. Her eyes became beautiful semi circles of bright purple pleasure, her smooth palms pressed against his chest as she leant more into the extended, unexpected kiss. Nadia wasn’t sure, but he thought he may have felt her lift a leg at one point. 

After the universe had decided that it had paused for quite long enough, the two mutually pulled back from one another’s faces. Nadia’s cheeks were bright red, and his eyes darted this way and that in a nervous stupor. Acts, on the other hand, had a maliciously mean grin on her face; her cheeks had a slightly blue hue, though Nadia could have been mistaking that for the light of the sun. The cool, soft feel of her lips against his burned in his mind, forcing out every other thought that tried to form before they could.

“S-so, uh…” Nadia muttered, daring to speak after less than an eternity. Acts quickly shushed him, and pushed him towards the door. The bunny stumbled, as if he’d only just learned how his legs worked, and righted himself as his shoulder met the doorframe.

“Quiet.” She demanded, her pointed grin wearing the rabbit’s resolve down faster than steaming salt lava. He bustled into the elliptical room and stood in the middle of it as she, silhouetted against the daylight, stared at him from the doorway.

“You want to be the bad bunny?” The door slammed shut. Nadia’s eyes took a moment to acclimatize to the darkness, by which time he found Acts stood millimeters in front of him. Even with his height difference, he felt like she was looming over him…

She spoke with the softness and tenderness of a freshly skinned knee. Each syllable held the potential to stop a planet dead in its tracks. Her eyes locked onto his, and from that point onwards, they were all that existed.

“Then be bad.” 

The last thread of Nadia’s inhibitions were deftly washed away as he cool breath rolled over his delicate nostrils. Who this frog was, where she came from and how she knew exactly how to push his buttons, none of that mattered anymore. 

His usually soft-touching and delicate paws grabbed her by the back of her vest and tore it downwards; she pulled her arms back as if about to take flight as the heavy, tough garment was wrenched down her arms and onto the floor. From there, the enthralled bunny wasted no time in practicing what she had gifted him already. His paws ran back up her back, slower this time, more gracefully tracing the subtle curves of her body as his lips left tiny lupin kisses up her stomach. 

Somewhere above the roar of his heartbeat, he heard her gasp softly, as if she was taken aback by his gentle, yet firm nature. Soon, he found himself tracing his lips up her delicately thin chest, up her neck, and then before he knew it, he was once again taken into the world that were her soft, cool lips. 

“Mm- W-wait, you… are alchemy, yes?” She mumbled through soft breaks in the kissing. Nadia felt her hands brazenly dig into his fur, each finger like a seal seaking land. He opened his mouth to try and speak, but all that came forth was a soft moan. He heard a soft giggle, and felt her hands work their way up to his face, where she pulled him away. 

With a sweet smile and large, sparkling eyes, she asked again. “You are alchemy, yes?” 

“Uh..y-yeah? I’m an alchemist?” He stuttered, “I-I make potions and… remedies and stuff?” Her look hadn’t changed, clearly she hadn’t heard the answer she wanted yet. 

“You make potions.” She said, plainly. “Tell me about them.” 

“U-uh… wha--” Suddenly and without warning, she pushed him by the chest, stumbling, until he finally tripped backwards and landed on his unpreparedly hard mattress with a spring thud. 

“Hey, ow!” He complained, rubbing his back and trying his best to sit up a little. The offending frog girl walked confidently up to him; her glistening curves caught the light in such a way as to capture his eye, inspiring him to think of-- 

His back hit the mattress and the wind was knocked out of his chest, again without warning. As he wheezed in mild pain and looked down at his chest. He didn’t remember a foot being there before, let alone a green, hairless foot. His eyes wandered up the green leg that held him in place, and eventually met Acts’ eyes once again. Her composure was one of elegance, rather than one of an adventurer. One leg pointed ninety degrees away from Nadia, the other planted firmly upon his chest, her stature was straight and her eyes were focused studiously upon his. The only part of her that didn’t fit the look, in fact, were her fingers, which were desperately struggling with the top button of her thigh-hugging trousers. Nadia blinked. 

“Y-you, uh… I make potions.” He said flatly. Acts grinned. 
“Then perhaps you are good with your hands.” She muttered, giving Nadia the charity of removing her bare foot from his chest so as to let him assist her with undressing. 

“So, tell me about them.” She muttered, watching Nadia as he began to fumble at waist height with her admittedly tightly buttoned trousers. He shrugged. “What is it you want me to tell you?” He asked, smiling up at her and letting his fingers do the work they needed to. The top button reluctantly unfastened, but the bunny kept the two pieces of fabric between two of his fingers as the other hand worked on the lower buttons. 

Seeming not to notice his duplicitous act, she rolled her eyes and put her soft, smooth hands around either of his ears, miming as if to pull them. “Silly hare!” She muttered. “I go many places, I see many peoples, I meet many… strong people.” She trailed off for a moment, her mind seemingly sidetracked by some far-off memory. Another button came undone, and was tightly held with the first. She soon snapped back to focus, and blinked away the hidden vision. “When I met you, I knew you were strong for something. This…” She motioned vaguely around the room, to the various messes and alchemical bits of equipment. “...This is your strength. I want to know it.” 

The sly bunny grinned up at her. She smiled down at him. “You’d like to know my strength?” He asked, raising one eyebrow. Cautiously, she nodded. “Show me, little bunny. What can you do?” 

No sooner had the words passed through her lips than Nadia let go of the tight bundle of buttons and fabric he’d been holding onto. He leaned back against the mattress, laying his palms flat and grinning up at her stupidly, his eyes not once deviating from hers as her trousers fell cleanly and unfastened to the scorched floor. Acts almost ribbited out of shock. 

“Y-you!” She exclaimed, for a moment forgetting her previous confidence and covering up her suddenly exposed crotch and hip area with her hands. “How did you do that?!” Nadia had to stop himself from laughing, but he was sure his broken grin was a dead giveaway. “I’m good with my paws.” he managed, before closing his eyes and falling back onto the mattress, grinning like an idiot. 

For some reason, Nadia had expected her to be totally nude under her shorts, much like under her vest. What was making him grin so hard he had to cover his eyes and blush so much he thought his entire coat would turn red was the fact that, in fact, she wasn’t. A single, frilly line of pink fabric had caught his eye, despite her inept attempt at recovering modesty. From behind his hands, the huffy complaints eventually died down to a dead silence. Afraid to take his paws away from his eyes lest they be met with another intoxicating glare, the blushing bunny decided to just lay there, and hope she wouldn’t take things too hard on him. 

A compression into the mattress either side of him suggested otherwise. Two more were felt by his hips, making Nadia think that maybe, just perhaps, he should begin to look. 

As soon as he opened his eyes, the rest of the world disappeared. Two sparkling, purple pools of beauty pulled him in by the pupils. Her lips grazed softly against his, her arms were either side of his head, and the look on her face said more than any words could. Regardless, she decided to speak. 

“You are a dick.” She said, smiling nonetheless. “...But you are good with paws.”

Slowly, the still brightly blushing bunny drew his eyes downwards, across her slightly pale chest, past her toned, soft stomach, and-- 

“Oh, for god’s sake.” he muttered, once again closing his eyes. “Sorry, sorry… I, uh…” Acts laughed, making the both of them wobble slightly. “What’s the matter?” She asked. He felt her sway her pink-lined hips side to side slightly above him, apparently ignoring or ignorant of the deftly outlined bulge prominently poking up from Nadia’s crotch, straining the blue fabric of his workman’s trousers. “I-I-I just… you were kissing me, and…” he stammered, his mind jostling with imagery of lace and a fine pink mist that threatened to turn him into a nervous vegetable. 

“Hush, bunny.” Acts whispered into his face. Nadia felt the soft grace of her fingers around his wrists for a moment, and before he knew it both of his hands were yanked up away from his face and pinned deftly to the mattress above him. He stared at her with a mixture of embarrassment and shock. 

“Do not think.” She commanded. Nadia shut his mouth, despite not being aware it was open. She really did have a rather tight grip… “Look into my eyes.” He looked into her eyes. “Good, bunny. Now…” With a pressure and softness that made his back arch slightly, she slowly lowered her hind quarters until his bulge was pressed between his pelvis and her finely decorated panties. He stared desperately at her, his tongue unable or unwilling to form words. Finally, she finished her order. “Now… tell me of Alchemy.”

Did… did she just hook her toes into his belt line?! Nadia daren’t look down to answer the question that shot through his mind, passing by at the speed of an accelerating proton. He was aware he had to speak, and so he fumbled out some words as he felt the tightly tied fabric being very, very slowly drawn down his pelvis. “T-th-the, uh… i-if you pour a palm of salt into a small b-bucket of water, the water l-level goes down.” He tried. Acts grinned down at him, her sparkling eyes narrowing slightly. “And tell me, rabbit…” She’s going to feel my frustration if she doesn’t stop pulling my trousers down, Nadia thought desperately. “...Why is that?” 

The flexible amphibian seamlessly slid his trousers past the point of his desperately unattended-to member, making the tip show and pulse desperately against his fur. “T-the s-saturation levels of sodium!” He moaned out, admittedly not the most bizarre thing he’d called out while excited and on his bed. There were always those long, dark nights when an idea strikes at the most interesting times…

His eyes widened suddenly when he felt the fabric slip all the way down to his balls, his thighs twitching noticeably just as his throbbing member was freed. She must know… he thought to himself, staring directly into her eyes as if speaking to her through nothing more than thoughts. She MUST know how desperate I am, how I won’t last. 

Maybe that’s what she likes? Another, smaller, meeker voice suggested. Nadia wanted to shake his head and dismiss the idea, but the way Acts was looking at him, the way her thighs began to press gently against his, with her toes pulling the fabric straight down to his knees… 
 
Slowly, she leaned her head down, the firmness of her grasp on his wrists doubling as he struggled to keep eye contact. When her head stopped, he could only just see one of her eyes out of the corner of one of his own, but even that was staring directly into his soul. With the grace of a thousand fallen angels, she whispered softly into one of his long ears. “Be a good bunny, and tell me more…” The cool smoothness of her form spread across his stomach and chest as she lay upon him, his seemingly red hot member twitching, aching against her soft and cool skin.

Immediately, he started complying. “T-the rarest element on the planet’s crust is enitatsa!” He groaned, the pressure atop of him shifting gently. “T-the o-only-- G-gods, woman!” She raised her head and cocked it to one side slightly, with such an innocent look on her face Nadia feared he’d offended her by breaking. “J-just… ah… n-not so tight, eh?” He asked meekly, flexing his wrists a little as a sign. Her curious look turned into a devilish grin. “Tight?” She muttered. He knew he’d made a mistake by even mentioning it, but before he could apologise, she raised her hind quarters with her back legs and landed her crotch squarely against the shaft of his member, pressing it even more tightly than before against his furred belly. He cried out in a mixture of enjoyment, embarrassment and a tiny amount of fear. 

“You want tight?” She said again, this time somewhat more confidently, having apparently shown her dominance over the larger rabbit. “Then you keep going.” Slowly, as if not being consciously aware of it, she began rocking her hips slightly, back and forth, forcing her panties to rub up and down his engorged cock, and against her as-yet-unyielded lower lips. Nadia almost called out again, but instead bit his lip and nodded. “Good boy.” She said with another happy smile. “Now, continue.” 

He could feel her hips sliding against his. Oh, gods… “T-the only elements that a-are… l-l-liquid at room temperature a-are…” Her hands shifted, so both of his wrists were held by a single, strong hand. The other began to trace down his burning face, past his neck down his chest… Christ, girl. He took another breath and tried to focus. “A-are mercury a-and b-bromine.” 

The pressure stopped, her hand ceased tracing its way down his stomach. Nadia looked desperately into Acts’ eyes. “That’s not true.” she said, her head tilted accusingly. “I have been into very hot places, some places where even rock is water!” Trying desperately to decypher her broken language, he stuttered and stumbled over his words to correct her. “A-at room temperature?” he asked, his hips bucking very slightly in desperation, only to be met by the cool air above them. Acts, almost as if totally unaware of his plight, put her free hand on her chin and pondered this for what seemed like a hellishly long moment. “I suppose,” she began, “it would depend on the room, yes?” 

Nadia was almost desperate enough to simply nod his head and agree to everything she said, but instead he scrunched up his face and tried not to yell out for pleasure. “I Suppose It Would, But who would build a house in a volcano?” It took every ounce of his energy not to roll over, pin her to the mattress and see how she liked being dominated, but some part of him doubted he could even if he tried. Her grip really was very tight on his wrists, and even with one hand she was keeping him firmly and easily in place…

Acts shrugged, and the blessed, glorious pressure dripped itself back onto Nadia’s waist. “Oh, my god…” he called out, barely aware of doing so. He could feel the wetness of his crotch. He wasn’t sure if it was him leaking or her, but the thought of either of those things being the case was almost enough to already send him over the edge… 

Smooth fingers brushed against either side of Nadia’s member, making him almost jump straight out of bed. At least, it would have, if another set of smooth, surprisingly strong fingers weren’t keeping him firmly in place, with the help of some heavy thighs. All that happened, in the end, was his back arching upwards uncontrollably for a moment. 

“My, my!” Acts chirped happily above him. “Are you alchemies all as… tightly drawn as you?” She asked, delivering another devilishly gently finger-squeeze to Nadia’s privates, who whimpered softly and bit his lip once more. “A-all forms and things are m-made up--” Acts cleared her throat. “Excuse me, bunny?” She asked, her fingers doing something indistinguishable against the side of Nadia’s sensitive member. He daren’t look down; he could barely keep his eyes focused on hers, and even now he had to focus on one specific point in the distance to stare off into if he had any hope of getting through all of this without dying. Still, since she had released his penis of her exquisite torment, at least for now, he took another quick breath and tried again. 

“A-all forms and things…” He felt the fabric of her panties, more strongly this time, press against the side of his cock. “...i-in this universe a-are made up…” Perhaps she’d simply missed, but her hips weren’t that differently aligned from before. “...o-of simple, tiny t-things that--” A somewhat sudden, cool sensation spread over the tip of Nadia’s member. For the second time that afternoon, he heard Acts moan softly; her tight envelopment of his twitching, burning cock felt like it was cooling his entire body down. He froze as she began to descend, every millimeter of her inner flesh being felt against each of his own. The tight, soft inner folds of her delicately decorated opening stretched as his girth swelled, each heartbeat of his being felt through his member and pumped into Acts’ body. 

Almost an inch before hilting, she stopped. Nadia, too dazed by the unfathomable feeling around his genitalia to respond vocally, looked into her eyes. They were half-closed, and not in the accusatory, dangerous way he’d grown to know them. When she spoke, her words had lost their edge, and instead of cutting through his mind like a knife, they drifted in on clouds of purple haze, propelled by the whisper through long summer’s grass. “Keep going, lucky foot.” She whispered softly, her wrist-binding fingers tightening ever so slightly to punctuate the scene. 

She tensed up around him, and he felt his back arch. Wordless pleas crawled out of his mouth and into the dispassionate air. “I-I…” He tried, and faltered. Acts smiled down at him, and leant down slowly - Nadia’s body twitched as he felt her weight shift, her silky skin shifting against his member. “Come on now, mister alchemy. Will you not let me see your knowledge?” 

The bunny’s eyes shot open. “Ah, I… T-things a-are made o-of… tiny… Oh, gods, acts!” His shout somewhat surprising the frog into loosening her grip just enough, the rabbit broke free of her hands and grabbed her thighs, his hips desperately thrusting forwards and hilting the dominant young frog, who exclaimed in a mixture of surprise and pleasure. “B-bunny--!” She moaned into the side of his face, her broken grapple on his wrists making her stumble forwards until her arms come to rest on either side of the bunny’s long, twitching ears. His paws desperately clung to her hind quarters, finding purchase around the amphibian’s minimalistically toned ass as his hips continued to buck inexpertly yet feverishly upwards. Being pushed from her dominant mindset enough to let the situation carry on without protest, Acts gave another soft moan into the rabbit’s soft facial features as she felt her back end lift almost as if it had a mind of its own, only to be forced back down to envelope the bunny’s furiously twitching member by his forceful, desperate paws. 

“F-Fuck, A-Acts…” He moaned through gritted teeth. The waves of pleasure crashing through his body had eroded any self doubt he had, or at least the parts of himself capable of registering it. He barely felt the tightness around the tips of his ears as the panting young frog gripped them, pulling several folds of loose bedding together around them.

“N-no…” She whispered breathily into his ear. “C-call me s-something good! P-please, I…!” 

As Acts let her sentence drift off into obscurity amongst the breathy pants and her unapologetically loud moans, most of which were directed, purposefully or not, into Nadia’s sensitive ears, Nadia tried his best to think. His body was mostly acting on autopilot; his paws had found a perfectly ratioed part of Acts’ physique to get purchase on, and as he used his upper body strength to force her backside down, his legs had spread by themselves and bucked his hips upwards. The previously soft, merely moist sound of Acts’ quivering feminine folds slamming down around Nadia’s firm shaft had seemingly seamlessly transitioned into much louder, wetter slaps of flesh against flesh. Every grunt of Nadia’s was met by a louder gasp of his partner, and every throb of his ecstatic member was given back to him in a tight squeeze around his shaft. 

“Y-you’re… uh… A-ah, fuck!” Nadia gritted his teeth again and shut his eyes tight. His mind could work in the trickiest of situations, so he had no idea why he was having so much trouble now. After a few more moments of panicked bliss, a thought finally managed to battle its way through the smog-thick pink haze of his mind. “Y-you’re s-such a good girl…!” He tried. He had no idea how people said this kind of thing unironically, but right now, in the heat of the moment, with the cool-blooded amphibian squirming and moaning on top of him… part of him understood the appeal. 

Acts certainly did. “G-gods, yes!” She moaned above him, apparently forgiving his ear trauma and instead raising her voice to the crater-speckled roofing. “C-come on, bunny! M-make me…!” 

Before he could ask politely stop and ask her what exactly he should make her do, both his and her bodies were rocked by the same thundurus event. It happened so fast, neither mind really had much time to register it, especially the one with far less experience with it. Through the blur, there were a couple of key details that stuck out to Nadia, and they were details he would never forget, no matter how many blows to the head he received…

A messy, passionate kiss, a tight embrace. His thrusts sped up, her back arched. She was on top of him, then they rolled; he was on top of her, pinning her down. Then her hands were around his torso, scratching down his back. He muttered something derogatory, she… blushed...

Then, lightning. 

The explosive potential that had been slowly bubbling up between the two finally found an out point, and released. Acts was first; Nadia’s mind suddenly cleared when her entire body tensed up. She’d wrapped her arms and legs around his torso, so he felt it when every single muscle of hers clenched shut. He especially felt her wet, pulsating pussy clench up like it was trying to swallow his cock whole. Nadia would have been concerned for her if a similar feeling wasn’t about to break his internal dam too; he held her just as tightly as she was holding him, cutting off both of their breaths before they had a chance to be made. A sound was made between them, wordless ecstasy drifting between two bodies as they both shared a single, magical moment. 

The bunny’s throbbing member finally let forth the torrent of hot, leporine cum that had been begging for release since before Acts had even shown her face. It was welcomed, too; rope after rope of steaming, sticky leporine loving painted the inside of her twitching tunnel. Only after a few more jagged, uncoordinated thrusts did Nadia and Acts know for sure that they were done, though it was an indistinguishable amount of time before the bunny would realise who or where he was again. The two lazed there, content in their post-orgasm afterglow, each watching one side of the small, single room growing dimmer and dimmer as the sunlight began to drain from the sky.

Nadia was the first to speak, unusually, though it wasn’t comprehensible. As she lay below him, panting heavily, Acts let out a soft “hah…” 

With a small grin, he wiped his face into the covers and caught his breath. “...Wow.” he repeated, 

“Y-yeah…” she replied, apparently basking in the rays of a dying sunbeam. 

“Wow...” He said again. 

“Is that all you bunnies say?” Acts muttered coyly. With some effort, he raised his torso onto his elbows and looked at her, his nose an inch away from hers. 

“Did… did you blush?” 

“What?” She narrowed her eyes at him again, apparently bereft of the afterglow she’d been enjoying. “No, I did most certainly not!” 

Nadia grinned a knowing smile, and folded his ears back a little as he felt his member twitch, shifting against the soft, moist home it had made for itself. “I didn’t know frogs could blush.” He muttered, slowly shifting his weight to very gradually pull out of Acts’ wanting entrance. Though she gave a mild huff of annoyance at being parted with the bunny so soon, her cursory glance at the dimming skies convinced her to let him go. With a soft gasp from Nadia and a satisfied grunt from Acts, his slowly softening member came free; not with a loud ‘pop’ as one might expect, but it was accompanied by a thin white trail signalling his accomplishment. 

“T-thanks… by the way.” He muttered, looking side-long out of one of the small holes in his wall. He didn’t want to look her in the eyes at the moment, it felt… weird. 

“What for?” She asked as she stretched her neck and sat up slightly. Nadia glanced around here and there for his clothes, trying his best to hide the fact that he was blushing a little. Perhaps being so flushed after such a heated exchange would mask it well. 

“W-well… you know, for the, uh. Good time?” He tried to be as delicate as possible, his rediscovered self-consciousness rearing its ugly head, which turned upside down when Acts straight up burst out laughing. Nadia forgot about his eye-to-eye anxiety and stood up straight, the blush brazenly showing on his cheeks and under his ears as he glared at her. “Hey, don’t laugh at me!” He said in what he hoped was a stern voice. “I-it’s not every day you get… hopped on by some cute frog girl!” 

Acts continued laughing, but spared enough thought to mime turning around. With his head crooked, Nadia turned around, and felt something tug at his tail-- 

“H-hey!” He exclaimed, spinning back around quickly to find Acts once again in hysterics, but this time holding… 

Porn. It was crumpled up, heavy-treated, medium-tier hydrophobic dragon porn, bent roughly into the shape it would make if it were wedged between two firm pillows, or…

“It-- Ahahaha! It was plugged between your mounds, luckyfoot! Ahaha...!” 

Ah, Nadia thought to himself. There’s that blush again. He was well aware his entire face had turned red, and with his ears dropped to his neck he probably looked like some sort of fruit, but the small smirk on his face betrayed the fact that Acts, even if she was laughing hysterically at something he didn’t even find funny (probably a culture thing, he thought), she was definitely blushing now. Her entire face had turned a slight shade of blue, which was… an interesting sight. 

Still, even as it was at his own expense, Nadia found himself slowly giggling along with Acts. It was somehow funny how she couldn’t stop laughing, and the way she couldn’t help but be drawn to shaking hysterics was… well, incredibly endearing. The two laughed through a decent amount of the remaining sunlight, until the finely speckled blanket of stars was thrown over the world, and the night animals began to come out from their sleep. Nadia and Acts were likely the only ones to stay up so late that night, with every other citizen of Whitewall, at least the ones who were naturally awake during the day, got some rest after what had been an undoubtedly dull and tiring day.,

“Tomorrow is another day, luckyfoot.” Acts smiled at Nadia, who smiled back. 

“That’s how days tend to work, yes.” As soon as the words had left his mouth, as with many conversations, he immediately regretted it. Before he could recover, however, she let out a soft giggle. Suddenly, in Nadia’s mind, it was… an acceptable way to phrase things. 

“I mean, silly rabbit, that we should have departed today. Tomorrow will be long, and full of feet.” With a soft yawn and a long, healthy stretch, the young frog stood up from the comfortable (if now slightly sweaty) bed, and made her way towards the door. It opened with a soft creak, and just before she crossed the threshold, she turned to face him once more. With a soft smile and a stance that made the stars glint off of her smooth body, she made her penultimate comment of the night. “Rest well, luckyfoot. Tomorrow, we are going to hurt.” 

Nadia, staring hazily at her and not entirely sure what to say back, concluded that he wouldn’t let anything ruin the decorum of her message. He nodded, and smiled back to her as she walked into the night, and closed the door. 

It only took her three minutes before the door slowly creaked open once again, and her head poked around the frame. “Hello, uhm… May you please find my clothes?”  She asked, looking only a little concerned. Nadia grinned a wide, stupid grin, and handed her her pre-folded clothes. 

“You’re very wel--” 

“Try it,” She said, grabbing her clothes quickly from him. “And you will know what true pain is.” 

With that, the door was finally shut for the night, and the previously bounce-around-the-room energetic bunny trotted over, collapsed, promptly fell asleep on his bed, sweaty frog smell and all. As far as he was concerned, the night might as well last forever for how at peace he felt in that moment. 

--

While the exhausted young bunny drifted easily off to sleep in his makeshift home and the daylight drained from the landscape, the moist leaves of Frogleg forest shuddered with activity. Most nights this just meant the wind, or a flock of night-time lemurs looking for berries. Tonight, however, things were a little different. Along with the shaking of the leaves came… nothing. As if pulled by invisible strings, the broad, flat leaves curled up into themselves and bent backwards into their stems, burned by invisible fire. The nothingness moved through the forest, more and more leaves curling up as a passageway through the foliage parted its way into existence. 

Just west of the dancing sands of the maroon desert, an amphibious scream was cut short. Eyes hidden in the darkness opened, and words were exchanged. Something was not right in the forest of the frogs.

-- 

“Just leave him alone for now.” 

Nadia’s ears twitched as whispers drifted in from outside his mostly broken door, his mind slowly creeping from the swampy dreamscape it had held him in that night. “Mhug?” He postulated to the morning air around him. He was suddenly aware that he was… dressed. Properly, too - his foot wraps were tightly bound around his paws, he had his leather gloves on and even a hat, though it had fallen to the side of his head, had apparently been placed upon his face during the night. Rather than questioning who or what dressed him during the night, he blinked hazily and looked around his living quarters. 

“I am of understanding, yes. Do not think you can speak to me in such a way!” 

The bunny blinked lazily. Yep, he thought to himself as he unsteadily rose to his feet. That’ll be Acts. He stumbled his way forwards, stepping over the messy floor, crumpled up papers and occasional bit of glassware. When he finally opened his door, he found himself blinded by the oncoming sunlight. “Argh!” 

He felt a silence wash over him. It wasn’t the silence of being alone; rather, it was the silence of nobody talking. He blinked a few times and rose his hand to protect his eyes, as slowly two blurry figures came into focus. It was the oversized beefcake of a wolf, and…

“Acts?” He mumbled. Acts didn’t look at him; she was too busy staring very angrily up at the wolf, who to Nadia’s surprise, was looking quite apologetic. 

“Look, I’m sorry, alright?” The wolf said, one of his massive claws scratching idley the back of his head. “But when the university pays me to get people out, it’s my job to get ‘em out.” 

Nadia tilted his head, the hot, fresh air ebbing the tiredness from his mind. He cleared his throat softly, and was suddenly being stared at by two sets of intense eyes. “Er.” he managed. 

“See?!” Acts yelled, making Nadia flinch as she gestured violently towards him. “You woke him up! How am I to get this thing up a sheer cliff if he cannot even move?” 

“Er.” Nadia repeated as the two turned back to face one another. “What’s this about a cliff?” 

“That’s not my responsibility!” The wolf exclaimed, his ears pricking up somewhat. “It’s my job to get his ass out of the city, nothing more!”

“Wait, what was that?” The bunny said, a little louder this time, his eyes widening with mild alarm. 

“Ho? How would you like it if I put YOUR ass outside of the city, you large beast of fur?” Acts replied, standing almost on her talented tiptoes. It still did absolutely nothing for the height differential - Nadia was sure she was aware that the wolf could very easily eat her, and have plenty of room for a full course of rabbit. 

With speed that made said rabbit flinch, the wolf threw up both his arms. “Well, whatever!” He conceded, trotting back out of the garden with a tempermental swagger. “He’s up now, just make sure he’s gone as soon as possible!” 

“Soon is of possible, you round-ear!” Acts yelled back to him, before turning back to the very confused, mildly alarmed bunny. 

“That doesn’t even make any sense, you purple-eyed bald bastard!” 

After a pause to process the words from the departing wolf and a brief sigh of frustration, Acts put her hands on her hips and smiled up at Nadia, as if nothing had happened. “Good! You are up. Time to leave.” 

“W-wait, what was that about a cliff? And me being kicked out of the city?” He asked, doing a double-take as he looked back over his shoulder at the room he’d just exited from, as if hoping on some level he was still dreaming. 

Acts waved her hand in front of his face flippantly. “Ah, do not worry about it.” She muttered. Instead of explaining anything at all, she tugged on a leather strap that Nadia hadn’t even noticed was bound around his chest. “Ah, I see you are all packed!” 

Nadia stopped looking over his shoulder and glanced down, his paws reflexively touching parts of his body. “I… guess I am, yeah.” He said, finding his satchel fully packed and sealed, his tunic neatly woven around him and nothing seemingly missing. The very faint jingle of glass against glass let him know his instruments were still very much in one piece, though he could have sworn he hadn’t packed everything last night…

“Excellent.” Acts once again piped up. “Then let us go. No waiting this time, no questions.” 

Nadia opened his mouth to ask why not, saw the frog’s purple eyes staring at him, and closed it again. They both happily nodded, and after Nadia had gone through some effort to close his front door, they both left his homestead. 

Travelling down the streets of Whitewall told of the construction the city had gone through. Nadia lived relatively near the university, one of the oldest places in the city, and it showed; where his house was, there seemed to be a square hole cut out of other houses. All over the streets, certain houses seemed to have been missing, or converted into temporary tents for merchants. As they gradually made their way down the main road and through the stalls, the houses became more and more stable and well-built. 

“Y’know that building over there?” Nadia had mentioned at one point, gesturing towards a large, moss-covered wooden building by the river. Acts had given it a cursory glance and nodded, before turning back to the road ahead of them. “That’s where the first fish were brought in from the sea boats, back when the city was still founding.” 

“That is nice.” Acts responded with a small smile. Nadia shrugged, and padded along side her. 

“I don’t know, I find history and stuff interesting.” He muttered under his breath. For a while, he didn’t think she’d heard him, or perhaps found no reason to reply, but after a few minutes of walking through various bustling squares and streets, she spoke up. 

“History is overrated.”

Nadia raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know half the words in my language, but you know ‘overrated’?” She shot him a sarcastic glance and rolled her beautiful purple eyes. 

“What is done has happened.” She said, stretching her arms above her head for a moment and letting out a soft yawn. “There is no use in… making things for it. It is not here anymore.” 

After taking a few moments to deconstruct and translate the sentence, the bunny shrugged. “I don’t know, some of our greatest lessons come from the past.” 

“This way.” Acts said, turning off of the main street and onto a more beaten path. “Yes, lessons that you have learned from when the past was not the past.” She continued, glancing behind her occasionally to make sure the bunny was following her. “Not now. Making tall houses for the past, turning the trees or white stone into the past?” She shook her head dismissively, as if just the idea of statues and wood carvings left a bad taste in her mouth. “No.” 

The two wandered in silence for a long time, with the quiet being broken only occasionally as Acts pointed them in the right direction. Nadia didn’t quite know how she knew where she was going - not once did he see her take out a compass, take a look around when they mount a hilltop or even consult the sun. The only time they stopped was after a few solid hours of walking, when the two came upon a perfectly sized piece of abandoned marble sitting alongside the dirt track they’d been trekking. Nadia immediately sped up and planted his sore body down on the stone, letting out a soft sigh of relief as he let the weight leave his tired paws. 

“What are you doing?” Acts asked, standing in front of him with her head tilted slightly. 

Nadia shrugged. “Taking a rest? We’ve been walking for hours.” 

“Yes, and we shall walk for many hours more.” Acts replied matter-of-factly. “Our journey is very long, luckyfoot.” She said, poking him in the ribs with her fist. “We will rest when it is dark.” 

“My feet aren’t feeling so lucky any more…” Nadia grumbled as he slowly got back onto his feet. “You were a lot nicer yesterday.” 

The two resumed their walking, though not without some amount of complaining from the mammal. At some point, Acts had decided she’d had enough, and had stopped dead in her tracks. So suddenly did she stop, in fact, that Nadia almost tripped straight over her, mid-complaint. 

“Are you not meant to be a tough man?” She asked sternly. 

Without really thinking about the answer, Nadia responded with “No, I’m an alchemist.” 

The sudden, not-thought-out nature of his response forced Acts to smile, even if it was just a little, which in turn helped brook the tension. “I… suppose you have a point.” She smiled up at him, and he returned a tired smile back to her. “Did you not sleep well, or something of that kind? Why are you having so many complaints?” 

Nadia looked her dead in the eye, his fine ears folded and twitching from being exposed to the cold air for too long, his feet sore, his leg muscles begging for a rest. “I’m not much of a country bun, I guess.” He said passive aggressively, shrugging his shoulders and folding his arms tightly at his chest. Acts raised what would have been an eyebrow if her species were capable of growing facial hair, and shrugged in return. The two resumed their walking, although Nadia’s complaints about the air being cold and rocks being pointy were kept strictly under his breath from the moment he stood up. 

As the sun road its celestial rails across the sky, the two unlikely partners made their way away from Whitewall, away from the cobblestone streets and bustling market stalls, away from the shortcuts and secret, hidden little pathway that Nadia had grown to know over the years, and as they crested a hill leading down into the forest path in front of them, he gave the large city one last reluctant glance. The shining white beaches glistened warmly with the soft ocean’s cupping embrace hugging it along Whitewall’s fragile boundaries. It looked so inviting, now that he was leaving. It was strange, but… he’d never really considered there to really be a beach while he was living there. He’d certainly known of its existence, even been there once or twice to fetch salt water for the occasional experiment, but he hadn’t enjoyed it quite as much as he was in his mind’s eye. With effort that felt as if it could turn the world itself, Nadia the rabbit turned away from his home, and sank into the darkness on the other side of the stony hill, where his green escort was impatiently awaiting. 

“We do not have all day, luckyfoot.” She said as he passed her. Nadia only grunted in response, and continued up the long, winding path. 

Few words were traded between the pair as the terrain underfoot slowly began to transition from rocky marble fragments into a softer path, trodden into the landscape by years of explorative paws and hooves seeking out greatness. Nadia didn’t want greatness. As the awareness that everything he held dear was strapped to his body and, at any moment, could be lost in the increasingly tall grass, his only desire was to return home to his small alchemy shack. 

Just as the trees had begun to populate his peripheral vision, a soft grasp to his shoulder tore him out of his deep train of thought and made him jump. Acts laughed her innocent laugh, and patted him a couple of times on the shoulder as he caught his breath. 

“You scared the shit out of me!” He said, flustered and frustrated. While the floor here was much softer than the rocks his paws had left behind, they still hadn’t stopped complaining. There hadn’t been a rest since that rough marble, and all this travel was starting to get to him. 

Acts treated him to a genuinely welcoming smile. “Do not fear, silly rabbit.” She said, her patronising tone making one of Nadia’s ears twitch. “We are almost to the dark trees! Then, it is only four more, uh…” 

For a moment, she stumbled over her own tongue. She adopted a confused, blank stare and looked off into the distance, as if hunting for the word she’d lost. Nadia shrugged. “Mile? Kilometer?” he offered. Acts’ face lit up. 

“Killallmeters! Yes, only four more of those.” 

With that, Acts happily strode ahead, firmly confident in her bilingual abilities. Nadia took a moment to roll his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose before trailing reluctantly behind her. 

“This is as good a time to ask as any, I suppose.” He said, pausing for a response he never got. “Anyway…” He resumed, “I’ve been meaning to ask, why do you talk like that?” 

“Hm?” Acts turned her head a little and looked at him from the corner of one of her beautiful eyes. “Like what?” 

Nadia sped up a little to match pace with her, noting internally how easy walking for so long had not seemed to take its tole on her the way it did him. That frustrated him just a little bit more than it should have. Regardless, he ignored it, and shrugged. “Like… I don’t know. Like you were taught to speak by a soggy book.” 

Acts gave him a Look. 

His eyes widened slightly. “N-not that it’s a bad thing!” He said, quickly trying to cover his metaphorical tracks. “It’s just… a strange affectation you seem to have.” 

With her purple eyes staring brightly at him, despite their narrowing look of distrust and the dying ambient light, Acts returned her look straight forward. “I was taught by my village. It is not how we normally do things.” She added, and if Nadia didn’t know any better, it seemed as if she was purposefully avoiding his gaze. 

He tilted his head. Hey, he thought to himself, if there’s anything like interesting conversation to make this trek across the stupid bumpy pointy hellscape that is nature any more bearable, he hadn’t found it so far. “How do you normally learn a language, if it isn’t from the people near you?” 

Acts didn’t answer, but she did clear her throat. “We are almost in the woods now. Do you enjoy the trees?” 

But Nadia wouldn’t let it go quite so easily. “I mean,” he said, as if pretending not to hear her, “If I didn’t learn from my parents, I would probably have learned from a book or something.” 

The two walked in silence for a beat, Nadia closely inspecting the lizard’s strangely blank face. “...And I don’t want to be racist or anything, but you don’t seem the type for book learning.” 

“N-no, I cannot really stand doing books.” Acts muttered, a very faint hue of blue betraying her otherwise world championship level poker face. “This conversation feels a little without fruit.” She added, a clear sign for him to perhaps try a different topic. No such luck was to be had; the bunny had seen the gentle glow rising from her otherwise green cheeks, and had a big stupid smile spread across his face. He was a Rabbit with a Plan. 

“Is it like a type of fruit or something? Something that gives you the ability to speak other languages?” He tried, studying her facial features. Nothing changed, so he tried again. “Well, if it’s something that only you haven’t experienced, it must be something dangerous, right?” 

“Aximand, I truly do not think we should--” 

Nadia grinned, and cut her off. “It’s something only the elders of your village are allowed to do, right? Or eat, or perform, or something.” 

“Rabbit, please, we are quite close to--” 

“Is it something… adult in nature?” Nadia said, diverting his path to be closer to her and leaning over her shoulder, his smug little grin brushing against her neck. Acts stopped dead and pushed him backwards, making him almost land, laughing, into a bush. 

“Stupid rabbit!” She yelled, her fists bunched up as she crossed her arms tightly across her chest and her cheeks aflame with the telltale blue glow of embarrassment. Nadia tried to right himself, but slipped on the grassy ground and fell behind the bush with barely a soft thud to be heard. Acts stared furiously at the bush, as her only acceptable target for her rage. 

“Yes! It is of an adult thing!” She yelled, her frustration getting the better of her tongue. “I was taught by others, they were taught by potion, okay? They had… intimate moments! This is how it is normal to trade tongues! Perhaps if you were not such an indecent and… stupid mammal, you would know this! But no, your learning house is all sorts of, oh, we must only learn of our tongue, and why should we learn of cultures? We are the best, after all!” 

Acts stomped on the grassy ground and threw her fists at the sky in annoyance for a few moments, before settling down and resting her face in one palm. “You are… not a stupid mammal.” She muttered. “You are just not knowing of my people. Do not worry, when we get to my tribe, I shall ask them to… ...Bunny? Are you sleeping?” Acts asked, curious of the lack of sound coming from behind the bush she’d shoved the rabbit into before her short tirade. 

Without any response, she began to carefully tread in a wide circle around the bush. Just behind the bush, hidden by the trees was… a lack of bunny. She sighed in frustration, and took another step closer. Before she could take any further action, something in her mind stopped her. 

A fine web, barely visible in the dying light and stretching shadows of the forest they’d long since entered, was suspended horizontally barely a palm away from her face. With careful breaths, she slid her forward striding foot back, and slowly ran her eyes behind the bush once again. There they were, exactly as she expected; the silver little telltale strands of webbing, leading from the bush to the two nearest trees. Acts took a few more steps back, until she was safely back on the trodden path, and cursed. “Fucking spiders.” she muttered, and stepped once more into the shadows, ducking under and carefully stepping over webbing in order to avoid disturbing them. “Why must it always be spiders…” 

With those and a few more leg-related curses muttered under her breath, the green girl made her way slowly into the darkness, following the strands of silk meant to ensnare any unlucky adventurer who strayed from the path. 

The forest path snaked this way and that through the thick trees, but at least it was a path. As Acts stumbled through the increasingly dense undergrowth, her feet spent less and less time on solid ground and more time climbing over, onto, or around fallen logs. The occasional strand of webbing marred the path and let her know which way her long-eared adventurer escortee had been taken. Acts was no fool; she took great care in avoiding any contact with the silky web, even if it looked torn or inert. She’d heard her fair share of warnings about other adventurers who had been less careful, and had paid the price. She could only hope that Nadia knew at least part of what he’d gotten himself into. 

--

I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into. Nadia thought to himself as he fought against his bindings. The silky, sticky trap he’d fallen into - hell, he hadn’t even seen it at first, but now that it was wrapped around the entire top half of his body, he couldn’t see anything else because of it. Every time he thought he’d freed a finger, it became ensnared by another thread of the hellish material. It smelled sickly sweet, likely something designed to attract younger prey than him, but as the scent of it filled his nostrils and forced its way into his lungs, he could almost imagine liking it. It reminded him of those flossed sugar sticks he’d tried once when he was a child, after an evening at some travelling fair… 

He shook his head, as best he could, and some more webbing stuck one of his eyes shut. He couldn’t let himself succumb to whatever horrible chemical was excreted to make this foul mess. He kept his mind active by taking in what was around him; through his one open eye he could see vague shadows, passing leaves casting down the ghost of the light that once hit them, the ground under him snaking and pulling away as his helpless cocoon was dragged forwards and deeper into the tightly packed trees. He couldn’t hear any footsteps as he was pulled forwards, but the smooth motion implied something strong enough to hoist him up was slowly reeling him into… something. Probably a web, he supposed. Just as the thought crossed his mind, he wished it hadn’t. 

After what seemed like an eternity of being literally dragged through the mud (although in fairness, it was mostly underbrush that was cushioned by the thick layer of webbing - Nadia just couldn’t resist the mental pun), he finally came to a rest against some large, cushiony mound.  While it’s true that Nadia was stuck in a trap designed by something that almost certainly had more legs than would be considered non-creepy, what set his teeth on edge was the silence. While he’d been dragged, he could hear muffled bird calls, the occasional rustle as other things peered out of the bushes to watch him be dragged by, and the occasional furry critter scurrying away. Here, though, now that he had come to a full stop, there was… nothing. No bird calls. No snake hisses or inaudible thunder of a million tiny legs of a worker colony. Just the wrapped up rabbit, his panicked breathing, and the heartbeat that may as well have been thunderclaps. 

“Hrrrffr?” he tried, but to no avail. His mouth was far too gummed up by webbing from the first couple of instances he’d tried to scream out for help. He had never wished for Acts to be present any more than now. As he thought of her, the thought of when she first came to him slipped into his mind. When he was still packing for a trip he didn’t know if he’d want, this stupid, stupid trip… 

His eye shot open. Packing! He could still feel the glassy bulge of his pack against his side! If he could just unstick one or two of his fingers, he might be able to get the latch open! From there, it’d be a simple process to figure out which bottle had the dissolvent in it… 

What followed over the next two hours were not, as Nadia would have put it, his finest moments. He did, through much struggling and muffled curses, get a hand free and manage to squeeze it against the pack, however in his haste to pack, he hadn’t exactly made a mental note of which bottles went where. When he did eventually find the soft bundle containing his mixtures, he immediately pushed open a bottle by accident, spilling its pale brown liquid over the rest of the non-mixture pack. With a frustrated groan, he heard the telltale sizzle and crack as the foam mixture expanded and hardened, undoubtedly damaging things he’d miss later on. His second bottle, which thankfully he managed to open while it was upright, immediately spilled against the web when he instinctively tried to look down at the shape of the cork to know which bottle it was. Turns out it was not the dissolvent, but it DID eat its way through some of his lower clothing, leaving his left leg exposed, and doing absolutely nothing to the webbing. Still, he figured at the time, closer than the first try. 

On the third try, he finally pried open the desired bottle. The concoction hissed gently as it made contact with the web, and Nadia rolled onto his front , essentially bathing both his arms in the spicy-smelling blue liquid. The smell of burning was never so thankfully received as to his slowly unbound nostrils, and he tore at the webbing around his head and ears with his hands, which sizzled harmlessly as the liquid came into contact with the thread, breaking it down into its constituent parts. After a little more effort and some clever rationing of the remaining bottle, Nadia stood up, finally fully born from his cocoon, even if he was slightly less clothed than before; the second attempt had left his left pant leg utterly destroyed, and was slowly seeping into the right leg. Rather than having to waste time cutting around the infected piece of clothing, Nadia angrily tore off the trousers and threw them into the underbrush with a soft huff. 

“At least I still have my dignity.” Said the rabbit, naked from the waist down, his tail, hands, and part of his left leg dyed blue, his resource bag filled and inflated with solid metamorphosed rock solution. He looked around sheepishly, his freshly naked ears scanning around for any sign of Acts, of spiders… of any life at all. A sound made him look directly upwards. 

“We Have Visitors!” Said a voice in the darkness. Nadia could have sworn there was sun up there, and looking around confirmed it; there were still sunbeams reaching their way into the underbrush, but directly above him, where there would otherwise have been a clearing among the tangle of webbing and netting was just… blackness. The blackness stared back at him.

“Uh… please don’t eat me?” He tried. This was, as he understood it, the go-to phrase for any adventurers coming across an unfamiliar race or creature. It was the first thing traditionally said at such meetups, and tended to clear up motivations and, sometimes, save your life. 

“Eat You! That’s Funny.” Said the darkness. A soft chittering swarmed around Nadia as if the wind blew, except there was no wind. Leaves didn’t rustle, trees didn’t creak. It was just a quiet chittering of millions of… somethings moving without being seen. “We Won’t Eat You, Friend.” 

Friend. Nadia thought to himself. Okay, well, that’s a promising start. 

“Not Yet, At Least!” The voice(s?) chittered, accompanied by what sounded a little too similar to a child’s laughter.

Ah. Less promising. “Is there… anything I can do for you?” Nadia called up, assuming that was where the voice was coming from. “I’m not much of an adventurer, so I’m not gonna… uh… hurt, you, or anything.” 

“Hurt Us?” The chittering winds silenced. “Who Would Hurt Us?” 

“N-No, no, I said I won’t hurt you!” Nadia reassured, holding up his swollen, slightly damp bag. “I’m an alchemist! I work with… “ It occured to Nadia that he had no idea how intelligent this being he was attempting to talk to actually was. So far, it had used fairly simple words, and even if the voice itself did sound like a compilation of many other voices at once, the most distinct sounded similar to a young boy. “...I make things that help people, out of natural ingredients.” 

The chittering slowly started up again, as if conversing with itself. Eventually, the voice spoke again, the curious tone taking the edge off of Nadia’s apprehension of being dragged there in a net of webs. “Do You Make Food?” 

“I… yes, I guess. I mean, I can cook, if that’s what you mea--” Before Nadia could even finish his sentence, something large and heavy hit the floor just behind him, making him jump. When he could swallow his heart again and turn around, he found a large, wrapped package, tightly sewn just as he had been coddled up before. 

The gruesome load was just… sitting there like a dozen pounds of meat. In fact, as Nadia cautiously stepped forwards and nearer the package, the stench of ‘a dozen pounds of meat’ hit his nostrils like a hammer. He wretched. The leaves around him shook and chirred with the noise of a thousand small voices laughing in unison. Nadia braced his arms on his knees, facing away from the package of spoiled meat. Gods only knows where it had come from, or what it had been before… they got to it. 

The chittering slowly died down, and the mysterious voice spoke again. “You Don’t Like It?” It asked, a deathly stillness once again falling upon the clearing. Not even flies buzzed around the stinking package, which struck the nauseous bunny as a bit odd. As far as he could tell, there weren't a lot of ways to STOP flies getting to something like that… He shook himself mentally, then physically, and turned back to the white and red bundle. 

“N-No, I just… I don’t know who I’m cooking for.” He said to the general audience. “If I don’t know what type of-- ugh…” The smell once again made Nadia gag, but he powered through. “If I don’t know what type of body you have, how can I know what would be healthiest for you to eat?” 

There was a slow chittering among the leaves, as if a million fireflies were in a hotly controversial discussion. While that was going on, Nadia scanned the edges of the clearing he’d been dragged into; there was thick webbing blocking almost all viable paths out of here, but his cocoon being introduced into the clearing had left him with exactly one roughly rabbit-sized hole he could just about see himself dashing through, if things went badly. He glanced at the meat package again and caught his stomach in his throat. Yeah, that’s if they haven’t gone badly enough already… 

The chittering once again died down, and the silence split Nadia’s attention like an axe through a thin fruit. “We Will Show You, If You Will Be Our Friend.” The voices said, somewhat more waverly than before, as if not all of the voices quite agreed. Still, with a slightly nervous shrug, Nadia agreed. “Sure, I can always use more friends.” He muttered, and then a little more softly, “The more the merrier, after all…” 

Silence swept over the pale clearing. Not even wind could get through to here; Nadia could see now that it was because of all of the thick webbing acting as a kind of windbreaker. Not a bad idea, he thought to himself, and made a mental note to explore some ideas for his hut once he got back home… Thinking of home was a mistake. Suddenly he felt homesick. 

“Hello?” A weak voice spoke out. It surprised Nadia, partly because it came from behind him, and partly because it was a voice. Singular. 

He spun around in what he hoped was a not-too-graceless motion, looked around, and then looked down. “Hell-- ...Oh.” 

A small, black… thing looked back up at him. It had a wide mouth with four sharp, pincer-like teeth, four legs coming off of what Nadia presumed to be its head, only because it had two large eyes inset into the front, with six more dotted around them. It still had a regular-ish bipedal body, at that; two arms, two legs, but all of it was black, and looked somewhat… furry. Nadia had been taken aback, not entirely sure how to react, when his foreign diplomacy teachings kicked in. He stood up straight, but not intimidatingly so, offered a flat paw down to the figure, and tried to give his best smile. 

The creature tilted its head and looked at the paw. Not the greatest start… 

“Hi.” Nadia said nervously, trying to retain his rapidly deteriorating grin. “I’m… I’m Nadia. I guess I’m your new friend.” The black thing’s mouth curled at the edges slightly. Is… that a smile? Nadia thought to himself. What the hell have I gotten myself into. 

Just as he was internally reminding himself that he had in fact been literally dragged into this situation by anything other than his own free will, the small figure spoke… kind of. 

“We are Webber.” It said, a strange voice coming from an unmoving mouth. The two stood there for a moment before Nadia finally lowered his offered paw. “Uh… yes. I suppose you are.” 

“You are Nadia.” It said again, seeming to use as little of its open mouth to speak at any one time. Nadia found it overwhelmingly creepy, but decided to try and not let it show. His feet were twitching. “Yes. I’m the guy you wrapped up and dragged here.” He said, not to put too fine a point on it.

Webber glanced at the cocoon Nadia had melted his way out of, and followed the trail of broken webs with his eight eyes through the clearing, and into the broken bracken. Finally, he turned his gaze back to the taller rabbit. “We are Webber.” It said. Nadia rolled his eyes. 

Webber walked unsteadily over to the package of meat, his back hunched badly as if he were constantly ducking under branches that weren’t there. “Look, I don’t… quite know why you brought me here.” Nadia said, hoping the creature would listen while doing whatever it was he was doing, which at the present seemed to be tearing open the fleshy bundle and digging inside for something… Nadia tried not to look. It was better that way. Maybe he could keep his lunch down. “I-I’m kind of on an important mission here, a lot of people rely on me.” he lied. 

Webber stopped what he was doing, having apparently found what he was looking for, and walked back over to Nadia. In his clenched hands, he held a small, spongy fruit-like object, and presented it to Nadia, who held up both his paws. “Uh… no, thank you, I already ate.” 

Webber thrust the item at Nadia again, who took a step back. “No, really.” 

With a look of confusion, as far as Nadia could discern his mood at all from the almost pitch black furry face, Webber bit into the sponge with a wet, disgustingly visceral sound. Nadia’s head twitched to the side slightly as he once again felt his stomach turn. “Listen, I’ve really gotta get going…” 

“No.” Webber said, throwing the sponge-fruit to the side. It hit the ground with a damp thp. “Stay.” 

Before Nadia could begin protesting further, he hit the ground. Webber had moved faster than Nadia had even thought possible due to his size and hunched stature, and had lunged at his chest so quickly as to have knocked the rabbit over, landing them both on the thankfully soft webbed ground. With the wind knocked clear out of him, Nadia began to push himself back up, but yelled out in pain as Webber’s pincer-like teeth closed on his left shoulder. With some effort, Nadia managed to throw Webber off of him and sit up. The spider creature skidded to a halt near the flesh bundle, but didn’t come after Nadia again, allowing the bunny to inspect his wound. It wasn’t even bleeding; it was barely a couple of pinpric-- 

The world turned sideways. 

“Oh… dear…” Nadia said, his eyes fluttering slightly. The leaves around him began to turn blue, and he was acutely aware that his legs had become clouds. “Son… of… bitch…” He muttered, trying not to fall backwards onto the lava. This was difficult, due to his arms having been turned into thirty-inch-long spider legs. He blinked. Now they’re made of glass. Great. 

“Why’d you… do…?” He managed to get out before his back hit the ground. The sky was no longer present, and Nadia could see through space. All of it; the cosmos, the stars, burning and exploding, planets colliding and coalescing into new forms, expanding the universe one micron at a time. He saw the birth of the sun above him, days gave birth to nights as he laid there, moments turning into years, seasons blurring past. Life sprouted and wilted, then sprouted again. Words came, and fell, evolved and moved on like the beasts and creatures that had come before them. 

Eventually, the universe stopped spinning quite so much, and Nadia could sit up without his head exploding. He was absolutely convinced that his arms were gigantic glass spider arms not too long ago, yet as he looked down at them now, they seemed… normal. His trusty rabbity hands, just as normal as ever. He hugged himself, thankful to be him again. He was suddenly aware of the stretching shadows. “Wait,” He said, suddenly standing up and immediately stumbling back into a sit. “What… how long was I here?” 

“Half a day.” Said a voice by his side. Nadia looked to his side and scuttled away a few feet, doing as best he could to move without the use of his legs. Webber had been sat next to him, idly playing with a piece of webbing. 

“Wh-what? What did you do? And… how come you talk normally now?” Nadia said. His ears were still ringing a little bit from all of those galaxies exploding in them a moment ago, so he leant gently against the webbed up trunk of a tree. 

Webber shrugged, and held his webbing up to the light before fiddling with it some more. “We’re not. You are now, though.” His voice tickled Nadia’s brain in a strange way. There was something… kind of off about how Webber spoke. It was like before, when Nadia had heard the chittering in the trees, only now it was in a real language.

“What do you mean?” Nadia asked, casually inspecting his legs for any more bite marks. None could be found, but his shoulder did sting a little… 

“Stole it from the green ones. It makes it so that we can talk to you, and have you understand us. ” He chittered, assisting Nadia’s sudden realisation. 

“Y-you drugged me, and now we can talk?” he said, clutching his shoulder again. “The green ones… you mean the lizards, right?” 

Webber held his webbing up to the fading light of the sky once more, and did that kind-of-smile thing again, before padding slowly over to the rabbit. “Yes. They won’t let us have it, so we take it. We needed to talk to you.” Webber crouched down and slowly presented Nadia with the patch of webbing he’d been apparently weaving. The grey, mottled webbing that had been used to make this clearing was on the base, but inlaid over and around that was a darker thread, with a few small sticks and twigs woven into the design until five words stood out from the rest of the web. Nadia stared at it, then stared at Webber’s main two eyes. A horrifying thought passed through his mind, one not only possible, but also so probable that he couldn’t hide the realisation from showing on his face. Webber smiled wide. 

FrIenD

 “F-friend… right. Yes. I’m your friend now.” Nadia said. He swallowed. “Is it possible I can leave?” 

Webber pulled the webbing away from Nadia, his open mouth turning into a very hurt expression.“Why would we leave?” he said, gesturing around him with one of his hands, while the other kept tight hold of the friendship web. “We have everything we need here. We have friends now!”

“B-but I have other friends I need to get back to!” Nadia said desperately, pushing himself upright with the help of the tree trunk. “They need to know I’m okay.” 

For a moment, Webber stared at Nadia as if considering a new idea he’d never thought of before. Slowly, he lowered his gaze to the ground. “Other friends…” He muttered glumly. 

Nadia felt the strangest pang of guilt for the spider monster, and looked around the clearing. He didn’t see anybody else, or any… housing, of any kind. There were no tarps around for shelter, and the only tribes nearby that he knew of to be friendly were the lizards. As the spider had already implied, the lizards didn’t like him much. A thought occurred to Nadia, and he felt angry at himself for not considering it sooner. He cleared his throat, and Webber’s eyes snapped to his face with frightening speed. 

“Uh… Are you… okay?” Nadia tried. Webber stared at him, still holding his small scrap of web in both hands. “Where did you come from?” Webber tilted his head, but didn’t answer. Ah. thought Nadia to himself. Has it been that long? 

“How do you survive out here, by yourself?” Nadia asked, gesturing to the still clearing… until his paw gestured to the meat sack, and he lowered it slowly. “...oh. Right.” 

“We are not alone.” Webber said, taking a couple of steps closer to Nadia, who nodded encouragingly. “That’s right! I’m here now, and I’m sure--” 

“We were never alone.” 

A slow rustling of the leaves began to build up, but then slowly settled back down again. For the third time since waking up, Nadia came to a realisation. His eyes widened, his pupils shrank, and his ears instinctively tucked behind his head. “...oh. Shit.” 

He could hear them now. Not like before; not a distant, incomprehensible chittering in the wind. Now it was voices, hundreds of them. Thousands of them, each speaking at the same time, hundreds of arguments blossoming and being snuffed out as matters were raised and settled in mere seconds, no one singular voice distinct enough for Nadia’s ears to pick up on. A few moments later, the noise ceased, and once again the clearing was plunged into eerie silence. Nadia had to lean himself against the tree again; his legs had almost recovered, but the sheer noise his ears had just picked up (followed by the sledgehammer of silence that followed soon after) had left his head spinning. 

“So you’re… you have other friends here, after all.” He said, closing his eyes and nipping the bridge of his nose. He tried to focus on what was immediately around him, to try and gather his thoughts a bit. The sun was getting lower…

“Other… friends?” Webber asked, confused. Nadia felt the hood of his pouch open, and something being stuffed inside. He didn't bother opening his eyes. Nothing Webber could put in there would make things any worse, after all; most of his potions were encased in rock right now. 

“You know… other friends?” Nadia said, gesturing up at the inky blackness above. “With all the voices?” 

Webber tilted his head for a few more moments, each of his eyes following the rabbit’s hands as they moved about desperately. Nadia huffed in resignation, but Webber spoke regardless. “That is just us speaking. We are many, and do not always… understand.” 

For some reason, Nadia felt like he was the one being explained to. “Uh… alright. Whatever, look, I just… need…” He trailed off, and sighed softly. “I don’t know what I need anymore.” The rabbit slumped back down, his back sliding strangely easily against the soft webbing padding the tree trunk. Webber took a couple of cautious steps towards him, and placed what appeared to be a hand against Nadia’s bicep. It felt… strange. Like a dozen fat, blunt pins being gently pushed against his fur, or an especially stiff painting brush that hadn’t been cleaned in a long time.
“It is hard for us to understand being… less than us.” Webber said, before raising both his hands. “N-no! We do not mean it like that!” he urged, but it did little to assuage Nadia’s raised eyebrow. “What we mean is… it… we are a many. You are not. It is hard for us to understand being… not.” Webber tried again, all eight of his eyes squinting with effort as his disembodied voice attempted to conjugate concepts he’d obviously not had to think about for a very long time. 

Nadia smiled, which seemed to put Webber more at ease. “It’s okay.” He said, placing his own palm slowly against Webber’s shoulder. It pricked his palm, but he kept it there all the same; the body felt like it was made of skin and bones, with the dark, fur-like pelt covering a boy with barely any weight on him. “How… how long have you been here?” He asked for the second time, his voice far more gentle this time. Webber blinked, and sat down next to the bunny. Slowly, he looked up at the pitch black mass above them both - and, without so much as a singular word from any voice, they began to part. Nadia had to shield his eyes as the daylight began to stream in, but just before he was blinded by it, he could have sworn he’d seen… legs. Millions of little legs, untethering from one another, far up above them. Gradually, the mass disappeared, leaving the pair as alone as either had been since their first encounter. 

“Time… ” Webber began, but shook his head in frustration. Nadia slid his arm, with some difficulty, around his prickly shoulders. “It’s okay.” He said, blinking away the spots in his vision. “Take your time.” 

“It… has been a long time since we… since… ”

“I?” Nadia suggested. He felt Webber shiver slightly under his arm, but he couldn’t tell which emotion caused it. The prickly monster was not exactly an open book.

“ … since I was here. We-- … I don’t know how long. W-- they took me. … I do not know why, but they took me in. They fed me. They feed me. Keep me from being alone.” Webber turned his face to Nadia’s, the stretching sunset emblazing itself onto Webber’s many dark hairs. Nadia could still barely see any features on the boy due to how light-absorbing his fur was, but if he didn’t know any better, he’d have said there was a hint of sadness in those eyes. 

“I do not like being alone. They do not like being… ” Webber waved his hands around vaguely, the same way Nadia had shortly before. “Confused. Many voices, they don’t listen. Couldn’t listen. But with me… ”

“You help them, too?” Nadia offered, a genuine smile creeping across his face. Webber nodded, and returned to staring at the ground. Nadia decided to join him in silence. The terror was still there, absolutely; he had no doubt in his mind that they were still being spied upon by the multi-billion-legged mass that had given them a simulated spot of privacy, but at the same time, there was something so very… genuine about how Webber spoke. As if he had never heard of not being honest. Maybe he’d never had the chance before. 

“You’ll leave, won’t you.” Webber said, snapping Nadia out of his deep thought. “Hm? Wha-- oh. I… guess. I can’t really stay out here with y-- with all of you, people would get concerned.”

“People would get concerned… ” Webber seemed to agree. Nadia paused, but continued. “I came out here to find the lizard tribe. I have a… friend, I guess, out there looking for me right now. I don’t know what she’d do if she came across you guys.” Nadia noticed that he’d subtly picked up the collective way of speaking about Webber. As soon as he realised, he mentally chided himself, but then thought for a moment longer. What if it’s a good thing? After all, the only thing this kid’s ever known has been a collective, and if it makes him happy, or even better gets me the hell out of here… 

Nadia cleared his throat. Webber didn’t respond. “Maybe uh… maybe I should go. The sun’s getting low, and… ”

Nadia slowly slid up the tree trunk. His legs felt surprisingly good, after having had such a good rest. All the demanding hiking that Acts had forced him to endure was finally starting to wear off, he figured. He took a couple of steps towards the rabbit-sized hole, and paused. He turned around. Webber was still there, sitting by the tree, looking down into the web-covered dirt. Another pang of guilt rang through Nadia’s body. He’s going to be fine. He thought to himself, turning back to the opening in the webbing. Not many people out there have a mass of monsters working to protect them. 

He’d finally made it to the hole, and knelt down onto his knees to inspect it. Yep, he could pretty much squeeze through, he figured. With one last backward glance at the lone Webber, Nadia tightened the strap on his satchel and began squirming through the webs.

He got about two feet in before he realised his mistake. The web tunnel got much darker the further along it went, something he hadn’t seen until he was already squirming forwards on his elbows. As soon as the seemingly tight tunnel touched both of his shoulders, he realised he couldn’t turn around. A moment later, he had remembered just how sticky and binding these seemingly silk-like strands could get. The next couple of minutes from his point of view were filled with dark rustling and tugging as he tried desperately to get out of the hole he’d foolishly stuck his head into. The fur on the backs of his ears caught on the roof of the small tunnel, and as his legs kicked desperately at the reasonably soft dirt at the mouth of the hazardous entrance, he felt more and more as if the webs around him were drawing tight, like a shoestring pouch. 

Just as his ears were being glued down to his shoulders, he could have sworn he’d heard some kind of… giddy chittering. It wasn’t easy to hear - nothing was, from inside what was quickly becoming yet another tightly wrapped cocoon - but the mental image of millions of tiny spiders all laughing at his futile attempt to escape their trap, only to literally crawl head-first into another one burned brightly in his mind. It didn’t help him escape, but it certainly made him feel more comfortable lashing out and biting at the enclosing webs. 

He did have the good sense not to entirely enclose his face by trying to headbutt nearby sticky strands, but that did still leave him utterly bound amongst some dark foliage with nothing but his legs free. Wiggle them as he might, they weren’t going to get him out of this mess - in fact, if he wasn’t mistaken, Nadia could have sworn he’d just felt something brush pas-- 

“aAaha! Aah! Ahaha! S-stop! God-d Dah-amn it!” Nadia cried out, lashing out as much as he was permitted by the tight webbing. His feet kicked and twisted, but whatever had a hold of his left foot had a tight, prickly grip, and wasn’t letting go. Nor would it stop stroking his very sensitive paws. “L-let g-goo!” He cried out between unexpected bouts of reactive laughter. He felt every tiny strand of hair on his foot being curiously probed, being tickled by the exploring claw or digit before it moved further up his heel. Either the person tormenting him was intangible, or they moved very quickly - each time Nadia swung his right foot around to knock off the tickling spree, the grip shifted position, never letting go. The writhing rabbit could barely think amongst all of the sensation, and his chest felt like it was about to explode. That’s when, thankfully, the travelling claw/paw moved further up his leg to his calves, a spot that Nadia was thankfully not ticklish at all. 

The air smelled of web, which was so subtle normally that it had taken Nadia until now to notice it - his hot and heavy panting as he caught his breath amongst the tightly wound webs blew back into his face, making him feel even more claustrophobic than before. “T-thank you…” he muttered to himself, and any available gods listening. While the prickly sensation was still going on, at least now it wasn’t robbing him of his dignity and breath.  With the worst of the torment over, he relaxed his rear half - his right leg slouched lazily and exhausted on the floor of the clearing as the grip on his left leg shifted a little further up again. “W-who’s doing that?” He asked, this time loud enough to hopefully penetrate his silky silver prison. “Webber? Is that you? This isn’t funny!” 

His calling out either ignored or misplaced, the result was the same; the curious prickly finger continued stroking, poking and prodding its way up the rabbits leg. Nadia tried struggling again, but only ended up rocking sideways, and exhausting himself in the process. He let his head hang as much as it could without touching webbing as he caught his breath, rolling his eyes. “Alright, alright… I’ve heard enough college stories to know where this is going.” He muttered, casually trying to kick off the clamped-on-claw hand with his free foot again. It didn’t work, but he figured it’d be better to try and show some kind of rebellion against what was seemingly inevitable. At very least, the mildly violent gesture made him feel a little better in himself.

“L-let me… go!” Nadia yelled out, tugging his leg as hard as he could from the clutches of the prickly menace. Once again, its iron vice-like grip held, and all of Nadia’s resisting only ended up tiring out his bound leg. By the time the curiously tailward travelling tickler had moved just past his knee, he could barely lift his legs by himself anymore. It MUST be this webbing. He thought to himself, begrudgingly tugging at his body bindings once again. It’s got some kind of mild paralysis effect. I definitely have a potion for that… A moment of struggling later, the bunny rolled his eyes again and uttered out a soft curse. ...If I hadn’t gotten myself so utterly encased. Fuck. 

As if reading his mind, the hand gripping his leg finally let go, causing Nadia to jolt uncomfortably as his foot hit the floor of the clearing. It wasn’t a hard impact, but enough to make him wince as his paw  made contact with the compacted webs underfoot. His legs were fairly far apart, and as both the claw-like hands pressed themselves against the rabbit’s exhausted buttocks, Nadia could feel his toes curl instinctively. “Christ, this is really happening, isn’t it…” he muttered to himself in his sticky prison. One last time, he tried to break the webbing; bulging his elbows outwards as far as they would go, twisting his upper and lower halves, digging into the dirt with his badly trimmed claws, all of it resulted in nothing more than jostling the poor bunny around like a kit in a sling. Suddenly, a sharp blow across his buttocks made him yell out, the sound muffled by his cocoon enclosure. “T-that was uncalled for!” He tried yelling back, without being able to turn his head and have it remain web-free. That is DEFINITELY Webber. He thought to himself, grinding his teeth a little at the thought. That little son of a bitch played me s-- “Ow!” Nadia let out another loud protest as his behind was struck once again, making his entire body jostle slightly from the force. 

“Webber, you son of a bitch!” Nadia called out. “When I get out of here, I’m going to gag you, a-and… and make sure you never walk again!” While the bound bunny could be said to have great imagination and flare where and when it counts, insults were not exactly his area of expertise. Formulating new words to call the spider-boy got significantly more difficult when he felt two prickly palms pressing themselves against the inside of his firm, toned buttocks. He winced slightly out of embarrassment as they were pulled apart, then abruptly let go again. He could feel his ass jiggle. The only thing he could be thankful for at this stage is that for the most part, Webber seemed intent on just watching the bunny squirm, rather than anything more… involved. Well, that and the fact that nobody could see his face.

“O-ohh, no…” Nadia whispered under his breath. He slammed his eyes tightly shut and gritted his teeth, though after a moment he realised this was mostly for show. The warm breath rolling over the flesh just under his tail sent shivers up his spine. His face is right there… he thought to himself, a strange sense of ease unfolding in his head. Like, right there. How long has it been since he saw someone else?  Nadia paused in thought, and blinked. How long has it been since he’s seen a decent ass?  

His thoughts ended abruptly when a warm, moist tongue slid itself between his cheeks, the rabbit’s feet kicking upwards reflexively to no avail. He struggled and shouted through the muffling silk as many spider-based curses he could muster, but it didn’t stop another long, lingering lick from slipping across the bridge of his sheath and up over his sensitive flesh. Nadia had to hold in a slight moan; he knew it probably wouldn’t be heard outside of his own personal enclosure, but he couldn’t be sure. The last thing he wanted was to encourage whatever was going on back there, or for Acts to find him… getting off to it, or whatever. Fuck, the things she’d say… 

--

“[The things I am going to say to that bloody rabbit!]” Acts grumbled in her own tongue as she cut away another thick fern with her improvised stone axe. A strand of creeper held together an especially sharp section of flint she’d found with a Y-shaped stick. It had barely taken her a minute to construct it, and already it had cut through a decent half-mile of thick underbrush. The trail of broken webbing and small animal bones was getting starting to peter out, and the idea that Acts may have failed in the one job the lizard had been given… it was something worth avoiding, Acts figured, at least until the rabbit could be found. 

Chopping through another thick wall of creepers, Acts grinned. Yes, found and punished. “[Don’t stray from the path,]” Acts started, “[Don’t start a shoving match you can’t finish…]” Another thorny bush took an undeserved thrashing as Acts stepped angrily over it. “[Oh, and maybe, I don’t know, don’t get carried off by some bloody spider mob!]” 

After lodging the makeshift axe into a nearby tree hard enough to crack the bark, Acts sat down on a nearby fallen branch to rest a couple of tired feet and sigh. “[Wherever you are, one with fortunate feet, you had better not be getting eaten… ]” 

--

I can’t believe this… Nadia thought to himself, his teeth leaving small indents in his bottom lip as he bit into it. I can’t believe I’m getting eaten out by a spider. He winced again and caught another panicked moan in his throat. His face was red, he was sure of it - he was fairly sure his entire torso had gone red from blushing at this point. His legs dangled helplessly over the edge of his forcibly fitted sleeping bag as Webber’s tongue continued running between his cheeks, the surprisingly slick and smooth spider saliva matting down the short fur between the bunny’s cheeks, while the deft tongue tentatively probed his entrance. Nadia could feel his tail twitching in pleasure as his cheeks were parted like the red sea by the same two prickly palms from before - something he’d been putting up with for over ten minutes already. His mind was so focused on keeping quiet, he’d entirely ceased his struggles to escape. The tightly knit webs around him kept him in a sort of makeshift isolation chamber, enhancing every thought and feeling that crept through the rabbit’s brightly blushing head. 

Just as Nadia was starting to lose track of his surroundings, his mind losing to the pleasure impulses washing over him from behind… it stopped. His cheeks were released, the tongue was removed, and he could suddenly think again, at least to some extent. Oddly enough, the bunny didn’t feel relieved - quite the opposite. “H-hey!” he called out, trying not to let his embarrassment of taking pleasure from such lewd acts come through in his voice. Nadia doubted Webber could even hear him, but it was pointless not to try. “I didn’t say stop! Don’t just leave me like this!” 

Nadia’s maw slammed shut again when the two prickly palms returned, this time gripping very firmly either side of his exposed hips. It was just past the line at which he was tied up in webbing, and as the hand claws tugged him up an inch, his entire body rocked in response, tugging and swinging slightly at the various strands suspending him. While he wasn’t entirely versed in arachnid culture and lore, he had definitely felt that grip before, and he knew exactly what it meant. Suddenly, images scattered across Nadia’s mind like sand on a sheet of ice; Do spiders have penises? Do they even have that kind of sex? I thought they just laid… 

Once again, Nadia’s eyes widened. A moment later, he felt the question-answering tip of something firm against the base of his tail. Firm and very, very warm. It seemed to pulse to a heartbeat racing almost as fast as the rabbit’s own, the saliva coating his backside slickening up the rigid shaft as it ground against his tail base.

The bunny bit his lower lip again to stop himself from calling out. It was clear that he wasn’t in control of the situation, and anything he might do would probably just attract more unwanted attention. As if aware of this and accepting his prey’s silence as a tacit form of consent, Webber pushed forwards, grinding his strangely spiny member between the bunny’s damp cheeks. A shiver crawled up Nadia’s spine like the many-legged things he was trying to avoid thinking about. It pulled back, the prickly palms of his host squeezing tightly around the rabbit’s sizable hips. After several more minutes of the same treatment, Nadia was getting impatient; as much as he would have liked to escape, all of this teasing was driving him insane. 

“J-just put it in already…” he muttered to himself in his cocoon of breathless torment. Another thrust, another squeeze. Nadia frustratedly wriggled his tail as much as the webbing would allow, and attempted to kick his feet out as a sign of frustration. They didn’t get far before the tangled bindings grew taut and pulled them back into place, making his entire cocoon rock once again. Nothing seemed to change for Webber; his tickling hands kept Nadia’s back end somewhat steady during his immobile protests. The bunny butt slowly swung back into place, the slick, spiny webber dick came to rest once again between its bountiful buttcheeks. 

Almost to the point of surrendering his sanity entirely, Nadia began to roll his eyes. Mid-way through, however, they widened significantly, and they weren’t the only things. Maybe Webber had noticed the rabbit’s frustrations, or maybe he was just tired of the teasing himself, but whatever the reason, Nadia felt the unmistakable pinch of his hot, stone-hard tip poking directly against his entrance. The sensitive flesh of his exposed pucker twitched slightly, almost enticing the slicken member inside. 

“Ah-I… didn’t…” Whatever the rabbit was going to say next didn’t register once the first inch slid in, stretching his entrance open with barely a degree of decency or delicacy. Muted moans reverberated along the outside of the makeshift bondage, vibrating across the trees and causing a chittering among the branches. Nadia could feel… something. An uncertainty, perhaps? Maybe Webber reconsidering what he was-- 

There was no reconsideration. Webber’s palms had readjusted onto Nadia’s pelvic bones and tightened like a pair of vice as he had prepared to thrust forwards, his strangely shaped member forcing inch after solid, baking inch into Nadia’s unprepared hole. Another moan reverberated among the trees, and another few inches squeezed their ever-thickening presence into the squirming rabbit hide as the chittering died down. Nadia had never seen a spider penis before, but the thought drifted lazily across his mind as he felt Webber’s own member sliding out of his twitching butt. He had no idea what the shaft fucking him even looked like, let alone what kind of damage it was capable of doing. He could feel these… bumps, these kind of mild barbs poke and prod him, probing previously untapped areas of his ass. They seemed to throb individually, and took him by surprise each time Webber thrust his bristling hips in to meet Nadia’s bare backside. 

--

Acts rested heavy boots on a fallen log, and struggled to catch breath. “These boys… they run.” Acts said, panting between words. With a quick stretch of the neck, the young lizard carried on. Getting close now. Acts could feel it. 

Plus, all of the torn webbing and animals stripped to the bone really gave it away.

--

Nadia shook his head, as little as he could. He was being jostled - he was not a fan of jostling, but he knew a jostle when he felt one, and this was it. The hands on his hips felt like steel as his ass was taken; they pulled him back onto Webber’s surprisingly girthy member, kept him there for a moment, and then forced him away until almost the entire member was out again. Over, over, and over… He didn’t know if it was the constant movement, or if the air in his headspace was getting thin, but the entire sensation helplessly thrust upon him made Nadia more than a little light headed. He felt a tightness, similar to the kind binding up his entire body, but this time concentrated rather far… south… 

“F-ffuck…” Nadia half-moaned to himself. He resigned to let his head hang, and his tongue hang out of his maw as he realised. “I’m f-fucking… enjoying this…” His quickly stiffening member parted the web from his belly fur with great difficulty, a difficulty which only seemed to make the pleasant heat and tightness more inviting. He could already feel his legs begin to separate from anything his mind was telling them to do. His toes curled each time his hips were tickled by the short, sharp hairs of his captor. His moans rolled out of his maw like they were being forced out from the other end each time his entrance was vacated. His mind swam without thoughts, just pleasure, bound yet boundless pleasure… 

To say he lost track of time would be an understatement. Nadia had no earthly idea how long it was before he felt anything change. It could have been hours - hell, he could have spent days in that cocoon, being ravaged by the demonic spider boy forcing his thick, knobbly spider spear into his rear. However long it was, it had been just long enough; Nadia could feel a pressure building in his gut, and another from his captor. He knew his body well enough to know what the pressure in his gut was - he wasn’t an idiot, and for all of the trickery that had lead Nadia to be captured and forcibly fucked in a series of webs, Webber was not a fool when it came to dishing out pleasure, apparently. Nadia was getting closer and closer to climax, something he’d tried desperately to put out of his mind for fear of what might come after this treeside twosome. 

The other pressure was something he’d experienced before, though only ever with canines. Oh, and that one feline, but he was fairly sure that was a canine too (it was a dark night and everybody had been having so much fun, it was hard to keep track). It was what Nadia would consider a telltale pressure of a knot building up steam for the final stretch. That was, if his partner on this night, and however many more since it’d started, wasn’t a spider. 

This wasn’t the pressure of a knot building up to a satisfying game of tie-and-release. This wasn’t even sex, Nadia realised with a mild shudder. This was breeding. Another sharp slap of Webber’s hips against his own took his mind back into focus. Maybe if I finish before he does, Nadia thought to himself desperately, He’ll see it as fair game and… He wasn’t really sure how to finish that thought, but fortunately he didn’t have to. He didn’t finish first. 

“GgAAH!” Nadia cried out, primal pain and pleasure poured into one vocalization. “N-Nno! D-Don’t… Don…” His cries slowly died out. His irises narrowed almost to the point of disappearing, and his tail fluttered nervously. The bulge was pressing against his entrance. It wasn’t a knot. It was so much bigger than a knot, and it was… moving. Up the shaft, which desperately throbbed and belched out precum that felt spicy inside the rabbit’s oppressed ass. Nadia couldn’t think, he couldn’t move. Breathing was out of the question. The squirming mass stretched his entrance, then stretched it more and more until it could almost fit inside. His sides were pinched hard by the shivering, bristled palms. They pulled back hard, and Nadia felt his world explode. 

The squirming mass passed through the burning hot member and into Nadia’s gut, barely staying there a moment before Webber’s shaft drew slowly out of his abused rear. His pucker clenched of its own accord, sealing the mass of what he now assumed to be burning cum and one large, egg-shaped deposit inside. It shifted a little, making the bunny squeak very quietly, and settled, allowing the surrounding sensitive flesh to tighten around it snugly. 

Nadia breathed. It felt like he’d never breathed before, his lungs were starved for fresh air. Nadia only had hot, re-breathed air available, so they made up for it by panting every few seconds. He was still in shock. He’d just been… birthed into. He’d had partners tell him things like “Oh, I’m gonna put puppies in you, boy!” but this was the first time those words ever had any real impact on him. His entire body was frozen, as if waiting for the experience to pass. This is why the bunny almost jumped straight out of his skin when he felt the burning hot member slowly grind itself below his tail once more. 

“Y-... you can’t be serious!” Nadia yelled, angrily bursting out of his apparent shock. “What do you think-- No, stop that!” His calls had about as much effect as they had before, only now they were more hoarse due to his hours of moaning. He felt the bristling palms at his sides once again, and yet again none of his shouts, cussing or calls did anything to dissuade his captor from taking advantage of Nadia in his bound-up-state. 

“T-this… is…” Nadia took a deep breath as the slick, hot member forced its way into him, nudging the snug egg inside just a tiny bit closer to his heart. “...G-gonna be a long day…” 

--

The bunny couldn’t think. He couldn't breathe. He wasn’t even entirely sure he’d ever been able to do either of those things. He certainly wasn’t sure he had arms anymore. Legs, sure - he could feel those twitch and tense up when another wide, steaming egg forced its way into his gut, another addition to the multitude already warm and snug inside his belly. He was vaguely aware at some point he had a name, but now there was only the… pleasure. The full feeling, the feeling of being taken from behind by an untamed beast and forced to carry his children. To be bred like an improper whore. Every few hours was another egg, another addition to the squirming, bulging mass pressing Nadia’s stomach against the webbing. 

Nadia couldn’t think, because Nadia was the horniest he’d ever been. There was something in the precum, he’d figured out before he had utterly lost his mind to the deviant pleasure. It lubricated and seduced the target. It must be the case. After all, why else would he feel like he was on the edge of climax all the time? 

His member was fully erect, and had been for what felt like days. It pressed hotly against the outside webbing, precum drenching his belly, crotch, and he was assuming it had begun spilling out from the cocoon, if there was such a thing as ‘out’ from the cocoon… He squirmed again; this time not for escape, but for release. He felt like if he could just… angle himself just a little upwards, just by an inch, he’d finally be allowed to cum for himself. All of these eggs had pressed up against all but one important, vitally important area, and the intruding member could reach it if only he could just angle it right… 

Nadia clenched his eyes tightly shut as another large egg forced its way into his body. Finding no room in his lower gut, it was forced to pause mid-way out of the fleshy, knobbly supply line, but with one final thrust and some help from the claws that had spent a lifetime digging into the bunny’s side, it angled itself just right, and-- 

The sound that came out of Nadia could have been heard from miles around, startling birds, confusing lizards, and doubtless making spiders laugh their eight legged asses off. Instead, the muffled moan-scream of the captive bunny was captured in the webs surrounding his face, and sent across various treetops. Though he couldn’t hope to see daylight, the lepus roar was loud enough to be heard throughout the clearing, and perhaps even a little beyond. Nadia remembered the most amazing feeling of his life being one inch away from him, he remembered the hands letting him go, his ass hanging freely, and then… just… darkness. 

--

A call was detected. A call was heard. It was more of a noise, but a noise means life, and life means help. There is hope. An ember. A spark. 

Blood and meat and flesh forced to crawl. Forced to stand, only to fall. Sand invades the flesh.
Crawling it is, then. Crawling is painful, and slow, every movement is driven by the same spark… but the spark is hope. 

The spark is life.

Without empathy or awareness, the storm moved east.

--

There was peace in the web-white clearing. Nothing much moved here, due to how much wind the surrounding webbing was blocking. It was a serene, peaceful place…

…That is, until an inexperienced escort frog fell noisily out of the bushes, clanking loudly as its carefully prepared gear was caught and entwined amongst a few near-invisible strands of webbing. Acts hit the ground with a hefty thud, and even though the ground was somewhat padded with webbing, the impact was still enough to daze the angry aquatic animal. Struggling to stand up, Acts fought against the fragile webbing wrapping. “Get your hands off of me!”

It took Acts almost a minute to regain a clear head and realise that nobody was being restrained or attacked. In fact, if the beautiful eyes Acts was gifted at birth weren’t deceiving, it seemed like there was nobody here at all.

“F-fucking spiders!” A pained voice exclaimed from the other side of the clearing. Acts smiled. Almost nobody.

Nadia tensed his stomach up and clutched another stiff handful of grass. That stupid bloody spider… if only Acts hadn’t pushed him over that bush, this wouldn’t be happening. Hell, if that stupid panda hadn’t sent him onto this stupid quest in the first place… A broken branch caught his ears, and he tilted his body slightly to peek around the bush he’d been using for privacy. “U-uuh… Occupied!” He called out meekly.

He felt a mixture of relief and panic when Acts voice replied. “There you are, luckyfoot! I have been…”

Searching seems to be a strong word. Acts thought. But then again, so did ‘looking’, since Acts had only been looking in the sense of following a very clear and distinct trail. _“…w_aiting for you!”

While Nadia might typically take a moment to correct Acts grammatically, he instead tried his best to cover himself with his hands. There were more pressing matters at the moment. “D-don’t come back here!” He yelled, a little more panicked than perhaps he should have. He heard Acts unsheath some kind of blade, and his ears fell. “N-n… No, nothing like, it’s not like that!”

“Where is the web-maker, rabbit?” Acts asked him very sternly, scanning the treetops with a small self-defence blade drawn. “Answer me. Are we alone?”

Nadia looked down, and back up to the bush cover, then back down again. “…Y-yeah, sorta.”

“What means ‘sorta’?” Acts asked, the voice used bordering on anger more than concern. “Speak clearly and quickly, or I will come back there!”

“N-no! I’m… indecent.” Silence fell for a moment. For a second, the rabbit had thought this might actually be a decent enough excuse to keep himself unseen. What a fool he felt when Acts cut through the middle of the bush, the blade apparently sharp enough to tear the entire thing in two. When the frog leant back up, Nadia clamped his eyes down in embarrassment.

“…I… see.” Acts said, sounding out every word very carefully. “Y-you are… indecent. I see. Yes. I will… I will just…” Nadia nodded quickly, his red face barely hidden behind both his paws.

Acts turned on the spot and carefully stepped away, giving the rabbit a moment to himself. He was laying on the small of his back, legs embarrassingly cramped into a spread open position, his engorged belly bulbous and coated in sticky substances from all sorts of areas. Beside him lay his alchemy bag, thoroughly rifled through and half-melted, along with several tough-to-remove scraps of web cocoon that had apparently welded themselves to his leg and arm fur. He withdrew his paws from his face and let out a hot, concentrated sigh. His lungs still felt so… empty. It was probably because of the… fullness he was experiencing just below his chest. Yes, that… that mass probably had something to do with it.

“Sssso.” Acts’ voice carooned from the other edge of the clearing. “You, ah… ‘dealt’ with the spider nest, yes?”

“…Yes.” Nadia responded glumly. “Well… the one that was around. I don’t think the others wanted… anything.”

“I see you came out… unharmed. G-good. Good for you. Yes.”

“…Yes.” The bunny repeated, rubbing his temples to ease the strain of this conversation. A glorious moment of silence between the two passed before Acts ruined it again.

“You know…”

“What?” Nadia called.

“My people, us frogs? We have to deal with web-layers some of the time.” Acts coughed softly and kicked a nonexistent stone on the ground.

“And how, pray tell, was I meant to get out of a … a web cocoon? Please do tell me the proper way I was meant to single-handedly defeat an army of stupid tiny spiders.”

“Hey now, lucky foot! There is no need for hostility!” Acts called back.

Nadia sighed. “I know, I’m sorry. I just… if you hadn’t have pushed me into that fucking bush–”

“No, luckyfoot.” Acts turned to face him, a smile sliding under those stunning eyes. “I mean that… when dealing with spiders, there is no need for hostility.”

The rabbit’s paws slid down his face once again. “Got it.” he said from under his own frustration.

“You see, when I said no need–”

“I understand.”

“…I mean that there are other ways–”

“Yes, thank you Acts, I get it.”

“…to–”

“Acts, please!” Nadia lowered his paws to scowl at the frog, only to find Acts had silently slid back up to the bush again. Webbed fingers groped just under the brown leather belt-line and an admittedly talented tongue curved its way from one corner of Acts’ grinning mouth to the other. “You’re a pervert.” The bunny said, unable to stop himself from letting out a laugh. “A total fucking pervert…”

“Excuse me, lucky foot, but you seem to be the one who is full of web-layer goo.”

“Didn’t you call them spiders before? Why have you suddenly reverted back to ‘web-layer’?” Nadia raised an eyebrow at Acts, who retracted their hand and flopped to a sitting position beside the bloated rabbit. “Ah, where I am from, we call them spiders. I am not sure what the exact words are for your tongue, so instead I say web-layers. You see, because they lay web?” Acts grinned. “…Also, apparently, rabbits.”

Nadia and Acts both laughed together, though perhaps not for the same reason. “Acts, you stupid little… it’s spiders.”

“Yes!” Acts said gleefully. “You have learned one of my words, finally! Who said daft tongues cannot be trained after all?”

“N-no, no, we also call them spiders. That’s just… the name for them. Arachnids. Spiders. Eight legged freaks. Annoying little shit that fuck up your goddamn day by kidnapping you and–”

“Oh, I see.” Acts interrupted Nadia and laid one smooth hand on his tense shoulder. The bunny calmed down a little from the friendly contact, which he hadn’t felt in seemingly forever.

For a while, the two sat in the peaceful clearing, listening to the nonexistent wind, looking up at the ever-still leaves overhead. Occasionally, a soft groan would escape from Nadia’s overly taxed insides, but both Acts and Nadia seemed utterly content to simply ignore them, for the time being. Eventually, the bunny found the strength to clear his throat, catching the frog’s attention.

“So, uh… thanks, I guess. For finding me, I mean.” He awkwardly held out one paw, which Acts gleefully took and shook. “You are much welcome.” Nadia sighed, thankful that Acts at least got some part of that correct.

“You mentioned your people have… dealings with the spiders, right?” Acts narrowed those beautiful eyes at Nadia and spoke carefully. “Yes, I expect I did say such a thing…”

Nadia cleared his throat again. “So how long, uh… can I expect…?” He gestured down to his overgrown gut. Acts let out a soft, yet strangely deep chuckle. “Within two hours, little one. Don’t worry!” Acts patted Nadia’s head in a way that he felt might have been a little condescending. “You will be back to your fragile body in no time. Until then, however, we sadly must not move. Any disturbance of the children may result in bad health.”

“T-the children…?” Nadia stared through Acts, his veins full of ice and void salt. Acts simply kept up the sweet, mild grin. “Yes, you know…”

Acts stroked the bunny’s belly gently. “The children! You are clearly with child! I am obligated to say, you are glowing!”

Acts easily dodged the first two swipes of Nadia before getting out of range of the angry, immobilised bunny, laughing the entire way to the other side of the clearing. “Acts, you fucking… asshole! I’m gonna kill you as soon as I can move! That’s not funny!”

“You must catch me first, pregnant female!” Acts jeered from safety. “Until then, I suggest you calm down - think of the children!”

More angry curses were flung back and forth as the two teased one another. Up in the leaves, hidden by the lack of anybody looking, a dark figure observed them. “Children.” It muttered to itself. Eight eyes looked down on the two friends having fun with one another, then at its own black, prickly claw. “Think of the children…”

--

**

The shadows were stretching and intermingling with the darkness of the underbrush by the time the two finally stepped out of the clearing, and back into the cooling foliage. “What did I tell you, luckyfoot? No time at all.” Acts said, a wide smile holding fast as they stepped sure-footed through the old scraps of torn webbing. Nadia grumbled from behind, his ears half-hanging either side of his face. “Six hours.” He muttered. 

“Yes, and now we can go back onto our intended destination!” Acts happily announced to the silent woodland.

“Six. Hours.” Nadia repeated. “You said it would only take two.” He wrapped both arms around his still grumbling stomach, thankful that it had at least shrunk back down to its original size. “I still feel like a boulder was run over my body…” 

“Ah, you will recover.”Acts replied jovily. Nadia glared at the back of the frog’s head, as if hoping to burn a hole all the way through the other side. His stomach grumbled again, and so did he. This entire trip had been a mistake; he should have just swallowed his pride and apologised to that damned professor. Now he’s out here in the middle of gods-only-knows where, partnered with this amphibious smart-ass… 

The bunny almost tripped over an upturned root before realising he’d been staring at Acts’ smart ass. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been doing it, but he was very glad he had been able to fashion some new pants out of the scraps of fabric that he was able to recover from the site of the… incident. The incident which he had sworn, and had forced Acts to swear, never to speak of again as long as either of them lives. He was fairly sure Acts wasn’t taking it as seriously as he had, but in the end, there was only the frog’s word he could take at that point. It wasn’t like he was in any position to argue. 

“Still staring, looky-foot?” Acts called back, snapping Nadia out of his daydreaming. Damn, he had been staring at that ass again… 

“Uh, what?” Nadia asked innocently. “I was just... wondering how long it’ll take to regain the ground we lost.” He said, clearing his throat in an attempt to somehow cover the his burning cheeks. “Any idea when we’ll next hit that road you pushe-- that we were on?” 

There was a momentary pause as the two continued their trek, as if Acts was consciously filing that little jab under ‘to complain about later’. Eventually, the silence was broken. “Five minutes, luckyfoot. You were not dragged far, and once we reach the upcoming bend in the road, we may make camp.” 

“Took you a long time to find me for a five-minute drag…” Nadia mumbled under his breath. Acts either didn’t hear it, or elected to ignore it. Either way, Nadia preferred it unremarked upon. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep or food or bathing, but he had just about come to the end of his fuse with being humiliated by other species for one day. 

After a while, though what Nadia protested was definitely longer than five minutes’ walk, both frog and bunny finally laid foot on the road they had started on, albeit several hundred meters from their original point. “Excellent, we have made good way of head.” Acts muttered between breaths. Nadia knelt to one side of the frog and joined Acts in resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Apparently, the walk through the woods was not just exhausting for what Acts called ‘soft-footed types’. It seemed as if Nadia’s remark about frogs also having rather soft feet, by his recollection, went unheard.

“Up here, we may make camp.” Acts pointed to a harsh bend a dozen meters up the road, where an incline lead to a hard left turn. “Then we can stay still for the night, and you can… recover.” Acts’ pause left something lingering in the air, something that made Nadia’s ears twitch. Without a word, he shrugged and began the uphill walk, with Acts in tow behind him. They each walked in silence until they reached the bend, and then continued their mutual silence as they unpacked Acts’ backpack of sleeping items. A simple bed was unrolled; nothing more than a long sack with mild padding on the underside, and Nadia began collecting small rocks for a makeshift camp fire. It wasn’t long until the two were sat, exhausted and eyes half-shut, staring into the crackling flames of their small fire. 

“It wasn’t pleasant, you know.” Nadia said. 

“I am sure.” Acts responded quickly. 

“It’s not like I was asking for it, or something, if that’s what you’re thinking.” 

Acts drew up straight and leaned on one arm, staring Nadia in the eye. Slightly surprised by the strange look, he blinked. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” 

“You know a lot, bunny.” Acts said, eyes still narrowed. 

“Thanks, I… think?” The words were technically a compliment, but the tone was very much accusatory. 

Acts’ head shook. “You know a lot, but there is so much you are yet to know.” The frog laid back with a heavy thud, thankfully landing at the head of the bed spread. Nadia slowly lowered his back to lay with his semi-aquatic companion, staring up at the sky with a confused expression. “Why is it I feel like you’re accusing me of something?” He said out loud. He heard Acts giggle, which made him smile. It was a sound he hadn’t heard since-- for a while. Not for a while. 

“I do not blame you for being caught in a web, bunny.” Acts said softly. “It does happen to the best of us.” 

“Are you saying I’m the best of us?” Nadia smirked. Acts smacked him in the face lightly, and the two laughed together. 

“You wish it to be so!” Acts said, giggling once again. “No, what I mean is… it is okay to be taken unaware.” 

“Yeah, I guess it’s something I’ll have to get used to. Gods know it happens to me often enough…” 

Acts raised up on an elbow and looked down at Nadia. If he didn’t know better, he could have sworn that was a look of… concern. 

“You are surprised often?” Acts asked. Nadia half-grinned to himself as he stretched his legs either side of the crackling fire. 

“First year I was in university-- Do you guys have university? N-nevermind, it doesn’t matter… First year I was in that university, I decided to try to make an impression. Something great, y’know? Something that would… make everybody notice me. Make me popular.” Nadia closed his eyes and smiled as he felt a familiar feeling creep over his cheeks. 

“You’re blushing, luckyfoot.” Acts said softly. Nadia could tell there was a smile from the lips that spoke, but he didn’t care to open his eyes to confirm it. “I decided botany was the easiest way to gain some traction.” He continued. “After all, who doesn’t like plants, right? So I made this… this really good growth potion. Really good! I mean, it was great! It grew root cells in the testing microchambers by seventy percent an hour, just from passive exposure! I was really on to something!” He paused to yawn, and felt the cool skin of Acts against his side. He’d barely noticed his escort sliding onto the sleeping mat beside him; Acts was cozy beside him. Probably because of his body heat, he reasoned to himself. That’s also probably why Acts’ hand was on his chest, too. 

“Mmmh… what happened next, luckybunny?” Acts whispered into his chest fur. Nadia could tell the frog was just as tired as he was, and he didn’t know if he could even open his eyes at this point, let alone move his entire body into the sleeping mat. Still, it was a windless night, and the fire was so cozy… 

He shook his head and opened his eyes, barely catching himself before he fell asleep. “Oh, uh… I… it worked.” He said, flatly. He stared up at the shining stars, watching embers from the camp fire fall into the endless abysse before winking out like so many dying fireflies.  “My project worked on microbiology, so I figure, y’know, what the hell? It would be years until I was allowed a grant to take the work into the real world, not to mention all of the stupid paperwork and red tape.” Acts grunted softly by his side. When Nadia lifted his heavy head to look at what was happening, he noticed Acts’ eyes were closed, and the glistening green body was curled up by his side, clinging to him as if he were an overly large stuffed animal. He laid his head back down and grinned. 

“Nothing to it, I thought…” He yawned to himself, and closed his eyes again. “I thought it’d be fine if I just showed everybody how potent it really was… I didn’t mean to cause so much mayhem. How could I have known how quickly one strain of my mixture could mutate? Tsh, they say it was… oh, ‘short sighted’ and ‘the worst mistake an initiate had made since the great sandblock massacre of ‘53’, but I think they blew it all out of proportion. It was just a bit of greenery, that’s all.” He yawned again, feeling the strength ebb from his overworked muscles. “Only one building collapsed…” he muttered to himself, slowly drifting off to sleep. “It only ate three people, and they all survived just… fine…” 

A hushed whisper slithered from the dying fire as the last log crumbled into glowing embers, the bunny’s head finally drifting off into dreams, filled with various vines, laughing frogs, and a suspicious amount of overly friendly spiders. At last, the pair slept a decent sleep, and it wouldn’t be until the late morning that the two would be rudely awoken by a light, a sound, and deeply powerful feeling.  

For Acts, that meant lightning. Close lightning. Be Aware, the mind said, and so Acts was. Two hundred meters away, the crackling remains of an innocent tree fell to the ground smoldering. Acts’ tribe had been bred and shaped by their tactically valuable position in the jungle; halfway between the unbearable desert, the profitable yet all-too-trusting city of Whitewall, and the denizens of the various mountainous clans that controlled the snowy peaks along with the resources within. As soon as Acts’ eyes opened, everything became clear and certain. This is simply how the mind works, Acts was told from a young age, and so it was. It had all seemed so clear back then, so… sensible. It was not until Acts began to travel that it had seemed to lack a caveat; our minds are like that. Other minds, like those of other species, can be… radically different. Acts ran a hand across the sleeping bunny’s chest, and smiled. At least it was a comfortable sleep, Acts thought. It’s a shame these mammals seem to sleep so deeply, yet have thoughts so shallow… 

Without thinking about it, Acts suddenly caught their hand just before it passed the bunny’s makeshift belt line. Another grin spread over the frog’s face. Perhaps all minds are equally susceptible to shallow thinking.

Both were awoken by a light, a sound, and a deep feeling. For Nadia, this meant the bright beams of sunlight warming his fur and straining his eyes, even from under his own eyelids. That hadn’t woken him up; he was quite used to streaming light breaking through his literally hole-y ramshackle housing back in Whitewall. What had woken him up, albeit barely, was a sound inconsistent with the typical wilderness sounds he’d become appraised to over the last day or two. It was like a kind of… moist… ‘sluche, sluche, sluche’ sound. That was the best way his tired mind could think of to describe it. Weary eyed, he raised his head to find the source of the sound, and because it was habit at this point, destroy it wherever possible. All he could make out was Acts next to him, just as he’d fallen asleep, nestled into the crook of Nadia’s outstretched arm, looking up at the sky. 

What was odd was that Acts was being attacked by some sort of… long, purple leech. 
What was worrying was the fact that the frog seemed to be enjoying it. 

“Was tha?” Nadia mumbled. His tongue wasn’t working right yet. In fact, nothing really was, but to his mild thanks, the sound immediately stopped. “O-oh, you… are awake.” Acts said, the frog’s usually bolstered voice fairly restrained. “I did not expect you to wake up for another hour, I was allowing you to sleep.” 

Nadia narrowed his eyes, and raised his chest up with the assistance of his elbows. He nodded to Acts’ crotch, both the frog’s hands wrapped around the squirming purple leech. “What’s… what’s that?” He asked again, smacking his lips a little. “Issit a leech? Don… don like leeches. Spet for slime.” 

Acts rolled to one side away from the bunny and cleared his throat. “N-not a leech, bunny, do not concern yourself.”

Nadia blinked the sleep out of his eye a few times, glancing over the foliage that now came up to the same level of the road they’d decided to make camp at. The wood in the fire had all magically been transmuted into charcoal, and the occasional snap of the cooling rocks told him it hadn’t happened all that long ago. Turning his attention back to his escort, he raised his head a little to try and get a better look. “It’s not a leech? Then what is it? Lunch?” 

Acts cleared his throat again, and turned back onto his back, displaying himself to the bunny in full. “I-I mean… if you would like it to be as such, it could… be arranged.” 

Nadia’s eyes widened as the squirming pink item came back into view, this time with the clarity of clear eyes to examine it. It wasn’t a leech, that much was certain; for one, it wasn’t attached to Acts, so to speak… it was Acts. 

“I, uh… I thought you were like… y’know, a chick?” Nadia mumbled, rubbing one of his eyes and yawning. His brain was still booting up, and by the sounds of Acts’ giggle, both of them knew it. 

“I am what you call a frog, silly rabbit! You know this.” Acts replied, both hands still clasped firmly at the base of the protruding, squirming extrusion. Nadia blinked again. To his surprise, it was still there when he opened his eyes. 

“I also know that we had sex.” He said bluntly. “And that… that wasn’t there. I know. I would have remembered it.” 

Acts looked at Nadia like he’d gone completely mad. With the look of a dawning realisation, Acts’ lips formed a solid O. “Oohhh, you do not know about us! Oh, fun. Okay, so…” 

Acts scooted a little closer to Nadia until their bodies almost touched, the squirming purple specimen almost touching Nadia’s leg. He didn’t care much to move, not because he wasn’t concerned, but more so because he was still incredibly tired. Acts took one hand away from his crotch, and used it to support his head as he explained. “This is my uh… this is my male… selfness.” He said, straining to think of appropriate words. He waved away the thought with his spare hand, letting go of his ‘male selfness’ for a moment before returning it to where it came from. “I am amphibian, and as a female of my tribe, I can… you know…” 

Nadia did his best impression of a blank wall. Acts frowned. “I turn! From one, into another. You see?” 

“That’s a dick.” Nadia said flatly. 

“Y… yes?” Acts tried, shrugging his shoulders. “You seem to have picked this up with the speed others lack. I am thankful of that. These times can be quite awkwa--” 

“That’s a dick.” Nadia repeated.

“...Oh dear.” Acts muttered, sighing softly. “I can see you are going to have some difficulty.” 

“That’s… you have a dick.” 

“Does… this… trouble you?” Acts said kindly. “I can attempt to conceal myself once more, I did not expect to expose myself to you like this. Like I said, I thought you would sleep--” 

“N-no!” Nadia protested, sitting up fully and crossing his legs. “I-it doesn’t… disturb me! I’m not-- look, it’s… it’s a surprise! That’s all! I’m not like… bigoted or anything! It’s a nice dick! I just… I really… was… not expecting to wake up to that, that’s… that’s all.” He stammered himself into silence and scratched the back of his neck, desperately looking anywhere but where his mind rather strongly wanted to look. Acts giggled to himself. 

“It’s okay.” The frog said, a sly grin spreading across his face. “...A nice dick, you say?” 

Nadia’s eyes ceased wandering. “Did… I guess I did say that, didn’t I?” 

“Why, are you… flirting with me, bunny boy?” Acts asked coyly. “You know, I am a modest boy now! You cannot say such things and simply expect me to…”

“Climb onto my bedroll?” Nadia asked with a grin. Acts glared at him. “I was not about to sleep on rocks for the sake of your comfort, rabbit!” 

“Hey, I’m not saying you should have!” Nadia grinned down at Acts again, enjoying the strangeness of the situation. “I’d have settled to not waking up to some lizard--”

“Frog!” Acts corrected. 

“Right, frog; I’d have settled for not waking up to some random frog jacking off, that’s all.” 

“I am not-- Uugh! You mammals are all so… unbearable sometimes!” 

Nadia raised a choice eyebrow. “Are you finished?” 

Both of them stared at one another for a moment, each one daring the other to laugh at the accidental innuendo first. Thankfully, they both broke out into laughter at about the same time, and as the mutual understanding broke, they each returned to laying on the comfortable bedroll next to one another. 

“So… a nice dick?” Acts mumbled. 

“Pretty nice, yeah…” Nadia replied. Neither spoke for a while, but equally could neither stop grinning. “You could have told me.” 

“I guess now I do not have to.” Acts said.

“I suppose so, yeah.” Nadia snickered.

Another silence blossomed. Eventually, the silence was punctuated by a soft sound, rather difficult to place. Something of a… ‘sluche, sluche, sluche’ sound, followed by a gentle grunt. After a few minutes, this was accompanied by a soft rustling, and then another rhythmic, somewhat difficult-to-place sound… Something like ‘fphp, fphp, fphp’...