Revelations by IndigoNeko

WARNING: This story contains adult content. Please see the tags before you continue reading.

Chapter 3 – Embarassing Secrets

=^.^=

Saturday, May 23rd, 2015

David kept his eyes carefully on the road as they pulled out into traffic, eventually making their way out of the gated suburb and onto Martnazzi Drive. It wouldn't be more than a few minutes until they made it to I-205, and from there up route 212 to Mt. Hood Highway.

“Daddy?”

David glanced in the rear-view mirror. Alex was sitting in the middle seat playing with the pocket zipper of her orange cargo pants. “Yes?”

“What does horny mean?”

David froze at the question, and nearly drove past a stop sign. He took the few moments to collect his thoughts as the car sat at the intersection while he waited for another car with the right-of-way. He'd known this day would be coming. It was only a matter of time before cubs asked The Question. He'd only hoped that it would happen while his wife was there to mediate and assist. She understood kids far better than he ever would, and knew far more about the nitty-gritty of the female side of The Question. 

"Hold that thought, Alex. Let me pull over here."

David pulled the white SUV into the local Fred Meyer's parking lot, and found an empty parking space. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, hearing the leather creak a bit under his paws. Alex unbuckled her seatbelt as they came to a stop, then crawled over the cup holder and sat in the front passenger seat as David sat there, trying to formulate his thoughts. David took a deep breath and mentally plotted the problem and possible solutions as any good engineer does.

- Problem: Child is asking questions that relate to sex, which is an inappropriate topic.
- Solution 1: Defer the question until a later time, possibly escalating into an argument or bargain.
- Solution 2: Respond with a non-sexual answer, confusing the child later.
- Solution 3: Answer the question in detail, suffering whatever embarrassment it may cause.

David knew, just as every other parent before him knew, that the best solution for the child was the last. He wagered could deal with the embarrassment. However, this wasn't going to be a conversation where he could get distracted, or he'd leave poor Alex more confused than ever, which was not a good idea given Alex's...condition.

The doctor attending Alex's birth had said that around five percent of the population in were born with intersex complications, but in most cases they were surgically assigned whatever gender was most dominant. True hermaphroditism was rarer, at least in this part of the country, and was dealt with in the same way. All of this meant that hermaphrodites were very rare out in the northwest, and the doctor had warned them that there would be social repurcussions, possibly including bullying or worse. The doctor had been somewhat shocked that both David and Raenne had decided against having gender assignment surgery for their infant. 

David loved Alex dearly, but the precautions that both he and his wife had taken to prevent Alex's condition from becoming public knowledge were...tiring, to say the least. That, coupled with the extra effort they took to raise Alex in as gender-neutral an environment as possible made the task before him seem almost Herculean. How does one explain sex in a gender-centric world to someone who was simultaneously both and neither gender? He needed help.

David looked over at Alex, who was straightening out her OneRepublic hoodie. "Give me a few moments," he said. "I need to talk to your Mom."

He dug his iPhone out of his pants pocket and brought up the contacts list, tapping the second item on the list. After a second, the phone began to ring. Several more seconds went by before he heard his wife on the other end of the line. "Hi honey. Did you forget something here at the house?"

"No...umm...Alex just popped The Question."

"Did you answer it?"

Raenne's blunt response gave him faint hope, but he pressed on. "Umm...no. I was hoping-"

"Oh, no you don't." David's heart sank to somewhere in the vicinity of his stomach. Raenne continued, grinding his hopes to dust. "You know how Alex is with phone conversations. I'll talk to her again, after she gets home. In the mean time, it's your job to answer her questions, no matter how awkward they are." 

"...right," David sighed. "Okay. I'll try to answer it then."

"Love you, honey. Have fun on the mountain."

"Will do. Love you."

David pressed the red circle at the bottom of his phone, then worked it back into his pants pocket. He knew if he set it down in the car, he'd forget it there. He gripped the steering wheel again, trying to settle his nerves and thinking best about how to get all the information across. This was a daunting task. If only they taught Sex. Ed. In elementary schools, he'd have been spared this problem.

"Okay, Alex. What do you know about sex?"

"Umm...There's boys and girls and herms, and sex is when a boy puts his penis inside a girls vagina and moves it around until it squirts."

David felt himself turning fiery red under his white fur. Hearing his 9-year old daughter saying something like that was...way more embarrassing than he'd expected it would be. He was starting to understand why some parents chose to avoid the question rather than answer it.

"Er...not...exactly. Sex is short for sexual intercourse. It refers to any kind of contact between two furs involving their erotic zones for the purpose of pleasure or procreation."

Alex blinked at him, and David knew immediately that the vocabulary was far too advanced. "That means...almost any time two furs touch each other on their breasts or between their legs, either because it feels good, or because they want to have a baby," he paraphrased.

"So...it's not just when a boy puts his penis in-"

"Hold on there, Alex, let me keep explaining."

Alex closed her mouth and looked over at her daddy, tail lazily waving above the floor between her legs. David took a deep breath, trying to organize his thoughts. Lists helped. Lists always helped. Break the problem down into components, and break those down if necessary. Sex had two aspects: social, and biological. The social aspects required knowledge biological, so...there was the starting point. Start with the biological. That was it.

"There are four common forms of sex. First is vaginal sex. That's when a boy or herm puts their penis in someone else's vagina...girl or herm. Vaginal sex is how people make babies. Got it?"

"Yeah...what about the other three?"

"Second, there's anal sex. That's when a boy or herm puts their penis in someone else's anus-"

"Ewww-" 

"Ah-tut-tut. Keep listening. The person with the anus needs to go poop before they have sex, and run water up inside their rectum to clean it out. Otherwise, it's nasty and the person with the penis can get an infection in their penis. If you clean it out though, it's no dirtier than anything else. Okay?"

"It's still nasty."

David couldn't argue with that; he felt the same way, though his wife seemed to like it...probably from her feline heritage. The pain-as-pleasure wiring still showed up pretty often in felines, even after eons of divergent evolution. He had it only to a small degree. That was all besides the point; he was giving a lesson.

"Third is oral sex. That's where someone uses their mouth on someone else's penis or vagina to make them feel good."

"Ooooh, so that..."

Oh no, he thought, that was why she'd asked this. Somehow she'd been exposed to oral sex, or the concept of it. David waited a moment, having to grit his teeth against the urge to ask her exactly what she meant. If he asked her the wrong way, Alex might lie instead of answering, and that would be even worse. He could only hope his daughter would tell him if someone had done anything inappropriate with her, and made a mental note to talk about it next. He and Raenne had done their level-best to make sure that Alex would never accidentally reveal her condition, and make sure she would tell them if anyone did something to her that they shouldn't.

"Any questions?"

"What's the fourth?", she asked.

Damn. He was definitely going to have to ask what she knew about oral sex and how she'd found out about it after he finished this lesson. He doubted that she'd been the one initiating it, so he could safely promise her that he wouldn't get mad at her...he only hoped it wouldn't be something that would make him mad. If one of the teachers had done something...

Alex heard the steering wheel creak under daddy's paws. Something was wrong, and it was making her nervous. Her daddy sometimes didn't realize just how strong he was, and he sometimes broke things without meaning to. She hoped he didn't break the car. That would be bad.

"Daddy?"

"Oh, sorry honey. The fourth is Masturbation. That's when someone uses their hands on a penis or vagina to make it feel good."

"Even on your own penis or vagina?"

Dear God she was fast on the uptake. He paused and took a deep breath. This was way too embarrassing. He hoped that this conversation was nearly over, he was afraid he was going to bust a blood vessel with how hard he was blushing at this point.

"Yes, even on your own penis or vagina. Now...what are the four main types of sex?"

"Vaginal, anal, oral, and master...umm-"

"Masturbation. Good." 

Well, David thought to himself, that covered the basic mechanics. Now he just needed to cover the secondary effects, and then deal with the social implications later. Those took time to explain, and his wife would be far better at explaining them anyway.

"Now, there's two really important things you need to know about sex. The first is pregnancy. Testes, or balls, produce sperm. When the boy gets sufficiently excited, he'll release those sperm through his penis in a white liquid called semen. If that semen makes it inside a vagina, the sperm can turn into baby, which will grow inside the girl or herm for several months, until she has a baby."

Alex nodded along with that. It was pretty close to what Lizzy had said, from what she remembered, and the boy-juice was probably what daddy was calling semen. It was definitely a white liquid that she'd seen in the toilet last night; not pee at all.

"Got all that?"

Alex nodded. "Uh-huh."

"There are two ways to have vaginal sex without having a baby. One is to use something called a condom, which is used to cover the penis before it goes into the vagina. The second way is to use medicine that prevents pregnancies."

"Okay."

Alex began bouncing her sneakers against the front seat. It was obvious that David was starting to lose her attention.

"The second thing you need to know is about disease. There are some types of diseases that are transferred by having sex. Make sure you go to a doctor if you have any kind of itchiness or pain that won't go away or comes back, especially when you pee."

David let a sigh out. He'd done it. He'd answered The Question.

"But...what does horny mean?"

David mentally face-palmed. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten the very reason this whole lesson had started. He sighed, saying "It usually means that someone wants to have sex, but it can also mean they have horns like a deer or goat."

"Okay. Can we go to Mt. Hood now?"

Dear God. He'd just completed one of the most difficult tasks that anyone could face in parenthood, and she trivialized it in the way only a 9-year old could. David still had butterflies in his stomach, and was praising God that he hadn't drunk any coffee that morning, or he'd be having a serious case of heartburn. He went to turn on the ignition, only  to realize that he'd left the car running...and that it was still in drive.

=^.^=

An hour and a twenty minutes later, the white Nissan SUV pulled into the parking lot at the end of Timberline Highway, a few hundred feet from the Lodge itself. Both the front doors opened, and David stepped out while Alex hopped down. Alex slammed her door shut and ran around to the driver's side, where David was busy stretching the kinks out of his back. He closed the door as Alex ran around to the back of the SUV, following her and popping the trunk open and pulling out his ski boots and Alex's snowboarding boots. 

Alex had already taken off her shoes and tossed them into the trunk by the time he handed her boots to her. She quickly slipped them on and closed the latch at the top, then climbed into the trunk, rummaging through the junk in the back for her goggles, jacket, and snow pants as he sat on the bumper and replaced his own boots. She handed him his own jacket and goggles as he stood up. 

"Looks like there's no fresh snow today...You want the mountain board or alpine board?"

"Umm...Carving."'

David reached up and undid the fasteners on the rack, then pulled down the longer board and skis. A few moments later, they were headed past the lodge and up to the magic mile lift. David lifted asked what she wanted to do for the warmup run. "Blue or Green for the first run, and take it easy! Which one?"

"Awww....umm....Can we do Kruser? I like the trees."

"Sure. Keep your speed up in the middle of it or you'll be walking over that last hill. And stay in the center unless there's someone in the way. I'll follow on your left."

"Yep! Oh, look,” she exclaimed, pointing across the parking lot. “That guy looks like a giant pillow.”

David looked, afraid that she was pointing out someone with an eating disorder and that he'd have to reprimand her. Then he saw what she was pointing at and did a double-take. He could make out the wide, scaly muzzle of some kind of reptile poking out from amidst a ridiculously puffy jacket and pants, complete with a tail covering. It was clearly some kind of specialty winter-wear for cold-blooded types, and probably had some kind of built-in heating apparatus. 

“Huh, you're right. Don't see many reptiles this far from the equator, much less up on a ski slope. Hope they don't get frost-bite.”

"There's a few reptiles at school, daddy. They have their own classroom."

"I...didn't know that. Watch where you put your feet, love."

The two tigers made their way up past the lodge and onto the lift, showing their lift passes and getting onto the lift. The magic mile lift was fast, but it still took a while, and they had a few minutes before they reached the top. Knowing that Alex was probably in a much better mood now that they were up on the mountain, David decided to finally broach the question that had been nagging him since this morning.

"Alex...this morning...when I told you about sex...you said something that worried me when I told you about oral sex...umm...have you seen it or done it? It's okay if you have. Or did someone find out that you're a herm? That's okay too. I just need to know." David hoped he sounded casual enough that she wouldn't feel like she had to hide it...but if someone had told her that she might get in trouble or that it had to be a secret, this could be very tricky. He'd tried to raise Alex to be open and honest with them, but...

David watched as her ears folded over on her head, and knew she thought she'd done something wrong. He immediately put one hand around her shoulders and hugged her. "It's okay, love. It's totally okay. I love you no matter what happened, and I won't punish you. I promise. Just...please tell me what happened."

"Well...it...um...it was...", Alex spoke, so quietly that David could barely hear her, "It was with Lizzy. She...umm...she told me a secret, but she didn't mean to, and I thought...I thought telling her my secret would make her feel better. Then she asked to see my boy part. So...well...we went to her bathroom, and I showed her. Then she...umm...what was the word for when someone touches you to make you feel good?"

Oh God, he thought, this was bad. If Lizzy knew and told her parents, they were conservative enought that they would forbid the two cubs from ever talking again, and that would devastate Alex...worse, they might file a complaint with the school system or even write an editorial in the local paper, and then it would become public knowledge. His thoughts raced as he distractedly answered her question. "Umm...masturbation."

"That...she masturbationed me-"

"Masturbated."

"...she masturbated me, and that...umm...the white stuff..."

"Semen?"

"Yeah. Semen came out, but I got most of it in the toilet."

David was reeling from these revelations. That cute, innocent little stoat girl had given Alex a handjob? Worse, ejaculation meant Alex must have hit puberty, and that meant that she'd be going into heat soon. Shit. Just how far had they gone? 

"...and then what?", he asked.

"Well, this morning, when I woke up she had her mouth around my penis, and I think more semen came out, but she must have swallowed it. Then she asked me to do the same thing to her, and so I did oral sex to her, and I licked her flower a lot. Her flower smelled really good, and tasted good too-"

Sweet Jesus. David wasn't just reeling, it felt like he'd been kicked in the head by one of his sparring partners. Worse, his heart was pounding now, and he was starting to get aroused at the thought of Alex doing that to the pretty little jill. What kind of a sick fuck was he?

"Wait, hold on. You don't do oral sex to someone, you do it with someone. So you had oral sex with Lizzy."

"Umm...Yes. I had oral sex with Lizzy."

"Did you do anything else?" God, he hoped not. If they'd had sex and Alex was shooting live ammo, this could be VERY bad. His heart sank as she continued on with her story.

"Well, I was really stiff again, so she had me lay down and sat on top of me and rubbed her flower on my penis until I squirted semen again. It...umm...it kind of got all over my pajamas."

David was actually getting hard himself. His face burned with shame. He felt like a God-damned pedophile, but he had to know just how far it had gotten between the two of them. He wanted to puke. 

"Did..." He was barely able to choke out the next question. "Did you put your penis inside her? Did any of your semen get on her...flower?"

"Umm...I don't think so...my semen got all over my shirt though."

He felt the hair all over the back of his neck stand on end...that was far too close. It was unlikely, but still very possible that Alex had gotten the stoat pregnant. Now he had to tell Raenne...and knew that the two of them would have to give Alex a home-brew Sex Ed course. Then he had to contact a very discrete and very good lawyer and find out exactly how much shit he and his family would be in if it this all came to light. He was silent the rest of the way up the lift.

=^.^=

Forty minutes later, David found himself hunching over, legs burning as he pushed with every stride just to keep up with Alex. She was a demon on that racing board of hers, and she made it look so effortless, her striped tail whipping in the wind behind her. As they reached the end of Coffel's run, they must have been doing 30 or 40 mph. She veered a bit, crouching as she headed into a hump, then jumping over the top. He felt his heart stop as she managed to get over ten feet of air over what he'd thought was just a slight bump in the snow. That shouldn't have even been possible on a blue run.

Alex hit the ground flawlessly, then glanced back to see where Daddy was. He'd fallen behind again, and she veered a bit to dump her speed, sending a spray of hard-packed snow out from under the back of her board. The alpine board was great for downhill slopes, but she couldn't really do any tricks with it other than jumps. That was okay though; jumps were fun. Just as well, considering her father's reaction when she'd tried her first helicopter last month. He'd been so afraid that he'd threatened to take away her freestyle board for trying it without telling him. He was so overprotective sometimes; she hadn't taken a bad spill in months.

After he'd caught up, she pushed a bit, doing that funny leaning hop to get her speed back up. Gaining speed on a shallow grade with an alpine board was a pain in the tail. She almost wished she'd brought some ski poles, but using them with a snowboard was ridiculous. Eventually she passed him again, crouching down with her paws spread out at waist height. The trees were starting to come into view...She absolutely loved Kruser run, with the deep forest to either side. It always made something deep and primal within her feel welcome...this was her home.

She practically flew down the path, adroitly dodging the slower skiers and boarders. The wind began to pick up, pressing against the fur on her cheeks and turning her nose icy cold. She didn't care; it was worth it. She closed her eyes a moment, savoring the feel of the wind whipping past. She was coming up on the part of the path where there was a tree in the middle. They'd put one of those blue mats around it since last time...she hoped nobody had been seriously injured hitting it. 

She raced past yet another slowpoke, startling them into a yell, and heard another faint yell from way behind her. Silly skiers. It wasn't like she'd been even remotely close to them; there was at least seven feet between them. Ahh, there was the ridge she'd been looking for. She crouched low again on the approach, practically sitting on her board...there was the rise...then the jump...and she was airborne.

The wind whistled past her ears as the ground fell away beneath her and she looked out over the forests. She could probably see the entire slope from here. Yep, there was the Normin lift, the alpine trail, and the mustang sally lift. Suddenly she felt a twinge of fear. She was really, really high this time, probably higher than she'd jumped anywhere except the Willis run...and the ground was coming up awfully fast, with no slope to soften the landing.

Alex hit the ground hard, feeling her legs give way. Her butt and hands hit the ground, and suddenly the front edge dug in. Alex flipped forward, cartwheeling through the air. She tried to tuck, like the books said, but the edge of her snowboard caught in the snow again as she continued to roll downhill. There was a plastic popping sound, and the front of the board fell away from her, twisting the opposite direction and bringing her back leg with it. Her back bounced off the hard snow, nearly jerking her head out of her hands. 

Then the board caught in the snow again, twisting her leg around before the rear binding gave way like the first. She continued rolling, hands around her head and legs flailing. The board stayed, stuck straight up in the dense packed snow like some brightly colored tombstone. Then she was in amongst the trees. 

The softer snow amidst towering pines did little to slow her down...but the tree trunk did.

=^.^=

David raced down the slope, huffing and puffing, heart pounding from far more than just simple exertion. He knew Alex hadn't heard him yell...her ears had been pointed forward. She was at least a quarter click in front of him when he'd seen her hit that ridge and catch air. David hadn't seen anyone manage to clear the treetops out here on Mt. Hood before, and seeing his own flesh and blood do exactly that...it chilled him worse than all the snow and ice in the world.

He hadn't seen her land, she was too far ahead, and around the bend...but he knew it would be bad. There was no way she could have landed softly from that height...the trees here were as high as thirty feet, and she'd cleared them easily. Then he came around the bend, and saw the black and orange board standing straight up on the far side of the trail. He screamed.

"ALEX!"

Then he was next to the board, scanning the trees desperately for any sign of her. He couldn't see her.

"AAALEEEX!"

Then he saw the churned up snow trail leading into the trees a good fifteen feet past the board, and caught a glimpse of black at the base of a tree, snow piled high around it. He pushed off, sliding down in between the trees until he saw her lying in a crumpled heap at the base of the tree she'd struck.

"Oh God..."

He started to clamber over the drift, but his skis got in the way. In a rush he ripped the bindings off and rolled over the drift surrounding the tree. She wasn't moving, and he feared the worst. Something in the back of his head told him he couldn't move her...it could make things worse. He found himself kneeling in the snow next to her head, afraid to touch her.

"Alex! Please be okay! Oh God...oh god...what do I do...help...I need help."

He dug down into his pocket, pulling out his iPhone. He dialed 911.

=^.^=

David stepped back from where Alex lay, still not moving, trying to blink back tears. At least she was breathing; he could see her breath steaming as it left her nostrils every few seconds. He felt so helpless, and it seemed like it had taken forever for the Ski Patrol to arrive.

The snowmobile came to a halt a dozen feet away, and the bear that was riding it quickly dismounted, then unstrapped a first aid kit that was hanging on the side. He looked positively massive in the bright red Ski Patrol jacket. 

“Ski Patrol Medic. What happened?”

“She jumped. High. I...I didn't see her land...she was too far ahead...I was trying to catch up.”

As the medic knelt in the snow, next to Alex, two other Ski Patrol members arrived, skiing past the small crowd that had gathered near the edge of forest. They quickly unsnapped their skis and stepped over to join the grizzly bear already kneeling next to Alex. The medic cupped his black-gloved hand under her muzzle and stared a few seconds, until the tiny puff of vapor left her nostrils. He spoke loudly enough that even those in the crowd could hear. “Well, she's alive at least. Just unconscious. Let's see what we can do about that.”

There were a few murmurs from the crowd, and the bear pulled open the first aid kit that he'd brought with him and pulled out a small vial. He unstoppered it and held it next to Alex's nose, asking “What's her name, sir?”

“Alex,” David replied, watching anxiously. After a few moments, her eyes flickered and her head twitched. A few moments passed and she groaned.  

“Alex? Alex? Can you hear me, Alex?”

“Unnnhhhh...owe...what...”

“You fell, Alex. You took a bad fall. Do you hurt?” The medic asked, speaking slowly and carefully enunciating each word.

“Uhh...yes..unnnggh...” 

“Where do you hurt, Alex?”

“Leg...leg hurts...and...all over.”

David suddenly realized that he could hear Alex purring, a strange counterpoint to the noise from the snowmobile. If she hurt, changes were very good that she wasn't paralyzed. 

“Okay, Alex. I'm going to take your goggles off. If it hurts, say so. Can you tell me what you remember?”

The grizzly removed his gloves and began gently probing the girls head, starting with her muzzle and working his way around to the back of her skull and neck. She continued to purr she started speaking, “Mmm...Mt. Hood...snowboarding..uhh...we got here, and were doing Kruser run...and there was that lizard who looked like a giant pillow-man...”

The bear gently removed her goggles. Her nictitating membranes were periodically running over her eyes as she blinked, looking about.

“I'm going to hold up some fingers, Alex. Focus on them as I move them. How many fingers am I holding up, Alex?”

“Umm...three fingers.”

“Good. Your eyes are tracking and there's no pupil dilation, but it looks like you hit your head pretty hard. You may have a mild concussion. I'm going to start touching the rest of you, Alex. Let me know if anything that I touch hurts.”

For the next minute, the bear worked his way around the girl, gently probing down her back until he was sure she didn't have any spinal injuries, but definitely found some painful ribs, and a definitely injured leg. After another minute, he'd managed to get her into a sitting position, all the while keeping up a steady conversation with Alex and David.

“Well, Alex, it looks like you've got a bad bruise or possibly cracked ribs on your back, and either a sprained or cracked ankle. You're going to need a few x-rays. Do you think you can sit on a snowmobile for a bit?”

“Yeah.” 

“Mr. Andreyev, do you know where the Ski Patrol station is at Timberline Lodge?”

“Yes. I made sure I knew where it was when we first came up here two years ago.”

“Well, it hasn't changed since then. It'd probably be best if I drove her over there on the snowmobile, and you can make your way over too the Normin lift and from there make your way back to the Lodge. Phil and Lisa here can go with you. By the time you get back to the lodge, I should have her leg wrapped up and you can get your car and take her down to one of the local clinics, or over to the Legacy Mt. Hood Hospital to get her x-rayed."

"Thank you. We live next to the Legacy Meridian Hospital...but that's an hour and a half from here."

"Not a problem, sir. I can wrap her leg up with some ice packs to keep the swelling down and give her a double dose of advil and a dose of acetomenophen. That'll keep the swelling down and help with the pain until you can get her there if you want."

"Umm...Yes, I think that should be fine."

"Alright then. Well, Alex, let's get you up onto the snowmobile." The grizzly held her under her arms and gently lifted her until she was standing, keeping one leg off the ground. Then the bear bent and put one of her arms over his neck. "Hold onto my neck, Alex. I'm going to carry you over to the snowmobile."

"Daddy? My snowboard..."

"I'll get it, love."