How to write a short story…

1:  Take the commissioners requests and use the key ideas.
2:  Close eyes.
3:  Come up with a story or idea that roughly fits around those plot points within your imagination and then go back to the commissioner for approval.
4:  Research.
5:  Research again and name your characters and setting locations.
6:  Write.
7:  Re write, making sure that if needed you go over the length required.  Never try and fit a story to the paid for words.  Always go over, not under.
8:  Edit.
9:  Email the client to say that it is ready.

Characters:
Ryan and Akaidria:  Commissioners Characters and are described exactly as they wanted and according to pieces of art provided.
Honiahaka the otter:  Created by me (Author) through research.  Name roughly translates as river wolf in one of the NA Indian tongues.  I needed a believable fur who could be running a feral wolf sanctuary.  So I opted for a River Wolf…or Otter!

Settings and scenes:
Sanctuary location was part of my brief, as was a house in the woods.  I wove the descriptions from there.
Toys from Bad-Dragon were a major request from the commissioner, hence the first sex scene.  I was briefed to stay away from certain fetishes that would have fitted better in that scene and had to rework it a few times.
A naughty hike was suggested for the second sex scene as the commissioner likes hiking with her Mate.  Through research I put a pin in a Google map of where they live and located a suitable point around ninety minutes’ drive from there on a trail that the commissioner suggested.  She had not been there herself, but had hiked other sections of the trail.
Satellite images showed me the presence of a secluded water meadow… And BANG! The title of the story was set.
Further research of NA Indian stories and the spirit walkers, allowed me weave a ‘fur’ twisted view.  I then created Honiahaka as a character and filled in the rest of the plot when I let my imagination run wild.

Writing:
You are going to hate me for this…but after the research and about an hour’s mind drifting with my eyes closed…I wrote the whole draft in about three hours.  I have a type rate of around 1200-1500 words an hour with my eyes closed.  Yup…I type as I imagine, weaving the different settings and scenes from my own subconscious after my research is done.
The draft is then worked over carefully with gaps filled in and hiccoughs smoothed over.  Length is checked when working to order, but then ignored if something else is required to complete the prose…In this case there had to be a logical conclusion to the transformation, and the buck scene was added.
I then do a full edit, removing as many spelling and grammar mistakes that I am capable of.

The above explanation was requested by the commissioner when I came back to her with my initial idea and plot within two hours of her approaching me!  I am always willing to answer any further queries on how to write.

Please enjoy…

Water meadows smell so sweet.

Ryan turned the key in the padlock on the visitors’ entrance, slipping it onto the hook behind the counter in the tourist shop with a jangle. “All locked up Honiahaka,” he called into the back room, “Akaidria and I will see you next week.”

The wizened old medicine man came out of the back leaning heavily on his ornate staff.   “You off somewhere nice...somewhere quiet?” the perpetually smiling otter anthro asked, broken teeth glinting in the light from above.

“I was not planning to old one,” Ryan replied respectfully.

“Do so...my senses tell me the weather will remain good for the next few days.  Are not our charges still coming into season?  Despite our ledrene's gravid state.  Old I may be, but a light winter is ahead of us this year...one that is going to provide easy prey for yearling cubs.  Go claim your mate young arctic wolf, before the packleader in the pens takes her for himself.”  He tapped his nose and hobbled back into the office, his rudder tail knocking against the doorframe as he turned.

Ryan grinned at the old man’s matchmaking and slipped into his coat before stepping out of the rear entrance into the waning spring light.  There was still a nip in the late May air that promised the threat of frost again as the sun splashed through the budding trees.  Glancing at the nearest enclosures he spotted the sweeping grey tail of his heartmate, black tip swinging back and forth as she leant on the viewing bars, stylus in one hand tapping rhythmically against her glasses frames, palmpad in the other as she observed the feral packleader in the forest enclosure below, where he lay majestically on one of the rocks.

Slipping quietly up behind her, he gently laid a hand on her shoulder, breaking her musings as she turned to face him, “What were you thinking of love?” he asked as she leaned a cheek against his.

“Oh nothing...only what he thinks of us,” Akaidria replied with a deep sigh.

“According to Honiahaka, he is thinking of tearing your pants off and pinning you to the forest floor while his ledrene nips at your ears...”

She took a playful swipe at him, “I know that he would take advantage of me...It is a good job I have you to fight for that honour.  However, it was more what he thinks of being cared for and held by us...I mean those who were once human but who now resemble him.”

“Only he can know that.  Since the change came upon humankind, he is at least assured of a life.  Our feral selves would have been hunted to extinction by now without us moving closer to our spiritual heritage.”

“Too true...and yet the guns still sound in the woods...” she shuddered as a chill breeze seemed to sweep across them for a second, “Take me home and do to me what he wants to love.”

“It will be my pleasure...Mate.”  Ryan replied and hugged her close to him as they headed for the staff carpark, both unaware of the pools of inestimable wisdom that tracked them from the ottery eyes of the sanctuary's owner who was watching from the window of the office where he resided.

“Run free with the winds my young friends...” he muttered quietly, adding an incantation charm in his own language before turning back to his paperwork.

~~~~

The battered Chevy Tracker rumbled up the track into the forest near the town of Superior Wisconsin.  They had elected to take the truck in that morning as rain had threatened, though not materialised.  The arched wooden doorway of their earth mound home greeted them as Ryan parked in front of the porch where his Trek bike resided, and the engine died with a turn of the key.

It was a work of art this home.  Laboured for intensely by long student days at university, she had qualified as a feral wolf biologist and found a place under Honiahaka’s tutelage as the head of welfare at his sanctuary.  Falling for the arctic wolf who now escorted her through their front door into the den they had created for themselves, was but a bonus that she couldn’t have hoped to gained from her position.

They were both half human, half wolf anthros.  She a grey wolf from the breastbone down, with blue eyes, blonde human hair with wolf ears that poked through the dirty strands while her glasses perched upon them comically.  Just the pronounced canine teeth in her human jaw her skulls only adaptation.  Ryan was an arctic wolf hybrid, split identically in appearance bar his fur colour and taller frame...though neither were giants, just average.

“You want a steak love?” Ryan asked, breaking her chain of thought.

“I want you!” she replied, batting at him as she shucked her coat off onto the hook as she slipped the latch chain on.

“Oh you will have me later...or our silicone friends if you wish.  I need my energy when I get you into our bedroom!” Ryan joked.

Akaidria chuckled, “Very well then.  Bloody as usual please with black pepper.  I am just going to take a shower...I will be out in five.”

“Of course...of course,” Ryan replied circumnavigating the island that separated the hob from the dining/living area.

Akaidria stepped into the bathroom and chucked her work clothes and underwear into the hamper by the door.  The ground was still muddy, and she had picked up all sorts of unmentionable dirt when checking the health of the unborn cubs the ledrene was carrying.  Her pelt was dusty, her loins needy as she crouched and pissed in the appliance before flicking the water on in the glass enclosure.  Placing her glasses in the shelf before stepping in, the water slicked down her greyish fur, black guard hairs seemingly deepening in colour as her protective undercoat near her skin became saturated with water massaged in by her fingers.  Her tail took on the appearance of a drowned squirrel.  The water at her feet ran brown for a minute or two before she lathered up with foam and washed herself clean.  Ryan would not need to...she liked him all earthy and smelling of musk from his exertions...but a female must always be clean to receive her rewards!

A quick towelling down sapped the worst of the water from her fur before she stepped naked out of the bathroom, scooping Ryan’s discarded clothes into the hamper with hers from where he had left them outside the door.  They both preferred the feel of the air on their skins when they were within their own private space...it was still frowned upon to go that way in public though.  One day the law would change, and those with fur long enough to hide their anatomies would be granted that final freedom.

The sound of steaks hitting the hot slates assailed her ears and she walked into the living area where Ryan was just placing them on the table to eat, nothing but a comical apron protecting him from the spitting fat.  “They smell delightful love,” she commented as she took her place.

“The butcher did us proud with this cut...it has aged well,” Ryan replied, slipping his apron off to reveal the telltale pink tip that was just poking out between his white belly hairs.  Black stripes of fur marked his legs, the tip of his tail and ears the only other colours marring the whiteness of his pelted portions.

Akaidria chuckled, “And beating the meat has got you aroused already!” she joked as he took his place opposite her.

He grinned back, “We will have to chase a young buck down ourselves one day,” he commented as he tore the first chunk off the barely seared venison steak with his sharp teeth.

“Maybe...maybe.  Eating meat and killing it ourselves are two different things though...I am not sure that I could,” she replied tearing a chunk off herself.

“It is something that can explored in the future then.  For now, that old cougar in town can milk our purses to keep our stomachs happy!” Ryan chuckled, she joining him as they finished up.

“Honiahaka suggested that the weather would hold fine and strong for tomorrow.  Do you fancy going anywhere?” Ryan asked as they slipped the slates into the sink with a mix of hot soapy water to soak.

“We have been talking about hiking the Ice age trail...you want to go see what it is like as a taster?” Akaidria replied, slipping her hand around his waist and gripping the growing arousal that was present below his belly, “Maybe find a private spot in the woods?” she suggested as he leaned back against her soft breasts.

Ryan groaned, “Is this not private enough for you?” he asked.

“Private yes....naughty no!”

He giggled and turned into her embrace, “I think that sounds like a plan then...Now,” he scooped her up into his arms and carried her through to their bedroom quickly as she hugged herself tightly to his neck, “About dessert!” he continued, throwing her onto the bed.

“You want me, or do you want a show tonight?” Akaidria asked, spreading her legs wide so the fur parted to reveal her treasures to him.

“Watch...as long as there is audience participation,” Ryan replied, his eight inches now fully unsheathed in the cool air of the inner den.  He bent and pulled out the finely carved maple chest from under the bed and flicked the latch. “Who do you fancy tonight?” he asked.

“I have a hankering for a horse...followed by a good knotting I think!” Akaidria replied as she circled her clit with a single finger, “You want to lube me up first?”

Ryan grinned and eased the ‘Unflared Chance’ toy from the wooden chest, along with ‘David the Werewolf’ both in large, before placing it back on the floor at the foot of the bed.

“Put a show on for me sexy!” Akaidria suggested as ‘David’ was laid to one side for the moment.

Ryan chuckled as more of her fingers crept down to join the one she was already circling her nub with.  Gently stroking his own shaft, he ran the tip of ‘Chance’ up and down it’s glistening length, rubbing some of the pre that he was now producing over the smooth silicone, dry humping the toy in an act of simulated frottage while he was being watched eagerly by his mate as she dipped within herself to expose more and more pink.

Akaidria slowly felt the heat of anticipation building within her as her breathing deepened in time with Ryan’s.  Fingertips teased at her folds as the toy in her lover’s hands became wetter and with his own emissions and the musky scents of sweat and arousal filled the room to create a sensual soup that would drive any female wild.  He lifted the toy to his lips, running his tongue over the flat end until a trail of saliva trailed from it to the toy and a grin formed on his face.  They did not practice oral on each other by mutual agreement, but the suggestiveness of the action still thrilled them both.  “Give him to me,” she whispered huskily.

Ryan climbed up onto the bed on his knees and shuffled up towards her waiting sex.  Slowly he eased ‘Chance’ into her waiting velvet cavern until the base rested against her large lips.  Leaning forward he kissed her deeply before moving his mouth down to lick and nip at her aroused nipples with his prominent canines as she groaned from the attentions.  Gently he began to move his hips, his shaft running back and forth through her belly hair with each movement.  His wrist was pressed tightly against his balls as his hand gripped the horsey dildo, pulling it in and out with increasingly quick movements as Akaidria’s breaths became faster and faster.  Her back arched under him, a single long gasp escaping from her lips as her right breast filled his mouth completely, the toy being pulled from his grip as she clenched upon it and spilled her first orgasmic release across the underside of his shaft and balls, his fur dripping from the potent femininity.

“More...” she whispered as her breathing settled, “I am ready for ‘David’ now.”

Ryan slipped ‘Chance’ out from between her thighs with a wet slurp as the flat tip broke the vacuum in her wonderfully tight pussy, “I would have thought you would have wanted me to tie you?” he queried as his shaft stood erect, drooling its readiness as he leaned back behind him to fetch the awaiting ‘David’ from where it lay on the top sheet.

“Not tonight, I want to see it coming at me.  Let’s keep up the show you were putting on until its final conclusion.”

Ryan chuckled and ran ‘David’ up and down his cock until he too was soaked with enough natural lube, “You want him all the way?” he asked as he fed the toy’s slanted lip into the place that ‘Chance’ had just vacated.

“Yessss…” Akaidria hissed in her pleasure as the cool silicone slipped within her, “Knot me with him.”

“You recovered from last time?” Ryan asked concerned as he nipped at her clit with his nails making her hiss at him again.

“Yessss…My cervix is ready!”

Ryan chuckled again and drove ‘David’ in sharply until its tip bounced off that sensitive inner ring, the knot just kissing her lips as he grounded.

Akaidria was still sensitive from the abrasion on her cervical wall that an accident with a large griffin toy had given her the week before, but her pleasure endorphins soon overrode the pain of the first impact as Ryan’s teeth gripped her nipples again while he twisted ‘David’ back in forth within her gently until she felt the narrow tip slowly part that last ring of her womb’s defence.  She groaned his talented fingers took over from hers, rolling her clit between them until her second orgasm started to build within her.

Ryan felt the resistance give and with a thrust of his hips drove ‘David’s’ knot into his mate with a slap of his balls on the flat base mount of the silicone.

Her lips closed around it, hugging the toy into her body as the barrier to her womb went down, a howl of pleasurable pain ripping from her lungs as her orgasm took hold again.  She clasped her hands into the hair on the back of Ryan’s neck in imitation of a feral mating bite and held him tightly to her heaving bosoms as her body ruined the sheets on the bed again with her pleasurable release.

“I am close love!” Ryan gasped as his balls started to clench in readiness to release, his own knot throbbing where it was buried tightly in her belly hairs.

She released him quickly and pushed him upright, “You know where I like it!” she gasped, her orgasm still sucking at ‘David’s’ firm silicone.

Ryan grinned and squatted over her, tail hole just resting on the cool flange of the toy in his lover as he began to stroke his shaft, aiming the end carefully at her chest and chin.  It took less than thirty seconds for his orgasm to take him, ropes and ropes of his potent maleness jetting from his pulsing eye as his balls pulled up into his body.  Hands clasped tightly around his knot to prolong his release, he painted her breasts and face with his body’s offerings to her shrine of femininity, howling in his own ecstasies.

She revelled in the splashes of hot cum the tickled her taste buds where they slipped between her lips, the saltiness of the male milk replacing some of the salinity in her blood which had been lost in their hot and sweaty exertions.  “You ready to release him yet?” She heard Ryan ask quietly as the last drops fell from his spent tip onto her belly.

“Yes,” she replied, tensing her abdominal muscles a few times as he shuffled back down her a little to grip the toy with his hands, easing it gently out of her stretched passage.

“Comfortable?” he asked.

“Yes…let’s sleep and clean up in the morning,” Akaidria insisted with a yawn as he crawled up her body to lie beside her, her head resting on his shoulder.

“So what are we going to do tomorrow?” Ryan asked sleepily.

“How about the section of the Ice Age trail down by Leach lake if the weather does hold?”

“Mmmm…” Ryan agreed sleepily.

“Sounds like a plan then.”  Her eyes closed completely, breathing calming to a steady pattern as Ryan watched her with adoration.

He grinned and closed his eyes as the house finally fell into the quiet silence of slumber.

~~~~

Joints cracking, Akaidria stepped from the passenger seat of the car with a groan as the mid-morning sun infiltrated them with its weak spring heat.  A quick breakfast, preceded by a mutual fumble and grooming in the shower before they had headed the 85 miles, and two hours down the I63 until the Chevy had pulled up onto the damp earth of Leach lake road’s strip where the trail they were seeking crossed it.

“East or West?” Ryan asked as he too stretched his cramped muscles.

Akaidria reached for her backpack and pulled out her palmpad, pushing her glasses up to perch on the bridge of her cherubic nose so she could read the pre-programmed trail on a satellite map.  “West towards Delano lane I think.  It curls around through the woods and valleys that way…and it looks like there is a river bridge that we could have a break on midway.”

Ryan slipped his own backpack on, checking the water bottles were still in place and full before he locked the little four wheel drive with his key and walked around to join her.

They strolled through the budding trees and shrubs as the birds overhead in the branches warbled their invitations to come and nest together in joy of Mother Nature’s calls to form new life.  Mice scuttled through the wood anemones underfoot, the grunting of something larger off to one side causing their ears to rotate on their heads until the squeal of something small and furry exhaled its last breath in the jaws of the unseen predator.  Ryan hugged Akaidria to his side as their tails swung in unison, brushing against each other in mutual security, the steel barrel of his hip holstered 45 touching both their thighs just in case something decided that they might make a nice snack instead.

It was a good couple of miles before the trees began to thin and the trail dropped down the side of a shallow valley.  The canopy suddenly broke and they emerged onto a raised pathway between two rich green meadows that were spotted with pools of shallow water.  A wooden plank bridge crossed a burbling river that was a lot narrower than the timbers crossing it.

“These meadows must flood completely love,” Ryan commented as the smell of fresh watercress and wild garlic filled their noses.

“Yes…it is just perfect isn’t it!” Akaidria commented excitedly, “I would almost trade our forest den for a place like this!”

Ryan laughed and hugged her close as they walked up onto the oak timbers that were silvered with age and repeated floods, “Look!” he whispered, pointing downstream where a majestic buck was standing lookout, ears cupped in their directions as his harem of three does, fawns at their teats, grazed the meadow near the wood’s edge, some quarter of a mile down the valley.

“He’s late to be standing watch!” she commented as she reached for her camera.

“Maybe he is lonely.  I am sure they do not resent his presence with the fawns so close…” Something startled the buck then, and with a sharp alarm bark the quadrupeds galloped off into the trees.

“Damn…missed them,” Akaidria cursed as she put the camera back in its cover, “Come, this couldn’t be a better spot for the picnic love, we haven’t seen another sapient soul since we set off!”  She cupped his crotch suggestively and he grinned.

“We should at least head off the trail slightly though…just in case,” he replied and gripped her questing hand, tugging at it until she broke into an eager jog in his wake as he pulled her down the bank off the trail and upriver until they found a mossy bowl where a large tree had succumbed to the waterlogged ground some years previously and had fallen leaving a hole that its root plate once inhabited.

“Perfect,” she breathed, slightly puffed as Ryan threw out the picnic rug in his pack on the damp moss before they sat down next to each other.  Their heads were just about level with the grass blades as they leaned back into the natural earth bank.

“You want to eat first?” Ryan asked as he started to pull out the sandwiches and crisps he had rustled up in the kitchen while she stripped and remade the ruined bedding in their room that morning.  A bottle of sparkling wine came out of the cooler sleeve, glass beaded with condensation.

“It think that would be a good idea…you are going to knot me love and make me howl loud enough that those deer think that wolves have come down from the mountains to steal them for their lunch!” She stated with a laugh, standing only long enough to shuck her clothing and roll it into a pillow behind her head.

Ryan chuckled and followed her lead before leaning over and feeding her a thick slice of cold beef wrapped in a freshly baked roll, “I think that can be arranged love,” he replied as his maleness emerged from its sheath in anticipation.

“I see it is so!” Akaidria laughed, reaching for a beef roll to feed to him, but brushing it against the pre slicked tip of the ‘evidence’ first.

The meal went down wonderfully with the wine and the occasional heavy petting and foreplay that passed between them.  Lost in themselves they didn’t notice the sun passing behind some light clouds, and a thick mist rising from the damp meadow and river to hover about half a metre above the foliage like dry ice.  The odd shaft of sunlight broke through to make it writhe in the still air like a living being.

The plates and food forgotten, Akaidria rolled onto her knees and looked over her shoulder at Ryan coquettishly, “Take me like the pack leader wants to!” she demanded, swinging her tail to one side to expose her dripping and needy sex to him.

Ryan needed no further encouragement and eagerly mounted her, nose buried into her blonde hair as his shaft sought its target…

****

Honiahaka looked up from his workbench as something tugged at his soul, telling him that his incantation from the previous afternoon was activating itself.  A grin spread across his aged muzzled as a chuckle escaped his throat.

He reached for his staff and with a pat on the head of the crow that was watching him from the perch by the door he slipped out of his clothes, “Time to for me to go and greet some new spirit walkers old bird,” he said as the bird leaned into his caress.  “Keep an eye on the place for me as usual.”

The crow cawed in response and the naked otter hobbled out of the door to the stream that fed the pens with their fresh water.  Rubbing the gnarled carvings in the age worn staff, he muttered a few ancient words as his body collapsed to the floor on the bankside, his spirit separating and flowing into the crisp water of life, frolicking in youthful exuberance before he allowed himself to be drawn through the waterways to the one closest to the location of his enchantment…

****

Ryan’s balls slapped into Akaidria’s sex with each strong shift of his hips.  His breathing was shortening as his peak grew close, her passage massaging his rolling ridges in the most perfect of ways.  He opened his mouth and grabbed her hair with his teeth holding her tightly like she was his bitch, hips hammering until his knot sunk within her and stilled them slightly.

Akaidria howled as she was knotted, the hot meat within her burning with her lust for it.  She hit her first orgasm when his balls beat repeatedly against her clit, his rhythm increasing exponentially as his strokes were forced to become shorter.  Her mind went feral as everything fled it bar the pleasures of their mutual procreation.  Mist began to pour into the mossy bowl from the water meadow and her nose and cheeks began to burn in pain when a beam of sunlight suddenly flooded the secluded spot with light as Ryan began to flood her womb with his own orgasm.  She screamed, a second orgasm tearing her apart as greyish fur began breaking through her only remaining human skin, her skull shape reforming and her blond hair falling out as she rode the pleasures of their coupling through the pain and her breasts shrank and then multiplied into neat rows down her chest and belly, while her hands morphed into paws the size of her feet.

Ryan was lost in his own forceful ejaculation as suddenly his body seemed to be ripped apart by the sunlight, his jaw elongating as he gripped the new ruff that had formed between his teeth.  He was well and truly tied now, which, due to Akaidria’s toy play, was very unusual, and he could not withdraw from the writhing wolf bitch his Mate had become mid coitus.  His own mind phased pink in pleasure as it registered that he to no longer had any human attributes.  Opening his mouth he joined his Mate in a howl that shook the woods for miles around.

“Turn your tie....Turn your tie!” Whispered in both wolves minds, the mist writhing in front of them as they lay panting on top of each other. “Turn your tie!!!!!!” the urging words came more forcefully as the wraith of an otter appeared in front of them in the cold vapour.

Ryan tried to speak, but only a yip like growl came out...

“Think your speech youngsters...you cannot talk aloud in this form,” the wraith said, broken teeth showing as it grinned.

“Honiahaka?” Ryan queried eventually.

“The same...in my spirit guise.  You must turn the tie and I will explain all of my gift to you both.”

Ryan tried to think back to exactly how the packleader at the sanctuary did as he was bid to, and slowly began to cock his leg as Akaidria whimpered under him, turning awkwardly until they were cheek to cheek.  “What gift?” he queried eventually.

“You are a spirit walker?” Akaidria asked at the same time.

“Yes...And as for the gift, you are now too.  My feral form was too slow to reach you here when I felt the pull, so I came to you as I am now.”

“But...how do we change back?” Ryan asked, “Akaidria’s car is parked back on the road.”

Honiahaka chuckled, “Oh the concerns of young flesh!” he mused, swimming circles around them in the mist.  “You are halfway there already youngsters...you have completed the act of procreation in your feral forms.  When you are able to separate, you will have to take your first kill together.  When you have bloodied yourselves, you must sleep and when you awake you will be human again.  Your bodies will know what to do.”

“What have you done this to us for?” Akaidria asked as she shifted her hips, Ryan’s pulsing cock still spewing his essence into her womb.

“Ahhhh...I am getting no younger children.  The wolves in my care will need new guardians soon, and I have no offspring of my own, having never met an otter bitch when younger.  I will entrust that care to you and yours.  I will be around for a few years yet to teach you my learnings before the great spirits call me to their arms.”

“Our what?” Ryan asked hesitantly, querying the ‘yours’ aspect of the last statement.

Honiahaka laughed, the sound echoing in their skulls, “You are tied in feral form...human preventatives will have been nullified.  Your pups will be shadow shifters, able to guard the feral populations of our wonderful country by scaring those with guns without ever risking their half lives.  When you conceive in human form, your children will take ownership of my legacy from you, alongside their shadow siblings.”

Ryan and Akaidria looked at each other, before he leant forward and began grooming her snout, her tongue soon returning the favour as their minds excluded the otter from them in shared love for the moment.

“I must leave you now, but I can tell you there are deer with fawns at the meadow’s run off, the buck with them is injured and will be of no loss.  Take your first blood soon, and I will see you in the office in the morning.  You will not rue the gift I have given you...” Honiahaka’s form faded with the mist that evaporated suddenly.

Scents flooded the hollow then, their new lupine noses being assaulted by the astringent odour of crushed watercress, garlic and sweet grasses.   The remains of lunch made their stomachs roil as they demanded more, their bodies change having burnt all available calories.  A slurp broke the peace and Ryan suddenly slipped free of Akaidria, his shaft slapping the floor before shrinking rapidly into his sheath as he turned to lick her clean of his spilt milk.

“I don’t want to take a deer...” she whispered mentally as she nuzzled him.

“Better a clean death from our jaws than a slow one in rutting season later,” Ryan said as he sniffed the still air currents with his scent, “I can feel another instinct guiding me, let yours guide you to!” he urged her.

Akaidria closed her eyes for a minute, something raw welling from inside her.  She chuckled mentally, her eyes snapping open again, “You are still bigger than me...you take the neck, I will go for the throat!”

Ryan curled his lips in a semi smile, “Yes my ledrene!” he commented, avoiding her retaliatory nip as they slipped up into the trees and headed on their bellies downstream until the resting herd were under their noses in a thicket.

It was obvious now that they were close that the buck’s front leg was withered and broken from an old wound. “A mercy...” Akaidria thought building herself up mentally, “On the count of three...One, Two, THREE!”

Ryan leapt from his crouch, covering the thirty feet between him and the buck in four huge leaps before it could react.  The does and fawns scattered as his fifth jump landed him upon the panicked beast’s back, jaws closing tightly behind the buck’s skull.  He hung on for his life as the powerful beast started bucking frantically, trying to throw his unwanted and deadly passenger as he galloped for the sunlight of the meadow.  Akaidria danced under him, trying to avoid the deadly hooves until she spotted the opening she needed and launched herself to latch onto the bucks heaving windpipe, jaws crushing it as her weight dragged him to the ground, sweet blood flooding her mouth.  Ryan repositioned his grip, twisting with all his power until with a snap that resounded through the woods the buck fell limp, eyes glazing as death claimed him, his spinal cord severed cleanly.

The two of them lay, chests heaving for a few minutes as the last choked breaths bubbled from the rent in the buck’s throat until his motor functions shut down completely.  “Good kill!” Akaidria breathed exultantly, her feral consciousness fading back a little as she licked the blood from her muzzle.

“It was, wasn’t it!” Ryan replied slipping from the buck’s back.  “You know love,” he continued sniffing the air and looking around before tearing into the buck’s hot belly to sate his own bloodlust. “I never knew that water meadows could smell so sweet!”

A ghostly laugh echoed across the meadow as Akaidria buried her muzzle into the fresh guts between the buck’s rear legs, ripping the tenderest and most delicate of cuts off for herself...

“Only when tainted with fresh blood..........” Honiahaka’s voice whispered in their minds.