Hexes and Heroes
Chapter 3: The Agony of Adventure, The Atrocity of Friendship

Alexander Highland growled as he tried to wiggle and break free from the metal cuffs clasped over his hands and feet, chained to the wooden wall of what was more-or-less a dungeon on a boat. There were others around him for the ride, chained up similarly, not all of them alive. The stench was horrible, causing the striped blue cat to gag. To make matters worse, he hated boats and the constant rocking of the floor, the feeling of his stomach fluids and partially digested food going back and forth...

Suddenly, a loud explosion rang through the cat's ears. He flew to his right and hit the ground, the chains on him preventing him from going too far. At first, Alex thought the boat had been flipped over, but after a moment, he realized it hadn't. The shaking was terribly violent, however. There were constant noises of explosions, some seemed close, some seemed far. People seemed to be screaming from above the deck.

Not a moment later, the door to the dungeon slammed open and a dirty-looking rat anxiously scanned the area with his eyes. He was huge, standing six foot and wore a large blood-red coat that covered his body, which was meant to hide the various weapons he carried. This was the captain of the ship. A pirate ship.

The captain quickly pulled out a key attached to a silver ring and hastily ran towards Alex. In a second, his chains had been undone.

Alexander almost took the opportunity to attack the captain, but the large figure was rather intimidating. Besides that, the rat spoke before the decision could be processed mentally.

“Don't think about trying to run or fight just because I let you loose,” the rat warned with foul breath and yellow teeth from the months of no toothpaste had gotten to his mouth. Perhaps years without.

A brown bag was thrown on the cat's lap. Inside were metal knuckles and a shortsword. Alex placed the knuckles in a pouch on the front of his belt and the sword in a sheath on his left side, then looked up.

“What's going on?!” Alex asked in almost a scream, although he could take a good guess.

“Obviously, we're under attack,” the rat hissed his answer, impatient and rather annoyed at the dumb question. “A lot of my men have been blown overboard, so everyone here who can hold a sword or fire a cannon is going to be with me, unless you want to try to swim to shore!” The last sentence was exclaimed with a booming voice, getting the attention of everyone able in the dungeon. Sadly, that wasn't too many. Only three other heads looked up to the captain at that, one of the furs was a horse looking like he was suffering from some kind of malnutrition, the other a rather bruised skunk from torture. The only other conscious member was a young female ferret, who looked to be in good shape. She was very young and short. It somewhat surprised Alex, 'So even a pirate captain can have enough heart to not hurt a young innocent girl...'

There wasn't too much time to think. They were all shoved out of the dungeon by the captain, then the skunk and horse given swords by the captain and they ran up a short case of stairs to fight invaders on the top. Alex and the ferret girl were grabbed from behind on their shoulders, which scared them both. It was a tall fox, definitely dressed like a pirate.

“Come with me!” he grabbed them without explaining anything, having no time to. The were thrown into a room with large black cannons all along the ship's walls, aimed outside to the open sea. There must've been dozens, but only about ten were manned. The lack of manpower made the situation seem helpless.

“Alright!” the fox screamed out to the two children. “Just watch me and do what I do, both of you take cannons by my sides!”

Deep dread filled Alex's chest as stood in front of the cannon, then looked over to the fox. On the black cannon was some kind of silver rotatable bulb, the other half covered in a dark black casing.  As it absorbed sunlight, it glew, and then the fox pulled a lever on the side of the cannon. The silver bulb dimmed and a bright light glowed from the cannon tip, and then...

A blinding beam of light fired out of the cannon, the force of it splitting the surface of the ocean as it sailed across into the enemy ship. A bright fiery explosion engulfed the foe, but it was a large and strong ship. It wouldn't go down from just one hit!

While Alex didn't have too much trouble after a couple tries, no one was paying enough attention to the ferret girl to notice that she didn't seem to be getting the hang of it. Instead, she seemed more interested in the pretty light show going on. Literally playing around, she spun the solar absorption bulb around, giggling, her laughter unheard over the constant firing of cannons.

The fox's last shot hit a critical part of the enemy boat. People began screaming and jumping overboard as their vessel tipped over from water flowing in, slowly sinking.

“That was the easy part,” the fox grimly stated, looking over to everyone. “Alright! To the top, we fight hand-to-hand!” Then he noticed the little girl standing next to Alex. “The captain must've been desperate to make you do cannons. You're too young to fight, stay here.”

“I can fight, I'm not useless!” she fussed, clenching her fists and stomping a foot. It was almost cute.

“Didn't we just sink the enemy? Why's there more on board?” Alex asked. It wasn't his fault he didn't know, he had been locked up.

“There was more than one boat, the second one anchored to us. Now, come on!” everyone followed behind him, and when he noticed the ferret following him, he pointed a demanding finger at her. “Stay here, little girl!”

“I'm not 'little girl', I'm Airin!” she yelled. Although generally quite carefree – or perhaps careless – she hated being treated as if she was useless.

Just then, the horse from before came running back down. He was covered in cuts and bruises.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” the fox yelled, grabbing the male's shirt collar. “You're supposed to be up there!”

“We beat them, but they already plante-”

And then everything went black.

Alex awoke hugging a piece of floating wood among gentle ocean waves. His head pulsed in pain with every heartbeat. What the heck had happened? Slowly, the memories came swirling back, then he remembered.

The boat had blown up. It must have not been too long ago, since the blue cat could see small getaway rafts with pirate flags raised, resting alongside a shore. They won the fight, lost the boat, and then left him out to drown.

It was just now that Alex noticed a floating barrel next to him. It stuck out from the other mass of debris due to the poofy tail showing from the open top. Airin stuck her head out, peering around and smiling once she saw the cat still alive.

“Hiiiii!” she gleefully acquainted, waving her hand up high.

“Uuurgh,” Alex groaned, grabbing his aching forehead. “How can you be so happy?! We almost died!”

The ferret giggled, “I dunno! I'm always happy!” The emphasize this point, she stood up and cheered, which caused the barrel to tip over and send her into the water. Alex panicked for a second, about to dive in for her, but then the girl poked her head above the surface.

“I got wet.”

He sighed. 'Abducted by pirates first, babysitting-at-sea next.'

The two of the swam to the shore, taking a moment to rest. The sun was beginning to lower itself into hiding behind the ocean, the sky turning into a radiant variation of yellow, red and blue.The two of them sat down together, staring at the sky.

Alex stood up on his feet, while the ferret girl looked up to him. The blue male stuck a hand out to her, implying he wanted to shake hands, although he closed his eyes are kept facing the sea.

“My name's Alex,” he huffed. It wasn't that he was a jerk, this was just a bad day.

The girl blinked. “I'm Airin, but I don't have a ring, silly!”

“Huh?” Alex opened his eyes and looked down to her.

“You're giving me your hand, but I have no ring to give you!” Airin giggled like a schoolgirl, as if what she said was the most obvious thing in the world.

“GAH!” He hanged his mouth open and stuck his tongue out, completely taken aback by the comment. “Whatever, stay here. I'm going to check the rafts for supplies. It's getting late and we're wet, we'll freeze to death if we don't make a fire.”

“Okie-dokie!” Airin beamed, making an 'O.K.' symbol with her fingers.

Thinking he ought to dismantle the wooden rafts for firewood, although he had no matches and knew no fire spells. It couldn't hurt to look, though. To his surprise, he did find some useful items. A few bags of uncooked rice (not too appetizing, however. It was the same thing they had eaten for weeks on the ship), a couple fishing poles, a cooking pan and some gunpowder, as well as a few of the pirate's swords.

“Great!” Alex was starting to finally feel a little in control of the situation. “Airin, come over here and help me break these rafts down for... fire... wood...”

He slowed down his sentence after he looked over to the young girl, seeing her splash around in the water playfully.

“Hey, come on!” Alex ran over to her, getting down in the water with her to grab her and take her to shore. “We can't be in the ocean even more, we'll get pneumonia by the time it's night!”

Instead of following directions, Airin grabbed the annoyed cat and pulled him down into the water, soaking him even more than before. His head went under the water before he quickly rose back up, coughing. Before Alex could begin to yell and scream in anger, he saw the small ferret laughing and splashing more with her arms at her sides. In an instant, the anger fluttered away, and he smiled.

“Ack!” Airin yelped in surprise, seeing that the cat had splashed water back at her. Grinning, she accepted the wordless challenge.

They spent a good twenty minutes before going back to shore, after Alex had convinced her. Alex did most of the work with setting things up, that being dismantling the rafts. There weren't any nearby trees, so the rafts had to be lit somehow. It seemed that the landscape immediately beyond the ocean was a simple sandy beach with no trees. Further beyond would be a vast desert, Sandrune. 

After setting up a woodpile for a fireplace, Alex put some of the gunpowder in a small circle over the wood. All he had to do was light it and it should help to turn making a fire into a piece of cake. Preferably cheesecake.

“Won't that explode?” Airin asked, pointing to the powder with wide curious eyes.

“No,” the blue feline answered, scratching his chin. He had to figure out how to light it, he had no direct source of fire right now. Maybe a couple stones he could strike together. “Gunpowder explodes in guns and cannons because of pressure built up inside the barrel from the gasses. It'll only spark up and make a lot of heat and smoke this wa- hey, what are you doing?! Wait!”

Airin had grabbed one of the pirate swords. It wasn't a normal sword, which Alex only now realized upon seeing the ferret activate one. It glew dimly, and then suddenly bursted into flames. Like the pirate cannons, this sword seemed to be made of the same material the solar plates from before were made out of, absorbing sunlight and making fire. Airin lowered the fiery sword to the gunpowder...

A fairly loud boom occurred, children screamed and ran around in circles while their tails were on fire. Both of them jumped back into the ocean, cleansing themselves of the flame. On the (very) bright side, the fire had been started!

“You're a meanie!” Airin pouted, sitting at the fire and covered up using the material from the sails of the pirate rafts. Alex was doing the same, shivering in the night cold, enhanced by being wet. Both also held a fishing pole each, the line and hook attached to a cooking pot's handles of each side, holding up boiling rice. Warm food could help them stay out of sickness.

The cat spoke through chittering teeth, “Hey, I said I was sorry! I just used a little too much powder on accident, we'll be fine.” He hoped, anyways. It was pretty damn cold. The least he could do was make some conversation to keep the two of their mind's on something else. “Tell me about yourself, Airin. How'd you get on that ship, and what do you plan to do now? Where are you headed?”

“Well,” she began, putting a finger against her lip and rolling her eyes to the side, remembering what had happened. “I was doing a D-rank mission, I'm trying to rank up from E!” She seemed pretty happy about it.

“E-rank, hm,” Alex muttered. It wasn't a surprise, she was young. “What was your mission?”

The ferret clapped her hands once, “I was getting fish!”

“Fish?”

“Yes, fish, silly! Haven't you ever had any?” Airin blinked.

Of course I have, Alex mentally screamed. That and rice, for the past few weeks in a row... “Okay, so your mission was getting fish,” the cat continued for her.

“Uh-huh, from a village next to the purdy sea,” she went on. “A nice lady from the guild really likes their fish, it's one of the tastiest kinds! I was jus' 'sposed to get some for her, but when I went there, the village was raided by the pirates, and here I am!”

Why are you always happy. “What do you plan on now?”

“I dunno,” she shrugged. “Play with you!”

“Uuuurgh...” Alex facepalmed. He'd just have to make it to her to the closest guild, drop her off and let them transport her. Meanwhile, as a guildsmember and as a man, he had to take care of Airin. Even if it was annoying.

The next morning, the two of them packed up and began walking the beach. The water all around them was salt water, but Alex had managed to pack them safe warm water using the waterproof sails of the rafts to create a make-shift funnel, made also out of the sail raft and a string of cloth tying the twisted thing together, filled it with rocks and allowed the rocks to catch the salt as the water fell through. Then, he collected the water in a pouch, also made from the sails.

After that, the two of them set out. Although it was possible others may come later to search the area after those two ships didn't return home after attacking the pirates, the two children didn't know how friendly the strangers were and didn't think they could last on a few bags of rice for God knows how long until someone came. Airin had found a treasure map from the bandits (along with some ink and feathers she drew happy faces with all over the damn map), which was probably what they were out here for and had kidnapped Airin in the middle of the chaos of restocking on supplies. According to the map, as Alex looked, there should be a temple. This should worry the heck out of him, but instead, he grinned.

He was only a B-rank, and that kind of place was definitely not something he should go. However, the map was scribbled with all kinds of notes, it seemed they had paid a good handful of coin to get some people to check the place out and “clean it up” as much as they can. According to word-of-mouth on this paper, it should be safe by now and de-trapped. However, the pirates probably also went there. It was the only place close-by, so it was either that, or stay out in the desert and bake. Maybe they'd get lucky and the pirates changed plants, though. Probable death, or definite death. Hm...

The two of them panted and started to suck down the water they had rather quickly. It was hot. Alex looked up to the sky, realizing only now after walking out too far to change his mind that it would've been better to wait until the next night and stay at the ocean, where they could cool off in the water, have a supply of food from fish and rice (although even thinking of eating more of that made him want to throw up) and could begin the journey at nightfall. Oh well!

Airin stumbled in her footsteps, which Alex took notice of and held her by her shoulders, keeping her steady.

“Hey, are you okay?” the cat asked with a dry, concerned voice. He was trying to save his water, drinking only a minimum amount. 

Airin looked up with an odd, confused smile, “I see candy!”

“Ca-...what?”

“CANDY!” she screamed, running forward.

Alexander reached out and chased after her, “Hey, wait! Candy doesn't grow in desert, cacti do!”

She kept screaming in joy with a blue cat chasing her, Airin surprisingly fast. He had trouble keeping up. The heat of the desert didn't help the cat's stamina, either. Then, a loud CLICK seemed to come from the ground, stopping both of the children in their tracks.

“Did the ground's tummy just growl?” Airin cocked her head. “Maybe it's hungry, too.”

Just as the ferret so boldly predicted the ground opened up wide and swallowed to two whole.

“Uuugh...” Alex stood up slowly, blinking in an attempt to adjust his blurry vision. After a few moments, his eyes cleared up and the first thing he noticed was that Airin wasn't around. “Airin?!” the male screamed, but got no reply other than his own echo. He could see he was in a dimly-lit hallway made of stone. It was lit from the occasional torch hanging up on a wall. The blue-striped feline stood up, patted the dust off of himself and grabbed a torch.

“Damn it,” he muttered to himself, kicking a small rock on the ground, the rock skipping and causing its own echo. “This is so stupid. The only reason I'm in this mess is because I tried to get cheap transportation. How was I supposed to know they'd turn out to be criminals?”

After a lot of walking, he grew frustrated. Alex was now in a large square room, the ceiling probably a hundred feet high. Vaguely, he wondered how far he had fallen. Out of anger, the cat slammed a fist against the hallway wall, “And why am I bothering to take care of some tiny girl?! I didn't have to, I don't have to be in this mess! Damn it...”

“Well, if it's so troublesome to you, I'll just let you leave now!” a voice offered, the voice male, deep, strong and seeming to come from all directions. Alex tried to locate the voice by looking around widly, but couldn't find its origin.

“I'm up here!” the stranger called out in an almost cheerful tone, waving gleefully from his small room. It was built into the wall and was quite high up, perhaps fifty feet. It had a big glass window so that the avian could see out to the whole room and a small microphone on a stand stood before himself. He was very muscular and tall. The bird's primary color was green, although he had a huge array of multi-colors. All of the sides of his body and completely on the back of his head were feathers of red, yellow, blue, purple and pink. His eyes were perhaps the most disturbing feature the creature had, for they were white without pupils; thick blue veins twisting and leading to where his pupil should be.

Alex didn't flinch. “Who are you? Where's Airin?”

“Who I am is the same as what I am, and I am Agony,” he laughed maniacally. “As for the girl, she's right here. Don't worry, she's safe.” With that, he spun a black leather chair next to him around, revealing the small ferret tied up.

Alex's heart sank, the cat's facial expression dropping to a look of fear and sorrow. His first urge, against everything he had said before and against his own will or thought or any ability to stop it, was to leap in and help her. Instantly, everything he had said before, he now regretted, and he didn't know why he felt that way.

“Let her go!” he demanded, clenching his fists tightly.

Agony raised a finger, wagging it 'no'. “First, I want to play a bit of a game...”

“LET HER GO!” Alex yelled. This whole time, he had been focusing his energy in preperation, all the while standing there completely still. He thrust his arms out forward in a quick motion, “Aegis Blast!” A ball of concentrated chi energy rushed forward towards Agony's glass. Unfortunately, it seemed to have little effect. This took the kitten by surprise. “Huh?”

“I know who you are, Alexander Highland,” Agony bragged with a grin. He tapped the glass with a finger. “I made this glass specifically for the occasion of you becoming my guest. Now, you can play my game for the girl, or you can walk away by yourself, as you so much desire to be alone.”

 The blue male clenched his fist even more, shaking it from the tension. Alone... That was a word that had a lot of meaning. It had a lot to do with what's going on right now. The whole reason this had happened was because he had grown rather cocky. He preferred to be alone, because he had once believed he was better than given credit for and didn't need help. Only being B-rank, Alex wasn't given a lot of rewarding missions or places. Knowing he wasn't trained enough for it, Alex had sought out to travel for a treasure had heard would be impossible to get. The rumors were ridiculously vague, he barely had any idea of where it might be, but he was cocky enough to check the area. Why, he'd scour the whole continent for whatever power was said to be legendary. He himself would be legendary.

 But now, in just a couple days, everything had changed. He hadn't found anything so far in the two months of traveling, checking dungeons and towns. He had been abducted by pirates due to his  gullibility and now he had put an innocent person, a young girl, in jeopardy This was his fault, because he was cocky. He should have stayed at the beach, gone a different direction, anything. But no.

“Alright,” Alex almost whispered once, then raised his voice and pointed an angry finger at Agony. “Alright, fine! Whatever stupid game you have, you're going to lose. I'm going to beat you to a pulp, save Airin, take whatever treasure there is here and you can't stop me! You're going to lose, because I am Alexander Highland!”

The bird laughed, clapping his hands. “Oh my, you're quite the character. Cocky and a little arrogant, but that'll make this more fun.” Agony reached for a lever and pulled it. Lights came on all over the walls and floor in square patterns with alien text and pictures on them. The floor looked like a game board. Alex appeared to be at the start. The ground shifted, almost like an earthquake. A pedestal raised up from the ground, a bowl of dice in it. In addition to that, bars like a jail rose up from the ground, forcing to stay on the tiles.

“Grab one,” Agony added with a motion of his hand.

Assuming the obviousness that it represented how many spaces he could move (the board roughly looked 20 or so squares long), Alex grabbed a die and lightly tossed it on the ground. It rolled on a one.  “Damn it,” he cursed, but still took a step forward.

The red square lit up upon being stepped on, brightening up the white letters on it. Somehow, even though it wasn't written in an understandable language, it was as if it spoke to Alex's mind, and he knew what it meant. 'Free questions, free answers.'

“Who exactly are you?!” he demanded to know, voice tainted with both fear and anger.

The bird chuckled before getting around to answering, “Not too long ago, I was given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to know anything I wanted. Upon a random adventure, I had found a well of water in a high mountain. Rumors had it that this treasure belonged to a god of knowledge, or perhaps not a god and simply a very intelligent wizard who knew a lot and had enchanted the water. In any case, I had a sip. Then, I chose this long-ago ransacked and abandoned temple and modified it as my own personal lair.”

“Is that how you knew my name?...” Alex asked, almost to himself.

A nod. “It's how I knew to make the glass, too.  It's how I knew the pirates would be dumb and miss this location...”

The kitten interrupted, “Why do all this just for me? It seems rather obsessive and creepy.

“I'm quite the obsessive creep!” Agony gloated, flexing one of his arms to show off the muscle. “And why? Simply because I knew you'd be so much fun, my darling. My sweet cherry pie of love. I already know the ending to this, to you, to me...” He grinned for a second, then laughed. “To everything. Oh, it's just so entertaining... But let's not let that stop our game! Roll another die, sweetie.” Every time he said something that should have been nice, the bird added thick venom on his tongue.

“You've gone totally insane from knowing too much.” Alex grabbed another die and gave it a toss. Three.

A blue panel lit up just as the blue twelve-year-old stepped on it. It then spoke mentally to him. 'Dress.'

“Dress?” Alex asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“Oh, why, yes! You're going to love this!” Agony clapped. He pulled a few levers, which brought some other pedestals up from the ground, right next to the blue panel. On it was something humiliating. “Dress.”

Slowly, the cat grabbed the clothes on the pedestal and looked them over. It was a full pair of clothing, but for a girl. They were quite revealing as well...

“I am so not going to wear this,” Alex stated with annoyed embarrassment.

“Yes, you are.” With a push of a button, electrical currents ran through the tiles. It shocked Alex heavily, causing him to fall down on his knees and scream in pain. “Now, dress.”

Coughing and cursing, Alex turned around to face away from the other two, Airin was still watching this all from the window.

“Nuh-uh-uh!” Agony teased. “Turn around.”

“You can't be serious!” Alex yelled. Sadly, it turned out the bastard really was serious.

He closed his eyes, turned around and stripped. It couldn't be helped; the room temperature was comfortable and, despite the situation, voyeurism was one of his kinks. Alex wasn't fully hard, but he was still big. Rushing through the whole process, he slipped on the panties and tight black dress, which showed off his legs. When finished dressing, Agony whistled, which was met with Alex giving him the finger.

Grabbing another die (the pedestal seemed to follow him, moving over the ground somehow), Alex gave his third roll. This time, he felt lucky for getting a five. Unfortunately, the space he landed on almost made the kitty want to scream and puke at the same time, which would in itself be quite interesting.

“My favorite...” Agony grinned.

With a press of a button, the glass protecting the other two inside the wall raised up, allowing the bird to jump down to the ground. He landed with ease and grace, then stood up and walked slowly to Alex, teasingly swinging his hips. The blue male simply rolled his eyes and looked away, scoffing.

“Even if I did land on this, I swear that if you touch me, I'll kill you,” he warned with complete seriousness.

“Not yet you won't!” the insane creature retorted.

Almost as if it was on cue, the pad Alex was standing began to make whirring noises. On instinct, he had to look down to see what it was. The mere act of looking doomed the cat, for what he saw was a series of hypnotic colors, all swirling in circles. The sight of it was beautiful and he could not take his eyes off of the strange thing. Soon, it clouded his mind and made him unable to think.

“I've put a spell on you, and now you're miiiiiine,” Agony sang, touching his chest and extending an arm to the sky.

The bird circled around his prey, grinning madly as his hands ran all over Alex's body. With a chuckle, Agony quickly stuck his hand underneath the dress and grabbed the blue-furred rump. It elicited no response, other than the avian's own enjoyment.

“Oooh, wow, boy!” Agony cooed with a sinister undertone. His hand had moved from the back of the dress, to the front. “You are very big, especially for one at your age. You should feel lucky. Now, strip dance!”

“Yesss...” the kitten agreed without emotion.

With hypnotic movements of his hip that could even put Agony under the same trance that Alex is in, the boy danced. He turned around and got his behind close to Agony's face, wagging it back and forth as the kitty untied the dress, letting it fall off to the ground, revealing a dangling sex package and his fuzzy blue ass. Without hesitating, the bird dived his face in, nuzzling and licking all over the round, delicious kitten butt.

In a mostly-dazed kind of way, Alex raised his head and moaned loudly. Much to the bird's pleasure, Alexander couldn't resist to push his hips back into the beak behind him at all due to the trance he was under, only able to act physically and to the will of his master, which meant all he wanted right now was a damn good rimming.

Agony spelled the alphabet on Alex, then flipped the body over and grabbed him roughly from behind the neck, smothering the boy's face into his naked crotch. The musk was overwhelming, and he couldn't get enough of it. Before he could even be asked to, the cat opened his mouth wide and inhaled the entire slab of meat that had been rubbing over his cheeks and lips. If Agony had lips, he'd be baring fangs, gritting teeth, or something like that. Instead, he moaned, clacked his beak and gave a lot of thrusts to match the rhythm Alex was bobbing his head into.

“Ooh, I would return the favor, dear Alexander, but beaks aren't that efficient for this sort of thing,” the villain grinned.

No response was given, perhaps because Alex refused to take the cock out of his mouth. Saliva dribbled from the pulsing rod in the kitty's mouth, traveling down over the green sac before him. The sound of flesh slapping against flesh filled the air, the echoes sounding sick and yet satisfying.

Soon, however, even pleasure as good as this wasn't enough to curb Agony's hunger. He pulled his thick, twelve-inch long cock. The bird took a moment to look under the cute boy toy in front of him, who was on all fours. Against his will due to hypnotism, Alex was being mentally forced to enjoy this to the full extent and stood at his full nine inches, quite large for a mere twelve-year-old! This made Agony feel briefly sad that he had a beak and not a mouth more suitable for oral. How he'd love to taste that. But oh well, there was more than one way to enjoy that lovely piece of meat.

Agony brought his beak to Alex's ear, giving it a lick and whispered...

“Fuck me.”

There was no facial reaction on Alex's face. “Yes,” in the most emotionless, monotone voice possible was all he had to say before gently pushing the avian to lay on his back, gripped his own cock and took aim with it. At first, the kitten seemed to only tease the bird, rubbing his tip in circular motions over the bird's tight pink pucker, but it didn't take long for Alex to suddenly plunge himself all the way in, fully. He hadn't given Agony any time to adjust, but as the name perhaps implies, he liked it that way.

A scream of both pain and pleasure emitted from the evil-doer's mouth, which ended up being muffled after he bit the kitty's shoulder. It didn't seem to affect Alex any, for he just kept pumping hard and fast in a steady rhythm, completely unchanged no matter what would possibly happen.

Although it was a little awkward, Agony still tried his best to 'kiss' his new kitten slave, managing to at least slither his tongue inside of Alex's mouth and entangle it with the boy's own. He reached around and grabbed the boy's rump during the moment of his ecstatic climax. Thick ropes of cum shot out and covered both himself and Alex, which the bird purposely smeared over the blue-furred face, making sure Alex got a thick smell of the musky scent. Automatically, the sandpaper tongue lapped out and tried to eat all of the delicious substance that was available. Despite unloading his own seed, which was hot enough to make Agony sweat from the inside-out, Alex's moans and forced looks of pleasure still seemed to have some sort of glossy coating of emotionlessness, fake. Regretfully, the two of them couldn't lay in that position forever. Slowly, wanting to savor every moment of this possible, Agony pulled out.

He snapped his fingers. On command, Airin undid her bindings, which weren't truly binding her. It had been an illusion for Alex. In reality, she had already been hypnotized, just like her cat friend. Walking up to the other two she could see, she blankly stares at them.

“Yes?” the ferret flatly asked.

“Well, I want you...” Agony started, petting the girl's cheek. “...to let your friend here fuck your mouth, and I'll be on the other end.”

With no argument, the two young ones got in the described position. Alex's cock was snuggled inside of Airin's maw, thrusting beginning immediately. After watching for a minute, the bird crawled over to the ferret and rubbed his cock underneath her tail. Mentally gritting his teeth, as he had no lips to curl up, he pushed himself into her with a grunt. She was incredibly tight.

Agony knew of Airin's power, but he liked her this way. He ran his hands up over her flat chest, squeezing her body as he thrust roughly into her. Alexander's fuzzy blue balls smacked against the ferret's chin, her saliva pooling out over her own cheeks. Oh, how he loved the sight of the girl's small, beautiful body being taken away from her, the innocence disappearing like the sun setting into darkness.

The exoticness of the scene excited Agony too much; he could not hold on to it. Once again, thick and hot liquid spurted into the small frame, both ends of her overflowing with the white goop, spilling out over her body. Both of the males pulled out and stroked their pulsing meats to further egg on the orgasm, and given how there wasn't physically much Airin to cover, it didn't take as much as one might think to cover her whole body with cum, which the bird and cat smeared around by mashing their package over her shamelessly.

“It's a shame you won't remember this as lucidly as I always will,” Agony whined with regret. With a shrug, he clapped his hands to command his subjects, “Oh well, dress up again!” The two young ones placed their clothing back on and Agony turned his back, expecting Airin to follow him back into his little booth to continue his game.

“Actually,” Alex began with Agony turned to him. “I remember the last ten seconds vaguely! Aegis Flash!”

By the time the avian managed to turn around, a beam of chi was directly in front of his face. It slammed into him, caused him to yell in pain and sent him literally flying back. Agony's body broke through the barred wall, falling on the ground and rolling a few feet. It created an exit for the two!

“Let's get out of here!” Alex quickly grabbed Airin's hand and tried to make a run for it. They got out of the cage, but then the cat turned to look at Airin's face. She didn't hold onto the cat's hand tight and her steps seemed clumsy. They wouldn't be able to make it out fast enough with her walking like that. Her eyes looked half-closed, her face emotionless. 'She's still hypnotized?! And covered in, wait, what is that?... Oh.'

A blood-curling battle cry rang in Alex's ears. Agony was running up to him, screaming maniacally.

“Uh, just... hide in there for awhile, or something!” Alexander shoved the ferret's body back into the cage. Unfortunately, getting Airin out of danger meant he wasted too much time to get out of the way of said danger.

A powerful punch hit Alex's stomach. It caused him to fall to his knees, out of breath. A swift kick on his side also knocked him a few feet over, now laying on the ground.

“My dear Alex, you ruined the fun! How could you?” Agony pouted sarcastically. “We could have been best of friends, truly. Perhaps even more! I mean, we have so much in common...”

“Oh, for the love of...” the blue cat groaned. He held his side painfully, hoping he didn't have anything more than a bruise.

As Agony walked up to his downed opponent, he didn't know Alex was taking the opportunity to pretend to hold himself in pain. In reality, he was concentrating and charging himself up. Once the footsteps sounded too close to dodge, the kitten made his move.

Alex suddenly stood up on his feet and looked forward, seeing Agony right in front of him. He jumped up and in mid-air, “Aegis Rush!” Since it was point-blank, rather than firing a half-dozen chi attacks at a distance, it looked more like Alex was attacking with glowing, exploding fists. Even though the bird held up his arms to block, the first chi explosion completely threw his guard down from and the rest his him on his chest. A side-effect, however, was the cat was putting himself in his own attack's damage radius.

Both of them stood on their knees, facing each other and panting. Neither one was really at much of an advantage. The cat's attack wore himself out fast and worst yet, he was hurting himself. Agony may not have landed too many hits, but he didn't need to, his strength made even one landing worthwhile. If he wanted to, he could probably kill a small child like Alex or Airin in one well-placed punch. But that wouldn't be fun to him, he wanted to play games. No, a monster like Agony wanted others to suffer for his own amusement.

“This is the part where you lose.” With a snap of the bird's fingers, stone slabs that were hiding secret rooms raised up on the walls. Six disgusting, huge black creatures that looked like monsters from Hell emerged. They looked similar to beetles, but stood on two legs and has dangerous-looking scythes for arms. “Every evil villain is always equipped with henchmen and super robots to do his bidding!”

“But those aren't either henchmen or robots!” Alex argued. Then he briefly wondered why he bothered arguing with someone completely insane.

One of the monsters tried slashing its way through the cage, trying to get to a still-hypnotized ferret. “Airin!” Alex yelled, reaching out in her direction. As two of the monsters simultaneously took swings at the cat, he ran past them. All he could think about was saving her. He jumped up on top of the cage's roof and leaped into the air, trying to gain enough height to get an opening on the monster's head. They must've been eight feet tall.

“Aegis...” His whole body glew dimly. “Destroyer!”

A humongous ball of energy shot out from Alex's palms, his arms extended out and pointing at the unidentified monster. The attack seemed to completely disintegrate it, but then kept going even after its mission was accomplished and made quite the crater on the ground. The walls shook and for a moment, Agony was worried the entire building would collapse. Somehow, it seemed to hold. Perhaps was now a good time to go hide somewhere, far away. It wasn't safe here anymore.

The disturbance made Airin's eyes blink. Slowly, her memories and thought stirred. The last thing she remembered was falling. “Huh?” She looked around and the first thing to catch her attention was the sight of Alexander's body falling from the air and then landing on the ground, no movement following.

“ALLLEX!” Airin screamed as she ran up to her friend. She got down on her knees and shook him while tears streamed down her face, no idea why he wasn't moving anymore. “H-hey! Wake up, this isn't funny!” 

It was only now that she took notice of the five tall Hellish monsters surrounding her, drool pouring out of their mouths.

“Did you hurt him?!” she asked to the monsters, but was given no answer. “I don't know if you're the one under my bed or in my closet, but I'm not afraid of you!”

The cat's eyes rolled around in his head. “Ugh, I feel like puking up a dinosaur...” His vision was blurry and he couldn't make out much, except that a small body stood in front of him, which he remembered as Airin. But something was happening to her. Her fur was growing thicker and she was getting taller, even more muscled. “What the hell?” was all he could mutter before he fell unconscious again.

Her fangs grew menacingly, her claws became more like daggers. Airin was just as tall as the beetle-like monsters now and looked like she could rip them apart. She somewhat resembled a bear, but one could still tell she was a ferret. Kind of.

One of the horrible creatures ran towards her, trying to cut her down. She grabbed its arm and twirled it around in a circle, knocking it into two others. Then, somewhat like a flimsy hammer, she lifted up the screaming creature who was asking for its mommy and slammed it down repeatedly on the four other monsters, using her strength and the weight of the creature as a swinging battering ram.

Eventually, they all ran away out of fear.

Airin looked over to her friend, still laying on the ground, completely knocked out. She scooped her large clawed hand down to him and carefully picked him up. It's not like she could carry him in her normal form.

The first thing Alex saw when he cracked open his eyes was a dark night sky, beautiful streaks of purple, black and blue with bright white stars sparkling all over. He seemed to be laying on the dirt of the desert floor, no where in particular. The placement of cacti and rocks looked familiar, though, and he recognized it as the ground above the temple. And then a fuzzy ferret grabbed him tightly around his chest, squeezing the air out of him.

“ALEX! You're awake!” Her smile was big and her hug was tight.

The blue-striped cat gasped, “Air... air!” She let go and said 'sorry' over and over. “It's okay, I'm fine.”

“I... was scared,” Airin whispered carefully. She was fidgeting with her fingers.

He smiled and pattered her on the head. “Don't be. There's never anything to be scared of when Alexander's here.” He pointed his thumb to his own chest when he referred to himself. “By the way, what happened back there? I blacked out.”

“So did I,” she replied honestly, although she didn't follow that Alex was talking about when he blacked out.

“Huh, odd...” he scratched his chin. “I wonder how we got out of that underground temple then. So much of what happened there seems like brief glimpses with holes all over.”

“Oh, I carried you out!” Airin clapped her hands, giggling happy.

“Uh, what?” the kitten asked, cocking his head. “How could you carry me? You're... a small girl!”

“I'M NOT SMALL!” she suddenly yelled. “I'm a real big girl, lifted you up in my arms and carried you out all by myself! I transformed!”

“Transformed?” he asked curiously.

Airin nodded. “Yep! I can become big and strong, or become like you, or...” She rambled on for awhile after that.

“Uhm, right,” Alexander rolled his eyes. He couldn't help but smile, though. Airin was sort of like a sister. A short, ditzy, annoying little sister. “Are you tired much?” The ferret shook her head, she seemed kind of hyper. “Good. We should try to make way to the nearest town before daybreak, we don't have any water to survive the same walk in the sun.”

The moonlight was bright enough for Alex to read the map without any additional light. It was a cool and quiet night, making the walk quite easy. Well, other than the sores all over his body that he only vaguely remembered getting. He figured he'd be fine with a good meal and rest.

“Hey! It's that kid!” an angry, deep voice yelled.

“Shut up, he probably heard you now!”

“What the...” Alex turned to the sound and saw a small group of oddly-dressed men with swords running towards him, screaming 'CHAAAAARGE'. “Oh boy...” 

“Give us back our map, you thief!”

He recognized them now, “But... but you guys are pirates, and you're calling ME a thief?!”

Any further argument was pointless. He grabbed Airin's hand and they ran. Thankfully, the city was close enough to be within eyesight, Alex only hoped he and Airin could run far enough to make it.

“And now, our judges will commence taste-testing on this wonderful Bakery Nightfest 19th Anniversary! Remember, the winner receives 2,000 GP!” a stout skunk woman called out, then motioned for a line of well-dressed furs to come around, each grabbing a brownie, cupcake or whatever was made. 

Têa rubbed her hands together, chuckling sinisterly inside. 'With my incredible recipe, I can't lose! I'm taking this one home!' She felt so good about it that she suddenly began to laugh loudly in an insane manner, thunder and lightning striking behind her figure like a cliché horror movie. It drew more than a few stares.

“ Oh, sorry,” Téa apologized sweetly.

“Get over here! We only want to gut you!” an angry voice threatened from behind the city walls, which was where the contest was taking place.

 Alex jumped and climbed on the walls, grabbing odd forms in the not-perfectly-smooth wall, lifting himself up with Airin piggy-back riding him. He jumped down and landed right on Téa's table.

The fox girl screamed, to which Alex only gave a quick response, “Sorry! I'm in a bit of a tight spot!”

“SO AM I, DON'T RUIN MY-” But it was too late. In his running, Alex squashed down all of her bakery goods and ran off.

 Then, a group of smelly, greasy bandits jumped down from the wall as well, weighing much more than  the other two kids who had jumped down. They not only squashed her cooking and sent a bowl of flower flying and spilling all over Téa, they crushed the table she had been using into a pile of debris before standing back up and chasing the kid again. Fortune smiled upon the blue cat and the small ferret, for it didn't take long for guards to arrest the pirates.

“This isn't the last time you'll see me!” the rat captain yelled. “You hear me?!”

A few minutes later, Saria came walking by, smiling to her friend. “So! Did'ja win?” Kel quietly followed.

“Don't even ask...” Téa growled, shaking so much from the pent-up anger that the flour on her fur slightly shook off, making a small white cloud over her. She then stomped in the direction those two kids had been running, “I'm going to find those two brats and make them pay me those 2,000 GP I was going to win! It's their fault, they pay!”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” the cheetah asked, following her along the road. “What brats?”

 Téa  turned to face her friend, but still didn't stop walking, “I saw them running towards the guild, they probably just got done on some stupid mission! They jumped over the walls and landed right on my table! They ruined everything!”

“I'm sure we can just talk to them without resorting to violence,” Kel suggested. “Try to calm down, Téa.”

Saria, however, kept a smile, “Hey, look at the bright side! I tasted one of your cupcakes and you definitely had the best ones. You're an awesome cook!”

The fox felt like grabbing both of them and yelling 'there is no bright side', but figured she would do that to the two troublemakers when she got her hands on them.

“Your attention is of the essence, Polori,” Vassallo pleaded, hating himself for having to even show any kind of respect to someone as stupid as this.

Sweat rolled down Polori's body, refusing to give up a single moment for rest until he passed out. He kept thrusting into a giggling bunny girl, but her giggles seemed somehow slow. Her eyes were unfocused and she made little movement, other than the gentle banging of her hips back against the pounding king.

The horse sighed and closed his eyes, “I know you're a very busy man, but please...” Sarcasm reeked in his words like rotten beans.

“Yes! Very busy indeed!” Polori agreed, vigorously nodding at an equal pace of his fucking, which was fast enough to make Vassallo dizzy.

He couldn't help but growl in frustration, quiet enough for only Vassallo himself to hear. He wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, but had to make sure the idiot paid some amount of attention.

“I heard...” Polori began, trying to speak in between moans and gasps for air. “...that the Tear of Heaven near Sanuman?”

“Yes... That has been rumored,” Vassallo gritted his teeth, at least happy somewhat that it seemed he was finally getting somewhere in the conversation. “You need to give an order to Loveless to check the local guildhouse and quietly snoop around for information.”

“Yes! Yes!” the elephant screamed, Vassallo not sure if he was saying it out of pleasure, or in response to him. “I'll get on that, Vassy boy!”

“I surely hope so...” he muttered to himself angrily, walking away.