Nuts, Raziel called him.  Laughable, the street rat had said.  And yet here Gabriel stood, and he couldn't really believe he'd pulled it off any more than his friend.  Getting himself sold to a kind, obnoxiously rich family with himself as the primary payee.  Of course, they didn't need to know that, and he wanted to keep it that way.  And he had extorted them something awful too.  As good as he was, a thousand gold pieces, even for a young, rare, and talented teen like himself bordered on the insane.  He almost felt bad about it, though he did resolve consequently to work reasonably hard, and go light on the thefts for the time being.
	Standing on the front step of the manor, the street urchin that Gabriel had fallen in with to help him survive the rigors of the regrettably indigent, held the leash to his collar, though it was entirely for show.  Raziel would receive the payment, and would get his portion to him in a few days.  They both just needed to feel out the situation and the environment of the place, and the inner workings and temperament of his new 'owners' before trying to make forays beyond its walls.
	Shivering in the cool night air, waiting for the jackal that served as the Nordenclatz's gatekeeper, he looked his companion up and down, and he back.  Raziel stood a good half foot taller than him, and though Raziel couldn't remember his birthday, they had chosen to celebrate their fifteenth last month as if it were the same day.  They shared a number of similarities, not the least of which was their race, rat folk, and their fur color, gray, though the exact shade was difficult to discern in the dark.  Surreptitiously, Gabriel reached into his breeches, and touched himself.  He didn't know how long it would be until he got his cock back inside his pussy, and he was missing it already.  
	“Ya sure you're gonna get along fine, Gabriel?  You sure that you'll be able to get out if you want?”
	“C'mon Raz...  This isn't the first time I've gotten in and out of an estate like this.  Not even the first time I've been sold into one.”
	“I know, but the first time was hardly on purpose.”  Gabriel looked up at Raziel, brow cocked, but it couldn't be seen in the in the near total dark.
	“I got skills, Raz.  And so do you.  And with all the gold we got coming here in a sec, and whatever I manage to pass off to you while I stay, you could hire a really good assassin or pay off the guard here several times over.”  
	Raziel shook his head.  “I still don' like it, Gabs.  Selling yourself into slavery?”
	“You gonna back out on me now?  You're the gritty street rat.  I'm just a pretty little play thing from a rich family, remember?”
	Raziel chuckled good and hard, remembering their first meeting.  “You ain't wrong.  But yous got the smarts and the learnin' I never did.  And you got a sweet tongue.  Amazing things it does...”
	A loud clank, lantern light spilling onto the gatehouse stoop, the jackal having returned.  He motioned them back from the step, and opened the wrought iron gate.  He was bare chested, and muscular as an orc, but had a small belly, likely a sign of his good treatment by the family within.  At his side was a short sword and helmet on a leather thong, but more noticeably, a massive sackcloth bag, bulging with coin, too fat to clink with the enormous wealth it contained.  Both boys looked at it hungrily, and it was not lost on the guard.  Silent as ever, he set the lantern on a hook, took the money in hand, and held out the other for Gabriel's leash.
	Raziel reached for the gold first, but the guard growled quite menacingly, effectively rendering his gut invisible, and held the sack above his reach.  Reluctantly, the leash was handed over, and coin transferred.  As planned, though Gabriel wouldn't deny that it depressed and scared him, his friend turned without looking, and walked off into the night.
	Not unkindly, the silent guard took his lantern and led Gabriel through the gatehouse, locking it firmly behind them, and then in to the courtyard.  From the outside, the place had seemed quite large, but from inside, it felt positively palatial.  The whole estate was surrounded by acres of well manicured lawn, unnaturally straight with prosperous gardens radiant in periodic magical lamps topping wooden fences that seemed to ornate to possibly be functional.  The broad, cobble brick walkway would've fit a plus size horse drawn carriage, and had to be worth a fortune all on its own.  Not for the first, nor would it be the last, that he wondered just how much gold these people had that a thousand for him seemed a reasonable and affordable price.
	The trip was short, and surprisingly pleasant, the floral scent on the cool, late evening, mid-summer breeze enough to relax his apprehension, and even put a spring in his step, and when they arrived at the door proper, Gabriel marveled, rather than shrink nervously.  It was double wide, made of dark, surely imported wood, framed by white marble pillars with traces of red reflected in the meager light, matching the red brick facade of the home.  The guard knocked twice upon its surface, and he winced, the booming echo throughout the courtyard and reverberating from the room inside, preternaturally loud in the night.
	A light flared in the window to the right, grand and expensive, revealing the patriarch of the Nordenclatz family.  The distinguished equine passed to the door and invited them in, dressed in fine, red silk night wear, a golden sash loosely tying it shut.  It gapped a little, and Gabriel couldn't help but gasp quietly at the fine member concealed beneath.  Oh how he hoped that this would be just the same as his old home.  A penis that size would never fail to please.
	“Good evening, youngster, and welcome to the employ of my humble estate.”  He said graciously, standing aside and dismissing the guard.  “In case your seller hadn't seen fit to inform you, I am Daedalus Nordenclatz.  Provided you conduct yourself here with dignity and respect for my family, your fellow servants, and your station, you will do well here.”
	His voice was quite deep, but smooth and relaxed, the kind that put one at ease, and dropped unsuspecting guards.  He really did seem the earnest, friendly type, and so he risked speaking out of turn.  “Nice to meet you, Daedalus.  I'll do my best.  To what purpose am I to be put?”
	“So well spoken, and to the point, I see.  Unusual for a slave.  But I rather like that.  A little fire in the heart and belly make for a driven individual, and I'm quite tired of the listless, broken things that pass as purchased servants.  Your price was exorbitant, but I think you may be worth it.”  Great, Gabriel thought.  He wasn't just earnestly nice, he was gregarious, and over fond of hearing himself speak.  He could imagine that he would be bored to tears listening to him, and only ever feeling bad about it.  With all that could've gone wrong, it was only now that he felt that a mistake might have been made.  
	“Here, come along, it is late; let me show you to your quarters.  I shall explain along the way.  But first-” and here Daedalus took the collar in his bare hands and, somehow, rent it from his neck by hand.  So much for stealing that back.  It was worth a whole silver piece, a good make.  But fuck, this horse was strong if he could do such a thing so casually and without hurting him.  “This has no place in my home.  You may be my possession, but you will not be treated as such until or unless you prove you should be.”
	And he took Gabriel's hand and tugged him along with amazing gentleness, down a long corridor a little farther in from the entryway and to the left.  “You will be serving two purposes here.  First and foremost, you are to form and maintain a sexual relation with my youngest son as practice for when he weds.  He is a little capricious, but gentle, and he will treat you well.  The second is cleaning.  Each servant is assigned an area, and changes daily, with one day free.  How long it takes is up to you.  If you dawdle over much, don't expect to get to sleep early.”
	The corridor in which they tread was well lit, with candelabra every ten feet, and a door between each set on the left, and rich tapestries and suits of armor decorating the right.  It went on seemingly forever, though he could see where it turned to the right, and where upon they did, he could again see- barely- all the way to the end where it turned right again.  Three down on fifteen doors Daedalus stopped and pulled a key from a ring, from where he couldn't guess, and handed it to him.  
	“This is your room, though I don't expect you to use it often, instead spending the nights with my son.  But, this space is yours, and only the family will bother you here.  I will send my son to fetch you to breakfast in the morning.  I bid you a good evening.”
	And like that, Daedalus turned on his hoof, and stalked onward down the hall in the direction they had been heading.  Gabriel didn't really know what else to do, he was just a tiny bit stunned if truth be told.  It bore some similarities to his old home, if more orderly and grand, but it was really quite something else.  With the key still in his outstretched hand, he did the only thing that really made sense, and unlocked the door.  It clicked satisfyingly, and he slid in, whirling around and shut it, locking it behind himself for good measure.  
	The room was large, but modest, a four poster bed with night table and vanity, and even a window of his own!  It was framed in green curtains, made of cotton so fine that is seemed otherworldly, and satisfied even his ludicrous standard of luxury.  Weary, and struck with pangs of nostalgia for his old family, Gabriel flopped onto the bed, made of the same quality cotton, and masturbated to thoughts of Raziel, pushing down his trousers and sliding a finger up into his tight, wet cunt.  But the strangeness of the night and the exhilaration of successfully penetrating this far into the plan somehow impeded his push towards orgasm, and his hand fell wetly from his folds in frustration, even as nostalgia for his erstwhile master and lover taunted him.

	The sun was not high up, sun hitting the floor just before the door, blocked short at the bottom by the wall that surrounded the estate.  It was quite warm, but that was not what awoke the half nude Gabriel.  No, it was the young colt that bounced excitedly at the edge of his bed.
	Seeing him awake, the young boy's excitement only seemed to redouble, smile so wide it looked painful, and no less earnest than Daedalus's.  “Good morning! My name is Aires Nordenclatz!  What's yours?”
	Gabriel stretched languidly, remembering his purpose, putting his lean body on display for the cub, before answering.  “Me, Master?  My name is Gabriel.”
	The boy looked appreciatively at him and took in his body, but his excitement at the prospect of a new friend and tutor was greater than his interest in his soft curves.  “Hi Gabriel!  Nice to meet you!  But please, call me Aires!  No one here calls me Master!  Get dressed, it's time for breakfast!”
	Nodding, Gabriel slid off the bed, and stretched again, but used the time to really look at his...  Charge?  Pupil?  Lover?  He wasn't sure.  Clearly the elder by a lot, he was in a position to dictate terms pretty easily.  This boy couldn't be more than nine.  His only hope was that he was as well endowed for his age as his father.  And if not, maybe he could bed his father on the side.  It would make his endeavor here much more worth the expenditure of effort.  
	Gabriel had been too focused on other things to pay attention to the colors of the fathers fur, but Aires was a fine russet with creamy white patches on his arms and legs, a good match for the chosen decor, and more or less matched what he remembered of Daedalus's appearance.
	In his slow move to pull up his pants, Aries spent more time looking over Gabriel's body, seemingly mesmerized now, a pleasant change from his over-excitable baring of a moment before.  He pulled up his pants, and held out his hand for the young colt to lead him.
	“I thought you were a boy!  Father told me you were a he!”  Aires put his hand in Gabriel's, and tugged.
	“I am.  But I have a vagina.  Just the way it is.”
	“That's sooo cool!  I always though girls were gross.  But if you're a boy, then it's okay!”  Shaking his head, Gabriel followed Aries out of the room, leaving it ajar.  He was lead down the hall a little ways, in the direction he had been led the previous night, and to a conspicuously bare spot in the regalia.  There was a large, dark wood door matching the front on the right side here, and through it, he was lead into a giant inner courtyard, mind blown by the sudden revelation that the manor was square, and with an inner courtyard.  Here, trees grew in a few clumps, well manicured, a pair of other servants with shears clipping them and tending to the gardens.  There was a cobblestone path that lead from where they stood to identical doors in all three of the other walls, with a few branching ones that lead into the trees and flowerbeds.  But past all this he was lead to directly opposite, and back inside.
	With the full scope of the manors shape and construction fully realized in his minds eye, he was startled to find himself not in a hall, but in a grand dining room, the full two stories of height the construction was, and as broad as three of his room, and at least seven long.  The ceiling was vaulted with skylight, the walls white marble with black veins, to which Gabriel was grateful for the reprieve of red, and doors leading into the looping corridor of the manor to his left and to his right.  Not far past on the left, a second door, through which he saw the kitchen, attention brought to its existence by a pretty young thing coming through with a platter of eggs and bacon and heaped with potato.  
	Aires tugged insistently at Gabriel's hand, pulling him along as he took in his surroundings.  Such grandeur, he thought.  It couldn't have been a finer place had it been an actual palace, and would in fact only be different by the size and nothing else.  Dreamily he took a seat at the table next to the boy.  
	“Good morning!”  Daedalus greeted him, the sentiment echoed agreeably by his wife, who sat next to him and shared a fur pattern that very well matched that of their son, but black and white, and indeed, the father was the source of the gorgeous russet color.  Less enthusiastically, the other three members of the family seated there pitched in their welcome.  In particular, a dour looking young lady, looking to be second youngest and just on the cusp of puberty, looked at him in a manor that he had only seen during his descriptions of the luxury he reveled in as a well treated slave with his first family; a look of jealousy.  The other two, both males and a stunning kaleidoscope of red, white, and black patches greeted him politely, but disinterestedly, helping themselves to the morning meal.
	“I trust that you slept well, Gabriel.”  Daedalus began in his expansive and gentlemanly way, similarly pulling food to his plate and snagging an orange from the fruit basket that had hitherto been hidden behind a pair of silver carafes of water.  “Allow me to introduce to you the rest of the Nordencltaz's.  But please, stand on no ceremony; eat.  Today you will dine with us, as one of us, and then hereafter with the other servants, unless called or invited by one of us.  But I rather expect to see you here regularly, hmm?”  He cocked an eyebrow knowingly, then continued,  “To my left, my lovely wife, my darling, Lady Hera,”
	“Pleased to meet you.”
	“To her left, our eldest, Artemis,”
	“Hey.”
	“And to my right, our second, Tyche,”
	“Good day.”
	“And to his right, my one and only daughter, my precious Pernicia,”
	There was a pregnant pause, empty of greeting formal or otherwise, where Pernicia only looked at him sourly until Daedalus cleared his throat loudly, and Hera scowled at her cubs strange disposition.  “And of course, our youngest, Aires.”
	Gabriel waved in greeting as each was introduced, muzzle stuffed full of the delectable food.  “Thank you,” he began, swallowing perhaps a tad quickly and coughing, Pernicia suppressing a derisive chuckle.  “I've never been treated poorly as a slave, but I never imagined that I would be sold to a family so kind and wealthy as yours.”
	“High praise, and I pray you continue to feel cared for, even as you care for us and our home.  You were already informed of your duties and you may begin today if you choose, but I recommend taking the day to get to know the other servants, and the family, and you may come and go to any room not locked without invite as you please, though I intend for you to do so with Aires by your side.  To that end, Aires?”
	“Yes daddy?”
	“I've arranged for your normal lessons to be postponed, so that you can spend it with Gabriel.  Be a kind guide to him, and remember to the reason that he is here.”
	“Yes daddy.”
	“Now, finish your repast, and you two may go about your day.”
	“Yessir.”
	Shortly thereafter, Gabriel excused himself from the table, and Aires hastily stuffed the last of his own breakfast into his muzzle, and excused himself too.  He was grateful for his full mouth, he really wanted to be alone with his thoughts.  Dreams of his past had featured heavily in the night, an odd mix of nostalgia and embitterment, a longing brought back in painful amounts by being here.  He occasionally thought of it, and regaled the street rats with tales of his sexual and alchemical exploits while he was there.  He felt it pull on him at odd points in his hedonistic debauchery and often when raiding a richly appointed manor such as this, but never to this degree; though he supposed upon thought that he had never been in so long, only to steal a few trinkets and jewels, then gone, and not selling himself temporarily into servitude.  So too he supposed being put to the same use, a practice toy for sex education.  But, this time at least, he was the elder, and wondered at where he could take it and use it to his advant-  
	“What'cha thinking about?”
	“Huh?”
	“You look so lost in thought.  What are you thinking about?”
	“Oh...  I'm thinking of...   I'm thinking of home.”
	“You miss home?”
	“...  Yeah,  I do.  It was a nice place.  I'm glad I left, but I'll be damned if I don't miss it.”
	“Why did you leave?”
	The question was so innocently uninformed, it was cute, and imagined it had resulted in pain for any other servant he had asked so plaintively curious a question.  But, it was one, much as he might've liked to answer, was probably best he kept to himself.
	“Because I had to.”
	Aires looked like one who had heard that answer before, and accepted it at face value.
	“Why are we going to you room?”
	Startled, Gabriel noticed his feet had taken him to his door, still ajar.  Well, why not, he though.  No use and beating around the bush, or putting off the inevitable.  And he did have to confess, he was still hopeful the boy was big for his age.
	“Do you know why your father purchased me?”
	“Yeah.”  He was cute, Aires's cheeks turning red, and he scuffed a hoof against the floor.
	“I saw you were interested when you came to wake m up.”
	“Mhm.”
	“Have you done it before?”  Gabriel stepped into his room, pulling Aires in behind him, then shut the door and locked it.
	“I-I...”
	“It's okay, you can tell me.  It's what I'm here for, remember?”  He pulled off his shirt, then sat on the bed and removed his trousers.  
	Aires averted his eyes.  “I've played with Tyche, a couple times, and with a friend.  But they're all boys.  I don't want to play like that with girls.”  A shadow of sadness crossed his crystalline brown eyes.  
	“You don't like girls at all?”
	“No!  They're mean, and have cooties.”
	“I see.”
	“But you're okay, because you're a boy, like me!  But I thought all boys have wieners!”  Up to that point, he had continued to be quite shy in the face of Gabriel's nakedness, but quite unabashedly he pulled his tucked shirt, and pushed down his tunic bottoms, letting out a very respectable looking sheath, where the hefty balls hung tantalizingly, and though his length was hidden, the head was visible, and its apparent girthiness sent a spasm of pleasure rocketing up his core.  His intent was to size up, but nothing more, but now he found himself in the mood, and he knew that he would enjoy taking it, no matter the length.  Something that wide would mash his clit as his palm would, but from the inside.
	Gabriel slid to the floor in front of Aires, legs spread, and put a hand on either side of his hips.  “That is the normal way of things.  But some, like me, are just born different.  I'm not a girl, though here I look like one.  Your father obviously cared to cater to your wants if he wanted one as rare as I for you.”
	Petulantly, Aires turned away, pulled his pants back up, and let his shirt fall, but didn't tuck.  “If that was true, he wouldn't have me married off to one!”  He stamped his hoof, the clop resounding bothersomely around the room.  
	“That's rough.  But I assume you've never been in a vagina before, either.  You might find you like girls, even if only for this one reason, after you try.”  Gabriel spread his twat open, and turned Aires around with the other, grateful that he wasn't throwing a spontaneous tantrum, and his eyes zeroed in on his slit.  Were he not excited for what was in his pants, one might've described the growing bulge in his half buttoned trousers menacing.  With gentle hands, he reached to him, and unbuttoned it the rest of the way, and slid them down, and a such a large penis popped free, the head of the pendulous cock dipping with the pull of cloth, then bouncing up, free of the painfully tight confines of his wear.  
	Unbecomingly, Gabriel drooled.  Six inches at least at a plump medial ring, and maybe another six after, and thicker than he had thought.  He wrapped a paw around it at the thinnest point, just behind the head, which showed the beginnings of an impressive flair, to find that while his thumb and forefinger did connect on the other side, it was with effort, and only just barely.  The pressure pleased Aires, and he sighed happily, mirrored somewhat more enthusiastically by himself.  He let it go, and watched it rise a little higher, and his head flare further, nearly the circumference of his palm.  The little depression at the center with his gaping pee hole was dry, but he intended to change that momentarily.
	“So, you've done somethings with Tyche.  What have you two done?”
	“Well...”  His cheeks flushed again, and his cock seemed to shrink back just the tiniest bit as he considered the physical touch by a near stranger interrogating him on his naughtiest activities, but surged forward and up again as he described his previous forays into his budding sexuality.  “Most of it has just been, you know... touching each other.  Hands, and mouths, and once he rubbed it with his hooves, but I didn't care for it, so he didn't do it that way again.”
	“He put his muzzle on yours, and you put yours on his?”  And is his prick a monster like yours?  He thought too, but held his tongue in check.  
	“Y-yeah...”
	“That's called petting, mutual masturbation, and oral.  What about penetration?  Sticking it in the butt?”
	The now seemingly omnipresent rosy glow of his cheeks intensified.  “N-no, that's... gross, isn't it?  But...  Tchye has wanted to do it.  Asked a couple of times...”
	“If you aren't careful about it, it can be gross, but if you like other boys, ones with penises, it's something normal.  Even with girls, and boys like me.  But lets start with petting and mutual masturbation, since it's familiar territory.”
	“O-okay...”  Gabriel placed both his hands to the length of horse cock, and discovered quite by accident that the one he had been spreading himself with was soaking wet.  With the unintended aid of his pussies' secretions, he stroked that pole, massaging the bulbous tip, fondling the tiny ridge around his pee hole, running a finger across the flared ridge up top, and oh how he wanted to put his tongue to it, and taste it.  With the other he gripped, the elastic skin of his penis letting him glide from behind the flare to the medial ring with ease, and only after he had plied the fleshy tip for all the sweet spots he could find, he put the still damp one underneath to Aires balls.
	The sack itself was tough and wrinkly, with a touch of fuzz like poorly made leather,  but its heft was that of a bag with two large eggs, and each was indeed like a chicken egg, but a little smaller.  It was satisfying to touch, and by the sound of Aires breathing, satisfying to be touched, and so he fondled and rolled them about his hand, getting to know the orbs inside, and wondering if they produced cum yet, as they drew themselves up.
	The thick meat in Gabriel's hands pulsed mightily, straining upward, and he let it, just in case he was producing, then it pulsed again, and again.  Thinking all was well, he let it go, and returned to administrate to him, and a viscous stream of white squirted out, directly onto his muzzle with enough force to shoot up his nose quite irritatingly, and when he coughed, some of the immature seed came up into his mouth.  Three splashes, all big and forceful and it dripped down his face to his bare chest, Aires to far gone by in the haze of ecstasy to notice he was drowning his companion.  
	The wash of semen faded, and but still Aires was lost in bliss, and on the cusp of one of his own, Gabriel slicked his hand in the boys semen, and fingered himself to climax in merely a moment.
	In the hours that followed, Gabriel and Aries talked of what a normal day looked like.  Even in the stupor induced post orgasmic afterglow, he was quite the animated talker, gesturing as he waxed with startling eloquence for his age about what he thought were fantastic exploits, but were just the imaginative activities of a healthy, young boy.
	Aries lessons, Gabriel learned, were pretty extensive, keeping him bound more or less to the same chair in the library or study, depending on the lesson or the day, for as many as six hours at a stretch, five days out of the week.  Luckily, he got little after lesson work from his tutors, and got ample vacations during major holidays.
	Jumping around from thoughts of his lessons, to more of his wandering, Tyche and Pernicia popped up quite regularly.  It was clear that Aires loved his middle brother quite a lot, and Gabriel was tempted to inquire more about their naughty activities, but held his tongue.  There would be more time later to ask.  And, perhaps, he might ask Tyche himself.  He would need to get to know the other cubs anyway.  
	Gabriel got the feeling whenever Aires spoke of Pernicia, that he really disliked her.  Perhaps even feared her a little, getting similar vibes whenever he spoke of his arranged marriage to another girl.  Again, he didn't ask questions, though he burned to, letting the boy speak his mind freely.  One thing he could say for sure was that there was something going on between all three of them, but the scope of it eluded him.  
	Oh so imperceptibly, the sun tracked down and across the floor, until it was in a wholly new spot, the hours spinning by with a disorienting speed much at odds with its movement, and growing ever more endearingly attached to this long winded cub, spinning tales and drama that both moved, and bored him.  Gabriel wondered, as Aries touched again upon his distaste for his sister just what was going on, and if it was worth the time to figure out.  
	But, as Gabriel thought, Pernicia's look of dislike returned to him.  What could be her problem with him?  He was but a new slave boy, and had done nothing that could have possibly offended her just by sitting at the table.
	A knock on the door startled them both, the warmth and depth of their respite a pit needing to be struggled out of.  Gabriel sat up, surprised with how lulled he'd become, and Aires much more slowly.  He was about to get up to unlock the door when it rattled, then a moments silence, then the turning of a key in a lock, and the door was thrown open to reveal Pernicia in a flowing dress.
	“S-Sis!  W-what're you doing here?
	“Hello, Pernicia.  To what do I owe the pleasure your visit?”  
	Pernicia, short for her apparent age, stood imperiously in the door, attempting to look intimidating, and not doing a very good job of it.  But it seemed to have some effect on her brother.  “Get up, Aires, it's lunch time.  Leave the slave, and come with me.”  Aires pushed himself up onto a hand to obey.
	Gabriel put a hand on Aires' shoulder.  He wasn't sure how far he could push her, but it was clear that he was already her enemy, and was reasonably protected.  “I would appreciate, Lady Pernicia, if you could knock whilst I am teaching your brother.  Perhaps I just don't know how things work here, but I doubt other tutors look kindly upon blatantly rude interruptions to the lessons they teach.”  Her ears pinned back, and looked at him with venom.
	“You will call me Master, slave boy.  Know your position, and don't you talk back to me.”  Gabriel snorted derisively, and Aires looked up at him admiringly.  What the hell was going on between these two?
	“Aires and I will be along shortly, Pernicia.  If Lady Hera or Master Daedalus ask, we are finishing up his first lesson, of which I'm sure they will be very lenient of, and if it were of great urgency, and I'm quite sure lunch does not rank quite so high, they would' come for us themselves.  Now if you'll excuse us...”
	Face red and steaming, Pernicia harrumphed, turning on her hoof, and departed, leaving the door wide open.  It occurred to him only then that Aires still had his pants down, though nothing showed with it fully retracted into his sheath.  But seemingly he was oblivious, gratitude and awe evident in equal measure.  Gabriel sprung from his bed, trousers still down, and pulled them up with one hand and slammed the door shut with the other, with the result being that he obscured nothing, slit still on display as the door clanged shut loudly enough to startle a servant in the hall and drawing attention.
	“I can't believe you spoke to her like that.”
	“She shouldn't be such a bitch.  She has no reason to be like that us.  Is that normal?”
	“Pernicia only acts like that to me, and occasionally to Tyche.  He protects me from her when he's around.”
	“I see.  You go eat lunch, I'm not really hungry, and I need to think on somethings.”
	Aires slid off the bed, and pulled up his pants.  “What about?”
	“No need for you to worry about that just yet.  But suffice it to say, I should get to know the other members of your family, even if I'm to spend most of it with you.  And I suppose I should get to know some of the other servants too.”  Aires hugged Gabriel, nuzzling into his belly, and muttered a thanks, then turned and left, still tucking his shirt in.  He really was too cute.  Waiting a few minutes to ensure that he was gone, he left his room, to explore, and to speak with the other servants.

	From room to room Gabriel flitted, investigating for himself the incredible manor that Aires had so vividly evoked into his minds eye as they had lain together.  Indeed, the rooms were all roughly the same size, ten feet on a side, but a few of them were remarkable, like the dining room or the library, were much larger.  The Library was at the back of the manor, the center room of the south wing, and was ninety degrees on the quad with the dining room and opposite the grand hall where he arrived.  Also like the formal dinning hall, it jutted into the hall, separating it from the rest of the manor.  
	In a brief discussion in which he had spoken with a couple of servant girls, they told him that this area, from library to dinning made up the 'house proper', and all of the Nordenclatz's rooms and important activities took place there.  The dinning room and the library were in bounds, but the space between was out of bounds, unless it was that particular servants turn to clean there, or was invited in.  
	Gabriel thought this was a rather nicely done way of keeping things separate and safe, very much not the case with his old family, who had built their estate over several generations, and very haphazardly, where as Daedalus was an architect, and had designed and helped build this monstrosity himself, lavishing all of his incredible skill and sparing no expense in its construction.
	While the two he spoke to were generally nice, most of the servants seemed to keep to themselves, and he felt he could generally understand the disposition.  It was easier to stay out of trouble with your muzzle shut.  But, even still they talked among themselves, and he picked up some interesting gossip in his wandering.  Not the least of which that Lady Hera and Daedalus were not as happy as they appeared, and lately, had been heard being railed at through an open window by another servant about his whereabouts when she had supposedly awoken to find her husband not in bed with her.  
	News of the children seemed quite sparse by comparison, however, and though Gabriel proactively sought juicy tidbits about Artimis, Tyche, and Pernicia, the only thing of note was that Artimis was intensely private, and never meddled in affairs that did not concern him if he could avoid it, and a general reinforcement of Pernicia having some kind of  contention with Aires that had been building gradually over the past year, seemed to have reached a boiling point, and since that time, had been becoming ever more belligerent and  domineering of the servants, but not nearly so much it seemed as she had treated himself as he explained his two interactions with her thus far.
	Mulling over this information, the seeming mystery into which he had inadvertently dropped himself into almost great enough that he stopped noting placement of valuable objects, to which he did note there were very few that could be easily swiped, moved gradually away from the family wing and into the innermost courtyard.
	The servants that had been here early that morning had completed their tasks, the trees perfectly manicured, flowerbeds devoid of weeds.  In a small pond, deep enough to wade in but not swim, a pair of ducks drifted lazily, dipping beneath the surface for whatever sustenance could be obtained there.  At a bench on the far side, just off the sparking cobble, opposite him was Tyche, looking hard into the waters and at the ducks, as if he were pondering the inner lives of the fowl.
	Holding himself in a confident, relaxed manner, Gabriel approached, and sat quietly next to Tyche, trying to think of what to say.  Should he reintroduce himself?  Ask about his fun with Aires?  Ask him to fuck?  No, that all seemed quite barbarous, at least to lead off with.
	“Aires thinks pretty highly of you.  I'm surprised he'll have anything to do with you since you have a pussy.”  
	“W-what?”
	“He's gay”
	“I know.  He told me.  But I'm a guy, you know.  I just happen to have pussy instead of a dick.  See, no boobs.”  Gabriel pointed lamely to his his flat chest, and Tyche chuckled.
	“Did you...?”  
	“Sort of?  I jerked him off.  He liked that, if that's what your asking.”
	“I guess.”  Tyche grimaced.
	“You don't seem thrilled about that thought.”
	“I just love the idea of some weirdo touching my brother.  That just doesn't seem right, you know?”
	“Gee, thanks.”
	“...Sorry.”
	“It's fine.  I can't say that I know if it's right or not.  I was a sexual practice toy for a cub your age when I was his age, and now that I'm older, I'm teaching it.  Not glamorous for sure, but I can say that as hung as your little bro is, I'm pretty sure that teaching him will be pretty fun.  I'm certainly glad that he's comfortable with me.  But I also wonder if the other Nordenclatz boys are as big.”
	“Did you just...?”
	“Did I?”
	Shaking his head, Tyche sighed.  “What do you want?  I'm busy.”  
	“Aires told me about what you two do, he seems to love you an awful lot.  And that's cool.  But there is something going on between him and Pernicia then he won't quite come out and say.”
	“I don't know what you're talking about.”  Tyche rose from the bench, and turned to face away from Gabriel.  “What ever he said, it isn't true, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread rumors.  Mother's stance against homosexuality is well known, and she should not be provoked on the subject.  Now, if you don't mind, I've got lessons to attend.”  Gabriel watched him stalk away, shoulders sagging, whether fear, anger, shame, some combination thereof, or something else entirely, he couldn't tell.  He felt he had botched that pretty bad, it and hoped he hadn't made him an enemy.
	Perhaps it wasn't so bad as it seemed however; Aires and Tyche would most certainly talk at some point in the day, and maybe on the morrow, the elder would give Gabriel another shot.  For now, he remained seated, digesting this new bit of info too.  This was a startling thing, that two of the Nordenclatz cubs feared their mother for their interests.  

	Not long after, Aires found Gabriel, and they wandered the family wing of the estate.  He had been quite impressed with the other three quarters of the building, but all the riches, and those things both valuable and small enough to steal were found here, an abundance of paintings, jewelry, daggers, and magical trinkets abound.  And though his young charge spoke animatedly of this and that, he only really heard anything pertaining to the items at which his eyes consumed like delicacies.  
	Where as the majority of the building was all broad hall and rooms with candelabra, what was most assuredly the main hall in this quarter had been subdivided into a much smaller, warmer feeling one, with rooms on the right, mostly pantries and water closets, illuminated with liquid light from magical lanterns hung from a broad wooden beam over the center.  The whole of this inner sanctum of rooms, a little more warren-esque than the rest, was done in fine wooden paneling, with simple, but well carved floorboards and crown-molding.  
	Some of the rooms here had been subdivided too, and was surprised to find that Aires's room was smaller than his own quarters, though it was not by much.  It was located directly atop a spiral staircase, the water closet at the bottom, and opposite him was Pernicia's room, and next to that, Artemis's, with a small study at the end of that side.  
	Back on Aires's side, after his, was that of his parents, and beyond that, Tyche's.  At the far end of the hall was a trophy room, and it was loaded down with even more of those things that got Gabriel's heart racing; swords, armor, shields, plaques of all kinds polished to a sparkling shine, illuminated not by more lanterns, but by a skylight, and nothing more.  There were other oddities here too, such as a floating black cube to which he could imagine no purpose, but small enough to carry.  A vase of flowers of a kind that he did not recall in the gardens that should by rights be as wilted as lettuce in the sun from the heat and shine inside, but were vibrant as if to spite it.
	“What of these flowers, then?”  Gabriel asked, interrupting Aires a proud recounting of something or other that he had not been paying much mind.
	“Wha-huh?  Oh, those?  That's the bouquet of flowers Father gave Mother when he proposed to her.”
	“Oh, wow.  They had them enchanted.” he mumbled to himself.
	“What?”
	“Nothing.  When's dinner?”
	“Should be any minute now.  We might as well head down for it, if you're hungry.  You can dine with me if you want!”
	Something in the young boys face made it clear that he wanted him to eat at the family meal rather than with the servants, and though he was not eager to see Pernicia's sneering muzzle again, and was worried that he might now see a second one in the form of Tyche's, he didn't have the heart to turn him down, and resigned himself to just eating at that table for the rest of his time here.
	Luckily for Gabriel, Tyche seemed amiable, and Pernicia was manageable, so long as he did not engage with her directly.  He did notice during some lulls in the conversation curious looks pass between Artimis, Lady Hera, and more than one serving girl, and he had caught him looking rather hungrily at him too.  His looks made it all to clear what he wanted of him, and wondered where the supremely laconic attitude of the morning had gone, replaced with fluent eloquence, and skillful evasion of some seemingly pointed questions whose meaning he didn't quite catch while defending against the daughters glares. 
	Gabriel was further glad that wherever Artemis's activity of speech came from, Daedalus's seemed to have gone, staring somewhat vacantly over Pernicia's shoulder, while Tyche and Aries held their own conversation.  In the gaps between the swinging tides of question and answer, and jovial laughter, he could feel a strain in the family, ephemeral, but still weighty, as if something accumulated over months or even years, sensed most keenly not as he studied the lively faces, but as he poked his steak, seared to utter perfection.  
	No one paid him much mind directly, for which he was eternally grateful, and the moment that Aires was finished, he took the chance to be dismissed, and departed with his charge.  Together, they walked about the inner courtyard, though Gabriel stayed mostly silent, making plans for that cube in the trophy room, and of other objects glimpsed in the day.
	The sun was setting in earnest, and had been for some time, when a belly deep yawn forced it's way from the maw of Aries.
	“I'm beat, Gabriel.  I think I'm gonna turn in.”  Aires scuffed at the cobble with his hooves, looking away from him and blushing.  “Mother and Father told me you are supposed to sleep with me...”
	“Yes, but I don't have to do so tonight, and I rather think that we should spend the night apart.”
	“Really?”
	“Yeah.  You're a good cub, Aries, and I know who you really want to sleep with.  And while I don't have much choice but to sleep with you regularly, that doesn't mean I have to start tonight, or sleep with you every night.  Plus, I'm still wide awake, and would like to peruse the gardens longer, if that is a privilege I am afforded.”
	Aires nodded, appreciative of the opportunity, and Gabriel knew exactly how he would spend it.  Meanwhile, there were some things in the garden that had caught his attention in the day, and while he had spared no thought to them until now with all that had been new and going on, went to visit these great finds.  
	All the flowers and herbs in the Nordenclatz's family gardens were fairly common, but they had clearly been curated to be pretty.  But, some were useful reagents in alchemical products.  The following hour was very productive, and to his delight, everything he needed for a very special, very fun one that would be great for his time with Aires.  The question then remained; where would he find an alchemical alembic, and even if he found one, would he be allowed to use it?

	The next two days were as much a blur of activity as the first, though more in terms of active duties rather than the simple taking in of the new state of things.  And Gabriel thought that he was beginning to fit right in.  Much of the tension he had sensed in the final meal of the first day seemed to have dissipated, and he thought nothing of it in his pursuit of his chores.  
	It was far from a routine, but things were straight forward, and between Aires and the newly and much more amenable Tyche, found that it would not change much.  Four days of the week, he would be assigned cleaning, and would focus mainly on the family wing of the house, and the library, where he was incredibly excited to learn on the third day, contained most of the basic alchemical equipment he needed for concocting potions.  On these four days, all of the Nordenclatz cubs had lessons of some sort, except for Artemis, who worked for Daedalus's construction firm.  On the other three days of the week, he was free of such duties, but he was still Aires's sex tutor, and expected to help out when asked.  Things were so easy going, he found himself slipping almost unconsciously into old habits.  In the back of his mind however, the plan was ever present.
	Aires was greatly interested in what Gabriel had to say on the subject of alchemy, but he swore him to secrecy about it.  But he inquired about the probability of getting to a market to get some particular reagents, and the boy was willing to help.  It was then proposed by him that the following day they go to market.  Certainly, he was desirous of this, and made a list of things that he would need.
	When Gabriel and Aires approached Daedalus that afternoon, the father listened intently to them, and considered.
	“And what would you be getting at the market, and to what purpose would you put these things?  I confess I know little of alchemy, other than that is a dangerous art that could put my family in danger.  What proof have I that you are not just preparing for an escape, either while out on the morrow, or should your alchemical skills be legitimate, not be preparing for one at a later date?”
	“You really don't.”  Gabriel replied.  “All I can do is give you a list of what my needs are, and make my skills generally useful to you as a show of faith.”
	“I value your honesty, and in that value you find that this shall be allowed.  Aires?”
	“Yes Father?”
	“Tomorrow Vivanka and Morticia going to market for fresh produce with Hera, who will be obtaining fresh clothe with which to fashion a dress for Pernicia.  You are to go with them.  Gabriel will be your sole responsibility while you are out, and neither of you are to go anywhere not strictly specified.  Now, where do you plan to obtain these reagents for your potions, and how much will they cost?”
	Gabriel was glad to discuss at length his learning, and what potions he might make that would have value to the family.  Most were of mere curiosity to Daedalus, and none of importance, but was quite content to let him make some simple ones as a test.  His true motive, and the potion to which he had his heart set most, he kept to himself, and all the potions he suggested used at least one ingredient he needed for it, leaving him with just one more he could obtain at his leisure here at the manor.
	The meeting with Daedalus was not overly long, having been won over quite summarily with his trusting demeanor, and Aires earnestness, leave the two the remainder of the day.  And in the wake of such good fortune, Gabriel thought now would be a good time to broach the a subject to which he had made attempt to get his young charge acquainted with.
	“Aires,” Gabriel began, steering him towards his room with his body from the study where they had met with Daedalus.  “I think it's time to move you forward in your sexual education.”  
	Gabriel shut the door behind them, insuring that others wouldn't over hear, locked it behind them so they wouldn't be bothered, and went so far as to place his wide ear to the door.  Down the other end of the hall, he heard Daedalus exit the study, and the tramping of hooves coming in the opposite direction.  Assuming all was well, he turned to Aires, who sat now on his bed patient, but curious expression.
	“Thus far, we've only done petting, and specifically from me, to you.  But an important part of being a good sexual partner is putting your partners pleasure above your own, trusting in them to get you to release, so you can focus on bringing them their own.  When one partner fails to do this, the sexual experience fails, and can result in frustration that can build for years, and destroy even the most stable relationships.”
	“D-does that m-mean I have to touch you?  You know...  There?”  Aires pointed at the Gabriel's newly acquired brown trousers.
	“Not today, if you don't want to, but tonight or tomorrow, you'll have to.  Additionally, I can't really put off sleeping with you any longer.  So tonight, I'll be sleeping with you, and I really think you should try having real sex with me.  I am still a boy, so it's not like I have cooties or something.”
	The words did not seem to placate the obviously distressed Aires much, but there was little he could do at the moment.  At least within the week, he would have a potion that would make this easier for the poor boy.  But for the moment, he disrobed, and motioned for Aires to do the same.  
	Even though he had seen it several times now, the size of Aires cock still impressed him, as thick around as his wrist at the medial ring, the flared head the size of his palm.  Gabriel hadn't been particularly horny, but seeing the pendulous penis growing to full size made his pussy burn with want, and by the time his undergarment was set aside, it felt a swamp of desire.
	“Lets do oral, I'll do it for you, but you tonight, when we go to bed, you'll be expected to either learn oral, or have sex.  And really, Aires, it isn't as bad as you seem to think.  You trust me, right?”
	“Y-yes...”
	“Then believe me when I say that even if it isn't your thing, if you let yourself enjoy it, it won't be an awful experience.  Now, lay back on the bed.  I'm going to show you what a real blowjob is like.”
	“B-but, Tyche-”
	“I'm sure he's just fine at it, but this is something I guarantee I have more experience in doing than him.  And if you're good about tonight, then I'll let him join if you both want.  I have a surprise planned for you both anyway.”
	“A surprise?”  Aires perked up quite quickly, head coming off his pillow to see Gabriel's nude form, on the bed at his feet, knees spread wide and folds on display, juices dripping freely from him.
	“Don't worry about it yet.  It's gonna be a few days minimum, and depends largely on how tomorrows shopping goes.  Now, head back.  Just lay there and let me bring you pleasure.”
	His head dropped back, and Gabriel wrapped his hands around the thick length of meat in front of him, pulling it straight, embracing it.  The head came up to his navel, and he thrust his body against it, taking care that his wet folds didn't touch it, though he ached to stuff it inside himself.  
	The cock in his embrace flexed hard, head flaring to its full size momentarily, then shrinking again, a few drops of thin, gooey precum spilling out and collecting in the divot around his urethra.  Gabriel backed up, and lowered his muzzle to the massive penis, tongue out, and lapped up the pre, slimy member dancing in circles around and at the entrance to, then spreading caressing licks across the face of it.  The smell of his boyish musk rose sharp and intoxicating, and he inhaled it eagerly.  
	Between his legs, one hand went to his pussy, and slid a finger inside, taken over by fantasies of the coming evening, hoping that he could cajole him into touching him there in some way.  It took great and deliberate care, but Gabriel opened wide, tongue slathering as much of the mighty penis as possible, and eased it into his muzzle, an inch at a time.  It was far too much for him to handle the whole thing, to swallow it completely, but he couldn't even reach the medial ring, which taunted him from just an inch beyond his nose.  
	Knowing it was a bad idea, Gabriel pushed himself, and worse, the squeezing of his throat on Aires member made him flare, and he gagged.  At first, he couldn't pull away, the expanded head holding him in place.  He tried not to panic, and found he could still breath, if barely, and waited for Aires's member to relax.  He moaned, and the swelling went down and he drew back.  
	Aires member popped out of Gabriel's mouth loudly, and he heaved a deep breath, but continued to service the proud erection, nuzzling at the side, holding it steady with one hand, fingers never once ceasing activity between his own legs.  
	It was coming; Gabriel could feel it, could hear Aires voice rising gradually, losing himself in the pleasure.  He considered what to do, and though he wanted to drink it, he decided now would be as good a time to get him to touch his pussy.  Just as his cock surged with the rising tide of semen rushing through it, he backed up, and bent his cock backwards, rising back on to his knees, and placing the tip to his folds.  The cum rocketed out, and though most of it splattered over his abdomen and between his thighs, there was great enough pressure that some was forced inside, and that feeling of heat in his loins made him cum, his girly fluids squirting out into the larger wave jizz.
	Gabriel's pussy spasmed on nothing, squeezing the semen back out, and he fell onto his back as his muscles tired to milk what he wished was there but was not, both boys moaning, the mess growing between them growing and messing the bed.
	After a time, they both came back to their senses, and Gabriel shooed Aires off to play, exhorting him to sit up so he could pull off the bed spread, and do the laundry.  Reluctantly he complied, and wandered out of his room, still buckling his belt, partially lost in the afterglow of a good cum.
	“Don't forget about tonight, Aires!”  Gabriel called after him, to which he mumbled a half aware acknowledgment.
	On the way to the washroom, Gabriel overheard angry whispering; and though it was none of his business, he couldn't help but to approach the door, an open closet on the first floor.  At first, he couldn't identify the wrathful voice, but the respondent was that of Artemis.  
	“That's the third one this month!  I'm getting tired of cleaning up your mistakes, Artemis!  You're going to ruin us if you keep this up!”
	“I'm not ruining anything.  The only thing being ruined is a good time.”
	“Don't you speak to me that way, or so help me...”
	“Look, I'm not asking you to 'take care' of my so called 'messes'.  It isn't your job to interfere with my love life!”
	“You call what you do a love life?  Flitting from flower to flower with all the fidelity of a honey bee?”
	“At least I'm getting some.”
	Gabriel grimaced at the smack of hand across cheek, the distinctive sound with enough force to make him jerk back, as if it had hit him instead, and not Artemis.  There was a moment of silence, then a number of expletives as colorful as the garden.
	“How dare you talk back to me like that, you ungrateful shit.  I brought you into this world, and if you don't stop making me squander the family fortune to cover your dalliances with the slave girls, then so help me I'll see you thrown out of the house.  Am I clear?”
	There was silence for a few minutes, and Gabriel wondered what what was going on, and what the context of this conversation was.  What was Artemis doing?  How was he ruining the lives of slave girls?  The implications of what Artemis said made him think that it was lady Hera in there with him.  There were a lot of questions going though his head, but as the conversation resumed, it sounded much like they were preparing to leave, and so he got moving.

	The dawn of Gabriel's fourth day at the Nordenclatz manor was bright, light shining in through the window of Aires' bedroom window scorching hot.  The debacle of the previous evening had surely not enamored the boy of himself any, but with his skillful handling, had not gone quite so bad as it might have otherwise.  But for all that, both he and his charge had their moment of pleasure, and then slept soundly through the night.
	Or, mostly sound.  Pernicia had peeked into the room, the creaking door waking him.  Honed from many a night on the street and disreputable inns however, he had kept his head and pretended to remain asleep, watching from lidded eyes.  She, for her part, had merely poked her head in, saw more than she was expecting, likely his own presence in the bed,  then departed quickly.  Would he that her face was visible at the moment she beheld him there, or the rest of her for that matter, for something about her seemed off, more demure than that she could be expected in consideration of what Gabriel knew of her personality.  Nevertheless, now awake and discovering his bladder full, made a nighttime jaunt to the water closet, and made a quick eye of the family wing, and he returned to remain undisturbed through the rise of the sun, to when the stirring of Aires in the mid morning jostled him awake once more.
	It was in his estimation a good thing; that being what he was for Aires, and the day that it was, he had no other occupation in which to worry himself over, and merely stretched, pulling him into his body while in a still groggy state, that he might get a little more used to being in physical contact with the female anatomy.  It was however, perpetuated in no small part by his own horniness, and the feel of the morning wood that he sported as always felt good, radiating its heat into his folds.  A groggy hug and perfunctory kiss and he rolled to sitting, exhorting him to rise.
	“Come, Aires, we must get ready.  Surely, the Lady Hera will wish to do her trip early, and I do not envy us the thought of her accosting us to that effect.”
	“Five more minutes?”
	“No, not five more minutes.  I'll not have her storm in here and place the blame on me for failing to have you readied for your laziness.”  There followed such a groan that it was a wonder that no one heard and rushed to see what had so upset Aires.  With much griping, he rose, fingers trailing along the shaft of his penis, before he looked up and saw Gabriel's sex, and it wilted.
	Gabriel helped him dress, choosing a gold hemmed red tunic, stylistically similar to that of the local nobility, then donned the simple, loose, dark gray trousers and light gray top he had on him on the day of his arrival.  Properly dressed, he looked forward to the day, and hoped that he would have the chance to slip away and meet with Raziel.  
	Breakfast was an unusually quiet affair that morning.  It was absent Artemis, the Lady Hera's eyes darting to the vacant seat as if checking and rechecking to verify his absence, and getting increasingly irritated as it continued, leading her to fume silently.  To her left Pernicia glowered in Gabriel's direction, and on the opposite side of the empty chair, Aires and Tyche chuckled, unaware of the silent drama that seemed to play out across the table.
	It was a great relief when Daedalus excused himself from the table, signaling the end of the morning meal, and Gabriel turned to leave.
	“Gabriel.”
	He turned, and bowed, addressed by Lady Hera.  “I expect to have no troubles beyond the walls of the manor today.”
	“Yes Lady Hera.”
	“My husband seems to think you trustworthy, but I think it's too early to tell.”
	“I understand, Lady Hera.'
	“Good.  Be ready with Aires in a half hour.  I aim to be there and back by noon.”
	“Of course, Lady Hera.  Shall I meet you in the entry hall, or by the front gate?”
	“The entry hall.”  
	“Yes, Lady Hera.”  But it went unheard, she having turned her back on him mid reply, sweeping from the room imperiously, no doubt to see if she could find the wayward Artemis.  Turning to Aires, who seemed unaware of the dictate given to him, still talking animatedly with Tyche, got his attention, and sent him off to wash his face, grab any coin he had, and meet him in the entry quickly.
	Then, apologizing to Tyche for the interruption, departed for his own room, to ensure everything was in order, and bring his clothes to the slave girl in charge of the laundry.  Gabriel was hardly out the door of the dinning room and into the courtyard when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
	“Gabriel, wait up.”  
	Passing through the door and standing to the side, he waited for Tyche to exit, then set off with him in tow.  “Did you need something, Tyche?”
	“I wanted to ask about last night.  Aires seemed to have mixed feelings.”
	“Are you asking if I hurt him?” Gabriel asked, looking over his shoulder at the younger teen.
	“No...” He averted his gaze.
	“I have a job to do Tyche.  I take no pleasure in forcing your brother to do things he doesn't want.  I wheedle and cajole, and steer things towards what I've been instructed to do.  I do not use force.”
	“I-I didn't mean t-to-”
	“I'm sure that you didn't.  I don't take offense, I know you care for Aires.”  The boys entered the opposite wing, and Gabriel gathered his two spare outfits from his room.
	“Aires told me you had a surprise planned, but he didn't know what it was, and that you were hoping to share that surprise with me.”  Tyche asked, continuing to follow Gabriel.
	“Yeah, I am, and yes, I'd like to.”  Gabriel walked at a brisk pace down the hall to a servants stair to the second floor.  “You can't tell Aires though.”
	“Okay, what is it?”
	“Were you made aware since I told your father that I know intermediate alchemy?”
	“You do?  That's so cool!  But what does that have to do with anything?”  
	“I didn't tell Daedalus, but some of the ingredients on the list can be used to make a gender swapping potion.  I plan to make myself male, at least for Aires.  But I need an ingredient I can't get from an apothecary.  Tyche, do you like girls at all, or just boys like your brother?”  Gabriel set his clothes on the counter, turned, and leaned back against the counter, searching.  “And do you know who's on laundry today?  It doesn't look like anyone is up here attending.”
	“Uh...  A little, I guess.  Why?  And no, I don't keep track of things like that,  Mother does.”
	“Oh, huh.  As long as these get done, I guess it doesn't really matter.  Anyway,” and Gabriel sprung away from the counter, and headed back out the door.  “If you'd be willing, I need you to have sex with me for the potion to work.”
	“What?!”
	Whirling on Tyche, Gabriel held his fingers to his lips, hushing him.  “I don't want to risk being over heard.  Come on, lets hurry to my room.”
	Door shut moments later, Gabriel sat on his bed, back against the wall, and Tyche paced nervously around.
	“The last thing I need for the potion is semen.  Aires is too young, and he doesn't like girl parts even if their on a boy.  Whats more, it needs to mixed with the sexual fluids of the imbiber.  The obvious, easy way to do that is sex.  And since the result will be that I have a penis similar to the one whose semen I collect, yours is best.  And I've always wondered what it would be like to have a horse cock.”
	Tyche's ears flushed bright at the course language.  “C-couldn't you just buy the potion ready made?”
	“You weren't listening, Tyche.  Potions like this need to be tailor made, so they don't show up in potions shops.  It needs to have my fluids in it.  Plus, I'm pretty sure your mother would object most vociferously if she discovered where her money was going.  No, I will need to brew it myself.”
	“Um...  I'll have t-to think about that, I think.”
	“Okay.  Just know that it takes several days for the potion to brew, and I need the semen before I can start it.  Now, if you aren't going to give it to me now, I should really get ready to go; Lady Hera, Aires, and the kitchen girls will be waiting for me before long to depart.”  He rose and headed to the door.  “Can you promise to have an answer for me tonight?”  Hesitantly, Tyche rose, nodding, following Gabriel from the room.

	At the front gate of the manor, the lone guard, a different one from the one who had been keeping watch a few nights before, stood, bowed, and unlocked the gate and allowed Lady Hera, Aires, Vivanka, Morticia, and gabriel to pass.  The wide, cobblestone avenue glittered prettily in the sun, curving lazily through a small stand of trees on the way to the city proper, which was visible through the morning haze in the near distance.
	Before them, there waited a wooden, horse drawn carriage, crafted of finely carved, imported woods, painted and gold leafed, roomy enough for all of them.  Vivanka and Morticia framed the carriage door, holding it open for Lady Hera and Aires.  Gabriel noted that Morticia was standing stiffly; it looked to him as though she were holding in her belly, and looking nervously at Hera.  However, she did not appear to notice anything off, busy with two dresses folded over her arm, and couldn't Gabriel think of him what her issue was.
	The carriage was quite roomy, enough for six; Vivanka and Morticia sat with Gabriel on the left most seat facing Hera, and Aires.  He took note of the seats, each finely done with a pillow, and in the gap between mother and son, he could see a latch.  It was not a feature the carriage of his old family had, but it was a useful one, that sensitive items could be stored on the inside, rather than be lashed to the top or underfoot as was the norm.  In this compartment, she placed the dresses, and took her seat.
	Outside, an unknown individual, sitting up front yelled 'Yah!', and snapped the reigns.  The horses nickered, and began trotting off towards the town.  Inside, it remained quiet and felt strained.  Looking to his side, Gabriel could see that Morticia was still holding in her stomach, and she looked just a little pained.  He considered asking her if she was okay, realizing it might have something to do with Artemis.  Uncertain of what it was that Lady Hera did to the slave girls he got pregnant, he surely didn't want to find out, and certainly not at the expense of the poor girl sitting on Vivanka's other side.
	The trip, thankfully, was blessedly short.  Even though Aires and Gabriel jovially made faces at each other, largely at the stiff and silent disapproval of the other three, neither he nor his charge were quite free of the strain.  None could wait to get out of the carriage to do the shopping.
	The carriage trundled into the bustling town at the outskirts of which the Nordenclatz's had made their home, the sound of hooves clacking on the cobblestone, the call of merchants already getting their daily business underway, the smell of manure, flowers, and spices, mixing aromatically through the air lifting spirits and making Hera pinch the bridge of her muzzle ineffectually against the potent smell.  Gabriel found he missed the scents of the town quite a bit; memories of many a night on the street after he escaped, the good nights of raids on rich homes gone well and subsequent weeks of living the high life in one of the better inns...  The roller coaster lifestyle was tough, memorable and rewarding, and he found himself missing it.  All the luxury in the world, and he was happy to have it; and yet the draw of the life of a street rat, with Raziel at his side, and the other street urchins with which he rubbed shoulders, for better of for worse, made him feel like he was missing out.  He needed adventure, and this wasn't it.  It weighed on his mind as they pulled up along side a clothiers, and the driver dismounted, and opened the door.
	Also weighing on Gabriel's mind was whether or not Raziel was around.  Not that he had nicked anything just yet, but he could do with a good lay, and his penis, though not nearly the size of any of the Nordenclatz's, really did enjoy being intimate with him, his friends, and occasionally the random stranger.  The five occupants of the carriage disembarked, Aires moving to his side, and Hera turned to look the lot of them in the eyes.
	“I will be here, getting these dresses tailored, and picking up one for Pernicia.  Vivanka and Morticia, you will be going to market for food stuffs.  Gabriel and Aires, you are going to the apothecary for your potion ingredients.  I expect every one to be back here before the sun hits peak, and I want to hear of no deviations from this.  Am I understood?”
	“Yes Lady Hera.” 
	“Yes Mother.”
	Lady Hera nodded, and whisked her way into the tailors shop without looking back.  
	Vivanka looked between Morticia and Gabriel.  “Well, we all best get moving then.”  
	“Yeah, I don't envy us being cooped in that carriage with her while she's angry.”  Gabriel replied.  Aires nodded, and Morticia turned to leave with Vivanka, relaxing her belly.  She definitely looked pregnant.
	“Wait, Morticia.”
	“Hm?”  She turned to look back, sucking in her belly again.
	“Are you pregnant?”
	Morticia smacked Gabriel across the muzzle.  It stung like a bitch, and he smelled pineapples.  “How DARE you?!”
	“I just asked a question!”  Next to him, Aires winced at the sudden volume and violence.
	“No!  No I'm not!  I'm just putting on weight!”  Vivanka looked on nervously, eyes darting around, hoping no attention had been drawn to them.  
	“Look, I don't know what Lady Hera does to pregnant slave girls, but I can solve your problem in a way that might prevent anything from happening to you.”
	“If you- What?”  Both Morticia and Vivanka looked at Gabriel.  
	“I'm going to an apothecary.”  The two looked at him blank eyed, and he huffed, exasperatedly.  “I'm not a great one, but I am an alchemist.  I can make a potions that can deal with unwanted pregnancy, and prevent them in future.  Quickly, safely, and unobtrusively”
	“How?”
	Aires looked up at Gabriel, putting a hand in his and tugging, confused about what was going on.  “What's a pregnancy?”  Vivanka looked at him, eyes narrowed.
	“With a potion, I just told you.”  He turned to Aires.  “I'll teach you about it in a little while, okay?  I need to teach you about reproduction and reproductive health anyways.  Today is as good a day as any.”
	“We shouldn't be talking about this in front of him.  He might tell his mother.  And then what?  Morticia is as good as dead.”
	“Why is she good as dead?”
	“Not now, Aires.  I'll explain later.”
	“Again, I don't want to know what she does to you girls when this happens, but I don't want anything bad to happen.  If I can get my hands on the things I need for it, I can make that,” and Gabriel looked pointedly at Morticia's partially relaxed belly, “go away.  I just need the coin, and...  I know some furs.  One way or another, I'll get the stuff, make it, and get it to you.  Luckily, it brews very quickly, and works almost as fast.”
	Morticia and Vivanka looked at Gabriel with a mixture of shock and hope.  
	“I hope so.  I don't want...  D-don't w-want...”  Morticia's eyes teared up, and she turned to lean on Vivanka's shoulder.
	“Go on, do your shopping, I'll get my stuff.  I'll talk to Aires here while I do.  You don't need to worry about Hera learning anything from him.  But, if in say, an hour, one of you could find your way to Honzo's Horitcult to watch Aires for a short while?”
	Vivanka looked at Gabriel suspiciously.  “Where are you going to go?”
	“Does it matter?  I need somethings, and I'm going to get them.  It's for Morticia.  But I can't take Aires.  Small price to pay, I think?”
	Aires opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Morticia, who lifted her face from the others shoulder.  “D-done.  I'll be there in an h-hour.  Come on, Viv, l-lets go.”
	Vivanka turned to her friend and nodded.  Morticia smiled gratefully over her shoulder, eyes still watery from nearly breaking down.
	“Come on, Aires.  Lets go.  I'll answer any questions I'm able while we walk and shop.  But I must impress upon you, you can't tell anyone about this; about Morticia, her condition, my leaving you in her care while we're here, or where I'm going.”
	“O-okay.  But what is mother going to do to her if she finds out?”
	“I don't know, and I don't want to know.  It's certainly something awful though.  I've spent very little time with the other servants, so I don't know much of the common knowledge among them.”  Aires appeared a tad put out, but seemed to accept the answer otherwise.
	“Then what does 'pregnant' mean?”

	The browsing of Honzo's took little time.  Gabriel knew where the things he needed were, and purchased them in short order, mostly mumbling to himself, Aires following along behind and asking various questions.  The walk to hadn't been very long, past a half dozen or so stone and wood brick fronted buildings with hand lettered signs proclaiming their wares.  Afterward, they sat at a took a seat at a table outside the inn across the street with Aires and answered his questions.  Not that it had been a hard to tell thing, but after the birds and the bees, even the densest would know this boy would never consent to penetrating vaginally anyone, even cunt boys like himself.
	It was a frustrating and scary thing to Gabriel.  He had been purchased to perform an impossible job for a woman who did terrible things to those who failed her.  Not that he had truly considered staying at the Nordenclatz estate, merely fantasized about it, and he certainly didn't want to stay nearly as long as he had might have otherwise.  In the back of his mind, he ruminated on how to pull off enough thefts to have made this worthwhile quickly enough to not risk his hide over much.
	Here and there, a few familiar faces, urchins and street rats he had previously rubbed shoulders with meandered, doing their business and running their scams; scams he did his best to avoid, preferring to steal directly from those who could afford it rather than those as poor in wits as coin.  Some few noticed him, nodding, and surreptitiously he nodded back while answering another question.  One of them, a fox slightly younger than he, made his way to the table behind him, and took a seat, seemingly just to relax, and didn't otherwise acknowledge him aside from the subtle nod.  He didn't feel the paper pushed into his trousers, but he knew that Raziel had to have sent him.
	Down the street, his ever alert eyes spying Morticia moving along and looking at the signs.  It occurred to him that she was lucky to be literate, and glad that illiteracy hadn't been an issue he had to deal with.
	“Needless to say, delivery is a long and incredibly painful process, and one that not many men can easily watch.  But, for most, it is easily their proudest moment, to see their cub brought into the world, wet, sticky, and loud.”
	Aires looked upon Gabriel with wide eyed horror, jaw hanging open.
	“That enthused, huh?  I'll spare you additional details for now.  I see Morticia coming.  You stay here, I'll go get her.  Now, remember, behave, I'll won't even be gone an hour, okay?”
	The look of revulsion persisted as he nodded.  Gabriel rose, and headed toward Morticia, waving.  The streets had become reasonably busy, and getting her attention was difficult.  Even though he didn't think that Aires would be kidnapped while he was up by anyone he knew, he didn't want to encourage any of the scoundrels he didn't.  At last, he caught her attention, and she crossed the street to him, dodging horses and pedestrians alike, and he showed her to their table.
	“Thanks, Morticia.  I just have a one place to go that's off the list, it's for the last thing I need for the potion.  I'll be back before we need to be back at the carriage.”
	“Where is that place you're going?”
	“We went over this already.  It doesn't matter if gets you out of trouble, right?”
	Morticia looked at Gabriel with new suspicion, but made no further issue of it.
	“Please hurry.”
	“I'll see you soon, Aires, Morticia.  I'll not be long, I promise.”

	Gabriel took off at a trot, looking over his shoulder at the pair.  He saw the courtier of the letter he now withdrew from his trousers was gone, probably left while he was getting Morticia's attention.  Moving fast, he penetrated back towards the home turf of his pals, reading.  It directed him to a new place, somewhere he had been before, but was seldom used.  It seemed that patrols had increased in the area in an attempt to crack down on them, and that a mutual friend had been among those that had been captured.  They were all laying low for now.  Thankfully, the place was nearer.  Yet, he picked up speed, slipping down side alleys, jumping barriers, and crawling where he had to through holes and tunnels known only to the street rats.
	The place he headed to was not attractive; it was a nexus of inflow pipes that fed into the sewers when the town flooded.  The trash strewn dirt alleyway that led into the shortest and widest of these sloped down, to where the iron grate was exposed, pinching his nose to try and ward off the stink.  After several days of glorious, daily baths with perfumed soaps and fresh laundered clothes, he wasn't ready for the odor.  
	The grate was loose, and Gabriel let himself in, putting it back in place, cursing the grimy metal.  He wiped his hands on his trousers and hoped that it would go unnoticed on the gray cloth.  Inside, it was dark, cold, very confining, even for one as slight as he was, and not just malodorous.  In the faint light coming from up ahead, he could see the moisture on his breath condense in the air.  He hurried, and he slipped in the muck at the bottom of the pipe, but managed to keep his paws under him until he exited the pipe, and fell onto an unexpected, dry, loose plank floor inside without the benefit of anything to support himself on anymore.
	“Would you believe that I fell th'first time I came in here too?  Had more ta'do with the crap I was lugging from the old hideout than my footing though.  What's your excuse?”
	“Nice to see you too, Raziel.”
	“You look real attractive there on the floor.”
	“Jerk.”  Gabriel stood shakily, dusting himself, and looking around.  Two lanterns, which looked pretty new, hung from a grate in the ceiling of the room, if it could really be called that.  It was hexagonal, with a pipe leading in on each side.  Some he knew were more inlet pipes, and others were open, leading deeper in to the overflow network, and the sewer proper.  The floor had been hastily placed; cheap wooden boards that fit together poorly. It left gaps that he could easily imagine would catch an unwary paw and break its owners ankle.  Over the top of the boards, blankets had been placed like rugs.  Against one wall, a number of crates were stacked, and a couple of barrels too.  On the other side of that entry, was Raziel, sitting on a box behind a makeshift desk of two more crates with two boards laid across them.
	“Yeah, but you like it.”
	“...”
	“Don't look at me like that.”
	“Alright, fine.  Now, you gonna tell me where you put my portion of the gold?”
	Raziel looked around, as if someone might be watching.  “Shush, you.  We're sharing this warren with the others.  Ain't no one here had time yet to look for their own places.  Now come'on, I'll show you to where I'm sleepin'.”  He stood, took a lantern from behind where he was sitting, and motioned into the pipe.
	“So, you been keeping the gate watched? 
	Thankfully, this pipe was much larger, and the bottom was dry.  Here and there, off this tunnel, others intersected, and whenever they passed one, the lantern would gutter.  
	“Yeah.  And found something real interesting.  Something we can exploit,” Raziel said, turning at the seventh branch of the pipe, on the left.  “The gate is never unmanned, but every evening, just a little before sun down, the servants bring out the trash and leave it on the step.  You could send stuff out that way.  You might even be able to escape that way too.  We know where it's all going, Tririel followed them on a whim, so we can get anything you steal that way.”
	“That seems pretty lax to me, but I'll take it.  Nice work, Raziel.  And make sure you tell Tririel the same for me.”  
	They followed the pipe a short ways, until they came on the third left, which ended in a small stone room with a grate in the ceiling through which a small amount of sunlight trickled through.  
	“Not bad!  You got a window!”
	“I had to fight Dagriel for it, but it was worth it.”  Gabriel grimaced.  “If we had kept going straight and turned right at the second pipe, we'd be in the sewers, the safest place for a rat to be in.”
	“Yuck.  Now, where's my gold?”
	“Don't you wanna fuck first?”
	“After you show me my gold.”  Raziel huffed, then reached up to a seemingly random brick near the ceiling.  It came free, leaving a little black void, and some dirt trickled out.
	“It took me all day yesterday to dig that out enough for that much gold, and I'm working on making it bigger.  After you show me what you've stolen, I'll have a better idea of how much bigger.”
	“I don't have anything yet.  The mother by all accounts is a terror, and I've had too much on my hands just yet to really look for ways out.  If I'm gonna leave there with anything more than my hide in tact, then I'm gonna have to do it all at once.  I may be there for awhile.  Certainly more than a couple weeks.  But at least I can guarantee that I won't be there for more than a couple months.  I sure as hell don't want to stay there any longer than I have to.  Aires, their youngest, and Tyche, the second youngest, are nice, and so is Daedalus, but the rest...  Not so much, it seems.  And there's a lot of tension between several of them.  I don't want to be there when it pops.”
	Raziel pulled the big bag of gold that the guard had handed to him the night of.  “Here it is.”
	“It looks a little light.”
	“Where do you thing all the nice flooring and blankets came from?  Or the crates?  We needed to move things in a hurry, and couldn't afford to do it all by hand.  After Gazriel became the second to be captured by the guards, we weren't interested in hanging around any longer.”
	“What?  Gaz got caught?  But he's practically an oiled eel with legs!”
	“I know.  So I convinced everyone to pitch in; they all knew when you didn't come back that things went down well and we were loaded, so I contributed extra, for both of us, and we sent out Dagriel to choose a new place, while the rest of us got supplies.  We didn't really want to take any more than we had to from the old place.  Too risky.  Starting last night, we're going in threes to retrieve one persons things at a time.”
	“That's pretty rough.  I hope Gaz and the others are okay.”
	“If anyone stands a chance of getting out, it's Gazriel, but the other two...  We might not ever see Ranriel or Binriel ever again.  The town guard has been cracking down so hard lately.  It's hard enough to survive as it is.”
	Gabriel moved closer to Raziel, and hugged him.  “Shh, it's okay, Raz.  We'll survive.  Just like we always have.  We find a way.”  He pushed him down onto the pile of blankets in the room, kneeling over him, and pushed his hands under his frayed and much patched tunic, raising it up and revealing his toned, gray-furred chest and abs.  
	“You wanted to fuck, so why don't we think about that instead, for now?”  Raziel nodded, grateful.  Up and over his head the shirt went, and Gabriel cast it away, then went to his pants.  Touching along the bulge, he could feel his cock stiffen inside the fabric.  Delicately, fingers going between his legs, he cupped his package, eager for the delivery they held for him.  
	Going back to the hem, Gabriel tugged them down, and his cock caught on them, while Raziel struggled to get his pushed down enough to release it in all its glory.  They only got them down to each others knees before the lure of sex seized control, bringing their attentions back to their bodies.  
	Gazing upon it in admiration, Gabriel took the warm, damp, pink rat cock in his hands, the whole eight inches of it, and put a digit to the tip and pulled away, a strand of precum connecting finger to phallus.  The heat rose in him, pussy tingling, wet already.
	“I've missed having you inside me, and I haven't gotten any since before the sale.  Just me, and my fingers.”  Raziel groaned, Gabriel grinding the turgid shaft against his vaginal lips, and it made his breath catch.  His friend grabbed his thighs and pulled him forward, and he ground on his cock harder, caught between his thighs, but he couldn't keep the teasing going.  Reaching behind and between, muzzle over his shoulder to see what he was doing, took hold of the the fuzzy pouch of his balls, kneading them, then grabbed and angled his penis inside.

	Cum trailing down his thigh, drying grime flaking off of his trousers, the scent of the sewers thick about himself, Gabriel fled down the alleys from whence he had come.  In the heat of passion, he and Raziel had fucked for far longer than sense said he should have, and might even now be going still, were it not for Dagriel showing up to speak of a patrol in the area.  
	The explosive swearing that had erupted from him had been unattractive, the intrusion annoying, and between the two, Gabriel had realized his need had been sated, semen pouring copiously from his well used cunt.  Even now, as he hustled, brushing away the obvious signs of his digressions, the scene replayed in his mind.
	When he came barreling out from between two storefronts not far from Honzo's, Gabriel looked for Morticia and Aires, and saw them standing, shifting nervously from paw to paw, looking around.  Their eyes met across the street, and they began moving down the street towards the cart in unspoken agreement, and he crossed as soon as he had the chance.  
	Upon their reunion, Morticia and Aires pinched their noses, and she looked pointedly at the flakes falling from the cuffs of his trousers.  “What happened to you?”  
	Gabriel waved dismissively, panting hard.  “I got what I needed.  Now hand me the stuff I bought.”  
	Morticia handed it over, and Gabriel reached in, grabbed a handful of the herbs, and rubbed them over his shirt.
	“What the heck?”
	“I'm going to play it off as just something malodorous from the shop.  If she's already waiting for us, just say you came to see what was taking so long.  I just spent too long haggling and talking the finer points of alchemy, got it?”
	“Yes.”
	“Aires?”
	“Uh-huh.”
	“Good.  Sorry to have kept you waiting.”
	“It's okay!  I had fun talking with Morticia.”
	“You should be.  But, yeah, it was kind of nice actually talking to you, little guy.”  Aires beamed at the compliment.  Up ahead, the carriage gleamed in the sun, still in its place outside the clothiers, with Lady Hera standing outside, speaking to Vivanka, her brow furrowed, tapping a hoof impatiently.  So involved with her interrogation of the poor girl, she didn't even notice them until they were nearly upon her, and when she looked at them, it was with irritation.
	“Where have you three bee- Oh holy hell you stink!”
	“My deepest apologies, Lady Hera.  I fear a minor mishap and fondness for talking of plants held me up at the shop.  Honzo must be insane, selling St. Johnswort at such prices.”
	“Spare me the details.  You will not be sitting in the carriage smelling like that.  Morticia, Vivanka, get in the carriage.  Come, Aires.”
	In all honesty, Gabriel was surprised she bought it so quickly, but he was hardly going to complain.  Climbing up front, he found himself face to face with a skeletal looking coyote gentleman, of middling age.  They exchanged polite greetings, but he seemed disinclined to idle chatter as he snapped the reigns and set them on the path homeward
	On the trip home, Gabriel didn't have much to distract him, and though he kept aware, thought worriedly about the recent increase in patrols through the town, and the capture of three of his friends and cohorts.  Survival on the streets between jobs was beyond difficult, and they all relied on each other, sharing their often ill gotten gains with each other.  Certainly, the others thought less of him for expending all his gold quickly whenever he got it for fine baths, expensive food, and nights at good inns.  But he cared about them, and he knew they cared about him too.  They were all scared, and though he was away from it all for the moment, he was scared for them.  He was torn on whether he should try and escape right away, and go to the aid of his friends, or stay, and see if he couldn't finance them with his thefts from the manor.
	As they rolled closer to the gate that surrounded the place, Gabriel looked for places where he might be able to sneak out, but it was just a solid wall.  Getting left out with the trash seemed a really unpleasant way to escape, and would rather take a riskier way if he thought he could swing it.  But aside from attempting some grand and doomed to failure, high publicity stunt like taking over the carriage, nothing came to mind.  He sighed, resigned, and the coyote looked at him askance.
	“You okay son?”
	“Just unpleasant thoughts.”
	“Got anythin' to do with that god awful scent on ya?”
	“...  Yeah.  Can't wait to wash it off.”
	The coyote nodded.  “I've smelled worse, in my day.”

	Gabriel was both happy and sad to be back on the premise of the manor; happy because he could finally wash the grime off, and sad because he already missed Raziel.  But, once he was freshly cleaned and clothed, the offensively odored outfit in the laundry with a now present and inanely giggling vixen slave, he collected the herbs for brewing and went to practice his craft.  
	First, he got the potion for Morticia going, measuring out precisely the right amounts to create a single dose, powdered the herbs, and stewed it over the little fire pit that was a feature of this table.  While that went, he began making other concoctions, stirring and infusing them, creating the bases for the other potions he was making.  
	While he worked, various slaves came and went, asking idly about what he was making.  Gabriel remained largely focused and tight lipped about his process, only answering a handful of questions.  Luckily, none of the Nordenclatz's bothered him while he was working, and when the first of the potions was finished, he poured it into a glass phial, and dropped it into his pocket to give to Morticia.  The various other mixtures and bases needed time to set, stew, mature, or infuse, so he left them, returning to his room.
	Laying, looking at the ceiling, and waiting for the potions, he wondered at the interference his pals were dealing with, and what had caused the recent crackdown.  Not that he was ever likely to find out, only to suffer the consequences once he won free of his current self-made predicament.  
	Hand in his pocket, Gabriel fondled the little glass phial, and his thoughts shifted, wondering if he should make more, or maybe even teach the girls how to make it.  Hell, maybe telling the Nordenclatz's patriarch might be worthwhile too.  Now that he knew there was a need for it, and there was a cheap, effective, alternative solution to whatever Lady Hera was doing, it might even be the moral imperative.
	A knock came at his door, and, looking over, invited the guest in.  It was fairly unsurprising to him that Morticia swept in, a look of worry plastered to her face, wringing the hem of her shirt.  He sat up, and motioned her in, and she hurriedly came, shutting the door behind.
	“Do you have it?  Is it finished?  Please tell me it's done and works quick!”
	“Woah, slow down, Morticia.  Yeah, it's done, I have it right here,” Gabriel withdrew the phial, “and yes, it works overnight in most cases.  Might take a little longer if the pregnancy is far along.  I don't think you have anything to worry about; I've recovered from more advanced unwanted pregnancies than that in the same amount of time.”
	Morticia ran up to him and hugged him, taking the phial.  “Just a warning, Morticia, before you drink that down here and now.  It will make you very tired, but if you try, it's possible to stay awake through it.  Second, towards the end, you'll get some cramping.  Nothing sever, but it will be very unpleasant, and can last a few hours.”
	“That doesn't matter right now.  Lady Hera saw my belly, and I think she realized what it meant.  I need this gone now.”  Popping the cork, she took the potion, less than a single gulp, and pressed the phial back into his hands, with a newfound look of disgust.
	“Oh, gods, that tasted foul.”
	“Never said it would taste good, did I?  Most potions taste fairly unpleasant, truth be told.  At least that isn't the worst tasting one I know of.”
	“Good heavens, I hope I never have need of anything else you brew then.”
	“Well, not letting Artemis into your panties again will go along way towards seeing that you don't.”
	“You bitch.”
	“I can be.  But all joking aside, what does he do that gets smart girls like you, knowing what will happen if you get pregnant, to sleep with him?”
	Sighing, Morticia stepped over to the little writing desk and pulled out the chair, shuffled her dress out of the way, and flopped down into it in a most unladylike way, and studied Gabriel like he was a fascinating ware in the market.  “A variety of things, really.  One, he is really quite handsome.”
	Gabriel tittered effeminately.  “You're right about that.  I've certainly been interested in getting my turn on him.”
	“Really?”
	“Why not?  As you say, he is handsome.  So why else?”
	“He's witty, and smart.  Knows how to play a girls sensibilities.”
	“He's manipulative then.  I know the type.”
	“Yes, he is.  And yet, he always knows exactly what to say to get what he wants, time after time.”  Morticia looked wistfully into space, as if imagining being taken again by the dashing young man.
	“That's some uncommon charisma too.”
	Morticia's response was cut off by knocking on the door, and she turned, the worry from when she entered back, like a rigid mask, and she sucked in her gut.  
	Lowering his voice to a whisper, Gabriel asked, “Is it okay if I invite them in?”
	“What if it's Lady Hera?”  Morticia whispered back.
	“I don't think it is.  I'm expecting Tyche, so It's probably him.  Besides, you should get going.  Don't want anyone missing you from your duties.  We're treated exceedingly well, but we are still slaves.”  She nodded, stood, and opened the door.  With her in the way, Gabriel couldn't confirm who it was right away, but the light, male voice was easily identified.
	“Morticia?  What are you doing here?  Gabriel?”
	“I was just chatting with,” she paused and looked over her shoulder at the rat boy, smiled, and returned her attention to Tyche, “my friend.”  Gabriel waited patiently, as Morticia excused herself, squeezing uncomfortably by him, and he entered into the room, closing the door behind him.
	“Why was she in here?”
	“As she said, chatting with a friend.  You can't really work side by side and not befriend the other captives.”  Tyche winced at the word.  “I take it you've made a decision?”
	“Yeah, I have.  And I'll do it.  For Aires.”
	Gabriel chuckled at the hasty way 'for Aires' left his lips.  “Did you mean you wanted to do it now?”  He gulped, nodded.
	“Y-yeah.  Thinking about it while you were away...  It kind of made me horny, honestly, and I do want to do this so that Aires can be happy with his situation.”  Gabriel patted the bed next to himself, trying to soothe the antsy Tyche.  “It's great that you're trying to do what you have to in a way that won't hurt him.”
	“Thanks, Tyche.  That means a lot.”  He took a seat next to him, and Gabriel turned to face him.  “No sense in wasting time, is there?  Lets get to it.”
	Hesitantly, Tyche lifted his shirt, and next him, Gabriel mirrored him.  Honestly, he thought, he wasn't as into it as he might ordinarily be.  Having had sex with Raziel only a few hours ago, he was still reasonably satisfied.  Nevertheless, he hooked his thumbs into his trousers and undergarments and slid them down, kicking them off his feet, and exposing his freshly cleaned snatch to the still mostly clothed boy next to him.
	“Do you want help?”  Gabriel asked, and put his hand comfortingly on his shoulder.  Tyche drew away from him at first, uncertain, making the hand drop down his chest, and onto his lap.  He couldn't help getting excited at the growing erection concealed in those pants regardless, and knew it couldn't be very comfortable to have something that big so trapped, but he held himself in check.
	Demurely, Tyche nodded, and leaned back, giving Gabriel all the access he needed, and he went to work.  It amused him that he was being invited to do all the work as usual with the rich folk, but he frankly didn't mind.  He loved dick, and either way, it gave him what he wanted.
	It spring from the displaced pants, narrowly missing Gabriel's muzzle, it was so big.  A foot long, and big enough around that his fingers only just barely met gripping Tyche around his medial ring.  
	“Damn,” he whispered under his breath, admiring it, as he worked it with his nimble fingers.
	“What?”  Tyche asked, pleasure at war with his self-consciousness at being handled like this.  “I-Is there s-something wrong with it?”
	“What?  No, it's just so big.  I've had horses before, they're big, yes, but you're family has dick in spades.  Now, lay back.  We need to make this reasonably quick.  I would really rather not be caught in such a compromising position, if I can.”
	Tyche obeyed, scooting backwards onto the bed and laying down.  Gabriel, mesmerized by the stiff member before him, followed, and positioned himself over Tyche, grinding his moistening twat over that amazing rod.  It looked so big, he wasn't certain that he'd get it in on the first try.  But he was going to try anyway.  Grinding his flower all over his penis, he got it as lubed with his juices as he could.
	“Are you ready?”  Tyche looked at Gabriel, then away, and nodded.
	Gabriel climbed forward, then backed up, feeling the hot length of teenage horse cock slide up against his tail-hole, then reached back and angled the broad head to his pussy.  It was flared, and that wasn't going to help much.  Gently, he squeezed it, then pushed it in at an angle.  His eyes rolled as the massive head squished loudly against his wet hole, and Tyche moaned as it finally popped in after a near minute of pushing and grinding.  He was quite grateful that he hadn't bucked during that, or it might have hurt quite a bit.
	They quivered, Gabriel excited, both breathing hard already.  Steadily, he pushed backwards, taking more of it into himself.  It was amazing the way it spread him, his flesh giving way to the monster cock in a way that it didn't for Raziel's.  An orgasmic ripple ran through his tunnel, and they both moaned.  Over the course of a couple of minutes, he worked his way down until the tip bumped his cervix.  He didn't feel the medial ring, and he frowned; he had really hoped that he'd reach the half way point.
	“Oh my gods, you're so big!”  Tyche responded with a peculiar whinny, penis twitching hard enough to feel.  Gabriel waited for the rolling spasms of his pussy to subside, and once he though he could without instantly cumming on the massive cock, pulled what he judged to be about halfway off, then slid with difficulty back until the tip kissed his cervix again.  Again, he whinnied in a most unusual fashion.
	“Are you okay?”  Tyche gulped, then nodded.  Satisfied, Gabriel pulled partway off again, and slammed back a little harder this time.  Instead of feeling the tip press into that tight ring of muscle deep inside, there was a sudden burst of heat, a sensation of wetness, and trickling, followed by a much louder, more prolonged whinny.
	Gabriel grunted in irritation.  Barely gotten started and Tyche was already cumming.  It felt great, to be sure, but there was no orgasm to be had in the sensation alone of hot sperm gushing, even at that high volume and pressure, into the deepest parts his body.  He remained still while Tyche finished, clenching and releasing, trying to bring him the best climax he could even without the benefit of getting one of his own.
	Even before he climbed off him, Gabriel could feel Tyche's seed trickling out of himself, and after the softening dick popped free of his tunnel, it became a flood, splattering over his bared parts.
	“I take it you enjoyed yourself then.”  There was no response, just heavy breathing heard over the splattering of semen in a puddle on already slicked linens.  Sleeping, he saw.  It figured.  
 	He didn't really begrudge him, truth be told.  Gabriel was almost entirely certain that his was the first pussy he'd had, and he was good at what he did, if he said so himself.  Nevertheless, he was distinctly unhappy with the state of matters.  
	Dripping more seed all over the stone floor and carpets of his room, Gabriel waddled to his trousers for the other phial he'd had on him.  Moderately sized, it had a thick cork.  He held it to his labia, and spread his vaginal lips apart to let the seed spill into it.  It got all over his hands and more spilled onto the carpet, and he hoped that it would dry before anyone saw.  Explaining that was not something he really wished to do, even with an easy excuse that wouldn't be questioned.  
	Gabriel cleaned between his legs with a rag found in the dresser, and it became soaked in semen long before he felt adequately cleaned.  But, there was nothing for it, it was the only one to be found, and he was wearing his only other shirt.  At least, he noted, when he stood, no more spilled down his inner thighs.  He dressed carefully, looked over his shoulder at the sleeping Tyche, and decided that no one would wander into his room while he was away.  Out of it he slipped, soaked rag in hand, and brought it to the laundry for cleaning, and to a disproving vixen.

	Later that evening, when Aires came to him for bed, Gabriel sent him to it alone.  “Not just yet for me, I have a thing I must see to, and I will be up late.  You go to sleep, and I will join you when I am able.”
	Aires nodded, rubbing his eyes sleepily, and departed.  He was such a good boy, he thought, and was grateful he'd have a chance to do something nice for him.  
	It was late, and others were still about, but the manor had the unmistakable feel of a home winding down for the night; a slowing of its heartbeat, the lifeblood that pumped through its halls retreating to inner chambers, and to bed.
	Quietly, on the pretext of just checking on his potions, he stole to the upper levels, phial of semen in hand, and set about quickly getting the brew on the burner.  Over the hours of the day, two solutions of many herbs had been left to cure, and now he heated them gently in alembics, the juices traveling up into thin glass tubes and dripping little by little into a larger one.  One a bright, translucent red, and the other a rather unpleasant, mottled brown.  The fluid, drip by drop, the heated liquids went, excruciatingly slow, and Gabriel waited, watching, until he heard hooves in the family wing, just the other side of the library door.  With a quickness he wished the alembics had, he fled through the door into the second floor hall, and to the laundry room for his clothes.  
	Bundle in hand, he returned to the door of the library, and placed an ear to it.  The sound of hooves clopping along the stone on the lower level drifted to him through the wood.  Who was up at this hour, and why?  It seemed purposeful, strident, moving among the shelves of books; but not hesitant, no pause; it was as if they were searching, but not for anything that might be found on the selves.  It drew closer, and Gabriel tiptoed off to his room, and deposited his bundle.  
	On the bed, Gabriel debated going back out to the library.  The gender change potion was a sensitive one, and if he didn't get to it with Tyche's sperm fast enough, then he'd have to start over.  In the moonlight through the window, he held the phial in front of him, turning it over, a small air bubble churning through the semen, light reflected from the crystalline container.  No, he'd do it now.  He got up, crossed to the door, and returned to the library.
	The whole round trip with his contemplation on the bed had not been long, but whichever of the Nordencltaz's had been wandering had found what they were looking for and departed.  Nevertheless, one develops a certain caution after spending years on and off the street, and spending most of ones time around those who made their living on them.  He knelt and listened for a long while, before the confidence to turn the knob rose up.
	It was dark, just the way he'd left it; no candles or lanterns, just the light flame in the iron crucible of the alchemical table, the shutter open to see by.  He crouched, and sneaked on all fours from desk to chair to shelf, checking and listening at each.  But there was nothing still, and gradually he relaxed.  Perhaps, Gabriel thought, it was just Daedalus or Artemis coming for a book to read.  It didn't jive quite right in his mind, but he shrugged it off.  He was very alone in the room, and whatever it was they had been doing, it was none of his business, so long as it didn't interrupt his own.
	Stealing over to the table at last, walking almost fully upright by the time he reached it, phial in hand, he looked at the potion base.  The color lightening, and that wasn't good, but he was not too late.  The cork came out, and the contents was decanted quickly.  The brackish fluid lightened into the russet color of Tyche's fur.  It was rather quite a nice shade.  
	Shifting the various bottles and containers aside, Gabriel set it over the crucible to heat, closing the shutter to make it hotter.  It would need to be kept to temperature for three days before it was ready, and boy was he glad that the table had a second one to work with.  Stealing out to the banister that ran around the upper floor of the library, he looked out over the lower.  All was quiet, all was dark.  And now, he thought, he could go off to Aires' bed, where he knew he was expected.
	Just to be certain, he placed his ear to the door, and listened.  He thought he heard a faint sound, but it didn't come a second time.  He was imagining things, he was certain.  Just a mouse.  He opened the door into the dark upper floor of the family wing.  Everything was still, everything was quiet.
	But then Gabriel heard that sound again.  A deep sigh, a pleasured one.  It was soft as a spring breeze through silk curtains, but he was familiar enough with such sounds to know it for what it was no matter how faint it was.  It came from down the hall.  It couldn't have been from Aires room.  Maybe Daedulus's?  But no, he rejected that.  Tyche's maybe?  He stalked forward, head cocked, listening intently.  There it was gain.  It couldn't be Tyche's or Aires's room.  Wrong side.  
	He drew level with the stairs, and he could here much better now.  Still, they were quiet.  Another moan...  Pernicia's room?  
	It wasn't his business what went on in there.  Nor did he much care for the girl, she had not enamored herself of him.  But his curiosity warred within him anyway.  Who was she having sex with?  Surely not Aires; he wouldn't be caught dead with her, no matter how hard she tried.  Tyche seemed unlikely too.  Unless the taste of his pussy had been enough, and with his sisters seeming interest in family, tempted her to consent?  He discounted Artemis too.  He clearly got around with the servants.  Why would he fuck his little sister too?  But then that left Tyche as most likely, and that didn't seem likely at all. In spite of his his misgivings, he couldn't resist.  
	Nervous, and sinking back to all fours, Gabriel crept to the door.  It was closed, but the crack at the bottom made hearing them easy for the satellite dishes that were his ears.  It was mostly silence.  Just the occasional creak of the mattress, the rustling of silk sheets under activity, masculine huffs, sighs, and the rare, light whimper, muffled, oh so quiet he almost missed them.  
	Between his legs, Gabriel's vaginal lips throbbed.  The congress on the other side sounded like it was getting intense, and he really wanted to see.  He looked at the knob and wondered if he could get away with opening it just a crack.  It was beyond risky, stupid in the extreme, for sure.  But as his fingers touched his moistening flesh, finger wiggling deep into his cleft, it occurred to him that the ornate lock was quite old fashioned.  It was large, wide, and used one of those fancy cast iron keys.  Trousers slipping down his waist to admit more of his hand to cover his pussy, he put an eye to it.
	Adjusted to the dark, the sole candle in the window on the far side of the room from the door occupied the bulk of what he could see, and it was unpleasantly bright.  However, he could see the motion straight away just to the left and below.  He couldn't get a good visual through the tiny hole, but it was clear what he was seeing.
	Bedposts with rope held Pernicia's hooves apart, while the hulking form of Daedalus thrust heavily between them, bulging glutes flexing.  He could not see his face, nor Pernicia's for that matter, but Daedalus was the largest male in the house, and this was her room.  The feeling in his pussy soured.  Was that rape he was witnessing, or were father and daughter just a kinky couple?  Was she sour all the time because it was her only outlet, or was she just prissy, and greedy for cock?  Those occasional whinnies were too muffled to tell.  
	Gabriel slipped his hands from his trousers.  That solved the mystery of why the missus wasn't getting any, at least.  Daedalus had found a sweeter pot of honey to put his dipstick.  He rose to his paws, and pattered to the opposite side, to Aires room, and turned the knob to let himself in, choosing to believe that he was not forcing himself on his daughter.
	The door swung wide, and immediately he saw the motion of two bodies twined together.  In the light of the stars, frozen, both stared at him in the door, Tyche crouched over Aires.  The sheets had slipped from the bed, and lay in a liquid pool on the floor at the foot of it, and the mattress sagged with the weight of them.  
	Aires lay on his back, hands gripping Tyche's shoulders, back arched, cock rigid and pressed against his stomach, hips tilted upward.  Penis, back, and hips sank lower as he watched.  His brother knelt between his legs, cock hidden between them, more of his shaft revealed as his lovers' hips drooped lower.
	Awkwardly, Gabriel cleared his throat, aware he already had their undivided attention.  “Uhm...  Maybe I should spend the night in my own room?”  He trailed off uncertainly, but the boys seemed to relax somewhat.  Tyche pulled himself free, and Aires whinnied sorrowfully as the flared head popped free.  His hole was wet and shiny.
	“I-I was just finished...”  Tyche began.
	“But, but, but you didn't cum in me!”  Aires whined.
	“Hush now,”  Gabriel said, moving forward, and into a chair.  “No need to run.  I can leave if you want, I don't mind.  Not with knowing how much you two love each other.  I do have another bed in which I can sleep.  But, I don't mind spectating or getting involved.  Threesomes can be fun.  Or, if not so adventurous, you and I could use this to educate Aires on sex between boys and girls...”
	“Eww...”  Aires whispered.  
	“I'm not comfortable with you joining or watching.”
	“I don't mind if you watch.”
	“Do you plan on staying here tonight, Tyche?”
	“I can't.  You know that.  If mother came in the morning...”
	“If you send me away, I might get in trouble for being away from this bed to long, but I'll go if you send me away.”
	“Aires?”
	“Let him watch.  It makes my peepee tingly knowing he's there...”
	Tyche looked at him indecisive,  then away, to Aires' face.  
	“It's not like I haven't seen it all before.”  Gabriel offered helpfully.
	He harrumphed, grabbed his cock and stroked it, getting back to full hardness, and laid it next to Aires' somewhat shorter and thinner one.  He huffed, small hands dropping away from his brothers shoulder to grab and massage the head of his penis, already forgetting Gabriel's presence.
	Leaning back and taking in the sight of the brothers, Gabriel slid his hand back down the front of his pants.  It was still damp, and he recalled what he saw through the key hole.  The rising heat in his loins died down again, and furiously he pushed it out of his mind.
	Tyche and Aires ground their penises together, their rods sliding and spreading lubricating oils across their bellies.  Already, they were deep into it, the younger sparing an occasional look over at him, great big smile on his face, barely visible in the starlit gloom of the room.  Were it not for the reflective quality of the oil, he might not have been able to see that long, glistening shaft as it drew downward, over a pert pair of balls, and push back at the wet circle of muscle that was Aires' anus.
	That shaft looked as ridiculous pressed against that tight hole as it did earlier in the day against his pussy, and he was taken with disbelief that it could fit.  Certainly it shouldn't, not with that flair.  And yet, as he pushed, Aires threw an arm over his muzzle and moaned, and the size of the flair diminished as Tyche pushed, blood forced out until it slipped in with a squelch.
	Slowly, it sank in, oils reflecting the light telling him just how far it went.  Unbelievably, Aires took him to the medial ring, and continued to sink a little further, but slowing now.  The onther hand came over his belly and rubbed.  Gabriel couldn't see the bulge, but it was there, and he knew that Aires was feeling it.
	“I-I feel so full...”  Tyche merely grunted, and held his position, unmoving.  Gabriel sank two fingers into his tunnel, and imagined that it was himself there instead, that monster cock fitting into him again.   
	A muffled groan, accompanied by the sounds of a wet cock gripped by a tight anus, quiet and slow, split the silence of the room.  Gabriel watched as Aires opened his mouth and stuck his hand in and bit, trying harder to suppress his ecstasy, while Tyche remained mute but for the sounds of his rod spreading his brother open as he pushed back in.  He wanted so bad to get in the action.  So much so, he could almost taste his pupils prick.  Sticking a third finger into his folds, which twitched already with the excitement of watching two loving brothers make sweet love together, he leaned forward.
	The chair creaked, and Tyche flinched.  Perhaps he was so deep in concentration that he had actually forgot that he was there.  Gabriel shrank back into his chair.
	“Why'd you stop?”  Aires asked.
	“Was startled...”  Tyche held still for a moment more, then buried himself in his brother again, sinking just past the medial ring.  Gabriel leaned forward, more slowly this time, afraid of unnerving him again, and began to thrust more enthusiastically into his cunny as he took up a strong, steady pace.  
	Aires put his hand back in his muzzle, and lifted his legs to grip his brothers hips, and tilted his head back.  The silhouette of his penis flexed, twitched and bounced around whenever Tyche switched from thrusting in, to pulling out, and each reversal was accompanied by a short, sharp, and not always fully muffled exhalation.  
	The pace of their love making sped up quickly, and even through the speed of the jackhammer pace, and the dark, buns flexing and tail lashing whip-like through the air, he could feel the care Tyche used.  Even as the boys climaxed, long, thin ropes of fluid shooting across Aires muzzle, he kept thrusting, never was there a whine of discomfort from him.  
	Gabriel quickened the pace of his fingers, and rubbed his clit with the other.  Aires was already spent, and Tyche sounded very close.  But he was too slow.  A soft whinny that sounded deafening in the quiet night announced his orgasm.  Mesmerized, he watched the third of his shaft silhouette pulsed strongly, delivering heavy ropes of semen into his young brother.  He was on the edge, so close to getting off, he could feel his vaginal lips quivering with the rising tide.  
	“Uhuhnnuh!”  
	“Shhhhh!  Aires, quiet!”
	“I'm sorry!”  
	The sudden noise startled and worried Gabriel, every nerve going on full alert, his impending orgasm dying.  Frustrated, and gritting his teeth, he pulled his fingers from his sopping tunnel.  He forgave and envied Aires, however, as he realized that having that monster flare pulled from his still spasming sphincter had caused an unexpected second, minor orgasm.  Tyche fell to his side, penis flopping stiffly over his brother and spattering him with drops of seed.
	“That was quite a show,” Gabriel said.  “But I wouldn't mind going to bed now.”
	There was a sharp crick and intake of breath as Tyche's head snapped around to look at him again.  
	“Gah!  Stop scaring me!”
	“It's not my fault you get so tunnel visioned while fucking.  Now keep your voice down, or we'll get in trouble!”
	The door opened, and the light of a candle appeared through the crack.  The brightness blinded all three of the boys, and when Gabriel could see again, Daedalus was standing in the doorway, scrutinizing them with a look of resignation, irritation, and sadness.
	“What is going on in here?”  He asked, keeping his voice low.  Gabriel could hear the slight wheeze of being out of breath. 
	“Uhhhh...”  
	“Why are you in Aries bed, Tyche?  Your mother expressly forbade this.”  
	“But... but Dad!”
	“No!  No buts!  Get to your room, before your mother wakes up!”  Daedalus pointed out the door, and Tyche hung his head.
	“Daddy!  No!  Don't make Tyche go!”
	“I'll deal with you in a minute, Aires.  Tyche, I told you to go!”  Daedalus stepped into the room and strode past Gabriel to the bed, and grabbed his wrist, half pulling, half dragging him out.
	“No!  I don't want to!”  
	“Shush!  I'll have no more argument from you!”
	“What's going on here?”
	All movement in the room stopped, Lady Hera entering the room, a white silk nightdress swishing about her hooves and tied hastily at her waist.  She stared at each in turn, coming to rest on her two fornicating sons.  Her face lit with fury and disgust.
	They stood, sat, or lay where they were, like statues, as Lady Hera moved forward into the room.  Gabriel could hardly breath.  This wasn't right, he thought.  He had to be missing something.
	“P-Pernicia...”  Gabriel muttered.
	Lady Hera stopped in her tracks, and both she and Daedalus looked at him.  Daedalus's eyes bulged.  
	“Excuse me?”  Gabriel shrank back into his chair.
	“N-nothing, Lady Hera.”
	She dismissed him, but Daedalus continued to watch Gabriel, and Lady Hera crossed the room unhindered to Tyche and Aires.  She slapped both of the boys, then grabbed Tyche by the ear, and finished yanking him from the bed.
	Pointedly, Gabriel looked at Daedalus, whose eyes were still on him, and looked over at what was going on at the foot of Aires bed, where Lady Hera was now screaming at the to crying boys.  There was nothing he could do to stop her from tearing into them, but the father could intercede.  And though it made him feel queasy, he motioned at them and mouthed “I know about you and Pernicia.'
	Looks of anger, shame, horror, then resignation passed across his brow, and his shoulders slumped.  Gabriel motioned again at the screaming woman, and the crying boys.  Daedalus got the message.
	“Honey...” 
	“Honey!”
	“What?!”  Lady Hera screamed, turning around, eyes aflame, furious at the interruption.  Gabriel slid out of his chair to let Daedalus deal with his wife and console Tyche and Aires.  
	“Leave them be.  You've yelled at them enough.  I'll dispense punishment in the morning.  Lets go back to bed before we wake the whole house.”
	“This can't be allowed to stand, Daedalus!  They need to be dealt with, and now!  It is an affront to God!  Family sleeping with family, out of wed lock, and male laying with another male!”  Hera spat.
	“Honey, it's late, and they have lessons in the morning, and I have meetings all day.  I can't do it now.  Let the boys, and I, sleep.”
	Next to him, Aires continued to cry heavily, but Tyche pulled himself together.  Gabriel hugged them both, and whispered to Tyche that he should run for his room while his mother was occupied.  He nodded, and began to edge towards the door.  Pulling himself up onto the bed, he held Aires and let him cry on his shoulder while the arguing continued in hushed tones.
	“I won't have two boys having sex under my roof, nor will I tolerate incest!”  
	“I know!  You've told me this many times, and I agree that it's not okay under this roof!”
	“Then why are you not doing anything about it?!”
	“I was, before you barged in.  And now they have been properly scolded!”
	“That's not enough!  They've been caught several times, Daedalus, and I'm tired of it!  No more!”
	“Hera!  Enough!”  He said, stamping his hoof.  “I will deal with them.  In the morning!”
	Lady Hera looked at her husband with venom, then about the room.  She noticed Tyche's disappearance, and Gabriel comforting Aires.  She sneered at him, then departed.  Daedalus tried to touch her shoulder, but she ducked away, and out the door.  
	Like a titan, Daedalus turned to Gabriel and looked at him hard, eyes boring into him, evaluating, like he had never properly seen him until now.  After a tense moment, Aires gradually diminishing sobs the only sound, he moved towards him.
	“We will need to have a talk in the morning.”  Gabriel nodded and, in spite of his hushed tones, swallowed.  

	Bright the next morning, Gabriel awoke, light streaming in through the open window opposite side of Aires.  He had fallen asleep in his arms, still crying, and now the sun sparkled off traces of salt crystallized in the dry, matted channels his tears had cut like winding rivers down the side of his muzzle.  
	With a soft touch, Gabriel shook him awake, and saw him brushed, dressed, and down to the dining room.  He felt uncomfortable going in, however, as did he himself.  But while there was no avoiding it for Aires, he was able to eat with the servants.  
	“You'll be okay, Aires.  I'm going to talk with your father after breakfast.  Maybe we can sort something out.  Go in, eat your breakfast, keep your head down, and only give short, factual answers to any questions, should they come up.  You understand?”  
	Aries nodded, and pranced around, reluctant still to enter.
	Gabriel gave him an encouraging hug.  “I'm going to eat with the other servants this morning.  I've a feeling my presence at the table will bode poorly for you and Tyche, no matter how I try to defend the two of you.  Or, perhaps, because of that very reason.  Now go.  I'll come to you after lessons.”  He smiled weakly, and pushed through the door.  
	It had not yet latched behind him when Tyche hustled into the hallway from the family wing, clothes disheveled, and looking grimly and apprehensive.  He pulled up short when he noticed Gabriel.
	Approaching him, Gabriel smoothed out Tyche's clothes, and re-buttoned his shirt, and gave him a bolstering hug too.  He nodded thankfully, and started past him.
	“Tyche...”
	“Yeah?”  He turned to face him, a hand on the door.
	“Keep your head down and only speak the truth.  I'll be speaking with your father after breakfast.  If you lie to him, you will make my job of keeping you two from getting punished harder, and the truth will be my ally in this.  If you distort it, you weaken that ally.  Answer for Aires if stops being truthful.  I don't think your father is as against you two as he has led others to believe.”
	Tyche looked at him quizzically.  “What makes you say that?”
	“Don't worry about why right now.  Just don't lie.”  Tyche nodded.
	Turning on his heel, Gabriel went up to the library to check on his potions.  The potion of gender-swap was coming along nicely, having turned white in the night as it should.  He took it off the crucible, added a pinch of this and that, stirred, and set it back down to stew.  If all went well, it would be ready the day after tomorrow.  
	He turned his attention then to the other ingredients he had, began brewing up another, larger batch of the abortive potion.  He had a feeling that letting Daedalus in on the secret and, if things with him and Pernicia was legit, something worth putting into his hand, and not just the slave girls.  Afterwards, he worked at a number of easy to make, one use oddities to please and awe.  He started with a fur coloring one, then moved to a special perfume that smelled different to everyone who smelled it.  He'd need rose petals for it though, which he hadn't collected any of, and went off for a walk in the gardens.
	He stopped off at the servants dining room, where he found Vivanka cleaning up the aftermath of the servants morning meal, having been at his work longer than intended.  She smiled graciously to him, and informed him that Morticia was doing well; her baby bump had shrunk.  Apparently, she had some serious cramping as he had expected, but merely passed it off as having had spoiled milk at the table that morning.  He found that she was to be cleaning the library, and asked her to convey that he would take that duty today, and instead dust the stands of armor and sweep the halls, and beat the rugs instead.  She promised to convey it immediately.
	Gabriel thanked her for the news, and snagged the remains of a pair of biscuits she herself had prepared, buttered them, and departed with a hurried thanks to the inner most courtyard.  He made haste to the rosebush, and plucked one of the many blooms to oblivion, which he stashed into his pocket, with a mind to return at once to his potions.  However, as he turned, he caught sight of Daedalus exiting from the great hall into the courtyard gardens, and look about.  Upon seeing him, he made for him, and he waited patiently for him to get within speaking distance.
	“Good morning, Daedalus, Sir!”
	“A fine morning it is indeed, but Sir?  None of that now.  Come, we should go to my study forthwith.  We have much to talk about, and none will bother us there.  Not even Hera, save if I call for her specifically.”
	“Right.  May I deposit these rose petals to my potions?  It is not far out of the way.”
	“Did you pluck one of my roses?” he asked, brow rosing reprovingly into his hairline.
	“Couldn't be helped.  I didn't think to pick any up at the apothecary yesterday while I was there.”
	“I'm sure it couldn't be.  But no, it can wait.  I'm sure there's nothing you have there that is that time sensitive.”
	He didn't, really, but now that time had come, his courage shriveled, and he wished for the last chance to procrastinate.  But, he set aside his bother, for this was indeed important, and the time waste would only shrink his confidence further.  He had questions, and Gabriel was certain that Daedalus had plenty for him too.
	The trip was short, bypassing the library by way of the door on the dining room side, and into the second floor of the manor.  He knew there to be a door in from the the family wing, but they instead approached from the direction of the dining, where there was another door he'd never had occasion to see.  
	The door, a rich, dark, imported wood, was much the same as elsewhere in the house.  It led into a small, paneled ante-chamber, barely large enough for both of them with Daedalus's hulking frame.  It had a seat and end table, opposite a small bookcase.  It was a waiting room for one.  Gabriel had never noticed furs coming or going, but to be fair, he was usually busy with chores of some kind or attending to Aires.  
	The far door was locked, and he drew that ring of keys he had seen on him that first night, and let them into a larger room.  In spite of it's size however, it still felt cramped with the shelves of books, potted plants and the enormous wooden desk covered in sheaves of paper, books, and scales.  Behind the desk was a great window.  It faced westward, and so was dim.  
	Daedalus busied himself lighting a candelabra, then seated himself behind the desk.  
	“Take a seat, Gabriel.  Make yourself comfortable.” he said, pointing to a plush chair near to where Gabriel stood.  
	Gabriel felt like standing, but obediently took a seat, and scooted it a little closer to the desk.  The seat was low, and he had yet to hit his last growth spurt before puberty finished laying waste to his body, so was dwarfed by the horse sitting opposite him.
	For a moment that stretched time until it screamed and made Gabriel's heart thump, Daedalus stared at him, like he was reading his soul.  It was highly uncomfortable, and try as he might, he felt compelled to fidget.  Conversely, he sat like a statue, hands clasped together over the center of the desk, eyes unblinking.  But at last, he sighed, and turned in his chair to one of the drawers and pulled from it a pair of glasses, and a bottle.
	“Would you like a drink?  I know I could use one.”
	“Umm...  What is it?  I've only ever had had wine.  I'm not well versed in other forms of liquer.”
	“This is whiskey.  Potent stuff, burns a lot on the way down.  Not as sweet as a wine, but it's not meant to be.  It would probably be better put to being a disinfectant, honestly.  At least it tastes good.”
	“Just a little then.”  He nodded, filled one of the two small glasses to the top, and just a quarter of the way up on the second, and passed the latter over to him.  Daedalus swirled his around as much as the brimming glass allowed, then knocked back the whole thing in one long gulp.  He slammed the glass down on the desk, sending a few drops to splatter papers.
	Looking at his own little bit, he took it in one gulp, barely registering the foul liquid.  He swallowed, and it burned the whole way down, making him gag.  Eyes watering, he looked up at Daedalus, unsure of how he could make it look like nothing.  He wiped his eyes, and the matriarch poured another glass.
	“It's strong stuff, but it's good.”  Gabriel could only cough, and wipe his eyes.
	“So, how much do you know?”  
	“Know?  About what?”
	“Don't play, Gabriel.  No servant lives here long without them learning something of the rot that grips this family.”
	The abrupt change discomfited him.  He swallowed, an echo of the burn in his throat still haunting him.  “I-I saw through the keyhole into Pernicia's room last night.  I didn't see your face, but I know it was you.  Why was she tied up?”  
	“Yes, it was I.  Pernicia and I have been having sex for over a year now.  And she likes being tied up, you see.  If there was any one thing I learned about sex from Hera, it's that if you don't keep it fresh, keep exploring new things...  It breaks down, gets boring.  And that can be fatal to a relationship.”
	“You don't have to tell me that.  I teach it to your youngest, remember?”
	Daedalus gave him a sour look.  “And a fine job you seem to be doing.  Last night, it seemed that Tyche was doing the teaching.  Didn't we tell you that he was to be married, and kept from Tyche?”
	“Yes, and he doesn't want to be.  Sir, begging your pardon, but Aires is gay.  Hera's opinion not withstanding, no amount of me doing what I was paid for is going to make him not be.  Trying is only going to result in what I fear you were doing to Pernicia last night.”
	“Insolent brat!  I'm not a rapist!”
	“I don't know that.”  Gabriel's heart raced at the flat, indirect accusation.
	“No, I suppose you don't.  But short of me calling Pernicia in here, or you asking her yourself, there really isn't a way I could prove it right now.  And I need not prove anything to you.  You are my slave, and do what you're told...  But perhaps I'm being ungenerous.  You may, and should ask her yourself, if it will keep you silent.  But be discrete.  Lady Hera, as I'm sure you've figured out, has no idea that I have abandoned her for our daughter, and I'd rather it stay that way.  And between you and I, we are the only two who know.  There will be more problems for the both of us than either would like if you don't keep quiet.”
	“I don't care much for being threatened, Daedalus, Sir.”
	“I suppose you wouldn't.  You're a spirited boy.  I wonder if you're even a slave...”
	“We all have our secrets to keep.  But while we're airing the dirty laundry, and you won't satisfy my curiosity on the subject at hand, why not answer a few questions of my own?  Surely, there is nothing more damaging or fearsome of me to know than what I already do.”
	“My instinct is to say no.  You're but a slave, Gabriel.  Well treated, but still below me.  But I suppose I'll do you that favor, where from the generosity comes I do not know.”  Gabriel nodded, and leaned forward in his chair thoughtfully.
	“What happens to the girls that Artemis gets pregnant?”  Daedalus winced.
	“Hera is not a gentle soul.  Her history...  It is most unfortunate.  When I found her and took her under my wing, I thought I loved her, and my caring for her was part of that.  But it turned out I just needed someone to care for.”
	“That doesn't answer the-”
	“No, you're right, it doesn't.  No, I say that to give you an idea that she is not right in the head, and though I care for her still, she is not the fur I thought she was, and she does terrible things.  Her opinions are extreme, and the measures she takes are often just as bad.  Did you know she was a slave once upon a time?  No, of course not.  How could you?
	“Anyhow, she was born in captivity to a twisted master who delighted in making her watch her unwilling mother have sex with her other daughters, and father with his sons.  Her parents were themselves related.  It's why she hates the idea of homosexuality and incest so much.  She was forced to witness and participate in ways that were always negative.  I think her views are rather understandable, if no less right in this light.”  He poured himself a drink, knocked it back, quick as the first.
	“Sex is something she struggles with much of the time.  Her appetite is voracious, but she fears it, and anything out of the ordinary can cause some pretty sever PTSD.  Her opinions were already long formed, and nothing really worked to change her feelings on them.  Hera really does think that such things as that are terrible, no matter how it happens.
	“But, that was hardly the only horrors she went through before I found and rescued her, and often, when she has a mind to punish, she will often turn to such measures as she's seen.”
	Gabriel shivered.  He could only imagine the things to which Daedalus alluded to, and didn't really want to know.  He contemplated interrupting him, telling him he got the picture, but it seemed to him that the poor man had been holding this near to his heart with no one to share for a long time.  And though he himself was not the best fur to turn to, he was the unfortunate soul that had uncovered just the right thing to make it all come out.  
	It also made him uneasy.  The fluid ease with which he related this to him made him think he may have done this in the past.  Gabriel hoped that he hadn't found himself hurled headlong into more than he could handle.  Daedalus sighed.
	“Well, the fact of the question you asked...  The first time it happened, she killed the mother and beat Artemis.  Because yes, it was he who did it.”  The words fell like stones into Gabriel's ears and made him shiver.  What madness had his foolish plans landed him?  Where was this easy two weeks of work for a huge payoff?  The gold he got from the sale didn't feel like it was worth it.  Not with the fear he might be in real danger.
	“What does she do now?”
	“She cuts out their tongues, and pushes them on brothel a couple of towns over.”
	Gabriel was left speechless.  But, he had a solution to hand, and now he knew that regardless of anything, his higher priority had to be protecting the slave girls.  But it left him with other questions.  “What of Artemis?  Why does he keep doing this?  Does he not know?”
	“I think he's in denial, or at least trusts Hera's word over my own.  I told him, he asked her, she denied it, and he believed it, even with his black eye, left by her hand, still kept it swelled shut.  As for since then, I assume that he believes that she just sells them off because she doesn't want to care for a slave that can't work, or the cub that will result.  At any rate, there is little I seem to be able to do.  Money to pay a kings ransom, but can't find an ounce of reason in this house. 
	“It's not my place to tell you what you can and can't do, Daedalus, but divorce is surely an option.  But more, even if it's not, I may have a solution to the problem of what Hera does to the pregnant slave girls.”
	“It's not your place, and there are reasons you needn't know as to why I don't.  But if you have a solution to this, I have ears enough to hear you out.”
	“I know how to brew a potion to counteract and prevent pregnancy.  It is not expensive, nor time consuming to make, though any apothecary that caries it will sell it for a fortune, and charge you more to stay silent.  I can teach you, but I have a price if you want it.”
	“You presume to bargain with me?”
	“I do.”
	“You were never a slave, were you?”
	“I was.  Years ago.”
	“The guard confided in me his feelings, and I shrugged them off.  Perhaps I should've listened.  But aside from that, you would ransom the livelihoods of the slave girls for your own gain?”
	“It's not that I want to, but after this, what plans I have had in coming here are for naught.  Artemis, Hera, and yourself are all crazy, if you ask me, and I'll use what bartering chip I have to get free.  It's as good an escape plan as brewing alchemists fire and breaking out through the walls.”
	“Aha!  You can and are planning such things!  My trust was indeed misplaced!”
	“Yes!  Well, no, actually, not on that account.  I had no such intentions, and honestly have spent little time trying to figure out my escape.  What I have and am brewing are in fact, only what I said I would, plus this countermeasure to pregnancy that may have as recently as yesterday, saved the very livelihood of Morticia, who was plainly pregnant, but is no more.  Come, Daedalus, hear me out, if nothing more.”
	“Fine, what have you in mind?  If it is amenable to me, I will give you what you want.  Your freedom, is what I would assume.”
	“Freedom, yes, and Aires's release from a marriage that will be as full of misery as your own.  And a small some of gold.  I plan to save you thousands, and the girls futures.  Surely privacy and the secret to this potion is worth a handful of that change?”
	Daedalus, who had leaned forward and now supported himself on the desk by an elbow lapsed into silence, and leaned back into his seat.  For his part, Gabriel tried to still his racing heart.  He didn't know what to think of the horse before him.  His original impression seemed so far off now, that he was lost, and could not take the measure of him.  Perhaps the crazy had sunk into him in his years with Lady Hera.  
	“You ask no small task.  To give you freedom and money enough to live comfortably for all your days would be simple, but I do not wish to fight my wife.  For all my stature, her words cut deep, and my resolve has been brought low by her before.”
	“You mean to say you are too weak to disband your sickening union then?”  Daedalus turned his head aside, shame spread across his muzzle quite plainly.
	“I have grown dependent of her, and the same of her to me.  She will do harm to others, I believe if she didn't have me.”
	“I rather think she does that regardless, and much of it to you.  What man is so cowed that he would allow what he knows is wrong to flourish as you have?  She has committed great crimes; even in law, slaves have rights; to murder one is still a murder, and to cut from them their tongues is a horror that the lord of the realm would surely balk at.  I've seen little of her and her behavior.  I have no choice but to trust your account of your wife.  If she is such a horror, then to prison and free your family is the right thing to do.”
	“I know not what to do.  I am so torn.  Deep down, I love her still, and I believe that she does me.  Perhaps it is best if I break free.  Certainly, she has kept me and our youngest sons adequately beleaguered to be of offense to me, and I grow weary of keeping her secrets, and my own from her.”  Daedalus trailed off, shaking his head, and poured another drink.  He sloshed the bottle towards Gabriel, and he put forth the glass for another sip of the liqueur.  It had perhaps strengthened him in some small way; he had never imagined that he would be so bold to the family patriarch, and to admit that he was there for nefarious purpose, in a manor of speaking!  It was good though.  Much had come from this, and though he was still worried that the fur was just plain nuts, if what he heard was true, then he was not the only one who needed to escape this manor. 
	“We have grown a long way from where this conversation began, haven't we?”  Gabriel remarked.  “We both have much to think about.  But now I have potions that need attending.”
	“You do not get to dismiss yourself, slave.  You presume to much.  However, I do grow weary, and perhaps I do have things I must do.  I'll see to it that you are protected here, and that you go free at least for your offer.  I must plan to dissolve the marriage pact.  But I don't know what else to do, and I shall not take the counsel of a teen to decide.”  Gabriel took his sip of alcohol, and pushed the glass back at Daedalus.
	“Understood Sir.”
	“Good.  Stay silent on everything.  Dismissed.”
	Gabriel fled to his room to be alone.  He found himself rather too suddenly wrapped up into things he had no idea of, and wanted nothing to do with.  Had he really just bartered for his freedom, and used others furs lives as a chip for it?  Many a night had fear come to him, night patrols and other dangers of the city claiming his fellows when they were not able to live large.  But that was always 'out there', some kind of distinction that separated him from most of the unpleasantness that ruled a true street rats life.  Now it was 'in here' with him, and he hoped that the crazy would pass him over.  
	What would happen now?  Daedalus seemed unreadable to him, but for brief moments of anger and shame.  What now?  Should he wait and see what would happen, or make his own plans?  Could he do anything at this time that would make things better?  And how could he avoid making things worse, not just for himself, but for others?  Had he already made things worse?
	The questions chased themselves round and around in his head as he sat, back to the wall in his room, and the light inched its way towards noon.  The conversation had felt to go on all day, but had been at most an hour.  He had a long time before Aries would be free of his lessons, and no other responsibilities at the moment that he felt interest in trying to accomplish.  He felt it foolish, but he put his trust in Daedalus, and let himself drift into troubled slumber.
	
	When Gabriel awoke from dreams of his friends plight, which he felt bad for not thinking more on beyond the walls of the mansion, and of his worries within the halls of the Nordenclatz's manor, he felt not so refreshed, but at least his worries felt a little more distant.
	The sun had sunk low in the sky, and was no longer visible through his window.  His belly ached with hunger.  Aires was no doubt free of his lessons now, and though he was eager to find him, he set paw to the stone floor in pursuit of his potions first.  
	There, he found to his delight that nothing had spoiled or gone awry in his absence.  He took the pregnancy potion from its alembic and dispensed it into several crystal phials, and found some to be left.  Gabriel would have to rustle some up, but he was not worried.  Any stoppable bottle would work, and he was sure that Morticia or Vivanka would gladly give as many over to him as he asked.  
	More wondrously, it seemed that the potion of gender-swap seemed a little further along than expected.  He had hoped that he would have it ready the day after tomorrow, but it might be that it would be ready by night fall of the next day instead.  He considered, and though he felt not so inclined, that he should like to get laid before the gender-swap.  It would persist for a few days, and though he loved the feeling that came from having a penis and using it, he much preferred his pussy, and would miss it being used.  Not that it had seen nearly as much action as he would like.    He stirred the potion, and set it back to heat.  
	The other potions were ready, and just waiting to be bottled properly, which he had the right bottles for.  Thereafter, he made a trip to the servants quarters to find Morticia.  He found her heading towards the kitchen to prepare for dinner, and when he greeted her, bounded forward and gave him a friendly hug.  Her bodice was much slimmer, and her face, pretty before, now glowed with the lines of stress no longer darkening it.
	“Morticia, I need a small favor.”
	“Come, lets get you fed.”  She said, taking his hand.  “You look pinched and hungry.  I will hear your favor after.”
	“Thank you, I really am quite hungry.  I missed lunch.”
	“Your absence was conspicuous and worrisome after Laurietta saw you following off to Daedalus's study.  And after I shared word of what you did for me, we were a might bit worried.  What happened that brought you from the table and to there?”
	“I cannot speak of it, though I want to.  But worry not, it was a nap that kept me from table, the conference went little time, compared to how it felt.  That horse can talk the ears off a tutle.  But aside from, I have learned things, quite suddenly, and by my cursed curiosity that would have been better that I did not know, only the least of which- no, the greater part of, is what happens to you girls that fall for the honeyed trap that is Artemis.”
	“I-I see.”  Morticia murmured, distressed.  “It is not great, and why I am so grateful to you.  You saved me from a terrible fate, that of a breeding wench, fit to nothing but sex and birthing more slaves.”
	“So it seems I did.”  They went through a door next to the grand dinning, and into a long narrow, but well appointed kitchen into which he had only ever spied through the door from the dining on the first morning.  Morticia pushed Gabriel into a rough wooden chair at the foot of a large cook fire, and placed a serving table before him, and on it laid moments later a half of a cooked chicken dressed with a sweet glaze and whose base was surrounded with a melody of peas, carrots, and skinned red potatoes.  The stew over the fire smelled delicious, and stirred his appetite to a great hight.
	“Thank you,” Gabriel replied, muzzle already filled to brimming with meat, vegetable, and starch.  “I needed this more than I knew.”
	Morticia chuckled, but admonished him for speaking with his mouth full.  And as he ate, she filled him in on all that had been going on.  She started with how Laurietta had fallen for Artemis, and together they ruminated between bites.
	When at last Gabriel pushed back the plate, bones glistening in the fire light, Morticia came from tending pots and scooping vegetables from cutting board to the stew pot to sit before him.
	“So what is this favor you ask?”
	“It's simple.  I need a stoppable bottle for the remainder of the new batch of the preventive potion that I gave you.  I have made enough for ten.  I had only the three one ounce phials, and I need the beaker the remainder is in for other things.  Do you have anything in the kitchen that might fit the bill?”
	“You made more?  That is indeed good news to hear.  I suspect before long that we will have need of it.  But a one ounce phial...”  Morticia's look grew thoughtful, then bothered.  “No, I fear we don't have anything of that size that isn't in use already.  But you say that anything will do, so long as it can be stoppered?”
	“Yes.  It would need to be at least seven ounces to fit it all, but any number will honestly do too.  I just need it out of the beaker.”  Morticia sped over to the pantry, and from inside, all manor of clinking and shifting of bottles and sacks being jostled about.  When she appeared again, disheveled, she triumphantly held a bottle that looked to be a little more than he needed, with cork. 
	“Here!  It's ten ounces.  It is the only one, and surely, trouble will come if it goes missing, but much less so than that of me or one of the other girls getting pregnant.”
	“I hear that.  I must get going, Morticia.  I need to bottle it all quickly.  I'll turn over these to you to dispense as needed.”  She nodded her head, and handed him the bottle.
	“Will I see you at dinner, at either table?”
	Gabriel looked out the window, and saw dinner was not far off.  “I don't know.  I am stuffed, and I don't think an hour will suffice to give me room for more.  But who knows what an hour will bring?  Just in case, if you could trouble to leave a loaf and some cheese to my room.  I may have need of a small late snack if I should miss it.”
	Nodding again, Morticia returned to her pots, and Gabriel left for the library.  He kept his eyes open, looking for the elusive Artemis on the way.  Only in brief glimpses had he been seen by him, and since he had no business with him, had stayed more or less out of his way.  But it was obvious that he was always good for a fuck with the slaves, heedless of their well-being.  With the protection of a preventive potion now coursing through his veins, he sought him out.  But, for a fur that got around, he proved surprisingly hard to find.
	When dinner rolled around, Gabriel halted his search; Artemis would be found at the table.  And though he had though not to join dinner that evening, felt that his best chance would be here, to catch his roaming eye.  Into the dinning hall he went, and took up seat on the other side of Aires from usual, putting Pernicia further away, and Artemis next to himself, and displacing Tyche to his usual spot.
	Pernicia looked at Gabriel coolly as the stew was brought out, but there was a newness to her look that seemed slightly more friendly somehow.  He wondered if Daedalus had spoken with her about their discovery, and he remembered then that he had intended to speak with her about that.  Such would have to wait until later, it seemed, he thought, then pulled his bowl towards himself.  
	Gabriel looked about the table at the other members of the family.  Aires and Tyche remained mute, hardly looking at each other still, though below the table he could guess that the two were touching at the knee, elder to comfort younger under the harsh glare of their mother.  
	And Lady Hera was indeed looking harshly upon them, anger in every line of her face, and occasionally she turned the beams of her ire on her husband, who seemed to shrink under her gaze.  	And where was the sternness of last night? Gabriel wondered, the bulky, yet meek Daedalus suppressed to near silence at the table to which he presided as head.  Artemis was his usual ambivalent self, untroubled by the strain, if not untouched by it, as he consumed his meal.  Quietly, he leaned over in the moments of fitful conversation.
	“I don't think we've ever spoken before, Artemis.  How goes your day?”
	“We've never really had the chance have we?  A shame that work has kept me overmuch.  I've seen you at distance and you seem quite the capable and friendly servant.  I've thought to make your acquaintance at first chance, but that time never seemed to come, did it?  But I digress; my day goes well for being busy, and better than Mother and Fathers, at any rate.  I wouldn't mind knowing what's eating them this time.”
	“Far be it from me to know, and I'll confess curiosity of my own.  But it is not my business.”
	“Methinks you know more than you say, but your entitled to your silence.  Your business or not, you are plainly an inquisitive one, and an inquisitive mind is an attractive mind.  I like inquisitive ones.”
	“You flatter me, Artemis.”  This, he thought, would be easier than he expected, if he only had to speak to get hit on.  Gabriel did reflect that sadly that he sounded rather like Daedalus though, and wondered if it was as much a mask as his fathers seemed.
	“Is this really all that common?  I've been but a week, and twice now the tension has been thick enough to cut with a knife.”
	“Indeed.  More common with each passing season it is.  Makes one wish for a moment of bliss away from it all, doesn't it?”
	“It certainly does.  Any moment is welcome, anywhere.”
	Artemis looked away and finished his soup, dunking a large chunk of bread into the leavings and stuffing it whole into his muzzle, and Gabriel wondered if he had gotten the hint or not.
	“I must be off, Mother, Father.  I have something to see to before I can call it a night.”  Daedalus expanded for the first time since sitting, swelling to occupy his chair properly.
	“What calls to you?”
	“I received word a shipment of lumber to the firm has been delayed, and so I must see to it that what we have in the lumberyard is properly distributed.”
	“Good on you son, and thank you.  I have seen the missive, but it slipped my mind among other issues.  I will be grateful to have you see to it instead.”
	“Of course!  Afterwards, you can find me in my room studying, if you have need of me.”  To which, Artemis looked at Gabriel and gave him such a smooth, greasy smile that it was no wonder that the girls fell for him left and right.  His heart jumped and nether lips moistened, even though he saw right through it.  But greasy or no, he was in no small way excited to get at last a good plowing.  And who knew?  Maybe he could talk some sense into- No, what was he thinking?  He was no mamma's boy, and considering, if she was no deterrent, then words from him would make no difference.
	His loins stirring, he too finished his stew, and excused himself along side Aires, who was eager to be away from the burning eyes of his mother.  Tyche did not dare to come with, much as he was sure to be wanting, but he would not be long behind.  In the mean time, he had neglected his duties, and took charge of him in the bed chambers, to teach him the theory behind good nipple play.

	Later in the evening, on his way back from the library and pacing the first floor hall the long way, Gabriel pondered as he passed through pools of the diminishing, liquid light.  The wife was a soul as if possessed of a maturing insanity, it seemed, and the father, a warrior or adventurer of unknown providence brought low by marriage.  His sons and only daughter seemed fine as yet, but who knew how long before such dysfunction would bring them low too?  Already, Aires and Tyche were cowed, and Artemis was effected poorly; however, if sleeping around was his coping mechanism, he couldn't be too bad off; he seemed strong, and he did possess a certain charm.
	Moodily he meandered, paws bringing him through the courtyard, and to the dining hall again.  It was deserted, and he moved to the left and entered into the family wing.  Up the stairs, and past Aires's room, where he knew him to still be, probably reading, and nipples tender after much practice with shown examples.  On the other side was Tyche, reading too, and likely pining, without much of anything to keep his mind occupied.
	Past that, to the third pair of doors in the line, one he knew to the study, and the other to Artemis's room, which he drew outside of, and lay a hand upon the knob.  He had a sudden misgiving; couldn't he woo Tyche again?  It seemed less off-putting, but no.  He was wounded in the wake of punishment, thankfully far less severe than might have been otherwise from talking with their father.  Best to just leave them to their thoughts for now, though it pained him to do so.
	The sound of hooves behind him and a large shadow prompted him to turn, and see Artemis coming down the hall towards him.  His eyes were fixed to his, and a winning, predatory smile held his muzzle in a rictus grip that seemed mad to him, but a step brought him past the shadows, and in the light, it seemed laughable that he had seen it as anything than pleased.
	“Please, see yourself in, Gabriel, and make yourself comfortable,” he said quietly, while still on approach.  “The door isn't locked.”
	Gabriel turned the knob and threw it wide, passing in just as he caught up to him.  It was spacious, larger than Aries.  The bed was double wide, the head of it under the north facing window.  On a fine bedside table, there stood two small, crudely carved wooden sculptures arranged on its surface.  The bulk of the room was empty, a finely woven carpet on the floor with a well appointed couch on one side of it, and a dresser on the other.  It was perfect for reading by lantern or noon sun, or dancing.  
	“A fine room you have.  Are the sculptures your own?”
	“Thank you, and yes.  I followed father from a young age in to carpentry, though I always had more of a knack for the finer parts.  I sadly did not acquire his elephantine strength.”
	“They must be old then.  They don't look the work of a skilled adult.”
	“A fine eye you have, and honest tongue.  I made these nigh on ten years ago, when I was but Aires's age.  They aren't my first, but they are my favorites, and the only ones that persist from those days.  Go on, take a look; they aren't fragile.  They are a good, hard wood, of the like that father built the manor with, but of not so dark a variety as it.”
	Tentatively, Gabriel looked at them, to see they were carved in the likeness of Daedalus and Hera.  Not so well were they done, but from the hands of a child, to be distinguishable was a fine feat, and he was impressed.  “They are indeed fine work for young hands.”  
	As he set them down, Artemis came up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder, which he let run softly from the crook of his neck, and down over his shoulder to the elbow.  The place where his hand started felt cold in the wake of its passage, and he leaned in over him and whispered, hot breath on that spot, making him shiver.
	“I still have the tools I used to make these still.  But they are not so interesting.  Perhaps I could show you other tools of mine, that might be of more interest?”
	“You set to the wood so quickly all the time, Artemis?  I'm no block of wood.”
	“In deed you're not.  But I also know when the wood is asking to be worked, versus when it needs to have plans drawn.”
	“You have me there.”  
	Artemis chuckled.  “I have experience in these things.”
	“So I've heard.  Now that we aren't beating around the bush, why don't you make of me a sculpture then?”
	“With pleasure, Gabriel, right?”  Gabriel nodded, and stepped backwards towards the bed, but Artemis grabbed his hand and held him still.
	Silently, he stood there, Artemis circled around him twice, then stood in front of him once more.  Placing a hand to his waist, he slid it under the fabric, feeling up his stomach, and chest.  His other hand followed, and curled around to the back, and massaged at the base of his long, bald tail, right where the fur stopped.  More than the fingers now tweaking at his nipple, it was unexpected and made his knees shake.  Gabriel couldn't help it; he leaned forward into him, and huffed loudly, nethers tingling.
	Those magic hands trailed along, hitting all the right spots, eliciting shivers.  From tail base, he traveled south, to cup a cheek, and the one above moved around to his back too, to hold him against the rippling muscle of his body.  Nose pressed to Artemis's flank, he could smell the sweet musk of a strong male recently cleaned.  The salty tang of sweat was there, an undertone to the fragrant, floral bath soap favored by the family.  And his fingers, never still, caressed his back and butt, his muscles rippling and coiling powerfully beneath his fur.  Gabriel melted against him.
	Slowly, those hands traveled further still.  The lower went up, the upper higher still, to take from him his shirt, and cast it aside.  Those hand then traveled back down, over his shoulders and to his wrists, which Artemis took and placed on the front of his trousers.  He took the hint, and fumbled at the buckle.  
	Gabriel could not see the massive tool revealed to him, his face still pressed into the firm core of his body, eyes shut, but he could feel it.  It was not yet fully erect, only growing, but several inches of flesh pressed on his lower body, and he could feel it growing still.  He grabbed it, and Artemis sighed.  Below it, and because he was short compared to him, his balls hung to a point that he could feel pressing at the front of his pants.  His hands wandered now, lower down, to heft the orbs, the two of them together barely fitting in one.
	He grew mesmerized by the swelling meat slowly growing between them, pushing them apart, and Artemis grew restless.  His hands followed arms back to the shoulders, then down to his waist again, now to unbuckle Gabriel's trousers.  They fell to the floor with a soft plop, and they both looked down at their naked lower bodies, but the view was blocked by the more than foot of dick between them.  The flared head came up between his nipples, just a couple inches before the line of his jaw.  Whatever else Gabriel had been thinking, it left him, the sight making his pussy twitch, and the fluids began to flow.  
	The head was wide, and his shaft long.  He was uncertain he'd be able to take it properly.  But, Gabriel lowered his head, and licked the contours of it, running it around the ridge, then over the bulge at the top, and then down into the divot where his urethral opening sat, and licked around that too.  It was a wide opening, fitting a horse, and he imagined the vast quantity of seed that would spray from it soon, and dreamily imagined it covering his body like a cream sauce.  
	Artemis pushed him away.  The hand was gentle but insistent, and though he resisted, tasting again and again at that hole where the sweet taste of pre already gathered, Gabriel was easily separated from it.  His hands had not been idle, feeling the soft medial ring, and rolling the balls around, and kept in contact with it this way as he was pushed.  
	And in the space gathered, Artemis shed his shirt, to join with those strewn about their feet.  Their eyes met briefly, and in his gaze, pride and confidence was exuded from him in intoxicating waves that made him squirm needfully.  He stepped forward, but was blocked as he squatted, and was lifted by the waist.  Whooping in shock, Gabriel felt himself lifted, crotch to Artemis's muzzle, as the world blurred, floor falling away as he stood.  
	Instinctively, he wrapped his legs around his neck and held on, squeezing Artemis's head between his thighs.  And good thing he did too, for the feel of his labia spread by a large and muscly tongue speared in, opening him and wiggling deep, then retracting, to press in again, right into his g-spot, making him dizzy.  Hands that had been gripping his head went limp, and was then only supported by hands on his lower back.  It wasn't quite an orgasm, but it blew his mind, and he moaned loudly.
	It dived back in, then out, like the thrust of Raziel's cock, it was so long and thick, but infinitely more mobile, pushing in unexpected and pleasurable ways at the walls of his tunnel.  Dimly, Gabriel  was aware they were moving again, but he was too disoriented still to determine where, until his back came firmly against the wall, his writhing tail lashing against it as it contorted, unconsciously seeking and wrapping around a fixture to steady himself.
	There, the tongue vacated, leaving his cunt to close on nothing.  Gabriel began to voice- compliment or complaint he wasn't sure- but the bottom of his stomach dropped out as his legs were spread apart from Artemis's face, and he slid down the wall.  He yelped and loosened his tail as it pulled taut, then yelped again as he came to rest on the head of the monster shaft.
	“Think you can take it?”
	“I'm gonna try, but I'm not accustomed to using tools this big, though I have had some that were close.”
	“That's the spirit!”  
	Artemis lowered his hands a little more, and Gabriel's vagina strained to spread around it.  The head was large enough to balance on with his back to the wall, but not so big that it dwarfed his pussy completely as he thought it would.  Nevertheless, as the pressure increased, it quickly grew uncomfortable.  Breath grew fast and shallow, and a groan of discomfort broke from him.  But, just as he thought he would break, and to beg forgiveness, a startling slip and drop snatched his breath completely, head sinking an inch before strong hands closed over his waist, halting his descent.  
	“Oh GOD!”  
	It was at first very painful; his tunnel spread wider than it ever had, and was still spreading.  He hissed and gasped as it over took him.  But, by the time his breath returned enough to speak, the pain had diminished greatly, and now Gabriel only found himself feeling uncomfortably full.  And, trusting to the hands that held him, and the stern, confident look of this evening's lover, allowed himself to look at his body in awe.  
	Below the navel, his mons protruded, more so at where the top of it was.  He touched it, and it was springy, and felt through his whole body the trembling it inspired in Artemis.  Tenderly, Gabriel explored it more, and the more he did, the better he found that it made him feel, until he was shivering, his stretched vulva leaking fluid.
	“Are you ready, or do you need another moment to adjust?  I don't want to start too soon.  You are a fine thing, and I fear to break you.”
	Gabriel nodded, but changed his mind mid shake.  “N-no, I-I'm ready.  Just g-go slow...  Oh Gods, I feel so full!”
	Nodding, Artemis tightened his grip on him, and lifted.  Every millimeter of motion was a suite of exquisite sensation; the tightness of his tunnel spread wider than it had ever been, the scraping of that massive head dragging along it, tugging at his insides.  He felt too as if he had over eaten at the table many times over, but didn't feel ill, the lingering edges of pain fading to mere discomfort that accentuated his pleasure, and knew would pass.  
	Almost to the point that he came out Artemis pulled, and it felt different again here too, the head of his cock pressing against his clit from the inside, rubbing his g-spot again, but the discomfort increased as he neared exit.  He held himself still, as if to tease and torture, and Gabriel held his breath.  He knew the push was coming, and wondered with bated breath how he would proceed.  Would he pound heedless of him, or would he be gentle?  Short strokes, of fast?  Long, or shallow?  And the longer that he was held helpless and writhing on his cock, pinned to the wall, the more the question bedeviled him.  Desperation for him to do something, anything, mounted while he was looked down on knowingly.  Unable to help himself, he fidgeted, struggling now to push himself down on the massive pole of his own accord.
	Finally, those big hands loosened, bulging biceps relaxing and downward onto it Gabriel slid.  Suddenly desperation became apprehension, but the traveling bulge in his stomach and the sudden blinding, orgasmic pleasure that blinded his senses blasted it from his mind.  
	He couldn't control his gripping on that thick shaft, each convulsion of his pussy bringing waves of pain and pleasure in equal measure, turning his mind to mush.  He came hard, squirting his effeminate juices across the shaft that couldn't hope to penetrate him, but lubing it, as if to ease its fated passage in to his too small body, and in the brief seconds of lucidity between contractions, Gabriel only felt desire to have it all in him, though how such a feat would be managed never occurred to him.
	Artemis calmly awaited the end of his climax, moaning softly as soft flesh gripped and caressed his cock, and brought him near to the edge too.  His muscles were strong and experienced in the ways of sex, more so by far than the other slaves.  Gabriel at length regained his composure, and panting heavily, rocked his hips in the small amount of slack that the supporting hands allowed, answering unspoken question of readiness.
	Slow and deliberate, Gabriel still coming down off his high and ready to go into the next, with Artemis still near to climax, pushed deeper.  Added to the novel sensation of such fullness, now he was deeper than any lover he'd ever hand before, other than Tyche, the memory of which was already weak, and was unprepared when that flared head kissed his cervix.  
	He moaned unreservedly, that mass of equine maleness pressed to that hidden bastion, pushing on buttons he never conceived.  And so deep, he never imagined being so sensitive; he could feel every ridge of that flair, the bulge at the top pushing lopsidedly into his deepest muscle, as if begging for entry, and even, Gabriel fancied, the feel of that tiny rim of his urethral opening touching in the very center, and the hot leakage of precum directly into his core.  
	Its withdrawing was a sad and profound affair to him, and left his body crying out for more, but every nerve was set aflame by its retreat.  Such had such a sexual experience Gabriel never had before, and as Artemis reversed course head met with his cervix again in another soft kiss, he wondered if size, experience, or both made it what it was.  
	A steady rhythm was soon set, lewd squelching and staccato beats of wet, slapping flesh filled the room.  Position changed little, Artemis switching only to one hand pinning Gabriel's hands out of the way after his gripping claws scratched to deeply, and the other to his neck.  The shift had been fearsome indeed, but he didn't feel in fear for his life as the hand closed and held him where he was.  The upward thrusts kept the restraint from becoming painful, no matter how uncomfortable it became, and his tail on the wall fixture tightened, helping to keep a little more of the strain at bay.  
	And the restraint turned him on more.  If he could've been trussed up a little more somehow, Gabriel would've liked that.  But he as likely as not wouldn't have been able to handle being any more turned on than he was.  And as the minutes rolled by, sweat dripping down Artemis's fur, and panting between whorish moans, the kissing of head to cervix grew ever faster and firmer.  It become uncomfortable in its own right, and yet arousing and pleasurable in counterpoint to his besieged sense and sensibilities.  Another climax was rising fast, if it were to be assumed that the regular clenching of his pussy, growing numb in over-stimulation, wasn't having another already.  But the pleasure was undiminished, merely felt deeper inside.  
	The contractions of his tunnel grew ever more intense, reaching bone deep, and restricting motion.  The rhythm of Artemis broke down, and what had been a restrained thrust became heavier by far, like a battering ram at his inner gate.  His voice grew hoarse with pleasure.  Gabriel prepared himself for the torrent of semen that would be unleashed in him, and though he didn't hear himself, he begged him to do it inside, to fill him with seed, and make him with cub.  And though he gripped his hands in fists, and grit his teeth, he was not prepared for it.  It gushed into him, the first rope like a fire hose spraying directly against his cervix as he drew outward, filling that small space.  Then he slammed back in, his enormous cock blocking it from spilling out, pussy seizing in renewed fits of orgasmic bliss, and it was forced backwards, through a tiny hole, and into his womb.
	It was like molten steel in his core, squirting through that narrow gap, rope after rope of cum and filling him to the brim.  There was so much, and Gabriel could feel it filling him.  His belly grew taut with it, adding to the feeling of fullness, but when he thought he could take no more, Artemis's climax finally wore down.  When he looked at himself, he imagined that his stomach would be swollen as if he was pregnant, but saw no such distension.  As sense returned to his addled mind, he reminded himself that there would be no such thing; the potion in his veins would protect him for many hours yet.
	Exhausted, Artemis collapsed upon Gabriel, pinning him now less with his hands and more with his body, sweaty fur and rippling muscles spasming still, chest heaving with the effort.  His hands moved to better support his body about his buttocks.
	Every breath he took made his pussy twitch, lips pinched between his thighs by the phallus spreading him apart, murmuring in sweet ecstasy even as they came down.  Each breath made Artemis slide in and out, but it kept the rebounding waves of muscle spasms wracking their bodies going a good while yet.  And both were there for many minutes, relaxing slowly, as he grew flaccid, and released the trapped semen within.  A drip-drip-drip increased to a steady stream; and when at last, with a gasp from both as the head squeezed free of lips still to tight to properly admit it, a last gush, hot and wet from his tunnel splattered across the floor and carpet.  
	Regaining himself and his breath, Artemis lifted him and walked unsteadily to the bed where he laid him down.  Gabriel appreciated the kindness of not having to be supported on the wall and crushed by his body any longer, but his solidness was a thing worth missing, and was made more keen the emptiness of his cunt, the cold air on his vagina contrasting with hot seed dripping down into his crack, as his groin relaxed and closed over the void.  

	Gabriel opened his eyes to see the stars shining through the window of his personal quarters.  For a long time he stared out the open window, ruminating on the wild ride.  He hadn't remembered drifting off.  But he didn't let it trouble him as he laid there in the cool light and warm air of the stars in the summer night sky.  It was no wonder the reason the girls all fell for him; an easy manor, friendly, conventionally handsome, well endowed, and the experience to use it...  He knew how to get what he wanted, and knew when what he had was wanted, and didn't beat around the bush.  No false modesty there.  
	The blankets were pulled high over his body.  He pushed them away, and  reached between his legs.  His pussy, no, his whole lower body was sore to the touch.  The base of his tail burned vaguely from the jerk to it, and so did his neck when he moved his head suddenly.  But he was clean there.  No leakage, no mess on the sheets.  Artemis had cleaned him, and Gabriel blushed that he had touched him while he slept.   He wondered at how he had done so.  No rag would've done the job, short of being thrust in and left, and there was nothing between his lips but an emptiness crying out to be filled again by that incredible girth.
	With a sigh, Gabriel turned over, and let the weariness take him back over, one finger idly tracing his vulva until he knew only the comforting embrace of the night.

	Bright and early the next morning, Gabriel rose and ventured into the library to check his brews.  He could tell as soon as he saw the Potion of Gender-swap would be ready as he had predicted.  Before the sun was fully hidden behind the distant mountains, it would be ready to consume.  To this he looked forward and made his plans.  For now, he knew that he could not stay here much longer, and needed to prepare for departure.  He had no desire to be here when whatever was to go down happened between Hera and Daedalus.
	Returning to his room, Gabriel ate the bread and cheese left by Morticia the evening before, then gathered together his things, bundling them for easy grabbing.  He'd only have to run in and grab it from his bed to leave.  He knew he might not need it for another couple of days, but uncertain as he was, erring on the side of caution seemed a wise course to take.  At length, he turned himself to chores, and set about the family wing, armed and armored with apron, duster, and broom.  
	Starting on the ground level hall, he swept and mopped as if possessed, getting into the pantries that led onto the kitchen, but not straying past, and down to rarely used side rooms, then returned to the wings entry to climb the stairs and tackle the second floor.  As he polished barristers and knobs, members of the family passed, paying little heed in their hustle to and from their rooms and lessons, or whatever other business that preoccupied them.  Into the Aires's room he swept and dusted, stowing away errant clothing, making his bed, and organizing books and toys.  Then down the hall to the trophy room where he marveled at and longed to steal.  But, he thought, he had a free ticket out, and with gold already.  Taking more would be insulting his good fortune.  How things change, he thought, that the mightiest plans of mice and moles so often went awry.  
	He dusted glass cabinets and swept, oiled shields and plaques until they gleamed in the light through the skylight, making him hot, until he paused in his work to catch breath, whereupon he sat at the edge of the stand with the floating black thing, arching his back, trying to avoid touching it.  He was sure it wouldn't hurt him if it did, but he would rather that than risk the breaking of fragile glass against his back.  The sun over head began to descend from its zenith, and sighing, picked up the broom again, and resumed his chores, eager thoughts of potions and idle fantasies running rampant through his head.  
	The house was in cool shadow, nigh on supper, when he finished.  Too long he'd spent picking needlessly at spots in the wood floors when he polished, and perhaps  too vigorous was his cleaning and greasing of the door hinges.  But at last, his duties complete, he sought out the library, and found his potions ready.  
	It steamed, throwing off vapor in thick roiling clouds which collected in the beaker like layers, white and oily to the potions dull russet.  He took the beaker off the heat, lest it be ruined, and decanted it to a small glass masonry jar, and ran off to his room.  Placing it in on the bedside table to cool, he went off to the dining room to sup.
	Mercifully, it was a short affair, with a comparatively light supper of summer salad with thin sliced sweet meats on platters and fresh loaves of bread.  The strain seemed to once again be picking up; Gabriel could feel it as he sat there, hear it in the terse monosyllabic answers to short, softly spoken questions.  It weighed upon his shoulders, and both Aires and Tyche were quiet, as much a product still of the recent scolding.  Even Artemis seemed a little demure.  He fancied that his loving had simply drained the stallion, but more likely than not it was nothing of the sort.  No doubt, he had either just finished another lay and was still recovering, or was as affected by the tension as everyone else.  
	After the meal, Tyche came along side him, Aires in tow.
	“I saw as I passed through the library early in the morning your excitement.  Is it ready?”
	“Yes, and I'm off to take it now.  It will take some time to work, and I'll not be in a mood for much while it happens.  It does not make for a comfortable transition, I can tell you.”
	“I don't want to know.  But I'll confess I'm excited.  But I'm worried about how we're going to go about it.  Mother and Father will kill us all if we're caught, especially after last night!”  Aires pouted, and looked between them.
	“I know exactly what I'm going to do, and don't you worry about your father.  He's not as against you as you might think.  It's only your mother that you really need worry about.”
	“Not dad?”  Aires asked.
	“Nope, not your dad.  He doesn't care much.”
	“But, he's the one who punishes us when we're caught!”
	“Only to shield you from your mothers wrath, which is much worse.”
	The brothers looked Gabriel up and down, Aires confused, and Tyche with a look of disbelief.  But neither rebutted, and he wouldn't have been able to say anything more anyways, and was glad for it.  
	“Anyhow, I shall be off to my room.  I'll be talking to Daedalus after the effects have taken hold.  I think he'll give us a way to be safe from Lady Hera.”  Then he took off, leaving them behind to look worriedly at his back in spite of his assurances.  
	Arriving back in his room, Gabriel locked the door behind him, and threw himself on the bed.  He picked up the jar from his bedside table, and pinching his nose, drank the whole thing down.  It was foul; it smelled of ass, and sweaty paws, and stale semen, tasted spicy peppers and cum, and its texture was that of olive oil, but thicker.  Altogether unpleasant.  It was a lot too, and took several gulps.  It made him feel queasy, like the contents of his stomach were boiling, and hot to the tips of his ears, fingers, and toes like a hot flash.
	The discomfort grew and grew until he held himself and rolled over, the gorge rising in his throat, but never quite reaching the point of needing to vomit.  He shivered and sweat in turn, going from cold, hot, and back again like he was sick.  Eventually, he burrowed into the blankets of the bed and curled into a ball, and wished that he would fall asleep.  At least, he recalled in his uncomfortable fidgeting, that the change back was faster, and less unpleasant.  A burning tingle grew in his vulva at last and spread like wildfire, and though almost unbearable as all else, he avidly encouraged it onward, that it might be over with quickly.
	
	An excruciating hour crept by, the light in the west sinking slowly onto the horizon, but he guessed, unable to see it from his east facing window a fingers breadth above it, before it finally began to wind down.  Between his legs, the lips of his labia had long since closed, and his clit had extended and protruded into a sheath.  The muscles and organs of his parts had moved disquietingly south and formed his penis, still growing and expanding in its newly formed home.  
	But, it had subsided to the point he could explore himself, as was his want, and want he did.  To have a penis was a thing he rarely had.  Gabriel cupped his balls, hefting them.  They were large, heavy, and felt full of fertile seed already.  The blankets over him tented as he grew hard and he moved to massage his new shaft.
	Little more than a fingers' stroke across the head he managed before a knock at the door made him sigh irritably.  But, with the door locked, he ignored it, taking his growing penis into his hands and uncovering it, and looking at it in the fading light.
	The sound of key in lock made his heart drop out of his chest, and he scrambled to sit up and pile the blanket in his lap.  Gabriel's cock continued to swell from the effects of the potion in addition to the arousal he felt, and it was growing ever more obvious under the cover.  The door swung open, and he could not adjust the cover further, lest it brought attention to it.  
	Around the corner of the door, Pernicia peered, as haughty and imperious as ever.
	“So you are hiding here!  Father told me to find you and prove that I was a willing participant to our games together.  He was of the mind that you would come to me before the day was out.  He also wishes to see you.”
	“Yes, I am hiding here.  That is why the door was locked.  But if you've come to prove yourself willing, you have done so.”  His cock surged as he spoke, head flaring, and the whole blanket twitched.  Preternatural as a bird of prey, she honed in on the movement like a field mouse.  She stepped fully into the room.  “You can tell Daedalus I will be along mome-”
	“What're you hiding there, Gabriel?”  
	“A trouser snake.  You want a part of it?”  He bit his lip.  
	“Don't be silly, you don't have a penis,” Pernicia said, stepping in further and closing the door.  “But if you show me, I won't say anything.  Seems Daddy is fine with you getting up to whatever it is you choose anyway.  He explicitly forbade me to give you hard time.”  She pouted mightily, as if she had been denied a great pleasure.  “So what are you hiding?  Come on, show me!”
	The command annoyed him, but Gabriel didn't really see the point in disobeying.  “Don't say I didn't warn you.”  he threw back the covers, self-conscious of his new penis.  There was an intake of breath from Pernicia, her disbelief evident in every line of her young face.  And towards him she came in shock; but the flame of desire was bright in her eyes too.
	“H-how?”
	“It's a potion I brewed.  I took it not an hour and a half ago.  I came right from the dinner table to here for it.  It's not quite done yet, give it another ten minutes or so.  I know it's not finished growing, it tingles still, and I am the faintest bit uncomfortable.”
	Pernicia came in right to the foot of the bed, jaw open, and she reached towards the massive pole that he had grown, a near perfect replica of Tyche's.  He boldness made him twitch, and the head flared great and round.  She hesitated, fingers held back a hairs breadth away from it as it flexed, and she seemed to go meek, staring at the pulsating length.  Her breath came now shallow and excited.
	At length, she declared, “It's so big, and looks like my brothers!” and she took hold of it.
	The sensation was dulled, but grew more intense by the second as Pernicia stroked his penis.  Gabriel was uncertain of what to say, or even if he wanted her to stop.  And as the sensation grew and potion completed its work, he wanted her to stop less and less, and felt more and more bold.  He had been planning on using it.  Why shouldn't he let her help, if she was so willing?  
	Boldly, Gabriel grabbed her hand.  Pernicia looked up at him, surprised.  Clearly, she was not pleased with his presumptuousness, but he took the chance, pulling her against himself, then turning with her on his lap and pitching her onto her back on the bed.  Confusion and arousal gripped her, and her muzzle, opened to rebuke him no doubt, shut.  Her head tilted to one side in ready submission, and he took advantage of it.
	“Turn over.”  
	Pernicia obeyed, getting on her hands and knees.  He expected her to just hold the position, but when he put his hand on her clothed backside, she pushed back into his hand.  With haste, Gabriel pulled her trousers and undergarments to her knees.  The clothes stuck to her labia, wedged in and clinging from wetness, and the blast of her young, feminine scent made him shiver.  Only when he had a cock did the smell of pussy turn him on so.  
	Pushing her down flat to the bed, Gabriel mounted her small body, removing her clothes as he inched his way up, and she laid limp, letting him do as he pleased.  Her legs were closed to him, and he placed his knees in between them and widened his stance.  They spread without resistance.  Again, the scent of young pussy wafted hot and tempting to his nose, and taken with need, he sat up and guided the head of cock to her vagina.  
	As soon as his head touched her, it slid up and away, over the crack of her ass on her juices, and she huffed.  In either fist, she gripped the blanket, and pulled away, but only to help Gabriel line himself with her again.  This time, with a helpful tilt of her hips, his aim was true, and the tip spread her labia.  
	It seemed unlikely that it would fit, even though he knew first hand that she took a larger cock than this; it looked too pert and perky for it.  It was just like his own, but for the thickness of it's lips and position of her clit, and yet it swallowed him whole like a starving snake-folk.  
	But the feeling of it!  It held him tight, griping from every direction intensely; but it was not normal tightness.  Gabriel could feel the quivering of her muscles as she clenched, the sheer strength of her abdomen squeezing him.  They rippled at his passage, then tightened behind, stopping any retreat.
	Unable to show care and stage his entry carefully, Gabriel paused after every half inch.  But Pernicia, as submissive as she had suddenly become, was not passive.  Each time he paused, her muscles released choking grasp, and seemed to draw him inexorably inward.  In no time at all, he was fully in her, right to the base, medial ring long since buried into her young cunt.  But only just barely did he bottom out.  The head of his penis kissed the end of her tunnel and flared, spreading and stretching her in the same way that Artemis had spread him.
	“Unf...  You're almost as big as Daddy!” 
	“I don't know how you can even take this much!”
	“I-I've had a lot of practice.”
	Nodding, and content to rest, and Pernicia no longer able to draw by her secret methods him deeper in, he let the rising edge of pleasure subside.  Every tremor, every breath she took, and every fidget of her small body traveled up his shaft, and made him shiver also.  
	Gabriel supported himself over her, sheathed inside her, by his hands on either side of her shoulders, holding himself up like he was doing a push up.  The strain made him shiver, but not nearly so much as the lashing of her tail.  Long and lustrous, it flicked back and fourth, glossy black, silky smooth, and braided with white silk.  Each pass across his belly made him squirm.  He laid himself flat, halting the maddening tickle, and focused on the object of his desire.
	And all this long time, Pernicia held him stuck inside her, the strength of her pussy shocking; she had inherited some of the physical strength of her father.  Gabriel strained to pull back, and she relented, and he jerked back suddenly.  Only a sudden clench had saved them the trouble of his fumbling back into her body.  Still, she held him, tight, and he sheathed himself all the way back in again, this time without pause.  He bumped her cervix, she clenched harder, and he flared, stretching her.  He could feel the tiny muscle stretch and strain.  For a second more she held, then released him.  
	Again he withdrew from her tunnel for as long as she let him, and when she tightened down upon him again, he could feel his cock surge, and he reversed course until he bumped her deepest recesses again.  It was daunting to Gabriel to have such control exercised on him by her.  She was so limp below him, that he imagined she would rag-doll upon a firm wind, were it to blow through the window in the warm, stagnant, evening air.  But as he eased into and back again, he became aware of what she was doing, and matched the set limitations.  
	Roughly he took back control, knowing what she wanted.  Still she gripped, but no longer was it two rhythms, but instead one sudden, harmonious whole.  And into her Gabriel plunged with sudden abandon, ramming into the very end of her tunnel.  His swaying balls slapped against her winking clit, and she gasped.  Pernicia clenched hard on him and he was held an instant.  
	Every push made their pleasure rise; she moaned whorishly into the blankets, and she gripped him ever more firmly, and making every beat of his heart fight against it.  Her silky smooth and sopping wet walls were no longer holding him back completely.  But still she gripped relentlessly, and he could feel in himself the rising tide of climax.  
	Distantly the memory of a male orgasm came to him, but it paled to the fresh experience, and felt similar in many ways, and yet so different.  It was hot, just the same as normal, but came first rather than last, and concentrated in one place.  Up it rushed, that heat speeding along the tubular flesh of his penis.  It came long and slow through that monster shaft, building in intensity as it went until it consumed his every sense and all was a rushing white stream down a strong, narrow canal.  
	Dimly Gabriel knew he had lost the rhythm, but he could feel that so had she; the clenching she had been doing on order of a rapid breath count became a rolling series of spasms that rippled forward and back along him from base to tip.  He struggled to hold it in, hold it back, and pushed as deeply as he could, mashing the wide, flat head of his cock against the narrow hole.  The strain made it flare wider than ever, and a sizable shudder wracked Pernicia's body.  That hole widened, wider than he ever expected that it could, and when he could no longer hold it back, the flare shrank, and slipped inside.
	Pernicia yelped loud as it slipped in, then closed tightly around it, clenching, momentarily holding back his orgasm by sheer force.  Gabriel thought he would burst, until the pressure she held relented, and he showered the back wall of her womb with thick and fertile seed.  Each rope was gated by the incessant grip-release of her orgasm, long already in going running, the waves of contractions still strangling in the best way possible.  
	The perks of the horse came clear to him in his pleasure; he came long and hard.  His balls were as pendulous and drawn up as ever a minute later, far longer than any orgasm that Raziel, any of his other friends, clients, or lovers he had taken before.  Arms weak with the effort of support and the intensity of his climax, buckled, and he lay upon Pernicia's back while he expended the last of his seed into her uterus in a final, powerful buck, a long rope that overflowed her and forced it's way between their entwined bodies and into the bed sheets.  
	The afterglow set in, and they lay together heaving.  Gabriel shriveled, and his retreating head popped painfully from her womb.  The pressure inside of seed forced him the rest of the way out.  Hot and wet it gushed, into his lap, soaking him from waist to knees.  Below, she writhed as another miniature orgasm overcame her.
	Exhausted, he collapsed over Pernicia, careless of the white tide of hot cum that leaked from her gaping pussy.  His breath was long in coming back, but he was not given the opportunity to catch it.  
	Sitting up and puffing herself, Pernicia grabbed a less stained corner of the blanket and began rubbing the seed from her body.  “You're not as good as daddy, but that was fun!  Maybe next time you can tie and gag me?”
	“Uhm...  Sure, I guess I could do that if we get another chance.  This thing,” Gabriel said, pointing the white splattered sheath and package below, “Won't last that long, and I have other things to do that must come before I use it.”  Pernicia pouted, but made nothing of it.  
	Gabriel grabbed reluctantly another corner of the same blanket and began sopping the semen from himself too.  His cock was oversensitive, and every pass over his head and every delve into the sheath was unpleasantly intense.  Pernicia was much quicker than he, and cast aside the blanket, and dressed.  
	“Come on.  Daddy is going to be wondering what took so long if you don't hurry it up!”
	“I'm trying!  I'm just not used to cleaning this equipment.  I wasn't born with this thing!”
	“That's not my problem!”  She said, coming over, brisk manner coming back in a rush, and took the blanket from his hands.  
	“What are you doing?”  Gabriel asked suspiciously.
	“Helping!  I help clean dad afterwards all the time.”  And she plunged her muzzle down into his crotch.  The sudden heat and sensation of her muzzle against his sheath and the probing of her tongue was startling, but soothing.  Her tongue was long, broad, and smooth, and took in great laps and sweeps seed that he had only been spreading uselessly around.  In only seconds, half was gone, swallowed down, and he could feel his dick responding, poking out and flaring.  
	Into her hand she took it, as if expecting it and tilted it this way and that.  A trickle more seed spilled from him, trapped inside somehow, and she lapped it up, licking around the wide urethral opening, and flicking at it.  The last of it was too much, and he hissed in discomfort.  But to his surprise, he softened again, rather than stiffening further.  She let go him, and observed her handiwork.  It was good; not a trace of cum to be seen, and soft in spite of the skilled oral.  
	“Now get dressed, and be quick.  I don't wish to keep daddy waiting.  Oh, and I over heard that mother intended to check you were in Aries' bed.  She seems to think you've been away from it too much.”
	“That indeed I have been,” he responded, picking up his pants and donning them hastily.  “I thank you for letting me know.  But there is no worry.  I intended to spend the night with him.  I think Aires will be much less opposed to doing things with me now.”
	“Certainly less than with me.”  Pernicia shook her head.  “Anyways, I'll go on ahead.  You know where to go.”
	She departed, and Gabriel bundled the ruined bedding together.  He ran to the laundry room with it, grateful he was that on laundry duty the next day, and none would see the stains that they had left there.  It would be small wonder, he thought, that no one would still smell sex on him before the sun rose.  
	Through the library he went, unaccustomed to the dangling of his testicles in the clothing, and the tight press of the fabric that bulged out noticeably at the front.  These had been made for one without such considerations as which side it hung, and now that it was a concern, it was uncomfortable.  Pausing every few strides, he hoisted his pants, or reached into them and adjust how his sheath laid against his leg.  Not for the first time he wondered how boys born with a dick managed.
	With stealth that belied his discomfort and ill concealed the bulge, he slipped into the darkened upstairs of the family wing, and stole down the hall.  Under the door of Aires room, the flicking of a lantern could be seen, and the same too under that of every door but Pernicia's and the master bed.  Who knew where Lady Hera was, and the not knowing unnerved him.  He did not wish to come across her at the moment.  
	Making haste, he strove for the door to the study, and tapped lightly.  It opened at his touch, and he entered, closing it behind him.  It clicked with a finality, locked.  At the inner door, he tapped, and was bidden to enter, and closed it behind him.  The sight that greeted him left him preoccupied, and the knob slipped from his hand.
	“Don't just stand there, Gabriel.  Shut the door and take a seat!”  
	From atop Daedalus's naked lap, and half hidden below the level of the desk, his proud erection jutted up between the thighs of an equally naked Pernicia.  She perched over it, grinding her sloppy wet cunt against her fathers prick like a protective hen over her chick.  Small beads of Gabriel's cum leaked from her as she rocked her hips against that massive rod, and pre pooled in the divot and dripped from it while she worked above the medial ring with her comparatively tiny hands.  Coyly, she looked at him with half lidded eyes, as did her father; but she giggled while he was stern and business-like.
	“I-I feel a little over dressed for this meeting.  I did not know I was coming to an orgy.”  Gabriel chuckled nervously.
	“Relax.  I frankly don't care anymore.  My family is falling apart, you know of the rot and debauchery that grips us.  And you have only recently fucked my daughter.  Tell me, where did you come by a penis to do it with?”  
	“I'm an alchemist.  Should it be such a surprise?”  He shook his head and entered more fully, shutting the door and locking it behind him.
	“You are just full of surprises, Gabriel.  I'm not sure I like any of them, but they have proven harmless enough, I suppose, and helpful at worse, somehow.”  
	“Helpful at worst?”  He chuckled again.  The look of pleasure and concentration, the graceful move of Pernicia's hips as she worked her fathers shaft, rivulets of white spilling occasionally from it was impressive, even to his experienced eye.  It made feeling uptight very difficult.  Still, stress lay about his shoulders.
	“I'm still not sure that I was unwilling to put up with the life I had chosen.  It has been largely comfortable to me.  And now I choose to upend it all over being caught by a fake mouse slave.  True are the words that life is stranger than fiction.”  He gestured broadly about the rooms many bookcases.  “I can attest.  I've read enough of it.”
	“I had though all these books to do with the estate.”
	“Some do.  You never had the chance to look closely.  These are my f-fav-oh fuck!”  
	Pernicia gripped Daedalus's cock, and rubbed furiously over the broad, flat head, spreading his pre over it.  He bucked twice, then regained control, panting.  
	“Not while I'm talking, sweetheart, or I'll have to bind your hands.”  A devilish glint of delight lit her face, and she attacked the head of his flaring cock again.  Like lightening, he snatched her wrists,  and grabbed rope from somewhere below the level of the desk.  He bound her with barely any use of his other hand, other than to put Pernicia's hands behind her back, before tying the knot tight.  Her chest puffed out and ground harder on his shaft, and moaned.  From roughly the same place, her underwear was grabbed, and stuffed into her open muzzle.
	Shockingly, her whole torso went rigid, and she squirmed mightily against the restraints holding her.  A great amount of feminine juice squirted, thickly streaked with more seed, coated the base of her fathers cock.  Pernicia's moans were audible, even through the fabric.
	Gabriel's cock stiffened.  It was more than his trousers could handle, and it pushed down and out through the hem, halfway down his thigh.  
	“S-so, what did you want to see me for, sir?”
	Daedalus looked up from his orgasming daughter.  “Huh?  Oh, right!  I thought to give you the gold for... for services rendered, I suppose I'll call them.  The potion will serve well soon.  Pernicia is getting to that age.  See?”  He fondled her immature mounds.  They were barely anything at all, but it was clear her chest was not wholly flat.  “We expect her first period any month now.”
	“Shouldn't I teach it to you first?”
	“You'll teach me tomorrow, between other chores.  I'm mostly free.  Is there anything we might need from market to make it?”
	“I think I have enough of everything I need.  I've already made a lot though.  I gave it to the servants.”
	“A good thing that is.  Last night I heard Artemis at it again.”  Pernicia, still locked in a dreamy afterglow, began rubbing her sopping twat against her fathers prick again, and he sighed happily.
	“Oh.  Uh...  I was with him.  I mean to say that it was I he was having sex with.”
	“You?”
	“Yes.  I drank a potion, so I wouldn't get pregnant.  A gender-swap potion doesn't stop that, just suspends it while you're swapped.”
	“Then when did you get...  You know, your penis?”  
	“After dinner.  It takes about an hour to fully work.  It's not a super pleasant process.  Pernicia caught me right at the end of it.”
	“So, why did you do this?  I assure you that this,” and he waved at the six inches of cock sticking out from his pant leg still, “Was not what Hera and I had in mind when we bought you.”
	“I don't like raping people, and that's what my job amounts to.  I taught what I could that didn't cross the line.  And once or twice, I pushed a little harder than I ought have.  This was my solution, and a reward, I guess.  At least this way he won't freak out when I go down on him.”
	“Sure.  Whatever, I guess.  I'd much prefer my boys happy anyway.  It's not like I have a right to complain.  I'm fucking my daughter.  And who cares about gays in this day and age anyways?”
	“Well, your future ex-wife, for one.”
	“Ha, yeah.  Though one could hardly say it's without reason.  Now, here you go.”  Daedalus reached below the desk again, and pulled up a very fat sack of gold.  And then a second one of equal size.  They each appeared about the same size as the one that was given to Raziel at the gate.  Gabriel's eyes went wide as saucers.
	“H-how m-much-”
	“How much is it?”  Gabriel nodded.  “It's twenty-five hundred gold.  And before you start spluttering over it, just remember that I'm rich beyond your wildest dreams.  This is a pittance.  And my construction firm will remain in my hands and undiminished by the coming divorce.  I will recoup this money in a few months.  Sooner, if the city goes through with the urban renewal project the city council and the nearby nobles have been discussing goes through in the meeting next month.”
	Solemnly, Gabriel nodded.  What could he say?  That much gold would buy his entire gang a real property.  Smart investing of its full amount would see him set for life.  “Th-thanks.”
	“Another thing; the guard that took you in has reported twice seeing the boy that brought you to us about the walls.  Should I invite him in?”
	“Raziel?  He's been spotted?!”
	“Indeed he has.  Slinking about like a ra- hooligan.  Up to no good, and scheming with you no doubt.”
	“No, no extra scheming.  I've no chance as yet to probe for ways out of the manor.  But no, don't let him in.  I doubt he'd trust you even if I gave you a letter, and I'd rather he not have to deal with what's going on here.  But it gladdens me to know he will be nearby when I leave.  I will be wanting of the company with this much gold on my person.”
	“True enough.  Lots of ruffians.  Plenty more than your rag-tag band, I am certain.”
	He nodded, and Daedalus pushed the gold across the table.  
	“I-I have a question, Daedalus.  I can hardly ask for more, but I must.”
	“Spit it out, Gabriel.  Just so long as it is not more gold.  That is all I have here now, and I don't take kindly to that kind of greed.”
	“Nothing of the sort, Sir!  No, it's about this.”  He reached to his cock, and fondled the tip.  It was still stiff, and getting uncomfortable.  The ceaseless gyration of Pernicia's hips, the squelching of her pussy, panting, and the scent of semen was keeping him very aroused.
	“What of it?”  Daedalus raised an eyebrow.
	“Well, I know thanks to Pernicia here that Aires and I will be checked on in the night by Lady Hera.  I fear that will...  Kill the fun, if you know what I mean.  Would it be possible for you to get her to check early, possibly as soon as we're done here?  Maybe there is a safe place that we could fool around so that we don't raise her suspicions should she rise again, later in the night?”
	“I can prompt her to check early, yes.  But a safe place?  No.  If you can't do it in Aires' room, then your own is the next best place.  I know that Aires and Tyche play far more often than Hera catches them, by a great deal.  She won't hear from our room, if you're quiet, or so long as she sleeps.”
	“Understood.”  He took the bags of gold from the desk.  They weighed a lot; several pounds each, he was sure.  
	“Now, if you'll excuse us, I'd like to finish playing with my Princess.  Be quick to stash that.  Pernicia has done well keeping me on edge.  I won't be long in sending Hera along to look in on you.”  
	Gabriel stood, and Daedalus lifted Pernicia like a toy, fit her pussy over the head of his cock, and slid her down.  He huffed loudly, and her moans were almost as loud.  He still couldn't believe that she could take it.  It created a bulge, her vaginal lips stretching to admit it, and he watched it travel upwards to her navel.  More rivulets of white squished between her lips and the rod impaling her.  He shook his head, and dashed out of the room, taking care to close the doors properly behind him.
	
	A few minutes later, hot and sweaty between his legs from the hustle, and feeling distinctly weighted down by his equipment, he tapped on Aries' door, and slipped inside.  It felt altogether too long since he had looked upon his face.  He didn't love him, but he did feel a fancy for this boy.  Perhaps it was the testosterone in his system, or the arousal from watching Pernicia at work on her father.  But he came to him, and sat next to him.  Taking the book he held from his hands, he marked the page and set it aside.
	“Hey.  I was reading that!”
	“I know you were, squirt.  But I have something I think you'll enjoy more.”
	“Chocolate?!”
	“Ha, no.  Not chocolate.  I have it right here.  Take a look.”  He opened the hem of his trousers.
	“Oh wow!”
	“Shhh!  Quiet, Aires.  You, me, and Tyche are going to have some fun tonight.  But we have to pretend to sleep for a bit first.  Your mother will be coming around very shortly to see that we are together this evening.”  
	Aries opened his muzzle, but he placed a finger to it, and shushed him.  “Nod if you understand.”  He nodded.
	“Good.”  Gabriel snuffed the candle, then tossed aside the sheets.  “Get undressed, and lets cuddle.  I'll bet you want me to be the big spoon.”  The silhouette of Aires muzzle nodded. 
	Climbing in after him, he positioned his semi-flaccid cock between them.  The large meat nestled surprisingly well between his cheeks, but as it grew stiffer, it forced them apart, and was uncomfortable to them both.  
	“Hey, lift your leg a little.”  Gabriel asked him, patting it.  He backed up, and slid his prick between his thighs when he did.  
	The tight press of legs around him felt wonderful, similar in some ways to Pernicia's grip.  Heat radiated from Aires' balls into the base of his cock, and he could feel the smaller member flexing excitedly, the bottom of the his shaft bumping against him whenever it relaxed.  
	A couple of minutes later, the sound of hooves came down the hall, and paused outside the door.  It clicked open.  Gabriel and Aires were turned towards the window, and they could not see her face.  In the dark, they could hear her breathing, long slow breaths.  There was a shuffle as she moved about in the doorway, then silence that seemed to drag on forever.  Finally, there came the sound of the door clicking as she left, and they both heaved a silent sigh of relief.  
	“Are you going to go get Tyche?”  Aires whispered excitedly, soon as he dared.
	“No.” Gabriel whispered back.  “He knows.  I don't know when he'll be along, but he will come on his own, and soon.”  Gabriel cocked his head and listened intently, shushing Aries reply.  Silence silence settled thickly about the house.  Only the soft chirping of crickets and hoot of owls in the eves could be heard.  At length, he threw back the covers, and felt up their hardened shafts together.
	“Ooh, that feels good...”  Aries whimpered.  
	Quite familiar with the size and shape, he was still amazed at how little difference there was between their cocks.  Almost identical, but for the length and width.  From his position as big spoon, Gabriel's flaring head was level with Aires' decidedly unflared penis, and it was only a hair over half as thick.  Their medial rings rested against each other, and he was surprised to find how sensitive that little ring of flesh was.  For a time, he rubbed up and down their shafts, slicking their heads with their mingling pre.
	Through soft pants of pleasure, Gabriel heard the soft click of the door open.  He froze, and his dick wilted.  
	“What's wrong?”  Aires asked.
	“It's okay, it's me!”  Tyche called quietly from the door.  Gabriel heard it shut, and he relaxed.  
	Looking irritably over his shoulder, Gabriel glared.  “Couldn't you have at least tapped the door a couple times, so I didn't have a heart attack?!”  Tyche hung his head.  “No matter.  Lock the door, and pile Aires clothes against the bottom of the door.  I want to light a lantern, and don't want the light tipping anyone off.”
	“Why hadn't I ever thought of that!”  Tyche whispered, moving to Aires hamper, and throwing its contents on the floor thither.
	“Because it never occurred to you to block the light, I'm sure, or considered that the light might escape under the door in the first place.  Anyhow, be quick!  I can't see in this infernal darkness.”
	Lighting the wick, Gabriel set the lantern high in the window so that they could each see each other clearly.  He sat now on the edge of the bed, penis jutting large and proud on the bed, sizable testicles hanging off the edge and dangling.  Tyche stood by the door straightening, and ogled them hungrily.  He still wore his day clothes, but they bulged with his straining cock.  Aires was kneeling on the bed, hands on his thighs, prick twitching low between them, drooling pre onto the sheets.  It occurred to him just how fortuitous it was that he would be doing laundry in the coming day.
	“Well?  You just going to stand there, or are you going to join us?”
	It shook him from his trance, and he hurriedly disrobed, flinging shirt in one direction, and pants in another in his haste.
	Gabriel backed up onto the bed to make room, kneeling now, and pulling Aires to his side.  He turned to him, and pressed their dicks together again, frotting.  Tyche eagerly came to them, and lined his shaft up with theirs, and joined their embrace.  
	The new addition to the frot was longer and wider than Aires, but shorter and thinner than his.  Yet together, they fit perfectly, and the three of them ground together in a panting heap of young boy, young teen, and older teen flesh.  Pre from all three mingled, and dripped, coating them in a sexy, slippery mess.  
	The heat of their bodies was trapped between them, and it overwhelmed thought.  Tyche took Aires muzzle in a kiss, and Gabriel added his tongue.  The boys didn't expect it, but welcomed him into it, tongues swapping between mouths and trading saliva in so impassioned and sloppy a way that drool escaped to mix with the pre that grew to cover their rods, and make them sticky and slippery in equal measure.  
	Gabriel dropped his hands from the embrace, still included by tongue and the encircling hands of the other two, to cup a butt cheek of each.  They both sighed.  Without speaking, and as if by some unspoken agreement, Tyche and Aires each dropped a hand to cup one of his cheeks each, and seemed to mirror his every move.  When he slid his fingers between their cheeks and tickled their holes, theirs worked together to knead the flesh of his too.  It was no surprise, though it was very much startling, when he dipped the forefinger of each hand into each of the respective boys back doors, that two smaller fingers, one from each, worked him open.
	It was amazing, the speed with which they went from fumbling to harmonizing.  Aires' smaller finger went high, and Tyche's low, working all the spots.  Gabriel could barely keep up.  He was definitely having an effect on both of them, but while both of them were still only huffing just enough to make them stop kissing, which he had stopped moments ago, the rise of climax hit him like a stage-coach.
	Cum fountained between them, splattering their chins.  Aires let go of his brother and took the tip into his muzzle and drank down what was left.  Tyche followed suit, licking the side of Gabriel's throbbing shaft.  He leaned back, and let the boys play with his cock, and digging into their butts as deep as he could.
	Together, they took turns going up and down.  The last splash of sperm was swallowed greedily by Aires, then he licked downward, past the medial ring and to his balls.  All the while, Tyche licked up to the edge of Gabriel's flair, and nursed himself on the unyielding opening of his urethra, flicking at it with his tongue, probing for sip of cum.  But none was forthcoming.  As Aires came back up, he went back down to his balls, to fondle and caress again.
	Gabriel only allowed them to work his shaft for a minute, before the sensitivity became to much.  He pushed them back, and they pouted at his departure from their bums.  Aires rolled onto his back and spread his cheeks hopefully, anus moist and flexing.  He was enthralled with the sight before him, but Tyche took charge, climbing over his brother, fitting his shaft lovingly between soft, round cheeks.  
	It was as if he had forgotten that Gabriel was there in an instant, his lover laying there, and he took charge of him.  He watched Tyche tenderly take Aires' penis and pull it against his chest.  The head reached his muzzle, and he washed it with his tongue, exploring every contour delicately.  He grabbed just below his head to hold it steady for the licking, and the other guided the tip of his cock to his brothers entrance.  
	Gabriel leaned to the side to watch, and see their faces better.  His breath was taken by the tenderness of Tyche's face, and the adoration of Aires.  It was certain in that moment, that neither were fully aware of his presence, focused wholly on the other, love burning vivid as mage fire in the darkness.  He couldn't look away.   
	Aires face lit up, muzzle drawn in a great 'O'.  He pushed his hand into his muzzle as soon as it opened, muffling himself.  Concentration held Tyche, working his shaft in, being careful not to hurt him, and holding back his groans on the penis in his muzzle.
	Gabriel moved closer, and gripped the base of Aires' shaft, and pumped it gently.  He whimpered, and clenched, his back arched, and the whole of his tip popped into his brothers mouth.  Tyche gagged on the flood of cum.  Thin, white, immature seed dripped softly from the corners of his mouth.  
	A sudden shiver wracked Tyche's body, too, and he bucked forward, sheathing the last two inches of his long, wide prick into his brother.  There he held himself with obvious effort, fending off a rising climax, and to finish drinking down the seed.  Gabriel let go of Aires, and positioned himself behind the elder boy, and lifted his tail up to see the tight pucker beneath of a boy who seldom had love made to his back door.
	The fine roundness of his ass arched backward against him in silent welcome, sphincter winking.  Gabriel needed no other invitation.  The slickness of his cock had dried somewhat, and become sticky.  The boys had licked much of the pre off, and their spit had grown tacky.  He spat on it, and rubbed it in.  It was much improved.  But no matter how slick he was, care was the order of his entry, for he was large, and the hole was very tight.
	The first push didn't do much.  Tyche push back on him, but the pressure to his sensitive head made it flare.  Several attempts were made, and with each failure, the sounds of the elder boy's frustration grew.  Aires roused himself, and reached around his brother, feeling for Gabriel's rod.  He took it from his brothers cheeks, and placed his palm over the head, and held it behind the flare with his other.
	“Why didn't I think of that?”  Tyche asked
	“Didn't think of what?  What're you doing, Aires?”
	“I'm making it smaller!  Watch!”  
	Aries pushed down and gripped slowly with the top hand, and pulled up with the other.  Gabriel felt a rush of blood in his penis as it all fled out and away.  The flare shrank rapidly.  It was an unnatural feeling, like the rush of a mighty river flowing backwards through his penis.  But it was over in a moment, and the head of his penis was much reduced.  Almost immediately, it began to swell again.
	“Hurry!”  Tyche hissed, pushing the tip back between his cheeks and pushing back against the widening head.   
	With a mighty backward thrust, Tyche speared himself upon him.  A hiss came over his shoulder, but it was in, and the his became a pant.  
	“I'm sorry,”  Gabriel said, being careful to stay still.
	“I'm not used to taking it.  Aires doesn't like topping much.  Just let me do the work, okay?”  He started to nod, but switched to a verbal affirmative.  
	For several minutes, Gabriel knelt, and felt the subtle squeeze of flesh around his shaft.  Tyche's ass was tighter than Pernicia's pussy when she was relaxed, but not as tight as when she clenched.  It was also cooler, somehow, not infused with the intense heat that her cootch had been.  Nor was it nearly as wet, which worried him.  But Tyche said nothing of the dryness, and he had more knowledge of such things; for when he had occasion to have a penis, before his running away from his former slave life, he had been with one of the families girls.  Not much had changed since he had left in this regard.
	He was startled out of his thoughts when Tyche moved, sliding back, slow and stead upon him, until he had taken a third of his cock.  There he rested for a moment, then slid forward.  Aires laid back on the bed again, moans muffled behind the back of his hand.  And then he reversed course, taking Gabriel's dick back into him.  He stopped at the medial ring this time, and waited for his backside to adjust.
	“Oh my gosh, you're so much bigger than Aires!  I feel so full!”
	“Relax,”  Gabriel said, putting a hand to his shoulder, and pulling out a half inch.  Take your time.”
	“I'm okay, really.”
	“Yeah!  He's taken bigger things before!”  Aires chimed in helpfully.
	“Aires!  Hush!”  
	“Is that so?”
	“I've fisted him before!”
	“Aires!”  The mortification in his voice was endearing, and Gabriel leaned forward, wrapping his hands around his chest.
	“Don't be ashamed.”  He whispered into his ear.  “What feels good feels good.  Go on now, Make love to him, and I'll make love to you.”
	Tyche nodded, but Gabriel could feel his cheeks heat anyways.  The momentary awkwardness faded away however, and he thrust forward into the warm, waiting hole of Aires.  
	Gabriel held his hips still through the first few thrusts, letting him get used to his presence back there.  He places a guiding hand to his hips, and the other between them, over the small of his back so that he wouldn't come to far back.  
	Slow and assuredly, as Tyche picked up speed, Gabriel made small thrusts, pushing in and out, matching with his movements.  Together they built to a good pace, steady, but not to fast, working with each other and responsive to small changes of speed and rhythm.  He placed his chin over his shoulder and he could hear and feel his rapid breath on his right side.  
	Framed between his two arms, Aires lay beneath, stare glassy with pleasure, legs held up, knees hooked over the supporting arms of his brother.  His tongue lolled out of the side of his muzzle like a dogs as he panted, and his belly shifted and twitched beneath a half erect cock, dripping more pre than could pool in the hollow of his navel.  It spilled over, tricking down his side to the sheets below, adding to the darkly glistening pool that had grown there they had been frotting.
	The pace and rhythm they had wrapped themselves changed suddenly; they all felt it, and shifted with it, bound to its flow like fish in a mighty river.  Aires pressed his hand to his mouth harder, panting coming more rapid now, penis swelling back to full hardness and bouncing under the increasingly heavy thrusts of Tyche.  His belly bulged with its passage.  
	The tug and grip of Tyche's anus around Gabriel's penis tightened, pulling at it eagerly, as if trying to keep it as deep inside as possible.  Each push went deeper, and stayed longer, fighting the rhythm-less pistoning of his hips.  A great rush, a new river, surged forward through him, and his head flared deep inside him.  
	A desperate, and desperately loud moan choked its way from Tyche's throat.  Aires was too lost in bliss to hear it.  Gabriel gripped his muzzle, and hissed in his ear an intended warning, but instead it was a half held groan as he crested, semen pumping into the tight confines of the young teens rectum.  
	Tyche fought the restraining hand at first, but the first hot rope soothing him from within, he relaxed, as it if had been what he fought for.  He spasmed, and Gabriel could feel it though his entire body; the stiffening of his abs, his shoulders, his thighs, then release as his anus flexed rhythmically on him.  So did his hips, upon that release, a sudden, high speed thrusting into Aires, eyes closed now under the onslaught, whorish moans not fully muffled.  
	His orgasm looked as Tyche's had felt.  Muscles flexed, stiffening and releasing, balls drawing up, and a shot of thin, milky white streamed from cock head.  It sprayed over his young body, painting it white in six small strands like icing.  
	And still he came himself, flooding Tyche with rich and virile sperm that would never take.  It filled him and could go no further, then back-washed past his swollen flare and squirted out.  It dripped over his balls, and made their nethers a sloppy mess.  Gabriel opened his eyes, unsure of  when he had shut them, to see seed leaking from the union of the two boys too, pooling on sheets, the bed unable to absorb the flow of cum from all three.  Rivulets flowed towards their knees, and a white lake formed at the mountainous formation of Aires butt.
	In the last of his flagging strength, Gabriel flopped sideways.  A runnel of cum reached out to where he lay, soaking his ashen fur with streaks of white, draining the pools that gathered between and below the others legs and butt.  In a haze of his own, Tyche collapsed half over him.  His cock slid from Aires, and his came out too, already half soft.  He twitched, a small half squirt of seed hitting his chest, then the shaft bopped him on the nose.  He took the tip into his muzzle, and sucked, drinking down a few drops of the gooey goodness that hadn't yet leaked out.  
	Aires rolled over to face them, cock pressing into them, and snuggled.  The three boys lay in a great mass, hot, jizz covered, and lost in post orgasmic bliss.  Gabriel, though the haze as his eyes closed in exhaustion, knew that their position was not great.  They needed to clean up, Tyche needed to go back to his own room, they needed to put out the lantern.  But his position at the bottom of the pile kept him where he was.  He gave up, too tired, too relaxed, and too over powered by heat and boyish musk.

	The rough hand of an agitated Daedalus shook the three boys awake, separating them with great strength.  Gabriel's wits came about him, and became aware of a great, screaming fury in the halls bellow. 
	“Quick, you must get dressed.  Hera has checked you.  When she saw all that is here, she fled in anger to fetch a knife.  I'll protect my boys and the rest of the servants.  But you, Gabriel, must get up and run.  Grab your trousers, and flee to your room.  Get you things, then run to the entry hall.  Pernicia ran to the guard.  He'll meet you there, and take you out beyond the walls of the manor.  You mustn't delay!”
	Gabriel shook the befuddling fog from his mind, and the soreness from his muscles.  Daedalus hoisted the terrified looking Aires over his shoulder and ushered Tyche out of the room, driven ahead like a sheep.  Taking up his clothes and wincing as cum crusted fur pinched and pulled, he donned his pants.  His shirt laid pushed to the side, half buried in the pile of clothes that had been set before the door.  
	The screaming and ranting, words insensible through the floors continues unabated.  He left his shirt, and dashed through the dark hall.  Through the windows in the library as he passed through he noted it was still dark.  Hastily, he grabbed stationary from a table and one of the charcoal sticks from a pot on it.  He jotted down the ingredients for the preventative potion.  But the storm of rage of Lady Hera upon discovering her son and quarries room empty startled him from his hurried scribbling.  
	Taking up the note and stick, he dashed along to his room and gathered his things.  Along the way, the other servants were poking their heads from doors up and down the hall.  
	“What is that noise!”
	“What's going on?”
	“Yuck, are you covered in what I think you're covered in?!”
	“Gabriel, is everything okay?”
	“Back!  Back into your rooms, and lock your doors!  Stay there until all has died down, or Daedalus and his sons fetch you!”  
	He worried the sound of his voice might draw the wrath of the mistress, but there was nothing for it if he wanted to save them from her warpath.  Morticia and Vivanka looked upon him with worry; scared for his safety, and their own in this unknown situation.  But in the wake of his words, they ushered the other slaves back to their quarters.
	Back into his room Gabriel dashed.  He badly wished to grab a shirt, but they were packed.  And between that and the note in his hands, he chose that.  Now more than anything, he was glad for the ease of this potion, possibly the real secret to his being saved this day.  
	But loud, stomping hooves, and a knock on a door near at hand in the hall beyond made him panic.  Pack and note in hand, he looked out the door, hoping it would not be her.  But there saw Hera, pounding on the first door in the hall, back from whence he had fled.  Like a flash, he dived out and down the hall, but Hera caught him in her malevolent glare, and chased him.  She was taller, quicker, and had a knife, but he was slim and nimble, and the hall was wide.  Hera caught up to him as he reached the corner.  The dagger whistled softly by his ear and flashed silver in the darkened hall, missing his shoulder narrowly.
	Gabriel doubled back the way he came, putting on a burst of speed, and went for the door into the inner courtyard.  Hera was slow to turn and follow.  A lead of more than twice the original he had when she finally reached the door, but then she closed it again as he struggled to open the door to the entry hall from the outside.  To his horror, the door was locked form the inside, and he had no key.
	He thought he was finished, a mad woman coming at him like a demon in the night, blade gleaming coldly in the moonlight.  Lady Hera approached him and snarled like a raging animal, and swung at him.  A light flared suddenly in the window to his right as he dodged left.  Hera jerked, and swung wide.  She nicked his shoulder, the point burying itself into the hardwood door.  A drop of hot blood tricked down his white crusted chest.  
	He kept sliding to the side, barely feeling the pain, trying to get from between her bulk and the door while she struggled to pull the dagger free from the grip of the hard, polished wood.  The door opened behind him before he could move fully away from it, or she take her dagger from it.  In the light from the door, there stood the hulking frame of the guard.  
	Helm on his head, and sword drawn and at the ready, he was quite the striking figure; all traces of his gut seemed to have vanished into his rippling abs.  Still he was bare chested, shoulders broad as the door.  With his free hand, he pulled Gabriel into the room.
	“I am sorry, my lady.”  He said, struck Lady Hera roughly away from the door with the pomel.  The force dislodged knife from door, and mare from blade.  Gabriel watched from behind the guard as she dove forward for the dagger, and he aimed a booted paw at the outstretched hand.  It connected solidly, and she hissed in pain.  Stepping forward, the guard sheathed his sword and knelt over the prone woman, who yelled obscenities and cursed them both, and her traitorous husband.  
	Sidling up next to him, Pernicia looked on in horror, her mother writhing on the ground like an afflicted.  Gabriel wrapped her in his arms, and moved her away from the door to where she couldn't see.  In through the door, a ring of keys was thrown.  He could not be seen, but the guard, having silenced Hera, called out to them.  
	“Take the keys, and depart.  Your friend is nearby.  Pernicia, you know which key it is.  Take him away from here while I deal with your mother.”
	Pernicia gave a start, the shadow in her eyes still dark within them as she grappled what she had seen.  With great effort, she shook her head.  She understood the situation.  
	“Come, Gabriel!”  She grabbed the keys from the floor and grabbed his hand.  From just out of sight, the guard oofed, and a triumphant cry came.  They stopped and looked back at the door to see a battered Hera, now holding the guard's sword in hand stare menacingly at them.  Fire seemed to be in her gaze, steel in her posture, raging and indignant.  She charged, sword held out in front of her, intending to skewer them both upon it like a macabre kebab.
	Gabriel and Pernicia held hands and ran, the front door already unlocked, and down the center walk.  The light of the mage lanterns glowed blue still, banishing all shadows.  And as Hera caught up to them, left them no places to hide.  They split and ran to either side.  She charged between them, slashing in Gabriel's direction, but missed.
	Pernicia, wanted to help him, but there was little she could do.  She was younger and smaller even than Gabriel.  But she could open the gate, and while her mother was paying attention elsewhere, she ran for it, selecting from it the large iron key that was the master.  
	Behind her, Gabriel's yelling became more frantic.  He dived left and right, always just a few inches ahead of the sword.  Zigging and zagging, he tried to stay ahead, but all the time the gap closed.  The point snicked into his pants.  He dived and rolled, sprang up and back into a run.  Hera closed, swung again.  He was tiring, and the sword sliced painfully into his ear.  Another few steps he ran, then tripped, a thin rivulet of blood obscuring his vision.
	The key went into the lock and turned with a satisfying clank that was overridden by a scream from Gabriel.  She dropped the keys, and ran blindly back toward him.  Such was her fear, and the racing of her mind, she hardly registered what she saw; Mother standing over Gabriel, in a wide legged stance, sword over her head and held in both hands; an executioners stance.  
	Pernicia jumped and tackled her mother around the waist.  “Mother, no!”
	Gabriel's ear hurt terribly.  He laid on his back.  Lady Hera stood over him, prepared to kill, when the shrill scream of Pernicia made him look away from the sharpness of the blade above, and her small form flew out of the darkness behind her.  It knocked her mother off balance, and she toppled to the ground over him.
	It knocked the wind from him, crushing his stomach.  The sword whirled away into the dark bushes several feet away.  Wheezing, Gabriel dragged himself from under Hera's legs, and saw the guard limping towards them.  He dropped himself down on the mare with Pernicia, while the stunned and breathless woman below them struggled.  
	The guard held rope in his hands, and quickly he bound Hera's hands and hooves together.  She regained enough composure to yell, “traitor!” and spit into his face.  He grimaced, wiped it away, and gagged her none too kindly.  
	“Gabriel, go to the gate.  You must go now.  Even with Hera no longer a threat, the town guard has been alerted.  You must not be here when they arrive.”
	“But-”  
	“No butts!  Go!”
	Pernicia looked at him.  “But wh-”  
	Gabriel kissed her full on the mouth.  He stuffed a paper into her hand, then thanked her.  He got up, and ran, blood still dripping from ear to shoulder.  Pernicia yelled after him, and made to chase, but the guard grabbed her hand before she could get too far away.
	Up above, in a second floor window, Gabriel could see in a moment of calm as he walked from the gate, four figures looking down on the grounds below.  Two large, two small.  He waved, but he could see no returning wave.  He shook his head and ran out of the gate.  

	For a long while, Gabriel jogged down the road, paying no mind to the world around him.  He was sore, tired, and wounded.  He was confused, and oddly heartbroken.  Mixed feelings on his days, and the peoples he had served under.
	He was going to miss, for better or worse, Aires, Tyche, Pernicia, and Artemis.  Morticia and Vivanka, some of the other slaves too.  And yes, even Daedalus.  What confused him most however, was the guard.  What, and why had he thought he-
	“You look like hell.”
	“I feel like hell.”
	“Are you bleeding?  And what's all that white stuff?  What the hell happened back there?!”
	“It's a long story, Raziel.”
	“It's a long walk back to town.  We got time.  I have much to tell you, but you can speak first.”
	“Damn, am I glad to see you again.  Barely two weeks there, and less than one since I last saw you, but each day felt a month at least.”
	“I know the feeling.  Bad tiding come from us both this day.  But I believe yours is the less sour.”
	“What has happened that makes you say this?”
	“No, you first, Gabriel.  Then I'll tell you of what has transpired in the last few days beyond the doors of the manor.”
	“The short version then is this:  I befriended the staff, who I discovered were well off, but lived in fear of their mistress.  The mistress held some strong feelings on certain kinds of relations, of which there were many going on, mostly perpetrated by her own family, largely unbeknownst to her.  I was able to use my knowledge of Alchemy to solve some of these issues.  All might have been well beyond that had my job not been, in essence, raping their youngest son, who is gay.  I used my skills again to get me a cock, which I still have for another day or two yet.  For my service, such as it was, Daedalus gave me some gold, and prmised me my freedom.  I might have been there another few days, or more, but Hera caught me, and her two youngest sons having sex, and me with a penis.  She saw fit to try and kill me for it.  I have only just escaped with the help of the family guard.  Which reminds me, we should move off the road.  He said the town guard was coming, and he seemed to imply they were looking for me.  Do you know anything about that, Raziel?”
	“Alas!,”  Raziel said, moving off to the side of the road, and towards the stand of tall dark trees a mile distant.  “If only I didn't!  But that last bit ties in only to well with what I have to say; we have no home to go to, Gabriel.  There is no place left that we can go.”
	“What?!  How can this be?  No guard ever goes to that place!”
	“That was true three days ago.  The crackdown has been draconion.  The town's 'noble' leader has been out for the blood of homeless ruffians, and they are going even for those that help them, reguardless of whether they are one themselves.  They have caught many of our friends, and some have blabbed to save themselves.  And such tales have come back with them that have returned and were courageous enough to show their faces to us after singing.”
	“This is most frightening news!  And though I am wounded by blade, none strike so deeply as this!  Where are we to go?  It is obvious now that the guard know who I am, and want me.  I imagine that they know who you are, and seek you too.  What shall we do?”
	“I don't know.  If you have some loot, we might be fine; I was unable to collect the gold from my room in the sewer.  But where we might sell it, I don't know.  Who would help us, if helping us would bring the boot of the guard upon them for it?”
	“Here at least, I have good news.  Loot I have none, but gold.  And much more than I thought I would see again.  Twenty-five hundred, in minted gold coins of the realm, from the hands of Daedalus, the master of the manor.”  Raziel's eyes went wide as saucers.  
	“Twenty-five hundred?!  That is nobles' salary, and would last a peasant a life time, if they had a care!”
	“Indeed.  But if we have no home, what good will it do us?”
	“That's the question.  I'm of the mind now to flee, rather than return.  We have money.  We can start somewhere new.  And I've always wondered at the lifestyle of a legitimate fur.  A street rat is all I've ever been.  It's all I know.  But you aren't.  Not truly.  You could help me live a straight life.”
	“I could.  And that isn't a bad idea.  A safe life, one that is well off...  I dream of it.  But I'm too extravagant.  This gold would last me a year and a day if I was lucky, and maybe two if I whored myself out too.  And if you helped, we could maybe maintain together.”
	“What other option is there?  We could be street rats together, somewhere else.”
	“There is that.  But what about our friends who have been caught?  We can't leave them there, can we?”
	“What are we going to do about it?”
	At length Gabriel thought.  So long, that they reached the outcropping of trees, where they hunkered down, taking shelter from the bright, revealing light of the moon, now just past its zenith.  In the distance, the sound of galloping horses could be heard, the clinking of arms and armor of the guard plain to their large ears.  
	“I don't know what to do,” he said, soon as they had passed, and he felt safe to speak again.  “We are only two rats.  We have gold, yes, but enough to bribe all our friends out?  Or enough to get a mercinary band large enough to break them out?  Are they even still alive if we could manage it?  What then?  We'd be enemies of the Empire, and not just the town.”  
	Raziel cuddled up to Gabriel in the damp dark under the trees, the smell of the earth and gently mouldering leaves and crinkeling filling the still air, and laid his head on his chest.  They felt so alone in the dark, letting all that had happened, each to their own, and the news they had shared sink in.  The times left them both in doubt, and anguished in and out.  
	“What about an adventure, Gabriel?”
	“A what?”
	“An adventure.  You know, like the heros of old.  The world is wide, and many places of ledgend.  We are strong and smart.  We could do it.”
	“I don't know...”  
	“Think about it.  You and I, we could get rich.  Really rich.  And be well known.  Heros, even.  And if we get strong enough, or rich enough, or well known enough, we might be able to return and free our friends.”
	Gabriel considered.  Tiredness seeped in to his body, and the pain in his ear and shoulder dulled.  Eyes drifted shut to the sound of returning hooves.  He hugged Raziel closer, the only apparent mooring in the world he still had.  
	“You know,”  He yawned, “that doesn't sound too bad...”