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Torrin smiled proudly, as he sent off the minutes to the morning meeting out ten minutes before the company Director’s guest was due to arrive. He was glad that this meant he had just enough time to make a coffee, to have with the flapjack he had baked the evening before. He loved the sweet treats, but the store bought ones often contained dairy products that would make him violently sick if consumed.
“What did you bring in today?” The Assistant Director’s PA asked, as she saw him pulling out the tin. Like himself, she was vegan, which was just one of many things about her that made sharing the space between their bosses’ offices quite pleasant. She was a human woman, tall and slim but with some curves. She had apparently worked as a model in her youth, choosing to settle down now she was approaching thirty. Her boss didn’t know, but the modelling was always topless and she had also featured in a porn film, but he would keep that secret to the grave.
“Coconut flapjacks,” He said, placing the tin and the two coffees he had made on her desk so they could have their break together. “The coconut oil replaced the butter and they taste pretty good.”
“Your baking always does.” Stasha said, taking a bite and making a show over how delicious she thought it was. Behind her, the door to Ricond’s office opened and the Assistant Director came out, immediately interested in what they were doing.
“What’s this a mother’s meeting?” He asked. “You both realise you’re here to work, don’t you?”
“We’re having our break early,” Stasha explained. “The big boss needs Torrin to show off to some big shot breeder soon.”
“I wish he wouldn’t do that.” Ricond complained. “I know Dad paid a lot for you, but it doesn’t sit right with me. Is that enough defending you to get a flapjack?”
“You can always have my baking.” Torrin reassured him, pushing the tin in his direction trying to not too obviously stare at the handsome man. Ricond was only thiry-one, eight years older than Torrin himself, and always dressed well. Something that wasn’t even necessary, as his personal trainer kept him in such good shape, he’d look good in literally everything. White was his colour though, Torrin thought, as he gave the man a quick once over, it made his black hair and dark eyes stand out in just the right way.
“You wish me to be fat?” Ricond exclaimed in mock horror, his smile freezing a little as his father exited his office. “I mean only that Torrin’s baking is too good.”
“You like these vegan grains?” The older man asked, giving his son a disapproving look. “You are human, eat your meat.”
“You don’t tell that to Torrin,” Ricond protested. “You know Peryton’s can eat meat don’t you?”
“If my slave doesn’t want to eat meat, well that’s a cheaper slave.” The Company Director said, not unkindly. Torrin had always had everything he asked for, from designer clothes, to his own annexe apartment in his master’s estate, he did not lack for physical goods. “The breeder is here. I can’t wait to see his girl. Come along Torrin.”
“Yes, Sir.” Torrin answered, drinking as much of the coffee as he could before getting up and obediently following his master down to the grand reception hall. Being shown off was the very worst part of being Niklof’s personal assistant but he endured it, knowing as the life of a slave went, he was extremely lucky.
He wasn’t even halfway down the stairs when he spotted the breeder’s own Peryton by his side, not even having to ask what was so special about her. Her hair, a mixture of long fur, like what a human would consider hair, and feathers, were paper white, as were the fur or her ears that sat just in front of the antlers that grew slightly upwards, before curving down her back. The only colour on her was the bright red of her eyes, which ordinary would be a male trait but was really due to the absence of colour.
“You were right, Felly, I am awestruck by your albino girl!” Niklof declared, heading over to greet the breeder formally before turning his attention to the teenage peryton beside him. With the breeder’s position, he lifted her hair, letting the long strands fall back down her back.
“You have quite the interesting Peryton yourself.” Felly said, approaching Torrin with open curiosity. “That red-brown hair is a male trait, the blue-violet eyes are female, and he has feathers of both female turquoise and male orange and gold are present too. What is he?”
“Torrin,” Niklof proudly boasted, as Torrin himself wished the floor would open up and swallow him whole. “Has proven to be intersex. He has what in humans would be called Klinefelter syndrome, an extra X chromosome for simple guys like us.”
“Speak for yourself!” Felly said. “How did the symptoms present?”
“I’ve had him from a boy of four,” Niklof explained. “He looked pretty normal then, except the unusual colouring. We wondered if it was a rare genetic trait, which is why I got the gene sequencing done. At puberty he developed breasts, which have been surgically removed, though I left the internal organs alone. He’s infertile, so I can’t offer his sperm for breeding, but still interesting. Don’t you think?”
“Torrin,” Felly asked, ignoring Niklof entirely. “Did you choose to identify as male?”
“My gender has always been male, sir.” Torrin politely answered, trying to not look at the teenage girl who would be calling him a freak right now, just like all the others, had their owners not been present.
“Good, good,” Felly said. “I like to see well cared for slaves. Niklof, would you like to see her other form?”
“You know it!” Niklof said, standing back as Felly took a key to the back of the choker the girl wore. That would be her collar then, Torrin noted, moving to stand beside Niklof as the girl smiled at them both and let her wings grow, two large white arcs that rose from the middle of her back and swept beneath the antlers that were rising up a little, out of the way of her wings in flight. She fell forward, landing on hooves the colour of the bark on a silver birch tree, her body making the last contorts into her deer form. Unlike a regular deer, she had a feathery tail, as well as feathers around her hooves and neck. Like a horse, a peryton had a mane of feathers, cousins to the long extinct pegasi. “Amazing!” Niklof said, approaching the girl and placing a hand on her flank.
“She looks just like an angel when she changes forms, I trained her to do that.” Felly bragged.
“Very impressive.” Niklof said as he approached Torrin. Not needing to be asked, Torrin held out his right arm, allowing his master to unlock the golden bangle he wore.
“No collar?” Felly asked. “It’s hard to disguise them as jewellery on a male. I like the bangle idea.”
“He wears it because he does chores for me all the time, I’d hate for him to be taken in by the authorities, just for buying my morning coffee.” Niklof joked.
“Yes, an expensive loss, I would assume.” Felly said, as Torrin headed to some empty space and let his own change wash over him. He didn’t have the grace of the albino, but his stunning plumage of masculine reds, oranges and brown, mixed with feminine green, blue and grey, was always an eye-catching site. When alone together, Ricond jokingly called him Gay Deer, for his wings seemed to contain the entire rainbow of the Pride flag.
“Don’t I know it.” Niklof said with a smile. Tuning him out, Torrin glanced up when he saw Ricond watching from the staircase balcony, his anger undisguised as his father continued to talk about what it was that made Torrin so difficult. Unable to face that wrath, Torrin looked away, reluctantly allowing the breeder to touch his mane to see if the texture of the feathers was more masculine and feminine. A secondary sexual characteristic that he hadn’t even known existed, but now he did, he also knew that it was one more thing about his body that didn’t match his gender.
As the owner of a large toy company, Niklof arranged a large Christmas Eve parade every year as a promotional opportunity, but also as an act of kindness, as the purpose was to provide gifts for children who might ordinarily go without. The albino peryton was to be one of the stars this year, and she was escorted to a float at the front, where she would be trying to hold herself in the angelic form of her change. She seemed confident she could do it for the twenty minutes it took for the parade to make its way to the town square, which honestly was quite impressive.
“You’re really talented.” He told her, as they waited for Niklof’s friend to bring the other perytons needed to pull his personal float and carry out the aerial display.
“I don’t need to hear that from a freak.” She said, stepping away from him and turning her back on him for good measure.
“You know, some might think you’re a freak.” He snapped at her. It was bad enough when the ordinary peryton mocked him, but she didn’t even have the right colouring for a female.
“Because I lack pigmentation?” She asked, turning back around to give him a mocking look. “I’m all female, you’re just part.”
“This is the case of the pot calling the kettle white.” Torrin informed her, letting her walk away as his phone vibrated in his pocket. Glancing at it, he smiled to find a message from his only friend, and quickly texted Stasha back to thank her for her supportive message. He didn’t need it, he was hardly involved in the parade at all. Though he did have to dress in the same red outfit as all the other helpers, with the itchy white fur trim. His master wore an expensive red suit, with a white shirt, and a happy smile as he walked around, personally checking on the young women who would be handing out the gifts tonight.
As he gave his speech, a small bus was parking outside, the peryton had arrived. He watched feeling rather envious as the happy peryton began to leave the bus. The males with hair of brown or red, the women with hair of silvery grey or light blonde. They all looked how they should, many considered to be exceptionally beautiful. One sure peryton was Brutus, who had to duck his head very low as he got off the bus. Even without his antlers, Brutus was over six foot tall, his winter antlers bringing him up to seven and in summer when the full antlers would grow he was even taller. With brilliant dark red hair and plumage to match, Brutus was almost entirely red when he transformed, with antlers the colour of mahogany. He wasn’t just big, he was perfect and his opinion meant everything.
“Hey!” Brutus called out to the albino peryton. “What’s your name, pretty girl?”
“Lily.” She answered, all smiles for this sample of masculine perfection.
“Come chat with us, Lily, you don’t need to hang around with the likes of him.” Brutus encouraged. Just like that, with his blessing, Lily was welcomed into the same peryton group that would never say more than two words to him. It hurt, seeing somebody so different accepted like that. Perhaps Lily had been right? He was a freak, whilst she was just of an unusual colouring.
With a sigh, he took a seat in a corner, feeling the loneliness wash over him. He hated this, at least around humans most didn’t realise that he was different. His kind were extremely rare, most part because the majority of humans hadn’t realised that a female would not become pregnant and carry to term unless she was happy and safe, with a happy lover by her side.
As he watched, Brutus and eight other peryton took on their deer forms, each with high red or green colouring, as was appropriate to their gender. In colour matching pairs they were hitched up to a large sledge with Brutus alone at the front and alternating female and male pairs behind him. Climbing aboard the sledge, Niklof gave his final orders and the parade began to head towards the streets.
Torrin’s place was always behind, carrying two large buckets full off lollypops. These would be given out by the women in red, who came to him to fill much smaller buckets from time to time. There were several other perytons with him, some old, some young, one he knew had injuries from an accident that left him too weak to fly or pull the sledge through the city. He’d tried to talk to him once, but the peryton had whispered that Brutus had forbidden him from talking to ‘the outcast’ and that had ended any chances of friendship.
It wasn’t bad, now he had work to do, so he happily kept the woman ready to give sweets to watching children, waving at any child who happily pointed at his way. It was busy work, a lot of kids were out tonight, so he didn’t realise anything was wrong until he almost walked into the last float, that had stopped suddenly before him.
“What’s going on?” A member of the security team asked through the walkie talkie he carried. The answer was hard to pick up from this distance but he was sure he heard something about the lead deer being hurt. “He was shot?”
“Master!” Torrin exclaimed out loud, dropping his bucket and running up the parade, terrified of what he might find. He slowed as he saw Niklof was all right, only Brutus had been injured and there was no sign of any gun. “Sir!” He called, rushing to Niklof’s side.
“What are you doing up here?” Niklof wondered.
“I heard somebody had been shot?” Torrin said, looking around and realising he had either misheard, or the security team had misunderstood.
“What’s going on?” Niklof called, jumping down from the sledge as he saw how Brutus was spasming in obvious pain.
“We don’t know,” The security guard nearest Brutus answered. “He was pulling the sledge and seemed to go into a seizure. Paramedics have been called.”
“Good, try and find somewhere to take him off the street, the parade must go on.” Niklof declared.
“I don’t know if we should move him.” The guard worried, but Niklof was stubborn that the parade was not going to stop.
“What are you waiting for?” Niklof complained, as he turned on Torrin who was still watching, wondering if he was a terrible person for thanking karma for Brutus’ very public fall. “You’re the only healthy peryton here and we need you on the float.”
“Yes, sir.” Torrin said, completely stunned by this turn of events. He never pulled the float, he was neither red or green and always messed up the image his master was going for. Only, in front spot it probably didn’t matter what he looked like. As Niklof still had his bangle, he transformed before nerves got to him, standing to one side until they were ready to put him in Brutus’ place. He knew the others were watching him, angry he had this honour, relieved they weren’t expected to carry the increased burden with such a strong man down? He couldn’t tell and even if he knew what they thought, it didn’t matter. His master wanted him here, so he would pull.
Hearing the sharp tap of a whip on the wood of the sledge, he stepped forward into the harness, feeling an impossible weight to pull lift quickly as the eight others added their strength. Soon he was able to prance as he had seen the others do, pulling the sledge through the city with the lights of camera flashes making him half blind.
“You need to go left here, instead of entering the town square,” a female voice encouraged him. “We circle the Christmas tree and come in from the back.”
He nodded, shifting his weight hard to the left to begin the turn. He felt the strain now, in lead he seemed to take all the weight of turning on his own for a good few seconds and was actually sure that was just the design of the sledge and not the others refusing to help him. He found new respect for Brutus, who did this trip every year without any issues. What was wrong with him? He was healthy and strong, or so everyone had thought.
As they disappearing around the back of the tree, the aerial team began to swoop in circles around the tree, the lights they wore around their bodies making them shine in the sky. They were magical, they always were, and he found himself rather melancholic as he watched them. That should be him up there, instead he was… Actually he was in the position of honour this year, he shouldn’t complain.
“It was the steroids,” Julius, Brutus’ second in command, informed the group who were waiting to find out what had gone wrong at the parade. “Bastards forced him on them for years and now look what happened!”
“All the sledge team are on them, are we going to collapse too?” Lilac worried.
“Perhaps, they said something about allergies but..” Julius began to explain, but the peryton herd were angry and soon drowned out his words with their rightful complaints.
He wasn’t part of this, he had a nice job in an even nicer office, with a master who whilst thoughtless, was not cruel. Niklof would never force drugs on him, quite the opposite, it had taken some persuading for him to even allow Torrin to drink coffee.
“You were great out there!” a female voice whispered. “I think you’re so pretty. Brutus never let us talk to us, but if he’s not here…”
“Thank you, Selena.” He said, smiling at the pretty peryton with the greenest eyes he had ever seen. She smiled back, about to say something else but deciding against it. She moved away, returning to her herd but something had shifted tonight. Brutus was not the star he always was, that honour had gone to Torrin, who for once didn’t quite feel like the outcast.
“Boy, you saved the show!” Niklof declared, wrapping an arm around Torrin’s shoulders as his chauffer drove them back home. His master had been drinking, he could smell the whisky on his breath, but he was a jolly drunk so Torrin didn’t worry. “I was so proud of you!”
“Thank you, sir.” Torrin said, genuinely touched by the praise. There had been a small party after the parade for the staff and he was already feeling quite happy as several of his own kind had already made positive comments about how he had ‘saved the parade’ that evening.
“You will have dinner with the family, as my thank you.” Niklof decided, a little too merrily.
“That would be an honour.” Torrin answered. “Will both your children and their families be coming?”
“Oh yes!” Niklof said. “No need to worry, I’ll keep the little kids away from you. You’re not playing nanny, not tonight.”
“At very least sir, let the kids greet me,” Torrin suggested. “I love to see their smiles and little Charrla will most likely cry if she doesn’t get to touch my antlers tonight.”
“Oh, very well!” Niklof said, drunkenly describing the meal that the chef was preparing for lunch the next day. It seemed he was invited to the main house for the entire Christmas weekend, which wasn’t surprising, only that he didn’t have to work. He knew that last part wouldn’t last long, Niklof was simply too used to giving him orders. Such was life as a slave.
As they entered the mansion, they were swarmed by the young children who wanted to see their grandfather and his colourful companion. Torrin greeted the kids with hugs and smiles, kneeling for young Charrla, so she could remark that his antlers were still smooth.
“They got small again.” She complained. “Why?”
“In winter, males drop their big antlers,” Torrin began to explain, but Charrla was already distracted by the smell of an oven timer going off in the kitchen. It smelt like cookies, which must be what she had been waiting for.
Stepping out of the way, he took Niklof’s coat and hung it up in its place, putting his own on an empty hook for the time being. As he shut the cupboard door, he saw a small toy car in the middle of the hallway, so he picked that up, to put safely out of the way.
“You never stop working, do you?” Ricond commented, smiling at Torrin, before turning his attention to his father’s boasting about how his parade had gone.
Quietly following the two men into the living room, he held the door open for the butler, who was brining in a tray of hot chocolate for the kids and coffee for the adults. He was soon busy keeping the kids entertained, though he had been promised that wasn’t to be his job tonight.
“You’re not sparkly enough!” Four-year-old Jaykla complained, coming at him with a glitter glue stick.
“I’m not meant to sparkle.” Torrin said, but she was quite determined and he was not allowed to restrain the children for anything other than preventing injury.
“Yay, glitter!” Jaykla declared happily. With a sigh, he gave in and let the two youngest girls put glitter in his antlers, wondering why none of the adults were helping him. Glancing over, he saw they were all engrossed in a story and hadn’t noticed his plight. Ricond looked so happy, with his arm wrapped around his lovely wife, did that meant they were no longer getting a divorce?
The evening began to drag a little as the children were rather excited for Christmas and not a single one of them was prepared to settle. His body tired from pulling the sledge added more strain but he continued smiling, expertly resolving one issue after another, until finally the two mothers began to take the kids upstairs to sleep. He’d long ago given up asking why the fathers never cared for the kids in this way, it seemed childcare duties were divided by gender in human society, unlike his own, where parents raised their kids together as equals.
“Father, the kids got glitter all over Torrin’s antlers, I’m going to help him wash it off.” Torrin said, getting up from the sofa and heading upstairs without a glance behind him to make sure he was being followed. Torrin knew better than to disobey his master’s son, so had immediately headed for the stairs and entered the family bathroom without hesitation. He shut the door quietly, bolting it shut and turned to find himself pulled into Ricond’s arms.
The kiss was long and sweet, a stolen moment between them that he’d been longing over for days. Ricond was always so busy and Torrin was never away from Niklof for long. He held onto his lover, their foreheads resting against each other, as they silently enjoyed this moment of just being together.
“What did you bribe them with?” Torrin asked, having already put the pieces into place.
“I have no idea what you mean,” Ricond answered. “I don’t bribe people, Gay Deer.”
“You always call me that,” Torrin said, as if it bothered him. It didn’t, if he was gay for being in love with a man, then that meant he must be truly a man. Very few saw him like that and those who did, Stasha and Ricond, were special to him. “The children were too excited about adding glitter to my antlers tonight.”
“Is that so?” Ricond asked. “I say it’s a happy coincidence that they believe that painting a peryton with glitter will make for the best Christmas, don’t you?”
“A happy coincidence,” Torrin said, giving Ricond another light kiss. “My antlers look ridiculous, don’t they?”
“They really do,” Ricond answered, with a laugh. “You look insane! You’re so beautiful.”
“Thank you, you always look handsome, Ric.” Torrin said. “You dress so well and have such kind eyes. You always seem so kind when I look at you. Actually no, you seemed furious earlier?”
“He parades you around, as if you’re just a status symbol!” Ricond began, pulling away to pace the bathroom as he liked to do when annoyed about something. “I tolerate it, it’s not so bad when people are just looking but when he shares all your secrets, as if they’re his to give, my blood just boils. He humiliates you and there’s nothing I can do to stop it!”
“They are his secrets to give, he owns me,” Torrin explained, knowing from past experience that this would only make things worse but having to share. “I’m his slave.”
“Well not for long!” Ricond said.
“What?” Torrin said, horrified by the very idea. “He’s selling me? Why? I thought I was super expensive, a statement piece and…”
“Rin, calm down,” Ricond said, letting go off his anger to wrap the peryton in a tight embrace. “You’re ok! Trust me. You’ll be mine.”
“Yours?” Torrin repeated, feeling the tears fall from his eyes as he wrapped Ricond in a tight embrace.
“It seems Father has told you nothing,” Ricond said. “Go on, take off your shirt so I can begin washing the glitter off as I explain.”
“Why does he never tell me things that affect me?” Torrin wondered out loud. He knew why, he was a slave and his feelings didn’t matter.
“I don’t know,” Ricond said, tossing his own jacket and shirt over the towel rail, showing off his impressive chest. They got into the shower together, Torrin leaning his head forward and Ricond doing his best to stay out of the spray as he began to run the warm water over the worst parts. A sea of glitter instantly coloured the water like a rainbow, or like a peryton who wasn’t entirely one biological sex. “Father has decided to retire on his birthday this year. I’ll be taking over his company and with some negotiation, I convinced him the role should come with his PA. That’s why he was viewing that albino peryton today. He’s found your replacement.”
“And Stasha?” Torrin worried for his friend. “Will she go to the new Assistant Director?”
“Yes!” Ricond said.
“Then that’s the best news ever!” Torrin exclaim, tilting his head to smile up at Ricond. “For real? I’ll be yours in three months?”
“I’ll be your handler in three months, he’ll still own you, you’ll still live here, but you’ll work with me and… yeah, you’ll be mine. Let’s not complicate things. Father has already decided he’s bored with you. Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. You’re not boring at all! Not to me. I love you!”
“I love you too,” Torrin said. “I’m not upset. Maybe I should be but… I’m really going to be yours?”
“Yes!” Ricond said happily. “Hey! Don’t get me wet!”
“I have to kiss you!” Torrin protested, doing just that. They broke apart to a knock on the door and Ricond handed the shower over to Torrin as he went to explain to his wife why he was in a bathroom topless with a slave. Torrin continued to wash his antlers and hair, needing Ricond to finish off any parts of the antlers he had missed when he came back a few minutes later.
“You seem to be getting on?” Torrin said, the single question covering everything that he left unsaid.
“We’re still getting divorced,” Ricond said, quickly checking the antlers for any missed spots and finding none. “It’s just, when we realised the marriage was over, a burden seemed to lift and I saw the woman I had once liked. We’re friends, just as how we started. She’s seeing another guy. The kids don’t know but when I found out I wished her all the best. I was happy for her. She’s cheating on me and I can only smile!”
“I know you waited until you were separated, but by that logic are you cheating on her with me?” Torrin wondered.
“Don’t try to be smart with me, Gay Deer!” Ricond mocked. “It’s not cheating with a…”
“With a slave.” Torrin finished. He smiled sadly at Ricond and reached for a towel. “I can’t consent to you, everything we do is tainted with what I am but I love you, I know that, and I want to be with you. I consent to what we do together, even if I technically can’t.”
“I know.” Ricond said, giving Torrin a kiss. “I wish you could be mine, not as a possession, but as a partner, but life isn’t going to allow things to be that way. I love you, more than anything. My dear Rin, you’re my soulmate.”
“And you are mine.” Torrin said, wrapping Ricond in a tight embrace, giving him a kiss, resting their foreheads together as they held one another. Life was awful at times but he was lucky, he was with the man that he loved on Christmas Eve.