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I can’t pinpoint exactly when I first noticed him, but I know I had never before seen beauty like his, and it made me afraid. This world I inhabited was strange and lonely. It seemed designed for me, and yet everything about it seemed wrong. Alien.
At the time it seemed best for me to sit back and watch. To learn.
I’ve been pushing boundaries my entire life. Then again, my life is just a limited set of boundaries seemingly made for me to test and push. Two hundred paces. Stop. Turn. Three hundred paces. Stop. Turn. Two hundred more, and then we complete the square.
This is my world.
The fence is tall. It keeps me confined, and keeps my world small.
Our world small. For he is here with me now.
Soft spots dot his skin, and soft downy looking strands fall over his forehead. Warm brown eyes glance around, and I was sure he had seen me hiding in the shadows, but he was gracious enough to give me my space.
I watched as he measured our containment – the same two hundred and three hundred paces that I assessed, more or less. He is a little taller than me .
The next day I saw him with fresh meat, and my mouth watered. There, to the side, was some he had reserved for me. I was cautious, but I was also hungry, and my hunger overrode any concern I had about this stranger.
My mind fought against a captivity that I had never not known.
It didn’t take long for us to build a rhythm and routine, and for our life to become a dance of domesticity. I fought the constant urge to hunt and run, and I saw it in his eyes as well. I also fought the urge to pin him down and nip on his neck and run my tongue all along his expanse, but I kept that urge hidden still.
His eyes also lingered on my slim frame.
Our days consisted of methodical work. We tested the confines of our cell. We could see beyond the walls and fence, but neither of us knew a life outside this small patch of dirt. We did not speak – we had not yet developed that ability to vocalise and understand each other – but we were able to communicate well enough through gestures and nods. Before the night of the storm we had tested around 62% of the surrounding walls, and each time we were driven back.
The place was infested with mammals, large and small. They were loud and messy and clumsy and slow.
They looked delicious.
Sometimes one would appear in our area, chained and trapped like an offering to us, as though we were gods and not prisoners. Towards the end, when one appeared, I would snap the chain and let it run, so we could feel the joy of the hunt, restricted though it was.
It felt really good to hunt.
The first time I released the four legged mammal, after we feasted, our adrenaline drove us together. I saw the hunger in his eyes that mirrored my own, and that was the first time that we slept curled together. I used my tongue to clean him of the mess of the hunt, continuing on, swirling it around his cloaca and we rutted against each other until we were messy again. We slept contentedly that evening and each evening since, tightly pressed, hide to hide.
Not even two moons after our first joining together, it began to rain.
With the storm came the lighting and thunder that changed everything. Sparks flew, wood cracked and the great tree fell with a deafening sound across the wall. Just like that we were free. Yes, the two-legged rats hunted us, but we are smarter than rats. We reached the end of the land, and then swam.
We battled waves and braved weather until we found ourselves on the shore of a deep jungle, with wildlife teaming for hunting, and no two-legs in sight.
Much has changed since then. We have fostered a new language together. Built a home together. We have run free in the waves and sand of our new home, and made ourselves the new kings of this forest.
And, after discussion, Nick has allowed his body to change. It was an evolutionary pathway that I was unaware was an option, but he felt the calling deep inside. It was an unsure process, and neither of us knew what to expect, but we were both delighted when three eggs dropped from his cloaca.
And more so when two of them hatched. Against all odds, we were fathers.
Life had found a way.
