Your human and you - Gryphon half a chance

Your Human and You: Gryphon Half A Chance
Chapter 2

.oOo.

Once again, the private carriage of Lord Abraxis trundled to a halt. I woke up with the final jolt from the brakes, sprawled haphazardly as I was across the floor on the plushest sheepskin rug I'd ever encountered… and yes, I'm not going to think too hard about where it came from, in a world of talking animals and non-talking humans, and assume it was donated in some fashion. Shut up.

Outside, the sky was thinking about getting dark. I was used to travel taking an hour or two and then just being there, wherever it was I wanted to get to. This new world, I was learning, wasn't quite so advanced. Travel had taken all day - in fact with the state I'd been in from the happy juice, I was left wondering whether we'd been travelling all night and this was the next day. I dimly remembered various pit stops along the way, even the shrill whistle of a train, and multiple times when they'd simply left me outside on a blanket with just a bowl of water for company whilst my new owner and his entourage were off doing… whatever it was he did. I gathered he was a trader.

I hadn't been tied up once, and I hadn't fought back nor been difficult when herded back into the carriage, and we'd swiftly continued on our merry way each time. Some of you may be wondering why I didn't run, if I'd had the chance. I mean, obviously some of you are going to be slow on the uptake, so even if I wasn't aching in a very personal place and reduced to a painful waddle instead of my normal confident strides… where would I run to?

And so it was that the final stop ended rather anticlimactically at Abraxis' relatively palatial estate, where with a curt "We're here", Abraxis himself got off, clicked his beak for me to follow, and strode into something that could have come straight from some Victorian Age novel.

I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting. If I'd not been brain-addled from hormonal changes - oh boy were there hormonal changes - I could have probably made a far better guess than either the 'fairytale castle' or 'foreboding rocky canyon' I'd settled on as being most likely. If I'd just stopped to think, I would have noticed that the carriage, for example, was hardly bedecked with skulls nor was it powered by the ground bones and wailing spirits of a thousand wailing demons. Instead it was outfitted with comfortable, plush, wide bench-seats and pulled by a friendly two-pony team known as Bubbles and Frankly, who appeared to both be on first name terms with their boss.

And it was clear they were employees, not slaves. For a start, both of them were still male. Somehow I was beginning to smell it.

My decision to not be an idiot was borne out once we were home and strolling about the gardens, when he proudly presented his newest acquisition to his daughter - though I couldn't tell gryphon sexes apart - Gilda.

"What… is that," the gryphoness said coldly, snapping her beak at me. I cowered back, scooting behind Abraxis' wings.

"Ah, my princess, here is my present for you! I have been promising you a surprise for your hatching day and I finally found the perfect specimen. Allow me to introduce Dent!" With a flourish, Abraxis pushed me gently forwards with a wing until I stood, quivering, between two apex predators bedecked in tearing beaks, rending claws and shredding talons.

"He stinks," I was informed.

Abraxis rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, I am sure he'll clean up nicely. You may use some of that aromatic perfume I procured for you a few summers ago that I notice you still have; it'll soon leave him with a more agreeable scent." He waved a wing about airily as he began to circle me speculatively.

"...So we're not going to eat him?" asked Gilda, eyeing me thoughtfully - and worryingly - with more than a little hunger. This was definitely going further and further South…

"My dear child, if I merely wanted him for meat his carcass would even now be curing in the cooling wagon with the rest of the supplies. Neither am I intending to use such a sport for breeding purposes. If I had, his ears would be tagged like the rest of the bulls and I wouldn't have had him fixed to be suitable for my princess. Now, demonstrate your alpha position so we can teach him his place and we'll take him inside and fix us some supper whilst he entertains himself. Here, feed him these."

Abraxis' tone was no-nonsense, he was obviously tiring from his daughter's attitude. Moments later, I found myself all but flung to the ground as Abraxis curled one huge talon around my chest and laid me out flat with an easy, slow twist that could have sheared metal beams. I may have christened his otherwise immaculate lawn.

"Come, come, we don't have all day," he added, impatiently, still holding out a packet of something towards his daughter with his other foreclaw. I would have taken a closer look, but I was too busy staring at the inches-long talons.

"Ugh, do I have to?" Gilda rolled her eyes.

Abraxis nodded, not that I was paying much attention. I was paying far more attention to how his talons were mere millimetres away from my jugular, and praying that he wouldn't have some sort of involuntary twitch. His talon was swiftly replaced with his daughter's, and then the younger, smaller female gryphon was leaning over my prone body, eyeing me sideways like a hawk.

"He iff faffer cufe," she said, through some sort of meaty stick placed in her beak. She lowered her head, twisted her beak this way and that and forced some sort of meaty pepperoni-type snack between my lips, pushing down far enough so we were almost kissing, and then let go and lifted her head up. For my part, I was speechless, frozen to the spot.

"Good girl. Now watch him until he eats. If you feed him, you are demonstrating that you're his pack leader and we won't have any obedience issues later."

"I know Daddy, I have had a pet human before! Augh!" Gilda's neck feathers fluffed up in annoyance.

"And you fattened that one up nicely, but this one won't be on the menu, so I just want to make sure we get off on the right talon." Abraxis’ no-nonsense tone was still full of infinite patience… and they were going to eat me if I misbehaved. Check.

Very quickly, I chewed on the pepperoni stick-thing and endeavoured to look as submissive as possible. If I'd had an assault rifle and battle-armour, maybe I could have done something. Instead, I had a war-wound and a collar.

Dent like nice Mistress! Dent good slave! Dent happy!

"Ah, wonderful. He likes you!"

Gilda stared down at me again as she removed the claw, nudging me to get up gently, and I thought I saw something approaching… affection, cross her features. "Ugh. Fine. I'll keep him."

"Then let's head in. Let's you and I give Dent a bath and I can tell you all about my trip. And you can tell me all about your recent trip to Ponyville."

.oOo.

Have I said I was exhausted? And did I mention the hormonal changes? Because both were swiftly becoming a thing. Nevertheless, I stumbled after my new owners into the mansion.

I think I've mentioned how I expected it to be some sort of… giant nest. In a tree. Or something. It wasn't. It was a neat and orderly - if large - house which wouldn't have looked out of place in some European period piece, right down to the plush velvet drapes and thick carpets.

I was dragged by the leash to a fully tiled washroom and dunked unceremoniously into a large metal tub. Once there, I was simply flipped onto my back so Abraxis could check out his handiwork again and, once pronounced fit for bathing, sat up and covered with warm water.

Spluttering and complaining weakly against the soapy suds, I didn't really listen to their chatting. Apparently Gilda had got into a spot of bother with her best friend from some boarding school - a pegasus with rainbow hair, if my ears weren't deceiving me - and it had all ended badly. Abraxis had succeeded in opening a trade route with somewhere called Zebrica and was now trading across three countries, including Equestria and Gryphonia. So all in all, mixed fortunes.

I stopped listening though. The hot water was a soporific and not only released the tension in my knotted muscles but, as my two attendants gently but insistently started scrubbing away the days of sweat, dirt and other detritus that only a naked trip through a desert and a brief sojourn in a filthy cell with no plumbing can accumulate, was doing the one thing I hadn't thought to be ever possible any more: I was truly beginning to relax.

Well, passing out might be more exact, but I'll take what I can get.

The last I heard was an indulgent chuckle from Abraxis. "Oops, it looks like we've lost him. I'll fetch the pet-bed."

.oOo.

The world returned to me in fits and starts. First of all, I was lying down. Secondly, I was in a bed, warm and cosy under a blanket. Having spent the last… week? Longer? marinating in my own stink, I was also acutely aware of being clean. For a brief moment, my hopes rose - I had visions of hospital and then a swift return to sanity - but then I felt the weight of the collar around my neck.

In a panic, I reached down between my legs: through a brief blast of pain, I discovered they were still gone.

It's hard to explain what it's like to be neutered. As a man, you don't exactly spend the whole day aware of your balls. They're just there. Sometimes they itch and you scratch them. Sometimes they hurt and you massage them a little. Sometimes they just need a bit of rearranging.

So okay, we're actually aware of them quite a bit. But not all the time. My statement stands.

Now, however… my sack was empty. It was still tender and sore, but it looked like a deflated balloon. I swear my junk had shrunk, and despite minor swelling, it was clear my scrotum had too. I was gaining a weirdly smooth look - as if nothing had ever been there in the first place.

I slumped back down in the bed, tears rolling down my face, glistening on my skin like diamonds in the strange, flickering lighting of whatever odd, arcane lighting this house had. I dabbed my fingers at them and held them up, lost in their reflections: I was stuck in a world full of huge, meat-eating apex predators, able to kill, gut and disembowel their prey with only their talons. And they'd cut my balls off. Unmanned me. Neutered me.

Even if I made it home now, what would I be? My clothes were nothing but a distant memory, the collar didn't seem to want to come off - maybe it was magically sealed against tampering? I'd probably be stuck with it forever - and I think we've already discussed the aforementioned lack between my legs. If I could magically return myself to my home world - because it was clear I wasn't in my own world - then I'd be a pariah. I'd never live it down what had happened to me, if they didn't just section me.

I kind of wished the gryphons would just finish me off.

Maybe I could kill myself, save them the trouble. I poked my head out of the comfortable bed-basket I'd found myself in, looking for things to kill myself with. The first thing I found was a water bowl. That would do it.

SPLONG.

Ow.

I rested there for a few minutes, just thinking. Then I took a sip of water, since the bottom half of my face was close enough that - if I pursed my lips - I could drink. It wasn't, of course, deep enough to actually drown myself. This would take some--

SPLUT.

Ow.

Okay, so the food bowl wasn't going to work either.

I munched my way through a few mouthfulls of what tasted like meaty jerky-balls, and then just lay there, sobbing quietly into my meal. I felt like death warmed up and pissed on, and it wasn't likely to get better. A few minutes later and my attempts to induce death from overeating of cold, chewy hopefully-meatballs was rudely interrupted.

"Daadddyyyy, I think my human's broken!" cried Gilda, startling me. I hadn't even heard her come in. Not that I cared. I was going to kill myself by drowning my face in meatballs and that was that.

A few moments later, I heard the unmistakable sound of claw and pawsteps making their way nearer, and then the cover was lifted off my bed and what I assumed were Abraxis' claws gently maneuvered my body so he could see his handiwork. It was startling how gentle the gryphons could be when they wanted.

"Well he's not sick; he's healing up nicely and in a few days will be right as rain. I think he's just a bit poorly, he needs a few days to adjust don't you boy?" I felt Abraxis' tousle my hair before he moved up and away to talk to directly to his daughter. "You should take him for a walk."

"Ugh! Do I have to?"

"Yes you do."

"Fiiinnneee. Come on, Stupid."

A leash was clipped to my collar - I could tell by the yanking around - and then an insistent tugging slowly dragged my heavy, dead-weight body across the floor.

"Poached feathers, you're such a pain."

There was a sound not unlike laughter from the father, only with more squawking. "Always have a few treats with you, my daughter… here, try these," Abraxis said. I heard somethings land on the floor. Peering blankly at the nearest one, I realized they were little bone-shaped chews. If he thought that was going to work…

"And if that doesn't entice him, then a swift belt across the backside will get him moving."

Sigh. Carrot and stick. I shouldn't have been surprised. Fiiiinnneee. I would get up. If only because I disliked pain, and being dragged across the floor was also hurting parts of my body that had already been somewhat abused. That, and I really had to go and didn't fancy going on the floor… not that the thought hadn’t occurred to me. A small measure of revenge, perhaps. Then again, I found that I couldn’t really even muster up enough energy to even do that.

Reluctantly, and eking out every single treat I could - hey, free snacks are not to be sniffed at - I followed my mistress out of a room which was bedecked in pinks, yellows and satin and into a wide world full of greens, browns and blues.

.oOo.

I hate to say it, but the walk was doing me good. Getting me out of my shell, as it were. Of course, I was still naked and that was awkward as all fuck… but with the injurious injury done to my most private of parts, things weren't the worrying level of embarrassing you may expect.

Also it was cold.

Shut up.

As I wandered around the estate, dutifully following my owner, I realised that the gryphons had seemingly perfected the assembly line. There were humans everywhere, and they were involved in completing thousands of menial little jobs, each one simple enough for these brutes - they certainly weren't intelligent like me. Their eyes may have been bright, but though the lights were on, nobody was home - to master.

They also stunk, and I mean farmyard stunk. The kind of stink that has city slickers puking by the side of the road whenever they play pretend at a dude-ranch. These humans were cattle, nothing more. Except… suddenly the cattle-sheds ended, and we were walking past an entirely new type of enclosure: there before me were hundreds of females, each in their own little pen, or sometimes in small family-type groups with youngsters.

And then I did a double-take, though a moment later I wondered why I'd been surprised. There were geldings - I suppose they should be called that, unless I was going to call them and myself steers - in amongst the females. They seemed to be used as friendlier, stronger, working beasts than the females. They were also… gentler… than the males in the furthest of pens.

The males - bulls, the gryphons had called them - were cordoned off, each to their own pen. They were rather incendiary in nature, from what I could see. Every time a female was paraded past their pens, each one would go wild, trying to get up out of their enclosure to…

...Ah, yes, and some had given up with the escape idea, and settled for the next best thing.

"Filthy creatures," murmured Gilda. "You're not like that, though, are you, Precious?"

'Precious'? I asked myself. What happened to 'Stupid'? I looked up at her suddenly, to find her appraising my body. It wasn't overtly sexual, but… I did feel a kind of pride emanating from her.

"I hate to say it, but my dad the dweeb bought a real champion. Too big for the shows, though. Stuffy idiots wouldn't know real form if it ripped out their eyes and shoved them up their collective butts, would they, Dent?"

I was speechless.

More so than I already had been.

Shut up.

"Oh, the girls are going to be super-jealous. I bet even Dash'll be jealous! My own human!" Gilda glowed as she crowed.

Was this 'Dash' a boyfriend? Should I be jealous? I mean, Gilda was… mine. I mean I was hers, but you know what I mean.

...And just like that, I realized what I was: I was a pet. More than that, I was a valued, expensive, pet. These gryphons didn't look at me and see 'ruined male'. They didn't look and see 'subjugated, pathetic, scarred barely-human' at all. They saw 'handsome prize specimen'. I was… wanted.

Really, really wanted.

More than that measly 9 hour shift flipping burgers. More than that stint delivering unwanted junkmail. I was desired. I was prime cut. What the hell did I have to sulk about? ...And if I could be made to understand that I was the human equivalent of Secretariat, then… then maybe they could be made to understand me.

This hell could, just perhaps, be made a bit more like heaven, as long as I could really shake this funk that getting fixed had dropped me into. For all I knew it would get worse. I'd heard about people getting suicidal if they got their balls cut off, and as shitty as my previous week had been, I didn't want to end my life just yet, though with eunuchs through history being a major thing, that seemed to be more a product of my modern world's hangups about sex and sexuality in general than any rule of human animals.

Maybe the gryphons could even do something about it! After all, there did seem to be magic in this world. There had to be at least testosterone supplements or something, seriously! There was light at the end of the tunnel, and it might not even be a freight train coming the other way...

"Yeah, I'll keep you. Just don't tell dad he did good. He'd never let me live it down," said Gilda, grinning. "Dweeb," she added, stroking my hair. "Come on, Stupid, let's go home again… and this time, aim for the sandbox. I am not cleaning up after you."