Feathered Hearts - Eros

Stepping into her bedroom half a minute later—why the hell did I choose to come here instead of chatting out in the hall? Tara wasn’t sure, though the surprised First Lieutenant had briefly hesitated before following her, remaining outside the door when she entered her room.

“Uh, are you sure you’re okay with this?” Tara realized he wouldn’t enter without her express permission, for fear of how it might look.

“It’s fine. I trust you. So what’s on your mind, Lieutenant?” she invited him in, nodding as he motioned to close the door. As he stood before her, she found herself sizing him up. He appeared to be of Mediterranean descent given his dark hair and olive complexion—Greek? Italian?—though she couldn’t discern much more of his ancestry than that.

He wasn’t particularly tall, having just a couple inches on her, but his barrel was certainly bulky from what she could only guess was an endless regimen of pushups; his arms were thick and meaty and he had a tattoo of what looked like a Eastern-style dragon with some Japanese characters on his arm.

She estimated his age as in his mid-twenties, and a glance down at his hand showed no marriage or engagement ring. So he doesn’t have a lady? Pity. But I guess that’s the life of a soldier… she thought with an internal sigh. At least he’s responsible, right? He might be my kind of man if we were back home and he didn’t have the responsibility of guarding me!

Visibly mastering his nerves—she could only guess he didn’t feel fully comfortable being left alone with her, for what she might then accuse her of; she’d seen other girls try that back home just because they knew they could get away with it, for which she held them all in collective contempt. “Just wanted to give you an update on where things stand, and my view on… well, everything that happened today,” he told her, placing his mug aside on a nearby shelf to clasp his hands behind his back.

“Okay?” she prompted as she held her steaming cider mug in her hands, leaning back against the room’s chest of drawers she stored her clothes in. “And will you please relax, Lieutenant? If you know me at all by now, you know I’m not the kind of girl who’s going to scream rape just for looking at me the wrong way.”

He flinched slightly, but forced himself to do so, picking his mug back up and taking a drink from it.

“Sorry. Seems like you can’t be too careful, nowadays,” he reminded her, but then, as if she’d given him the thought, his eyes roved over her for a moment before he caught himself. “Look, uh… to begin with, I understand why you asked for asylum, and you have every right to be pissed at Ambassador Goldberg over trying to blame you for what Dana did. Confidentially, he’s not much of a negotiator; he’s a barely competent political appointee more interested in his image than his job. He should never have been assigned to this mission, but we’re stuck with him.”

“Then we’re on the same page, Lieutenant.” She smiled thinly. “Though I’d also add ‘Marco-hating hack’ to that list of non-qualifications. He’s been trying to find a reason to expel him ever since we got here,” she noted sullenly over a sip of her cider.

“I know, and believe me when I say I’ve pushed back on him as hard as I can,” he promised her. “I’m also perfectly aware you’d probably be arrested for assaulting Dana the moment you stepped back onto American soil, so I fully expect you’re going to stay here after we leave.”

“Correct on all counts, Lieutenant,” she confirmed with an angry look, though it wasn’t directed at him. “Even if I wasn’t going to get arrested at the behest of Dana’s Senator father, Dana herself would make damned sure I got blacklisted and would be unhireable anywhere after this. So I’ve got nothing to go back to, and the only place I can continue any sort of career is here.”

“Can you, though? Do the griffons or ponies even have need for geologists?” he asked her. “Understand, I’m not trying to discourage you, but you do need to really think this through.”

“Considering all the gems we’ve seen the ponies and griffons use, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were as important to them as oil is to us. But even if that fell through, I could be a bartender, too—given how much they seem to like their liquor, I’d imagine there’d be a market in the Kingdom for human spirits,” she thought aloud.

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out. Besides, if I’ve learned nothing else from our stay, it’s that the griffons respect others and don’t put up with such stupid shit as Dana tried.”

“You got that right. I admit, I find plenty to admire about them, too. I mean, they speak Latin, and they even use Roman ranks? Staying here is as if the Roman Empire didn’t fall and eventually ruled all of Europe,” Nantz mused over his mug with a chuckle, sniffing at the sweet-scented steam. “Gotta say, this place is a historian’s dream.”

“I’m not a historian. All I know is that by their standards, I did nothing wrong in decking Dana, so you’ll forgive me for liking their society a bit better than ours right now,” Tara replied. “Consider my staying in the Kingdom a middle finger to Dana and her daddy if nothing else.”

“I know,” he confirmed grimly. “And believe me, I don’t blame you. Since you’ve been granted asylum, neither the Ambassador nor I have any further authority over you. Or any obligation to defend you, but speaking for myself and my Marines, we will for as long as we’re here.”

“Thanks, Lieutenant, but I doubt I’ll need defending, especially with Gilda and Fortrakt around—that’s why I’m not worried about you trying anything in here. Even if I didn’t trust you, those two would probably tear you apart if you did,” she said with an easy grin and a wink, causing Nantz to shift slightly uncomfortably.

“Yes, well… considering how badly things started, they both seem to have come around to you three quickly,” he noted, taking a precautionary step back from her and crossing his large arms over his barrel chest.

The latter drew her gaze back for a moment; she noted again how muscular the Lieutenant truly was and found herself imagining running her hands all over his bare torso to get a sense of his strength.

Huh? Where did THAT come from? she wondered with a hard blink, the sudden vision causing her to hesitate slightly before speaking, having to force herself to refocus. “They really did. Have to say, Gilda’s my kind of take-no-crap girl, and she’s friendly enough once you find your way under all her emotional armor.”

“I’ll have to take your word for that,” Nantz said with a sip of his own cider. “All I’ve seen is Gilda the soldier, who I do like. She’s got a strong devotion to duty and is able to put her personal feelings aside in fulfilling them. Fortrakt does too, from what I can tell.”

“He does, though not like her. Fortrakt’s much more of a kid than she is—which makes sense given he’s barely out of his teens even though she's nearing her mid-20s. He’s earnest and endearing and loves our tech, but he can also be a bit awkward at times. Though I’m guessing the latter is because he not just likes me... but likes me,” she chuckled, then blinked again, uncertain why she’d told him that. “I just learned he’s got a crush on me.”

“Really?” The corners of Nantz’s lips crooked upwards; she could all but see him trying to visualize it at that moment as he raised his mug to his lips, considering her statement. “Uh, you do know that the griffons fight before mating, right?” he reminded her after his latest swallow of cider.

“I’ve heard,” she confirmed with a slightly pensive nod and a sip of her own, though she found that didn’t dissuade her thoughts from wandering in Fortrakt’s direction, actively fantasizing what it would be like to be taken sexually by a male griffon. Would they only do it in the typical animal style, with the male mounting from behind while she was on all fours? Or would they also use human belly-to-belly poses?

Who knows... if they don’t, maybe I could teach them some new positions! Just imagine being on top with a tiercel! She began to do so vividly, causing a sudden tightness in her tits and warmth between her legs!

Whoa! She had a moment of near panic as she realized she was getting aroused. Get a hold of yourself, Tara! You do NOT want to get turned on around Nantz! And besides… “Near as I can tell, he’s a fine young griffon, but given that whole ‘mating round’ thing they do? I’m not sure how it would work. I may be able to take down Dana, but I’m under no illusions—there’s no way in hell I could fight a full-grown griffon.”

“I don’t know how it would work either, but the problem is, I’m not sure that he does,” Nantz mused. “So please be careful and let him down gently if you have to. Ask Decurion Behertz for advice if you need—if nothing else, she could order him to stay away from you,” he suggested.

“Don’t worry. Gilda knows, and she’s already offered to make him back off,” Tara assured him with a smile. “I told her it was okay for now. He’s awkward, but he’s not tried anything untoward yet. Honestly, given the way he acted after we left the Hall of Heroes upset, I think he’s more afraid of offending me than anything else.”

“Upset?”

“Yeah. While we were at the Hall of Heroes, Fortrakt showed us an ancient griffon wartime duel with a pony that was really hard to watch,” she said shortly, her mood turning brooding and arousal ebbing as quickly as it had come.

“It was taken from a memory recording, if you could believe that. He was trying to impress us, but he didn’t realize how badly we’d take it—no joke, it was not just bloody and brutal, but fucking terrifying to watch. Part of the reason I decked Dana is that I’d had a sleepless and nightmare-filled night after seeing it. And Fortrakt’s been walking on eggshells around me since.”

“I see...” Nantz nodded slowly, his mind visibly turning before he broke out into another grin. “So in other words, he’s acting like any human guy his age around a girl he likes. Maybe we’re not so different as species after all.”

Tara’s grin was slightly more wan, taking another hard swallow of cider to steady herself—the more she had of it, she had already noted, the more mellow she got and the less important such concerns seemed. To her frustration, they hadn’t vanished yet, so she took another gulp, finding that the pink edges of her vision were starting to become more pronounced and even beginning to spread at least slightly more inward.

Wonder what that means...? she only idly considered the question before dismissing it as unimportant. “Maybe not, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about offending him either, especially after what Gilda did to Marco. For the record, Marco’s not the only one carrying a weapon now.”

She patted her pocket and then pulled out a Taser. “I had this enchanted by the ponies. It's enhanced with an electrical stun spell that only uses exactly as much charge as needed. I’ve no idea how that works, but they promise it’ll put down anything from a flying boar to a charging Minotaur instantly and safely. And believe me, I’d carry something more powerful than this if I was allowed.”

“Good thinking. And yeah, we got the ponies to magically boost some of our weapons and gear, too. Not their lethality, but to make them—” Nantz blinked and caught himself. "Never mind. Look, I don’t blame you for being cautious, but I don’t think you have to worry. From what I can tell, Fortrakt's a good kid—er, cub. He’s very earnest and really does seem to want to do right by others.

“I don’t know how the Kingdom’s military thinks of him, but if he was a Marine, I’d say he’s got the makings of a good young NCO with a little more experience and seasoning. Give him a few more months, and I might even try him out as squad leader... which, come to think of it, is roughly the rank he now holds with them. But if you did want to try something with him...”

His mind visibly wandered again and the odd smile returned to his face briefly; she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what he was imagining at that moment. “Well, just make sure he knows our mating rules and doesn’t try anything that might hurt you. I’d also make sure it’s okay with their society first, especially if you’re going to be staying. You don’t want to offend your hosts and have your asylum revoked.”

“Wise words,” she agreed, deciding she’d talk with Gilda about it more later. Doesn’t seem like they’d mind, given her reaction was more amused than appalled. Maybe interspecies action is just a fact of life in this world given how many different races there are? she reasoned half-hopefully, feeling her arousal start to return. But this time, she felt less alarmed and allowed it to begin building as Nantz went on.

“I imagine it’d be tricky, but doable. Unfortunately, I’ll have to leave it to you to find out. A civilian might be able to get away with getting it on with a griffon, but definitely not a soldier—or Marine—right now,” he said in what she thought was a disappointed tone. Or had she imagined it?

What, does he want to experience some of the local ladies, too? The thought brought a smile to her lips and mischievous gleam to her eyes. “Aw, so our favorite Lieutenant has no designs on Merlina Marcus?” she suggested teasingly, causing him to gape at her.

“She looks kind of cute and seems to like you, ‘Jason’,” she added with a wink, not understanding why she was teasing him like this, but found at that moment she didn’t care much. Clear out, conscience. I’m just having a little fun with him. The Marines are SO fun to fluster!

Tara had the distinct pleasure of seeing him blush and fumble hard for a response. “Uh, she’s only sixteen, and…” She couldn’t help but feel gratified when she saw the wheels in his head start to turn, clearly visualizing it despite his best efforts not to. “And, well, you’ll excuse me if I really don’t want to be killed by her Innkeeper father, let alone by my girlfriend when I get back home!”He downed the rest of his mug in sudden worry.

“I know. I’m kidding,” Tara replied easily, wondering if whatever Marco had that made him flirty was catching, given how easily she was suddenly slipping into such teasing. “You’re a good and honorable man, Lieutenant, and a fine catch for any lady. That’s why I trust you.”

His cheeks flushed further. “I appreciate that greatly, ma’am. And you’re a fine woman who any guy, human or griffon, should be lucky to land.”

“Thanks. When I land Fortrakt, I’ll let you know how it went,” she promised, only to blink again. WHEN? she repeated her own thought, not understanding how or why she was already accepting the idea of it.

I mean, sure, Fortrakt’s a genuinely good guy—er, griffon—and I love that he’s willing to stand up for me so strongly. If he was a human and asked me out, I might even say yes despite his awkwardness just because he’s already shown he’ll fight for me and I find his earnestness adorable. But as a GRIFFON? She was still having a hard time processing the idea even though it was meeting with an undeniable interest in her psyche.

Come off it, Tara! Like the Lieutenant said, they fight before mating and given he’s part cat, his cock might be barbed and only the size of your pinkie! Sex between us might not even be POSSIBLE! she mentally protested, hoping again that griffons were in fact not so poorly endowed as their feline hindquarters might indicate.

And yet, the idea wouldn’t leave her head. Looking back, all the banter she’d heard earlier that evening involving Marco teasing about seeing her naked or showing Fortrakt porn took on a new meaning. You know, I bet Chris already knows about Fortrakt’s crush on me, and that’s the reason he and Gilda were joking about that! But does Marco know? Is THAT why he offered to show Gilda and Fortrakt porn? She wasn’t sure, but her rapid train of thought was broken as Nantz gave a mild chuckle over his mug.

“I don’t think I’ll need to know. But listen... regardless of how you feel about Goldberg or how things are going back home—believe me, you’re not the only one with issues—I ask that you adhere to your original oath and not tell the griffons anything about our gear or our guns. If you do, things could get… dicey. And I don’t just mean diplomatically.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I’ve already had a missing rifle magazine reported, though I’m hoping it’s just a miscount...” he trailed off, blinking in surprise; she got the distinct impression he was shocked he’d told her something so sensitive. “... which is information I will thank you not to divulge to anyone. The last thing we need is the griffons suddenly deciding we’re careless or dangerous, and then demanding that we turn our weapons over to them.”

“Oh, so that’s what this is about.” Tara crossed her arms over her chest; she thought she might have seen Nantz’s eyes flicker down her cleavage for a moment as her action pulled the top of her shirt down slightly.

She didn’t begrudge it, though. You know, it wasn’t just Gilda and Fortrakt, Chris and Marco who stood up for me—he did too! He stood up for not just me, but for all his Marines to Goldberg himself. So I guess I owe him too, but I don’t know how I can pay him back. Except maybe to flash a little flesh…?

For a moment, she had a strong and strangely compelling urge to show him just a little more boob, feeling her nipples begin to harden beneath her shirt and bra at the idea of him ogling her. Unbidden, she suddenly imagined him not just admiring her, but openly feeling her up, running his hands all over her body, only for the vision to just as quickly morph from his fingers to Fortrakt’s talons finding and closing on her C-cup breasts!

She squirmed slightly at the strangely compelling vision, feeling her cheeks flush further. Fuck… I don’t know where this is coming from, but Nantz is right about what he said earlier—regardless of what happens, I’d better pull Fortrakt aside and teach him about human sex before he learns all the wrong lessons from Marco’s PORN!

“Miss Fields?” Nantz called to him as she fell into a brief reverie, imagining Fortrakt's tiercel talons not just pawing at her, but outright tearing at her clothes in his zeal to mate her and make her a proper griffon. “Is something wrong? Your cheeks are flushed.”

“Oh! Uh…” With effort, she refocused back on the question at hand. She reached down for her mug to try to master her sudden and strangely sourceless surge of desire, which at the moment kept oscillating hard between Fortrakt and Nantz himself!

Why am I suddenly so horny? Where is this COMING from? She still didn’t know, but took another swallow of cider before she spoke again, trying to use it to quench her increasingly heady thoughts. “Sorry, yeah. Let me put your mind at ease, Lieutenant—I won’t say a word about your weapons to the griffons. But not for Goldberg. I’ll do it for you.”

“For me?” He gave her a confused look, causing Tara to grimace—she’d meant to add and your men to the end of her statement, but somehow the words had stuck in her throat.

Despite that and her suddenly flustered thoughts, she forged ahead. “Yeah. You and your Marines have treated me with nothing but respect, to say nothing of Chris and Marco, who—and don’t tell him I said this—really looks up to you.”

“He does?” Nantz laughed openly. “I think I’m a little young to be Marco's father figure.”

“He admires your leadership qualities. I do, too,” she replied, her desires settling firmly on him, feeling a steadily growing urge to offer herself to the handsome Marine Lieutenant right then and there. Fuuuuck… she thought as she shifted uncomfortably while fantasizing about undressing him and giving him oral on the spot, her nipples rapidly hardening beneath her still-crossed arms.

Using all her fading willpower, she didn’t drop them just then. Danger territory, Tara! Get away from him before something really DOES happen! part of her warned, alarm bells ringing loudly in her head. But the most effort she could muster was to not drop her arms and continue her chain of thought, her heart starting to pound in her chest as her excitement built further.

“Whether or not I agree with your rule about not revealing anything about your guns—honestly, for as smart as they are, I think the griffons will figure it out for themselves eventually—I don’t want to make things more difficult for you. So, I give you my word, my lips are sealed.”

Around your cock… despite the wetness of the cider within it,her mouth felt strangely dry as the thought echoed through her head, her nipples quickly reaching full hardness beneath her shirt as she imagined not just going down on him, but giving him an outright boob job right then and there!

Unaware of what she was thinking, he gave her a nod of acknowledgment. “Good. That’s all I wanted to hear…” he trailed off as he suddenly noticed her eyes, at which point Tara realized her pupils had dilated in open invitation to him and she was giving him a very steady stare.

She knew what she was doing and where it might lead, and yet, she didn’t look away. She couldn’t, mesmerized by his muscular form and green eyes—Fortrakt had that hue, too!—even dropping her arms to show her tits were very much erect, poking clearly through the thin fabric of her bra and t-shirt.

Time seemed to stand still as Nantz stared at her, his crotch beginning to bulge beneath his trousers as he eyes flitted from her face to her breasts to her crotch and back again. She wanted very badly to reach forward with a hand to cup it and see what he was packing; she wanted equally badly to take his hands in her own and pull them to her chest; repay him in some small measure for all he had done to help her and her friends.

What… what am I doing…? she asked herself more than once as they began to move fractionally closer, the Lieutenant’s bulge very prominent in her pants; she swore his cheeks were as red as hers felt as she invited him with her gaze and posture to take her right then and there.

Finally, they stood but an inch apart, and Tara realized then that if either of them touched or kissed the other, they would pass the point of no return and not be able to stop.

But to his credit, the Lieutenant, in a Herculean display of will, very deliberately stepped back from her with a single, shuddering breath. “N-no…” he told her and then clutched his head. “M-Miss Fields, you are one of the most desirable females I’ve ever met, but… I c-can’t...” he told her. “Al-already have a girlfriend, and I c-can’t get involved with somebody I’m defending…” he explained weakly.

The moment broken, Tara took a shuddering breath of her own. “I… I’m sorry…” she said, leaning on the chest of drawers heavily for support as she brought a hand to her overheating head. “I d-don’t know why I did that…”

“It’s fine, but… I-I think I better leave,” Nantz told her shakily, his arousal still fully visible through his trousers. “Whatever happens, treat Fortrakt well, okay?”

“And same to you with Merlina,” she replied instantly, only to blink hard yet again—why had she said that? “She’s young and innocent, so please be gentle with her. Make sure her first time is a good one,” she implored him in an equally shaky voice.

He gave her another shocked look, only for his gaze to go distant again as she saw him begin to vividly imagine it—imagined himself taking a sixteen-year-old snow-white griffon eagless! “Right…” he told her with a hard swallow and a sudden sheen of sweat. “I p-promise…”

Tara didn’t understand why she was so certain he would deflower the young griffon girl, and neither did he, by the looks of it, as his sizable erection looked all but ready to rip its way out his of pants, straining painfully against the tough fabric of his fatigues. “That’s all I ask…” Seeing his state, she couldn’t resist reaching forward with a hand to cup his crotch, impressed at his stature. “Merlina’s a lucky girl! Use this well… Jason.” She squeezed his hardness.

His hips gave an involuntary buck; she could tell how much he was holding himself back at that moment. Taking a deep breath, he gently grasped her hand and then, in a second incredible display of will, he removed them from his hardness to raise to his lips, kissing her fingers reverently; the chivalrous act nearly taking her breath away. “I will… i-if it means I can have you later.”

“You won’t even have to ask.” An act she then rewarded by pulling his hand to her chest and placing it against her breast, closing her eyes to drink in his trembling but tingling touch. “After all you’ve done for me, I’m yours whenever you want.”

“I may take you up on that…” he admitted huskily as he gave her boob an involuntary squeeze, “But only after Merlina.” He then withdrew his hand to exit her bedroom and closed the door behind him, causing her to all but collapse backwards onto her bed, trembling and clutching her head at the undeniable intensity of her own thwarted urges.

“Why did I do that? What is happening to me…?” she asked the Tellusian world at large, only to find no answer; just a steadily growing series of sexual desires and outright fantasies she couldn’t seem to shake. And even worse—or was it for the better?—she increasingly didn’t seem to mind, sensing her fate was already somehow sealed even as part of her still tried to fight back against it. “Gotta do something to t-take the edge off before I…”

The rest was left unsaid as she half-walked, half-stumbled her way to the washroom. Entering it and closing the door behind her, she turned down the lights, stripped off her shorts and soaked panties, tossing the latter into the sink to wash before laying in the tub beneath the skylight—did I remember to turn it opaque? Don’t think I did, but it’s too dark to see in, right?—pleasuring herself frantically in an effort to relieve her sensual tension before she reemerged and did something with her friends, both old and new, that she’d regret even worse than what she did with Marco before.

Friends, both old and new, she couldn’t help but fantasize about; everything from Marco stripping her to riding Fortrakt from above to 69’ing with Gilda. And yet, for as titillating as those thoughts impossibly were, it was the idea of Jason with Merlina that got her the most, causing her to swallow a cry of pleasure and release a flood of fluid into the tub as she imagined the powerful Marine slowly seducing the lovely young eagless, showing her the ways of human love, and in the end, addicting each to the other.

Two climaxes and a hasty shower later, she had taken enough edge off her passions to clean herself off and climb out of the tub, bending herself over as she leaned against the sink to splash some cold water on her face after her hot shower.

Exiting the washroom to her bedroom, she missed the telltale gleam of multiple sets of griffon eyes watching her hungrily; their owners slowly stroking themselves through the skylight from above.