Author's Note

This is the last of the opening day chapters, but don't worry—there's another five chapters loaded and ready, to be doled out at the rate of one per day following the initial story release! Let me say thanks again to my prereading crew of Silentwoodfire, AJ_Aficionado, and Silverblade5 for giving these chapters some extra polish, and keeping up with my frantic writing schedule as I wrote all ten side story chapters and the one main story chapter over just the past six weeks!

—Firesight

Chapter contains: Griffon M arousal + masturbation + fantasies, implied Human F masturbation while talking to him

8.4 - A Night to Remember: Giraldi's Gentleness, Part 1

What… what am I doing? Giraldi kept asking himself as he walked down the short hall to Tara’s room of the human suite, leaving her two human companions and his two former subordinates behind. I can’t… this isn’t...

His own thoughts went unfinished as he found his internal objections overcome by an increasingly all-consuming desire for the human female he followed. The taste of mingled chicken and cider lay heavy on his tongue, yet not as much as the remembered scent of Tara herself hung in the air, calling to him.

Tempting him.

Pulling him to her!

Drawing his spear right out of its sheath as he walked, leaving him praying the other humans and griffons in the room wouldn’t glance his way and see not just his excitement, but his unmistakably illicit intentions.

Intentions that could end up costing him both his career and honor, to say nothing of the entire Kingdom a powerful new ally if she and the humans themselves took exception to what he wished to do.

It was selfish. It was stupid. It could even be called insane given the potential consequences! And yet, he did not stop his advance or actively fantasizing about her. He did not stop imagining showing himself off to her, enticing her with his well-equipped and equally experienced loins. Did not stop visualizing undressing and sampling her exotic and strangely alluring human body with his talon and tongue.

Did not stop envisioning her reaction to her slow but steady seduction, fantasizing how she would ultimately be unable to resist his powerful form, experienced efforts, and pure earth griffon masculinity.

He stumbled slightly as he walked; his now-fully engorged spear, as griffons called the male phallus, seemingly trying to pull him forward by his very loins. I… I want her… the thought impossibly echoed through his head again, despite all the renewed warnings that accompanied it. I don’t care. I want her more than anycreature I’ve ever wanted before!

It made no sense—how, after an exotic snack of some unusually cooked chicken and some hot cider, was he suddenly and irresistibly interested in a human female he’d just met?

He didn’t know, but part of what drove him forward was that he knew it was not a one-sided desire—it was in fact a mutual one, given he had instantly picked up on her temptation from their brief meeting but a minute earlier; picked up the unmistakable scent of her sensual fluids gathering between her long legs to the pair of oversized chest-mounted teats all but reaching for him, seemingly offering themselves to him right through her thin pony-like shirt.

The flush on his cheeks deepened as his most recent memories replayed endlessly through his head. Memories that left him with one inescapable conclusion despite the equally obvious confusion the encounter had sown within her.

I want her… and she wants ME! His heart began to beat faster at the certainty of it as he neared her oversized door—as the Inn was designed to house guests of all potential species ranging from ponies to minotaurs, the doors and ceilings had to be tall enough to accommodate all of them—and he sensed his well-used spear was swelling a second time, surging out of its sheath with a vigor and sheer force of purpose he hadn’t experienced since he was a much younger griffon.

And this time, it wasn’t stopping, becoming fully engorged within seconds and already starting to tingle fiercely.

He didn’t fight it, even if he still didn’t understand how it was hitting him out of nowhere, bowling him over like a thunderstorm downburst slamming into him with sudden force in the air. A rush of pure sensual gale that left him helpless in its grasp, sending him reeling, all but flinging him towards her. And thus, here he now stood before her door in full erection, drawn to her as if directed there by the Ancestors themselves.

His heart now pounding in his chest, he reached up to rap on the door with the hard knuckles on the back of his talons. “Miss Fields? It’s First Spear Giraldi. May we talk?” he called to her, taking great pains to keep his voice even. “I believe I can help you…” he felt compelled to add when she didn’t immediately reply.

The next few seconds dragged on for what seemed an interminably long time as he awaited her response, leaving him aware of little else but her lingering scent and the intense throbbing of his loins. He still wasn’t sure what was happening to him other than the slight pinkish cast at the fringes of his vision; something he dimly associated with Equestria and ponies without being able to immediately remember why.

But what brought him to her door and an unheard-of encounter, he could remember with all-too-perfect clarity.

* * * * *

It had begun nearly an hour earlier, when an exotic and very appetizing aroma had made itself known outside. It seemed like some form of cooked chicken, which few griffons even liked raw for being too bland and not fatty or flavorful enough for their tastes.

But whatever the source, it drove both him and other griffons of his command mildly mad to smell it, causing their beaks to drool and bellies to rumble. It wasn’t just them, either—a large crowd of several dozen airborne griffons had gathered over the Inn’s roof around the cooking exhaust pipes, trying to determine the source of the delectable smell.

Asking for and receiving permission from the amused human soldiers to investigate the odor’s source—he got the impression his grinning guards knew exactly what the smell was and were eager to see his reaction to finding out—he was then escorted to the human civilian suite on the third floor, where he knocked on the door.

After being greeted by the darker-hued male human named Marco Lakan, he’d been shown the source of the scent in the form of the unlikeliest of culinary creations—batter-dipped chicken cooked in a pot of melted lard, gaining a deliciously crispy and fatty exterior while somehow being turned deliciously soft and juicy on the inside.

Just one bite of it had all but addicted him to it. It was like nothing he’d ever eaten before, and equally good was the keg of Equestrian cider they’d somehow procured. He’d ended up having two pieces of chicken paired with a full bowl of cider, yet found he was still hungry for more.

But it wasn’t just his culinary appetites that had surged, as far more sensual desires began to take hold of him in their wake. He’d taken the opportunity to inform the human named Tara Fields that, after her assault on her far more insulting fellow female Dana, she was now a very popular figure with his troops, and that certain of his tiercels—along with an eagless!—had even expressed a certain interest in her.

The veteran First Spear, a longtime soldier and trainer who had seen action against the northern Harpies and Ibexian irregulars to the east, couldn’t fathom such an attraction until he met the human female directly and caught himself openly ogling her in the common area of the human civilian suite.

Even as he related the interest of his subordinates over the final swallow of chicken and a bowl of cider, he soon found himself admiring her unusual bipedal body in turn, imagining her without her clothes to try to get a sense of the unmistakably female form beneath.

Long and sensuous limbs… soft and nimble talons… a golden mane that would make a lion envious… wide hips that are easy to grasp… surprisingly large breasts front and center on her chest, designed as much to attract the eye as to facilitate feeding… he cataloged in turn. I do believe I see the attraction, now!

And yet, he didn’t give voice to those thoughts, but his far more revealing next one. “You know, if I was still a strapping young griffon who wasn’t already uxorem...” He decided to say out loud, even going so far as to take a step towards her.

As he watched, her cheeks flushed under his appraising gaze. But that wasn’t her only reaction; his eyes locked immediately on her prominent teats as they began hardening under her shirt, shortly and quite sharply showing right through the fabric; his head at almost perfect eye level with them.

He knew what it meant, as it was a reaction he’d seen many times before from his eagless Uxor, Stricta Cauda. She often liked having her quartet of teats talon-teased, massaged and even suckled before sex; it never failed to arouse him when she rolled over after their mating rounds were done and he watched them harden, nearly doubling in size on her lower belly before his eager eyes.

If anything, the effect was even more pronounced on the human eagless before him; her large and already-prominent chest-mounted mammaries instantly drawing his gaze when the teats that capped them began to protrude right through her garment, instantly alerting him to her potential arousal.

An arousal that went from merely potential to confirmed when he picked up a surprising scent in the air; a new addition to her appealingly earthy human spoor—something both metallic and milky, tinged with the faintest hint of what he could only call her human honey.

His eyes went wide at the realization—She’s turned on… by ME? he had the surprising but deliciously heady thought, feeling his spear instantly start swelling swiftly in its sheath. For a moment, he went as alarmed as Fortrakt, who he’d been teasing for his uncontrolled arousal along with Gilda just a minute earlier, but either through older age or simply better self-control, he quashed his incipient erection before it got too far along.

Still, the tip of his dark red organ might have been visible to an onlooker for a few seconds, though a quick glance around the room showed that nocreature was looking at him as he stumbled back from her in embarrassment, trying but failing to think about anything except her.

“M-my sincerest apologies for ogling you, Miss Fields. And please don’t tell my uxor I did that…” he added hastily, scarcely able to imagine what Stricta Cauda would think of him if she knew.

“You would be attracted to an upright ape who can’t even fly or fight a proper round? Then you are not the gryphon I married, Galen Giraldi!” he could all but hear her berating him before she made him sleep in a separate room for a moon.

He didn’t hold such slightly archaic thinking against her—she was a traditional gryphon who thought a mate’s worthiness was strictly a function of fighting ability, and mating rights could only be gained in a formal round. She was hardly alone in that, but regardless of her social mores, she remained a beloved and worthy partner who had already given him four cubs, two of which were nearly grown. So he both forgave and indulged her, always giving her the pre-rutting contests she insisted on.

A partner who tolerated his odd dalliance with other eaglesses over the years when he was out on deployment, so long as she was satisfied they had won his affections fairly through skill in combat and were worthy of him.

He was neither on deployment nor seeking another eagless then, able to go home to his Uxor weekly as he was. And yet, this human eagless—he did not know what they called their females—had almost instantly turned his head and drawn his eye. Not simply for her looks, as he was no judge of human beauty, and long experience had taught him that surface plumage was no measure of beauty within.

But for her unquestioned honor and very eagless-like actions of dueling and defeating a rival female who had insulted her and her friends, attempting to trick them into an attack that would get them evicted from the Kingdom.

He had not seen the duel directly, of course, stationed outside with the griffon layer of security around the makeshift human embassy. He, and the turma Fortrakt and Gilda were originally part of, were assigned there in case they needed assistance in order to give them some familiar figures to work with.

But word had spread quickly through Arnau, as it often did, passed by not just news scrolls but simple word of beak. Tara’s request for sanctuary and open declaration of preference for griffon culture had already become legendary in the city, earning a public proclamation of respect and a granted asylum request from Queen Molyneux herself—both of which the latter did not grant lightly.

Such a public display of eagless-like honor had gotten tongues wagging in his unit; some even openly wondered what she would be like to ‘go a round’ with—which might or might not actually mean they wanted to spar with her before sex. In his experience, his wife aside, it tended to be the older tiercels and eaglesses who were willing to forgo the fighting part of it, for no other reason than they were able to judge potential partners without it and wanted to save their energy for the actual act.

Giraldi was very much in the latter category after forty-eight years of life and nearly thirty years in the Kingdom’s military; a decade of which had been spent as a trainer at The Gauntlet, where all griffon service branches took their basic training. Though he still sometimes enjoyed a good scrap before sex, it was no longer a requirement for him; he found he didn’t need to fight to enjoy a good rut with his wife or any other eagless he had encountered over the years.

That didn’t apply to most younger griffons, however; he had been forced to remind his over-eager subordinates that the prohibition against fighting humans extended to all forms of fighting, including mating activities as well. “And besides, you don’t know what their mating rules are like,” he further reminded them, but that Tara was willing to fight her own kind boded well on that front.

He had no idea if she understood griffon mating rules in turn, but he found he very much wanted the chance to teach her as he stood before her and beheld her flushed face and swelling teats, realizing at that moment the interest was very much mutual, even feeling the beginnings of flaring and stiffness in his earth griffon wings.

What are you doing, Galen? he asked himself for the first time then, but he couldn’t help it as the human female realized where he was staring and hurriedly crossed her forelegs over her chest to block his view of her impressive mammaries. He noted again they seemed designed to draw the eye through their soft curves and prominent mounds; for a moment he had a very strong urge to give them the same treatment as he did those of his Uxor.

Except there is so much more flesh there to suckle and sensually caress! And even though she has only two teats instead of FOUR! he had the slightly blasphemous thought, feeling his tiercel spear start to engorge again as he mentally urged her arms away, licking his beak at the sudden idea that maybe the reason her mammaries were so large was that they always held milk, even when she wasn’t nursing.

He might not have been able to stop it this time. He might even have had to hastily excuse himself to the hallway lest he had to hide his lower body like Fortrakt was so comically doing, except that as he watched, the sudden object of his affection staggered back from him and had to sit down on a nearby counter, burying her head in her hands.

“Gods above… I think my staying in the Kingdom just got a lot more complicated…” she said in a tone both forlorn and outright fearful, instantly changing his desires towards her from caress to comfort.

“I don’t know what to tell you, girl…” her fair-skinned and red-maned male friend, Christopher McClain, offered uncertainly. “I can only wish I had a bunch of gorgeous griffon guys falling over me like that!” he further said, causing Giraldi’s head to snap up and look up at him in surprise.

“Dude… you said that out loud?” Marco Lakan seemed less aghast than amazed as Giraldi momentarily forgot about Tara to consider the implications of that statement.

So humans have tiercel tuckers too… Giraldi recognized in passing, wondering what would happen if he introduced the male human to the two gay griffons he knew of in his unit. He suspected they got it on in the barracks occasionally against all Kingdom fraternization policies, but he looked the other way as long as it didn’t affect their obedience to orders. A question for later, though!

He then heard Fortrakt’s desperate declaration of interest—“I’m s-sorry… I c-can’t help it if I like you, Tara. I want you so badly that all I can think about is you! Please don’t hate me…” he all but begged her in a very un-griffon like manner from the corner he hid in before looking downwards at the large pillow that hid his young and eager phallus.

“And by the crows, will you please go down?” he addressed his own organ like it was a disloyal vassal in Aeric—followed by the Innkeeper’s daughter offering her own opinions on the matter, making Giraldi jealous when she laid a set of talons on the human female’s soft arm.

Fortrakt’s ordeal would have been comical to Giraldi if he wasn’t still in danger of sharing it, while Merlina’s words to Tara were heartfelt and hard not to be affected by. And yet, Tara didn’t seem reassured by them at all, staring at the young eagless in disbelief as she proclaimed her hope for turning the head of ‘a fine and honorable soldier,’ as Tara already had.

I don’t think you have to worry about that, young one… the veteran soldier just kept from voicing the thought as she departed with a platter of food balanced on a wing to share with the human commander she was giving Aeric language lessons to, knowing that once she was grown enough to fight a proper round, her unusual all-white plumage would likely have tiercels from all walks of life fighting over her.

But Merlina Marcus was not the focus of his desires then—Tara was. He tried to find words of reassurance to say, but failed as she spoke briefly to Christopher McClain and then retired to her room, giving Giraldi the distinct impression that she was badly torn over something that only had partially to do with him.

He might have left then. But at that moment, either through long experience or simple Ancestor-granted insight, he saw the source of her confusion and realized what she needed—not the clumsy efforts of a cub like Fortrakt, but the advice and attention of an experienced griffon who could teach her the ways of their mating culture, and educate himself on theirs in turn.

So she doesn’t just want me, but she NEEDS me… he somehow knew beyond any shadow of doubt that his presence there had been ordained by the Ancestors themselves, even as the fair-skinned human male told Gilda that Tara was upset and wanted to be alone for a bit, declining her offer to go talk with her.

“Then allow me to try, Mister McClain,” Giraldi stepped forward to present himself, carefully keeping his hindquarters out of view in case his spear surged free again.

“You, First Spear?” Marco asked in surprise.

“Yes. If I am reading Miss Fields correctly, I believe she is… confused and uncertain about how to conduct herself among griffons. If she is to truly stay among us, and deal with the interest she now garners, she must learn sooner rather than later,” he reasoned, but could only hope his next words weren’t taken as overly-suggestive. “As I am experienced in such things. I believe I can teach her... ”

If Gilda picked up on her turn of phrase, she let it pass—he knew she was smart, so maybe she was therefore thinking the same thing he was? And was thus not going to stop him? he barely dared hope. “But she doesn’t know you, Giraldi,” she reminded him from the couch, perhaps to give him some cover.

“Exactly. Which means I can offer her a neutral point of view. And perhaps more importantly, an experienced one…” he didn’t wait for a response before setting off down the hall, fearful if he stayed any longer out in the open his full intentions would become clear.

* * * * *

And now he stood before her door, aroused beyond all reason or mercy; his wings had not yet flared but they wouldn’t take much stimulation to do so.

“Miss Fields? It’s First Spear Giraldi. May we talk?” he requested politely as he steeled himself for her reply. Even if he truly was Ancestor-sent to her door; he had no idea how she was going to take his presence. “I believe I can help you.”

She didn’t answer right away, leaving him suddenly wondering what he would do if silence was her only answer, and he was forced to turn away. He knew from long experience by then that his spear would not subside by anything other than climax, and his only other way to leave was through the suite where human and griffon alike awaited, along with one equally aroused tiercel already present.

He would have been more amused at Fortrakt’s state—by the crows, that lad had an uncanny ability to end up in embarrassing situations! His favorite remained when he tried to twirl a bolas for the first time and throw it at a target only to end up snagging his own legs—if it weren’t for his own, realizing that in that moment, and after nearly two weeks of abstinence away from his wife preparing his Turma for the aliens’ arrival and then helping to guard their human guests after—he was ready to rut anything that moved.

And yet, even that didn’t seem enough to account for how erotically eager he was to take this human female, who he had only just met. I know nothing about her except what I heard… nothing about her other than what little I saw and heard back in the suite. So why, by all the Crows of the kingdom, am I acting like an eager teen meeting his cubhood crush?

It was then he heard the sound of something being shunted aside. The source was the sliding of a small panel on the door’s interior that would not open the door itself, but rather, open a small hole in the soundproofing enchantments that would allow the room’s occupant to be heard from outside. Then Tara’s voice was heard, causing him to start slightly and his now throbbing make organ to twitch hard; he feared it was already starting to slowly drool a puddle beneath him.

“Help me? Or help yourself?” she asked in an audibly shaky tone from the other side of the barrier, making no move to unlock it. “I don’t know you, First Spear, and you’re asking for a great deal of trust right now when I don’t even trust myself!”

He swallowed hard, feeling a moment of what he could only call pure adolescent anxiety; it was as if he’d never mated before at that moment and was afraid of saying something wrong to his first-ever eagless.

Which in an important and very heady way, she in fact was—his first-ever human eagless. In fact, he could be the first griffon to ever have a human eagless!

“Help us both,” he admitted; even if he were inclined to lie and he thought she would buy it, his honor would not allow it—if you had to lie to get laid as a griffon, you were considered completely unworthy of the act. As he spoke, there was a sudden eruption of voices behind him—it sounded like Fortrakt had accidentally exposed himself and was now being lauded and teased by all present. He might have joined in if he was there, but for now, he was at least grateful for the distraction, for it meant they weren’t likely to look down the hallway at him.

“I will not speak to you falsely, Miss Fields. I desire you desperately, and I could tell from your smell and the growth of your teats that the interest was mutual,” he told her directly, stealing a quick glance back down the hall to confirm that nocreature was watching or listening. Nocreature was, though he could still hear teasing voices from the living area, where a helplessly aroused Fortrakt continued to be the center of attention.

She did not reply except for a ragged breath. “Do not deny it, Tara Fields, for griffons do not hide their desires. Fate, or the simple smell of that delicious chicken, has brought me here before you now, and I cannot but think that it was predestined. That I am meant to be your first griffon lover, and your trainer in our erotic arts.”

“A trainer? And my lover?” she repeated derisively through the door. “But you’re not even my friend!”

“Hard as it may be to believe in other cultures, that is not a requirement for griffon lovemaking,” he told her quickly. “We often determine our compatibility as friends and lovers through the actual act of mating, and in the mating rounds that precede them. So let us follow in that time-honored gryphon tradition. Let us see if we are not just compatible as individuals… but as races!” he suggested fervently to her.

He then heard a sound that sounded like the licking of lips, though it was quickly replaced by another shakily delivered sentence.

“Please understand, First Spear, that humans don’t fight before sex,” she told him; he could hear the tremor and tears in her voice as she fought an internal battle with her own conflicted feelings. “If you want a mating round, I can’t give you one because you’re so much stronger than me. I don’t want to offend you, but I couldn’t fight you even if I wanted to!”

“I’m not asking you to,” he quickly assured her. So, the humans are more like ponies in their mating habits, then? I can work with that! “Despite what many younger griffons may think, a mating round is not a requirement for intimacy.”

“It… isn’t?” To his ears, her tone abruptly turned something akin to hopeful.

“No. I can tell from that statement alone that there is much you do not understand about us, Miss Fields, and that is the source of your fears. If you are to live among us, and as one of us, then let me relieve you of it. You spoke of your stay in the Kingdom becoming much more complicated by griffon interest? It does not have to be,” he told her. “It can greatly enrich your life here instead.”

“And you can give me that experience?” she guessed with a slightly nervous chuckle. “Is that truly your intention? Or do you just want a cheap thrill? Being able to say you were the first to get your paws on a human female?”

“So you fear exploitation…” he realized, asking himself quickly if that was, in fact, his intention. “You do not wish to be simply a tiercel’s trophy. You seek a meaningful first time, with a partner who will respect and revere you. Who will not simply boast about your conquest after, but honor the favor you showed him, and the intimacy you shared,” he guessed, and knew from her quickened breathing that he’d hit the mark.

“I am a sire and a veteran soldier, Miss Fields, who has made his career out of serving others. Now I seek to serve you. What I seek is not a ‘cheap thrill’, but something far grander and greater. Something that will serve not just the two of us, but both our races,” he explained fervently.

“I want to believe you…” she admitted; her muffled voice making it sound like she had buried her head in her human talons. “But how can I trust you when I don’t even trust myself?”

“To that, I can offer you nothing except my word of honor as backed by my service record. Know that I am not just a tiercel, but a longtime lover, teacher and trainer. Let me turn those well-honed talents on you. I know I can aid you, Tara Fields, but only if you let me. I truly believe I was sent here to help you, but on my honor as a gryphon, I swear by the Queen herself that I will leave if you tell me,” he promised, even as his male organ was in agony to hear those words come from his beak, all but demanding to be buried within her as deeply and as quickly as possible. “You need not fear me. Or what you are feeling.”

He then heard a sliding sound he interpreted as her slumping down against the other side of the door. “I’m so afraid… and I’m so confused…”

“I am here to relieve you of that fear,” he implored her again even as his heart went out to her, suddenly seeing things from her point of view—that she was soon to be left behind in an alien realm without the company of her friends and all that was familiar. That she wanted to be a part of the Kingdom but was unsure if she truly belonged there. Worse, uncertain if she could even begin to accept the sudden interest being shown her.

“How?” she challenged, sounding like she was starting to cry. “By having your way with me when I c-can’t say no or st-stop you?”

“By showing you the ways of griffon love, and perhaps learning the human ones in return. By giving you the experience and confidence you will need to have griffon mates, including Fortrakt,” he pointed out. “Tell me, Tara Fields… do you wish to have him?”

“I… I don’t know…” she told him through a series of sniffles. “How can I know? I only learned he was interested today! I-I don’t even know if we’re physically compatible!”

“I feel safe in saying that we are,” Giraldi told her, and it was the truth—he’d had plenty of experience with other races over the years, most recently in Equestria with ponies and thestrals; the latter he’d found particularly exotic given their rather unusual mating habits and pleasingly predatory manners. And besides, why would the Ancestors have sent me here unless we were?

“And how would you know? Gods above, I barely started thinking about him, and now you come along?” She sounded to him like she was both laughing and crying. “What’s happening to me? Why do I want you? Why do I suddenly want to fuck anything that moves?” she asked not him, but the world around her.

Despite her plaintive cry and the odd curseword, which he’d heard from the human soldiers occasionally and already guessed was a crude human term for mating, her declaration elicited a fresh surge of blood to his loins; for the first time, he felt his swollen spear twitch and spurt. “I know not, even though I feel the same way. But I will not fight it, Tara Fields. If it means I can help you while also getting to be the first to enjoy the exotic and alluring body of a human eagless—I will not deny that is part of the attraction—then I welcome it.”

“E-eagless…” she repeated the word. “You w-want me as an eagless…” she said again, more huskily as he began to hear some muffled wet noises from the other side of the door.

His heart leapt as he recognized their source, guessing she was starting to pleasure herself right through her clothes; it was all he could do not to climax on the spot from simply imagining it. “I will teach you to be an eagless,” he promised her. “And how to be a worthy one. How to make love to a worthy griffon, and be loved as one in return.”

“Worthy…” she then echoed. “But i-if you say the Gods or your Ancestors sent you here… and m-maybe they did… w-why you instead of Fortrakt, who helped me? Who already earned me?” she wondered aloud.

He smiled at that—so she wishes to reward the ones who helped her first by saving herself for them, and that is from where part of her reluctance rises! “Perhaps because Fortrakt is inexperienced. I am not,” Giraldi guessed. “I know not how things work for humans, but in our society, first ruts between equally inexperienced griffons tend to go badly, simply because they do not yet know what they are doing.

“Take it from me that it is far better for at least one partner to be already well-versed in the erotic arts, so that they may then teach the other. Help them learn how to properly pleasure their partner, and derive pleasure in return.”

“It’s the same for us…” she admitted in a very quiet voice that suggested to him his logic was slowly starting to break through her weakening mental defenses. “If I’m r-really going to do this, then a more experienced partner would be better…”

“Then perhaps we are not as different as you fear. And perhaps there is nothing to fear. That is what I can offer you, Miss Fields. That, I truly believe, is why I was sent to your door—you need the talons and tongue and more gentle, patient nature of an older tiercel, rather than the well-meaning but clumsy efforts of an eager but inexperienced fledgling like Fortrakt.

“I do not seek to steal you from him, only to help you be the eagless he needs and desires. For if you truly wish to honor his help by rewarding him with your body, then would it not be better to learn how best to do so first?”

He heard what sounded like a snap being released and a zipper being lowered—clothing fasteners! Is she undressing herself? he barely dared hope, placing a set of talons on the door against where he thought she was sitting propped up against the other side. It was a meaningless gesture by any measure as he could neither touch her nor even let her know it was there, but...

“And… what if I’m still not sure I wish to reward him? What if we try and it doesn’t work out?” she wondered aloud. “What if instead of rewarding him, I end up hurting both him and me without even meaning to? I already nearly lost one friend by sleeping with him when I shouldn’t have. How can I be sure it won’t happen here, too?” she all but begged him to answer.

He smiled despite her words, sensing from her pleading tone that she was reaching the end of her arguments, which he was spearing out of the sky one by one. She is asking because she wants me to provide her an answer she can accept! This is her last line of defense—a defense she no longer even wishes to hide behind! he knew from long experience, imagining he was hefting his heavy crossbow and notching an explosive arrow. Target acquired! Destroy it like a flamethrowing Ibexian ballistae!

“Such questions are all the more reason to try mating with me first,” he said. “I can safely provide you those answers, because with me, there is no danger. I seek nothing more than a mutually enjoyable encounter—one we can walk away from after without penalty. It can be a one-time experience that serves a single but very pleasurable purpose for us both, or it can be an ongoing affair,” he told her, though his spear again twitched hard in offering its opinion on which of those two options it wished.

I know what YOU want, my virile vassal, but it is not for us to decide! He told it with a mental chuckle, suddenly understanding why Fortrakt was having so much trouble keeping his arousal in check.

“The choice is entirely yours, Tara Fields. By being with me first, you can find out if we are truly compatible as races. Find out if you truly can enjoy sex with a griffon—find out how a griffon could enjoy sex with you! And with that information, decide what to do with Fortrakt after. Is that not agreeable?”

“Y-yes…” he heard the whispered phrase, followed by a series of wet squishing sounds. “Yes…” she then gave a very feline purr.

“Then please let me in…” he implored her, his spear and sac so swollen he thought they were going to burst. “Let me do this for you… and for him. Let me do it for all griffons.” Hearing it, he duplicated what he thought she was doing on the other side of the door by sitting back on his haunches and turning away from it.

He then leaned back against it, reaching down with a set of talons to slowly stroke himself as he heard her beginning to do so with her talons on the other side of the door, not even caring that if any of the humans looked down the hallway at that moment, they would see him fully erect and self-pleasuring like an eager teen.

“Before I do, one last question…” she said shakily. “What do you get out of this, First Spear? Why do you want to be with me?”

“I have asked myself that question this entire time,” he admitted. “And I have no answer except my belief that I was sent to your aid by the Ancestors themselves, and the simple fact that I want you worse than any eagless I ever have before. But in the end, why do we require a reason beyond a simple shared desire? Beyond a need to briefly free ourselves from the concerns of life and find an ecstasy that exists nowhere else?”

When there was no response except a sharp intake of breath and what sounded like a stifled moan, he went on. “For is that not what intimacy is about? The forming of bonds during intense mutual pleasure? Only by us being intimate, it is not simply a bond between two beings we forge—it is a bond between two races. And if we have been brought to different sides of this door for that purpose, then I will not fight it. For the sake of both sides, I say let it be done...”