cathfach

Since mating season won on both websites, day 2 will come up later today. Earth's Regret is up on Royal Road, so anyone who wants to read that will need to pop over there.

When I'm editing chapters, one of the things I do is play them back through text-to-speech. My ears tend to pick up a class of mistakes that my eyes skip over, but that are valid grammar and so not picked up by grammar checkers either. When I edited the trio of mating season chapters, having to listen to them out loud was enough to swear an oath to never write smut again. And then a few months later, Unborn Hero chapter 90 happened... (Thankfully it'll be a while before I need to edit it...) So, I guess this is a thing I do from time to time now. :/

So, this was really happening. It was too late to back out now. I had twenty days of something ahead of me, and I was as nervous as heck about it.

Oddly enough, so was Cluma.

"Are you okay?" I asked, initiating a hug.

"I'm... fine. It's just..." she fell silent, her heavy breathing the only noise in the room. "Instincts are weird things, aren't they?" she continued, eventually. "My body tells me it's hungry, so I eat. I'm thirsty, so I drink. And now... I'm in heat, so I..."

"That's a lot of trailing off. I thought I was the prude."

Cluma flashed a small smile, her face flushed red and her breathing increasingly laboured. "Can I...?"

Feeling a flash of suspicion, I glanced at her with [Soul Perception]. My guess was spot on. Not bad enough to affect their rationality, everyone had said. They had no idea how wrong they were... Cluma would doubtless have shoved me onto the bed and torn my clothes off by now if she could, but the Law was holding her back. She was forced to wait for my permission.

That certainly opened a whole kettle of morality questions, but not any that I had time to dive into right now. If Cluma needed explicit permission, I was happy to oblige.

"If you're waiting for me to take the lead, you're gonna be disappointed. I've never so much as kissed a girl before, in either life. You're the one with the handy barrel of instincts telling you what to do, so go ahead and follow them. Do anything and everything that they tell you to."

"Mmm," she agreed quietly, returning my hug, slowly moving her face towards my own. I closed my eyes and waited for her.

My first kiss. I was going to get my first kiss! And I was panicking over that. How the hell was I going to cope with what came next?!

My flood of terrified thoughts were interrupted when, through my closed eyes, I saw light again. Cluma's head was no longer blocking out the light crystal mounted on my wall. Did she see my panic and abort?

I opened my eyes, only to be treated to the sight of the top of her head, ears twitching.

"Cluma? What..." was as far as I managed before she sunk her canines into my neck.

I moved to shove her off, but the stabbing pain quickly receded, replaced by a sensation so weird that I seized up completely. What the heck was she doing? Drinking my blood? Had her species changed again, into a vampire this time?

No—even without the aid of [Mana Sight], I could feel what was happening. She was drinking my mana. A quick glance at my status revealed the loss of only a single point of health, but over fifty of mana. That wasn't dangerous, and it was less icky than a kiss, so I resumed our embrace and let her suck. It left me feeling a bit like one of her monster core snacks, but once I'd relaxed, the sensation wasn't unpleasant, leaving me tingly and light-headed. And if it felt mildly nice to me, to Cluma it was obviously far better. She was moaning openly as she fed, the sounds muffled by my neck.

"Mmm. Monster cores have nothing on you," she slurred, only remaining upright because I was holding her.

"What was that? Since when can you drink people?"

She looked up with unfocused eyes. "Dad thinks that's how we bonded. Two bodies becoming one. For other beastkin, that means sex. But my body is part mana, and you kept pushing your mana into me."

She giggled for a bit before continuing. "There you were, saying I was too young for you and that you didn't even want to talk about it, and then you kept doing that."

"What?! That doesn't count, that's..."

I was silenced by her biting into me a second time, only this time was different. A deep warmth flooded into my neck, a deeply pleasant feeling that spread faster than I could track, hitting my toes and fingers and bouncing back, rushing towards my chest.

"Ahhh!" I gasped, no longer able to keep the pair of us upright as my legs turned to jelly beneath me, sending us both crashing to the floor.

"It wouldn't be fair for me to take without giving back, though," giggled Cluma, struggling to disentangle herself from where I was twitching in a heap. Was that what she felt like eating monster cores?

"No wonder you love eating them..." I muttered.

"Mmm! But stop lying on the floor! You'll get cramps!"

"Oi, that was your fault!"

Cluma just giggled, so I put my hand on her chest and invoked [Inventory].

"Ah!" she gasped in surprise, suddenly finding herself kneeling in our bedroom in nothing but her underwear. Alas, the surprise lasted barely a second before she sprouted an evil-looking grin. "If you wanted me to take my clothes off, you only had to ask."

I'd complain about how her being in this state robbed her of any sense of shame, and hence spoilt the fun, but it wasn't as if she'd ever had any of that to begin with. If I'd asked her to strip in the middle of the street, there was a horrible chance that she would. She'd certainly never had any qualms about stripping in front of me. How long had it been since I was last able to look at her while she did so without feeling uncomfortable about it?

And when would be the next time? It wasn't today, but I kept my eyes on her anyway as she pulled herself back to her feet, having recovered from her foodgasm. Her tanned skin was unblemished despite the occasional wound she'd acquired in the dungeons, healing magic not leaving any unwanted scars behind. Or more accurately, unblemished except for the large, white mark above her breasts. A scar of a different sort that I'd left on her, along with her violet eyes and midnight-black hair, so dark that her ears were practically silhouettes.

Cluma made a show of removing her last couple of articles of clothing, revealing everything I'd spent the past years refusing to look at. Her breasts now fully grown, rounded but not large. Her... other parts, coated in a fuzz of the same pitch-black fur.

"Well, come on," she said, diving backwards onto our bed. "Surely I don't need to explain which part of your anatomy you need to insert into which hole in mine."

"No, I know that much," I commented, using [Inventory] to strip myself equally naked.

"Oh, it's... smaller than I thought it would be?"

Seriously? Her stunt with her mana, followed by her enticing, naked body, had left me with a raging erection, and she called it small? Who was she comparing me to?!

"Your boobs aren't the biggest I've seen, either," I muttered.

"Good! Imagine what having a pair of heavy lumps of meat strapped to my front would do to my sense of balance. I'd lose [Acrobatic]! Now hurry up. We've had more than enough foreplay, and if I don't get you in me within the next minute, I feel like I'm going to explode!"

"Fine," I said, climbing on top of her, but feeling the mood had been rather thoroughly murdered. Besides, did one bite and a joke about nakedness really count as foreplay? Again, I was coming from a place of complete ignorance, but I was sure that wasn't how it was supposed to go. Shouldn't there be boob fondling at some point? And kissing, but that was icky, and I was happy to ignore it.

"Well?" she asked impatiently, after ten seconds of me poking her and failing to line up our respective parts. "I thought you said you did know which bit goes where?"

"I've never done this before!" I complained, giving up and employing my hands to help guide things into the right place. My penis finally slid into Cluma's well-lubricated receiver with a wet squelch.

In fact, it sounded exactly like the noise that came from sticking a finger into a glob of corpusclite, a fact which shut down my mood even further.

"I wish I was a real beastkin, and could just... let go and have fun," I said.

"I wish you could too! We're naked, you're on top of me and literally have your dick plugged into my vagina, and you're complaining! Shut up and start humping already!"

"You called me small!" I complained, withdrawing slightly and ramming my full length into her, eliciting a small gasp, but little further reaction. "Who are you comparing me to, anyway?"

"Remember I said I didn't want to be around my parents while they were in heat? Well, what do you think happened every year before I moved in with you?"

Great. She was comparing me to her dad. That was so far wrong that I was left completely speechless, focusing entirely on making rhythmic strokes while watching her face, trying to figure out what I was doing right and where I was failing.

From the way her flush intensified and her lewd moaning started back up, obviously I was doing something right, thank goodness. Why couldn't there be a skill for this?

And then moaning started to escape from my lips as the continuing stimulation took effect, my strokes speeding up as my attention slipped from Cluma's reactions and focused on my own pleasure. Each push drove me further to the edge, until with one last thrust I threw myself over it, feeling the spasms as I emptied myself into Cluma.

"No!" she exclaimed, practically screaming. "Don't stop now! Don't... I need more!"

I tried to respond, but my poor penis in its post-ejaculation state had already shrunk down a size or two, and was no longer suitable for giving her the pleasure she wanted, lacking in both length and girth. As painful as it was to admit, I now was indeed too small. Don't tell me I had premature ejaculation to add to my list of poor sexual characteristics?

"No," she repeated, quieter and with tears in the corner of her eyes. "Argg, I should have listened to Mum when she told me how useless human males were!"

I was fairly sure I hadn't done anything I needed to feel guilty about, but I felt guilty nonetheless. Could I use my fingers? I was aware tongues were a possibility, but watching her leaking out a mix of my cum and her own juices meant the mere thought completely grossed me out. And what was the trickle of red? There was blood in it?! What had I... No, that was normal for someone's first time, wasn't it? At least for humans. Don't panic... Calm down...

Did this world have dildos? They weren't complicated things. I could certainly forge one myself, but I didn't exactly have a smithy set up in my bedroom. What appropriately shaped food did I have in the ice-box?

"Go to my room and find the bag under my bed. Bring it here, take out one of the potions of potence, and drink it!" demanded Cluma. "Or maybe drink them all, just to be safe."

A potion of potence wasn't something I'd ever heard of, but from the name and the situation, I would be prepared to put money on it being magical Viagra. Feeling unfairly chided, I fled from my room into Cluma's and found the bag she was talking about. It was surprisingly heavy. How many of the potions did she have? I opened it up to take a look.

Apparently, Cluma had made extensive preparations for today.

It turned out that this world did have dildos. Forged from lightning-touched steel, nonetheless, for an added tingle. It had other things too. Lots of other things, many of which I had no idea of the purpose of, but there was indeed magical Viagra, of which Cluma had twenty vials prepared. Not wanting to leave her waiting, I drank one, then reached for the phallic chunk of lightning-touched steel to serve until the potion took effect.

The potion took effect. My hand wasn't even halfway there.

"That is... not small," commented Cluma, watching my antics with wide eyes. "Now hurry up and fuck me with it!"

"Language!"

"Argg! You try being in heat!"

"I already said I wish I was," I muttered, finding lining myself up even harder this time now that I was wielding an utterly inflexible rod. Those potions had a quality rating of seventy-two; enough to give me instant, albeit thankfully mild, alchemical poisoning. Vargalas' work. Wasn't that overkill? And stupid me for assuming they would have a delayed effect. This was magic, not drugs. All potions acted immediately.

I rammed myself into Cluma, and this time got far more than a gasp for my efforts. She arched up, clawing at the bedding as she moaned, her movements dragging me with her and stimulating her further. My own pleasure was building again, and I pumped over and over, barely even noticing as Cluma wrapped her arms and legs around me, swaying in counterpoint to my own movements. Once again, I went flying over the edge, but this time I kept soaring, pumping more liquid into her than I could possibly have produced.

And then Cluma followed me. She screamed, and I was suddenly caught in a vice, unable to withdraw as she clamped down on me. White-hot lines of pain seared my back, mixing in with my continuing orgasm. Left almost senseless, I flopped forward on top of her, with Cluma in no better condition than I was.

The haze of bliss fought against the knowledge that my performance had been magically enhanced. Without the aid of a potion, I couldn't even satisfy my own girlfriend. The same potion had given me pleasure far beyond anything my body was normally capable of. Or maybe proper sex really was that much better than masturbation? No, my first orgasm, before taking the potion, hadn't come close.

[Eye of Judgement] claimed the potion had a two-hour duration. I was still rock hard. I was still inside Cluma.

"Again..." she slurred, and I didn't need telling twice, the pain in my back forgotten as we went over and over, both of us lost in carnal pleasure as I used up every last second of those two hours. Sometimes on top, sometimes beneath. On the bed, on the floor, against a wall, paying no attention to the time or my surroundings. It wasn't until the expired potion caused me to fall into flaccidity that I had the first inkling of how long it had been.

"Those potions are dangerous," I muttered, doing my best to drag myself back to lucidity.

"Aww, why have you stopped?" complained Cluma, but even she was sounding tired, and wasn't exactly complaining this time.

"We need... food and drink," I said, realising just how thirsty I was.

"Right... Drink... Need to drink something..."

Cluma rolled off the bed with a wet squelching that didn't at all match my mattress. What?

"Eww. What was that? It was all cold and sticky," she complained, finally coming back to herself.

Unfortunately, so had I, leaving me perfectly placed to look around the room and survey the damage. "What the heck?!"

The bed was stained in a mix of white and red. So was the floor. So were the walls. There were streaks of cum over the furniture. Cluma's fur was matted with the stuff, head and tail alike. We were both complete messes.

"Well, you did say you wanted to let go," said Cluma with a nervous giggle. "At least nothing's broken."

"Those potions are dangerous!" I repeated, louder, and far more sure of my statement.

"Those potions are awesome!" disagreed Cluma.

Looking around, I was getting far more concerned about the quantity of blood I could see than the fact I'd just lost two hours in a magically-drugged-up sexual frenzy. I knew girls were expected to bleed on their first time, but surely not that much.

"Whose blood is all that?" I asked, examining Cluma for wounds.

"Dunno. I'm still at full health, so not mine."

Right, we could just check our status. Obviously I wasn't quite with it yet.

My status showed me down five points of health, and that I'd levelled [Regeneration]. Apparently, the blood was mine.

"Umm, do you remember me getting hurt while we were... busy?"

"While you were humping me like a beastkin in heat, you mean," giggled Cluma. "But no. I don't... hmm... actually, maybe I accidentally scratched you? Let me see your back."

Scratched? What sort of scratch could splatter blood on the ceiling? I turned around and heard Cluma's sharp intake of breath.

"Yeah, that's on me. Sorry. But in my defence, you did look like you were enjoying it."

"What did you do? There's enough blood here to swim in."

"Umm... I just scratched you a bit. Lots of times."

I recalled the lines of pain the first time I'd driven her to orgasm and put two and two together. How many times had I pushed her into that state, and each time she'd clawed at whatever her hands were occupied with. And most of the time, she was occupied with me.

Thank goodness for [Regeneration], or I'd be seriously anaemic. No wonder I was thirsty.

... And yet there was more cum than blood. There was definitely more cum around than should have been available in my body.

"We may have to burn this room," I commented, unable to see any way to clean it other than cleansing fire.

"Wait until mating season is over, or you'll run out of rooms," replied Cluma.

"Wait, we're going to do that again?"

"Mating season lasts two weeks, you dummy! We're only on day one! And the first day isn't even a full day! I may be satisfied for now, but that'll wear off and I'll be begging for more before long."

I thought back to the other equipment she had in that bag. Perhaps I could use some of it and get away without taking another one of those potions? Or head to the delvers' guild and hope they had some lower ranked versions? We were hardly the only mixed-race couple in town, and I was fairly sure that human males having downtime after an orgasm was normal, so if beastkin needed more, they must make arrangements of some sort.

... Or I could take another of Vargalas' and enjoy losing myself again for another couple of hours. It hadn't been in any way unpleasant, and wasn't drugging myself like that just helping bring me closer to Cluma's state of mind? That was what I'd been wishing for before taking the potion, after all. And it wasn't as if it would become a permanent addiction; it was only for the duration of mating season.

Feeling like a drug addict justifying their habit, I drew water for us both, downing two mugs before I started thinking about food. What could I make quickly?

Cluma's giggling distracted me from my ingredient collection, standing stark naked behind me, still caked in a mix of dried fluids.

"Why don't you have a wash while I'm getting food ready?"

"Why don't you have a wash?" she countered, reminding me that I was also completely naked and every bit as messy as she was. My hair was glued into clumps with blood and semen, my fur pulling painfully as my tail flexed. "Or don't. I'm kinda enjoying watching you working naked, although you're likely to get me worked up and needy again quicker if you carry on."

Surprisingly, I saw no downside there, so I continued as I was, throwing together a cold meat salad which we both downed as quickly as possible.

"So, now what? We really could both do with a wash."

"Then let's go take one. Together."

"Come on then. Your matted tail fur can't be any more pleasant than mine."

"Mmm," agreed Cluma, so we relocated to the bathroom, sitting under the auspices of a water crystal. And then I pulled a few more out of [Inventory], because a single one wasn't sufficient. Even those exploding ribbon things in the Obsidian Spires dungeon hadn't made me feel this dirty.

I rubbed shampoo into Cluma's tail, which thankfully didn't send her into the weird relaxation paralysis that brushing it did, and before long I'd managed to clear out the tangles. Then she started on mine, working her way halfway up before pausing, draping her arms over my shoulders and giving a big sniff.

"Mmm, shampoo and [Xenophilia]. Nice combination," she moaned.

"Are you getting worked up again?" I asked, giggling.

She withdrew a bit, head cocking to one side as she pondered. "Uh... I want to say no, but... that wasn't normal, was it? I mean, to start with, it was intense. I needed you inside me. But once the potion wore off, I thought I was back to normal. I'm not, though, am I...? I don't feel like I'm getting any strange urges, but I just... sniffed you."

"Yes, you're definitely not normal. You were practically drooling watching me prepare food naked earlier. And don't try to claim it was the food; your expression didn't change even when I was chopping up lettuce."

"Don't you... mind?"

"Huh? Why would I mind?"

"Because I'm... not myself? I'm not the person you're dating?"

"Huh? What sort of nonsense is that?" I asked, turning to look her in the eyes instead of relying on [Mana Sight] to see behind me. "Of course you're Cluma. Going into heat is something all beastkin do. It doesn't mean you become someone else for a couple of weeks each year."

... Then would un-Lawified Cluma still be Cluma, too? Bleh, standing naked in the shower with my girlfriend was not the place to be debating philosophy.

Cluma flashed a brief look of uncertainty, then smiled widely. "Right. Of course that's what you'd think. That's why I love you."

"And I love you, too. And as an added bonus, it's reassuring to keep someone around who's almost as weird as I am."

Cluma giggled, and we continued staring at each other for a few seconds more.

"Uh... Are you going to finish cleaning my tail?"

"No," she said simply, before diving forward and locking her lips onto mine before I had a chance to react.

Apparently I was getting my first kiss after all, and it turned out to be every bit as icky as I'd imagined.